ShinmaRyuu Posted June 8, 2007 Share Posted June 8, 2007 I have thought about trying to figure out how use Ustream in a different way. Instead of going down the webcam route instead using it to broadcast 24/7 IPTV content. My original idea was to use 2 computers. One as the host of the files and one as the streamer. In between would be a USB conversion interface taking the S-Video or whatever out of one computer and sending it into the other via USB and somehow tricking Ustream into thinking that was a USB webcam. Messy and more than likely wrong in a lot of ways but that is the reason for this post. I want to give this idea to you guys in the Hak5 community in hopes someone will figure this out along side what i am doing myself playing with the idea and we can get a 24/7 streaming IPTV video channel launched. Eventually i thought it would be cool to have a page ala Hak5 Live and Chris Pirillo's where there could be a chat and the video streaming along side it as a nice place for fans and creators to hang out. Maybe even going as far as to have a TV guide like widget on there saying what will be playing at what time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metatron Posted June 8, 2007 Share Posted June 8, 2007 Not completely sure what your trying to do but if all your trying to do is feed other video sources to this site you can just use SplitCam. SplitCamera is a freeware virtual video clone and split video capture driver for connecting several applications to a single video capture source. http://www.splitcamera.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShinmaRyuu Posted June 8, 2007 Author Share Posted June 8, 2007 More or less i am trying to do the following... Take say a winamp (other media player) playlist of videos like Hak5 and other IPTV shows and send it into Ustream making Ustream think it's a video import source like a webcam pretty much making my own version of really dumbed down broadcast tv over the internet. It has been done a million times with shoutcast video but that takes tons of bandwidth and relies on connections and how many people are watching etc. With Ustream they take care of all that just a matter of as i said figuring out how to feed it a video playlist instead of a webcam/camera. Splitcam takes 1 video input source and sends it multiple places so i am not sure that would work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaun Posted June 8, 2007 Share Posted June 8, 2007 Couldn't you use any of these? http://www.softplatz.com/software/virtual-webcam/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moonlit Posted June 8, 2007 Share Posted June 8, 2007 Funny you mention this, I started experimenting with it a couple of weeks ago, and this is how I went about it: I have a mediocre spec video card with s-video out. I connected to s-video out via a composite adapter to the input of my capture card (allowing ustream to stream whatever's on my second monitor (basically turning the stream in to my second monitor). I then set my wallpaper to a "Moonlit is off the air." caption, so that when nothing is playing, it still shows something vaguely relevant. I then configured my video card to clone any video playing using the graphics overlay (can be done using either ATi or nVidia cards with multiple outputs), so whenever I play anything in VLC it would then get fed out to my TV-out, back in to my capture card, and out to the internet. I could then just line up a playlist in VLC, and hey presto, online TV station. However, I can't remember if that worked or not, and I can't try it now because of a whole slew of reboots between now and the point where I can test it. I do remember I had problems with video feedback but I can't remember what caused them, I have a feeling it was because I was viewing the captured input while VLC was configured todisplay the video in such a way that it would spew it back out the TV-out. The other option is to record the screen (or the bit where VLC's video is), but I've not had too much luck with this method because it sucks up resources leaving the video playback stuttering and slow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShinmaRyuu Posted June 8, 2007 Author Share Posted June 8, 2007 Couldn't you use any of these? http://www.softplatz.com/software/virtual-webcam/ I am going to give that Webcam Simulator XP a whirl. Seems to do exactly what i would want. If i get something half working i'll post here with a test link. Also moonlit i think Chris Pirillo does a version of the screen capture idea with his show which is why the video is so poor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShinmaRyuu Posted June 8, 2007 Author Share Posted June 8, 2007 We have a winner ding ding ding. Webcam Simulator XP works like a charm but it's $29.95 for the software. I am now working on finding a open source or free version of the same thing. Big props to Shaun for the point in the right direction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShinmaRyuu Posted June 8, 2007 Author Share Posted June 8, 2007 Kids Hak5 S2E2 is now playing :) http://ustream.tv/channel/test1337 EDIT: Sadly broken due to audio issues. The software is not playing nice with Ustream. Good thing is Moonlit has rocked the house and shown a working prototype of this concept and i am going to be working with him on recreating it in my area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moonlit Posted June 9, 2007 Share Posted June 9, 2007 I think we can safely say that worked, though Stickam > Ustream for quality, and Ustream drops too much audio for my liking. Still, it's not *that* bad. Overall success. Whether we do anything with it (and more to the point what can we do with it) is something to think about it... very cool though, lets me play at running a "TV station" without splashing out millions ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SomeoneE1se Posted June 9, 2007 Share Posted June 9, 2007 I think we can safely say that worked, though Stickam > Ustream for quality, and Ustream drops too much audio for my liking. Still, it's not *that* bad. Overall success. Whether we do anything with it (and more to the point what can we do with it) is something to think about it... very cool though, lets me play at running a "TV station" without splashing out millions ;) and now you can say you were lead of a tv station at one point in your life Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moonlit Posted June 9, 2007 Share Posted June 9, 2007 Hah. Thanks, but I'll save that claim for if I ever am ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShinmaRyuu Posted June 9, 2007 Author Share Posted June 9, 2007 The working beta is now live over at http://www.sxe13.com/boxintheattic/ when moonlit is streaming. Once we get the content issues sorted i think things will be going smashingly. If you have some Creative Commons works you might want on the network hit up moonlit and will see what we can do. I believe moonlit is working on a wiki article of how we got this done and i'll add in some things about how i messed with stickam's interface via the embed tag. Overall i think we are pretty happy with things and look forward to seeing what kind of old IPTV/Podcast and new Community created content will be on the network. Just goes to show what smart folk can do when the stick there heads together and break things :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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