There's nothing on TV? Try channel 2 in Nicaragua.

March 1, 2008 8:54 AM

Watch TV from around the world. Anything from Albania to Pakistan to Vietnam.
posted by desjardins (14 comments total)

Not bad! It has an NBC station from Los Angeles and tons of music.

I've been watching TVUPlayer, which is a really crappy windows app that carries a lot of these same feeds. And others. TVU is the only way I have found to watch Comedy Central.

I mean, I hear they have it on basic cable. But aside from that.
posted by damehex at 10:09 AM on March 1, 2008

Awful, the only Irish stations are the government channels that stream the parliamentary debates!

Yawn.
posted by Wilder at 10:13 AM on March 1, 2008

nice1,
if you dig live music & music docs, be sure to check: "3voor Music"
posted by borq at 10:19 AM on March 1, 2008

btw: worst _ ui _ evar
posted by borq at 10:20 AM on March 1, 2008

I went searching for global TV feeds like this, and it reminds me of the internet circa 1996: a giant mess where half the links don't work, the web design is shit, and some sites use skeevy proprietary plugins that also don't work. The best thing I've found is XBMC-TV, a package designed for the Xbox Media Center. You can view the feeds in any old media player on your computer by simply finding the channel file of your choice, opening it in a text editor, and copying out the stream URL. A pain in the ass, but you also don't have to go searching through badly made websites trying to watch streams in Windows Media Player plugin windows.

P.S. TFMi, aka Tokyo FM interactive, is basically just video of radio interviews and the like, but occasionally there's this guy wearing nothing but underpants ranting about stuff I don't understand and occasionally showing his junk to the live audience. I have no idea what he's on about but it's awesome.
posted by chrominance at 11:52 AM on March 1, 2008

If you run MythTV, similar functionality is built in. It basically scrapes feed URLs from a list of international TV stations that simulcast on the web and plays them fullscreen with mplayer. It doesn't always work properly, but it's a fun diversion to watch Ukrainian or Estonian stations right there on your TV.
posted by DecemberBoy at 11:53 AM on March 1, 2008

The best Windows app I've seen for live streams is JLC's Internet TV. The author has a website with the same content here.
posted by pinkbuttonanus at 1:39 PM on March 1, 2008

MetaFilter: Keeping my face constantly illuminated by the pixel wash.
Thanks, grudgingly.
posted by not_on_display at 3:24 PM on March 1, 2008

I'm trying to access the BBC Panorama link, but it's not working... not yet at least.

(Cool site though--thanks!)
posted by hadjiboy at 9:19 PM on March 1, 2008

I'm watching BBC Panorama right now, try again.
posted by TechnoLustLuddite at 10:03 PM on March 1, 2008

why
posted by baker dave at 4:33 AM on March 2, 2008

Thanks desjardins. I love being able to check out different TV stations from around the world. Awesome link.
posted by nickyskye at 10:10 AM on March 2, 2008

i wonder if they use rabbit ears over in albania :)
posted by north carolina mortgage at 7:16 PM on March 2, 2008

Thanks for the shout, chrominance. I'm the guy who puts XBMC-TV out.

Hope to have another update out in a few weeks when I get some time. Part of the problem I face (since this is a one-man thing) is that feeds are very unstable and the lower-quality feeds tend to go on and off at a moment's notice, so I audit each of the 400+ feeds three times over a week's period before eliminating any.

In any case, enjoy, and don't hesitate to let me know about any new working feeds you find by submitting them to me through the contact page.
posted by vanadium at 10:47 PM on March 2, 2008