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Streaming and the Mainstream

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Despite what some people say, or do, people want to watch television on their TV…or at the least, something that functions like a TV. That is why they make remote controls for computers, wireless mice, etc.

Engadget HD reports that Hulu is making its way to the SageTV HD Theater interface, which can be hooked into a TV to be used. The device was designed to stream video from a computer-based server to the screen. It is reported the Hulu feature will not require a server.

Vizio is now the second manufacturer, the first being LG, offering Netflix streaming directly to its televisions. Expect this feature to become more prevalent.Netflix is ahead of the curve on this, but don’t wait too long, because the other content providers will be jumping on board as soon as they can, we’re sure.

With our problems installing Boxee to try out its streaming content, we turned to the advice of a recent post about experimental Hulu plugins for the latest SVN of XBMC, which is the software Boxee is based on. The release version of XBMC does not support RTMP streaming, and thus will not support the plugin. Like many other solutions, this one is usable, but still has bugs and kinks to be worked out. But it does allow basic navigation of sources and playback, if not support for things like rewind and fast forward.

We look forward to watching more companies jump on the streaming bandwagon. We’ll be monitoring this very closely.

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Published on January 15, 2009
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Roku Update

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Yesterday, we wrote both on Roku Netflix Player, and on Amazon Video on Demand. EngadgetHD reports today that Amazon Video on Demand will be available on the box after a free software update early this year. Any of Amazon’s 40,000 other titles will be able to be purchased and played back to the TV for a 24 hour window. Unfortunately, the maximum bitrate is only h.264 compressed 1200Kbps. No HD as yet.

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Published on January 5, 2009
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Television Service Checklist

sling.com - Main page ( It's just hulu )
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Continuing our series on this topic is this checklist we’ve made up. Recently, there has been a slew of mainstream articles on people downgrading or cancelling their cable or satellite service in favor of alternatives. CNET reported on a family who dumped their satellite service.

  • Break out a lineup of channels you currently receive, or could receive with your cable provider. We did it for ours in a previous post.
  • Make a list of channels you actually watch.
    • What percentage of the channels that you are paying for do you actually watch?
    • Can you justify paying for it if you only watch a small percentage?
  • If most of your content is on local stations, do you get good enough reception with an antenna and a digital TV and/or converter box?
  • Out of those non-local stations that you watch, identify programs that you watch religiously
    • Check to see if these programs can be found online for free or for individual purchase
      • Hulu, Joost, Fancast, Youtube, Sling and the website of the actual network may offer free content. Right now, these sites have limited commercial interruptions, but as their popularity increases and the popularity of cable decreases, they may have to make up the ad revenue with more ads.
      • Netflix offers some TV content online as well as box sets through their mail program, and since many people adopt it as a TV/Premium Cable alternative, why not try it?
      • iTunes – Apple offers episode download for around $1.99 for SD, $2.99 for HD per episode, season passes available, as well as movies for varying prices. We’re not a big fan of iTunes. We find it too restrictive.  But for the shows you can’t find elsewhere and can’t live without…
      • An alternative to iTunes, as we continue our issues with the restrictive nature of Apple, is Amazon’s Unbox/Video on Demand store. They offer a downloadable player for Windows systems and a streaming flash player(which should work, even on Linux. They offer more downloadable movies than iTunes. They offer TV series from US networks, BBC, MTV, Bravo, etc.
      • Another alternative is Cinemanow. All three have the same basic pricing structure.
      • If there is anything that we’ve learned from our explorations, if you are addicted to the news, you won’t have any problem finding video content from various sources.
    • An important question, mirrored recently by TVSquad.com, is if you feel ready to adopt the cable-free lifestyle? Check out some of the comments on that post. It isn’t for everyone.
    • Torrenting – For TV sharing and such, it is usually illegal to download shows via torrent. Torrent has many legitimate uses(we use it for downloading Linux OS release CD/DVDs), but if you intend to engage in video piracy, that is a strategy, but you’re on your own.
    • Hardware
      • We’re assuming you want to watch your TV-like content in a TV-like manner. Those of you willing to peer at a laptop or computer screen and watch things probably need very little.
      • Computers
        • Not every old computer has the horsepower to become a media computer. If you are watching high-definition or blu-ray, you need a little more horsepower, although a lot less than if you are a gamer. Gamers wishing to use their media computer to game should increase their needs accordingly.
        • You can get a prebuilt Home Theater PC(HTPC) from various vendors. We may have more on this at some point, but we prefer to build.
        • If you want Blu-Ray support in your HTPC, Linux has limited support for it right now. You can always, if you go the open-source route, wait till it comes, if ever, and upgrade.
        • If you want to add in digital broadcast, you need a digital capture card. Hauppauge is the King of such cards, but they are hardly the only good company out there in this field.
        • If you want to output to a TV, you need one or both of the following: A computer with a TV out or a television with a computer input. The highest standard for TV right now is HDMI, which some computers do offer as an output option. It combines video and sound digitally in the same cable. If you have a DVI output on your computer, it can be converted to HDMI to carry video only. Some TVs have RGB inputs, and if your TV only has analog inputs, you’ll need a computer that can output to that to hook things up.
        • Remote Control – Some digital tuner cards come with remotes, but you can also buy a Media Center remote separately. This is a remote with a USB receiver that works with a computer.
        • An alternative/supplement to this is a wireless keyboard/mouse. Not everything, as we’ve complained, can be easily navigated with a remote control…websites for example.
    • Bandwidth – If you are doing all this streaming, make sure your internet connection can handle it. We would suggest no less than 3000KBps down.
    • Quality – Some things are not at quite the quality they’d be if on TV, especially HD programming. But bear in mind two things:
      • It’s getting there…if slowly. More and more HD content is coming online.
      • You can use your savings to buy or rent the box sets when they are released. of those series you just want more of. Face it, only a percentage of programming is worth watching twice. For that matter, only a small percentage is worth watching once. A small percentage of a small percentage…how many programs is that?
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Published on January 4, 2009
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TV Alternatives – Roku Player

WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 18: Actor Morgan Fr...
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This topic continues to weigh on our minds. We’re convinced that as cable/satellite prices continue to rise, and as these companies insist on shutting down analog, it will be impossible for us to continue as we have, which is why we continue to prepare for an eventual paradigm shift.

Where we live, our cable provider, who has a monopoly in our neighborhood, has shut off analog service, encrypted most things we could get with a digital tuner, and been generally uncooperative. As of now, with some threats and cajoles, it is still cost effective to have cable.

Meanwhile, we have relatives whom we visit for holidays and weekends. The cable company there has not yet dropped analog cable there, and offers the standard cable package unencrypted. One TV has a digital box, and the rest use built in tuners. We’re certain that they will eventually drop analog, and for a house that swells during a holiday/weekend from only needing a bedroom and living room television to a house with all bedrooms filled with people with different television watching habits, it isn’t cost effective to rent one $10(which is what they charge), per TV.

Worse, unlike our urban residence, this more rural setting gets no broadcast transmissions, making cable or satellite the only television option. Fortunately though, it makes for the perfect testbed for our exploration. It is winter here, and our visits become less frequent, but we intend to be prepared for spring.

We’re very interested in the Roku Netflix Player, which late last month introduced a firmware update to allow it to stream Netflix‘s HD content. Since this device is portable, it could be brought into any room and movies streamed directly to it. When the item came out, the New York Times blogged about its thoughts on the future. We have our thoughts with theirs, below:

  • The price point of this device is $99. Keeping the price point this low allows for widespread adoption
  • It doesn’t require an always-on server at the owner’s house to work…although we wouldn’t complain if it doubled as a uPnP/DLNA server so it could stream from a local system if we wanted it to.
  • The device is capable, through firmware updates, of adding new content from other sources than Netflix, and Roku has promised such change in the new year, which may make this device sell out, as we’re not going to buy one until we know what other content is coming. The device supports flash and other formats, so the frontrunner may be Hulu, which would be a gem if offered directly to one’s television.
  • Rather than requiring you to sort through the 10,000+ offerings, you can narrow it down on your computer, and select from a reduced subset.
  • Third-party plugins – Roku is offering a free software development kit to any online video content provider who wishes to add a channel of content alongside the Netflix content. Aside from the channels Roku has been promising, this would allow a third party to take control of their plugin to ensure it met their standards. On the open source side of things, we’re hoping that the developers of several open source media projects find a way to stream to the device. After all, while it is designed to be independent of a computer, that doesn’t mean it could not optionally offer content that is dependent as well. Of course, this goes back at its simplest to the uPnP support idea.

