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Review: QCast Tuner for PS2
It can handle many media formats; to me, the most important are MPEG-1, MP3, and JPEG. But it also handles DivX, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4, Ogg Vorbis, and PNG, and can be updated to handle other formats. But it doesn't handle the majority of my movie file archive, which are QuickTime, and that's a shame. And if you try to open a file it can't read (I changed some .mov files to .mpg, as it filters by name), it seems to hang.
I got the PS2 Network Adapter installed first, popped it onto the back of the machine, and ran the setup disk to configure it. Then I played a game of Madden 2003 online. I scored a touchdown on a tight end slant on the first play, then got one more play at the end of the half (a 30-yard reception to Troy Brown), and then didn't take another snap. Stupid 1-minute quarters. I lost 14-7.
Then I remembered I had this QCast Tuner thing, and I installed it on my PowerBook G3/500, where I keep my images, my MP3s, and my EyeTV recordings. It didn't take much to set it up, same as with the initial setup: I manually entered my IP address, router address, etc. and the IP address of the PowerBook G3. The software on the PowerBook updated and configured the PS2 software, and restarted it, and I was ready to go.
From the main screen you can elect to view pictures, or play music and video. I tried music first, where I had shared my iTunes directory, which has one directory per artist (except for compilations, which are in a separate directory). I have 293 directories in this directory, and there is no good way to skip to the bottom of the list; you can go one screen at a time, but that takes a little while. So I picked Ben Folds to start out with.
The user interface, apart from not handling long lists well, has several usability problems. To go up a directory, you select the ".." directory, which is something that Unix geeks know, but most PS2 users would expect to use the triangle button or something.
You cannot play songs from these lists, either; you need to add them to the playlist, then hit L1 to switch to the playlist, and then play from there. To get the ID3 tags to show up, you have to hit L1 again, and select that option (along with the shuffle and repeat options). And if you leave the playing screens (which makes the music stop, so you can't manage playlists while playing music) and come back, those options get reset.
You cannot get the time remaining of a song, and the UI doesn't show the full track name -- or track number -- if it is too large for the available space (it has trouble even with track "1/10", though "1/9" fits). And you can't scan forward or backward in a song or movie (which is often the case with streaming software), you can only pause, play, stop, and skip to another file.
To make it easier to find what you want to play, you can make playlists. Select the files you want to play in the interface, and save the playlist, which is stored on the server. I didn't want to do this for all my MP3s, but I had an easier solution: I wrote a small Perl script to create symlinks to my MP3 artist directories in other directories beginning with the first letter of the artist; and I share that directory of directories of symlinks instead. So instead of going down a list of 390 artists to get to Wesley Willis, I just select W, and he's right there.
My problem with EyeTV was greater: as noted in my review of EyeTV, the filenames bear no resemblance to the contents of the files, unlike the MP3s. But the solution I wrote for EyeTV was easily modified to serve me here, too. The playlists are just text files with the path (relative to the share point) on one line, and just the filename on the next line.
I thought I could change the filename line to be any arbitrary text (like "McLaughlin Group 2003.04.11") and have one playlist for all my EyeTV recordings, but that didn't have any effect; the display still showed the filename. So instead, I created multiple playlists, one for each program. So the playlist "EyeTV: McLaughlin Group" has paths for each McLaughlin Group recording I've got saved. It would have been nice to have an EyeTV playlist directory, instead of naming the playlists "EyeTV: ", but I could find no way to make nested playlists. If a playlist is not in the root playlist directory, it is not recognized as a playlist.
I can now watch the shows I used to have to watch on the computer, on the TV. It makes me feel kinda dirty, like it should have been on the TV all along. Oh well. And any changes to my music and TV recordings are regularly updated, as the two programs run via cron every half hour (and I can even begin watching a program that is currently recording).
QCast is bitten by the iTunes ID3 comment bug whereby data is stored with a frame header of "COM ", which is illegal. So QCast doesn't recognize any of the ID3 tag at all. I can't blame QCast for Apple's bug, especially since it bit my code too; this was the final straw that made me convert all my tags to ID3v2.2.0 (only v2.3.0 and v2.4.0 are affected). Maybe the QCast people can fix that problem when they add QuickTime support (he says hopefully).
The final issue I have is how to integrate it into my TV "experience." I don't want to have to turn on the PS2 and wait for it to boot every time I want to listen to music, so do I leave it on whenever I am around? And my system isn't set up to easily switch between PS2 and TiVo and DVD; my switch box has no remote, but does switch to a device that is turned on, which is nice for DVDs, but useless for when you leave the PS2 on all the time. I could plug the PS2 into the spare inputs on the VCR (which is on a separate input to the amplifier, and has its own button on the remote control), but that is kinda sloppy. And do I buy an IR remote control for the PS2? Is there an IR remote that can turn the PS2 off and on? These are problems mostly inherent in the design of using PS2 for multimedia, and there's not a lot I can do except to try to figure out ways to do things that work for me.
