How to get Al Jazeera on your TV by going 'over the top'

For United States citizens interested in getting continuous news coverage of the Egyptian revolution, the options are limited to one: the live Al Jazeera feed on its website. Even though United States cable companies don't carry the station, it is easy to pipe that streaming news feed to your HDTV with a variety of Web-connected devices.

Set-top box maker Roku today announced that users of its popular set-top streamer can now push Al Jazeera's live and on-demand streams to their HDTVs with just a few steps.

1.) Sign up for a free account with Podcast/Vodcast manager CDNTwo, and stay logged on to the site.
2.) On your Roku Streamer, go to Channel Store > News and Podcasts and add the CDNTwo Channel. In the channel's "configuration" menu on the far right, you will get an activation code to link your Roku box to your account.
3.) In the CDNTwo Website's Member Area, under "My Profile," enter the activation number in the field labeled "My Set top Box," and click Activate.
4.) Then, click on the "Add Category" tab, and enter whatever text you want in the name and description fields, then hit the "Add Category" button.
5.) Click on the "Add Content" tab, and click the very first item listed "Livestation.com (Beta) - Live Video." Then name the feed, assign it to the category you made in step 4, and click "Add Feed."
5.) Back on the Roku box, the "My Categories" menu will now have the channel you just created, with access to all of LiveStation's Al Jazeera content.

"We're working on a number of ways to bring Roku customers both live and on-demand feeds from Al-Jazeera," Roku's announcement on Tuesday said. "As we speak we are working to add the live feed to our Roku Newscaster Channel, making it even easier to watch."

This Livestation feed is a critical element in accessing Al Jazeera's English language feed, and it can be hooked up to any number of set top boxes and portable devices. The D-Link Boxee Box, for example, has a Livestation channel that can be found by searching for "live news," and the Android Market has two apps that connect to the feed. Livestation even has an HTML5-optimized site which can be pulled up on GoogleTV, the iPad, or really anything with a browser.

Even though some have weighed criticism against U.S. pay television providers for not carrying Al Jazeera, the Livestation feed makes it relatively easy to reach "over the top."