MyWebTV

Use embed code to add channel

2010-05-28T05:14:00.000-07:00

Hello,

I have added another feature to the webtv. If you wish, you can use a channels embed code to publish it to your webtv. Most streaming sites allow you to embed their player on your website and give you an html embed code to do so. Now all you need to do is to paste this piece of html into the "Add Channel" form in your control panel. If you have trouble with a particular code, please post it here.

Elvis

Add HTML to your webtv

2010-05-24T20:22:00.000-07:00

If you wish to add html to your webtv, this is now possible. You can use it in the description field of your channels. If you want to add hyperlinks, this can be inconvenient though because when your visitors will click on the link, it will also launch the channel you added the html description for.

Therefore I have added what I call HTML channels. These channels are particular in the fact no player will be launched when the user clicks on its row in the webtv channel list. If you want to add a html channel, just leave the channel link blank and insert the html you want to add in the description field. Optionally add a channel name. If you don't, the logo, the channel number and the channel name columns will not be displayed. Just the HTML code you have added in the description. This way you could add a chat for instance, a chipin widget or any other piece of html directly in your webtv. You may also want to use this to add text in a seperate row in the webtv, with instructions for your viewers for example. An example of an html channel is displayed in the webtv demo on the homepage.

To create this HTML channel I have simply added this piece of code in the description field of the "Add Channel" form:

<a href="http://blog.mywebtv.cc/2010/05/add-html-to-your-webtv.html" target="_blank" class="customlink">HTML Popup Demo</a>

I have also added this piece of css in my WebTV Style page:

a.customlink:link,
a.customlink:hover,
a.customlink:visited,
a.customlink:active,
a.customlink:focus {
display:block;
text-decoration:none;
text-align:center;
color:white;
}

a.customlink:hover {
background:#cc4400;
}

This css code transforms the simple hyperlink into a large button that changes color when hovered upon. This is optional though.

Another thing you may want to consider when making html channels is the style to give to the html channel rows. You can do this with the htmlrow class added to html channel rows. You can find the demo webtv css file here. I have used this css rule to turn off row highlighting on html channels:

.tv tr.highlightrow.htmlrow {
background:transparent;
}

So there you go. A simple example of how to add html to your webtv by making a html channel. Giving it style with your css file is more challenging but it gives great results.

Thanks for using mywebtv,
Elvis

Veetle + Zonein + Webpages

2010-05-21T12:23:00.000-07:00

I have added support for Veetle and Zonein. You can add Veetle channels like this:

http://www.veetle.com/v/xxxxxxxxxxxxx
or
http://www.veetle.com/view/index.html#xxxxxxxxxxxxx

you can add Zonein channels like this:
http://mywetv.cc/zonein/xxxx

You must substitute the xxxx with the channel id.

To add webpages, just use the url of the webpage you want to add. By default the webpages will open in the webtv. If you want the webpage to popup in a new window, add #popup at the end of the url. If you want it to open in the current window, add #top.

You can find info on Veetle and Zonein here:
http://www.veetle.com
http://www.zonein.tv

Enjoy,
Admin

WebTV API

2010-05-04T21:27:00.000-07:00

Hello,

for those of you who would like to do a little more with your website and your webtv, I have added an API to the webtv so you can control it with javascript from within your own website. The API offers 3 functions to you:

toggleChannels()
togglePlayer()
playChannel('xxxxx')

As you can imagine toggleChannels() will open the channel list but it will also refresh the channel list. togglePlayer() will open the player, displaying the last channel that was playing. playChannel('xxxxx') will play the channel number xxxxx. You can find the number for each of your channels in your channel list xml file. A link to this file is given in your control panel here.

