Peer to peer set top box

January 16, 2007 eirikso13 Comments

AHT international are working on a series of set top boxes that includes both peer to peer streaming and downloading. It’s an interesting concept. Taking the price and hassle of a computer away from what you need to access content on the internet.

They’re building boxes that run Tribler P2P software. In addition to this they are releasing the software for regular computers as well. You can download a beta of the Nuvio.tv software to have a look. The NuvioOne set top box will let you browse huge amounts of internet streaming channels.

Some quick tech specs for the NuvioOne:

Embedded CPU with RISC core and integrated I/O and video decoder functions
Memory 32bits DDR2-333 64MB
Flash 32MB
Video Memory 64MB
Video Hardware Decoders for MPEG2, MPEG4 H.264, Microsoft VC1
Video Resolution up to 1920×1080 Video
Scaling and Picture in Picture
SCART with R/G/B, CVBS, Audio L/R
HDMI for high definition output (HDTV)
S/PDIF output in optical
Ethernet RJ45
USB 2.0
Infra Red Remote Control (keyboard optional)
Windows Media DRM
External power supply
Cables Scart, AC Power Cord

Without local storage you can only view streaming channels. But you can add external USB drives or an internal SATA drive to the box. Letting you have the box running and pulling content of the internet.

In addition to existing content they aim to include both premium content from production companies and will also let you start your own channel:

Your very own TV station

So you have your own blog? Nice, but why stop there? The NUVIO ONE allows you to broadcast in up to HDTV quality to all other NUVIO ONE worldwide. But that is not a limitation, the NUVIO ONE software client will also become available for a wide range of settop-boxes, Windows, Macintosh and Linux PCs.

Lots of big words, it will be interesting to see if they can deliver. I have given the Nuvio.TV software a quick run on my laptop. At this point I was able to watch huge amounts of mostly low quality internet streaming channels. And access local content on my computer. The P2P streaming open Tribler’s P2P streaming module, so that part seems like it is not really incorporated yet. Still, the Nuvio.TV software is already a very remote control- and TV-friendly frontend for internet streaming channels and local content.

NuvioTV Local

There’s something here that reminds me of the LamaBox. I really don’t know what happened to that one…

Ron Van Herk, the CEO of AHT International showing one of the prototypes they are working on. This one is a complete set top box that is going to give you peer-to-peer streaming on your TV for 99 euro.

These are interesting technologies and might some day give you all that internet content without the price and time needed to keep a PC running…

Vista, DRM and the slow suicide

January 14, 2007 eirikso11 Comments

As you already know, I don’t like DRM. It seems like the next version of Windows will be full of it. Full of DRM and huge amounts of technology that is supposed to make it more “secure”. Or, to put it straight: limit you and what you can do with your computer. Cory Doctorow is a clever writer and again he has put some words on the situation:

Vista is a disaster. Microsoft is so desperate to get the entertainment industry locked into its platform that they’ll destroy themselves to get there. This is an operating system that, when idle, will have to check itself every 30 microseconds to make sure nothing is still happening, and no hackers are attacking it.

It acts like an unmedicated paranoid.

Well, time will show if this unmedicated paranoid will kill Microsoft like Sony’s content strategy nearly has killed them.

The iPhone and the multi touch screen

January 12, 2007 eirikso1 Comment

Oyvind over at Brilliantdays has a very interesting theory about the multi touch screen on the new iPhone and the fantastic multi touch screen that Jeff Han has been demonstrating around the world.

Oyvind thinks that this technology will be incorporated in the next generation of Apple screens and laptops.

Only a theory, but read his article in detail. Why did so many people from Apple visit this particular post after he wrote it? And what about the comment over at Jefferson Han’s web site?

When I saw this video on YouTube and had a glimpse of how Phil Schiller zooms in on an image on the Phone I can’t believe that this has nothing to do with Jeff Han’s technology.

I tried Jeff’s screen at Siggraph in Boston last year. The image zoom works exactly as it is done by Mr. Schiller in the CBS video. I must admit that the technology is some of the most amazing I have ever tested. It worked extremely well and gave an immediate feel of the navigation.

