Last Modified 05/4/08 09:47<table border=0>
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<td><h1>MLB.TV on Linux Mini-Howto</h1></td>
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<h2>Big Announcement</h2>

mlbviewer 0.1alpha6 has been released.
<p>
It is available for download at <a href=http://sourceforge.net/projects/mlbviewer/>http://sourceforge.net/projects/mlbviewer/</a>.
<p>
SVN is also available at <b>https://mlbviewer.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/mlbviewer/trunk</b>
<p>
To checkout from SVN:
<p>
<code>
svn co https://mlbviewer.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/mlbviewer/trunk mlbviewer
</code>
<p>
<h2>Background</h2>

It's MLB.TV and Linux.  If you don't know what either of these are, you need to stop watching American Idol and get with the program!
<p>
I'm a recent convert to MLB.TV, a paid service available at MLB.com for viewing any and every game of the season over the Internet in 400k, 800k, and 1.2Mb 
quality.  The last one won't work with Linux due to Windows proprietary 
features (I believe the NexDef plugin.)  
<p>
I've been a long-time fan of Linux--the innovative things you can do with it,
and the can-do/can-share spirit of the community of Linux users and developers.
<p>
That said, MLB.com apparently does not share the same opinions.  They have 
consistently made it difficult for Linux users to enjoy their fantastic 
product.  This season has been no different.  I don't care so much about the 
technical details but I'll say there's something fishy about the way Flash 
and/or Silverlight prevents even MediaConnectivity plugin from detecting the 
stream URL.
<p>
This mini-HowTo is the result of many dedicated fans of both MLB.TV and Linux
and their efforts to combat this season's hurdles to enjoying their favorite 
pasttime on their favorite OS.  The purpose of this mini-HowTo is to summarize
the collected tips and tricks from the forum where mlbviewer was born:
<p>
<a href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/fedora-35/mlb.tv-in-linux-432479/">MLB.TV in Linux</a> at LinuxQuestions.org.

<h2>What you'll need</h2>

<ul>
<li>Python (2.5 recommended)
<li><a href=http://www.undefined.org/python/>simplejson extension</a>
<li>Mplayer or your favorite video player for video streams
<li>XMMS or your favorite mp3 player for Gameday Audio streams (mplayer will 
also work)
<li>An <a href=http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/subscriptions/index.jsp?c_id=mlb&partnerId=sMLB_menuoverview_040908&source=LP&affiliateId=HOMEPAGE>MLB.TV subscription</a>
</ul>

<h2>Screenshots</h2>

<b>Listings View</b>
<p>
<img src=http://www.eds.org/~straycat/listings.jpg>
<p>
<b>Top Plays View</b>
<p>
<img src=http://www.eds.org/~straycat/top-plays.JPG>
<p>
Don't be fooled by the XP putty window.  This is a Linux application.  That 
said, it has been tested and verified to work on Windows under the 
<a href=http://www.cygwin.com/>Cygwin</a> environment using both mplayer and 
Windows Media Player.

<h2>Tips and Tricks from the Forum</h2>

Coming soon...

The following are tips and tricks collected regarding the Firebug method.

<pre>
From carpie:
I wanted to follow up with what is currently (Apr 2) working for me. I'm using Firefox natively using Firebug to sniff the mUrl. I then open that url (sans the mUrl: prefix) with mplayer.

If you get "garbled" video like this:
<a href=http://carpie.net/mlb.png>http://carpie.net/mlb.png</a>
That is because mplayer is using FFMPEGs buggy WVC1 decoder. You need the 
win32codecs which you can get from:
<a href=http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/dload.html#binary_codecs>http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/dload.html#binary_codecs</a>
Untar the package and put the resulting files in /usr/lib/codecs (Fedora) or 
/usr/lib/win32 (Ubuntu) (don't know about other distros). Mplayer should pick 
it up automatically.

After that, if you get a big green bar like this:
<a href=http://carpie.net/mlb2.png>http://carpie.net/mlb2.png</a>
You might be using the "xv" video output module in mplayer (at least that was my issue.) I solved this by invoking mplayer with:
mplayer -vo x11

I can now (finally!) watch what I paid for! Thanks for all suggestions! I hope this helps someone else...
<pre>

<h2>Many Thanks</h2>

Many thanks to all the guys on the Linuxquestions.org forum for figuring this 
out especially jkr for writing mlbviewer.
<p>
If you have more questions, try them first:
<p>
<a href=http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/fedora-35/mlb.tv-in-linux-432479/>MLB.TV In Linux at Linuxquestions.org</a>
<p>
<i>
This mini-Howto was written by daftcat aka Matthew 
&lt straycat000(at)yahoo(dot)com &gt
<p>
Last Modified 05/4/08 09:47</i>