If you read my blog regularly you may remember a post I did as part of my Amiga 4000T build in 2023 covering (amongst other things) the creation of Amiga format CDXL video files using a docker containerised application running on my Linux PC. These generated CDXL files could then be played on an AGA Amiga using AGABlaster.
You can learn more about docker containers for linux, Windows and Mac on Wikipedia here if you want to learn more. Essentially it is a virtualisation container for hosting an application.
You can also do similar things on cloud platforms like Azure and AWS without needing a host computer (since Microsoft/Amazon allocate the necessary compute for the required container).
This concept for retro computers is an example of being a little clever and using the superior speed and CPU power of a modern computer/cloud to create content that can be used on a classic Amiga system that would otherwise not be able to generate it in a reasonable time.
So now in 2026 we have AmiVision - which has an Amiga client which connects over the network to docker containers hosted on linux. This time, AmiVision to allow your humble Amiga to stream internet TV in real time!
I heard about this new software on Facebook from the South East Amiga Group, which I am a member of. Cheers for the heads up! I wanted to try it out!
I am aware of another similar application from the same author called AmiStreamRaider, which apparently allows you to view Twitch live streams on an Amiga using a similar technique. As this needs you to link your personal Twitch account to a interface-less docker container and re-activate every 4 hours, with no live chart support as yet, I was not so interested to try it at this time.
Maybe later though - for now let's focus on AmiVision.
Some things to be aware of straight up - there is some setup work involved, and it is not perfect streaming performance, even on a Amiga 060 system. Indeed, I think it is really intended for Pistorm and Vampire accelerated systems, where it works much better.
First, I decided to test on my Amiga 4000T 060 RTG system, since I was curious if it would work on it at all!
As regular readers would know, I also have an Amiga 600 which is Pistorm accelerated and a Amiga 1200 which is Vampire accelerated. I also tested it on my Pistorm Amiga 500 system and it works well on that (mostly), which I will cover later in this blog post.
AmiVision explains the installation process quite well on their website. I followed the instructions from the website, using my Dell Optiplex PC that is running Linux Mint as the machine to run Docker on.
I already had Docker installed from my previous work with CDXL conversions on the same PC, so I could pull the AmiVision docker latest image from the repository in the instructions:
I had to wait for it to download and install all the components it needed on the PC, which took a bit of time, but it completed successfully.
I then ran the wget command to download the docker compose script which helps to set up everything for the docker container on your local PC.
I then told linux to bring up the docker engine, which in turn launches the AmiVision server docker container. There is no configuration needed on the PC side apart from installing the pre-requisites.
With that done, I noted the IP address of the PC, since I would need it to point the AmiVision client on the Amiga. I left the PC running.
I moved to the Amiga 4000T and installed the AmiVision software, and the rxMUI, netcat, mpega, and curl pre-requisities, which were included in the lha.
The Readme png files I created myself as screen grabs from the website on my PC, so I could read them on the Amiga while working on the install without needing to load the website on the Amiga also.
I extracted all the required files to the RAM disk, and got started with the setup work:
It goes without saying that your Amiga needs network access for this to work, along with a suitable TCP/IP stack.
In my case, I am using the commercial TCP/IP package Roadshow on my Amiga 4000T, which is running AmigaOS 3.2, and using a X-Surf 100 Zorro 2 card I got here from Individual computers. Works well on the Amiga 2000, 3000 and indeed I have one in each of these machines, with the now sadly hard to come by RapidRoad USB port expansion module installed also.
Note that a TCP/IP stack is not included with AmigaOS 3.2, or most versions of AmigaOS 3.x (I know AmigaOS3.9 has Genesis before someone points it out, which is a frontend wizard GUI to AmiTCP).
Roadshow is available to purchase from APC&TCP's website here for EUR25 for the digital download version. You can also get a physical boxed version with CDROM for a few EUR extra.
There are also older (free) TCP/IP stacks like AmiTCP, and some other commercial offerings that build off AmiTCP with an easy to configure front end - like AmigaKit's EasyNet Pro. If you are comfortable configuring AMITCP by hand yourself, you can do that for free with the last free version released on AmiNet back in 2012 here.
You can also get some PCMCIA wifi cards for your Amiga 1200 or A600 systems from Ebay or elsewhere quite cheaply that work with these TCP/IP stacks with the CNet device driver from Aminet.
For Amigas like the A500, the ACA500plus external plug in expansion card supports a network card option (which I use), and I covered this in my blog as part of my Amiga 500 build too!
If you want to, you can even use a cheap Plipbox parallel port network connection solution (pre-built or build yourself) - which (you guessed it) I have covered previously in this very blog.
I guess the point of all this information about network options is to show that it is not so hard to get your classic Amiga onto your local network and internet in 2026. I read plenty of people complaining about having to do it, but there is enough ways to do it that suit most budgets that it shouldn't really be an issue.
And if you are emulating the Amiga on a modern Mac, Linux or Windows PC, it is no issue at all since the network connectivity can also be done on that too, with no hardware needed.
Anyway, let's move on to setup AmiVision on the Amiga 4000T. I set to work putting on all the pre-requisites (note that netcat and curl executables should be in the c: directory on the AmigaOS 3.2 system drive). I copied them using the AmigaShell:
You could show all files in the AmigaOS 3.2 drive, navigate to C and then drag and drop from Ram disk also, but I find AmigaShell way faster for this task. YMMV.
RxMUI has a standard Amiga installer, so you can use this to install it:
Last, but certainly not least, the AmiVision main archive:
There is a AmigaGuide document that is installed with all the information on how to setup AmiVision, and it quite comprehensive and well written. I highly recommend reading it. I wish more modern software provided AmigaGuide documentation as good as this.
