IPTV decoded

[The_Pope]

http://www.bit-tech.net/bits/2006/05..._primer/1.html

[Mr. Tinker]

Hey! Great article - very enlightening.

[Bindibadgi]

Just for everyone: If you dont like BSplayer either (it's my player of choice mind), .264 stuff can be played well in media player classic and vlc player. Or, there's zoom player as the "direct competitor" to BSplayer.

[Herbicide]

Nice informative article.

I know what I'm going to be doing for (quite) a while...

- H.

[DaSuperFly]

Originally Posted by Bindibadgi

.264 stuff can be played well in media player classic and vlc player.

I believe that if we do recieve an alien transmission, VLC will be used to play it. After all it can play anything right?

[Herbicide]

That or foobar.

- H.

[Bindibadgi]

Yea, pretty much. Even subbed stuff. Im sure the US and other countries use it to decode their, uh, alien transmissions as you say.

I really really like the idea of IPTV. The BBC are trailing it to merely 1000 people in this country, which is crap because I want BBC IPTV NOW. I also want to turn on my TV, scroll through my pre-downloaded programs that Ive setup to record entire series as they arrive and pay for on a per-episode basis. No extra channels, no extra crap, simply and completely what I want to watch when I have time to watch it in any order I fancy watching it. THAT is the beauty of torrents. If these companies could get over themselves and their obsession with DRM maybe we'll be able to have proper, simple set-top boxes where we can choose to have only exactly the shows we want.
Pay for with or without adverts over the net, subscribe to a series, put in your IP/settop box password and you're able to watch them 3 times before they delete themselves. Things get downloaded via torrents on locked servers, and you can set it to be as fast/slow as you want.

Simple and completely effect and enabling. The settop boxes can have a huge harddisk and a DVDRW. These companies should employ the people who stick the HDTV+AC3 torrents on the net: getting a good quality HDTV rip on the net in just 650meg is genius and an infininately crucial part these companies seem to completely lack at doing.

[stephen2002]

I'll wait until they stop using 320x240 resolution with heavy compression. I would much rather wait for a higher quality version to download than watch instant streaming fuzz. The people doing the torrents of shows have the right idea and are using higher qualities. I've been spoiled by OTA HD

[Hiren]

Why did your round up not include French Maid TV?

http://www.frenchmaidtv.com/

[Hamish]

Originally Posted by Bindibadgi

Or, there's zoom player as the "direct competitor" to BSplayer.

hell yea, zoomplayer rocks

zoomplayer + ffdshow + ac3filter + any relevant splitters you need
always worked for me

Originally Posted by Bindibadgi

These companies should employ the people who stick the HDTV+AC3 torrents on the net: getting a good quality HDTV rip on the net in just 650meg is genius and an infininately crucial part these companies seem to completely lack at doing.

and they do it incredibly fast

[felix the cat]

nice read will + kudos for "the revolution will not be televised"! ...great tune! and on that note, fires up winamp

[BioSniper]

My gripe with the ABC streams:
They are windowed only, you cannot full screen though you can switch between high and low res versions..
I would try the AOL ones but that means installing WM10 and I refuse to do that

Anyone know of any other player software (im too lazy to really look), Ive taken a look at democracy which is all well and good but there isnt really any proper settings for it (like a download directory path or bandwidth limitation) and I really dislike the Itunes software.
Any help is appreciated

[Anakha]

Personally, I already have a MythTV box here that's used to record regular programming.

Why is this important, in an IPTV sense? Because I also installed TorrentFlux on the box, and have that set to download streams from UKNova (Which is legal, as long as you pay a UK TV License - They only do broadcast programming, and nothing that's released on DVD) into Myth's "Videos" directory.

However, this isn't IPTV in the strict sense of the phrase.

IPTV is (Usually) RTP (Or RSTP) UDP Multicast streams, delivered over a fixed connection (Usually *DSL) like how HomeChoice in the UK, FreeBox in France, and SaskTel in Canada deliver.

