Welcome to the first in a series of weekly postings about features found in TwonkyManager (TM). Since the purpose of this column is to educate new users about features in TwonkyManager, let’s try to keep focused on the feature of the week and not get sidetracked.
Week One - Why Pushing Media is Better
Week one is all about pushing media, a topic that may prove to be a bit controversial, because it’s one that most TwonkyMedia server users probably haven’t thought about.
Since drag-and-drop is such a cornerstone of most graphic user interfaces, it's surprising that most other media managers don't let you drag and drop media on an external renderer to play it. This is an example how you can push media to an external renderer, as opposed to the traditional process where you use a handheld remote to pull media from the server. Of course you can still pull media with TwonkyMedia manager, but now you have a new option as well.
How It Works
To push media to any renderer displayed in the Play Here section of TwonkyMedia manager (including the local renderer) you simply drag and drop it on top of the icon that represents the desired device. In order words, if you want to play an entire CD of songs on your Roku Soundbridge, you simply drag the album name on top of the Roku icon in the "Play Here" section of TMM. Playback will start immediately.
A Poor Man’s Sonos?
You can assign an icon to each renderer on your network that looks like the device. You can also name each device, so you if you have several digital media renderers (DMRs), you can call one "Family Room" and the other "Master Bedroom". In the past to get this type of rich user interface you'd have to spend big bucks on something like a Sonos system. Now anyone with a PC can do it for $40 US -- plus the cost of the DMRs of course.
Why Should You Care?
I'm sure by now some of you are probably wondering why I think this is such a big deal. After all, it’s easy enough to pull content. That may be true, but here are a few advantages of pushing content:
Reason #1 – Pushing is Faster
Although it seems easy to pull content from a device like a Roku Soundbridge, when you analyze the steps, you’ll find it many cases it takes far fewer steps to push content than pull it. Here are the steps required to play The Eagles “Hotel California” album on a PC with TMM vs. a Roku remote. In both cases, we’ll assume the system is up and running and a media server has been selected.
Pushing an Album using TwonkyMedia Manager
1. Click on Music tab
2. Search for “Hotel California”
3. Shift-click on the last song of the album
4. Drag the selection on top of the icon for the Roku Soundbridge
Pulling an Album using the Roku Remote Control
1. One click down to “Browse” command
2. Press the button that looks like a checkmark
3. One click up to “Browse Server Containers”
4. Press checkmark
5. Three clicks down to “Artist Index”
6. Press the button that looks like a checkmark
7. One click down to select “DEF”
8. Press checkmark
9. Click up thirteen times to get to “The Eagles” (this will vary depending on the size of your library)
10. Three clicks down to “Hotel California” (this will vary, depending on the number of Eagles albums you have)
11. Press the button that looks like a checkmark
12. Press the Play button
There are quite a few different ways to play an album from the Roku remote. This was the most efficient way I could find without server tree customizations. But still, it took 12 steps and 28 total clicks to play the same album. That’s 3x as many steps as it took to push the same album with TwonkyMedia manager.
Reason #2 – Pushing is Easier
Some external devices (e.g. digital photo frames) have remotes that are very small and don't always respond well to commands. They also have confusing interfaces. If I handed one of these remotes to my mom, there is no way she could use it without instruction. But typing into a search box is a daily occurrence thanks to Google. And drag and drop using a mouse is second nature for anyone who’s used a PC.
The Final Word
So the bottom line is most people are probably going to find it faster and easier to push content. The only possible downside I can think of to “push” is that not all devices can be controlled externally. Here is a partial list of devices that are externally controllable. There will be other new devices announced the Consumer Electronics Show this year that support this as well.
DMRs which can be controlled externally by TwonkyMedia manager
- D-Link DSM-320 (audio, video, photos)
- Denon AVR-3808 (MP3 & compressed WAV audio-only - can pull uncompressed WAVs -- but they can't be pushed to it)
- Denon AVR-4308 (audio-only)
- Denon AVR-5308 (audio-only)
- Freecom MusicPal (audio-only)
- HP MediaSmart TV (photos & video only)
- Intel AV Renderer (audio-only)
- LINN MAJIK DS (audio-only)
- LINN SNEAKY MUSIC DS (audio-only)
- PacketVideo TwonkyMedia manager (audio, video, photos)
- Philips Streamium NP1100 (MP3 & WMA audio-only) *
- Philips Streamium NP2500 (plays audio-only) - Coming soon **
- Philips Streamium NP2900 (plays audio-only) - Coming soon **
- Philips Streamium SL400i (audio, video, photos)
- Philips Streamium SLA5520 (audio-only)
- Popcorn A110 (MP3 audio-only)
- Roku SoundBridge M1001 (audio-only)
- Roku SoundBridge Radio (audio-only)
- Sonos ZonePlayer ZP80 (audio-only)
- Sonos ZonePlayer ZP90 (audio-only)
- Sonos ZonePlayer ZP100 (audio-only)
- Sonos ZonePlayer ZP120 (audio-only)
- TEAC WAP-4500 (audio-only - cannot make playlists)
- TEAC WAP-5000 (audio-only – no seek support)
- Terratec Noxon 2 iRadio (audio-only – no seek support)
- Terratec Noxon 2 Audio (audio-only – no seek support)
- Windows Media Player 11 running on Vista only
- Windows Media Player 12 running on Windows 7 (audio, video, photos) Currently in public beta
- ZyXEL DMA-1000 (audio, video, photos)
- ZyXEL DMA-1100P (audio, video, photos)
This is not intended to comprehensive list of all devices which work with TwonkyMedia manager. There are hundreds of other devices not listed here, which also work with TMM or TMS. You can view those here: http://www.dlna.org/products
* Requires a firmware update which is available now
** Requires a firmware update available later in Q1 2009
Important Note: Not all of these devices have been tested by PacketVideo. Some have been reported by others to work with TwonkyMedia manager. If you believe there is an error in this list, or have new additions, please respond to this posting and this list will be revised.
I hope you enjoyed this article. I'll post another soon.
- Rick
TM Features of the Week - Part One
30 posts
• Page 1 of 1
TM Features of the Week - Part One
by Twonky_Rick » Sat Nov 22, 2008 7:06 am
Last edited by Twonky_Rick on Thu Nov 27, 2008 12:18 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: TMM Feature of the Week
by mgillespie » Mon Nov 24, 2008 8:52 am
Been using this all weekend on my Noxon2 units, and it works very well.. It's a shame Sony don't support this on PS3, hopefully at some point they may do via firmware updates.
Please note: Moderators here are voluntary and do not work for PacketVideo or Twonky, please do not attack us. Any posts are personal opinion, and may not be those of PV/Twonky.
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mgillespie - Posts: 1222
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Re: TMM Feature of the Week
by Twonky_Rick » Mon Nov 24, 2008 6:54 pm
mgillespie wrote:Been using this all weekend on my Noxon2 units, and it works very well.. It's a shame Sony don't support this on PS3, hopefully at some point they may do via firmware updates.
Agreed. With Sony being a PC OEM and so committed to DLNA, it's surprising they don't support this. I'm really hoping that Xbox allows external control by the time System 7 ships.
- Rick
Follow me on Twitter! mostlytech1
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Feature of the Week - Week Two
by Twonky_Rick » Thu Nov 27, 2008 12:12 am
Using TwonkyMedia Manager's Browse Feature
Cover Flow is Cumbersome
TwonkyMedia manager has three different music views. The default view is Album Art view, which some compare to Apple’s Cover Flow. Although Cover Flow is visually appealing it has some major limitations:
1. Cover Flow only displays artwork for five CDs at a time and is not an efficient way to locate music. To see more album art, you either use the arrow keys or drag a horizontal scrollbar. When you move the scrollbar fast, all you see is a blur of text and even when you slow down, it’s hard to locate an individual song without overshooting. [This is why smart users either use the Search box or scroll in the text area to find music.]
2. Another problem with Cover Flow is that not all users have album art for all of their songs. Even if you use iTunes to get missing artwork, it’s very likely you’ll still have there are still many CDs that are missing artwork.
Folders are Fast
The second way to view music in TwonkyMedia manager is called Folder View and it’s similar to the Web browser used by many TwonkyMedia 4.x users. The navigation tree that you see in Folder View is identical to the one you see on your hardware devices. Although Folder view is a fast way to browse content, one disadvantage it has is that it can require a lot of keystrokes to get to the individual song (depending on the path you take). Wouldn’t it be nice if you could view all genres, all artists and all albums at once? Just click on the Browse view icon to the right of the album art and the display will toggle between album art and a three-column view.
Sifting your Library
Browse View is the third way to view music in TwonkyMedia manager. It’s great for users with large music libraries because it allows them to quickly sift their music by applying filters. Here’s how it works: When you enter Browse view by clicking on the icon located to the right of the album art, you’ll see genres in the first column, artists in the second column and albums in the third column. Clicking on a genre, will apply a filter to all of the other columns. For example, clicking on Blues will only display the blues artists, albums and songs. Clicking on Stevie Ray Vaughan will only display albums and songs by Stevie Ray. And clicking on Texas Flood, will only display songs from that album. Keep in mind you don’t have to drill down from genre to artist and so forth. Once you select a genre, you can scroll right to any artist, album or song directly. This can be a big time saver.
The Best Part
In the Browse view you can play an entire genre, artist or album by simply double-clicking on it. You can also drag and drop any genre, artist or album into the "Play Here" pane to hear it instantly on any PC or external device in your home. This is a really useful feature and a big time saver. As a result, I use this view more than any other in TwonkyMedia manager. Browse view isn’t limited to just preview. You can drag and drop an entire genre, artist or album into the playlist window and then change the order or delete songs in the newly created playlist. You can even drag several different artists into the playlist window and then press shuffle to quickly create a playlist of your favorite artists.
Performance is Key
You might notice we removed the ability to display all songs at once in Browse view. This was due to potential performance reasons. Since TwonkyMedia manager is a control point that was designed to work with any UPnP media server, we had to design it with a wide range of servers in mind. The time required to read all of the metadata for every genre, artist, album and song in realtime from an older NAS can be considerable. By removing the All Genre selection, we were able to keep TwonkyMedia manager performance good -- even with large libraries. It’s likely we’ll add back the All Genre selection in the future – at least for devices that have enough power to support it. The only other potential limitation of Browse view that I’ve found is that it’s only useful when your music has accurate tags. If most of your songs are missing genre tags, this view won’t be very useful.
So now that you know how to use Browse view, give it a try and see what you think. We think you’ll find it to be a fast and easy way to listen to music on your PC or connected devices.
- Rick
Cover Flow is Cumbersome
TwonkyMedia manager has three different music views. The default view is Album Art view, which some compare to Apple’s Cover Flow. Although Cover Flow is visually appealing it has some major limitations:
1. Cover Flow only displays artwork for five CDs at a time and is not an efficient way to locate music. To see more album art, you either use the arrow keys or drag a horizontal scrollbar. When you move the scrollbar fast, all you see is a blur of text and even when you slow down, it’s hard to locate an individual song without overshooting. [This is why smart users either use the Search box or scroll in the text area to find music.]
2. Another problem with Cover Flow is that not all users have album art for all of their songs. Even if you use iTunes to get missing artwork, it’s very likely you’ll still have there are still many CDs that are missing artwork.
Folders are Fast
The second way to view music in TwonkyMedia manager is called Folder View and it’s similar to the Web browser used by many TwonkyMedia 4.x users. The navigation tree that you see in Folder View is identical to the one you see on your hardware devices. Although Folder view is a fast way to browse content, one disadvantage it has is that it can require a lot of keystrokes to get to the individual song (depending on the path you take). Wouldn’t it be nice if you could view all genres, all artists and all albums at once? Just click on the Browse view icon to the right of the album art and the display will toggle between album art and a three-column view.
Sifting your Library
Browse View is the third way to view music in TwonkyMedia manager. It’s great for users with large music libraries because it allows them to quickly sift their music by applying filters. Here’s how it works: When you enter Browse view by clicking on the icon located to the right of the album art, you’ll see genres in the first column, artists in the second column and albums in the third column. Clicking on a genre, will apply a filter to all of the other columns. For example, clicking on Blues will only display the blues artists, albums and songs. Clicking on Stevie Ray Vaughan will only display albums and songs by Stevie Ray. And clicking on Texas Flood, will only display songs from that album. Keep in mind you don’t have to drill down from genre to artist and so forth. Once you select a genre, you can scroll right to any artist, album or song directly. This can be a big time saver.
The Best Part
In the Browse view you can play an entire genre, artist or album by simply double-clicking on it. You can also drag and drop any genre, artist or album into the "Play Here" pane to hear it instantly on any PC or external device in your home. This is a really useful feature and a big time saver. As a result, I use this view more than any other in TwonkyMedia manager. Browse view isn’t limited to just preview. You can drag and drop an entire genre, artist or album into the playlist window and then change the order or delete songs in the newly created playlist. You can even drag several different artists into the playlist window and then press shuffle to quickly create a playlist of your favorite artists.
Performance is Key
You might notice we removed the ability to display all songs at once in Browse view. This was due to potential performance reasons. Since TwonkyMedia manager is a control point that was designed to work with any UPnP media server, we had to design it with a wide range of servers in mind. The time required to read all of the metadata for every genre, artist, album and song in realtime from an older NAS can be considerable. By removing the All Genre selection, we were able to keep TwonkyMedia manager performance good -- even with large libraries. It’s likely we’ll add back the All Genre selection in the future – at least for devices that have enough power to support it. The only other potential limitation of Browse view that I’ve found is that it’s only useful when your music has accurate tags. If most of your songs are missing genre tags, this view won’t be very useful.
So now that you know how to use Browse view, give it a try and see what you think. We think you’ll find it to be a fast and easy way to listen to music on your PC or connected devices.
- Rick
Last edited by Twonky_Rick on Tue Dec 02, 2008 8:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: TMM Feature of the Week
by tanahisa » Sat Nov 29, 2008 10:09 pm
Hi,Rick
I have a question about TMM.
Is TMM compliant with "DLNA Link Protection Guidelines"?
I know TMM is a DLNA1.5 reference server and it is very nice.
But I cant find the explantions about DLNA Link Protection Guidelines(aka DTCP-IP
or WMDRM)
Tanahisa
I have a question about TMM.
Is TMM compliant with "DLNA Link Protection Guidelines"?
I know TMM is a DLNA1.5 reference server and it is very nice.
But I cant find the explantions about DLNA Link Protection Guidelines(aka DTCP-IP
or WMDRM)
Tanahisa
- tanahisa
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Sat Nov 29, 2008 9:33 pm
Re: TMM Feature of the Week
by Twonky_Rick » Mon Dec 01, 2008 5:58 am
tanahisa wrote:Hi,Rick
I have a question about TMM.
Is TMM compliant with "DLNA Link Protection Guidelines"?
I know TMM is a DLNA1.5 reference server and it is very nice.
But I cant find the explantions about DLNA Link Protection Guidelines(aka DTCP-IP
or WMDRM)
Tanahisa
Hi Tanahisa,
Although it's not really an advertised feature, TMM should be able to play back WMDRM content. DTCP-IP support is not planned for the Windows version of TMS 5.0 or TMM.
- Rick
Follow me on Twitter! mostlytech1
Checkout my blog: http://mostly-tech.com/
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Feature of the Week - Week Three
by Twonky_Rick » Thu Dec 04, 2008 7:26 pm
Using TwonkyMedia Manager with Windows Live Photo Gallery
By now it seems everyone has a digital camera and a large collection of digital photos. That’s why it’s so surprising that most popular media management software doesn’t include full support for photos. Sure, a few let you view photos locally, but you can do that without their software.
I’m talking about the following features which I believe are essential for any media manager:
- The ability to share photos with your family and friends
- The ability to rate photos
- The ability to tag photos so you can locate them quickly
- The ability to view online photos
- The ability to search for photos on any PC in your house
- The ability to view your photos from the comfort of your couch -- without purchasing a crappy overpriced proprietary DMA (sorry Apple)
- And most importantly, it’s got to work with photo editing software that you already have – or can get for free.
Photo Tags
It turns out that the last requirement is one of the hardest, because there doesn’t appear to be a standard for photo metadata. A while back I sat down with several popular photo software packages (including ACDSee, Adobe Album, Photoshop Elements, etc.) to see which ones talked with each other. The bottom line was, I couldn’t find any software packages that shared ratings or metadata like keywords and descriptions. This is ironic because there is an open industry standard out there for image metadata which has been around for almost two decades. It's called called IPTC metadata. While Exif metadata deals with the technical aspects of images, the IPTC metadata is focused on the "who", "what", "where" and copyright information. [Thanks to Geoff Coupe for pointing this out. You can see more of his comments (which I've incorporated into this article) if you scroll down this page after Week Ten.]
The bottom line is that we feel it’s important TwonkyMedia manager works with a least one popular photo editing package. In the past, TwonkyMedia worked with select Adobe software, but not everyone has Photoshop and Adobe Album has been discontinued. That’s why we now support Windows Photo Gallery. It’s preinstalled on all Windows Vista PCs. A similar product called Windows Live Photo Gallery is available free for all Windows XP users.
Installing Windows Live Photo Gallery
If you’re not running Vista, you'll need to download and install Windows Live Photo Gallery, but before doing that you'll need to install the two files below -- otherwise the installer for Windows Live Photo Gallery will fail.
1. The first is SQL 2005 Compact Edition. You can get it by clicking on the link below. Don't be afraid. This isn't really a full-on SQL database -- it's more of a run-time engine and is only about 4MB in size. Installing it takes less than one minute. Make sure to download the X86 file and not the the X64 one
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=DC614AEE-7E1C-4881-9C32-3A6CE53384D9&displaylang=en
2. Windows Imaging Codecs - When I tried to install this 1MB download, it told me I already had a newer version on my PC, so you may not need this. If you do need it, just click on the following link:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta ... laylang=en
If you scroll down, you'll see a list of download options. Select the file named "wic_x86_enu.exe".
Now you're ready to install Windows Live Photo Gallery. Click on the link below to go to it's download page.http://get.live.com/photogallery/overview
Press the Download button and run the installer. Are you start the installer, make sure to uncheck the 3 boxes on the Customize page unless you want to make MSN your home page and Live Search your default search engine. Also, make sure to check the Photo Gallery box in the installer and press the 'Add to installation' button.
How to Use Windows Live Photo Gallery with TwonkyMedia Manager
Windows Live Photo Gallery does many things -- including enhancing your photos, but for this article we’re going to focus on its rating, tagging and metadata-related features.
There’s no right or wrong way to tag your photos, but here are a few steps for the novice user. If you’ve already organized your photos by folder, you may want to skip down to step 3.
1. Make sure you first group all of your photos into different folders. There are many different ways to do this. As an example, here’s what I do.
a. First I create folders for each year using Windows Explorer
b. If you take a lot of photos, you may want to create subfolders for each month
c. In the month folders I create what are essentially mini-albums. For example “Summer Vacation”
2. After your photos are grouped by folder, you’re ready to name and tag them. Open Windows Live Photo Gallery and right-click in the Folders section on the left to add your photo folder to the gallery (if it’s not there already).
3. Click on the folder you want to edit and then click on the first photo.
4. Make sure to name each photo, since those names will appear on both your PC and your digital media adapters.
5. Then rate each photo from one to five stars with five being your favorite photos. This is important because TwonkyMedia manager will use theses ratings for its smart slideshows.
6. Lastly, you may want to also enter a tag or tags for each photo. Examples of tags include: Vacation, City Names, Birthdays, Holiday Names, etc. This is done by clicking where it says ‘Add tags’ on the right side of the screen.
7. Although this is optional, you can also click on the ‘Fix’ button near the top of the screen and adjust exposure or color, crop a photo, fix red eye or use the ‘Auto Adjust’ feature.
8. You can even change the date of the photo if it’s not correct.
The Payoff
If you follow the steps above, your photos will be organized into folders that act as mini albums. Make sure the Folders column is on the far left in TwonkyMedia manager, since that's effectively your album name. Changes to photo names will appear in the Filename column in TwonkyMedia manager. Windows Photo Gallery (or Windows Live Photo Gallery) ratings will be imported into TwonkyMedia manager and displayed in the rating column. These ratings are used by TwonkyMedia manager when you click on the highly-rated smart playlist. Tags entered in Windows Photo Gallery (or Windows Live Photo Gallery) will appear in the Keywords column. Now you can search or sort using these keyword/tags. This is really nice if you have a very large photo collection.
Tips and Tricks
Here are a few tips to keep in mind before you start tagging your photos.
1. If you have both Windows Live Photo Gallery and TwonkyMedia manager open at the same time and you’re making changes, you’ll need to rescan your content so the changes appear in TwonkyMedia manager. To do this, click on the button with the Gears near the top of the TwonkyMedia manager interface. Click on Server Settings and you should see a Rescan Content button near the bottom of the screen. You will know when the rescan is complete when the icon to the left of the server drop-down stops spinning.
2. Another thing to keep in mind is that changes made in Windows Live Photo Gallery will appear in TwonkyMedia manager, but changes made in TwonkyMedia manager will not appear in Windows Live Photo Gallery. For that reason, I prefer to do most of my editing in Windows Photo Gallery. That way if I ever do something stupid like deleting my TwonkyMedia manager database I can just rescan to import all of my changes again.
Checkout Windows Live Photo Gallery for yourself and let us know what you think.
