Sunday, April 29, 2012

It is an app world and 2.1 is here

We are very excited to announce the availability of TVersity Media Server version 2.1. The 2.x versions (2.0 and 2.1 so far) bring a number of notable improvements under the hood, while making no GUI changes. Of most interest is the complete rewrite of our real-time transcoding engine with the following main benefits over the previous implementation:
  • It works correctly disregarding the codec pack installed and even when codec hell is prevalent on the system.
  • It can now utilize Windows Foundation codecs and demuxers and not just DirectShow (Windows 7 only).
  • It now converts only audio or only video when possible, thus requiiring less system resources and maintaining the original quality of the source materials.
  • It chooses the most appropriate audio language (for MKV and DIVX) when multiple audio tracks exist with different languages and the most appropriate subtitle language (for MKV) when multiple subtitle languages exist.
  • It takes into account the system capabilities when determing transcoding paramters by executing a transcodng benchmark the first time the software runs after an installation.
A lot has changed in the software world ever since TVersity got started. Most notably the concept of app stores came to exist and people habits have changed. It is no longer outrageous for consumers to pay a few dollars for software, even for little apps that were developed in a few days. In the same time it is quite unusual to pay for high end software more than twenty dollars or so. For that reason we are changing our economic model with version 2.0 and we are reducing the price of the Pro version from $39.99 to $19.99. Our non Pro version, which used to be free, will be called Basic from now on and will cost a few dollars. We feel that this is more in line with today's world and would love to hear what you think.

Friday, July 15, 2011

TVersity Media Server 1.9.6 is here!

After a 6 months of silence we are very pleased to release the TVersity Media Server 1.9.6. This release has many improvements under the hood (in preparation for 2.0 which will have even more!)

With this release we have added support for many devices but the coolest ones got to be Android tablets running Android 3.0. You can now play all your personal and Internet media via the DLNA clients included on these tablets.

Here is a partial list of newly supported devices:
  • Added device profiles for Android 3.0 tablets (tested with Asus Eeepad Transformer TF101 but should work on other Android 3.0 tablets - let us know if this is not the case). Please note that transcoding for Android requires the Pro edition, and only Android 3.0 or higher is supported.
  • Added device profiles for WDTV Live.
  • Added device profiles for various Samsung TV models.
  • Added user contributed device profile for Logitech Revue.
  • Added user contributed device profile for Windows Phone 7.
Full release notes at:
http://tversity.com/support/releasenotes/

Download it at:
http://tversity.com/download/

Friday, November 26, 2010

TVersity Media Server 1.9.3 is here

We are delighted to announce the availability of the TVersity Media Server 1.9.3. This release includes dozens of bug fixes and improvements under the hood as well as some new features.

Here is a short list of the main new features:

Pro edition
  • The Pro edition will now take any HTML page and display its content on TV, not just pages from the sites that are officially supported. This may prove beneficial for some users in its current form, but will become much more valuable in future releases when we introduce the means to control the content of that page while its displayed on TV.
  • Playback of web content with Flash videos starts much faster.
  • BBC iPlayer is now fully functional.
All editions
  • New browser toolbar that includes a menu of supported web content sites (facilitates content discovery) and a “subscribe” button (enables 1-click addition of web content to the media library). This is useful mainly with the Pro edition since most of the content requires Pro but some sites (like YouTube and Funny or Die) work with the Free edition as well.
  • Monitor folders for changes and automatically reflect these changes in the media library - this feature is long overdue, we are glad it finally made it.
  • Up to 7x faster indexation of photos.
  • Indexation no longer hangs on corrupt AVI files.
  • Album art is now supported for WMA and not just MP3.
  • Simplify and improve the installation wizard.
  • Support more than one TVersity instance on the network with the Xbox 360.
See full list of changes at:

Get the new release at:


Wednesday, July 14, 2010

On the fly transcoding for the iPhone/iPad is here



We are pleased to announce the release of TVersity Media Server 1.9 featuring:

Pro Edition
  • Transcoding to H.264 is now supported and so is HTTP Live Streaming.
  • On the fly transcoding for iPhone/iPad/iPod touch including transcoding of local media and web content.
  • Full support for the iPad.

All Editions
  • Revamped iPod/iPad interface with support for:
    • Move to next item automatically when playing music.
    • Keyword search.

  • Add some user contributed device profiles (mainly Blu-ray players and connected TVs).

  • Transcoding of FLV with H264, and of MPEG2 transport streams is supported.


Once again we are pushing the boundaries of what a home media server is, and incorporating into TVersity features that are typically found in high-end enterprise level streaming solutions.

The videos embedded in this post are demonstrating some of the features above.

