Update: Initially purchased www.tophdvids.com did not get enough traffic to keep it viable, this this project resides at tophdvids.webandblog.com
I have been to quite a number of parties recently, where host’s entertainment options were limited to a TV with audio system and/or connected iPod/iPhone. Thus a library of music/videos at times was old, not updated and let’s be honest only to the likes of the host.
To fix something like this you have two options, bring content with you and bother with setup to connect, or get a source of media which will be accessible in most setups and make sure this source constantly updated with fresh music/vids. This is how www.topHDvids.com came to life. 90% Javascript and 10% php, like anything simple and brilliant it was done in one day.
I started with UK Top 100 chart website as a source of songs, added YouTube Data Search to it, making php do the job of parsing song data and saving it as a text file. That’s how the prototype was born. Twitter Bootstrap made site cool, I used DarkStrap to go with dark color scheme. Later on, SoundCloud search was added for those looking for remixes. And finally, since sometimes you like the artist much and want to come to the live show – I added eventful integration to show upcoming performances.
I’ve used a lot of JSON in this project, with Javascript data processing. Basically, the site itself is one html file and a few Javascripts – which allows for insanely fast load time and rendering, because all the job is done by your browser. JSON being a great transport for data, I think, should be the next tech to replace php-driven sites, and take out problem of scaling by eliminating php compiler and replacing it with something like node.js.
But let’s put tech talk aside for now. The concept here is to come to the party and connect to the iDevice (preferably Apple TV) to stream video and music from the media source. By now I have tested www.topHDvids.com with Apple TV and iPhone with great success. I am sure, making it work from any OS X device to Apple TV is not a problem, given AirPlay tech recently introduced by Apple.
With more features, and small improvements to follow, I am hoping topHDvids.com will get enough attention and recognition.