DIY Web "Television" Station? 24
randomkind asks: "Media production can be quite a bit of fun. I think it would be extremely cool to run a television station, or at least a series of television-like shows. Luckily, the web offers an alternative vehicle for publication than the standard media-mogul run cable television providers. That is why I'm looking in to creating a website that would, in essence, be a completely free television station online, with pre-recording (and sometimes live) streaming video feeds and a regular programming schedule. Think of it either as the visual analog of an internet radio station, or a very glorified webcam.
My question is: Where to start? What kind of digital recording equipment is suggested? What kind of editing and effects software is needed? What kind of content delivery method is suggested (ie Real, or some other streaming video plugin)? Any special hardware requirements? Is there anything else that I ought to know about creating and running something of this sort?"
"I am looking for decent quality, but cheap solutions. I have a few thousand dollars to invest, and will have more over time, but my friends and I are solely backing this project with cash from our pockets. I've got a decent amount of working space for a production studio reserved, and enough manpower to provide, at least initially, a few hours of braodcasting a day. I've got an overflowing abundance of ideas, and lots of enthusiasm. So, where do I go from here?"
Democratization of production/distribution (Score:4, Interesting)
Hmm, now we'll have the TV industry wake up to the same threat the music industry is facing now. Not that the concept is not obvious (after all, at a low level everything is just a stream of 0s and 1s), but this must be a red flag in their face.
Much as we needed the recording industry over the past 50 years to press those damn CDs/Records and distribute them, we're currently relying on the TV studios and networks to make/distribute their products. Also witness the current TV climate: much as the recording industry creates their own hypes and ignores non-conventional artists, the TV (and movie) industry is falling victim of their own success. Their desire to standardize everything and make it 'safe' for (their) ideal targe audience (families with kids, etc) results in a product which excells in conformity and blandness.
Given this, advances in technology which make it possible to distribute (and eventually produce) decent quality TV programs at low costs, will lead to the proliferation of 'independant' studios. With their monopoly on creation/distribution of movies vanishing in internet time, the TV studios will eventually face the same tide the music industry is facing now: We don't really like them, we don't really need them anymore; let's move to a medium we can control and just ignore the studios. Looking at the sad state of the (currently +- 30) TV stations I get via cable, this may just be good
bandwidth costs and formats (Score:1)
that is unless you're lanning on charging for the video feed.
as far as format, I would use everything you don't have to pay for(check those License restrictions ahead of time). Record your video with a good DV camera, and then create both high bandwidth and low bandwidth versions in Real, Quicktime, and plain olg mpeg. (note: if you use windows media format, people will associate you with evil and think that you work for Satan so use everything but Windows Media) Give people the option of downloading the clip or srteaming the video, you want to make this easy for anyone to watch.
Re:bandwidth costs and formats (Score:2, Informative)
I think this is actually an awesome and practical use for P2P technology that won't have people (read the TV industry) squealing about copyright infringement. If randomkind releases each video segment into the public domain, or uses the GPL for his video segments,
I think you are correct in suggesting that randomkind and his associates put together a website that shows their services. Their website could include information like show synopses, upcoming features, etc.
Perhaps they could include small teasers of each show or segment, and then release the full-length files on P2P networks like kaaza and napster if possible. The website could include tips for where to locate the files.
I think the cost of the bandwidth necessary to provide direct streaming, as well as licensing to record his segments in DivX, real, mpg formats would be prohibitive. Perhaps randomkind could allow people to get the segments off P2P networks for free and make donations if they are so inclined, and as well provide a subscription service for people who don't want to go hunt for the files and want to stream it directly from his site. This might help combat the costs.
Re:bandwidth costs and formats (Score:2)
That would probably negate at least some of the bandwidth savings that p2p would create, but it would just be plain neat to have a full fledged internet TV network presence.
Re:bandwidth costs and formats (Score:2)
Look into that...
apprentice first, for a year (Score:4, Interesting)
* get you familiar with producing a TV show
* give you useful contacts in terms of staff and crew that you'll need for your venture
* give you 'street cred' in launching your web venture-- or at least teach you the lingo so you can work with folks who produce things.
