I’ve got an idea.
A few months ago I wanted to watch the Academy Awards, but I was out of luck since our house is in some kind of black hole. We don’t get any broadcast TV stations, and we’ve been too lazy to order cable (even though it’d only cost us $8 a month). I was sure somebody would be streaming the Oscars on the web, but my searches yielded nothing. I couldn’t believe nobody was broadcasting streaming video of an internationally-televised event.
On the whole, I’ve enjoyed the lack of TV, but there are two things I miss: Comedy Central and BBC America. The Daily Show. Chappelle’s Show. Coupling. I miss these things. But they’re just not enough to justify paying for cable and putting up with all the other crap.
Here’s where my idea comes in.
All I need to to is throw a cheap TV capture card (which I have) into an old Windows machine (which I have), install Windows Media Encoder (which is free), plug this thing into the cable TV at my parents’ house, and write a web interface to let me change channels. Bingo: instant streaming cable TV over the Internet, and I haven’t paid a dime. The legality isn’t clear, but if I’m the only one watching the stream, I can’t imagine it’s much different from going over to their house and commandeering their remote, right?
I’ll have to investigate this further.
Comments
No subject
Uhhhh...errrr...your grasp of the legality may be more commonsensical than legalitical, but that's just my opinion.
Legality....
Oh, but don't your parents have digital cable? How would your capture card deal with that?
Re: Legality....
When I lived there I watched TV via the capture card all the time. Apparently when you get digital cable you also get all the analog channels at the same time. I just plugged the card into the wall and it handled the analog stuff just fine.
Re: No subject
My grasp of legality is always more commonsensical than legalitical. Surely you've noticed that by now. :P
Re: Legality....
Ah, but wouldn't that put the kibosh on BBC America?
What a great idea!
The big problem that I see is the system needed to do the encoding and broadcasting. Looking at the Windows Media Encoder System Requirements it appears that I would need a dual 2 GHz machine to pull this off.
Re: What a great idea!
well this does sound interesting. When I go off yonder to college I am sure I will be cheap, I will probably want to setup something like this too. How much bandwidth do you think it would take, and do you know if there is any OSS that I could use to accomplish this? I have been thinking of setting up mythtv at my moms house when I am away and using the web interface to record all the shows I want and trasfer them to my system. although it wont really be live, thats fine with me I guess. anyhow good luck with this and let us know how it goes.
Rebroadcast
Even converting the video before sending it amounts to a 'rebroadcast' and is subject to legal restrictions. Of course that also covers sending video over a wired or wireless network within your own home too, which I would think would fall under the 'fair use' doctrine, but sending it offsite is definitely something you don't want to broadcast (pun intended).
RE: WHAT A GREAT IDEA
HONESTLY IT ALL SOUNDS MORE TROUBLE THAN ITS WORTH....THERE ARE OTHER OPTIONS... 1 WATCH STREAMING SHOWS FROM WINAMP TV. 2 BUY A SUBSCRIPTION TO STREAMING INTERNET TV (ALL CABLE SHOWS) WHICH IS $6 A MONTH. AND THERE IS NO HARDWARE TO INSTALL OR TV CARD NEEDEED. I WATCH ALL MY FAVORITE TV SHOWS ANYWHERE I GO IF I HAVE ACCESS TO A COMPUTER. i JUST DONT SEE WHY ANYONE SHOULD BOTHER WITH INSTALLING MORE BULK TO A COMP WHEN ITS NOT NEEDED. BTW THE WINAMP PLAYER IS BEST FOR PLAYING SHOWS. MOVIES. VIDEOS AND WHATEVER YA WANT.
Just Snapstream it!
Use Snapstream and Beyond TV Links and you can even change channels from the streaming PC from yours. I can watch my TV anywhere on the web as long as I have a licensed BTV program. I can even setup a Tivo type session over the web.