Experiments with streaming video

Inspired by the prospect of live streaming chase video, I set out in an attempt to set up my own video stream, with full control over what the viewer sees.

Click here to view the stream! (Should work with Windows Media Player)

I've successfully set up my own very high quality stream out my bedroom window. What I currently have it zoomed in on is the back of the Lafayette Police Department. If you're lucky you'll be able to see cops walking in and out, or even squad cars with their lights on. But how did I do it? Below is a brief but technical explanation of my setup.

For the video itself, I have my miniDV camcorder hooked up directly to my computer via firewire. This allows for a native 16:9 full resolution picture. I pipe the uncompressed video and audio into a small but very powerful program called VLC media player. It then compresses the video into a streamable size, strips out the audio (I can stream audio, but I don't want to send every noise from my bedroom out to the internet), and broadcasts the resulting picture to the world. Here's the command line used for the stream above:

:sout=#transcode{vcodec=DIV3,vb=512,scale=1,acodec=mp3,ab=128,channels=2}:duplicate{dst=display,dst=std{access=mmsh,mux=ts,dst=:8080},select=noaudio}

This method of streaming allows me to have full control over every aspect of the video, including bitrates, codecs, and more. Plus, I get the added benefit of being able to stream any media I can view on my computer, including video files, dvds, ect.. (Maybe even a live broadcast of a wicked witch flight..;) )