Forum Opinion: Base OS and UMS Build Choice
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Please make sure you follow the Problem Reporting Guidelines before posting if you want a reply
Forum Opinion: Base OS and UMS Build Choice
Having read most of the posts in the first three pages of this (and other) subforums here, I only have a couple questions before moving forward with utilizing the UMS package.
What is the favored base OS for UMS? Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 or 2012 R2, Linux?
It apears to be rather obvious that first tier support (i.e. application builds) happens on Linux. The Windows development line must occur secondarily. Being a long time (25+ years) Linux user and administrator, I always favor Linux when I can. One of the weakest aspects of desktop Linux is multimedia support. Between codec choices and revisions and video/audio hardware support, I've never seen it work well. Since UMS probably just pushes a data stream out to a client, and the client is handling codec and output functions, maybe this isn't an issue.
My home environment is such that I have a VMware cluster that houses several Guests that perform my various house functions... security video, alarm control, media serving, etc. My current solution comprises several applications and devices. In the living room, I have a dedicated media PC built in a nice home theater looking case. I use plain ol' Windows Media Center and have several standard Windows shares to my file server (for general video clips, personal photos, and music) and my movie server (any DVD's I buy I copy to this server). Media Center handles the video clips, picutres, and music well enough and I use MyMovies for movie handling. I like MyMovies, but the developer is angling towards an "Internet required" model and I don't have Internet at my house. The application currently runs (I'm using an old build), but it is terribly slow due to timeouts on requests to "home base". I sniffed the packets it's sending with Wireshark and built a local Apache instance to respond to the requests with 404's, but that doesn't always seem to help. In the Guest bedrooms and kitchen, I use WD Live media players.
Anyway, the problem I hope to address with UMS is my with my various WD Live media players. The reviews I've read state that for standard LAN connected media playing, they are the best solution. They lack a lot of the nice features in relation to Internet streaming functions (NetFlix, YouTube, etc.), but that doesn't apply to me (no Internet anyway). I've been using the WD Live line for years with limited good luck. They seem to get flakier and flakier as the revisions and firmware move forward. My newest one won't even browse my file server. It sees the network, it sees the server, it even sees the top level shares (video and music), but when you drill into either, it spins forever. I've waiting 12+ hours and it never comes up with a list. However, it seems to work fine with plain ol' WIndows Media Server on my Windows 7 home PC. By chance is anyone here using UMS in this capacity? To connect to a UMS instance from a WD Live?
What is the favored base OS for UMS? Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 or 2012 R2, Linux?
It apears to be rather obvious that first tier support (i.e. application builds) happens on Linux. The Windows development line must occur secondarily. Being a long time (25+ years) Linux user and administrator, I always favor Linux when I can. One of the weakest aspects of desktop Linux is multimedia support. Between codec choices and revisions and video/audio hardware support, I've never seen it work well. Since UMS probably just pushes a data stream out to a client, and the client is handling codec and output functions, maybe this isn't an issue.
My home environment is such that I have a VMware cluster that houses several Guests that perform my various house functions... security video, alarm control, media serving, etc. My current solution comprises several applications and devices. In the living room, I have a dedicated media PC built in a nice home theater looking case. I use plain ol' Windows Media Center and have several standard Windows shares to my file server (for general video clips, personal photos, and music) and my movie server (any DVD's I buy I copy to this server). Media Center handles the video clips, picutres, and music well enough and I use MyMovies for movie handling. I like MyMovies, but the developer is angling towards an "Internet required" model and I don't have Internet at my house. The application currently runs (I'm using an old build), but it is terribly slow due to timeouts on requests to "home base". I sniffed the packets it's sending with Wireshark and built a local Apache instance to respond to the requests with 404's, but that doesn't always seem to help. In the Guest bedrooms and kitchen, I use WD Live media players.
Anyway, the problem I hope to address with UMS is my with my various WD Live media players. The reviews I've read state that for standard LAN connected media playing, they are the best solution. They lack a lot of the nice features in relation to Internet streaming functions (NetFlix, YouTube, etc.), but that doesn't apply to me (no Internet anyway). I've been using the WD Live line for years with limited good luck. They seem to get flakier and flakier as the revisions and firmware move forward. My newest one won't even browse my file server. It sees the network, it sees the server, it even sees the top level shares (video and music), but when you drill into either, it spins forever. I've waiting 12+ hours and it never comes up with a list. However, it seems to work fine with plain ol' WIndows Media Server on my Windows 7 home PC. By chance is anyone here using UMS in this capacity? To connect to a UMS instance from a WD Live?