Video On Your TV
Media Extenders
So you need to get content off the computer into a TV? It’s a common problem and companies like Netgear, Dlink, Apple have products which try to help.
Products which bridge the gap between content on the PC and TV are generally referred to as Media Extenders. In most cases they’re a small hardware box with Ethernet and/or Wireless network inputs and audio/video outputs. You connect them to your home network and your TV and they act as a gateway for TV and music on your PC or mac.
Caveats
Unless otherwise stated, all products are video, music and picture capable.
This is not a thorough review of each product but where possible I’ll link to external reviews and try to highlights the pros and cons of each product. I’m lucky enough to own each of the following products so my comments are based on hands on experience.
Hauppauge
The Hauppauge MediaMVP is limited to MPEG2 at it’s maximum resolution of 720 x 576. This doesn’t really help when you want to watch MPEG4 or DivX content. It will play DivX files but it uses your windows PC to transcode them into MPEG2 320 x 240 for playback. Not great, you will notice the difference. However, given the lower price point the it’s a good product overall, but not what I’d recommend unless you’re only interested in MPEG2. Priced around $130 for the wireless version.
You can google for real products reviews, here’s two, here and here.
Microsoft
Microsoft have their Media Center operating system which runs on a PC can live under your TV. This is a little bulky for some people. The good thing about running a PC with Media Center is that the regular XBox or XBox360 act as Media Extenders to all of the content. In particular, the XBox360 is also able to download Premium paid for HD content directly from Microsoft’s video store (named ‘Live Marketplace’). So, if you want to rent the Superman DVD in HD, this might be a solution for you. However, a XBox360 solution will NOT play iTunes DRM’d content, or DivX/XVID encoded video. It’s limited to WMV video. A PC Running Media Center, with minor modifications, will play almost any codec or video format.
TVTonic is an interesting plugin available for Media Center PC’s, it automatically download podcasts and video content. It’s a poor mans version of Democracy or Fireant but it works very well. The TVTonic UI suffers a little because of the capabilities of the Media Center UI SDK.
I’m a big fan of the XBox360 but not as a Media Extender, it’s not flexible enough yet. At CES 2007, Microsoft announced some IPTV changes coming later this year, perhaps this will add DIivX or XVID? Unlikely, we’ll keep watching these announcements. A Media Center PC and a 360 will set you back at least $700. Not quite what you had in mind I expect.
If you already have Windows Media Player 11 installed on the PC in the den, and you already have an XBox360 then streaming MP3’s form the Den works well on the 360. Hmm, that’s only a small part of the overall problem we need to solve though.
I’ve specifically chosen not to write about SageTV, GB-PVR, SnapStream and all of the other PC based media applications because, well, they’re primarily TV capture based applications and we trying to disconnect the coax, right?
Apple
Apple have a product you can use, and during February 2007 they plan to release their formal Media Extender named ‘AppleTV‘. It’s not worth commenting on AppleTV until it’s released but the specs look very promising for anything up to 720p resolutions. Full details are available via www.apple.com/appletv.
A number of people are using the Mac Mini, or regular Mac’s, as TV/MediaExtender boxes. They have a great ‘Big Screen’ application called Front Row which has a minimalist remote-control. Apple brought to the table a UI with a very minimalist design which works very well. The UI operates similar to an IPOD UI. With some free codecs (here) Front Row will play all video and audio formats you’ll ever care about. The good news is that iTunes protected content will work perfectly. Front Row will also stream content from any iTunes machine (Mac or Windows) to your TV. It’s a complelling experience but a little pricey. The cheapest Apple solution is a Mac Mini at $599. AppleTV will ship for $299.
Front Row does not support LiveTV, so the developers have not spent time creating features that we’re not interested in. Great!
Once again, I’m specifically choosing not to write about Elgato, myTV, CenterStage, MediaCentral and all of the other Mac based media applications because, well, they’re primarily TV capture based applications and, I repeat, we trying to disconnect the coax, right?
Open Source
The XBOX Media Center (XBMC) has no concept of LiveTV capturing or scheduling. That’s a great sign right from the start. The developers don’t have to worry about delivering major features that we’re not interested in. That means the bulk of their time has been working on features that we’ll use. Yes!
The online manual shows a list of supported codecs and container formats as long as your arm.
XBMC is my current solution. You need a regular $120 XBox, a spare evening and some special software to install XBMC on your XBox. Microsoft don’t like people doing this but, hey – it’s your XBox, right? If you’re prepared to void your warranty, XBMC is a free open source product that’s capable of playing most of the major content that’s available for download. The exception is any DRM’d content from Microsoft or Apple. This will not play on XBMC. Well, why do I like it? I can rip all of my DVD’s onto my Media Server and XBMC plays them perfectly, whether it’s a straight 1:1 DVD copy or a DivX/XVID encode, XBMC has no problems playing it. XBMC will also play all of my audio and video podcasts. The list of supported codecs is enormous and, given the price point of $120 + free application it’s definitely worth looking into. I have two of these connect to my Media Server.
I encourage you to look into this.
Once again, I’m specifically choosing not to write about VDR, MythTV. This article doesn’t discuss many of the excellent PC or Mac based applications (YahooGO, GB-PVR. Who needs coax.
What other great (or not so great) products are we missing here?
