[LINK] Media Servers - Was - NBN Rollout in Tasmania: Next Phase

[Tom Koltai]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: link-bounces at mailman.anu.edu.au 
> [mailto:link-bounces at mailman.anu.edu.au] On Behalf Of Paul Brooks
> Sent: Thursday, 5 May 2011 10:37 PM
> To: link at mailman.anu.edu.au; Tom Worthington
> Subject: Re: [LINK] NBN Rollout in Tasmania: Next Phase
> 
<SNIP>
>
> Alas, the small range of supported video and audio 
> codecs/formats, and some common formats having restrictions 
> on supported sizes (some movie files can play up to 1080i, 
> others only to 570p), and no MKV support means video files 
> rarely play first time and need to be re-encoded in a 
> supported format before they can play. The panel is full-HD 
> 1080p capable, but the DLNA function only supports up to 
> 1080i and won't play bluray 1080p streams. Unfortunately this 
> also includes all the .AVI movies generated by our 
> now-antiquated digital camera over the past several years 
> which are not supported and will not play. AVI format is 
> supported, but clearly not the CODEC or possibly the audio 
> encoding used by the Canon camera.
> 
> On the rare occasions when I find myself with time to watch a 
> movie, I tend to use the kids' Playstation 3 as a 
> media-player instead of the television's built-in DLNA 
> function, as it supports a much wider range of video formats.
>

An excellent use for retired single core >1.0 GHz laptops.
I use an NEC Versa (Circa 2003) with 1 Meg memory it hosts Tversity
(free version) [1]
drives a transcode on the fly streaming service which levels out all
those codec incompatibilities 
and can handle two different users simultaneously with 480, at 720 (with
2 users) there are some 
frames dropped, at 1080, one user only... (It accesses dual NAS devices
with Raid 0 for speed).

The boys PS3's used to take the data wirelessly [802.11G] from a Sony
VGN-A190 with the Sony Media Server installed, 
however, due to 1080 issues, I didn't bother rebuilding the VGNA after a
hacking incident last year so everything is now cat-5 
except I do flip the on switch to an outside mounted AP when I take a
device outside to enjoy the sun.

I think it's an interesting indictment against wireless that many
technical persons prefer to hardwire their entertainment systems with
either cat-5 or Ethernet over power, but then just as per set-top boxes
and Internet enabled TV's the public are always three to five years
behind.
The Television manufacturers feel that they continually have to build in
product differentiators to garner market share.
If only they would realise that Real Estate, led low power and 

In the 70's we used to buy radio receivers/scanners to work the
shortwave bands for interesting skip. I guess future generations will be
able to buy devices that suck EOP content off the local Grid so that you
can watch your neighbours content for free. Let's hope the neighbours
are watching only "G" rated content...

[1] http://tversity.com/download

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