.gif)
Telly (home entertainment server)
Encyclopedia
The Telly home entertainment server
is range of computer systems designed to store, manage, and access all forms of digital media in the home. Based on Interact-TV's Linux Media Center software, it provides user managed libraries for music, photos, and all forms of video from recorded television programming to DVDs.
Expandable hard drive configurations accommodate growing libraries of home entertainment content and provide an alternative to Desktop and Laptop PCs for entertainment content. Networked configurations distribute content shared from all units throughout a network and allow recording at each location. Content on Telly systems appears to both Windows and Mac PCs as local networked volumes and can be accessed over the network. The Telly server web site provides management of and access to music, photos, and video.
Telly home entertainment servers use a trackball driven user interface
and are offered with full high definition television (HDTV) outputs, built-in digital video recorder
(DVR) capabilities and a variety of other accessories. As a home entertainment server, Telly systems differ from traditional media center
systems in that it is designed from inception to be configured and operated from a TV-based menu, and as a true server, permits integrated file sharing and secure volume managed expandable storage.
Telly Servers are available in a range of models from small set-top sized to rack-mount
systems. Each system contains a Linux
OS and motherboard
and one or more hard drives. All models may additionally have tuners and CD/DVD burners for both import and archiving owners content.
Corporate Info
Interact-TV, Inc. is a Delaware C Corporation, founded in 2000 by a group of television professionals and is headquartered in Westminster, Colorado.
Interact-TV was formed to develop software products that centralize both the Entertainment and Information experience. Interact-TV products blend Digital Media, Broadband, and Home Networking, then bring it to the end-user through a Television Interface. Interact-TV products focus on the increasing availability of broadband access to the home, and a pervasive demand for higher-value entertainment.
Its initial product, The Telly MC1000 Digital Entertainment Center, began shipping in 2002 as the first fully customizable and expandable digital entertainment system. This was the first integrated system to allow users to access most forms of digital entertainment including broadband Internet, cable and satellite television, digital audio and video entertainment, and digital home networking.
The Telly home entertainment server product line has been continually enhanced and now includes a complete line of servers, available through a network of dealers and from its corporate web site.
Windows Media Center
Edition is built on top of a productivity centered operating system which is burdened by inefficient layers of legacy user interface. This approach confronts users with configuration and operational requirements ill suited to an entertainment oriented experience. Media Center Edition systems require high performance computing platforms which are usually power hungry and extensively fan cooled.
Apple TV is a solution which utilizes a 'media adapter' approach which places a TV enabled device on the home network to bridge the connection from desktop systems and to provide a conduit for content delivery from their iTunes store. A similar 'media adapter' approach is also available for Media Center Edition systems from a variety of manufacturers (i.e. Linksys, Logitek, and others). Such adaptations arise primarily from the difficulty of creating small quiet computers for lean-back environments which can run full entertainment software on top of lean-forward productivity oriented operating systems.
Home entertainment server
Home entertainment server systems differ from traditional media center systems in that they designed from inception for storage, management and sharing of entertainment content, much as a file server is mission designed to share traditional computer files...
is range of computer systems designed to store, manage, and access all forms of digital media in the home. Based on Interact-TV's Linux Media Center software, it provides user managed libraries for music, photos, and all forms of video from recorded television programming to DVDs.
Expandable hard drive configurations accommodate growing libraries of home entertainment content and provide an alternative to Desktop and Laptop PCs for entertainment content. Networked configurations distribute content shared from all units throughout a network and allow recording at each location. Content on Telly systems appears to both Windows and Mac PCs as local networked volumes and can be accessed over the network. The Telly server web site provides management of and access to music, photos, and video.
Telly home entertainment servers use a trackball driven user interface
User interface
The user interface, in the industrial design field of human–machine interaction, is the space where interaction between humans and machines occurs. The goal of interaction between a human and a machine at the user interface is effective operation and control of the machine, and feedback from the...
and are offered with full high definition television (HDTV) outputs, built-in digital video recorder
Digital video recorder
A digital video recorder , sometimes referred to by the merchandising term personal video recorder , is a consumer electronics device or application software that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card or other local or networked mass storage device...
(DVR) capabilities and a variety of other accessories. As a home entertainment server, Telly systems differ from traditional media center
Home theater PC
A Home Theater PC or Media Center appliance is a convergence device that combines some or all the capabilities of a personal computer with a software application that supports video, photo, music playback, and sometimes video recording functionality...
systems in that it is designed from inception to be configured and operated from a TV-based menu, and as a true server, permits integrated file sharing and secure volume managed expandable storage.
