How To Watch Regionally Restricted Streaming Coverage

For those who've missed the video streaming FIBA championship between China and Gilas Philippines because they are trying to view the game outside the Philippines and just contented with the twitter updates could have not missed the action using a browser extension. I have seen tweets asking where to get the streaming link and when they get the link, others are complaining they can not view it. This is because the streaming site has limited it's audience to regionally restrict to Philippine viewers only. And this is made possible by the ISP's filtering web IP addresses.

 To get round to this, masking your IP address by spoofing your location as in the Philippines usually "unrestrict" you from viewing it. There are many softwares that promise this functionality when you ask google, but these could only get you malwares when you are not careful. A better option is to get a browser extension that installs itself to the browser you are using is safer. Though there are many selections as well, HOLA has not failed me to let me watch regionally restricted videos and streaming broadcast yet. Here's where to get and install HOLA for your browser.

In this post, I used firefox. Download and install HOLA from https://hola.org/ .

You need to allow it's access to your browser when prompted and one installed, you'll notice the hola icon at the top right side of your browser(1). Click on it and click on more(2) to spoof which country you want to "view" the streaming video from, which in this case, Philippines.

 After choosing the country(3), the blank screen with the error message changes into a clickable player window.

Now enjoy the video in full screen!

How To 'Download' ABS-CBN Content?

A pinoy friend has asked me the other day how he can download videos from ABS-CBN TFC.TV site. Knowing that this is a subscription site and there is no download button to press except play, I told him 'I can't'! Then he reminded me a post that says just that. He was referring to an old post that mentioned about downloading a content, although it was not the main topic, " how to reduce windows media player from buffering".

He was right. During the early days of ABS.CBN, the download button was still there. Now that it is  gone, and the URL of the streamed contents are hidden on Java Scripts or Active Scripts to prevent downloading a copy.

But an alternative is available if he really wants to own a copy of the videos or wants to play the same content offline. It is a bit complicated and needs patience. This is to record it on the fly, whilst the video is playing!

Note: This post is just to point out that there are still ways to copy videos in a creative way using free softwares. This is not meant to encourage readers to record without the copywrite owner's permission.

The Any Video Recorder.

This program basically records everything on your screen. You can also 'trim' the record window  to capture just the part of the screen you want to record. And the best part is, the output file is on MP4, so it can be played on virtually any device and any operating system.

Download the software from the link below and you need to install the bundled audio program to make it work.

http://any-video-recorder.com/


How to use it.

•  Download, install and run Any Video Recorder software to your PC.

• Under general settings(A) you can specify the directories(1,2) you want the videos to be saved in default by clicking browse or you can leave it as it is. For easier video search,  define the output video name(3).

• Under video settings(B) you can also customize the output video quality and performance (4,5)according to your preference or according to your hardware capability. The higher number of bitrate and framerate, the clearer and smoother the resulting recorded video. But this needs higher processing power as well. You can experiment with the default numbers(25 and 6000) to start with.
•  Click Record Now button to start recording videos

• Navigate to your TFC.TV stream. The software should automatically detect the stream and open the recording interface. You can then manually set the area(7) for video recording. You can limit the recording by specific time(10) or choose automatic stop(11) Press the red "REC"(9) button to begin recording.

•  You can pause(12) the video being recorded or stop the recording manually by pressing the button(13)

You can access the recorded video from the output directory that you have specified. Now you can easily play, copy  or transfer to view it from other devices.

Fix Flash Player Crashing On Firefox With Old Laptop

 Updating a software is necessary to enjoy the latest function of a program. It also fixes bugs that usually make it crash and makes it more secure to hacker's threats. But sometimes it is a source of disappointment specially to older computers that can not cope with the computing requirements of the newly added functionality. Upgrading the computer's RAM is an obvious solution but before you buy anything,  read on how to solve it with a few clicks.

Video plug in crashing

I have an old windows vista that I use to connect to our TV to watch movies. The installed browser is firefox. Because I have not used this laptop for quite sometime, firefox says about a new update. Thinking that this will improve my ageing's laptop's performance, I did installed it. After installing, there seemed to be a bug in the update that the videos from the website play a bit then stops! The flash player seems unresponsive or doing too much work every time.  At this point,  stopping the plug in is the best option.

The new firefox is default to run to "use hardware acceleration when available" which is not a problem with the latest operating system, processor and ample amount of ram. Whilst my old laptop is a vista and has only the basic 2GB of ram, it could not take the additional load of hardware accelleration to run the flash.

1. Disable hardware acceleration.

To disable it, click the open menu, the last icon(1) at the top right hand corner>options(2)>advance(3)>then untick "use hardware..."(4). Don't forget to click OK to confirm. Close your browser and relaunch again.

2. Install lower resulotion flash

 If disabling the acceleration does not cure the problem, you might need to install a flash player with lower resolution.  There is an available add-on for firefox's latest browser. Just dearch for it under add-on list.

