NASA TV

[bh]

Watch NASA TV...the 3 split graphic looks like celestia...low res textures of course!

[Chuft-Captain]

I've been trying to watch the live shuttle broadcasts on NASA TV ( http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html ) for the last week without any success.

I used to be able to watch it in the past (over a year ago) but now I can only hear the audio. The video is either a blank screen (in Windows Media Player or the NASA TV Viewer):


or a corrupted scrambled image which doesn't really seem to move at all (in QuickTime).

I'm using a 56K modem, and I have just upgraded to Media Player 10 (I was using version 8, but upgrading doesn't appear to have fixed the problem)

Has anyone else experienced similar problems?
Does NASA TV still provide bitrates suitable for 56K modems?
(It used to work on 56K even though size and quality was limited, and you had to put up with frequent buffering pauses, but now I get no picture at all!)

Perhaps someone else with a 56K modem will be kind enough to try it out and let me know how they get on.
This will help me work out whether it's a problem with my machine config or a problem with the site.

Thanks in advance
CC

[Jeam Tag]

I've been trying to watch the live shuttle broadcasts on NASA TV ( http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html ) for the last week without any success.

Hello, not a real answer, sorry, (because of a little faster connexion), but some comments about what I saw :
1/ You must try to connect a long time before the launch time, because the site is ALWAYS satured just few minutes before.
2/ Seems to me the Real player diffusion is -I'm speaking from France, maybe this is not the case in your country- more accurate than others : the other weekend, i saw the launch twice; quasi direct (some seconds later) with Real Player, and 30 seconds later with WindowsMediaPlayer! (I have not reinstalled QT, so I don't know what it does, now)... curious, but maybe Real is a better player, so you maybe could try it? Jeam

[Chuft-Captain]

Thanks for the input Jeam,

I think the key thing to do would be to get onto a broadband connection ASAP. I'm sure most of my problems are caused by this, combined with the extra interest (when there's a mission in progress) sucking up streaming bandwidth at the servers.

Just out of interest, how much faster is your connection than 56K?
(It sounds like you got quite a good performance at a peak time.)
Did you have consistently smooth video and sound, or did you have occasional pauses?

Regards
CC

[Jeam Tag]

Just out of interest, how much faster is your connection than 56K?
(It sounds like you got quite a good performance at a peak time.)
Did you have consistently smooth video and sound, or did you have occasional pauses?CC

Hi, as usual, sorry for my poor English (understanding and writing) I try to answer:
For the moment, my connection is a collective dsl one (1024k *in theory* but there are some bugs in the lines, sometimes.) depended of the other guys connected at the same time...
The second answer depends of the first one, and of the NASA TV success too: sometimes I had occasionnal pauses or shunts, indeed, but usually, it works fine. This was why I tested two readers for STS-121 launch was because a little pause on the first I used. Finally the rest of the sequence ran well, with the two readers opened, as i wrote.
I suppose a faster dialup occurs better refreshing from the NASA server when there are too gorgeous connections? Don't know really about those thing...
Hope this message is readable Jeam

[Chuft-Captain]

Thanks Jeam,

Your connection is theoretically ~ 18 times faster than mine and that obviously makes a positive difference.
What sort of resolution were you able to view in?
Were you able to see full-screen or only a small window?

BTW: Your english is excellent.

Thanks again for the feedback.

[guest jo]

I have a connection 2000 kbit/s = 250 KByte/s

What I get with WMplayer is: 320x240 pixel and 151 kbit/s

J?¶rg

[Chuft-Captain]

That's interesting guest_jo,

That's exactly the speed I get, except obviously that stream is not going to fit down my 56K pipe (which explains the buffer pauses and freeze-ups I get).

I'm beginning to think that 151K is perhaps the minimum stream bandwidth provided by NASA TV.

BTW. I suspect that with your connection you should be able to get a much faster speed than that. Have you checked your performance settings in Media Player: Plugins -> Options -> Performance TAB. Should be set to auto-detect. Check it's not manually set to some slow modem.

[Jeam Tag]

Your connection is theoretically ~ 18 times faster than mine and that obviously makes a positive difference.

Yes, but theorical: depending of the pipes -some problems some hours- and the number of other up/downloads running on the same connection at home.

What sort of resolution were you able to view in?
Were you able to see full-screen or only a small window?

Just right now : streaming 151kb/s, original screen size 320x240 (all full screens are ok, with poor resolution, of course) with Real and WindowsMedia*. It seems to me that earlier in the morning I had 225kb/s ? Don't remember...
With consistently smooth video and sound, because there's no event on this network: the server isn't saturated. Jeam

*And, again, WindowsMedia runs approx. 40 seconds later than Real

[Chuft-Captain]

It seems that the maximum speed stream from NASA TV is around 151-225 Kbps (regardless of individual connection speeds).

[guest jo]

Yes I think it is the server-broadcast-limit that sets the maximum speed.
But I'll look into my settings.
I am quite sure they are set to my bandwith or at least auto-detect.

Nevertheless I am very happy to be able to watch NASA-TV without loading-breaks. Small but nice

[DonAVP]

As a side note and this is IMHO. Real is blot wear and I would strongly not recommend using it. Don't get me wrong it works and delivers a good picture and sound. Trouble I have is that it (the company) is harvesting data and making deals so it is the only steaming source from some sights. I like to watch a show on the local PBS station. Trouble is I must use Real to watch it. I did install or let me say tried to install the program on one computer that I have. I was careful not to allow some things that I know are attempts to gain info about me. Bottom line it did not work and I uninstalled the program. I have talked with others about this personally and online and have found some that agree with me.

I don't have a problem with a company offering a program that would compete with Windows or Mac. I have a problem with some of the stuff I mentioned.

Don

[Chuft-Captain]

As a side note and this is IMHO. Real is blot wear and I would strongly not recommend using it. Don't get me wrong it works and delivers a good picture and sound. Trouble I have is that it (the company) is harvesting data and making deals so it is the only steaming source from some sights. I like to watch a show on the local PBS station. Trouble is I must use Real to watch it. I did install or let me say tried to install the program on one computer that I have. I was careful not to allow some things that I know are attempts to gain info about me. Bottom line it did not work and I uninstalled the program. I have talked with others about this personally and online and have found some that agree with me.

I don't have a problem with a company offering a program that would compete with Windows or Mac. I have a problem with some of the stuff I mentioned.

Don

Don, I've heard similar things about REAL's "status as spyware" so I've avoided it as well (up to now anyway). Note however that Windows MediaPlayer will also collect information on your viewing preferences etc. if you allow it to. (Under Tools -> Options -> Privacy : it has options for what they call "Enhanced Content Provider Services" and "Customer Experience Improvement Program". I'm not sure what the default settings are (immediately after install) but at least you have the option to disable it, a choice which you don't have with REAL as (from what I understand) whatever information it collects, it does secretly and always.
Of course, this is not unusual for all sorts of software these days, especially if it's free (with the exception of Celestia of course )