TwonkyMedia Manager 1.0 and Server 5.0 are out

TwonkyMedia has news. They changed their ancient website to more modern, updated server 4.4.9 to 5.0 and added brand new product - Media Manager. Actually Media Server is now a component in Media Manager (also separately downloadable).

Twonky Media Manager 1.0

This product is for PC / Notebook scenario. In case, You are using NAS or dedicated Linux / PC server, You may upgrade to Media Server 5.0

Main improvements in version 5.0

• new database structure that uses less memory;
  
• server-side user-playlist support;
  
• new transcoding architecture; 
  
• new plug-in that includes support for Internet feeds like Flickr photo, YouTube™ video
• new Internet radio stations
  

More detailed test later. Be tuned :)

Ran out trial

Today I ran out of 30-day trial period of TwonkyMedia server license. It's time to make credic card transaction over internet :) There is no other substitute for me to Twonky currently. MS Media Connect 2.0 and 3.0 are free, but doesn't work so well. MS is slow and overloads server CPU with simple tasks, like browsing in the library.

Geisha is Ripped

Today I sarted ripping DVD-s into my Half Terabyte Media Server (HTMS). Filling server with DVD-s is easy. Geisha was about 5 GBytes! I have 390 GB free, it can handle about 70 DVD-s only!!!! Shame...

I used DVD Decrypter for ripping. Later found from Wikipedia article, that this program is illegal. Is it so?

My ripping hardware is dell Optiplex 620 Dual Core 3GHz Intel Pentium D, with 2GB RAM. I ripped all DVD at 10x speed. So, 100 minute movie is in Your server in 10 minutes. Satisfactory!

Bad news is that olny first VOB file played, all the rest hanged my DSM-320. Have to play with options.

Good news is that TwonkyMedia server can handle huge VOB files, Windows Media Player 11 can't, too slow.

Media Server Software

I started experimenting with server softwares first time when I bought my first DMR (digital media receiver) from D-Link. The model was wireless media player MediaLounge DSM-320:
http://www.dlink.com/products/?sec=1&pid=318
and server software D-Link MediaServer was included in the box. Software is freely downloadable brom D-Link website. I tested MediaServer version 1.07. I don't describe througly this product. Instead, I write how I found software meeting my needs.

Media Server Evolution

As I told, I started with D-Link Media Server. In the nutshell my server software evolution is following:

D-Link Media Server -> MS Media Connect 2.0 -> MS Windows Media Player 11 Beta -> MS Windows Media Player 11 -> TwonkyMedia 4.1

D-Link Media Server - relatively slow in screen operations and music vas interrupted randomly for 0.5 - 1 sec using my old Celeron server;

MS Media Connect 2.0 - very same problems as D-Link;

MS Media Server 11 - It uses Media Connect 3.0 version, but no actual development in speed or usability. For the comment, that Vista uses Media Connect 4.0 version, but I haven't tested it yet.

Read more about Media Connect: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Media_Connect

And the Winner is

TwonkyMedia ver 4.1 is clear winner, despite its a tad complicated web-interface setup. It has several very good usability features, hanling large music collections, lika Arist Index, Album Index etc. Plus, it has excellent technology, it stresses servers CPU minimally, uses cache-s to speed up recurring queries. Result is user-friendly functionality and very good speed moving around huge collections.

Main characteristics of the MediaServer

• Easy to setup,


• support for major media formats,


• convenient navigation on large media collections,


• very short response time,


• multiple language support,


• highly customizable (including navigation structure),


• easy handling of thousands of media items,


• Internet radio,


• interfaces to 3rd party applications like iTunes, Winamp, Adobe Photoshop Album,


• search actions allow you to easily find a specific piece of content (depending on client support)


• supports a large variety of UPnP streaming clients (see our device compatibility list)


• integrated client adaptation layer to support special media player capabilities,


• available for all operating systems and embedded devices like NAS, STBs and PVRs*,


• small footprint and very small memory consumption,


• stable code base deployed in various products and tested at UPnP and DLNA plugfests

Look also: http://www.twonkyvision.de/