TVE Canal 24

[Alan]

Maybe this is old news, but I've just discovered it. Canal 24 horas is now available around the world in exceptionally high quality. I'm receiving it at 455kbps. A normal digital TV signal runs at 2Mbps, roughly 4 times as much, but the coding scheme used for that is inferior. The coding scheme used for Canal 24 means that the TV quality is only just below that of digital TV.

All you need to do is install a plug-in for Windows Media Player or whatever your player of choice is (I use WinAmp) then it works. And for you Mac and Linux users, it's available for you too. Look for Octoshape.

Just thought I'd share that. If news isn't your thing, there are loads of Spanish speaking channels available on the net, but there aren't many with a particularly good picture.

[Andy E]

Alan,

It's not old news to me! Do you have a link you could post? ......

EDIT: It's ok.... I didn't notice the P2P link to start with.

Andy.

[Brian]

Alan,

It's not old news to me! Do you have a link you could post? ......

EDIT: It's ok.... I didn't notice the P2P link to start with.

Andy.

For those who don't see it immediately:

http://www.rtve.es/tve/directo/s_tve_ip2p.html

[Brian]

Thanks again for the link, Alan. The picture is spectacular, but unfortunately, I seem to only be able to receive audio in the right channel.

[Alan]

Hrm my sound is okay. Is your sound okay for other programs/streams? Try right-clicking on the Octoshape icon in the status bar and changing the settings to your "default player" instead of Windows Media Player if you have one. Maybe it'll work differently in another media player.

[Brian]

Hrm my sound is okay. Is your sound okay for other programs/streams? Try right-clicking on the Octoshape icon in the status bar and changing the settings to your "default player" instead of Windows Media Player if you have one. Maybe it'll work differently in another media player.

I'm getting stereo in every other video stream in Media Player, so it doesn't appear to be me. Weird. The RNEE audio stream plays in stereo, though, in beautiful 128K sound. :)

Here's a link to all their ip2p streams:

http://www.rtve.es/ip2prtve/

[neskadebilbao]

¡Vaya! Me encanta. Puedo ver la canal TVE 24 pero mi windows media player dice que el documental no está disponible en mi país. ¿Esto está pasando a alguien más?

[Alan]

está solamente disponible dentro de españa . . .

[Pepino]

Guys - This is a fab link. The only reason I haven't watched much Spanish TV so far is the crackly quality I receive, but not any more as this works a treat!

Thanks! :)

[Edith]

I have got a special decoder so I can watch TVE 24 Horas on my TV, but it's great to know that it's available on the Internet as well. Some people say it's mostly telebasura, but over the last couple of years I have become rather adept at weeding out those programs which are worth watching. And it doesn't all have to be 'cultural' or sophisticated. Watching the occasional telenovela is great for your Spanish! On Saturday and Sunday, I watch Amor en tiempos revueltos, and even though some of the rapid-fire dialogues drive me crazy I have to admit I'm hooked. ;)

[ValenciaSon]

está solamente disponible dentro de españa . . .
Nosotros lo cojemos por satelite (DirecTV) en los EEUU.

[Brian]

Nosotros lo cojemos por satelite (DirecTV) en los EEUU.

¡Que casualidad! Acabo de volver de la casa de mis amigos Mejicanos, y estábamos mirando ese Canal en directv.

[timg]

I'm getting stereo in every other video stream in Media Player, so it doesn't appear to be me. Weird. The RNEE audio stream plays in stereo, though, in beautiful 128K sound. :)
I'm watching on Linux (CentOS) and I only get the right-hand channel as well. :'(

[Alan]

Maybe it's worth emailing them (either Octoshape or RTVE) to find out what the problem is and to fix it. I'm not having any problem, so maybe it's down to the audio codec you're using. Update WMA and on Linux, make sure you have the most up to date "Windows" libraries.

PS I'm running Windows just now - no Linux due to hard disc failure :(

[Brian]

Maybe it's worth emailing them (either Octoshape or RTVE) to find out what the problem is and to fix it. I'm not having any problem, so maybe it's down to the audio codec you're using. Update WMA and on Linux, make sure you have the most up to date "Windows" libraries.

PS I'm running Windows just now - no Linux due to hard disc failure :(

I'm running WMP 10, the latest, but Í'll update the codecs. Also might not be a bad idea to reboot. I didn't do so after the install.

[Alan]

Today, Canal24h seems to be running on only the right channel. You're not alone, guys.

[Brian]

Today, Canal24h seems to be running on only the right channel. You're not alone, guys.

I wonder if it's a bandwidth/quality of service thing?

[Alan]

Nah, they don't send twice as much traffic to serve both speakers. It is in stereo, but they compress the data in such a way that the sound of one speaker is sent and the other speaker is sent as the difference between the two. Then it's compressed further using a variety of different means. Mono is not much different to stereo in terms of general traffic.

I think it's more likely to be a bug in their plug-in. From what I gather, it's quite new.

[ValenciaSon]

Hi Alan, I have a general question for a scottish engineer. What codec are they using in TVE on the Internet and does using PAL or SECAM influence the codec used? I wonder since I know relative to NTSC, PAL or SECAM has a higher resolution.

The only other scottish engineer I've encountered is Scotty on Star Trek;)

[Alan]

Hi Alan, I have a general question for a scottish engineer. What codec are they using in TVE on the Internet and does using PAL or SECAM influence the codec used? I wonder since I know relative to NTSC, PAL or SECAM has a higher resolution.
Computer broadcasting is quite different to normal TV broadcasting through the airwaves or cable. There are two separate codecs - the audio is Windows Media Audio 9.1 at 128kbps and 48kHz in stereo, and the video codec is Windows Media Video. How these work I have no idea, because Microsoft don't tell anyone but it's probably quite similar to mp3 and mpg or Real streaming.

The size of the video is 384x288 pixels which again is different to traditional TV broadcasting which is described in lines. PAL and SECAM have higher resolutions because they have more lines (PAL has 625 lines compared to 525 on NTSC. Only France uses SECAM :P). But the video is encoded in terms of changes between frames and something called motion prediction, where your computer actually guesses what the next frame will be! Again, this is nothing like traditional TV broadcasting; it is like digital TV broadcasting.

The only time NTSC/PAL comes into it is when decoding from a DVD which is designed for that purpose, but your video card should be able to translate anyway. I can shove NTSC DVDs into my drive and play them on my PAL TV because the graphics card takes care of the translation.

I've gone on a bit, but the short story is that it doesn't matter because your video card would take care of it and if you're receiving it via other means, the cable/satellite provider would provide it in a manner that you can view it. You might lose 50 lines off the top and bottom, yeah, but you're used to that. Modern TVs can cope with a range of signals and can display them in an appropriate manner, whether you want to have a letterbox effect or not use the sides of your TV in order to get the full picture. Or you could squash it in and probably wouldn't notice the difference.

Either PAL or NTSC would be able to display this particular stream without losing data. And what NTSC loses in vertical resolution, it gains in frame-rate. NTSC runs at 30 frames a sec and PAL runs at 25.

And yes, this particular stream is a form of PAL and the codecs can run on any of the TV formats.

[ValenciaSon]

Doesn't Windows Media use mpeg4?

[Alan]

I don't know :) It'll be something VERY similar to mp4 anyway.

[Brian]

Doesn't Windows Media use mpeg4?

It is capable of playing mp4 files, yes.

[Alan]

Not by default until very recently. Too recently. There are some much better general media players out there.

[Brian]

Not by default until very recently. Too recently. There are some much better general media players out there.

What do you prefer?