One byproduct of this release is that you now have more reasons than ever to go pro. In case you do not know what are exactly the differences, the table below may prove helpful:

FreePro
On the fly transcodingexcept iPad/iPhone/iPodYes
Transcode to H.264NoYes
YouTubeexcept premium web contentYes
HuluNoYes
Other premium web contentNoYes
iPad/iPhone/iPod touchMusic and PhotosMusic, Photos and Video
Xbox 360YesYes
PS3YesYes
WiiYesYes
Annual MaintenanceN/A50% (optional for an additional year of free updates)


Full release notes are here.

Download latest version here.

Thursday, June 03, 2010

Some cool things we are working on


On-the-fly transcoding has always been one of the unique features of TVersity. Thanks to this features you could play almost any media on any supported device, disregarding the limitations of the device. For those of you that are new to TVersity, we introduced the notion of on-the-fly transcoding in our very first release back in 2005. In fact TVersity was the first home media server ever to offer that feature.

Today On-the-fly transcoding has become a must have feature for end users, and even Microsoft is doing some of that on Windows 7 - a great validation of our approach. Of-course the transcoding capability offered by Microsoft in 2010 and on Windows 7 only, is roughly equivalent to what we offered in 2005 for all Windows versions.

Since that time we have been constantly improving our transcoding engine and introduced things like on-the-fly transcoding of Internet content, transcoding for mobile devices and a server side web browser (which allows us to transcode full or partial content of a web page with Flash video and deliver it to your devices and your TV).

On the mobile front however, one important feature was missing - we could not transcode videos on the fly for the iPhone. Initially it was technically impossible to deliver media converted on the fly to the quicktime player built into the iPhone. However in iPhone OS 3.0 Apple introduced the notion of live HTTP streaming and suddenly it became possible to do that. The recent introduction of the iPad (which also supports live HTTP streaming) triggered us to leverage this capability.

Once again we are pushing the boundaries of what a home media server is, and incorporating into TVersity features that are typically found in high-end enterprise level streaming solutions.

The videos embedded in this post are demonstrating some of the features of our upcoming release:

  • Play any format on the iPhone or iPad without requiring a manual format conversion.

  • Utilize our server side web browser (based on Webkit and more specifically on Google Chrome / Chromium) to stream the content of any web page with Flash video to the iPhone and iPad. This of-course includes Hulu.


These features will be available in TVersity Pro 1.9 which is due in a few weeks, so please stay tuned.





Friday, February 26, 2010

TVersity v1.8 is here - Play any flash video site on your TV!

Last year we made the first release of our Pro edition, with the intention to enable access to premium web content (including movies and full TV episodes). The big promise of this approach was the use of a full blown web browser running on your PC but displaying web content on your TV. Ultimately we want to let you access any website on TV with this technology, today we are taking another step in that direction by letting you access any video site based on Flash.

We are pleased to announce the release of TVersity Pro edition 1.8 featuring:

  • New implementation of the off-screen web browser based on Google Chromium for increased stability and speed. In fact we think this is approaching rock solid levels and can soon come out of beta (please be sure to let us know what you think).

  • We are opening the list of supported premium content sites so that advanced users can add new ones (only web pages with Flash video for now). If you are an advanced user and you are not intimidated by xml files then check osb.xml, it is pretty much self explanatory.

  • List of supported websites can now be updated without requiring a new release. From now on, new sites will be added and pushed to all users. (Advanced users should send us their additions since from time to time we overwrite osb.xml).


Full release note are here.

Download latest version here.

Have questions related to adding premium content sites? Need support for the Pro version? Try our new questions and answers tool available at: answers.tversity.com.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Access your media remotely via SureWest.net


If you have been a TVersity user long enough, chances are that you were looking for a simple way to access your media on the go - after all this is one of the promises of TVersity. Until today, the only way to do it, was open a port in your home router/firewall, find out the IP address assigned to you by your ISP and point a remote web browser to this address. If you were lucky and your ISP was not blocking you, you could access your media wherever you were - a very liberating experience. For most of us however that was just too complicated.

Today, we are starting to change all that, we have come together with SureWest to offer a custom version of TVersity called SureWest Media Connect, that allows dead simple remote access (SureWest subscribers only at this point). This custom version of TVersity is fully integrated with the SureWest network and the MySureWest.net website, so all you need to do is enter your SureWest username and password during the installation of SureWest Media Connect, and then login to the SureWest portal from anywhere. No network configuration of any kind is required, just install the software and when you want to access your personal media remotely, simply login to SureWest.net. A widget on the home page will allow you to play your music and videos and see a slideshow of your photos from just about anywhere (see widget screenshot).

This new service is currently in Beta, so you will need to first join the Beta program by logging in at SureWest.net. If you are not a SureWest subscriber and yet you live in SureWests Northern California service area, there has never been a better time to switch... Other users who are interested in this service can help us bring it to them by contacting their ISP and suggesting TVersity remote access as a possible value-add service.

