MLB.TV on 6700?

[69L46]

Hi,

I've been trying all season to find a way to watch my mlb.tv subscription via my ppc6700 (sprint). The issues are that the mlb.com website embeds the windows media stream in a flash video player rather than havign a link to the mms:// URL and that although on a desktop I can right-click the video that's playing and get the URL with all the authentication in place and paste it into windows media player there is a really short time limit to do this so I can't e-mail myself the URL and open on the ppc (it's way to long to copy by hand).

With PIE nothing really works at all - in fact www.mlb.com redirects to wap.mlb.com. Opera 8.56 beta gets as far as opening the window that is supposed to have the player, but the player doesn't load.

I've tried modifying the javascript that the mlb.com website drops on my desktop, but the authentication and stream launch appear to be hidden in a workflow on the mlb.com site so I haven't found a way to get the URL with the authorization without using mlb's flash video player.

Copying the URL for the audio stream has worked for me in the past, but the authorization window seems to be a lot longer (probably due to bandwidth).

Anyone have any luck with this - or any ideas?

[PhilR8]

There is a program called Live Baseball Browser 2006 which I used during the '06 season, back when I had an mlb.tv subscription. Apparently you can still buy it here:

http://www.mobiletopsoft.com/pocket-...006-1-1-7.html

However, when you go directly to the developer's site(http://www.ivanx.com/lbb/), this is all you will find:

"Where's LBB?

Unfortunately, MLB Advanced Media requested that I shut down Live Baseball Browser, so LBB will not be available in 2007.

Needless to say, this is a major bummer, and not a choice I want to make, and not the news I want to deliver. But the alternative is being a lone developer against an army of lawyers representing a company that really wants to control every aspect of how their products are used and distributed.

It doesn't really matter whether I have the legal right to develop and distribute LBB (which I believe I do). I don't have the resources to fight for it.

Thanks much for all your kind words of support and enthusiasm for LBB 2006 (and MTR). And good luck to your team in 2007!

Ivan X"

Does this mean that the '06 version of the software no longer works? I have no idea. This does point to the obvious conclusion that MLB is readying their own PPC application, hopefully to debut next season. I guess we'll see!

[69L46]

I was aware of that and also tried the 2006 trial version, but it doesn't work. Plus that was designed for audio - which the trick of mailing the URL to yourself seems to work (the last time I tried it).

My guess is that MLB is going to have a separate mobile product through Sprint and/or Verizon, but like SpintTv, it will probably be incompatible with WM devices.

[PhilR8]

It was designed for video AND audio. I watched several games on my PPC6700.

[69L46]

Bummer - with Opera mobile I get close to getting it to work.

[69L46]

I found a somewhat inconvenient workaround, but it appears to work.

Essentially I'm using Orb on a WinXP computer to relay the authorized URL for the stream to my PPC - not the stream itself. Here's a quick howto (sorry if it's very rough)

Prereqs: mlb.tv account, Orb (I use 2.0), Orb server and client set up to stream with windows media (asx).
Limitations: The authorization to start streaming times out quickly (just as on the desktop). You have to start streaming to the PPC ASAP (this was the bottleneck). Once you start the stream, don't stop it since orb is relaying the URL, not restreaming the stream.

1. Start Orb on PC and login. Make sure you tell orb to remember you, your password, and auto log you in.
2. go to mycast.orb.com on the PPC and login and tell it to save your password and autologin - I use PIE instead of Opera just because it's faster - and go to TV->favorites (I think)
3. Back on the PC, under TV->Internet TV add a new custom channel. Leave the URL blank, but do not close the add favorite dialog yet.
4. On the PC go to www.mlb.com and select the game you wish to watch
5. If you haven't logged into mlb.com for a few minutes, it should ask you for your e-mail and passowrd.
6. IMMEDIATELY after you are authorized and the mlb media player turns black for buffering, right click on the video window and select properties.
7. IMMEDIATELY copy the URL (it should start with mms:// and your IP address should be near the very end) and paste it into the URL box in the add favorite dialog in Orb and hit OK.
8. IMMEDIATELY after orb is done checking the URL, on the PPC refresh the mycast page with the custom link (should be internet tv)
9. IMMEDIATELY tap on the link to the mlb stream

If you did everything fast enough, WMP should open up and the URL should change from "http://..." to something like "<date> : <away team> at <home team>" and then start streaming.

Note: If you've already set up an internet TV favorite, just edit the URL in orb instead of creating a new one, just remember you have to refresh the page on teh PPC to send you the correct URL.

From the number of "IMMEDIATELY"s above, you can see that it is important to do everything quickly. The clock starts ticking as soon as the URL for the stream is retrieved so have the Orb and the PPC ready to go - I even keep the mycast.orb.com page with the custom channel on it open and refresh selected from the menu.

I have not had luck e-mailing the stream's URL (which includes all the authentication) to myself and clicking on the link in my mail on the PPC. Nor have I had luck with editing a file on my PPC with the mms URL from the PC from which I log onto mlb.com. Maybe I was too slow, or maybe since orb checks the url, it keeps it alive longer. I stumbled on this trying to get orb to relay the stream itself from the PC to the PPC, but it appears, quite reasonably, that orb just relays the url instead of capturing and reencoding the stream.

Hopefully there's no real way for mlb.com to tell this is going on as they are planning on rolling out live video feeds, supposedly to WM5/WM6 devices in addition to the Java phones, this playoff season for an extra charge.

Anyways time to get back to watching the Indians and Twins!

[69L46]

BTW - Opera for the desktop doesn't even work with mlb.tv, so once people get that figured out, Opera mobile might work. Too bad folks in the know over at the Opera forums have the attitude that if a site doesn't work with Opera, it's a problem with the site and not Opera, which is perfect by default.