I have posted a demonstration of how you can use the API here. Here is the code I have used to make links to control the webtv:

<a href="javascript:void(togglePlayer())" target="_self">Player</a>
<br />
<a href="javascript:void(toggleChannels())" target="_self">Channels</a>
<br />
<a href="javascript:void(playChannel('58777'))" target="_self">JustinTV Demo</a>
<br />
<a href="javascript:void(playChannel('58778'))" target="_self">Ustream Demo</a>
<br />
<a href="javascript:void(playChannel('58785'))" target="_self">Youtube Demo</a>

If you wish, you could also use buttons or images instead of links to control the webtv. The API should give you all the freedom you need in designing the webtv so it really has the look you want.

You may find it tedious to go manually updating your channel list on your website. To overcome this obstacle you can use php with simplexml and parse your webtv xml file. You can find a demonstration of this technique here. Here is the php code to create the channel list dynamically:


<div style="float:left; width:200px; height:300px; overflow:auto;">
<a href="javascript:void(togglePlayer())" target="_self">Player</a>
<br />
<a href="javascript:void(toggleChannels())" target="_self">Channels</a>
<br />
<?php
$webtv = "BlackTV";

// Get your webtv channels from mywebtv server
$channels = simplexml_load_file("http://mywebtv.cc/$webtv.xml");
// If your webserver doesn't support allow_url_fopen (see phpinfo())
// then replace the above line with the following
// Copy you channels file in you webserver directory
//$channels = simplexml_load_string(file_get_contents("$webtv.xml"));

// You can make a button for each channel that is online
foreach ($channels->channel as $channel)
if ($channel->online)
echo "<a href=\"javascript:void(playChannel('$channel->id'))\" target=\"_self\" title=\"$channel->description\">$channel->name</a><br />";
?>
</div>


In order to load your channel list xml file into a simplexml object you will need to do one of two things. Either you fetch it directly on mywebtv server, in which case you are sure it is fresh. This is the better option. If however your php server doesn't allow you to fetch a file on a remote server, which is the case with most free php webservers, then you will need to copy your xml file on your server. I have added a FTP Server option in your control panel (here) if you wish MyWebTV to upload your xml file on your ftp server to keep the file fresh.

It may be of some interest to you to know I have found 2 free php servers supporting remote files access and simplexml with php:
- http://www.freewebhostingarea.com/
- http://www.000webhost.com/

Finally, it's important to note you will need to update your webtv code with the latest embed code available from your control panel in order to use the webtv api.

Enjoy,
Elvis

Keyboard shortcuts

2010-05-04T21:16:00.000-07:00

If you go to your webtv tools section you will find a few new options to customize your embed code. One of them is to include keyboard shortcuts. If you choose to include them, then you can open the channel list and refresh channels with "C" and you can open the player with "P". This should be particularly useful if you wish to remove the navigation bar from your webtv.

Elvis

Removing or resizing columns

2010-04-27T14:34:00.000-07:00

Hello,

in this post I'll explain how to remove column(s) and how to resize column(s). You can see the result of the manipulation here http://mywebtv.cc/BlackTV.html

You can see the column of icons has been removed and the column of index has been made smaller. So has the column of channel title. The column of channel description is wider. Here is the css code of the columns before the manipulation:

.title_desc {
width:10%;
text-align:center;
}

.title_asce {
width:10%;
text-align:center;
}

.title_channel {
width:40%;
}

.title_description {
width:40%;
}

The css class title_desc is applied to the index column, title_asce is applied to the icons column, title_channel is applied to the channel name column and title_description is applied to the channel description column.

Here is the css code after modification:

.title_desc {
width:5%;
text-align:center;
}

.title_asce {
width:0;
display:none;
text-align:center;
}

.title_channel {
width:20%;
}

.title_description {
width:75%;
}

Notice the width property of the columns has changed. By default, width of the columns are defined in percentage values because I do not know what width you will want your webtv to have. However if you are set on what width you will give your webtv you can use pixels instead to specify the width. Just make sure you use all percentage or all pixels and if you use pixels, make sure the width sums up to the width of your webtv.

Also notice that display property is set to none on the icons column. This effectively removes it from your webtv.

If you are making changes to your webtv css and you want the changes to be applied immediately, you will need to cache manually the webtv after saving the changes (using the cache button on the FeaturedChannels section of your control panel).