In case you are wondering how this remote access service relates to our core offering - access of personal and Internet media on TV, the basic idea behind TVersity is to empower users to access their favorite media on their favortie devices - be they TV connected or mobile. This is the first time however that we have been able to make remote access as easy as it needs to be. Needless to say SureWest Media Connect includes all the other features of TVersity and can therefore satisfy all your media serving needs.

"I am thrilled to be launching the SureWest Media Connect Beta! We have worked for some time with TVeristy to bring this service to our customers in a way that would make it easy to access and use. With SureWest Media Connect and the My Surewest website we are able to give our customers a truly unique service, the ability to remotely access and play all of the music, photos and videos stored on their home PC from anywhere on the world!" -Rick Vohs, Product Engineering Manager, SureWest

Friday, September 11, 2009

TVersity Media Server 1.7 is here

We are pleased to announce the availability of the TVersity Media Server 1.7!

This a bug fix release with many improvements under the hood, the most notable ones are:

It is no longer required to disable UAC when using TVersity on Vista, in fact TVertsity works well with UAC. Furthermore, after the installation, no UAC prompts will pop out except when starting/stopping the sharing service.

It is no longer required to disable the SSDP service on Vista. Additionally, the discover-ability of TVersity on the network has been improved on all operating systems.

We had a problem for a while now with the GUI, where on some systems it would not connect to the media server. We were finally able to identify the root cause and believe that this release eliminates the problem completely.

In case you are curious, the source of the problem is related to incompatibility of multiple Flash Player versions running on the same system. It turns out that on some systems with newer versions of Flash (9 or higher) the Flash local storage was disabled for older versions (TVersity GUI was using Flash Player 8) and it was not possible to enable it. That in turn rendered the TVersity GUI useless as it relies on this local storage.


Full release notes are available here.

You can download the software here.

It is recommended for all users to upgrade as soon as possible, and if you have not yet paid for the Pro version despite the fact that you are using it, now is the time to purchase a license.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

TVersity Pro 1.6 is out

We are glad to announce the availability of the TVersity media server Pro 1.6!

This release is all about relaxing the system requirements for premium content (this includes Hulu, BBC iPlayer, and all the other supported premium content sites). Most importantly, a sound card with stereo-mix is NO LONGER REQUIRED, and the sound will not be heard on the PC running TVersity. Also, the installation wizard will detect whether Flash for firefox is installed, and will prompt the user to do the installation when necessary.

With these fixes we believe we are addressing all the major issues users were having with the Pro version.

In terms of bug fixes we eliminated the MP4 indexing problem that was introduced in 1.0.0.11. We fixed device discovery issues on machines with long hostnames and we upgraded to the latest SQLITE which should fix some rare library corruption issues.

Full release notes are available here.

You can download the software here.

It is recommended for all users to upgrade as soon as possible, and if you have not yet paid for the Pro version despite the fact that you are using it, now is the time to purchase a license.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Hulu, BBC iPlayer, Joost, CBS, Marvel, Comedy Central, Amazon VOD and the list goes on


Today we are launching the Pro edition of the TVersity Media Server and we bring you support for Premium Web Content (including full TV episodes) from names like Hulu, BBC iPlayer, Joost, CBS, NBC, The WB, TV.com, ESPN, NFL, Comedy Central, South Park, Marvel, The Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel, and more.

This is the culmination of an almost 5 year effort, to bridge the world of Internet Video with the TV.

Back in 2005 when we launched our very first version, videos on the web were still thumbnail size moving images. Yet we felt that Internet Video is just about going to explode, so we gave you the very first media server that could stream Windows Media Video and Audio (on-demand and live with time shifting built in) to your TV (via UPnP A/V Digital Media Adapters - DMAs).

Still in 2005, our second release gave birth to the idea of the Personal Entertainment Guide (PEG). We wanted to let you, the user, determine which channels you can watch and we wanted to make it as easy as possible (over the years the method for adding online content to your PEG has evolved from copy and paste to drag and drop and to 1-click subscription buttons and hopefully soon to a browser toolbar).

So you see, right from the very beginning we realized that the Net is changing the rules of the game for television and that one of its many impacts is the fact that you the end-user is becoming the programmer. No longer can an aggregator put together a line-up of channels (in the form of an EPG) that can satisfy all viewers, but rather each user will need to be able to customize their program guide.

Shortly after that, YouTube was launched and video on the web changed forever. Our prediction came true even sooner than we expected. Naturally we were the first to allow YouTube to be played on the big screen (without hooking up your computer to your TV, that is) and our users loved it.

