User:Sim9

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Revision as of 18:36, 29 October 2007 by Sim9 (talk | contribs) (Some personal info ;))
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I'm a user of several of the Xiph.org technologies. I've been having success using Vorbis, Theora, and Icecast. So far:

  • I've been using them Vorbis and Theora for SimWorld, a game project, and
  • Theora and Icecast for EATV, a video stream.

Regarding EATV, here's some background information from the Theora news page:



EATV switches to streaming theora
2006 October 3
Archive Entertainment has switched their EATV streaming video feed to Icecast and Theora! They say the switch to open technology has been very successful for them.
Great news. Check out their streams or read more here.


Since there's been a few requests on how EATV works (what with the TV-style scheduling), I'll give some insight: Working backwards:

  • The Public stream is distributed through Icecast and connected to by users
    • Alternatively, the Private stream (extra slots for donators), which is authenticated by a simple PHP script which checks for valid logins
  • Both the public stream and private stream are relays of an invisible HUB stream
  • The invisible hub stream on Icecast receives Theora show data from a program called ezstream
  • ezstream broadcasts shows from the HDD (uploaded & encoded by the EATV Content Team)
  • ezstream receives special signals broadcast from custom shell scripts informing it to take a look at the ezstream config file
  • the shell scripts automatically download the latest config file from a custom PHP application [the PHP app also outputs a human readable schedule for the website]
  • the PHP application outputs a config file according to the database
  • the database is filled every two weeks with a new SQL dump by the EATV administrator
  • the EATV administrator generates a SQL dump with a custom VB app called the EATV Schedulizer
  • the EATV administrator uses the EATV Schedulizer to schedule shows/movies/amvs to play at specific times

Hopefully that gives some insight on how to set up your own TV-style station. It's a lot of work, something of a hack, and requires a good organizational superstructure to keep it updated, but gives you a unique and worthwhile result :)