So there you go.

Enjoy the webtvs,
Elvis

Embedding your webtv

2010-04-27T13:20:00.000-07:00

Hello,

I'd like to take a little time to explain how to embed the webtv. Assuming you have already registered and activated your account, the next step will be to get your webtv code in the "MyTools" section of your control panel located here: http://mywebtv.cc/admin?section=MyTools

There you will see a big box with your webtv embed code in it. Under the box you can customize the code for your webtv by changing its size. You can set the width of your webtv in pixels or in percentage. You can only set the height in pixels. You can also change the startup channel. This setting will override the "Default channel" setting in FeaturedChannels section. So as long as the channel you've set there is not deleted from your webtv, you webtv will start this channel on load. Normally, you will want to leave this to "no override".

Once you've customized your embed code you must copy it onto your website/blog/webpage. The embed code is html code. This means when you paste it on your webpage, you must make sure you can use html. This will only be a problem if you are using a content management system. If you are publishing the webtv directly on your website, then this won't be problem.

If you are pasting your webtv code on your website, you must make sure the page isn't displayed in quirks mode in internet explorer, because the webtv doesn't display very well in quirks mode. Amongst other things, pay attention to your doctype declaration to ensure the page doesn't enter quirks mode.

The webtv should be embedded in the top window. The reason for this is that tracking of the webtvs uses the document.referer property and this won't work if the webtv is embedded inside a child frame. Tracking can be deactivated for the premium webtvs. So if you keep getting "You must embed the webtv in the top window." error and you have a premium webtv, disable tracking from the control panel.

Getting back to the topic at hand. Once you have copied the webtv code, you must paste it into your webpage. You can paste it anywhere inside the body of your page. Here is the html code for this page: http://mywebtv.cc/BlackTV.html

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
<title>BlackTV Demo</title>
</head>

<body>
<center>


<div id="webtvdiv" style="text-align: center; line-height: 0;"><div><iframe src="http://mywebtv.cc/BlackTV/bar" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" scrolling="no" id="bar" name="bar" width="80%" height="28px" style="margin:0;padding:0;">Your browser doesn't support iframe</iframe></div><div><iframe src="http://mywebtv.cc/BlackTV/webtv" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" style="margin:1px 0 0 0; padding:0;" scrolling="auto" id="webtv" name="webtv" width="80%" height="371px">Your browser doesn't support iframe</iframe></div></div>


</center>
</body>
</html>

If you want to test your webtv without publishing it to the internet, just paste the above html into your favorite text editor, replace the BlackTV code with your own code you got in the control panel and save the file with .html extension. Then open it with your web browser and you will see your webtv embedded onto a webpage.

So there you go. Bottom line is:
1- Copy your code from control panel
2- Paste it into your website/bog/webpage

Hoping this can help you out,
MyWebTV Admin

Ads + Privacy + Donation

2010-04-21T16:22:00.000-07:00

Hello,

As you may have also seen with the new webtv design, the text ads are gone. However I have kept the referral link to mywebtv. and I've put it as a button in the navigation bar of the webtv. I have also added a redirection to the webtv. An advertisement will popup every four times the widget is loaded in the browser. This is aimed particularly to users placing the widget behind password protected pages, as I cannot confirm the navigation bar and the referral link are properly displayed in these cases.

In order to further enforce the privacy of the mywebtv users, I have changed the cache process of the webtv so it deletes the webtv home page (http://mywebtv.cc/webtvname) if you set your webtv as private.

I have also started accepting donations. In return for your donations, you will get 1 month of adless premium webtv service for each 4 full dollars donated. You will be able to add an illimited number of channels. In order to donate for your webtv, you should login and visit the donation page:

http://mywebtv.cc/donate

If you donate 12$ or more I can also customize your webtv for you. I can make a custom css with the colors of your website, blog or webpage. I can also integrate the webtv with your own navigation bar so you can eliminate the mywebtv navigation bar. If you wish we can also put the channel list and the player in two different windows. If you want a slimmer channel list, I can remove some of the columns in the channel list. For instance we could set it up so it only has the logo and the channel name.

