November 17, 2004
Streaming Live TV
Last week I redeemed 170,000 Sony points to get a Sony VAIO RA920G PC running Microsoft's Media Center Edition 2005 operating system. I was curious if I could figure out a way to "stream" my home PC's multimedia content, including My Videos (.AVI, .Divx, etc), as well as stream live TV to my PC at work by accessing the TV tuner capture card. Imagine being able to remotely control your home television and view the content at work! Now that would be cool... And so I began my investigation and research.
First, let me point out that apparently, I am not the only one desiring the ability to stream MCE 2005's content. I've read several forum posts stating the same thing. The general consensus is that Microsoft didn't put streaming capabiltiies into MCE 2005 as to avoid running afoul of the DMCA/RIAA/MPAA and getting tangled up in copyright issues.
Why does Hollywood always have to ruin all the fun? It's not like my home broadband connection has the bandwidth to stream to hundreds of users. In fact, I had issues having enough upstream bandwidth on my home cable connection to stream to just ONE PC - I will get into that bandwidth issue in a minute.
In my initial research, I could not find any software that would stream video files or access a TV tuner card and stream that. I wanted something that could also transcode on the fly so I could reduce the video quality if need be for slower Internet connections. I was about to give up and all seemed lost when I came upon VideoLAN, which has a multimedia player that also acts as a streaming server with transcoding capabilities. Best of all, it's open-source and runs on Linux, Mac, Windows, and more! Could this be it? I frantically read the home page, quickly searched for the download link and installed the software.
I first tried streaming a file on the LAN rather than the Internet (WAN). From VLC media player I opened an episode of Smallville that I had recorded and encoded as an .AVI file.
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| Fig 1. VLC Media Player with Smallville playing |
I went into the Stream Settings screen (See Fig. 2 below) and set the file to stream using UDP on port 1234 to the IP address of a 2nd PC. I could have used either multicast (for multiple PCs) or unicast to stream the video. For my first test I didn't want to get greedy by trying to stream to multiple PCs so I chose the unicast option.
Fig 2. Streaming Output Window
Next, on this 2nd PC I installed the VLC media player. Then I simply clicked on Open Network Stream, chose UDP port 1234 (the default) and clicked OK as shown in this Fig 3. screenshot:
Fig 3. Network Streaming Window
Almost immediately Smallville started playing on this 2nd PC. Good stuff!
Next, I attempted to duplicate these results using the Internet. I had one PC setup to use one broadband connection (T1 line) and another PC setup to use a different broadband connection (2nd T1 line). I then repeated the above steps and once again was able to see Smallville play. The quality was actually quite good, but it did have some artifacts and break-ups due to Internet congestion. I decided to reduce the quality of the video from 1024kbps to 512kbps and the artifacts and "hiccups" all but disappeared! Even with the transcoder reducing the video quality, the video quality was pretty good.
VLC media player has some other tricks up its sleeve. You can stream a DVD across a network connection. Yeah, that's right, you read that correctly. Stream a DVD using an IP network! Now this I had to try. Once again I repeated the above steps, except instead of opening a file, VLC has a menu option to open a DVD. I inserted my wedding DVD, because if I inserted a commercial DVD and used VLC media player's libdvdcss library to read the commerical DVD I might run afoul of the DMCA since this library has the capability of disregarding the DVD's region/zone. All regions are supported without any constraint, which is probably against the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act). And since I don't want any trouble with the DMCA, I'll just use my own DVD thank you very much. (Shhhh.. it does work with commerical DVDs but I didn't tell you that.)
In any event, I was able to stream the DVD across two broadband Internet connections with very good video and audio quality. I did once again have to reduce the kbps from 1024 to 512 or 384kbps to prevent congestion though, which slightly degraded the quality. But hey, I was watching a DVD across the Internet. Is that cool or what?
