Help streaming live video streams from PC to TV

Hi, I am new to this forum and completely new to streaming anything. I just bought my first flat screen TV last week, finally upgraded from my old tube TV. I bought a Samsung 55"" LED Smart TV, model UN55F6300. Part of the reason why I bought the TV was because I am tired of paying a cable bill. I'd like to instead watch the media I already have on my PC, as well as some live TV streams if possible of the handful of channels I actually watch. I was able to stream my existing videos from my PC's HDD to my TV with no issues once I set it up. However, I am completely lost when it comes to streaming live feeds of a channel, for instance, Discovery, from my PC to the TV.

Before I go any farther, I am running window 7, sp1, 32bit. I DO have the groovy plugin installed. I'm in the US and want US channels in ENGLISH only.

I did read the wiki and several posts here on this forum as well as other forums, but it just doesn't make any sense to me. First, I read this:

http://wiki.serviio.org/doku.php?id=add_live_feeds

I clicked on the ffmpeg.exe in serviio's lib folder, but the program doesn't open. A command prompt-like black window flashes for split second and immediately closes. I then tried to download a fresh copy ffmpeg, but the same thing happens. So that didn't work.

Then I read this thread: http://stream-recorder.com/forum/find-rtmp-stream-url-software-sniff-snoop-t4148.html?t=4148

I understand that you can't use the URL of the stream as it appears in the browser, that there is some sort of "hidden" URL that must be acquired by running a sniffer program. I downloaded URL Snooper 2. Great, but what exactly am I looking for now when running this program? It seems there are a few different protocols that can be used, but how do I know WHICH ONE to use? Is there an online video showing how this is done? Everything I could find on youtube was just covering how to stream movies from the PC to TV... not live streams.

Then I came across this: http://wiki.serviio.org/doku.php?id=live_stream_folders. I figured this would work, since someone already created "working" streams". All I had to do was upload them to the google site and use that URL in my "online source" in serviio. Only 2 or 3 channels worked out of the 5 or so RSS feeds I tried. Most of the most of the folders just said "no video files found on the connected device". I'm guessing that the streams are just old and no longer valid since 2 or 3 channels did work but the other 95% didn't.

That brings me to another question: If I can get my hands on a working stream, how long do they typically work? Do they last weeks, months? Or will I have to find a new one every other day? Basically, how realistic is it to use live streams as a replacement for paid cable TV, for someone who only wants 5 or so channels?

Another question... in Serviio, when adding the "online source", what is the difference between a live stream and a web resource?

Is there a more current list of updated and working live streams? Where are some good websites to try and sniff out and create my own live stream URLs? It seems like many of these

I'm sorry if these questions seem simple to you guys. I know a lot of people join forums and ask the same old questions without trying to find the answers themselves. I have tried to get this working over the last several days, but I am getting a little discouraged and kindly ask for some assistance. Thanks in advance for any help.

[jhb50]

Just install and use the ilive plugin

I installed your plugin and did get that to work, briefly. At first I had no channels, then I exited the smart hub on my TV and came back to it a few minutes later and had a few more channels, and again a few minutes later for a total of about 20 channels. The ones I tried worked. Then I went back to the thread for the iLive plugin to read some more and realized I didn't set the refresh rate, I just had it set to http://www.ilive.to/channels. I then added "?refresh=120" to the end of my url. After I did this, the iLive folder was gone, never to be seen again. I removed the "?refresh=120" from my url, setting it back to the way it was when it worked, and the iLive folder was still missing on the TV. I exited out of the smart hub and reset the internet connection, but still no iLive folder.

Still, I'd like to be able to get individual live streams to work.

[jhb50]

Serviio is not instantaneous. It takes a few minutes to populate the streams in a plugin, and can take up to 30 seconds to start playback of a selected stream. With over 150 streams available in ilive it will take some time.

I learned that after the channels showed up for the first time, slowly trickling in over the course of 10-15 minutes the first time I got the iLive folder to show up. Then they disappeared and didn't come back all night. I woke up this morning and the channels were all there.

Either way, some of the channels I want, like discovery, were all in some foreign language and terrible quality. Although the iLive thing is ok, I still want to be able to add individual channels that I specify, and not have to rely on some random person who just happens to be capturing a stream with his TV card at the exact same time I happen to be sitting in front of my TV.

Hopefully someone can help me out in finding valid streams, getting the right URL for said stream, and getting that to show up on my TV!

Bump to the top...

Any good forums out there that discuss streaming of online videos that aren't Serviio related? Maybe I should try another method, since I'm not getting anywhere with Serviio. Suggestions?

Bump... anyone else in this forum???