Hoping to hear from you soon,
Elvis
admin at mywebtv.cc

WebTV simplified

2010-04-17T01:20:00.000-07:00

Hello

I have redesigned slightly the webtvs to improve the loading time and to make them easier to use. I have removed the yahoo libraries. This hopefully will make it so you can change your css files more easily. As you will see the html of the webtv and the css is much simpler and easier to customize. I have also seperated the widget in two iframes so the channels table loads faster and better. The top iframe contains the navigation bar and the main iframe contains the channels table and the player. I have removed the use of tabs and placed two buttons instead, "Player" and "Channels". In order to refresh the channel list, you must hit the "Channels" button. You will also see there is now a status bar that appears on top of the channel list. It will display messages when refreshing the channel list or when an error occurs, for instance if you are trying to play a TVU stream with firefox.

One of the side effects of dropping the yahoo libraries is that older web browsers may not be supported very well. Right now the navigation bar is mandatory because it contains the referral link to mywebtv. If you wish to use your own navigation bar instead, email me and we can talk about it.

All the webtvs have switched to the blue theme. You can switch them to the theme you want by copy pasting the content of these files into your WebTVStyle page in the control panel:
http://mywebtv.cc/css/custom/bluetv_v4webtv.css
http://mywebtv.cc/css/custom/brown_tv_v4webtv.css
http://mywebtv.cc/css/custom/fish_tv_v4webtv.css
http://mywebtv.cc/css/custom/green_tv_v4webtv.css
http://mywebtv.cc/css/custom/ocean_tv_v4webtv.css
http://mywebtv.cc/css/custom/orange_v4webtv.css
http://mywebtv.cc/css/custom/red_tv_v4webtv.css
http://mywebtv.cc/css/custom/violet_tv_v4webtv.css
http://mywebtv.cc/css/custom/blacktv_v4webtv.css

Elvis
admin at mywebtv.cc

********** edit ***********

As you may have also seen with the new webtv design, the text ads are gone. However I have kept the referral link to mywebtv. and I've put it as a button in the navigation bar of the webtv. I have also added a redirection to the webtv. An advertisement will popup every four times the widget is loaded in the browser. This is aimed particularly to users placing the widget behind password protected pages, as I cannot confirm the navigation bar and the referral link are properly displayed in these cases.

In order to further enforce the privacy of the mywebtv users, I have changed the cache process of the webtv so it deletes the webtv home page (http://mywebtv.cc/webtvname) if you set your webtv as private.

More New Features

2009-08-01T08:23:00.000-07:00

Hi,

a few more features have been added to the service today. The webtvs now have a home page located at http://mywebtv.cc/yourtvname. Also a cbox has been associated to your account. It is visible on the webtv home page. You can change the cbox code to your own cbox code if you have one from the new Account panel.

If you don't wish to have you webtv acitivty displayed on the homepage, you can also select the new private option. The activity for your webtv is also in the control panel now.

Elvis

New MyWebTV features

2009-07-29T19:10:00.001-07:00

Hi all,

today the mywebtv service has been updated. As a result your webtvs now have a new look. There are now 8 skins you can choose from for your webtv. They can be watched on the gallery. You now also have greater control over the webtv css so you can give it the look you want. You must make sure however the "Powered by MyWebTV" text and the ads text stays visible or your webtv will be disabled.

Also the MyWebTV search has been reengineered so it will let you add very easily any public channel from these networks:

The search engine is reserved to registered users. Once you are registered and logged in, you can try it out from here:

http://mywebtv.cc/search

As you may have noted in the previous list, support for the freedocast channels has been added. If you wish to add them through the regular form, you will need to enter the channel url in the following manner: http://www.freedocast.com/forms/embedplayer.aspx?fid=xxxxxxxxxxx&ftype=stream

There has also been an improvement made to the control panel. You can now drag and drop your channels in your channel list to move them, instead of using the arrows. So if you have aa long channel list this should come in handy.

