AV Media, Anytime, Anywhere!

Bulk Rename Utility, Howto Remove Accents.

2008-01-27T11:57:00.000+01:00

With the introduction of Canola2 beta on the Nokia 770 comes the possibility that Canola will not play any files that use accented characters in the filename.

Ever the resourceful I thought to myself what is the best free program that would allow the quick and easy remove/replacement of accents from any filename. The program I found was Bulk Rename Utility.

Below are some images to highlight the option to use to replace accents with standard characters which highlights in green the outcome prior to committing the rename of the files.

a) First and example of the different accent characters in *.txt files, renamed to standard characters using BRU.

b) Applying the same technique to a typical set of mp3 files, where the filename utilises accented Characters.

I appreciate that a mp3 tagging program will probably do the same but the beauty of BRU is it can be used on many different file types and in many many different situations and therefore thought it worth bringing to the attention of Nokia 770, OS 2006 users and promoting in my blog.

I could not find a similar program in a GUI for MAC or Linux PC's, please do offer suggestions if you are aware of any.

Canola2 Beta Howto, Plugins (Page 6)

2008-01-27T11:30:00.000+01:00

From Page 5

6a) Plugin icons in extras menu for Album Cover & Video Thumb Plugins. These and very soon hopefully more plugins will probably be found Here.

6b) Album Cover Plugin at work (Note: Requires internet connection)

6c) Album Cover Plugin Complete. (Simply close the window once script has confirmed task complete)

6d) Here is the resulting, Album cover view in Canola, where selecting an Album will provide more information on selected Album.

6e) You will notice that I selected the Tom Baxter, Skybound Album and am now provided with a list of tracks on the album in track list order. (Note: Kinetic scrolling is available for viewing the tracks)

6f) You can see that I selected the track "The Last Shot" which is now plying in the standard Canola player window, but with the addition of album art.

6g) Video Thumb Plugin at work (Note: this utility scans Video's to grab an frame from the Video, at least this is my understanding of what the option does, its currently a little hit and miss at grabbing a frame with an image?)

6h) Video Thumb Plugin Complete. (Again simply close the window once script has confirmed task complete)

6i) Here is the resulting, My Videos view in Canola, where selecting a video will begin video playback in Canola Player window. (See Page 4 for further details on Video Playback)

Currently "The End" of my Canola2 beta Howto, but please watch this space and re-vist my blog as I do intend to update existing pages with more detail and add additional New Pages; when Canola2 improvements are released such as UPnP Server, Controller and Player capabilities.

Return to Page 1 of Canola2 beta Howto.

Canola2 Beta Howto, Internet Media (Page 5)

2008-01-27T10:17:00.000+01:00

From page 4

5a) With the Internet Media option in the settings menu we are able to specify Podcasts, Internet Radio and Photocasts feeds that are of most interest to ourselves.

5b) Lets take Internet Radio as an example of how to save a URL of interest. First we go to the Add URL Menu.

5c) Then we switch to the Nokia's microb browser to find a suitable Internet radio URL of interest, Here I am looking at the Shoutcast stations and am selecting the "tune in" button in order to have the option in microb to copy the URL Link.

5d) Back in Canola, where if we select the "Add URL" field the finger keboard automatically appears, where we can then use the paste option to good use to enter the URL we just copied from the microb browser window.

5e) Here we can see the Shoutcast URL entered in the Canola URL field. (Tip don't forget to hit the return Key to allow Canola to check URL and if acceptable add to your personalised list of Internet Radio URL's)

5f) When we have entered and saved a URL correctly it will appear as shoutcast.com (1025) is shown in image below. (Note the pencil icon for editing the shoutcast URL)

5g) If we select the Pencil, we are able to Edit or Delete the URL. (Although when it's selected we lose the information about the URL we are about to edit or delete?)

5h) Going back into Canola to play Audio, Internet Radio we are presented with Internet Radio stations than we have loaded in the Canola settings menu.

5i) Selecting the station can be initially confusing when the URL provides a number of sub-url's to ensure we connect successfully to the station of interest. (i.e. If one link is not working the idea is to automatically move to next.) I always pick the first in the list!

5j) Here we are playing the Internet Radio station in Canola. Note that the information is missing about the track being played, believe this will be fixed soon.

5k) By comparison and to contrast, I ran the same Internet Radio URL through the standard Media player of the NIT & OS2008. Note that artist and Track information (All sub-url's listed too)

5l) Here I have switched the standard media player to single station and playback information view.

To page 6, to be continued!

Canola2 Beta Howto, Videos (Page 4)

2008-01-27T00:15:00.000+01:00

Back to Page 3

4a) Here we are Videos

4b) Here we are viewing the videos available locally in a filmstrip view.

4c) Here we are playing the Anna Abreu Video that came on the memory of the N810.

4d) Another Video being played in fullscreen view, which is enetered and exited from, by clicking in the middle of the video window.

Forward to Page 5

Canola2 Beta Howto, Photos (Page 3)

2008-01-26T23:43:00.000+01:00

Back to Page 2

---edited 30/01/08--- to add new 3c) "cascade of thumbnailed photos" the later images re-ordered/numbered accordingly, ensure correct usage sequence is maintained.

3a) Here we are looking at the photos options, where we have My Photos and Photocasts

3b) Selecting My Photos, Gives us folders with Photos found by scanning areas to be watched.

3c) Selecting the folder All Photos, provides a cascade of thumbnailed photos, which can be easily kinetically scrolled from side to side.

3d) Upon selecting a photo, Canola takes a second, to load All Photos into a side to side scrollable Filmstrip view. Here is loading the photos in a manner that means we can quickly scroll from one picture to the next in this mode.

3e) Here we can see that the Pine_Forrest Photo is loaded and also have an idea of photo content on either side of this image.

3f) Here we can see that the Humpback Whale Photo again with an idea of photo content on either side of this particular image.

3g) Here we can see the display options, i.e. we can manually go forward and back or we can play our photos as a slide show.

3h) Here we can see what happens when we use the rotate picture options, on the left of the screen.

Forward to Page 4.

Canola2 Beta Howto, Settings (Page 2)

2008-01-26T20:53:00.000+01:00

Back to Page 1

So once again from the top Canola menu we are able to select other options.

2a) For example selecting the Settings option provides, Media Library, Choose theme and Internet Media options.

2b) Selecting Choose Theme, allows switching between the Green and Graphite themes, simply by ticking the theme required.

2c) I like the way the theme changes from one to another, with a simple tick in a box.

2d) Selecting Media Library, now using the Graphite Theme.

2e) Selecting Media Library, allows users to specify the watch folders for Audio, Photos and Video independently.

2f) Initially, when Canola is first started all watch folders are set to "off" here we are looking at the "Audio" folder options.

Note how the eye symbol has a cross through it indicating that they are not being watched ("Audio Clips" is internal to device, "Removable Card" is the external card, "Internal Card" is removable/replaceable on N800 and None removable/replaceable on N810)

2g) By selecting the eye symbol we can switch between non watching (eye Crossed) to watching (eye normal) which indicates that from this Audio folder level and below, each area is being watched.

2h) Here we are looking at the "Photo" folder options. (All being Watched)

2i) Here we are looking at the "Videos" folder options. (All being Watched)

2j) Generally when changes are made to Watched folders and or items are added or deleted from the watched folders, when you next switch back to Canola UI you will see "updating Database"

Forward to Page 3.

Canola2 Beta Howto, General (Page 1)

2008-01-26T16:42:00.000+01:00

As you can see from my image above, currently the Nokia 770 appears unloved in relation to it's own Nokia children the N800 & N810 i.e. No running installation of Canola2 beta. However any day now, there should be a an update to the Canola2 beta "2.0.0~beta1-maemo.1" which (in addition to bug fixes and improvements) will enable the software to be installed on the Nokia 770 and OS 2006.

In readiness for this date, I have prepared a set of screen captures to illustrate how Canola2 Beta operates on all our Nokia Internet Tablets.

1a) Start Canola from the application menu, (Installation defaults Canola to Extras menu)

1b) After a few moments the Canola home Menu screen should appear.

1c) Clicking on the Music Icon, in the Menu, provides Local, Podcast & IRadio options

1d) Clicking on the Local icon, provides a list of options for local music which can be scrolled up/down, with a flick of the stylus or finger, (Kinetic scrolling)

1e) Scrolling down, presents remaining options under Music, local.

