Boxee Remote

Check this out from Engadget, who's going to post a real world review?!

D-Link brings the Boxee Box remote to PC, Mac users

By Richard Lawler posted Jul 6th 2011 12:48PM

Boxee users on PC and Mac should no longer feel ignored, with promises of updated software on the way and now the option to use a Boxee Box remote from D-Link. The two sided QWERTY design is unchanged and the included RF dongle means your HTPC can stay safely out of sight while you enjoy some branded remote control action without selling out for a one-size-fits-all box. The roll your own media player crowd can pick up the remote at a penny under $50 at a variety of online retailers right now, the long awaited software update is still due this fall.

Platinum becomes MK Sound Dealer

Of all the speaker brands we've ever wanted to carry, MK Sound would be on top of the list.  Problem was, the company changed hands and restructured, and became just a bit inaccessible for a while.  

Those days are GONE!  We are now the official dealer for MK Sound products in Chicago!  And as if that weren't enough, MK Sound has just introduced the new S150 MKII, an update on the film-industry standard monitor speaker.  The S150 has been our personal choice in THX Ultra II LCR speakers for many years.  The new version are to be available June 2011 (from Platinum Home Theaters, of course!), as are all of the MK Sound speakers, from the MK Movie package all the way through the powered 2510P.  

The list of films that has used MK Sound speakers is too long to blog, but here's a partial list:

Wall-E, Iron Man, King Kong, The Incredibles, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King,  Finding Nemo,  Pirates Of The Caribbean, Chicago, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Black Hawk Down, Pearl Harbor, Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring, Star Wars Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.

Get the idea?  YOU can own the same speakers these films were produced with!  And if you have a modest setup, the MK Sound line has speakers to fit your needs with their heritage deep in the MK family tree.

We are more than thrilled to at last be MK Sound dealers!

KEF & Ecler Pro Audio are here!

KEF in store !

KEF is here in Kuching!!!

The new KEF Q-Series is in store. Please visit or schedule for an audition. Accepting phone appointment now.

Plex 0.9.2.7 released

Here is a link to the new features in 0.9.2.7 with the post below.

ow that the latest iOS version has made it into the store (and thank you so much for your feedback on it, you are all very kind!!), we’ve turned our attention to fixing a few issues with Plex. The new releases are available on the Plex home page, and we will enable auto-update shortly.

• NEW: We display the warning icon on shows/seasons/episodes and artist/album/tracks so that you can see more clearly which media is missing. Also note that if you dislike this feature, you can always disable it in the Library preferences by enabling “Empty trash automatically”. We enable it by default because we never want to delete any of your data without you knowing about it first.
  

• FIX: We’ve updated the transcoding engine to fix a number of issues, including 3G video playback being audio only (thanks, Chris!), improvements in threading (1080p content should work more smoothly), and according to one tester, DTS-MA now mixes down correctly. Thanks also to mitch969 and others on the forums for all their help testing!
• FIX: A few fixes for for the web-based media manager, including a fix for changes to collections not saving, sections not disappearing from clients when deleted via the web manager, and fixes for the “Match using” and un-match functionality.
• FIX: When an episode is renamed, make sure we reload metadata if the episode or season number changed.
• FIX: If a slideshow screensaver is active, playing content via the iOS or Android remotes turns the screensaver off (thanks to Man for bring this to our attention).
• FIX: A fix for Turbo Scanning where if you edited a library section (to add a new directory, or when moving media, for example), you would need to perform a deep scan to pick up the changes.

We’ve also been hard at work at improving the music functionality. Besides support for FLAC, we’ve also added and fixed lots of other things. The really nice part is that the changes were to the scanner and agents, which means that they could be pushed out automatically in micro-increments. I love the thought of our users waking up to new features and bug-fixes without the need to download a whole new version!

• NEW: Support for scanning OGG.
• NEW: Improved and enhanced poster gathering from tags in all supported file formats.
• NEW: Music lacking tags is scanned in as “unknown” artist/album.
• FIX: Tons of fixes and improvements around reading tags.
• NEW: Parse track numbers out of filename if they’re not in the tags.
• FIX: Folders with more than 50 files are scanned.

Barkley is here displaying his affinity for human beds and pillows. Who says dogs don’t have a sense of ergonomics?

And finally a link to my main site, Vesic Photography.

Update on Re-Equalization

Why Re-EQ?

