Buzzr for a buck - you too can watch Buzzr live

[Dbacksfan12]

We I don't even know if it will continue beyond 2am today. Not getting my hopes up. Already shut the stream down cause I don't wanna feel like I'm watching it illegally. Buzzr was very vague about the birthday stream, whether it was supposed to be 24 hours or permanent, so I just shut it to avoid "bending" the rules.

You do realize this feed is on their official site, right?

[cyclone45]

Yes but they may have forgotten to close it. If this IS permanent I'm in game show Heaven.

[chargeradiocom]

I can respect your desire to do things honestly. I'm something of a stickler myself when it comes to licensing, piracy and such.

But I honestly don't think you've got anything to worry about with this. BUZZR said absolutely nothing to imply that this was a one-day thing. Nothing on their website, Facebook page, press stories or the stream itself like, "Enjoy this free preview of BUZZR." Instead, everything I've seen from them is more like, "Watch Live! Stream BUZZR TV now from anywhere!"

Now, they could pull the plug today, and it would be their right to do so. But they'd also have some upset ex-viewers, and rightly so, if they had implied this was a new way for people to watch then reneged after a couple days.

So I really don't see anything illegal or dishonest about watching this, as long as you're not stealing your internet access or something like that.

[cyclone45]

I can respect your desire to do things honestly. I'm something of a stickler myself when it comes to licensing, piracy and such.

But I honestly don't think you've got anything to worry about with this. BUZZR said absolutely nothing to imply that this was a one-day thing. Nothing on their website, Facebook page, press stories or the stream itself like, "Enjoy this free preview of BUZZR." Instead, everything I've seen from them is more like, "Watch Live! Stream BUZZR TV now from anywhere!"

Now, they could pull the plug today, and it would be their right to do so. But they'd also have some upset ex-viewers, and rightly so, if they had implied this was a new way for people to watch then reneged after a couple days.

So I really don't see anything illegal or dishonest about watching this, as long as you're not stealing your internet access or something like that.

But tyhey also said absolutely nothing about it being permanent. I thought it was a "birthday celebration". They were very vague. That said, I'm glad it's still up.

Speaking of licensing...I made an album as you may know, and I'm glad I googled it...found a site offering the mp3s for free and got them taken down. It wasn't so much that they were offering the music for free, it's not about the money...but damn, at least ASK me first.. sheesh.

[snowpeck]

No, the press release they sent out (which I received in my email) indicates that it's an attempt to reach a younger, more tech savvy audience, so it's not temporary.

“We are thrilled to be celebrating our third anniversary by offering a simulcast of BUZZR on the network’s website for the first time,” said Mark Deetjen, general manager of BUZZR.  “BUZZR will be the only game show network available via live stream, and we can’t wait to allow even more of America to experience the very best in vintage game shows.  BUZZR has always reached an extremely broad demographic, but this new streaming option will allow us to reach a younger, more tech-savvy audience, looking for content on the go.”

Current hits from the past airing on BUZZR include Match Game with Gene Rayburn, Supermarket Sweep with David Ruprecht, along with other vintage favorites such as Family Feud, Sale of the Century, Card Sharks and Password Plus.  With BUZZR streaming their treasure chest of game show content, many of these gems will be seen on the latest tech devices for the first time.

[clemon79]

(Full disclosure... There is a bit of stretching--sorry clemon79--though not to the full edges of the screen.)

No worries; at this point making it aspect-ratio-friendly on Roku is strictly a completionist because-I-can task, since all of my screens have VLC support in one form or another, and I can directly control aspect ratio there. (Which (I think; haven't tested this yet) means I should be able to zoom the image to fill the screen for Celebrity Name Game, too.) Literally Roku is the one streaming device I own that doesn't.

/just cancelled my NKT.tv subscription
//I'll buy something for a buck at the Mariners game tonight in tribute
///that tiny cup of nacho cheese will be delicious

[cyclone45]

Not for nothing, but since Buzzr went live, why would they need the twitch channel now?

