Meetinghouse Webcast: programs that can view stream

Is Windows Media Player the only program that can view the Meetinghouse Webcast stream? I've tried on a Mac with VLC and Quicktime (with Flip4Mac) and at most could get the opening frame. I didn't have success with VLC on Windows, either.

I had the same issues with Mac and VLC. I assumed the default settings of VLC were wrong, but didn't troubleshoot further. My issue was also that I would see the first frame, but nothing else. Audio worked, though.

I haven't tried VLC on Windows.

I haven't found any players that work on a Mac either, unfortunately. There are some for Linux that are compatible with Windows Media Player that work fine, but I suspect your question is really about the Mac and/or iOS devices. This is a problem we plan to fix in the future with our next-generation webcast product offering.

Thanks for the feedback. Having a variety of receiving methods would definitely be a plus.

You've alluded to the "next-generation" offering and "strategy." Could you clarify that? (This can go in another post if it gets too off-topic.)
I'm putting a lot of personal time into getting a broadcast solution with the tools currently available/endorsed. I'm concerned it will be a waste of time if the roadmap takes a turn shortly.

Along with the time/effort part, I'm concerned about the equipment we're about to purchase (laptops, EVI-D70 cameras + remote, video mixer, USB capture, some mics, etc). Will it still be useful?
Is there anything we can know now that will prepare us for what might be coming?

Thanks for any enlightenment!

That's surprising given that VLC is definitely the most platform agnostic video playback program. Unfortunately, it's mostly due to the fact that it relies on software decompression of video (and sometimes ignores hardware acceleration available to certain devices/platforms). Surprising.

Hopefully whatever is in the pipeline for next-gen is NOT Micro$oft Expression-based. Definitely agree with rgme - any details (general or specific) you could give on the roadmap would be helpful in making decisions for stakes purchasing hardware today.

After working with it more, I can report back that I was able to get a working webcast stream in VLC on OS X 10.7. Only once, though. I tried to duplicate it, but didn't work. I have no idea why.

We have used VLC Mac PCs to watch the webcast with great results.

Aaron Z

We're still quite a ways off from the next-generation product, and it's probably not too smart of me to have mentioned it , but one thing I can assure you - whatever we implement will ensure, as much as humanly possible, backward compatibility with the investment that Webcast users have made into equipment such as cameras, capture cards, microphones, mixers, etc., also including the Communicator box. The goal is to improve the experience as much as we can - reliability, performance, quality, increased playback system compatibility (as per this discussion), etc. Since our current solutions are PC-based (both the software and Communicator box), and our new solutions will also be PC-based (it would be nice if we can add Macs into the mix as well), logically there is no reason why the equipment you are currently connecting to a PC today should not also work in the future.

Now - one note on that. It is also my goal that we enable some HD solutions as well. Technically, you can do that today. I have just been playing with the Blackmagic Design Intensity Pro HDMI capture card, combined with the Sony EVI-HD3V PTZ camera. I used it with the Meetinghouse Webcast Software, selected the HD mode, and started a stream. The results were fantastic - very nice HD picture. However, I did all of this testing here on the network at Church HQ, where we have bandwidth to spare. This is obviously not typical of what you would find in all meetinghouses. (If you're interested to see the stream, I'll leave it on for a while - click here http://stream.lds.org/555684-724814 , although if you're reading this post sometime after Feb 6, 2012, it's probably not still up).

So my point is this: if you buy standard-def equipment today (like the Sony EVI-D70 camera and Osprey card), is it possible that sometime in the future you will want to go to an HD solution? Sure. Whether or not you can do it easily could be somewhat dependent upon our next-gen solution (although, again, it is possible today), but more than likely it's more dependent on how much bandwidth you have at your building. That's a consideration to think through whether right now or in the future, but I thought I should bring it up.

I was also having problems viewing the video with VLC, both in Windows and Ubuntu 11. I was having the same "first frame only" problem others have experienced. For Ubuntu, the open source SMPlayer worked perfectly. For Windows, an alternative to Windows Media player and VLC is the free GOM Media Player, which is quickly becoming my favorite player. It works flawlessly with most formats you can throw at it, including the church's streaming video. Too bad there's not a version for the *nix or Mac platforms.

Thanks for the demo, Kurt. For those interested it streamed at about 1.8-1.9 Mbps, so don't try this without a decent pipeline to the internet. Also, next time you offer a demo, could you please point the camera at something that's constantly in motion, like a fountain, birds, traffic, or something like that? There were times I had to wait quite a while to finally see someone wander by. It really helps to determine if our feed has locked up or is dropping frames.

sammythesm wrote:That's surprising given that VLC is definitely the most platform agnostic video playback program.

We also understand that VLC allows syncing of the sound with the video where there are streaming problems, as we experienced with our last stake conference broadcast. (Alas, VLC was not loaded on the laptop and there were other more pressing issues at the time.)

Mikerowaved wrote:Thanks for the demo, Kurt. For those interested it streamed at about 1.8-1.9 Mbps, so don't try this without a decent pipeline to the internet. Also, next time you offer a demo, could you please point the camera at something that's constantly in motion, like a fountain, birds, traffic, or something like that? There were times I had to wait quite a while to finally see someone wander by. It really helps to determine if our feed has locked up or is dropping frames.

Looks like there is someone putting on his coat right now...

Nice feed.

Aaron Z

lajackson wrote:We also understand that VLC allows syncing of the sound with the video where there are streaming problems...

I found out that the GOM Player I mentioned above can also do this with 0.1 second increment/decrement capability.

Aczlan wrote:Looks like there is someone putting on his coat right now...

Nice feed.

Aaron Z

Definitely agreed. I'm actually going to purchase one of those Chinese waving cat toys so I can have it on hand for any video testing.

Mikerowaved wrote:I found out that the GOM Player I mentioned above can also do this with 0.1 second increment/decrement capability.

Good to know. I had the GOM player on my personal PC for a while and then had some problems with it, but I think most of the problems were lack of operator knowledge, i.e., me. For the most part it worked fine, but the person who helped me was more familiar with VLC, and it seemed easier to use, so I went in that direction at home and have not had a reason to change. Path of least resistance, etc.

But GOM has a good reputation, as well, when I mention it to the IT folks at work. And 0.1 second increments (I think that is the same as VLC) should work just fine to sync up the audio with the video.

Too bad I missed the demo. Glad to see you qualifying HD hardware. I got the Intensity Pro capture card because it was cheaper than the osprey and had HDMI capture capability. So now it sounds like I just need a camera... Unfortunately all the HDMI/HD cameras are a bit out of our price range. Hopefully in a few years they'll become more economical.

sammythesm wrote:I got the Intensity Pro capture card because it was cheaper than the osprey and had HDMI capture capability.

I'm currently waiting on a shipment of this same card. Others have had good success with it, so I decided to take a chance and try it.

sammythesm wrote: So now it sounds like I just need a camera... Unfortunately all the HDMI/HD cameras are a bit out of our price range.

If you don't mind going back to manual pan/tilt/zoom, our stake is looking into THIS camcorder for streaming standard or optionally HD video over HDMI. OK, the max HD the camera can do is 1080i, but I believe that's the most the Intensity Pro can handle anyway at 60fps. (At 1080p, the Intensity Pro maxes out at 24fps.) The above camcorder has the option to turn off the auto-shutoff timer and another option to take all the text and icon overlays you see in the small display and keep them from showing on the streaming output, so it seems like a good inexpensive choice for a "manual" camera.