Re-Equalization (Re-EQ) is a feature found only in THX Certified AV Receivers and Pre/Pros.  The problem it's addressing is one of correcting the overall sound quality of a film soundtrack that was mixed for a large theater to the home environment.  Large theaters are equalized following the "X-Curve", a standardized response curve.  Oddly, the curve itself was developed to solve the same issue, but in reverse.  Material mixed in small rooms sounded too bright in large theaters, so using the technology of the time (early 1970s), the X-curve was created to correct the issue. Theoretically, the vary existence of the X-curve should have made Re-EQ unnecessary.  But it didn't work that way.

Original data collected to develop the X-curve was limited in resolution, and therefore, accuracy.  It turns out, there is a small but noticeable error, which creates the same problem in reverse: material mixed on a large X-Curve dub stage sounds too bright in the home.  Tom Holman, developer of THX for theaters and homes, described the Re-EQ curve in the original Home THX specs. Some of us early home theater adopters had already noticed the problem, and were very relieved that Re-EQ made those bright-sounding Laser Discs sound smooth and natural.  It worked.

THX Re-EQ is on whenever you pick the THX Surround mode of your receiver.  If you don't have a THX Certifice AVR, you may also find something like CinemaEQ (Denon), or the like.  That's intended to be a similar curve, but is not exactly the same.

So why, then, in 2011, is the Re-EQ function more and more ignored?  It has to do with how soundtracks are handled for home video.  In the early days, the only choice was to take the original masters and do a straight transfer to the home formats.  Nothing was changed at all, in fact, the more accurate the transfer, the better.  That started to change when DVDs came along.  The film industry started to think it might be a good idea to re-master those theater-centric soundtracks for the home.  So, what did they do? Rather than send the material off to a mastering lab with a reference home theater, the material was sent to music mastering labs.  Now, while that might sound like a good idea, in fact the music industry is remarkably un-standardized when it comes to the monitoring environments used.  What came out of that is re-mastered tracks that not only no longer required Re-EQ, but also had changes made in overall equalization and dynamics that now made it impossible for people with calibrated home theater systems to duplicate the theater experience. 

Is there any hope?

Actually, yes!  The folks at DTS made sure that the new Blu-ray audio spec included DTS Master Audio along with Dolby TrueHD.  Yes, it's competition.  We could debate technical advantages of one over the other all day, but what it gets down to is which company positioned itself where it could work with content producers in a way that was helpful and beneficial.  DTS did that.  What's coming out of their efforts is really good mixes intended for the home.  And since they knew that's where it was going, they took care of Re-EQ in the re-mastering stage.  Get your BD player going, and pick the DTS track, then turn off THX Re-EQ (usually, just turn off the THX Surround mode).

But is that an universal fix? Sadly, not yet.  In the mass of legacy DVDs it's pretty wild. You have to listen to make the choice.  Is it too bright?  Then kick on THX Surround.  Is it too dull? Turn THX off.  And, listen carefully to those Blu-ray discs.  It's not 100% by any means.  But at least it's a start.

Rythmik Audio Subwoofers

Having trouble searching for a good quality audiophile sub without breaking a hole in your pocket? We at Sound Fusion proudly present you Rythmik Audio Sub - articulate bass for the the discerning audiophile.

Model: F12 - Fits in most rooms and provide clean bass.

Model: F15 - When Power & Bass Acurracy is your concern.

Model: S15SE - For music lovers who likes something stylist and classy.

Model: FV15HP - For serious movie loves who really need to shake their walls.

For all other models, please refer to : http://www.rythmikaudio.com/

Ordering info: Please contact +6 017 8089020 (Mr. Tan) or email us at soundfusion.com.my@gmail.com

Latest Proac Response D38

Finally, my long awaited Proac Response D38 has arrived. I have chosen the Ebony finish for better contrast and texture (but have to pay a few more K).

However, the only amplifier that can drive the Proac Response D38 is my Denon POA power amplifier (can support down to 4Ohms). The pre-amp is my Denon AVC-A1HDA connected to Denon POA via Van Den Hul D102 MK III interconnect (made in EU). Power cords are top of the line from Van Den Hul, the mainstream terminated with wattgate IEC plugs. Look how tiny Proac Studio 140 MKII stands next to the Proac Response D38!! Proac D38 weighs a massive 40 over KGs each!!

Connection from the Denon POA to Proac response D38 is a pair of Van Den Hul MC Magnum Hybrid speaker cables (terminated with WBT banana plugs) for the lower end. Higher end is connected using Van Den Hul CS122 Hybrid speaker cable (terminated with QED banana plugs).

Noticed from the previous post, everything now sits on a new hifi rack. It's a custom made rack with multi-layers plywood being laminated with precision. I have chosen not to laminate the surface for a more natural look and feel.