Enjoy,
Elvis
MyWebTV Admin

New liquid layout for the website plus fixes

2009-07-17T02:12:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

I've updated the layout for the website today so it's ideal for wide screens. Also you might have noted the bitrate column has been removed from the webtv. if you want to use it, you can right click on the headers and select it from the context menu. Some fixes have also been made to the webtv so it's compatible with IE8.

Enjoy,
Elvis

Justin.tv player in Firefox

2009-02-04T08:54:00.000-08:00

hi,

some of you reported a new bug with the justin.tv player on the firefox browser. the stream wouldn't show up, just the monkey face. the bug is now fixed.

enjoy

How to add ustream channels?

2009-01-17T19:41:00.001-08:00

Hi,

I had a question lately asking how to add a ustream channel to the webtv. So I'll answer this here.

There are two ways to add ustream channels.

1) The first way is to use the mywebtv search utility: http://mywebtv.cc/search
2) The second way to add ustream channels is to add the ustream channel url. To find the url for the ustream channel, you will need to go into ustream channel embed code and find a url with this pattern inside the embed code: http://www.ustream.tv/flash/live/?/???

So for example in this embed code, the url would be the following.

Embed code:
<param name="flashvars" value="viewcount=true&autoplay=false&brand=embed"/><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"/><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/><param name="movie" value="http://www.ustream.tv/flash/live/1/553"/><a href="http://www.ustream.tv/" style="padding:2px 0px 4px;width:400px;background:#FFFFFF;display:block;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-size:10px;text-decoration:underline;text-align:center;" target="_blank">Streaming .TV shows by Ustream</a>
URL: http://www.ustream.tv/flash/live/1/553

Enjoy the webtvs,
Elvis

Public Channels available

2009-01-12T09:45:00.000-08:00

Hi,

I am currently working on building a database of online public internet tv channels. You can easily add them to your webtv from here: http://mywebtv.cc/search

They are all the public channels from JustinTV, UStream, Mogulus, Sopcast and TVU.

The database is currently updated every hour. I am working on improving this to updating the database every minute. Once this is the case, I will start working on the control panel.

Elvis

Logging in problem

2008-12-23T04:58:00.000-08:00

hi,

some of you have experienced some problems logging into the webtvs. This was due to a bad update yesterday. So you know, you can always reset your password from here: http://mywebtv.cc/recoverpwd.php

this wouldn't have resolved yesterday's problem though because it was related to cookies so you couldn't maintain a session after logging in. Please take note you can always use the support chat http://mywebtv.cc/contact for more immediate assistance.

Thanks to those who emailed me though about the problem

BlogTV player added

2008-12-22T06:57:00.000-08:00

hey all,

a little quick word to say the BlogTV player has just been added. If you want to add a channel from blog tv to your webtv, you will need to find the link in the embed code they supply you with. Here's an example of blogtv embed code:

So the link you will need to post in your webtv is the following:
http://www.blogtv.com/livesdk/Zu_Gb2_Eae7EbeTvbP

Enjoy

Updates applied

2008-12-19T00:58:00.000-08:00

ok, so it's been a fun few days working on the widget.

I've finished all the updates planned in the previous post except for the one about indexing ustream.tv and justin.tv channels.

So in this update the webtv has been updated. The first time you load the webtv it will reload by itself with the new version and then you will always get the latest version.

The JW player has been added to the webtv. If you want to use it, you will need to specify the link the following way:

jwplayer.swf?file=xxxxx&streamer=xxxxx&othervar=yyyy

If you have trouble using it, please let me know. You should also know that I have added support for any other flash player and stream as well. The application will recognize a flash stream when a link starting with "http://" also has a ".swf" in the link, like this for example:

http://somedomain.com/anything/someplayer.swf?file=xxxxx&streamer=xxxxx&othervar=yyyy

The fact is you could use this second option to use the jwplayer and it wouldn't make much difference. The only difference is that if you use the first option, the jwplayer will systematically appear with a a black skin so you don't need to specify the colors for the player every time. If you don't like the colors thoough, you can add the link like this and specify the colors you want for the jw player:

http://www.jeroenwijering.com/embed/player.swf?file=xxxxx&streamer=xxxxx&othervar=yyyy&forecolor=??????&backcolor=??????

