Originally posted by HookedOnTV
Anybody looking at the Kiss unit? I wonder how they compare. It's not out yet... is it?

Finally got a reply from Iodata about the cable. Hopefully they mean they will send me a replacement in a couple days:

Yes.... To be honest with you, we're preparing a longer cable
(seperatelly sale). Sorry for the late action. And honestly again, the
reason was our product spec decition. We wanted to release LinkPlayer
quickly by lower cost $249.00 for USA valued customers (like you). So
the basic cost was too tough, then we didn't have any choice. However,
this problem happens at not only you. We need to care of all customers.
We'll do our best suggestion soon. Please give us a couple of days.

I also got a reply from IODATA about how they working on a longer cable accessory (probably as a separate purchase) and how they will be changing that firmware page to English ASAP.

I appreciate the responsiveness of the company. Usually filling out a contact us webform for a large electronics company means it just goes into a black hole.

Ricardo

The answers from IO Data are coming in a flurry it seems.... I got a response to my inquiry about my problems with Dolby Digital audio not working correctly, basically they don't know.

things I have noticed since my last post

- the indicator on the display of the player doesn't light the symbols for DD or DTS

- DTS works just fine

- I would occasionally get a quick .5 second blip of the DD audio when switching inputs

- I have switched both optical and coaxial with other pieces in my rack that work with them, but to no avail

I will officially say I'm baffled. Anyone else having any audio problems?

Other than this problem, the player works very well.

mb1010

Monkeboy1010 (as opposed to Monkeyboy 1009 or 1011),

I haven't had any audio problems so far. I use the DD or DTS symbol on my receiver to tell me what's happening but I will check the bug you mentioned.

So far my linkplayer2 has been very stable. I have some issues with UI design, navigation, but that is more of a human factors thing than a bug. I will comment more on that later. People have to start really using the interface to see what I mean.

My family is just so excited now cause we basically now have a video server in the family room for $250 and no crashes. I have about 3 weeks of Sesame Streets that I can call up on demand now and if you have children you know how wonderful that is. Its my kids that watch things over and over. That stuff I compress down to MPEG4 and the stuff I view stays in MPEG2 and is usually watched once then deleted. I am starting to rip some of the TV show style kids DVDs so no more finding and loading the correct DVD, its just in the video menu now.

All the best,
Ricardo

Did anyone else get this email from I-O? I must have gotten on their email list when I asked some pre-release questions about the US version a while ago. Looks like they are introducing some NAS hard drives w/ USB support for more hard-drives, and they will be capable of working with LinkPlayer. If that is true, the HTPC can really go away.
From: info@iodata.com
Subject: [LinkPlayer News Vol.03] "LinkPlayer Best Database" UHDL Series are announced now (shipping: End of December 2004)
Date: November 20, 2004 5:36:33 AM EST
To: info@iodata.com

===========================================================

I-O DATA DEVICE USA, INC.
AVeL LinkPlayer News

Vol.03 Nov 19, 2004
http://www.iodata.com/usa/news/

===========================================================


Today's News:
http://www.iodata.com/usa/news/culture.php?ts=20&tsc=23&newsID=47


[1] "LinkPlayer Best Database" UHDL Series are announced now
(shipping: End of December 2004)
http://www.iodata.com/usa/products/products.php?cat=HNP&ts=2&tsc=&sc=HDL

Now we will announce a new product lineup, UHDL series as "the
LinkPlayer best database." LinkPlayer customers can use it as your best
database of movie, music, and photo. It has a LinkServer inside, and can
be connected. No requested any computer booting. Go to the product page
to learn more. The shipping will be from the end of 2004.


[2] "TIPS" page is opened
http://www.iodata.com/usa/products/AVLP2_TIPS.php

This TIPS/HINTS page has some ideas for your better LinkPlayer life.
We will keep introducing some better items (software/hardware/system)
here. We appreciate if you keep watching this page.


[3] "Update / Upgrade" page is opened
http://www.iodata.com/usa/products/AVLP2_SW.php

This Update/Upgrade page is our official annouce page for
firmware/sofware included a hardware powerup guide. Now no newer
firmware is coming. Just wait for upcoming before Xmas 2004.


Thank you very much for choosing I-O DATA LinkPlayer!
And we welcome your e-mails (trouble, request, idea, and others). Your
voice makes our service/product better. Please mail to info@iodata.com.
We're looking for your letter.


