From goalbit

ATTENTION: WHEN TRYING THIS USE ALWAYS THE LATEST COMPONENTS, PREVIOUS VERSIONS SHOULD NOT WORK!

Live Broadcast Yourself is the main functionality which provides the user the capability of creating its own video stream. The user can control several aspects of such transmission, such as the content being transmitted, its quality and encoding, the publication method used and the capability of encrypting it. When this funcitionality is working the peer is referred to as a Goalbit Broadcaster peer, with every Goalbit Player working as a client being able to join the generated video stream.

Contents 1 Technical information 1.1 Available video sources 1.1.1 File 1.1.2 Disc 1.1.3 Network 1.1.4 Capture device 1.2 Quality and encoding 1.3 Publication method 1.3.1 Tracker 1.3.2 Trackerless 1.4 Encryption 2 Step by step how to broadcast yourself 3 More advanced broadcasting 4 YouTube videos

Technical information

Available video sources

Right now, the available video sources are the following:

File

Several video files ordered in a playlist may act as the video source.

Disc

A DVD may be used as a video source, as well as an audio CD and a VCD/SVCD.

Network

Another video stream from the network may be used. Protocols supported are HTTp, HTTPS, MMS, FTP, RTSP, RTP, UDP, RTMP.

Capture device

If a capture device is present (such as a video or an audio device) it may be specified too.

Quality and encoding

When creating a video stream its bitrate and chunk size may be chosen, the default values are 285 and 65536 respectively. Then you have to choose the muxer (encapsulation), video and audio codec. In simple words, the muxer packs the video and audio information, which are codified using their respective codec. Not every muxer works with every codec! That is why VideoLan has the compatibility page you should visit before choosing this settings.

Publication method

Right now the two methods for publishing a channel are with a tracker and trackerless.

Tracker

The Goalbit Tracker is an entity such as in Bittorrent, which mantains a list of channels (streams) and its peers associated to it. When wanting to publish the stream this way a Goalbit tracker running is needed, as well as its IP address and port where its listening (which must be specified in the settings).

If you are interested in running a Goalbit Tracker developer version please visit the Tracker article for full instructions on compiling and running it.

Trackerless

Goalbit implements the Kademlia protocol, which is a way of keeping all the contact information that the tracker keeps in a classic Bittorrent network in every peer connected to it, thus removing the Tracker entity. In the settings this is just an option to be chosen, and the channel will be published in the default Goalbit Kademlia network.

Attention: When trying trackerless tests by yourself (that means running a broadcaster and a player) then you should read the article KAD test between two peers to avoid the buffering 0% problem!

Encryption

The Goalbit client offers the possibility to encrypt the video information that is sent in the chunks using a symmetric key. When configuring the broadcasting as a private one the key is generated and added to the .goalbit file or the goalbit link. Only clients with that same .goalbit file or link (with that same key) will be able to decode the transfered chunks.

Step by step how to broadcast yourself

If you experiment some troubles, please post the last relevant part of the log file when you post a bug (howto logging)

1. Choose the Broadcast yourself tab. A confirmation dialog will appear warning that you will stop watching any current stream.
   
2. Fill the basic channel information
   
   • Name and Identifier can be the same
   • You can change the logo file, but it must be accesible on Internet
   • You could load previos settings with the 'Load Goalbit file' button, though this does not restore the playlist, only configuration options. You can also save them using the 'Generate Goalbit file' button.
3. Choose the input video source, through the button named 'Video source'.
   
   • Every tab corresponds to one of the possible video sources named before.
   • You can choose only one input source with the Accept button or enqueue more sources in your playlist with the Enqueue button.
   • You can edit your playlist with the "Show playlist" button.
   • When you use the network, you can increase the buffer size checking 'show more options'.
4. Configure the output, through the 'Output parameters' button.
   
   • You can choose an existing profile for the muxer (encapsulating) and video and audio codes. Goalbit will automatically transcode the source to the selected option.
   • You have to chose between tracker and trackerless. Remember to specify a Tracker's address if you do so. Search the wiki for how to run a Goalbit Tracker!
   • Goalbit configures the network for you with a simple UPnP (please enable it in your home gateway). You also can open manually the 2706 TCP port for broadcasting and playing (if the port 2706 is in use for other application then GoalBit tries with the port 2705, and so on,...). The btv-tracker uses the 6969 TCP port.
5. Post your New Goalbit Channel
   
   • Start or stop the broadcasting with the play and stop buttons.
   • You can save your Goalbit file or URL and post it for your friends (or email it)!

More advanced broadcasting

If you want a more advanced broadcasting you can start at Broadcasting from command line.Go for it!

YouTube videos

A friend of the house, Katangaafrica has made cool videos on broadcasting, take a look at them!

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