Basically the above images illustrated how the menu structure of Canola Operates from the home menu of Canola.

Note: The return arrow in the bottom left hand corner of the User Interface UI, this button allows us to return up through the menu structure. Also be aware that pressing and holding this option is the quickest way to get to the top home menu (Whenever you can select this icon).

Forward to Page 2

Canola 2 Beta, only 10 Days from Launch!

2007-12-02T22:05:00.000+01:00

I heard via Handful of INdt this evening that the Canola 2 Beta, will be with us within 10 short days!

I was pointed in the direction of a freshly prepared teaser web site, to promote the count down to what I consider will be a great event in the history of the Nokia Wi-Fi Internet Tablets progression into the consciousness of not just Geeks, but the general public.

For those who don't already know Canola is a media playing application. Apparently a roadmap for Beta 2 will be published, where I understand that the initial release in 10 days time will contain
Music, Photo and Video Playback, via Local, Network (UPnP) and the Internet. (Photocast & Podcast) It will have an improved configuration capability built into the application (Not the web based configuration that came with Canola beta 1)

Teaser of Canola 2 Beta in Flash or Html

For months we have been listening, reading and digesting news about how good the iPod Touch and the iPhone are. Well listen up all Apple fans, there is a quiet revolution taking place with the help of Nokia and it's Internet Tablets and a Linux based mobile operating system called Maemo.

Canola is just one of many great applications that can be downloaded onto the Nokia Internet Tablet devices. We are not tied like Apple to only install applications that Apple wish us to use on their devices, but are positively encouraged by Nokia to Port and or Develop New applications from/on the Linux desktop environment.

Handful has a post about the new "Canola 2 Beta" web site in his personal Blog "Handful of Nothing"

Examples of Interesting sites to visit and read up on the Nokia Internet Tablet revolution and the applications that can run on these great devices can be found at:-

InternetTabletTalk
Maemo
Maemo Downloads

Keep a watchful eye out for Canola Beta 2´s release, not so long to wait now :-)

Improvment Ideas for TVersity Universal Media Server

2007-11-18T15:21:00.000+01:00

TVersities Mission Statement

Our mission is to empower individuals to organize and personalize their home and Internet multimedia collection (audio, video and images) and have universal access to it anywhere (at the home or on the go) anytime and from any device.

1) TVersity received some great press coverage recently within the UK, courtesy of PC Pro and specifically the October 2007 edition with the feature on The web's best 50 free downloads Where Tversity was included in the entertainment category.

I was extremely honored to see that the combination of a thumbnail of a photo that I took in Moscow last year, being personally viewed on (my) "Mikes Nokia 770", whilst using the Media Streamer application; was included in the magazine to promote the use of the TVersity Server on a Nokia Internet Tablet. (Captured image that I originally provided to the TVersity team)

Fig 1) Image from the October 2007, PC Pro Magazine.

"Up to Date" information on what is being said in the press, about TVersity can be found here.

2) At the time of writing this particular blog post the TVersity Media server is now at Version 0.9.11.2 (November 11, 2007) moving closer to the switch from beta to a full blown software release. For a clearer understanding of TVersities improving capabilities with the development path to date, a good place to start is the Release notes.

From it's core internet and local media serving and transcoding capabilities to all networked enabled media player (large or small) it is clear that TVersity is maturing very well.

Album Art and Lyrics visualisation are area's that have not been tackled in beta releases to date. Fig 1 & 2 are are my simple interpretation of how these capabilities could look within the Tversity Flash Player interface,

Fig 2) "Mock-up" of Album Art in the TVersity Flash Player Interface.

Fig 3) "Mock-up" of Lyrics in the TVersity Flash Player Interface.

With both Album Art and Lyrics I would like to see TVersity fully capable of sourcing this data either directly from the Internet or from within the users own media files and/or folder structure.

Good examples of software that interact with Internet enabling enhanced user visualisation on their personally purchased media are:-

Another area that I would dearly love to see both TVersity and the developers of Players that interface with the Media Server is the ability to control two independent players in such a manner that play order and playback can be manipulated between each player with crossfade in-out facilities.

Fadeamp (above) is a plugin which enables crossfade and control of two independent running versions of Winamp playing different selected media content through the same audio output device. If this idea could be applied with the flash Player interface of TVersity, just think how this could revolutionise media playback on all the devices Tversity supports.

It is my wish, that these ideas are added to TVersities arsenal of features in the future.

N800 & TVersity http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:41952/flashlib

2007-05-09T23:59:00.000+02:00

Although its definitely not my first choice to use the TVersity FLASH library viewer and player interface on the Nokia N800, I have to admit that with the Version 0.9.10.2 (May 1, 2007) it now seems to work, all be it a little slow to navigate the Flash interface.

Its simply a matter of pointing the N800 Opera Browser at http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:41952/flashlib
(Entering the IP of your PC running TVersity in place of xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx)

I wrote a previous post in my blog about general use of the new TVersity FlashLib Interface, which needs updating but even so is still relevant.

Be aware that this method of view and playback, as with others (Canola, Media Streamer) will require that the correct codecs and filters are installed on the PC, in this instance to convert various AV formats when necessary into a flash playback equivalent.

At this early stage I have traversed the FLASH interface and played a few locally stored mp3's and it all seems to work, but was unable to fully test on my N800 as my Laptop PC is not set-up correctly with all my local AV directory structures and Internet URL's and Feeds to serve media etc.

When Ronen of TVersity implied that the Flash library Viewer & Player had been improved to support lower memory devices running Opera Browser and Flash 7 such as the Wii, I thought it was well worth trying again on my Nokia N800

Notes: Able to control the Volume, Mute and FF & REW of mp3´s via the flash interface etc as we would expect.

Issue Found: Every time the N800 goes into it's power saving mode and closes the display the mp3 file playbacks stops. (Restarts when awoke and continues playback from point stopped)

TVersity 0.9.10 beta available, April 19, 2007

2007-04-22T00:16:00.000+02:00

The latest release of the Universal Media Server "TVersity" just keeps going from strength to strength. Release 0.9.10.1 (April 19, 2007) is the first to provide Video transcoding-streaming support for the PS3, Wii and Nokia N800 with video-transcoding-downloading for the Sony PSP.

These new features are in addition to already supporting Video Transcoding-streaming to the Xbox 360 and various UPnP Media player devices such as the DLink DSM 520.

Latest TVersity release notes

In this blog post I will concentrate on providing an overview on the Improved Flash GUI Library Browser and Player which can "in theory" be accessed from any web based device that supports Flash 7 by pointing a web browser to http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:41952/flashlib (where xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is the IP address of the computer running TVersity)

First the Player GUI is very similar to any other Media Center Style interface where I was running it on an XP PC and found that I could use the mouse buttons and scroll wheel and/or Arrows & Return key to traverse the interface and select and play items.

1a) My Audio, with access to personalised Local & Internet Audio.

1b) My Photos, with access to personalised local & Internet Photos.

1c) My Video, with access to personalised Local & Internet Video.

2) Playing Audio, Note how the playback bar appears at the bottom of the flash window indicating both visually and with data the time of the track being played etc.

3) Playing Photos, My Flickr, Scanning photos held in Flickr on the internet.

4) Library & Player GUI, Navigation and Icons.

When we move the mouse into the top left of the Library & Player window, a navigation bar appears.

Up arrow takes us up one level at a time from where we are. (The left arrow achieves the same result)
Home Icon takes us back to the very top menu.
Play Icon plays selected item. (The return key achieves the same result)
Disk Icon allows us to download & save the media to the device, transcoded in a number of different formats. Please Note: That this option is very powerful as we we have the ability to quickly transcode any media being served by TVersity into a format and save on the local device (Not necessarily in the format for that device, perhaps we want to give a copy to a friend ;-)
Question Icon provides infomation on available Keyboard key interactions.

5) Playing Video

Note how the playback controls indicate the current playback position in video being played but give no idea on the final length in time of Video File. This is because TVersity is currently transcoding and is unable to confirm overall length in time information. (Subsequent playbacks of a fully transcoded file will provide the overall length (Time) of Video file.

