Stream TV across the network while giving individual users ability to swap channels

[HodgeHi]

Hello,

 

How would one stream TV across the network and give the end users the ability to choose which channel they watch?

 

I have been asked this question by the head and it has got me scratching my head. Surely to do such a thing would require the use of more than one tuner?

 

If anyone has managed to do this or knows what gear is needed to do this then any advice would be great.

 

I have looked at the slingbox but it only allows playback on one device at any one time.

 

Any others that would do the trick?

[CyberNerd]

We use mythweb and let teachers book TV in advance, we use the mythweb to stream the pre-recorded show.

Mythtv could do exactly what you want wrt streaming, but you'd need linux on your clients.

[titch]

Why dont you use a web based alternative TVCatchup - Never Miss A Show Again lets you watch live tv from all the major freeview channels and is legal as long as you have a tv licence etc although Im not completely sure of the rules on that one. Really good site though and have very few probs with it.

[RabbieBurns]

To stream multilple channels simultaneously you would need multiple tuners.

 

An array of PCs, or a PC with an array of cards, each tuned to a channel, and then use VLC or so to stream the channels. The multiple PC option might be better for better bandwith management, then again, multi nic might work.

 

I use a couple of slingboxes for this purpose at home, but that isnt probably a cost effective solution on the scale you're after if your wanting lots of clients watching at once.

[HodgeHi]

Just looked at the TVCatchup thing. It seems that it can only be used in a domestic surrounding and also violates TOC's if publicly broadcasting.

[HodgeHi]

To stream multilple channels simultaneously you would need multiple tuners.

 

An array of PCs, or a PC with an array of cards, each tuned to a channel, and then use VLC or so to stream the channels. The multiple PC option might be better for better bandwith management, then again, multi nic might work.

 

I use a couple of slingboxes for this purpose at home, but that isnt probably a cost effective solution on the scale you're after if your wanting lots of clients watching at once.

 

I looked at the slingboxes and it would have been a good solution except that you can only watch from one client at a time. As we would have around 15-20 clients connecting then it wouldn't be usable. I have also been considering the Eye TV option. There is a small app called CyTV that allows a VLC player to stream from the client machine. But can only have access to one channel at a time IIRC.

[K.C.Leblanc]

Just looked at the TVCatchup thing. It seems that it can only be used in a domestic surrounding and also violates TOC's if publicly broadcasting.

 

I think it's the same restrictions that apply to all TV channels. However your LEA will hold a licence that permits you to show most free to air channels in a classroom aswell as hold and show recordings.

 

This however doesn't apply to all channels (sky channels and content produced by the OU aren't included). Many teachers don't realise this.

Edited February 23, 2009 by K.C.Leblanc

[james_yale]

This may be slightly inaccurate as the last time I looked at this was as a project for my shared university house.

 

Freeview comes down in multiplexes of 3/4 channels so you can capture/stream an entire multiplex rather than individual channels, this might cut down on the number of cards you need, I expect 2/3 would cover most of channels you might want.

 

With this approach you could have the streams running permanently then the user could just select the correct multiplex for the channel they want and change the stream within it for the correct channel.

[tmcd35]

Freeview comes down in multiplexes of 3/4 channels so you can capture/stream an entire multiplex rather than individual channels, this might cut down on the number of cards you need, I expect 2/3 would cover most of channels you might want.

 

It's been a while since I looked into this but I believe MythTV can be set up in this way. So each tuner records all channels on the same multiplex. Myth TV can also dynamically assign tuners as required, even if those tuners are in different PC's. It's well worth having a serious look at MythTV if you want to try and set up your own in house IPTV system.

[ascott2]

There are several different ways of doing it but you would need multiple tuners for multiple simultaneous users. If more than a few users were using it at the same time you would also have the worry of bandwith consumption.

 

I used to work in hotels and major investment is spent on developing this. The TV in your bedroom in most high-end hotels is actually no more than a monitor showing you IPTV. The way it worked is had 100 sky/foreign satelite boxes, each one dedicated to each channel which is hooked up to a server which hosts around 10 of the channels, including the PAY-TV videos. This was then on its own network from everything else, ethernet piped into each room, to a dedicated box then fed to the TV.

