PS3 Media Server transcodes and remuxes in real time

For a while now I've been using MediaLink ($20) from Nullsoft to stream video from my Mac to my PS3, but last evening I discovered that I had some MKV (Matroska container) files that I wanted to stream but which the PS3 doesn't natively support. Naturally I assumed I'd have to convert the files and Googling around did turn up a method for doing so using QuickTime Pro. Even beyond the need for QuickTime Pro, however, it is also a somewhat time-consuming process. That's when I ran across a brilliant piece of open-source software called PS3 Media Server.

PS3 Media Server is a cross-platform Java application (and, unfortunately, it looks like it), which not only streams video from your Mac to your PS3, but also utilizes the open source Mplayer/FFmpeg backend packages to transcode / remux media in real time. What this means is nothing short of remarkable: you no longer have to convert supported media (MKV/FLV/OGM/AVI) ahead of time for playback on the PS3. I was able to stream a 720p MKV file without a hiccup (though I do have both my Mac and PS3 connected to the router via ethernet cable). Being impressed at the performance I decided to try it with a 1080p movie trailer I had downloaded from Apple and after a brief blip about 10 seconds in it streamed beautifully as well. (Note that both of these files were already H.264, which the PS3 does natively support, so I believe the PS3 Media server was only remuxing and not actually transcoding.)

PS3 Media Server is a free download over at Google Code (donations requested). There's also a Mac-specific beta (pictured above) that offers more features (including iTunes and iPhoto library support). Overall I'm shocked by how well it has worked with what I've thrown its way (which is admittedly limited). Highly recommended.

NeoOffice 3 [ MacOS ]

We had a lot of mail from users eager to let us know that the NeoOffice 3.0 is now available. NeoOffice is a Mac OS X native open-source office suite originally crafted from the code used for OpenOffice, and its developers are boasting about the following features not found in the current release of OpenOffice for Mac:

• OS X Services support
• Media Browser support
• Native floating tool windows
• Magnify and swipe trackpad gestures
• Menus available when no documents are open
• Import images from scanners and cameras
• Command-clicking on window titlebar
• Mac OS X Leopard grammar checking support

A more in-depth look at these features can be found here. The suite is a fantastic alternative to paying full price for Microsoft Office and has come a long way in the past few years.

NeoOffice 3.0 is a universal binary offers separate Intel and PPC packages, and it requires OS X 10.4 or higher, 512 MB of RAM and 400 MB of free disk space. Please note that Universal Access support from OpenOffice is not available on NeoOffice at this time, so using OpenOffice, Microsoft Office, or iWork is suggested to access that feature. A token donation is requested of all downloaders to help support the project.

XMind goes open source

XMind -- a powerful, Java-based mind mapping and charting application -- has been open-sourced (it's free!) with version 3.0. While it's not my absolute top pick for mind mapping, it ranks up there. I did have a license for the paid version, and I can tell you that it packs plenty of punch. It has all of the extra features I like: boundaries, relationships, summaries, notes, markers, outline view, floating topics and more, as well as intuitive keyboard navigation for rapid-fire brainstorming.

One of my favorite features was the drilldown; pressing F6 focuses in on the current topic, displaying only it and its descendants. Shift-F6 takes you back up. It's similar to MindManager's "Focus" feature, but faster (and more limited in scope). And for those who want (or need) to, just set all of the shapes to underline, turn on multiple branch colors and tapered lines and presto, you've got an honest-to-goodness Tony Buzan-style mind map ... or as close as you'll get without buying Buzan's software (which, despite it being relatively expensive and lacking in system integration, I am regularly tempted to do) or breaking out the colored pencils.

You can also create Org and Fishbone Charts with XMind. It imports FreeMind and MindManager maps as well as Marker Packages, and can export to HTML, image, Marker Package or Text. The HTML export is ... okay. FreeMind actually creates more useful HTML pages, but it works. Overall, it's great stuff, and it's exciting to see it open sourced.

