Small update

I haven't written any posts in this blog for a bit and the reason is that I've been really busy improving and expanding KooRaRoo Media - the new DLNA server and media organizer.

It now supports any language and has already been translated to German, French, Russian and Hungarian with more languages to follow.

There are many interesting features planned, so stay tuned!

DLNA devices: BluRay Players (BDPs)

Most modern BluRay players (BDPs) have DLNA built-in. This is a great solution if your TV does not support DLNA directly, so you could hook up your old CRT or any other TV and still enjoy all the benefits of DLNA!

KooRaRoo Media supports all modern DLNA-compatible BluRay players from such manufacturers as:

• LG
• Marantz
• Onkyo
• OPPO
• Panasonic
• Philips
• Pioneer
• Samsung
• Sharp
• Sony
• Yamaha

With a BDP you of course also get the ability to play DVD and BluRay disks, so it's a double bonus, but the future is in digital media, not disks, which are prone to breakage, dust collection and are impossible to catalog and access quickly. KooRaRoo Media allows you to easily organize your digital media files and access them quickly on your BluRay players, using your BDP's remote. You don't need any additional hardware or software, as long as your computer and your BDP are connected to your home network.

Try a free, fully-functional copy of KooRaRoo today and see how it will help you!

New FAQs page on the site!

There is now a new page on the site that explores in more detail the inner working of various features that KooRaRoo Media has.

It's still work in progress, but the first section on Transcoding is finished.

Check it out at http://kooraroo.com/faqs.php

Why is transcoding important to have?

Transcoding is important to have because there are a lot of music, photo and video formats, but most DLNA devices only support a small handful of those. 

For example, new digital photo cameras can take pictures in RAW format, allowing you to edit them later, but how would you view them in RAW format on your TV or other DLNA device? This is where transcoding will help you, because KooRaRoo Media will automatically, on-the-fly, convert these to a picture format compatible with your device.

You can have your music collection stored as high-quality FLAC files, but most DLNA devices do not support FLAC directly. Again - KooRaRoo will save the day and convert your music files with the highest possible quality to a format supported by your device.

The world of video formats is the most complex, because video files are basically containers that can have many different streams (channels) inside and each of those streams could be a video stream, an audio stream or a subtitle stream. Even the most popular formats, such as AVI (or DivX) and MPEG can be encoded in a way that makes them incompatible with hardware decoders (hardware decoders are what's built-in your DLNA devices). New camcorder models will let you take beautiful, high-definition home videos, but these videos may not play on your device as well, even if they are the same brand. You also may find some videos on the Web or elsewhere that are encoded in less common formats that are not supported either.

As you can see, there are many possibilities for things to go wrong in terms of compatibility between your files and your device, but the good news is that you don't have to worry about this - KooRaRoo Media will take care of it all for you behind the scenes.

How is transcoding used in KooRaRoo Media?

Transcoding is done automatically by KooRaRoo Media when it detects a file that is not compatible with your device.

To determine whether a file is compatible or not, a device definition is used (also called a device profile) that lists all known formats that the device can play. Anything not listed, will get transcoded.

Device definitions are updated when new firmware comes out and new devices are added all the time as well. It is important to select the correct device profile for your device, but most devices can be auto-detected, so you don't have to worry about this.

Another way to use transcoding in KooRaRoo is to manually transcode files. This is done from within KooRaRoo's GUI (graphical user interface, or the main application window). Some files may be considered as native for the device, but they may have something particular in their encoding that prevents the hardware decoder in your player from playing them. In this case manual transcoding helps, as you can transcode the file from within KRR and this new transcoded file will be used for your device, so the file will play properly. Manual transcoding also allows you to select which video and audio stream you wish to transcode, so if there are multiple audio streams (for example), you can choose which language you'd like the resulting file to have.

You can also configure your preferred language (audio) streams via the Device settings - when set this will instruct KooRaRoo to find and use audio in a language that you understand automatically!

How can I play backed up DVDs on my DLNA devices?

Going from physical media to its electronic, non-physical form is a huge process, but I believe it's inevitable and the sooner we start, the better.
 
We all know - DVDs and CDs and any other physical media fails from time to time. It gets dusty, scratched, breaks and takes up space.

You've spent a lot of money purchasing all those DVDs and certainly you'd be annoyed if all of a sudden they'd stop playing, right?

Well, this is where DVD back ups could save you. I'm not going into details of whether studios think it's legal or not to make backup for your personal use, let's assume it's ok in your area and you've done it :)

Then comes the next question - you've got your great new shiny DLNA device and you point it to your folder with your backed up DVDs only to find a bunch a strange, broken up files that may play, but pause right in the middle of the most interesting scene before they continue playing another file. This would be a scenario with a simple DLNA server, but not with KooRaRoo Media.

KooRaRoo Media will automatically (yes, it does a lot on its own, so you don't have to!) recognize those DVD folders, then read information about your movie and combine the main movie into one file, without pauses, breaks or any glitches in between scenes! You will notice that when browsing through those DVD folders using KooRaRoo, there will be a title with "(main title)" appended to it. Just play this one and it'll automatically combine the whole movie into one for you.

Very handy, isn't it? And of course when you have your DVDs in KooRaRoo's library, you can quickly find them by genre, actors, studios, years and the multitude of other criteria supported by KooRaRoo. It's a lot easier than going through the hundreds of DVD boxes trying to find that special movie you want to watch right now and there is less dusting!

Try KooRaRoo Media for free today and enjoy your media!

How can I limit what my kids see on a DLNA device in their room?

KooRaRoo Media lets you collect and organize all your files from all the sources on your home network - connected PCs and NAS drives. This means that your media collection may contain material not suitable for younger children in your household. What do you do?

It's simple - use the powerful, yet easy-to-use parental controls in KooRaRoo!

How do they work? Very simple :) You can set an MPAA-based parental rating (G, PG, PG-13, R, NC-17) for any file or folder in KooRaRoo Media. After that go to Devices pane, edit the device that your kids use to watch cartoons and movies or listen to music and in device properties set the maximum parental rating that will be shown on this device. So, for example, if you set a parental rating of "G" in the device properties and mark a file or folder "PG" in KooRaRoo, then it won't appear on the device as if it doesn't exist, so your kids won't even know it's there in the first place!

Easy, right? That's the whole idea - you should be able to accomplish seemingly complex tasks with just a few mouse clicks using KooRaRoo's intuitive graphical user interface.