Access the CougarVISION application in Cougar Village.
Open your browser and type in cougarvision.e.uh.edu; you do not need to type http://www. CougarVISION is not available on UH WIRELESS at the present time, you must be plugged in to your Ethernet wall connection in your room.

Access CougarVISION

You will see a screen like this.

You need to have Java installed and enabled to use the services; you probably already have this installed or enabled.

Security Screens

TV Guide

After you accept the digital certificate, a channel guide with preview window will appear. You can scroll down the channels to see what is available. Double-click on a channel to see a preview in the window. Click on Watch TV to begin viewing.

You can see all of the channel listings at http://www.zap2it.com also. Use the zip code 77004 and choose University of Houston – Cable (Houston) under the Set Preferences section on the TV Listings page.

Watch TV

You can go back to the Guide at any time by clicking in the onGuide button in the top left corner, or by double-clicking anywhere on the TV picture.

Viewing Options

Right-click on the TV picture to see additional options and shortcut keys that are available.

InStream™Viewer Dashboard

The Dashboard displays the graphical controls that may be used during the viewing session.

Adjusting the Volume

Adjusting the audio volume is accomplished by clicking and dragging the volume slider to the right (increase) or left (decrease) or by using the keyboard controls “Ctrl + Right Arrow” (increase) or “Ctrl + Left Arrow” (decrease). To “mute” the audio, click the speaker icon. To “unmute”, click the speaker icon again. The keyboard shortcut “Ctrl + M” toggles “mute” mode.

Moving the Viewer

The viewer may be moved clicking and holding the mouse nearly anywhere there’s not a button or entry field and dragging the viewer window to a new location

InStream™ Information Display

Pressing on the Dashboard “i” icon displays information about your current tuned IP video session such as the InStream™ viewing mode, InStream™ version, and stream reception status. Click repeatedly to cycle through the available information.

Minimizing Your Viewing Session

To minimize the viewer to the task bar, click the minimize button in the top right corner of the InStream™ viewer dashboard.

Ending Your Viewing Session

To end your viewing session, click on the close button in the top right corner of the InStream™ viewer dashboard.

InStream™ Keyboard Shortcuts (for Mac – substitute Apple Key for Ctrl Key)

FAQs

CougarVision is an innovative new service designed to provide video programming over the Residential Life & Housing data network in Cougar Village. CougarVISION offers the same local, national and international programming channels to watch on your computer, just like on the older cable network in the residence halls areas did on a television set.

Q: I clicked on the link, but nothing happened?

The player application that launches when you click the link can take up to 30 seconds to launch, allow some time before clicking again or going to another page. Clicking a link multiple times will only cause it to attempt to load multiple players and will increase the wait time The player will sometimes load BEHIND your current window, so be aware and maybe minimize your main window.

Q: Why does the viewer application display “Retrieving guide data”, “Waiting for Broadcast”, “Tuning In”, or “Connecting”, and then do nothing – or worse, tells me I’m unauthorized?

The stream may not be available on the network or your computer system may not be receiving multicast data through or from your network connection or may be blocked by a personal firewall. Multicast is a standard network-based data distribution technology used to broadcast services on the network. If you encounter one of these messages but never receive onGuide™ data or video, you may have a firewall or other configuration issue that prevents multicast data from reaching the application on your system.

User Not Authorized: If you get a “User not authorized” error after seeing the message “Retrieving guide data,” try disabling unnecessary network adapters and connections (i.e., network bridges, wireless network adapters), and try again.

License server not responding: if InStream™ cannot communicate with the license server, this message may appear. To resolve this, open the outgoing unicast udp port (specified below) in your personal firewall configuration.

Multiple Network Interfaces: You may encounter problems if your computer is configured to use several different connections to the network such as a wired 802.3 and a wireless 802.11x adapters. Disable settings for wireless adapters and try again.

