1. Only have 1 camera

2. Don’t need to access the camera either directly or through any software from outside your own home network

3. Don’t already have a web server running on the default port 80 (if your provider does not block this port)

If you are serious about DIY Home Security/Surveillance, you will need to configure multiple cameras on multiple ports, set up dynamic DNS (if you don’t have his setup already) and forward ports on your router. On your router, you should set up DNS reservations for your cameras, and if using a desktop software controller, a reservation for that computer and port forwarding for the port you are using for the desktop controller software web server. You can get free dynamic DNS from the folks at dyndns.com and if you have a decent router, there should be a place to enter your dyndns host name and password and the router will do the work of ensuring that if your Internet DHCP IP changes, updates are made seamlessly. D-Link actually offers a private branded dynamic DNS set up service from inside their admin interface. It should be ok to use this (last time I checked they were using the services of dyndns.com).

D-Link provides a login to a cloud based app to monitor your cameras (in addition to the dysfunctional Windows software) at mydlink.com and offers an iPhone app (free) called MyDlinkLite and a paid version for the iPad. Don’t even bother with these, they only work with port 80. I will post some info on monitoring from an iPxx device later in this series. There are other options.

So to get started, you will need to configure each camera on a unique port in the D-Link admin page.

  

 

In this case, I’ve put the Living Room camera on port 8006. Each of my 4 cameras is on a unique port.

Once you have dynamic DNS set up, use this host name instead of internal IPs. If you can’t reach the web server for your camera with the dynamic host name, you have a brain dead router hat doesn’t support loopback (like some older Netgear routers), and it’s time to replace that router. You shoud be able to reach the camera inside or outside your home in a web browser by using http://your-dyndns-hostname.xxx:port# (e.g.: http://yourhost.dyndns.info:8006 )

 

Similarly, in the Blue Iris desktop controller, cameras need to be set up with the correct port AND the path to the jpg image.

 

 

 

 

Hopefully, you will be able to find the Path info within the camera’s GUI. If not, Google or Bing..

D-Link’s DCS-932L uses /image.jpg and the DCS-942L uses image/jpeg.cgi

 

Be sure to able authentication (password protection) on all camera’s and for the desktop controller.

 

You can see why no one offers retail Home Surveillance kits – the networking set up requirements are beyond the skill set of most consumers. You can pay an installer, buy a plan from ADT or your ISP, etc. but if you are willing to do the work, you CAN roll your own.

I’m currently using Comcast’s 6to4 gateway.

http://www.worldipv6day.org/

http://test-ipv6.com/ipv6day.html

Like many others, while I’d love a new DLNA certified Home Theater receiver DMR, the price range for these is currently $900+. And the Samsung TV is relatively new.

Enter the WD TV Live Hub. This >$200 little box does it all. Like many Home Theater enthusiasts looking for optimum solutions that provide Windows 7 Play To functionality, I’ve been frustrated and was not looking for an expensive solution. This is a very small box with gargantuan capabilities, including a 1TB hard drive to store your favorite media on.

Lots of jacks, including HDMI and SP/DIF, plus USB ports front and back (for connecting USB drives, USB Flash Keys, Wireless Adapters, Keyboards, etc.) For size comparison, in the image above on the right, the WD TV Live Hub sits atop a Samsung BD Player, which sits atop my (broken RRoD’d) Xbox 360. No HDMI or Optical SP/DIF cables are supplied, so you will need your own for the best AV experience. There is an included quick set up poster type guide supplied in the box, but no manual /user guide in the retail box, but it is available online for download in PDF format.  Most of my manuals are still in shrink wrap, so, as usual, I just jumped in without  a net.

I connected an HDMI cable from the device to my TV and an optical cable from the device to a SP/DIF port on my home theater receiver. I also plugged a wired Ethernet cable in to the device and into my D-Link DAP-1522, which provides wireless connectivity as an access point client (like a gaming adapter).  There is a list of supported USB Wireless N adapters, (as well as everything else that WD tested for connectivity including TV’s, routers, etc.) but I found that the one I tried wasn’t as good as the DAP-1522, or MoCA. More later on Network connectivity and speeds.

The WD TV Live Hub by default checks for new firmware. Downloading and installing the firmware that was available was quick and easy.

Once the device restarted with the new firmware, I was ready to try Windows 7 DLNA Play To functionality. One of the best references for Windows 7 Media Streaming and Play To can be found on MSDN.

The WD Live player showed right up in my list of devices since I previously enabled all the settings that are needed.

I selected some music as a first test:

Which started playing immediately with a display showing that the content was from Windows 7:

The next thing I tried was Windows Media Center Recorded TV. All the DRM rules apply, but unprotected content, such as this Stargate episode recorded from SyFy (SciFi) streamed beautifully and looked and sounded great.

