Listen to MLB.COM Radio on your phone!

by acsguitar
 
So you love baseball. You buy the mlb.com radio package to listen to your favorite games. Oh then the horror as you realize that MLB.COM uses java and flash and then encodes their streams so that listening to them on your phone is pretty much impossible. Unless of course  you have sprint and pay 5.99 a month. Well I've figured it out. It might seem like a lot of work but in actuality its pretty easy and best of all the software that I use to get the streams to my phone is 100% Free and doable even for a beginner. 
 

Enjoy! (I'm sure the evil cats at MLB will try to sue me within minutes.)

BTW this was done on a Tmobile SDA Smartphone. There is similar software for the PPC however, I don't have direct links.
 

LETS START WITH YOUR HOME COMPUTER:

You will need to install the following things on your home computer (or whatever computer you will play the mlb.com streams from);

1. Firefox www.firefox.com

2. REALVNC Server: Free Edition http://www.realvnc.com/download.html

UPDATE: DISHE from Howardforums.com (one of the smartest people I've ever met on a forum) recommended to me   Ultr@vnc server as they said it is much better with use for smartphones due to scaling.
 

3. Media Player Connectivity Firefox Plugin https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/446/
 

4. Thunderbird email client http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/

5. Activate the ON-Screen Keyboard in windows. Its under START--ALL PROGRAMS-- Accessories--- Accessibility.

What you will need on your Smartphone: 

1. A VNC Client: I use this one its free and it works well: .net VNC VIEWER http://dotnetvnc.sourceforge.net/ 

2. A data plan or a phone that allows internet access 

3. Windows Media Player  

You will need to Configure your router to use realVNC. It uses port 5900. If you don't know how to set it up I'm sure there are tutorials out there.

You will also need to configure Thunderbird as your default email client and set it up to be able to send email: (Of course you can use any email client of your choice. I like Thunderbird though) 

Anyways Here we go!!
 

1. Have your computer on and configured for realVNC correctly (This means you can connect to your computer, and thus view and control your desktop, from where ever you have an internet connection) 

 2. Connect to your computer with .net VNC Viewer: this is done by typing the format (Without quotes) "IP.AD.DR.ESS::5900 (or whatever port you choose) for rookies it would like like this somewhat 69.23.44.28::5900. Your desktop screen should now appear on your phone!!

3.  Using .netVNC viewer go to MLB.COM and choose your favorite game. Mediaconnectivity will catch the fact that a windows media stream is trying to open. You will see a black box with the Mediaconnectivity Icon where windows media controls would usually appear. (The icon looks like an old film strip thing)


4. UPDATE: Configure Mediaconnectivity firefox Plugin  to show a direct link: Go to Configuration 2/2 and select "Show a direct URL Link Icon". This will now add a little META icon ontop of the Mediaconnectivity black captured Media screen (The one with the REEL icon). The Meta icon will be on the bottom left of the black screen MC has created. Right click on this link and Chose "SEND LINK". This now will send the link to your email client. This link should have your home computer IP address at the end of it. 

ALTERNATE CONIFGURATION: If you are having problems with the send link function you can always just right click on the MPConnectivity and select properties and then select all and copy and paste the link into an email and send it to yourself. Basically the key is getting that link to your phone within 5 minutes or so.

5. This will now open up your default Email Client, mine is thunderbird. Now click send to send the email to the email address that gets forwarded to your phone.

6. Open the email and click on the link! Note: TPCMP media player WILL NOT play these streams. It has to be windows media player. (You may need to unassociate windows streaming files with TPCMP if you have it installed)

7. Taa daa streaming baseball!! Woot woot!

THE GOOD NEWS: You can listen to your stream as long as you don't stop it or lose connection (Although I think buffering is ok). Its totally legal because you are using your account. Its free for all the software.

THE BAD NEWS: The stream can only be opened within approx: 5 minutes of opening it on MLB.COM. This means if you open the email 30 minutes after you send it its not gonna work and you will get an authorization error.

SOME OTHER NOTES: 

1. Configuring your VNC viewers is pretty simple I suggest a google search.

2. Streaming baseball is 20Kbps which is way low and should work fine on EDGE or GPRS

3. If you like baseball you should visit: www.fantasybaseballcafe.com its awesome free and a great time! You can find me under the handle acsguitar. if you like cellphones visit howardforums.com.