Frank Hagan
04-01-2010, 02:56 AM
I have to say I'm impressed. I have a HP MediaSmart EX485 Windows Home Server that is intended to stream our pictures, music and videos to our computers and family room TV. In the family room I have a WDTV-Live that I bought to simplify watching on the TV and stereo system, but with all the solutions I tried the WAF -- "wife acceptance factor" -- was still very, very low.
I re-arranged my video files so that I could access them via a media share and avoid the problems I was having with the various media streamers (Twonkey, Media Connect, and a few others that saw only a few minutes on the server). But navigating through layers and layers of menus, then making sure you choose the movie file with the .MKV extension did not enhance the WAF. While the WDTV-Live supports MKV files, many of the streamers did not.
Audio file support was lousy, so I was still playing with several programs. The best I could find for audio also had an integration of RadioTime for playing local radio station streams, a feature I greatly desire. But alas, that implementation could not play radio stations streaming in MP3 format, so several of my radio stations on my Preset list were "Not Supported". WAF fail.
And photos ... none of the solutions were really good. Again back to re-arranging photos in folders so navigation can be done.
So last night I downloaded Mezzmo and logged into my WHS using a remote desktop connection, installed it, and started configuring it. It indexed my files within an hour -- probably 15 or 20 minutes. I followed the tutorial for creating a "roladex style" playlist by artist name to get the feel for creating playlists and smart playlists (very similar to MediaMonkey's implementation; intuitive and easy). After setting the media device to WDTV-Live, it streams everything well ... audio, video and pictures.
I was also impressed that the forums are open to all to read (so you can see the issues people are having), and the response seems to be very fast from the developers. Well done.
I'll be buying Mezzmo tonight. It is good as it is. What would make it even better for me:
Streaming Radio - Integrating something like RadioTime, but playing all the streams unlike Asset, would be a great plus. My Roku Soundbridge would be used elsewhere.
Ken Burns Effect - for photo viewing, having a "pan and fade" effect really enhances the experience. The image is stationary for a second or two, then smoothly pans while being reduced (or enlarged) in size. The effect is named after the great treatment given stills in Burns' classic PBS documentary "The Civil War". The effects vary slightly each time, so viewer interest is enhanced. The Windows-based DVR software MediaPortal does a great job of this, but alas, it won't easily run on a WHS machine (and its overkill anyway).
Neither one is a deal breaker, of course, but in the "nice to have" category.
Now, if I can figure out how to have ONLY Mezzmo show up in the WDTV-Live menus, I think the WAF will be high (and that's not a Mezzmo issue at all).
I re-arranged my video files so that I could access them via a media share and avoid the problems I was having with the various media streamers (Twonkey, Media Connect, and a few others that saw only a few minutes on the server). But navigating through layers and layers of menus, then making sure you choose the movie file with the .MKV extension did not enhance the WAF. While the WDTV-Live supports MKV files, many of the streamers did not.
Audio file support was lousy, so I was still playing with several programs. The best I could find for audio also had an integration of RadioTime for playing local radio station streams, a feature I greatly desire. But alas, that implementation could not play radio stations streaming in MP3 format, so several of my radio stations on my Preset list were "Not Supported". WAF fail.
And photos ... none of the solutions were really good. Again back to re-arranging photos in folders so navigation can be done.
So last night I downloaded Mezzmo and logged into my WHS using a remote desktop connection, installed it, and started configuring it. It indexed my files within an hour -- probably 15 or 20 minutes. I followed the tutorial for creating a "roladex style" playlist by artist name to get the feel for creating playlists and smart playlists (very similar to MediaMonkey's implementation; intuitive and easy). After setting the media device to WDTV-Live, it streams everything well ... audio, video and pictures.
I was also impressed that the forums are open to all to read (so you can see the issues people are having), and the response seems to be very fast from the developers. Well done.
I'll be buying Mezzmo tonight. It is good as it is. What would make it even better for me:
Streaming Radio - Integrating something like RadioTime, but playing all the streams unlike Asset, would be a great plus. My Roku Soundbridge would be used elsewhere.
Ken Burns Effect - for photo viewing, having a "pan and fade" effect really enhances the experience. The image is stationary for a second or two, then smoothly pans while being reduced (or enlarged) in size. The effect is named after the great treatment given stills in Burns' classic PBS documentary "The Civil War". The effects vary slightly each time, so viewer interest is enhanced. The Windows-based DVR software MediaPortal does a great job of this, but alas, it won't easily run on a WHS machine (and its overkill anyway).
Neither one is a deal breaker, of course, but in the "nice to have" category.
Now, if I can figure out how to have ONLY Mezzmo show up in the WDTV-Live menus, I think the WAF will be high (and that's not a Mezzmo issue at all).