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Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga News and Community Announcements => Topic started by: phoenixkonsole on October 10, 2010, 11:25:10 AM

Title: Amiga/Ares/AROS/Any Media Center now in beta stage
Post by: phoenixkonsole on October 10, 2010, 11:25:10 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Avj3S2Y4_hA

his is the latest Beta of AMC running on AROS Broadway.
This video was made on OSX inside VirtualBox. Quicktime recording eats performance and also i was in a car ; ) low battery. But all in all it is just awesome!!!

The final release will have full AudioCD and DVD playback.
Release is planned for november 2010

BTW you can now disable the Intro animation - see end of video to get a feel how fast it starts.
Next clip will be made on an AresOne!
AMC is not free but also not expensive. AresOne customers (past, present, future) will get it as part of the AROS experience.

AMC comes also for AmigaOS and MorphOS. The AmigaOS Version will be shown at the Amiwest Event 2010 by A-EON/Hyperion... have fun... i have it now!

Soon available on http://www.ares-shop.de
Title: Re: Amiga/Ares/AROS/Any Media Center now in beta stage
Post by: yssing on October 10, 2010, 12:50:37 PM
Is there a chance that it might support BD in the future?
Title: Re: Amiga/Ares/AROS/Any Media Center now in beta stage
Post by: Boot_WB on October 10, 2010, 01:04:17 PM
Quote from: phoenixkonsole;583839


[...]
Release is planned for november 2010
[...]

AMC comes also for AmigaOS and MorphOS. The AmigaOS Version will be shown at the Amiwest Event 2010 by A-EON/Hyperion... have fun... i have it now!

Soon available on http://www.ares-shop.de


Great news - many thanks to yourself and Allanon for good promotion, quick development, and frequent progress updates. I look forward to buying it once it is released.

PS - If you need any further testers for the MorphOS beta I'm happy to get involved.
Title: Re: Amiga/Ares/AROS/Any Media Center now in beta stage
Post by: phoenixkonsole on October 10, 2010, 01:13:04 PM
@yssing
Nope... licensing is too expensive and to be honest i think BD is not something to invest in... we will see more and more HDVideos on demand or for some few bucks as download. I know... if you have already a collection it would be nice to play them via AMC.

It's expensive. I share the opinion with Micro$oft... BD was obsolete when it came out...

In other words, if mplayer can play them (it can't) legally AMC will play them too.
One note about normal DVD playback... the mplayer Version we use has not the libdvdcss in it because it is illegal in many countries. You can still watch DVD's but not all (if protected) ...... this can be solved by the user.... just grab another available mplayer build with libdvdcss in it and voila AMC plays all fine.

We have to ensure that everything is legal.

EDIT: You will soon be able to buy games and music via AMC... and for sure to download many free stuff.

Regards,
Pascal

PS: If we reach a good amount of sold licenses we will get some VOD services. It depends on the sales. I talked to a german VOD-service and a "Flatrate-service" is doable. Since some work is needed.... money is needed. I hope in total (AmigaOS/MorphOS/AROS/....) we reach this number.
Title: Re: Amiga/Ares/AROS/Any Media Center now in beta stage
Post by: yssing on October 10, 2010, 01:29:31 PM
Well its to bad about BD, but HDVideos on-demand is a good idea.
Only problem with that is that, AFAIK, its 720 only.

Not that I want to hi-jack this thread, but why do M$ think BD is absolete?

Anyway its a matter of time, before DVDs will not be produced any more, and the way I see it, BD is the sucessor to DVD.
Title: Re: Amiga/Ares/AROS/Any Media Center now in beta stage
Post by: phoenixkonsole on October 10, 2010, 01:35:09 PM
Well it is easy.. you have to pay licenses.. this is always bad.
Secondly M$ has XBOX live as distribution platform...
Replace BD with "fast Internet".

As user i'm already used to buy digitally distributed software/music/movies.
But i have to say that i have only 1.5 hours/per day for myself... and that mostly at a time where local shops have closed.