Basically, QCast Tuner is a nice idea, and it works well despite its UI and design flaws (some of which can be fixed on subsequent updates, I imagine), if you can fit it into your setup (or change your setup to suit it). I'm still undecided on using it long-term, but I am going to keep trying it out for awhile and see how it goes.
Series 1 DirecTiVo units are completely hackable to include extraction/remote viewing of video streams.
p hp ?s=&forumid=23
p ?s =&threadid=23380
http://www.dealdatabase.com/forum/forumdisplay.
There's also a MythTV module that completely integrates the series 1 units.
http://www.dealdatabase.com/forum/showthread.ph
You can also have hacks to do caller ID reporting, sports scores, weather, etc.
http://shelob.mordor.net/dgraft/ (Follow link on the left to DirecTiVo)
I bought mine about two weeks ago.
One glaring flaw in the Review: If you hit R2/L2 you can page up and page down on long lists of files, making scrolling long directories painless.
In general I've loved it so far. It saved me the hassle of setting up something to stream MP3's from my computer.
I run mine over 80211b and it works fine. I've watched full length Divx movies and they streamed fine.
Audio wise it's as good as your MP3's.
There are several UI problems and most are noted in the review. Not being able to play songs while you build your list is a bad one, but according to Qcast there's nothing they can do about it. I'd also really like to be able to watch slideshow's while MP3's play but that's a later release according to broadq.
Speaking of
BroadQ they maintain an excellent forum, which is regularly read by developers.
One thing the reviewer failed to mention is that the software is updateable remotetly. A new version is set to ship "any day now". Any updates that require a new cd broadq has provided free of charge to existing users.
I love mine, and use it all the time. Just for streaming MP3's around it would be worth the $50 bucks, but being able to watch my family guy episodes on a full TV makes it a bargain. If you have an internal network and a PS2 save yourself the hassle of trying to build a box yourself and just drop the $50 bucks on this thing. It will be well worth it.
now how about the important question..
a hack to dis-allow Tivo from updating my V1 unit?
all they have to do is update and BOOM all my changes are gone. just like the last 4 times.
show me how to make the tivo work without the service and I'll be a very happy boy.. until then it's changes that can be deleted by the company at any time.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I recently acquired the QCast tuner, thinking it would serve a similar purpose as my SliMP3 player, but with a lot more features. Unfortunately, the SliMP3 kicks QCast's ass in terms of usability.
Granted, these two devices don't really compete feature-for-feature. Slimp3 is only for mp3's, while QCast can handle mp3, ogg, slideshows, videos, etc. But their client/server model is very similar: each relies on a server on another machine to expose media content to the client across a network. Since I had already set this up for my SliMP3 device, I thought the QCast would be a nice addition to my stable of devices that allow access to my growing media collection.
The SliMP3 is used in a room that only has an amp and speakers but no TV, so it works quite well for queuing up and listening to my music colleciton.
I put the QCast in with my main home entertainment setup, which contains my DirecTivo, thinking that it would serve the same purpose as the SliMP3, but now using my TV as the initial UI to setup a playlist.
My biggest complaint is that the QCast server does nothing to abstract information about the media on your system. It just exposes the file system to the playstation, and then you navigate it with the playstation. This forces you to keep your media collection in a maintainable hierarchy at the filesystem level. Although I'm usually pretty good about this, I really appreciate the SliMP3's ability to build up its own internal db using the tag information in the files.
On the QCast, since you can't listen to music and build up the playlist at the same time (a HUGE drawback), you're forced to create the playlist in its entirety and then set it in motion. With the SliMP3, I am able to add and remove music from a playlist as it's playing, which I take advantage of frequently.
Another drawback to the QCast is that it has its own playlist representation, using XML files. There are utilities that can convert between m3u or pls to this format, but it's a big hassle, especially compared to the ease-of-use of the SliMP3.
The final insult to this is that there seems to a problem with some users getting the software to boot consistently on the PS2. It usually takes me several reboots before the PS2 will load the QCast software.
My one hope is that the QCast is under continued development, and as another post mentions, there will be a major software upgrade "real soon now." I'm hoping some of these usability concerns will be addressed with that release.
-Scott
The interface isn't half as bad as pudge makes it out to be. It might have been easier for him to use if he had read the manual first. His complaints are the equivalent of saying "Unix sucks because when I type ls in a long directory it all goes by too fast for me to read."
The review seems to focus more on pudge's crappy home theatre setup than on the QCast Tuner. It's hardly BroadQ's fault that his home theatre setup is convoluted and inconvenient.