- Rick
By now it seems everyone has a digital camera and a large collection of digital photos. That’s why it’s so surprising that most popular media management software doesn’t include full support for photos. Sure, a few let you view photos locally, but you can do that without their software.
I’m talking about the following features which I believe are essential for any media manager:
- The ability to share photos with your family and friends
- The ability to rate photos
- The ability to tag photos so you can locate them quickly
- The ability to view online photos
- The ability to search for photos on any PC in your house
- The ability to view your photos from the comfort of your couch -- without purchasing a crappy overpriced proprietary DMA (sorry Apple)
- And most importantly, it’s got to work with photo editing software that you already have – or can get for free.
Photo Tags
It turns out that the last requirement is one of the hardest, because there doesn’t appear to be a standard for photo metadata. A while back I sat down with several popular photo software packages (including ACDSee, Adobe Album, Photoshop Elements, etc.) to see which ones talked with each other. The bottom line was, I couldn’t find any software packages that shared ratings or metadata like keywords and descriptions. This is ironic because there is an open industry standard out there for image metadata which has been around for almost two decades. It's called called IPTC metadata. While Exif metadata deals with the technical aspects of images, the IPTC metadata is focused on the "who", "what", "where" and copyright information. [Thanks to Geoff Coupe for pointing this out. You can see more of his comments (which I've incorporated into this article) if you scroll down this page after Week Ten.]
The bottom line is that we feel it’s important TwonkyMedia manager works with a least one popular photo editing package. In the past, TwonkyMedia worked with select Adobe software, but not everyone has Photoshop and Adobe Album has been discontinued. That’s why we now support Windows Photo Gallery. It’s preinstalled on all Windows Vista PCs. A similar product called Windows Live Photo Gallery is available free for all Windows XP users.
Installing Windows Live Photo Gallery
If you’re not running Vista, you'll need to download and install Windows Live Photo Gallery, but before doing that you'll need to install the two files below -- otherwise the installer for Windows Live Photo Gallery will fail.
1. The first is SQL 2005 Compact Edition. You can get it by clicking on the link below. Don't be afraid. This isn't really a full-on SQL database -- it's more of a run-time engine and is only about 4MB in size. Installing it takes less than one minute. Make sure to download the X86 file and not the the X64 one
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=DC614AEE-7E1C-4881-9C32-3A6CE53384D9&displaylang=en
2. Windows Imaging Codecs - When I tried to install this 1MB download, it told me I already had a newer version on my PC, so you may not need this. If you do need it, just click on the following link:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta ... laylang=en
If you scroll down, you'll see a list of download options. Select the file named "wic_x86_enu.exe".
Now you're ready to install Windows Live Photo Gallery. Click on the link below to go to it's download page.http://get.live.com/photogallery/overview
Press the Download button and run the installer. Are you start the installer, make sure to uncheck the 3 boxes on the Customize page unless you want to make MSN your home page and Live Search your default search engine. Also, make sure to check the Photo Gallery box in the installer and press the 'Add to installation' button.
How to Use Windows Live Photo Gallery with TwonkyMedia Manager
Windows Live Photo Gallery does many things -- including enhancing your photos, but for this article we’re going to focus on its rating, tagging and metadata-related features.
There’s no right or wrong way to tag your photos, but here are a few steps for the novice user. If you’ve already organized your photos by folder, you may want to skip down to step 3.
1. Make sure you first group all of your photos into different folders. There are many different ways to do this. As an example, here’s what I do.
a. First I create folders for each year using Windows Explorer
b. If you take a lot of photos, you may want to create subfolders for each month
c. In the month folders I create what are essentially mini-albums. For example “Summer Vacation”
2. After your photos are grouped by folder, you’re ready to name and tag them. Open Windows Live Photo Gallery and right-click in the Folders section on the left to add your photo folder to the gallery (if it’s not there already).
3. Click on the folder you want to edit and then click on the first photo.
4. Make sure to name each photo, since those names will appear on both your PC and your digital media adapters.
5. Then rate each photo from one to five stars with five being your favorite photos. This is important because TwonkyMedia manager will use theses ratings for its smart slideshows.
6. Lastly, you may want to also enter a tag or tags for each photo. Examples of tags include: Vacation, City Names, Birthdays, Holiday Names, etc. This is done by clicking where it says ‘Add tags’ on the right side of the screen.
7. Although this is optional, you can also click on the ‘Fix’ button near the top of the screen and adjust exposure or color, crop a photo, fix red eye or use the ‘Auto Adjust’ feature.
8. You can even change the date of the photo if it’s not correct.
The Payoff
If you follow the steps above, your photos will be organized into folders that act as mini albums. Make sure the Folders column is on the far left in TwonkyMedia manager, since that's effectively your album name. Changes to photo names will appear in the Filename column in TwonkyMedia manager. Windows Photo Gallery (or Windows Live Photo Gallery) ratings will be imported into TwonkyMedia manager and displayed in the rating column. These ratings are used by TwonkyMedia manager when you click on the highly-rated smart playlist. Tags entered in Windows Photo Gallery (or Windows Live Photo Gallery) will appear in the Keywords column. Now you can search or sort using these keyword/tags. This is really nice if you have a very large photo collection.
Tips and Tricks
Here are a few tips to keep in mind before you start tagging your photos.
1. If you have both Windows Live Photo Gallery and TwonkyMedia manager open at the same time and you’re making changes, you’ll need to rescan your content so the changes appear in TwonkyMedia manager. To do this, click on the button with the Gears near the top of the TwonkyMedia manager interface. Click on Server Settings and you should see a Rescan Content button near the bottom of the screen. You will know when the rescan is complete when the icon to the left of the server drop-down stops spinning.
2. Another thing to keep in mind is that changes made in Windows Live Photo Gallery will appear in TwonkyMedia manager, but changes made in TwonkyMedia manager will not appear in Windows Live Photo Gallery. For that reason, I prefer to do most of my editing in Windows Photo Gallery. That way if I ever do something stupid like deleting my TwonkyMedia manager database I can just rescan to import all of my changes again.
Checkout Windows Live Photo Gallery for yourself and let us know what you think.
- Rick
Follow me on Twitter! mostlytech1
Checkout my blog: http://mostly-tech.com/
Checkout my blog: http://mostly-tech.com/
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Twonky_Rick - PacketVideo Staff
- Posts: 3845
- Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2008 1:59 am
- Location: San Diego
Feature of the Week - Week Four
by Twonky_Rick » Fri Dec 12, 2008 7:32 pm
Using a True Client/Server Architecture for Media Management
Since we’re going beta with TwonkyMedia manager this week, I thought I would celebrate with an extra special Feature of the Week. This column is about what I consider to be one of the most important features in our software: Server-side playlists. Most media managers are standalone software apps that don’t have a true client/server architecture for media management. Although this might not seem like a big deal at first, it causes problems as you will soon see.
The Problems
- Most playlists are not portable – Playlists created using Winamp or Windows Media Player don’t work when moved to another PC -– even if the media library and folder structure is exactly the same on both PCs. This is a serious limitation.
- Adding art directly to your library is problematic – If you use iTunes or Window Media Player to add album art, don’t be surprised if you’re missing album art down the road. You might not notice it at first, but when you use those songs with other software or devices, that’s when the problems start showing up. This is because iTunes does not embed album art into music files. Instead it stores album art in a proprietary encrypted format –- so it can only be viewed by Apple-approved software and devices. Apple isn’t the only one with album art problems. I spent a huge amount of time pasting missing album art into Zune software only to find when I sync’d my Zune portable with other PCs, the added album art was missing. This was a very frustrating experience.
- Most popular media managers can’t run on NAS hardware – In order to be really useful, a media server must always be on. Running a Window XP or Vista PC with a 350-watt power supply as a server is not ideal -- due to power consumption and reliability issues. TwonkyMedia server is thin and light enough to run on low-cost NAS devices. The current iTunes installer is over 65MB. That’s why you won’t find iTunes running on a $95 Linksys NAS 200. Sure there are ways for tech-savvy users to use external storage with iTunes, but using a $1000 PC as a media server doesn’t make much sense to me. Another advantage of running your media server on a NAS, is that Linux is much more reliable than Windows. But I don’t need to explain that to the readers of this forum. ; )
- Metadata changes often only appear on the PC they're made on – No one wants to spend hours rating their music or photos only to find the ratings they’ve entered can’t be viewed by other PCs (or devices on their network). iTunes won’t even let you share photos and although it does support simple music sharing -- things like play counts and last played date/time aren’t even visible. Apple's implementation of media sharing has other serious limitations which are discussed below.
Although Winamp doesn’t support true media sharing. Sure you could move all of your media to a shared drive, but you’ll run into the age-old problems with play counts and ratings not being updated. Photo metadata is also a big problem that I focused on in my last article, so I won’t dwell on it here -- but trust me, trying to find another media manager that will let you change photo/video metadata on one PC and have all changes instantly visible on another PC is difficult.
- Some media sharing implementations have serious limitations – iTunes pre-installs an app called Bonjour that runs in the background as a media server. Although it does share ratings, you can’t create playlists using shared files. What good is file sharing, if you can’t do anything other than play one song at a time? Of course Apple’s sharing solution is proprietary and doesn’t work with most non-Apple devices. But the worst part is, you can’t use shared files with iTunes’ Party Shuffle feature. If you want the songs in someone else’s library to play in random order, he or she will have to create a playlist for you with those files in random order (because you can’t create a playlist using their songs). That’s not all, iTunes allows just five users to connect to any shared library in a given day, media can only be shared with computer on the same subnet, and no remote access is possible. Other than that, it’s great. ; )
- Some media managers can only share content when they are open – The beauty of true client/server architecture is that you can have a server running the background without being visible on your screen or taskbar. A good media server should be invisible to the user, but still allow anyone to access media from anywhere on the network at all times. It shouldn't matter whether the client software is open or not.
Here’s an example what I'm talking about: To get Rhapsody to play on the Netgear MP-101 in my bedroom, I need to do the following:
1. Go downstairs turn on my office PC.
2. Wait for the PC to boot.
3. Log-in to Windows.
4. Wait for the Rhapsody app to boot (which can take minutes).
5. Make sure their UPnP server software is running.
6. Log-in to Rhapsody and add all of the artists, albums and songs I want to play that day.
7. Turn on the Netgear DMP and select the Rhapsody server
Ten minutes later, I’m actually ready to go upstairs and boot my Netgear DMP and listen to music –- until someone downstairs closes Rhapsody, because that will cause music playback upstairs to stop. iTunes has the same problem. Even though Bonjour is always running in the background, Apple's media sharing only works when iTunes is open.
The TwonkyMedia Way
TwonkyMedia manager is different. It uses a true client-server architecture that is free from all of the problems listed above.
- All playlists and slideshows are server-based – This is a really big deal because it means all playlists are stored on the server and can be accessed by any device on the network. Not only can playlists be viewed by another PC, they can be edited by any PC on your network. It’s even possible for two users to work on the same playlist or slideshow at the same time. This is really cool, once you see it in action.
- All metadata changes are instantly visible on the network – Every time you make a metadata change in TwonkyMedia manager, you’ll instantly see it on every PC and hardware device on your network. This includes content ratings. Every time you play a song or view a photo, the play count and the date/time last played will be updated as well. This is important because these values are used for smart playlists and slideshows.
- TwonkyMedia server (TMS) is so thin and light it can run on almost any device – You’ll find TMS running on NAS hardware from companies like Buffalo, Freecom, HP, Linksys, Qnap and many others. By separating the client and server, it makes it easier to move all of your media to an always-on device like a NAS (or headless PC running Windows Home Server) that consume a small fraction of the power that most desktop PCs consume. I run TwonkyMedia server on a HP MediaSmart server that draws around 50 watts power. By comparison, my PC-based workstation has an 850 watt power supply, so that’s not something I want to leave on all night. Although my MediaSmart server runs the Windows Home Server OS, I’ve found it to be very reliable. It runs 24/7 and hasn’t crashed in almost a year of use.
- TwonkMedia server is always available – TMS is always running in the background, so it’s available to external devices (or PCs) on your LAN –- even if the media manager client software isn’t running. And unlike iTunes or Rhapsody, even if someone closes the TwonkyMedia manager client, the server will continue to playback media without missing a beat.
- TwonkyMedia is an open standards-based system – TwonkyMedia is not a proprietary system. It’s designed around standards like UPnP and DLNA, so you can use TwonkyMedia manager with thousands of devices -- including DMAs, game consoles -- even mobile phone software. TMM also works with third-party UPnP media servers. TMM even works with NAS devices that don't have an embedded media server. TMM also works with other software like iTunes and Windows Photo Gallery.
So now that you can download a 30-day trial of TwonkyMedia for free by visiting the TwonkyMedia Manager Beta post. Check out our server-side playlist features for yourself and let us know what you think.
See you next week.
- Rick
Since we’re going beta with TwonkyMedia manager this week, I thought I would celebrate with an extra special Feature of the Week. This column is about what I consider to be one of the most important features in our software: Server-side playlists. Most media managers are standalone software apps that don’t have a true client/server architecture for media management. Although this might not seem like a big deal at first, it causes problems as you will soon see.
The Problems
- Most playlists are not portable – Playlists created using Winamp or Windows Media Player don’t work when moved to another PC -– even if the media library and folder structure is exactly the same on both PCs. This is a serious limitation.
- Adding art directly to your library is problematic – If you use iTunes or Window Media Player to add album art, don’t be surprised if you’re missing album art down the road. You might not notice it at first, but when you use those songs with other software or devices, that’s when the problems start showing up. This is because iTunes does not embed album art into music files. Instead it stores album art in a proprietary encrypted format –- so it can only be viewed by Apple-approved software and devices. Apple isn’t the only one with album art problems. I spent a huge amount of time pasting missing album art into Zune software only to find when I sync’d my Zune portable with other PCs, the added album art was missing. This was a very frustrating experience.
- Most popular media managers can’t run on NAS hardware – In order to be really useful, a media server must always be on. Running a Window XP or Vista PC with a 350-watt power supply as a server is not ideal -- due to power consumption and reliability issues. TwonkyMedia server is thin and light enough to run on low-cost NAS devices. The current iTunes installer is over 65MB. That’s why you won’t find iTunes running on a $95 Linksys NAS 200. Sure there are ways for tech-savvy users to use external storage with iTunes, but using a $1000 PC as a media server doesn’t make much sense to me. Another advantage of running your media server on a NAS, is that Linux is much more reliable than Windows. But I don’t need to explain that to the readers of this forum. ; )
- Metadata changes often only appear on the PC they're made on – No one wants to spend hours rating their music or photos only to find the ratings they’ve entered can’t be viewed by other PCs (or devices on their network). iTunes won’t even let you share photos and although it does support simple music sharing -- things like play counts and last played date/time aren’t even visible. Apple's implementation of media sharing has other serious limitations which are discussed below.
Although Winamp doesn’t support true media sharing. Sure you could move all of your media to a shared drive, but you’ll run into the age-old problems with play counts and ratings not being updated. Photo metadata is also a big problem that I focused on in my last article, so I won’t dwell on it here -- but trust me, trying to find another media manager that will let you change photo/video metadata on one PC and have all changes instantly visible on another PC is difficult.
- Some media sharing implementations have serious limitations – iTunes pre-installs an app called Bonjour that runs in the background as a media server. Although it does share ratings, you can’t create playlists using shared files. What good is file sharing, if you can’t do anything other than play one song at a time? Of course Apple’s sharing solution is proprietary and doesn’t work with most non-Apple devices. But the worst part is, you can’t use shared files with iTunes’ Party Shuffle feature. If you want the songs in someone else’s library to play in random order, he or she will have to create a playlist for you with those files in random order (because you can’t create a playlist using their songs). That’s not all, iTunes allows just five users to connect to any shared library in a given day, media can only be shared with computer on the same subnet, and no remote access is possible. Other than that, it’s great. ; )
- Some media managers can only share content when they are open – The beauty of true client/server architecture is that you can have a server running the background without being visible on your screen or taskbar. A good media server should be invisible to the user, but still allow anyone to access media from anywhere on the network at all times. It shouldn't matter whether the client software is open or not.
Here’s an example what I'm talking about: To get Rhapsody to play on the Netgear MP-101 in my bedroom, I need to do the following:
1. Go downstairs turn on my office PC.
2. Wait for the PC to boot.
3. Log-in to Windows.
4. Wait for the Rhapsody app to boot (which can take minutes).
5. Make sure their UPnP server software is running.
6. Log-in to Rhapsody and add all of the artists, albums and songs I want to play that day.
7. Turn on the Netgear DMP and select the Rhapsody server
Ten minutes later, I’m actually ready to go upstairs and boot my Netgear DMP and listen to music –- until someone downstairs closes Rhapsody, because that will cause music playback upstairs to stop. iTunes has the same problem. Even though Bonjour is always running in the background, Apple's media sharing only works when iTunes is open.
The TwonkyMedia Way
TwonkyMedia manager is different. It uses a true client-server architecture that is free from all of the problems listed above.
- All playlists and slideshows are server-based – This is a really big deal because it means all playlists are stored on the server and can be accessed by any device on the network. Not only can playlists be viewed by another PC, they can be edited by any PC on your network. It’s even possible for two users to work on the same playlist or slideshow at the same time. This is really cool, once you see it in action.
- All metadata changes are instantly visible on the network – Every time you make a metadata change in TwonkyMedia manager, you’ll instantly see it on every PC and hardware device on your network. This includes content ratings. Every time you play a song or view a photo, the play count and the date/time last played will be updated as well. This is important because these values are used for smart playlists and slideshows.
- TwonkyMedia server (TMS) is so thin and light it can run on almost any device – You’ll find TMS running on NAS hardware from companies like Buffalo, Freecom, HP, Linksys, Qnap and many others. By separating the client and server, it makes it easier to move all of your media to an always-on device like a NAS (or headless PC running Windows Home Server) that consume a small fraction of the power that most desktop PCs consume. I run TwonkyMedia server on a HP MediaSmart server that draws around 50 watts power. By comparison, my PC-based workstation has an 850 watt power supply, so that’s not something I want to leave on all night. Although my MediaSmart server runs the Windows Home Server OS, I’ve found it to be very reliable. It runs 24/7 and hasn’t crashed in almost a year of use.
- TwonkMedia server is always available – TMS is always running in the background, so it’s available to external devices (or PCs) on your LAN –- even if the media manager client software isn’t running. And unlike iTunes or Rhapsody, even if someone closes the TwonkyMedia manager client, the server will continue to playback media without missing a beat.
- TwonkyMedia is an open standards-based system – TwonkyMedia is not a proprietary system. It’s designed around standards like UPnP and DLNA, so you can use TwonkyMedia manager with thousands of devices -- including DMAs, game consoles -- even mobile phone software. TMM also works with third-party UPnP media servers. TMM even works with NAS devices that don't have an embedded media server. TMM also works with other software like iTunes and Windows Photo Gallery.
So now that you can download a 30-day trial of TwonkyMedia for free by visiting the TwonkyMedia Manager Beta post. Check out our server-side playlist features for yourself and let us know what you think.
See you next week.
- Rick
Follow me on Twitter! mostlytech1
Checkout my blog: http://mostly-tech.com/
Checkout my blog: http://mostly-tech.com/
-
Twonky_Rick - PacketVideo Staff
- Posts: 3845
- Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2008 1:59 am
- Location: San Diego
Re: TMM Feature of the Week
by moviegeek » Fri Dec 19, 2008 5:01 pm
TMM_Product_Manager wrote:Externally Controllable DMAs
- D-Link DSM-320 (audio, video, photos)
- Freecom MusicPal (audio only)
- HP Smart Media TV (photos & video only)
- Philips Streamium SL400i (audio, video, photos)
- Philips Streamium NP2500 (plays audio-only)
- Philips Streamium NP2900 (plays audio-only)
- Roku SoundBridge (audio only)
- TEAC WAP-5000 (audio-only – no seek support)
- Terratec Noxon 2 iRadio (audio-only – no seek support)
- Terratec Noxon 2 Audio (audio-only – no seek support)
- ZyXEL DMA-1000 (audio, video, photos)
Hi Rick,
You can add the Denon AVR-3808 and AVR-4308 models to the list. Both are sourround recievers, supporting sound (including .flac format).
Lars- moviegeek
- Posts: 6
- Joined: Fri Dec 19, 2008 4:13 am
Feature of the Week - Week 5
by Twonky_Rick » Mon Dec 22, 2008 6:46 am
The Importance of Full 3-box DLNA Support
Last week we talked about the advantages of using client/server architecture for media management. This week, we’re going to talk about a related topic: The importance of supporting the full 3-box DLNA model. But before we get into the 3 boxes, we’re going to first talk about what DLNA is, and why you should care.
What is DLNA and Why Should I Care?
DLNA stands for Digital Living Network Alliance. DLNA members share a common vision where digital media can be shared through CE devices, PCs, and mobile devices in the home. This is made possible through the following:
1. An interoperability framework based on internationally-recognized standards like UPnP.
2. A certification and logo program which verifies the conformance and interoperability of compliant products.
In theory, this means consumers should have a better experience networking DLNA-certified products than non-certified devices. In general this is true, because DLNA-certified products must go through formal testing before a logo is issued, and after that testing continues at plug-fests around the world where DLNA members test their products with other members products.
