Category — Projects

Version 2.1 of ZETZ Mobile’s iVideo is now available for download in iTunes iVideo is now a universal iOS app, with full resolution user interfaces for all iOS devices. Enjoy iVideo on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch, at no additional cost. As a reminder, the following features are available with version 2.x:

• Compatible Content: All video content is iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch compatible, including tons in HD
• AirPlay Enabled: Stream iVideo to your AppleTV and watch on your HDTV (requires iOS 4.3)
• Improved Response Time: Fast downloads, even over cellular connections
• Subscriptions: Full subscribe/unsubscribe capabilities, including automatic addition of future content
• Share Your Videos: Share your favorite shows with your Facebook friends, Twitter followers or email contacts. They can watch too – even without iVideo!

Please check it out and give us your feedback!

Whether you have multimedia content on a remote device like a file server (NAS) or your laptop, the next big question: how do I stream that content wirelessly to my TV?  There are a few ways to do so, and if you’re into consumer gadgetry in general then chances are you have a solution already.  For instance, I have a Xbox 360 and an Apple TV2.  The Xbox 360 natively supports wireless networking to a file server but is limited in its media codec support.  Plus its pretty college-bootleg to have to boot up the 360 to watch a movie.

Apple TV 2 on the other hand is very slick and simple, yet missing the essential streaming from a (gasp!) non-Apple machine.  That’s right – at this time, Home Sharing is not something you’ll find on a device other than another apple computer.  I had no intention of buying another Apple device to serve media content.  Thankfully, the kind folks at http://www.appletvhacks.net had just published an article to jailbreak the operating system on the Apple TV so you can inject additional software onto the device.  This sounds complicated, but it really isn’t.  Just follow the instructions and soon you can be playing high definition movies from your file server running XBMC (formerly Xbox Media Center).

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With very little effort I recently implemented a home streaming video environment.  It is pretty slick having an at-home multimedia hub for movies, music, and photos.  Since then, a few people have asked me what steps I took.  If you have an existing WIFI-enabled home then you can stream video and music to almost any display with a few extra ingredients.

Here’s are the two main ingredients for just under $500.  Since time is also a commodity, I’d say there is about 2 hours of manual work, and 10-12 hours (depending on the size of the disk space) of time needed by devices to build themselves (overnight if you can swing it).

1.  One (1) NAS Device ($300) – Network Area Storage, otherwise known as a NAS device, is basically a mini-computer with a set of hard drives, usually two or more for redundancy in case one drive fails.  I went with the Synology DS209 that supports two drives and a streaming media software service that runs on the device.  If the DS209 is no longer available, then I recommend another 2-Bay Synology NAS like the DS211 (shown below).

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