I ran across a set top device, which led me to another device, so I thought I would share them with you. It looks like Netgear has several versions of a media streaming set top device called the Digital Entertainer which access the internet in a verity of ways including PlayOn along with music, video, etc. on a computer or NAS. Then there is the VuNow that is a very similar to the Netgear device.
I will keep adding devices as I find them.
I have an old laptop, which had XP on it, but ran so very slow. I installed ubuntu on it thinking that it would run faster, which it did up until I did an upgrade to the latest 10.04. Something happened with this upgrade that caused the wireless to stop working. I tried to get it working again, but gave up. I asked myself what did I need in the way of an OS for home. We have a desktop that is quite good for power hungry applications. I just wanted something that I could update my blog on and surf the net. I heard about Puppy Linux so after a quick download and a trial test of the OS off of the CD, I went ahead and deleted and reassigned my drive using gpart and installed Puppy 5.0. So far I am very pleased with it. Fast and simple.
Freevo Media Center is an open source HTPC media centre software integrating PVR / DVR funtionality along with music, video, gaming, home automation and more. It is written in python and uses existing popular software such as mplayer, xine and vlc. Primarily aimed at the Linux platform it is also possible to run on OSX and for the determined on Windows. It is the main mythtv alternative.
Just found out about this new software and can’t wait to give it a try. I would love to get rid of my Tivo and ReplayTV monthly subscriptions.
PlayOn is another fun application that I ran across. In short what PlayOn will do, is that for a one time fee of about $40 it will connect you with your accounts at Hulu, YouTube, Netflix and may more. There is even plug-ins for may unsupported video streaming sites as well. At first I thought you had to have Windows Media Server, but from what I read, you do not and a XP system will work. There are some additional Microsoft packages you will need if you do not already have them installed, but that is no big deal. I ran the 14 day demo on a Windows 7 computer that is about 6 years old with 512mb ram. Let me tell you that this is not the best test platform to try this software on. Over all it was easy to install and I had an Xbox 360 for my end control unit at my TV. I did not try out the the Nexflix because I have the Xbox already setup for Netflix, which by the way works better then the Roku. Issues that I encountered with PlayOn is that my PC would not convert the stream quick enough, so I encountered buffering so bad that all I attempted to watch was unwatchable. This issue was mentioned in their help files, so I recommend a high end system with good downstream Internet speed if you plan to use this software and I also recommend that you do not try to go wireless to your Xbox, PS3 or Wii. So without any further testing using another system I would have to say that PlayOn is well worth it if you have a good PC to run it on.
Just a followup to this post in that I installed PlayOn on my Windows XP system that is much more powerful then my Windows 7 system. What a difference that made to the quality of the stream. I still am watching through the Xbox 360 like with the System 7. We have found some new show to watch and are enjoying the shows without the buffering I had before.
Another update to PlayOn. I have installed it on out Wii and it is working just fine. We are even able to access our media server that has our movies on it. These movies are in several compressed formats and so far I have not found a problem with viewing any of them.
I was researching connecting my ReplayTV unit up to my Comcast set-top control box and ran across the site for this $180 device. Because it is very cool I had to do a write up about it. We have a bunch of devices attached to the TV to play games and watch movies. We have the Xbox, which also works through the Windows 7 media player to access our NAS which has movies stored on it. Then there is the OSD, which also access the NAS directly, and we have the Roku for streaming Netflix’s. The OSD is an ok device, but is temperamental sometimes when it comes to playback. Watching movies through the Xbox is also a pain due to having to have the Windows7 computer turned on and then having to use that crazy game pad to make the movie play. I love the Roku for its ease of use and how well it works, but it does not access anything other then Netflix online. This SageTV device looks like a Roku, but will access all kinds of video and audio formats from NAS, or networked shared PC, much more then the OSD. It does even more with additional software, making this a DVR and allows you to remotely access you movies from anywhere you have internet access. If someone wants me to test this out, just send me one or the $180 and I will perform extensive testing with it and write up my findings.
Growing up in the cassette and vinyl record age, I purchased many many records some of which cannot be found on any of the online services like iTunes, Rhapsody, etc. so I got an ion turntable to help me in my vinyl conversion. It is pretty much plug and play, but I had several issues. First I was using this in a Windows 7 system, so that may have caused one of my problems which was audio input level. I just could not find a way to keep the level at 31, every time I would start a recording the level would jump to 100 and I would have to manually adjust it, which made the beginning of the first song record oddly. Next I had to fiddled with the weight on the back end of the arm to try and stop the skipping. What was happening is that about half way through the recording it would skip so badly I had to stop the recording. I kept adding weight to the needle, but that did not help. I even dug out my high end Techniques turntable and played the records to see if it was the records itself. After further testing I came to the conclusion that the arm of the ion turntable must be sticking somehow as it reached the half way point of the record. So I returned the ion to costco for a full refund. Seeing that I still had my Techniques turntable and a nice Dennon amp, I tried to record to the computer through the amp via the tape out. I was unsuccessful with recording to the computer this way. What I ended up doing is getting a movable magnetic pre amp from Phonopreamps. This works like a charm, the key I found was needing to remove the hum from the turntable, which I did by grounding the turntable properly. So I use RCA jacks from the turntable to the pre amp then an RCA to mini jack into the mic in on the computer. As for the software I am using Audacity, a free software from Sourceforge (a trusted place for free software without ad ware, etc.) With Audacity I record the entire side of the album then I highlight each of the songs and use the “save selection as MP3″ command. You can also do some tag editing with Audacity, but there are other software packages that do a better job. You will have to download LAME for Audacity, but the instructions are on the Audacity site and is easy to follow.
