GBS stands for Goon Broadcast System. It is an Internet-only television station. It is based off of community-submitted content and live shows by our members. Anyone can submit material to be played, and we have very few rules limiting the sort of content that will be aired. GBStv is the first fully user-controlled, fully automated TV station on the Internet.

GBS shares a double-meaning with the Something Awful General Bullshit forum, because we're a goon-run service that originated from that humble place.

If you're interested in more information about the history of GBStv and its inner workings, some of our users have put together a Wikipedia article. Maybe that will tickle your fancy.

Most people choose to watch GBStv using our browser player, which works in Firefox 1.5+ and Internet Explorer. Firefox users will need to choose "manual install" to install the associated plugin (don't worry, it's safe) or you can download the XPI directly here. In both plugins, right click on the video for a few options like volume, refresh sync, etc.

You can also watch GBStv with Winamp, a Windows-only media player that has built-in support for the codecs we use. You'll need at least Winamp Full (free), not Winamp Lite.

You could also watch using mplayer (particularly for Linux users). Be sure to install the essential codecs package, and try using "mplayer -delay 1.2 -playlist http://gbs.tv/v.pls -vc +vp6" on the command line. You will need the win32 essential codec pack to watch GBStv due to the video codec we use (note that -vc +vp6 forces the VP6 win32 DLL, disabling the recent ffmpeg VP6 decoder which doesn't work right; see the VLC section below).

On Macs, you have to use VLC, which is not completely perfect for GBStv usage yet. VLC uses the new open-source VP6 decoder from the ffmpeg project which sometimes causes aspect ratio changes in the stream at random. It does however support subtitles (unlike mplayer), which is a nice bonus.

Lastly, you can watch GBStv on your Xbox using Xbox Media Center. For a small tutorial detailing how to make GBStv work in XBMC, click here.

The best thing you can do to support GBStv is to submit new and fresh content for everyone to enjoy. GBStv is great exposure for any amateur filmmaker looking for support.

However, we could always use some new talent in the technical departments. We're looking for talented sysadmins familiar with clustering and abstraction that can help us expand. We're also looking for CSS and Javascript developers interested in further streamlining our UI and giving our community a better experience. If you can help with any of that stuff, or think you have some other useful knowledge we need (and trust me, we need it), let us know.

Click the "Contribute" link at the top of any page and read the instructions there. If you have additional problems please refer to the Content and Submission section of this FAQ.

We could certainly use your donations if you'd like to make one. There is a donation link (PayPal button) on the bottom-left of the front page.

We're always looking for new relays to support GBStv's growth. A typical relay should hold at least 20 users, and our stream currently uses ~150K of bandwidth per second. This would put the minimum throughput requirements of a relay at about 3 megabits. We typically use the SHOUTcast daemon to relay our content, but Steamcast and Icecast are also options. If you are interested, please contact us.

No, not here. You should try searching for the video title on Google or something first. If you still can't find it there (and you're absolutely determined), you should contact the person who uploaded the video. On the video's detail page you should see the uploader's name in the blue inlay on the top right. Click their name to go to their profile, where you can then send them a Private Message requesting more information on the video they submitted.

Usually it takes a couple of days. Sometimes the modqueue gets flooded and it can take a little longer. It's tough to give an accurate number since all of our mods are volunteers that do this stuff in their spare time. Please be patient, and don't pester mods to approve your video for you.

Use our video browser to your advantage. Type in the title, or parts of the title, and perform a quick search. This way, you not only save your own time, but the Media Moderators' time as well.

No. Generally we avoid videos that would appear on sites like these because they are very lowbrow, stupid humor. Watermarks are typically just plain tacky and so are long intros or credit sequences. Keep this in mind when submitting crap from other sites.

You need the VP62 codec. Get it here. Using a version other than this one may cause problems.

Sometimes this problem is due to NSVate not being able to tell the framerate of your source videos. Open the video you are trying to encode in Quicktime Player, and click Window->Show Movie Info. You're looking for Movie FPS. Now open NSVate and go to Tools->Preferences. Enter the FPS from Quicktime in the box at the bottom right, and click OK. Try encoding your files now.

Yes. When adding files in NSVate, change the filetype box to say "All Files" and add your WMV files just like any other video.

This tends to happen with XviD/DivX source files. To fix the problem, click Start, Run, and type "rundll32.exe divxdec.ax,Config" without the quotes. On the second tab, check the box that says "Support Generic MPEG-4." Try encoding again.

If you still have the problem, or if the command suggested above doesn't work, it's possible you have XviD installed but it is not handling all fourcc's properly. To fix this problem either look for the XviD configuration tool in your start menu, or try clicking Start->Run, and typing "rundll32.exe xvid.ax,Configure" without the quotes and press enter. Under "FourCC support", check all of the boxes and click Apply and OK. Try encoding now.

Our system expects NSV files, and nothing else. Please don't upload WMV/AVI/MPG videos to our FTP site. You must ENCODE them using OUR COPY of NSVtools with the supplied profile. Don't change anything in the profile!

Set your FTP client to transfer in Binary mode and re-upload your material.

If you have the original FLA file, Flash allows you to export directly to AVI. Otherwise, get Camtasia Studio. Cap the region of your screen that the SWF is playing in, and edit off the excess. (Loading screens, buttons, etc.)

First, you must be logged into your GBStv account. Open the video browser, search for a video, and click on "Add". Assuming all has gone correctly, the video you chose to add should now be on the playlist queue.

• A user may only have up to 2 videos on the playlist at once.
• Some videos are "banned" for a period of time after the last time they aired. This is controlled by an algorithm that increases ban length based on the video's length, ratings, and score amont other things.
• Media Operators and above may add and remove any number of videos from the playlist at any time.
• Feature length material (over 31 minutes) and restricted tags (bumps, station content) can only be queued by Media Operators and above.

The official GBStv chat is #gbs-tv on irc.gbs.tv. A browser-based chat is built-in to our site, but you may also connect with an IRC client if you like.

Oh, you know. General commentary from the peanut gallery on current programming, voting on that programming and adding comments to the site, choosing the bulk of the playlist and all sorts of other stuff.

If you think you're starting to get dangerously addicted to GBStv (and haven't yet joined us in the chat), you might want to run far, far, away from here.

To enable voting, you will have to first authenticate with the channel bot. Type " auth " into the channel without quotations, and you will be given instructions. For help on the voting and other GBStv IRC Bot commands, type " help " into the channel, also without quotations.