When the Xbox 360 and then the PS3 added support for DLNA, our user base exploded over night. Suddenly there were these mainstream, high quality yet affordable, devices that were connected to the TV and to the home network. These devices were able to connect to TVersity and play videos (up to HD quality) streamed from your computer to the living room. Of-course with TVersity you could also play Internet media, and you did not need to concern yourself with the heavy lifting associated with the conversion of videos from one format to another, we did it for you on the fly whenever you wanted to play something.

As time passed, we kept adding support for new devices, and so the Sony PSP, iPhone, and DIRECTV Set-Top-Boxes played a role in our rapid growth as well. We also kept adding support for new media formats and streaming protocols so that you could play almost anything you wanted.

But there was one thing we did not support. Prime time TV content found its way to the web in early 2008 and TVersity did not support that content. Today, one year later, we are changing all this by launching yet another game changing feature.

The improvement in computer processing power and specifically multi-core processors, made it possible to get online video delivered to the living room in a totally different way. The Pro edition of TVersity (released today), is utilizing a web browser that renders its content off-screen, this content is encoded in real time (along with captured audio) in a format that is most appropriate for your target device and the result of that encoding is delivered to the living room for instant viewing.

How is that different from what we were doing so far? To date, TVersity was connecting to streaming servers on the web, fetching the video from them and converting that video as necessary. While this approach is more straightforward, it also requires custom integration with each source of content. Moreover it does not maintain the investment made by the content owner in their video player in terms of ad insertion, tracking & measurement, user authentication and authorization, and other unique player logic.

The Pro edition of TVersity is utilizing both methods, the direct connection to video servers is used primarily for user generated content. While the off-screen browser is utilized with premium web content. This allows us to offer the best of both worlds and to enable a superior online video experience in the living room.

While adding this new functionality we remained true to our philosophy of user generated program guides. We did not want to create a dedicated set of menus with all the different shows and episodes, for each of the websites we support. There are simply too many sites for that approach to be useful. Had we done it the result would have been overwhelming to the user and things would get worse as we added more sites. How can you be expected to navigate TV menus with thousands, tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of items?

Instead we let you subscribe to content of choice from any one of these sites. Simply point your browser to a page with a video player featuring your video of choice, drag and drop the icon to the left of the address bar to the TVersity GUI and a dialog box will pop up with the video address pre-populated, leaving it up to you to choose the title, tags, and so on.

Want to subscribe to an entire show and have TVersity update your subscription automatically? You can do it, as always, by subscribing to RSS feeds (as long as the site offers video related feeds). Let's take Hulu for example, each show has several RSS feeds (one for all videos, one for full episodes, one for clips, etc.), you can drag and drop these RSS icons to TVersity and add that show to your personal program guide. You can do the same for RSS feeds from many other sites, in fact we included some example feeds in our content guides (look for the Guide tab in the GUI) so that you can easily get started with creating your PEG.

How about searching for content? Some sites offer an RSS feed for their search results. TVersity supported these RSS feeds with YouTube and Google for a while now and the Pro edition supports them for Hulu as well. Simply drag and drop that RSS icon to the TVersity GUI.

Adding content to TVersity is easy, but it is not easy enough. What if you want to manage your content on the website itself (YouTube has a channel per user, Hulu has a queue and so on). You should not need to manage that content twice. The Pro edition allows you to subscribe to your Hulu queue (and we always allowed subscription to your YouTube channel and Flickr photos). This way when you add something to your queue on Hulu, TVersity picks it up the next time it refreshes the library (every midnight by default).

Last but no least, you can add to your PEG any content from Google, YouTube, Flickr, BBC iPlayer and Hulu from within the TVersity GUI without opening a web browser. Simply click the big plus icon and in the dialog box that opens choose the website, and then the type of content you wish to add (you will see things like By User, By Search Query, By tag, etc.) We created these content subscription wizards within the GUI for some of the most prominent video sites because we believe in a fully personalized experience and in true empowerment of the end-users to legally access media on their terms.

There are however, as is usually the case with a new technology or feature, a few caveats. The Pro edition requires a faster processor for doing its video encoding via an off-screen browser and it requires (for now) a sound card and a sound driver with support for Stereo Mix (on Vista Stereo mix must be manually enabled). While we will be working to relieve some of these in future releases, we expect that many (if not most) of you have these requirements satisfied already.

Finally, while we spent the last few months thoroughly testing this new functionality, and did every effort to make it rock solid, we still consider it beta (it has seen very little use in the real world). We need your feedback to make it even better so please drop us a note by commenting to this post, posting to the support forums, to our Facebook wall, or on Twitter.

Monday, January 19, 2009

2009 TVersity wishlist + RC7 is out

Seventh release candidate is out with more bug fixes. We think we are getting really close to our first non beta release, which is our biggest milestone ever and so we wanted to take the opportunity and share some of our future plans for TVersity.

