Posted Jun 15, 2006 at 04:13AM by Anna S. Listed in: How-To, Applications Tags: Sony, media player, TVersity
Ó

TVersity Media Server is a free application that lets you manage your internet and home media by creating a personalized lineup of channels or Personal Entertainment Guide (PEG). It then serves this media to your device, overcoming limitations by doing all the necessary conversions for your media to be available anytime and anywhere for you on any device. So what it's saying is it that all you need to do is enjoy your media while it does all the work.

AboutMainSharingLibrarySettings


It can support almost any type of media as well as streaming protocol coming from your home network or the Internet, such as live and on demand Internet streams. This means that you can have access to Internet TV and radio, Podcasts, photo blogs and more. You're all set if your device supports UPnP AV/DLNA standard (TVs, DVDs, Stereo Receivers,Digital Media Adapaters/Receivers, Mobile Phones, etc.) or has a web browser like XHTML-MP or WAP 2.0 and media streaming capabilities (Mobile Phones, PDAs, the Sony PSP) or something that has an RSS reader and media streaming or downloading capabilities (Sony PSP, iTunes/iPod).

If you already have your gear of your choice (Mine is a Sony PSP, so from this point on the article will focus on how to run the application on a PSP), just crosscheck if you meet the minimum requirements to make TVersity run on it.

 Minimum System Requirements:
  • Pentium III 700 Mhz or better (Pentium 4 2.8 Ghz with support for Hyper Threading is recommended)
  • 128 MB of memory or more (512 MB recommended)
  • 50 MB of disk space (At least 1 GB of free space is recommended for cache area of transcoded media)
  • Windows XP or Windows 2000
  • DirectX 9.0 or higher
  • Windows Media Player 9.0 or higher
  • Audio enabled on the computer running the software
  • Flash version 7 for the GUI (MSIE version 6.0 required for full GUI functionality, other Flash enabled browsers such as Firefox will have most but not all of the functionality.)

GUI 001GUI 002

Now, to the good part. Installation.

But first things first, make sure that no previously installed copy of the software is running on any of the machines on your home network (Note: Internet Explorer users will need to rename the file and restore the .exe suffix before running it). Uninstall old versions, except, if you have Version 0.8 or higher, since you can just upgrade it. Because if you uninstall it,  shared URLs will be lost and won't be copied to the new installation. After downloading the latest version locate the setup file. The first thing you'd notice is is that it doesn't have a .exe suffix. You'd have to rename the file and give it the .exe suffix due to some security software/practice. Run the installation wizard.

When you're done with the installation follow these steps:
  • If you have a personal firewall running or the Windows firewall is running please make sure that the executable MediaServer.exe located under the installation folder of the software (c:Program FilesTVersityMedia Server by default) is allowed to accept incoming connections on the port used by the media server (which is by default port 41952) (it is not necessary to specify the port on most personal firewalls, however your system will be more secure if you do so).
  • For transcoding purposes you will need to make sure you can play in Windows Media Player all the media formats you wish TVersity to handle. If you cannot play some format via Windows Media Player you will not be able to play it via TVersity and so you will need to install additional directshow software components to overcome this issue. Please refer to the TVersity download page for a list of possible add-ons you may need.
  • In addition to that, you may need to change the log-on account of the TVersity service (by default it is set to the local system account) to a user account in which Windows Media Player was installed and in which you intend to install additional directshow components (these are necessary in order to provide decoding for the media formats you need). Please refer to this FAQ section for step by step instructions on how to do that. If you have no intention to play online media and to do any kind of transcoding then you can leave the log-on account as is, otherwise leave it as is for now and later on if you experience transcoding issues, consider changing it.
  • At this point make sure the server is running and responding by opening the following URL http://localhost:41952/, which will start the TVersity GUI. You can also try the URL http://localhost:41952/lib which will open only the portion of the GUI that lets you browse your media library.
  • You may want to know that you can access the TVersity GUI from any machine on your network by replacing the localhost in the above URLs with the IP address or name of the machine running TVersity.