Go here to view a list of DLNA-certified products: http://www.dlna.org/products
Why 3 Boxes?
With DLNA 1.0, products were either media servers or media players. DLNA 1.5 products can include any of the following device class categories:
1. Digital Media Server (DMS)
2. Digital Media Controller (DMC)
3. Digital Media Renderer (DMR)
4. Digital Media Player (DMP)
Other devices classes are also available as part of the DLNA 1.5 including mobile classes. You can view the full list at the end of this article.
Digital Media Server
The media server is the heart of the system. It serves media to all of the renders on a network. Although most people assume that a DMS is either a PC or a NAS, some set-top boxes and mobile phones can be digital media servers as well. In fact, it’s not uncommon to have more than one DMS on a home network.
The server that comes with TwonkyMedia manager is more than just another UPnP media server. It's special. Not only is it DLNA 1.5 certified – it’s what’s called a reference server, which means it’s been tested and confirmed to work with other DLNA-certified home electronic and mobile devices.
Digital Media Controller
Digital Media Controllers are relatively new. They were added as part of the DLNA-1.5 spec. A DMC or "control point" allows you to select any media server on your network (PC or NAS) and browse its music, photos or videos. Once you’ve selected your server and decided what media to play, you can use DMC to decide which DMR to play it back on. Advanced servers, like the one that comes with TwonkyMedia manager, also support keyword-based searching and server-side playlists which were discussed in an earlier feature of the week. The best part about a control point, is that you can use multiple control points at the same time. Imagine using your mobile phone to control the volume or skip to the next track of any rendering device on your network. Or using the DMC on one PC to control another PC running TMM. That's a really nice feature that you'll want to have, once you've tried it.
Digital Media Renderer
Digital media renderers can be stand-alone hardware devices like digital media adapters (DMAs) or PC-based renderers like the one that is included with TwonkyMedia manager. Unlike DMPs, DMRs are externally controllable, so you can control them from any DMC in your home. This makes possible things like pushing content to devices by dragging and dropping it from your PC. This can be a real time saver as we learned in our first Feature of the Week.
Digital Media Player
Digital media players include their own control point and can render content. Most DMPs are not externally controllable, like DMRs are. Examples of DMPs include most UPnP digital photo frames and most older digital media adapters.
So in summary, I find the modular approach of the DLNA 1.5 system to be very powerful. Although TwonkyMedia manager includes its own DMC, DMS, DMR and DMP, it works with a wide range of third-party control points, media servers and rendering devices. This open and modular approach gives you the maximum flexibility and power.
Have you had a chance to use an external control point like a Nokia N95 or software like Rudeo Control with your home media system? If so, please share your experience with the other readers of this forum. Thanks.
More DLNA-speak - Other DLNA Device Classes
- DMS (Digital Media Server)
- DMP (Digital Media Player)
- DMC (Digital Media Controller)
- DMR (Digital Media Renderer)
- MIU (Media Interoperability Unit)
- M-DMP (Mobile-Digital Media Player)
- M-DMS (Mobile-Digital Media Server)
- M-DMC (Mobile-Digital Media Controller)
- M-DMD and/or M-DMU (Mobile-Digital Media Downloader and/or Uploader)
- M-NCF (Mobile-Network Connectivity Function)
- DMPr (Digital Media Printer)
Rick
Last week we talked about the advantages of using client/server architecture for media management. This week, we’re going to talk about a related topic: The importance of supporting the full 3-box DLNA model. But before we get into the 3 boxes, we’re going to first talk about what DLNA is, and why you should care.
What is DLNA and Why Should I Care?
DLNA stands for Digital Living Network Alliance. DLNA members share a common vision where digital media can be shared through CE devices, PCs, and mobile devices in the home. This is made possible through the following:
1. An interoperability framework based on internationally-recognized standards like UPnP.
2. A certification and logo program which verifies the conformance and interoperability of compliant products.
In theory, this means consumers should have a better experience networking DLNA-certified products than non-certified devices. In general this is true, because DLNA-certified products must go through formal testing before a logo is issued, and after that testing continues at plug-fests around the world where DLNA members test their products with other members products.
Go here to view a list of DLNA-certified products: http://www.dlna.org/products
Why 3 Boxes?
With DLNA 1.0, products were either media servers or media players. DLNA 1.5 products can include any of the following device class categories:
1. Digital Media Server (DMS)
2. Digital Media Controller (DMC)
3. Digital Media Renderer (DMR)
4. Digital Media Player (DMP)
Other devices classes are also available as part of the DLNA 1.5 including mobile classes. You can view the full list at the end of this article.
Digital Media Server
The media server is the heart of the system. It serves media to all of the renders on a network. Although most people assume that a DMS is either a PC or a NAS, some set-top boxes and mobile phones can be digital media servers as well. In fact, it’s not uncommon to have more than one DMS on a home network.
The server that comes with TwonkyMedia manager is more than just another UPnP media server. It's special. Not only is it DLNA 1.5 certified – it’s what’s called a reference server, which means it’s been tested and confirmed to work with other DLNA-certified home electronic and mobile devices.
Digital Media Controller
Digital Media Controllers are relatively new. They were added as part of the DLNA-1.5 spec. A DMC or "control point" allows you to select any media server on your network (PC or NAS) and browse its music, photos or videos. Once you’ve selected your server and decided what media to play, you can use DMC to decide which DMR to play it back on. Advanced servers, like the one that comes with TwonkyMedia manager, also support keyword-based searching and server-side playlists which were discussed in an earlier feature of the week. The best part about a control point, is that you can use multiple control points at the same time. Imagine using your mobile phone to control the volume or skip to the next track of any rendering device on your network. Or using the DMC on one PC to control another PC running TMM. That's a really nice feature that you'll want to have, once you've tried it.
Digital Media Renderer
Digital media renderers can be stand-alone hardware devices like digital media adapters (DMAs) or PC-based renderers like the one that is included with TwonkyMedia manager. Unlike DMPs, DMRs are externally controllable, so you can control them from any DMC in your home. This makes possible things like pushing content to devices by dragging and dropping it from your PC. This can be a real time saver as we learned in our first Feature of the Week.
Digital Media Player
Digital media players include their own control point and can render content. Most DMPs are not externally controllable, like DMRs are. Examples of DMPs include most UPnP digital photo frames and most older digital media adapters.
So in summary, I find the modular approach of the DLNA 1.5 system to be very powerful. Although TwonkyMedia manager includes its own DMC, DMS, DMR and DMP, it works with a wide range of third-party control points, media servers and rendering devices. This open and modular approach gives you the maximum flexibility and power.
Have you had a chance to use an external control point like a Nokia N95 or software like Rudeo Control with your home media system? If so, please share your experience with the other readers of this forum. Thanks.
More DLNA-speak - Other DLNA Device Classes
- DMS (Digital Media Server)
- DMP (Digital Media Player)
- DMC (Digital Media Controller)
- DMR (Digital Media Renderer)
- MIU (Media Interoperability Unit)
- M-DMP (Mobile-Digital Media Player)
- M-DMS (Mobile-Digital Media Server)
- M-DMC (Mobile-Digital Media Controller)
- M-DMD and/or M-DMU (Mobile-Digital Media Downloader and/or Uploader)
- M-NCF (Mobile-Network Connectivity Function)
- DMPr (Digital Media Printer)
Rick
Follow me on Twitter! mostlytech1
Checkout my blog: http://mostly-tech.com/
Checkout my blog: http://mostly-tech.com/
-
Twonky_Rick - PacketVideo Staff
- Posts: 3845
- Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2008 1:59 am
- Location: San Diego
Re: TMM Feature of the Week
by jmusick » Thu Jan 01, 2009 10:59 pm
Denon AVR-5308 also works well with TMM, though I believe it may be Audio only like the other two Denon models listed in the posts above.
-James
-James
- jmusick
- Posts: 30
- Joined: Mon Dec 08, 2008 7:32 am
Re: TMM Feature of the Week
by Obi-5 » Sat Jan 03, 2009 6:38 pm
The Popcorn A110 works also well with TMM. It's possible to push mp3's to this device.
Only flac files do not work but this comes from Twonky.
The Yamaha Receivers seem not to work. Although twonky server 4.4.9 on my NAS recognizes the Yamaha as Network Receiver, my Receiver Yamaha RX-V 2700 is not detected by TMM.
Only flac files do not work but this comes from Twonky.
The Yamaha Receivers seem not to work. Although twonky server 4.4.9 on my NAS recognizes the Yamaha as Network Receiver, my Receiver Yamaha RX-V 2700 is not detected by TMM.
- Obi-5
- Posts: 5
- Joined: Thu Jan 01, 2009 7:11 pm
Feature of the Week - Week Six
by Twonky_Rick » Thu Jan 08, 2009 6:37 am
Creating Custom Device Icons for TwonkyMedia Manager
One of the coolest features in TwonkyMedia manager is the way you can drag and drop media to icons that look like the devices in your home. Although we tried to include quite a few popular rendering devices and servers, there are literally thousands of different devices which work with TwonkyMedia manager, so we'll never have them all. Several people have asked if there is a way they can add their own icons to TwonkyMedia manager (TMM). Although this feature isn’t yet officially supported, there is a way for technical users to do this today. With a little effort, all of the icons in the Play Here section of TwonkyMedia manager will look exactly like the PCs and devices in your connected home.
Some Background
Before I describe how you can create your own icons, I want to give you a little background first. Icons are displayed in a variety of places throughout TMM. To prevent scaling issues, we use four different sizes of icons.
Obtaining a Source Image
You can either shoot a photo of your own device or find a picture on the Web and save it as a JPEG image to your desktop by right-clicking on it and selecting ‘Save Image As’. If you do use a photo from the Web try to find an image that is not copyrighted. It shouldn’t be that hard if you search Google Images or one of the popular auction sites.
The file I downloaded was 520 x 280 pixels. Make sure the image you download is larger than 100 x 100 pixels. You can tell the size in Windows XP by right-clicking on an image file and selecting Properties. Then click on the Summary tab and the Advanced button.
Step-by Step-Instructions
To rescale an image file in Windows XP follow these steps. I’m using the program Paint for this example, but the instructions should be similar to this for other image editing software. If you have access to Photoshop, you should obviously use it instead of Paint.
If you have Photoshop, just open you original image. Crop the edges, paste it into a new window. Then select Image Size in the Image menu and set the Pixel width to the desired size (100, 75, 50, 20). Next, select the Flatten Image command under the Layer menu and Save As a as a JPG image named as suggested below.
1. Go to the Start Menu and mouse to All Programs/Accessories/Paint.
2. Drag and drop your image on to the Paint app and it should open in Paint.
3. Next, click on the Select button, which looks like a rectangle made with a dotted line. Drag the rectangle around your saved photo.
4. Make the image smaller, by moving the corner handle so the image maintains its original aspect ratio. Keep going until the largest number you see in the lower right hand corner of the Paint window is a little under 100.
5. Now resize the white background so it is exactly 100 on its largest dimension.
6. Save your resized image to your desktop using the Save As command. Currently only files with JPG or PNG file extensions are supported for device icons.
7. Name the save file on your Desktop “extralarge_devicename”. In my case, I named it “extralarge_Sonos.jpg”
8. Repeat steps 2 through 7, but this time make the image 75x75 pixels and name it “large_devicename” – where “devicename” is the name of your device.
9. Repeat steps 2 through 7 again, but this time make the image 50x50 pixels and name it “medium_devicename”.
10. Repeat steps 2 through 7 one final time, but this time make the image 20x20 pixels and name it “small_devicename”.
Although this seems like a lot of work, it goes pretty fast once you get the hang of it. If you have software like Photoshop it’s much easier because you can just type in the size of the icon you want.
11. Once you are finished, create a new Folder named “icons” and copy all four of the icons you just created into it.
12. Lastly, move the "icons" subfolder into the Media Manager folder in the TwonkyMedia application directory. On my system, the file path looks like this: C:\Program Files\TwonkyMedia\MediaManager\icons.
13. Repeat all of the above steps for every device you want to create icons for. If you've done all of this correctly, your icons should appear in the General Settings page under the Renderers section when you click on the 'Change Icon' button and scroll down to the bottom of the list. [See below]
14. Make sure to backup your icons in a safe place. They may be needed again if you upgrade TMM and use the Clean Install option.
Assigning Icons to Your Devices
To assign your custom icons to your devices follow these steps:
1. Click on the Gears icon to go to the Settings page.
2. Click on the device you want to assign a new icon to in the Renderers section at the bottom of the screen.
3. Click on the Change Icon button.
4. Scroll on down past all of the factory installed icons and you should see all four of your new icons in a row.
5. Click on any of the four icons and press the OK button.
From now on, your custom icon should be assigned to that device. Any files in the "icons" subfolder are available for assignment to both servers and renderers. To assign an icon to a server. Click on Server Settings and you’ll see your servers at the top of the screen. Follow steps 1-5 shown immediately above.
A Few Notes
1. If there is a file that begins with the string "small" then Media Manager will look for other files in that folder that start with "medium," "large," and "extralarge" with the rest of the name the same as the "small" version. It will combine those into a "single" icon with four sizes that is used to represent the chosen device
2. If there are files in the "icons" subfolder that don't match those expected prefixed names, it is assumed that only one version of the icon exists and TwonkyMedia Manager will attempt to scale the icon as necessary. This should be avoided however because scaled icons don’t look as good.
That’s all for now. Hopefully these instructions aren't too confusing and this works for you.
- Rick
One of the coolest features in TwonkyMedia manager is the way you can drag and drop media to icons that look like the devices in your home. Although we tried to include quite a few popular rendering devices and servers, there are literally thousands of different devices which work with TwonkyMedia manager, so we'll never have them all. Several people have asked if there is a way they can add their own icons to TwonkyMedia manager (TMM). Although this feature isn’t yet officially supported, there is a way for technical users to do this today. With a little effort, all of the icons in the Play Here section of TwonkyMedia manager will look exactly like the PCs and devices in your connected home.
Some Background
Before I describe how you can create your own icons, I want to give you a little background first. Icons are displayed in a variety of places throughout TMM. To prevent scaling issues, we use four different sizes of icons.
Obtaining a Source Image
You can either shoot a photo of your own device or find a picture on the Web and save it as a JPEG image to your desktop by right-clicking on it and selecting ‘Save Image As’. If you do use a photo from the Web try to find an image that is not copyrighted. It shouldn’t be that hard if you search Google Images or one of the popular auction sites.
The file I downloaded was 520 x 280 pixels. Make sure the image you download is larger than 100 x 100 pixels. You can tell the size in Windows XP by right-clicking on an image file and selecting Properties. Then click on the Summary tab and the Advanced button.
Step-by Step-Instructions
To rescale an image file in Windows XP follow these steps. I’m using the program Paint for this example, but the instructions should be similar to this for other image editing software. If you have access to Photoshop, you should obviously use it instead of Paint.
If you have Photoshop, just open you original image. Crop the edges, paste it into a new window. Then select Image Size in the Image menu and set the Pixel width to the desired size (100, 75, 50, 20). Next, select the Flatten Image command under the Layer menu and Save As a as a JPG image named as suggested below.
1. Go to the Start Menu and mouse to All Programs/Accessories/Paint.
2. Drag and drop your image on to the Paint app and it should open in Paint.
3. Next, click on the Select button, which looks like a rectangle made with a dotted line. Drag the rectangle around your saved photo.
4. Make the image smaller, by moving the corner handle so the image maintains its original aspect ratio. Keep going until the largest number you see in the lower right hand corner of the Paint window is a little under 100.
5. Now resize the white background so it is exactly 100 on its largest dimension.
6. Save your resized image to your desktop using the Save As command. Currently only files with JPG or PNG file extensions are supported for device icons.
7. Name the save file on your Desktop “extralarge_devicename”. In my case, I named it “extralarge_Sonos.jpg”
8. Repeat steps 2 through 7, but this time make the image 75x75 pixels and name it “large_devicename” – where “devicename” is the name of your device.
9. Repeat steps 2 through 7 again, but this time make the image 50x50 pixels and name it “medium_devicename”.
10. Repeat steps 2 through 7 one final time, but this time make the image 20x20 pixels and name it “small_devicename”.
Although this seems like a lot of work, it goes pretty fast once you get the hang of it. If you have software like Photoshop it’s much easier because you can just type in the size of the icon you want.
11. Once you are finished, create a new Folder named “icons” and copy all four of the icons you just created into it.
12. Lastly, move the "icons" subfolder into the Media Manager folder in the TwonkyMedia application directory. On my system, the file path looks like this: C:\Program Files\TwonkyMedia\MediaManager\icons.
13. Repeat all of the above steps for every device you want to create icons for. If you've done all of this correctly, your icons should appear in the General Settings page under the Renderers section when you click on the 'Change Icon' button and scroll down to the bottom of the list. [See below]
- Finished icons.jpg (15.19 KiB) Viewed 15409 times
14. Make sure to backup your icons in a safe place. They may be needed again if you upgrade TMM and use the Clean Install option.
Assigning Icons to Your Devices
To assign your custom icons to your devices follow these steps:
1. Click on the Gears icon to go to the Settings page.
2. Click on the device you want to assign a new icon to in the Renderers section at the bottom of the screen.
3. Click on the Change Icon button.
4. Scroll on down past all of the factory installed icons and you should see all four of your new icons in a row.
5. Click on any of the four icons and press the OK button.
From now on, your custom icon should be assigned to that device. Any files in the "icons" subfolder are available for assignment to both servers and renderers. To assign an icon to a server. Click on Server Settings and you’ll see your servers at the top of the screen. Follow steps 1-5 shown immediately above.
A Few Notes
1. If there is a file that begins with the string "small" then Media Manager will look for other files in that folder that start with "medium," "large," and "extralarge" with the rest of the name the same as the "small" version. It will combine those into a "single" icon with four sizes that is used to represent the chosen device
2. If there are files in the "icons" subfolder that don't match those expected prefixed names, it is assumed that only one version of the icon exists and TwonkyMedia Manager will attempt to scale the icon as necessary. This should be avoided however because scaled icons don’t look as good.
That’s all for now. Hopefully these instructions aren't too confusing and this works for you.
- Rick
Follow me on Twitter! mostlytech1
Checkout my blog: http://mostly-tech.com/
Checkout my blog: http://mostly-tech.com/
-
Twonky_Rick - PacketVideo Staff
- Posts: 3845
- Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2008 1:59 am
- Location: San Diego
Feature of the Week - Week 7
by Twonky_Rick » Fri Jan 16, 2009 11:17 pm
Using TwonkyMedia Manager with Flickr
TwonkyMedia manager (TMM) works with popular media feeds including the popular online photo site called Flickr. Flickr makes it easy to share your photos with friends and family. With TwonkyMedia manager you can now view your Flickr photos on your TV or a networked photo frame. Imagine sending a family member a photo frame before you go on vacation. While you’re on your trip, any photos you take with your iPhone are uploaded to your Flickr account and appear on your family members picture frame automatically without them doing a single thing. This article will tell you how to get set up for Flickr and view your photos in TwonkyMedia manager. Next weeks article will tell you exactly how TwonkyMedia manager makes the iPhone/Photo frame use-case described above possible.
Setting Up a Flickr Account
To log-in to Flickr, you’ll need a Yahoo ID. If you don’t already have one, click here: https://edit.yahoo.com/registration
Uploading Photos to Flickr
Although TwonkyMedia manager will display random Flickr photos, to get the most of out of Flickr, you’ll want to upload some of your personal photos.
Here are the steps to do this:
1. Go to http://www.flickr.com/
2. Click on the Log-in link in the upper right.
3. Enter your Yahoo ID, if not you’re already logged-in to your Yahoo account
4. Next, enter your Yahoo password and click on the “Sign In” button.
5. Next, click on “Upload Photos” and click on the “Choose Photos” link
6. Browse to the folder where you’ve stored the photos you want to upload.
7. Click on Open and then press “Upload Photos” or click on the “Add More” link.
Note: Don’t click on the Private button, because TMM won’t be able to access your photos if you do that.
After your photos have finished uploading, click on the “add a description” link or just click on the “Home” link near the top to view your Flickr Photostream. You’ll be able to view the photos you uploaded when you select “My Photos” in the Flickr nav tree.
Tip: If you have a lot of photos, you may want to use their uploading tool. You can find it here: http://www.flickr.com/tools/
Inviting Friends to Flickr
TwonkyMedia manager not only displays your Flickr photos, it also displays your friends Flickr photos. To get this feature to work follow these steps:
1. Click on the Contacts link at the top of the Flickr home page or click here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/friends/
2. Type the name of a friend in the Find a Person section OR click on the invite people link and manually enter their e-mail addresses.
3. If your friend is found, click on their photo stream and then click on the “Add friendsname as a contact” link
4. You be asked whether the contact is a friend or family.
That’s about it. Now you’ll be able to see their photos when you select “My Contacts Photos” in the Flickr nav tree.
Configuring TwonkyMedia Manager
The are a few things you need to do before you can view your Flickr photos in TMM and on devices on your network.
1. To view personalized Flickr photo feeds you must enter your Flickr username into TwonkyMedia manager. To do this follow these steps:
a. Go to the Media Feeds tab under Settings
b. Click on Flickr under Photo Services on the left
c. Enter your Flickr username and press the Apply button.
2. Next make sure you’ve checked some of the photo feed boxes. I recommend you just check the Check All button and press Apply again.