In 2009 we have three main goals:
  • Embed TVersity in a hardware home server appliance(s). Initially it will probably be Windows Home Server based and later on Linux based (maybe even Open Solaris with ZFS). These devices will be more powerful than a typical NAS (to allow real time transcoding up to DVD quality), probably as powerful as a low end PC, but with a much lower power consumption. Intel dual core Atom seems like a good fit, thoughts and suggestions by the community are welcome.
  • Add many more Internet content sources, Hulu is first on our list. Already works in the lab and will be released soon in our 1.5 beta.
  • Keep supporting new and interesting devices that have a massive consumer following. Maybe the new TechCrunch tablet will be a good fit???
This is it, please share with us your feedback as well as your 2009 TVersity wish list. Our product roadmap is very dynamic, and since the connected home space is evolving very quickly we are going to adapt as often as necessary.

Sunday, January 04, 2009

RC6 is here

We are pleased to announce availability of our sixth 1.0 release candidate. This is a bug fix release with minor enhancements and performance improvements.

All Sony PS3 users should upgrade immediately since this release fixes a serious bug related to photos. Other device users are encouraged to upgrade as well at their earliest convenience.

Full release notes at:
http://tversity.com/support/releasenotes/

Download at:
1.0.0.10 RC6

Thursday, November 27, 2008

1.0 RC5 is here + TVersity on Facebook

Our fifth release candidate is out - this is a bug fix release, designed to address many known issues so that we can finally emerge out of beta.

Your feedback in the next couple of days will determine whether we can make an official 1.0 release or need an additional set of fixes.

A few weeks ago we got an email from James Leenheer, who wrote a review about TVersity in tripletags.com, trying to find out how come we do not have a page on Facebook. After learning what a page on Facebook is, and with a lot of help from James, we now have one.

If you use Facebook, you should check it out and you should definitely become a fan. You will get a chance to meet other TVersity users and exchange ideas in a social environment.

Here is a link:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/TVersity/14170584966

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Election day live on TVersity

There are many online sources out there offering live video coverage of the election day, many of which can be watched via TVersity on your networked devices (game consoles, mobiles, etc.).

For your convenience we are listing below a few live streams from the CNN, if you have other streams please comment to this post and if they are indeed compatible with TVersity we will add them to this post for the benefit of all.

CNN Live Election Day Coverage (click to subscribe via TVersity):
CNN Election Day 1
CNN Election Day 2
CNN Election Day 3
CNN Election Day 4


In case you prefer the media URLs (drag and drop to the TVersity UI):
Election Day 1
Election Day 2
Election Day 3
Election Day 4

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Release Candidate 4 is here and so are Full Episodes from YouTube


The forth release candidate is here with support for PS3 firmware 2.5, higher quality YouTube content and automatic update of expired URLs.

As many of you probably know YouTube has been improving the quality of its videos and at the same time made its content available in H.264 and not just Flash video. Up to this release TVersity would take by default low quality videos even when higher quality was available. This release will always try high quality videos first and only if not available, fall back to the lower quality.

Furthermore, TVersity can serve YouTube content in FLV and H.264 by taking it from the source and without any need to transcode. This insures higher quality, faster response times and immediate playback on MP4 only devices (like the iPhone).

Another long overdue improvement is related to expiring URLs. It is common practice among content publishers to embed in playlists (or redirect to) URLs that expire after a while. TVersity used to take the expired URL and stick with it even after it stopped working. This release will automatically re-acquire expired URLs eliminating the need to keep refreshing content of this nature (some examples are YouTube and ASX playlists).

Last but not least, YouTube has been experimenting with full episodes of certain TV shows (such as the original Star Trek, The Young and the Restless, and FRONTLINE | The Choice 2008 to name a few), the current TVersity version is the best way to watch this content. You can now get the highest quality YouTube offers, you need not worry about expiring URLs and you can watch it on the big screen, so enjoy!

For a complete list of changes please check the release notes.

Download the latest release here.

UPDATE: Today something changed at YouTube, this lead to... (you guessed it or worse experienced it) TVersity failing to play YouTube content. We just released a newer version that fixes these issues so please upgrade!

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Version 1.0 RC3 is now available

In this version we bring you support for raw digital camera images, a slightly easier menu navigation on devices, new formats, new devices and of-course some bug fixes and other minor improvements.

Full release notes are available at:
http://tversity.com/support/releasenotes/

Download it here:
http://download.tversity.com/TVersitySetup_1_0_0_4_RC3.exe

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

The second TVersity 1.0 Release Candidate is here

We have been hard at work fixing some issues with RC1 and adding album art support and today we bring you TVersity 1.0 RC2.

