Streaming video from EyeTV

I have a Mac Mini under the TV running EyeTV to record the DVB signal. Normally, it just sits there recording stuff, which I then copy off and put on DVD. But sometimes I want to stream the live signal to other computers in my house.

First, you need to set the program you want to stream recording. Then, run this script which will stream the current recording using VLC (you need to have VLC installed, of course)

#! /bin/bash

# change this to the location of where VLC is installed
vlc=/Applications/VLC.app/Contents/MacOS/clivlc

# change this to the location of your EyeTV archive
cd “/Users/rhughes/Movies/EyeTV Archive”

eyetvr=`osascript -e ‘tell application “EyeTV”‘ -e “repeat with r in recordings”
-e “if busy of r then set a to path of r” -e “end repeat” -e “end tell” -e “PO
SIX path of a”`
mpg=${eyetvr%*.eyetvr}.mpg

echo Streaming $mpg

$vlc “$mpg” –sout “#standard{access=http,mux=ps,dst=}” –intf=http –http-host 192.168.0.91:8081 vlc:quit # &

You should also change 192.168.0.91 to the address of the machine running EyeTV.

To view the stream, use VLC (or other compatible player) on a remote machine and point it to http://192.168.0.91:8080 (changing it to your EyeTV machine’s IP address).

The script also starts the VLC web interface on http://192.168.0.91:8081 – you can connect to this from a web browser and control the playback.

It all works OK, but I have to admit I got fed up with the complexity of it all, and bought a Slingbox. More on that another time


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Essential free Mac apps for video editing and conversion

A quick summary of apps I find essential for editing and converting video.

  • EyeTV – for recording DVB broadcasts. OK this one isn’t free, but I’m not aware of any equivalent free app.
  • MPEGStreamClip – for editing, and a bit of conversion. It’s editor is much more accurate than EyeTV’s. (Windows version also available)
  • VLC – can play a wider range of video formats than anything other app I’ve found. It can also do conversion, and act as a streaming server… all of which requires a much more detailed post sometime. (Windows & Linux versions also available).
  • Handbrake – for ripping DVDs and converting to MP4 or DivX. (Windows version also available)
  • ffmpeg – general purpose video converter, covered in many of the examples on this site. Also ffmpegX, a Mac GUI for it, although I’ve never really got on very well with that – not sure why, just personal taste probably.
  • mplayer – another “play anything” player, and MPlayer OSX. This is one of the few tools which can play the horrible RealMedia format, and can capture Real streams from the web. The other thing I use it for is ripping individual titles from DVDs (more on that another time).


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