On one of my desktops, I have a few favorite Blu Ray movies that I own ripped to MKV. Windows Media Player Streaming/Play To does not recognize the MKV extension, but if you have the appropriate bits (DivX is one option) and rename (or copy) MKV to WMV, you might just find that it works! In my case, this works from both Windows Explorer and Windows Media Player:

Avatar streamed without a glitch, with 5.1 Dolby at 1080p – you may see information quickly displayed as the stream starts, but the blue light in the center of my Sony receiver confirms 5.1 if I blink and miss the info on the screen.

Bottom line, every file type supported by WMP seems to flawlessly “just work” when I use Windows 7 Play To.  If you are looking for a reasonably priced device to enable Windows 7 Play To in your home, I highly recommend the WD TV Live Hub.  The complete list of DMR’s certified to work with Windows 7 is posted here.

While the WD TV Live Hub does have 1TB internal storage, I have a large collection of Recorded TV, plus a few ripped DVD and Blu Ray movies already residing on three Windows 7 desktops, a Vail/WHS 2011 beta machine (which supports Play To if you log into the machine and configure WMP – which you aren’t supposed to do) and 5 TB on NAS. So Windows 7 Play To is almost a necessity in my connected home. I do have a couple of Media Center Extenders which I use on both of my HD TV’s for HD via CableCard (ATI  DCT/OCUR) viewing.

I mentioned the Networking capabilities of the WD TV Live  Hub a bit earlier. Unlike devices from vendors like Sony and Samsung, etc.. who provide wireless N networking only via their own usuriously priced proprietary USN adapters, WD has done the right thing by providing support for off the shelf wireless N USB adapters. Some may work better than others. I tried a Linksys  WUSB600N V2 which the WD device immediately recognized and allowed me to browse available SSID’s, enter a WPA2-AES passphrase, and then use. I found the DAP-1522 (or my MoCA) connection to be more reliable, but this may be a function of the particular Linksys USB adapter that I happened to have laying around. Both the DAP-1522 and MoCA handled the 1080p/5.1 stream perfectly. The source computers are two floors away.  Rather than run up and down the two sets of stairs (and being a couch potato by choice), I use Windows Remote Desktop (RDP host is supported in W7 Professional, Ultimate and Enterprise, but not Home Premium- any version can be a RDP client) to log into these computers from the comfort of my sofa and use Play To via RDP.

In addition to the complete support for Windows 7 Play To, as a DLNA DMR, there are various options to stream media between devices. Being the aforementioned couch potato, after checking out Windows 7 Play To, my instincts were to fire up my iPad and PlugPlayer.  I was easily able to setup PlugPlayer to use the WD Device as the renderer.

And sent my ripped Avatar from the host computer to the WD TV Live Hub

Since the WD TV Live Hub has 1TB of storage, I decided to copy some of my favorite content to its built in hard drive. WD has software available on their website for managing and copying/content, but Windows Explorer handles this kind of task natively, and being a minimalist when it comes to software, that is the route I selected. The device shows in the network window and you can browse, create/rename folders, copy content, etc. easily.

I found that copying over the network was time consuming, so I let it run overnight. I had two MKV files (about 15 gigs each), about 20 gigs of music and 25 gigs of photos. Not sure how long it took, but it was completed when I checked it the next morning. I found info in the downloaded PDF User Guide about thumbnails for ripped movies. Just create a filename.jpg with the same name as filename.mkv (etc.) and it once again, just works.

There are lots of settings that are customizable, including selecting your own photos as a screensaver and setting your own background. I’ve set my own background, and am about to try to find out where that 49 degree temperature is coming from.  The menus are self explanatory and tell you when the device finds new items.

On top of all of this, Netflix, Pandora, YouTube and Facebook (and more) are available.

The WD TV Live Hub just seems to do everything, like a Swiss Army knife. Because it employs flawless and solid Windows 7 DLNA Play To functionality and has support for a massive number of file formats and codecs, this is THE device to grab as it really does fully embrace DLNA and it really “just works”.  If your interested in discussing this, and/or other DLNA devices, see The Green Button  Play To, DLNA, Etc. Forum.

What does this mean? At some point in time, a new web site you want to visit or new web service you want to use may not have an assigned IPv4 address and be reachable over IPv6 only.

Is your ISP working towards insuring that  you can connect to these sites? Mine sure is. Comcast has been working on this for a long time. Of the available technologies, 6 to 4 and native dual stack seem to me to be the most robust. But the catch is that in your home, you need equipment that has implemented one of these technologies, starting with the router at the edge of your network.