To do this, click open menu(1)>addons>get add-ons>type shockwave flash(6) at the search window>scroll down to low quality flash>install(7).

3. Disable high resolution flash

For the lower resolution flash to take effect, disable the higher quality flash by going to open menu(1)>add-ons(5)>plug-ins(8)>scroll down to shockwave flash ans choose never activate(9). Close your browser and re launch.

4. Adjust video quality

If you are not happy with the low resolution video, you can adjust the newly installed add-on to automatically play medium resolution instead of low, by clicking the cog icon(10)>view recent updates(12)>options(11)>untick low resolution and tick medium(13)OK then restart the browser.

Video Streaming Audio Problem

Video contents are freely available online. You only need an internet connection to view the latest movies and TV programs. Fast and more convenient than renting a physical disc. And if you like to get the ambiance of a real movie theatre rather than from a laptop screen, there is no problem, as you can connect it to a big screen TV.

This is easy with paid for legit streaming sites. All you need is a connector, the HDMI. This type of connection carries both video and audio signals. But if you are accessing video contents from free sites, you might need to have additional connection for the audio output. This is because most free sites do not support HDMI audio signal! This means when you plug in your laptop to your TV with the HDMI connector, only the video is mirrored into the TV. It seems like you are watching a silent movie. The laptop's speaker no longer receive the audio signal as the default audio playback is taken over by the TV.

Below is a streaming movie from a free site. The laptop's default audio playback is automatically disabled. And you can notice that the audio level is grey, meaning there is no signal detected. You can bring up the audio playback options by right clicking the speaker icon at the bottom right of the screen and by selecting playback devices.

If you are contented with your laptop's audio output, then you can just use your laptop as the default sound playback. To do this, first you need to right click on the TV's playback icon then click disable from the menu.

Then right click on the laptop's speaker and click enable. Do not forget to click on the OK button.

This will bring back the audio playback to your laptop. 

And if you are not contented to the audio output, you can enhance it by connecting to a sound system with a 3.5mm male to male stereo connector. This is the same size connector that your earphone has!

If you do not have a separate sound system then check if your computer still have a VGA output and an VGA input on your TV. If your TV have this, it is automatic that there is a 3.5mm audio input near the VGA input. You then need a VGA connector, like the connector from a desktop PC, and a  3.5mm male to male stereo connector to connect into your TV for the sound.

If you do not have these equipments, then you can try to download the video first before playback. If you are successful in downloading, the HDMI should work.

How To Watch Movies Using TV's USB Port

Latest models of TV's has a built in USB port usually positioned alongside other input ports at the end or at the back of a telly. This port is a built-in multi media player that is capable of playing digital contents like photos, music and videos.

How can I use it?

The operation is simple. Plug in a USB device, turn on your TV and flick the input source on your remote to USB, then media interface categories the supported files into Videos, Music and Photos. Then like when using a computer, you can open the files that are shown and play it. Files with in a folder can be browsed and played as well. 

Why is it that videos and music inside the USB are not showing.

This is because of file compatibility. The usual supported media formats for music includes Dolby Digital, AAC, RA, OGG, MKA, MP3, WAV, APE, FLAC, DTS, LPCM, PCM, WMA (V9), IMP/MS ADPCM and WMA Pro. For photos, it can output images of these formats JPEG, JPG, M-JPEG, PNG, TIF, TIFF, GIF, BMP and HD JPEG, and videos can be played using MPEG 1/2/4 (MPEG 4 Part 2), H.264, VC-1, H.263, VP6 (640 x 480), DivX Plus HD, DivX 3/4/5/6, Xvid, RMVB 8/9/10, RM, WMV (V9), AVI, TS, M2TS, TP, TRP, ISO, VOB, DAT, MP4, MPEG, MPG, MOV(MPEG 4, H.264), ASF, FLV (640 x 480), MKV, M4V files.

 The bad news is, depending on the make of your TV, it can only play a specific file for a specific media. The good news is, there is a common denominator on all models that they can all play. For photos for example, the file jpg, jpeg or png, MP4 for video and MP3 for music. So if you happen to have downloaded a movie or music that can not be played on your TV USB port, make sure that it is in the right universal format. For example if you have downloaded a movie from you tube, make sure it is converted into MP4 as it is most probably in the FLV format. 

You can change this into MP4 by using a video converter. In my experience, I usually make use of Freemake Video Converter. See previous post on where to get it and how to use it.

http://prakticality.blogspot.com/2012/11/edit-mobile-videos-with-freemake.html

If you want to download music videos from you tube and turn them into mp3's then this previous post is useful in showing you how to do it on the fly.

http://prakticality.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/how-to-easily-convert-youtube-music.html

If you want to convert your existing music, especially from apple devices, to mp3 so that the built in media player of your telly can play it, then refer on how to transform them into mp3 with this post using iTunes.

http://prakticality.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/why-cant-i-play-my-music-from-itunes.html