Blog of Finster » Home Entertainment

XBMC With VDPAU and iPlayer

finster — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:22:04 +0000

There’s an interesting article on the How to do something differently… blog about getting VDPAU working with iPlayer under Linux with the SVN build of XBMC. I’ll be sure to look into it some more when I install Ubuntu onto my Revo.

List of Media Centre Software for Windows and Linux

finster — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 13:50:47 +0000

Here is a list of free Media Centre Software for Linux and Windows.

Windows Media Center Software

Windows Media Center – http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/features/media-center.aspx (supports TV cards)
XBMC – http://xbmc.org
Moovida – http://www.moovida.com
MediaPortal – http://www.team-mediaportal.com (supports TV cards)
Freevo – http://freevo.sourceforge.net (supports TV cards)
GB-PVR – http://www.gbpvr.com (supports TV cards)
MeediOS – http://www.meedios.com (supports TV cards)

Linux Media Center Software

XBMC – http://xbmc.org
Boxee – http://www.boxee.tv
Moovida – http://www.moovida.com
My Media System – http://mymediasystem.org
Entertainer – http://www.entertainer-project.com
Freevo – http://freevo.sourceforge.net (supports TV cards)
GeeXboX – http://www.geexbox.org (supports TV cards)
LinuxMCE – http://www.linuxmce.org (supports TV cards)
MythTV – http://www.mythtv.org (supports TV cards)

Streaming HD Video to Xbox 360

finster — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 21:50:43 +0000

I’ve been experimenting with encoding HD videos using EncodeHD and then streaming them to an Xbox 360 via TwonkyVision from my QNAP TS-101. The QNAP TS-101 is a small NAS device with 64mb RAM so I think its a safe assumption that no transcoding is being done.

I first took a sample video from here and then encoded it using the various presets. The files were then copied to the QNAP, and then accessed from “Video Library” on the 360 (note: not via the Media Center Extender).

Original File
Resolution: 1440 x 1088
Bit Rate: 11035 kbps
Video: WMP v9 (VC-1 Simple/Main)
Audio: WMA v2 9 320 kbps, 44100Hz 320 kb/s tot (2 chnls)
File Size: 67.1 MB
Played wonderfully well on the 360.

Encoded with iPhone Preset
Resolution: 426 x 320
Bit Rate: 1490 kbps
Video: H.264/MPEG-4 AVC
Audio: MPEG-4 AAC LC
File Size: 10.1 MB
Played on the 360 but had to change display mode.

Encoded with Apple TV Preset
Resolution: 720 x 540
Bit Rate: 4959 kbps
Video: H.264/MPEG-4 AVC
Audio: MPEG-4 AAC LC
File Size: 33.7 MB
Played on the 360 but had to change display mode.

Encoded with Xbox 360 Preset
Resolution: 1440 x 1080
Bit Rate: 9385 kbps
Video: H.264/MPEG-4 AVC
Audio: MPEG-4 AAC LC
File Size: 63.8 MB
Played on the 360 but had to change display mode.

(For reference, PAL DVD resolution is 720×576)

All stats were taken from the video files with G-Spot.