Note: It sometimes takes several minutes for media feeds to appear in TMM after you change your settings. Try clicking on one media tab and then back to force the new feed to appear. If the media feeds don’t appear after 5-10 minutes, you may want to go to the Server Settings page under the Advanced Settings tab and click on the Rebuild Database button.
Viewing Flickr Photos with TwonkyMedia manager
To view Flickr photos in TwonkyMedia manager follow these steps:
1. Click on the Manage button if it’s not already selected.
2. Click on the Photos tab and the Folder View button. (It’s the button to the right of the icon with 9 boxes.
3. You should see Flickr on the left hand side of the screen. Note: It sometimes takes several minutes for media feeds to appear in TwonkyMedia manager after you change your settings.
4. Navigate your Flickr folders and view photos by double-clicking on them. If you selected All Folders in the Media Settings pages, and have uploaded one or more photos and have invited at least one friend to Flickr, you should see the following:
- Miscellaneous Photos – This is a selection of random Flickr photos from other users
- My Contacts Photos – These are photos of people you’ve added as friends or family. See the “Inviting Friends to Flickr” section above to learn how to do this.
- My Favorite Photos – These are photos that you’ve marked as favorites. To mark a photo as a favorite, just click on the “Add to favs” button on the Flickr Web site, after you double-click on a photo in another users photo stream. You can not favorite your own photos.
- My Photos – These are photos you’ve uploaded to your Flickr account that are not marked Private. See the “Uploading Photos” section above to learn how to do this.
Viewing Flickr Photos on Your TV
Many new televisions are DLNA-enabled. Sony, Toshiba, Pioneer, HP and Loewe have all released DLNA-compatible TVs. Well over 50 HDTVs are available with this capability. Even if you don’t have a DLNA-enabled TV, you’re not out of luck because there are three different ways you can view Internet photos on your TV.
1. Purchase a DLNA-enabled TV – Refer to the User’s Guide that came with your TV to learn how to select TwonkyMedia as a server. Next, use your remote to select Flickr under Photo. You should now be able to view online photos on your TV.
2. Use an existing game console to view the photos – TwonkyMedia manager works with Sony’s PS3, Microsoft’s Xbox 360, and soon the Nintendo Wii.
3. Purchase a digital media renderer (DMR) – If you have an older TV that is not Internet-enabled, you can purchase a low-cost digital media renderer that lets you display photos or video on your TV. Most UPnP or DLNA-enabled DMR/DMPs will work for this. Here is a partial list of DMRs that support photos:
- D-Link DSM-320 (audio, video, photos)
- HP MediaSmart TV (photos & video only)
- Linksys KiSS 1600 (audio, video, photos)
- Philips Streamium SL400i (audio, video, photos)
- Polaroid Freescape 10.2” wireless digital photo frame (audio, video, photos, may be discontinued)
- ZyXEL DMA-1000 (audio, video, photos)
- ZyXEL DMA-1100P (audio, video, photos)
This is not intended to be a comprehensive list of all supported devices which work with TwonkyMedia manager. There are hundreds of other devices not listed here which also work with TwonkyMedia manager or TwonkyMedia server. You can view those here: http://www.dlna.org/products
Tune in next week to learn how to take Flickr photos from your mobile phone and get them to automatically appear on a digital photo frame.
See you then.
- Rick
TwonkyMedia manager (TMM) works with popular media feeds including the popular online photo site called Flickr. Flickr makes it easy to share your photos with friends and family. With TwonkyMedia manager you can now view your Flickr photos on your TV or a networked photo frame. Imagine sending a family member a photo frame before you go on vacation. While you’re on your trip, any photos you take with your iPhone are uploaded to your Flickr account and appear on your family members picture frame automatically without them doing a single thing. This article will tell you how to get set up for Flickr and view your photos in TwonkyMedia manager. Next weeks article will tell you exactly how TwonkyMedia manager makes the iPhone/Photo frame use-case described above possible.
Setting Up a Flickr Account
To log-in to Flickr, you’ll need a Yahoo ID. If you don’t already have one, click here: https://edit.yahoo.com/registration
Uploading Photos to Flickr
Although TwonkyMedia manager will display random Flickr photos, to get the most of out of Flickr, you’ll want to upload some of your personal photos.
Here are the steps to do this:
1. Go to http://www.flickr.com/
2. Click on the Log-in link in the upper right.
3. Enter your Yahoo ID, if not you’re already logged-in to your Yahoo account
4. Next, enter your Yahoo password and click on the “Sign In” button.
5. Next, click on “Upload Photos” and click on the “Choose Photos” link
6. Browse to the folder where you’ve stored the photos you want to upload.
7. Click on Open and then press “Upload Photos” or click on the “Add More” link.
Note: Don’t click on the Private button, because TMM won’t be able to access your photos if you do that.
After your photos have finished uploading, click on the “add a description” link or just click on the “Home” link near the top to view your Flickr Photostream. You’ll be able to view the photos you uploaded when you select “My Photos” in the Flickr nav tree.
Tip: If you have a lot of photos, you may want to use their uploading tool. You can find it here: http://www.flickr.com/tools/
Inviting Friends to Flickr
TwonkyMedia manager not only displays your Flickr photos, it also displays your friends Flickr photos. To get this feature to work follow these steps:
1. Click on the Contacts link at the top of the Flickr home page or click here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/friends/
2. Type the name of a friend in the Find a Person section OR click on the invite people link and manually enter their e-mail addresses.
3. If your friend is found, click on their photo stream and then click on the “Add friendsname as a contact” link
4. You be asked whether the contact is a friend or family.
That’s about it. Now you’ll be able to see their photos when you select “My Contacts Photos” in the Flickr nav tree.
Configuring TwonkyMedia Manager
The are a few things you need to do before you can view your Flickr photos in TMM and on devices on your network.
1. To view personalized Flickr photo feeds you must enter your Flickr username into TwonkyMedia manager. To do this follow these steps:
a. Go to the Media Feeds tab under Settings
b. Click on Flickr under Photo Services on the left
c. Enter your Flickr username and press the Apply button.
2. Next make sure you’ve checked some of the photo feed boxes. I recommend you just check the Check All button and press Apply again.
Note: It sometimes takes several minutes for media feeds to appear in TMM after you change your settings. Try clicking on one media tab and then back to force the new feed to appear. If the media feeds don’t appear after 5-10 minutes, you may want to go to the Server Settings page under the Advanced Settings tab and click on the Rebuild Database button.
Viewing Flickr Photos with TwonkyMedia manager
To view Flickr photos in TwonkyMedia manager follow these steps:
1. Click on the Manage button if it’s not already selected.
2. Click on the Photos tab and the Folder View button. (It’s the button to the right of the icon with 9 boxes.
3. You should see Flickr on the left hand side of the screen. Note: It sometimes takes several minutes for media feeds to appear in TwonkyMedia manager after you change your settings.
4. Navigate your Flickr folders and view photos by double-clicking on them. If you selected All Folders in the Media Settings pages, and have uploaded one or more photos and have invited at least one friend to Flickr, you should see the following:
- Miscellaneous Photos – This is a selection of random Flickr photos from other users
- My Contacts Photos – These are photos of people you’ve added as friends or family. See the “Inviting Friends to Flickr” section above to learn how to do this.
- My Favorite Photos – These are photos that you’ve marked as favorites. To mark a photo as a favorite, just click on the “Add to favs” button on the Flickr Web site, after you double-click on a photo in another users photo stream. You can not favorite your own photos.
- My Photos – These are photos you’ve uploaded to your Flickr account that are not marked Private. See the “Uploading Photos” section above to learn how to do this.
Viewing Flickr Photos on Your TV
Many new televisions are DLNA-enabled. Sony, Toshiba, Pioneer, HP and Loewe have all released DLNA-compatible TVs. Well over 50 HDTVs are available with this capability. Even if you don’t have a DLNA-enabled TV, you’re not out of luck because there are three different ways you can view Internet photos on your TV.
1. Purchase a DLNA-enabled TV – Refer to the User’s Guide that came with your TV to learn how to select TwonkyMedia as a server. Next, use your remote to select Flickr under Photo. You should now be able to view online photos on your TV.
2. Use an existing game console to view the photos – TwonkyMedia manager works with Sony’s PS3, Microsoft’s Xbox 360, and soon the Nintendo Wii.
3. Purchase a digital media renderer (DMR) – If you have an older TV that is not Internet-enabled, you can purchase a low-cost digital media renderer that lets you display photos or video on your TV. Most UPnP or DLNA-enabled DMR/DMPs will work for this. Here is a partial list of DMRs that support photos:
- D-Link DSM-320 (audio, video, photos)
- HP MediaSmart TV (photos & video only)
- Linksys KiSS 1600 (audio, video, photos)
- Philips Streamium SL400i (audio, video, photos)
- Polaroid Freescape 10.2” wireless digital photo frame (audio, video, photos, may be discontinued)
- ZyXEL DMA-1000 (audio, video, photos)
- ZyXEL DMA-1100P (audio, video, photos)
This is not intended to be a comprehensive list of all supported devices which work with TwonkyMedia manager. There are hundreds of other devices not listed here which also work with TwonkyMedia manager or TwonkyMedia server. You can view those here: http://www.dlna.org/products
Tune in next week to learn how to take Flickr photos from your mobile phone and get them to automatically appear on a digital photo frame.
See you then.
- Rick
Follow me on Twitter! mostlytech1
Checkout my blog: http://mostly-tech.com/
Checkout my blog: http://mostly-tech.com/
-
Twonky_Rick - PacketVideo Staff
- Posts: 3845
- Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2008 1:59 am
- Location: San Diego
Feature of the Week - Week 8
by Twonky_Rick » Thu Jan 22, 2009 12:26 am
Using Your Phone to Upload Pictures to a Wireless Photo Frame
Last week we learned how TwonkyMedia manager lets you view Flickr photos on your TV or a digital photo frame. This week, we’re going to learn how to take Flickr photo from your mobile phone and get it to automatically appear on a networked photo frame. Imagine sending a friend or family member a digital photo frame before you go on vacation. While you’re away, photos taken with your mobile phone are uploaded and appear automatically on your picture frame without them doing a thing.
If you don't have a Wi-Fi-enabled mobile phone, you can purchase a special memory card for your digital camera that will upload your photos to most popular online services -- including Flickr. You can learn more about this here: http://www.eye.fi/
These days, almost every mobile phone has a built-in digital camera, and the quality is getting better all of the time. Some camera’s can take 3MP photos now. It’s also easy to upload photos you take on your mobile phone to a Web site for others to view them. I’ll describe how this can be done with an Apple iPhone, but the same basic process can be done with other phones as well.
Setting Up Your Mobile App
I use an app called Mobile Fotos, to upload my photos. It’s from a company called XK72 and is currently $1.99 in the Apple App Store. The first time you use the app, it guides you through this process using the Safari browser on your iPhone to authenticate your Flickr account. You’ll be asked to click on a button that says “O.K. I’ll Allow It” which authorizes your phone to access your photostream, edit your photo tags and upload to your account. Once you authorize the app and enter your Flickr account info, it will be stored permanently – so you’ll never have to do this again.
Uploading Photos from Your Phone to Flickr
You can use Mobile Fotos to take a photo and upload it. Here is how it’s done.
1. Launch the Mobile Fotos app.
2. Click on the Camera button and take a photo by pressing the Green button with a camera on it.
3. If you’re happy with your photo, press the “Use Photo” button or press “Retake”
4. You’ll be taken to the Upload page where you can enter a Title, Description, Tags. All of this is optional. You can even geo tag the photo with your location. When you’re done press the “Upload” button.
5. You’ll see a progress indicator at the bottom of the screen. On a Wi-fi connection, it takes about 5 seconds to upload a single photo.
That’s it. Now the picture is up in the cloud and will be indexed by our server within an hour. [Note: A button to force a manual update is being added to TMM v1.1]
Configuring Your Photo Frame to Work with TwonkyMedia Manager
For this example, I’m using the Kodak EasyShare EX1011 digital picture frame. It’s a 10” wide photo frame that wireless and can be purchased refurbished online for as little as $127 US at the time of this writing.
Here’s how to setup up this frame to stream photos off of Flickr using TwonkyMedia manager.
1. Press the Home icon on your Kodak’s remote control
2. You should see two options. Click on Settings and cursor down to Network. Press OK.
3. Press OK again to scan for your wireless network.
4. Select your network and press OK
5. You may be asked to enter your wireless key. Do that and cursor over to Done.
6. Select your server from the list and press O.K. Press O.K. again.
You’re picture frame is now setup and ready to use.
Using Your Photo Frame to Automatically Stream Flickr Photos
1. Press the Home icon on your Kodak’s remote control. Now you should see a “Network Computer” option in your menu.
2. Cursor over to it and press the OK button.
3. Press OK to select Photos
4. Select Flickr from the navigation tree and press O.K.
5. Select one photo and press O.K.
6. Next, press the Play button to start your slideshow
That’s it. As you take new photos and upload them to your account, they will eventually appear on the photo frame along with your other online photos. The best part is that the Kodak photo frame doesn't even work with Flickr or the Internet. TwonkyMedia manager tricks it into thinking the photos are coming off a local server. Very cool.
- Rick
Last week we learned how TwonkyMedia manager lets you view Flickr photos on your TV or a digital photo frame. This week, we’re going to learn how to take Flickr photo from your mobile phone and get it to automatically appear on a networked photo frame. Imagine sending a friend or family member a digital photo frame before you go on vacation. While you’re away, photos taken with your mobile phone are uploaded and appear automatically on your picture frame without them doing a thing.
If you don't have a Wi-Fi-enabled mobile phone, you can purchase a special memory card for your digital camera that will upload your photos to most popular online services -- including Flickr. You can learn more about this here: http://www.eye.fi/
These days, almost every mobile phone has a built-in digital camera, and the quality is getting better all of the time. Some camera’s can take 3MP photos now. It’s also easy to upload photos you take on your mobile phone to a Web site for others to view them. I’ll describe how this can be done with an Apple iPhone, but the same basic process can be done with other phones as well.
Setting Up Your Mobile App
I use an app called Mobile Fotos, to upload my photos. It’s from a company called XK72 and is currently $1.99 in the Apple App Store. The first time you use the app, it guides you through this process using the Safari browser on your iPhone to authenticate your Flickr account. You’ll be asked to click on a button that says “O.K. I’ll Allow It” which authorizes your phone to access your photostream, edit your photo tags and upload to your account. Once you authorize the app and enter your Flickr account info, it will be stored permanently – so you’ll never have to do this again.
Uploading Photos from Your Phone to Flickr
You can use Mobile Fotos to take a photo and upload it. Here is how it’s done.
1. Launch the Mobile Fotos app.
2. Click on the Camera button and take a photo by pressing the Green button with a camera on it.
3. If you’re happy with your photo, press the “Use Photo” button or press “Retake”
4. You’ll be taken to the Upload page where you can enter a Title, Description, Tags. All of this is optional. You can even geo tag the photo with your location. When you’re done press the “Upload” button.
5. You’ll see a progress indicator at the bottom of the screen. On a Wi-fi connection, it takes about 5 seconds to upload a single photo.
That’s it. Now the picture is up in the cloud and will be indexed by our server within an hour. [Note: A button to force a manual update is being added to TMM v1.1]
Configuring Your Photo Frame to Work with TwonkyMedia Manager
For this example, I’m using the Kodak EasyShare EX1011 digital picture frame. It’s a 10” wide photo frame that wireless and can be purchased refurbished online for as little as $127 US at the time of this writing.
Here’s how to setup up this frame to stream photos off of Flickr using TwonkyMedia manager.
1. Press the Home icon on your Kodak’s remote control
2. You should see two options. Click on Settings and cursor down to Network. Press OK.
3. Press OK again to scan for your wireless network.
4. Select your network and press OK
5. You may be asked to enter your wireless key. Do that and cursor over to Done.
6. Select your server from the list and press O.K. Press O.K. again.
You’re picture frame is now setup and ready to use.
Using Your Photo Frame to Automatically Stream Flickr Photos
1. Press the Home icon on your Kodak’s remote control. Now you should see a “Network Computer” option in your menu.
2. Cursor over to it and press the OK button.
3. Press OK to select Photos
4. Select Flickr from the navigation tree and press O.K.
5. Select one photo and press O.K.
6. Next, press the Play button to start your slideshow
That’s it. As you take new photos and upload them to your account, they will eventually appear on the photo frame along with your other online photos. The best part is that the Kodak photo frame doesn't even work with Flickr or the Internet. TwonkyMedia manager tricks it into thinking the photos are coming off a local server. Very cool.
- Rick
Follow me on Twitter! mostlytech1
Checkout my blog: http://mostly-tech.com/
Checkout my blog: http://mostly-tech.com/
-
Twonky_Rick - PacketVideo Staff
- Posts: 3845
- Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2008 1:59 am
- Location: San Diego
TMM Feature of the Week - Week 9
by Twonky_Rick » Tue Jan 27, 2009 2:23 am
Using a Mobile Control Point with TwonkyMedia manager
Mobile phones perform such an important role in most of our lives that we’re rarely without them. That’s why they make perfect Digital Media Controllers (DMC). How many times have you wanted to skip songs or change volume, but you couldn’t find the remote for your Digital Media Player? Wouldn’t it be great if you could do this with your mobile phone? If you’re a TwonkyMedia manager user and have a phone with Wi-Fi, you’re in luck. You can use your phone to not only control playback on your computer, but more importantly you can control the devices in your home.
Although this article is focused on an iPhone app, similar software is available for Nokia phones and Windows Mobile devices as well. In fact, tens of millions of phones have been shipped with Wi-Fi and touch screens – which make them perfect media controllers. But they do more than just control things. The app I’m reviewing this week is called called PlugPlayer. In addition to being a media controller, it's also a UPnP media server and renderer. PlugPlayer can be purchased from the App Store for $4.99 US.
Here is what they say about this app on the PlugPlayer Web site http://plugplayer.com/
- Stream Music or Video from a UPnP™ Media Server to your Apple iPhone
Already have a UPnP media server running on your home computer or server? With PlugPlayer you can access music from your UPnP media server and listen to it on your iPhone.
- Control PlugPlayer from another Apple iPhone
Like listening to your iPod touch while it is docked to speakers, but hate having to physically walk over to change the playlist or volume? With PlugPlayer, you can use your iPhone to remotely control another copy of PlugPlayer.
- Control a UPnP Media Renderer from your Apple iPhone
Already have a UPnP media renderer hooked up to your stereo? No need to fumble around looking for the right remote. With PlugPlayer you can control your media renderer using your iPhone, creating a playlist from media on your UPnP media server.
- No Additional Software or Configuration Required
Other solutions require proprietary software on your home computer, but PlugPlayer uses the UPnP media server you already have. Plus, PlugPlayer automatically discovers UPnP devices on your network without the need for manual configuration or settings.
- Advanced Features
Of course, should your UPnP device not be discoverable due to your network circumstances, there is also a way to manually add a device. With PlugPlayer's advanced device configuration, you can stream music and video from remote servers or even over VPN. You can even use PlugPlayer to help other media renderers discover your remote servers.
Using PlugPlayer as a Digital Media Controller
After you’ve purchased and downloaded PlugPlayer, you’re ready to go. After you launch the app, you’ll be taken to a screen that looks like a transport control. Click on the Configure button and select a default media renderer and a media server. (See Screenshot 1) I selected my phone as a renderer and my office PC running TMM as the server. Then I clicked on the back button near the top. Next I clicked on the “+” symbol near the bottom of the screen, which displayed Music, Photos and Video.
Creating a Playlist on your Phone
I first clicked on Music (See Screenshot 2). The familiar TwonkyMedia navigation tree appears. Navigation was pretty fast. To select a song you click on it and its icon turns green. You can select multiple songs at once. When you press “Done”, you’re taken back to the main screen and the selected songs appear as a playlist.
Playing a Music Playlist
To start a playlist, you must click on a song and press Play. Moving the volume control slider results in smooth changes in volume. You can navigate back to the Music, Photos or Video tree or edit the playlist without stopping playback. Song transitions were smooth, without delay as well. When the phone display dimmed or blanked out, playback was not affected. This is not always the case with all Control Points. If you've tried the DLNA Control Point on the Nokia N-95, then you’ll know what I mean.
Using Your Mobile to Control a Media Player in Another Room
I then selected my Roku in the family room and started playback of a song. Everything worked great. I could change songs, change volume and the app was very responsive.
Using Your Mobile to Control a PC running TwonkyMedia manager in Another Room
I just used the newest version of PlugPlayer to select "TMMPlayer" on one of our test machines downstairs and pushed a song to it using my phone. I was able to add a track to it's queue, play, pause and change volume -- all using my phone. In this case I was using a TwonkyMedia server running on PC, but it could have been any UPnP media server running on any device -- even a NAS or a mobile phone. [If this doesn't work for you, make sure you're running the newest version of PlugPlayer.]
A Few Rough Edges
Although this software appears to work well as a media renderer and digital controller for external devices, it still has a few rough edges. Most of these have to do with photos. Hopefully these issues will be worked out soon.
When I get some more time I’ll try using my phone as a media server. I’ll also try using video as a content source.
If you come across other good mobile control point software, please post a review here.
