Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with stream

Multimedia-filter: Looking for help from all you Network and digital media Gurus in making my first house totally awesome. Movies, Televsion, Music, Wifi, Streaming Content and 50mgbt broadband within.

Cogentesque — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 05:03:13 -0800

Multimedia-filter: Looking for help from HDTV, NAS, Media Servers and Network Gurus' in making my first house totaly awesome. Movies, Televsion, Music, Wifi, Streaming Content and 50mgbt broadband within. Ok guys, this is my first new message on metafilter, so thanks for everything thus far - to business.

The Premise:
In two weekends time, my girlfriend and I are moving into our first house together in Southampton (UK).

Thankfully she is very accomadating and shares the same views with me reguarding the wonder of technology and allure of gadgetry and thus: we have decided to go down the "cyberhouse" network route - all be it slowly.

What we currently have
50mgbt line and a Television package from Virgin.
2 relatively high-spec PCs downstairs (in the lounge) (XP/Vista soon upgrading to Windows 7 im sure)
A new TV - to be bought - (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/154997/show_product_reviews?offset=10&review_type=both&review_order_by=RLF - ebuyer's own)
1 ipod touch
Host of parts to make a low spec PC.

What I would like in my cyber house
DVD's playable on the TV
Normal channels (Virgin package) playable on the TV
Video (films, episodes) from PC's playable on the TV
Music, both downstairs and upstairs: DAB radio/Cd's/Downloaded Music/Online Radio (last.fm etc would be great)
The ability to change the music remotely (ideally, different sources for different rooms)

Some ideas I've been looking at so far
KVM Switch and a long HDMI cable for my computer to use TV as alternative screen - enabling videos from pc to be played
NAT Storage hiding somewhere in the network
Popcorn Hour to play video from PC
Sonos music system to play upstairs and downstairs
Media pc configured to do the job of sonos and popcorn hour (apparantly this is very tricky?)

What do you think metafilter? Remember that we are definately "on a budget" but I much more trust your collective ideas and conceptions than my own - so what would you reccomend should be my immediate course of action?

Desktop to tv

dstopps — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 15:56:54 -0800

I want to view my desktops screen on my TV. Using my desktop, and laptop connected to my tv. I want to be able to watch movies i play on my desktops bluray drive on my TV which has my laptop plugged into it. I would much rather go over my home network than stream to the web. I am pretty good at maintaining and working on individual computers but am lost when it comes to network stuff.

Do any of you l33t hax-sawz know a way to capture this Red Bull Music Academy player's stream?

Senor Cardgage — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 20:07:56 -0800

Do any of you l33t hax-sawz know a way to capture this Red Bull Music Academy player's stream? I have a visceral need to keep this Holy Ghost mix of old rare disco tracks for mine forever and ever and ever.

But I dont know how.

Any takers?

Acid Burn?
Lord Nikon?
Zero Cool?

How do I capture a small part of a long video stream?

tamarack — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 10:16:42 -0800

I want to capture a small part of a long video stream from the web. And I want it in mp4. It's my convocation webcast, and it's in asf. I have managed to capture just the five minutes (of 2+ hrs!) I want, but I did so with Real Player and so the file is in the ever-unfriendly rm file format. I haven't had any luck with file conversion programs, and I can't crack the nut which is VLC (I've tried the VideoLAN forums). I'm running WinXP, and I'm looking for a free way to do this.

I need a recommendation for a tried and true free file conversion that deals with rm->mp4; or step-by-step instructions for how to do this with VLC (I don't want the entire file). I did look in the back posts, but didn't find anything dealing with a partial capture. Many thanks, mefites.

What's that web site?

emelenjr — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 13:37:39 -0800

I'm not sure if it was ever linked on Metafilter, but I remember running across a web site where bands could set up online streaming and downloading of their music, with multiple audio formats and multiple pricing options. There were also various visualizers built into the music players. Hive mind, who can help me track down the URL I've lost? It was a relatively recent find in my travels on the internets—possibly late 2008.

