WebTV Viewer For Windows

Holy Crap, I remember a time when this blog wasn't mostly populated with religious and political crap. The fact is that the past several weeks (months), I've been quite busy with various projects in regard to virtualizers and emulators, mostly in regard to various future videos. One of those future projects is trying out the WebTV Viewer for Windows 98. With MJD trying out the WebTV boxes and people like jarhead and nitrate92 for working on a WebTV revival project. Their work reminded me that there was a WebTV Viewer for Windows. Holy crap, that's one name that I've haven't heard in awhile. Believe it or not though, I've had "some'' experience with this software back in the past.

Many moons ago, I had an ATI All-In-Wonder with a built-in TV-tuner. I wanted to try it out, so I had a PC with Windows 98 installed and installed the WebTV Viewer from the Windows 98 Extra Options. WebTV pulled the TV listings off my dial-up internet (there was a 56K modem installed. Those were the days). With a (supported) TV Tuner, the TV Viewer could use the tuner as well. Well, the AIW was too new, so it wasn't supported by WebTV for Windows. That sucks. However, later on (many moons later), I purchased a Hauppauge TV tuner (PCI-Express) and plugged it into my then current AMD Dual-Core PC running Windows 7. (early 2010's) The thing that I've quickly discovered is that while watching TV on the PC is a cool novelty, it gets old very quickly. I still have the adapter right away. 


However, the WebTV Viewer for Windows still fascinated me. So I decided to check it out more in-depth. That meant creating an emulator configuration running Windows 98. I went through hell and back. While Windows 98 installed relatively well on VMware Player 16, CPU issues prevented me from launching the client. 86Box is too slow on my PC (in regard to Windows 98 anyway). While performance wise, DOSBox-X was better, it still wasn't the best in the world. I was afraid of trying VirtualBox, as that virtualizer traditionally fought me in the past in regard to Windows 98. However, I decided to byte (yes, that was intentional) the bullet and install it on VBox. I was shocked. The installation was actually smooth. VBox must have been updated significantly to play nice with Windows 9x. Regardless, I now had a quite fast and functional Win98 VM to try out the WebTV for Windows Viewer.

As mentioned, the WebTV Viewer on Windows mainly acts as a TV guide that pulls its listings off the internet in regard to your location (prompted by your ZIP code). Now, I wanted to watch stuff on the WebTV Viewer. However, VBox doesn't emulate the TV tuner. However, I know that the viewer does interface with WMP.

When the WebTV Viewer loads up, there are two channels enabled; 96 and 97. Channel 97 is the viewer and 96 is the Configuration program. The configuration program is actually a HTML file located in "C:\Program Files\TV Viewer\Layouts\Config". I could just supply my own substitute "PC03WDA1.HTM" file which would load whatever video file is told to play in the HTML code. 

After learning enough HTML code to load a AVI file at the appropriate resolution, I copied both the "PC03WDA1.HTM" and AVI file into the "Config" folder. I fired up WebTV and launched Channel 96 and the AVI file was playing as if it was a video feed from a tuner. Not the best substitute, but it worked. Since I've also installed the Windows Media Encoder 4.1 in my Win98 VM, I could also encode videos into the ASF format for streaming. From there, the "PC03WDA1.HTM" file could be modified to load the ASF stream either locally or from a web server.

AVI, ASF, and Encoding

During this research, I've learned that AVI files won't stream. WMP will download them before playing them. MPG will play, but because buffer speeds are poor, the file stutters and won't play at full performance until it's completely downloaded off the internet. Thus, this is the reason why Microsoft created the ASF (Advanced Streaming Format) in the first place; to enable video to be streamed instead of being downloaded.

Since this is now 2023, and I don't have to worry about 28.8K modem drag, I could go all out and encode ASF videos at really high bitrates and still play nicely on WMP or the WebTV Viewer. Also, I've downloaded the Xvid Codec for Windows 98 and installed it into my VM, where DivX 3 videos, encoded using FFMPEG on my Windows 10 host, could play without issue on my Win98 VM. And since my Win98 VM has 24GB's of space allocated to it, I can keep my test videos in the "Config" folder with whatever "PC03WDA1.HTM" file that I want to use. And since the Xvid Codec is a DirectShow codec, it will work with the WebTV Viewer.


Other Discoveries

I'm still working on this part, but when the WebTV Viewer downloads its listings off the Internet, it modifies TSS.MDB, TSS.MDW, and EPG.MDB files. Those are ODBC database files that can be opened in Microsoft Access. The WebTV Viewer for Windows uses the ODBC Jet Driver to modify those files to keep the TV listings stored. I don't know which file in particular has the listings, but since I did just install Office 97 on my VM. I'm going to check them out, not it matters much though as the servers that fed the TV listings into WebTV have long been discontinued. However, I could create my own dummy streams if I wanted too. Only time will tell where I will go with the MDB files.

The Full NTSC Experience

Having nicely rendered AVI files is one thing. But what happens if I want the full TV experience! I mean the experience of watching a fuzzy display with the scanlines and interlacing. I want my NTSC artifacts. This can be a bit of a problem as VBox doesn't emulate a TV Tuner. 