If this device was extended to uPnP, we’d set up an old computer to serve media files and buy a box for several televisions. A $99 flat rate is better than a $10 a month rental rate.

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Published on January 4, 2009
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A Temporary Solution for Hulu Issues

Image representing hulu as depicted in CrunchBase
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Recently, we commented that one of our top issues with Hulu was aggregation. The website, as well as other video websites are not easy to navigate for someone sitting on their couch, or to control once the video starts Playing.

We know how to hook a remote control up to a computer and to program the computer to Play/Pause etc when the appropriate button is pressed.

But Hulu, even though it does respond to Hotkeys…

  • F for FullScreen On/Off toggle
  • Space Bar for Play/Pause

It does not integrate well with remotes, mostly because you need the Hulu player to have focus in order for it to respond to these keys, and it often does not, so ones commands are sent to the browser, instead of the Hulu player.

Then, on December 30th, we checked out Woot, the one deal a day site, and saw this…Woot was selling a two-pack of Gyration Gyroscopic Media Center Mouse/Remotes inexpensively.

We ordered a pack of them. But the idea hit us. The Gyration is designed for presentations. There are a variety of presentation mice, designed for giving Powerpoint Presentations and such, that could be used in lieu of a remote, until someone figures out a way to make Hulu more remote friendly.

This seemed like a simple and easy device to add to our arsenal. There is also software that will have your remote control emulate a mouse, however, from our experiments, it is hard to navigate with any precision using them.

We’ll advise how the presentation remote works out for us as a tool, and continue our experiments to figure out how to give Hulu focus automatically so the keyboard hotkeys will work. If they work, they can be linked to a remote control.

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Published on January 1, 2009
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Podcasts as Alternatives to Television

Boxee
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We’ve been on this TV alternatives kick for a while now, and continue to explore. Most of us have heard of podcasting, but it wasn’t until we started looking for video feed that we discovered how many professional looking podcasts there are out there, especially of a tech-flavor.

We previously did not explore podcasts as much, because of the link to Apple and the fact many of them have a more primitive production model But, when things are done well, and seriously, even by less professional groups, we have to respect them. After all, we’re amateur pundits, not a professional ones ourselves.

We’ve lacked a good set of technology themed shows. Years ago, the Sci-Fi channel used to have a show run by CNet. But since then, we haven’t found a weekly show to tell us about all the tech we can’t afford.

So, we did a little searching as part of this alternatives research and came up with two shows to start, run by Ziff-Davis, the media company that publishes PC Magazine. The first is DL. TV, described as “For Tech Fans by Tech Fans.”

Here’s a link to their episode with a showcase and interview with one of the people at Boxee, a social video watching software package we’re enthused about. Boxee’s policy of pulling in anything free with an RSS feed to be part of its package is one we keep advocating.

Since we don’t have Boxee(not available for our platform yet), we’ve come up with our own solution for now. A software package that downloads the latest entry in an RSS feed to a local directory, which we’ll be programming to download feeds such as DL.TV and integrate them into our system in the wee hours of the morning, so they are ready to be watched.

We’ve started to add in a variety of news-based podcasts that become programs on our DVR-like interface. Here are some useful ones. Why are there so many news ones? Well, it is harder to find Entertainment podcasts(except entertainment news).

