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View Full Version : Wow - does everything (well, almost!)



Frank Hagan
04-01-2010, 01:56 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).

Paul
04-01-2010, 08:59 AM
Hello Frank,

Thank you for the great feedback - we really appreciate it!

There are many more exciting new features planned for the future updates of Mezzmo, so you can be sure that you'll always have a modern, powerful, easy-to-use streaming and organizing solution (which is what Mezzmo aims to be).

We have discussed streaming URLs here and I believe that it's a planned feature, probably after subtitle support is released. I can't confirm it yet officially though ;)

Regarding the photo effects - usually the devices provide those, as we (media servers) just deliver files that the client requests and then the client decides how to show it based on user settings (if there are any settings). MediaPortal is different, because it actually delivers what you see on your computer screen to your TV, so the effect is done on the PC and then you see it on your TV.

We are always here to listen and talk about any issues related to Mezzmo, so please feel free to post your suggestions here or through our support e-mail.

Dennis

Frank Hagan
04-01-2010, 09:19 AM
Thanks, Dennis!

Asset UPnP version 3 is supposed to fix the radio stream issue, and if it does, I'll solve the problem with it. Until then I have my handy Roku Soundbridge (but alas, no fancy TV display with it). I can always hope for a plug in to the WDTV-Live as a gadget/widget, but they are less responsive.

And that makes sense regarding the transition effects on photos. I take it that the DLNA standard is a request-response kind of thing like a browser uses with http requests, so without some horsepower in the "requester", making a transition smooth would probably be very hard to do. Or something like that!

Paul
04-01-2010, 09:29 AM
Thanks, Dennis!

Asset UPnP version 3 is supposed to fix the radio stream issue, and if it does, I'll solve the problem with it. Until then I have my handy Roku Soundbridge (but alas, no fancy TV display with it). I can always hope for a plug in to the WDTV-Live as a gadget/widget, but they are less responsive.
Yes, until we add that functionality to Mezzmo. Seeing that it already does Pandora, you'd think that all the necessary functionality is already implemented in WDTV Live. They have released an update a couple of days ago, I believe. I haven't tried it here yet though, so don't know what it does.


And that makes sense regarding the transition effects on photos. I take it that the DLNA standard is a request-response kind of thing like a browser uses with http requests, so without some horsepower in the "requester", making a transition smooth would probably be very hard to do. Or something like that!
Yes, that's exactly what it is (request-response). There are additions on top of that of course, but again they are based on whether the client supports that functionality or not.

Frank Hagan
04-01-2010, 12:08 PM
Yes, until we add that functionality to Mezzmo. Seeing that it already does Pandora, you'd think that all the necessary functionality is already implemented in WDTV Live. They have released an update a couple of days ago, I believe. I haven't tried it here yet though, so don't know what it does.


I'll have to check the update to see what they have improved. Youtube streaming was fixed in the last update, and it works well now.

Just purchased Mezzmo a few minutes ago and downloaded the full copy. (Edited to say I did receive the serial and registration numbers and updated the copy on my WHS).

Paul
04-01-2010, 12:19 PM
Actually you don't need to download another copy - the trial is a fully-functional version which converts into a registered one once you enter your license details.

I've installed the latest firmware from WD on out test one here and just re-testing Mezzmo to make sure it all works. Looks good so far (as it should!) :)

polycpa
12-06-2010, 07:49 AM
I also have a mediasmart server but I am unsure how to install mezzmo on it? When I try to install mezzmo I can only see my computer c drive? Can you let me know what steps you went through to install it on the server itself?

Thank you!

Paul
12-06-2010, 09:25 AM
Can you please contact support (at) conceiva (dot) com and we'll let you know. I believe that you need to remotely login to the server (remote desktop, I think it's called?) and then you can install Mezzmo on it as a normal application.