This Blog Post is to be enhanced and improved with additional information and perhaps more screen grabs, so do pop back for another look. If you have any questions about a feature and I can clarify and/or provide more detail I will do it.

Statcounter and Recent Visitor Maps.

2007-01-17T20:58:00.000+01:00

Fig 1) StatCounter: Bar Graph of last weeks visits

I have been utilising StatCounter almost since the very start of my AV Media, Anytime, Anywhere! blog back in early February 2006. I find the visitor information it provides about my blog to be very interesting. (Even though I only make use of the free version)

It's great to add a post to your own blog, then over a few days watch how a particular post increases interest and visits too your blog. For example the peak Wednesday of last week in the fig 1 image above, was the day after my post about the Iphone

Fig 2) StatCounter: Recent visitor map, zoomed into a visitor of interest.

Over the last few weeks, using the Google visitor map facilities of StatCounter, I have been enjoying the visual mapping conformation of just where my visitors come from wherever they be around the world.

I have taken special notice of a regular visit to my blog from somewhere in the South Atlantic and I am inquisitive to who this is and wonder, is this an oil or gas rig in the ocean or what exactly?

Fig 3) StatCounter: Recent Visitor Activity sample.

There are many different ways to review visitors to your website with StatCounter, where I have very quickly skimmed the surface with this particular blog post.

---Edit 01/18/2007 21:00:00 PM---

Fig 4) My mysterious visitor? Reading my blog post about StatCounter today.

Using Nokia 770 to Surf & blog on the Internet

2007-01-15T00:48:00.000+01:00

I have recently become a little disheartened by all the talk that the Nokia Internet Tablets are not a good for general Internet surfing using the provided Opera 8 Browser. So last Night whilst lying in bed I quickly fired up my Nokia 770, connected to my Wi-Fi network and the Internet and visited a few sites.

Below are some captured Nokia 770 screen grabs to illustrate the ability to open various sites and work within site almost completely normally and as you would expect to on a typical PC.

1a) Google Maps: Location 28027 Madrid, normal view. (Full 800x480 view on Nokia 770)
1b) Google Maps: Location 28027 Madrid, Satellite view. (Full 800x480 view on Nokia 770)
2a) Blogger2: Dashboard.

2b) Blogger2: New post where using Opera 8, I am unable to enter the Title & Link fields.

2c) We are able to clearly see and edit the HTML of the post, although the edit html, compose and preview options do not display correctly? (Like Title and Link options above)

2d) Adding multiple images from Nokia's Internal or external memory works great.

2e) Images uploaded to the draft Blog post.

2f) Saving the draft blog post with the uploaded images.

3) Gmail. (Full 800x480 view on Nokia 770)

4) BBC World. (Full 800x480 view on Nokia 770)

5a) Editing text using the virtual keyboard designed for the stylus. (Earlier screen capture from a few days ago when using old blogger)

5a) Editing text using the Finger & Thumb keyboard.

I am well aware and I do agree that there are real issues using the Opera 8 browser on the Nokia 770 and Nokia N800. With regard to sites with heavy Flash usage, there are definitely problems with the Nokia 770 which uses Flash 6; but even the new Nokia N800 with Flash 7 and more onboard memory, the problems have not been fully resolved.

However to say that the Nokia Internet tablets are not a good Internet Surfing device when on the move is just plain wrong !

How to Translate Canola GUI into your language

2007-01-12T18:29:00.000+01:00

I recently heard the call made by the Canola Media player development team, to in their words...... " Guys, if you want to contribute with canola, here's an opportunity! Translate canola into your own language! "

So over that last couple of weeks in my spare time I have learnt from scratch how to go about creating French and Spanish translations of the Canola Media Player Interface.

This was my first attempt at any GUI translation, I was a complete beginner at the start of the task. Hopefully this overview "How to" will provide guidance on how to create the necessary translation files for the Canola GUI into your own mother language. (This method can be used by anyone to provide international translations of various Linux GUI applications)

Follow me, as I gradually understand (step by step?) how to edit, update and save the required translation files.

1) First I download the originating Canola i18n files (POT) of the Canola interface from maemo.org then unzipped them where thanks to M$ Windows they were immediately associated with M$ Powerpoint as templates. Grrrrrrrr

2) Because I am normally a windows XP user in the home (and although my Nokia 770 OS is Linux) the first thing I did, was to take a quick look at the content of one of them with the trusty old windows notepad application.

Urrrghh, what's the congealed mess I said to myself.

3) I then fired up firstobject XML Editor to see if it presented the text in a more clear and formatted manner.

That's much better, it's now easy on the eye and I can look at the editing task ahead. Initially I thought that this XML editor was ideal with it's small footprint on the PC (Just an exe and no registry changes etc) I do like it's simplicity and ability to open and tile/work with multiple files at a time for easy cutting and pasting i.e.

4) I then opened the Babelfish webpage in Firefox my favourite web browser to begin translating the English (msgid) strings into French (msgstr) strings.

I appreciate that is not necessarily the best way to start, but I wanted a quick feel for the task ahead, believing it's better to prepare a quick general translation, then discuss accuracy with a few friends because translating from one mother tongue to another as we all know is fraught with problems.
I calmly and methodically edited all the provided *.pot files saving them with the same extension but adding French in titles accordingly. I had no idea what elements of the file header needed modifying and was not sure how to record and change date/time accurately every time I modified the file. (using the XML editor)

5) I then dived onto the web to find out more about *.pot files and found a useful section in Free/Open source software "A guide to Localisation" which would have been very helpful before the start of my activities. "Gettext: Architectural Overview" and "The POT and PO file format" sections of the guide give an effective overview of Word Internationalisation "i18n" and *.pot and *.po files

6) OK, Now I am beginning to get it, I downloaded poedit which as I found out is a program specifically designed for creating *.po from *.pot files which runs fine on M$ Windows. I now understand that the *.pot files can be constantly updated as the GUI further develops.

The *.po files understand (with Poedit) how to take the additions/modifications from the *.pot adding them to the *.po automatically (So the person translating only needs to add translation for the added/modified items which are easy to see in the Poedit interface)

Basically you highlight a line in the file and then you are able to edit the translation and make comments etc. (The catalog, settings: window allows for modification to file header records i.e. Team and email values)

7) My understanding of completed canola translations at time of this post are

Brazilian pt_BR
Catalan ca_ES
French fr_FR
German de_DE
Italian it_IT
Polish pl_PL
Spanish es_ES

Where currently the most up-to-date list and downloads of translated *.po and also the originating *.pot can be found in the zip files held here.

8) Please be aware that currently none of the translations will work with Canola 1.0 (beta1) version as its not ready to interface with them. However the more translations that are provided by the Canola user community, the more that will be available when a version of Canola is released that supports the GUI translation *.po files.

9) Of course this "how to" is only an overview for windows users, but I would like to think that everyone who wants a little understanding of GUI translation in Linux will find it useful.

I would like to thank Gustavo Sverzut Barbieri and Hanful for their support, whilst I gained an understanding of what was required to create the Canola GUI and Config translation files.

If you have any comments, questions or suggestions, please add them by commenting against this blog post.

New Apple iPhone videos in webjay RSS Feed

2007-01-09T22:31:00.000+01:00

If the apple iPhone is as good as it appears in the promotional videos and images on the new iPhone web page! (Technical Specifications)

I thought I would add the mov URL's to an RSS Feed in my webjay account newappleiphone.xml

The RSS Feed and video playback works well on my TV and Philips SL300i via TVersity (Transcoded from mov to mpeg1 for my SL300i but TVersity transcodes to other formats such as wmv for the xbox360)

Alternatively you can view the videos normally on your PC via the new Apple iphone page

Let's hope the iPhone is not totally AV crippled by DRM like the MS Zune and is able to link with Media servers such as TVersity.

I thought I would prepare this post in my blog to illustrate how easily webjay can be used to create an RSS Feed playlist of Internet available AV URL's that can be shared with for example the TVersity Universal Media Player Community.

Here is a low quality video from the BBC of Steve Jobs talking about the iPhone at his 2007 Keynote speech

---Edit---Here is the full iPhone demonstration, Steve Jobs made during his 2007 Keynote speech in QT mov streaming only format!

Nokia N800 Internet Tablet on it's way

2007-01-07T11:28:00.000+01:00

There has been increased Technical interest over the weekend at what appears to be a scoop, ahead of an official announcement of the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet at CES.