  • DL.TV – mentioned above
  • Cranky Geeks – Tech industry pundit John Dvorak, the “Head Crank”, argues with other pundits abouta variety of tech issues.
  • CNN  Podcasts – Includes special podcast news updates, as well as highlights from Anderson Cooper 360 and other areas of CNN news. Nothing like downloading a news roundup each day.
  • Revision3 – Revision3 is a TV network for the web. Some interesting original programming is available on it.
  • Podcast Award Winners – We have to assume any podcast that wins an award is of good quality. It includes such podcasts as Grammar Girl(tips to improve your grammar for writers), which won best in education. We’re going to have to check some of these out.
  • CNET Podcast Central – Lots of different programs on technology
  • MSNBC – We’ve mentioned this before, but downloading netcasts of many popular MSNBC programs such as Meet the Press seems to be a good thing.
  • Fox News Podcasts – Doesn’t seem as good in terms of options as CNN or MSNBC, but, still an option.
  • ABC News Podcasts – Lots of good watchable content here.
  • CBS News Podcasts – Face the Nation and the CBS Evening News in full, as well selected other pieces.
  • PBS Podcasts – Lots of good content, with new episodes added regularly.
  • Discovery Channel Podcast – Explore your world with Discovery Channel video podcasts! Watch behind-the-scenes interviews with your favorite Discovery Channel hosts; go inside the making of Discovery specials and hit series; get an inside glimpse into the world of Discovery.
  • Sky News Podcasts – Podcasts from Sky News.
  • John Cleese Podcast – Nothing like a famous British comedian talking at you.
  • NASA Podcasts – The latest from NASA.
  • Washington Post Podcasts – Several good video sources on here from the Washington Post
  • G4 TV Podcasts – Video Game Podcasts from G4 TV
  • Reuters Video Podcast – The latest in Reuters Video downloadable.

There are many more. And we’d love your submissions to add in. Send in your comments. Our criteria in this category is high quality(production quality, not resolution, although that helps) video podcasts that have the feel of television shows, and thus can be watched in lieu of them.

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Published on December 21, 2008
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Streaming Live

In the latest in our series on streaming video, we take a look at live or frequently updated/altered feed. So far, with a few exceptions, we’ve discussed on-demand programming. You select an episode, and watch it any time. But what about live feed? We mentioned a few we will repeat here in our pseudo-lineup, including Bloomberg US live, and many more of interest. Not all streams offer content 24 hours a day.

We’ve posted some oddly formed addresses, with the prefix mms, rtsp, etc. You can use players outside of a web browser to access these channels directly. We recommend you start by trying VLC, available for all platforms. Windows Media Player should work too. Feeds are subject to disconnection and change at any time.

  • BBC One-Minute World News – The latest one-minute news summary from the BBC, updated 24-hours a day
  • BBC World News Live – This is supposed to be a link to BBC World News Live Streaming, direct from their website. We had trouble with it, however.
  • C-Span – We mentioned them before. But they stream everything they offer on cable. So, if you have a hankering for Question Time in the British Parliament, or a Congressman taking a nap, tune in.
    • Direct Links for External Players
      • C-Span 1 – mms://rx-wes-sea157.rbn.com/farm/pull/tx-rbn-sea001:1459/wmtencoder/cspan/cspan/wmlive/cspan1v.asf
      • C-Span 2 – mms://rx-wes-sea157.rbn.com/farm/pull/tx-rbn-sea001:1459/wmtencoder/cspan/cspan/wmlive/cspan2v.asf
      • C-Span 3 – mms://rx-wes-sea157.rbn.com/farm/pull/tx-rbn-sea001:1459/wmtencoder/cspan/cspan/wmlive/cspan3v.asf
  • Fox News
  • Pentagon Military Channel Player – Direct Link – mms://wlc-01.media.qualitytech.com/COMP001916SCH1_pentagon_bb.wmv?WMCache=0
  • Sky News – Live Events Channel – British and European News
    • Direct Link – mms://live1.wm.skynews.servecast.net/skynews_wmlz_live300k
  • Bloomberg Video Player
  • Brooklyn Community Access Television – Nothing like public access. There are a variety of these online. Check out your local public access stations to see if they simulcast.
    • BCAT 1 – mms://68.161.249.58/channel1
    • BCAT 2 – mms://68.161.249.58/channel2
    • BCAT 3 – mms://68.161.249.58/channel3
  • CBC Hourly Newscast – Direct Link – mms://a1987.v87520.c8752.g.vm.akamaistream.net/7/1987/8752/1175113574000/origin.media.cbc.ca/windows/hourly/hourlynewscast.wmv
  • CNN
  • NBC News Update – mms://msnbc.wmod.llnwd.net/a275/e1/video/100/vh.asf
  • NASA TV

Perhaps the live feed model is limited only to traffic cameras, public access, and a few news feeds and is commercially unsatisfying compared to on-demand. Send us your links and suggestions for added content.

