There’s so much computer and entertainment technology to keep track of these days that there will always be developments that slip through the cracks and remain unbeknownst to one.
One such development that has passed me by unnoticed until now is DLNA.
Since the installation of the media room upstairs, I’ve spent the last year lamenting that I’ve been too lazy to build a MythTV front-end for that room . Our original dual back-end/front-end box is still in the living-room, since that’s where we still do most of our viewing. That means we have no DVR at all upstairs, which is very annoying. Once you’ve used a DVR, there’s no going back to live TV, so we just end up not watching TV upstairs.
On the other hand, I have installed MythTV on my new desktop computer, turning it into a second front-end. Because I have two monitors on the new system, I can play a TV programme on one monitor while I do work on the other. This can be a recorded programme or even live TV, all of which gets streamed from the back-end in the living-room. It’s fun to be able to watch a programme that requires only a bit of my attention whilst still being able to get real work done.
Anyway, as I said, I’ve been too lazy to build a front-end for the media room upstairs. Little did I know, however, that I actually already had a kind of front-end up there, sitting idle, waiting to be discovered.
It turns out that MythTV has had a built-in DLNA server since version 0.20.2, which basically allows it to announce its digital content to the network.
That wouldn’t actually mean much, were it not for the fact that the PlayStation 3 happens to be a DLNA client.
What this means is that we can use the PS3 to play TV programmes (as well as videos, photos, music, etc.) from the MythTV back-end, albeit through a very crude interface.
Because it’s not a true MythTV front-end, we don’t have fine control of the system, so we can’t, for example, sort the programmes by the date they were recorded. Still, it’s much better than nothing at all and may prove good enough to avoid the need for a dedicated MythTV front-end in that room.
I’m still reeling from the fact that the functionality I wanted was there all the time, lurking unseen and awaiting discovery for the last year. When I chanced upon the information, I bolted upstairs and found that everything just worked. I didn’t even need to configure anything.
The feeling was similar to the way Sarah’s parents must have felt when they saw their grandchildren for the first time via the webcam on the other side of the Atlantic. Not that my discovery is in any way on a par with that; just that the surprise at what current technology is capable of is comparable. It’s the childlike astonishment that comes with a new discovery and I see it in my own children almost every day.
Even people who’ve made their living from computers, people like me, experience this from time to time. Like I said, there’s just too much to keep track of and even a seasoned computer user can by surprised by what’s now possible.
For rooms where you don’t want to go to the expense of a PS3 or media PC, the dirt cheap and completely quiet Western Digital WDTV HD Live should do the trick.
I have been using it for almost two months playing back downloaded shows from SMB shares, but it supports DLNA also. It plays everything I throw at it in great quality, from crappy old DivX/MP3 AVIs to 1080p x264/DTS MKVs.