I've been playing around with the idea of getting some Internet TV channels playing in Vista Media Center on my PC and XBOX 360 Extender.

There are lots of free Internet TV websites found via Google that enable you to stream and watch free live Internet TV from various countries, either on their webpage interface or in Windows Media Player for example. Most of these websites have URL links to the various TV stations, these are usually in the format of mms:// or plain http:// URLs etc.

Using .MCL files and a bit of code I was able to place TV Station logos and associate the correct URL link to that logo in Media Center, these currently show up in the Online Media - Programs Library area of Media Center.

So I click on the TV station logo and the URL is launched this opens an instance of Windows Media Player in side the Media Center interface and after it has finished buffering I am then able to watch the live Internet TV. This worked reasonably well on the VMC PC. However on an XBOX 360 extender the picture stuttered alot and there was no sound.

The main reason I was looking in to all this was so I could get some Thai TV stations on the TV for my girl friend. But as there are so many Internet TV stations out there I was wanting to develop this idea some more for some of the English channels.

I was intitally hoping I might be able to do this using TV Tonic but that only allows you to add custom channels that are RSS feeds which is why I used the MCL file approach as a starter.

My questions are:

How have others tapped in to this TV content on the net and integrated it with Media Center?
Are there any plugins to manage this type of thing and make it nice and smooth and easy to setup etc?
Has anyone got this type of thing working with an extender?

Cheers
Stuart.

While it may not be what you want, tomorrow we will get an update to play Free Internet TV from MS:

 

http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/27/microsoft-launches-windows-media-center-internet-tv-beta/

Yeah I was aware of the new Internet TV launch tomorrow!
Wonder if you can add in your own links to other Internet TV content? or is it just predifined content from Microsoft's partners? Also its US based only and I'm in the UK!

It appears MS forgot about the rest of the world if Internet TV isn't for everyone.  

If you want streaming Internet TV, you can also download Yougle Vista (free) which provides not only Internet TV but also YouTube, Google, and other streaming videos. You pick the country, and it tells you which stations are available, couldn't be easier (I think it uses an aggregator from elsewhere).

I have no idea if this would work on a XBOX 360.  However, I know that TVersity (free) can also stream Internet TV stations to media players and they seem to have something working for the XBOX 360.

Yougle works perfectly on my two VMC machines and it works in any country!  I think MiraWorld also has a Vista plug-in for Internet TV.

I heard they are "enabling" internet tv tomorrow.  Is this via an automatic update? (if enabled ) or has MS posted a link?

I've been looking into this for some time myself. From the UK also so I can sympathise.

There are a couple of excellent websites providing links to externally hosted content:

http://www.tv-links.co.uk

http://www.sidereel.com

These sites are spot on when sat infront of a computer but neither have a dedicated plugin for MCE.

The closest Plugins I've found to get content are yougle and tvtonics both of which are excellent but suffer from the same problem for me, neither are UK friendly. Using Stage6 through yougle is only browsable by stage6 channels. I havent managed to find any channels tailored to UK TV, which probably explains the popularity of tv-links and sidereel. Tvtonics while excellent suffers again from not having UK content.

Is it just me or are we lightyears behind the Americans?

However, I think it should be more than possible to make a plugin for UK video on demand. Sidereel uses RSS feeds to allow users to monitor its links and you can use an mce rss reader plugin to view them. As tvtonic uses RSS I wonder if it would be possible to add menus to it. Its possible to add custom channels but the distinct lack off vodcasts for UK shows makes it a mute point.

I guess the easiest plugin would be RSS feeds of the content linked to with sidereel and somehow getting the a menu system into tvtonic for it, possibly using the RSS feeds for the links on sidereel.

Soooo, whos clever enough to tackle this? :D

Thanks for the replies and suggestions, its all good stuff.
It seems I'm not alone in wanting to explore and develop this idea.

Most of the TV content I found and wanted to see in my Media Center was not RSS feeds just URL's to the TV station feeds as stated above. However I will take a look at Sidereel if they use RSS.
I could then add it in as a custom channel in TV Tonic I presume.