Downloading Best Show archives is making me madder than a rattlesnake at a Thai wedding

frankdrebin — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 16:40:02 -0800

How can I automate the download of a couple hundred streaming audio files on an rtsp server? So I'm trying to download the entire archives of The Best Show on WFMU and I'm getting nowhere. Here's the situation and my vague understanding:

-The archive page is here. There are a couple hundred past shows on there, all in .rm format, set up to stream only. I got permission from the station manager, and I'd like to download them all (and eventually convert to .mp3, but that can take place later on, unless it's just as easy to do at the same time).

-Every show's file follows a consistent naming scheme (thank god). For example, for the January 6th, 2009 show, the filename is rtsp://archive.wfmu.org/archive/BS/bs090106.rm. So for any given show, it's bsYYMMDD.rm. I'm assuming that it would be possible to go through looking for the "Listen" link, then looking backwards for the most recent date string, and then plugging that in.

-My google-fueled understanding of RTSP is that it provides the metadata, and then the actual binary data is served via RTP? What that means for me ... I have no idea.

- I've tried wget and curl on OSX to no avail. They don't seem to like RTSP.

What I'm looking for is some way to kick off a script to automatically go through and download all of these. Preferably I could do this in Vista, but OSX is also an option, and I suppose I could install some Linux if it's remarkably easier for some reason. My programming experience doesn't go much beyond Hello World, so this is probably way above my skillset, but I'm more than willing to learn if I can get some starting points. If someone wants to work with me on this, I would be more than willing to throw some money your way. If there's an existing software solution, that's awesome. Free-er is better, but I'm willing to throw down some $ for a working solution that does what I need.

Xbox streams songs in alphabetical order.

swift — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 14:29:05 -0800

How do I get my Xbox 360 to stream songs in the right order? The songs are all on a NAS (a DLink DNS-321). The Xbox sees the NAS, and streams music from it, however songs are played in alphabetical order instead of album order.

Unless there's a super-easy way to rename a gazillion songs to start with track numbers, I'd prefer not to go down that route.

How to record streaming presidential debate?

maus — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 17:42:09 -0800

How can I record a video stream from CNN this Friday? I follow US politics and elections like other people follow professional sports, and there's a playoff tomorrow that sounds like it's going on whether or not one of the teams shows up. Unfortunately, I have play rehearsal tomorrow night and will be unable to watch it. I don't have cable TV, and was planning on watching it on CNN's or Fox's stream. Is there a simple way to record it for when I get home? Alternatively, is there a reliably-seeded bittorrent tracker for political videos like this?

How do I force Netflix to buffer?

razdrez — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 09:31:24 -0800

How do I choose a higher streaming rate when I'm using Netflix's "Watch Now" feature? Right now I'm using a 768 connection, and it's fine for everyday life, except that I can't watch netflix watch now movies in a decent quality. I don't mind waiting for my computer to buffer the entire thing before I watch it, but I can't find a way to choose the stream that I want. I've seen the greasemonkey script hack from rorta, but the forum says that this doesn't work anymore. (Also seen on lifehacker)

Are there any other options? I don't want to rip the movie or copy it to another computer, or even play it in another player (although I will do any of those if need be). All I want to do is just choose a higher bitrate.

Is there some kind of cookie variable I can change to start the download in high, and then press the pause button to let it buffer? I've tried looking in the source for the page, and downloading a stream manually in Windows Media Player, but although it downloaded a license, the movie never played.

Stream Video to Wii without Orb

jules1651 — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 20:29:44 -0800

Is there a way to stream video to my Wii from my Mac using VLC? I am currently running Orb from the virtual windows machine on the mac I access via vmware fusion, but I am not too impressed with the video quality.