You can also view 1080p streams but you need a very fast connection or a long pre buffering-time before the video can be watched.

EDIT: It may be that a user with some knowledge gets BD running.... i've read that there are patches for BD-playback available for mplayer.... but i think it's totally illegal. (maybe in some countries this doesn't matter)
Title: Re: Amiga/Ares/AROS/Any Media Center now in beta stage
Post by: cecilia on October 10, 2010, 02:03:45 PM
wow! that's like a real computer!!!

:)

I'm very proud and impressed by the progress of  AROS developers

good job!
Title: Re: Amiga/Ares/AROS/Any Media Center now in beta stage
Post by: stefcep2 on October 10, 2010, 02:04:19 PM
Quote from: yssing;583864
Well its to bad about BD, but HDVideos on-demand is a good idea.
Only problem with that is that, AFAIK, its 720 only.

Not that I want to hi-jack this thread, but why do M$ think BD is absolete?

Anyway its a matter of time, before DVDs will not be produced any more, and the way I see it, BD is the sucessor to DVD.


Not sure that DVD will disappear any time soon.  Not everyone has a HD screen, hell the vast majority in my country don't, and even if they do DVD's scale pretty well.  And some of the newer DVD realeases are encoded at higher bit rates and can look quite good.
Title: Re: Amiga/Ares/AROS/Any Media Center now in beta stage
Post by: Andre.Siegel on October 10, 2010, 03:17:38 PM
Quote from: phoenixkonsole;583861
I share the opinion with Micro$oft... BD was obsolete when it came out...

Quick reminder: Microsoft co-created the HD DVD format and released an HD DVD drive peripheral for its XBOX 360 game console. Microsoft and other former HD DVD backers such as Toshiba are not euphoric BluRay proponents because of the former high definition optical disc format war which they lost...

It would be difficult to argue that Microsoft considered BD 'obsolete' while releasing a technical equivalent at the same time.

Also, even in 2010, years after the launch of BD and HDDVD, internet bandwidth is still not high enough to make internet streaming a viable mainstream alternative for *high definition* content consumption. The average US household has an internet connection with a mere 4Mbit bandwidth...
Title: Re: Amiga/Ares/AROS/Any Media Center not in beta stage
Post by: phoenixkonsole on October 10, 2010, 03:47:49 PM
Well with the right codec i can use good old DL DVD's so at least for videos i didn't understand why they started a format war between HDDVD and BD...
BTW i bought me a XBOX360 HDDVD Drive for 25€ from Amazon including Remote. Movies are still available between as new 0,80 and 30€ (for collections) - just a unimportant side note ; )

Oh and one billion chinese are using still a HDDVD derivate : )

Well at home i have only 4Mbit too but it works great with HD-Streaming (720p).
Title: Re: Amiga/Ares/AROS/Any Media Center not in beta stage
Post by: Andre.Siegel on October 10, 2010, 04:16:48 PM
Quote from: phoenixkonsole;583880
Well at home i have only 4Mbit too but it works great with HD-Streaming (720p).


I would like to emphasize the word "household" in my previous post. Statistically, 2.5 people live in the average US household, which share the bandwidth I mentioned.

As soon as multiple people are involved, 4Mbit is rather limited (for video streaming).

Also, "works great" is obviously subjective. My 16MBit internet connection is relatively fast but 720P video streams do load annoyingly slow quite often (YouTube, etc.). Most viewers expect near-instant video streaming based on their TV viewing habits. If BluRay is to be replaced, buffering data for multiple minutes will have to be a thing of the past.
Title: Re: Amiga/Ares/AROS/Any Media Center not in beta stage
Post by: djrikki on October 11, 2010, 12:50:51 PM
I have to agree with some other posters on here in regard to DVD vs BluRay (BD does that mean BluRay? god knows).  DVD will still be here in another 10-15 years as the medium of choice.  The consumer spent enough money updating their collection from Betamax/VHS to DVD for valid reasons - the quality was far superior.