I look around and I see a sorry state of affairs for the home user, where there are so few capable devices (let alone firmware upgrades for top of the line dual band wireless routers) that it would appear that the router vendors are planning on forcing consumers to buy entirely new products, most likely to be announced at CES2011.

• Apple’s Dual Band N Airport Extreme seems the farthest along in out of the box features with firmware 7.5.1,and it is a great performer, provided you are willing to forego things like MAC address cloning, and can limit yourself to 50 clients and not being able to manage via a web browser.
• D-Link’s flagship DIR-855 has no apparent support for configuring IPv6 features (although their DIR-825 B2 hardware is rumored to have some IPv6 support, but I’ve ordered and returned 4 of them, having received the initial hardware version each time). Of all the top of the line routers, IMO, the DIR-855 has the best and largest set of features and options, and I’m disappointed at the lack of IPv6 features, to say the least.
• Netgear’s flagship WNDR3700 (I believe it has recently been rebadged with a new product number)  also shows no sign of IPv6 support.
• Linksys’s  E3000 (rebadged WRT610N) also shows no signs of official IPv6 support (and it is the worst performer of the bunch).

So, yes, there is open source firmware for some router lines, but the typical home user shouldn’t have to deal with a geeky upgrade and the quirks.

My advice if you are in the market for a new router? Don’t be pulled in by those door buster holiday specials.. You are going to need to purchase a new router in the next 18 months or so unless the vendors ante up and do the right thing.

HP has been trumpeting its latest crop of ink jet printers that feature ePrint, a technology that assigns an email address to each printer and enables you to send mail via a HP web service that is supposed to print documents to your printer from anywhere in the world using email.  I had a $50 BestBuy gift card and they (and HP) are selling the D110 ePrinter for $70. That was a no brainer for me.

Too bad ePrint  needs constant care and feeding by the end user to actually work. Here’s my quick review:

The Good: Printer setup over 802.11n was a breeze, as the printer includes WPS. The printer immediately discovered an available firmware update and I applied the update (and had to reconfigure). I setup the ePrint mail list (which lets you restrict who can send jobs to the printer) and added the email address to my contacts. Next, I used my iPad and was easily able to discover and print a page in Safari.

The Bad: Normal TCP/IP network printing works as expected, except for buggy 64 bit drivers that need to be reinstalled after a computer restart.  This has existed for at least a year and HP thinks reinstalling every restart is an acceptable solution, apparently. Many of their printer support pages all point to the same KB/FAQ so stating. Also,  HP is using the Bonjour protocol on the printer, which enables the IOS functionality. (It is too bad that Apple decided to use their own proprietary protocol, but it is good news for folks like HP who hope to sell new network printers. I assume that the reason that printers connected to local computers work with the new iPxx print function is that Bonjour is installed (and required) on the host computer.

The Ugly: The real travesty is that the ePrint functionality that links the printer to the HP Web Service is badly broken and these printers lose their connection to the Web Service (but ALL other functions continue to work) and that HP has been aware of this since at least August, as evidenced by this 18 page (and growing) thread. HP interns patrolling the forum have marked “power cycle the router or the printer” as an acceptable solution, but there has been no official reply from HP tech support OR a commitment to fix this.

Update 11.29.2010: Had and email exchanges with HP Support. After they emailed their scripted response to run their proprietary network trouble shooter (for an issue that does not even require a local computer to be turned on) I asked them to escalate to someone that understood ePrint. I’ve told them it was not a LAN issue in all the emails and clearly, with bold type, characterized it as an issue between the web service in the cloud and the printer not maintaining a connection or renegotiating one. When I installed the basic driver on a second W7 x64 laptop, the first page I printed displayed the following message (these are the print cartridges included in the factory sealed box).

In Conclusion: I suspect that HP needed to release and promote a not ready for primetime function to coincide with the launch of IOS 4.2.1 which enabled printing from an iPxx device. HP’s current list of ePrint enabled printers as of 11/22/2010 includes:

•HP Officejet Pro 8500A e-All-in-One Printer series – A910  for customers worldwide
•HP Officejet 7500 Wide Format All-in-One Printer Series- E910  for customers worldwide
•HP Officejet 6500A e-All-in-One Printer – E710
•HP Photosmart D110 series for North America customers
•HP Photosmart B110 series for Asia and Europe customers
•HP Photosmart B210 series for customers worldwide
•HP Photosmart Premium C310 series for customers worldwide
•HP Photosmart C410 series for customers worldwide
•HP Photosmart Ink Advantage K510 series for Asia and Europe customers
•HP Photosmart eStation e-All-in-One Printer  C510 series for North America and Europe customers
•HP Envy eAll-in-One Printer D410 series for customers world wide

Recommendations: If you need a replacement printer or especially in you want iPxxx print functionality, and can live with having to reinstall drivers on 64 bit Windows at inconvenient times, check out one of these printers. If you are looking for ePrint, it isn’t ready for prime time.

