Basic Techie Stuff

This post discusses the system setup I am using. It goes without saying that there are numerous ways this could be done and a future post will discuss the options that I am aware of. One of my hopes for this blog is that readers will discuss their experiences with alternative setups.

Lets start with the obvious: a broadband internet connection is needed and a minimum download speed of around 2Mbs will be required for reasonable performance. My setup uses a Network Router with a PC running Windows XP. Any PC that was bought in the last 5 years or so should prove adequate for the job.

I use a software product called Miro to download video from compatible web feeds. The good news is that Miro is available free and is easy to install. Once Miro is installed you can subscribe to compatible web feeds (for example Sky News Headlines). Miro then downloads new items as they appear on the feed and stores them on your hard drive (Sky News Headlines is updated 4 times a day). You can change the settings to control which new items are downloaded and which old items are deleted. Downloaded items are typically in MPEG-4 format. At present I have 19 feeds running and the total space occupied by downloads is 5.2Gb. You can also use Miro to watch downloaded items on your PC.

To view downloaded video items I use a Linksys Kiss 1600 Media Player. The Media Player is currently connected by Wireless Network. The Kiss 1600 relies on a software program called Kiss PC-Link running on the PC. Kiss PC-Link needs to be set up to look at the folder where Miro stores its downloads. Technically this is about as difficult as it gets. Once Kiss PC-Link is running, the Media Player can access any file appearing in the relevant folders over the network, this includes video, audio and picture files. The Kiss 1600 also plays DVDs via a front loader tray. The Media Player has a remote control which allows the desired operation while slumped in armchair mode.

The display I use is a 22" monitor connected to the Media Player by HDMI interface. There is a separate output from the Media Player to an audio amplifier and speaker.

Overall this works well. There are a few glitches and a future post will cover these. The Media Player cost less than a TV Licence so I am already in profit. At present I am not downloading movies or other long items as the download times could be prohibitive. DVDs are the thing for movies but web feeds work for fine for short items (typically 5 minutes) and are an ideal way of keeping up to date with the news.

A planned improvement is to install a hardwired network connection for the Media Player. I did have some problems trying to watch video while also downloading e-mail to the laptop, however apart from that one instance the wireless connection has proved reliable so far.

Internet: Pipex (download speed runs at 3.2Mbs)
PC: Dell Optiplex GX280 2.8GHz 2Gb RAM 80Gb Hard Drive
Router: Belkin ADSL Modem with Wireless-G Router
Download Software: Miro 2.0.3
Media Player: Linksys Kiss 1600
Display: Viewsonic 22" HD LCD VX2260wm

http://www.getmiro.com/
http://news.sky.com/skynews/podcasts
http://www.linksys.eu/