nessViewer App 1.4.1 available (cinema movies)

The main focus of this version is cinema movies: MSN Movies offers movies in German, and YouTube offers movies in English (beside the videos already offered before).

nessViewer 2.7 available

After several requests the MediaCenter allows now to select the arrow keys used for previous/next entry and level up - either left/right/up or up/down/left.

A cover and description can now be set for media shows by the movie info and will be shown in the MediaCenter.

Also the automatic creation of QuickTime movie previews is now available in the movie info. Available on user request since some QuickTime movies need time to show the preview in the MediaCenter.

Please note that for DVDs it can take also time to show a cover - this can be influenced by the MediaCenter preferences: as more providers will be used to find a cover the more time it can take.

The ARD-Mediathek videos are now available again in the MediaCenter.

nessViewer demo videos at YouTube

At YouTube are now several demo videos available which show the functionality of nessViewer.

From the installation to the MediaCenter or the arrangement of media shows (playlists) - take a look how you can use nessViewer to enjoy media!

Currently the videos are taken from a German MacOS - but we hope that even so you get an idea...

nessViewer 2.6.5 available (Browser)

In this version the download speed of the integrated internet browser is now optimized. And the supported providers are extended: 3sat, Kabel1, MySpass, Pro7, Sat1.

Various providers are adapted: among others MSN Movies which changed their cinema movie offer from flash to MPEG-4.

This is a really good news since these cinema movies can now be offered for iPad/iPhone/iPod touch.

The nessViewer App is already adapted to offer these movies - watch out for the new version 1.4.1 to view German cinema movies. It should be available in about 1 week.

My Mac MediaCenter

At mac-media-center.com is now a personal review and tutorial about the experiences with the Mac as a MediaCenter.

In part 1 the motivation for a MediaCenter, the thoughts to hard- and software and the setup of the iMac as a MediaCenter is described.

In part 2 the first steps with nessViewer - thus the installation and settings - are described.

In part 3 some specialties of nessViewer which makes the differents to other media and MediaCenter applications are described.

In the forum it is possible to discuss or ask questions.

nessViewer and compatibility

nessViewer App needs iOS 4.2 to support the iPad.

iOS 4.2 needs iTunes 10 which is only runnable on MacOS X 10.5 or MacOS X 10.6.

The reason why iTunes 9 can not update to iOS 4.2 is unknown (and thereby not understandable). And it is not our kind of compatibility view.

But even worse an iPhone/iPod touch upgraded to iOS 4.2 will not mount in iTunes 9.

nessViewer for Mac is compatible with 10.4 at least. And we would also like to have nessViewer App compatible with 10.4 and iTunes 9.

At the moment we can only offer to send us the UDID of the iPhone/iPod touch. With this UDID we can offer nessViewer App for iOS 4.1 for that corresponding iPhone/iPod touch.

The only other possibility would be to generally offer 2 nessViewer Apps: one for iPad (with iOS 4.2) and one for other devices (with iOS 4.1).

nessViewer App 1.4 available (iPad & Spiegel Online)

With iOS 4.2 nessViewer App is now also available for iPad. With the big screen it is even more fun to watch movie trailers or movies and news from e.g. Spiegel Online.

Certainly we have to improve the main menu - here we are currently working on a solution with icons.

As a new provider we have added Spiegel Online, a leading portal for German and worldwide news and reportages.

Media shows (playlists) can now be send by email or email attachments opened in nessViewer App or nessViewer for Mac. Thereby links to videos from e.g. DailyMotion or YouTube can be arranged and send to friends - there is no easier way to share video playlists with others!

In this context it might suggest again that we offer plenty of media shows with (among others) cartoons, movies or music in our download area for registered users. Entertainment lasting for hours - without even searching the internet.

Of course we will keep your registration data in confidence.

nessViewer 2.6.4 available (special campaign)

In a special campaign nessViewer is offered for EUR 18,- from 11/15/2010 to 01/15/2011.

