Media

Windows 7

I have played with one of the preview releases and I liked it just fine. I just read some good info on Engadget that leads me to believe that I will like Windows 7 just because of the media center upgrades that have been done.

I am excited to hear about media center starting to play nice with DLNA devices and not just Media Extenders. This means that I will be able to use my PS3 to stream music via windows media center and no longer have to use a third party app. Not that I mind using a third party app to do so but I think that everyone needs to get along and talk to each other when it comes to media sharing. I think that most media will be online soon and I think that the more devices that can talk nicely together the better off we will be.

Based on just that I can not wait to get my hands on Windows 7 and get the install complete.

TV Conversion Update

So I have been working on this for a few days and everything is going pretty well. I have two WINTV-HVR 950Q External USB 2.0 HD Tuners connected to my PC. These things are great. Highty recommend them if you are looking for a good easy Tuner for under $100 dollars. I got mine on sale for $70.00. The software provided is OK at best but it is functional. I am using the Vista Media Center with mine for things like recording.  The major downside to this, for me anyway, is that when the Media Center records it is in an .dvr-ms file format. PS3 does not like that format. Because of this I have another step after recording before I can stream the video to the PS3. I have to do a file conversion. I have found a tool that will scan input folders and as soon as it sees the dvr-ms file in the folder it goes to work. This is a great program. It works with the DVRMSToolbox as well. This means that as it does the file conversion it will also automatically remove comercials for you. it also has a wide variety of output file types that you can convert to. The program is MCEBuddy. Pretty lightweight except when doing the conversion, It will eat up some cycles. I think that I will have mine do all the conversions over night when I am asleep. I will always be a day behind on my DVR shows but that is OK by me. Alo with the two USB Video Tuners and the Vista Media Center I am able to record two shows at a time. Love that. The only down side is that the dvr-ms files are HUGE. You will need a big disk and I highly recommend having MCEBuddy remove the originals when done converting to conserve disk space.

Also another good media player for the PS3 is the PS3MediaServer. Very lightweight and will play some filetypes that PlayOn will not at this time. Like a DVD ISO. I am still not really happy with the ISO playing as it just selects the first audio track and the first sub track. No choices here. I am still playing with ISO files and hope to come up with or find another solution as I would love to have all my DVD library accesable at the touch of a button.

I will continue to play with this and let you know what I find and what My recommendations are to you. I think that this is going to be a great Entertainment Solution for me and it will save me money in no time at all since I am no longer shelling out $100.00 a month for service.

TV Conversion

Now that all TV Signals are digital and so much content is availaible online, I have decided to throw all my satallite stuff out and use OTA and the Internet for all my media needs. I have just started the process and have hit a few hurdles but overall I think that this is going to work out very nicely. I will be saving about $100 dollars a month so I do not mind investing a couple hundred into new equipment in order to make this work the way I want.

I purchased a Antenna and mounted where my Dish was, I used the dish mast as the satallite company does not want me to ruturn that hardware. Before purchasing the antenna go to www.antennaweb.org and find out what type you need for your area. Very helpful site. I am using the same coax that my dish was using to distribute the signal to my house and I am going to have to invest in a signal booster. I have a couple passive splitters and over 100 feet of cable running so this is expected.

I will be running lines to four rooms in my house. 3 TV’s in seperate rooms and one line into my computer. I will be using the computer as a DVR. It is hard to find a DVR for OTA recording if you do not want to pay a monthly fee for the guide. I will be using Vista Media Center for all my recording and then I will be converting the dvr-ms files to MPG in order to stream to my PS3 or other DLNA Device. I will use the computer to record and stream media to any of my TV’s. This is great since now I will not have to watch the DVR show on the TV that I recorded it from.

I will be supplementing the OTA with Internet media as well. By using Play On, found at http://www.themediamall.com/playon I will be able to stream and watch Hulu, Netflix, CBS, CNN, ESPN, and many others with the new plugins that are available for Play On.

Play On is a great product and supports multiple DLNA devices and even the Nintendo Wii now. The Wii support is still in Beta but I have read some good things about it. For the one time fee of $40.00 Play On is well worth it. I have two licenses and use them both all the time. They have good forums and great support. Always upgrading and releasing new features. These guys to a fantastic job.

So after a few months I will be saving about $100 a month and not really missing out on any of the programming that I was paying so much for. I really think that Cable and Satalite providers need to take a look at the business model and see that changes that they are going to have to make to stay alive. With all the good online content and free OTA digital HD Transmissions I do not see many advantages to paying so much. They still have the market for sports but I would not doubt if that changes as well.

I will keep you updated on this and let you know about the hurdles that I run into and how I overcome them.

Video Streaming

I am very close to not renewing my Satellite subscription when it ends. This is because you can get almost any TV Show that you want from the internet. Once they are available on line you have a number of options available to you to get that media to your television.

1. You can build or get a Media Center PC
2. You can connect your non Media Center PC to your TV
3. You can use a third party utility to stream Media to a device connected to your TV.

Of all of the options available I prefer method 3. Most people have a Playstation 3, Xbox 360, or a Nintendo Wii already connected to the TV. If this is the case why spend all the money on buying or building a Media Center PC. If you have that in your budget then more power to you and I am sure that you will enjoy having it. If you are like me, especially now, I do not want to spend that kind of cash on another computer. Option 2 is OK if you have a nice LCD TV but even then you might have to pay with overscan issues and that is just not fun. The last option is great. Imaging if you could stream all of your media to a device that you alread have and that you enjoy for other things as well. Lets talk about it.

I purchased a Sony Playstation 3 almost soley for this purpose. It has a great Media Center already and it has Blue Ray and you can play some great games on it. It is a bit pricey, but if you think about all it can do it is worht it if you use the features. You can certainly use an Xbox 360 for this but you then do not have the Blue ray player. A Wii will work as well, limited at the moment. In order to get the content that I want from the internet I do still have to have a computer but it does not need to be a powerhouse that a Media Center PC needs to be.

I use two applications right now in order to stream my Media. I think it woudl be great if the two would merge. Both have features that the other does not and all are very good features. PlayOn my MediaMall is the one that I use most and here is why. I can stream Netflix, Hulu, CBS, CNN, ESPN, and YouTube to my PS3. This software lets you log into your personal accounts and play things that are in your que without having to filter through all the muck. I LOVE it!!! Go get it Go Buy it and support a great application. They are always working on it and releasing new things and have some exciting improvements in the works. Hurry and get it for 29.99 during the Beta process. Too much longer and the price jumps to 39.99 and that is still a steal if you ask me.

The second product that I use is TVersity. This is also a media server application but this has a seperate set of features that I hope PlayOn will add in the future. This one is great because if you have media local you can share those folders and stream that media, be it video, music, or pictures, to your PS3. TVersity also allows you to add streams from other locations. I have added a few from another great site that all the geeks will want to check out called Revision 3. This has many different shows that have food content. Again check it ou. TVersity is FREE!!! You can not beat that… These guys also do an awsome job of adding features and with the newest release you can even stream Live TV Feeds from CNN and some other news sites. Live TV is awsome.

Well I hope that this will help you out if you are looking for some way to take advantage of your gaming system or other set top box. I use the PS3 but both applications support more than just the PS3. So if you have a Dlink media center or any oter set top box check it out and see if it works.

Thanks to all the developers of these two great applications. Once more content is added I can say goodbye to my Dish.