The center speaker is Proac Response D Center, weighing a massive 25KG; a lot heavier than the Proac Studio 140 MKII floor stand speaker. Finishing is Ebony that matches well with the pair of Proac reponse D38.

Currently, I'm using the Proac response D38 and Proac response D center for both movie and music. Will bring in a higher end 2 channels system in later stage. All Proac response D series speakers are connected to the Denon POA power amp. Feeding the media and music to Denon AVC-A1HDA via Van Den Hul Orchid interconnect is the Oppo-BDP83 Special Edition that comes with 8 pieces of Sabre DAC.

Notice that is a set of Naim setup on the left. From top to bottom is Naim DAC, Naim XS intergrated Amplifier, Naim Flatcap power supply. While still waiting to restock my Naim CD XS, I am currently using Marantz KI Pearl SA CD Player as the transport feed via Van Den Hul digiCoupler 75ohm digital cable to the 4th connection on the Naim DAC. While Oppo is also connected via optical cable to Naim DAC on the 3rd input. So we can choose to listen on the following two setups:

1) Oppo BDP83SE -> VDH Orchid -> AVC-A1HDA-> POA -> Proac Response D38

2) Oppo BDP83SE -> VDH Digicoupler -> Naim DAC -> Van Den Hul D102 MKIII -> AVC-A1HDA -> POA -> Proac Response D38.

The backend filter is PS Audio Quintet (Still waiting for the release of PS Audio 5000 series power condition for the 220-240v market)

More acoustic treatment being applied to trap the bass at both upper corners. On the middle section, small pyramid has been used. Since my last post, I've treated the inner part of the ceiling with fiber glue to solve the internal rattering issue that I was facing all the while. It has since reduce the rattering sound down to 99.99% (quite happy with it).

I am confident this room can handle bigger speakers like the Proac Response D80 series with a powerful amplifier.

Another viewing angle of the new setup.

For Audition, please drop by Sound Fusion @ Level 1 Crown Square, Kuching, Sarawak. Malaysia or call +6 082 338020 / +6 017 808 9020. Email: soundfusion.com.my@gmail.com

Bring your collection of CDs and Blurays for testing if you want.

Plex - on the new Apple TV??

Just saw this from Engadget - wow, if this will work, that's going to be really interesting. Right off the bat, you've just beat Boxee by $150. I've played with the new ATV, and the unit is SO small, so simple - anyway - check out the post directly here, or ready below:

http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/04/plex-arrives-on-jailbroken-apple-tvs-video/

Software, HD Set Tops

Plex arrives on jailbroken Apple TVs (video)

By Thomas Ricker posted Nov 4th 2010 5:32AM

Boxee might get all the attention but Plex is without a doubt one of our favorite Mac media center apps. So it's with wide-eyed interest that we tell you about the Plex client making its first tentative steps onto the second generation Apple TV platform. Naturally, Cupertino's not behind the initiative to replace Apple's own "Lowtide" 10-foot user interface -- this work is being done by the Apple TV jailbreak community. The ATV2 build is still just a proof of concept so it's buggy and limited to video playback (no music, images, or app management) for now. But hey, it's another iOS app for ATV2 and it does work as evidenced by the video after the break. Man, we're getting all tingly at the thought of scattering a few $99 boxes around the house to serve up the wide variety of codecs supported by Plex in addition to Apple's more limited AirPlay.

Metadata and Plex update

From the Plex Blog here

Plex » Metadata Update

So what exactly is metadata? Defined on Wikipedia as “data about data”, it turns our collection of media from a drab list of files into an interlinked web of facts and pictures, and imbues each item with a rich set of properties. Your files might have structure, but painting them with metadata converts that simple collection into a multi-dimensional universe of relationships. You can now set about answering complex questions like “Do I have any romantic comedies from the 1990′s that I haven’t watched in at least a year, starring Julia Roberts, and not featuring Whoopi Goldberg?”

Everyone loves metadata, and we didn’t anticipate the extreme load the Plex/Nine release would put on a number of sites when we launched. Tens of thousands of early downloaders, eagerly rescanning their huge personal media collections, contributed to massive amounts of traffic to multiple sites.

As a result, we’ve had to spend quite a bit of time since the release focusing on stabilizing our sources of metadata, optimizing the metadata agents (the bits of code that go out and get your metadata), and adding infrastructure to support all of our new users. Here’s a summary of what we’ve done:

• We’ve brought up a massively powerful machine to serve as our TheTVDB proxy cache. All requests to TheTVDB go through this machine, and it serves over 99% of all bytes out of its cache, which means we’ve reduced the data load on the parent site by a factor of 100x. At peak, we were serving over 500 requests/second, and sending out 320Mbps. Darrin, one of our super-talented Plex engineers, worked literally day and night to get this running after the release, and we also appreciate the help and support from the TVDB guys!
• For movies, we’ve moved to using data that is accessible with an API or through structured data dumps. Specifically, we’re using metadata from Freebase, Wikipedia, and TheMovieDB (as well as a few others for extra artwork, such as MoviePosterDB). This ensures the best availability and stability of the data.

