# ESS.tv Linux HOWTO

## ciaran27

ESS in Gentoo 

Screenshot

If you don't already know, Every Show Sucks is an online streaming television network. The network servers have a limited number of seats for public viewing, or with a $5 a month subscription you can get prefered access. After paying $50 a month for 70 channels of useless programming from the local cable provider, ESS is a welcome alternative. 

The ESS streams are broadcast in Nullsoft Video, a streaming format developed by the creators of WinAmp. XMMS does not have built in support to play these streams, but adding MPlayer and the XMMPlayer plugin makes watching ESS in Gentoo easy.

You can use emerge to install all the needed software with this command:

```
echo "media-video/mplayer xmms win32codecs" >> /etc/portage/package.use

emerge mplayer xmms xmmplayer
```

After installing XMMS, MPlayer, and XMMPlayer, you need to download the appropriate VP3 and VP6 codecs HERE.

MD5SUM: d134aa8725e67af8c24a8df167289b86  vpcodecs.tar.bz2

 Uncompress and copy them to the MPlayer codec directory.

```
tar jxvf vpcodecs.tar.bz2

cp codecs/* /usr/lib/win32
```

Lastly, download a copy of the modified ESS Playlist

Open the playlist in XMMS:

```
xmms ess.pls
```

You can now watch the ESS streams in XMMS. Unsubcribed users may have to wait for a public seat on a busy server. If you get a Server Full error on connect, keep trying or subscribe.

For all those future posts about how this should all be free, go complain to your ISP. The bandwidth needed to stream multiple channels of video to hundreds of users is not cheap. $5 a month for a subscription is well wirth the price with the current alternatives.

Enjoy  :Smile: Last edited by ciaran27 on Fri Apr 07, 2006 9:54 pm; edited 2 times in total

----------

## destr0yr

 *ciaran27 wrote:*   

> 
> 
> ```
> USE="xmms win32codecs" emerge mplayer xmms xmmplayer
> ```
> ...

 

Looks interesting... I'll have to try this out. 

Regarding the quote above, wouldn't this make life easier down the road:

```

# echo "media-video/mplayer xmms win32codecs" >> /etc/portage/package.use

```

Since xmms and win32codecs are not valid USE flags for either xmms nor xmmplayer they're not really needed (correct me if I'm wrong)?!

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## amdunlock

hi,

is this the only possibilty to watch american tv in europe, because i read, that the quality is very bad.

Greetings, Oliver

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## ciaran27

My suggestion is with the setup above, put one stream in the list and set xmms to repeat until you get on in a public seat. That will allow you to see what the stream quality is on your connection. Also go sign up at ess.tv and read the forums. There are people from outside the states that have posted their experiencs with the ess streams. I have a good friend in Ireland who watches ESS with me while chatting on skype. If we both start a stream at the same time we can go an hour or more without becomming more than a few seconds out of sync. You will also find that there are a few channels of european TV on ESS as well. I watch Red Dwarf and Fawlty Towers all the time  :Smile: 

Thx for the input destr0yr, made the changes.

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## csab

This looks very interesting. However very suspicious to me, too. Is this legal? There is nothing on the site about how royalties are paid. Aren't they just catching the live stream from TV and broadcast it? Also, the site is .tv, which means they registered it on Tuvalu and this makes easier to avoid control.

I can't even find on the website what shows are aired. It's like they don't want to advertise it.

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## ssokolow

Couldn't this be done using only MPlayer? The only potential benefit I see to using XMMS is that it would simplify the playlist handling.

I use Audacious for my music playing and, if it weren't for my Playstation emulator, GTKtalog, and one or two other non-XMMS apps, I'd have GTK 1.x hard-masked. (Recent versions of GMPlayer use GTK 2.x)

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## Hypexr

I am guessing to get this working in a 64 bit environment I would need to create a 32 bit chrooted environment for the codec to work....?

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## ssokolow

 *Hypexr wrote:*   

> I am guessing to get this working in a 64 bit environment I would need to create a 32 bit chrooted environment for the codec to work....?

 

If I understand the instructions correctly, you only need a 32-bit MPlayer. No chroot necessary if you can get one.

