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PVR Software Reviews

Posted 25 November 2011, 11:44 PM
Since the shocking news of Google's purchase of SageTV, I have been looking at and testing other PVR software solutions. I must admit it hasn't been easy. To make a long story short, I will be sticking with my current SageTV setup for the foreseeable future. Everything still works for me and I'll probably revisit this review and test the alternatives again when the SageTV EPG (EPG=Electronic Programming Guide=TV guide data) service is discontinued as I expect it will be sometime in 2012. There is already work done on replacing the SageTV EPG so SageTV users won't be left with useless PVR software when the official SageTV EPG service is shut off. Whether there will be a free alternative or not remains to be seen and will likely drive my decission to stick with or abandon my SageTV setup.

Let me start by saying that I tested the Windows-based software in a fully updated Windows XP SP3 VMWare Workstation virtual machine and did my best to ensure all prerequisites were met for each software. The Linux-based MythTV software was tested using Mythbuntu, Mythdora, and LinuxMCE distributions installed in VMWare Workstation. All virtual machines were hosted on a Windows 7 64-bit OS running with a 3.2GHz Intel quad core processor and 11GB RAM. Also, where PVR functions are concerned, I did not test with external EPG data so I can't say for certain whether you may or may not be able to use these free PVR programs with or without paying a yearly subscription fee for your EPG data.

Now for a brief summary of my experiences and opinions of the PVR solutions I have tried:

Meedios - MeediOS - The HTPC app of the future

Meedios is a free Windows-based open source recreation of the Meedio software that was purchased and killed by Yahoo! First, the good. Meedios has an extremely awesome and slick looking user interface with all of the bells and whistles many people found to be lacking in SageTV. It is extremely configurable and will allow you to organize and display your media exactly the way you want it. Meedios is under active development and has an active following of plugin and theme developers. This means there are LOTS of plugins and themes to improve the look and functionality of Meedios. With built in plugins and 3rd party plugins you can bring a wealth of online content to your TV, including online videos, news stories, weather, and movie theater show times. And now for the bad. There are no PVR functions included with Meedios. The PVR functions are not built in and are only made available through 3rd party PVR engines and Meedios plugins. I didn't test these PVR functions since there were no recent releases or clear instructions on how to make it all work together. I didn't see any clear client/server ability with a common database and configuration serving multiple clients when I tested Meedios a couple of months ago. However, it appears that Meedios is working on integrating a central database solution so multiple clients can connect to and share a common library. Meedios is strictly a Windows-based media center application. It doesn't support other media player hardware (Popcorn Hour/Hauppauge MediaMVP) or gaming systems as Meedios clients with a Meedios user interface. And finally, along with the extreme flexibility in customization and configuration comes extreme complexity that will have most non-tech non-computer savvy users in over their heads very quickly when it comes to customizing things to get all of their data and media organized and displaying exactly how they want it. But don't let that prevent you from trying out this software. The initial install was simple enough to get most people happily started. But if you are a real stickler for how you want your media to be organized and displayed, be prepared for a fairly steep learning curve and significant investment of your time. If I didn't need the PVR functions and media extender capability, this is the software I would be using.


MediaPortal - MEDIAPORTAL - a HTPC Media Center for free!

MediaPortal is a free Windows-based open source media center and PVR software that has been around for a while and still being actively developed. First, the good. It has better integration of PVR functions than Meedios and they are all included with the MediaPortal installer. It also has all of the advanced PVR functions that SageTV has such as a client/server based PVR architecture and also the ability to use network-based TV tuners (meaning the main PVR server can utilize TV tuners that are not physically attached to the PVR server PC). It also has a very slick looking user interface and LOTS of extensions and skins to improve the look and functionality of MediaPortal. And now for the bad. While the TV functions have a client/server architecture, the media center functions for things like music, movies, and pics are updated on each MediaPortal installation separately instead of using a central database. If you have several client machines, each one may have to come out of standby or sleep mode to update their own databases everyday, hitting the network and server hard drives with more traffic than is necessary. Like Meedios, it doesn't appear to fully support other media players (Popcorn Hour/Hauppauge MediaMVP) or gaming systems as full MediaPortal clients with a MediaPortal user interface. It does support some of these as extenders, just don't expect to have the same slick and flashy user interface as you would get using a PC client. The installation is still a bit daunting and complicated, but if you're looking at this type of software then you can probably muddle your way through without too much trouble.