Now for the really fun part. I wanted to see if I could stream my home MCE 2005 PC's video content, DVDs, etc. and of course "Live TV" across my cable broadband connection. I decided to start simple with a video since I knew that would be easiest. I used Remote Desktop to access my home PC and execute the VLC player. I opened a video file on my home PC and set it to stream the video to a public IP address of a PC at work mapped outside of our corporate firewall.
This time, no video came through. Hmmm. What's going on here. I switched back to the Remote Desktop window to troubleshoot and I was disconnected. I tried reconnecting - no dice. I thought maybe the PC locked up, so I tried pinging the IP address if my other home PC. No pingage. Hmmm, that's strange. I tried pinging the home router, once again, no dice. Finally I tried to call my home's Vonage line and ask my wife to reboot all the equipment and I couldn't get through.
Oh no!
* Home PC - dead
* Internet - dead.
* Phone line (Vonage) - dead
* Me, when my wife finds out I killed the Internet connection and Vonage line - dead
Long story short, my wife rebooted the equipment and the Internet still stayed offline for at least 3 hours. When I got home and attempted my experiment again (this time Remote Desktop-ing to my Work PC) I noticed once again the Remote Desktop connection was broken once I started streaming. In fact, I noticed my cable modem traffic lights were SOLID indicating heavy traffic. As soon as I clicked the Stop button on VLC player, the activity returned to normal. "Hmmm, seems like the VLC player is a bandwidth hog," I thought to myself, "let's try reducing the kbps of the video to 128kbps".
Once again though the cable modem's lights went crazy. Worse, a few moments later the Internet was knocked completely offline again! Had I just crashed Charter's broadband connection, again? Of course, it could just be my cable modem that I locked up, but resetting the cable modem didn't seem to help. This time it took 30 minutes for the cable modem to re-establish a connection.
So what have we learned here? Well,if you want to attempt to crash a cable modem's network, go download VLC player and stream to an outside IP address.
In any event, I tried the lowest video setting and still I couldn't get it to work. It appears my 3MB broadband connection isn't up to par with a symmetric 1.544MB T1 line. The issue is the damn upload/upstream cap that cable providers place on each subscriber. Last I tested, I only get 256kbps upstream - which actually should have been enough to stream, so I am at a loss as to why this didn't work.
Alas, I did not get to the point where I could attempt to stream live TV from my home PC to my work PC. I will mention that VLC media player has another option called "Open Capture Device" which supposedly works with MPEG encoder cards. Since I believe my "live TV" goes through the Sony's MPEG encoder card in theory I can open this capture device and stream the live TV feed --- if only I had a better upstream Internet connection.
I'll have to play around with it some more, but it's tricky since it knocks my Vonage line offline which my wife uses during the day. I'm also still working on the WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) of her liking the Vonage VoIP phone line which does go down when I test stuff (among other reasons) as well as the WAF factor of having a Media Center PC in our living room. By the way, I'm going to post a review of Microsoft's MCE 2005 along with some VoIP capabilities in the next week or so, so stay tuned for that.
Posted by tkeating at November 17, 2004 01:11 PM | TrackBack (5)
http://blog.tmcnet.com/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/445
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Have you tried Windows Media Encoder ? You can capture from a capture card and stream it to another machine. It's from Microsoft and it's free.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/9series/encoder/default.aspx
Funny you should say that, I actually was going to try Media Encoder 9 (ME9) today.
I did try ME9 remotely from work - using Remote Desktop to my home PC, and it sees the SMRT Capture card, but when I try and capture within ME9, the ME9 app says:
"The following error occured while setting up the source 'Source 1': Cannot find a valid output stream from the source. (0xC00D1B70)"
My theory: Although I did exit the main MCE 2005 application, it's possible MCE 2005 "locks" the capture card thus it can't access it since it is already in use. I believe some Services still run that access the capture card even with the main MCE 200 GUI/app shutdown.
I'll have to tinker with it when i get home tonight.
Posted by: Tom Keating at November 18, 2004 02:06 PMDoes your boss know that you spend so much time at work with your home hobbies?
Posted by: at November 19, 2004 09:00 AM>>Does your boss know that you spend so much time at work with your home bobbies?
