Enabling UPnP services in Windows

There are time which you are wondering which UPnP media server to use ? Beside Vista comes with Windows Media Connect 4.0 which is essentially a UPnP server.

With my SLM5500, I have tried PMM (Philips Media Manager that comes with the product), TVersity for online content, and Windows Media Player 11.

All had it advantages I believe,

• PMM is simple and it comes with the product naturally it's the first to use, lack of features especially online contents. Saying that "Juice" add more to it.
  


• TVersity gives you lots of online content plus it allows realtime transcoding, however it's quite difficult to get it right and it still in beta (crashes off and on)



• WMP11 - If you have portable device, then allowing the same content playlist on both this devices helps.

How to enable UPnP on Windows Media Player 11

Even if you are using XP, you can still get the Microsoft UPnP server (called Windows Media Connect which is part of Windows Media Player 11).

To get Windows Media Player 11, go to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download/AllDownloads.aspx

Well the thing I hate about the installation is that I need to restart my PC after the installation!

Start Window Media Player, Go to

Library -> More Option -> Library tab -> Configure Sharing -> Share my media

You have the option to click on allow for just one Device or you can choose to allow all devices. There is a good reference site : http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2086248,00.asp

Vista works the same way exept that you can also follow instruction from http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/32f3845b-eda0-4168-be8d-90f07250d8101033.mspx

How to watch YouTube on your TV?

How to watch YouTube and other RSS feed video/audio podcast on your TV.

Ever wanted to watch your YouTube stuff on the TV? Well I do, especially if I do not need to wake for it to download as well… Well here’s how.

You need a Digital Media Adapter. In my current setup, I’m using a Philips Streamium series, SLM5500. It has got a wireless 802.11g network port which I connect to my WiFi router. My pc(laptop) is then wired(mostly)/wirelessly connected to the internet.

Since Philips comes with a Media-Manager software, I chose to install a program call TVersity (www.tversity.com) on my PC running XP. It’s free for now, in its beta testing version 0.9.9.2(beta), however it is incredible software.

Step 1
Download and install Tversity from http://download.tversity.com/TVersity_Setup_0_9_9_2.exe and install into my PC.

Step 2
Download and install the free codec from http://www.free-codecs.com/, I used the full package “K_Lite_Codec_Pack” which have most of the stuff required already.

Step 3
After the installation,
I modified the file "C:\Program Files\TVersity\Media Server\profile.xml” by adding my own SLM5500 profile.

http://forums.tversity.com/viewtopic.php?t=2117&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
Although you might have to replace the Sony Vaio profile instead.

I then added another file call “C:\Program Files\TVersity\Media Server\UPNP_AV_MediaServer_1.0.slm.xml” in the same directory so that I could rename the display name.

All I did was to copy the UPNP_AV_MediaServer_1.0.default.xml and change one line
"friendlyName "TVersity for Philips "/friendlyName"

So that I could get a better display name.

Step 4
Start TVersity by clicking on the icon, go to the
> Settings tab
> Transcoder - Video and Image resolution is 720x576.
> Internet Feeds set
Max download files is 4
Number of New items is 200.
(I just want to buffer as many stuff overnight as possible)


Ø Add Internet Feed / Podcast > Add Video Feed

Ø Video Feed : http://youtube.com/rss/global/top_viewed_today.rss

Ø


After that add as much RSS feeds and let the PC running. It will download content overnight and you should have enough content to keep yourself entertain for awhile.