This is a short video I shot in Boston while testing the screen and talking to Jefferson Han.

http://flash.revver.com/player/1.0/player.swf

Look – no fans!

January 8, 2007 eirikso14 Comments

So I finally changed the last parts in my media center to make it completely silent. I have already installed two 300w Silverstone fanless power supplies. Why two? Because one power the mainboard, graphic card and boot disk. The other one power the extra disks and the DVD drive. Now I installed a Thermaltake Sonic Tower on the CPU and a Thermaltake Schooner fanless cooler on the graphic card.

The graphic card cooler needed some horrible and very manual hacks to fit on my old Geforce 6600GT AGP. Anyway, now my system has only one fan. A 120 mm that is running very slow to push some air over the CPU cooler. I tried without any fans as well. It gave 70 degrees celcius on the CPU during 100% load over several hours. That’s a bit high. Even for my old AMD Athlon XP 3200+

With the fan (that is practically noiseless) the CPU temperature is about 50 degrees during 100% load and 35 degrees during normal use. The graphic card stays at about 60 degrees. It can manage very high temperatures, so 60 is no problem.

The result is that the media center now is completely silent and 100% stable. It can run 24/7 in our living room without anyone noticing it.

If you want to know how to mount a Thermaltake Schooner CL-G0009 on an XFX GeForce 6600 GT AGP please drop me a line in a comment. It’s ugly, but it works. Have a look at the images and you understand.

And, to fit the Thermaltake Sonic Tower CL-P0071 on the CPU I had to modify the north bridge cooler on my ABIT-AN7 mainboard as well…

Now I think I’ll let that box alone for a while. The next upgrade will be some kind of digital decoder to replace the Hauppauge PVR-500 card and maybe some testing of SageTV…

Music from Amie Street for my subscribers

January 5, 2007 eiriksoLeave a comment

I have quite a bit of people subscribing to my email update and RSS-feed. The small player from Amie Street that I included in my previous post doesn’t show up in most RSS-readers or email clients. So, for your listening pleasure, here is the link to the player. It will open the player and start playing the first song.

My mistake. I try to always include a link as well when I embed video or players of any sorts in my articles…

AmieStreet – DRM free quality music

January 4, 2007 eirikso44 Comments

AmieStreet

You’re a band and want to publish your music. If nobody knows you nobody will buy your music. So your music is worth nothing. And should be free.

When people get interested and want your music it’s worth something.

Meet Amie Street. A music publishing site where the music is free when it is submitted and the price starts increasing as the music gets popular. If it gets really popular the price rise to about one dollar pr. song. About the same as iTunes and other music sites.

The problem is that the music is not filtered by any big record companies and a site like Amie Street is bound to include a bunch of low quality crap. You need systems to guide the users into the good stuff. Well, Amie Street has included a cool recommendation system with a reward.

When you buy credits at the site you will get a certain amount of recommendations. If you find a good song that still is pretty cheap and recommend it at this low price you will get a reward as the price increase. The reward is new credits that you can use to buy music at Amie Street.

I have played around with the site and actually found quite a bit of quality music. When you buy music you can download it as many times as you want or play it directly from the site. The music is DRM free MP3 that will play on all portable players etc…

Here is some of the stuff that I found:

http://amiestreet.com/player/amie.swf?playlist_url=http://amiestreet.com/listSongs.php?fetchPlaylist/songIds__8136,8128,5526,3674,3671,3670,3444,3025,1911,1819,1708,1188,788,664,355,351,159,158,157&autoplay=false

Update: Link to the player.

On my computer the songs play in full length because I have bought them. On other computers I guess it will only play excerpts.

Now, if they could do something with the overall look of the site and the player…

Happy New Year!

January 1, 2007 eirikso9 Comments

No posting for over a week! Indicating that I have had a very nice Christmas. With family, friends, good food, good wine and nice presents. One of them is of course the 17″ iMac from eirikso to eirikso… More on that later.

The image is a two second (hand held) exposure from outside our flat at new years eve.

Look forward to loads of interesting stuff here at eirikso.com in 2007.

eirikso

Photo, media, technology

Month: January 2007