Yes, he reads my blog religiously actually. I have nothing to hide with regards to my work ethic. He knows how much work I put into the company. He enjoys my gadget reviews and often takes my tips to deploy them himself.
Do you have anything better to do than post a comment to my blog insinuating I don't take my job seriously or that I'm a slacker?
Please troll someplace else unless you have something important to say.
If you are trying to stream using windows media encoder, you can't start the encoding in a terminal service session.
Posted by: Rob at November 19, 2004 07:23 PMKill off everything that begins with "eh" in your Windows Task Manager and that should shut down MCE.
Posted by: at November 22, 2004 08:36 PMAnd you are right. As long as ehRecvr is running you cannot use the capture card with other apps.
Posted by: at November 22, 2004 08:41 PMThanks for the tip on killing "eh" processes. I will try that.
and lettering my know that the cpature card only allows 1 process/app at a time.
who do I have to thank for the tip?
feel free to email me directly. Contact info is in the About me link
Posted by: Tom Keating at November 22, 2004 08:53 PMHmmm. Killed all processes with "eh" in front and I still can't access the SMRT capture card from Media Encoder.
The error from Media Encoder 9 Series is "cannot find a valid output stream source 0xc00d1b70"
any ideas?
Posted by: Tom Keating at November 22, 2004 09:54 PMI'm just trying to get my satellite cable from my TV to stream to my laptop. I downloaded the videolan...I have it connected bythe s-video connection, but from there, I am at a loss... Ideas?
Posted by: katie at January 9, 2005 08:39 PMSaw this release about streaming TV to mobile phone. thought I'd share it here in the Comments:
Dear Tom,
Missed your favorite TV program last night? If you have a mobile phone, that’s not a problem anymore. With streaming television emerging as one of the hottest trends in the mobile marketplace, anyone with a mobile phone can take their favorite shows with them wherever they go. The Mobile Media Company AS, a global leader in the provision of interactive entertainment services, has partnered with technology company Rubberduck Media Lab to provide live, streaming TV to mobile channels and wireless devices around the world.
Mobile Media will use its extensive international network of media, broadcast, and mobile operator partnerships to deliver Rubberduck’s 2.5 and 3G supported downloadable content and streaming video to wireless subscribers worldwide. Media companies will be able to manage their own content and live feeds or take advantage of Rubberduck’s wide range of services. Rubberduck has already been operating in the Scandinavian market through Norwegian channel NRK, to bring live television content to consumers.
Please see the attached press release for more information on this partnership. I would be happy to arrange for you to interview Steinar Svalesen, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Mobile Media, regarding this arrangement and the effects of streaming television on the global mobile marketplace. Please feel free to contact me at 610-642-8253 or Sarah@GregoryFCA.com if you are interested in this story or if you have any questions.
Thanks for your consideration.
******************
MOBILE MEDIA COMPANY PARTNERS WITH RUBBERDUCK MEDIA LAB TO PROVIDE STREAMING TV TO WIRELESS DEVICES
Partnership brings live television content to millions of wireless phone customers
Oslo, Norway, January 11, 2005 – The Mobile Media Company (http://www.MobileMedia.com), one of the leading, independent providers of global wireless, interactive entertainment services and marketing applications, today announced an agreement with UK-based Rubberduck Media Lab Limited (http://www.RubberduckMediaLab.com), to provide live, streaming television to mobile channels and wireless devices worldwide.
“Working with Rubberduck is another step in our continued commitment to the future of mobile interactivity and the evolution of the 4th entertainment screen—the wireless device,” says Karsten Hauge, CEO of The Mobile Media Company AS.
Building on Mobile Media’s extensive international network of media, broadcast, and mobile operator partnerships, Rubberduck will deliver its 2.5 and 3G supported downloadable content and streaming video to millions of Mobile Media wireless subscribers. Through Rubberduck’s services, media companies can manage their own content and live feeds, or take advantage of Rubberduck’s complete range of services, including live encoders and hosted solutions.
