Streaming TV Over WiFi to a Laptop?

PigAlien asks: "I use my wireless network to sit outside in the backyard and surf the internet. I'd like to be able to watch TV outside on my laptop. I see that the new Qosmio laptops come with a WiFi TV router. Is this the only one available (in Japan only)? I couldn't find any others with a google search. Alternatively, I have an extra computer in the office. Is there streaming software I can install on that computer that can handle a live cable TV signal and software to change channels remotely?"

Comments

MythTV

[dchamp]

http://www.mythtv.org

Re:MythTV

[dago]

Maybe it would be a good idea to explain that MythTV is not just a program but has a client-server architecture.

The "backend" is the PC recording the shows. For that matter, it can be a powerfull computer 3 tuners, 4 HDD hidden somewhere.

The "frontend" can be really light and just need to show the streamed TV, either live or recorded.

In fact, if you save your shows into a samba drive, you can even play them using any media player.

Re:MythTV

[Danious]

I second that.

I had my TV card in an old Celeron 400, running the MythTV server in LiveTV mode, watching from my laptop over a 802.11b connection. This setup was only capable of a low resolution, and it stuttered fairly regularly, so make sure you have enough power. A 1GHz server will allow recording and streaming at MPEG2 resolution, but you may need 802.11g to stream wirelessly at that resolution. As always, the more power and bandwidth the better.

It has a built in program guide, PVR functionality, and many more features besides. And best of all it's free :-)

John.

Re:If the laptop has an ATI card

[spectral]

I never got it to work, but the feature is supposedly there! (In the windows version, obviously)

You can also probably rig VLC (http://www.videolan.org) to do this pretty easily as well, though I've never tried. I don't know about changing channels remotely, but use a remote desktop (windows XP) or VNC (everything else) and there shouldn't be any problems. I bet one of the many remote admin plugins for VLC supports this as well, and VLC is cross platform, which is always a plus.

Windows Media

[samrolken]

Windows Media Encoder can encode from a TV tuner, and a little script can change the channel over the web. I've done this to watch TV from work, and you can encode in ISO-MPEG4.

Re:BeyondTV

[wolf-]

I'm a registered Beyond TV user.
The next version of Beyond TV seems to be leaning to the "pay per streamed client" model. So before you buy, check it out.

All in all, its been a decent application. Check the forums if you decide to consider it, and definately download the trial version.

video lan

[LordMyren]

i got bored this summer and did it with VideoLan software.

its a GREAT generic solution for all network AV systems. Very advanced.

I'd like to do some MythTV integration, but i'm rediculously busy with other projects right now.

Tivo + tivowebplus + TyShow

[pauldy]

I currently do this using a tivo with tivoweb plus and tyshow. Simple modifications allow you to view the live stream and control the tivo with a web browser. Of course a simple 79 dollar portable tv would be less techie but would probably be easier to maintain and be more portable than a laptop.

mplayer-tivo

[Vlad_Drak]

I use mplayer-tivo every day, works like a champ over 802.11g. You can pull up pre-Tivo'd shows or stream it Live. Use the TivoWeb remote, and it's just like you're there. You need to hack your Tivo for all this to work, but it's well worth the trouble.

TSReader + VLC

[jquirke]

I use my VisionPlus DVB-T card for Digital SDTV and HDTV combined with the TSReader software and the free software VLC.

Streaming is done (by default) over RTP/UDP over IPv4 or IPv6 unicast or multicast.

The problem is, with 802.11g, it does not seem to be able to reliably deliver an SDTV signal (~7mbps here in Australia) let alone a HDTV signal (~14mbps). SDTV works sometimes, however can start to break up after a while, and I have to return to 100/1000 Ethernet.