I want more content

Every time I watch video content on my computer it reminds me of how I wish my Vunow had more content. Today I was watching the NCAA tournament and kept thinking how nice it would have been to have these on my TV through my "Internet Video Box." I also keep getting upset that Verismo will not put out publicly any intent on what they intend to do with this box. I have had it for 2 months now and the content really hasn't gone anywhere. One big addition of Crackle.com. I at least want to know they are looking to do hulu and tv.com and whatever else they are working on. And as I have read in a few places I would like to know what the hold up is. Is it a technically issue? Is it a political issue? Are you even looking into it? I want to know what to expect. I would love to have whatever game I want on my TV from the NCAA tournament.

Streaming From Media Center

After exhausting the Internet features of the box I decided to look into the meat of this system, playing video files. I first started by using a small capacity thumb drive. This works perfectly the only problem I really encountered is that I ran out of space. Video files are large. I began to try to stream video over the UPNP server. The basic one they support is Media Center. The steps to set up the server are easy. You need to add the video files you want to share to the correct folder and go through the settings to allow media center to act as a server. The feed of the video is good quality. The problems I ran into with this setup is that you cannot pause the video feed using the box. There is no way to stop the video. This became annoying to the point I had to stop using this situation. Media Center Streaming works, but is not very practical.

Vunow Wireless Connection

I originally order my Vunow Box with the wireless adapter thinking that would be perfect for my back bedroom that has no way to get my network back there. I quickly learned that with the large amounts of data the wireless G system was not going to work in my back room. I would load video and it would break up every 3 seconds in my back room and stop to buffer quite often, so to investigate I put the box i my living room. When I had the box set-up wirelessly and set the box 6" from the wireless router I go enough data transfer to play the videos without buffering or skipping problems. The next thing I did was a data transfer check. In my back bedroom roughly 25' and 2 walls from the router, I got about 1 to 1.5 MB/sec transfer raters. When I used the wireless and was 6 inches away, I got 2.5 MB/sec transfer rate. When I used the wired connection I got the 4.5 MB/sec that is said to be my max for my DSL. I don't know if it was pure distance of if there was a lot of interference from other wireless sources because I do live in a condo. I can get about 8 other wireless connections in my apartment, so between that and other sources of interference my guess would be that was my problem. To fix my problem I invested in a set of Powerline Ethernet adapters. These pieces plug into outlets and transfer data through the electrical wires in your home at a higher frequency then the power supply and communicate with each other. I got high end 200 MPS units. These have worked flawlessly with the Vunow Box to produce perfect video signals in my back bedroom. The big negative is that $130 price tag for the set. Keep in mind if you are looking to run this wirelessly there is a reason they advise you to use a wired connection. Also keep in mind that they say that the wireless dongle they provide is the only one that will work with the Vunow, so if you are thinking you would want to upgrade to N wireless you are most likely going to have to add a bridge like they sell for gaming systems that have an ethernet port to attach the system port to.