If you’re not familiar with Freebase, you should check them out. It’s one of the few sites in recent memory that’s totally blown me away. The people who designed it are very, very smart people and the amount of data available is unbelievable. If you check out the page for the movie 300, you’ll see it links to 33 reviews of the movie, 6 other sites (such as Rotten Tomatoes), and then has a veritable cornucopia of data including cast, genres, subjects, filming locations, award lists, and more. All of that data is available via a sophisticated API, or via weekly database dumps.

We’ve processed the most recent Freebase data dump into a form that’s most suitable for our agent to consume. Additionally, we’ve enhanced the Wikipedia agent to support multiple different languages for the summaries. Finally, much more data from TheMovieDB is being pulled in by that agent.

In summary, massive amounts of data, all structured (no more “scraping” sites that can change at a moment’s notice), and all completely up to you as to how you use them. Like TheMovieDB summaries? Drag it to the top of the list of agents. Prefer your summaries in Swedish? Make sure Wikipedia is above TheMovieDB, so its internationalized summaries will take precedence. Have two French movies for your mother-in-law? You can manually set the language preference to French for just those two movies, and she’ll offer to babysit her grandkids while happily reading the summaries in French.

These agent changes have been pushed, and you will have them within the hour, unless you check sooner with Plex Online > More > Check for Updates.

Get your settings exactly how you like them, shift-click the refresh button to get new metadata for all your movies, and then sit back and watch the metadata flow in. (N.B. At this point in time, poster/art selections are “sticky” so once set, it won’t change unless you rescan a section from scratch).

Here’s a summary of what the different movie agents now provide, so as to allow you to prioritize them accordingly, through the settings option shown below:

• Freebase: Genres, content ratings, studio, directors, writers, actors, tag-lines.
• Wikipedia: Multi-language summaries, directors, writers, actors, studio.
• TheMovieDB: Summaries (more plot oriented), content ratings, directors, writers, actors, studio, tag-lines.
• MoviePosterDB: Lots of movie posters, at lower resolution than TheMovieDB.

So as an example, if you hate the Wikipedia summaries, and prefer English plot summaries, drag TheMovieDB above Wikipedia. If you leave Wikipedia enabled, summaries that aren’t found from TheMovieDB will be filled in by Wikipedia.

If you want your summaries in Swedish, you’ll need to enable Wikipedia and have it higher in the list than TheMovieDB. Note that currently, in order to change languages, you’ll need to create a new section with the new language setting. Alternatively you can “fix match” on an individual item and manually set the language.

Lots of you have asked: How can we help? Luckily this is quite easy; let’s say you have a movie that’s missing data, or has incorrect data. You can head to one of those sites above and add the missing data, and then everyone in the community will benefit, including users of other apps that access those sites. This really is a case where each one of you has the power to help hundreds of thousands of other people!

The most immediate “turnaround” from this data would be through TheMovieDB, which we access through a well-designed API. We cache requests for 4 hours, so if you add data, you will not see the new data for at most this amount of time. (Note that we are also working to improve TheTVDB refresh times, which are now between 24-48 hours.)

Also, if you’re a developer, please check out our repository for agents. They are easy and fun to write, and we’re really looking forward to seeing the creative things you come up with. Oncleben31 has already written an agent for Allociné for French users, and the ever talented Sander wrote one for MovieMeter, for our Dutch users.

In the near future, we’ll allow you to fully customize any of the data for your media and lock it in place, so that it won’t be overwritten by new data from the Internet. So, for example, you can lock all your titles and summaries, but let the ratings and genres continue to expand and improve over time.

Your media has a bright future inside Plex, and metadata is the key.

WOW - Plex is going to be embedded into 2011 LG TVs!

I'm at a loss - this is just beyond impressive, and came out of nowhere:

Plex and the Future of Television

September 02nd, 2010 | Category: Status,Wow | Author: elan

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This week has been a big one for TV-related announcements. Apple annouced their revamped Apple TV, and Boxee was quick to reply with their own thoughts on the matter. It turns out that now is the perfect time for us to explain our vision for the future of Plex and television as well.