If you don't want anymore this e-news, please let us know.
--
INFO <info@iodata.com>

Since I-O Data is selling in North America they really need to hire some native english speakers to handle their english website and customer support.

OK....It is sending Dolby Digital audio out, as I have hooked it up to my office 5.1 amp and to my PC's Sound Blaster Audigy 2 card and both were able to decode a DD signal. For now I have the PC decoding the audio and sending the analog 5.1 signal back to the amp for playback.

SOOOOOO..... what is the problem, my amp? I'm not sure about that because it can decode all of my other DD signals just fine. Or is the "kind" of signal the player is sending that my amp doesn't like?

Any suggestions, antidotes, medication?

mb1010 (not 1009 or 1011)

Mikemav,

Yes, I got that email as well. Actually any network harddrive will work with the Linkplayer. One thing is for sure, getting a linkplayer just ends up driving your demand for more storage. I now suddenly understand the reason to buy a terrabyte network drive (I saw a post another AVSforum about a LaCie Terrabyte network drive composed of four 250GB drives which appears as a single drive a PC).

Ricardo

Originally posted by SeeMoreDigital
It's not out yet... is it?

Some googling turns up a couple 'tailers that claim to have them in stock.

MB - You know, the DirecTV Tivo Series 2 have the same problem with certain recievers (like mine). It sends out the DD signal, but the reciever doesn't respond. As we figured out on the Tivo boards, seems to be an issue with the way the HDVR2 sends out the stream. I guess it isn't flagged correctly or something along those lines. That could be the issue here.

Oddly enough, the solution for most of us (until D* fixed it in the software) was to go buy one of the $6 toslink to coax converter boxes (not a cable, but an actual device) from Radio Shack. I ran it from coax and converted it to toslink into my receiver and never had a problem. You might try it - if it doesn't work, Radio Shack will always take the box back.

Originally posted by HookedOnTV
Some googling turns up a couple 'tailers that claim to have them in stock. If either the DP-600 or DP-608 players had been launched, one would presume there would be some information on the Kiss web site. Unfortunately you will only find the odd press report!


Cheers

Has anyone been able to dig up any info on the JVC d4 connector? I looked on JVC's website and did not see it listed. My picture isn't really soft, but I will pay for the ability to make it "cleaner".
I appreciate the responsiveness of the company. Usually filling out a contact us webform for a large electronics company means it just goes into a black hole. I have sent them three questions and they have all been answered promptly and courteously. Their English isn't perfect, but I never had a problem figuring out what they are describing. I will take the bad English over a slow response any day!
So far my linkplayer2 has been very stable. I have some issues with UI design, navigation, but that is more of a human factors thing than a bug. I will comment more on that later. People have to start really using the interface to see what I mean. I have sent them an email related to the interface. They said with a collection like mine, I was probably better off looking at my own folders. I have so many artists that it would take me hours to go through all of the pages to locate an artist with the first letter that begins with "S" (for instance). I told them that I would prefer a alpha numeric setup at the top of the page rather than the page numbers (which tell me nothing). They sent me the following response:

"I'm negotiating to your #2 issue. But looks not so easy. Now anyway,
you need to manage your songs by the some folders... When we find the
best idea, we'll let you know."

BTW I also received their email this morning. Their Hub actually has the linkserver interface built in. This will make it easier to manage files than just hooking up a USB external hardrive to the USB2 port. I have this setup already and the interface is a bit different from the computer interface.

I just hooked up my link player yesterday and here is what I have observed:

1) As already mentioned, the component cable is not long enough and the D4 connector does not fit snug into the socket. There is so much play in it I really thought it might not work. I ended up using the $5.99 Radio Shack RCA to RCA coupler to patch the link player into my Home Theater System. However, jiggling the D4 end of the cable while attached to the unit does not seem to cause any signal loss, so I assume I have good connection. I will promptly replace this short cable once I-O data releases a longer one.

2) Read the directions before install. The D4 output is set to a default my TV did not recognize. I spent 30 min. trying to figure out why I was not getting a signal. You have to actually hit the TV Mode button on the remote to toggle to an output your TV recognizes to get the linkplayer set up screen to appear. I know, pretty stupid on my part, but hey I'm just an amateur at this. Yes, the quick setup guide does tell you to hit this button, I just did not read it.