Besides the enjoyment of a good wine, I like a good challenge when it comes to software. Currently I have been working on getting Trixbox CE working, but we will leave that to another entry. This blog entry is about SmoothWall, which is in short a Linksys, Netgear, etc.. router, firewall, DHCP replacement for small business or home. I found this program when trying to get the right ports working on my Linksys router, which I bricked in the process. I found in working with all kinds of software both Windows and Linux, port configuration is always involved. SmoothWall makes port tweaking so much more friendly and simpler. You do need to dedicate a computer with two NIC for the program and a multi port switch if you are planning to connect more then one computer to the internet. I am using a small Linksys 5 port 10/100 currently, but only have my 2008 SBS, Ubuntu Web server, Trixbox CE and a Linksys Wireless G attached to the switch.
While on the SmoothWall website I would recommend watching the video they have posted. Installation and configuration of the two NIC was easy enough. Then using a web browser on another computer within the network, I accessed the GUI and configured the port forwarding, DHCP, and poked around the different capabilities of the software. I found it easier then working within an off the shelf for home use router. It is a great piece of software and would be something I would recommend for those who need to replace or upgrade their current router and have an extra computer laying around. For those who are afraid of Linux, this would be a great entry into Linux world. Just as a side note the computer that I have installed this on is quite old with a 6GB HD.
Use that old Playstation 2 to access all kinds of content thanks to Qtv. I will update this as more time allows. I am still waiting to hear back from Qtv for when I will get the disk or something.
August update. Still have not heard back from them and their site is still “coming soon” in several sections. Will there still be PS2′s available when they finally release their software?
I have spent a little time on trying to get Boxee working on an old Gbox computer that I have here at home. I have installed Ubuntu 8.10/intrepid on it but am unable to get Boxee to start. After reading up on the problem that I am having, a quick flash of a black screen then the Boxee folder tab on the bottom vanishes after a few seconds. I think it is due to the integrated ATI card. I tried a few ideas from the web, but it either did nothing or caused the video to not work at all. Next is to try a different video card. UPDATE I got Boxee to work. Turns out that the computer that I was trying to get it to work on had what seems to be hard drive and memory issues. I reinstalled 8.10 on another computer with a newer drive and it worked. Hooked it up at home to the TV using a SVGA cable and a cable that converted the sound from 1/8 mini jack (speaker out) to RCA left and right. Worked well on a few things that I tried. Did have a weird high speed viewing of a movie trailer. Ended up disconnecting the computer from the TV due to the computers size (old 4U super heavy server) and the fan noises that it produced. I need to find a smaller computer case and give it a good try. One issue that I have is that I have no remote due to the MB that I am using is so old it does not have an IR ability. So everything has to be done with mouse and keyboard. I tried to remote desktop it using ultraVNC, but I just had a black screen when I started Boxee, so that does not work. I did find something new that I am looking into. See my post on “Qtv”.
UPDATE
I placed purchased a new video card and got Boxee working in the Gbox to a point. Over all it seems to be working quite well, except I experienced an issue with Hulu in that I got sound but no picture on a couple of occasions. This I think is due to bandwidth. Other then that it was working fine. My biggest issue is that both out TV’s are of the older tube type and I am havng troubles with the display. I hope that in the near future I will get a LCD TV, which should solve all my problems.
As most tech heads I subscribe to a few feeds on my home page. Today I ran across a nice little program called Synergy, which allows you to use one keyboard and mouse to control several computers. The key here is that it is only the keyboard and mouse not the monitor, so you view the monitor of the computer you wish to control. My test setup is I have my Windows 7 computers screen to the left of my main screen and my work laptop to my right. I hate working on my laptop keyboard when at all possible and my Windows 7 computer has a super small keyboard and a normal mouse. Even though the keyboard is small it still takes up valuable desk space. I have to admit this little program works well, but has some issues. I don’t know if this is just a Windows 7 problem or what. One of the problems I have encountered is that you are unable to use the mouse when a window on the client computer pops up. You have to click on the desktop with client mouse then you can use the server’s mouse again.
