Recently I tested streaming a movie to Justin.TV via wirecast and this worked very well indeed, the quality was as good as watching it local and it played without breaking up, lagging or anything like that. There is a few issues with using Wirecast though, the first is the fact it can only play certain file types (mostly MP4) and second, you have to babysit the process to swap movies. After some searching, I came across JTVLC - this can stream content from VLC which in turn can use a playlist.

Setting up VLC

The first task is rather simple, you open VLC, goto View on the menu and select Playlist. Another Window will open up with a blank playlist. It is now a simple case of dragging and dropping the required movie’s to form a playlist. Now back on the main VLC Window – Media, Save Playlist to a File. At this stage (on Windows) maybe make a folder called JTV to store all the files. You can now close VLC.

JTVLC

If you head off to the main JTVLC web page, there is download for Linux, Windows and OSX. Save the zip file and expand the contents into the JTV folder from earlier. We need to get the streaming key for this to work, so head off to justin.tv, click GO LIVE and now half way down is more streaming options click on other on the top left.

The Section under Flash Media Encoder has Config file, save this for now and we can open it to find the right streaming key. Edit the jtv.500k.4.3.xml file (with say notepad) in somewhere in there you should see <Stream>live_xxxx</stream), the part between the words <stream> is your streaming key, do not share this at any cost with the general public.

You now need to make a BAT file (Windows) which will start jtvlc, inside this you need to write:

@echo off
“C:\JustinTV\jtvlc\jtvlc.exe” username streamkey C:\jtv\vlc.sdp

The user name of course is the name of your channel and the stream key as we discussed earlier.

BAT file to start VLC

This is by far the best way to do it in that it works for the most part at least. Create a BAT file and put one of the following lines in:

rem this works if your video files are of different sizes
“C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe” –extraintf http “C:\JustinTV\Playlist.xspf” –sout-keep –loop –sout=”#gather:transcode{venc=x264{keyint=24,idrint=2,cabac=0,bframes=0},vcodec=h264,vb=800,acodec=mp3,ab=128,channels=2,samplerate=48000,audio-sync,deinterlace{deinterlace=linear},threads=2,sfilter=’marq{marquee=$N,color=11319054,position=9,size=16}:marq{marquee=$L/$D,color=11319054,position=10,size=16}’,vfilter=canvas{width=640,height=360,aspect=16:9}}:duplicate{dst=rtp{dst=127.0.0.1,port=1234,sdp=file:///C:/jtv/vlc.sdp}}

or

rem this works if all your video files are identical in size but requires MP4a Audio
“C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe” –extraintf http “C:\JustinTV\Playlist.xspf” –sout-keep –loop –sout=”#gather:transcode{venc=x264{keyint=128,idrint=2,cabac=0,bframes=0},vcodec=h264,vb=800,acodec=mp4a,ab=128,channels=2,samplerate=48000,audio-sync,deinterlace{deinterlace=linear},threads=2,sfilter=’marq{marquee=$N,color=11319054,position=9,size=16}:marq{marquee=$L/$D,color=11319054,position=10,size=16}’,vfilter=canvas{width=640,height=360,aspect=16:9}}:duplicate{dst=rtp{dst=127.0.0.1,port=1234,mux=ts,sdp=file:///C:/jtv/vlc.sdp}}

I used the top one myself and it seemed to work.

What is it doing?

The process works like this, VLC Streams the movie to a file on your drive, jtvlc takes that content and streams it to JustinTV. You can open up the SADP file in VLC and yoou can see what it looks like before streaming. A few key facts about the BAT file above though, the size (width=640,height=360,aspect=16:9) and the bitrate (vb=800) are the key to quality.

Problems Encountered

I have tested this across various machines, the end result varies from No Audio, blockly video, lagging and so forth. The number one issue though was when it jumps to the next movie, all that is shown on Justin.TV is a black screen. If you restart JTVLC batch file – it streams again, so this to me is not a fully workable solution.

If anyone has managed to conquer this – feel free to message me in one shape or fashion or just leave a comment below.

The Streaming site Justin.TV has made a few core changes “for the good of the end users” and this has caused some head scratching in my behalf as to why would they feel that these would be a “good” thing? The first thing they did is introduce a new player which now has a constant bar on the bottom.