NextPVR - http://www.nextpvr.com

GB-PVR is now called NextPVR and is a free closed source Windows-based PVR software that is currently being actively developed. First, the good. It has a client/server PVR architecture and now with a plugin it has the ability to use network-based TV tuners just like SageTV. It supports the Hauppauge MediaMVP and Popcorn Hour as client devices. It does have a small gathering of plugins and skins to fill in some of the gaps. And now the bad. I had trouble using my Hauppauge MediaMVP with NextPVR. It may have been the fact that I was testing NextPVR in a Windows XP virtual machine, but the MVP was extremely slow and kept locking up with NextPVR. A couple of newer versions of NextPVR have been released since I tested this, so I'll have to revisit it. I didn't have any other extenders to test with, so I can't comment on whether Popcorn Hour would have worked any better. For some people this might not be a bad thing, but the PC user interface was not nearly as slick and flashy as Meedios or MediaPortal. While not flashy, it was simple (maybe too simple) and responsive. It seemed more like SageTV was back in the SageTV v2 or earlier days. Since I couldn't test it with my MVP, I decided to skip the rest of the features so I can't comment too much on that other than to say that it allows you to do all of the basics such as browse and play your music, movies, and pics.


MythTV - http://www.mythtv.org

MythTV and MediaMVP Media Center are free open source Linux-based software. I'll start off by saying that if you are switching from SageTV and looking for MediaMVP extender support, the MediaMVP Media Center for MythTV isn't nearly as good of a client for MythTV as SageTV's built in MVP extender support. It only gives you a very basic and generic user interface to your MythTV server and it doesn't give you anything close to what SageTV accomplished. As a PVR, MythTV is probably about as close to a SageTV replacement as you can get for PVR functionality. First, the good about MythTV. It has a solid client/server PVR architecture like SageTV that allows you to have and use TV tuners on any machine with MythTV installed while having just one machine acting as the server to coordinated the usage of all of the TV tuners. Besides MythTV for client PCs, you can also use XBMC as a MythTV frontend that will run on Windows and Mac platforms as well as Linux. The MythTV user interface doesn't seem to be as slick and flashy as Meedios or MediaPortal, but I think it is better than any of the stock SageTV user interfaces. So, now for the bad. Maybe it was something with the distro I used or the version of MythTV included with the distro, but there didn't seem to be a whole lot of plugins or skins available through the MythTV user interface. Besides what is available from the MythTV user interface, there are additional addons available and tweaks you can do outside of the MythTV user interface, but you need to be familiar with using a Linux command line and know a little bit about Linux commands and the Linux file structure and permissions to do this without banging your head on your desk.

A quick additional note regarding MythTV…there are several Linux distributions with MythTV already integrated and will give you a ready-to-use MythTV server in a short period of time. These distributions have fairly easy to use wizard type installations but you may want to have the installation documentation or wiki page for the particular distro you have chosen loaded up on a laptop so you can consult with it as you move through the installation process. If you are looking for a whole house server that not only offers TV and Media Center services, LinuxMCE also offers home automation, security, and telecom control services. The drawback to a full LinuxMCE installation, with multiple LinuxMCE machines, is that it will likely require a significant reconfiguration of your home network. The LinuxMCE core server machine needs to act as the router and DHCP server for your LAN in order for all of the features of the interconnected clients to work, which means your LinuxMCE core server machine will need two network interfaces…one for the broadband/Internet connection and one for your internal LAN.


Final Thoughts

If I had to switch from SageTV right now, the choice I would make would be MythTV under the LinuxMCE distro. The addition of home automation, security, and telecom functions all integrated into one server is what will ultimately sway me to a LinuxMCE setup. If I were to stick with just a PVR setup in a Windows PC environment I would have to go with MediaPortal until Meedios has a proven and integrated PVR solution like MediaPortal. If I didn't care about all of the cool plugins, complex setups, or flashy user interface, and just wanted a simple PVR and media center, I would go with NextPVR.


OK, the rambling is done. Having tested these software packages in virtual machines, there were likely some problems I experienced that were attributed to that. If I have made any errors or false assumptions in my review, feel free to comment and correct me and I will verify and make any corrections necessary.

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SkyLight Adapter Connects Microscopes To Smartphones

Posted 11:01 AM. In tess bakke.

SkyLight co-founders Andy Miller and Tess Bakke.

The SkyLight is really a simple device derived to solve a simple problem: how to keep your smartphone still enough to take high quality photos through a microscope. Watching other people holding their cell phones up to their microscopes, SkyLight co-founder, Andy Miller, realized that he wasn?t the only one in search of a low cost and easy way to take pictures of microscope images. I recently had the joy of chatting with Miller and fellow co-founder Tess Bakke about how the SkyLight came to be, and how they think it will impact research, medicine and education.

