Watch Al jazeera English live using only mplayer and rtmpdump

cbrunos · 2011-01-30 16:57:40

Hello everyone!
I started watching al jazeera english a few days ago and I really like that channel. I used to go to their website and watch it. However I found a little trick on the internet which allows you to watch the channel using mplayer and rtmpdump. First, install these two softwares.

sudo apt-get install rtmpdump mplayer

Then, edit your ~/.bashrc and copy-paste this:

## Al-Jazeera with Mplayer
alias alj="rtmpdump -v -r rtmp://livestfslivefs.fplive.net/livestfslive-live/ \
-y 'aljazeera_en_veryhigh?videoId=747084146001&lineUpId=&pubId=665003303001&playerId=751182905001&affiliateId=' \
-W 'http://admin.brightcove.com/viewer/us1.24.04.08.2011-01-14072625/federatedVideoUI/BrightcovePlayer.swf \
-p 'http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/ \
-a 'aljazeeraflashlive-live?videoId=747084146001&lineUpId=&pubId=665003303001&playerId=751182905001&affiliateId=' \
| mplayer -"

Then update bash:

$ source ~/.bashrc

Then just open a terminal and type:

$ alj

And start watching!

Again, this is not from me, I found it on a specific site I am not linking, because it's a community with certain implicit rules…one of which is not to talk about it on other sites. If you know which website I am talking about, please don't tell.

Last edited by cbrunos (2011-02-05 21:48:03)

rikhardfloss · 2011-01-30 17:40:07

@cbrunos wow great tip, thanks....

i am playing it on my ancient acer3614 so i have to lower the resolution:

mplayer -vo xv -vfm ffmpeg -lavdopts lowres=1:fast:skiploopfilter=all -cache 8192

hummm i get no video...

Last edited by rikhardfloss (2011-01-30 17:45:00)

benj1 · 2011-01-30 18:07:36

cbrunos wrote:

Again, this is not from me, I found it on a specific site I am not linking, because it's a community with certain implicit rules…one of which is not to talk about it on other sites. If you know which website I am talking about, please don't tell.

The first rule of Fight Club.......

oops sorry big_smile

EDIT: its actually on reddit so theres no point being that sercretive.

Last edited by benj1 (2011-01-30 18:31:13)

mikel · 2011-01-30 20:49:15

tried but I got this...

MPlayer 1.0rc3-4.4.4 (C) 2000-2009 MPlayer Team
mplayer: could not connect to socket
mplayer: No such file or directory
Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote control.

Playing -.
Reading from stdin...


Exiting... (End of file)"

any Idea why?
thanks

Last edited by mikel (2011-01-30 20:49:38)

olembe · 2011-01-30 21:10:26

Mikel,

Do you have rtmpdump installed?

olembe · 2011-01-30 21:13:46

I've just been trying to work out how to do something similar for other sites, such as the BBC News channel, but can't seem to crack it - there's no clue in the BBC page source to help me work out the stream. Anyone got any suggestions? Or is it just that Al Jazeera makes it easy somehow?

Tunafish · 2011-01-30 21:15:14

You can also try this one:

mplayer $(wget -q -O - "http://europarse.real.com/hurl/gratishurl.ram?pid=eu_aljazeera&amp;file=al_jazeera_en_lo.rm" | sed -e 's#lo.rm#hi.rm#')

found on http://www.commandlinefu.com/commands/v … ayer-jan25 (don't know if i'm allowed to tell this, but.... smile )

cbrunos · 2011-01-31 06:39:45

benj1 wrote:

EDIT: its actually on reddit so theres no point being that sercretive.

Well actually, a lot of redditors get flamed if they mention Reddit on other sites. Wanted to play it safe lol

dom · 2011-01-31 14:37:51

Sweet. Thanks for that. Al Jazeera really has the best coverage of the situation in Egypt right now.

benj1 · 2011-01-31 18:46:05

cbrunos wrote:

benj1 wrote:
EDIT: its actually on reddit so theres no point being that sercretive.
Well actually, a lot of redditors get flamed if they mention Reddit on other sites. Wanted to play it safe

oh I thought you weren't mentioning ycombinator.com.

mikel · 2011-01-31 21:17:49

olembe wrote:

Mikel,
Do you have rtmpdump installed?