I am not going to review and re-edit information from posts made by others to give the impression I know all about the Nokia N800, just provide a few useful links to blog and forum items have found talking about it's comparison for example to the earlier Nokia 770 (with pictures)

Here we go then :-

This post will be edited and updated as I find more useful information over the next few days.

Thank you to all the guys in North America taking time to provide early Nokia N800 information to all and users of a currently available Internet Tablet such as the Nokia 770. Lets hope the Nokia N800 is available soon in Europe and the rest of the world.

TVersity Release 0.9.9.2 (Dec 25, 2006)

2006-12-26T12:45:00.000+01:00

A new version of TVersity was released on 25th December 2006 where in most recent beta release itterations, it addresses AV streaming issues to ensure Xbox 360 users move over in their droves to a real Internet and Network capable UPnP Media Server.

The "TVersity Universal Media Player" has a clear roadmap and goal, where if my understanding is correct it's to :-

Enable all it's user community of numerous network AV playback devices to "just" play any NON DRM'd AV media from "Wherever they want to Wherever they are" without worrying about download, conversion and network media serving issues.

My advice is to keep a watchful eye on TVersity through 2007, where here are some useful links :-

ThoughtFix and Welcome to your Nokia 770

2006-12-24T19:25:00.000+01:00

I have just been reading ThoughtFix's "welcome to your new Nokia 770" Post in his Blog on the uses for a Nokia 770.

Great post ThoughtFix with lots of useful information for new users that you have gained via your personal use of a Nokia 770 with your desire to try out the very latest on what can be achieved.

We really do need more users of the Nokia 770 like yourself, to continue to reduce any mystery surrounding just what the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet can/could be used for via it's underlying Linux based OS.

The Nokia 770 is already a great little Wi-Fi Internet Tablet, which works well in it's primary role as a truly portable internet surfing device. With the further interest and hacking styled developments from the User/Linux/Maemo community in 2007, who knows where and how this fledgling Internet Tablet Market could develop?

Canola, with themes and multi-language support

2006-12-18T19:18:00.000+01:00

I thought it useful to post some further images to illustrate current Canola Beta Version r1726:1727M, now installed on my Nokia 770. (Previous blog posts were of an earlier demo version)

In this post I provide Nokia 770 screen captures which illustrate presentation improvements to Canola Config (Web interface) and the Canola players support for themes; I have therefore provided some images of the new wood_box theme [that can be quickly changed too, from the default theme, via the config interface see 1d)] these images 2..) quickly illustrate the difference to the default theme.

---- Edit 22/12/06 ----

I can heartily recommend downloading the latest high quality Video Tutorial "Canola How to" from Marcelo as there are real hidden gems such as how to quickly navigate from now playing to top menu and back again. Be warned however that it's a hefty 82Mb; or alternatively you can watch the lower quality YouTube version Found Here I believe that my blog post images compliment Marcelo's Video explanation of Canola usage.

---- End Edit 22/12/06 ----

Not highlighted in the images below is that Canola will be capable of multi-language interface support. The minor catch is the Canola team a requesting support from the Canola user community to take three small .pot files to translate Canola UI files to another lanaguge. The files that require translating can be found here

1a) Canola Config, Feeds page (Photocast & Podcast) 1b) Canola Config, IRadio 1c) Canola Config, Media Collection 1d) Canola Config, Themes 1e) Canola Config, Passwords 2) Canola, Woodbox Theme. (Initial screen, NO Network connection) 2a) Browsing local audio content 2b) Playing local audio content. (time played, audio level and rating options)

2c) Playing network served audio content (No rating option currently available in network mode) 2d) Playing network served audio content (switched to volume slider option) 2e) Playing a slide show of local photo content. (Note: icons for pause and return) 2f) Error: When attempting to browse served media when no network connection made. 2g) Message ready waiting to close or return to Canola.
Last and not least (I almost forgot) Canola's Nokia 770 desktop applet (Finger size) for quickly refreshing shared media and/or starting Canola.

If anyone has any questions or comments, don't hesitate to provide feedback as I wish to improve my posts, in an attempt to ensure they are always useful.

The Canola Media Player for the Nokia 770 (2)

2006-11-27T19:18:00.000+01:00

Things I forgot to mention in my earlier blog post and/or did not expand on .

1) Install

I manually installed/un-installed from a prior download and then installed the beta of Canola via the application catalogue package list and direct Wi-Fi Internet connection in the application manager. Everything was fine which bodes well for an easy install of Canola for all types of Nokia 770 user.

2) AV Formats

I did not test multiple AV formats at this stage, restricting myself to simple jpg Photos, mp3 Audio and mp4 Video [Video transcoded by the Nokia 770 Media Converter] I tested streaming across my home network, via the Internet and of course playback directly from the Nokia 770 and installed 1GB RS-Multi Media Card.

3) Themes

The current Canola theme is so pleasant and clear that I do not think I will be dashing to change it, anyway my personal opinion is that themes are for users with too much time on their hands. (Not available for test in Beta Version)

4) Win UPnP Servers: Sorted Alphabetically not a complete list by any means. If you would like me to review a Win UPnP Server with Canola, please include a comment.

I did basic testing with the following on my XP SP2 PC were everything generally just worked, but of course this is the beauty of UPnP, each server has it's good and bad points ;)

FUPPES 0.5.4 (Audio only)
Media Connect 2.0
Philips Media Manager 3.3.12.0004
SimpleCenter (Essentially PMM above with improvements)
TVersity 0.9.8.2a (My favourite)
Twonky Version 4.01

5) Using two servers at the same time!

One real killer benefits of Canola is the ability to utilise two UPnP Servers at the same time! Anyone familiar with UPnP Media serving and playback will be aware of the current restriction of only being able to do one thing at once with a typical UPnP Renderer/Playback Device.

Being able to serve network pictures with one UPnP server whilst playing music with another UPnP server is simply fabulous. (The servers do not need to be on the same device i.e. Linux NAS, PC & MAC) This also means any UPnP server can be selected to take advantage of its particular features, that is not available on another.

Hmmm this has got me thinking the Nokia 770's or their replacement with Canola would make great MS ZUNE Killers?

The Canola Media Player for the Nokia 770

2006-11-25T13:23:00.000+01:00

I have been fortunate to be given an opportunity by Marcelo Oliveira of INdT to try out a DEMO Version of the Canola Media Player which brings a "Windows Media Center/Front Row" style application to the Linux Nokia 770 Internet Tablet.

"Canola is planned for general release, on the 29th November 2006"

What I particularly like about Canola, apart from "Sleek & Sexy" look below, is the way it attempts to fully address both local and remote aspects of AV Media playback on the Nokia 770 from within the same application. i.e. Local stored content, Podcasts, Internet Radio, Network and UPnP: Audio, Photo & Video Media playback.

The following are a number of screen grabs to illustrate the Canola interface and basic features of the demo version. Canola: Designed from the ground up for finger use, but works equally well with the Stylus.

1a) Starting Canola, we go straight into the interface where by default the Audio Icon is in focus.

Audio Menu Options Are :-

Audio Library: Sub-categories are Playlist, Artist, Album, Genre & Songs
Shared Music: Sub-categories are dependent what is available on the local Network, in my case Mikes: TVersity Media Server.
Podcast (See Configure Canola Config web 5a & b)
IRadio Stations (See Configure Canola web 5a)

1b) Selecting Photo icon brings Pictures into focus. (Focused Icon highlighted green may be nice?)

Photo Menu Options Are :-

Picture library
Shared Picture
Photocast (See Configure Canola web 5a & b)

1c) Selecting Video icon brings Video into focus.

Video Menu Options Are :-

Video Library
Shared Video

2) Here we are in the Audio Menu and have selected Shared Music where we can see my preferred UPnP Server is available on the local network. (The green icon top left next to battery icon, indicates a strong Wi-Fi connection)

3) Here we have a dilemma in the DEMO VERSION of Canola as I am within the Audio leg of Canola but now via TVersity am presented with all TVersity options of Audio, Photos and Video.

4) Here we can see the Canola options available in the standard Nokia Interface after installation of Canola. We have "Canola" the main application and "Canola configuration" to configure aspects of Canola as it develops.

