eggchen

So I was bored and thought about doing a research on video/audio streaming on local network. This is what I have on my LAN sharing this 1Gbits switch.
1. XBOX360 (100Mbps)
2. Windows XP Pro (1Gbps)

I came across this little piece of software called TVersity, it’s free. What it does is it allows the system to stream video and audio on any of the system mentioned above. I was more interested in seeing this work on my Xbox360 because I was holding the wireless controller and it’ll be awesome to just use the Xbox as the only media source in my room. The XP Pro system actually hosts my massive collection of TV shows and movies and TVersity will “on the go” converts any video files to wmv format and push to the destination client system, in this case the Xbox 360.

TVersity Version 0.9.9.2 (still beta)
Download

My thoughts: The video quality coming from default setting in TVersity was very unsatisfactory. I enjoy watching my videos close to High-Def quality, can’t really stand blurry video. After some setting change on the program, the video quality finally become acceptable. The following are my settings if you are interested (note: this is done on a local LAN connection, if you wish to stream outside of your home network the result will be unwatchable…)

Under General Settinigs: no changes were made
Under Media Settings: no changes were made
Under Transcoder Settings:
- When to transcode? -> Only when needed
- Optimization -> Quality
- Connection Speed -> Wired (100Mbps)
- Connection Quality -> Excellent
- Compression -> Minimum
- Video Resolution -> 1280×720 (I use the wide screen format)
- Image Resolution -> 1024×768 (standard pc monitor format)
- Decoding Speed -> unchecked

Some things I have noticed:
- During a playback of the movie, the server CPU usage was constantly at 100%. This is normal as all videos are transcoded on the fly thus taking up a lot of resource. The creators of this program recommend Hyperthreading PCs or dual cores, I believe it’s definitely recommended especially for people who streams to more than one clients on the home network.
- Assume if you stop the video half way through the playback of the video, the CPU usage on the server is still consistently running at 100%. This worries me a bit, but again, this software is still on its beta stage.

Things I want TVersity to improve:
- transcode higher quality video at the same time without sacrificing network congestion speed
- a better utilization with CPU usage on the server side
- perhaps a mac version

Some screenshots for your viewing pleasure:

So here Wii are… [a quote from my brother, 2006]

I am fortunate to have a brother whom loves gaming with a dedicated heart. He and one of his good friend went to line up at Futureshop (Canadian version of Circuit City) in the early morning of the launch day. It was to my amaze he and his friend actually got it! Each day I spent about 30 minutes on the Wii sports just playing for some simple swings; it was actually pretty good!

The hype was right, PS3 is the under dog where Wii trully shines. Being a technologist, even though I don’t have the PS3 console I still out right think Wii is the better winner for this holiday season. So, you ask, should I get a Wii? Why do you even ask, just get it!

Another question you may have is, why not the PS3? Isn’t power and functionality the most important aspect to consider? Well, there there, you power hunger bastards. This is how I measure a good technology. A good technology does not eat up your wallet, and certainly doesn’t take much out of your electricity bill. Also the fun factor is greater than cool factor. Sony kept boasting how much power the PS3 has and how big its e-penis is. I mean, if the console doesn’t bring that twitch of smile to your face it goes downhill from there. Imagine the following scenario.

You saved a thousand dollar (hard earning money), then you walked into the line up and await to get your PS3. You see the store open, a little bit of smile on your face. You handed them your 1000 dollar bill, smile becomes flattened. You bring the system home, set it up and find out you are too poor to own a 1080p high def TV, your smile is definitely bending more upside down now. Then you start playing, finding the games aren’t very innovative. Sure, it gives you better graphics and sound but the game play is still PS2. At this stage, no smile for you. Now consider the news where PS3 owner are having heat issue and receive Sony’s version of BSOD (blue screen of death) and bang, 1000 dollars down the drain and you said to yourself, “I wish I never bought this crap”.

There you have it, my little analysis of my purchasing decision. You think I’m biased, no, it’s just common sense. Perhaps if I got the PS3 for free then the smile may still be right side up!