Album art support is the main new feature of this release, it is compatible with the Sony PS3 as well as with the HTML interface (PSP, iPhone, Blackberry, etc.) and flash interface (Wii). Album art support relies on JPEG files conforming to certain naming conventions that are present in the same folder as music tracks. These files can be created by either Windows Media Player or WinAmp and TVersity will pick them up, or users can add them manually.

To give you full control over the album art image, TVersity allows you to override the art assigned to a certain album by adding to the folder that contains track belonging to the album an image file named:
albumart.<album name>.jpg

If such file does not exist, TVersity looks for files added automatically by Windows Media Player or by WinAmp. We do not currently take album art files created by iTunes.

In addition to music album art, this release also display art icons on the Sony PS3 next to RSS feed items that have such icons in the RSS (e.g. YouTube feeds).

Finally, many issues were fixed based on the great feedback we received from the community. More info at:

http://tversity.com/support/releasenotes/

Download the new release at:
http://tversity.com/download/

Monday, June 30, 2008

TVersity 1.0 RC1 is here



We are delighted to announce the general availability of the first release candidate of our 1.0 version. Please note that this is a release candidate and not a final release, meaning that we need your feedback in order to fix issues and turn this into a final release as fast as possible.

We will post full release notes shortly, in the meantime in case you missed it, this release is all about user interface and usability, but it also includes many bug fixes and other minor and major improvements to the transcoding engine, media library, auto discovery by devices, and much more.

In order to simplify some of the initial configuration needed to get TVersity up and running for the first time, we are including in this release a configuration wizard that can do most of these tasks for you. This includes firewall setup, service auto-start setup, Vista setup issues and more.

With regard to Windows Vista, we currently require UAC to be turned off or else TVersity will abort the installation. If you do decide to disable UAC or already have it disabled, the installation will work as usual. However on Vista only, the configuration wizard will recommend disabling the Windows SSDP Discovery service, you want to know why? It turns out that this service conflicts with TVersity and essentially hides TVersity form other devices on your network. In case you are curious it does not do it only to TVersity but rather our research suggests that any software stack that has its own SSDP implementation (as opposed to using the built in Windows stack) is affected by it. It did not happen on XP, but it does happen on Vista.

The codec pack has been updated as well, for best transcoding results it is recommended to install it. Our transcoding engine can now for the first time download FLV and MP4 videos, convert them and stream them to devices all at the same time. We have had this capability for a while with WMV streams but other formats needed to be pre-downloaded - not anymore!

We are also including in this release a web surfing toolbar from our partner Ask.com. It has always been our goal to introduce some web surfing tool that can help surfers uncover media URLs and share them with TVersity. We are taking the first step in this direction by forming this partnership with Ask. We are starting with their generic toolbar (made available in this release) and we are planning to continue in the future with a specialized TVersity toolbar that is integrated with Ask's video search results.

This release also features support for Blackberry devices (media streaming requires OS 4.3 or higher, downloading requires OS 4.2 or higher). Blackberry users with OS4.3 or higher can stream live Internet TV to their phone, watch YouTube videos and Podcasts, listen to radio stations and essentially enjoy anything that TVersity offers - access to one's home media library is of-course included.

As always we are looking forward to your feedback, please drop us a note and let us know what works and does not work for you, what you like and dislike and so on.

Most importantly we hope that this release empowers you to enjoy your personal media library and your favorite Internet media more than ever before and that you can now share it with more of your friends thanks to the simplified experience this new release offers.

Finally, in case you wonder, the picture attached to this post is a screenshot of our new website - to be release within a few days, so please stay tuned.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

New version is almost here


A few months ago we posted some screenshots of our new user interface. It has been awfully quiet ever since on our blog since we were hard at work implementing the new interface as well as many other improvements. This upcoming release is major for us, we will finally hit 1.0 and so we decided to give it an extra week or two if necessary and do it right. In the meantime, we wanted to give you a little something to look at, while we finalize our work.

So... we are happy to announce that one of the new features in our 1.0 release will be Blackberry support. We will support the 81xx, 83xx, 88xx models (also known as Pearl, Curve and World Edition) and we will require OS4.2 or higher (streaming requires OS 4.3 or higher). For video, models that support WiFi are naturally recommended (this is until a 3G model becomes available...).

To help you visualize it we have created a short video and uploaded it to YouTube. We do not know how many TVersity users own one of these Blackberry models, so please drop us a note and let us if this feature strikes a cord with you.

Friday, February 08, 2008

Announcing availability of the TVersity button on viewmy.tv


It is with great pleasure that we announce the availability of the TVersity 1-click subscription button on viewmy.tv.