“Our mission is to enable media companies and broadcasters to launch, operate, and generate revenue by reaching people on the move at any time,” says Gavin Whyte, Managing Director of Rubberduck Media Lab. “Since our service utilizes software already pre-installed in most 2.5 and 3G phones, users can view our clients' services, whether they are live or pre-recorded, and in turn provide the largest reach possible to video mobile phone subscribers within a client’s market.”
Mobile Media and Rubberduck Media Lab are partnering to test wireless TV in North America. Both companies are in discussion with leading international broadcasters to launch mobile TV channels and services in the first quarter of 2005.
Now operating in the Scandinavian market, Rubberduck’s streaming video service brings live television content to wireless subscribers through NRK, a live mobile TV channel. Rubberduck and NRK were first in Europe to offer live television content via all networks. The carrier-independent service supports the 3G standard for mobile TV, and enables Norwegian mobile video phone owners to watch NRK programs, without having to install additional software products or players.
A Yankee Group 2004 Mobile User Survey (USA) of the Young Adult Segment found 24% of users saying they are prepared to pay to view live TV on their mobile phones, compared to 22% for music, and 12% for short video clips.
“Our partnership with Rubberduck means we’re poised to deliver TV programming to the wireless mass-market,” says Steinar Svalesen, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Mobile Media North America. “Downloadable content and streaming video services are turning the corner, and we believe 2005 will bring significant growth in the North American market. This partnership accelerates our ability to lead the way in this new mobile wireless era.”
About Mobile Media
The Mobile Media Company AS (www.MobileMedia.com) is a global provider of wireless provisioning and content solutions, interactive entertainment services and mobile marketing applications. Mobile Media works with leading industry players and a wide-range of customers including mobile carriers, broadcasters, media companies and major consumer brands. The Company was founded in 1993 to pioneer mobile messaging services and technologies and since then, has become a fast developing, multi-media organization with over 200 employees.
The Mobile Media Company AS serves customers in over 30 countries, with mobile connectivity to more than 500 million subscribers in both the mature and developing markets of Asia, Europe, and North America. The Company is headquartered in Oslo, Norway, with offices and technology development centers in the UK, Romania, China, and the USA.
Mobile content providers should contact Mobile Media at CP@mobilemedia.com. To partner with Mobile Media, please contact us at partners@mobilemedia.com. For all other enquiries, please contact info@mobilemedia.comor visit us online at www.mobilemedia.com.
About Rubberduck Media Lab
Rubberduck Media Lab is a technology company specializing in developing and integrating state-of-the-art solutions for clients who wish to enable content and services to be delivered over mobile networks. The company was started by key members of the mobile division of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK).
The company has delivered live television programming and on-demand multi-media content to mobile devices since early 2004. They have relationships with major broadcasting networks in Scandinavia and the USA, network operators in Europe and the USA, and leading content providers worldwide. Rubberduck Media Lab was the only streaming partner for the Telenor (Norway) 3G launch in November 2004. They have current relationships with the following companies, including NRK, Nextreaming, Sprint, Fox, Telenor, and 2.
Rubberduck Media Lab is a major player in the delivery and advancement of technology solutions to network operators and broadcasters, as well as a provider of service provision solutions to content providers and second tier networks and broadcasters.
The company’s management is experienced in mobile and television technologies, with a strong track record in mobile content brands and the streaming of high quality live TV over GPRS and 3G networks. The management team has been heavily involved in the recent floatation of a leading mobile content provider on Alternative Investment Market (U.K.).
Mobile Media Press Contacts:
US: Sarah Galea. Tel:+ 1-610-642-8253 E-mail: Saragh@GregoryFCA.com
Norway: Steinar Svalesen. Tel:+ 47-9572-8490 E-mail: Steinar.Svalesen@MobileMedia.com
Rubberduck Media Lab Press Contacts:
Lee Dudack. Tel: + 44 (0)20 7886 0891, E-mail: Lee.Dudack@RubberDuckMediaLab.com
