cbaker
10-12-07, 02:46 PM
Background
I have been playing with the HR20-700 Media Share and three of the common Windows based Media Share Servers (Windows Media Player 11 - WMP11, TVersity, and Nero MediaHome). Over the past several national and CE releases of the HR20-700 software, the Media Share functionality has been less than solid for many users. Depending on the size of your content databases (MP3, JPG, etc), the version of your Media Share Server (MSS), and in turn the server's operating system, everything can work fine or nothing will work.
I recently noticed a new version of TVersity (0.9.10.8) was released. It claims to offer better support for the HR20 in particular. So I figured I would give it a try. Here is what I have found so far.....
History
To date, TVersity has not functioned reliably for me. I have 6,000+ mp3 files and 10,000+ photos and am using a 3+ MHz, 1 GB RAM, Internal SATA HD machine running XP Pro for the MSS side. I have had mixed success with TVersity in the past. I could usually get the photo's to work but browsing to find them was difficult (not well organized), but music was hit or miss with "unable to access media" messages common. Internet audio feeds never worked for me. (Video is not functional for all MSS, I believe it is disabled on the HR20 side.)
I had actually began to favor Nero MediaHome which was fairly reliable as long as I only used playlists for MP3 or just pointed to only 2/3 of my music library (in order to browse by Albumn, etc). I would get a "unable to access media error" when trying to browse my full MP3 library on Nero.
New Version
MP3
So far I am impressed with the new version of TVersity on the MP3 side of things. The install (upgrade) was straight forward. I did have to allow it to "re-index" my libraries (about 2 hours), but since that I have been able to browse my whole music library fine as well as play songs without a hitch (HOLDING MY BREATH, TIME WILL TELL).
.... oh, a big thing ... it is fast! Bringing up my list of artists (browse by artists) is almost instantenous. In other software, this can take up to 30 sec.
Even more impressive is that some of the Internet music works too. The PODCASTS (under "Internet Audio") and Radio Feeds (under "radiotime.com") still show an "x" next to them, but the "Featured" internet links (like Bloomberg Live Radio) are working via the HR20. These internet audio feeds work via a web browser to the same server. So need to play with this some more. In any case, very nice!
Photos
Unfortunately, the photos side is less rewarding.
NOTE: It appears that how the HR20 sorts, displays, and lets you "browse" the media is a function of the server side (TVersity), not the client (HR20). Most audio files (WMA, MP3, etc) use "TAGS" inside the file to set who the artist, albumn, song name, etc. JPG photos have a similiar type of capacity, but to date, most cameras and software do not utilize these features. It is still an emerging feature. So to organize audio files that have the tags to use is much easier than photos that are only organized by folders.
My photos are sorted in folders by Year, then function, then the photos.
Example:
U:
---> Photos (NOTE: This is shared in TVersity)
------> 2000
...
------> 2006
------> 2007
---------> Joey's 13th Birthday Party (May)
...
---------> 2007 - Joey's 8th Grade Graduation (Jun)
------------> Photo1.jpg
------------> Photo2.jpg
------------> ...
With 10,000+ photos, TVersity still does not handle this quantity very well. It might use the JPG tags (haven't tested) but I don't have them added to the photos. I just use a file system organization and TVersity does not keep this organization. It appears to try to lump them all together as you first enter the "My Photos" area. "Browsing" 10,000+ photos does not work well.
There is a browse by "Folder" area but OH NO, I get the ugly "unable to access media" area when I attempt via the HR20. (NOTE: Works fine when accessing the TVersity server from a web browser.)
The "Albumn" function, which based on Web Browsing to TVersity should list every folder just above the photos (like "2007 - Joey's 8th Grade Graduation (Jun)") but it keeps looping between a few dozen folder / "Albumn" names.
But if I do choose an Albumn to play, it does work nicely.
Summary
If you have a smaller media collection, maybe you will have better success on the photo side. But for music, the TVersity server is really a step up (so far, let's hope it continues) than the other MSS I have experimented with in combo with the HR20-700.
MP3 - Much Improved. Kudos TVersity!
Internet Audio - Nice! Need to play more.