I thought about this for a bit and then tested to see if an HTML page could be hosted locally, placed in the C:ProgramDataMicrosoftWindowsStart MenuProgramsAccessoriesMedia CenterMedia Center Programs folder with the appropriate MCL and PNG file. The answer was yes, and this now opens the door to more customizations.

Further, I thought that the still images needed to be refreshed. Not much value in watching an image on the screen that just sits there. I fired up Microsoft Expression Web and created a page and added in a META REFRESH tag to reload every xx seconds (I used 30 seconds as the interval). While tables should not be used for layout on a page designed to be viewed in a real web browser (a deprecated means of coding), a nested table structure proved perfect for display inside Windows Media Center. I specified the Segoe UI font and ended up with something that looked pretty decent and worked.  Here is the view inside Windows Media Center:

Here is the HTML code. You will need to replace the hostname, port, image path as I documented in the post linked above. The mycameras.html file I created contains the following:

The MCL file (mycameras.mcl) is as follows:

After removing the files I created and used yesterday, I placed the html file, the MCL file, and the new PNG file in the C:ProgramDataMicrosoftWindowsStart MenuProgramsAccessoriesMedia CenterMedia Center Programs folder. Next I launched Windows Media Center,and  opened Extras.

I finished by adding my new My Cameras extra as a top level Extras menu item.

Now, if I add more cameras, I can just edit the existing HTML. I’m sure I’ll have to change (reduce) the size of the displayed image to get more on a single page, but I now have a personal IP Camera viewport inside Windows Media Center. (And naturally, I’ve added the second camera to my iPhone and iPad Smartvue configuration).

My goals were to be able to check activity in my parking lot/walkway on demand from Windows Media Center, my iPhone, and my iPad. The web is a wonderful wealth of information, and putting this together was not really difficult. And definitely worth sharing with others.

Back in 2002, I wrote about adding an Internet Camera to my home network.  Obviously, 802.11b with WEP doesn’t interest me any more, but since the device has a 10/100 Ethernet port, connecting to a MoCA network or using an 802.11n wireless bridge makes the device usable with more modern networking technologies. The device can display a live view with either an ActiveX control or Java (neither of which is usable on an iPxxx device or Media Center friendly.  The trick was to find a way using only a web URL to display real time images. Most IP Camera vendors don’t document this.

Then I found the Smartvue web site, which not only listed the URL format for images for a huge variety of IP cameras, but pointed the way to free iPhone and iPad apps. The iCam support site also has a neat interactive test page to determine the proper URL to use and includes some options not listed at Smartvue.

I tested the image path samples on the Smartvue site and found the correct one for my DCS1000W by testing with Internet Explorer using the internal IP, my FQD URL (dynamic DNS) and on my iPhone and iPad.

First up was adding what was needed to view inside the Media Center interface. I found the info to create an MCL file and accompanying tile for Windows Media Center on The Digital Lifestyle and got started tweaking. Here is a sample MCL file to use as a guide:

Since I need to view on both laptops away from home and desktops at home, I used the fully qualified dynamic dns name from my dynamic DNS provider, the port number, and the image path as shown above. (And my home router has the corresponding port forwarding set up. My router supports loopback (and supports dynamic DNS providers), so this guarantees a sweet experience.

Below you can see the MCL file and the PNG image I created (in Photoshop, but Windows Paint will work) and where these were placed so that they would be available to all users. As stated on The Digital Lifestyle information, I had to create the last two folders.

I opened Media Center, and the new Camera tile was displayed as expected. When I opened it, I received a standard Windows login credentials prompt because my IP Camera is protected with a username and password. But since I had already opened the site in IE and selected “remember password”, I could select OK either with the mouse or the remote. Next,  the expected warning about compatibility with the Media Center interface and selected to not warn me and view anyway (a one time task).

I also added the Tile to the top level menu (right click or i on the remote)

And here’s the view inside Media Center of my IP Camera (we had a frost last night so there is some condensation).

Integration with my iPxx devices was next.  Smartvue provides FREE apps for both the iPhone and iPad in the Apple App Store and they are both pretty neat. (And they have apps for Blackberrys, Android’s and more !) They also support a way to view password protected cameras like mine (documented on the bottom of the third party camera page AND in the apps themselves).

On the iPad, with the larger display, there is a list of cameras on the left and the view from the selected camera is on the right, (Out of the box, both the iPad and iPhone apps have some default cameras configured, but you can delete/edit, etc.)

And on my iPhone, here’s the default list, with my own camera at the bottom:

And the view from my iPhone:

And, the camera itself can send email and a screen shot when motion is detected, so no matter where I am, I’m going to know who’s pulled into my other parking space or is walking to my front door!

