Mixed questions about the streaming process.

[KhunHeineken]

I hope the moderators allow this thread. 

 

I am not asking how to breach copyright.  I am not having any problems doing so.  Actually I'm not even sure if I am breaching copyright. 

 

I am asking how it is that we can all so easily do it, if we are doing it?

 

This post is about my curiosity.  I do not need any help to do anything other than understand the process.  So to the moderators, my questions are purely about the process that allows everyone to watch sport and movies over the internet. 

 

Can members please end the mystery for me how it is I can go to certain websites and watch a live sports match? 

 

My questions are:

 

1) how does whoever who is doing it take the footage of the match from a television channel and broadcast it over their website? 

 

2) what hardware do they use?

 

3) what software do they use? 

 

4) why do they do it?  A lot of the websites have pop up ads, do they earn income from this?

 

5) how can they do it for different types of sport matches taking place in different countries at the same time?

 

6) when I stream a sports match where is it originating from.  I know from cameras at the match but any idea what path the data takes to get to me?

 

 

I have pretty much the same questions for streaming movies.  My question are mainly about Kodi.

 

 

Using Kodi, these are my questions:

 

1) how is it just about every movie you can think of is available?

 

2) who is putting these movies on there?

 

3) how do they do it?

 

4) what software do they use?

 

5) what hardware is involved?

 

6) why do they do it?  There are no ads on Kodi.  They don't get any money. 

 

7) does the movie start out as a physical DVD and then put on Kodi?

 

8) Kodi is global and is no secret.  How can it legally be allowed to exist by authorities? 

 

9)  where are the 1000's and 1000's of gigabytes of movies being stored?  Who is paying for that? 

 

10) when I stream a movie where is it originating from.  What path does the data take to get to me?

 

 

These questions are for streaming sports and movies.  What is going on at either end when it is buffering?  Are whoever who is doing the sports and movie streaming even trying to avoid authorities in any way?

 

I am sure my questions will give some of you a laugh, but I have been watching live sports and movies over the internet for ages. 

 

I would just like to know what is happening on the other end of the stream, particularly with the live sports.  Is someone sitting in an office somewhere starting and stopping streams when matches start and finish or do they just stream a television sports channel 24/7?  How can one website stream so many channels and matches all at once?

 

I don't want to start sending streams and as you can tell I don't have the knowledge to do it but would really like to know how it's done because I benefit a lot from it.

 

Thanks for any replies in advance and please use layman's terms for any explanation and if I've missed an important question please feel free to include it.

 

KH

 

 

Edited March 23, 2017 by KhunHeineken

[KhunHeineken]

Bump.

 

Does anyone have any idea how the live sport and movies are put on the internet for free streaming?

[RichCor]

There's a book (or audio book) you can get on the topic:

Streaming, Sharing, Stealing: Big Data and the Future of Entertainment (MIT Press) – August 5, 2016

 

 

As for the technicalities: it's a lot of unconnected independent individuals taking advantage of each other's work.

 

One individual puts the necessary equipment and software in place to redirect an authorized incoming program content stream (could be to a Sat, Cable or Internet TV box). Some authorized content distributors make it all too easy by using the Internet to uplink or distribute their program channel content to authorized rebroadcaster -- but leave that system wide-open to someone to grab and redistribute the same stream. Otherwise, some technique is used to extract the authorized content distributor's digital stream data and making that stripped stream consistently available on the internet.

 

Some other individual grabs that consistently available 'stream' and makes it available on a server that can feed it to hundreds, thousands, or hundreds of thousands of connections. 

 

Another individual writes code that automatically 'scraps' or takes authorized distributor announcements (Live Program Guide data) and pairs it to the consistently available stream locations.

 

As to motive...

[KhunHeineken]

18 hours ago, RichCor said:

There's a book (or audio book) you can get on the topic:

Streaming, Sharing, Stealing: Big Data and the Future of Entertainment (MIT Press) – August 5, 2016

 

 

As for the technicalities: it's a lot of unconnected independent individuals taking advantage of each other's work.