The browser window now shows example providers as start page. And more supported providers are added: ARD & ZDF Mediathek, Arte, BBC, Hulu, RTL Now.

YouTube now offers plenty cinema movies.

nessViewer 2.6.3 available (Browser search)

With the integrated web browser searching is now available. Supported search engines are currently Bing, Google and Lycos.

Unfortunately the last update had two bugs which caused nessViewer to crash or behave weird after opening a browser window. These 2 bugs are fixed now.

Skyfire has hit the topics - remains to be mentioned only that also the nessViewer App supports various internet sites which movies could otherwise only be played by the (not existing) flash plugin. Free of charge and not sold out... :-))

nessViewer 2.6.2 available (Browser menu)

In the past new collected media show entries were shown after closing the browser menu. Obviously this was confusing for some users.

Now the user can select "Open Media Show" in the browser menu.

Now "Spiegel Online" is also available in lower quality (beside ARD and ZDF mediathek) - especially for our users with lower internet connection speed.

In the nessViewer preferences (and there at MediaCenter) the checkbox "Prefer high movie resolution" must be unchecked to use this feature.

nessViewer App 1.3 available

Pictures can now be rotated via touches and pictures and PDF pages presented.

The iternet offer is extended by movie trailers (in various languages) and english/france podcasts.

The GUI is prepared for iPad - as soon as iOS 4.2 is available a new version will be posted.

nessViewer App 1.2.1 for iPhone/iPod touch

After longer diskussions with Apple the nessViewer App is now available in the App Store.

We would like to thank explicit the several Apple employees/teams at this point!

The main focus of nessViewer App are the various internet video offers and the media shows (playlists).

The internet video offer contains momentary videos from DailyMotion, German television (podcasts), movie trailers (en/de), cinema movies from Free Movies Cinema, music videos from LastFM and videos from YouTube.

These videos can not only be presented but also collected in media shows, which can be saved and presented again later.

Via "Open URL" a web browser can be opened for the supported internet providers which allows to browse safely, play the videos and collect them in media shows.

The supported media (media shows, Office documents like Word or Excel, PDF documents, pictures, videos) can be transfered to the iPhone/iPod touch via iTunes.

For registered users we offer further internet video providers.

nessViewer 2.6.1 available (Web Browser)

Inspired by the nessViewer App (for iPhone/iPod touch) we integrated now a web browser in nessViewer.

The web pages of supported providers (e.g. DailyMotion, YouTube) can be loaded by a pop up. Movies will not be presented by plugins but rather in fullscreen mode by pressing "Present". Links to these movies can be added to a (new) media show by pressing the "+" button.

Registered users have access to more supported providers.

Another advantage is that web content, which is not from the provider, will be filtered.

In the near future we will extend this browser e.g. for downloads of movies.

nessViewer 2.6 available (iPhone/iPod touch remote)

3 weeks ago we bought an iPod touch to offer nessViewer also for this plattform.

As a first result the app "NV Remote" is available which allows to remote control nessViewer like with the "Apple Remote Control" but via WiFi. It just makes a lot of fun to set the current music all around the flat. To make this working an info is shown in landscape orientation where e.g. the media center is positioned.

The live broadcasting offer can now be changed without publishing a new version. Nearly 2000 providers are now in our database - it will take some time to check this records. As a first result France and Spain television is now added.

And a "traffic light" shows if the provider is (currently) available - this changes sometimes nearly daily.

Next plan is to develop nessViewer for the iPhone/iPod touch. Copying media shows and movies to the iPod via iTunes and viewing on the iPod is already available. Fantastic to enjoy hours of music videos on the way!

nessViewer 2.5.1 available

Flash movies from the internet are loaded and played by the QuickTime extension "Perian" which sometimes do not work properly (wrong duration and thereby too short presentation, sound not synchron to video). By checking the media preference "Play flash movies via flash plugin" these movies are presented by the flash plugin.

For users who are not registered at our web page and did not install our extension this new feature will have no effect.