1. The ability to stream from ANY of my computers (using Play To or anything else) to more than one music player/renderer simultaneously.

2. To be able to control the volume above individually or together.

3. Play Pandora Radio and other Internet sourced digital music

4. Use existing/create new playlists

5. Use iPhones, iPads and  iPxxx whatever to control and manage the device as a remote control (including graphical menus).

6. Use the system as an alarm clock with choices to wake from alarm, music, Internet music, whatever

7. Wireless connectivity in my Living Room

8. A system that was upgradeable.

9. Quality sound

10. Expandability

I’m still stunned that I found a system that does ALL of the above. (And I’m betting I discover more features – I’ve only had a few hours experience with this all, so my exploration and discovery has only just begun).

First, it’s a nice looking system. Available in Black or White, it will fit in anywhere,

Connecting two of these to my complex network was mindlessly simple. I plugged one into a switch uplinked to my router and connected the power. As for the second one, I stuck it in my living room and plugged in the power. The two units found each other over wireless 802.11n automagically, without my having to do anything. My network is secured by WPA2-AES, but Sonos uses “SonosNet 2.0” which is a secure AES peer to peer mesh wireless network, so this is a separate, but secured network. Interestingly, the speakers have two Ethernet ports for Ethernet bridging. And they also have a jack for a powered sub woofer which the devices find automatically. The docs state that you can use TWO of these in a single room for left/right stereo, but I’m wowed by just one in my living room and another upstairs that covers my loft home office and master bedroom.

I downloaded and installed the latest Sonos controller pc software from the Sonos website (rather than even opening the enclosed CD). After installing the software, I had to push a combination of buttons on each speaker to link to the software, but that was easy and fast. I saw that  firmware upgrades were detected for both speakers and they were downloaded and  applied seamlessly. I then connected my existing Pandora account through the Sonos Controller software. Done!

I fired up Windows Media Player (already set up for “Play To” with my Samsung TV which was not turned on at the time) and as you can see below, both units were available for Play To.

And of course, it worked beautifully.

I’ve got music stored on a flock of computers, including WHS1 and Vail. So how can I stream to my new Sonos speakers without moving from the sofa or booting up a laptop? Well, Sonos has apps for the iPad/ and for the iPhone/iTouch.  Just below is a screen capture from my iPhone. I can browse all my media servers and drill down to Artist, Album, etc. etc. and add to queues, play now, (etc. again). And I can stream my Pandora stations, too!

The iPad Sonos controller software, with more screen real estate, is a real knock out, as shown below.

And yes, there is a Line-In on the speakers themselves to connect even more devices. Like a Zune or whatever. Both the desktop software and the iPad software allow me to set alarms and sleep timers (!)

I will be setting up a series of alarms that I can turn on or off. This is so slick.

The sound is great. Sonos supports a wide variety of music formats (but not WMA lossless or Apple AAC enhanced
or Fairplay). Most of my content is mp3, so I’m all set.

This is the most advanced, converged system I’ve seen, and I’m more than just a little impressed. Kudos to Sonos for having the vision that supports my connected home.

I just had one of those A HA moments and uploaded one of them to my iDisk in the cloud  (which comes with my MobileMe subscription).  I had been thinking of iDisk as a place in the cloud to stash files, but not as a streaming server.  I downloaded the iDisk app to my iPad (and to my iPhone) and yup, I’ve got another place to store media files that can be served to my computers and iPxxx devices over the Internet.  Apple supplies 10GB of cloud storage space (compared to the 25GB Microsoft supplies with SkyDrive, but MS doesn’t seem to have an App in the App store <G>).

Here are a couple of captures from my iPad:

Update: if you are a Rogers customer, this may have triggered lower usage limits. CBC news is reporting that Rogers is lowering their download limits.

Here’s what you’ll see if you access the site from a Canadian IP address.

CBC news has posted info, including the fact that this will be streaming only (no DVD’s by mail). “English only to start, French to follow over time”.

I don’t know if Media Center access to Netflix for Windows 7 Canadian users will be turned on at launch, but am trying to find out.

One comment, if you are a HD snob (and I have no qualms admitting that *I* am), the content is pitiful. And the content for PC’s and Mac’s (a subset) is shameful.

After months of silence, RIM has announced 32 bit only support “targeted for” August. And no 64 bit support until 2011.  Targeted is a weasel word. My perception is that RIM has crappy programmers and/or figures most people don’t care about either Office 2010 and/or sync.

They’ve posted the following (linked above):

Overview

Currently, BlackBerry Desktop Manager 5.0.1 does not support Microsoft Outlook 2010 64-bit version for mailbox connectivity and synchronization of organizer data such as Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, and Memos. The next release of the BlackBerry Desktop Manager provides support for Microsoft Outlook 2010 32-bit version only. This release is targeted for August 2010. Support for Microsoft Outlook 2010 64-bit version will be available in 2011.

