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Groups: Member
Joined: 12/31/2008
Posts: 38
Location: Houston
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Now that you have added the ability to copy a file to the ipad from my windows home server, I was curious how difficult it would be to enable us to start the conversion from the iPad also.
The problem is that I have over 400 movies on my server and they are ripped DVD or Blue Rays. To keep converted copies of these, simply takes too much space. I would love it if the iPAD could prompt you that the movie needs to be converted first and give you an option to do it permanently or just temporarily. This is the logic I think you could take.
If I select a movie that is already converted just download it. This is what it does currently.
If the movie is not converted it would prompt me that it needs converting and I could say yes, Cancel or add to permanent library.
If it is add to permanent library then it would kick of the normal conversion that I can do from the windows home server and once converted it would then kick off the normal download. Nothing too different here other than sequencing functionality you currenlty have.
If I select Yes, which means termporary, it would generate a unique name for the file and convert the video to this. Download it and then delete it once the download completes successfully. Not much more work to do here other than the unique naming of the file.
I would also like to be able to remove converted files from my server and could live with this if that was the only option.
At a minimum I need a way to start the convertion of a movie from the iPad.
I think this will become even more critical with the new iPAD "3", since it has a higher resolution. Keeping all of the different optimized resolutions, iTouch, iPhone, iPad 1/2, and iPad 3 is just not feasible, given the size of my library. I want to store the highest quality of the movie and then convert this on demand for the display I want it for.
Keep up the great work, I love your application and looking forward to a Metro version late this year.
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Groups: Administration
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Joined: 11/2/2008
Posts: 4,486
Location: UK
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hehe.. hehehe...
My Movies Head Moderator
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Groups: Administration
Joined: 2/1/2005
Posts: 35,536
Location: Aarhus, Denmark
Rank:
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The next version of the iOS application contains an updated integration with the WHS, so that you can see copy, monitor and conversion lists, and also view progress, add to converter queue and similar.
However, this functionality will never be optimal for users who do not want to convert their full library, simply because of the fact that a conversion takes several hours.
We will not work on options to use it this way.
The alternative we are working on is HTTP live streaming - it will initially be used for streaming already converted MP4 files without transferring them to the device, but we may later on try to see if we can extend it to also convert discs directly.
What you are trying to accomplish however is not something the functionality is intended for, as it would never work well.
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Groups: Member
Joined: 12/31/2008
Posts: 38
Location: Houston
Rank:
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When is the new version targeted for beta? Interested to see what new functionality it has with WHS, not clear on what you are describing.
In regards to the Live Streaming, definately looking forward to that and agree that could be the most useful.
I am concerned that users will NOT want to convert their entire library. If for no other reason, they will need to support multiple formats, given the multiple formats that are existing. I understand that conversion could take an hour or so, but my use case is more for getting content to my devices so I can take them offline on a trip. I would simply pick 3-4 movies for my trip, plug my iPad into my dock before I go to bed, and then when I woke up the device would have the content on it and be fully charged.
I do think you need to consider that multiple formats will be required going forward, given the Screen Size and File Size requirements that our different devices have.
If I convert a Blue Ray movie on hightest quality, which I would want to do for my iPAD 3 or my extender, it could be 5-10GB in size. If my kid wants it for his iTouch, it should be around 1GB.
If I have 100 Blue Ray movies, I would need ~6GB of Storage for each, which is over 1/2 a TB. If people have 500 movies then they are looking at an additional 2.5TB in Storage, which is not trivial.
I currently have a converted file of the highest quality for each of my BlueRays, so they play correctly on the xbox.
Other than the time requirement to convert a movie, I am not sure what the end user experience issue would be and why this feature coule not be added, given you have the functionality there.
My use case is that I will probably want 2 additional formats. One Medium Quality, and one Low Quality for the touch.
It would be great if you could provide the ability to specify a "cache" size/folder, where it would cache these files for my use and just delete the oldest converted file when space runs out.
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Groups: Administration
Joined: 2/1/2005
Posts: 35,536
Location: Aarhus, Denmark
Rank:
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I am not sure when next PR is.
I think that you would find that the "Universal" format of 1-2 GB per title would work well for most devices.
I am sorry, but the functionality is unlikely to be changed to support a usage where you do not pre convert your titles.
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Groups: Member
Joined: 12/31/2008
Posts: 38
Location: Houston
Rank:
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Just installed the new version. Upgraded my pts to 2500, well worth the value the solution brings. After a couple of hicups, I got everything working and I LOVE IT!!!!!! It does what I wanted with being able to control everything from the iPad Client. Do not need to go to the server at all.
I REALLY LIKE THE FUNCTIONALITY THAT YOU PROVIDED AND THIS ADDRESSED THE MAJOR GAP I SAW WAS MISSING ON THE IPAD CLIENT. I can live without the auto conversion for now, it is just a few additional steps for me.
A couple of issues I had to fix:
I had to uninstall reboot and reinstall the server.
I had to upgrade the database, which I did not know to do until I upgraded one of my windows clients. Lots of errors due to this.
Missing points caused some errors that I did not know what was going on. Bought extra points and problems went away.
Remainng Issues:
The video files I had converted previously with other builds, are not able to be downloaded. They show up in Converter list correctly on WHS and Ipad, but it then tells me that there are no supported mp4 formats. If I try to convert it the message shows that I already have it converted and do I want to overwrite it. I have chosen yes and will see if that works as the work around. What is the program checking for to determine if the file is the correct format and can be downloaded?
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Groups: Administration
Joined: 2/1/2005
Posts: 35,536
Location: Aarhus, Denmark
Rank:
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It is correct that videos created on prior releases does not have the information in them that tells which devices they support, and therefore it can be needed to re-convert.
The latest 1.82 version on iPad adds an option to add to the video converter, but it is not an automatic thing.
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