[How to] TVoIP on an actual TV in TV over IP http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r20013292 en Tue, 15 Dec 2009 06:09:31 EDT Tue, 15 Dec 2009 06:09:31 EDT Re: [How to] TVoIP on an actual TV http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20823795 SonicPengwyn : I been streaming to TV for about as long as I have had DSL.

I also capture from many sources. DVD player, VHS, and local TV.

What I used was a pair of A/V Selector's - Ch 3/4 RF Modulator.

One is used for selecting the different capture sources, and having a switch WITH the RF MODULATOR is a MUST for videos with Macrovision. (So anyway one box is dedicated to all my video input sources)

The other box is mostly just to get the rca audio and Svideo all into a 75 Ohm Coax that connects to my AUX input on the TV in the living room. The output of my soundcard, I got a Y splitter for it, and converted from 1/8" stereo phone plug to a pair RCA males that plug into any of the four inputs. Push the button and it's a live signal. That signal goes to a 100' 75 Ohm Coax.. routed to the living room.

I should say, SLOWLY build this system, the parts are going to twenty dollar you to death if your not careful what parts you exactly need.

The other requirement is obviously a video card with TV out. I also have a capture card.

The TV out is provided by my Nvidia, (as my capture card was too much of a pain to serve the signal out, it could be done that way but I choose not to.) The nvidia SETTINGS (that little green icon in the systray)are very annoying at times, the secret I found is DO NOT start your video source (tvu player, easytv, satpc4tv, or firefox browser/youtube) until after you select your second monitor.

This system works pretty well for me. I occasionally screw the settings up and nothing works, or disappear the little green icon, the secret is reinstall your Nvidia drivers again.

I am not going to go into linux, as I use windows strictly for video work, I LOVE LINUX, and I use it for many other things, but not for working with video. If you had to do this with linux, then I suggest building a Myth TV boxen. I really really like the idea of a Myth TV boxen, but I don't have the cash at the moment for yet another box with all the hardware and stuff entailed in that project.

It's best to set the GOAL of what your trying to achieve before you start. Write out what you need to do, then slowly build your system up. Start with simple things, like 100' of coax for example, YOU know your going to use that so it's safe to buy it... Or one RF modulator/switch You know your going to need that as well, The Sound card output is tricky, if your built of money, then just head out to fry's or radioshack or your local electronics store and fill your shopping cart to the brim, I am not built of money. (Spent it all on video cameras, and NLE soft)

The nice thing about this setup is that if your trying to dodge the DTV update in February, this setup can buy you some time.

I should also note that I also top this whole thing off with an FM Transmitter, so I can be out in the yard and *listen* to music or TV, while I work in the garden. Doesn't have to be music, but can be anything even talk radio. For example I don't get Air America or Nova M out here in Sacramento, with the fm transmitter I stream it from winamp and re-broadcast it out 24/7. (bypassing the fascism)

My capture card is an old pinnacle card (they don't make my model anymore.)
Before that I used to have a Nvidia card that did capture via break out box, (they don't make that model anymore either)
There's lots of nice cards out there now, and if I had to do it again right now I probably would go with a Hauppauge PVR-150 (or better) as per the Myth TV HCL.
My Rf modulators are both different brands, I hate, absolutely HATE wall wort's , So I got an rca with it's own power supply, and a terk with it's own power supply. I dunno what model number but they look just about the same except for the name...

I built this in stages, cause I produce video, and was not trying to stream it until later. I am a die hard "rabbit ear" , Copper Phone, CB/Ham radio type, and I refuse to pay the insane amount of money each month from a company that doesn't care if you suck air, as long as you pay their bill.

Some folks mentioned real player has problems, I can't verify that as I DON'T allow that (from REAL) to be installed. I use the real alternative, and yet I barely ever run into .rm .ram, except Art Bell and Democracy now. I have not had any problems with any formats or software really. It's pretty slick once you get it all going.

Oh yeah I should mention, I have a Y splitter going to a 6' 75 Ohm coax that goes to a ancient TV that sits in the computer room. The reason? Sometimes when presenting YouTube videos from Firefox, I have to Drag the browser into the "TV window" that causes one of my LCD's to be black, and without that second TV I would be flying blind trying to click the itty bitty buttons to make it full screen. I should also mention this splitting could be expanded to multiple TV's in the home.

The other thing from a Networking standpoint, things like TVU Player open hell of connections (Fire up etherape for example and look at them all) A dedicated firewall is a must, I use IPCop, which is just about to release .19 .20 any moment now. Current version is 1.4.18 it's a great little firewall and I been using it since the day it forked from smoothwall.

One last thing from a privacy standpoint, I know a lot of you use Voip skype and all that, if you make your system broadcast on an FM station you need to make sure your using a separate workstation that isn't feeding the signal. Heh, that could make your neighbors interesting...
]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20823795 Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:53:23 EDT Re: [How to] TVoIP on an actual TV http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20622451 cdr1000 : ATI 2600 and up video card =>> HDMI to TV + wireless keyboard and mouse does it all]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20622451 Tue, 10 Jun 2008 16:49:12 EDT Re: [How to] TVoIP on an actual TV http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20441071 jeffnyc : Many laptops have s-video out and if not I know there are tv-out cards all over the place - even via usb though i am not sure how good they are.

Right now, I have TWC with RR and DVR and pay about $110 a month. FIOS and U-verse are unavailable in my area. Say I get rid of the cable and just keep the broadband, which will probably bump up broadband and taxes close to $50/mo. Are there any services and what min cpu/ram that would offer quality similar to my cable provider but TVoip?