I’d ripped a bunch of movies at 720p to stream to my iPad using Air Video and other options. I was browsing the network folder over RDP that housed these mp4  and double clicked The Day After Tomorrow without really knowing what might happen. My expectation was that since RDP has been so bad at streaming media of any kind that it would be dreadful. To my surprise, it actually worked smoothly and well, including video and audio in sync.

Here’s a shot of my TV where you can see the RDP session and the movie in a Windows Media Player window.

And here is it when I expanded to full screen

I admit that I prefer the Windows Media Center interface over RDP as that losses the menu bar and gives me full screen. But this brings up interesting possibilities of traveling to a friends house with my Push2TV adapter and WiDi enabled laptop and having access to a remote library over the Internet. Probably won’t work as well over the Internet, but I’m up for trying.

The Netgear site http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/13206 indeed has totally accurate instructions that work as advertised. I updated the laptop, rebooted, launched the utility, accessed the check for updates and the PTV1000 updated beautifully.

As you can see from the screen shot above, you can watch the progress of the Push2TV device upgrade on the laptop. It took about two minutes.

Similarly, the connected TV shows that the adapter is being updated.

When complete, you will need to re-associate your laptop with the adapter just like you did when you first setup the pairing.  If you’re just buying this gear, chances are that it will have the original firmware. You will need to set up the pairing with your TV prior to updating and then re-pair.

Once completed, I recommend you grab the even newer Intel My WiFi on the Netgear site and apply it for increased behavior control including as well:

Microsoft WHQL Certified Release
Fast Cursor
Support 1366×768 Display Resolution
Dynamic Wireless Status (More Frequent)
Prompted Firmware Update
Extended Desktop & Remote Only Display Modes
Automatic Microsoft* Firewall Approval
Support for Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 1000
Switchable Graphics Interoperability Support

But they want to make this 802.11b/g and not the faster 802.11n (which is backwards compatible with b/g.

As any photographer knows, RAW files are huge, and even the JPEGs at Fine and Super-Fine resolutions are pretty big.

Eye-FI has done it right and offers SDHC cards that utilize 802.11n.

Why in the world would Toshiba (or anyone else for that matter) want to slow people down? This may be a price based decision. I sure have no interest.

What they don’t tell you is that you need a specific computer with Intel GMA HD graphics and the Intel WiFi embedded radio. Initially, three laptops only were initially  available, exclusively from Best Buy.

For more in depth info on the technology see:

I’ve been using this technology since it became available in January and recommend it highly. You can read about my personal experience with this technology HERE.

Intel announced on June 21,2010 that "Intel Wireless Display is now available on more than 25 systems based on Intel Core i3 or Intel Core i5 processors from manufacturers like ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba. It is now available at more than 10 retailers including Amazon, Best Buy, Dell.com, Fry’s, Sony Style, OfficeMax, Tiger Direct, and more. Enhancements to Intel Wireless Display are available for download with the 1.2 software version. This enables people to access an extended display mode for watching a video on TV while surfing the Internet on the laptop. New remote only mode allows you to watch a video with a black screen on the laptop to lower glare and distractions. A new fast cursor improves navigation on the TV. Intel Wireless Display is available on select Intel Core i5 or i5 systems and requires a Push to TV adapter from Netgear."

Dell has just announced an Inspiron model that can be custom ordered to include this technology.  You will need to be sure to order or configure to order the right combination of components including the Intel HD GMA video chip and Intel WiFi. And be sure to order the Netgear Push2TV adapter as well.

Clubhouse Tags: clubhouse, Wireless Streaming, Windows 7, TV On Your PC, how-to, Stream your PC to your TV wirelessly

Eye-Fi on its own is cool enough. Send digital photos from your camera to your desktop via 802.11n (2.4 GHz only)  for editing, to various online photo sharing sites, Facebook, and so on. It sure beats connecting cables or removing cards from a camera.

I thought that the advertised free iPhone app for Eye-Fi (available in the App Store of course) might be useful on my iPad since its function is to send photos from the iPhone via 3G to your desktop or a supported online photo sharing site (Facebook, Flickr, MobileMe, Picasa, Smugmug). And I was right.

Surprisingly, there was virtually no setup to speak up. You authenticate by entering the credentials for your Eye Fi account and the little app “just works”. Once I logged in, the computer showed an additional tab on the left labelled iPhone (which I promptly changed to iPad). A settings window popped right up (and it can be accessed at any time) that let me specify a folder hierarchy and type and some other options.

