Web Magazine for Information Professionals

Broadband TV

Philip Hunter links to broadband streaming video resources now emerging on the Internet.

In the last issue of Ariadne I explored available streaming video on the web (Tiny TV, Ariadne issue 22, December 1999), looking at the phenomenon particularly according to the geographic and subject distribution of resources.

Things are moving very fast: by the time the article was published the version of RealPlayer (G2) had been replaced, and my written map of available resources was much narrower than the range of materials which I knew to exist. Many more films and TV shows are available, mostly at cable modem speeds of transmission, and a number of servers appear to have stopped broadcasting, at least from the addresses which were valid and active in December 1999.

Most of what I explored was lowband: video streams arriving at rates between 8 kilobits per second, up to 60 kilobits per second. These are services which (by and large, with occasional pauses to replenish the buffer) can be received and played adequately via a 56k modem on a computer with a greater than 100khz chip. Some items listed in the article however, particularly the film resources, come in at up to 250 kilobits per second. I included these because they were available resources, though not every reader of the article would be able to play the streams.

The Tiny TV article was written in November, and before it was completed I became aware of a number of servers which were distributing broadband streaming video, at speeds in excess of 300 kilobits per second, and sometimes well over 400 kilobits per second. These were not included in the article, partly because of pressure of time, and partly due to a delay caused by some of the streams arriving on port 554, which is one which, here at least, was closed by default. If you have a machine and a network connection capable of handling these higher rate bitstreams (ISDN, cable modem access, T3 connection, etc), but get an error message saying that the port is closed, you will have to ask your system administrator to open the port.

The quality of these transmissions is very high. The default window size is around twice what was enjoyed in the Tiny TV experience, and the window size can often be doubled again without the image becoming unpleasant to watch. Full screen display is just a bit too much, and your computer is not likely to handle the screen redraws necessary, unless it is top of the line. I used a two year old 233 mhz Pentium II, which worked fine with the fastest streams, with the screen window set at 200 per cent.

For the purposes of this article, broadband is defined as anything streaming at a rate in excess of 56kbs. The fastest available I have seen so far is 700kbs. Everything above 56kbs is broadband, since ordinary modem users will not be able to see the streams as intended. So 56kbs is a reasonable definition of where broadband starts. Some items are available at various speeds from 20kbs up to 250kbs, so users interested in broadband should not neglect the lowband listing, since what you are looking for might be there. No items listed arrive faster than 420kbs. I’ve listed only items which seem reliable and which come up fairly fast. Anything which is intermittent or slow I’ve omitted from the lists.

Most of what is available at these higher speeds is either commercial film and television (of a certain vintage), or music video (usually modern). There is also some academic material of very high quality. It doesn’t make much sense to make news programming available in broadband (not at the moment at any rate), so there isn’t much of that around. But there is some. Most of the material comes from a handful of servers, mostly based in the United States. The categories used are as follows: Broadband : Europe; North America; South America; Asia; Middle East; Africa; Drama; Archive Television; Other Educational Resources; Financial Services; Religious Broadcasting; Sport; Commercial Film; Art Film; Music. Lowband follows the same arrangement, with the addition of a ‘miscellaneous’ section. The coverage in this article is uneven, since I don’t have unlimited amounts of time to survey available content and to check the reliability of links. I haven’t included as many commercial films as I did in the last article, but by following up the addresses of the main listings you should be able to find these easily enough. Where I haven’t found anything worth mentioning in a particular category, I’ve linked back to the Tiny TV article in issue 22, and/or to the Broadband/Lowband section of this article, as appropriate.

The Archive TV links from Earthstation1 have been repeated in this issue, since the directory structure of the original location has been altered, breaking the links in the Tiny TV article.

Have fun!