So, how did software that once cost $299 end up being free? It appears to be a change in the business plan, with a subscription model for "XMind Pro" replacing retail sales. I'm a little sketchy on the details, but the Pro version seems to include online collaboration for XMind users, Gantt charts and a Presentation mode (among other features), with a range of subscription prices: $6USD for 1 user/1 month, $400USD for 10 users/1 year, and everything in the middle. It's not necessary to have a subscription, however, to use XMind. Just download a copy (or even the source code) and let the brainstorming begin. Oh, and tell your PC friends, too; like many Java apps, XMind also comes in Windows and Linux flavors.

Audacity 1.3.6 Beta [ MacOS ]

Our buddies over at sister blog Download Squad gave us a heads-up this morning about a new release of Audacity, the open source, cross-platform audio recording / editing application.

Audacity 1.3.6 (Beta) for Mac has new features added by students during the Google Summer of Code 2008:

• Support of WMA, M4A, and AC3 file formats
• Import of audio from video files
• On-demand loading of uncompressed files, eliminating the wait before files can be edited
• Linked audio and label tracks, so labels move with their corresponding audio when cutting, pasting, or changing speed or tempo
• A hierarchical plug-in grouping for built-in plugins

Experimental features include:

• Sound activated recording
• MIDI file import, edit, and export

As always, Audacity is free. Click here to head over to the download page, and remember that this is betaware.

OpenOffice 3 [ MacOS ]

OpenOffice has released version 3 of its eponymous open-source alternative to Microsoft Office, which includes a native version for Mac OS X.

According to Insanely Great Mac, the software includes:

• ODF 1.2 Support
• Microsoft Office 2007 Import Filters
• Solver component which allows solving optimization problems
• Support for displaying custom error bars and regression equations
• Improved Crop Feature in Draw and Impress

The software is only available for Macs with Intel processors. There are projects for converting OpenOffice for PowerPC, but an official version was not included in this 3.0.0 release.
OpenOffice's site was running very slowly this morning due to overwhelming demand for the new software, but the official download link is here. There are mirrors available, and this one seemed to work for me. For Mac users, the file to download includes MacOSXIntel_AQUA_install in the name.

The download is 163MB.

VirtualBox [ MacOS ]

Running other operating systems on a Mac is nothing new, and with the advent of Intel-based Macs we've seen a flood of virtual machine software: Parallels Desktop for Mac, VMWare Fusion, and Codeweavers CrossOver Mac. These products enable you to run Mac OS X and another operating system simultaneously.

For many of my consulting clients who are switching from PCs and who already have a licensed copy of Microsoft Windows, I've been using Sun's Open Source xVM VirtualBox product. Why? xVM VirtualBox works very well and it's free.

If you're new to virtual machines and want to know how to do this, follow along as I set up a Windows Vista virtual machine on an "old" 2GHz Intel Core Duo 20" iMac.

This post is continued after the break.

To begin setting up a virtual machine on your Mac, you need to download xVM VirtualBox. Head over to virtualbox.org, read all about this Open Source project, and then download your copy of xVM VirtualBox for Mac OS X from the download page (see below):

Once you've downloaded the app, install it on your Mac, then get ready to build your virtual machine. Launch VirtualBox (see below), then click the New button in the upper left portion of the application window to launch the New Virtual Machine Wizard.

Click Next, and then give your Virtual Machine a name (below). For obvious reasons, I'm calling mine "Vista." Select the OS Type from the pull-down -- you have a choice of 34 operating systems you can create virtual machines for, including such favorites as DOS, OS/2 Warp, Netware, and Sun's own Open Solaris. Click Next again.

As you can see below, now you need to select how much of your precious RAM you want to give up for the virtual machine. Most modern OS's run better with more RAM, so I'm going to give Vista a full 1 GB to play with. Once you have set the slider to your RAM amount or typed in the amount of RAM in MB, click Next.

