Watching TV on your Pocket PC

[Ed Hansberry]

Leon Schell has put together a great article on setting up a Windows Media streamer on your regular PC for use on the Pocket PC. He focuses on streaming TV but you can do just about anything available from your PC.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/hansberry/article-streaming/image008.gif" /><br /><br />Pocket PC Thoughts would like to give a big Thanks! to Leon for putting this together and selecting us to publish it. Here you go!<br /><br /><b>Watching TV on your Pocket PC</b><br /><br />I have always wanted to be able to watch the 8 o’clock news on my iPAQ while sitting in the garden, so I was intrigued by the post of That_Kid in Andy’s <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3042&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=stream%20parents&start=0">What to do with wirelessly connected Pocket PCs @ home</a>. That_Kid basically described he was streaming everything everywhere using, among other things, Windows Media Encoder and Windows Media Server. I remembered having seen Windows Media Encoder on Windowsmedia.com so I thought it was time to learn in what way WME and WMS could benefit me.&lt;!><br /><br />I decided to have a read at various documents on MSDN which is always a good start when checking out Microsoft technology (See the <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/">MSDN library</a>, then from the menu Graphics and Multimedia | Audio and Video | Technical Articles). <br /><br />In the end I decided to start with <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/wm7/encoder.asp">Windows Media Encoder</a> (about 4 MB), so I downloaded, installed and started it. As I would soon find out, it was the only program I would need. Wow! I can’t remember having been up and running so quickly ever before (using rather advanced technology) - in no time I was watching TV streaming from my desktop PC to my wireless iPAQ. Interested? OK, here’s how:<br /><br />The things that you need:<br /><br />•A wired or wireless network. Here I will take a wireless Pocket PC as a client. <br />•Something you want to stream, e.g. your TV card (sound and video). You could also stream sound only, e.g. from your favorite MP3 player. In this example I will use my TV card. <br />•Windows Media Encoder <br /><br />First, start your TV application on your desktop PC. Then open Windows Media Encoder. As soon as you start WME, a Session Wizard pops up:<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/hansberry/article-streaming/image001.gif" /><br /><br />Click Next.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/hansberry/article-streaming/image002.gif" /><br /><br />(For me, selecting the TV card driver itself didn’t work - the TV image would freeze and there would be no sound. So I selected Screen Capture) <br /><br />Choose Configure. You will see a drop down list with all currently running programs. Select your TV application and click OK. <br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/hansberry/article-streaming/image003.gif" /><br /><br />Click Next.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/hansberry/article-streaming/image004.gif" /><br /><br />Remember the URL that is given here. You will need it later to connect to the stream. Don’t change the port unless you have a good reason to. Click Next<br /><br />Select a streaming profile. There are several available and you probably will have to experiment a little, depending on your network bandwidth, preferred screen size, number of frames per second and percentage of CPU usage you are willing to sacrifice. Although MSDN says WM8 is not optimized and not recommended for streaming using Pocket PCs, I actually got terrific results with the selection shown in the picture below. I can watch a soccer game on my iPAQ and, not unimportantly, even see where the ball is.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/hansberry/article-streaming/image005.gif" /><br /><span>Note: you can also click "Edit" to fine-tune your selection.</span><br /><br />Click Next. Actually, you can click Finish here but the first time you may want to fill in the Display Information.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/hansberry/article-streaming/image006.gif" /><br /><br />Click Finish if you haven’t done so before.<br /><br />That’s it. Now, open Windows Media Player on your wireless Pocket PC or another PC on your network. Select Tools | Open URL on the Pocket PC or File | Open URL on a PC and enter the URL you remembered from earlier on.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/hansberry/article-streaming/image007.gif" /><br /><br />Tap OK and enjoy!<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/hansberry/article-streaming/image008.gif" /><br /><br />Remember: you can stream any window. That includes your webcam (video) or your favorite web radio (audio). Tip: there are web radios out there that have a special HTML interface with ActiveX or Java enabled Play buttons that won’t work on a Pocket PC. Using this setup you can start that radio on your desktop PC and then stream it once more to your Pocket PC. <br /><br />If you connect a digital video camera, for example through a firewire cable, XP will recognize it immediately and you will be able to stream the video image directly choosing Capture audio or video from attached devices or computer screen in the Session Wizard.<br /><br />You can even open port 8080 on your firewall and watch TV from e.g. your PC at work using the IP address you got from your ISP instead of that internal (192.168.x.y) IP address. The possibilities are endless. You can’t change channels remotely but you could use Terminal Services or Windows XP’s Remote functions for that. But that goes beyond the scope of this story…<br /><br /><b><i>Conclusion: Windows Media Encoder is all you need to add an extra dimension to your Pocket PC. It’s a free download and no Windows Media Server required! You will need to experiment a little with the various options to get the best results but when that’s done you can save your settings for future use. Likewise, you can save your streaming URL as a Favorite (Tools | Add Web Favorite) in Windows Media Player, so you don’t have to type in that URL all the time.</i></b><br /><br /><span>Note: sometimes, after changing the streaming profiles, you'll hear sound on your Pocket PC but there will be no image, or nothing will happen at all. Don’t think immediately that you tried a useless setting. Let WMP try to reconnect, rather than just tapping the Play button and it will probably work.</span>

