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Television Media Wireless Networking Hardware

Streaming TV Over WiFi to a Laptop? 50

Posted by Cliff from the TV-by-the-pool dept.
PigAlien asks: "I use my wireless network to sit outside in the backyard and surf the internet. I'd like to be able to watch TV outside on my laptop. I see that the new Qosmio laptops come with a WiFi TV router. Is this the only one available (in Japan only)? I couldn't find any others with a google search. Alternatively, I have an extra computer in the office. Is there streaming software I can install on that computer that can handle a live cable TV signal and software to change channels remotely?"
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Streaming TV Over WiFi to a Laptop? More

Streaming TV Over WiFi to a Laptop?

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  • MythTV (Score:4, Informative)

    by dchamp ( 89216 ) on Wednesday September 01, 2004 @10:41PM (#10135300)
    http://www.mythtv.org

    • Re:MythTV (Score:2, Redundant)

      by Trelane ( 16124 )
      Indeed. That was the first thing that came to my mind as well!

      Seriously, MythTV is what you are looking for, chief.
      • I wanna confirm this, I can have the capture card in one box, and change the channels and everything on another box correct? (If this is the way, then I see no use of my VCR, just use the capture card in my computer and my Xbox to watch the live TV).

        • Re:MythTV (Score:3, Insightful)

          by ZenJabba1 ( 472792 )
          I'm looking at writing the hooks into XBMC to do this with a MythTV box. So basically xbox hooked straight to your tv and the MythTV box somewhere else and both live streaming and pre-recorded streaming via the xbox over ethernet.

          After that I'm sure people will write "TiVo" style intellegence into the XBMC to allow it to do smart things.

          --
        • Yes. I've not personally done it, but there is documentation on it on the mythtv site.

          You can have multiple backends and multiple frontends, on different machines. There should be guides for getting this going.

          Honestly, I don't know wny schools don't do this, what with a nice PC in every classroom, and projectors being fairly common (at least in the US).

      • Re:MythTV (Score:5, Informative)

        by dago ( 25724 ) on Thursday September 02, 2004 @01:09AM (#10136064)
        Maybe it would be a good idea to explain that MythTV is not just a program but has a client-server architecture.

        The "backend" is the PC recording the shows. For that matter, it can be a powerfull computer 3 tuners, 4 HDD hidden somewhere.

        The "frontend" can be really light and just need to show the streamed TV, either live or recorded.

        In fact, if you save your shows into a samba drive, you can even play them using any media player.

    • Re:MythTV (Score:3, Informative)

      by Danious ( 202113 )
      I second that.

      I had my TV card in an old Celeron 400, running the MythTV server in LiveTV mode, watching from my laptop over a 802.11b connection. This setup was only capable of a low resolution, and it stuttered fairly regularly, so make sure you have enough power. A 1GHz server will allow recording and streaming at MPEG2 resolution, but you may need 802.11g to stream wirelessly at that resolution. As always, the more power and bandwidth the better.

      It has a built in program guide, PVR functionality, a
    • Just an FYI, if you want to record at high resolutions/bitrates (I almost always record MPEG2 at 6 Mbits/sec minimum, 8 peak), you'll need an 802.11a or g setup - 802.11b isn't fast enough to handle such bitrates, but plenty of people stream Myth recordings over 802.11g connections.
  • Beyond TV does this, and has done it from the start - its really seamless software.

    www.snapstream.com

    • Re:BeyondTV (Score:4, Informative)

      by wolf- ( 54587 ) on Wednesday September 01, 2004 @11:26PM (#10135522) Homepage
      I'm a registered Beyond TV user.
      The next version of Beyond TV seems to be leaning to the "pay per streamed client" model. So before you buy, check it out.

      All in all, its been a decent application. Check the forums if you decide to consider it, and definately download the trial version.

  • Windows Media (Score:4, Informative)

    by samrolken ( 246301 ) <samrolken@NoSPaM.gmail.com> on Wednesday September 01, 2004 @11:03PM (#10135401)
    Windows Media Encoder can encode from a TV tuner, and a little script can change the channel over the web. I've done this to watch TV from work, and you can encode in ISO-MPEG4.

