Thursday, April 16, 2009
The multimedia home
Almost two years ago I documented a poor living room PC substitute - the Netgear EVA, which went back after a few days. And its support for only a restricted number of formats, plus its super-hot operating temperature, has ruled out Apple TV.
Finally, I found a working alternative, the KISS 1600 media player. It's not exactly new to market but after a couple of months, I'm pretty happy - especially after upgrading my wifi. A sleek new N-standard Linksys has replaced the old D-Link, which had started playing up by randomly refusing to work until the power was cycled ... N is also fast enough for video streaming.
The source for this streaming: my trusty NAS drive, as the (minimalistic to say the least) KISS media sharing application just worked. I love it when that happens.
Labels: multimedia
Friday, July 27, 2007
BBC iPlayer's bite
Problem 1: You have to live in the UK (presumably there's some IP address lookup going on)
Problem 2: You need Windows XP
As I'll be in the UK shortly, I fired up my XP VM to bookmark the sign-up page - then complete the registration from a UK IP address.
Until I read the small print, that is.
Clause 17 states: "When you install the BBC iPlayer Library you will also install peer-to-peer file sharing software from Verisign Inc. This software has a file share (sic) feature that allows other BBC iPlayer users to download BBC content through your personal computer (using part of your upload bandwidth), via a secure link, to their personal computers. ... When you use the BBC iPlayer Library you shall not have the option to 'switch off' the peer-to-peer functionality as this is a core component of the BBC iPlayer Library."
BitTorrent, byte by byte, is going legit.
However, for now, it looks as if µTorrent is more convenient.
Labels: iptv, multimedia, nerd
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Back to square one on the multimedia idea
As for Gerry's idea of Apple TV: EUR 300 for an overheated piece of plastic with a 40GB hard drive, no Ethernet connection, no flash ROM and most important of all, very very limited filetype support? Nein danke.
Labels: multimedia
Monday, May 14, 2007
Netgear gets the hEVA-ho
* The install software simply doesn't work with Vista. It's been out for four months now, for Pete's sakes - and the Betas for a year before that - but still no word from Netgear on when or if they'll bother to support a premium-priced device
* The integrated W-LAN is not recognized by the device - it keeps asking me to plug in the W-LAN card ... maybe something is loose inside?
* It couldn't cope with my Windows-formatted (and currently working) iPod
* The remote control can't power the unit off (although it has a power button)
To add to the list of gripes, user friendliness and the on-screen menus are shamed by my 1991 JVC VCR.
The search for a decent multimedia extender device continues! Previous applicants need not re-apply.
Labels: multimedia
Friday, May 11, 2007
Episodes with EVA?
The whole deal with convergence stories is that in addition to creating multi-function devices, they’re supposed to make life easier, right? So I can make phone calls from my computer and browse the web with my mobile. Both concepts are now well-established and the bugs are largely ironed out: pretty easy to set up and use. These days, Skype usually tells me around 10m or more people are logged-in, in the early days it was a few hundred thou.
Netgear, a networking company, has jumped on the convergence between multimedia home entertainment and the PC, coming up with its EVA700 Media Center Extender device. It sounds great: a W-LAN connection to your hi-fi cabinet, streaming audio, video and photos to the big screen and audiophile speakers in your living room. Just plug and play.
At under EUR200 if you shop around, it’s a lot less than a full-blown Media Center PC, which is probably family room overkill anyway, and I’m not in favor of leaving a machine on all the time when it’s used for a few hours a week. Hence the debut of the Netgear EVA700.
Great idea – except that it doesn’t (yet) do the bit I expected Netgear would be best at: wireless networking. It insists on a wired setup first – and since I didn’t have a 15-meter Ethernet cable to hand yesterday, the whole setup has slipped by 24 hours. Did manage to persuade Eva to play an MP3 from a USB stick, and then an AVI file, but the user interface is basic, clunky and messy, and it doesn’t appear to work with NTFS-formatted drives. Vista compatibility? You’re joking, right?
The wired setup tonight is the acid test – otherwise I’ll send it back. No, an Apple iTV won’t do instead. My serious reservations about Apple product quality were reinforced when I looked at an iTV demo unit the other day, and it was running really hot – almost too hot to touch. As the enterprise server guys will tell you, stuff that runs too hot is more likely to fail. Not to mention all that ‘lecky I’m converting to heat for no reason.
Labels: multimedia
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