Adding new live Internet channels to TVersity has never been easier now that viewmy.tv has added these buttons, simply head over to their site and click on the TVersity button whenever you come across a channel you like. Assuming TVersity is installed on that PC, this will open your TVersity application and add that channel to it (all you need to do is confirm that you have TVersity and then when it opens confirm the addition of the channel).

Peter Woodford, the founder of viewmy.tv has been a great supporter and worked diligently with his team to add our button ever since he got a request from a user. Here is what he had to say about this new feature on their website, "www.viewmy.tv are glad to have the Tversity button available so that our visitors and members can get access to free online TV from a multitude of devices."

For those that do not know viewmy.tv, they are a social network for free online TV. They already have widgets and gadgets for Mac, Vista, XP platforms and social networks like facebook and according to Peter when they added the TVersity button, they wanted to answer to their audience some of whom are already TVersity users.

Once you try it, you will know that this is how easy it should be to add any web content to TVersity. So if other content publishers see this post, please follow the steps of viewmy.tv and G4TV and add our button to your site. People really want to be able to watch your content on devices other than the PC and it is up to you to make it easily available for all.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

A preview of the upcoming user interface

We are re-doing our user interface and wanted to share some screenshots and get some feedback early on.

Before I get to that, some of you may have noticed that we recently upgraded our icons. These icons were sent to us by Dylan Wreggelsworth, a graphic designer and the founder of Trifold Designs. He did it of his own initiative and it happened at a time where we were looking to get some professional design work put into our software and our website (yes, finally...). Naturally we got in touch with him and after a short discussion we knew he would be the right person for us. So before I show you the result of his work, I want to thank him for his wonderful design work.

And now here are the screenshots, your feedback is welcome:




Friday, January 04, 2008

Windows Mobile support is here via LobsterTunes

We have been asked many times over the course of the last two years for Windows Mobile support and so it is with great pleasure that we announce that Windows Mobile support for music is here via our partner LobsterTunes.

LobsterTunes is a very unique MP3 player, it can connect to your TVersity server while you are away from home without requiring any firewall customization. For those that are familiar with Hamachi and Yoics, LobsterTunes includes their functionality built in so you do not need to do any network configuration to have access to TVersity on the go from your Windows Mobile device.

When coupled with a fast and unlimited mobile data plan, this is a very liberating experience. You no longer need to synchronize anything, you do not need a hard drive on your music player and you do not need to do any special network configuration. Add to that the intuitive user interface and fancy album art feature that LobsterTunes has and you got one of the best ways to take your music library with you on the go.

We are also delighted that the LobsterTunes folks have created a special coupon for 25% discount (valid through February 29th of this year), exclusively for TVersity users. All you need to do is enter the coupon code "TVERSITY" on the buy/checkout page of lobstertunes.com.

So, take it for a spin and let us know what you think, we are eager to hear from you.

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Support for Sony PS3 2.1 and more


TVersity 0.9.11.4 is here with:
  • Support for the Sony PS3 firmware 2.1.
  • Transcode settings at the file/folder/url level.
  • A new optional menu hierarchy for folders only.
These last two features are the two most sought after features in our forums and so we are delighted to finally deliver.

You may have also noticed our new logo, we are in the process or redoing our GUI and website as well so please stay tuned.

Full release notes are at:
http://tversity.com/support/releasenotes/

Download the latest release at:
http://tversity.com/download/

Happy New Year from the TVersity team!

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Support for Xbox 360 2007 Fall update is here

TVersity 0.9.11.3 is here with support for the Xbox 360 2007 fall update and the PS3 firmware version 2. With these new firmwares it is now possible to fast forward, rewind and skip within transcoded media with both the Xbox 360 and the Sony PS3.

We also bring experimental support for Windows Mobile and some improvements for the DirecTV HR20.

Full release notes are at:
http://tversity.com/support/releasenotes/

Download the latest release at:
http://tversity.com/download/

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Secure access to TVersity on the go


Many users keep asking for a secure method to access TVersity from outside their home network. While advanced users are able to set up a VPN, the rest of us need easier methods and so it is with great pleasure that we announce the availability of YOICS with built-in support for TVersity.

YOICS need to be installed on the machine running TVersity as well as on the machine from which you wish to access TVersity. When installing Yoics you can configure it to share certain resources on your machine and TVersity is one of them. Unlike other solutions only those resources which were specifically designated as shared become available remotely and so one has the flexibility to decide what to share and with whom.

Step by step instructions for setting up YOICS with TVersity are available at the YOICS forums at:
http://support.yoics.com/viewtopic.php?t=127

Please give YOICS a try and if you have YOICS related questions please post them to the YOICS forums.

Monday, November 12, 2007

TVersity 0.9.11.2 is here

We are happy to announce the availability of the TVersity Media Server version 0.9.11.2. With his new release we bring you increased security when accessing your media library remotely, customizable menus and better support for the Sony PS3 firmware 2.0.