3) Picture quality is excellent with the DVD-ROM on the player through my Sony KP57HW40 rear projection TV, of course using the component inputs. The first DVD I played was a my back-up copy of Shrek II on a Sony DVD+RW disc. This disk played flawlessley and the PQ was excellent! I was able to upconvert to 1080i with stunning results on my set. Definitely could see the difference between 480p and 1080i. At 1080i the details in the movie were stunning! I have not tried any other DVDs yet.

4) Picture quality also very good with DIVX files I have created from video captures using my Hauppauge PVR-250. I use Dr. Divx to convert MPEG2s to DIVX and I use the DIVXHD output mode. The picture quality is as good as the original MPEG2 with some slight degradation.

5) Tried upconverting MPEG2s played from over the network and you cannot toggle the TV Mode (upconverting button) while the video is playing. This you can do when you play a DVD through the DVD-ROM. You can toggle on the fly (probably because of .VOB). With MPEGs or DiVX video played over the network (except .VOBs), you must set your D4 output first then start the video. Although "garbage in is garbage out" some MPEG2 files recorded on my TV capture card look a little better when I toggle to a higher res.

6) I played with the photo viewer a little bit and for the most part it does a nice job of displaying 1024 by 760 JPEGs. Most of my digital photos are at that resolution. They don't look as good as when displayed on a computer monitor, but very close. I am happy with this as I have tried a few other media servers that don't do a good job at all with photos and promptly returned them. One annoying aspect of the slide show option, the linkplayer automatically fades in and then fades out each picture. You can only adjust the display time. The default is 5 seconds for each photo. I may have missed something, but has anyone else found a way to eliminate the fade in and out?

7) The remote control is very well layed out but the buttons are too small and the range is poor. I have my compenents hidden in a cabinet behind speaker cloth and the remote will not shoot through it. I will have to learn its commands to my MX-500 and use that remote eventually.

8) Linkplayer has been very stable with no lock ups or crashes. For the money, I am quite happy with this unit as it adds significant versatility to my home theater system. Very happy to get a DVD player that upconverts as well as access to my media library over the network. If I had a DVI capable TV, however I probably would wait for the DVI version.

There's also not any mention of Kiss on the Sigma press releases, which is where I went to find out who was buying the EM8620L medial processor. Doesn't mean Kiss isn't going their own way, but I've not heard of any other WM9 media processor out there...

I starting ripping my Xmas CD collection.

WMA Lossless is NOT compatable with the linkplayer2 and current firmware (11/20/2004)

Update:
The EM8620L chip from Sigma that this player is based on states in its spec that it does support WMA9 lossless. So hopefully a future firmware upgrade will add support in the Linkplayer2 for the audio codec.


Anybody have recommendations on audio format? I have been using WMA variable bit rate at max quality which works in the linkplayer2

Ricardo

Originally posted by uofmtiger
Has anyone been able to dig up any info on the JVC d4 connector? I looked on JVC's website and did not see it listed. My picture isn't really soft, but I will pay for the ability to make it "cleaner".


http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=4680856#post4680856

Thank you for the link! I have no idea why I missed it. I have read this thread several times!:) :cool:

if you do order the cable please let us know shipping cost, I am not sure if I am willing to spend another $50+ for a cable although I did spend that on my DVI cable for my cable box :(

I thought I saw someone post that it was $30! Fifty seems like a lot for a cleaner look, when I think the picture is already outstanding. I am going to think this one over for a couple of days! Decisions, decisions....

I think it is cool that they are already telling us what is going to be in the next upgrade. I am looking forward to the addition of Rhapsody and Microsoft WMA Pro (just to name two things).

There was a post saying the GameCube Component cable would work but I looked at the conector on my GameCube and it does not look the same as the one in the pictures of the AVLP2. I won't know for sure until mine gets here hopefully today but probably Monday

Has anyone gotten the music to play during a photo slideshow? I have not been able to get this to work yet and wondering whether this is a real bug or something I am not doing properly.

11/20/2004 Update: Oops my mistake. This player is getting better all the time. You can assign a music playlist to each folder of pictures. I assigned a playlist to the main root folder of photos which I thought applied to all the subfolders but it doesn't. Each photo folder can be assigned its own music playlist during a slide show. Fantastic!