The SkyLight is essentially an adapter that fixes a smartphone to a microscope. Using the phone?s camera to peer through the eyepiece and snap photos, you get images that are practically indistinguishable from images taken with professional microscopy cameras. The big difference is that conventional microscope cameras can cost hundreds to thousands of dollars, while the SkyLight is just $60. Of course, you?ll need a smartphone too, but you probably already have one in your pocket.

The SkyLight adapter consists of a movable platform that the smartphone fits into, and a base that locks onto just about any microscope eyepiece. After connecting the smartphone to the eyepiece, you adjust the platform position to align the camera correctly, and adjust it up and down for focus. Lock it up, and you?re ready to take pictures.

?I was building a microscope in college,? Miller tells me casually, as if microscope-building was as normal as joining the chess club, ?and I was trying to attach a telephone to that microscope and I realized, well, it?s fine if I can attach one cell phone to one microscope but it would be pretty feasible to have a universal adapter that would allow me to attach any phone to any microscope.?

Miller likes to build microscopes, but there?s a purpose behind his geeky pursuit. While studying bioengineering and global health at Rice University, he designed and built the Global Focus microscope ? a simple, affordable microscope that can be built for areas of the world with limited resources. With off-the-shelf lenses and mirrors, an LED flashlight for a light source, and running off batteries, the microscope could take bright field and fluorescent images and cost only $240 to make. Right now there are 20 prototypes being tested in the US, Central America, and Africa.

Not too shabby: a 10X image of esophageal cells taken by an iPhone 4S.

As the Kickstarter page confesses, ?Now he?s bent on making meaningful change through design.? The SkyLight is a simple idea that could have profound results. Connecting a cell phone to a microscope not only saves money, but in a developing country, it makes the difference between quality care or not. Don?t have a pathologist in your rural Kenyan village? No problem. Just send the images to the hospitals in Nairobi. SkyLight can literally bring together innovative solutions such as the Global Focus microscope and the $80 IDEOS Android smartphone, which 350,000 Kenyans had scooped up as of this past summer, to extend the reach of much needed quality healthcare.

The idea for the SkyLight came to Miller while building the cheap microscopes in Africa. The lack of resources available there forced him to create a general design. ?How do you make it work with anything you might have?? He made a product that would work with any cell phone. Had he been in the US and had all the resources he needed, Miller expects the adapter he?d have come up with would have been specifically built for an iPhone and only an iPhone, or a specific microscope together with a specific phone. The tightened constraints in Africa forced Miller to make a more general use device, and it?s all the better for it. The SkyLight can work for different phones and different microscope with different kinds of eyepieces. And even though they?re focusing on microscopes at the moment, the team expects that SkyLight will eventually be used to mate smartphones with other types of cameras such as spotting scopes, the telephoto cameras used by birders. Check out their gallery of images here.

Think you could tell the difference between images taken with a phone and conventional camera? While they haven?t rigorously compared the images taken by their smartphone with images taken by conventional microscopy cameras, they?ve already passed the eyeball test. As Miller tells me, the Kickstarter page ?received the most attention from?doctors, pathologists who want to do doctor-to-doctor consult.? Some physicians actually contacted the group and asked that they take pictures of samples. They took the pictures with an iPhone 4S with a resolution of 8-megapixels. After posting the pictures on their website they were contacted by multiple pathologists who told them that it?s good enough for them to make diagnoses.

The SkyLight won the Proto Labs Cool Idea! Award in the program?s inaugural year. According to their website, Proto Labs is the ?world?s fastest? maker of CNC machined and injection molded parts. Their Cool Idea! Award is aimed at producing high quality prototypes for startup businesses that might not have the resources to follow through on a good idea. In a press release about the award, Proto Labs cited how SkyLight enables researchers, clinicians and educators to communicate in new ways by combining tools already available to them. Winning the award was a key achievement for SkyLight?s mission to make the adapter available to those who need it. The mold that Proto Lab has created lowers production cost and makes it more affordable. The SkyLight was listed on Kickstarter for $60, but Miller and Bakke hope to work with an NGO in the future and offer the adapter for even less.

Bakke emphasized SkyLight?s social enterprise aspect, mentioning their 5 to 1 promise: for every five SkyLights they sell they?re going to donate one to schools or other places like a local health program that could use them.

We shouldn?t forget that the camera in use is still a phone. Miller and Bakke point out that SkyLight could be used live; that is, you could connect a collaborator with a live view through your microscope all the while having a conversation.