tongue that was the issue... thanks

cbrunos · 2011-02-03 22:53:25

Here are other channels using the same method:

al jazeera english

rtmpdump -v -r rtmp://livestfslivefs.fplive.net/livestfslive-live/ -y "aljazeera_en_veryhigh?videoId=747084146001&lineUpId=&pubId=665003303001&playerId=751182905001&affiliateId=" -W "http://admin.brightcove.com/viewer/us1.24.04.08.2011-01-14072625/federatedVideoUI/BrightcovePlayer.swf -p "http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/ -a "aljazeeraflashlive-live?videoId=747084146001&lineUpId=&pubId=665003303001&playerId=751182905001&affiliateId=" | mplayer -

cspan1 (usa)

rtmpdump -v -r rtmp://cp82346.live.edgefcs.net:1935/live -y CSPAN1@14845 -W http://www.c-span.org/cspanVideoHD.swf -p http://www.c-span.org/Live-Video/C-SPAN/ | mplayer -

cspan2 (usa)

rtmpdump -v -r rtmp://cp82347.live.edgefcs.net:1935/live -y CSPAN2@14846 -W http://www.c-span.org/cspanVideoHD.swf -p http://www.c-span.org/Live-Video/C-SPAN2/ | mplayer -

cspan3 (usa)

rtmpdump -v -r rtmp://cp82348.live.edgefcs.net:1935/live -y CSPAN3@14847 -W http://www.c-span.org/cspanVideoHD.swf -p http://www.c-span.org/Live-Video/C-SPAN3/ | mplayer -

bbc news arabic

rtmpdump -v -r "rtmp://72.246.43.132:1935/live?_fcs_vhost=wsliveflash.bbc.co.uk&undefined" -y atv_live@3584 -a "live?_fcs_vhost=wsliveflash.bbc.co.uk&undefined" -W http://www.bbc.co.uk/emp/10player.swf?r … 8269_21576 -p http://www.bbc.co.uk/arabic/tvandradio/ … vetv.shtml | mplayer -

bbc news persian

rtmpdump -v -r "rtmp://96.6.47.38:1935/live?_fcs_vhost=wsliveflash.bbc.co.uk&undefined" -y ptv_live@3585 -a "live?_fcs_vhost=wsliveflash.bbc.co.uk&undefined" -W http://www.bbc.co.uk/emp/10player.swf?r … 8269_21576 -p http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/tv/2009/01 … ve_s.shtml | mplayer -

cnn live stream 1 (Al Masriya yesterday, Nile TV today)

rtmpdump -v -r rtmp://cp44679.live.edgefcs.net/live -y cnn_stream1_low@2785 -a live -W http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/ap … Player.swf -p http://www.cnn.com/video/flashLive/live.html?stream=1 | mplayer -

cnn live stream 2

rtmpdump -v -r rtmp://cp44679.live.edgefcs.net/live -y cnn_stream2_low@2787 -a live -W http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/ap … Player.swf -p http://www.cnn.com/video/flashLive/live.html?stream=2 | mplayer -

cnn live stream 3

rtmpdump -v -r rtmp://cp44679.live.edgefcs.net/live -a live -W http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/ap … Player.swf -p http://www.cnn.com/video/flashLive/live.html?stream=3 -y cnn_stream3_low@2796 | mplayer -

cnn live stream 4 (al Masriya today)

rtmpdump -v -r rtmp://cp44679.live.edgefcs.net/live -a live -W http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/ap … Player.swf -p http://www.cnn.com/video/flashLive/live.html?stream=4 -y cnn_stream4_low@2797 | mplayer -

france 24 (english)

rtmpdump -v -r rtmp://stream2.france24.yacast.net/france24_live/en -a france24_live/en -W http://www.france24.com/en/sites/all/mo … player.swf -p http://www.france24.com/en/aef_player_p … e24_player -y f24_liveen | mplayer -

france 24 (french)

rtmpdump -v -r rtmp://stream2.france24.yacast.net/france24_live/fr -a france24_live/fr -W http://www.france24.com/fr/sites/all/mo … player.swf -p http://www.france24.com/fr/aef_player_p … e24_player -y f24_livefr | mplayer -

abc news 24 (australian)

rtmpdump -v -r rtmp://cp103653.live.edgefcs.net/live/international_medium@36382 | mplayer -

RT (english)

rtmpdump -v -r rtmp://fms5.visionip.tv/live -a live -W http://rt.com/s/swf/player5.4.viral.swf -p http://rt.com/on-air/ -y RT_3 | mplayer -

RT (spanish)

rtmpdump -v -r rtmp://rt.fms.visionip.tv/live/ -a live -W http://actualidad.rt.com/swf/player.swf -p http://actualidad.rt.com/mas/envivo/ -y RT_Spanish_3 | mplayer -

RT (arabic)

rtmpdump -v -r rtmp://russiatoday.fms.visionip.tv/rt/Russia_al_yaum_1000k_1 -a rt/Russia_al_yaum_1000k_1 -W http://arabic.rt.com/style/liveplayer.swf -p http://arabic.rt.com/live_high -y 1000k_1 | mplayer -

dLclassic · 2011-02-05 01:42:55

Has anyone had any luck trying to add any of these channels to the openbox menu? I tried copying the alias info for the al jazeera channel into my .bashrc then going into my obmenu gui and adding an entry called al jazeera with an execute of "xterm -e alj" as well as the entire command both with no luck.

