Posts Tagged ‘Windows 7’
After publishing a piece on how to connect an Internet enabled camera to WMC, iPhones and iPads yesterday, I received a couple of emails basically saying, “great, but I want to monitor more than one camera in a master view like stand alone IP surveillance software”.
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’s one I did not expect to work but did. I’ve been able to use Windows Media Center to display non DRM’d High Def content over WiDi (since the TV HD is at best 720p, it will work.. higher 1080p is not support.. maybe someday).
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.
There is a lot of interest in this technology and naturally, accompanying confusion as to what this is and how to get it. Some of this has been driven by a recent Windows 7 was My Idea commercial. That commercial and possibly similar ones, have stirred up things in the past few weeks. See:
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
Fired up a machine that never had Netflix installed previously (W7 x64 Ultimate) and installed Netflix. I’m streaming Stargate Continuum in HD 3800/3800 (screen shot below) over 802.11n 5GHz wireless to me 1920 x 1080 Sony “laptop”. No HD icon, but it is definitely HD.