5a) Here we have opened the Configure Canola web interface. (Note: This is an early preview, version with no graphical interface defined, just pure html + ajax)

DEMO Version Configure Canola Options are :-

Feeds (For Audio and Photo Podcasts)
IRadio (For Internet Radio Streams)
Media Collection (Not figured out how to use this yet)
Password (To protect access to Canola Configuration settings)

5b) Here we are editing Feeds in the Configure Canola web interface.

6) Here we are streaming an mp3 audio track using TVersity as the UPnP Server, the ID3 tagging information is provided to advise on Track, Artist and Album.

7) Here we are playing an mp3 file held locally on my Nokia's 1Gb MMC card, note how we are able to see the Album Art which has been added to the actual mp3 file and we can FF/REW the playback. (Icon over time played)

Please note that the above is a view of Canola which gives an insight into but cannot be considered as anything more than an early overview. My additional comments etc.

Features I like that are already available in DEMO VERSION :-

Ability to add/edit personal choice Podcasts and Internet Radio URL's via the Canola configuration page.
Text scrolls in Canola when it's too long to fit the width of the display area.
Ability to stream Audio from one UPnP or DAAP/DPAP Server while you browse Photos from local, or another DPAP sharing or UPnP Server. (UPnP Audio from one Server while you look at Photos from other)

Features I hope to see as Canola develops :-

Album Art support to be extended to UPnP Servers that serve the correct information.
UPnP Server/Browser Icon at highest level, so as to allow for a traverse of UPnP Tree structure as UPnP server intended.
Playlist manipulation to create, edit and save (Via Canola configuration)
UPnP Controller capabilities to remotely control actual playback on another device.

Thanks once again to Marcelo Oliveira for giving me the opportunity to have a play with an early version of Canola where I hope I have provided a reasonable early overview. Please do comment as feedback is very welcome.

Media Streamer Audio Playback with Album Art

2006-10-15T16:46:00.000+02:00

Media Streamer V1.1-2 provides Album Art in it's interface whilst playing tracks directly on the Nokia 770 or whilst controlling playback on a UPnP Player that allows for UPnP remote control such as the Philips SL300i.

I have been able to view Album Art on Media Streamer when using PMM and/or Twonky on .mp3 and .wma tracks where my initial testing seem to indicate :-

PMM (& I imagine Simple Center) work when the Album Art is in the same folder as the tracks and named as (folder.jpg)
Twonky works when the Album Art is tagged within the Audio file.

I have also tried adding Album Art to .wav using AudioShell 1.3 Beta 2, but this is not being correctly read by PMM and/or Twonky and passed to Media streamer. (If this is how it's done?)

TVersity V0.9.8.2 does not yet support album art but hopefully won't be long in coming now that id3V2 is supported ;-)

Media Streamer apparently also works with unprotected .acc files I imagine the Album Art will work in the same way as for .wma and .mp3 audio. Here are some examples screen captures...

1) Crowded House, Weather With You in .wma format, with playback on Nokia 770.

2) Madonna, Papa don't Preach in .mp3 format, playback on Philips SL300i

3) Peter Gabriel, Downside-Up in .mp3 format, playback on Philips SL300i

4) Crowded House, Weather With You in .wma format, with playback on Philips SL300i

Issue Notes: (Probably interesting to the Media Streamer development team)

I did notice some niggles switching between the audio formats when using Media Streamer as either a controller or a player, I was using Twonky during my tests. (The playback time status gets corrupted and sometimes Media Streamer would state a playback error on completion of buffering or similar but would play the track?)

I also noticed that Media Streamer works best and most consistently when there is ONLY one Media Server on the Network. (Think something becomes confused and Media Streamer perhaps ends up communicating with more than one UPnP Server, in error)

You will note that the Album Art has a small magnifying glass indicating you can view images at full scale on the Nokia 770, this however does not work for Album Art.

Comments are always welcome...

Streaming Images to Nokia 770 via TVersity & Media Streamer

2006-10-05T18:31:00.000+02:00

I have been playing around with Media Streamer for a while and am able to stream all my photos from my XP PC, to my Nokia 770 wirelessly; using TVersity Media Server on my XP PC & Media Streamer on my Nokia 770.

(I am using TVersity V0.9.8.1 with Media Streamer V1.1-2 Apologies for the quality of TVersity Logo, it's all I have)

I do not need to worry about rescaling and pre-downloading my images to the Nokia 770 because TVersity and Media Streamer work together so seamlessly.

All the images below are screen grabs from the Nokia 770, illustrating how Media streamer can be used to view images.

1) Tversity_logo (Image) has been selected from My Pictures
and added to the Media Streamer Play list

2) Tversity_logo (Image) has been loaded as
a thumbnail in Media Streamer Player

3) Tversity_logo (Image) is being loaded
(full view) in Media Streamer Player.

4) Tversity_logo is in full view in Media Streamer Player
(Arrows to go Fwd/Back, useful with a playlist of images)

5) Tversity_logo in full view in Media Streamer Player.
(When we view an image, info & arrows are discarded)

6) Play list of images from a trip to Moscow in 2006
One image selected and displayed as a thumbnail.

7) Same Moscow image being fully displayed.

Hamachi, VNC and the Nokia 770

2006-09-03T19:53:00.000+02:00

Over the last couple of months I have been having a "general tussle" improving my understanding on how best to create a personal private secure network before I begin increasing the "Freedom & Access" to my home PC and my personal interest AV media; wherever I happen to be in the World at any time.

In my quest to obtain both the knowledge, software applications and methods to achieve my overall aim, this is my current workable(ish) solution :-

1. Secure Virtual Private Network SVPN

Hamachi is a great application to create a Secure Virtual Private Network VPN for my personal PC's and "Internet-Net workable Devices" such as my Nokia 770 Internet tablet. Thanks to Internet Tablet Talk Forum I quickly found Hamachi (Maemo Port) that runs on the Nokia 770 all be it currently at command line level, running in an Xterm window.

2. Virtual Network Computing VNC

TightVNC (Version 1.2.9) is the VNC server application I have currently chosen to run on my XP PC. There are a number of other free options available such as RealVNC, UltraVNC, I am not sure which provides the best features for my needs.

VNC Viewer (Maemo Port) Version 0.3 is the VNC Viewer application that runs on the Nokia 770 enabling me to log into and control my XP PC remotely. Here is an Internet Tablet Talk forum thread which takes us through more recent developments of VNC Viewer for the Nokia 770 (OS 2006) and the various options on its use etc.

3. Set-up and use.

After reading up a little I was not about to let TightVNC sever run merrily on off onto the World Wide Web and the outside world, opening up ports on my router which would say "Here I am, come and hack me" without first understanding how I could set up Hamachi to create a secure personal Network.

Installation of Hamachi and VNC was relatively easy on the PC and the Nokia 770 device

First I installed Hamachi on my XP PC and my Nokia 770 and then made sure that they could see each other across my very first Virtual Private Network . Then I installed TightVNC on my PC and established that with Hamachi there was no need to open any ports on my router. Then it was simply a matter of starting the VNC Viewer on the Nokia 770 connecting to my Hamachi IP and hey presto; I was controlling my PC remotely using via a secure Hamachi VPN network session.

4) Notes:

"Hamachi & TightVNC Win32 Server" programs need to be set as exceptions through the XP Firewall.
With Hamachi running there is no need to open any ports for the VNC server on the router, you simply use the Hamachi provided IP address to connect VNC Viewer to the TightVNC server running on the PC

If anyone is sufficiently interested I can provide more information.

Media Streamer for the Nokia 770

2006-09-03T16:13:00.000+02:00

Today I found out about and downloaded a small application for the Nokia 770 called Media streamer. This application enables me to playback AV material on my Philips SL300i and Hi-fi using my Nokia 770 to control events. Here are some screen grabs to illustrate Media Streamer running on the Nokia 770.

1) Below we can see (On the left) Mikes Twonky as the selected UPnP Media Server on my Network. Note the three folders Music, Pictures & Video as these can be drilled down into to select items for playback. Items selected appear in the right window as a Playlist.

2) Below we are now playing the Keane track "Can't Stop Now" on the Nokia 770, served by Twonky, notice how the next track will be Sunshine, but with the use of the small arrows either side of the remove option we are able to promote or demote tracks in the Playlist.

