Can You Watch Apple's Keynote Stream? Requirements and Workarounds

[MacRumors]

It came as a surprise to everyone tonight when Apple announced that they would be live streaming video of their September media event across the web. The news, however, was somewhat dulled by the fact that Apple announced that the stream will only be viewable on an OS X 10.6 Mac or an iOS device (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad). The reason for the limitation isn't entirely arbitrary, as Apple is using a new streaming technology called HTTP Live Streaming which was introduced alongside Snow Leopard's QuickTime X and iOS 3.0.

While the protocol has been proposed as a standard, so far Apple is one of a few companies who has implemented it. As a result, the video will only be easily viewable on the specified platforms. There seem to be some advantages to the system over existing streaming technologies. Notably, there should be no router/firewall issues as the stream is sent over standard HTTP protocols.

If you're not sure you will be able to view stream, you can try loading this HTTP Live sample stream that Apple has provided.

For those who are desperate to watch the stream close to live, it seems likely that you will be able to watch it -- at least in stops and starts. The HTTP Live Stream protocol is based on very standard technologies. The stream is simply provided in an MPEG2 playlist (m3u file) that is added to as the stream continues. These standard playlists will load in VLC for both Mac and Windows. VLC, for example, will play the above sample stream using this url:

http://devimages.apple.com/iphone/sa...rog_index.m3u8

VLC will load all parts of the stream into its own playlist. It works fine for this pre-recorded stream as the entire playlist is already constructed. The catch for tomorrow's live transmission is that VLC doesn't know that more will becoming, so it looks like you'll have to repeatedly reload the playlist manually to get the next few segments. It's not an elegant solution, but with some persistence, it seems like it will work.

Of course, if you're not so desperate, you can watch our text coverage here, on Twitter, or wait for the official stream to be posted later in the day.

Article Link: Can You Watch Apple's Keynote Stream? Requirements and Workarounds

[Orange™]

Finally an Apple event where were not bound to twitter updates... Thanks regardless though!

Don't worry if this hurts the amount of page hits you receive tomorrow, I'm sure you'll find another "preview" to write about to soften the blow. Perhaps an in depth look at the flashlight app?

[lostngone]

It is about time they started doing this again, welcome to the 21st century.


Money for nothing and Bandwidth for free!

[DylanLikesPorn]

Hmmm, that's an interesting tech demo of bipbopall. So, basically, they are able to stream NTSC 640x480x30 over HTTP. Cool! Thanks for the links, MacRumors. You're the best!

[AppEzzy]

Sample site works perfect from my iPhone 4 over wi-fi or 3g
Finally a live feed that hopefully will be reliable tomorrow!

[motwera]

, my bad

[OtherJesus]

I approve of this.

[SnowLeopard2008]

Awesome... I can watch this instead of paying attention on the first day of high school.

[QuarterSwede]

Originally Posted by lostngone

It is about time they started doing this again, welcome to the 21st century.

At least when you watch this stream you won't be booted off or it will actually begin playing unlike every other stream technology out. That's most likely why Apple stopped streaming in the first place. The old tech is garbage when streaming to a lot of people at once. Every time I've used HTTP live streaming it's been flawless and it looked fantastic. I suspect tomorrow's event will be the same.

[Jaro65]

Finally. A picture is worth a thousand words.

[bartelby]

Bloody typical!
The first event in ages they stream live and I'm too busy to watch it!

[Merthyrboy]

I wonder if anyone watched that video for the 30 mins it was on?

[DylanLikesPorn]

Originally Posted by bartelby

Bloody typical!
The first event in ages they stream live and I'm too busy to watch it!

If the stream was important to you, you'd make the time for it. No one is every too busy for things that are of value to them.

[DoFoT9]

excellent!

if anybody wants to chat about it please visit the MR IRC channel!

irc.krono.net
#macrumors

here's to iOS4 for iPads!

[stridemat]

Originally Posted by DylanLikesPorn

If the stream was important to you, you'd make the time for it. No one is every too busy for things that are of value to them.

Some of us have to work!

[Capex]

Bip. Bop. Bip. Bop. XD

[DoFoT9]

Originally Posted by stridemat

Some of us have to work!

and sleep (3am)

[djellison]

I'm proposing a new open standard where everyone drives with the legs of an inflatable sheep out of the trunk of their car.

Yes yes, I know no-one else is doing it... but it's an OPEN STANDARD

[SockRolid]

I wonder if Steve will say, at one point during his talk, "We're proud to announce that the Netflix app on iTV uses open-standard HTTP Live Streaming, which we're using to broadcast this event over the internet as I speak. It's a high performance protocol that produces great streaming video, as those of you watching right now can see..."

[dazzer21]

Originally Posted by SockRolid

I wonder if Steve will say, at one point during his talk, "We're proud to announce that the Netflix app on iTV uses open-standard HTTP Live Streaming, which we're using to broadcast this event over the internet as I speak. It's a high performance protocol that produces great streaming video, as those of you watching right now can see..."

Make that 'It's a high performance protocol that produces MAGICAL streaming video...'

[longball11]

I'm a bit confused with some of the posts. I feel that Apple is making requirements to prevent the live streaming from being overpopulated and congested by traffic. Some of you are saying this Apple way prevents that? I'm confused.

[lokster]

hmm i cant see it on my snow leopard! =/

[QuarterSwede]

Originally Posted by djellison

I'm proposing a new open standard where everyone drives with the legs of an inflatable sheep out of the trunk of their car.

Yes yes, I know no-one else is doing it... but it's an OPEN STANDARD

Except that this open standard actually works well unlike most of the other streaming platforms.

Originally Posted by SockRolid

... It's a high performance protocol that produces great streaming video, as those of you watching right now can see..."

It sure does. Works a treat on my iPhone.

[shrnily]

So I dont have to wait for the Apple to provide stream hours after the event.
Now I can lie in bed and watch what Job would like to mention amazing.

Event goes live at China time 01:00 am...

[RF9]

FYI, MLB.com and UFC both use HTTP live streaming to broadcast live streams to the Roku Player. Roku supports HTTP live streaming as the preferred live streaming protocol.

Had there been ample time (and know the URL to the stream,) a channel could have been created/published to the Roku Player to stream this even live.