[nowhammies10]

Twitch channel doesn't mirror the network feed; it's its own animal with its own schedule and no commercials with Twitch Prime, which comes free with Amazon Prime.

[chargeradiocom]

No worries; at this point making it aspect-ratio-friendly on Roku is strictly a completionist because-I-can task, since all of my screens have VLC support in one form or another, and I can directly control aspect ratio there. (Which (I think; haven't tested this yet) means I should be able to zoom the image to fill the screen for Celebrity Name Game, too.) Literally Roku is the one streaming device I own that doesn't.

Interesting that the stretching seems to be largely related to Roku. With the 2kit apps, I had noticed that the stretching was virtually undetectable on the Chromecast (as opposed to the Roku), although my Chromecast is on a smaller TV so I thought it might just be my eyes tricking me.

That said, I did get the stretching on a later Chromecast reload. So it seems to be inconsistent on Chromecast.

Not for nothing, but since Buzzr went live, why would they need the twitch channel now?

Networks generally want their brand on as many platforms as it makes sense to be on.

Cheddar, an online news channel targeting young adults, has feeds on Twitch, Sling, Amazon Video, Pluto TV, Philo, and their own site and apps. Plus they run select live programs on Facebook and Twitter. The feeds don't all run the same thing at the same time. But they have their brand on 8 different live streaming video platforms (plus some audio-only platforms), which means added exposure.

As nowhammies10 said, BUZZR's Twitch channel doesn't run the same thing as the live channel. So the future of the Twitch channel will depend on their digital strategy going forward. They may keep the Twitch channel going as it is, may sync it to the live broadcast, or may shut it down entirely. But it definitely wouldn't surprise me to see BUZZR added to a few more platforms, for the sake of additional exposure. If they're trying to make a serious digital run, I expect it.

(Pure speculation/hope, but I recall reading a while back that FremantleMedia had signed a deal with Pluto TV, and I think I've caught a few of their non-game show programs on Pluto lately. So I'm hoping to see BUZZR there soon.)

[snowpeck]

The highest bitrate feed is being transmitted at the weird size of 720×450. The player on Buzzr's website resizes it to 4:3. The medium quality feed is a more standard 640x480 and the lowest is 320x240.

[clemon79]

The highest bitrate feed is being transmitted at the weird size of 720×450. The player on Buzzr's website resizes it to 4:3. The medium quality feed is a more standard 640x480 and the lowest is 320x240.

That explains why it doesn't skew immediately when it's streaming from a source with no aspect ratio control. It has to spin up to the bad size first.

Can an argument be passed through the URL to have it top out at 640x480? Doesn't seem like there is any reason to go past 480p anyhow.

[WhammyPower]

One step ahead of you guys... I've made a modified feed of Buzzr that removes the problematic aspect ratio.

[clemon79]

One step ahead of you guys... I've made a modified feed of Buzzr that removes the problematic aspect ratio.

I am extremely impress. How'd you do it?

EDIT: I now see how you did it. I wonder, would it be possible to "fix* that top-end feed? Just tell it "hey, be 1024x768" and see what happens?

MOAR EDIT: Oops. Thought it worked, didn't, because I screwed something up when I was first munging the code. Nick's got it right, just better to flat remove that weird-ass stream.

[WhammyPower]

Oh yeah, I tried that at first, too.  Just sacked it when it didn't work.

[clemon79]

Oh yeah, I tried that at first, too.  Just sacked it when it didn't work.

Yeah, makes way more sense, especially when you notice that it's an SD feed the whole time anyhow, so there is literally no need for it to be any better than 640x480. The question goes from "why not use that stream?" to "why waste the bandwidth?"

The real beauty of having the fixed playlist is that instead of needing to open the stream in VLC on Apple devices, it's now simply a browser bookmark in  Safari, and THAT player will happily reduce to the mini-player view in the corner for multitasking purposes.