3) Below we are playing a Steve Winwood track Horizon, not on the Nokia 770 but on my UPnP hardware player running on the network and connected to my Hi-Fi.

As we can see, to be able to playback my interest in Pictures, Music & Videos on the TV and Hi-Fi from my PC and the Internet using the Nokia 770 is already a reality.

Media Streamer can be downloaded to the Nokia 770 using the built in Download Manager on OS 2006.

Tap and select Tools, Application manager
Tap Install new applications
Find Media Streamer in the list & tap it twice to install it. If you don’t see Media Streamer on the list, refresh the list from Application manager > Tools > Refresh list of packages

Twonky is just one example of a UPnP Server that can be installed on a number of devices and/or PC's which will interoperate with the Nokia 770 and Media Streamer and/or a Hardware UPnP Player.

TVersity "Universal" Media Server, NOW with mobile device support!

2006-06-10T11:44:00.000+02:00

The TVersity team have just released the 0.9.6 (beta). What is particularly interesting about this beta release, is support for multiple devices on the home network, which now also includes support for portable devices with web access such as the PSP and Nokia 770. Its early days but the new features of TVersity really make it stand out from the crowd of A/V Media Servers.

It great to be able to allow the existing powerful PC in the spare bedroom/office be the true "media centre" without the need for another PC to be in the living room at great additional expense.

Don't believe all the hype you read surrounding Intel, Microsoft's, Apple's versions of how to enjoy your AV Media, Anytime, Anywhere, Anyplace. You might be surprised to find that you can achieve the same "Utopia" already with many of the devices you already own with perhaps a purchase of a relatively cheap and cheerful A/V UPnP Hardware media player.

Remember the Betamax - VHS war about which was the best Video player; it was not won by who provided the best Hardware platform and overall Picture quality, but how, what and who provided the best overall media experience.

I truly believe that the TVersity Media Server (Still Beta) is becoming an excellent enabler in our consumer march towards a great personal A/V media experience wherever we may be.

Off now to throughly test how well latest 0.9.6 beta version of TVersity works with my Philips SL300i and my Nokia 770 in day to day use.

Nokia 770 as UPnP Media Player & Controller?

2006-05-21T11:47:00.000+02:00

I purchased a Nokia 770 yesterday, to continue in my overall and longer term desire to be able to Play & Control A/V Media, Anytime, Anywhere. The Nokia 770 is a small compact Wi-Fi/Bluetooth internet tablet device, running on Linux, with Wireless B/G support. The basic specification, extract from Nokia Site:-

Weight: 230 g, 185 g Dimensions: 141 x 79 x 19 mm, 135 x 78 x 14 mm (without protective cover)
Color: Black and matte silver. Display: High-resolution (800x480) touch screen with up to 65,536 colors. Operating temperature: -10°C to +55 °C

Memory

Memory: Flash 128MB
Memory card: 64MB RS-MMC (Reduced Size - MultiMediaCard)

Operating system: Internet Tablet OS 2005 edition

Key Applications:-

Web Browser (Opera 8) with Flash player
Email Client
Internet Radio
RSS Feed Reader

Media, Utilities and Games

Audio/Video player
Image viewer
PDF viewer
File Manager
Clock
Search
Calculator
Notes and Sketch
Games (Chess, Mahjong, Marbles)

Supported File Formats

Audio: AAC, AMR, MP2, MP3, RA (Real Audio), WAV
Image: BMP, GIF, ICO, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, SVG-tiny
Video: 3GP, AVI, H.263, MPEG-1, MPEG-4, RV (Real Video
Internet radio playlists; M3U, PLS

Connectivity

WLAN: 802.11b/g
Bluetooth specification: 1.2 (For Internet connection and file transfer via phone. Profiles supported: Dial-up Networking, File Transfer, Generic Access, SIM Access and Serial Port profiles)
USB 2.0 device mode for PC connectivity
RS-MMC (Dual Voltage)
3.5 mm stereo audio out
Power connector (2mm)

Within minutes of getting the 770 home and charging the battery I was up and running and web browsing from anywhere in the home. The Nokia seems to have a good level of A/V format support right out of the box.

I found a more detailed list of audio and video formats that the Audio Player, Video Player, Image Viewer, and browser currently support.

Mime type	File extension	Version	Application
audio/x-mp3	*.mp3	MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-2.5 Layer III, CBR/VBR, 8kbps - 320kbps bitrate	Audio Player
audio/x-mp2	*.mp2	MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 Layer II, CBR/VBR, all bitrates except free bitrate mode	Audio Player
audio/x-m4a	*.aac	MPEG-4 AAC, LC/LTP, mono/stereo, up to 288kbps bitrate	Audio Player
audio/x-amr	*.amr	GSM Adaptive Multi-Rate Speech, RFC 3267	Audio Player
audio/x-amr	*.awb	Adaptive Multi-Rate Wideband Speech, RFC 3267	Audio Player
audio/x-wav	*.wav	Linear PCM, a-law, u-law, IMA ADPCM	Audio Player
audio/x-mpegurl	*.m3u	MP3 Playlist File	Audio Player
audio/x-scpls	*.pls	shoutcast PLS file format	Audio Player
video/3gpp	*.3gp	3GPP video, MPEG4 Visual Simple Profile Level 2, H.263 profile 0 level 10, audio: Adaptive Multi-Rate Speech, Adaptive Multi-Rate Wideband Speech, MPEG-4 AAC LC/LTP - 3GPP demux based on spec 3GPP TS 26.244 v6.0.0 (2004-03): Basic profile, excluding timed text, audio-only clips not supported	Video Player
video/3gpp	*.3gpp	3GPP video, MPEG4 Visual Simple Profile Level 2, H.263 profile 0 level 10, audio: Adaptive Multi-Rate Speech, Adaptive Multi-Rate Wideband Speech, MPEG-4 AAC LC/LTP - 3GPP demux based on spec 3GPP TS 26.244 v6.0.0 (2004-03): Basic profile, excluding timed text, audio-only clips not supported	Video Player
video/mpeg	*.mpe	MPEG-1 Video, up to CIF resolution @30 fps	Video Player
video/mpeg	*.mpeg	MPEG-1 Video, up to CIF resolution @30 fps	Video Player
video/mpeg	*.mpg	MPEG-1 Video, up to CIF resolution @30 fps	Video Player
video/x-msvideo	*.avi	AVI file format (containing MPEG4 Visual Simple Profile Level 2/H.263 profile 0 level 10, MPEG audio layer III)	Video Player
video/x-real	*.ra	RealAudio 8,9,10	Video Player
video/x-real	*.ram	RealNetworks Metafile	Video Player
video/x-real	*.rm	RealAudio, RealVideo 8,9,10 (QCIF @15 fps)	Video Player
video/x-real	*.rmj	Real Jukebox file	Video Player
video/x-real	*.rmvb	RealVideo variable bitrate	Video Player
video/x-real	*.rpm	RealNetworks Metafile	Video Player
video/x-real	*.rv	RealVideo 8,9,10 (QCIF @15 fps)	Video Player
video/x-real	*.sdp	Session Description Protocol File	Video Player
image/bmp	*.bmp	BMP images	Image Viewer
image/gif	*.gif	GIF images	Image Viewer
image/jpeg	*.jpe	JPEG images	Image Viewer
image/jpeg	*.jpeg	JPEG images	Image Viewer
image/jpeg	*.jpg	JPEG images	Image Viewer
image/png	*.png	PNG images	Image Viewer
image/svg+xml	*.svg	SVG Tiny Profile	Image Viewer
image/tiff	*.tif	Tag Image File Format	Image Viewer
image/tiff	*.tiff	Tag Image File Format	Image Viewer
image/wbmp	*.wbmp	WBMP images	Image Viewer
image/x-ico	*.ico	ICO images	Image Viewer
application/x-shockwave-flash	*.swf	Macromedia Flash 6	Internet Browser

I have already updated the 770 to the latest version of firmware "Nokia_770_SE2005_5_2006_13_7.bin" like many other users I found updating the unit via USB a little frustrating, as the provided update wizard hangs first time it's run and in my particular case on subsequent attempts, stopped during update at around 50%. I tried updating on two different XP PC's before turning off Norton Antivirus on one and the update completed successfully.