I've seen so called High Definition TV and BluRay, the difference between it and DVD is absolutely nowhere near good enough to justify the expense in shelling out for new equipment and replacing DVD collections the world over.

HD is like this so-called 3D TV (that still requires you to wear glasses in the comfort of your own home!!! lmao) its one big commercial attempt to make consumers part with their money.

Edit: As for AMC... looks good keep up the good work.  That buying software/music future extension the OP spoke about sounds interesting.
Title: Re: Amiga/Ares/AROS/Any Media Center not in beta stage
Post by: yssing on October 11, 2010, 01:51:58 PM
Well here in DK alot of people have Hidef tvs. And BD are the only format that supports 3D, for the moment at least.

But no matter which format is the best, the licens problem is the major hurdle.
Title: Re: Amiga/Ares/AROS/Any Media Center not in beta stage
Post by: psxphill on October 11, 2010, 02:24:00 PM
Quote from: yssing;584006
But no matter which format is the best, the licens problem is the major hurdle.

Well Bluray is the best, no doubt. But you can't support either DVD or Bluray in commercial software without paying a license fee.
 
VCD patents might have expired by now but thats nasty.
 
There are reasons why people don't charge for media player software.
Title: Re: Amiga/Ares/AROS/Any Media Center not in beta stage
Post by: Fransexy_ on October 11, 2010, 02:59:28 PM
is there/Will there be a version for OS 3.x? how compact AMC is? could it be rommable?
Title: Re: Amiga/Ares/AROS/Any Media Center not in beta stage
Post by: jj on October 11, 2010, 03:54:17 PM
Can you imagine how slow it would run on os3.1
 
No way Classic Amiga could play films, dvds and mp3s
Title: Re: Amiga/Ares/AROS/Any Media Center not in beta stage
Post by: yssing on October 11, 2010, 04:46:04 PM
Quote from: psxphill;584011
But you can't support either DVD or Bluray in commercial software without paying a license fee.


Ahh, ofcourse.. But if mplayer somehow supports BD via a non-licensed hack, then its no problem anyway.
Title: Re: Amiga/Ares/AROS/Any Media Center not in beta stage
Post by: phoenixkonsole on October 11, 2010, 10:06:51 PM
Hi,
AMC and AROS can be put in 40MB... If you have a ROM large enough than it will work. I'm preparing a inofficial CDTV revival... as media center / gaming system... will cost less than an AresOne but will just boot into AMC.

One note: We use a mplayer (updated) and without libdvdcss. So most DVD's wan't play if they have copy-protection.  It is NO! problem for the user to use another mplayer with this library to play those DVD's in AMC.

A 68k Version is no problem because AMC is made with Hollywood... if someone brings mplayer 68k in a usable form.... It would only work in UAE or maybe on a NATAMI (more or less)
Title: Re: Amiga/Ares/AROS/Any Media Center not in beta stage
Post by: yssing on October 12, 2010, 05:47:34 PM
Quote from: phoenixkonsole;584111
Hi,
AMC and AROS can be put in 40MB... If you have a ROM large enough than it will work. I'm preparing a inofficial CDTV revival... as media center / gaming system... will cost less than an AresOne but will just boot into AMC.

One note: We use a mplayer (updated) and without libdvdcss. So most DVD's wan't play if they have copy-protection.  It is NO! problem for the user to use another mplayer with this library to play those DVD's in AMC.

A 68k Version is no problem because AMC is made with Hollywood... if someone brings mplayer 68k in a usable form.... It would only work in UAE or maybe on a NATAMI (more or less)


It would be great with an 68k version, if nothing else, then for natami and winuae.. :)
Title: Re: Amiga/Ares/AROS/Any Media Center not in beta stage
Post by: phoenixkonsole on October 15, 2010, 06:34:20 PM
Ok as soon the NATAMI comes out we will make this too ; )
But only if some helps with mplayer 68k