You can find the full list of the flashvars supported by the jw player here: http://developer.longtailvideo.com/trac/wiki/FlashVars

If you plan on using this player you will find interesting options there.

Also in this new version you will find the performance of the webtv has been improved. It is now lighter and it will load much faster, especially if you have a low speed or intermediate speed internet connection.

The TVU player has been fixed and is now using the latest version of the activex control. The default channels now fire up better as well. Finally if the amazon ads will stay hidden unless you are using a default channel.

The next big step will be to add justin.tv and ustream.tv links to the database and making it very easy to add these channels to the webtvs. I will also work on the control panel, to try and make it easier to add channels.

Have fun

Upcoming updates

2008-12-15T12:38:00.000-08:00

hi,

here is a list of the improvements I will make to MyWebTV in the next few days:

Improve performance of the webtv: this will certainly take me a few days but it is the most important update to come. the webtvs should load very fast after this
Add support for the JW player
Improve the webtv default channel feature so the channels don't show up before the channel fires up: this is rather secondary since few of the users seem to be using the default channel feature. It should take about a day
Fix the TVU player in the webtv: in the new webtv, when you try to play a tvu channel, the channel doesn't play unless you hit the play button. it should play right away. also there is a problem if you close the tvu player and then open up a new one. Thanks to Moe for pointing out this problem
Change amazon ads so they only show up if a default channel is fired up in the webtv
Add Justin.tv and Ustream.tv streams to the mywebtv search engine and make them accessible from the control panel: this is a big one also. It should take me a few days also

So it's shaping up to be a very busy Christmas vacation! In all I think this represents a week and a half of work. Hopefully I have enough time to do all of this but chances are it will spread out after during the month of January as well. Anyhow I will keep you posted here on the MyWebTV blog. By the way, have a look at the home page. I spiced it up a bit around the activity box.

Talk to you soon

New chat in the contact page

2008-12-08T18:50:00.000-08:00

hi,

I have just embedded my windows live messenger for you to use if you need support or you need to chat with me. You can find it on the contact page: http://mywebtv.cc/contact.php

I have tested it and it is working very well. However I suspect a lot of the time I will be away or offline so it may be necessary to email me.

Disappointingly the embedded messenger doesn't seem to authorize offline messaging which is why I think I will leave messenger online a lot of the time.

So I'm looking forward to hearing from you

Volume problem fixed with Justin.tv plugin

2008-12-06T13:37:00.000-08:00

Hi,

Justin.tv recently updated their plugin. As a result, two problems have risen with the mywebtv widget. The first problem was fixed two days ago and it is described in the previous post.

Here is the second one. When you start playing a Justin.tv link inside the webtv, the sound of the player is too loud. This has been fixed just now. Please note you will need to clear your browser's cache for the fix to work. Alternatively, if you are using Internet Explorer or Firefox, you can refresh the webtv with Ctrl-F5 which will do the trick also without deleting all your cache.

Thanks to Jonny for signaling the bug to me.

Justin.tv player decentered inside MyWebTV widget

2008-12-04T21:48:00.001-08:00

hi,

it's come to my attention today december 4 there was a problem with the justin.tv player. The Justin.tv player was decentered in the MyWebTV widget and as a result part of the player wasn't visible anymore. So I've had a look at it and it's been fixed. however you may need to refresh your browser's cache for the fix to work. If you are using Internet Explorer or Firefox just hit Ctrl-F5 and it will do the trick. If you have any trouble just email me: support@mywebtv.cc or you can also reply to this message.