Photos - Needs work. ;-(
I have been playing with the HR20-700 Media Share and three of the common Windows based Media Share Servers (Windows Media Player 11 - WMP11, TVersity, and Nero MediaHome). Over the past several national and CE releases of the HR20-700 software, the Media Share functionality has been less than solid for many users. Depending on the size of your content databases (MP3, JPG, etc), the version of your Media Share Server (MSS), and in turn the server's operating system, everything can work fine or nothing will work.
I recently noticed a new version of TVersity (0.9.10.8) was released. It claims to offer better support for the HR20 in particular. So I figured I would give it a try. Here is what I have found so far.....
History
To date, TVersity has not functioned reliably for me. I have 6,000+ mp3 files and 10,000+ photos and am using a 3+ MHz, 1 GB RAM, Internal SATA HD machine running XP Pro for the MSS side. I have had mixed success with TVersity in the past. I could usually get the photo's to work but browsing to find them was difficult (not well organized), but music was hit or miss with "unable to access media" messages common. Internet audio feeds never worked for me. (Video is not functional for all MSS, I believe it is disabled on the HR20 side.)
I had actually began to favor Nero MediaHome which was fairly reliable as long as I only used playlists for MP3 or just pointed to only 2/3 of my music library (in order to browse by Albumn, etc). I would get a "unable to access media error" when trying to browse my full MP3 library on Nero.
New Version
MP3
So far I am impressed with the new version of TVersity on the MP3 side of things. The install (upgrade) was straight forward. I did have to allow it to "re-index" my libraries (about 2 hours), but since that I have been able to browse my whole music library fine as well as play songs without a hitch (HOLDING MY BREATH, TIME WILL TELL).
.... oh, a big thing ... it is fast! Bringing up my list of artists (browse by artists) is almost instantenous. In other software, this can take up to 30 sec.
Even more impressive is that some of the Internet music works too. The PODCASTS (under "Internet Audio") and Radio Feeds (under "radiotime.com") still show an "x" next to them, but the "Featured" internet links (like Bloomberg Live Radio) are working via the HR20. These internet audio feeds work via a web browser to the same server. So need to play with this some more. In any case, very nice!
Photos
Unfortunately, the photos side is less rewarding.
NOTE: It appears that how the HR20 sorts, displays, and lets you "browse" the media is a function of the server side (TVersity), not the client (HR20). Most audio files (WMA, MP3, etc) use "TAGS" inside the file to set who the artist, albumn, song name, etc. JPG photos have a similiar type of capacity, but to date, most cameras and software do not utilize these features. It is still an emerging feature. So to organize audio files that have the tags to use is much easier than photos that are only organized by folders.
My photos are sorted in folders by Year, then function, then the photos.
Example:
U:
---> Photos (NOTE: This is shared in TVersity)
------> 2000
...
------> 2006
------> 2007
---------> Joey's 13th Birthday Party (May)
...
---------> 2007 - Joey's 8th Grade Graduation (Jun)
------------> Photo1.jpg
------------> Photo2.jpg
------------> ...
With 10,000+ photos, TVersity still does not handle this quantity very well. It might use the JPG tags (haven't tested) but I don't have them added to the photos. I just use a file system organization and TVersity does not keep this organization. It appears to try to lump them all together as you first enter the "My Photos" area. "Browsing" 10,000+ photos does not work well.
There is a browse by "Folder" area but OH NO, I get the ugly "unable to access media" area when I attempt via the HR20. (NOTE: Works fine when accessing the TVersity server from a web browser.)
The "Albumn" function, which based on Web Browsing to TVersity should list every folder just above the photos (like "2007 - Joey's 8th Grade Graduation (Jun)") but it keeps looping between a few dozen folder / "Albumn" names.
But if I do choose an Albumn to play, it does work nicely.
Summary
If you have a smaller media collection, maybe you will have better success on the photo side. But for music, the TVersity server is really a step up (so far, let's hope it continues) than the other MSS I have experimented with in combo with the HR20-700.
MP3 - Much Improved. Kudos TVersity!
Internet Audio - Nice! Need to play more.
Photos - Needs work. ;-(