Today, Plex requires that you have a Mac connected to your TV. As sexy as they are, a Mac Mini is $699. And let’s face it, you probably have a few televisions, so it becomes an expensive proposition to Plex-ify your house, especially now that you can stream your library all over with Plex/Nine. Of course, on the flip side, a Mac Mini is a powerful computer that can be used for other meaningful tasks like 3D modeling, genome sequencing, or World of Warcraft.

Another approach is something like the Boxee Box. It’s $199, which is much better, but still prohibitive for many, and it’s completely specialized. No way you could send your kid off to college with a Boxee Box, although you have to admit, it would probably help his or her social life. Additionally, releasing a custom piece of hardware is not a trivial endeavor, if we even wanted to attempt such a thing. Embedded systems are hard, and the XBMC codebase from which Plex and Boxee are both derived is a large and complex one. And really, at the end of the day, do you want yet another specialized box sitting by your TV?

Even if you get the design right, you have to be able to price it appropriately. With not outrageously different hardware from Boxee, the new Apple TV is half the price. Apple also has a two-fold advantage over Boxee: They are going to be selling their Apple TV in much higher volume (which means lower cost to produce), and – critically – they can subsidize the cost of the device because they make money every time you put your arm around your date and click “Watch” on a movie. Also, let’s face it, it’s a typical Apple product: it works perfectly as long as you don’t stray outside their ecosystem. Your files have to be in their limited range of supported formats, and you only get access to the online content they sanction. It’s not an open platform in any sense of the word, and trust me, I was the first person hoping to be able to run our Plex iOS app on it.

The optimal solution, of course, would be a box that was free, infinitely small, and required no cables. Well, we’re extremely proud to be able to introduce to you, for the first time, the Plex Box, with exactly those characteristics.

How is this possible? Well, we actually have one more “one more thing” to announce: We’re working with LG Electronics (the second largest TV manufacturer in the world) to integrate the Plex platform into their 2011 lineup of Netcast™ connected TVs and Blu-ray devices. So early next year, when you buy an LG Netcast™ TV or Blu-ray player, you will have Plex functionality built-in. Specifically, it will connect to a cloud version of the Plex platform for online content, and, if you happen to have a Plex Media Server running anywhere in your house (after all, who doesn’t have a computer in their house?), you can access your local and online content, in a rich interface, with full metadata. I’ve seen it, and it looks awesome.

I’ve been talking a lot about the importance of getting the architecture right for our platform, and this is a perfect example. Thin clients (LG TV, iOS devices), a smart media server, and plug-ins that can run in the cloud. A single integrated interface to access online content, local content, and personal content.

I can’t even begin to tell you how exciting this is to us. LG chose our platform in no small part because it is OPEN, and that is what makes it special. We have developers all over the world creating plug-ins, helping us evolve the platform, and using it creatively. We wouldn’t be here without them, and it’s been an absolute pleasure working with them over the years. I also have enormous respect for LG, who have great products, massively talented engineering, and forward-thinking management. I’ve been to Korea twice in the last year, and their engineers are super-smart, highly knowledgable, and a delight to work with. They “get” where TV is going, and I have to make a confession – the first time I saw their Plex interface, talking to a remote Plex Media Server and flawlessly streaming content, I had to pretend I had something in my eye. This is a team completely committed to revolutionizing the way we enjoy content, and clearly willing to take chances in doing so, as evidenced by working with a small team like ours.

This is also a massive win for content providers. Yesterday, writing a Plex plug-in would make their content available on a Mac, or a television powered by a Mac. Yesterday, they could suddenly make their content available on 100 million iOS devices. And tomorrow (early next year, technically), they will be able to get their content onto millions of LG TVs and Blu-ray devices. This, friends, is an unprecedented time in history. The distance between content provider and consumer has never been this close or frictionless, and it’s incredible to be a part of.

So what does this mean to you, our dear users? You’ve been so supportive over the years, and this is great news for you as well. It means, first and foremost, that we’ll be able to focus more resources on the development. This will be a full-time job for me and others on the team, which is – honestly – a dream come true. The Plex Media Server is the heart and lungs of the platform, and we’ll be making it rock solid and adding some really, really cool new features. We’ll be bringing it to more platforms, to make it available everywhere. There will be more content providers investing in writing Plex plug-ins, so your online content choices will grow. And next year, if you’re upgrading your TV, or or buying an LG Blu-ray player, you’ll have the ability to get Plex, built in, at no additional cost. Fully integrated into killer consumer electronics gear, exactly as it should be.

And *that* is cool.