In the UK we do get a crappy deal and alot of stuff only works or is only available if you are in the US, all the on demand movies for example in the spotlight seem to be for the US market.

I would like to hear some feed back from our American friends on the launch of the new Internet TV feature and what it is like???

I will also check out Yougle Vista and the other possible plug-ins mentioned.

Thanks again.
Stuart.

Some more information here on the new Internet TV feature in the states. I really hope we get this in the UK as well???

This might be worth looking at? HERE

Web Media for Windows Vista Media Center

Have you been using Web Media for Media Center on your Windows XP Media Center Editon and moved on to Windows Vista? Than this is the plug-in you are looking for: Web Media for Vista Media Center. This new version basicly has the same functionality as the previous version, but due to some possibilitys in Windows Vista it more integrated than ever. The plug-in uses the exact same User Interface look and feel as Vista Media Center itself. Obviously this plugin is available in several languages.

For the people that don't know about Web Media, here's some of the functionalities:
Add your favorite Internet Radio stations and you favorite Internet TV stations and put them in the categories you like. You can configure six categories with an unlimited number of stations in it and all configuration is done within the Media Center interface. You can use your remote control to navigate your categories and stations, only for entering station names and their url's you will need your keyboard. Listening to or watching online media has never been so easy on your Windows Vista Media Center!

I think this is the plugin I have been looking for to add my own URL's to online TV streams.

More details below:

Stream the day away
If there's one area where MCE comes up short, it's streaming media. There's no easy way to access Internet radio and TV from the menu system, especially if you want to venture beyond the handful of handpicked choices in the Online Spotlight section. Enter Web Media, a free plug-in that lets you add your favorite online stations (radio and TV alike) to the MCE interface. The only downsides are that you can stream only Windows Media stations--QuickTime, Winamp, and the like aren't currently supported--and you have to provide the URLs yourself. (Thankfully, the plug-in's author has compiled a list of compatible radio and TV streams.) Once you've entered the URL for a station and given it a name and assigned it to a genre, it will show up within the MCE interface. You'll be able to tune in with a couple clicks of the Media Center remote.

Just found the link for the MiraWorldTV Plugin: http://www.mirawebware.com/

Just been looking at the Web Media plugin, pretty simple but affective plugin.
Its a real shame you cannot add channel logos.

TV Channel setup adding your internet URL's to the streaming content.



TV Channels listed after setup



Alternatively this is how my Internet TV channels looked under Online Media - Program Library by using MCL files to add in the logos and URL's, looks much prettier.



Only problem with doing it this way is I could not put my new TV logos under the TV + Movies sub category.They are all just displayed in the Programs by name category.



Question does anyone know how to add tags or something in the MCL files code to specify what category your program is listed under?

This is the code I used in my .mcl files to make my TV station logos appear:

<application url="http://www.siamtv.org/channel/tv3_512a.html"
name="Channel 3"
description="Thai TV - Channel 3"
bgcolor="RGB(1,33,186)"
startimage=".\channel3.jpg"
thumbnailImage=".\channel3.jpg"
sharedviewport="false">
</application>

All the mcl files and logo jpg's are then saved in your user profile:

Vista:

C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Media Center Programs

Has anyone else used this web media plugin? I've just tried launching the TV Stations I added earlier above and Media Center freaks out, it flashes up with the Finished page the one that says Done, Restart and Delete the screen then goes black flashes up the Finished page again and then says:

"Cannot Play Video

Windows Media Center cannot find the specified file. Be sure the path is typed correctly. If it is the video file does not exist at the specified location, or the computer where the file is stored is offline."

I know my URL to the TV station is good it plays in IE.

http://www.siamtv.org/channel/tv3_512a.html

All great plugins.  I intend to use webmedia myself for radio. However for myself and all other UK types it still suffers from the same issue, no UK content for TV.

So, we're still left looking for UK content or finding/making a plugin for the variou slink sites.

Where theres a will..