Usually, this requires a set-top box, but using the (Ever-capable) VLC player, you can receive the SAP/SDP "Announcements" coming over your DSL line, and tune-in to the UDP streams in exactly the same way Set-Top-Boxes do.

And yes, I'm pushing to get this functionality in Myth too.

[Firehed]

I noticed a couple little vague inaccuracies in the first two pages (something about WMP, and iPods can use mpeg in addition to .264), but overall it's very enlightening. I've got myself some more content for my god-awful stats class

[zachjowi]

is it legal to download recorded shows like 24 from torrents?

[Anakha]

Originally Posted by zachjowi

is it legal to download recorded shows like 24 from torrents?

That's a difficult one. In Thoery, if you have the capability to watch the show normally (albeit CableTV or Satellite) then you should be legal to download it and watch it (Under "Fair Use", with the same kind of legal standpoint as recording and watching on a regular VCR). This has not been tested from any kind of legal standpoint, however, and is extremely shaky ground.

And, of course, IANAL, so this is only my £0.02-worth. No warranty is implied, E&OE, offer void where prohibited, the judge's decision is final, available while stock last.

[DriftCarl]

I would gladly watch TV shows with commercials(localised content) in them if they were available at full speed download and decent torrent type quality. Unfortunatly there is nothing out there like this at the moment. Sure I could get up to my PC and just move the slider past the adverts, but I can also get up and make a cup of tea when watching normal TV.

These companies are shooting themselves in the foot a bit by embrasing IPTV, and then trying to restrict and control it in an unnatural way. Ive watched all of the scrubs shows up to date(love that show) I would watch it on ABC1 on freeview but all they do is show repeats of damn season 1 every day when its nearing the end of season 5 in the real world. Why cant they just show the next ones too.

I watch lost on torrents because UK is atleast 6 months behind america and with the international community closer than ever on the internet, I hate americans accidently telling stuff about the show that I havnt seen yet.

[szlater]

Originally Posted by Anakha

That's a difficult one. In Thoery, if you have the capability to watch the show normally (albeit CableTV or Satellite) then you should be legal to download it and watch it (Under "Fair Use", with the same kind of legal standpoint as recording and watching on a regular VCR). This has not been tested from any kind of legal standpoint, however, and is extremely shaky ground.

And, of course, IANAL, so this is only my £0.02-worth. No warranty is implied, E&OE, offer void where prohibited, the judge's decision is final, available while stock last.

Going to have to disagree with you there, on one major point.

When you download using a torrent you're not merely downloading the file, you're uploading (distributing) it too. Unauthorised distribution has always been excluded from 'fair use' or any other justification.

I would also be wary of relying on the defence of 'fair use' as I believe that is derived from the 1st Ammendment in the US and therefore not applicable in the UK. In the UK (and I beleive Canada, Australia and New Zealand) the closest thing to 'Fair use' is 'Fair Dealing' and this relates to the criticism, parody and review of copyrighted materials. It gives you no right to record, view or distribute copyright materials without the authorisation of the copyright holder.

[Bindibadgi]

Originally Posted by zachjowi

is it legal to download recorded shows like 24 from torrents?

No. No adverts and it's uncontrolled by the owners so they dont like it. If it has DRM it's legal, basically, unless it explicitly says otherwise.

But then again, it's going to be on C4/E4 eventually so does it really matter, is my opinion.

[szlater]

Originally Posted by Bindibadgi

No. No adverts and it's uncontrolled by the owners so they dont like it. If it has DRM it's legal, basically, unless it explicitly says otherwise.

Err...not quite.

If you don't have the express permission of the copyright holder, it is illegal to view or distribute their material.

Whether the file has DRM or not has no bearing on the legality.

Originally Posted by Bindibadgi

But then again, it's going to be on C4/E4 eventually so does it really matter, is my opinion.

That's the answer to a whole other question (one that I'm more inclined to agree with you on).