Key Features
19-inch rack
A 19-inch rack is a standardized frame or enclosure for mounting multiple equipment modules. Each module has a front panel that is wide, including edges or ears that protrude on each side which allow the module to be fastened to the rack frame with screws.-Overview and history:Equipment designed...
systems. Each system contains a Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
OS and motherboard
Motherboard
In personal computers, a motherboard is the central printed circuit board in many modern computers and holds many of the crucial components of the system, providing connectors for other peripherals. The motherboard is sometimes alternatively known as the mainboard, system board, or, on Apple...
and one or more hard drives. All models may additionally have tuners and CD/DVD burners for both import and archiving owners content.
Video Functionality
- Users can watch or save DVDs in a Telly server video library for full resolution, progressive scanProgressive scanProgressive scanning is a way of displaying, storing, or transmitting moving images in which all the lines of each frame are drawn in sequence...
DVD playback
- Facilities are provided for watching live, delayed or recorded TV, home videos and Internet downloaded video, all of which are stored in the Telly Video Library
- Video Library contents can be viewed and sorted by Cover Art Navigation or In-Depth Program Information
- Music DVDs (such as recorded concerts) in the Video Library can also be copied as music tracks into the Music Library - this permits mixing tracks from music DVD with tracks from the Music Library.
- HD Telly systems upsampleUpsamplingUpsampling is the process of increasing the sampling rate of a signal. For instance, upsampling raster images such as photographs means increasing the resolution of the image....
the native resolution of recorded TV and regular DVDs from 480i to 720p.
- When users stop any playback of any video, a Resume button is provided to allow any networked Telly server to pick up where it left off
- Telly home entertainment servers support all common non-DRMDigital rights managementDigital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...
video formats including AVIAudio Video InterleaveAudio Video Interleave , known by its acronym AVI, is a multimedia container format introduced by Microsoft in November 1992 as part of its Video for Windows technology. AVI files can contain both audio and video data in a file container that allows synchronous audio-with-video playback...
, DivXDivXDivX is a brand name of products created by DivX, Inc. , including the DivX Codec which has become popular due to its ability to compress lengthy video segments into small sizes while maintaining relatively high visual quality.There are two DivX codecs; the regular MPEG-4 Part 2 DivX codec and the...
, MPEG-1MPEG-1MPEG-1 is a standard for lossy compression of video and audio. It is designed to compress VHS-quality raw digital video and CD audio down to 1.5 Mbit/s without excessive quality loss, making video CDs, digital cable/satellite TV and digital audio broadcasting possible.Today, MPEG-1 has become...
, MPEG-2MPEG-2MPEG-2 is a standard for "the generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio information". It describes a combination of lossy video compression and lossy audio data compression methods which permit storage and transmission of movies using currently available storage media and transmission...
and MPEG-4MPEG-4MPEG-4 is a method of defining compression of audio and visual digital data. It was introduced in late 1998 and designated a standard for a group of audio and video coding formats and related technology agreed upon by the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group under the formal standard ISO/IEC...
- Networking allows users to move media between other Telly systems, PCs or portable media players
- Video files can be imported to Telly from other PCs on the network
- Internet video sources such as YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
can be played on Telly servers
Music Functionality
- Jukebox capabilities play single songs or queue any music collection, genre, artist, or album
- Sort the Jukebox looking at traditional lists or album cover art and build collections for playback.
- Created playlists of selected music can be played at any time or burn them on a CD
- Users can view music animations during playback and interleave music DVD tracks from the Video Library
- Users can set the music quality when storing CDs with the built-in CD player including the option of LosslessLossless data compressionLossless data compression is a class of data compression algorithms that allows the exact original data to be reconstructed from the compressed data. The term lossless is in contrast to lossy data compression, which only allows an approximation of the original data to be reconstructed, in exchange...
Audio Encoding (a format that maintains the original CD quality and still creates files that are compressed to save disc space)
- Support is provided for drag and drop music collections from PCs and Macs to Telly server Import Music folder in most popular non-DRMDigital rights managementDigital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...
formats including MP3MP3MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
, AACAACAAC refers to Advanced Audio Coding, an audio compression format successor to the MP3 format.AAC may also refer to:-Aviation:* AAC, IATA airport code for El Arish International Airport, Egypt...
, and FlacFLACFLAC is a codec which allows digital audio to be losslessly compressed such that file size is reduced without any information being lost...