[schwuk]

fantastic article. thanks.

you should talk to pt about including it in his upcoming media e-books.

[DavidRoss]

Maybe im missing something....

I followed your instruction, (however only for audio)

I was running MusicMatch, and streamed my audio, everything looked like it was working, however i could not connect to it on the pocketPC.

so i tried from a browser on the same computer (useing both lan address, and internet address. and both got "cannot find server" "this page can not be displayed"

Is there a setting im missing?

Thanks

[Leon]

I was running MusicMatch, and streamed my audio, everything looked like it was working, however i could not connect to it on the pocketPC.

so i tried from a browser on the same computer (useing both lan address, and internet address. and both got "cannot find server" "this page can not be displayed"


Opening the URL from a browser will not work. Same here. You have to use Open URL from Windows Media Player.

It's difficult to see from here why it's not working for you. Did you try another profile?

[Wes Salmon]

Great stuff indeed! Good work!

[sponge]

Make sure you don't have a router or a firewall that may be interferring with WMS. You may have to change the port, or make sure it's open. As a test, disable everything you can.

Seeing as it's HTTP, you can try port 80 too, though many broadband sevices have it blocked.

Very cool article, makes me wish I had a WiFi connection :\

[mulla]

Good job ED nice :P

[Ed Hansberry]

Good job ED nice :P
Leon did all the work. I just posted it. :)

[jpmierau]

Good stuff, Leon!! Now you have to write another one to top yourself... Ever think of submitting to one of the Handheld Print Magazines?

[T-Will]

I found that the WithMP3 player does an excellent job of streaming MP3 audio over wireless/ethernet. All I had to do was share my music folder on my PC then I used the map Network to folder option built into Resco File Explorer (I think this is the same thing that Netrunner does). Then I started up WithMP3 and I was able to browse my network share and stream the music to my Pocket PC while I cleaned my car. The only downside to doing this is the battery life is greatly diminished while transfering data but that's what the cigarette adapter is for. I also plan on buying an extra cradle and/or AC power adapter for the house.

Also where's the cheapest place to get a cradle for the Toshiba E570/Audiovox and does the AC adapter come with the cradle?

[dartman]

Excellent post! Thanks

dart

[that_kid]

Great Job Ed & Leon!!! That's how I did it and it works great for both audio and video. It's really nice to walk around your house streaming some type of media to your pocketpc. The best part is that microsoft provides some nice FREE software to do it. I have many ideas that I am in the process of working out. ALSO if you have a DSS reciever there is some nice software http://www2.msstate.edu/~plb1/snapstream that will allow you to change the channels from a remote computer. I e-mailed the author about a pocket c version but haven't heard back yet. Since there is only a windows version of this software, one could download vnc and install it on the machine that's controlling the DSS. Now you can use vnc on your handheld to change the channels and if you're like me you can add an additional reciever so you don't have to worry about someone changing the channels in the middle of "The Wire". What's also nice is that you can put change to one of the many music channels and stream till you drop. If you have a fast internet connection you can enjoy nice music/video anywhere you can get the bandwidth. Have fun streaming[/url]

[paulbiba]

Thank you very much for this!!!!

For streaming MP3s I found it best to uncheck the video option, and then use the profile for 128Kbs for the best sound.

[nobody]

Great work!

I have some problem setting it up though. I configure the WME to use default audio device. But because I have to start TV app, WME kept saying that audio device is in use and refuse to start encoding.

Can you help?

[WillyG]

Nice tutor. However i dont have a wireless connection, so im wondering - can u connect to and stream media via the cradle?
Would b nice with a mini TV on the desk while im using the puter for other tasks.
Or will this b useless if i minimize the tv-card app and mute the volume on the main computer? :roll:

[that_kid]

WillyG
You should be able to stream from the cradle as well. If you want to mute the tv app on your main pc, you might want to go into the media encoder settings and select the line-in to your sound card(assuming this is where the sound from your capture card comes in) that way you can mute the main sound on the computer and still have the audio stream into the encoder.