TRF · 2011-02-05 07:40:41

thank you, could you please add to the ## bash comments
# please install rtmpdump via apt-get install rtmpdump :-)
it was quite annoying to copy + paste it and then (no rtmpdump)

Tunafish · 2011-02-05 11:19:25

ley_lines wrote:

Has anyone had any luck trying to add any of these channels to the openbox menu? I tried copying the alias info for the al jazeera channel into my .bashrc then going into my obmenu gui and adding an entry called al jazeera with an execute of "xterm -e alj" as well as the entire command both with no luck.

I also tried to do this, without succes.
I created a script in /home/username/bin and added this to the openbox menu.

Here's the script:

#! /bin/bash
case $1 in
aljazeera)
    rtmpdump -v -r rtmp://livestfslivefs.fplive.net/livestfslive-live/ -y "aljazeera_en_veryhigh?videoId=747084146001&lineUpId=&pubId=665003303001&playerId=751182905001&affiliateId=" -W "http://admin.brightcove.com/viewer/us1.24.04.08.2011-01-14072625/federatedVideoUI/BrightcovePlayer.swf -p "http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/ -a "aljazeeraflashlive-live?videoId=747084146001&lineUpId=&pubId=665003303001&playerId=751182905001&affiliateId=" | mplayer -
    ;;
cspan1)
    rtmpdump -v -r rtmp://cp82346.live.edgefcs.net:1935/live -y CSPAN1@14845 -W http://www.c-span.org/cspanVideoHD.swf -p http://www.c-span.org/Live-Video/C-SPAN/ | mplayer -
    ;;
cspan2)
    rtmpdump -v -r rtmp://cp82347.live.edgefcs.net:1935/live -y CSPAN2@14846 -W http://www.c-span.org/cspanVideoHD.swf -p http://www.c-span.org/Live-Video/C-SPAN2/ | mplayer -
    ;;
cspan3)
    rtmpdump -v -r rtmp://cp82348.live.edgefcs.net:1935/live -y CSPAN3@14847 -W http://www.c-span.org/cspanVideoHD.swf -p http://www.c-span.org/Live-Video/C-SPAN3/ | mplayer -
    ;;
bbcnewsarabic)
    rtmpdump -v -r "rtmp://72.246.43.132:1935/live?_fcs_vhost=wsliveflash.bbc.co.uk&undefined" -y atv_live@3584 -a "live?_fcs_vhost=wsliveflash.bbc.co.uk&undefined" -W http://www.bbc.co.uk/emp/10player.swf?r … 8269_21576 -p http://www.bbc.co.uk/arabic/tvandradio/ … vetv.shtml | mplayer -
    ;;
bbcnewspersian)
    rtmpdump -v -r "rtmp://96.6.47.38:1935/live?_fcs_vhost=wsliveflash.bbc.co.uk&undefined" -y ptv_live@3585 -a "live?_fcs_vhost=wsliveflash.bbc.co.uk&undefined" -W http://www.bbc.co.uk/emp/10player.swf?r … 8269_21576 -p http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/tv/2009/01 … ve_s.shtml | mplayer -
    ;;
cnnlivestream1) #Al Masriya yesterday, Nile TV today
    rtmpdump -v -r rtmp://cp44679.live.edgefcs.net/live -y cnn_stream1_low@2785 -a live -W http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/ap … Player.swf -p http://www.cnn.com/video/flashLive/live.html?stream=1 | mplayer -
    ;;
cnnlivestream2)
    rtmpdump -v -r rtmp://cp44679.live.edgefcs.net/live -y cnn_stream2_low@2787 -a live -W http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/ap … Player.swf -p http://www.cnn.com/video/flashLive/live.html?stream=2 | mplayer -
    ;;
cnnlivestream3)
    rtmpdump -v -r rtmp://cp44679.live.edgefcs.net/live -a live -W http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/ap … Player.swf -p http://www.cnn.com/video/flashLive/live.html?stream=3 -y cnn_stream3_low@2796 | mplayer -
    ;;
cnnlivestream4) # al Masriya today
    rtmpdump -v -r rtmp://cp44679.live.edgefcs.net/live -a live -W http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/ap … Player.swf -p http://www.cnn.com/video/flashLive/live.html?stream=4 -y cnn_stream4_low@2797 | mplayer -
    ;;
france24english) 
    rtmpdump -v -r rtmp://stream2.france24.yacast.net/france24_live/en -a france24_live/en -W http://www.france24.com/en/sites/all/mo … player.swf -p http://www.france24.com/en/aef_player_p … e24_player -y f24_liveen | mplayer -
    ;;
france24french)
    rtmpdump -v -r rtmp://stream2.france24.yacast.net/france24_live/fr -a france24_live/fr -W http://www.france24.com/fr/sites/all/mo … player.swf -p http://www.france24.com/fr/aef_player_p … e24_player -y f24_livefr | mplayer -
    ;;
abcnews24) # australian
    rtmpdump -v -r rtmp://cp103653.live.edgefcs.net/live/international_medium@36382 | mplayer -
    ;;
RTenglish) 
    rtmpdump -v -r rtmp://fms5.visionip.tv/live -a live -W http://rt.com/s/swf/player5.4.viral.swf -p http://rt.com/on-air/ -y RT_3 | mplayer -
    ;;
RTspanish)
    rtmpdump -v -r rtmp://rt.fms.visionip.tv/live/ -a live -W http://actualidad.rt.com/swf/player.swf -p http://actualidad.rt.com/mas/envivo/ -y RT_Spanish_3 | mplayer -
    ;;
RTarabic)
    rtmpdump -v -r rtmp://russiatoday.fms.visionip.tv/rt/Russia_al_yaum_1000k_1 -a rt/Russia_al_yaum_1000k_1 -W http://arabic.rt.com/style/liveplayer.swf -p http://arabic.rt.com/live_high -y 1000k_1 | mplayer -
    ;;
*)
    echo "Error: Channel not found"
    echo ""
    echo "available channels:"
    echo "aljazeera"
    echo "cspan1"
    echo "cspan2"
    echo "cspan3"
    echo "bbcnewsarabic"
    echo "bbcnewspersian"
    echo "cnnlivestream1 (Al Masriya yesterday, Nile TV today)"
    echo "cnnlivestream2"
    echo "cnnlivestream3"
    echo "cnnlivestream4 (al Masriya today)"
    echo "france24english"
    echo "france24french"
    echo "abcnews24 (australian)"
    echo "RTenglish" 
    echo "RTspanish"
    echo "RTarabic"
    ;;
esac