- Telly systems provide a built-in Web ServerWeb serverWeb server can refer to either the hardware or the software that helps to deliver content that can be accessed through the Internet....
allowing any computer to access the Music Library to manage tracks or edit album details
- Telly servers can stream music to any browser
- Telly systems support support internet radio playout
Photo Functionality
- Telly servers scale all photos to fit the connected TV screen and will support full 1080 HDTV resolution for presentation of high quality display of Photo Library contents
- Telly Photo Library contents can be browsed on the TV screen as thumbnails or as automatic or manually advanced slide shows with predetermined playback or random order playback
- The built-in web site access provides the ability to create, add to, and edit Photo Library contents
Networking Functionality
- Telly Servers can be networkedComputer networkA computer network, often simply referred to as a network, is a collection of hardware components and computers interconnected by communication channels that allow sharing of resources and information....
to grow as users' digital media libraries grow - most systems provide 1000/100/10 Base EthernetEthernetEthernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks commercially introduced in 1980. Standardized in IEEE 802.3, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies....
connectivity and can be outfitted with wireless or power-line networking capability.
- Each Telly Server can act as a standalone system to manage and access digital media
- Each system provides a set of video and audio outputs to connect directly to a TV (either standard definition or high definition) and audio system
- The analog stereo and digital audio outputs can be connected to a TV's audio input or to an audio receiver with surround sound
- Built-in network sharing provides for access to or copying digital media between your Windows or Mac and Telly servers using any common web browser and network folder sharing including tools like the My Network PlacesMy Network PlacesIn the Microsoft Windows operating systems, My Network Places is the network browser feature in Windows Explorer from Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000, and Windows Me onwards...
and Macs using BonjourBonjour (software)In computing, Bonjour is Apple Inc.'s trade name for its implementation of Zeroconf, a group of technologies that includes service discovery, address assignment, and name resolution...
- All that entertainment content can be made available to other rooms of the house by adding a TellyVizion Playback Unit to your home network over any Ethernet connection between the Telly Server and the TellyVizion.
- Systems can be configured with a central Telly Server with a TellyVizion as discussed above or by adding a second Telly Server providing the following advantages:
- Two servers double (or more depending on the Telly Server configuration) the amount of storage for digital media.
- Content on each Telly Server can be personalized to exclude shows you don’t want to share with your kids (like The Sopranos) and to exclude shows you don’t care to watch (like The Wiggles), you can keep the content of each server separate by turning off the sharing capability, and content on individual servers can be isolated to prevent accidental deletion
- As time passes and tastes change, users can always turn sharing back on for access the content from any Telly Server on the home network
- With a large digital media libraries, users can further extend storage by adding a TellyRAID system, providing any amount of storage, plus the added protection of RAIDRAIDRAID is a storage technology that combines multiple disk drive components into a logical unit...
in case a hard disk drive fails - TellyRAID connects to one master Telly Server, which then provides the digital media stored on the TellyRAID to other TellyVizions or other Telly Servers throughout the house
History
Interact-TV, Inc. is a Delaware C Corporation, founded in 2000 by a group of television professionals and is headquartered in Westminster, Colorado.
Interact-TV was formed to develop software products that centralize both the Entertainment and Information experience. Interact-TV products blend Digital Media, Broadband, and Home Networking, then bring it to the end-user through a Television Interface. Interact-TV products focus on the increasing availability of broadband access to the home, and a pervasive demand for higher-value entertainment.
Its initial product, The Telly MC1000 Digital Entertainment Center, began shipping in 2002 as the first fully customizable and expandable digital entertainment system. This was the first integrated system to allow users to access most forms of digital entertainment including broadband Internet, cable and satellite television, digital audio and video entertainment, and digital home networking.
The Telly home entertainment server product line has been continually enhanced and now includes a complete line of servers, available through a network of dealers and from its corporate web site.
Home Entertainment Server Market Overview
Interact-TV introduced their first Telly server in 2001 and was the first commercially available system designed from the ground up as a general purpose home entertainment server. Built on top of a tuned Linux OS, these servers can run efficiently on energy efficient CPUs. Many models are fanless for near-silent operation in home entertainment environments or even bedrooms.Windows Media Center
Windows Media Center
Windows Media Center is a digital video recorder and media player developed by Microsoft. It is an application that allows users to view and record live television, as well as organize and play music and videos...
Edition is built on top of a productivity centered operating system which is burdened by inefficient layers of legacy user interface. This approach confronts users with configuration and operational requirements ill suited to an entertainment oriented experience. Media Center Edition systems require high performance computing platforms which are usually power hungry and extensively fan cooled.
Apple TV is a solution which utilizes a 'media adapter' approach which places a TV enabled device on the home network to bridge the connection from desktop systems and to provide a conduit for content delivery from their iTunes store. A similar 'media adapter' approach is also available for Media Center Edition systems from a variety of manufacturers (i.e. Linksys, Logitek, and others). Such adaptations arise primarily from the difficulty of creating small quiet computers for lean-back environments which can run full entertainment software on top of lean-forward productivity oriented operating systems.