[Leon]

Or will this b useless if i minimize the tv-card app and mute the volume on the main computer? :roll:
I haven't tested the cradle option yet but I'm sure minimizing your TV app will remove the display from the Pocket PC too. In fact, if you drag another window in front of your TV app, you will see that window appear in Windows Media Player as well. Perhaps that that won't happen if you select the TV card driver instead of Screen Capture (second WME screen dump), but like I wrote in the article, I was not able to do that.
Muting sound on your PC will also silence your Pocket PC, unless you just switch off your speakers, of course.

[buxfan75]

Ok... one quick question. Does this work on PPC2000 devices? I've been trying to set it up on my E-125 with WMP7.1, but it starts to load then nothing at all (no "buffering" displayed). I thought i remembered seeing a thread once on how to set this up on PPC2k, but I havn't been able to find it. Any ideas?

[WillyG]

Thanx for your replys guys.
I really want to get this working (so i can "annoy" one of my Palm friends :twisted:

I try to get this working by streaming to cradle, mediaplayer on my PPC seems to time out during the attempt to connect (after 5-6 sec). I asume this is because im not using the right adress. I have tried both "LAN adress", "Internet adress" and what VX util tells me default gateway is (on the PPC). There is no firewall blocking the access and it works perfectly over my LAN to another computer.

Have you successfully connected and streamed to the PPC in cradle? And what adress did you use to connect to the PC :?:

TIA

Kindest regards

WillyG

[WillyG]

Btw i use PPC2002

[WillyG]

Its working, its working!

I tried harder :wink:

In case others got the same problems as me, try changing the port number. I had to use the "LAN adress" to get it working. Somehow IP didnt work (remember colon and port number ie: http://Puter1:1790)

Got a really interesting stream here now showing my calculator :lol:
Ill try the TV when i come home from work.

Seems to be quite a delay tho between when things actually happend on my monitor to when it actually show up in the stream on the PPC.

[Leon]

Its working, its working!
Thanks for the update. I got a few people PM'ing me that they coudn't get it working. Maybe this will help them too.

[humor]

How about this...

Windows XP Media Edition, and use encoder to capture the full screen and send it to your pocket pc...than you can either terminal server in to change the channel or (...better yet) create a .Net CF app that interfaces with your computer as a webservice to change the channel via a PPC GUI.

If only I could program :(

Now since Verizon has a high speed data option (almost 144kb burst...40k normally) for only $99 for unlimited use...I can stream it to my PPC that I use as a GPS in my car, and can now stream movies, music, and TV.

OK, maybe 40kb won't get me much, but hey :lol:

[doctorc]

Ok got this set up and working... sort of. When I stream using the exact setup that you suggest, even when I look at the 'preview' from Windows Media Encoder on my desktop I see whatever the app is that I am trying to stream from (e.g. if I am trying to stream from Media Player, I can see the Media Player screen, but only in the preview mode there is not any video on the Media Player screen). Now, if I move my mouse around, or move a window in front of the app that I am trying to stream, I can see that in the preview pane just fine. In fact, I can see everything going on on my desktop perfectly. I can also see this on my pocket PC. If I look at the app that is doing the streaming itself (e.g. look at windows media player or DIVX player or whatever -- it is displaying the video just fine). However, when I look at either the preview (output) pane in Windows Media encoder, or look through my PPC client itself, all I see is the actual application doing the streaming, but it is just streaming a blank, black screen. I get audio perfectly though.

This is kind of strange, it's almost like it's trying to stream the video but can't do it -- it just streams audio, and anything else going on with my desktop, just not the live video stream itself.

Can anyone help? Maybe this is a video driver issue? I'm using DX 8 with an Nvidia GeForce ti 4600 with the Windows XP WHQL 2.9.4.2 drivers.

Bizzare.

[sparky472]

Maybe someone can help me. I can not get this to work. Using Windows XP. If using screen capture, I just never get a picture in the preiew window. It streams, but only audio. In the configure dropdown for screen capture I see 4 choices called "TV" none that actually have the name of the device. I've tried all four, but still I just get the blue window with the words "not supported" inside of it. If I try choosing the TV tuner device instead of screen capture, I get an error saying that the right codecs could not be found. Any advice?

[sparky472]

I've discovered that using the screen capture setting I can stream audio as well as what is on my screen, except for video. IN other words, I can see everything on my screeen except what is inside a video window, whether it is my TV window or Windows MEdia Player, etc.

[octop8]

Hi, I;ve followed the instructions but it does not work. My PPC WMP keeps saying file cannot be found. I have set up WME to broadcast on http://.....:8080. I am running WME 9 beta (using the Pocket PC profile) and my PPC WMP is 8.0. Is there a compatibility problem?