Last edited by Tunafish (2011-02-05 11:50:53)

dLclassic · 2011-02-05 15:32:34

The script worked beautifully. Thanks a lot. I copied it to my home then added the following to my menu

<menu id="root-menu-493355" label="Online TV">
            <item label="Al Jazeera">
                <action name="Execute">
                    <execute>
                        /home/leylines/.onlinetv aljazeera
                    </execute>
                </action>
            </item>
            <item label="CSpan1">
                <action name="Execute">
                    <execute>
                        /home/leylines/.onlinetv cspan1
                    </execute>
                </action>
            </item>
            <item label="CSpan2">
                <action name="Execute">
                    <execute>
                        /home/leylines/.onlinetv cspan2
                    </execute>
                </action>
            </item>
            <item label="CSpan3">
                <action name="Execute">
                    <execute>
                        /home/leylines/.onlinetv cspan3
                    </execute>
                </action>
            </item>
            <item label="BBC News Arabic">
                <action name="Execute">
                    <execute>
                        /home/leylines/.onlinetv bbcnewsarabic
                    </execute>
                </action>
            </item>
            <item label="BBC News Persian">
                <action name="Execute">
                    <execute>
                        /home/leylines/.onlinetv bbcnewspersian
                    </execute>
                </action>
            </item>
            <item label="CNN Live Stream 1">
                <action name="Execute">
                    <execute>
                        /home/leylines/.onlinetv cnnlivestream1 (Al Masriya yesterday, Nile TV today)
                    </execute>
                </action>
            </item>
            <item label="CNN Live Stream 2">
                <action name="Execute">
                    <execute>
                        /home/leylines/.onlinetv cnnlivestream2
                    </execute>
                </action>
            </item>
            <item label="CNN Live Stream 3">
                <action name="Execute">
                    <execute>
                        /home/leylines/.onlinetv cnnlivestream3
                    </execute>
                </action>
            </item>
            <item label="CNN Live Stream 4">
                <action name="Execute">
                    <execute>
                        /home/leylines/.onlinetv cnnlivestream4 (al Masriya today)
                    </execute>
                </action>
            </item>
            <item label="France 24 English">
                <action name="Execute">
                    <execute>
                        /home/leylines/.onlinetv france24english
                    </execute>
                </action>
            </item>
            <item label="France 24 French">
                <action name="Execute">
                    <execute>
                        /home/leylines/.onlinetv france24french
                    </execute>
                </action>
            </item>
            <item label="ABC News 24">
                <action name="Execute">
                    <execute>
                        /home/leylines/.onlinetv abcnews24 (australian)
                    </execute>
                </action>
            </item>
            <item label="RT English">
                <action name="Execute">
                    <execute>
                        /home/leylines/.onlinetv RTenglish
                    </execute>
                </action>
            </item>
            <item label="RT Spanish">
                <action name="Execute">
                    <execute>
                        /home/leylines/.onlinetv RTspanish
                    </execute>
                </action>
            </item>
            <item label="RT Arabic">
                <action name="Execute">
                    <execute>
                        /home/leylines/.onlinetv RTarabic
                    </execute>
                </action>
            </item>
        </menu>