However, what if I just encode my own files, burn them to a disc using DVDFlick, and then play that disc on a Philips DVD player that is connected to a RCA to USB capture device that is then connected to OBS Studio while recording my stream off of an authentic NTSC source? Yes, I've lost my marbles. (Actually, that should have been evident from all my political and religious articles). However, I stop at nothing. I've played one of those TV Golf console games connected to the RCA Capture Device, along with one of my video projects and a NASA downloaded file of the STS-95 launch (the one that took John Glenn back into space. After OBS recorded the stream, those files were converted into DivX 3 files and copy onto my Win98 VM with the appropriate changes made to the "PC03WDA1.HTM" file. Afterwards, I was watching video with all the NTSC artifacts as how those using the WebTV Viewer for Windows 98 with a TV Tuner would have watched video back in the day. Complete with the NTSC interlacing artifacts


Conclusion

I have too much time on my hands. Regardless though, this was a very nifty experience, and I've learned a lot about the WebTV Viewer for Windows 98. I hope you enjoy this article though. 





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

WeatherStar 4000 Simulator For Windows (Part 1)

Image
  It's time to get the weather forecast, 90's style. A couple of months ago, I reviewed the WeatherStar 4000+ simulator for web-browsers. This simulator, created by Mike Battaglia, is a open-source, on-line simulator of the WeatherStar 4000 hardware used by The Weather Channel during the 1990's. This simulator ran without issue on both Firefox and Chrome on Windows 7 (Home PC) and Firefox on Windows 10 (Dell Optiplex).  It also runs great under Chrome on my Android devices as well. I use the online simulator when I'm on the road.  Now, I'm going to look into the WeatherStar 4000 simulator for Windows offered by Taiganet. This simulator offers a lot of features and can be customized in various ways. When I'm home, I use this program most of the time. Now, there is one notable hardware requirement. First, to run the Windows (and Mac OSX/Linux ports as well) simulator, you will need a computer that supports OpenGL 3.3. My home computer ha...
Read more

Classic Systems Emulated: Windows 95 (Part 1)

Image
  Start Me Up! Windows 95 (Chicago Beta Build 189 released September 1994) running under PCEM What would eventually become Windows 95 was affected by several turn of events that occurred during its development. Windows 95, code-named Chicago, had been several years in the making. Microsoft had already been planning the next version of Windows right after they got 3.1 out the door on March 1992. What would determine the course of the new OS? DOS Compatibility for one as it was still deemed essential at that point. One has to remember that even though Windows 3.0 had been the most successful version of Windows to date, the GUI in general was still a novelty at that point. Most used Windows 3.0 for simple task like typing list, letters, or playing solitaire. Most PC users who needed to work on major projects were still running DOS applications like WordPerfect or Lotus 123. However, the transition to GUI's would begin in earnest.  The 486 processor ...
Read more

Classic Systems Emulated: Windows 3.1 OEMS

Image
  The OEM's Want In On The Action The PC Market of the early 90's was a very competitive one. As such, having a easy-to-use environment was a must for these companies pushing there hardware. Hardware has caught up to software, and as such, it was now time to push the command prompt out of the way for the GUI. Several of these companies spotted opportunities to make  deals with Microsoft to pre-install Windows on there computers. This phenomenon didn't start with 3.1 though. Even in the late 80's, both Compaq and IBM often preinstalled Windows 386 for corporate customers that brought there 386 systems. Windows 3.0 was bundled with a lot of systems too. It was preinstalled on the IBM PS/1 budget PC's and various Tandy models. It came with the Amstrad MegaPC and various other PC's offered by ZDS (Zenith Data Systems) as well.  The number of OEM partners grew with the Windows 3.1 release. Some of them were familiar faces, like Compa...
Read more

Old Hardware Emulated :Psion Model 3a Emulated On DOSBox Windows

Image
  Psion 3a and 3c Psion Series 3c Handheld Computer (Wikipedia) Psion 3a As mentioned in the previous articles, the emulators for the Psion 3 exist only on DOSBox. I decided to take the challenge of setting up a emulated configuration. What must one do. There is already a very good guide on the internet titled "PocketBook II emulation..." which is linked below in the article. Highly recommended. Setting up a emulated Psion 3 takes a little bit of effort, but it's possible and is a good exploration of setting up a DOSBox configuration. I'm making the safe assumption that the fast majority of those reading this are using Windows systems, but DOSBox has been ported to Mac OS X and Linux as well, so this guide might work on those systems.  The first thing I did was created a folder called dosbox_psion3 (Folder naming is based on personal preference). Make the following new folders within dosbox_psion3; psion3, a, b, and m. With the f...
Read more