All the PC server and Amiga client setup instructions are included in the AmigaGuide document as I mentioned, so you can simply follow them - here is the server side (Linux PC) instructions - note that you need to type sudo for the docker pull and docker compose instructions - which is not shown in the instructions - or at least I had to on Linux Mint:
This is the Amiga client install instructions:
Apparently you can use a dashboard with a modern web browser to manage the docker container in real time, although I didn't do this myself:
I ran the AMV installer program, and it guides you through the installation process, with the usual AmigaOS installer program being used.
I choose where to install it - I select the Applications drawer I created on my Amiga 4000T to keep all applications neat and tidy and in one place.
Originally my Amiga 4000T had a Work partition, which at some point I moved to the Data partition, which is why you see the structure below:
I assigned Work: to Data:Work, so that all the applications would continue working as they did before the move. I can thank CDXL for that. I needed a lot of space for the videos so the Work partition had to be sacrificed to make room!
As this Amiga 4000T doesn't have a Vampire in it, I select the 68060 CPU option when I am prompted for it by the installer:
I am then prompted for the IP address of the Linux PC I setup the AmiVision docker container earlier:
Lastly it adds some assigns to the startup-sequence, so this means a reboot is needed.
Install completed - reboot time:
On the reboot, I fired up AmiVision for the first time - there is a main tab, and Favs tab for adding favourite channels, and the Prefs tab for configuration.
The Main tab is where you search for channels to view live (stream) over the internet, using the Linux PC to download and process the videos and convert to be usable on the Amiga.
The prefs tab is important as it shows the location of the PC server running AmiVision server docker container, the port to use, and the display settings. More on these shortly.
On the main tab, you select the country you want to search for channels on - sadly Australia is not in the list - I will try out United Kingdom and United States since I expect they would have the most number of channels to test with:
Trying the UK first, I got the list of channels.
I selected the one I wanted to stream, and click on Start button in the bottom of the AmiVision window. It then starts the stream from the Linux PC, and sends it to the Amiga to show in basically real-time:
By default it streams in a window, and you will need to change this if you plan to use AmiVision on a Amiga with a 68060 CPU. It can't keep up - the stream is choppy and audio too:
Remember that you need to stop the stream using the Stop button in the AmiVision main tab. Closing the window does not stop the stream from the Linux PC otherwise!
Next, I tried a window resolution setting change to 180x100 resolution in Prefs (don't forget to save the setting change to have it take effect):
Although the performance is better, it is still not perfect, and of course, now very hard to see!
I thought it might be the country too, so I changed to the US next:
Sadly though, the performance was still stuttering audio and choppy visuals:
The key to solve this on the 68060 CPU Amiga 4000T is to use the HAM8 mode to get it to work (mostly) ok.
This uses a different screen resolution, which AGA blaster also uses for CDXL by the way, and this works way better.
The excellent AmigaGuide document in the archive explains the options for displays very well - I recommend reading it.
When using this HAM8 mode, the performance is as good as I could get it - not perfect, some choppiness, audio dropouts, but watchable:
AmiVision on Amiga 4000T - streaming TV channels direct from the internet in 2026. :-)
I played with some smaller resolution sizes on HAM8 and this improved things more, although it doesn't look as good of course since it doesn't fill the screen:
As I said though, even then it is not perfect, and it really does need a faster machine than a 68060 system (even with RTG as I have) to run at full speed with no audio or video glitches.
Enter my Pistorm Amiga 500 system running AmiKit XE12 using the Emu68 CPU.
It's been a while since I used this system, as I had it put away since I didn't have room for it!
I set it up again to test out AmiVision.
First task was updating AmiKit XE, as it has fallen a long way behind - there are so many upgrade versions to install!
So I got to work on that.
The upgrades included multiple updates to the Emu68 firmware too, all handled by the AmiKit XE updater automatically.
AmiKit XE12 works great on Pistorm equipped Amiga systems - it runs on AmigaOS 3.2 as well, so you can be right up to date!
AmiKit XE uses the Wifi support on the Pistorm to connect to the network and the internet, which makes everything very easy:
With the updates all installed, it's reboot time:
One of the updates is AmiFox, which uses a internet based server to render modern websites to work on AmigaOS!
You can also choose to host the chrome server backend yourself - the
alb42 website provides more information about AmiFox if you want to learn more about it.
I use the nearby A2000 TFT screen to display the native Amiga display output, while the HDMI screen shows the RTG workbench environment.
I set to work installing the Amivision pre-requisites and AmiVision software client, the same steps as I did on the Amiga 4000T, so I won't repeat them again - it works the same way.
With AmiVision installed, I can try it out with the Pistorm CPU, which is a lot faster than the 68060 CPU in the Amiga 4000T.
Using the Pistorm Amiga 500 system with AmiVision gives me a watchable live stream of TV channels straight from the internet (well, via the Linux PC docker container application):
Sound and video are mostly perfect and glitch free, proving that the performance issues I found with my 060 Amiga 4000T are most likely simply down to the CPU speed.
I tried a few different channels - note that quite a few streams don't work at all, most likely due to geo-blocking since I am in Australia.
The default window size works well, the bigger window sizes start to show some slowdowns, but watchable still:
Switching the preferences to full screen, I found that 720p works quite well too:
Full screen is nice, but personally I prefer the windowed version since I can work on other things on the Amiga while the stream is running:
Especially if you are, for example, streaming a music tv channel while checking out the latest releases on Aminet:
I am impressed with AmiVision, and glad to see software that is taking advantage of the extra CPU power of the Pistorm to bring modern functionality to the Amiga!
Who would have thought in 2026 I can now stream tv channels from the internet to my humble Amiga 500? Only Amiga makes it possible! :-)