This means when you embed the player, instead of been hidden away (the controls) until you need them – they are right in your face. My Guess is too many people had no idea where the volume control was and such on the old player. Next up we have splitting of Chat rooms – when it feels there is too many in one room, it puts you in room 2 and so forth. What this means is the mods will be in room 1 while people are going wild in room 2. I have not come across an IRC Server that has problems with 200+ people in and feels the need to split into more rooms, I have no idea what this achieves. Lastly then – the IOS Justin.TV player / broadcaster which used to be free is now $4.99 – wow is all I can say and I suspect nobody will buy this anytime soon.

I also heard (through the grapevine) that they are extending the channel bans for anyone playing music, a lot of people play music in the background and banning them will drive people away. They have to do this I guess for copyright issues.

There is a good choice of browsers that you can choose from and many people swear blind that Google chrome is the only one to use – period. For example at work while I tried all of the browsers, in the end I actually stuck with Internet explorer 8 as all the in-house applications work properly with this. Now for a little while, I was back to Chrome and it almost had me using this as my main browser of choice but there is a few things that just plain do not work on this platform.

NAS Box

My Synology NAS Box uses a web front end to manage all aspects and one of the is the download manager which I use a lot as this offloads the grunt work of me grabbing big or slow files onto a standalone small box. The problem comes when adding some files, Google Chrome sticks on the adding page even though in the background the files are already been downloaded.

Gallery

The Gallery I host on this site allows me to add picture just plain sits there and eventually Chrome tells me it has stopped responding. This means if Chrome was the only browser of choice, I could not add any new pictures using the browser upload method.

Adverts

Chomre never did manage to fully block adverts and while I am more than happy to see the odd advert on a web page – when I head off to ustream or Justin.TV or even YouTube and get annoyed while the advert pops up inside the video I am watching – this is what annoys me. I am using the same AdBlock engine as the Firefox one and even the same lists yet still it does not block all.

What is good about it then?

Chrome starts fast, very fast and pages appear as soon as I click on that link. It can manage things crashing inside of the browser very well and it updates itself in the background. I want to like, I try to Like it but I am starting to sway back to Firefox I think. I do like the way of typing something right into the address bar and it searches. Time will tell I guess when Firefox 4 comes out.

Justin.TV has its own chat and you can sort of connect via IRC instead of using the in-built chat client. A Much better way is to use a client written by Vaughn, its is a IRC Client with built in video viewer and takes up much less room. You can find the program HERE – enjoy. It is Windows only by the way.

I thought I would write a few words on live streaming shows, how it effects me (and most European people) and time zones. I was thinking back when I used to spend most of my time on Ustream as the site of choice to catch the latest person streaming a show from there web-cam and even stay up late so I could feature on these very shows, armed with IRC Client of choice and be part of a community of Tech minded people from all over the world, mostly USA based though. Of course time changes everything and some things have to fall by the way side, this is my update if you like on how it interacts with my life now.

Ustream

I noticed a full shift from people wanting to stream on Ustream to now wanting to go via Justin.TV Instead. Using only the web based side of Ustream has its own share of issues – the main one been the chat does NOT scroll on its own and this makes talking hard, the solution is to use an IRC Client instead to chat with as Ustream at least support a fairly normal IRC Server. The other aspect at least for me is that if I click back on the browser (Firefox) – nothing happens, this is because the list is filled with the current page – a bug for sure.  As a Broadcaster – you have to use there recording interface to Record the show and if you started say a ‘Tech’ Show – you will be swamped by the number of people in that section broadcasting nothing much, your viewer count will be low, Guaranteed.

Justin.TV

So why is every has people jumped ship to this medium? One of the reasons is the ‘Tech’ Section is quite small with current live broadcasters but once more people start to broadcast “re-runs” – Expect this section to be the same as Ustream. There is some good shows for Tech but they are not actually listed in the Tech section at all, very strange but as they only allow you one choice, this is what happens. The chat on the page flows with the chatter unlike UStream but it is very hard to control the spammers and trolls, to this end a lot have chosen to ditch this form of chat and instead run there own IRC Server.

Time Zones

I am based in the UK and this means that EST (New York and so forth) is -5 hours behind me, a show starting at 8PM over there means I would have to stay up till 1AM and given a show might last a couple of hours, I would not get to bed until 3am. As we move across the USA Landscape, the time difference only gets worse. The west coast is -8 hours behind me – even if they started the show at 6pm, this is still 2am though most of them like to start a show at 8pm.