Broadband:

Europe

  1. BBC World. One of the highest quality .asx feeds available, at two speeds -100kbs: http://idirector.media.ibeam.com/netshow/v2/onair/BBC/BBCworld_100k.asx and also 300kbs (awesomely good picture and sound): http://idirector.media.ibeam.com/netshow/v2/onair/BBC/BBCworld_300k.asx

North America

  1. Broadband on-demand clips from Fox News. Regularly updated selection of items. http://foxnews.com/partners/windowsmedia/index.html
  2. MSNBC live broadcast stream.http://www.msnbc.com/m/lv/default.asp?o=10&s=0&p=2 Items can be selected from the page: http://www.msnbc.com/m/lv/default.asp
  3. AmericaOne Television, broadcasting at 28kbs and 300kbs http://playlist.broadcast.com/makeasx.asp?id=108711http://playlist.broadcast.com/makeasx.asp?id=142171 Information about the channels movie content is at: http://www.americaone.com/movies/index.htm, and the TV listing is at: http://www.americaone.com/schedule/index.htm

    NASA TV screenshot

  4. NASA streaming video, lowband and broadband (up to 300kbs), is available from: http://www.broadcast.com/events/nasa/. At the time of writing, the mission to map the earth was running (February 2000), and a live streaming feed from the shuttle was available with three camera views in a single frame, with inline text indicating which feature of the surface was being mapped at that moment. Audio from the shuttle was also supplied. Nectar and ambrosia. The streams feature items related to current NASA projects and events. The NASA home page is at http://www.nasa.gov/ where an archive of streaming video programming can be found.

South America

  1. Checkout the Tiny TV article in issue 22 for lowband streams.

Asia

  1. Chinese TV at: http://www.wcetv.com/ie_default.htm (did not seem to be operational at time of writing, except for the ads), and http://www.cts.com.tw/nlist/netchannel.asp and http://www.foreigntv.com/allchina/index.html. see also:http://www.foreigntv.com/foreignfilm/index.html
  2. CCTV (China Central Television) programming, at 56kbs to 100kbs
  3. : ‘Around China’ (documentary programming about China)http://www.media.globix.net/asx/foreigntv/aroundchina_000207_56.asx and http://tm.intervu.net/smirror/frnvideo/aroundchina_000207_100.asx
  4. China Today: http://www.media.globix.net/asx/foreigntv/cctvchinatoday_000203_56.asx and http://tm.intervu.net/smirror/frnvideo/cctvchinatoday_000203_100.asx
  5. ‘China This Week’ CCTV programming (on demand streaming, 30 minutes approx)http://www.media.globix.net/asx/foreigntv/cctvthisweek_000207_56.asx and http://tm.intervu.net/smirror/frnvideo/cctvthisweek_000207_100.asx
  6. CCTV programme ‘China Business Guide ‘http://www.media.globix.net/asx/foreigntv/china_businessguide_000208_56.asx and http://tm.intervu.net/smirror/frnvideo/cctvbusiness_000208_100.asx
  7. Chinese Cooking (CCTV)http://www.media.globix.net/asx/foreigntv/chinesecooking_000201_56.asx and http://tm.intervu.net/smirror/frnvideo/chinesecooking_000201_100.asxplus:http://www.media.globix.net/asx/foreigntv/chinesecooking_000124_56.asx and http://tm.intervu.net/smirror/frnvideo/chinesecooking_000124_100.asx
  8. China Through Foreigner’s Eyes (CCTV) http://www.media.globix.net/asx/foreigntv/cctvforeignereyes_000131_56.asx and http://tm.intervu.net/smirror/frnvideo/cctvforeignereyes_000131_100.asx
  9. Sunday Topics (China): http://www.media.globix.net/asx/foreigntv/sundaytopics_000124_56.asx and http://tm.intervu.net/smirror/frnvideo/sundaytopics_000124_100.asx
  10. CCTV News (30 minute on-demand summary): http://www.media.globix.net/asx/foreigntv/cctvnews_000208_56.asx and http://tm.intervu.net/smirror/frnvideo/cctvnews_000204_100.asx

