Play video & music websites anywhere, set "parcel" video/music at home, & more!
The Bright TV lets you browse the web, watch video, and listen to music, all chosen from a "channels" menu.
You can add channels to the menu easily. There are three kinds: "web", "audio" and "video".
Select a web channel, and the Bright TV will display a website: and because websites can contain media players, web channels can be used to watch TV or listen to music.
Google, YouTube, Treet TV & Metaverse (virtual TV networks), and last.fm (non-stop music videos from your choice of artist or genre) are already set up: but you can add your own.
The Bright TV will play web channels anywhere: you don't have to own the land.
(Old version 1 viewers, and those like 'Phoenix' based on v1, don't support interactive web pages, so we recommend SL's current v2 viewer - or one based on it, like "Dolphin 2", or Phoenix's v2 edition, "Firestorm".)
You can watch video and listen to music through a web channel, so you might wonder why you need special audio and video channels too: and, in fact, you might never use them.
But if you own land, you'll know you can use SL's "About land" dialog to set up special audio and video streams to be played to anyone who visits your parcel - called "parcel media". Even if you don't own land, you may have noticed that in different places, you hear different "background music": this is parcel audio.
If you select an audio or video channel from a Bright TV's menu, they update your "About land" settings automatically. The new parcel video will appear on the TV screen, and the new audio will be heard by everyone on the parcel - even if they are nowhere near the TV.
Naturally, Second Life only lets your TV change parcel media if you own the parcel (or have 'deed rights' in the group which owns it): but if you do, once you've set up your TV, any avatar can choose from the audio or video channels you've set up.
The TV comes with an "ariel", which you need to rez on a parcel if you want your TV to be able to change the parcel's audio and video. (You don't need it to watch web channels.)
You can optionally let the ariel accept parcel audio and video choices from Bright TVs owned by *other* people. This is useful if (say) you are a landlord, and would like your tenants to be able to use their own Bright TVs to change the background music.
You can also set the ariel to play video "privately": which means that when someone selects a video channel, only they see it - other avatars don't. This is useful if (for instance) you'd like your tenants to be able to choose videos without forcing their choice on everyone else on the parcel.
Private video has another advantage. It allows different people to watch different channels, at the same time, *on the same Bright TV*. For example, imagine you sell cars, and you have set up three car demo video channels on a TV in your shop. Different customers can choose and watch different product demos, even if they are all there at the same time.
First, decide if you need an ariel. You don't need one if you're happy with web channels, or if the land-owner has already set up a "public" ariel.
You *only* need to install the ariel on a parcel of land you own (or where you have "deed rights" to the land owning group) if you want your Bright TV to be able to set that parcel's media.
If you do, just drag the "Bright TV ariel" object onto the ground, and if the land is owned by a group, right-click the ariel, click "Edit...", click "Share with group", and click "Deed".
Then just drag your TV onto the ground to rez it.
It has two buttons under the screen. Click the power button (on the left) to switch it on, and the channels button (on the right) to display the channels menu.
--- Bright TV Channels ---
1: Google: surf the web from inside SL
2: YouTube: the world's biggest video site
3: Livestream: TV stations from worldwide
4: Treet TV: The original SL TV network!
5: Metaverse: TV for virtual worlds
6: Last.fm: Personalised music videos
7: Bright Corportation: help & information
8: Parcel audio: local background music
9: Parcel video: more video, for *all* viewers
1-7 are web channels. You can watch them anywhere, and without an ariel - just click the corresponding numbered button.
To get a submenu of parcel audio or parcel video channels click buttons 8 or 9.
Right-click your TV and click "Open" to display a "Contents" window. Inside you will see three notecards: '1st menu', 'Parcel audio' and 'Parcel video', corresponding to the main menu and the two submenus described above. You can add channels to any of them.
Double-click '1st menu' to open the notecard: you might find it easier to read if you stretch the notecard window sideways so that the lines of text don't wrap.
Each line defines a channel, and is made up of three parts divided by "|" marks: name|type|address
"name" is the name which is shown in the menu listing
"type" is "web", "audio" or "video"
"address" is the internet address or "URL" of the channel's source
Once you've added lines for your new channels, click "Save" to save the notecard, and the TV will automatically restart.
Note: When you view a "web" channel, the TV is treated like an imaginary computer screen 1024 pixels wide. This is a fairly typical computer screen width, and will almost always be fine. However, if you choose a type of "web 512", this will treat the TV as if it was only 512 pixels wide. Because the TV remains the same physical size, this effectively means that the pixels are bigger, so the image of the website is bigger. It's like a 2x "zoom". This sounds more complicated than it is - try it and you'll quickly see the effect. For the sake of example, to set up a channel displaying the "Bing" search engine with 600 pixels across your TV, use...