It's time to select a hard disk image to be used as the virtual machine boot disk. If you're creating a new virtual machine from scratch like I am, just click the New button. Poof! A new wizard appears:

This is the Create New Virtual Disk wizard. Click Next.

Like many of the other virtual machine tools for Mac OS X, VirtualBox can build either dynamically expanding images that grow along with your virtual machine, or static images that keep their original size. Here I'm going to choose to have a dynamically expanding image. Clicking Next, I'm asked for the name and initial size of the disk image.

I keep the name Vista for my image name, and I'm selecting a 20 GB initial image size. I've also chosen to store this on my 1 TB external hard disk. After validating my settings, I click the Finish button to create the virtual disk image.

Now I'm back to the Create New Virtual Machine wizard with my new virtual disk image selected. Once again, I need to validate my settings, and then I click Finish to start loading my new virtual machine.

As you can see in the screenshot above, the virtual machine is powered off and the CD/DVD-ROM drive is disabled. I'll pop into the settings on my virtual machine and change the initial boot order to CD/DVD-ROM (so it loads Vista from the installation DVD), then Hard Disk. I'll also mount my Mac's SuperDrive so the virtual machine becomes aware of it. With that done, it's time to power up the virtual machine the first time. To do this, I click the Start button.

Whooops! One more screen to look at (see screenshot above). VirtualBox wants me to know that I'm going to be giving over control of my Mac keyboard to the virtual machine while it's running, and that I'll have to press the left Command key to get control back. I acknowledge this message, and then Vista begins to load.

It actually shows me a boring black screen initially, but then a configuration screen appears. I select the language, time and currency formats, and keyboard or input method, and then click the Next button. When the next screen appears, I click the Install Now button.

As you can see in the screenshot above, you must have a properly licensed version of most operating systems in order to install them. Here, Vista is asking me for the 25-character Product Key that will activate the OS. I type it in, then click the Next button.

I accept the license terms for Vista, then click Next. I am asked if I want to do an upgrade or custom install of Vista -- if it's a new install, I can only do a custom install. Once I've selected custom, I need to select my virtual drive image as the target for the installation (as seen below), and then click Next.

The installation is on its way! The SuperDrive starts spinning like a madman at this point, and the Vista installer (below) shows that progress is being made.

After a while (I think it took about 30 minutes in my case), the installation is complete and you just need to create a user name, enter a password, and then choose a desktop background and computer name:

Vista then asks you to set up security tools, and you can then set your time zone and the current time. A click or two later you're using Vista in a new virtual machine.

Vista does a quick check to see what kind of performance your computer has so it can determine what sorts of goodies to deliver for you. On my first boot, I noticed that I had no sound and no network connection with my virtual machine, so I shut it down, went into the setting for the virtual machine, enabled sound, and changed the network adapter to an Intel model so it would work with Vista. On the second boot, I had sound, a network connection, and I was able to then download my browser of choice (Firefox 3.0.1) and set the home page to a good starting point (see below).

Windows Vista found a few new drivers for me to install, some of which were recommended by the xVM VirtualBox team. All in all, the setup and operation of xVM is as easy and fast as either Parallels Workstation or VMWare Fusion, both of which I've used extensively. In terms of performance, I did not run any benchmarks but it seems slightly faster than a Vista virtual machine running in VMWare Fusion 1.1.2.

While vMX VirtualBox may not have all of the special features that you see in Parallels or VMWare Fusion (i.e., the ability to use Boot Camp partitions, Unity or Coherence modes, etc...), it has several great features -- it's free, it's stable, and it has a small footprint. How small? The application is only 55.6 MB in size, compared to 132.1 MB for VMWare Fusion and 77.9 MB for the Parallels Desktop folder (the actual Parallels application is only 24.1 MB, making it the tiniest footprint of them all).

I'm sure that our readers have plenty of opinions about which virtual machine environment is the best, so be sure to leave a comment and let the battles begin!