Middle East

Africa

  1. Algerian TV (Canal Algerie). Broadcasts in English. On-demand stream, just under 10 minutes running time.http://www.media.globix.net/asx/foreigntv/algerianews_000210_56.asxhttp://tm.intervu.net/smirror/frnvideo/algerianews_000210_100.asx
  2. ZBC News from Zimbabwe. On-demand stream, lasting just over 21 minutes. Rebroadcast of the national news programme ‘News at Eight’.http://www.media.globix.net/asx/foreigntv/zbcnews_000118_56.asxhttp://tm.intervu.net/smirror/frnvideo/zbcnews_000118_100.asx

Drama

  1. http://www.liketelevision.com/web1/movies/entertainer/ ‘The Entertainer’ - starring Sir Laurence Olivier and Albert Finney. Available in five parts only, from LikeTelevision. Arrives at 220kbs. The film versions of John Osborne’s first two plays are now available on the web (‘Look Back in Anger’ is available via the ‘Tiny TV’ article in Ariadne 22).

Archive Television

  1. Some episodes of the Lucy Show from the 1960’s are available from http://www.liketelevision.com. This was the first site which I found broadcasting on port 554, at the end of November 1999.The show at: http://ltvreal.liketelevision.com:8080/ramgen/classic2/lucy1.smil features John Wayne in an episode which has the kind of structuralist purity you just don’t get in TV shows anymore.
  2. And another, http://ltvreal.liketelevision.com:8080/ramgen/classic2/lucy2.smil, which features Sheldon Leonard. The available materials from this site range all the way from culturally barbaric wildlife documentaries from the 1930s, entertaining low-budget serials from the same epoch and later, up to film and TV of very high quality. Checkout the following for classic examples of tight writing for sixties sit-coms:
  3. Episodes of the Dick van Dyke show are available from LikeTelevision.com. These arrive at 220kbs. The show ran from 1961 to 1966. http://ltvreal.liketelevision.com:8080/ramgen/classic2/dickvd1.smil Night the Roof Fell In;
  4. Six episodes of the Beverley Hillbillies. The first, ‘The Clampetts strike Oil’, is at: http://ltvreal.liketelevision.com:8080/ramgen/classic2/bevhill1.smil

Other Educational Resources

  1. Checkout the Tiny TV article in issue 22, and the lowband supplement lower down this page.

Financial Services

Religious Broadcasting

  1. It was disappointing not to be able to link to anything more than a test card at the Vatican in the Tiny TV article. There is however some on-demand programming available via Foreign TV. The 23 minute news magazine programme is called ‘Octava Dies’ (Eight Days). When I first ran this, the Pope was opening the new underground car park near St Peter’s square and beyond. The sort of detailed coverage difficult to find from other sources. http://www.media.globix.net/asx/foreigntv/vaticanmag_000210_56.asxhttp://tm.intervu.net/smirror/frnvideo/vaticanmag_000210_100.asx

Sport

  1. Checkout the lowband supplement lower down this page.

Commercial Film

  1. The Reporter Minutes: info on Hollywood and upcoming films. Available at Cable DSL streaming rate (T1 connection): http://www.aentv.com/broadband/ram/thrminutes.ram
  2. Also try www.eonline.com for the same kind of thing. Has a searchable multimedia gallery at: http://www.eonline.com/Multimedia/?multimedia with film clips and interviews, available at bitstream speeds of 56kbs up to 300kbs. Trailers also available from: http://movies.eonline.com/index.html
  3. Music Programming: Billboard Minutes, available from AENTV (news and updates on the music business). http://www.aentv.com/broadband/RAM/BBminutes.ram
  4. The Smallest Show on Earth - starring Peter Sellers. A young couple inherits a rundown movie theatre. And the eccentric staff. Peter Sellers, is Mr Quill, the aging projectionist who likes Dewars White Label. A:. http://www.liketelevision.com/web1/movies/smshow/ - available in four parts.