?Can you move it a little to the left?great, now zoom in.?

As an easy and inexpensive way to generate and share images, SkyLight is an ideal telemedicine tool. Wanting to explore SkyLight?s potential, the company has sending their prototype to telemedicine researchers to tap their imaginations. At the same time they?re encouraging apps developers to come up with apps to improve image-based smartphone telemedicine and telediagnosis capabilities. Miller mentioned one app that would be universally useful would be an app that pushes images directly to a server, and labels and organizes them. That way people wouldn?t have to email or text themselves every image they want to keep.

Right now the adapter is still in its testing and production phase, but they expect SkyLight to be ready around the first of March. When that happens there will be no shortage of takers. Their first production run will be aimed at filling Kickstarter orders and getting feedback for improvement.

Kickstarter is great for turning great ideas into real tools. SkyLight’s goal was to raise $15,000. They ended up with over $22,000. I have no doubt that these two, enthusiastic young people and the SkyLight will get a lot of attention in the coming months. All they did was find a way to combine technologies that already existed, showing us once again you don’t need to reinvent the wheel to create something useful.

[image credits: SkyLight]
images: SkyLight


Submitted by Peter Murray

iRobot CEO Discusses Their New Robot AVA

Posted Yesterday, 10:52 AM. In telepresence.

iRobot CEO, Colin Angle, with AVA.

We found this video from CNNMoney, about AVA, iRobot?s latest personal assistance robot. We?ve covered AVA before, how it?s basically an iPad (or notebook) on a pretty sophisticated set of wheels. We don’t learn anything new about the robot, but watching AVA we begin to get a feel for how AVA might work in the home, particularly, as iRobot CEO Colin Angle points out, to assist the elderly. With laser range finders, acoustic sensors, accelerometers, bumpers, and two cameras for 3D vision, iRobot?s built AVA to have the tools to get around the home and be of service.

What service will AVA provide exactly? Mainly telepresence communication between the elderly and healthcare providers. Angle?s main point is that the elderly don?t want to live in assisted living homes, and their relatives don?t want to pay the cost of assisted living homes. By having doctors, nurses, or other health personnel available at the tap of a touchscreen, AVA can mediate exchange of immediate health information between patients and their doctors. AVA would be perfect for the elderly who require minimal care but regular monitoring.

And healthcare aside, AVA?s perfect for curing another major ailment of the elderly: loneliness. With AVA, friends and family members can ?drop in? from time to time. Watching the robot scoot around, it?s actually got some personality, the way it?s head swings around and tilts to look at you ? even thought it?s head is an iPad. Imagine a grandson?s face rolling into the living room, ?Hi grandma!? I think she?ll take that over a telephone call any day.

[image credits: CNNMoney via YouTube]
[video credits: CNNMoney via YouTube]
video: AVA


Submitted by Peter Murray

Embryonic Stem Cells Used To Improve Vision Of Blind Patients

Posted Yesterday, 10:39 AM. In steven schwartz.

The man of the hour. UCLA's Steven Schwartz and his team partially restored vision to two patients by injecting stem cells into their retinas.

Macular degeneration had left Sue Freeman, 78, legally blind. She couldn?t go for a walk by herself, she couldn?t go shopping or even cook by herself. Another woman, age 51, was suffering from Stargardt?s macular dystrophy, which causes the loss of cells located in the pigmented layer of the retina called the retinal pigment epithelium. Also legally blind, she was unable read the large letters on an eye chart used to test people with compromised vision.

In July of 2010 doctors injected retinal cells derived from human embryonic stem cells into one eye of each woman in the hopes that they would regrow the cells needed to see. A couple weeks after surgery Freeman improved her visual acuity score from correctly identifying 21 letters (20/500 vision) to 28 letters (20/320). She could once again pour a glass of water without spilling it, read her own handwriting, and ? to the chagrin of her husband ? take notice of all the improvements that needed to be done on rental properties that they own.

The other patient, who wishes to remain anonymous, could only detect hand motions prior to surgery. Two weeks following surgery she began counting fingers. She also improved from identifying zero letters on the acuity chart to correctly recognizing five. She woke up one morning and looked at the armoire in her bedroom. ?It has a lot of detailed carvings and I thought wow, I was missing those before,? she told CNN.

Both patients continued to show improvement in the treated eye four months after surgery and did not show any adverse side effects. Importantly, the eyes that did not receive stem cells did not show improvement. The patients were also given immunosuppressants to prevent their bodies from rejecting the foreign tissue.