MyVideo changed their web content - the media center is now adapted to display/present MyVideo movies again.

nessViewer 2.5 available

Unbelievable - but someone comments at heise.de that nessViewer offers only "minimal functionality for as much as 40 Euro. Absurd!"

Was it one of our rivaly who let off steam?? Ouch!!

But may be the first trials are too difficult - no wonder if one take a look at the scope of functionality?

But even these kind of comments are taken seriously by us - and we react: a toolbar gives easy access to the most importent functions. May be this helps that some users will recognize that nessViewer is much more than "only" a media center!? And is offering a wide scope of functionality?

But regardless of this: which media center offers such a lot of German contents? ARD/RTL/VOX and ZDF mediathek? Arte, MSN Movies, MyVideo, SpiegelOnline? Live broadcasting/streaming of German television... and... Common, be serious: even if the first trials are not easy - just take a minimum of time and such "absurd" comments are unnecessary.

To take a look to the "horrible GUI": that is a matter of opinion, of cause. If a lot of users would complain we could make it a little more hip.

But on the other side nessViewer is the only (?) media center which prefers rather content than hip design - our cars do not have wider aluminium wheels... :-))

Last but not least to all folks outside of Germany: we would very much like to offer more content of other countries (beside BBC and Hulu) - but we really need beta testers for this! Go for it!!

nessViewer & Apple

After more than half a year we are now listed at Apple downloads... :-))

Seems that it helped to modify the text.

Whether it was the applications we "replace" (and are now not mention anymore) - or the erotic?

No matter - the main point is that we are listed!

After taking this barrier we are thinking about porting nessViewer for iPad/iPhone/iPod... even if only 75% could be offered (since this hardware has no shockwave flash)...

Several request has been made... :-))

Lets see how much resources we will have and how much request will be made!

nessViewer 2.4.4 available (media improvements)

This version stands for media improvements: the switch between MediaCenter and presentation is now on various user requests without visible desktop and the media presentations have a menu (only visible if cusor in menubar).

Internal all internet provider classes has been redesigned - this means less code and easier adaptions in the future.

Since various internet providers (DailyMotion, LastFM, RTL, VOX) were not working anymore the code for these providers were adapted.

nessViewer 2.4.3 available (Hulu)

Beside Hulu, the provider of cinema movies and tv series in USA (and only available there), the MediaCenter has various new live broadcastings: Danish and Greek Television, web cams e.g. with a view on Loch Ness and 2 sport channels.

We would be glad to offer even more local content, but for this we need your assistance!

The MediaCenter now automatically deactivates local content (BBC for GB, Hulu for USA, myVideo for German speaking area) - this deactivation can be canceled in the preferences.

The next version is already in progress: no desktop will be shown when switching from MediaCenter to media presentation. And the media presentation will have a menu with the commands which are currently only available by keyboard.

nessViewer 2.4.2 available

Thanks to Reiner for creating the new media show icons - this was mainly necessary because media shows are now handled like folders in the MediaCenter.

This way media shows can now presented with all entries or only the selected entries.

If someone still do not know the advantages of media shows (aka nessViewer playlists): register at our web page and load our media show examples with a lot of movies, music, comics and other entertainment stuff without searching the internet!

Loading MediaCenter lists sometimes needs a little bit time - especially the Miro video podcasts (e.g. nature videos from "Terra - Nature of our World") and are now animated.

A lot of users are using the MediaCenter with their Laptop - so the keyboard function was reworked: canceling presentations via escape (ESC) now shows the MediaCenter again if the presentation was started by the MediaCenter.

And some minor "inconsistencies" are now corrected.

nessViewer 2.4.1 available (movie info export)

The movie infos can now be exported as HTML, RSS feed or XML.

After opening the movie info and selecting a movie, the movies in the folder of the selected movie will be shown in the drawer. Afterwards the infos of these movies can be exported.

The access of DailyMotion, LastFM and YouTube has been adapted, whereas YouTube will now be shown by Flash which is faster than the original QuickTime access.

And DVD presentations can now be zoomed by the remote control via "play hold" to hide e.g. the margins.