Art Film

  1. Paris Documentary 1934 (just over 2 minutes in length, constructed from classic photographs by: Fred Stein 1909-1967).http://tm.intervu.net/template/smirror/frnvideo/paris_1934_300.asx Three speeds available
  2. New York Documentary 1943 (just over 2 minutes in length, constructed from classic photographs by: Fred Stein 1909-1967).http://tm.intervu.net/smirror/frnvideo/new_york_1943_300.asx. Three speeds available.

Music

Films in English:

  1. Checkout the Tiny TV article in issue 22, and the lowband supplement below.

Lowband Supplement:

The amount of material now available on the web seems to have quadrupled since last November. I’ve picked out the most interesting items, given top-level links to the sites which list and serve the video streams, so that you can explore for yourself. The list is split up intogeographic groups for standard TV news and general broadcasting. The geographic categories are: Europe; North America; South America; Asia, and the Middle East. The Middle East category covers (for the purposes of this article) both the familiar geographic area and the wider Arabic speaking World. Then a listing by subject area: Drama; Archive Television; Other Educational Resources; Financial Services; Religious Broadcasting; Sport; Commercial Film; Art Film, and Music.

Europe

  1. Moscow TV, Channel TV6. This live feed is apparently only available via a Realcom redirect - the principal referring page is at http://realguide.real.com/http://realguide.real.com/RGX/RG.(/stations/?find=Y&format=&country=&state=&city=&language=&type=tv&x=12&y=8).list-1.txt.st-12276.RGX/www.tele.ru/tv6.ram. And try Channel TV6 Moscow Live: a page at: http://www.tele.ru/live.html where this streaming feed should run inline, but so far I haven’t seen it work properly.
  2. Difficult to categorise this one geographically. Culturally in two camps, and applying for European Union membership, so listed under ‘Europe’. Turkish television (NTV) On-demand transmission in English (approx 15 minutes long). Good technical quality.http://www.media.globix.net/asx/foreigntv/ntvnews_000210_56.asx http://tm.intervu.net/smirror/frnvideo/ntvnews_000210_100.asx
  3. Televenezia (Venice, Italy). English dubbing of a news programme about Venice, with about 8 minutes running time. http://www.media.globix.net/asx/foreigntv/vtvnews_000209_56.asxhttp://tm.intervu.net/smirror/frnvideo/vtvnews_000209_100.asx

North America

  1. American Internet-only TV network: http://www.streamingusa.com/
  2. Internet TV - http://www.itv.net.net/station/station.htm. Eight Internet TV channels running 24 hours a day, with two broadcast rates (28.8 and 56kb per second.) Live webcasts are available at: http://www.itv.net/cgi-bin/pull-new.cgi/itvlive28.asx?channel.asx http://www.itv.net/cgi-bin/pull-new.cgi/itvlive56.asx?channel.asx

South America

  1. Checkout the Tiny TV article in issue 22

Asia

  1. Checkout the Tiny TV article in issue 22

Middle East

  1. Official TV from Saudi Arabia: http://www.saudiembassy.net/RealVDO/live.ram
  2. Lebanese Broadcasting Company, at: http://www.lbcsat.com.lb/ News broadcast (live stream) on the web (inline RealPlayer) at 8pm local time.
  3. Oman TV, broadcasting at: http://www.oman-tv.gov.om/ Omani feed at:http://www.oman-tv.gov.om/oman-tv.ram, worldwide feed theoretically at: http://www.oman-tv.gov.om/rtsp://207.152.153.254:554/split/206.49.101.158:3030/encoder/audio.rm, but delivers a ‘bad request’ message at the time of writing.

