What is transcoding?
Transcoding is the process of converting your media from its original format to a format your renderer (Directv Receiver) understands while it is being played.
There are many types of audio and video formats. not all renderers support all formats, this means that a lot of media needs to be converted as it is viewed. By default, TVShare can convert GIF's, BMP's and PNG's to JPEG's to be displayed on your screen. if you need audio or video converted TVShare will use VLC to do it.
VLC is a media conversion and viewing program written by VideoLan. It is free and we highly recommend you install it. If you install it and select the transcode option on the TVShare main screen your media will be automatically converted to a format that the receiver understands. NOTE: for transcoding video you will need a fast processor and about 4GB of disk space free for a 1.5 hr movie. If you experience stuttering in your video you should check your CPU utilization to see if it is consistently over 85%, if it is you probably need a faster processor.
You can get VideoLan's VLC product here.
Before downloading VLC please make sure you get a supported version. Currently supported versions are 2.0.2, 2.0.3, 2.0.5 and 2.0.8 other versions are known to have transcoding issues. TVShare can automatically download a supported version for you. if you have no VLC installed and turn on transcoding TVShare will ask you if you would like it to download VLC.
Once you have installed VLC, make sure it runs by starting it. Then close it. That is all you have to do. TVShare will start VLC invisibly in the background to convert your media when it needs to. You do not need to keep VLC open. You will not see a VLC window on your screen while TVShare is transcoding, it is all done behind the scenes.
What if I don't want to install VLC or my processor isn't fast enough for it?
If you do not want to transcode or are not able to do it then you will only be able to play MP3 audio files and MPEG2 video files. You will still be able to display any picture type (GIF, PNG, JPG, BMP, WBMP) as TVShare automatically converts them. If you have other media you want to see then you should convert it first. We have tried a few programs and we like 'Any Video Converter Professional' for video conversion. If you select the 'MPEG-II Movie' profile on the right hand side of the Any Video Converter screen you will get movies that will play on Directv without transcoding.