Published on December 7, 2008
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Streaming Video for Cable Users

We’ve made no secret that we’ve been on a streaming video kick of late. For our latest work, we’ve decided to check out the streaming offerings available on cable. It has been made harder for us with a serious lack of Linux-based support. We invite comments with additional links to video streaming content. Not everything on TV is available online, and vice-versa, but certainly enough to keep you busy…at least as busy as TV.

This list only covers direct services by the content providers…ie the websites of the various channels we’ve profiled. Future posts will discuss third-party sites and paid services.

  • Broadcast
    • CBS
      • CBS Video – Offers Primetime, Daytime, Late Night, Classic, and Special programming Not all shows are available as full episodes.
    • NBC
    • FOX
    • ABC
      • ABC Video – Clips Full Episodes of many ABC shows. (Windows/Mac only. It is said they are trying to get linux support.)
      • Full Episode Player – Direct link to the full episode player
    • CW
      • CW-TV Video – Full Episodes of shows (Windows/Mac only. But it told us to check back for future OS support)
    • PBS
  • Cable Entertainment
    • TBS
    • Nickelodeon
      • Nick Jr. Video – Didn’t see any full-length episodes.
      • Turbo Nick – This interactive site appears to have some full-length episodes of Spongebob and other Nick shows.
    • Lifetime
    • USA Network
      • Full Episodes – Full episodes of several popular shows. Also, on show specific pages, they offer enhanced content and interviews.
    • Sci-Fi Channel
    • Bravo
      • Videos – This doesn’t seem to get us the full list. You need to navigate around the Bravo website to find clips and episodic content
    • Cartoon Network
    • E!
      • Video – Various Entertainment Clips
    • Spike TV – Spike offers some Full Episode content on its site
    • FX
      • FX Full Episodes – Episodes of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, 30 Days, Sons of Anarchy, Testees, etc.
    • ABC Family
      • ABC Family: Videos – Even though we can’t watch ABC, you can catch some full episodes and clips at ABC Family.
    • BET
    • Comedy Central
    • Disney Channel
    • AMC
      • AMC Videos – Lots of extras, but no full-length episodes
    • WE – Video Section – Nothing full-length
    • Oxygen – Video Section – Nothing full-length, webisodes, interviews, etc.
    • Turner Classic Movies
      • Media Room – Offers movie clips, trailers, and some full-length classics.
    • TV Land/Nick at Nite
      • TVLand Website – Full episodes are added every day of a rotating selection of shows. We saw full episodes of 3rd Rock from the Sun, the Andy Griffith Show, Beverly Hillbillies, Family Foreman, Gunsmoke, High School Reunion, Hogan’s Heroes, and She’s Got the Look.
      • Video – A direct link to their video section with not just full episodes, but interviews, classic TV moments, musical interludes, etc.
    • TV One
      • Video – Mostly clips.
    • BBC America
      • Video – More clips. Shame. The BBC itself has episodes online, but they aren’t accessible from the US without making it think your computer is there. To quote them…

        Rights agreements mean that BBC iPlayer television programmes are only available to users to download or stream (Click to Play) in the UK. However, BBC Worldwide is working on an international version, which we will make available as soon as possible. Most radio programmes are available outside the UK in addition to podcasts, although sporting and other programmes may be subject to rights agreements. In addition, many BBC News programmes are available for viewers outside the UK, as are BBC Sport highlights

        .

      • Here’s the link for the BBC’s Iplayer.
    • G4
      • Video Podcasts – A collection of programming you can download to your mobile player or watch on your computer
    • Fuse – Fuse has a variety of music video content
    • The N
      • The Click – The N’s broadband video player that include extra and full episodes
    • Music Choice – Currently available not only on some cable providers, but through cbale providers over broadband. For more information, click here.
  • Cable Documentary and Learning
  • Cable News
  • Cable Music Channels
  • Movie Channels
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Published on December 3, 2008
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Streaming TV to your Computer – Part 2

In a previous post, Streaming TV to your Computer, we pointed out our problem with streaming video sites such as Hulu…namely the presentation. When you stream, you have to navigate a website, and the flash player is available in a window, which you have to adjust to full screen.