Why should it matter about these so called ‘Time Zones’ at all though? Well I personally do not know of any decent, frequent UK based Live show that I can visit on a regular basis and as I work Mon-Fri, any of this “Staying up late” is just not an option. What if I started my own show? well the same happens, all the USA people are either asleep or at work, so same problem really – a show with no audience.

The way forward from here

Let me list some shows I used to watch and how now that list is very small indeed:

The Tech Buzz – They have 3 shows a week, Tuesday is both Late (10pm UK Time) and all about Apple. Thu/Fri is more fitting at 6pm my time but they run there own IRC Server which to this day I refuse to ever join. I am banned from the Justin.TV page, so I get none of the chat. Of late this is starting to grow a bit boring and the adverts seem to be increasing (I HATE Adverts period) – I have a feeling I will soon drop this show from my lists.

The Tech In All Things – Fletch has a great show and I used to enjoy watching this guy but he works and I work, he is -8 hours away, the bottom line is neither the two shall meet. He broadcasts on Ustream and I suggest if you are in his time zone – go check him out.

Compute-Ability – They broadcast a show every Saturday 8:30PM EST (though of late these Saturday Shows have failed and moved to Sunday), I have lost track of the last time I seen this show live!

The Computer Store – Based on the East Coast USA, this is not so much a tech channel but more of a fun place to be. Shot inside the computer shop with the owner named Anthony, this also fits in with my time zone nicely. I spend most of my time on this channel these days.

Ron Knights – Has a show 8pm EST Friday and 3pm EST Saturday and for a while I watched this guy but the interest only lasted so long and now I am happy to let this show slip (if he still broadcasts that is).

Slow start  -  my own show

I have started to broadcast randomly at first with gaming while playing music via iTunes, I Tweet out when I am live though I am sure Games and my music will not be of interest to most. I want to produce a tech based show but as of yet, not got there – Sorry.

Your Views

I would like to hear from the other side of the fence, are you happy with the shows out at the moment? Do you feel Ustream has gone more commercial and is Justin.TV the answer? Would you like to see more shows and do you think the buzz of streaming yourself on a web cam has in fact worn off?

Regular viewers of Tech shows may have noticed a shift from Ustream.tv to Justin.TV and it may even have crossed a few people minds as to “Why” this has happened, does Justin offer more and will you get more viewers? I will attempt to answer some of these questions and show you what each has to offer and which you should use..

Ustream

The first hurdle is the bitrate you can set – as far as I am aware ustream do not seem to say they have one which means if you have 5mbps upload, then you can push the boat out and get a really good quality stream. By Comparison – Livestream limit you to 500kbps for free users (combined Audio and video).

Next up is recording, here we can set it to record and it comes out as one session, no breaking up into lots of little bits (like justin). You need to use the broadcaster to start a recording which means if your using FME or Wirecast then no automatic broadcast mode.

Finally – IRC Server are normal type allowing much easier management of the room such as banning people and the like. You can use any IRC Client to log in and chat away which I feel is essential for this sort of thing, allow you to run a client in a separate computer and joining many rooms at one.

What is the problem then?

The problem with tech shows is you will not get many people in the room, even the more successful shows only managed 60+ on a good day and they favour (been a business and all) people such as 50 cent’s, Snoop Dog and anyone else that is famous in fact. The last point makes sense – is a tech show talking about Windows 7 (for the 100th time) going to attract the people to Ustream or 50 Cents tlaking about his new album?

Justin.TV

While Justin share’s many things with Ustream, they do a few things which are different and the main points which come to mind are recording are broken down into segments which is annoying to watch. They do have a rather nice Archive system were they store the last 24 hours of broadcasting so anybody can re-watch a show they have missed – this ONLY works if the show broadcast now and then, any 24/7 stream is pointless for this system. The other aspect of this Archive system is there is no clear method to see what time it started, how long it ran for and to pick a point in time.

As there is a lot less tech shows as a whole and the eagerness of Justin to feature shows on the front page means people can get more viewers – this is not to say just because you have 2000 people on the count there is actually 2000 people sitting there watching your stream. As an example of this – if a show is featured on the front page and I pop along – I might sit for 5-10 minutes (and jump back and forth) looking for a show which means I count as a viewer but at no point did I actually look at what is been put on there.