For a full list of changes please visit:
http://tversity.com/support/releasenotes/


Or to download the new release please visit:
http://tversity.com/download/

Monday, October 08, 2007

Version 0.9.10.8 is here


This release features support for Windows Media Center and for Media Center compatible solutions like Active-TV.

It also improves the DirecTV HR20 support and includes many bug fixes and other enhancements.





For a more detailed list of changes please go to:
http://tversity.com/support/releasenotes/

To download the new version please go to:
http://tversity.com/download/

Thursday, July 19, 2007

iPhone support is here and so is version 0.9.10.7

We are thrilled to announce our latest release featuring support for the Apple iPhone.

To see this new functionality in action, point Safari on the iPhone to http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:41952/iphone. When using an EDGE connection use http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:41952/iphone/edge. In both cases xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is the IP address of the machine running TVersity.

You can now access your entire media collection in the home and on the go from your iPhone however in each of these cases a different IP address is needed and you may need to establish a port forwarding in order to access it on the go.

Please be advised that when video transcoding is needed, the iPhone cannot start playback until the entire conversion is completed, this is a restriction of the MP4/MOV/3GPP containers when streamed over HTTP (and since the iPhone does not support RTSP/RTP there is no way around it at the moment).

In addition to this we have many bug fixes in this and the previous release, including one security fix and hence we encourage all to upgrade.

For more information about this release please visit:
http://tversity.com/support/releasenotes/

To download it now please visit:
http://tversity.com/download/

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

TVersity 0.9.10.5 is here

We are glad to announce the availability of the TVersity Media Server 0.9.10.5. In this release we are fixing many issues and adding a new Radio directory by our partner radiotime.com. We are also adding new features for Sony PS3 owners and Microsoft Xbox 360 owners.

If you always wanted to add your home and Internet content of choice to TVersity via a single button click, this release is setting the stage for that. We now support a one click addition of content to TVersity from third party content sites and also via the Windows explorer. The former is intended for Internet content and the latter is for your home content.

This release is also adding new version alerts, so from now on you will be notified about new releases when running the TVersity user interface.

The full release notes are available at:
http://tversity.com/support/releasenotes/

You can download the new version at:
http://tversity.com/download/

As always we are looking forward for your feedback!

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Version 0.9.10.3 is here

We are happy to announce full support for the Sony PS3 firmware 1.8 and the Xbox 360 spring update.

As you probably know, shortly after we made our previous major release, both Microsoft and Sony issued major updates for their game consoles, making them an even better multimedia gateways. In order to best serve our users, we issued patches overnight that supported the new functionality of those firmware updates, however these patches were only partial solutions. This release brings full support for the new functionality of the PS3 and the 360 and the ability to properly serve them both at the same time (the two patches were conflicting in certain aspects, these conflicts haven been removed).

The main benefits of this release are:

  • Internet radio now works on the PS3. First playback attempt is likely to fail with an "Access to the media server has been denied" message (or "unsupported data" message), this is because the PS3 does not wait long enough for the data to be fetched over the Internet. After this failure, wait a few seconds and try playing this same station again. Assuming a connection to that station was possible, there won't be an error message, however the actual playback may take up to two minutes and more to start since the PS3 requires about 1 MB of data before it initiates playback.

  • Internet video and transcoded content starts playing faster on the PS3 than it used to (saving about 5 seconds).

  • Library refresh is now reflected on the PS3 and on any other device that checks the media server for updates (leaving a folder that has updates and then going back to it is required in order to see the changes).

  • Issues with green bars or distorted colors when playing via PS3 were resolved.

  • TVersity can now produce for the 360, WMV7 or WMV8 or WMV9 or MSMPEG4V3 once can switch between them by seting the wmProfile variable in config.xml to one of wmv7, wmv8, wmv9, mp43.

  • TVersity can now encode to WMV in two methods, the first is via directshow (which always existed and still is the default) and the second is via ffmpeg. While for now only wmv8 can be produced via ffmpeg, it is slightly faster than directshow and hence it may prove beneficial in certain cases.

  • Fix image browsing for the DirectTV HR20.

  • Do not block every URL with two consecutive dot characters, but rather check if the canonical path is shared or not and based on this determine if to allow ot deny access to it. This solves some playlist related playback issues.

  • The TVersity service is now starting more reliably during a reboot, waiting, if necessary, for the networking to finish initializing, instead of quitting if it is not already initialized when Tversity is started.


Full release note are available here.

Download the latest release here.

Update
We just updated this release with a fix to the pause after ~30 seconds of playback problem. The version for this quick fix release is 0.9.10.3a. It is recommended that all users upgrade.