  • video lan (Score:2, Informative)

    by LordMyren ( 15499 )
    i got bored this summer and did it with VideoLan software.

    its a GREAT generic solution for all network AV systems. Very advanced.

    I'd like to do some MythTV integration, but i'm rediculously busy with other projects right now.
    • Videolan is definitly a very cool project!
      I just found the gui abit buggy and recommed using the cli if possible.. seems pretty solid then.

  • ATi? (Score:1)

    by Down8 ( 223459 )
    In theory, and assuming Windows usage, ATi's TV Wonder series should be able ot do this, with acompanying software.

    ATi's TV program will encode to WMV (or AVI, or MPEG), and Windows Media Server will let you stream them.

    The actual encoding isn't a necessity, as far as I can tell (as in it doesn't need to be encoded, then watched). In Windows Media Server, it will allow you to pick your input device, and you just choose the ATi TV Wonder. I used the PCI version for some years, and had a USB version that di
  • "Is there streaming software I can install on that computer that can handle a live cable TV signal and software to change channels remotely?" "

    I can't say for sure about changing channels remotely (though VNC would be the worst case scenario...) but snapstream (www.snapstream.com) is a software based PVR that does streaming over a port. It's not free (last I checked it was $50ish) but I have personally used it and can recommend it. For the sake of being up-front and honest, that was two years ago. I do
    • I'm using Snapstream and it does work fine. I use it as a PVR and TV viewer. It will stream live TV to a laptop (I'm using 802.11g) and it will allow you to change channels.

      Of course, it is a single tuner, so if you are recording a show or someone is watching TV on the computer, the remote channel change is disabled.

      One feature I like about it is the ability to schedule shows to record from their website, so if I think about taping something, I can set it from work.

      One feature I don't like is that, wit

  • Tivo + tivowebplus + TyShow (Score:3, Informative)

    by pauldy ( 100083 ) on Thursday September 02, 2004 @12:22AM (#10135853) Homepage
    I currently do this using a tivo with tivoweb plus and tyshow. Simple modifications allow you to view the live stream and control the tivo with a web browser. Of course a simple 79 dollar portable tv would be less techie but would probably be easier to maintain and be more portable than a laptop.
    • Hi Pauldy, when I read your message I first thought, "now there's an obvious idea." However, really, I use my laptop outside anyway and its easy to dash in and out with. I also have a 15.4" monitor on the laptop. A similarly sized tv would be quite heavy. The biggest obstacle, however, would be getting all my 100+ cable channels. I want to be able to wirelessly stream the cable channels so I don't have to fuss with cables or cords. Really, I don't watch much TV anyway, so this would just be a fun exer
      • Above, I was referring to your portable TV suggestion, not your Tivo suggestion, which obviously sounds like a good solution if I want to pay the money.
        • I personally have used my laptop to watch Stargate SG1 off my Tivo while sitting on the toilet just because I could. The whole streaming tivo was born out of a dual monitor setup I have in my office. I no longer have a TV tuner in there so I figured I could extract the shows in the background and watch them off the HD. Imagine my supprise when i cam across mplayer vstream and tivowebplus. For me it was just because I already had a hacked tivo and it fit the bill YMMV.
    • http://tivo-mplayer.sourceforge.net/

  • mplayer-tivo (Score:3, Informative)

    by Vlad_Drak ( 20809 ) on Thursday September 02, 2004 @12:25AM (#10135874)
    I use mplayer-tivo every day, works like a champ over 802.11g. You can pull up pre-Tivo'd shows or stream it Live. Use the TivoWeb remote, and it's just like you're there. You need to hack your Tivo for all this to work, but it's well worth the trouble.

  • TSReader + VLC (Score:4, Informative)

    by jquirke ( 473496 ) on Thursday September 02, 2004 @12:28AM (#10135889)
    I use my VisionPlus DVB-T card for Digital SDTV and HDTV combined with the TSReader [coolstf.com] software and the free software VLC [videolan.org].

