It took me quite a while to get this done but the TWiT Live Desktop 2.0 update is finally available!
Here’s a little summary of whats new in this version:
- Live video stream now using BitGravity instead of Stickam
- Double-click video to toggle between full screen and normal size
- Right-click video to set it as “always on top”
- Right-click video to get access to “TWiT interactive” features
TWiT interactive includes the IRC channel, TWiT Army, the Twitter and FriendFeed pages and the production schedule. In the settings tab you are able to set your local timezone, save your username for the IRC chat as well as set the application to launch at startup.
I’m particularly pleased with this update and hope you will too as soon as its been made available. Really appreciated all the feedback I got over the last few months so please keep it coming!
For those wondering since this is an AIR application it will run cross-platform on PC, Mac and Linux. You can install the application through the install badge above or downloading the file directly (in which case you will need to have the AIR runtime installed). Enjoy!
Related posts:
- TWiT Live Desktop 2.2 goes open source
- TWiT Live Desktop 1.5
- AIR LiveBlogger beta 1
- TwitLive AIR application
- Apollo – FLVSnapshot
I just installed it on Linux. Looks great, but the video looks a little squished horizontally. It’s still watchable, though. Any idea what’s wrong?
Thanks for your work!
Great app! Thanks for the update, but missing the wide aspect. Why is it squished into 4×3 now?
Thanks for the feedback, the 4:3 aspect ratio is a bug — will try to have a minor update fixing that later today.
Great app, but the sound is a bit low on my Macbook, when using the internal speakers, and there’s no way to bring it up. May be a good idea to crank the sound volume up a bit from the streaming source.
Peter, I love this app, but it seems that I only have sound out of one speaker. Is this the app or some setting on my Ubuntu system possibly? Other flash apps sound OK, so I am thinking that it is something in your app or with Adobe Air.
thanks for this great app.
Thanks Mike S — do you have the same thing happening on twitlive.tv? It might be an issue with the BitGravity stream, I’ll check it out.
If its a bug in the application I’ll make sure it gets fixed in an upcoming update.
When I start the app (OS X 10.5) I get sound but the video is blank. After I start resizing window and messing with it, it finally comes up. I’m also getting the same issue mentioned above- sound only out of left speaker. Not a dealbreaker, but FYI. It’s fine on the TWiTlive site- just having the issue in the desktop app.
BUT- it’s a GREAT app! Awesome job- thank you!
Hi Barry, the issue with the video happens every now and then and seems to be caused by the video component I’m using in the application.
Resizing or interacting with the app doesn’t influence it, when it happens it can just take up to a minute or longer for the video to show up, the audio usually is already coming through though.
I’ve been rewriting it today and it should be fixed in the upcoming update.
@Peter
Great! Looking forward to it.
Peter, I loved the last app, and would love to be able to use this one, but I miss the BG audio and video control interface. I like to be able to pause my video and mute it separately, because what happens is I leave the stream on all day, but sometimes I want to watch a YouTube video, etc., and with this app I cannot do that.
Although it is a GREAT APP, I, along with most others, I believe, need the BG control interface to make it really usable.
Thanks for the feedback Steve — there are some technical reasons why I couldn’t simply take the BitGravity player with its controls.
I plan on adding a mute option in the right-click menu in the first update and will look at some more advanced video controls for a later update.
I’ve heard people request for a pause feature but don’t really see a good use for that since its a live stream. You can mute the video or close the application. If anyone has a good use case for a pause feature I would like to hear and I’ll definitely consider it.
So in short for those wondering, the first update will have the following bug fixes and/or enhancements:
- video aspect ratio fixed
- video lag fix (especially on Mac you can run into an issue where it takes up to a minute for video to appear while audio is already running)
- mute added to right-click menu
Was aiming to get it done today but it will more than likely only be out tomorrow. Thanks again for all the feedback!
Excellent app. Looking at all the tabs displaying TWiT sites, might one be added to the TWiT Wiki?
I also really miss the tab style for the interactive bits, as was implemented in the first version. (Maybe offer a “break out” option.”
I could see a “Pause” feature, if it could work like a DVR, where the app would cache video until unpaused and caught up..
Also, East Coast time (NYC) isn’t providing the correct times in the production schedule.
@Peter
Hi Peter,
No, I do not have this problem when listening to twitlive.tv in my firefox browser. Only with this desktop app. Let me know if you need help debugging.