 

In a word, no, there is no cheap way of hosting your own system that works reliably.

[Vegas]

I saw a demo from Exterity (IPTV), it looked pretty good but costly:

Exterity - building IPTV - MPEG Encoders, TV Gateways, IPTV Receivers and Video on Demand

[elearningsafe]

Hello,

 

I would advise the use of ClickView Live which is a cost effective IPTV and broadcast solution.

 

Exterity and other commercial products are too costly and not as easy to customize.

 

ClickView Live | Watch TV, DVDs and VHS tapes via any computer in the school

only 1995.00 ex Vat for 6 Channels. Can also run on our local VLE and can be used for School news / TV.

[elearningsafe]

I saw a demo from Exterity (IPTV), it looked pretty good but costly:

Exterity - building IPTV - MPEG Encoders, TV Gateways, IPTV Receivers and Video on Demand

 

Their solution works out to be about 1000 pounds per channel. It's really great in hotels and so on but not for schools. Also keep in mind that we don't really use TV enough in school to justify spending over 5000 on this product.

 

There are other products on the market like the clickview one that does more than stream TV and is about a quarter the price.

[m25man]

I have done this with Windows Media Encoder and a couple of TV cards before.

You need one tuner per channel, and the Media Encoder server runs behind an IIS front end.

It can get a bit messy but could provide a couple of streaming channels for very low cost.

 

Windows Media Encoder (now Windows Media Services)

[7andY]

DVBLogic - provider of digital streaming connectivity solutions sell S/W that allows this for around 50 quid - apparently as many tuners as you want. I'm testing it with nine - yes nine!, and they all work feeding TV to Windows 7 Media Centre clients. The advantage is that if one client is watching, say, BBC1, anyone else wanting BBC1 gets the same feed.The website claims the server side is UPNP capable, so that's another option. It will also allow connection to DVB-S and DVB-C.

 

Interesting!

 

7&Y

[torledo]

Their solution works out to be about 1000 pounds per channel.

 

can you elaborate please ?

[srochford]

If you want to do home brew then there is a raft of tools concerned with working with digital TV here: DigitalTV/DVB/HDTV - Video software and downloads - VideoHelp.com

 

DVScheduler looks promising for this kind of app and it will happily process all channels in a multiplex. If you had 2 cards you can get:

 

BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three, CBBC and BBC News on Mux 1 and

ITV1, Channel 4, Five, ITV2, Channel 4+1, More 4, E4 and ITV2 + 1 on Mux 2

 

The one programme which doesn't seem to handle multiple channels on the same multiplex used to be Windows Media Centre; not sure if that's still the case in Windows 7???

[James_3]

You can do this free with MEDIAPORTAL - free media center - Home

 

very good

Regards

James

[chazzy2501]

I asked a similar question a couple of days ago in the general forum and got this cool device recommended to me by ict-lakelands the SiliconDust HD Homerun dual DVB-T Network Tuner

 

.::OneVideo::. SiliconDust HD Homerun dual DVB-T

 

it's a dvb to network tuner that will work with media centre and they can be pooled together and only cost £130 each!

[nadeem]

We use the Freewire service : Freewire - Home

[hakko]

Hello,

 

How would one stream TV across the network and give the end users the ability to choose which channel they watch?

 

I have been asked this question by the head and it has got me scratching my head. Surely to do such a thing would require the use of more than one tuner?

 

If anyone has managed to do this or knows what gear is needed to do this then any advice would be great.

 

I have looked at the slingbox but it only allows playback on one device at any one time.

 

Any others that would do the trick?

 

Record the programs (I'm sure it's only certain programs the school is interested in?) and upload to youtube, create a website and embed the videos on your own channel pages?

[gerardsweeney]

I know this is an old thread and I'm not sure if this is quite what you were looking for, but:

 

How to stream EVERY channel from Freeview onto your network « The Angry Technician

 

Lets you stream freeview from a single PC (in my case a cruddy 6 year old GX280) to all PCs on your LAN running VLC