Why is Media Manager Necessary?

[iBog]

What is Media Manager doing?

What protocol is the iPad app communicating with Media Manager?

Why can't the iPad app have been designed to mount AFP or SMB shares on a NAS? What is the media manager doing that SMB can't?

[the.teejster]

I haven't tried out the ipad app yet but I believe one of the main functions of the Media Manager is to provide on the fly transcoding of your media over to the ipad. The media manager performs all the work required to play the media on your ipad and the ipad is simply acting as a display device.

[darcilicious]

the.teejster is correct. BMM is only needed if you want to play your local content on your iPad. If you just want to access Watch Later / Friends / Featured feeds and/or use AirPlay, there is no need to install BMM.

[iBog]

If Boxee for iPad does not actually play DivX or Xvid like CineXPlayer, Movie Player, AVPlayer or VLC then I can understand why Boxee Media Manager is required.

BBM transcodes the original video file. What format does it transcode to?

Why not support direct playback like the other media players? The only feature missing in those other media players is the Boxee user experience and mounting AFP or SMB shares.

[horvak]

I use XBMC on the Ipad with Navi-X...... awesome but you need to jailbreak your device

[iBog]

This is what I mean. There are media players for the iPad that can play divx and other codecs directly without the need for them to be transcoded. The only problem is that you have to use iTunes to sync them. There are even other iPad apps that can mount SMB, AFP or WebDAV folders.

Why can't these be combined into one app? In the AppStore? No need for an intermediary server to transcode video. Play directly from any NAS without syncing content.

[carlhye]

Since I can't see the SMB shares from my NAS, I tryed to mount the SMB as a network drive in my W7x86 box. Then BMM can see them just fine - but it can't se 1st level files, only second level files.

If: \\NAS\video is mounted as: Y:\

Then the file: Y:\movie.mvk is NOT visible and does not play.
But Y:\folder\movie.mkv WILL be visible and will play.
(at least for about 10 seconds before the App crashes).

It seems strange to me that I can play the file if it's in a folder, but not if it's in the share root...

Looking forward to the release of BMM v1.2 ;-)

[PhatPhreddy]

the.teejster is correct. BMM is only needed if you want to play your local content on your iPad. If you just want to access Watch Later / Friends / Featured feeds and/or use AirPlay, there is no need to install BMM.

But then you dont get the my media 'send to TV' options..

I fail to understand why the media data needs to come from the PC.. Its on the boxee box by default, the DB is there,.. Only the meta data needs to go to the ipad..

I mean sure for transcoding I realize power is needed.. But for simply browsing and launching I dont get why.

[Rustycar]

This is what I mean. There are media players for the iPad that can play divx and other codecs directly without the need for them to be transcoded. The only problem is that you have to use iTunes to sync them. There are even other iPad apps that can mount SMB, AFP or WebDAV folders.

Why can't these be combined into one app? In the AppStore? No need for an intermediary server to transcode video. Play directly from any NAS without syncing content.

Only to a certain degree, Arm CPU's are not high performance and cannot decode any kind of video. The iPad has hardware acceleration built in for H.264 video which handles that type not the CPU.

The catch is that you can only access that hardware acceleration by using Apple's approved formats hence the requirement for transcoding. XBMC taps into the hardware acceleration through jailbreaking as developers are not allowed use the hardware acceleration.

Many of those app store iPad media players (which I own and have tested) are practically useless for any media type that is in HD. Also without hardware acceleration the iPad's battery will drain faster with the CPU decoding the video.