Bing|web 600|http://bing.com
Finding the address for a web channel is easy: you can just copy it from the address bar of your usual internet browser, and paste it into your notecard. But finding addresses for parcel audio and parcel video channels is harder, because Second Life is a little fussy about parcel media.
Second Life uses "Shoutcast" to play parcel audio, so an audio address must be the address of a Shoutcast stream. Note that this is not the same as the address in your browser's address bar of a web page which contains an embedded shoutcast player - the annoying thing is that the address of the stream being played itself is usually not displayed, and is a bit awkward to get at. But Torley Linden has created a video to help you find it, which you can watch here: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Streaming_Music
Second Life uses QuickTime to play parcel video, so a video address must be the address of a stream QuickTime can play. Again, this is not the same as the address in your browser's address bar of a web page with embedded video, and again, the address of the actual video stream itself can be hard to find. A clue is that it will usually begin or end in certain ways, including (but not limited to) "rtsp://..." (Real Time Streaming Protocol), or "...mpg", "...wmv", "...mov" (various types of video). You can easily test if you have a usable address by opening QuickTime on your computer, choosing "File", "Open URL...", and then pasting it in. If QuickTime plays it, chances are it will work in Second Life.
(There is currently a problem viewing some parcel video in Second Life running on Windows 7 64-bit. Second Life broadcaster Treet TV have written about this issue here - http://wiki.treet.tv/Windows_7_and_Quicktime - and is being tracked on the official Second Life issue tracker here - https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-12768 - All the parcel video channels provided with the Bright TV have been tested and work even on 64 bit Windows, but you need to watch out for this problem when you are adding your own video channels.)
If the main menu is getting a bit too long, you can create your own submenus.
Just create a new notecard - for instance, "Spanish channels" - and fill it with channels as described above. Then drag it into the TV.
Then, add an option to the "1st menu" with a type of "notecard", and the name of the new notecard in place of the address...
Spanish language TV and radio|notecard|Spanish channels
If you want to watch web channels, you don't need the ariel at all: ignore this bit.
If you want to select parcel audio and video for yourself in your own home, you need the ariel, but it will do this right out of the box. Rez it, deed it, forget it. You can still ignore this bit.
But if you run a public venue, or provide rentals, the Bright TV ariel can be very useful: read on.
Click the ariel to display a menu like this...
---
Owner TVs: audio ON, video PUBLIC
Group TVs: audio OFF, video PRIVATE
Public TVs: audio OFF, video OFF
[ON/OFF] [Set texture]
[Owner audio] [Group audio] [Public audio]
[Owner video] [Group video] [Public video]
---
This menu controls which Bright TVs on your land can use the ariel to set parcel media. "Owner" TVs belong to you, "Group" TVs are set to the same group as the ariel, and all others are "Public" TVs.
So for example, to control what happens when an *audio* channel is chosen from a *group* TV, click "Group video" to switch the setting between ON and OFF. If the setting is ON, the parcel's audio stream will be set to the selected channel: if it is OFF, it won't.
The *video* setting can be PUBLIC, PRIVATE, or OFF. If PUBLIC, when channel is selected, all TVs will show it (except those showing web channels, which ignore parcel media settings). If PRIVATE, only the avatar choosing it will see it - all other avatars will be unaffected, even if they are watching the same TV. OFF disables video.
These settings are useful if you run public venues or rentals, but they can seem complicated, and if you have bought the Bright TV to watch in your own home, you can ignore them. Right out of the box, the ariel will let your TV play audio and video channels: just rez it, deed it, and forget it. And again, if you are rezzing the TV to watch web channels, you don't need the ariel at all.
* Run your own blog or company website? Put it on a web channel on a TV in your shop - or rez one in your rental mall space! Create more channels for direct jumps to product demos, videos, even choices of backup music! Only one prim buys you an interactive, automatically updated advertising spot.
* Don't be shy about adding your own favourite channels, or removing ones we provide which you don't use. You have the whole web to choose from: personalise your TV!
* Size your TV to suit yourself, and use the "web xxx" feature to set the width of each web channel to the best for that site. The TV will automatically adjust the "aspect ratio" of its web channel display so it doesn't stretch or squash web content, whatever shape the screen is.
* Take advantage of PRIVATE video. Say you have a Second Life education centre, and want to show videos on "Animating", "Building", and "Scripting". Put your TV in a public place, and make each video a different channel. Then click your ariel and set "Owner video" to "PRIVATE". Each visitor can select and watch any channel when they arrive, without interupting the different videos *other* visitors are already watching.
* Let your tenants use the Bright TV to set the parcel audio, and watch private video, without having to deed things for them, or delete deeded things once they have left! Say you are renting out apartments in a towerblock. Put your ariel on the roof, click it, and set "Group video" to "PRIVATE". Now your tenants can buy and watch their own Bright TVs, choose their own channels, and watch video without affecting their neighbours, and without needing "deed" rights to your group.
Shan Bright
Chief Executive Officer