 

One individual puts the necessary equipment and software in place to redirect an authorized incoming program content stream (could be to a Sat, Cable or Internet TV box). Some authorized content distributors make it all too easy by using the Internet to uplink or distribute their program channel content to authorized rebroadcaster -- but leave that system wide-open to someone to grab and redistribute the same stream. Otherwise, some technique is used to extract the authorized content distributor's digital stream data and making that stripped stream consistently available on the internet.

 

Some other individual grabs that consistently available 'stream' and makes it available on a server that can feed it to hundreds, thousands, or hundreds of thousands of connections. 

 

Another individual writes code that automatically 'scraps' or takes authorized distributor announcements (Live Program Guide data) and pairs it to the consistently available stream locations.

 

As to motive...

 

Thanks for the reply.  I'll check out the link. 

 

Any idea what equipment and software they use? 

 

Do they hack into the broadcaster's data stream?  Wouldn't the broadcast have some sort of encryption to stop this?

 

 

[RichCor]

The original content providers or authorized broadcasters can and do encrypt their transport streams, but at some point need to decrypt it to insert other material (commercials) into the stream or when making the content viewable for the consumer.

 

The simplest setups I've heard about use a bank of Cable or SAT Set Top Boxes with a paid subscription or decryption codes, each tuned to a different desired content provider channel, and the output already formatted as a transport stream or output via YPbPr (RGB Video) to an external transport stream encoder.

 

Unfortunately for the authorized distributors, once an exploit vector has been found in their current delivery infrastructure they have few or no options to prevent it as they've already invested huge amounts of monies what they're already using.

[KhunHeineken]

On 27/03/2017 at 6:08 PM, RichCor said:

The original content providers or authorized broadcasters can and do encrypt their transport streams, but at some point need to decrypt it to insert other material (commercials) into the stream or when making the content viewable for the consumer.

 

The simplest setups I've heard about use a bank of Cable or SAT Set Top Boxes with a paid subscription or decryption codes, each tuned to a different desired content provider channel, and the output already formatted as a transport stream or output via YPbPr (RGB Video) to an external transport stream encoder.

 

Unfortunately for the authorized distributors, once an exploit vector has been found in their current delivery infrastructure they have few or no options to prevent it as they've already invested huge amounts of monies what they're already using.

 

Thanks again for your reply.  I think I am getting what you are saying.

 

I have a Slingbox.  It sends the satellite data stream from my set top box to the Slingbox server.  I then sign into my account with Slingbox (no monthly fees) and watch my set top box stream.  I have no complaint with Slingbox.  Before discovering Kodi, I used it a lot and it's a great piece of tech gear, and is completely legal.

 

Are these people using some sort of similar piece of hardware to convert a satellite data stream to a digital internet stream, which is then accessed over their website?  A little like the Slingbox hosting?

 

The guy in this link videoed his TV while it had a sport match on it.  He then broadcast it over Facebook.  Very crude, but they somehow shut him and others down.  Just wondering how they knew what he was doing and shut him down, but nothing on Kodi and other websites get shut down?

 

http://www.news.com.au/sport/sports-life/boxing-fan-live-streams-mundine-v-green-fight-over-facebook-live-wins-internet/news-story/72694120291078080d9b209fac9e67c4

 

 

Edited April 29, 2017 by KhunHeineken

[RichCor]

36 minutes ago, KhunHeineken said:

Are these people using some sort of similar piece of hardware to convert a satellite data stream to a digital internet stream, which is then accessed over their website?  A little like the Slingbox hosting?

 

Yep. Very similar.

 

 

36 minutes ago, KhunHeineken said:

The guy in this link videoed his TV while it had a sport match on it.  He then broadcast it over Facebook.  Very crude, but they somehow shut him and others down.  Just wondering how they knew what he was doing and shut him down, but nothing on Kodi and other websites get shut down?

I think this has more to do with reporting mechanisms. Facebook, to protect their corporate status, has to appear to be responsive to preventing theft and/or abuse of Intellectual Property so have someone monitoring for collective 'abuse' reports.

 

But if you have 1000 people all looking for a way to get the sport match somewhere for free, who is gonna complain? And what reporting mechanism is in place to use to lodge a complaint?