Full screen itself can be an issue, as users demand better quality video, which sites are starting to provide. However, a TV-like interface is still lacking. Let’s explore a few options we discovered since last time. Reviews on some of these will be forthcoming.

My Media Player is a free interface for the clips and video at Hulu.com. It runs on Adobe Air, versions of which are available for Windows, Mac, and Linux OSes. Personally, we’d prefer an app that runs off of Mozilla Prism, which allows you to run web based applications, ie websites/flash players, minus the accoutrements of a normal web browser, ie bars, buttons, etc, and allows better desktop integration.

Next is Boxee, which is a fork of the popular XBMC project. It includes a closed-source flash player that integrates into the media center software to stream from sites like Hulu, CBS, Comedy Central, and more coming. This is certainly more in the direction we are thinking of. They created code to allow you to navigate the sites, and a flash player integrated into their software loads the video and allows you to control it. Unfortunately, Boxee is in private alpha release, by invitation only. We arranged an invitation, but packages are only available for 32-Bit Ubuntu Linux or Mac, neither of which we use, so we’ll be getting an Ubuntu LiveCD and reviewing this in a later post.

In the world of High Def, Engadget HD reports that popular site YouTube already has unofficial support to play back and host 720p clips, as well as surround sound. With many sites already at this point, hope you all have enough bandwidth.

There will be more to come on this issue, which has become something of a pet peeve of ours.

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Published on November 23, 2008
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Streaming TV to your Computer

Image representing Hulu as depicted in CrunchBase
Image via CrunchBase

We find the idea of streaming TV live to your computer very useful. The problem is the sheer number of sites that you can use to do so. We’re eagerly waiting more efficient aggregators, however, we doubt the sites that stream would appreciate this.

LifeHacker took a poll in September of the best sites to stream video from. The winner was Hulu. We like Hulu, although we admit we could stand to use it more. It is great when we’re on the road, except for the whole hotel room or houseguest bandwidth issues.

Hulu was founded in 2007 by NBC Universal and News Corp. It is an online video service that offers hit TV shows, movies and clips at Hulu.com and other online destination sites — all for free, anytime in the U.S.(or elsewhere if you convince it you are in the U.S.). To quote them…

Hulu brings together a large selection of videos from more than 100 content providers, including FOX, NBC Universal, MGM, Sony Pictures Television, Warner Bros. and more. Users can choose from more than 900 current primetime TV hits such as The Simpsons, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Office the morning after they air, classics like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The A Team, Airwolf and Married…with Children, movies like Men in Black, Ghostbusters, and The Karate Kid, and clips from Saturday Night Live, Friends and other popular TV shows and movies.

Hulu is advertiser-supported, so you will have to watch ads, but you would have on normal TV as well. It perhaps sharing full-length episodes and clips, and requires only a Flash player to use. If you have an account, you can create a queue of programs you want to watch, as well as subscriptions to specific shows. Hulu offers standard videos in a 480Kbps-700Kbps(depending on the user’s bandwidth) bitrate and a higher-resolution 1000Kbps, and even streaming HD in 720p on some programs.

To be fair, there are other sites that are useful or helpful. SurfTheChannel is an aggregator, which aggregates video from Hulu, YouTube, MetaCafe, etc into a single searchable interface. It isn’t fancy, but it has its uses.

You can also go directly to the websites of the networks that air the show. CBS, NBC, ABC, Comedy Central, etc. They usually provide links to episodes as well as extras you can enjoy.

For those who love high-definition, these sites are adding high-definition streaming, and new technologies are coming. Recast Digital has introduced a new optimization process that they claim is “less computer-intensive, requires less bandwidth, doesn’t require any special software download, and handles high frame rates and renders fantastic colour and smooth transitions.” You can catch a showcase of this at their site. It adapts quality based on your bandwidth, but it certainly looks good.

What we want for these sites is full integration into HTPC software and hardware streaming media players, which is certainly doable if the sites cooperate, which would be good for their ad revenue if they do. Netflix is already, it seems, willing to cooperate with manufacturers for its streaming service, the the Netflix Player by Roku coming to mind. They are selling advertiser supported content. If they open it up to developers with protections, they’ll be able to monetize much more effectively.

Thoughts?

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Published on November 12, 2008
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