And here's the part you've been waiting for - testing it with the Sony PSP that's 2.6 or higher.
  • In order to access the media library from the Sony PSP, please start the Sony PSP web browser and enter the address http://host:41952/lib where the IP address or name of the computer running TVersity is used instead of the word host. You can find out the name of your computer on Windows by right clicking the My Computer icon on your desktop, selecting Properties from the menu, and then selecting the Computer Name tab on the window that just opened.
  • At this point the media library is still empty since you haven't yet shared any media, however you will be able to access online content from the TVersity content guides. Click on Audio and then on TVersity Audio Guide and you should see a list of Internet radio stations that are included in your media library for demonstration purposes. You may expect to play the radio stations by clicking on them, however the PSP web browser is configured to download music files when clicking on them and store them on your memory card. While this behavior is useful for downloading music tracks from your media library to the PSP (for playback when no network connection is available), it will not allow you to play live content such as these radio stations.
  • Luckily the PSP RSS reader can do audio streaming, i.e. it can play the audio off the network without first downloading it, a necessary feature for playing live content. In order to see this feature in action, click on the RSS icon (the orange icon at the top right corner of the TVersity toolbar) and this will result in the PSP browser asking if you wish to add this Podcast. Please select Yes, close the web browser and open the RSS reader. Navigate to the podcast you just added, select one of the radio stations and play it. After a few seconds (the time it takes to buffer some data off the Net for playback) you should be able to listen to the radio station on your PSP. At this point you can pause the station, rewind and then fast forward it, despite the fact that it is streaming live, because the TVersity server comes with built in support for time shifting.
  • Once you share media from your home network (see step-by-step instructions below) you will be able to download it to the PSP (via the web browser) or stream it (via the RSS reader) in the same way as described above. Please note however that the PSP cannot handle folders inside RSS feeds and therefore only the music tracks inside the feed will be displayed in the PSP RSS Reader. This also means that if you add an RSS feed comprised only of folders (such as the root of the media library) nothing will be displayed in the PSP RSS Reader.
  • Congratulations! You have successfully installed the server and used it to play online content on your Sony PSP.

If you want to give this a go with your other devices that it supports just drop them a line at their website for complete instructions.

Download: [TVersity Media Server]


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37 Comments


Sort by:
   by johan (Unregistered) - 2006-06-15
 » cool

awesome program!

   by NioX (Unregistered) - 2006-06-15
 » 2.5 ?

does it work with the 2.5 firmware emulation from DEVhook ???

   by Anonymous (Unregistered) - 2006-06-15
 » so bad

Nope,'cause the streaming appears tu use the RSS ability of 2.6+ firmwares... :(

   by super_hoops1967 (Unregistered) - 2006-06-15
 » ha ha

2.60 :-D glad i've got it now lol finally somet for 2.6 that sounds good that 1.5 cant use :-D :-D :-D

   by armagedon (Unregistered) - 2006-06-15
 » great

the program is awesome, works great ...

   by callused (Unregistered) - 2006-06-15
 » super_hoops1967

Don't worry about it, we've got most of these features dotted around other programs ;-)

   by soopergooman - 2006-06-15
 » ....

It's total Garbage!!! you have to pay to get real streaming video, and all your songs come as doubles. Fix that and maybe i'd reinstall it.

   by Johny-D - 2006-06-15
 » Cost...

Cost should be included in the post. Please remember this for future news items.

Thanks.

   by Advertising -
   by sh67 (Unregistered) - 2006-06-15
 » cost?

how much is it?

   by Jerico G. (QJ. NET Staff) - 2006-06-15
 » Uhmm...

Guys, this one's free. It says so in the article. :)

   by Elliott (Unregistered) - 2006-06-15
 » Movies

so can you stream movies with this?

   by Muratcan Ozturk (Unregistered) - 2006-06-15
 » Brilliant

I cant wait to use it!

   by Brainiac - 2006-06-15
 » does it works on 2.6+?

Oh god I hope so ...

@ #3, I hope you're friggin right.

I can't wait to leave work and go home to test this!!! LoL I'm going nuts here, 1 more hours left damnit!!! Noooo!

   by Brainiac - 2006-06-15
 » it does work on 2.6+ !!!

This single line in the text above: "And here's the part you've been waiting for - testing it with the Sony PSP that's 2.6 or higher."