- Rick
Mobile phones perform such an important role in most of our lives that we’re rarely without them. That’s why they make perfect Digital Media Controllers (DMC). How many times have you wanted to skip songs or change volume, but you couldn’t find the remote for your Digital Media Player? Wouldn’t it be great if you could do this with your mobile phone? If you’re a TwonkyMedia manager user and have a phone with Wi-Fi, you’re in luck. You can use your phone to not only control playback on your computer, but more importantly you can control the devices in your home.
Although this article is focused on an iPhone app, similar software is available for Nokia phones and Windows Mobile devices as well. In fact, tens of millions of phones have been shipped with Wi-Fi and touch screens – which make them perfect media controllers. But they do more than just control things. The app I’m reviewing this week is called called PlugPlayer. In addition to being a media controller, it's also a UPnP media server and renderer. PlugPlayer can be purchased from the App Store for $4.99 US.
Here is what they say about this app on the PlugPlayer Web site http://plugplayer.com/
- Stream Music or Video from a UPnP™ Media Server to your Apple iPhone
Already have a UPnP media server running on your home computer or server? With PlugPlayer you can access music from your UPnP media server and listen to it on your iPhone.
- Control PlugPlayer from another Apple iPhone
Like listening to your iPod touch while it is docked to speakers, but hate having to physically walk over to change the playlist or volume? With PlugPlayer, you can use your iPhone to remotely control another copy of PlugPlayer.
- Control a UPnP Media Renderer from your Apple iPhone
Already have a UPnP media renderer hooked up to your stereo? No need to fumble around looking for the right remote. With PlugPlayer you can control your media renderer using your iPhone, creating a playlist from media on your UPnP media server.
- No Additional Software or Configuration Required
Other solutions require proprietary software on your home computer, but PlugPlayer uses the UPnP media server you already have. Plus, PlugPlayer automatically discovers UPnP devices on your network without the need for manual configuration or settings.
- Advanced Features
Of course, should your UPnP device not be discoverable due to your network circumstances, there is also a way to manually add a device. With PlugPlayer's advanced device configuration, you can stream music and video from remote servers or even over VPN. You can even use PlugPlayer to help other media renderers discover your remote servers.
Using PlugPlayer as a Digital Media Controller
After you’ve purchased and downloaded PlugPlayer, you’re ready to go. After you launch the app, you’ll be taken to a screen that looks like a transport control. Click on the Configure button and select a default media renderer and a media server. (See Screenshot 1) I selected my phone as a renderer and my office PC running TMM as the server. Then I clicked on the back button near the top. Next I clicked on the “+” symbol near the bottom of the screen, which displayed Music, Photos and Video.
- Screenshot 1
- 1a.png (68.86 KiB) Viewed 15861 times
Creating a Playlist on your Phone
I first clicked on Music (See Screenshot 2). The familiar TwonkyMedia navigation tree appears. Navigation was pretty fast. To select a song you click on it and its icon turns green. You can select multiple songs at once. When you press “Done”, you’re taken back to the main screen and the selected songs appear as a playlist.
- Screenshot 2
- 2a.png (34.25 KiB) Viewed 15851 times
Playing a Music Playlist
To start a playlist, you must click on a song and press Play. Moving the volume control slider results in smooth changes in volume. You can navigate back to the Music, Photos or Video tree or edit the playlist without stopping playback. Song transitions were smooth, without delay as well. When the phone display dimmed or blanked out, playback was not affected. This is not always the case with all Control Points. If you've tried the DLNA Control Point on the Nokia N-95, then you’ll know what I mean.
- Screenshot 3
- 3a.png (59.11 KiB) Viewed 15849 times
Using Your Mobile to Control a Media Player in Another Room
I then selected my Roku in the family room and started playback of a song. Everything worked great. I could change songs, change volume and the app was very responsive.
Using Your Mobile to Control a PC running TwonkyMedia manager in Another Room
I just used the newest version of PlugPlayer to select "TMMPlayer" on one of our test machines downstairs and pushed a song to it using my phone. I was able to add a track to it's queue, play, pause and change volume -- all using my phone. In this case I was using a TwonkyMedia server running on PC, but it could have been any UPnP media server running on any device -- even a NAS or a mobile phone. [If this doesn't work for you, make sure you're running the newest version of PlugPlayer.]
A Few Rough Edges
Although this software appears to work well as a media renderer and digital controller for external devices, it still has a few rough edges. Most of these have to do with photos. Hopefully these issues will be worked out soon.
When I get some more time I’ll try using my phone as a media server. I’ll also try using video as a content source.
If you come across other good mobile control point software, please post a review here.
- Rick
Follow me on Twitter! mostlytech1
Checkout my blog: http://mostly-tech.com/
Checkout my blog: http://mostly-tech.com/
-
Twonky_Rick - PacketVideo Staff
- Posts: 3845
- Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2008 1:59 am
- Location: San Diego
TMM Feature of the Week - Week Ten
by Twonky_Rick » Wed Feb 04, 2009 5:18 am
Using TwonkyMedia Manager with Sonos Hardware
I’ve always been interested in Sonos(r), but it wasn’t until I noticed you could pick up used Sonos players dirt cheap, that it became an option for me. Since I already have two audio players and another audio renderer, you might wonder why I need another. There are three good reasons:
1. Party Mode – The Sonos ZonePlayer(tm) is among a handful of devices that support multi-zone synchronous playback. This means you can group players and when you drag music from TwonkyMedia manager to the icon for one renderer, the same music plays on all of the other players that are on the same zone. Of course each ZonePlayer can also plays individually selected music as well.
2. Rhapsody without a PC – Sometimes I want to listen to Rhapsody when all of the PCs in my house are off. Sonos is one of a handful of devices (like the Philips 2500 and 2900) that can do this.
3. Sonos ZonePlayers are DMRs – Not all digital media adapters are renderers (DMR). This means you can push content to a Sonos player with TwonkyMedia manager by simply dragging and dropping a playlist on top of their icon. Refer to my Feature of the Week #1, to see what a major time saver this is. Their audio converters are better than average as well.
What finally convinced me to buy a Sonos ZonePlayer, was the release of their Sonos Controller for iPhone(tm). Not only was it free, but it did some things better than their $400 controller. Don’t worry, even if you don’t have an iPhone, you can pickup a refurbished iPod(R) Touch from Apple for $179, or pick up a used Sonos Controller for around $100.
How Much Does Sonos Cost?
You can now buy a new Sonos Bundle for $999. Believe it or not, they used to cost even more. But don’t be discouraged, if you have a controller like TwonkyMedia manager, all you really need is a ZonePlayer. Since I started writing about these Sonos deals on E-bay the average prices of ZonePlayer and other Sonos products have gone up. I paid $168 for my first ZP80 Player back in December. Although the average price has been around $220 lately, I just picked up a second one a few days ago for $189. If you don’t want to take the risk of buying used, I’ve seen new ZP80s go for as low as $239 recently. I paid $96 for my first CR100 controller back in December. And although the average price on these has been around $170 lately. One sold for $78 a few days ago. I just bought a second one for $128, so there are still deals out there, if you’re patient.
What You Need to Get Started
There are a few things you’ll need to do before you can use your Sonos hardware with TwonkyMedia manager.
1. Sonos Software – Install the Sonos software on your PC. You can get it here in the Downloads section: http://www.sonos.com/support/
You’ll have to first setup an account with them, but that only takes a minute.
2. Wireless Access Point – If you don’t have a wireless network already, you’ll need a wireless router or Sonos Zone Bridge. You can read more about this here: http://www.sonos.com/whattobuy/zonebridge/
3. Sonos ZonePlayer – If you don’t have one of these, scroll down to the section titled “How Much Does a ZonePlayer Cost?”
4. A Sonos Controller – This can be TwonkyMedia manager, a Sonos CP100 Controller or a mobile device like an iPod Touch. You download a free app from the Apple App Store what works with either the iPhone or the Touch. I was surprised to find that it does many things better than the $400 Sonos Controller. In case you’re wondering what this is going to cost, you can pickup a refurbished iPod Touch from Apple for $179 or a used Sonos Controller for around $100-150 from E-bay. http://www.sonos.com/whattobuy/controllers/
Configuring Your Sonos Hardware
First you need to install the Desktop Controller software you downloaded above. After you run the installer, a software wizard will help you connect to your ZonePlayer(s). (See screenshot #1) This is done by pressing two buttons on your Sonos ZonePlayer at once. After you do this, you’re ready to use your system. If you purchased a used system like I did, there is a good chance you need to upgrade your firmware as well. A wizard will guide you through this process.
Although the Sonos Controller software has it’s own media server software, it’s not essential that you set that up to use a ZonePlayer with TwonkyMedia manager. Next you’ll want to name your ZonePlayer. In addition to setting up your system, you’ll only need this software to set up your media services (like Rhapsody) and group your devices.
Setting up TwonkyMedia Manager for Use with ZonePlayer
First you’ll want to download the Sonos ZonePlayer icons I’ve attached here and unzip the folder and move the entire “icons” folder into this folder: C:\Program Files\TwonkyMedia\MediaManager
Next, you should go to the Settings window and name your Sonos by mousing over the icons in the Renderers window. Once you find it, click on the “Change Icon” button and find the icon that looks most like it. The icons I’ve enclosed will work for the ZP80 or ZP90. If you have a ZP100 or ZP120, you can create your own device icons. Refer to my Feature of the Week - Week #9 to learn how to do this.
That’s it. You’re now ready to have some fun.
Next week, we'll talk about using your ZonePlayers with TwonkyMedia manager.
- Rick
I’ve always been interested in Sonos(r), but it wasn’t until I noticed you could pick up used Sonos players dirt cheap, that it became an option for me. Since I already have two audio players and another audio renderer, you might wonder why I need another. There are three good reasons:
1. Party Mode – The Sonos ZonePlayer(tm) is among a handful of devices that support multi-zone synchronous playback. This means you can group players and when you drag music from TwonkyMedia manager to the icon for one renderer, the same music plays on all of the other players that are on the same zone. Of course each ZonePlayer can also plays individually selected music as well.
2. Rhapsody without a PC – Sometimes I want to listen to Rhapsody when all of the PCs in my house are off. Sonos is one of a handful of devices (like the Philips 2500 and 2900) that can do this.
3. Sonos ZonePlayers are DMRs – Not all digital media adapters are renderers (DMR). This means you can push content to a Sonos player with TwonkyMedia manager by simply dragging and dropping a playlist on top of their icon. Refer to my Feature of the Week #1, to see what a major time saver this is. Their audio converters are better than average as well.
What finally convinced me to buy a Sonos ZonePlayer, was the release of their Sonos Controller for iPhone(tm). Not only was it free, but it did some things better than their $400 controller. Don’t worry, even if you don’t have an iPhone, you can pickup a refurbished iPod(R) Touch from Apple for $179, or pick up a used Sonos Controller for around $100.
- Picture 003.png (69.47 KiB) Viewed 15547 times
How Much Does Sonos Cost?
You can now buy a new Sonos Bundle for $999. Believe it or not, they used to cost even more. But don’t be discouraged, if you have a controller like TwonkyMedia manager, all you really need is a ZonePlayer. Since I started writing about these Sonos deals on E-bay the average prices of ZonePlayer and other Sonos products have gone up. I paid $168 for my first ZP80 Player back in December. Although the average price has been around $220 lately, I just picked up a second one a few days ago for $189. If you don’t want to take the risk of buying used, I’ve seen new ZP80s go for as low as $239 recently. I paid $96 for my first CR100 controller back in December. And although the average price on these has been around $170 lately. One sold for $78 a few days ago. I just bought a second one for $128, so there are still deals out there, if you’re patient.
What You Need to Get Started
There are a few things you’ll need to do before you can use your Sonos hardware with TwonkyMedia manager.
1. Sonos Software – Install the Sonos software on your PC. You can get it here in the Downloads section: http://www.sonos.com/support/
You’ll have to first setup an account with them, but that only takes a minute.
2. Wireless Access Point – If you don’t have a wireless network already, you’ll need a wireless router or Sonos Zone Bridge. You can read more about this here: http://www.sonos.com/whattobuy/zonebridge/
3. Sonos ZonePlayer – If you don’t have one of these, scroll down to the section titled “How Much Does a ZonePlayer Cost?”
4. A Sonos Controller – This can be TwonkyMedia manager, a Sonos CP100 Controller or a mobile device like an iPod Touch. You download a free app from the Apple App Store what works with either the iPhone or the Touch. I was surprised to find that it does many things better than the $400 Sonos Controller. In case you’re wondering what this is going to cost, you can pickup a refurbished iPod Touch from Apple for $179 or a used Sonos Controller for around $100-150 from E-bay. http://www.sonos.com/whattobuy/controllers/
Configuring Your Sonos Hardware
First you need to install the Desktop Controller software you downloaded above. After you run the installer, a software wizard will help you connect to your ZonePlayer(s). (See screenshot #1) This is done by pressing two buttons on your Sonos ZonePlayer at once. After you do this, you’re ready to use your system. If you purchased a used system like I did, there is a good chance you need to upgrade your firmware as well. A wizard will guide you through this process.
- Screenshot #1
- Sonos Setup.jpg (8.18 KiB) Viewed 15547 times
Although the Sonos Controller software has it’s own media server software, it’s not essential that you set that up to use a ZonePlayer with TwonkyMedia manager. Next you’ll want to name your ZonePlayer. In addition to setting up your system, you’ll only need this software to set up your media services (like Rhapsody) and group your devices.
Setting up TwonkyMedia Manager for Use with ZonePlayer
First you’ll want to download the Sonos ZonePlayer icons I’ve attached here and unzip the folder and move the entire “icons” folder into this folder: C:\Program Files\TwonkyMedia\MediaManager
Next, you should go to the Settings window and name your Sonos by mousing over the icons in the Renderers window. Once you find it, click on the “Change Icon” button and find the icon that looks most like it. The icons I’ve enclosed will work for the ZP80 or ZP90. If you have a ZP100 or ZP120, you can create your own device icons. Refer to my Feature of the Week - Week #9 to learn how to do this.
That’s it. You’re now ready to have some fun.
Next week, we'll talk about using your ZonePlayers with TwonkyMedia manager.
- Rick
Follow me on Twitter! mostlytech1
Checkout my blog: http://mostly-tech.com/
Checkout my blog: http://mostly-tech.com/
-
Twonky_Rick - PacketVideo Staff
- Posts: 3845
- Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2008 1:59 am
- Location: San Diego
TMM Feature of the Week - Week Eleven
by Twonky_Rick » Wed Feb 04, 2009 11:24 pm
Last week we learned to to setup Sonos hardware for use with TwonkyMedia manager. This week we'll learn how to group your ZonePlayers, so you can play the same music in multiple rooms of your home. But first, we need to set up one more thing.
Using TwonkyMedia Manager with Grouped Sonos ZonePlayers
You can group your Sonos devices using the Sonos Desktop Controller software for the PC. To do this with the free Sonos software, follow these steps:
1. Power up your ZonePlayers first and then launch the Desktop Controller software.
2. Click on the ‘Link Zone’ button in the lower left hand side of the screen. (See Screenshot #3 above) A window will appear on screen.
3. Select [All Zones – Party Mode] next.
4. Press the OK button and you’re done.
Now every thing you drop onto the Sonos icon in TwonkyMedia manager will play out all of your Sonos ZonePlayers. To ungroup, click on the ‘Drop Zone’ button.
To group two Zone Players with the free Sonos iPhone controller software,
1. Click on the ‘Zones’ button in the lower-right of your iPhone.
2. Next, click on either of the ‘Zone Group’ buttons. See screenshot #4 above.
3. Finally, make sure all zones are checked.
4. Press the ‘Done’ button to finish grouping.
Now every thing you drop on the Sonos icon will play out all of your Sonos ZonePlayers. To ungroup, click on the ‘Zone Group’ button and uncheck one of the zones.
To group ZonePlayers with the Sonos CR100 Controller, follow these steps:
1. Click on the ‘zones’ button
2. Press the ‘Link Zone’ button in the lower-right
3. Press OK to link all zones
Press the ‘Drop Zone’ button to ungroup.
Now you're ready to have some real fun. The section below explains what you can do.
Using Your ZonePlayer with TwonkyMedia Manager
To play music on your Sonos ZonePlayer, just drag and drop a song or playlist on top of its icon. (See screenshot #1 below). Dragging additional songs will add them to the queue for the ZonePlayer. If you've grouped two or more Sonos ZonePlayers as described above, you can control them at the same time with TwonkyMedia manager. Now dragging a playlist on one ZonePlayer icon, will cause the same music to play on all grouped players!
That's not all. You can change the volume of any ZonePlayer on your network by simply clicking on its icon and dragging the volume slider in TwonkyMedia manager. You can also skip to the next or previous tracks as well. Just make sure the icon for the ZonePlayer is highlighted first.
An even faster way to play music is to click on the Browse view icon. Now you can drag an entire genre or artist on top of the Sonos icon and it will play. There’s no need to create a playlist first. (See screenshot #2 below)
Using Multiple Controllers at Once
You can use TwonkyMedia manager, the Sonos CP100 handheld remote and an iPod Touch or iPhone (with Sonos software) all at the same time as Digital Media Controllers (DMC).
Here are just of a few of the things you can do:
1. You can see the currently playing song with associated album art and metadata in the Sonos CP100 handheld remote or the Sonos iPhone software.
2. You can use your iPhone or iPod Touch to pause, play or jump to the beginning of the currently playing song.
3. You can use your Sonos CP100 handheld remote to pause, play or jump to the beginning of the currently playing song.
4. You can use your Sonos CP100 handheld remote to switch between Normal or Repeat playback modes.
Current Limitations
The nice thing about TwonkyForum is that we disclose everything -- including features and functionality that isn't quite there yet. Here are the limitations we've encountered with Sonos players and software. Hopefully some of these will be addressed in new software and firmware updates.
- You must leave the Sonos Desktop app open after grouping devices. If you close it, the devices will ungroup. The iPhone or Sonos CR100 controller don't have this limitation.
- You cannot view album art or song metadata in the Sonos iPhone or iPod Touch software for content pushed to a ZonePlayer. But, you can tell where it is in the currently playing song.
- You cannot use the iPhone or iPod Touch to seek in a track. Hopefully this will be addressed by Sonos in the future.
- You cannot skip to the next track with the Sonos iPhone software or the Sonos CR100 remote. This is because the Sonos remote is currently unable to view the TwonkyMedia manager playback queue.
- You cannot use your Sonos remote to enable shuffle or shuffle-repeat playback modes on pushed content. You can do this from the TwonkyMedia manager interface however.
- Grouped ZonePlayers appear in the TwonkyMedia manager Now Playing window, but we cannot tell they are linked.
The Final Word
Even with these minor limitations, the benefits of grouping and the Sonos iPhone Controller easily outweigh these issues. I'm very happy with my Sonos hardware and plan to purchase more in the future.
- Rick
Using TwonkyMedia Manager with Grouped Sonos ZonePlayers
You can group your Sonos devices using the Sonos Desktop Controller software for the PC. To do this with the free Sonos software, follow these steps:
- Screenshot #3
- Link Button.jpg (3.07 KiB) Viewed 15453 times
1. Power up your ZonePlayers first and then launch the Desktop Controller software.
2. Click on the ‘Link Zone’ button in the lower left hand side of the screen. (See Screenshot #3 above) A window will appear on screen.
3. Select [All Zones – Party Mode] next.
4. Press the OK button and you’re done.
- Grouped Zones.jpg (8.12 KiB) Viewed 15449 times
Now every thing you drop onto the Sonos icon in TwonkyMedia manager will play out all of your Sonos ZonePlayers. To ungroup, click on the ‘Drop Zone’ button.
To group two Zone Players with the free Sonos iPhone controller software,
- Screenshot #4
- Picture 2.jpg (14.92 KiB) Viewed 15437 times
1. Click on the ‘Zones’ button in the lower-right of your iPhone.
2. Next, click on either of the ‘Zone Group’ buttons. See screenshot #4 above.
3. Finally, make sure all zones are checked.
4. Press the ‘Done’ button to finish grouping.
- Screenshot #5
- Picture 1.jpg (13 KiB) Viewed 15442 times
Now every thing you drop on the Sonos icon will play out all of your Sonos ZonePlayers. To ungroup, click on the ‘Zone Group’ button and uncheck one of the zones.
To group ZonePlayers with the Sonos CR100 Controller, follow these steps:
1. Click on the ‘zones’ button
2. Press the ‘Link Zone’ button in the lower-right
3. Press OK to link all zones
Press the ‘Drop Zone’ button to ungroup.
Now you're ready to have some real fun. The section below explains what you can do.
Using Your ZonePlayer with TwonkyMedia Manager
To play music on your Sonos ZonePlayer, just drag and drop a song or playlist on top of its icon. (See screenshot #1 below). Dragging additional songs will add them to the queue for the ZonePlayer. If you've grouped two or more Sonos ZonePlayers as described above, you can control them at the same time with TwonkyMedia manager. Now dragging a playlist on one ZonePlayer icon, will cause the same music to play on all grouped players!
- Screenshot #1
- Drop on Sonos.jpg (178.14 KiB) Viewed 15437 times
That's not all. You can change the volume of any ZonePlayer on your network by simply clicking on its icon and dragging the volume slider in TwonkyMedia manager. You can also skip to the next or previous tracks as well. Just make sure the icon for the ZonePlayer is highlighted first.
