If you’re a Windows Media Center fan and have an iPad, iPhone, or other iDevice – be sure to check out Simple.TV. The software is in beta, but does a good job of making your content portable by converting into H.264. The content is then playable via a webpage (which calls the built in video player on your iDevice) or sync to your device via a Podcast created in iTunes. It’s a hub and spoke model with the website at www.simple.tv being your starting point as opposed to a dedicated iApp.
I have been testing the beta software (0.9.0.0.829) using a Silicon Dust HDHomerun and Windows Media Center. and it works as-advertised but is rough around the edges on the video compression end. I recorded an HD QAM signal from our local ABC affiliate and about a five seconds into the video, audio sync was lost and frame compression issues started to show up on my Intel Core i5. It’s a beta though I will probably uninstall until it is a little more stable.
Most of my suggestions/gripes are related to the branding consisting of a weird space-bunny with TV visor? Maybe do a competition on www.99designs.com to get the best logo. And the way it integrates into iTunes as a podcast – “Unknown Category” is not very discoverable. There are other details I’m sure will be fixed – visit http://simple.tv and I get a Bad Hostname error. I don’t want to have to add “www.” on every device.
There are other solutions out in the market as well. If you have a Mac, Elgato’s EyeTV now supports Live TV streaming as well as on-demand playback on an iPad via a dedicated app.
Here’s to hoping Simple.TV lives up to its name. I know some of the folks building the app and suspect it’s only a matter of time.