Saving Videos from TVNZ ondemand

When TVNZ launched the TVNZ ondemand website it gave New Zealanders a new method of consuming television content through their computers. The site proudly advertises that you can "Download of view your favourite shows online"

So it appears that you can stream a large amount of television content through your computer, and the option to "download" shows is fantastic. However, there is one small problem, where on earth is the "download" button? If you are like me you would have searched though dozens of videos to locate one that you can download and keep for yourself. It does not exist!

The website does not give you a one-click download facility to download your favourite shows. Fortunately, I have located a workaround that will let you download the video and keep it forever on your PC.

One Method

1. Connect to the TVNZ ondemand website at http://tvnzondemand.co.nz

2. Browse to the content the video you would like to download an make a copy of. The pre-video advertisement will play.

3. View the Source of the page displayed

In Mozilla Firefox -> View Menu -> Page Source
In Internet Explorer -> Page -> View Source

4. In Either Browser on the source display, press CTRL F to bring up the search dialogue box.

5. Enter the search string ".flv" into the search box and locate where it is highlighted on the page.

6. You will notice that a URL is embedded in the section you have located. Select the entire URL and download it to your PC. You may notice there may be multiple ".flv" files for your particular show. You will need to download each one.

You can paste the entire URL directly into your web browser, or you can paste it into any other download client you wish (e.g. FreshDownload etc).

7. Once the file is downloaded, rename the files extension from ".flv" to ".mpg" and your PC should be able to play the file normally.

At the time of writing, don't expect any stellar quality video as the majority of content is only available in standard definition.

REFERENCES

TVNZ ondemand goes live @ flog, by Adam Burmister
http://www.flog.co.nz/journal/tvnz-ondemand/

Configuring MediaPortal for Freeview NZ [Quick Guide]

This article is intended to provide computer-savvy enthusiasts with the information required to set up and configure a Mediaportal installation which is capable of receiving and displaying the freeview Digital Terrestrial or Satellite service in New Zealand.

While this document will not go into depth on all portions of the setup, it will provide links to other resources on the web where excellent step-by-step guides have been created.

PREREQUISITES

- One of the following operating systems (Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or greater, Windows Media Centre Edition with Roll-Up 2, Windows Vista 32 or 64 bit). Windows XP 64 bit is NOT supported.

A full list of MediaPortal system requirements is available at
http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/MediaPortalRequirements

- Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition (or MySQL. This guide will only cover Microsoft SQL Server). Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition is free. Download Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition from [http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=65212] or [http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/sql/]

- Microsoft .NET Framework 2
[Download Here]

- Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 SP1 Redistributable Package (x86)
[Download Here]

Hardware Requirements

To work with Freeview, your PC must have a TV Tuner. The TV tuner must be capable of receiving a signal from a satellite dish, or be a Terrestrial Digital capable receiver. For New Zealand this means the TV tuner must be a DVB-T (for Terrestrial Digital), or DVB-S (for the Satellite service) compliant card.

A Windows Media Center compatible remote control is also a good idea.

Mediaportal Requirements

1. MediaPortal [http://www.team-mediaportal.com/download.html] Download the latest "Stable Release" Listed.

2. Mediaportal TV Server [http://tvengine3.team-mediaportal.com/] You will be redirected to a forum where the most recent revision can be downloaded by entering the newest thread and locating the DOWNLOAD link.

3. Mediaportal SVN [http://svn.team-mediaportal.com/ ]You will be redirected to a forum where the most recent revision can be downloaded by entering the newest thread and locating the DOWNLOAD link.

The LATM AAC Audio Codec required for New Zealand is included in the MediaPortal SVN.

The Video Codec

To be able to decode the New Zealand FTA Freeview service, you will require a compatible codec to decode the MPEG4 video stream.

Freeview New Zealand encodes video with an MPEG4 h.264 codec. Two recommended codecs for this purpose are:

- CoreAVC [http://www.coreavc.com/]
This is a commercial decoder which is compatible with Mediaportal. Purchase the codec from the site, or if you have no quarms with piracy then locate on your favourite Bitorrent site.

- Cyberlink Codec [http://www.cyberlink.com/]
Recent versions of Cyberlink PowerDVD include a compatible h.264 codec. Purchase and install PowerDVD to obtain the codec or check out your favourite Bittorrent site.

We have never had any success using the opensource ffdshow libavcodec h.264 codec. Your results may vary.

INSTALLATION

Install Mediaportal, then the MediaPortal SVN, followed by the TV-Server. When installing the TV Server ensure that you select the option to install the MediaPortal plugin when it is offerred to you.

Use the following guides if you are having any issues with the installation. Generally the process is quite straight-forward but I have included additional information on configuring the TV Server as the setup of an SQL Database will be required!

MediaPortal Installation
http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/FirstTimeInstall

MediaPortal SVN Installation
http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/UserGuides/SVN-nighly-builds

TV Server Installation
http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/TV-Engine_0.3/

Finally, install Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition. Ensure that you choose the authentication mode labelled "Mixed Mode" and that you specify a sa login and password. Ensure you record the logon credentials as you will be required to enter them later.