Back on the iPad, since there is no camera and because I don’t yet have my hands on the camera connector for iPad, I was able to upload photos stored on the device. I used this feature to take the screen captures I made of the Eye Fi functionality on the iPad and send them to my desktop for editing and inclusion in this post.

Well, I can’t take a photo with the iPad as I said, but I sure can choose an existing photo and upload it. I just selected my Saved Pictures folder on the iPad and selected three images. The two above and one showing all the saved screen shots (appears below as iPhone005.JPG inside the Windows Explorer image).

I could tell the image uploads were completed via both a tool tip in the system and the Eye-Fi center window below.

Here’s the Windows Explorer view.

Yup, this is way cool. I really want to get my hands on that iPad Camera Connector. I’m relishing the thought of all my pictures being uploaded and ready for editing on the home computer when I walk in the front door at the end of a day of photo shooting.

Ingredients:

Vail (WHS2) Beta

Apple iTunes x64

Air Video (Free from the App Store)

iPad

DVR-MS Recorded TV files

Well, Vail is in public beta. I’m disappointed that there isn’t any Media Center functionality (i.e., whole home networked Media Center), but at least I’ve got a slick way to stream my unprotected recorded TV (and other video formats) while away from home.

I’m going to be purchasing the full version of Air Video. This one’s a keeper and then some. I set up the free version today and I’m, well, wowed.

Air Video streams quite a number of file formats natively, and can convert some (but not all) in real time and stream. That includes dvr-ms (but not, unfortunately, wtv). I’m looking for a slicker way to automatically convert my wtv files to dvr-ms, but for now, I right click a wtv on a W7 machine and then select convert to dvr-ms. Enough for a demo and to know that this is one app I’m going to be using alot. The Free version of Air Video only allows 3 files in a folder, so for now, I’ve divided a few files up accordingly and stored them on my Vail machine. That was the hard part. Or at least manually distracting.

In order, I

1. Installed iTunes x64 (this includes Bonjour – if you already have iTunes without Bonjour, you will need to install it)

2.  Downloaded the server side software. Configured it by specifying the folders

3. . Downloaded and installed the Air Video Free server software from iTunes on my iPad

4.  Specified the server on the iPad in Air Server Server settings.

5.  Started watching streaming recorded TV over 3G (also works at home on WiFi)

Note: If your router isn’t UPnP, you will need to forward TCP Port 45631

You can see you can play in real time with Live Conversion. This worked perfectly for me. You can also convert and queue up various titles.

Full screen in landscape view on my iPad is totally watchable.

All,

802.11 had two items under consideration during the Standards Board meetings being held this week.

I’m am very pleased to announce that both P802.11w and P802.11n were approved today.

Although this email vehicle falls far short of expressing the sentiment, Thanks to the hundreds of 802.11members that contributed to these efforts, as well as the 802 EC and the IEEE Staff.

With me here as I write this is Paul Nikolich who wishes to add his congratulations to the group.

I expect to extend the celebration of the success , (while we continue work on the other amendments in process ) when we convene in Hawaii two weeks from now.

Hope to see you there.

Bruce”

For most of us, this just means our Draft 2.0 802.11n equipment is now the real thing.

Clubhouse Tags: clubhouse, wifi, Wireless Networking, windows networking

I did a fair amount of online research and put three HD TVs on my “see and compare” list based on features. The best features were on a Samsung 52 inch LN52B750 that also happened to be on sale for $600 off at the time. The picture quality from High Def sources is absolutely stunning. Breathtaking. I was hooked. And there was a LOT of icing on the cake to go along with a superb TV.

Old TV before the attack of the  Purple Blotchies	New Samsung LN52B750

Reading all the user guides which were available on line (to get a good idea of features and performance) really focused me on the Samsung because in addition to all the jacks you’d ever want (4 HDMI, 2 Component, 2 USB, PC, Ethernet, optical digital sound in and out plus some legacy analog ports) it looked to have full DLNA 1.5 support. DLNA “server” software is supplied with the TV (and is downloadable online from Samsung’s support site) but my instincts told me that this TV should work with Windows 7 native DLNA “Play To” support. And I was right on the money.

In my opinion, the Play To/Streaming enhancements in Windows 7 are some of the coolest new features in Windows 7. The team responsible for this work has an extensive blog post at http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2009/05/12/media-streaming-with-windows-7.aspx which explains and showcases the technologies involved. It’s really about an ecosystem of smart, transparently connected devices and this is something I’ve been passionate about for several years.  With Windows 7, we’ve reached a real break through. Anyone, novices included, should be able to use and have fun with this technology set. It might give neighborhood geeks like me some free time back because a non geek can easily get it working.