It’s been a long journey this past year. Now you finally know all of the cool stuff we’ve been working on, and it’s so great to be able to share it with you. We’ve re-architected our platform for the future, and thankfully, most of that work is behind us. Now we can focus on making Plex more stable, more usable, and overall more AWESOME.

Plex 9, the 24 hour status report from Plex

The official word from Plex on how the release is going as well as some minor issues being addressed:

State of the Release

September 01st, 2010 | Category: Status | Author: elan

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Just over 24 hours since the release, and this has been an extremely exciting time for all of us. We simply can’t tell you how much we appreciate the outpouring of positive feedback on the release. Over Twitter, Facebook, email, and in the forums, the number of positive comments were astounding to us, and definitely made all the hard work worthwhile. We all want to say, collectively: Thank You.

A few salient things about the release:

• The demand on our server was completely unprecedented. The OS load went over 30 for long periods of time, and there were HTTP and database issues. Isaac jumped in and quickly and skillfully spread our services out over a few spare slices and was able to return things to normal. Isaac, you rock.
• Our mirrors (a big thanks to them!) were hammered badly as tens of thousands of downloaders tried to get the latest release, so in the morning we moved the main download site to S3 to ease of the pressure on the mirrors and get the app into people’s hands faster.
• At this point, all services should be performing well, and we’re continuing to monitor and make adjustments as needed.

We are also tracking at this point a number of issues with the release (nobody’s perfect, right?), and we wanted to give you a quick summary of the more common issues, along with workarounds or resolutions whenever possible. Note that these are not the only issues, just the ones at the top of the list at the moment:

• CRASHES ON STARTUP: We’re tracking these here. The most common reason (fixed in the next release), is if your computer doesn’t have a name. You can easily workaround this by going to System Preferences > Sharing > Computer Name and put in a clever, well thought out name like “Macadamia”. There’s also a crash we’re seeing on Leopard, which will also be fixed in the next release. Please post your crash reports in that thread.
• SCANNERS: First and foremost, we’d like to help you get all your media into the library. There were issues with M4V files stopping a scan, an issue parsing date-base episodes, and an issue with .AppleDouble folder which we weren’t ignoring. We’ve pushed bug-fixes for these issues, and your Plex Media Server should update automatically the scanners within the hour. The good news is that you simply have to do another scan (assuming you don’t already have it set to automatically scan). You might be asleep at this point, and you might wake up with a bunch of missing episodes tucked comfortable into your library, and that, my friends, is magic. MAGIC! (If you’d like to track the progress on the scanners, you can follow our Github repository here.)
• TV SHOW METADATA: Slightly less about magic, and more about laws of large numbers, I’m sorry to report that we, um, melted down TheTVDB today. My sincere apologies to them, and my apologies to you all, as we’ll be without metadata from them until we figure out how to reduce the load. We are working with them as we speak, and hopefully will be able to bring that back online shortly. The good news is that the Alexandria library system has been architected for this exact scenario, and you’ll still be able to scan your episodes into the library, and play them, there just won’t be show and season posters or summary data (until the next time you’re sleeping, when we’ll silently push another update and you’ll wake up with lots of posters). We really like magic, have I mentioned that?
• LOCAL MEDIA AGENT: This is the one that picks up existing thumbs and fanart and such. There were a few bugs in it, and we think we’ve fixed them, but we need to test more. If you’d like to take the new agent for a spin and know what you’re doing, feel free to check it out here. (Note that you’ll need to remove and add the section to get the new art to “stick”, expect improvements here.)
• AFP SHARE ISSUE: There seems to be an issue adding folders which live on a remote NAS. A bit baffling, but we’re looking into it.

There are of course other issues, but these are the ones we’d like to get resolved as soon as possible. So, how can you help? Why, I’m glad you asked. If you’re having trouble getting your media into the library, please post in the forum with your exact directory and file layout (screenshot or ls -lR from the terminal).

A few other tips:

• If you’re seeing pausing when playing video in the iOS app, there are a few simple things you can do. Don’t select “auto” quality setting, and make sure you select a quality that’s appropriate to your network speed. Also, make sure you’re not trying to play 720p content (highest quality) to an iPad/iPhone4 if you have a slow server (less than 2.2GHz). Use this as an excuse to upgrade (“Honey, but don’t you want to watch So You Think You Can Dance without a pause ever time she does a pirouette?”). And finally, if you take the wireless router and tape it to your chest while using the iOS app, this improves reception.
• If you have a huge library, you might want to let the Media Server take a bit of “alone time” while scanning for the first time. I mean, come on, it’s walking through all your files, computing hashes, extracting thumbnails, generating automatic fanart, analyzing the media, getting it all into the database, talking to the Internet for metadata, downloading that metadata and getting it associated with your media. Multiple agents are working together to contribute data. There are hamsters running around everywhere. So just sit back, work on your golf swing or water the garden or something. Lotus position and staring at the Plex Media Manager works well.
• A positive review on the App Store directly contributes to Barkley’s diet. Like every time we get a five star review, I walk into the kitchen, get him a delicious venison jerky treat and feed it to him. Literally. Just remember, only YOU can make Barkley gain 10 pounds.