I have attempted to run TVersities Flash GUI on the Nokia 770, in readiness for the up and coming TVersity Player but the memory of the unit is apparently to low to run the current GUI. The unit locked up whilst displaying the TVersity Logo, see picture.

No Chicks in Bald Eagles nest

2006-05-05T17:11:00.000+02:00

It appears that the webcam of the Bald Eagles Nest will not be providing the expected view of any Chicks. I went to view the nest this evening via the webcam and was disappointed to find an empty nest. BBC News Report1 and BBC News Report2 sheds more light on where the nest was located in Vancouver and why there will be NO CHICKS.

There is good news in the BBC Report2, where it seems other Webcams of Bald Eagle Chicks which will be on stream as early as next week. More information on why the two eggs on original nest did not hatch is available via hancockhouse

TVersity 0.9.5.0 Available with RSS Feeds

2006-04-24T00:54:00.000+02:00

TVersity is now available with direct support for RSS Feeds, which introduces the most fantastic possibilities!

Within minutes of downloading the latest version of this UPnP Media Server, I was happily playing my own interests in Audio, Picture & Video "directly from an RSS Feed URL" on my TV via TVersity and my Philips SL300i.

TVersity Release Quote :-

We are happy to announce the newest release of the TVersity Media Server, version 0.9.5 With this release we once again break new grounds by allowing owners of any UPnP A/V enabled network device to subscribe to Audio/Image/Video Podcasts and Blogs and play the enclosed media disregarding the codec limitations of their device.

While audio blogs typically contain mp3 files and image blogs typicaly contain jpegs, both formats that any media hub can handle, video blogs are mostly in an iPod Video compatile format which happens to be incompatible with most media hubs. This is not an issue for TVersity due to its built in transcoder which allows an on the fly conversion of those videos to a format supported by the target device.

In addition to podcasts and blogs the new release connects your media hub to Internet resources such as Flickr, Yahoo! Video Search, Google Video Search, Webjay and more. With this much content available for playback with a click of your remote, the media adapter you purchased is finally worth it!

mariposaHD

2006-04-14T20:41:00.000+02:00

Mariposa means Butterfly in Spanish

I must have been far to busy focusing on techy websites for Video Streaming and Downloading, as I totally missed this site until now?

mariposaHD.TV claim to be the first Internet TV show to provide HDTV distributed directly over the internet via bittorrent. Absolutely TOP quality High Definition Video downloads in .wmvHD 1020i & 720p or mp4 for the iPod.

There are to date three show downloads available covering Glamour and Style mixed with a touch of Adventure. I found downloading these shows to be relatively quick using utorrent 1Gb for the wmvHD 720p versions. (I downloaded all three shows in approx 6 hrs)

mariposaHD.TV Feed

TVersity UPnP Media Server can transcode the HD wmv to mpeg to allow me to play these shows on my TV using a SL300i UPnP Player, but I am currently experiencing issues with Video/Audio being out of sync with the transcoded versions, the shows play fine on my PC in WMP10.

To take a direct quote from mariposaHD.TV

Welcome to the future of television!

mariposaHD is the world's first High Definition TV series distributed directly on the Internet. And it's free. mariposaHD is recorded, edited, and distributed in the full 1920x1080 pixel resolution of the 1080i standard. We distribute mariposaHD using the BitTorrent peer-to-peer software. With a broadband Internet connection, you can download and watch mariposaHD on your PC, your HDTV, or even a video iPod.

mariposaHD is produced by four ordinary guys who quit their jobs, moved to South America, and decided to make a TV show. We film everything with HDV camcorders and edit the video on a PC in our living room. You can download mariposaHD for free from our Web site, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, from anywhere in the world. mariposaHD is distributed under a Creative Commons license which means that you can keep it, copy it, and share it forever as long as you don't charge for it or alter it.

This is the way that television should work! So enjoy it,

Mike, Jeff, Dominic, and Tamir
Motamorfosis Productions

Listable, a new way to get to resources quickly

2006-04-13T00:35:00.000+02:00

I have been recently keeping an eye on a web 2.0 start-up called Listable.

Listable is different to say Digg and del.icio.us, in that rather than just pointing users to breaking stories (Digg) and popular resources (Del.icio.us) it attempts to provide a tailored listing of anything the "Listable user community" can think of.

Listable works by combining Tagging, Voting and Listing, Oh and it also has RSS Feeds :-)

Listable enables the most popular resource within any given list to make it to the top, based on it's popularity etc. To put listable to the test, I have just started my first and a new list in listable!

"The Best UPnP Media Server"

For those of you who like to watch and listen to local and Internet based A/V Media utilising a UPnP Media Player and Server, please take the time to add/vote on your preference.

BBC's Podcast Trial, Introduces Terry Wogan Today.

2006-04-11T13:00:00.000+02:00

The BBC have today included Terry Wogan in their Podcast trials, which are currently continuing until the middle of the 2006.

List of BBC Podcasts

The BBC claim that any music being played on their stations will not be included in the Podcasts due to complex issues surrounding the BBC's ability to include commercially available music. Apparently unsigned artist music is included in a few of the Podcasts.

The Podcast is basically Terry's waffle between the music tracks on his show, but his dulcet tones are quiet relaxing :-)

[Tip, clicking on the above picture will directly play or download Terry's first Podcast, whilst it is available.]

Note: Terry's week day shows can, also be fully listened to again (Including the music) but these streams are only provided in Real Media Audio.

Feed2Podcast explained.

2006-04-01T20:41:00.000+02:00

Feed2Pocast is an interesting application, which enables anyone to turn his or her Blog content into an automated Audio Podcast.

Feed2Podcast means that anyone's blog is able to speak for itself!

I've added a couple of links in my blog sidebar, to illustrate Feed2Podcast capabilities with my blogs content, you can also click on the provided image above to try the Feed2Podcast player.

Please Note: In the player you are able to both view and select which post is played by selecting the up and down arrows to the right of volume control. (illustrated in image)

Feed2Podcast updates the individual's blog podcast, approximately every three hours.

Video Stream of Bald Eagle Nest, Hornby Island

2006-03-29T20:24:00.000+02:00

A live stream of a Bald Eagles nest was posted recently on the Internet, care of David Hancock/Doug Carrick and Hancock House Publishing Ltd.

wma stream at 384 Kbps

There are two eggs as we speak, otherwise it's currently a bit boring while the Eagle sits calmly on the eggs, but wait a few days/weeks and it will be sure to get more interesting?

A great stream for the bird lovers and watchers of the feathered variety!

Note: Live stream will only be available during the daylight hours of Vancouver BC (GMT -8)

Works very well streamed directly to my TV via the TVersity UPnP Server and my SL300i UPnP Media Player.

Interrelated sites:-

Tree climbing with the eagles on Hornby Island
Hornby Island Diving
Wikipedia
Dugg at Digg

Terra, Nature in our World

2006-03-28T21:08:00.000+02:00

Terra, is a BlogSpot devoted to nature. There are some very interesting downloadable movies in .m4v format. Unfortunately this particular format is problematic and as yet I have not found a way to watch these items on my TV via my UPnP Media Player using TVersity as my UPnP Media Server.

I am very hopeful that a future release of TVersity will address the issue with .m4v playback on my Philips SL300i. In the meantime downloading and watching these items on my PC is an option worth taking.

Quote from Terra:-

TERRA is much more than your typical wildlife show; it is a chance to experience a uniquely cutting-edge vision of the natural world through the eyes of passionate student & independent filmmakers who are discovering the next frontiers of research, re-vitalizing compelling issues, and celebrating the diversity of our natural environment like you’ve never seen it before.

Open your ears to Jamendo

2006-03-26T11:36:00.000+02:00

At jamendo, artists distribute their music under the Creative Commons license.

This means that we the general public can download, discover and share albums and tracks freely. We can rate and review Albums and where we particularly like an Artist we can support the individual or group by making a donation.

jamendo is based in Belgium, the majority of the available music is from French Artists, but do not let this dissuade you as there is a good selection of genre available and the site appears to be increasing in popularity!

I have only become a member of jamendo today although I have been watching the site for a few weeks now, it's a good way to be introduced to new music. The site is currently available in English, French and Spanish.

Cliptip & Docopenhagen, Music Video Blogs

2006-03-23T22:53:00.000+01:00

Cliptip & Docopenhagen are alternative music video blogs, which showcase and provide links to some very interesting music videos. The vast majority of the videos are in Real and QT formats.