I personally do not think technology is that point yet - I think any streaming content over a broadband connection is subpar to what the cable companies provide. ]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20441071 Tue, 06 May 2008 16:37:05 EDT Re: [How to] TVoIP on an actual TV http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20015114 older dog : I have been doing it for 3 years daily and 8 all together.
1. Any player that uses Real networks has been a problem to get video on my second screen to work consistently, this has been with either Nvidia or ATI cards or drivers.

2. The latest TVUPlayer has the same bugs.

3. Windows media has been by far the most reliable with lower CPU usage or a picture with less stutter.

4. Of the major networks ABC has had the most reliable player.

5. They all seem to take a lot more CPU power on the second screen which is my TV, Nvidia has been worse than ATI and this I believe is due to the drivers being less flexible in configuration.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20015114 Mon, 18 Feb 2008 00:03:34 EDT [How to] TVoIP on an actual TV http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20013292 DracoFelis : FYI I started this new thread (from »NetFlix streaming ), as this really seemed like a different (more general to TVoIP) topic than the previous thread was:

said by pintnight See Profile :

Are you streaming the data to your TV?
Not yet.

At this point I've only gotten as far as streaming the data to my laptop. However, I do have tentative plans to convert the data so that I can view TVoIP streams (and other multi-media) on my TV (ideally all the TVs in the house, not just the one nearest the computer).

said by pintnight See Profile :

Is so, how did you that?
Given my work schedule, I'm only working slowly on this project. However, my long term (tentative) plans are to do this is phases:

1) Get the streaming working on my chosen computer. In my case that is my laptop, as the CPU is "fast enough" for this, and the laptop uses less electricity than a desktop (not to mention less noise), so I'm less concerned about leaving the laptop on for a long period of time. (The initial work here is done, although I suspect that there will always be an ongoing task of adding legal TVoIP links/steams to the list over time.)

Still to do:

2) Get the computer's (in this case the laptop's) video/audio converted to something a (single) TV (near the computer) can use. This comes in two sub-parts, converting the audio and converting the video.

2a) Converting the audio is trivial, as my laptop (like most computers) has a headphone out jack. So all I need to do to "convert" the audio, is get/use the proper audio cable to convert the headphone jack into the dual audio-jacks that TVs use these days (i.e. no actual protocol conversion is needed, just a cable with the correct jack/plugs to do the conversion). And even if I can't find the proper cable around the house (and I'm pretty sure I do have that style cable lying around in my misc cable parts), I can easily buy the cable for a few bucks at someplace like "Best Buy".

2b) OTOH the video conversion is a little more work, as my computer doesn't have a direct TV video out interface like some computer's video cards do (some computers have either a "composite video" and/or and S-Video out option). As a result, my current plan is to see if I can convince the "scan converter" I got a few years back (for another use, that is no longer needed around the house) to convert the VGA output plug of my laptop into a TV "composite video" signal. If so, it should be a reasonably trivial matter to play with the screen resolutions/settings, until I can get video that is reasonably centered on the TV. And if my old device doesn't work (for this task), I'll consider if some other VGA=>TV video converter would be cheap enough to buy and use (and if so, go with that "plan B" way of converting the video out of the PC).

NOTE: At that point, I should have a setup where I can watch streaming media on a single TV that is physically near the PC viewing the streams. And keep in mind that I should be able to setup the stream, switch to the PC's external video output, and then close the laptop's case (to protect it, and keep from wearing out the backlight of the laptop), allowing the stream to continue (yes, I've already setup the laptop's controls, so that the laptop doesn't "sleep" when you shut the case, but does turn off the laptop's display in this event).

3) The next step would likely be to feed the signal into the coax "cable TV" cables around the house, so that all the TVs (in the house) see the computer's output as a new "cable channel". This will require an RF filter (to prevent the signal from leaving the house via the cable company's coax) and a stereo modulator (to convert the video/audio into a custom "cable channel"). I'm not going to bother buying this equipment until I get the previous (working with one TV) stage working satisfactorily, but I have priced the equipment and I can do this stage for around $100. If I were to do it today, I would probably buy these two items (links below) from "Smart Home", but I'll reevaluate which products look like the best fit for my needs if/when I get this far:
»www.smarthome.com/7780s.html and »www.smarthome.com/7822b.html

NOTE: At this point, the video/audio should (in theory) be watchable via any TV in the house. And since I would likely put the modulator's output on the input side of my cable amplifier (I do already have a video distribution amplifier on my home cable TV), there shouldn't (at least in theory) be problems with sending this signal to multiple TVs at once (assuming people wanted to watch like that). In fact, each TV should just see the computer's output as if it was a new cable TV channel (it's just that the RF filter, above, would limit the new "channel" to my home cable wiring). However, at this point, we would still need to physically be at the PC to control the streams.

4) Which brings us to the last step, which is installing "remote control" software (I'm currently thinking of using the freeware VNC for this), so that the I don't have to be physically near the media/streaming PC to (for example) pause the play while taking a break. Instead, the PC can be "remotely controlled" by any PC on my LAN. In theory I could probably control the streaming from any PC on the internet (such is the power of remote control software), but (for security reasons) I'll probably setup my LAN firewall to limit the remote control to just PCs on the LAN.

In any event, that's my current thoughts about this plan. I'm sure there are many other ways to view TVoIP streams on actual TVs in the home. However, FWIW that's my current thoughts about how to accomplish this in my home. And since this is really just a hobby/toy now, I'll probably "take it slow" about getting this all done (and do it in stages, as mentioned above). However, in theory this approach should all work to (when done) make TVoIP available to the whole house.

Edits: Fixed a few typo's...]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20013292 Sun, 17 Feb 2008 17:28:23 EDT