And now, I really need some sleep.

Plex 9 released!

Plex 9 and the iOS app are released! Download them by clicking this link here. Thanks to all the great people at Plex who worked on this massive upgrade!

Oh - One More Thing

Those crazy cats at Plex are really doing it up! One More Thing! Charge up your iOS devices, its sooner than you think. Click the picture:

Plex .9 arrives Sept 1

Here is the teaser photo from Plex! Sept 1 it is. Coincidentally, or not - the same day as the Apple media event. They've also posted a Q&A which I am re-posting here:


Click here for original link posting.

The Road to Plex/Nine

from Plex by elan

It’s been a long time in development, and we’re finally putting the finishing touches on the first public release. An incredible amount of effort has been spent developing this new version, and I’d like to take a bit of time introducing you to it. I’ll start by answering a few frequently asked questions:

Are you guys being bought by Apple? If you pay attention to how previous acquisitions have gone, you’ll already know the answer to this one. An Apple acquisition is usually followed by immediate disappearance of the service/product in question, sequestered away no doubt to a secret sub-basement in Cupertino. The fact that we’re still here talking and the website is still running is a sure sign that we have not been acquired by Apple. (The date is entirely coincidental, we went “one week out” and ended up there.)

Will my favorite new feature/bug be added/fixed in this release? Probably not. We’ve been uniquely focused (much to the surprise of some, who think we’ve just been playing Angry Birds) on getting the Alexandria library up and running. The only new feature in this release is the official inclusion of Ryan’s hardware-accelerated video decoding.

Can I run the new version alongside the old version? The answer is “mostly”. When you install Plex/Nine it will set aside your old Application Support directories so as not to step on anything. If you hate it and want to go back to Plex/Eight, you can just rename the directories, whack Plex/Nine, and crawl back into that comfortable old pair of Plex/Eight jeans.

Is this new release completely bug free? Um, no. This is the first release of a massive from-scratch rewrite of the library, and it’s safe to say there will be bugs, and even things that used to work that don’t work yet with the new version. However, we hope some of the cool new stuff coming your way will more than make up for it. This release has been through 17 (really!) builds which have gone out to our elite group of super-testers, but there are certainly lots of bugs. Remember what your mom told you: “Hope for the best, expect the worst, and take what comes with a smile.”

Why the @$%#%$ did you guys have to rewrite all that stuff? I’m really glad you asked. Our vision for the future of Plex is a distributed architecture, as opposed to one giant monolithic program. A simple picture might help here:

In order to realize this vision, we had to effectively do two things: (1) rip out massive amounts of code in the client and make it into a “thin client” (essentially just player and skin), and (2) design and build the Alexandria library system into the Plex Media Server.

We consider these major changes to be fundamentally important to the future of Plex. We’re building the foundation for some truly incredible things, and building a strong foundation takes a lot of time and work. Continuing the metaphor, the first release really only shows you the foundation and perhaps a few ground-level floors. However, once you see the speed at which we can add amazing new features, you’ll better understand why we had to take so much time to get this right.

Can you walk me through an example of how this new library is so much better than the old one? One thing I really like is the decoupling of the scanning from the metadata. The scanners are responsible for looking for media, usually on disk, and performing “structural identification” (e.g. Lost, season 3 episode 14″). Media analysis is also performed to get the resolution of the file, pull out a thumbnail, etc. The media is added to Alexandria right at the start of scanning. Note that at no point yet has TVDB or any other Internet site been required. So you can scan new episodes into your library even if the site is down, and see them next to other episodes. What’s more, you can write a custom scanner in a few lines of Python code, which you might want to do if you have a custom filesystem layout for your media. Flexible!

Now the agents, in my opinion, is where things get incredibly cool. They elegantly solve the problem of “how do I bring metadata from the Internet and connect it with my media?”. The agent functionality, along with the other parts of the new plug-in Framework coming in Plex/Nine was designed by James, and I have to be honest, he’s kicked some serious ass.