An even faster way to play music is to click on the Browse view icon. Now you can drag an entire genre or artist on top of the Sonos icon and it will play. There’s no need to create a playlist first. (See screenshot #2 below)
- Screenshot #2
- Browse View.jpg (148.03 KiB) Viewed 15425 times
Using Multiple Controllers at Once
You can use TwonkyMedia manager, the Sonos CP100 handheld remote and an iPod Touch or iPhone (with Sonos software) all at the same time as Digital Media Controllers (DMC).
Here are just of a few of the things you can do:
1. You can see the currently playing song with associated album art and metadata in the Sonos CP100 handheld remote or the Sonos iPhone software.
2. You can use your iPhone or iPod Touch to pause, play or jump to the beginning of the currently playing song.
3. You can use your Sonos CP100 handheld remote to pause, play or jump to the beginning of the currently playing song.
4. You can use your Sonos CP100 handheld remote to switch between Normal or Repeat playback modes.
Current Limitations
The nice thing about TwonkyForum is that we disclose everything -- including features and functionality that isn't quite there yet. Here are the limitations we've encountered with Sonos players and software. Hopefully some of these will be addressed in new software and firmware updates.
- You must leave the Sonos Desktop app open after grouping devices. If you close it, the devices will ungroup. The iPhone or Sonos CR100 controller don't have this limitation.
- You cannot view album art or song metadata in the Sonos iPhone or iPod Touch software for content pushed to a ZonePlayer. But, you can tell where it is in the currently playing song.
- You cannot use the iPhone or iPod Touch to seek in a track. Hopefully this will be addressed by Sonos in the future.
- You cannot skip to the next track with the Sonos iPhone software or the Sonos CR100 remote. This is because the Sonos remote is currently unable to view the TwonkyMedia manager playback queue.
- You cannot use your Sonos remote to enable shuffle or shuffle-repeat playback modes on pushed content. You can do this from the TwonkyMedia manager interface however.
- Grouped ZonePlayers appear in the TwonkyMedia manager Now Playing window, but we cannot tell they are linked.
The Final Word
Even with these minor limitations, the benefits of grouping and the Sonos iPhone Controller easily outweigh these issues. I'm very happy with my Sonos hardware and plan to purchase more in the future.
- Rick
Follow me on Twitter! mostlytech1
Checkout my blog: http://mostly-tech.com/
Checkout my blog: http://mostly-tech.com/
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TMM Feature of the Week – Week Twelve
by Twonky_Rick » Fri Feb 20, 2009 8:53 pm
Using TwonkyMedia to Access Music Stored on an iPod
This feature is made possible by TwonkyMedia server, which is embedded in millions of devices including the hugely popular Linksys WRT600N or WRT610N routers. This article will show you how you can access music from your iPod from any PC in your home using TwonkyMedia manager. You can also access music on your iPod from any DNLA/UPnP DMR or DMP including popular CE devices like a Sony PS3 or Xbox. And last but not least, this article will show you how to turn your Linksys router into a low-power always-on NAS that will serve music photos or video to any PC running TwonkyMedia manager as well as supported CE- devices.
Configuring Your Router As A Media Server
You’ll need to setup your router to act as a media server. Although this looks like a lot of work, it’s actually easy to do and should take no longer than 5 minutes. Here are the steps I followed to setup my router as a media server.
1. Type 192.168.1.1 into your Web browser to access the setup page on the Linksys router. You’ll need to enter your username and password. If you haven’t set one, there’s a good chance the default username and password are set to "admin".
2. Attach your iPod to the USB port on the back of the router.
3. Click on the Storage tab. You should see your iPod appear in the Disk Detail section.
4. Press the “Create Share” button next to the iPod partition. A new window will appear on your screen.
5. Next, press the “Enter into Folder” button next to “ipod_Control”.
6. Now click on the radio button under “Select” next to the Music
7. Enter a name in the “Display Name” field (e.g. Ricks_iPod).
8. Press “Save Settings”. Now you should see the folder you just added in the Shared Folder section
9. Now click Media Server underneath the Storage link near the top of the screen.
10. Check the “Enable” button next to UPnP Media Server
11. Clicking on “Specify Folder to Scan”.
12. Click on the “Enter in Folder” button.
13. Next, press the “Enter into Folder” button next to “ipod_Control”.
14. Now click on the radio button under “Select” next to the Music
15. Enter a name in the “Display Name” field (e.g. Ricks_iPod).
16. Press “Save Settings”. Now you should see the folder you just added in the Shared Folder section
17. Press the Scan button next to the folders you want to scan. The screen may turn white for a few seconds and then return.
18. When you are finished, press the “Save Settings” button one more time.
19. In a few seconds “WRT600N” or “WRT610N” should appear in the server list in TwonkyMedia manager or on a device like your Sony PS3. Now you’re ready to have some fun.
UsingTwonkyMedia Manager to Play Music Stored on an iPod
1. Because Linksys routers are currently shipping with a TwonkyMedia 4.x server, you’ll need to make sure “Show Advanced Servers” is not checked in the General Settings page of TwonkyMedia manager.
2. Once you do this you should see “WRT600N” or “WRT610N” in your Media Server list.
3. A few seconds after you should see songs from your iPod appear in Album Art view. If you don’t see album art on all of the songs, it’s because it’s not present in the ID3 tag. There are many apps available that will do this for you.
4. The playlist section is grayed out, because the router doesn’t support server-side playlists. This isn’t a problem however because you can create a virtual playlist by simply adding songs to the media managers device queue by simply dragging songs into the Play Here section. You can do this with any DMR with an icon in the Play Here section.
5. To view or edit the songs in your queue, click on the Now Playing tab and click on the device or PC. You’ll see all of the songs you’ve added to the queue and by able to change the order of songs or delete songs.
Turning Your Linksys Router Into a Low-Cost NAS
The section will tell you how to turn your Linksys 600 series router into a low-power always-on NAS that will serve music photos or video to any PC running TwonkyMedia manager as well as supported CE devices. The process of doing this is almost identical with the steps we followed to configure the router for use with an iPod. Just plug any USB thumb drive with media into the USB port on the back of the Linksys router.
Here are the steps I followed to setup my router into a poor-man’s NAS.
1. Type 192.168.1.1 into your Web browser to access the Linksys setup page. Enter your user name and password.
2. Attach your memory stick to the USB port on the back of the router.
3. Click on the Storage tab. You should see “Disk 1” appear in the Disk Detail section.
4. Click on Disk and press “Create Share” button next to your memory stick. A new window will appear on your screen.
5. Next, press the “Enter into Folder” button next to “Documents”.
6. Now click on the radio button under “Select” next to the Music. Do the same with your photo and video folders if you want to share those as well.
7. Enter a name in the “Display Name” field (e.g. Ricks_iPod).
8. Press “Save Settings”. Now you should see the folder you just added in the Shared Folder section
9. Now click Media Server underneath the Storage link near the top of the screen.
10.Check the “Enable” button next to UPnP Media Server (if it’s not already checked).
11.Press the Scan button next to the folders you want to scan or press the “Scan All” button. The screen will turn white for a few seconds and then return.
12. Press “Save Settings”. After about 5-10 seconds, your screen should refresh and you should see the folder you just added in the Shared Folder section.
That’s really it. In a few seconds “WRT600N” or “WRT610N” should appear in the server list in TwonkyMedia manager or on your DMR/DMP.
UsingTwonkyMedia Manager to Play Media Stored on a USB Memory Stick
1. Because Linksys routers are currently shipping with a TwonkyMedia 4.x server, you’ll need to make sure “Show Advanced Servers” is not checked in the General Settings page of TwonkyMedia manager.
2. Once you do this you should see “WRT600N” or “WRT610N” in your Media Server list.
3. A few seconds after you should see media on memory stick appear in TwonkyMedia.
4. The playlist section is grayed out, because the router doesn’t support server-side playlists. This isn’t a problem however because you can create a virtual playlist by simply adding songs to the media managers device queue by simply dragging songs into the Play Here section. You can do this with any DMR with an icon in the Play Here section.
5. To view or edit the songs in your queue, click on the Now Playing tab and click on the device or PC. You’ll see all of the songs you’ve added to the queue and by able to change the order of songs or delete songs.
I hope you find this article to be useful.
[Special thanks to Angela Scheller for proofreading this and other Features of the Week.]
- Rick
This feature is made possible by TwonkyMedia server, which is embedded in millions of devices including the hugely popular Linksys WRT600N or WRT610N routers. This article will show you how you can access music from your iPod from any PC in your home using TwonkyMedia manager. You can also access music on your iPod from any DNLA/UPnP DMR or DMP including popular CE devices like a Sony PS3 or Xbox. And last but not least, this article will show you how to turn your Linksys router into a low-power always-on NAS that will serve music photos or video to any PC running TwonkyMedia manager as well as supported CE- devices.
- linksys_wrt610n.jpg (11.83 KiB) Viewed 15105 times
Configuring Your Router As A Media Server
You’ll need to setup your router to act as a media server. Although this looks like a lot of work, it’s actually easy to do and should take no longer than 5 minutes. Here are the steps I followed to setup my router as a media server.
1. Type 192.168.1.1 into your Web browser to access the setup page on the Linksys router. You’ll need to enter your username and password. If you haven’t set one, there’s a good chance the default username and password are set to "admin".
2. Attach your iPod to the USB port on the back of the router.
3. Click on the Storage tab. You should see your iPod appear in the Disk Detail section.
4. Press the “Create Share” button next to the iPod partition. A new window will appear on your screen.
5. Next, press the “Enter into Folder” button next to “ipod_Control”.
6. Now click on the radio button under “Select” next to the Music
7. Enter a name in the “Display Name” field (e.g. Ricks_iPod).
8. Press “Save Settings”. Now you should see the folder you just added in the Shared Folder section
9. Now click Media Server underneath the Storage link near the top of the screen.
10. Check the “Enable” button next to UPnP Media Server
11. Clicking on “Specify Folder to Scan”.
12. Click on the “Enter in Folder” button.
13. Next, press the “Enter into Folder” button next to “ipod_Control”.
14. Now click on the radio button under “Select” next to the Music
15. Enter a name in the “Display Name” field (e.g. Ricks_iPod).
16. Press “Save Settings”. Now you should see the folder you just added in the Shared Folder section
17. Press the Scan button next to the folders you want to scan. The screen may turn white for a few seconds and then return.
18. When you are finished, press the “Save Settings” button one more time.
19. In a few seconds “WRT600N” or “WRT610N” should appear in the server list in TwonkyMedia manager or on a device like your Sony PS3. Now you’re ready to have some fun.
- Server pulldown menu.gif (1.98 KiB) Viewed 15091 times
UsingTwonkyMedia Manager to Play Music Stored on an iPod
1. Because Linksys routers are currently shipping with a TwonkyMedia 4.x server, you’ll need to make sure “Show Advanced Servers” is not checked in the General Settings page of TwonkyMedia manager.
2. Once you do this you should see “WRT600N” or “WRT610N” in your Media Server list.
3. A few seconds after you should see songs from your iPod appear in Album Art view. If you don’t see album art on all of the songs, it’s because it’s not present in the ID3 tag. There are many apps available that will do this for you.
4. The playlist section is grayed out, because the router doesn’t support server-side playlists. This isn’t a problem however because you can create a virtual playlist by simply adding songs to the media managers device queue by simply dragging songs into the Play Here section. You can do this with any DMR with an icon in the Play Here section.
5. To view or edit the songs in your queue, click on the Now Playing tab and click on the device or PC. You’ll see all of the songs you’ve added to the queue and by able to change the order of songs or delete songs.
- Device queue.gif (37.81 KiB) Viewed 15086 times
Turning Your Linksys Router Into a Low-Cost NAS
The section will tell you how to turn your Linksys 600 series router into a low-power always-on NAS that will serve music photos or video to any PC running TwonkyMedia manager as well as supported CE devices. The process of doing this is almost identical with the steps we followed to configure the router for use with an iPod. Just plug any USB thumb drive with media into the USB port on the back of the Linksys router.
Here are the steps I followed to setup my router into a poor-man’s NAS.
1. Type 192.168.1.1 into your Web browser to access the Linksys setup page. Enter your user name and password.
2. Attach your memory stick to the USB port on the back of the router.
3. Click on the Storage tab. You should see “Disk 1” appear in the Disk Detail section.
4. Click on Disk and press “Create Share” button next to your memory stick. A new window will appear on your screen.
5. Next, press the “Enter into Folder” button next to “Documents”.
6. Now click on the radio button under “Select” next to the Music. Do the same with your photo and video folders if you want to share those as well.
7. Enter a name in the “Display Name” field (e.g. Ricks_iPod).
8. Press “Save Settings”. Now you should see the folder you just added in the Shared Folder section
9. Now click Media Server underneath the Storage link near the top of the screen.
10.Check the “Enable” button next to UPnP Media Server (if it’s not already checked).
11.Press the Scan button next to the folders you want to scan or press the “Scan All” button. The screen will turn white for a few seconds and then return.
12. Press “Save Settings”. After about 5-10 seconds, your screen should refresh and you should see the folder you just added in the Shared Folder section.
That’s really it. In a few seconds “WRT600N” or “WRT610N” should appear in the server list in TwonkyMedia manager or on your DMR/DMP.
UsingTwonkyMedia Manager to Play Media Stored on a USB Memory Stick
1. Because Linksys routers are currently shipping with a TwonkyMedia 4.x server, you’ll need to make sure “Show Advanced Servers” is not checked in the General Settings page of TwonkyMedia manager.
2. Once you do this you should see “WRT600N” or “WRT610N” in your Media Server list.
3. A few seconds after you should see media on memory stick appear in TwonkyMedia.
4. The playlist section is grayed out, because the router doesn’t support server-side playlists. This isn’t a problem however because you can create a virtual playlist by simply adding songs to the media managers device queue by simply dragging songs into the Play Here section. You can do this with any DMR with an icon in the Play Here section.
5. To view or edit the songs in your queue, click on the Now Playing tab and click on the device or PC. You’ll see all of the songs you’ve added to the queue and by able to change the order of songs or delete songs.
I hope you find this article to be useful.
[Special thanks to Angela Scheller for proofreading this and other Features of the Week.]
- Rick
- Viewing media on the router.gif (193.83 KiB) Viewed 15086 times
Follow me on Twitter! mostlytech1
Checkout my blog: http://mostly-tech.com/
Checkout my blog: http://mostly-tech.com/
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Twonky_Rick - PacketVideo Staff
- Posts: 3845
- Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2008 1:59 am
- Location: San Diego
Re: TMM Feature of the Week - Week Three: Photo Sharing
by gcoupe » Sun Feb 22, 2009 3:56 pm
Sorry to be a pedant, but I've got a couple of comments on your Week Three post about Photo Sharing.
First, Windows Photo Gallery is a completely different application to Windows Live Photo Gallery, and when you refer to "Windows Photo Gallery", you are actually writing about "Windows Live Photo Gallery" for the most part. WPG came as a bundled application within Vista, and was produced by a different product group inside Microsoft from the one that has now produced WLPG.
Second, when you write about Photo Tags, you're probably not aware that there's an open industry standard out there for image metadata, which has been around for almost two decades: IPTC metadata. While, as you write, Exif metadata deals with the technical aspects of images, the IPTC metadata is focused on the "who", "what", "where" and copyright information. The latest incarnation of this is now based around XMP.
Now, the good news is that WLPG follows the new XMP-based standard. The bad news is that Microsoft doesn't always follow it to the letter, so some problems will arise if you're a photographer who uses a variety of tools in your digital workflow.
Still, for most people, WLPG is not bad at all, and for a free tool it's great value!
First, Windows Photo Gallery is a completely different application to Windows Live Photo Gallery, and when you refer to "Windows Photo Gallery", you are actually writing about "Windows Live Photo Gallery" for the most part. WPG came as a bundled application within Vista, and was produced by a different product group inside Microsoft from the one that has now produced WLPG.
Second, when you write about Photo Tags, you're probably not aware that there's an open industry standard out there for image metadata, which has been around for almost two decades: IPTC metadata. While, as you write, Exif metadata deals with the technical aspects of images, the IPTC metadata is focused on the "who", "what", "where" and copyright information. The latest incarnation of this is now based around XMP.
Now, the good news is that WLPG follows the new XMP-based standard. The bad news is that Microsoft doesn't always follow it to the letter, so some problems will arise if you're a photographer who uses a variety of tools in your digital workflow.
Still, for most people, WLPG is not bad at all, and for a free tool it's great value!
- Geoff Coupe
- gcoupe
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- Location: Netherlands
Re: TMM Feature of the Week
by Twonky_Rick » Sun Feb 22, 2009 6:50 pm
Hi Geoff,
Thanks for all of the excellent feedback. I'll incorporate your comments into the article and credit you for them. Let me know if you have feedback on other posts you see here. I appreciate your attention to detail.
- Rick
Thanks for all of the excellent feedback. I'll incorporate your comments into the article and credit you for them. Let me know if you have feedback on other posts you see here. I appreciate your attention to detail.
- Rick
Follow me on Twitter! mostlytech1
Checkout my blog: http://mostly-tech.com/
Checkout my blog: http://mostly-tech.com/
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Twonky_Rick - PacketVideo Staff
- Posts: 3845
- Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2008 1:59 am
- Location: San Diego
TMM Feature of the Week - Week Thirteen
by Twonky_Rick » Sun Mar 01, 2009 6:23 pm
Creating Your Own Custom Navigation Trees
This weeks Feature of the Week discusses how advanced users can create their own custom navigation trees. You can read about this here: http://www.twonkyforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=6219
- Rick
This weeks Feature of the Week discusses how advanced users can create their own custom navigation trees. You can read about this here: http://www.twonkyforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=6219
- Rick
Follow me on Twitter! mostlytech1
Checkout my blog: http://mostly-tech.com/
Checkout my blog: http://mostly-tech.com/
-
Twonky_Rick - PacketVideo Staff
- Posts: 3845
- Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2008 1:59 am
- Location: San Diego
TMM Feature of the Week - Week Fourteen
by Twonky_Rick » Wed Mar 11, 2009 9:51 pm
Using TwonkyMedia with 3rd-party Transcoding Software
For some time now I've been meaning to do a feature on transcoding. The truth is, I haven't had much time to play with this feature and most Twonky Forum users know much more about this than I do, but I thought I would post what little I know about this here, so it can be refined by some of the real experts. So here we go...
TwonkyMedia Server works with popular software which converts digital audio and video files into a wide range of different formats. The process of converting for one format (or codec) to another is called transcoding. Once transcoding software is installed on your PC, this process occurs on the fly without the need to rewrite any data to disk.
A Few Caveats First
1. The legal status of transcoding software varies by country. You should look into this before proceeding.
2. Transcoding is an unsupported feature, because it depends on open-source software that is produced by another company. This software requires some manual configuration, so this is best suited for technical users.
Downloading and Installing Transcoding Software
Although TwonkyMedia Server works with several different transcoding engines, these instructions will tell you how to configure TMS for use with FFmpeg.
1. First download FFmpeg.exe for Windows. You can find it here: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=205275&package_id=248632
Choose the svn version, for i386. This is an .exe windows file.
2. To uncompress this file, you’ll need to first download and install an open source Windows utility for manipulating archives called 7-Zip. You can get it here: http://www.7-zip.org/.
3. Right-click on the downloaded FFmpeg file and select 7Zip and ‘Extract Here’.
4. This will place a new folder on your desktop. Shorten the name of the folder to be ‘ffmpeg’ and copy it to the root of your C: directory.
Setting a New File Path for FFmpeg (Optional)
These steps are only required if you want to set a file path that is different than C:\ffmpeg.
1. Under the TwonkyMedia program folder, open the subfolder “cgi-bin”. You will find it here: C:\Program Files\TwonkyMedia\cgi-bin.
2. Locate the file “ffmpeg.location” and open it with Notepad.
3. If you didn’t store ffmpeg at C:\ffmpeg, you’ll need to change the path to the folder where you stored ffmpeg.exe.
4. Save the file “ffmpeg.location” and restart TwonkyMedia server.
How to Transcode from One Format to Another
Manual configuration is required for each format you want to transcode to. This first example will tell you how to transcode from FLAC to LPCM WAV audio.
1. Ensure you’re running the current release version of TwonkyMedia server 5.0
2. Download FLAC software from http://flac.sourceforge.net/
3. Extract to folder for example C:\flac
4. Create flac.location to cgi-bin folder of TwonkyMedia. File flac.location contains path of flac.exe for example c:\flac
5. Edit “clients.db” in the resources folder. Add next line to your media player data “MT:wav audio/wav”.
Here is a sample .desc file was sent to me by a Twonky Forum user. This is just an example, your settings may vary:
# transcode audio (FLAC to WAV)
exec: ffmpeg -i $infile -f s16be $outfile # capabilities from=audio/x-flac
to=audio/L16
dlnaprofile=LPCM
asynchronous
6. Restart TwonkyMedia server.
7. You can find your FLAC media by connecting your device to TwonkyMedia server and navigating through the various folders in the tree.
The next time you play a FLAC file, TwonkyMedia server should be transcode it into a WAV file on the fly, so it can be played by your device.
This is just one example of hundreds of possible options. Please post your own description files here, so others can learn from them. Thanks.