Africa

  1. Nothing interesting found, but checkout the Broadband section on Africa for Zimbabwe TV, etc..

Drama

  1. Nothing interesting found this time around. Checkout the Tiny TV article in issue 22

Archive Television

Microsoft’s ‘Earthstation1’ (webmaster James Charles Kaelin) site broke some of my Tiny TV article links in Ariadne issue 22, by changing the file structure (dropping ‘simplenet’ from the domain name, and changing ‘kennedy’ to ‘Kennedy’, and suchlike). This practice (I suppose) encourages links to the top level of the site rather than to individual items on pages. Which presumes that the best advertisement for the content of your site is… your own site. Sadly not always the case. Earthstation1 pages are slow to load and heavy with repetitive advertising links. Here are the items I referenced in the earlier article, fixed (for as long as they last). This is just a sample of what you can find there, rather than a substitute for a visit. And it is well worth visiting. Just that the pages are annoying. At: http://www.earthstation1.com
  1. Apollo 11: countdown to lift-off and the ascent to orbit.http://www.earthstation1.com/Apollo11Files/Apollo11Liftoff.ram
  2. Prelude to the the Apollo 11 moonwalk by Neil Armstrong, 21st July 1969:http://earthstation1.com/Apollo11Files/Apollo11MoonWalk.ram
  3. JFK’s famous television broadcast on civil rights in the USA: http://earthstation1.com/Kennedy/JFK630611CivilRightsSpeech.ram
  4. Lee Harvey Oswald explaining himself to a reporter in New Orleans: http://earthstation1.com/Kennedy/LeeHarveyOswaldNewOrleans6308.ram
  5. Out-takes from JFK’s Senate Race political broadcasts (short):http://earthstation1.com/Kennedy/JFKSenateRaceTVOuttakes1952.ram
  6. The recorded TV coverage of the Dallas assassination (several hours available): http://earthstation1.com/Kennedy/JFKTVCoverage631122a.ram

Other Educational Resources

  1. The National Geographic’s Web Events Archive:http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lectures/archive/index.html, which contains the following lectures, among many others. Most streams are pitched between 35 and 56kbs.
  2. Thebes of the Pharaohs. October 21, 1998 Reigning as the Pharaonic capital of New Kingdom Egypt, the ancient city of Thebes boasts some of the most famous archaeological sites in the modern world. Dr. Kent Weeks traced the history of Thebes and its excavations, and explored the future of its ancient past. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lectures/98fall/av/weeksn28play.htmlhttp://www.nationalgeographic.com/lectures/98fall/av/weeks56.ram. One hour and 26 minutes. Referring page at: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lectures/98fall/weeks.html
  3. Secrets of the Pyramids.Zahi Hawass, who serves as Egypt’s Undersecretary of State for the Giza Monuments, sheds light on one of Egypt’s most important recent archaeological finds—the discovery of a large unlooted cemetery filled with well-preserved gold-masked mummies of Roman Egyptians whose remains were entombed some 2,000 years ago. Dr. Hawass also provides updates on ongoing restoration work at the pyramids, the excavation of the tombs of the pyramid builders, and the mysterious tomb of Osiris at Giza. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lectures/99fall/av/egypt.ram. One hour and ten minutes. Referring page at: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lectures/99fall/egypt.html. Sound much poorer than the first lecture.
  4. Our planet is currently home to more than 5,000 indigenous cultures rooted in history and language and attached by myth and memory to a particular place. For Wade Davis, anthropologist, explorer, and author of The Serpent and the Rainbow and One River, the continued existence of numerous, distinct cultures is proof that there is more than one way to think about and live with the Earth. But economic and population pressures, along with the increased globalization of culture, have threated to overwhelm these unique societies. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lectures/99fall/av/davis.ram http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lectures/99fall/davis.html
  5. Tuesday, December 14, 1999 5:30 p.m. ET. Africa in the Wild (Masters of Photography Series). Despite the charisma and prowess of Africa’s wild dogs and swift cheetahs, the human inhabitants of southern Africa have, until recently, seen them only as competition. Photographer Chris Johns has spent two years documenting the struggle for survival by these endangered species. Experience the wild wonder of Africa and learn about the conflicts that rage—and solutions that may emerge—as humans compete with wildlife for habitat. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lectures/99fall/av/johns.ram. One hour and ten minutes running time. Referring page: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lectures/99fall/johns.html
  6. Inca Mummies of the Andes. (November 10, 1999). In 1995 high-altitude archaeologist Johan Reinhard made headlines worldwide when he discovered the frozen mummified body of a teenage Inca girl on Peru’s Mount Ampato. In 1999, at an elevation of 22,000 feet (6,706 meters) on Argentina’s Mount Llullaillaco, Reinhard made what is perhaps an even more important find—three frozen mummies, two girls and a boy, in an unprecedented state of preservation, as well as a cache of pristine artifacts. Buried under five feet (1.5 meters) of rock and earth, relics of an Inca sacrificial ritual appear as if they were just buried. Begins with four minutes of empty podium (skip forward).http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lectures/99fall/av/andes.htmlhttp://www.nationalgeographic.com/lectures/99fall/av/andes.ram One hour and thirty-five minutes.http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lectures/99fall/andes.html
  7. Cyprus: Crossroads of the Mediterranean. October 20, 1999. Located in a strategic position in the Mediterranean Sea and rich in the copper from which it derives its name, the island of Cyprus has long been a point of contact between East and West. In this fascinating look at a crucial thousand-year period of ancient history, Vassos Karageorghis describes the island’s role as a crossroads for ancient cultures—from the pharaonic Egyptians, with whom Cyprus had a flourishing copper trade, to the preclassical Greeks, whose citizens colonized the island in the 12th and 13th centuries B.C., to the Phoenicians, who attempted to conquer the island during their age of empire. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lectures/99fall/av/cyprus.ramhttp://www.nationalgeographic.com/lectures/99fall/av/cyprus.html. Running time: One hour and five minutes. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lectures/99fall/cyprus.html
  8. Feathered Dinosaurs: June 16, 1999 7:30 p.m. ET In June, 1998 a startling discovery rocked the scientific world—fossils from China that all but confirmed an evolutionary link between dinosaurs and birds. Philip Currie offers a provocative look at the amazing specimens that most paleontologists now regard as proof of a dinosaur-bird connection. You’ll examine fossils of both primitive flying birds and flightless feathered dinosaurs and learn how their anatomy supports the theory that flight evolved among ground dwellers rather than denizens of the trees. . This discovery was the cover story of the July 1998 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lectures/99spring/av/currier.ramhttp://www.nationalgeographic.com/lectures/99spring/av/currien.html. One hour and twenty-seven minutes.http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lectures/99spring/currie.html