Classic Systems Emulated: OS/2 Version 2.0 On PCEM

Image
  The Arrival Of 32-Bit Power For The Masses The past couple of these PC articles have been very Windows-centric. This isn't a surprise as Windows 3.0 was a major release that made a very massive impact on the marketplace. Windows 3.1 sold 3 million copies in 6 weeks. 1992 was a very different time. Back then, it was possible to request a PC without an operating system. If one did want an OS, they could choose between OS/2, DOS, or the DOS+Windows combination. I've had not forgotten OS/2 in these articles. The 286 versions of OS/2 had already been covered in my articles about the IBM PS/2 family of computers. The messy IBM-Microsoft "divorce" had been covered in detail as well. To quickly recap: Microsoft didn't like the direction that IBM wanted to take OS/2. Microsoft envisioned OS/2 as being the "next-generation" OS, while IBM simply saw the OS as a tool to sell more hardware. OS/2 did terrible in the marketplace. The ...
Read more

Old Hardware Emulated - Windows Mobile 5.0

Image
Working title for this post was "But Mama, That's Where The Fun Is!". Appropriate as by the middle 2000's, Windows Mobile was where all the action was at. The sky was only getting brighter for Microsoft as Palm was slowly imploding on itself. With Microsoft's mobile offerings becoming more widespread by the day, the Redmond Giant followed up with the newest version of WM, version 5.0, on May 2005. On the surface, it appears that little changed. However, the biggest change were "under the hood" with the incorporation of the .NET Compact Framework, which is basically the mobile version of .NET. Also, WM 5.0 introduced newer power-saving capabilities which often improved the battery life of devices by as much as 50%. WM backed up everything to flash memory. WinMobile would use a combination of RAM and flash memory to preserve battery life. This wasn't noticeable by the user.  As such, their is no data loss if power is lost.  Windows Media Player was upd...
Read more

Old Hardware Emulated : Pocket PC 2000/2002

Image
  Windows CE On The PDA Pocket PC 2002 starting up. For the remainder of the 90's, Microsoft had a tough time gaining a foothold in the handheld market. Windows CE 2.0 was well received on the palmtop PC's. However, that market-share was small compared to there PDA counterpart that were rocking to the tune of PalmOS. The first incarnation of WinCE on the PDA seemed sparse compared to Palm. At this point, the PDA port of Windows CE was re-branded as Windows Mobile. Around this point, Microsoft's fortunes began to change. For the first time, the Palm platform had that "Oh Crap!" moment when Compaq released the iPAQ in April 2000. The PDA came with the new Windows Pocket PC 2000 operating system. This version of Windows CE was specifically geared towards PDA's in particular. The iPAQ line of PDA's became must own devices for those that wanted the latest and greatest. As how Compaq made IBM look silly in the 80's and 90's...
Read more

Old Hardware Emulated :Einstein emulating the Apple Newton (Part 3)

Image
  NewtonOS Android in Action! Einstein emulating the Newton Messagepad on a Amazon Fire HD7 tablet. Einstein Seriously, did you not expect me to run a OS designed for a classic handheld device on a modern tablet!? It's interesting running Einstein on a PC, but I want to try this platform out on a handheld that was similar in form-factor to the original device. Einstein had been ported to Android as well. It's not as recent as the current builds available for iOS, MacOS, and Ubuntu Linux, but it works well enough. Running the emulator means doing a few things before hand, like loading the Android package, ROM, and other needed files. The apk file that I downloaded was "einstein.05.01.2013.apk", which can be found at a archived version of the code.Google.com page (link posted below). You will also need a ROM file named "717006" that needs to be placed in the "/sdcard/Downloads/Einstein/" directory of your Androi...
Read more

Classic Games Emulated: Revisiting NFS High Stakes Modding

Image
  Modding On The Mind! As anyone who's read my NFS:HS article or watching my uploads on YouTube, one can tell that they're two things that I'm a fan of: NFS:HS and Virtualization. I like contained environments that allow me to run beloved games from the past on far more powerful configurations. It only seemed natural for me to embark on the journey of getting NFS:HS running under VMware Player. I had a original copy of the game on CD-ROM which was installed on my guest setup. The guest configuration had two cores allocated to it, 2GB's of RAM, and 3D acceleration via my Nvidia GTX 950. The guest OS running was Windows 7 32-bit. After installing HS, I copied the patch, and started to burn rubber. After that, I duplicated the game folder so I could have two installations: one stock and another one for mod. Within the NFS:HS folder, their are various directories. The "DATA/CARS" folder has both the racing and traffic cars. The first t...
Read more

OS/2 Warp 4

Image
(Any blogpost where I don't have to cover politics is a win in my books!) OS/2 Warp 4 was a very noble endeavor. It was IBM's statement to the world to demonstrate there commitment to the OS/2 operating system. However, when it arrived in 1996, OS/2 Warp 4 was dead on arrival. A lot had happened between the launch of Warp 3 and Warp 4, with the biggest of them being the arrival of Windows 95. Microsoft, making the most of their OEM connections, started to lock OS/2 out of the OEM markets prior to the launch of Windows 95. With threats of either not receiving the latest Windows or paying much higher license fees, many OEM's relented to Microsoft's pressure. Warp 3 struggled against Windows 3.1 along with the soon-to-be-tidal wave that would be Windows 95. Not only that, Microsoft had a vendetta against Big Blue for previous acts.  Lotus 123 For OS/2 Warp 4 Faced with accusations that Microsoft incorporated OS/2 source code into Windows 3.x which would have violated the j...
Read more