There's some other good info on transcoding here:
http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=126443
Mac Transcoding Tips:
This is how we got TwonkyServer on the Mac to work with FFmpeg:
1. Download and open the ffmpegX.dmg from the web
2. Drag the ffmpegX (app) to the Applications folder
3. Right click or CTRL+click on the TwonkyMediaServer app in Applications folder
4. Select Show Package Contents from dropdown menu
5. Navigate to the .../TwonkyMediaServer.app/MediaServer/cgi-bin
6. Open the ffmpeg.location file with a text editor
7. Modify the content of the file to read "/Applications/ffmpegX.app/Contents/Resources/" (without quotes) and save
8. After restarting TMS will the options to transcode be available in TMS's configuration page
Special thanks to Peku and HDPete for submitting info that was used in this article and for Marco for submitting some minor edits and the link at the end. Also special thanks to Hai for the Mac tips.
- Rick
For some time now I've been meaning to do a feature on transcoding. The truth is, I haven't had much time to play with this feature and most Twonky Forum users know much more about this than I do, but I thought I would post what little I know about this here, so it can be refined by some of the real experts. So here we go...
TwonkyMedia Server works with popular software which converts digital audio and video files into a wide range of different formats. The process of converting for one format (or codec) to another is called transcoding. Once transcoding software is installed on your PC, this process occurs on the fly without the need to rewrite any data to disk.
A Few Caveats First
1. The legal status of transcoding software varies by country. You should look into this before proceeding.
2. Transcoding is an unsupported feature, because it depends on open-source software that is produced by another company. This software requires some manual configuration, so this is best suited for technical users.
Downloading and Installing Transcoding Software
Although TwonkyMedia Server works with several different transcoding engines, these instructions will tell you how to configure TMS for use with FFmpeg.
1. First download FFmpeg.exe for Windows. You can find it here: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=205275&package_id=248632
Choose the svn version, for i386. This is an .exe windows file.
2. To uncompress this file, you’ll need to first download and install an open source Windows utility for manipulating archives called 7-Zip. You can get it here: http://www.7-zip.org/.
3. Right-click on the downloaded FFmpeg file and select 7Zip and ‘Extract Here’.
4. This will place a new folder on your desktop. Shorten the name of the folder to be ‘ffmpeg’ and copy it to the root of your C: directory.
Setting a New File Path for FFmpeg (Optional)
These steps are only required if you want to set a file path that is different than C:\ffmpeg.
1. Under the TwonkyMedia program folder, open the subfolder “cgi-bin”. You will find it here: C:\Program Files\TwonkyMedia\cgi-bin.
2. Locate the file “ffmpeg.location” and open it with Notepad.
3. If you didn’t store ffmpeg at C:\ffmpeg, you’ll need to change the path to the folder where you stored ffmpeg.exe.
4. Save the file “ffmpeg.location” and restart TwonkyMedia server.
How to Transcode from One Format to Another
Manual configuration is required for each format you want to transcode to. This first example will tell you how to transcode from FLAC to LPCM WAV audio.
1. Ensure you’re running the current release version of TwonkyMedia server 5.0
2. Download FLAC software from http://flac.sourceforge.net/
3. Extract to folder for example C:\flac
4. Create flac.location to cgi-bin folder of TwonkyMedia. File flac.location contains path of flac.exe for example c:\flac
5. Edit “clients.db” in the resources folder. Add next line to your media player data “MT:wav audio/wav”.
Here is a sample .desc file was sent to me by a Twonky Forum user. This is just an example, your settings may vary:
# transcode audio (FLAC to WAV)
exec: ffmpeg -i $infile -f s16be $outfile # capabilities from=audio/x-flac
to=audio/L16
dlnaprofile=LPCM
asynchronous
6. Restart TwonkyMedia server.
7. You can find your FLAC media by connecting your device to TwonkyMedia server and navigating through the various folders in the tree.
The next time you play a FLAC file, TwonkyMedia server should be transcode it into a WAV file on the fly, so it can be played by your device.
This is just one example of hundreds of possible options. Please post your own description files here, so others can learn from them. Thanks.
There's some other good info on transcoding here:
http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=126443
Mac Transcoding Tips:
This is how we got TwonkyServer on the Mac to work with FFmpeg:
1. Download and open the ffmpegX.dmg from the web
2. Drag the ffmpegX (app) to the Applications folder
3. Right click or CTRL+click on the TwonkyMediaServer app in Applications folder
4. Select Show Package Contents from dropdown menu
5. Navigate to the .../TwonkyMediaServer.app/MediaServer/cgi-bin
6. Open the ffmpeg.location file with a text editor
7. Modify the content of the file to read "/Applications/ffmpegX.app/Contents/Resources/" (without quotes) and save
8. After restarting TMS will the options to transcode be available in TMS's configuration page
Special thanks to Peku and HDPete for submitting info that was used in this article and for Marco for submitting some minor edits and the link at the end. Also special thanks to Hai for the Mac tips.
- Rick
Follow me on Twitter! mostlytech1
Checkout my blog: http://mostly-tech.com/
Checkout my blog: http://mostly-tech.com/
-
Twonky_Rick - PacketVideo Staff
- Posts: 3845
- Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2008 1:59 am
- Location: San Diego
TMM Feature of the Week - Week Fifteen
by Twonky_Rick » Thu Mar 26, 2009 11:10 pm
TwonkyMedia Manager's New QuickStart Feature
TwonkyMedia manager 1.1 has a new feature that dramatically reduces the time required to launch the app. How much faster is it? Launching TMM with QuickStart enabled is more than 25x faster than before! Although QuickStart is a simple feature, its benefit will be obvious to all users.
How QuickStart Works
The first time you restart your PC after installing TMM, TMM will auto-launch itself and minimize it self so it’s running in the background. If you have a virus scanner and other things running on your PC, this process can take up to a minute. Do not launch TMM until after you see its splash screen load.
- With QuickStart enabled, TMM launches on my desktop PC in only 0.3 seconds.
- Without QuickStart, it normally takes 8-9 seconds to launch TMM. While that seems like an eternity to me, it’s actually much faster than most other media management software.
How Long Other Media Managers Take to Launch
- iTunes 8.1 takes 10-11 seconds to launch on my desktop PC. Although subsequent iTunes launches are faster – they still take 3-4 seconds, which is more than 10x slower than TMM with QuickStart enabled. What about memory usage? Surprisingly, even with QuickStart enabled, TMM only uses a third of the memory that iTunes uses.
- Media Monkey Gold 3.x takes 8-9 seconds the first time it launches and 5-6 seconds for subsequent launches.
- Rhapsody 4.0 takes 15 seconds to 2:30 minutes to launch the first time and 10-15 seconds to launch on subsequent times. This app is so bad, I had to time it three different times to make sure something wasn’t wrong. This is why I hate this app more than all others.
TMM Disappears when Closed, but Continues to Play Music
There are other benefits of running QuickStart as well. When QuickStart is enabled, you can click on TMM’s close box to minimize the TMM interface without stopping playback. I find this extremely useful because I listen to music all day at work, but hate apps that have to remain visible onscreen, or always stay in the taskbar when minimized like Rhapsody.
To bring the TMM app back to the foreground just click on it’s desktop shortcut or select Media Browser from the TM task bar applet.
- Rick
TwonkyMedia manager 1.1 has a new feature that dramatically reduces the time required to launch the app. How much faster is it? Launching TMM with QuickStart enabled is more than 25x faster than before! Although QuickStart is a simple feature, its benefit will be obvious to all users.
How QuickStart Works
The first time you restart your PC after installing TMM, TMM will auto-launch itself and minimize it self so it’s running in the background. If you have a virus scanner and other things running on your PC, this process can take up to a minute. Do not launch TMM until after you see its splash screen load.
- With QuickStart enabled, TMM launches on my desktop PC in only 0.3 seconds.
- Without QuickStart, it normally takes 8-9 seconds to launch TMM. While that seems like an eternity to me, it’s actually much faster than most other media management software.
- How to enable QuickStart.jpg (10.49 KiB) Viewed 14102 times
How Long Other Media Managers Take to Launch
- iTunes 8.1 takes 10-11 seconds to launch on my desktop PC. Although subsequent iTunes launches are faster – they still take 3-4 seconds, which is more than 10x slower than TMM with QuickStart enabled. What about memory usage? Surprisingly, even with QuickStart enabled, TMM only uses a third of the memory that iTunes uses.
- Media Monkey Gold 3.x takes 8-9 seconds the first time it launches and 5-6 seconds for subsequent launches.
- Rhapsody 4.0 takes 15 seconds to 2:30 minutes to launch the first time and 10-15 seconds to launch on subsequent times. This app is so bad, I had to time it three different times to make sure something wasn’t wrong. This is why I hate this app more than all others.
TMM Disappears when Closed, but Continues to Play Music
There are other benefits of running QuickStart as well. When QuickStart is enabled, you can click on TMM’s close box to minimize the TMM interface without stopping playback. I find this extremely useful because I listen to music all day at work, but hate apps that have to remain visible onscreen, or always stay in the taskbar when minimized like Rhapsody.
To bring the TMM app back to the foreground just click on it’s desktop shortcut or select Media Browser from the TM task bar applet.
- Rick
Follow me on Twitter! mostlytech1
Checkout my blog: http://mostly-tech.com/
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Twonky_Rick - PacketVideo Staff
- Posts: 3845
- Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2008 1:59 am
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TMM Feature of the Week - Week Sixteen
by Twonky_Rick » Wed Apr 29, 2009 11:42 pm
- Media Hub.jpg (3.07 KiB) Viewed 13564 times
Using the Linksys Media Hub with TwonkyMedia Manager
After a long hiatus, I’m back with another Feature of the Week. This week we’ll be talking about using TwonkyMedia manager with the Linksys NMH Series of products which are called Media Hubs. These products are network-attached storage devices (or NAS) with a built-in media server and some cool other capabilities. There are three reasons why this product makes sense for TwonkyMedia users.
1. Low power consumption – Ideally your media server should by available 24/7. Since this product only consumes about 14 watts of power, you can afford to leave it on all of the time. This way you can access all of your media from devices around your home when your PC is turned off.
2. Data backup – It’s essential that you back up all of your media. This device makes it easy to back up all of the important PC data.
3. Remote access – Easily access all of your music, photos or videos from your laptop or cell phone.
Media Hub Pricing and Features
Linksys NMH Series products start at only $299.99. Today I’ll be talking about the NMH405, which costs $50 more, but comes with a 1.8” LCD and single 500GB drive. It also has an open drive bay for expansion. The entire NMH Series is DLNA 1.5 certified, and supports gigabit Ethernet connections so they can handle up to three high-definition video streams. One of its most unique features is that it “crawls” your network to look for other media servers and aggregates all of the media it finds. This makes it easier for you to find what you’re looking for. The NMH Series also includes RAID 1 support, which is desirable for media storage.
Setting up TwonkyMedia manager for use with a Linksys Media Hub
This section assumes that you’ve already set up your Media Hub and copied all of your data on to it. Although it’s not obvious from their marketing materials, the Media Hub comes with TwonkyMedia server software preinstalled. That means it’s fast, stable and works with TwonkyMedia manager – as well as most UPnP-compatible digital media adapters. Because the Media Hub is running TwonkyMedia server 4.x, make sure ‘Show Only Advanced Servers’ is unchecked – otherwise it won’t show up in your list of servers. [See the below photo]
- TMM Settings.jpg (7.13 KiB) Viewed 13568 times
Now you can select MediaHub from the server drop down menu. Although you don’t have to, you can also select a matching icon for your NMH NAS in the Server Settings window.
- Choosing an icon.jpg (7.99 KiB) Viewed 13565 times
One of the first things you’ll notice when you browse media on the Media Hub is that the playlist area is grayed out. This is because its server doesn’t support server-side playlists. Fortunately, this isn’t much of a problem because you can still drag media to a renderer to create a device queue which functions like a playlist – except that it’s temporary. You can also create your own permanent playlists using Windows Media Player.
Creating Playlists with Media on your Linksys NAS
To create permanent playlists using Windows Media Player (or other music player software), just open Windows Media Player and drag and drop the songs you want to the into the Now Playing section. Make sure you reference the music on your NAS (not on your PC hard drive). The next section tells you how to access your music files on your NAS.
- WMP Playlist Area.jpg (6.01 KiB) Viewed 13561 times
How to Locate Music Files On Your Linksys NAS
1. Go to My Network Places (normally you can find this in the Start menu)
2. Double-click ‘Entire Network’
3. Double-click on ‘Microsoft Windows Network’
4. Double-click on ‘Workgroup’
5. Look for ‘Mediahub1’ and double-click it
6. Double-click ‘media’
7. Double-click ‘music’
As you locate the songs you want to add to your playlist, just drag and drop them into the Now Playing section of Windows Media Player. Next, click the down arrow next to ‘Now Playing’ and select ‘Save Playlist As…’ Make sure to save the playlist to the ‘music’ folder on your NAS as shown above.
Importing your Playlists in TwonkyMedia manager
TwonkyMedia manager will import any M3U or WPL playlists you copy into your shared music folders. To view your imported playlists, click on the Music tab in TwonkyMedia manager and Folder view icon.
Then double-click on the Playlists button on the left side of the screen. You may not see your newly added playlist until after you press the F5 key to refresh your screen. The playlist I created was called ‘NMH test’. Although you won’t see the songs in the playlist here, you can drag the playlist folder on top of the any of the icons in the Play Here section to play all of its songs.
You should also see your imported playlists in Album Art view after you press F5. In case you're wondering why you can't delete imported playlists in TMM, we don't allow this because they would just be reimported every time TMM scans your media folder, so we don't allow this to prevent confusion. To delete an imported playlist, you'll need to go into your shared media folder and delete it there. In this case, that means going into the music folder for the Media Hub NAS.
- Playlist in Folder view.jpg (5.9 KiB) Viewed 13557 times
In this case, I’m dragging it on top of the icon for my local renderer, which is my Office desktop.
- Play Here section.jpg (2.97 KiB) Viewed 13558 times
Editing Music Playlists in TwonkyMedia manager
Although you can’t make permanent changes to an imported playlist in TwonkyMedia manager, you can make changes to the contents of a playlist after you drag it onto an icon in the Play Here section. To do this, go to the Now Playing screen. You’ll be able to add, delete or reorder of songs in the device queue after you highlight the currently playing device. Tip: You can double-click on an icon in the Play Here section to display its device queue in the Now Playing window.
- Playlist in Now Playing.jpg (8.25 KiB) Viewed 13552 times
Accessing Your Media Outside of Your Home
When you type in the IP address of your Media Hub in a Web browser, it automatically launches a Linksys browser app, which can be used to browse your media and configure settings on the NAS.
- Media Hub Browser.jpg (13.11 KiB) Viewed 13545 times
To configure remote access, click the Configuration button. You’ll be asked to enter your password. You’ll then see a screen like the one below. On my system remote access was turned off, so I had to click on ‘Configure Services’ and ‘Configure’ once more to turn it on.
- Remote Access Setup screen 1.jpg (12.3 KiB) Viewed 13550 times
Next, you’ll be asked to name your Media Hub. Keep in mind you can’t have any spaces or special characters in the name.
- Remote Access Setup screen 2.jpg (4.48 KiB) Viewed 13554 times
After you submit your name, you’ll see a confirmation dialog like the one below.
- Remote Access Setup screen 3.jpg (2.89 KiB) Viewed 13545 times
Now you’re ready to access all of your media anywhere from your laptop or mobile phone.
Just go to http://www.CiscoMediaHub.com and login to access all of your music, photos and video remotely. If you have any problems, they have a really good FAQ on remote access-related topics: https://ciscomediahub.com/faq/faq-en.html
Note: The remote access page requires Flash to work. If you have a mobile phone that doesn't support Flash (like Apple's iPhone) you can use this link to access your media remotely.
http://mylinksysdrive.com/iphone
- Logging in via phone browser.png (47.59 KiB) Viewed 13542 times
- Rick
Follow me on Twitter! mostlytech1
Checkout my blog: http://mostly-tech.com/
Checkout my blog: http://mostly-tech.com/
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Twonky_Rick - PacketVideo Staff
- Posts: 3845
- Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2008 1:59 am
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TMM Feature of the Week - Week Seventeen
by Twonky_Rick » Thu May 07, 2009 5:54 pm
Using TwonkyMedia Manager's New Media Feeds
SHOUTcast Radio Added by Popular Request
In addition to our list of handpicked radio stations, TwonkyMedia manager now has a larger set of SHOUTcast Radio stations. To get the most of this feature, you’ll want to first go to the settings section and click on the Media Feeds tab. Then click on SHOUTcast radio and check all of the genres you like.
After you make any media setting changes, make sure to press the Apply and Rescan Feeds buttons. Also keep in mind that it sometimes takes a minute or two for all of your changes to become visible in TwonkyMedia manager.
How to Listen to SHOUTcast in TwonkyMedia manager
After you’ve selected your favorite genres on the Media Feeds tab (under settings). Click on the Folder view and the tab shown below.
Next, select one of the three available folders. Because there are so many Shoutcast stations, you can view them three different ways: All Stations, Genre/Station and Station Index.
All Stations – This folder lists SHOUTcast stations that match your selected genres into an alphabetical list. Currently only 150 stations can be showed at a time, so if the station you're looking for is not there, go back to the Media Feed settings tab and try selecting fewer genres at a time OR use the Station Index.
Genre/Station – This folder contains subfolders for each genre you selected in the media settings window. Double-click on a genre folder to view it’s stations.
Station Index – This folder places all your stations into alphabetical groupings.
The Pros & Cons of Using SHOUTcast Radio
The big advantage of SHOUTcast radio is the fact that there are so many stations available. Unfortunately, there are two potential issues with SHOUTcast stations that you should be aware of as well:
1. Station availability varies – Many SHOUTcast stations are not available all of the time. Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do about this, because we do not host these stations. If you try to play a station and don’t hear any audio after 5-10 seconds, you can assume the selected station is unavailable or has exceeded its available number of streams.
2. Not all station formats are playable in TwonkyMedia manager. We do not filter the list of SHOUTcast stations and not all of the formats used can be played in TwonkyMedia manager. Avoid playing stations with a type that appears as blank. If the type column isn’t visible on your screen, right-click in the column heading area to add it.
If you have problems getting SHOUTcast stations to play, try selecting the Handpicked feed instead because the stations displayed there are much more reliable.
Although it’s nice to be able to play SHOUTcast stations in TwonkyMedia manager, the real benefit of this feature is the ability to play Internet radio devices around your home like your Internet-ready TV or stereo receiver.
Choice is Good
TwonkyMedia Manager now has three different photo feeds: Flickr, PhotoBucket and Picasa Web.
Before you try to use PhotoBucket or Picasa Web, make sure to go to the settings pages and click on the Media Feeds tab. Under Photo Services, you’ll see Flickr, PhotoBucket and Picasa Web. If you have an account with any of these services, enter your username here. If you don’t have one, it’s highly recommended that you create one and upload some personal photos. You can also select different types of feeds for each of these services.
PhotoBucket has the following feeds available:
- Everyone’s recent photos – This is just a listing of the last photos uploaded
- Featured photos – This contains photos from different categories like music, funny, etc. Go into the Albums folder to view these.
- My Photos – This folder will only contain items if you created a user account and uploaded personal photos to PhotoBucket. Go in the Album or Date folders to view these.
Picasa Web has the following feeds available:
- Everyone’s recent photos – This is just a listing of the last photos uploaded
- Tagged photos – Enter a tag that you're interested in the Media Settings tab and photos that include this tag will be displayed in this folder.
- My Photos - This folder will only contain items if you created a user account and uploaded personal photos to Picasa Web. Go in the Album or Date folders to view these.
After you make any media setting changes, make sure to press the Apply and Rescan Feeds buttons. Also keep in mind that it sometimes takes a minute or two for all of your changes to become visible in TwonkyMedia manager.
If you’re having trouble getting the new media feeds to appear, try going to the advanced server settings tab and pressing the Rebuild Database button. Keep in mind this can take a while to complete if you have a large media collection.
Now that you’re set up, you can access these photo feeds on any UPnP photo renderer in your home. This includes popular game consoles, Internet-ready TVs, digital media adapters and most importantly wireless photo frames. Just point your photo frame at the TwonkyMedia manager server and every time you or your family members add photos to your favorite photo service, they will automatically appear on your digital photo frame.
- Rick
- PhotoBucket.jpg (10.59 KiB) Viewed 13339 times
SHOUTcast Radio Added by Popular Request
In addition to our list of handpicked radio stations, TwonkyMedia manager now has a larger set of SHOUTcast Radio stations. To get the most of this feature, you’ll want to first go to the settings section and click on the Media Feeds tab. Then click on SHOUTcast radio and check all of the genres you like.
- Media Settings page.jpg (8.8 KiB) Viewed 13343 times
After you make any media setting changes, make sure to press the Apply and Rescan Feeds buttons. Also keep in mind that it sometimes takes a minute or two for all of your changes to become visible in TwonkyMedia manager.
- Settings buttons.jpg (1.42 KiB) Viewed 13340 times
How to Listen to SHOUTcast in TwonkyMedia manager
After you’ve selected your favorite genres on the Media Feeds tab (under settings). Click on the Folder view and the tab shown below.
- Radio feeds.jpg (2.78 KiB) Viewed 13342 times
Next, select one of the three available folders. Because there are so many Shoutcast stations, you can view them three different ways: All Stations, Genre/Station and Station Index.
