New ITVX Channel Streams Absolutely Spellbinding Footage of Earth... Forever (theguardian.com) 36
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: I realize that, at this point, there are already far too many shows. Every channel, every streaming service is teeming with content demanding your attention, and there are simply too few hours in the day to watch them all. However, with that in mind, may I recommend a new show called Space Live? There's only one episode. The only potential downside is that the episode literally lasts for ever. Actually, that's inaccurate. Space Live isn't a show, it's a channel. It launched on Wednesday morning, tucked away on ITVX, and consists only of live footage of Earth broadcast from the International Space Station. It's beguiling to watch, especially for anyone who didn't realize that a person can be awestruck and bored simultaneously.
It's billed as a world first. ITV has partnered with British space media company Sen to use live 4K footage from its proprietary SpaceTV-1 video camera system, mounted on the International Space Station, giving us three camera views: one of the station's docking ports, a horizon view able to show sunrises and storms, and a camera pointing straight down as the ISS passes across the planet. A tracker in the corner of the screen shows the live location of the ISS, while a real-time AI information feed provides facts about our geography and weather systems.
Of course, if you wanted to be picky, you could argue it isn't exactly new. Nasa's YouTube channel has been streaming live footage from the ISS for years, and uniformly draws an audience of a few thousand. But Space Live is, if nothing else, slightly snazzier. The footage is certainly nicer: at 8.30am on Wednesday, Space Live showed gorgeous images of the sun's glare bouncing off the sea around the Bay of Biscay, while all Nasa could offer was a piece of cloth with the word "Flap" written on it. There's even a soundtrack, a constant, soothing kind of hold music that loops and loops without ever becoming fully annoying. It's an improvement, in other words. And, at least for the first orbit, it is absolutely spellbinding.
It's billed as a world first. ITV has partnered with British space media company Sen to use live 4K footage from its proprietary SpaceTV-1 video camera system, mounted on the International Space Station, giving us three camera views: one of the station's docking ports, a horizon view able to show sunrises and storms, and a camera pointing straight down as the ISS passes across the planet. A tracker in the corner of the screen shows the live location of the ISS, while a real-time AI information feed provides facts about our geography and weather systems.
Of course, if you wanted to be picky, you could argue it isn't exactly new. Nasa's YouTube channel has been streaming live footage from the ISS for years, and uniformly draws an audience of a few thousand. But Space Live is, if nothing else, slightly snazzier. The footage is certainly nicer: at 8.30am on Wednesday, Space Live showed gorgeous images of the sun's glare bouncing off the sea around the Bay of Biscay, while all Nasa could offer was a piece of cloth with the word "Flap" written on it. There's even a soundtrack, a constant, soothing kind of hold music that loops and loops without ever becoming fully annoying. It's an improvement, in other words. And, at least for the first orbit, it is absolutely spellbinding.
How's that again? (Score:5, Interesting)
The writer certainly has a... unique... outlook on this, I suppose. But I can't say I ever hear anyone say "gosh, there just isn't enough time available for me to watch everything I want to watch!"
No, what I hear is - "why are these streaming services putting out so much absolute crapola nowadays?"
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Re: How's that again? (Score:4, Interesting)
General question. Why the hate or cynicism about this?
Notwithstanding data gathering and other possible subscription hoops you may have to jump thru, I'd be interested in this.
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. But I can't say I ever hear anyone say "gosh, there just isn't enough time available for me to watch everything I want to watch!"
No, what I hear is - "why are these streaming services putting out so much absolute crapola nowadays?"
Both those things can be true at the same time.
There is an insane amount of content generated. Most of it is crap. It's amazing what garbage the streaming services try to convince me to watch. But there is also a lot of good stuff created. Books, articles, movies, TV shows, documentaries, music, podcasts.
There is absolutely not enough time to consume everything good that gets produced. I could probably see all TV shows I'd like to see, if I would skip everything else, but that is hardly a reasonable bar. No
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But I can't say I ever hear anyone say "gosh, there just isn't enough time available for me to watch everything I want to watch!"
Gosh, there just isn't enough time available for me to watch everything I want to watch!
(which explains why my TiVo has ~300 hours of stuff recorded, and generally sits at 99% full).
#needstogetalife
Anybody got the link? (Score:2)
TFA didn't see fit to link to the stream in question. Searched ITVX and just found the press release.
Re:Anybody got the link? (Score:4, Informative)
found the link for it, but it's behind a geofence that requires registration w/ a UK postal code to proceed. burner email deployed.
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might also need a VPN, won't stream to US
Re: Anybody got the link? (Score:1)
Iinm that's the fault of the US. This assumption that an IP address indicates a physical location is a bane of the Internet for people who are outside the USA. It's nice to see that people in the USA are feeling this pain too now. I guess it's similar in many aspects of US life, now, as the USA descends into what seems to be a "developing country" status, as other countries develop.
Re: Anybody got the link? (Score:2)
And if you start using a VPN more generally, you likely get blocked by more USA abominations like Cloudflare and Google.
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Re: Anybody got the link? (Score:2)
Uk only, due to the USA.
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Re:Anybody got the link? (Score:5, Informative)
Try this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
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Perfect and thank you! :)
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Thanks! Somebody mod that up!
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https://www.itv.com/watch?chan... [itv.com]
nice but you have to be in the UK (Score:1)
But then... (Score:4, Insightful)
What will it show after the ISS is de-orbited?
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Re: But then... (Score:3)
Maybe they can move it to China's?
can't watch, wrong post code (Score:1)
Re: can't watch, wrong post code (Score:1)
Some of us can. You reap what you sow...
Presuming you're from the USA; apologies if I'm mistaken.
Money grabbing USA media companies are to blame.
Re: can't watch, wrong post code (Score:2)
Of course, being a LIVE channel, even people in the UK can't watch it if they don't have a TV licence.
We can't blame the USA for THAT!
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personal info (Score:1)
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Forever... (Score:2)
...is longer than you think.
The Earth won't be around in a few billion years.
"Absolutely", suuuure (Score:2)
They constant overhyping of marginally interesting things is really, really tiring.
Stream has existed for years (Score:4, Interesting)
That's just a re-stream of Sen, which hosts the camera on the ISS. They also stream it to youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Um, access limits? (Score:2)
Neither the blurb, the OP, nor the (sort of paywalled) Guardian article note that ITV is ONLY available to UK viewers as far as I can tell? (Maybe there is a pay version)
Or use Tunnelbear, et al.
Note that the NASA one, for all its warts, is available to everyone for free.
Al Gore (Score:1)
Screensaver (Score:2)
Never heard someone wax poetic about a screensaver for so long.
Can't find said channel... (Score:1)
... anywhere in-the-net. Just news about it, and few broken links. This must be some stupid fake-AI-News thingie.
Echostar X did this in 2008 (Score:3)
Echostar X did this in 2008 and it's still going.