Live fails...blank black Win Media viewer

[Grouchoman]

I have successfully set up and used the BTV system for several months now, but recently have run into some issues after trying to stream live TV. I am running 3.74 on a software encoding card.

My system is running XP SP2, AMD 1.7 ghz, 384 mb ram with a NVidia GeForce FX 5600 w/ 128mb ram. System runs fine for most types of recordings but could use a boost for higher DVD settings and such.

When trying to do live webcast of receiver, on my internal network, I have no problem receiving and viewing the signal. My firewall and router are set to allow the ports through according to BTV settings advice, but when trying to view my system from a remote location, we get no error, just a empty Windows Media player that goes through the cycle of buffering, then says Ready. One note, when it works at home , the screen display size of the WM player adjusts upwards just after getting the buffer done; when trying to get the signal remotely, it never goes through this step.

It seems the signal is hanging, but no error is received at the client end...just a blank, quiet WM player. Changing channels puts it through the same process again, but after buffer it says ready again and still has no screen or sound playback.

My only theory is a conspiracy one...that Optonline is blocking streaming content on upload from residential customers....I have checked my firewall (windows) and the firewall on the router (these settings never change from when it worked fine), and no answer jumps out at me.

Scott B

[briantaylor]

You could test your theory by changing the streaming port to something like 35000 and of course changing you port forwarding. That would assume they are blocking by port number though. If they are using a higher level Application layer filtering device it would still know what you are doing and stop it (these aren't all that common yet, and ISP-class devices are insanely expensive).

Brian Taylor