Streaming AAC players for OS X besides VLC?

korpios — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:36:07 -0800

Is there a streaming audio player (i.e., internet radio) that will play AAC streams under OS X, and isn't VLC? I have a subscription to Digitally Imported, a collection of Internet radio stations that I adore; since my bandwidth is a tad limited and subject to the odd congestion issue, I prefer to use the AAC streams (16 Kb/s) rather than the MP3 streams (24 Kb/s). Thing is, I run OS X; I haven't been able to find a single audio player that supports AAC streams besides VLC, and, frankly, VLC is one of the worst damned applications I've ever used. (I say this as a computer geek / programmer, mind you.) I'd even be fine with a command line player, if the interface was halfway decent (i.e., something that would let me switch between several streams ... a curses interface, perhaps?). Ideas, hive mind?

Need to get some music into my kitchen

gfrobe — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 10:36:25 -0800

Is there an inexpensive device I can buy that will allow me to listen to my MP3 collection and internet radio in my kitchen? I'd like to be able to listen to my mp3 collection and internet radio stations in my kitchen. I have no speakers in the kitchen and don't want to run wires from my desktop computer or install a home stereo or anything too elaborate in my kitchen. Is there a wireless speaker or something I can buy that will simply connect to my network and play in another room? It's just for occasional listening so I also don't need very high quality sound.

Income Stream

kapec — Thu, 08 May 2008 09:00:09 -0800

What is the best investment vehicle for "income stream", i.e. where can you put your money and get a return that you could live off of? Any recommendations?

Trying to stream at work

Juicylicious — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 07:28:40 -0800

How can I listen to NPR on my office PC when audio/video streaming is not allowed? I cannont get streaming audio from npr.org. Nor can I get video from the usual sources, cnn.com, etc. Oddly, I can get streaming audio from Project Vibe by setting the "listen now" properties to "Hi Bandwith (FM quality)" and "Stand Alone Windows Media."

How can I replicate this process so that I can listen to NPR?

How do I record live video directly from DV to PC?

russ9595 — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 04:14:44 -0800

I'd like to record live video directly from my FireWire DV camera using Windows XP. Is this possible? I can transfer already recorded video stored on the FireWire DV camera's tape, but with the live video I just get a black screen.

I know this is possible with Windows Vista, but can't find a Windows XP solution.

Xbox 360 + Connect 360 (OS X) + 720p + 802.11n = jerky video?

bryanjbusch — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 13:26:43 -0800

Xbox 360 + Connect 360 (OS X) + 720p + 802.11n = jerky video? While recently streaming some 1280x720 video from the MacBook (10.5.2, RAM maxed out) through the AirPort 802.11n thing to the Xbox 360, which is connected via a physical ethernet cable, the show would periodically stop.

Then the audio would continue by itself, and then after a minute or so, the video would sort of "fast-forward" and catch up with the audio.

I wasn't running any other applications or downloading big files at the same time. Is this normal behavior, or should I be able to stream HD quality video with this sort of setup?

Ringing In '08...Online

AdamOddo — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 18:16:08 -0800

Any good websites for watching the ball drop in Times Square? I haven't had cable or the rabbit ears for a while, and this year the evening's festivities are going to be at my place. Where can I watch the ball drop on New Years online?

Ripping CBCsports stream

miles1972 — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 10:13:59 -0800

Is there an easy Mac OS X way to rip a video (plus audio) stream of a hockey game tonight? I would like to "record" the stream of Pittsburgh vs. Vancouver off of cbcsports.ca tonight and watch it on my Powerbook (Power PC 10.4.11) on my flight tomorrow.
Any ideas how to rip this stream? I've looked around, can't find a simple way to do it.

Alternately I have a Slingbox, so if there was a way to record my feed on that I could do that too. But there doesn't seem to be a way on the Mac side of things.

(is this file if I do manage to do it going to be so large this is a silly idea?)

