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Why can't people in US watch Al Jazeera?

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Re: Why can't people in US watch Al Jazeera?

#22

Post by [deleted] »

ComputerGuru wrote: post #8
spooneybarger wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whenever I try, it barely works and usually crashes. Right now, barely works would be a kind description. The stations I get via cable/sat tv etc don't have scaling problems of this sort. They might have crap coverage and you could argue that is a scaling issue of some sort but.. at least I can manage to watch.

There's an alternate feed available from livestation in both SD and HD editions. http://www.livestation.com/channels/3-al_jazeera_english And a RealPlayer live stream, which (as much as RealPlayer sucks) may be a better choice than Flash. But it's pretty low-def: http://europe.real.com/smil/aljazeera_us_lo.ram

[deleted]

Re: Why can't people in US watch Al Jazeera?

#23

Post by r11t »

For Linux users wanting to watching without using browser + flash, using mplayer + rtmpdump:

  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 -

Re: Why can't people in US watch Al Jazeera?

#25

Post by yummyfajitas »

nodata wrote: post #16
CountSessine wrote: post #9

It's surprising just how good a new source Al Jazeera is. I wish my cable operator let me subscribe to Al Jazeera in lieu of CNN.

In all seriousness, they could generate the news on CNN with an algorithm and it would be immensely better than what they pump out now.

CNN isn't generated by an algorithm? I thought they were just scraping twitter.

Re: Why can't people in US watch Al Jazeera?

#26

Post by berntb »

getsat wrote: post #19

There is a large subset of the US population that would distrust any information from an Arabic source. BBC, Reuters, and Al Jazeera are amazing compared to CNN/MSNBC/FOX.

>>There is a large subset of the US population that would distrust any information from an Arabic source.

There are reasons for that.

For example, the state controlled/censored media in the muslim world are infamous for antisemitic hate mongering. (State sanctioned racism... what does that remind you of?)

A second problem is that I have no idea about the spin in Al Jazeera (except for their host country). Does anyone? I can make good guesses on what to not trust in e.g. my local media and NY Times (mainly big advertisers).

Note: I'm not arguing that all (or even most) media in the US are more dependable than e.g. Bild zeitung.

Edit: I thought I should add a reference about antisemitic content in Arab media, so I checked Wikipedia and found a reference -- to Al Jazeera! (That isn't that heavily censored by any state. But fun enough that I added a separate comment with the quote.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_and_antisemitism#Yusuf_al...

Re: Why can't people in US watch Al Jazeera?

#27

Post by w1ntermute »

ComputerGuru wrote: post #8
spooneybarger wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whenever I try, it barely works and usually crashes. Right now, barely works would be a kind description. The stations I get via cable/sat tv etc don't have scaling problems of this sort. They might have crap coverage and you could argue that is a scaling issue of some sort but.. at least I can manage to watch.

There's an alternate feed available from livestation in both SD and HD editions. http://www.livestation.com/channels/3-al_jazeera_english And a RealPlayer live stream, which (as much as RealPlayer sucks) may be a better choice than Flash. But it's pretty low-def: http://europe.real.com/smil/aljazeera_us_lo.ram

> as much as RealPlayer sucks

No need for RealPlayer. Just get Media Player Classic Home Cinema (http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/) and Real Alternative (http://www.filehippo.com/download_real_alternative/). With that combination, RealMedia streams have become one of my favorites. You can do the same with QuickTime, by getting QuickTime Lite (http://www.filehippo.com/download_quicktime_alternative/).

Re: Why can't people in US watch Al Jazeera?

#28

Post by berntb »

Well, there seems to be much interesting information missed from the US air waves... :-)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_and_antisemitism#Yusuf_al...

In a sermon, which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on January 9, 2009 [...] "Oh Allah, take your enemies, the enemies of Islam. Oh Allah, take the Jews, the treacherous aggressors. Oh Allah, take this profligate, cunning, arrogant band of people. [...] Oh Allah, take this oppressive, Jewish, Zionist band of people. Oh Allah, do not spare a single one of them. Oh Allah, count their numbers, and kill them, down to the very last one."

Edit: I quoted (from Wikipedia) the content of the TV channel people want to show in the western world. Down voting is for lack of counter arguments?

Edit 2: I think it is really funny that I get downvoted a lot for noting that antisemitic hatred and prayers for genocide are sent on Al J -- the non-English one...

Re: Why can't people in US watch Al Jazeera?

#29

Post by borism »

r11t wrote: post #23

For Linux users wanting to watching without using browser + flash, using mplayer + rtmpdump: 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_no…

just pulled rtmpdump from macports (I already have mplayer, of course) and I can confirm it works on mac too... except their rtmp provider seems to be getting killed right now.

I would recommend switching to Livestation, quality isn't as good, but at least it works (on Linux too).

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