From the consoles, we were able to peruse hierarchical folders of content from CBS, ESPN, Hulu, Netflix and YouTube. Once the software was up and running, we fired up the Xbox and PS3 and found the PlayOn server visible under each device’s Video menu. Configuring PlayOn is equally straightforward from a simple tabbed interface you can do things like measure your broadband connection speed (1.5-2 Mbps downstream is recommended– ours was 6 Mbps), start and stop the server, and enter account information for supported content providers. Installing PlayOn was both quick and easy - here aren’t any third-party components or codecs required other than WMP11 (which you’ll already have if you’re installing on a Vista system). Not sure what a particular term means? Check out the searchable PracticallyNetworked Glossary. MediaMall recommends that either the PlayOn PC or the receiving device use a wired connection to the network, so for our test setup, the PlayOn PC had a Gigabit Ethernet connection while the game consoles were linked to the network via an 802.11n wireless bridge. We installed it on Vista Home Premium PC with a dual-core 2.2 GHz AMD CPU and 2 GB of RAM - not an old clunker - but hardly high-end.įor our receiving devices we used both Xbox 360 and PS3 game consoles. PlayOn’s minimum system requirements are a Windows PC with a 1.5 GHz CPU and 512MB of RAM running Windows Media Player 11, but since the software must often perform on-the-fly conversion of video into another format before passing it along to the receiving device, you’ll want to run it on reasonably beefy hardware. Other DLNA/UPnP devices, like the D-Link MediaLounge DSM-520, may also work, but they’re not officially supported at this time. PlayOn will work with the Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3, or HP MediaSmart TV, but MediaMall promises support for the Nintendo Wii before the end of the year. In a nutshell, the PlayOn software installs on an XP or Vista PC, pulls video content down from the Web via RSS feed, and delivers it to a DLNA/UPnP (Digital Living Network Alliance/ Universal Plug and Play) device connected to your home network. Despite the fact that PlayOn is still in beta form (you can download it from /get-it-now and use it for a 45-day trial period), we found it a solid product that was extremely easy to set up and simple to use. With the $30 PlayOn media server from MediaMall Technologies, you can watch TV from Hulu, movies from Netflix and video clips from some other content providers (including YouTube) on a TV instead of your PC. After all, your TV is likely bigger than your computer monitor, and your living room couch is probably a lot more comfortable than your office desk chair (unless you have one of those pricey Herman Miller chairs with the webbing, but that only seats one person anyway). But just because you can watch TV and movies on a computer doesn’t necessarily mean you always want to. Thanks to the Internet, you no longer need a television or DVD player to watch TV shows and movies at home - all you need is a broadband connection and a computer.
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