- Shoutcast folders.jpg (3.82 KiB) Viewed 13339 times
All Stations – This folder lists SHOUTcast stations that match your selected genres into an alphabetical list. Currently only 150 stations can be showed at a time, so if the station you're looking for is not there, go back to the Media Feed settings tab and try selecting fewer genres at a time OR use the Station Index.
Genre/Station – This folder contains subfolders for each genre you selected in the media settings window. Double-click on a genre folder to view it’s stations.
Station Index – This folder places all your stations into alphabetical groupings.
- SHOUTcast Station Index.jpg (35.89 KiB) Viewed 13334 times
The Pros & Cons of Using SHOUTcast Radio
The big advantage of SHOUTcast radio is the fact that there are so many stations available. Unfortunately, there are two potential issues with SHOUTcast stations that you should be aware of as well:
1. Station availability varies – Many SHOUTcast stations are not available all of the time. Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do about this, because we do not host these stations. If you try to play a station and don’t hear any audio after 5-10 seconds, you can assume the selected station is unavailable or has exceeded its available number of streams.
2. Not all station formats are playable in TwonkyMedia manager. We do not filter the list of SHOUTcast stations and not all of the formats used can be played in TwonkyMedia manager. Avoid playing stations with a type that appears as blank. If the type column isn’t visible on your screen, right-click in the column heading area to add it.
If you have problems getting SHOUTcast stations to play, try selecting the Handpicked feed instead because the stations displayed there are much more reliable.
Although it’s nice to be able to play SHOUTcast stations in TwonkyMedia manager, the real benefit of this feature is the ability to play Internet radio devices around your home like your Internet-ready TV or stereo receiver.
- Photo feeds.jpg (2.27 KiB) Viewed 13336 times
Choice is Good
TwonkyMedia Manager now has three different photo feeds: Flickr, PhotoBucket and Picasa Web.
Before you try to use PhotoBucket or Picasa Web, make sure to go to the settings pages and click on the Media Feeds tab. Under Photo Services, you’ll see Flickr, PhotoBucket and Picasa Web. If you have an account with any of these services, enter your username here. If you don’t have one, it’s highly recommended that you create one and upload some personal photos. You can also select different types of feeds for each of these services.
PhotoBucket has the following feeds available:
- Everyone’s recent photos – This is just a listing of the last photos uploaded
- Featured photos – This contains photos from different categories like music, funny, etc. Go into the Albums folder to view these.
- My Photos – This folder will only contain items if you created a user account and uploaded personal photos to PhotoBucket. Go in the Album or Date folders to view these.
- PhotoBucket settings.jpg (4.83 KiB) Viewed 13335 times
Picasa Web has the following feeds available:
- Everyone’s recent photos – This is just a listing of the last photos uploaded
- Tagged photos – Enter a tag that you're interested in the Media Settings tab and photos that include this tag will be displayed in this folder.
- My Photos - This folder will only contain items if you created a user account and uploaded personal photos to Picasa Web. Go in the Album or Date folders to view these.
- Picasa Web settings.jpg (6.56 KiB) Viewed 13338 times
After you make any media setting changes, make sure to press the Apply and Rescan Feeds buttons. Also keep in mind that it sometimes takes a minute or two for all of your changes to become visible in TwonkyMedia manager.
If you’re having trouble getting the new media feeds to appear, try going to the advanced server settings tab and pressing the Rebuild Database button. Keep in mind this can take a while to complete if you have a large media collection.
Now that you’re set up, you can access these photo feeds on any UPnP photo renderer in your home. This includes popular game consoles, Internet-ready TVs, digital media adapters and most importantly wireless photo frames. Just point your photo frame at the TwonkyMedia manager server and every time you or your family members add photos to your favorite photo service, they will automatically appear on your digital photo frame.
- D-Link photo frame.jpg (5.22 KiB) Viewed 13334 times
- Rick
Follow me on Twitter! mostlytech1
Checkout my blog: http://mostly-tech.com/
Checkout my blog: http://mostly-tech.com/
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Twonky_Rick - PacketVideo Staff
- Posts: 3845
- Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2008 1:59 am
- Location: San Diego
TMM Feature of the Week - Week Eighteen
by Twonky_Rick » Sun Jun 28, 2009 7:26 pm
After a long hiatus and long overdue vacation in Kauai, I'm finally back. The next few Features will discuss some of the new features in TMM v1.2.
Using TwonkyMedia Manager's New "Follow Me" Feature
We’ve added an exciting new feature to TwonkyMedia manager 1.2. It’s called "Follow Me", and allows you to transfer the currently playing queue from one device (or PC) to another. This makes it now possible to move from one room to another – without losing your place in a playlist.
"Follow Me" in Action
Here’s one example how this feature can be used. Let’s say you listen to music while you’re getting ready in the morning. You start in the bedroom area while getting dressed and then later want to move to the kitchen for breakfast. Before you go to the kitchen, go to Now Playing screen and click on the icon for the renderer in your bedroom area. In this case, it’s called Bedroom Laptop.
Troubleshooting Tip – If the Follow Me button is grayed out, it’s probably because you only have one song in your queue. Either add more songs to your queue, or drag a playlist to the icon for the desired renderer in the Play Here section.
Realtime Transfer of a Queue to Another Device
Notice how TwonkyMedia manager is playing the third song on the album and the source is Rick’s Laptop Server. To transfer the queue, just click on the Follow Me button. A window will appear that shows all of the active renderers on your network. Select the renderer in the room you want to move to. In this case that means clicking on the icon labeled Kitchen Laptop and pressing the OK button.
Moving From Room to Room
Notice how TwonkyMedia manager stops playback and clears the queue for the Bedroom laptop and moves its queue of songs to the Kitchen Laptop. Notice how the same song is playing from the same place in the song.
Keep in mind that not all rendering devices can support hardware seeks, so if playback skips to the next song, that’s probably why. If you’re using Follow Me with two PCs running TMM, than it should continue playback from the same place in a song however.
Works with Photos & Video Too
Although the example just discussed involved music, Follow Me should work with any media type, so you can start watching a photo slide show on device in one room and move to another room at any time. Of course this feature only works on devices that can be externally controlled by TwonkyMedia manager. To find a list of digital media renderers or DMRs that can be externally controlled click here.
http://tinyurl.com/Twonky-compatibleDMRs
Have fun with this new feature. Next week we'll discuss the new feature called "Listen In".
- Rick
Using TwonkyMedia Manager's New "Follow Me" Feature
We’ve added an exciting new feature to TwonkyMedia manager 1.2. It’s called "Follow Me", and allows you to transfer the currently playing queue from one device (or PC) to another. This makes it now possible to move from one room to another – without losing your place in a playlist.
- Renderer 1.jpg (10.05 KiB) Viewed 12609 times
"Follow Me" in Action
Here’s one example how this feature can be used. Let’s say you listen to music while you’re getting ready in the morning. You start in the bedroom area while getting dressed and then later want to move to the kitchen for breakfast. Before you go to the kitchen, go to Now Playing screen and click on the icon for the renderer in your bedroom area. In this case, it’s called Bedroom Laptop.
Troubleshooting Tip – If the Follow Me button is grayed out, it’s probably because you only have one song in your queue. Either add more songs to your queue, or drag a playlist to the icon for the desired renderer in the Play Here section.
- Renderer 1 Queue.jpg (21.47 KiB) Viewed 12606 times
Realtime Transfer of a Queue to Another Device
Notice how TwonkyMedia manager is playing the third song on the album and the source is Rick’s Laptop Server. To transfer the queue, just click on the Follow Me button. A window will appear that shows all of the active renderers on your network. Select the renderer in the room you want to move to. In this case that means clicking on the icon labeled Kitchen Laptop and pressing the OK button.
- Renderer Selector Window.jpg (14.71 KiB) Viewed 12604 times
Moving From Room to Room
Notice how TwonkyMedia manager stops playback and clears the queue for the Bedroom laptop and moves its queue of songs to the Kitchen Laptop. Notice how the same song is playing from the same place in the song.
- Renderer 2.jpg (7.9 KiB) Viewed 12605 times
Keep in mind that not all rendering devices can support hardware seeks, so if playback skips to the next song, that’s probably why. If you’re using Follow Me with two PCs running TMM, than it should continue playback from the same place in a song however.
- Transport Control.jpg (4.49 KiB) Viewed 12602 times
Works with Photos & Video Too
Although the example just discussed involved music, Follow Me should work with any media type, so you can start watching a photo slide show on device in one room and move to another room at any time. Of course this feature only works on devices that can be externally controlled by TwonkyMedia manager. To find a list of digital media renderers or DMRs that can be externally controlled click here.
http://tinyurl.com/Twonky-compatibleDMRs
Have fun with this new feature. Next week we'll discuss the new feature called "Listen In".
- Rick
Follow me on Twitter! mostlytech1
Checkout my blog: http://mostly-tech.com/
Checkout my blog: http://mostly-tech.com/
-
Twonky_Rick - PacketVideo Staff
- Posts: 3845
- Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2008 1:59 am
- Location: San Diego
TMM Feature of the Week - Week Nineteen
by Twonky_Rick » Fri Jul 03, 2009 12:09 am
Using TwonkyMedia Manager's New “Listen In” Feature
TwonkyMedia manager 1.2 has lots of exciting new features. This week’s we’re going to talk about one that I haven’t seen anywhere else. It’s called “Listen In” and allows you to eavesdrop on the music another person on your network is playing. But it does much more than that, as you’ll see in a moment.
Here’s How It Works
One nice thing about the Now Playing window is the ability to see what others on your network are listening to. (See the above screenshot). Let’s say I notice that my wife, who happens to be in the kitchen, is listening to music that I like. To listen to same music she is listening to, all I do is press the “Listen In” button in the Now Playing window. Since each renderer has its own “Listen In” button, make sure you press the correct one. It will be the one to the right of the renderer name you want to listen in on and should look like this.
More Than Meets the Eye
Once you press the “Listen In” button, the currently playing song in the selected queue will start over, and the users’ entire queue will be copied into the queue for your local renderer, which in this case is a PC. I know this sounds a little confusing, but once you try it, it will make sense.
Since the queue has been copied, you will have independent control over it so you can pause, or skip songs without affecting the person you copied the queue from.
Notice how you can click on the Next Track button (shown below) and skip to the next song, or do anything else, but the other users currently playing song will be unaffected. You can see that above because their album art remains unchanged.
Works with Photos & Video As Well
Although the example just discussed involved music, “Listen In” should work with other media types as well. “Listen In” has proven to be a popular feature in our office. We hope that you will like it too.
Next week we will discuss a new feature called “Guest Playlists.”
- Rick
TwonkyMedia manager 1.2 has lots of exciting new features. This week’s we’re going to talk about one that I haven’t seen anywhere else. It’s called “Listen In” and allows you to eavesdrop on the music another person on your network is playing. But it does much more than that, as you’ll see in a moment.
- Now Playing.jpg (18.74 KiB) Viewed 12486 times
Here’s How It Works
One nice thing about the Now Playing window is the ability to see what others on your network are listening to. (See the above screenshot). Let’s say I notice that my wife, who happens to be in the kitchen, is listening to music that I like. To listen to same music she is listening to, all I do is press the “Listen In” button in the Now Playing window. Since each renderer has its own “Listen In” button, make sure you press the correct one. It will be the one to the right of the renderer name you want to listen in on and should look like this.
- Listen In Button.jpg (1.33 KiB) Viewed 12485 times
More Than Meets the Eye
Once you press the “Listen In” button, the currently playing song in the selected queue will start over, and the users’ entire queue will be copied into the queue for your local renderer, which in this case is a PC. I know this sounds a little confusing, but once you try it, it will make sense.
- After Listen In.jpg (20.98 KiB) Viewed 12487 times
Since the queue has been copied, you will have independent control over it so you can pause, or skip songs without affecting the person you copied the queue from.
- After Skip Button Pressed.jpg (16.23 KiB) Viewed 12485 times
Notice how you can click on the Next Track button (shown below) and skip to the next song, or do anything else, but the other users currently playing song will be unaffected. You can see that above because their album art remains unchanged.
- Transport Control.jpg (6.64 KiB) Viewed 12485 times
Works with Photos & Video As Well
Although the example just discussed involved music, “Listen In” should work with other media types as well. “Listen In” has proven to be a popular feature in our office. We hope that you will like it too.
Next week we will discuss a new feature called “Guest Playlists.”
- Rick
Follow me on Twitter! mostlytech1
Checkout my blog: http://mostly-tech.com/
Checkout my blog: http://mostly-tech.com/
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Twonky_Rick - PacketVideo Staff
- Posts: 3845
- Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2008 1:59 am
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TMM Feature of the Week - Week Twenty
by Twonky_Rick » Thu Jul 09, 2009 10:03 pm
Using TwonkyMedia Manager's New “Guest Playlist” Feature
This week we’re going to talk about another exciting new feature in TwonkyMedia manager 1.2 which you won’t find anywhere else. It’s called Guest Playlists.
Wouldn’t it be nice if there were an easy way to cherry-pick the best songs another user is playing and add them to your own playlist? Guest Playlists does just that. Here’s how it works: When you notice someone on your network is listening to music you like, you click on the icon for their renderer in the Now Playing window to see what other songs are in their queue.
What’s Special about Guest Playlists?
When we were creating this feature, we first discussed allowing one user to save another user’s queue as a playlist. After more discussion, we decided it would be more useful to let you select your favorite songs and quickly add them to a playlist. We decided early on that these playlists needed to behave differently than regular playlists. First, we needed to find a way to differentiate between these new playlists and regular playlists. The solution to this was simple. We would call them “Guest playlists” when they were auto-named, to show they’d been created by another person.
Next, we needed to find a way for a user to hide the playlists they did not create. Otherwise, things could get a little out of hand, and a user might have a hard time finding their own playlists (because there were so many guest playlists on their system). To address this issue, we added a setting which allows a user to hide all playlists they did not create. This setting is discussed below. Lastly, we needed to come up with a way to automatically create new guest playlists for a user. For example, if one day a user is playing classical music, and another day they are playing up tempo rock, it doesn’t make sense to add both of these songs to the same playlist. We decided that the easiest way to handle this was to simply create a new playlist everyday. So far in our tests, this has proven to work out pretty well. However, we may expand our logic in the future if needed.
Adding Songs to a Guest Playlist
Here’s how this feature works. When you notice that someone else on your network is listening to music that you like, click on the icon for their renderer in the Now Playing window. You’ll be able to view their device queue. Although they are listening to a song called “Discipline” you decide to click on a Dave Matthew’s Band song called “Ants Marching” (shown below).
Next, you click on the Add to Playlist button above the transport controls. When you mouse-over it, you’ll see the tool tip below to remind you what it does. After you click on it, you’ll see an indication that an item has been added as shown above in the device queue.
Before we view the guest playlist we’ve just created, well add a few more songs. Next, we’ll add the song “Little Wing” and press the Add to Playlist button once more.
And finally we’ll add a Thomas Dolby song and one other song.
Viewing the Songs in a Guest Playlist
Now we’re ready to view our newly created guest playlist. First you’ll need to select the server that contains the songs you’ve added. Normally this is displayed in the Now Playing window next to Source. In this case the server is called ‘Rick’s Office Server. Once you’ve selected the proper server, you should see at least one Guest Playlist near the top right hand side of the Manage screen (shown below).
If more than one guest playlist is present, look for the one with the highest number. Remember that a new guest playlist is automatically created once a day. For example, songs you add today are placed in a playlist called Guest Playlist 1. Songs you add tomorrow will be added to Guest Playlist 2. If a Guest Playlist 2 already exists and you add new songs, a new entry will be created called Guest Playlist 3. You get the idea. You can see from the illustration above that that Guest Playlist 1 contains all of the songs that we added to it. To play it, just double-click it, or drag it to an renderer in the Play Here section. Of course you can also pull it using non DRMs like a Sony PS3.
Hiding Guest Playlists
To allow you to hide guest playlists, we added a new preference in the Server Settings window. Otherwise, things might get out of control if you have a lot of users creating playlists with music from your server.
To hide a guest playlist, click on the Advanced Settings tab under Server Settings. Check the box next to ‘Hide Guest Playlists’. Doing so will hide all playlists except the ones you create.
Now it’s time for you to create your own guest playlists. Have fun!
Next week, we’ll discuss the new “Party Line Chat” feature in TwonkyMedia manager 1.2.
- Rick
This week we’re going to talk about another exciting new feature in TwonkyMedia manager 1.2 which you won’t find anywhere else. It’s called Guest Playlists.
Wouldn’t it be nice if there were an easy way to cherry-pick the best songs another user is playing and add them to your own playlist? Guest Playlists does just that. Here’s how it works: When you notice someone on your network is listening to music you like, you click on the icon for their renderer in the Now Playing window to see what other songs are in their queue.
- Now Playing window.jpg (13.41 KiB) Viewed 12327 times
What’s Special about Guest Playlists?
When we were creating this feature, we first discussed allowing one user to save another user’s queue as a playlist. After more discussion, we decided it would be more useful to let you select your favorite songs and quickly add them to a playlist. We decided early on that these playlists needed to behave differently than regular playlists. First, we needed to find a way to differentiate between these new playlists and regular playlists. The solution to this was simple. We would call them “Guest playlists” when they were auto-named, to show they’d been created by another person.
Next, we needed to find a way for a user to hide the playlists they did not create. Otherwise, things could get a little out of hand, and a user might have a hard time finding their own playlists (because there were so many guest playlists on their system). To address this issue, we added a setting which allows a user to hide all playlists they did not create. This setting is discussed below. Lastly, we needed to come up with a way to automatically create new guest playlists for a user. For example, if one day a user is playing classical music, and another day they are playing up tempo rock, it doesn’t make sense to add both of these songs to the same playlist. We decided that the easiest way to handle this was to simply create a new playlist everyday. So far in our tests, this has proven to work out pretty well. However, we may expand our logic in the future if needed.
Adding Songs to a Guest Playlist
Here’s how this feature works. When you notice that someone else on your network is listening to music that you like, click on the icon for their renderer in the Now Playing window. You’ll be able to view their device queue. Although they are listening to a song called “Discipline” you decide to click on a Dave Matthew’s Band song called “Ants Marching” (shown below).
- Queue 1.jpg (8.54 KiB) Viewed 12327 times
- Transport Control.jpg (5.63 KiB) Viewed 12327 times
Next, you click on the Add to Playlist button above the transport controls. When you mouse-over it, you’ll see the tool tip below to remind you what it does. After you click on it, you’ll see an indication that an item has been added as shown above in the device queue.
- Queue 2.jpg (7.86 KiB) Viewed 12327 times
Before we view the guest playlist we’ve just created, well add a few more songs. Next, we’ll add the song “Little Wing” and press the Add to Playlist button once more.
- Transport Control 2.jpg (3.82 KiB) Viewed 12327 times
And finally we’ll add a Thomas Dolby song and one other song.
- Queue 3.jpg (8.49 KiB) Viewed 12327 times
Viewing the Songs in a Guest Playlist
Now we’re ready to view our newly created guest playlist. First you’ll need to select the server that contains the songs you’ve added. Normally this is displayed in the Now Playing window next to Source. In this case the server is called ‘Rick’s Office Server. Once you’ve selected the proper server, you should see at least one Guest Playlist near the top right hand side of the Manage screen (shown below).
- Queue 4.jpg (9.34 KiB) Viewed 12327 times
If more than one guest playlist is present, look for the one with the highest number. Remember that a new guest playlist is automatically created once a day. For example, songs you add today are placed in a playlist called Guest Playlist 1. Songs you add tomorrow will be added to Guest Playlist 2. If a Guest Playlist 2 already exists and you add new songs, a new entry will be created called Guest Playlist 3. You get the idea. You can see from the illustration above that that Guest Playlist 1 contains all of the songs that we added to it. To play it, just double-click it, or drag it to an renderer in the Play Here section. Of course you can also pull it using non DRMs like a Sony PS3.
Hiding Guest Playlists
To allow you to hide guest playlists, we added a new preference in the Server Settings window. Otherwise, things might get out of control if you have a lot of users creating playlists with music from your server.
- Settings page.jpg (14.29 KiB) Viewed 12327 times
To hide a guest playlist, click on the Advanced Settings tab under Server Settings. Check the box next to ‘Hide Guest Playlists’. Doing so will hide all playlists except the ones you create.
Now it’s time for you to create your own guest playlists. Have fun!
Next week, we’ll discuss the new “Party Line Chat” feature in TwonkyMedia manager 1.2.
- Rick
Follow me on Twitter! mostlytech1
Checkout my blog: http://mostly-tech.com/
Checkout my blog: http://mostly-tech.com/
-
Twonky_Rick - PacketVideo Staff
- Posts: 3845
- Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2008 1:59 am
- Location: San Diego
Re: TMM Feature of the Week - January 2009 to June 2009
by Twonky_Rick » Tue Aug 04, 2009 12:37 am
This thread has been moved to here because it's getting so long:
http://www.twonkyforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=6646
- Rick
http://www.twonkyforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=6646
- Rick
Follow me on Twitter! mostlytech1
Checkout my blog: http://mostly-tech.com/
Checkout my blog: http://mostly-tech.com/
-
Twonky_Rick - PacketVideo Staff
- Posts: 3845
- Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2008 1:59 am
- Location: San Diego
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