Financial Services

  1. Nothing interesting found this time around. Checkout the Tiny TV article in issue 22

Religious Broadcasting

  1. Nothing interesting found in lowband. Checkout the Tiny TV article in issue 22, or the Broadband section of this article.

Sport

Commercial Film

Art Film

Music.

  1. Not everyone’s cup of tea. The Residents perform ‘Wormwood’. The Quality of the video and sound is not wonderfully high at the lower speeds, but high enough to give the flavour of the Residents’ extraordinary shows. Eyeball friendly. Home page at:

Brian Eno Bonn concert page and vidcap

  1. ‘Brian Eno live im Internet’ http://www.kah-bonn.de/1/27/live.htm Donnerstag, 27. August 1998, 2h 35 min: A High-Altitude-Food-Performance with Incidential Music by Slop Shop and Brian Eno. Also features Holger Czukay. Excellent Stereo image.http://www.kah-bonn.de/tv/media/BrianEnoTeil1.ram Samstag, 29. August 1998, 2h:
  2. Public Talk Brian Eno: Conversation with Umbrella, Tape Recorder, Record Player, Overhead-Projector and Michael Engelbrecht.http://www.kah-bonn.de/tv/media/BrianEnoTeil2.ram
  3. PopCast Channel at: http://www.popcast.com

Miscellaneous

  1. World News Index (WorldNewsTV.com) http://www.foreigntv.com/worldnews/index.html

Author Details

Philip Hunter
Information Officer and Editor of Ariadne
UKOLN
University of Bath

Email: p.j.hunter@ukoln.ac.uk
Web site: www.ukoln.ac.uk