One last point is the chat window – this is an IRC server but nothing like you have seen before, you need to be added to the white list to connect and even then there is not one single irc server. If you ban a person from your chat, that person can create another account and get right back in, no need to even change there IP.

Which is best?

There is not a clear winner, I personally like a real IRC server every single time and the chat on Justin is a joke but I also like the idea of been able to catch up on show’s. I happen to know also that Ustream were having a lot of issues which drove people away to Justin along with Ustream ignoring the people who got them started and instead wanting the big stars which could prove to be the downfall.

The streaming service that is Justin.TV has made some changes since I wrote my review and as they are quite good features over the rival service of Ustream, I thought I would write a quick update on what to expect.

Longer Recordings

One of the problems before was when you made a recording, it broke it up into 15 Minute segments, this meant that you had clips such as Tech News 1 of 7, Tech News 2 of 7 and so forth. Now they break it up to 2 Hours long which is better then it was.

Watch Later

While strictly not a new feature, while watching a live show, if you need to leave but want to carry on watching the show were you left off, the end user can click the button and they get a link which they can save and watch the show from that point in time much later (I think it stores it for 7 days).

Last Show

Justin.TV now automatically store the last 24 hours worth of each show so that anybody can re-watch this show without worrying about if the host made a recording. If for example you did a 4 hour show 6 days a week, then the full week will be on offer. If you do a 24 hour stream then this will be of no use to you or your viewers (they will probably only get to watch an empty chair anyhow).

Making Recording’s

While the web broadcaster still has the record feature to record in the old fashioned way, this is not there when you use FME or Wirecast and you may wonder how to make recordings? Well the answer lies in Making a Clip instead. What this means is let us imagine you just completed a 4 hour show and in that said show you talked about Windows 7, Google Wave, Wirecast along with general news and banter. You could use the clip feature to find the correct segment for each part and create a clip just from them while missing out all the boring chatter and news (as they will get old).

  Note: Ignore the 15 minutes thing written above – this was the old system.

Copyrighted Content

They have signed a deal with Fox Network (and others) to run a system where they scan the recorded clips and any copyrighted material found (say you re-broadcast The Simpsons) is met with your account and channel getting deleted. While this sounds harsh – they have to protect there own backs over copyright material.

The perfect system?

Justin.TV has almost as many shows online live as Ustream and offers pretty much the same stuff but there is one stumbling block as far as I can see and that we shall say is the Chat. They run a “Twisted IRC” Server which is unlike the normal IRC type servers., You have to be on a WhiteList to connect via IRC and go through hoops to find the server address (you type /SERVER in your room) and even then you cannot jump around rooms.

You could for example disable the chat and tell people to go to a Live page which can them embed a decent irc server on there (Such as WyldRyde). The problem with this method is people do not like to jump to a dedicated page if they are just looking around, it is like looking in a shop window only to be told the entrance is located in a different street.

Ustream has a feature were I can follow people and then watch via my dashboard and they have a half decent irc chat while Justin provide the above. The system listed here would be perfect for me to watch the USA based shows as they are all on too late for me and it may even save people having to play the same crap over the over.

Live Streaming – Has it advanced any?

The various web sites out there offering the ability to stream live about 6 months ago was new and fresh, had no advertising and easy to find various streams to whatever took your fancy. Basically anyone can set up a web cam and stream but it take bandwidth the cater for many people and this is where they come in, you in fact stream to one server, needing about 400kbps upload and the server relay’s this out to as many as thee bandwidth allows. Bandwidth / Servers are not Free or even cheap for that matter – so why did they offer such a thing (much in the same way YouTub offers Video’s in this sense).

Advertising

One Way to claw some of that money back is to put advertising across the pages and even the live stream as a means to get some income back in but this maybe only works if people are actually clicking on them. I have noticed all of the main players (Ustream, Stickam, BlogTV, Justin.TV) have adverts on there video now – the reason why the stream’s is people were embedding the Stream on there own pages and by-pasing the adverts (replacing them with there own in fact).

People get annoyed with the advertising

I have seen either by the forums or other means people make statements such as:

“I did not give them permission to put adverts over MY Stream”

or

“They should give me some of the revenue – it is me providing the content”

What people seem to have forgotten is that the service has to be paid for in some fashion, it is Free, if you want Advert Free Live Streaming – then you will have to either find something that is paid for or run your own (lot of upstream required).