Streaming video from a Mac to an Xbox 360

ssmith — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 16:28:06 -0800

I was reading the December 2007 Video Playback FAQ about the new video options that are going to be incorporated in tomorrow's Xbox 360 dashboard update. And I was surprised to see question #28: "How can I stream content from my Mac?". They imply that it's possible, but they don't mention any 3rd party solutions. What Mac software can I use for this?

i gotta get digivideowebificated!

univac — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 20:39:08 -0800

I'm trying to get the local webcam to stream to the stage on Flash CS3 actionscript3. When I run it, I get a blank screen and no errors. Any help at all would be appreciated. Here is my code so far: import flash.system.SecurityPanel; Security.showSettings(SecurityPanel.CAMERA); var cam:Camera = Camera.getCamera(name); var vid:Video = new Video(); vid.attachCamera(cam); stage.addChild(vid); Thanks! Posted for a friend. I don't really know what any of this means.

International radio stations

stleric — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 17:45:16 -0800

What are the best (eclectic, not so commercial) radio stations in the world? I've become a pretty big fan of the giant online-streams-of-terrestrial-radio link repository www.radios.com.br, but am finding it hard to sift through the scads and scads of radio stations it lists. Given that I like radio stations along the lines of my city's KDHX (i.e. independently-owned, not cheesy or commercial, eclectic, good mix of nationally-specific music like blues, with new, interesting, and obscure rock/hip-hop/electronic/etc.), does anyone know of some particularly good, similar radio stations abroad (or in the U.S., for that matter)? Thanks!

A reverse Slingbox?

yellowbkpk — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 09:41:38 -0800

Is there a set-top box that performs the opposite of a Slingbox? I have a Ubuntu server at home with a TV tuner in it. I am using VLC to stream the TV tuner to my machine in another city over the internet. I change the channel by logging in via SSH and issuing a "tune" command (that uses ivtv-tune to set the frequency). This works great for when I am sitting in front of the computer, but I'd like to be able to be a vegetable on the couch in front of the television and use a remote control to change the channel on a set top box and watch it through the television.

Is there a set top box that is less complicated, power hungry, and noisy than a complete computer that will a) allow me to run VLC, b) display VLC's output in full screen on the television, and c) issue SSH commands with the push of buttons on a remote control?

Saving a FoxNews video stream.

whatisish — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 20:13:49 -0800

How do I find the source of a FoxNews.com video stream? The end goal is to save a video broadcast from foxnews.com. I understand that it's streaming video and it needs to be captured as it's being broadcast. I think I can handle that given the answers to other similar questions. What I'm finding difficult is determining the direct link to the stream over at Foxnews.com. All their videos first load an ad before redirecting to the video.

Let's assume (for example) the video in question is here.

What is the url for the direct stream to save - and how can I figure it out myself?

Stream many .flv files one after another

matthelm — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 16:45:28 -0800

How can i stream 50 short .flv files from a player on a website that I am designing?...is this possible? I have a site to design that just needs a flash player set up to stream about 50 .flv files one after the other...is this possible? Are there stand alone softwares that let you do this outside of using Flash? I am trying to make this as painless as possible for people who don't know much about designing websites etc. Maybe they could just upload .flv to their server and then edit some sort of playlist that will update the stream...maybe?

Airtunes-like function on the cheap?

nowonmai — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 08:53:57 -0800

How can I make my music play on two Macs simultaneously? I work in a lab where sometimes I'm close to the iMac, and sometimes I'm at my desk near my MacBook Pro. I'd like the same music to be coming from each one so I can have an uninterrupted listening experience. All the music is on the MacBook Pro, and the computers are on the same LAN.
My current method is to use iTunes sharing on the iMac to select the same album as is playing on the MacBook Pro, and attempt to synchronise by pressing 'play' at the right time. This obviously has to be repeated every time I put on a new album or skip a song, and shuffle play is out of the question.
Is there a better way to do this, so that whatever is on iTunes on the Macbook will play on the iMac? Is there software that would make the iMac emulate an Airport Express?
Adding new hardware to the setup is not an option; I would prefer not to spend money on software; a couple of seconds of "buffering lag" might be acceptable.