Firewalls: If your computer has a personal firewall such as Zone Alarm or Black Ice installed and configured to “Block Internet Servers”, you will not receive multicast services even if your network connection is multicast enabled, because an improperly configured firewall will block multicast. To enable multicast on a system with a firewall you can either temporarily disable or remove the firewall software by going to Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs (Windows), or reconfigure the firewall program to “Allow Internet Servers” in an option menu. Your firewall must be configured to allow the IP addresses carrying the multicast traffic on your network (e.g., 233.0.103.x, check with your site technical support). Also, be sure to allow the following ports: incoming multicast udp ports: 4900 and 4901 and outgoing unicast udp port 4902. Keep in mind that some network services client applications may install firewall software on your client device without your knowledge (e.g., Cisco – IPSec VPN). If you suspect this to be the case, consider opening that application, finding the firewall option and disabling it, closing the application then try accessing the video services again. If it now works, consider appropriate configuration of the firewall as mentioned earlier.

Note: Windows XP provides a built-in personal firewall that is disabled by default. If you have not enabled this feature and have no additional firewall software, multicast should not be blocked.

NAT Routers: If your computer is behind a NAT (Network Address Translation) router, you will probably not be able to receive multicast traffic. Check with your support organization if you believe this to be the case.

Linux Users: Verify that your kernel is enabled for IP multicast.

Q: Does this service work off-campus?

No, the streaming media is meant for on-campus networks only. The media should be available via network connections on-campus in Cougar Village, but not off-campus.

Q: Will my older computer support the IP video service?

A computer must meet certain minimum system requirements. If your system does not meet these requirements, the service may perform less than desired or not at all. The minimum system requirements to view each service are listed below:

- Windows 98/2000/XP: Intel Pentium III 500MHz CPU or greater Current Java Virtual Machine or Sun JRE 1.4.1 Netscape Communicator or Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher

- Mac OS X 10.1.5: Power PC G3 700MHz or G4 400 MHz or greater OpenGL-capable video card (ATI Rage 128 or Radeon, any nVidia card) Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher, or Netscape Communicator 7.0

- RedHat (Intel) Linux 7.3: Intel Pentium III 500MHz CPU or greater 24-bit graphics enabled Properly configured and enabled audio card/module Mozilla v0.9.9/v1.2a with Java Plug-in (i.e., v1.4.1) Other distributions of Linux such as Ubuntu should work as well.

In all cases, the client computer must have network access and a recent Java run-time environment, in most cases available at http://java.sun.com .

Q: Why is my viewer so small?

To view video in full-window mode, click the “TV” button in the upper left corner of the “OnGuide” window or under the video preview thumbnail. To increase the size of the viewer window, right-click (Windows/Linux) or control-click (Macintosh) on the viewer to show a menu with pre-defined viewer sizes. Select the preferred size (small, medium, large, or full screen) from the menu. Alternately, use the mouse to click on and stretch the window borders or corners. To toggle between “OnGuide” mode and “TV” mode, press Ctrl-G (Windows/Linux) or Cmd-G (Macintosh).

Q: Why does it sometimes take a while for the video and audio to restart when I click Stop, then Play?

Your computer has to leave and rejoin the multicast group for that service, then reacquire the stream. This may result in a brief delay.

Q: How long should it take for video to start playing after I select a channel?

It should take only a few seconds after selecting an enabled channel. A brief delay of a few seconds is normal. If the video hasn’t appeared in 30 seconds, there is a problem either with your platform, it’s ability to receive the network transmission, or other problems that may require the assistance of your site technical support. Close all unnecessary programs and try to restart InStream™.

Q: Why does the message “Reception: (no broadcast available)…”, “Tuning In…” or “Ready…” appear indefinitely in the InStream™ information field?

This means that either the requested stream has been interrupted, the stream is not available in the part of the network in which you are located, or for some other reason, the stream cannot traverse your network connection. It’s also possible that your personal firewall is blocking multicast traffic as described in another part of this FAQ. If you believe there should be a stream available; then consider contacting your service provider to resolve the anomaly.

Q: Why is my video not smooth like TV?

The streams are placed on the network at a “full motion video” rate (30 frames per second). Your version of Microsoft DirectX may not support monitors that are set above a scan rate of 75Hz or your CPU is taxed by other applications and not enough CPU bandwidth is available for InStream™ to display full frame-rate video. The following suggestions may help: check your CPU load with the CPU monitoring tool provided by your Operating System. If you have surplus CPU cycles available, try to change the scan rate on your monitor to 75Hz. If not, consider closing some of your other opened applications. Also consider upgrading graphics card drivers and/or your system software (e.g., Microsoft Update, Direct/X (if used), Apple Macintosh OSX update, or try a faster computer).