The Samsung LN52B750 (and all the B750 line apparently) include a full set of DLNA 1.5 features. When I display the source list on the TV,  all of my DLNA 1.0 and 1.5 devices are auto detected and displayed. You can see part of this list below, but it also detected my WHS box and additional computers.

Note that it this point, the Samsung TV does not appear to be able to pull the list of available shared media from my Windows 7 computers (or other sources). A folder structure is displayed, but no content is visible to pull and stream. However, using Play To on a host Windows 7 machine (PUSH technology) works beautifully. Perhaps future firmware updates from Samsung will enable “pull”. I hope so!

This TV is all about connectivity, including the Internet. The Samsung TV has onboard Ethernet and accepts a Samsung 802.11n wireless USB adapter. Out of the box, there are some Yahoo Widgets, including YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. Samsung has done a great job with this. Hit the Internet button on the remote and you’re off and running. You can sign in with a existing Yahoo account, too. There is a handy on screen button to run TV in a smaller window while the Widgets, etc. display. You can toggle back and forth. I’ve already used the connection to pull down a firmware upgrade for the TV itself. Another “well done” for Samsung.

I have a fairly sophisticated home network. Everything here is dual homed. One network is Wireless N (both 2.4 and 5 GHz) plus GigE wired Ethernet, and a second network is MoCA plus N. MoCA is short for multi media over COAX. 

W7’s Network & Sharing Center displaying my dual homed network

W7 Network Map of one network segment. The line along the bottom is the second network.

I’ve got desktops, laptops, digital picture frames, NAS boxes, wireless access points and of course my new Samsung TV networked.  Below is a partial view of my networked home (some devices are not powered on all the time).

Barb’s Home Network 

Did I mention that my new TV includes a wired Ethernet jack and can accept an 802.11n (2.4 GHz) special USB adapter? Samsung offers a wireless 802.11n USB adapter as an accessory. It is powered by a Ralink 2880 radio. I was hoping that any wireless N USB adapter would work since I have a bucketful of those here, but only the Samsung branded one will function. Samsung supports Windows Connect Now (WCN) via push button and of course you can manually configure the wireless network. It’s fast and easy to set up.

You can access the settings for media streaming options from several places on a Windows 7 computer. One way to do this is from the Network Window. Right click the device (TV in this case) and then select Media streaming options from the shortcut menu that displays.

From the Media streaming options window you can then specify what permissions to set for each computer and device. This is very easy and intuitive.

Once permissions are enabled, it’s time to have a LOT of fun.

From within Windows Explorer, if there is an available device on the network, right clicking a media file or a group of selected media files invokes a shortcut menu that offers Play To as a choice.

Once you’ve sent media on its way using this method, a Play To window opens with a list of the items selected. You can drag and drop additional content into this window and even mix and match images, music, recorded TV (non protected). 

On the TV, the incoming streamed content is auto sensed and auto displayed. You’ll see some meta data briefly as shown below.

The meta data header will then disappear and you’ll get a nicely displayed image.

The same technique works for music files, at least for MP3’s. I was not able to send WMA ripped music using Play To. Microsoft has put me in touch with Samsung, and they are investigating. Samsung obviously wants to get this right and I’m hopeful that this will be fixed with a firmware update. Note that since I’m running sound through a Home Theater Receiver, I do have to switch the receiver to a different audio input. I ran a digital optical cable from the TV to the receiver and that handles the sound streamed over the network perfectly.

I’ve saved the best (in my mind anyway) for last. And that is Recorded TV from Windows Media Center. Frankly speaking, I was VERY surprised at the support for this. Both dvr-ms and wtv formats ARE supported. It is important to note that only non protected (non DRM’d) recorded TV will work. I hope Microsoft can change this severe limitation, because this is a kickass feature and then some. I’d also like to see Play To supported inside the Windows Media Center interface itself.

In the image below, I’ve right clicked an episode of Stargate Atlantis (non protected recording from the Sci Fi – now Sy Fy – channel), And once again, Play To (TV) appears as a choice.

My mouth dropped to the floor and I was speechless when this actually worked (see screenshot below). I think this is the future and  that I’ve found a time machine.

It takes a lot to get me excited and I’m VERY excited about this technology. My virtual hat is tipped to Microsoft for the slick implementation and to Samsung for being visionary and being one of the first to embrace this very cool convergent world.

And if you have read this far, I have two recommendations for you. The first is to upgrade to Windows 7 just as soon as you can and the second is, if you are shopping for a new HDTV, the Samsung B750 line will rock your world.

Clubhouse Tags: clubhouse,Windows 7, media center, Media Center Windows 7, windows media center, how-to, Play To, Windows Media Streaming,DLNA,Tip

The current crop of Extreme N routers now have updates available that add CAPTCHA to the login page.

You can’t be too secure.. Right?