PCs and Video Part II – By Jove, I think I’ve got it!
After trying two live streaming encoders last night with no luck, I thought I'd one more time to get some answers in a forum somewhere. The Winamp video streaming forum had a guy with the answer – Eureka! Bottom line, I had the video playing application up at the same time as the encoder and this caused a hardware conflict. Turn off the player and boom – I could stream to an http address on the web server! So I am getting close now. I need to put a few more pieces of the puzzle in place and then I can (hopefully) view a non-IP security camera remotely via the web. Just in time for foaling season on the farm! I'll write up the whole solution once I have it working. Feeling more confident now – relief…
PCs and Video – an exercise in frustration
I have been working with video on a PC for a while now. First it was hooking up a video camera to the PC so I could download and convert clips and put these on the web. Frankly, I am still not very good at it but I have learned a lot. I cannot believe what a pain it is to do anything with videos on a PC.
Presently I am trying to figure out a way to capture a signal from a security camera and have it available remotely – either over the web as a web page, or on a local PC that I can remote desktop into so I can see the picture. What a pain!! Turns out that the software for the TV Tuner does not broadcast NOR will it support remote desktop or VNC (I just get a "black box" on the client, whereas the server – the PC with the TV tuner – shows the video fine). Windows Media Encoder can't seem to recognize the source, so I cannot get it to capture, encode and broadcast.
Tonight I'll try using a WinAmp encoder and broadcast to Shoutcast. Wish me luck.
Extending your network over the powerlines
Today I tried out a Netgear solution for expanding a LAN by using the power circuit in the house. Just plug your router into one of these netgear devices (model XE102) and plug the device into an electrical outlet. Then take a matching device wherever you might be having a dead spot on your wireless LAN, plug ethernet cable from that to your PC, plug the device into an electrical outlet and viola! Works great. Fast, reliable connection far, far way from the router. Netgear has another type of device for the "far end" if you wish – it is a wireless device that has a transmitter in it. Creates an entire wireless hotspot at the other end. Nice.