On user requests the previews/covers in the MediaCenter has been reduced to show more lines of the descriptions; the descriptions will now be scrolled by pixel instead of lines; "folder picture" and "folder movie" will be shown instead of the path.

Our trial to add nessViewer to Wiki has been failed - no relevance, no external perception! What a pity! Anyway: once again thanks to all the people of Wiki for their help!

nessViewer 2.4 available (DVD and film cover, movie trailer)

After several discussions with users how nessViewer could integrate DVD and (EyeTV-) film covers, we now found a (as we think very good) solution: the film info (see File-New) now allows to set the cover and description and these informations will be displayed in the MediaCenter.

These informations will be saved in the DVD folder respectively EyeTV film package or in the user folder.

The latter allows to set these informations also for (QuickTime-) movies.

Now the times are gone were the MediaCenter shows a different image for EyeTV films each time after watching this film - because EyeTV always changes the image afterwards.

Next plan is the export of all these film informations as HTML, XML or RSS feed for publishing these film informations.

Last but not least: the MediaCenter now also offers movie trailers in German and English.

nessViewer 2.3.3 available (ARD Mediathek, Arte LiveWeb)

The developers of the ARD Mediathek web site has invented a new html attribute: image data source ("<img data-src=...>" instead of "<img src=...>").

Unfortunatly the corresponding RSS feed is not showing any pictures anymore - strange... :-))

We adapted the media center so now it can access the ARD Mediathek again.

Arte has published a new web portal: Arte LiveWeb. It offers occasional live concerts at 8 pm - and concert recordings.

As a first step we integrated at Internet -> German Television -> Arte.

And the recorded concerts at Internet -> Arte -> Music Recordings.

With appropriate interests we can extend the offer by categories (Classic, Pop/Rock, Jazz...).

May there be some erotic? Or: why does Apple not publish nessViewer?

Since 3 month nessViewer is added to the Apple third-party list - according to Apple the max. time one has to wait for publishing.

But sadly nessViewer is not published - why? At least nessViewer is the only media center (as far as we know) that is using only Apple technology (e.g. QuickTime).

Unfortunatly Apple gives no information for this - so there is only speculation: is it the competition (because we "replace" applications of Apple) or is it the erotic content of the media center (which is only available optional, for registered users being over 18/21 years old).

Of course Apple has all rights to publish not all applications - but it might be helpful to know why.

Calming to know that also other offerer had to feel Apple's iron hand (http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/mobil/0,1518,624226,00.html and http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/gadgets/0,1518,663123,00.html).

What do you neeed for a optimal MediaCenter?

Up to 2 years ago our living room was filled with plenty of devices: the hi-fi system, the TV, the DVD player... and if we intended to present some pictures to friends we had to search in several photo albums.

There's an end with it!

After buying an iMac 24'' with EyeTV (to watch DVB-T and record the video cassettes) and Bose Companion speakers the work started: photo scanning and arrangement in iPhoto, music import into iTunes, movie recording by the video input...

Even if it was much work: the daily fun richly rewards! And the living room got some space back: from over 6 devices to only 1, 3 storage racks full of (ugly) video cassettes are gone - and times are over searching long-winded for photos/music and movies.

Just one downer: how to watch all these media comfortable from the sofa??

Much disappointments testing the available media centers: titles and text not viewable from the sofa, only 5 menu entries per page (but a lot of gimmigs), only one photo/movie presentation (and then back in the media center to select the next one) - no, this is no pleasure!

So here we go: a better media center must be developed!

And the result is excellent: see for yourself!

Here we are!

Since 3 month we are distributing our media application for the Mac now - and with this blog we want to provide an insight into our work and the resulting news and problems.

But more important: we would like to invite you to give us feedback, criticism and suggestions.

Currently we are searching for Mac users who live outside of Germany, are interested in further (local) content of the media center and are willing to test this new content for us.

At our web site http://www.nessviewer.com you can find comprehensive infos about our product and you can download the (full functional) demo version. Have much fun & entertainment!