    Streaming is done (by default) over RTP/UDP over IPv4 or IPv6 unicast or multicast.

    The problem is, with 802.11g, it does not seem to be able to reliably deliver an SDTV signal (~7mbps here in Australia) let alone a HDTV signal (~14mbps). SDTV works sometimes, however can start to break up after a while, and I have to return to 100/1000 Ethernet.
    • This probably has nothing to do with your problem, but I've observed some very poor performance with VLC over a 802.11g network (Linksys WRT54G and D-Link DWL-G650). I noticed that the router was very inefficient when multicasting over wireless and could not transfer data at more than 1 Mbps. I switched VLC to unicast instead and I was able to reliably get ~3 Mbps streams going.

  • Or do it the old fashioned way (Score:5, Interesting)

    by human bean ( 222811 ) on Thursday September 02, 2004 @12:53AM (#10135994)
    Get a cheap part fifteen TV modulator, hook it to a wire antenna, tune it to a channel unused in your area, and then stick a commonly available tv tuner card into laptop.

    Not as cool as doing it over wireless networking, but think of all that bandwidth you will save...
    • Wasn't aware that laptops had PCI slots...
      • Minimum of sarcasm, serious question that calls the parent post's assertion into doubt.

        I have plenty of PCMCIA cards, including some weird ones. But I've never even heard of a TV tuner cardbus card... and the parent didn't hint that that was what he had meant.

        So shove your flamebait mod up your ass, crackmoderator.
    • I tried this once and it didn't work. I used an unamplified "rabbit ears" as the transmitter antenna and an amplified indoor antenna about 15 metres away. I couldn't see any trace of the signal.

      I guess the RF modulator didn't produce enough power. Think about the relative efficiency of what I did compared to a direct coax connection. If a direct coax connection produces good signal levels what are you going to get this way?

  • a bit too simple? (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    TV broadcasters are already sending you TV signals wirelessly. You just need a receiver.

  • MSI (Score:2)

    by mduell ( 72367 )
    MSI has a product called TV@nywhere, lets you stream TV over the network.

    Then use RDC to login remotely to change channels.

  • VDR (Score:1)

    by realkiwi ( 23584 )
    VDR has a streaming client/server
  • I have an external aerial connection coming into my bedroom, but the reception of a TV further up the house sucks. I'd love to be able to stream a TV signal over WiFi to save the installation of another outdoor aerial, but I wouldn't want anything with fans running while I'm trying to sleep. Is there some sort of appliance solution to streaming a TV signal? Ideally, they'd be a similarly quiet and easy to use receiver option.

    Oh, and it needs to suit Australian broadcasts. Digital or analogue, either's f

  • does all of this, I'm currently using an XBox client with a server (right next to it) that will soon be in the loft. The documentation says that it should be usable over WIFI
  • http://www.videolan.org/

    It is free, it is open, it works. That is for streaming from device. As for changing channels you can do anything from remote shell, VNC, X11, HTTP whatever - changing channels in tuner is minor problem here...
  • Two windows (pay) solutions that allow you to set it up on the base PC and record/stream/timeshift/etc.

    http://www.snapstream.com/ (Beyond TV3)

    http://www.sage.tv/

    I've run into hardware issues where Snapstream wouldn't handle legacy video capture cards that didn't have current DirectX drivers (I think version 8). Don't know as much about Sage.

    My brother also has run Windows Media Encoder 7 [microsoft.com] (Free download) and streamed stuff over the web to me before - I didn't have an interface to change channels, th

  • (gigapocket is sony's tv tuner board)

    include a nifty little app called 'picoplayer'
    that can be used/installed on any other windows machine you have and control gigapocket over the lan.

    You can watch tv or pre recorded material, the actual decoding is done by the base PC.. it dind't work for me over wifi, too many stutters and too low of bandwidth, I switched my lan to mostly powerline, and got 12 of 14mbps which made the stream hardly ever fall
  • A ReplayTV comes out of the box with network streaming capability. You can stream any recorded show to a laptop using free software from http://www.dvarchive.org/ [dvarchive.org].

    http://www.replaytv.com/ [replaytv.com].

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