These two blogs are frequently updated!

Oh how a wish TVersity was already able to accept the streams and transcode these video formats directly off the Internet like it does so famously already for WMV formats.

GeekBrief TV

2006-03-13T23:19:00.000+01:00

GeekBrief TV is a Technology Video Podcast show hosted by Cali Lewis and available approximately 2 to 3 times a week, 3 to 5 minutes in length and dedicated to Gadget News.

Cali Lewis aka Luria Petrucci, is described as a witty, charming and knowledgeable host. The show is in .mov format.

RSS Feed

Daily Planet TV, streamed in wmv

2006-03-12T11:16:00.000+01:00

Daily Planet TV, is a show about technology trends that appears to have been Vodcasting since July 2005 in .mp4 (20-30 minutes per show approx)

What's very interesting to myself (and others?) is that the most recent episodes of Daily Planet TV have now being made available to mainstream Windows users as a .wmv stream:-

This means I(we?) can now easily watch Daily Planet TV .wmv streams on our TV's without any need to first "download" to our PC's. The TVersity Media Server will intelligently and magically transcode from .wmv to .mpg "On the fly" for UPnP Media Players that require it.

Streaming without the need to first download the increasing number of freely available Podcast/Vodcast(s) is a very liberating experience.

TVersity Transcodes many formats, and has specific profiles for different UPnP Hardware A/V Players read more in TVersity FAQ

ClipUpload, Share Video Clips.

2006-03-10T22:48:00.000+01:00

ClipUpload.com enables individuals to share video clips with friends and family. Many of the clips that are currently available are .wmv so can be easily added via TVersities GUI to TVersities URL Media Share for later playback on our UPnP A/V Media players.

ClipUpload is currently in early beta, it's a free service hoping to be purely funded by users visiting websites sponsors and via donations. I have already gone for an account because it appears it will allow me to upload approx 25Mb of Video material for free, with methods to tag, restrict access. etc.

Below are links to a few interesting clips (Webpages) and the RRS 2.0 feed at ClipUpload.com

Parachute Check (Cartoon Animation)
Hard drive Speed (Technical demonstration)
Quick Escape (Crazy Stunt?)
The Real Life Simpsons (Actors in Simpsons intro)
RSS Reader Feed (Of recently added clips)

ClipUpload seems an interesting start up with a small current userbase.

Granky Geeks, Hosted by John C Dvorak

2006-03-04T10:03:00.000+01:00

New show from "DL.TV / Ziff Davis" stable called Cranky Geeks. The first wmv streamable pilot was shot on the 2nd of March and is available via this Link

John's the host where three additional GrankyGeeks will be invited to debate the technology of the moment on each show. Like DL.TV the GrankyGeeks show needs to find its feet, but it is so very refreshing that more and more streamed shows like these are becoming available to stream over the Internet.

Great first show to my mind which covers various topics including Myspace, New MAC Mini, WirelessN, HDTV media streaming etc. GrankyGeek's is a good title, I will be keeping and eye out for future shows!

PS. The show has been also been dug at Digg where I have added a comment.

BBC Newsnight stream available.

2006-03-01T20:22:00.000+01:00

BBC Newsnight is broadcast over the UK terrestrial airways every weekday at 10:30pm on BBC Two. They also broadcast their latest nightly programme over the Internet for 24 Hours after each programme. Here is the link to the low quality .wmv stream

Newsnight

Newsnights general mission is to make sense of the days news from a UK perspective, explaining details behind current events etc.

There are also watch again features, visit Newsnight website for more details.

BBC Short Films, from British Filmmakers

2006-02-28T20:46:00.000+01:00

The BBC's short film Network is a really great place to find interesting media to stream and watch on our TV's via the use of the TVersity UPnP Media Server and a UPnP Media Player.

Here are some examples, which can be fed directly into TVersities GUI:-

Astronauts an animation by by Matthew Walker.
The Clap a comedy by Geoff Lindsey.

There are many more available over at the BBC Short Film Network which is a showcase and community for up-and-coming UK filmmakers. The following genre range is:-

Democracy, Free and Open Source

2006-02-22T19:37:00.000+01:00

Here is an interesting piece of new software which like Veoh provides a method to access Video Streams of interest from your PC, downloading them were necessary for later viewing. (Perhaps using TVersity?) I am going to download Democracy and try it out as it looks to compliment the current version of TVersity very well.

Anything, which assists in the finding, downloading and/or streaming of Internet Video to My TV via TVersity and my SL300i, gets my vote. I particularly like the fact that democracy is opensource software. I will explain how I get on with Democracy in a future post!

BFM TV 24/7 News in French (Watch Now)

2006-02-20T22:12:00.000+01:00

BFM TV is a 24/7 French news channel broadcasting at 448 Kbps in Windows Media Video format.

This is a good quality 4:3 aspect video stream, which works perfectly via the TVersity UPnP Media Server. TVersity transcodes the stream to mpeg1 so that my Philips SL300i UPnP Media player is able to provide the stream on my TV and not my PC.

BFM TV est un canal de nouvelles français 24 heures sur 24 qui est émis à 448 Kbps dans le format de Windows media Video.

C'est un jet visuel de bonne qualité 4:3, qui fonctionne parfaitement par l'intermédiaire du UPnP Media serveur TVersity. TVersity transcode le jet à mpeg1 de sorte que mon Philips SL300i UPnP Media Player puisse fournir le jet sur ma TV et non mon PC.

BFM TV Home web site

Mobuzz , the European Version of RocketBoom?

2006-02-19T14:32:00.000+01:00

Mobuzz is an interesting website providing access to daily Videoblogs in either English or Spanish.

Mobuzz Videoblogs appear to be specifically targeted at the mobile phone, but I also believe that they are something that can be equally and perhaps even more enjoyed, watching at home in a comfortable armchair, when were able.

Karina Stenquist (Above) is the current presenter of the English version and Iria Gallardo (Below) is the current presenter of Spanish version of the show respectively.

The format of these shows are very similar to Rocketboom, where each show is approx 3 minutes in length.

I am really looking forward to the next release of a UPnP Media Server TVersity, as this is going to make it easier to add Videoblog RSS feeds to the Philips SL300i Streamium interface, then to browse and watch these shows on my normal TV, off the Internet.

I have added the shows feeds to my RSS Feed section for my own convenience. You can read more about Mobuzz on their about page

Songbird 0.1 Proof-of-Concept has been released!

2006-02-12T17:10:00.000+01:00

Quote from Songbird.....Songbird is a Web player built from Firefox's browser engine. Songbird is open source, will run on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux and supports user contributed, cross-platform extensions.

Hmm, seems interesting with it's integration with the web and Media services such as Webjay. Think I might just download it and compare with other media manager/players I have tried out etc.

Gradually learning how to Add Media RSS Feeds to my Blog.

2006-02-11T21:31:00.000+01:00

Currently trying to work out the best way to add Media RSS Feeds for different categories, formats, etc. It’s taking time to understand and develop how I should approach and do this, however I will get there eventually.

VideoBomb

2006-02-08T22:56:00.000+01:00

Video Bomb filters up the hottest videos on the internet: people submit links to the 'Incoming!' page and you bomb the best ones. If a video gets a lot of bombs quickly, it makes it to the front page.

BBC, Technology, Locking down our digital future

2006-02-08T18:42:00.000+01:00

Well, it looks like the power of the people may just be awaking the sleeping giants to their predicament? What is worrying is the reaction; It seems that those in the know and with money want an Internet lock down!

First post to my own blog

2006-02-05T14:35:00.000+01:00

I am going to use this blog to record those things that are of interest to me in the freely available Audio/Visual Internet world.

I therefore believe that a large portion of this blog will be dedicated to those Audio/Video URL's which I can stream via my PC to my Television and Hi-Fi using a simple small and compact UPnP Media Render. (URL’s that worked well and were of interest on the day I posted in my blog.)

As the months pass in 2006 and beyond and blog develops, who knows where it will lead both myself and those who may wish to follow my own somewhat personal journey?

My current A/V UPnP Renderer is a Philips SL300i which I generally utilise with the Tversity UPnP Media Server running on my Internet connected Win XP PC. This combination enables me to watch Internet TV not on My PC, but My TV.