Finally, the review doesn't touch on any of the important benefits and drawbacks of the QCast software.
Benefits:
- Cheap as hell (less than $50), and with automatic updates for life. BroadQ has even promised to send new CDs free of charge to existing customers who request them when they finish their next CD pressing run.
- The server software is cross-platform and runs on most Java-capable OSes.
- The software automatically updates itself fairly often, usually fixing annoying bugs and adding new functionality in the process.
- The video and audio quality is very nice, even with relatively low bitrate DivX on my 46" widescreen HDTV.
- The interface (once you learn how to use it) is intuitive, simple, and very clean.
- BroadQ is very responsive to user requests and feedback.
Drawbacks:All things considered, I love QCast. It has its faults, but BroadQ is working hard to fix the ones they can, and the others are offset by the fact that for the money, this software does incredible things. I highly recommend it.
Prior to my Qcast, I use the video out from my Geforce4 to view various forms of video on my TV. I wasn't always happy with the quality of the output, so I picked this thing up, in the belief that my PS2 can do a better job.
And it can.
The interface is some sort of whacked-out neo-70's style thing, that aside from looking odd as hell is reasonably functional - you can navigate directories fairly easily, L2/R2 provide page up/down, and L1/R1 provide movement between "functions" (that is, between the filelist, playlist, and settings).
You can save your playlists for later playback, so oftimes you need only setup your initial playlist and run with it.
Sound: For just playing audio, the system is great - the current version does not use the 5.1 digital capabilities of the PS2, but this is forthcoming. However, it did handle my mp3/ogg collection with little difficulty, and allowed me the standard options one would expect (random play, shuffled playlist, etc.),
About the only features missing are the ability to add to a playing playlist (apparently never going to happen - technical limitiation of the PS/2 they say), and the ability to have the timer show time remaining, rather than elapsed.
Images:
The image viewer is excellent. You can control the scaling of the images, speed of the slideshow (or run it manually from the controller) as well as thr transitions between each image. Supposedly upcoming is the ability to run an image slideshow while playing music - a very cool addon.
Video:
This is what most people care about. This thing handles all the codecs they say they do - but they currently have some size limitations (It can't play a full-res DVD Rip currently, for example). Taken from their own support site, here is the amount they have to do to have the player handle larger streams (taken from their own forums):
===
Our first, immediate goal is to get SVCD resolution files (480x480) working.
Here's a quick table of the target resolutions, and how much additional performance we will need to achieve to get each level:
512x384: 1.0 (this works today).
480x480: 17% performance increase
640x480: 56% performance increase
720x480: 75% performance increase
720x576: 110% performance increase
For MPEG2 performance, we will likely have to rely more heavily on the IPU (built-in MPEG2 hardware).
For MPEG4 performance, we will have to implement aggressive VU optimizations.
===
Perhaps the coolest feature of the software is the great customer support and free updates via the web, handled automatically - the PC software (which runs on Win/Lin/Mac I might add) checks for updates and downloads it to the PC, for the PS2 to install the next time it is used.
About the only missing Video feature I *really* want is FF/REW, and that is going to be pushed to us clients within the week, by the sound of things.
All in all, I haven't looked back since switching from video-out to the QCast Tuner.
a: The disc itself contains a bootloader. The bootloader downloads the app from your computer and then runs it. So updates are downloaded to your computer (and yes it does phone home to do so), then next time you run the new application is loaded to the PS2.
b: MP3 quality is good. I can play it loud enough to annoy the neighbors and assuming a 192K rip it sounds fine. I can't speak on the video quality though, I'm not a videophile and I've only used that part a few times. Check the forums for a real answer, but off the top of my head I want to say there have been some problems with very high end video. Again check the forums for the definitive answer.
Most of what I want to watch is anime, usually encoded at 640x480. Sounds reasonable. But as of yet, the highest resolution video stream supported is 512x384.
Just FYI, video looks fine at 512x288 (512x384 with the letterboxing cropped) on the QCast. I have QCast, and I also have got a ton of anime, including the entire Neon Genesis Evangelion series that I've ripped from DVD. It is encoded at 352x256 and it looks great! Most of my anime features like Akira and Ninja Scroll are encoded at 512x288 and look excellent.
Don't obsess over the resolution issue. The quality of the movie is not determined by resolution alone. A higher bitrate (1000Kbps-1200Kbps) encoding even at a smaller resolution will look just fine when you play it on the QCast. Trust me!
The disc only works on US NTSC PS2's. It's not that they region locked it, it's that the PS2 is region locked.
They're coming out with PAL and Japanese versions soon.
I did look, and there were no solid easy answers that popped up. A lot of people saying some things sorta work but mostly suck and require you to risk severe and permanent damage to your TiVo. Yay, that's helpful.