Is their an easy to use Media Streamer that is also Mezzmo friendly?

Short Request
Can someone tell me what media streaming device is out there that would play like the PS3 or is it at least as easy to learn? I just want to be able to boot it up and find the Mezzmo icon/Name on the home screen or under a "Video/Movie" tab, maintain my Mezzmo created playlists and support the artwork that I assigned in Mezzmo.

Details
I have been using a PS3 to stream all of my local media from my PC to my living room Tv for the last two years. I want to dump the PS3 in favor of a media streaming device like a Western Digital Live or Boxee Box. I have spent hours setting up my Mezzmo library and playlists complete with metadata and art. My six year old can plop down in front of the tv, turn on the PS3 and TV, scroll to the "Video" category on the PS3's crossbar, choose the "Mezzmo" icon and pick a movie or show out from the poster art. Many of the more popular (frequently watched) programs are stored on the PS3's HDD and she can access those by just scrolling a little further down from the same crossbar. Easy, simple, complete.

Now, I did a little homework and thought I'd pick up a Pivos AIOS media streaming device. It supports all of the standard media types and I saw some great screenshots of what people had gotten it to do (Jukebox, Shortcuts, etc.). Impressed, I picked one up for $90 and brought it home thinking it should be simple, too. Well, I can't even get comfortable running the thing, let alone my 6 year old. Good luck teaching her to use the file manager to choose "UPnP" and scroll to Mezzmo and find a bunch of titles with no art. If I want the art, I guess I can teach her to go to the Network icon, choose the correct Workgroup, find the correct PC, ignore the system folders, choose the folder titles and browse the file system and if she gets to the right place, maybe she can recognize some of the files that have the .jpg named according to the video file name and I just hope she knows to choose the video file and not the .jpg or she'll be just confused. Etc., etc., etc........

The PS3 can't possibly be the only device with a simple interface. Someone out there has to be using something, right? I don't need a device to track down and scrape for artwork and data. I don't need a bunch of useless apps.

Summary
In a perfect world, I would turn it on and my Mezzmo folders/playlists would be right there, complete with artwork for my family to browse.

Is anyone using something even close to this simple? Thanks for ANY input, I'm very frustrated.

If you and your family are familiar with the PS3, then Sony's other AV products (Bravia TVs, Blu-ray players, etc.) all have a similar crossbar menu to the PS3. So perhaps a Sony Blu-ray player would work for your family. Mezzmo has device profiles for many Sony Blu-ray models. Here's a screen grab of a typical Sony Bu-ray player's user interface - http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-...layers-review/. Perhaps search the web to see more user interface screen grabs and this may help you decide.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Paul

If you and your family are familiar with the PS3, then Sony's other AV products (Bravia TVs, Blu-ray players, etc.) all have a similar crossbar menu to the PS3. So perhaps a Sony Blu-ray player would work for your family. Mezzmo has device profiles for many Sony Blu-ray models. Here's a screen grab of a typical Sony Bu-ray player's user interface - http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-...layers-review/. Perhaps search the web to see more user interface screen grabs and this may help you decide.

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Thank you for the suggestion, Paul. Unfortunately, Sony us the whole reason I am dumping the PS3 in the first place. The Conceiva DRM implementation, pioneered by Sony, is making it difficult to store and playback many of my BR rips. I was leaning toward a BR player, but many if not most of the BR Players out there have Cinavia in place, hence, the reason that I'm looking at streaming devices instead. I'm not attached to the Sony interface, I just have the one PS3. Any interface that is user friendly and easy to learn would be great.

Can anyone tell me if the WD Live and/or WD Live Hub support artwork through DLNA? Will I keep my album art and movie posters that I've assigned in Mezzmo or will I just get a list of titles?

Yes - the WD TV Live displays artwork/thumbnails for your photos, music files and video files. There's a few modes for displaying your files (list, thumbnails, preview). Press the Options button on the WD remote to see/set the modes.

Just to confirm, I've just connected a WD TV Live Streaming Media Player to an a 2005 Viera and it interoperates with Mezzmo 2.5.0 without a hitch. It can also connect to other DLNA servers like Logitech media Server.

Bodders

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bodders-11

Just to confirm, I've just connected a WD TV Live Streaming Media Player to an a 2005 Viera and it interoperates with Mezzmo 2.5.0 without a hitch. It can also connect to other DLNA servers like Logitech media Server.

Bodders

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Cool, that's good to know.

One other question, since you have the WD at home, how easy is it to access Mezzmo (or any other DLNA server) from the WD user interface? I ask because I just tried a Pivos AIOS and you had to go through the file manager and into the network screens to access DLNA/UPnP servers. It was hardly intuitive or easy to figure out. I'm hoping to find something that just places it on the home screen or just a click away.

Hi,
If I need to Mezzmo from the WD TV Live, this is what I need to do.

1. Turn on TV
2. Switch TV to HDMI source
3. Turn on WD TV Live if not already running - by default the WD intro screen highlights the Video option
4. Press OK to enter the Video option - the top level Mezzmo folders are now listed (Music, Videos, Photos)
5. Move to Video and press OK - the Mezzmo Video folders are now listed

Possible enhancements:-
a) If you do not use Mezzmo to view Music or Photos then delete those Top Level Folders under Library. Step 5 will then be a sinple 'Press OK'
b) In the future Mezzmo MAY be optimised so that when selecting the top level WD TV Live Video option, it would take you straight to the Mezzmo Video area - see Item 8 on http://forum.conceiva.com/showthread...eral-questions, posted earlier this week.

(Note that WD TV Live is also able to find and maintain its own media library information............)

Bodders

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bodders-11

Hi,
If I need to Mezzmo from the WD TV Live, this is what I need to do.

1. Turn on TV
2. Switch TV to HDMI source
3. Turn on WD TV Live if not already running - by default the WD intro screen highlights the Video option
4. Press OK to enter the Video option - the top level Mezzmo folders are now listed (Music, Videos, Photos)
5. Move to Video and press OK - the Mezzmo Video folders are now listed

Possible enhancements:-
a) If you do not use Mezzmo to view Music or Photos then delete those Top Level Folders under Library. Step 5 will then be a sinple 'Press OK'
b) In the future Mezzmo MAY be optimised so that when selecting the top level WD TV Live Video option, it would take you straight to the Mezzmo Video area - see Item 8 on http://forum.conceiva.com/showthread...eral-questions, posted earlier this week.

(Note that WD TV Live is also able to find and maintain its own media library information............)

Bodders

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Perfect!

This is exactly the info I was looking for. I was able to download the Boxee software and install to my PC to get a feel for it but I just couldn't find this kind of info anywhere on the web. Just put my order in for the WD Live Hub from Amazon!! The next five days are gonna be tough.

Thanks again.