Only after that would I suggest you launch your web thing. That way, you make all your mistakes while learning.
Yeah, I know a station owner/executive technically doesn't have to know anything about actually producing a show... but you will need contacts with that experience to produce your actual content, and this is a good way to hook into it.
Good luck!
You should absolutely not do this (Score:4, Interesting)
For starters (Score:2, Informative)
The problem you'll face here is bandwidth usage. An audio feed site only has to worry about the audio data being fed out - over a 56K modem, you can get fairly reasonable sound quality, if you do it right. Now consider that a DivX movie takes up, what, one CD for two hours, give or take? That's a pretty significant chunk of data to be slinging around. On the other hand, I think Mononoke Hime weighed in on RM at about 240 MB last I looked - but again, that's a lot of data to be pushing through the pipes, and will immediately alienate your dialup people. I recall seeing video pipes that could be used for as little as 33.6 somewhere, but even that will tie up the modem.
In short, you will probably need at minimum a cable modem or DSL to use this service.
Nonetheless, good luck.
Re:For starters (Score:2)
Some comments, and recommendations (Score:2, Informative)
For hardware: I don't know if you want to use Linux or xxxxBSD, but I know that the ATi All-In-Wonder cards work great for digitizing video under Windows. Could be a cheaper solution than buying a digital video camera. Perhaps even a Hauppage WinTV card with a VCR to turn your SVideo into Coax. Anyone with more experience on these cards care to comment on their *nix compatability?
I'd say something that could be useful is embedding the stream in a web page, where in the bottom you could have a scrollable schedule, somewhat like the TV Guide channel on cable does. Don't forget a drop down box for time zone. And, as this will be new, consumers will likely want something altogether better than TV aka few/less intrusive ads. Don't sell out.
Great idea, and I encourage you to pursue it!
Re:Some comments, and recommendations (Score:2)
1) They don't use the same colorspace as the BTTV cards.. the programs have to be able to handle YUV input.
2) Last I checked, the drivers didn't decimate / resize frames / fields; you got 59.97 fields of 640x240.
3) No mmap support.
Given that, the drivers were remarkably efficient and stable. I was working on VBI and closed captioning, but didn't get a stable release out.
This is fairly old information (since my dev box died), about 4 months out of date. Check out http://gatos.sf.net
For linux video, the best supported cards are bt8x8-based cards, including most of the WinTV line. Many of which do have have svideo and composite inputs, as well as tuners.
R C
(Former, and hopefully future, GATOS core team member)
Re:AC reply [nvws] (Score:1)
What are you talking about? (Score:1)
Use video when appropriate (Score:2, Interesting)
You could also link your shows to each other just like links on a web page, that's fairly rare and unexplored. You'll probably need to experiment a bit but I'm sure you'll learn a lot in the process.
Something to avoid (possibly) (Score:2, Informative)
Ideas for programs... (Score:2)
We will win if we fight them with open content, just like fighting them with open code. I've been getting back into music lately because there is opportunity once again. I think things are actually going pretty well for new art. :)
Easy (Score:1)
2 Logitech USB Quickcams to record your show.
1 Imac/Ibook, used.
Use Imovie to edit your footage.
Plenty of good ideas and beer, and Bob Murdoch's your uncle.
DV over IP (Score:2)
I've been playing around with this at home, and it works! Sound, too.
Since there aren't many people (yet) who have xdvshow to watch the stream, a method needs to be devised to pipe this to other formats. (I was investigating this, but ran out of time last weekend. If anyone knows of a DV to QT/Real/etc. converter, please let me know!)
Mirror Cringley's setup (Score:1)
fyi on real (Score:2)
some examples, and software (Score:1)
and see here [sourceforge.net] for some software to use to convert a video stream to any number of formats for streaming.
The biggest problem is of course bandwidth, and coming up with shows to put on...maybe you could pick up some of the stuff from thesync--it looks like they aren't doing much with it anymore.
The set up for streaming is pretty simple--let me know if you need some help, etc...I have set some of this stuff up before.