SwarmPlayer -- stream directly form torrents

SwarmPlayer 1.0.1

Torrents, downloading and streaming are going to merge. Alredy now You may stream video over peer-to-peer bittorrent network, using new streaming client SwarmPlayer.

Workflow today

Find torrent from EzTv etc

Download TV Show, using uTorrent or BitTorrent etc

Store it to media server

View it from big screen media streamer or computer screen

Workflow tomorrow

Find torrent from EzTv etc

Stream it directly

So, there will be no need with messing with home media server. Just pick the show and look. 

Internals of my 2 TB Atom media server

My server is not connected to display, keboard and mouse. It's entirely controlled via LogMeIn software. Only used connections are Intel Pro 1000 Gigabit LAN (expansion card on tthe right) and 220V mains (top left).

 
Please notice 2 x 1 TB SATA HDDS, connected to motherboard via red SATA cables. Power supply is in front of the computer (left on the photo). You van see low profile Intel Pro 1000 LAN card. I use it instead of integratet realtek Fast Ethernet (100 Mbit) LAN.

My Atom server configuration:

• MITX Intel Little Falls D945GCLF motherboard
  
• Intel Atom 230 1,6 GHz CPU;
  
• Intel 945GC / 82801GB I/O Controller ICH7 chipset;
  
• RAM 2 GB (1 SIMM);
  
• HDD 2 x 1 TB Western Digital Caviar Green;
  
• Intel PRO 1000 GT Gigabit LAN adappter;
  
• Windows XP x32 SP3;
  
• TwonkyServer media streaming

Moved from BitTorrent to uTorrent

I uninstalled BitTorrent and installed uTorrent. Reason -- lately I had more and more unclear error messages. I have hopes that it works well, as uTorrent is one of most popular torrents available. I need stabile product, as I leave my media server un-attended for weeks and if I lose torrent in the middle, I lose lot of time to restart and recheck all downloads.

Californication season 2 in HD 720

For HD and/or Californication friends: S02 is all available in HD 720 from eztv.it 

 

Atom HDD performance is OK

I measured HDD performance, using HD Tune 2.55 (free edition). I was quite positively surprised. Average read speed 70 MB/s is more than enough for any kind of HD streaming, large .MKV copying and .RAR unpacking. Anyway, bottleneck is Gigabit Ethernet, allowing max 40-50 MB/s throughput.

Speed is about the same, what I had 2 wears ago, using RocketRaid PCI RAID controller and 2 x 250 GB HDD-s. Not bad. What surprised me most, was very low CPU usage, what shows good chipset.

My Atom server configuration:

• Intel Atom 230 1,6 GHz CPU;
  
• Intel 945GC/ICH7 chipset;
  
• RAM 2 GB (1 SIMM);
  
• HDD 1 TB Western Digital;
  
• Intel PRO 1000 Gigabit LAN card;
  
• Windows XP x32 SP3;
  
• TwonkyServer media streaming
  

Soon I add another 1 TB HDD, HD movies will fill 1 Tera quite quickly.

Do not upgrade to TwonkyServer 5.0

Lately I installed new Intel Atom based media server hardware, moved my media library over to that and installed newest TwonkyServer 5.0. Shouldn't! New server is buggy and has one very bad flaw -- it doesn't update media library after copying new files to media folders. Only way to get new files visible is to rebuild all database. It is so annoying that I have to move back to 4.4 version. Don't know how, cause there is no download page for older versions anymore.

Shame, Twonky

Edit: Twonky added download page also for previous versions

Atom server is serving HD

So, yesterday I unpacked all arrived components of my green media server, nicknamed "Atom". All components arrived separately and I really felt like 20 years ago, assembling first PC. I was able to lift in ITX motherboard to ITX minitower, first removing power supply off the way. Space was scarce. I installed 1 TB hard disk to its place. Soon I install next one to other 3,5" media bay, ment for multi-card reader or floppy. I installed Intel Pro 1000 Gigabit network card to free PCI slot, I fill use it instead of motherboards Realtek 100 Mbit one. 

Then I cabeled everything - power to system board, fans, power to drives, front panel lights and swiches, SATA, IDE. 

Luckily I had old IDE CD ROM drive to make Win XP x32 install and after that Intel Express driver install. I was most convinient system driver set install I've see - chipset, LAN card, display driver and sound device drivers were installed smoothly in one batch.

I installed XP SP3, AVG Free anti-virus, SmartDefrag and new Twonky 5.0 server. I also added LogMeIn client and HDtune. 

Technical specifications and benchmarks after the break.

Nice 4-disk NAS (Atom-based)

Very interesting product TS-439 Pro Turbo NAS. Employing energy-efficient and quite powerful Intel Atom. Still only NAS. No torrent clent etc. I believe, that its possible to install Twonky server, but requires skills -- not so trivial operation. They have solution for Squeezbox, but not for generic UPnP clients.

So, is very powerful and reliable data store for files and backup, but not so much for home entertenment and media streaming.

More: http://www.qnap.com/pro_detail_feature.asp?p_id=110

HD movies in the viewing queue

Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona

Few new titles arrived today into my BitTorrent "complete" folder:

Vicki, Christina, Barcelona, HD 720 

Wanted, HD 720

The Visitor, HD 720

Burn After Reading HD 720

All titles are H.264 in .MKV container. So, If one is interested to look HD stuff from the net, should buy accordingly .MKV compatible device. Be aware, that many HD devices are not able to handle H.264 / MKV. My 0.02 cents -- read carefulle tech specs before buying.

All from MiniNova

Atom based green media server

So, I decided to get more green or greener. Instead of Intel quad processor platform I go to more moderate Atom plaform.

2 x 1.0 TB SATA HDD in RAID 1 (mirrored)

MB MITX Intel Little Falls D945GCLF;

Intel 945GC/ICH7 chipset;

Atom 230 (1.6GHz, 512KB); RAM 1x DDR2 667 2GB;

10/100 LAN, 6xUSB2; 

2x SATA, PATA; 

Intel GMA950

One might ask, why I didnt go to NAS, easy and cheap. Because of certain requirements:

• easy to install and manage Twonky media server software
  
• possibility to use BitTorrent client
  
• possibility to unpack .rar and .zip files (lot of 4+ GB .mkv's are breaked down to dozens of .rar pieces)
  

My current server pulls from the wall about 170 Watts. Knowing that Atom uses some 4 Watts and about the same chipset, power drop should be considerable. 

After the break new readings...

HD stuff viewed

When I started this HD streaming forum some time ago, there was practically no HD content available online at all. Now, the situation is much better. My last viewing list:

• Appaloosa HD 720; 4,5 GB MKV;
  
• Transsiberian, HD 720; 4,5 GB MKV;
  
• Burn After Reading HD 720; 4,6 GB MKV;
  
• Gattaca HD 720; 4,3 GB MKV;
  

There is 50/50 possibility to find HD version in torrents. Most times 720, but sometimes also 1080 version. Usually I sort all torrents by seeders, most populars up, then I try to find most seeded HD version. I usually recognize it by size (> 4GB) or I do quick in-page browster search Ctrl+f 720 or 1080. 

My A-110 plays all MKV with flying colors, so it has been eye-opening to look good-quality HD stuff at home. It's like goint to the street after laser eye surgery...

Places to find HD stuff:

http://www.mininova.org/

http://thepiratebay.org/

http://eztv.it/index.php (for TV series)