Plex/Eight used the XBMC scrapers to accomplish that task, and if you’ve ever tried to write one (or even modify an existing one), you’ll know that it’s not an easy task. As Jamie Zawinski once said: “Some people, when confronted with a problem, think ‘I know, I’ll use regular expressions.’ Now they have two problems.” (The only thing worse than regular expressions, mind you, is regular expressions encoded in XML.)

Plex/Nine’s metadata agents use the same (well, an enhanced) version of the Plex Plug-in Framework you’ve come to know and love. This means that powerful XPATH, Unicode, and HTTP functions are available in an easy-to-use manner, and you can write an agent in as little as a few dozen lines of code.

One of the other fundamentally neat things about agents is that multiple agents can contribute to a piece of media. I might want to get my ratings from Rotten Tomatoes and my descriptions from IMDB, for example. The other day Scott said “the movie descriptions on Wikipedia are really good!” and an hour later, this is what my own configuration looked like after I dropped his new agent in:

The “Local Media Assets” agent is the one responsible for finding posters, banners, fanart and such sitting around next to your media. The Wikipedia one is the next highest priority agent, which means that the metadata combiner will prefer its summaries over others.

I think I fell asleep during that last answer. Yeah, I don’t blame you.

How open and extensible is this awesome new library? Well, you tell me. The database is stored in SQLite format, and there is a really nice REST-ish HTTP/XML interface for all areas of the library (which is what the Plex client uses). Want to build a dashboard widget which displays your recently added movies? Easy! Fun! And given that the Alexandria scanners are completely written in Python and support custom-written ones, this new library is much more easily customizable and user-tweakable than the old one. We’re really excited to see what interesting agents and scanners you come up with!

I think I’m out of questions. Good, because I need to get back to Angry Birds.

iTV - We'll find out next month

I believe this is a very high chance of being released next month, and could possibly change things for TV the way iPhone did for mobile phones and touch screens -
SO many possibilities

Kevin Rose, founder of Digg, has heard from sources within Apple that the company will launch its all-new iTV set top box, powered by the iOS operating system, in September for $99.

Rose posted on his blog that he believes the revamped and renamed Apple TV hardware will "change everything" for a number of reasons, including the addition of TV applications written for the iOS operating system. Like the iPhone and iPad, Apple's new iTV will have access to the App Store where users will be able to download software to run on their device, he said.

With these applications, he said, content providers will be able to provide iTV owners "a la carte" stations that Rose believes will change the way people watch content on their television.

"With Apple's iAds, content producers (eg. ABC/NBC/etc.) can directly monetize and distribute their content," he said. "This will eventually destroy the television side of the cable and satellite industry, as your only requirement to access these on-demand stations will be an internet connection. Say goodbye to your monthly cable bill."

Rose also said he has heard that the $99 device will make it easy for users to share pictures and videos "with the push of a button." He suggested the device could include a feature that would notify users when new family photos or videos are available to be viewed.

The Web entrepreneur also said the new iTV will turn Apple's iPad into a remote control, as the "preferred input device" for the set top box. The iPad will also allow users to edit videos, control games, and "extend the interactive television experience," he said. He gave an example of watching football while viewing other camera angles on the iPad.

Rose also made mention of Google TV, the search giant's already-announced Android-powered set top box set to launch this fall. He said that people should keep an eye on Google's product as well. "This is going to be a hot space in 2011," he said.

Rose has reported numerous Apple rumors in the past with varying degrees of accuracy. In 2008, Rose revealed a leaked photo of the fourth-generation iPod nano in advance.

His iPhone-related leaks have been hit or miss, as he correctly predicted the addition of copy and paste to iOS 3.0, but incorrectly said that the iPhone 3G would do video chat. That feature eventually came two years later with the iPhone 4, in the form of FaceTime.

Late last year, Rose also said the then-unannounced iPad would have an emphasis on e-books, and would prove to be a "Kindle killer," referring to Amazon's e-ink device. Apple's iBooks application was available at launch for the iPad.

3D Marches On...backwards...

For your consideration:
http://www.audioholics.com/news/editorials/3d-predictable-flop
and
http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/07/28/hollywoods-fake-3-d-rip-off/

Having now evaluated 3D for the home, we continue our policy of not recommending it, and installing it for clients only if they sign a liability waiver relating to latent health-related issues.

Vienna Acoustics Mozart Grand

Proac Studio 140 MKII

Feeding Proac Studio 140 MKII to Naim Audio.

Close-up look on the Speaker

Naim Audio in Town

Stacking them up.







(Fromt Top to Bottom) CD5XS, DAC, NATXS, FlatCap XS.

Still in Box are CD5i MK2, Nait5i MK2, Nait NAC 152XS, Nait NAP 155XS.