YESSS!! *thrusts pelvic in the air* lol

   by Elliott (Unregistered) - 2006-06-15
 » Movies

Sorry, im kind of confused, can this stream video or just Audio?

   by Elliott (Unregistered) - 2006-06-15
 » ok thanks

ya thats what i thought i can use PIMPstreamer for video

   by inverse (Unregistered) - 2006-06-15
 » i cant get this to work

i cant get this to work, it connects to access point then when it gets to listing the wifi light just dies, any suggestions?

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   by 2.71 Firmware user (Unregistered) - 2006-06-15
 » hmm

why would i use this when i can just stream my psp from my computer using podomatic.com rss feeds??

   by jamestunt101 - 2006-06-15
 » cant get it to work

wont work 4 me either, my psp says "connection to server failed"

   by Brainiac - 2006-06-15
 » testing now

I installed it and right now I'm streaming music from my computer to my psp :D. Too bad the psp can't stream video.

The program runs a little heavy though. I didn't change any settings so it probably runs on "best" or "average". Also, it takes a lot of time to add a directory with lots of media stuff, this is understandable though (I think; because it probably creates a library and puts all info in it about the files)

   by casey (Unregistered) - 2006-06-15
 » TVersity

can this stream tv on any devises. it is called TVersity. or is it only music and ovies

   by *****2.XX (Unregistered) - 2006-06-15
 » it's' ok superhoops

"2.60 :-D glad i've got it now lol finally somet for 2.6 that sounds good that 1.5 cant use :-D :-D :-D"

I LOVE getting GTA, battlefield2, katamari, AC!D, and EVERY OTHER PSP game for free, worth hundreds. Enjoy your half assed shoddy beta program.

   by Taylor (Unregistered) - 2006-06-15
 » Ok, I'm not a fanboy, but...

"I LOVE getting GTA, battlefield2, katamari, AC!D, and EVERY OTHER PSP game for free, worth hundreds. Enjoy your half assed shoddy beta program."

I'd agree with you in that this program is a half-assed shoddy beta. But, stealing ISOs is not on. Seriously.

   by *****2.XX (Unregistered) - 2006-06-16
 » I agree


"I'd agree with you in that this program is a half-assed shoddy beta. But, stealing ISOs is not on. Seriously."

I don;t. Just demonstrating that 1.5>Hitler>polio>2.XX

   by anonymous coward (Unregistered) - 2006-06-16
 » number 26

where's the linux support for this eh?

@ number 26: I invoke Godwin's law on you, you just lost the discussion.

   by steve (Unregistered) - 2006-06-16
 » error

hey can somebody help me i keep getting this error saying
"communication with the server failed. a DNS error has occurred. (80410414)"

can someone please tell me why this is happening

   by *****off (Unregistered) - 2006-06-16
 » .


"where's the linux support for this eh?

@ number 26: I invoke Godwin's law on you, you just lost the discussion."

Yea, I lost. Godwin's law is so true. Why not use Wine, or use a dual boot seyup. I use both. Wine for windows crap, windows fir USB things (much better than FC5)

   by Advertising -
   by Jstunt (Unregistered) - 2006-06-16
 »  Help fixing

"hey can somebody help me i keep getting this error saying
"communication with the server failed. a DNS error has occurred. (80410414)"

can someone please tell me why this is happening"

Check your firewall settings, the same thing happened to me, also make sure you typed in address in correctly
eg. http://IP ADDRESS:41952/lib

   by Kc (Unregistered) - 2006-06-16
 » Cant get pimpstreamer or this workin.

still wont work for me. :(

   by Ronen (Unregistered) - 2006-06-16
 » Use IP address and not host name

The instructions in the article say to use the computer name in the URL and this is the problem. if you use the IP address (can be correctly discovered by following instructions at http://compnetworking.about.com/cs/windowsnetworkin1/ht/findaddrwinxp.htm ) it will work.
Some common errors is using the IP address discovered by service like http://www.whatismyipaddress.com/ . This is wrong since it reveals the IP address of your router and not of the computer running Tversity. Just follow the instructions on the link I provided and you will be fine. If you have additional issues come to the TVersity support forums and we will be glad to assist.



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