Full Guide:
http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/TV-Engine_0.3/install-SQL-Server

Supplementary: TV Server SQL Configuration (Microsoft SQL Server)

In SQL Server 2005 Surface Area Configuration select "Surface Area Configuration for Services and Connections"

Under Remote Connections enable "Local and Remote Connections" and ensure "Using both TCP/IP and named pipes." is selected.

Ensure the Windows Service called "SQL Server Browser" is set to automatic.

Detailed guide is available at
http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/TV-Engine_0.3/config-SQL-Server

Configuring the TV Server for the first time

Once all the required components are installed you will need to configure the TV Server to talk to the Microsoft SQL Database.

Run setuptv.exe from the start menu under 'TVServer'

Select 'Microsoft SQL Server 2005'

The section labelled "Database Location" is prefilled and is generally correct.

Enter the username and password in the "Database Login" fields. You should have recorded the password when we set up Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express.

NOTE: The username should be 'sa'

Click "Test" and you will receive a confirmation that everything has worked.

COMPLETION

The next task is to setup and scan for digital channels. This is beyond the scope of this guide but an excellent tutorial by cranz on the complete configuration of MediaPortal is available at [http://cranznz.googlepages.com/]

The section specific to scanning for channels and ensuring the TV configuration is set up correctly is available at [http://cranznz.googlepages.com/configuringmediaportal]

REFERENCES AND LINKS

Team MediaPortal
http://www.team-mediaportal.com/

FreeviewHD TV-Server and MediaPortal Guide [cranz]
http://cranznz.googlepages.com/

Easy Application Install (Gallery2) on IXWebhosting

Web hosting company IXwebhosting offer a number of one-click GPL applications that their hosting customers can implement on their websites.

I recently attempted to install Gallery2 using this facility. I had previously installed Gallery2 on my Startlogic web hosting account through its standard installation script.

Unfortunately my experience installing Gallery2 on IXwebhosting was not perfect. I ran into problems relating to file uploads. I had two distinct problems:

- Photos over 2 Megabytes in size were rejected with an "Upload Failed" error message

- File uploads would fail with the following error:

"filename.ext: You may need to set LimitRequestBody 16777216 and memory_limit=64M in /etc/php.ini and /etc/httpd/conf.d/php.conf on your Gallery server java.net.SocketException: Connection reset"

How I resolved this issue

The 2 megabyte file restriction appears to be a default setting from ixwebhosting which effectively blocks any web-based application from uploading files greater then 2 megabytes in size. (This wont affect you using FTP to upload content to your own site)

In the cgi-bin folder I created a new php.ini configuration file. In this file I added the following text string:

upload_max_filesize = 2048M

The other file upload problem was easily remedied by following the instructions within the error message. I followed the instructions relating to the php.ini file and the issue appears resolved. I added the following two lines to the php.ini file:

LimitRequestBody 16777216 memory_limit=64MB

It is a bit disappointing that this "easy application" required a bit of fiddling with in order to get in to operation under this hosting environment.

When installing on Startlogic the only extra configuration required was actually documented in the installation check of the Gallery2 installer itself.

Media Center Remote Driver for Windows XP

Windows Media Centre computers tend to ship with either an OEM manufacturer's remote control or a Microsoft-branded one. These OEM manufactured machines all come with the associated drivers to support the remote control.

There are numerous Open Source home theatre PC projects in existence that have a similar media centre-style interface and playback capabilities to Windows Media Centre and Windows Vista Home Premium/Ultimate. The advantage of open source is that you can use the product freely without the need to pay the associated price tag that you do with Microsoft products. My favourite open source Home Theatre PC software is called MediaPortal.

Applications such as MediaPortal are smart enough to work effectively with the Windows Media Center remote control, among many other brands. However, you must have a supported driver installed on your Windows OS in order for it to be recognised for use as a remote control device.

For Windows XP if you are running Windows XP Professional SP2 or later then the drivers are automatically included with the OS. The story is slightly different with Windows XP Home. Windows XP Home (any service pack level) does not come with any drivers for the Windows Media Center remote. If you plug it in you will be presented with a request for drivers for the "eHome Infrared Receiver" it will be detected as.

I have located and tested the following drivers on Windows XP Home SP2 and they function as required.

Installation

Briefly, the steps required to install the driver (one method) are:

1. Download the driver package below

2. Create a directory somewhere on your computer, and extract the archive contents to it

3. Plug in the Windows Media Center Remote control

4. When prompted for the driver, select the option to specify a location and point to where you extracted the archive to.

The driver should then install and you should be working 100%.

Microsoft Windows Media Center Remote Control Drivers for Windows XP

[Mirror 1] - Hosted on NZTechie.com
[Mirror 2] - Hosted on Windows SkyDrive
[Mirror 3] - Hosted on Mediafire

RELATED LINKS

MediaPortal - free MediaCenter HTPC Software
http://www.team-mediaportal.com/