AUDIO. AUDIO. It’s only coming out of one speaker, it’s definitely a glitch.I prefer you fixing the audio to spread to both speakers to be comfortable with my headphones, instead of getting Leo’s bass-heavy voice in one ear more than squished video. A lot of us still use it for audio while we work on other things, only periodically checking the video. AUDIO FIRST.
Love the app. Really excited about the new version. I do have a problem. I am on 64 bit windows and just get the audio and no video. Just a black screen. I saw some comments on Leo’s blog with other people having the same problem running this on 64 bit windows.
Great app, Peter. Looking forward to the next update! How about adding an option to remove the title bar on the video window? Having that bar there is kinda annoying while using the ‘Always on top’ option.
Also, you may not be able to do anything about this, but I’ve noticed the app uses a good amount of CPU. About 50-60% on my 1.5 y/o MacBook Pro.
Big fan of the app, Peter. Loved the previous version and liking the new one as well.
My suggestion would be to have the window start up in the same position it was in when it was last used. I’m on a Mac and every time I use the app I have to move the window.
Thanks again for a great app!
Thanks again everyone, just to address some of your feedback:
* DVR functionality is not something I expect I’ll be able to include any time soon.
* Both video and audio issues will both be addressed in the update.
* Removing the title bar would mean going with a custom chrome app which tends to take more CPU so would opt not to do that.
@Greg – your problem doesn’t have to do with 64-bit, its occurring for people across the board and is something I’m fixing at the moment.
@Jason – CPU usage should theoretically only be marginally higher than watching in on twitlive.tv especially if you don’t have the interactive section open.
@Decycled – what do you mean with the old tab style? I’m using the same tab navigator for the interactive features right now. Wanted to keep it very simple with just the video for people that don’t want the IRC or other features.
By old tab style, I meant that the chats and schedule were a part of the video window rather than a separate piece. I liked the all-in-one functionality it used to have. Could you have the chat collapse if you didn’t want to view it with the video?
Really excellent work.
Only one feature request – all the Australian timezones:-) id Adelaide @ Perfh time
Really Excellent Work!!!
I love this program… on 2 little feature requests.
Timezones for the rest of Australia, i.e. Adelaide & Perth
Thanks for your great work!!!
Is there a fix coming for at least the big problems – squished aspect and single channel audio?
Just a little update because I get about a dozen emails a day reporting the same few bugs — yes, I’m still working on an update and hope to have it out soon. Please be a little patient with me as I’m working on this outside my regular hours.
I’m waiting to release a version that fixes the following:
- video aspect ratio
- audio channel
- video delay in showing up
- adding more timezones (if anyone has a full list of timezones as supported by Google Calendar that would be helpful)
Thanks again for the feedback, its really appreciated and will get the update out as soon as I can! Also special thanks to Dan for that paypal donation.
Those that are desperately waiting for a fix, you can email me and I’ll see about getting some intermediate builds out for you.
I haven’t put any update checks into the app just yet which is why I’m waiting to push out new versions to the general public until more bugs are patched.
Thanks!
Peter,
Just a quick thanks for this excellent handy application. I use it everyday. Please keep up the great work as it is much appreciated.
Hi the video is not working… I hear audio but no video…
Ok got video to work, but audio in my headphones are only in the left…
Whats up with that?
Peter,
I really love this app. Puts all the functions right where you need them. One thing though is the sound out of only one speaker. I saw your posting and if you have a fix for that I would really love to try it out since that is the only thing that kinda gets to me after a while. Again love the great work. Keep it up. Thanks.
Really cool app – thanks! The only problem (Mac Leopard) is we just get sound out of the left channel. Can you please change it so that the mono sound comes out of both channels?
Currently, I have to Audio Hijack Twit Live and “monoise” it to have the sound come out of both channels, which is clucnky and introduces some audio lag.
Love the twit live desktop but running into a prob on Windows 7 X64 RC im only getting sound on left speaker out no right chan so wondering if its just me? other then that works great :D
Quick update this might help, i noticed on apps like Trillian and twhirl when they do there chim sound the twit audio seems to jump and go to all speakers for as long as the sound is so maybe this can help yea to a quick fix :P
Thanks for a very useful app.
Any idea why I have to start it 3 or 4 times before the video is visible?
any word on the update?
Thanks,
Kevin
Hi, Good software, but the audio is so low I can’t hear it. Its just like a really really really low whisper.
Thanks.