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## slycordinator

 *csab wrote:*   

> This looks very interesting. However very suspicious to me, too. Is this legal? There is nothing on the site about how royalties are paid. Aren't they just catching the live stream from TV and broadcast it? Also, the site is .tv, which means they registered it on Tuvalu and this makes easier to avoid control.
> 
> I can't even find on the website what shows are aired. It's like they don't want to advertise it.

 

From the site's FAQ

 *Quote:*   

> Q: How can I help ESS?
> 
> A: We aren't comfortable accepting assistance on a widescale basis. Our fans help keep our site alive with donations, we don't feel we should depend on them for content as well. In addition, keeping our encoding process closed allows us to better improve our encoding profiles, efficiently fix episode errors and maintain quality control and consistency within our servers and our lineup.

 

Seems suspicous to me as well.

Seems like what they're doing is likely illegal and they're keeping it closed as well.

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## ColdWind

Anyone has tried with other app rather than mplayer and xmms?

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## loxins

thanks ciaran27  this works great.  real easy and simple.

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## Gridmark

To answer a few questions,

Using XMMplayer is just for the playlist. I've been watching ess.tv for months using just mplayer. But its a damn good idea since It's a pain to have to grep the playlist for the URL.

Just download the current playlist at http://ess.tv/ess.pls and grab the URL of the show you want to watch and dump it into mplayer

```

wget http://ess.tv/ess.pls

#Look through and find a stream you want

mplayer http://mrburns.ess.tv:18081 #For example

```

Easy as pie.

In addition to this, I was watching these on my amd64 box using the mplayer-bin ebuild which supports the win32 codecs.

```

emerge -av mplayer-bin

mplayer-bin http://mrburns.ess.tv:18081 #For example

```

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## fedekapo

Excelent!

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## nico_calais

that's exactly what I'm doing with mplayer. I had first to re-emerge mplayer with the "live" flag.

I also edited the playlist to get a better view of it.

ex : 

----------------

The Simpsons

----------------

http://willie.ess.tv:11411

It's just fine for me to use it that way.

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## someguy

i work in the same datacenter that ess.tv is hosted in and our ipspace gets free access  :Very Happy: 

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## ciaran27

Well,  the cooperate swine has won out again. ESS is shutting down for good. Here is a copy of the mail sent to all subscribers:

##### Begin Mail #####

I apologize if you've received multiple copies of this message.  Our server is struggling.

I'd like to open this e-mail by thanking you for supporting the ess.tv service.  Our subscribers were the only reason that this service was able to survive as long as it did - we could not have done it without you.

Unfortunately, due to increasing pressure from various organizations, ESS will have to shut down operations this weekend.  All subscriptions will be terminated and all of our streams will be taken offline.  It is with great regret that we end this service that has provided nothing but enjoyment and niche-show awareness for this past year, but we do not have the financial backing to attempt to contest the claims made against us.

I will be handling refunds on a per-person basis.  If you feel that ESS has not been worth your $5 for this month, then please send a message to support@ess.tv and I will arrange a refund.  For those who do not ask for a refund, you have my thanks - it will be very difficult to close out this month's server bills if everyone asks for a refund. =(

Thank you again for supporting ESS.  We'll miss you.

##### End Mail #####

Was great while it lasted. Thanks to Joshie, Ace, and the rest of the guys that made ESS for the rest of us to enjoy.

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## Lurker22

ESS May be gone but out of it rised a new station. That is Subscription Only. - Yes we know most of you are not willing to pay 5$ A month but it is out here for those members of ESS.TV. here is the Site if you need Recommendations Please Email me @ sourcestream@gmail.com. I find posting this for all those who use linux that liked that TV Service to be a good thing not as an Advertiser. Thank you have a great day!

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## Mgiese

 *Lurker22 wrote:*   

> ESS May be gone but out of it rised a new station. That is Subscription Only. - Yes we know most of you are not willing to pay 5$ A month but it is out here for those members of ESS.TV. here is the Site if you need Recommendations Please Email me @ sourcestream@gmail.com. I find posting this for all those who use linux that liked that TV Service to be a good thing not as an Advertiser. Thank you have a great day!

 grml to sad ...  :Sad: 

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