and now no need to have a terminal open

johnraff · 2011-02-09 17:36:16

ley_lines wrote:

Has anyone had any luck trying to add any of these channels to the openbox menu? I tried copying the alias info for the al jazeera channel into my .bashrc then going into my obmenu gui and adding an entry called al jazeera with an execute of "xterm -e alj" as well as the entire command both with no luck.

It didn't work because you can only use bash aliases when working in a terminal, and openbox only lets you put simple commands in menu.xml. You have to run a script like Tuna's.

zizou963 · 2011-02-16 10:30:07

if any people like watch al jazeera englich hd or al jazeera live channel
there are some links

http://www.tvandradios.com/al-jazeera-english-hd/

http://www.tvandradios.com/al-jazeera-live-tv-hd/

http://www.tvandradios.com/al-jazeera-live-tv

5c0tt · 2011-02-16 21:01:53

Thank you @Tunafish and @ley_lines for these bits of code- I've got it up and running on my netbook successfully.

Does anyone know how to adjust the streaming resolution for slower connections?

voidzero · 2011-03-08 14:25:18

Thanks everyone for very useful links and approaches.

monkeybritt · 2011-03-08 17:47:29

does anyone know if its possible to do this through totem?

maybe not rtmp plugin for totem?

Last edited by monkeybritt (2011-03-08 17:49:56)

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#1 2011-01-30 16:57:40

Watch Al jazeera English live using only mplayer and rtmpdump

#2 2011-01-30 17:40:07

Re: Watch Al jazeera English live using only mplayer and rtmpdump

#3 2011-01-30 18:07:36

Re: Watch Al jazeera English live using only mplayer and rtmpdump

#4 2011-01-30 20:49:15

Re: Watch Al jazeera English live using only mplayer and rtmpdump

#5 2011-01-30 21:10:26

Re: Watch Al jazeera English live using only mplayer and rtmpdump

#6 2011-01-30 21:13:46

Re: Watch Al jazeera English live using only mplayer and rtmpdump

#7 2011-01-30 21:15:14

Re: Watch Al jazeera English live using only mplayer and rtmpdump

#8 2011-01-31 06:39:45

Re: Watch Al jazeera English live using only mplayer and rtmpdump

#9 2011-01-31 14:37:51

Re: Watch Al jazeera English live using only mplayer and rtmpdump

#10 2011-01-31 18:46:05

Re: Watch Al jazeera English live using only mplayer and rtmpdump

#11 2011-01-31 21:17:49

Re: Watch Al jazeera English live using only mplayer and rtmpdump

#12 2011-02-03 22:53:25

Re: Watch Al jazeera English live using only mplayer and rtmpdump

#13 2011-02-05 01:42:55

Re: Watch Al jazeera English live using only mplayer and rtmpdump

#14 2011-02-05 07:40:41

Re: Watch Al jazeera English live using only mplayer and rtmpdump

#15 2011-02-05 11:19:25

Re: Watch Al jazeera English live using only mplayer and rtmpdump

#16 2011-02-05 15:32:34

Re: Watch Al jazeera English live using only mplayer and rtmpdump

#17 2011-02-09 17:36:16

Re: Watch Al jazeera English live using only mplayer and rtmpdump

#18 2011-02-16 10:30:07

Re: Watch Al jazeera English live using only mplayer and rtmpdump

#19 2011-02-16 21:01:53

Re: Watch Al jazeera English live using only mplayer and rtmpdump

#20 2011-03-08 14:25:18

Re: Watch Al jazeera English live using only mplayer and rtmpdump

#21 2011-03-08 17:47:29

Re: Watch Al jazeera English live using only mplayer and rtmpdump

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