The trial was led by Steven Schwartz, an opthalmologist and chief of the retina division at UCLA?s Jules Stein Eye Institute, and the results were published in The Lancet. Although the results are extremely promising, Dr. Schwartz is quick to temper enthusiasm over the trial. Only two patients were treated, after all. Many more will need to be successfully treated before the procedure can be accepted as a robust option. He justified publishing the study after only two patients given the amount of interest in the field. Qualifying the study further, Dr. Schwartz cautioned that the improvement in eyesight for one of the women could be a placebo effect.

Pigmented epithelial cells were grown from embryonic stem cells prior to injection.

The stem cells were treated before being injected into the patients? eyes. Researchers at the company that had provided the stem cells, Advanced Cell Technology, had induced the cells to become retinal pigment epithelial cells. The procedure, which included the injection of about 50,000 cells, took half an hour. The team received stem cells from Advanced Cell Technology, which had gotten them from an embryo stored at a fertility clinic. The couple who?d produced the embryo decided not to use it and then donated it to the company. After stem cells were derived from the embryo it was destroyed. The hope is that in the future stem cells will be taken from embryos without the need to destroy them.

The stem cell treatment gives new hope to the blind. Macular degeneration is the leading cause of vision loss among the elderly. When the light-sensitive photoreceptors of the macula degenerate people can no longer bring objects into focus. Stargart?s muscular dystrophy, or Stargart?s disease, is a common cause of vision loss among children and young people. Right now there is no treatment for Stargart?s disease, and while drug injections, laser treatment and diet alteration can slow the progression of age-related macular degeneration, it is also considered incurable.

Others are working towards a stem cell cure for macular degeneration. In 2010 researchers successfully grew a retina in the lab from human embryonic stem cells. It was the first time a 3D tissue was produced from stem cells. Curing macular degeneration is an ideal target for stem cell treatments. The number of cells needed is low compared to, say, regrowing the neurons of a damaged spinal cord. Unlike other cells in the retina, cells of the retinal pigment epithelium don?t need to form synapses to work. Lastly, the retina?s immune environment is more tolerant, thus decreasing the need for immunosuppressants.

Pharmaceutical giant Geron Corporation used to represent one of the best chances for making stem cell treatments a reality. But recently after the company had begun human trials on their promising cell line that allowed paralyzed mice to walk again, they dropped out of the stem cell game altogether. If the UCLA trial results hold, it could entice more companies like Advanced Cell Technology to invest in stem cell research. According to a commentary on the trial, when Geron ended their trial it left ACT and Dr. Schwartz and his colleagues as the sole group treating patients with embryo-derived stem cells. That?s not good enough. Let?s hope the trial not only brings the world into focus for its patients, but also brings the potential of embryo-derived stem cells back into the focus of medicine.

[image credits: UCLA Jules Stein Eye Institute, CNN and The Lancet]
image 1: Schwartz1
image 2: Schwartz2
image 3: stem cells


Submitted by Peter Murray

Rollin? Justin Robot Gets Agile, Learns How To Throw A Ball (video)

Posted Wed 10:41 AM. In Rollin Justin.

The gangly Agile Justin, ready to toss a ball to its robotic twin Rollin' Justin.

Where was Agile Justin last year when we needed him to throw out the first pitch at a Philadelphia Phillies game? The PhillieBot was booed by Phillies fans after bouncing the ball to home plate. It would have been a different story had DLR?s latest robot been there.

Last summer DLR showed us Rollin? Justin?s amazing ability to catch. Now they?ve created a robot that can toss the ball to Rollin?. Just as Rollin? Justin was a great test platform for robotics technologies behind high-speed perception, catching strategy, dexterity and body control, Justin?s Agile twin presents DLR programmers with the challenge of effective ball tossing ? something that PhillieBot failed miserably at.

As Hizook reports, DLR started with Rolling Justin and added ?1.5 faster arms through different gear ratios; completely new wheel electronics and bus architecture, which allows a 500Hz control loop over all four wheels and steering [degrees of freedom] on the mobile platform; 1kHz control loop for the arms, torso and hand [degrees of freedom].?

Watch the ball toss in the video below. Obviously Agile Justin throws like a robot, kind of sidearm/underhand, not much like a major league pitcher. The coordination between arm, torso, and wheels gives new meaning to the term ?pitching mechanics.?

[image credits: hizook via YouTube and DLR]
[video credits: hizook via YouTube]
image 1: throw
image 2: Agile Justin
video: Agile Justin



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