Moderation

There is nothing more annoying to the vistor then coming to a room, having a chat and then getting kicked off or even banned for what is deemed for no reason. You have no real course of action to complain other then changing your IP and attempting to come back but personally you are fighting a loosing battle. Remember that as they get rid of people – that is one less person who is visting there stream and for every subject, there is many people streaming about it. One some streams, the only thing you loose from the above is the ability to type messages – many have there chat embeded in the stream or in the case of Justin.Tv for example – you can see the chat anyhow even if not logged in.

Tech Streams

I just want to give a special mention to the MANY tech Streams out there – while I give them credit for sitting there and giving free tech support (or at least trying to), you do get what you pay for and not all the advice given will be any good or for that matter be any better then Googling it. Remember also it is hard to type the exact problem – imagine trying to explain an icon on the task bar which comes up and goes quickly, easier to speak but most won’t have voice comms going.

Where are they all heading?

Quite simply I see many of the Live Streams and people as a passing phase and many will move onto something else at some point. I am only speaking about myself in this respect as the things I used to do 1 year ago for example, I do not do now and I find it hard to see someone a year from now still streaming 24/7 unless they have nothing better to do. I see ISP’s bringing in more Capping of data and the streaming sites charging or limiting the time.

USTREAM.TV

Ustream has a font page where they have featured, most viewed and Popular and this lists a handful of streams you can watch. If your stream has been accepted into the right section (Tech, People etc) then this is another way people can find out about you. If you are outside these realms, there is little chance people can find you. The Chat server is an IRC sever hosted by Ustream but with one email to support, they can swap you to others. There is also an option to stream via Flash Media Encoder for better quality.

The Built in Chat allow for basic Admin duties but you won’t see who is joining and so forth. There is many programs which allows you to watch stream away from the web page such as StreamDesk for example. I find it easier to visit the site, use the POPUP window of just the video and join the stream via an IRC Client. Ustream offers both good and bad ideas and not easy to find the type of stream you are looking for.

JUSTIN.TV

Justin.TV is very similar but is ubale to allow people to use an IRC Client – they do have a server but unless your name is on a White List – you will never get in. This means all of the chat is focused on the web client they present. They do have groups and a means for people who stream to place there video in the right area – such as Tech for example. For moderation – they have SLOW Mode (a 10 minute time out from typing) and a Ban – which is all managed on your account. I found the stream very choppy either streaming myself or watching. Due to lack of IRC options – I am not in favour of this site.

BLOGTV.COM

BlogTV is another one I came across – On inspection I noticed it had the streams broken down into Country such as USA, Russia and UK for example – this allows me t personally find something in my own time zone instead of having to wade through all the USA Channels (which are on-line but asleep). Within this there is also Types such as Tech, LifeTV and various others – so finding the right type of show should be easy and if you hosted a show, an easy way for people to find you. I have no idea if it has a IRC Server, I personally coud not find the info on how to connect. On the subject of the Video – watching shows and people talk but I cannot see there moth move – this means it is a very low FPS and not able to capture the lips moving.

Live.Yahoo.Com

This is pretty new and not as many shows stream, people can add there picture into the bottom which is either good or bad – depending on what you want to do. The chat can be managed so that for example the chat is disabled when you are not broadcasting – this would stop spammers for sure. The quality of the picture is good but it is not suited to mass chatting – more of a MSN type program really. Chat is on the screen once again and easy enough to manage though I always prefer an IRC Client to manage these things.

Thoughts and Conclusions
You could set up a stream using any of the one’s above and there is probably more out there that I have not even mentioned. My View is that ustream seemed more professional BUT you could run a show for 5 days solid and not have one visitor as nobody would even know you were streaming. The other sites are good in the idea they present BUT without a proper IRC Server for Chat – I feel this lets them down. It is possible though for one more option:

1. Test them all out and work out which gives best quality.
2. Embed the Video Only on your own Web Site – which you promote to all.
3. Set up your own choice of IRC Server and use a Java Program for chat if required.
4. Diable all Chat on the Video site and put a link for them to register.

Feel free to try them out – watch a few streams and see how it goes, they all have there Pro’s & Con’s.