[alanjrobertson]

doctorc & sparky472 - just a thought (haven't been able to try things out yet), but perhaps it's something to do with how the video is being displayed onscreen? I know that the video in app with my ATi card can either write to the screen like any other app, or it can write directly (using DirectDraw, I think) - perhaps screen capture isn't able to intercept this. Can you change the method that your TV app uses to write to the screen? (I think most of my previous cards have offered this sort of thing).

Hope that makes some vague sense!! :?

Alan

[jmcquee1]

right now i'm using Dscaler to watch my sat tv on my computer. i have a ATI wonder VE card and dscaler is soo much better than ati's.. but i'm gettin the black box of death and nothing on my encoding output... so i'm going to look for other programs to use your tuner card and report back if one works. installing the ati driver with xp is going to take a few hours considering there are 8 of them and its such a hassle

-jared

[dean_shan]

This is awsome. I've got mine down to a seven second delay between the accual TV broadcast and the stream I get on my PPC.

[pakakz]

I've just found a workaround for ATI users, but I'll need to test it once I get home. Problem found here http://www.ati.com/support/infobase/3692.html

workaround found here
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q319445


If anyone gets a chance to test it, please let us know!

[clarkth]

I am testing this by streaming to my iPaq 3835 in the cradle, and the connection works in that I can see my desktop application on my iPaq (WMP), however I get no video sent to the PPC, just the black screen in the application on WMP. Also, I can't open the URL with PocketDivX. Any suggestions?

[acizurqpid]

I'm trying to get this to work on my E740, and everytime i open the url, either the LAN way or through the internet connection, i get the stupid microsoft send report error a few seconds later. i'm wondering if it's my cpu that's causing this because when i start broadcasting, my cpu usage is at 100% and i'm running a duron 600 with 512 mb of ram. Also, for those that got it to work, can you post what your setting is. thanks

[ipaq_dude]

hi
I am trying to use WM encoder to transmit my webcam.
I can connect and watch with my Laptop but not my ipaq (with wireless card - i can ping etc.).
i even downloaded the special encoder prof for pocket pc.
I just cant watch it on my ipaq :cry:
what am i doing wrong?
This is driving me crazy. The WM player on my ipaq will not give any error. Just silent.
i have WM player 7.1
thanks for help
id

[lazerin]

Umm....mine doesn't have a "screen capture" option. Help?

[Trimac20]

Hmm sounds like a lot of work and going by the screenshot the quality is frankly horrible (I can imagine, the framerate is very clunky, and the quality substandard). What I would really like to see is an attachable receiver (or even a built in TV tuner??) into an ipaq. It could also be included into other multimedia devices like Archos multimedia devices, Panasonic imageviewers.etc. with the ability to record TV directly. Wouldn't that be awesome? :D

[ChristopherTD]

You could use one of these when it is released?

http://www.brighthand.com/article/First_CF_TV_Tuner_Announced

[The_Cheat]

:(
I have an ATI AIW Radeon which seems to be incompatible with everything ATI do not write.
I seem to have the same problem doctorc & sparky472 have. I have tried using WME7.1 with AmCap and select the direct source. When I hit start broadcast, my processor sits at 100% and the little status bar at the bottom says "starting broadcast" indefinitely. If I turn off the video broadcast, the audio streams OK. Screen capture option is not available in the drop down list.
I have also tried using WME9. I get the device error I first got on WME7 when not running AmCap. Screen Capture is still not available in the drop down list, but I can select it if I do not use the wizard. In this instance I just get the black box for the picture. I know it's broadcasting something as I can see my mouse pointer hover over the picture.
I was wondering if anyone has ever got this working with an ATI card and if so, how?
I would also appreciate if ppl could post what capture card they are using to get this thing to work. It's a real shame as I really like my ATI card. MMC is nice and easy to use, the capture quality is great for DVD burning and the Timer Record feature is ace, but it looks like I may have to ditch it, due to it's incompatibilty with all things cool.

[hp2200]

ok everyone, this program rocks!!!

however. im using it to watch videos. Now, what is the best frame rate/bit rate i should use on my hp2210 to get the smoothest video and audio? i seem to be able to get it to go but its extremely slow and the video never matches what the audio is doing (frustrating) can anyone help me?

i big thanks to leon and That_Kid for making this kick arse program.

[Loki Gelfling]

For the gentleman with the e740 and the person with the audio problem, please read this article (esp. the section marked Gotchas)-> http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/articles.php?action=expand,16660 . I had an e740 and couldn't get audio until I dialed the audio bitrate down to 44KHz and slowed the framerate down to 20fps. There is a incompatability between PPCWMP 8 and the default PPC media encoder profile (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;813693).