Ricardo

The gamecube is definitely D4. I've seen enough pinouts online to compare.

Unfortunately, just like the USB Controller ports on the Xbox, the connectors aren't compatible with a standard port. I went out and bought a Gamecube Component cable from a local used game store, and it didn't fit. sorry if anyone feels misled.

At $50 for a replacement cable, it would almost be worth upgrading to the DVI model (already have a DVI cable) once they come out in a few months, depending on the price. Hopefully IOData's new cable won't be that expensive.

Originally posted by RicardoD
Mikemav,

Yes, I got that email as well. Actually any network harddrive will work with the Linkplayer. One thing is for sure, getting a linkplayer just ends up driving your demand for more storage. I now suddenly understand the reason to buy a terrabyte network drive (I saw a post another AVSforum about a LaCie Terrabyte network drive composed of four 250GB drives which appears as a single drive a PC).

Ricardo

I think the cool thing is that this drive does not require a PC at all. I know if I have a PC with their server software running, I can network share the drives. But I did not know any old NAS would work with it....I thought that is what the Avel server software was for. Sounds like it is built into this NAS. The other nice thing is since it is an NAS, I can always access the files from other devices as well. With a USB 2 drive plugged directly into the Linkplayer, it is limited to use by Linkplayer only. This seems to be the best of both worlds. I can always plug more USB external storage into their new NAS to expand it. I already have a four-bay USB2/firewire case w/ 1 Terabyte of drives in it for media. It is now a network share to my PC, but the PC crashes more often than I want. With this new NAS, I would get an extra 250GB and the abilty to trash the HTPC entirely. Now if they could just figure out how to play .ifo files and add internet radio, I'd buy one for each of three rooms in my house!

Speaking if internet radio, I'd like to hear more from Bjorn to see how he got the Neuston up when others here can't. It would be great if we could use the Neuston's support of internet radio.

Thanks for the clarification Mikemav, I now understand the appeal of IODATAs Linkplayer ready network drives. Curious to see what the prices are.

My PC right now goes to sleep after an hour of no use, and I wonder if I turn on the network wake up feature in the BIOS whether the linkplayer will make it wake up up when my PC is sleeping.

Ricardo

Someone already mentioned getting a response from IODATA about having new cables available. Looks like they are coming soon.

Link (http://www.iodata.com/usa/products/AVLP2_SW.php)
Scroll to the bottom, and you'll see the following:

Cables (not available)
- D4 to Component Extend Cable
- D4 to Component Long Cable (1.5m)
- D4 to Component Long Cable (3.5m)

In Japan,I-O DATA called the UHDL hard discs--"LANDISK" which had been
marked for months. Even LANDISC,some need firmware upgrade to be compatible with AVLP2. Also,Someone had mentioned previously that he could not let AVLP2 recognizing his external hard drive or some portable USB drives. So,I think there will still have compatibility problems if you want to use non-IODATA products.

In Japan,the retail price for 300G LANDISC is 49800 in Japanese dolloar.
You probably can get it around 40000.

AVLP2 compatible USB 2.0 hard drive connecting to PC can show itself up automatically in the inital screen of AVLP2 once you started the PC.

I'd like to get one LANDISC as soon as possible.

It seemed that LANDISC can have WAKE ON LAN function.
Again it is in Japanese,so I'm not sure about WOL.

http://www.iodata.jp/prod/storage/hdd/2003/hdl-u/index.htm

Also,Someone had mentioned previously that he could not let AVLP2 recognizing his external hard drive or some portable USB drives. I have a Maxtor external hard drive plugged into the USB2 and linkplayer recognizes it without any problems. I am still going to get their 300GB UHDL when it is available. Then I will just plug the external hard drive into it.

http://home.comcast.net/~ricardo.david/avsforum/firmware.jpg

As summarized earlier by TUFU, the translation of the firmware page is:

Firmware Update System
-------------------------
The one you are using is the newest.
Click HERE(yellow) to continue.
-------------------------


---
Ricardo

I love the LANDISK idea, it is what I have been waiting for. However, I just got a Momitsu player last month. My wife would call me crazy if I switch it again. Also I need the DVI connection, so I will wait for the next model. It also gives me time to extend my home LAN to the living room. :D :D :D :D :D

Try to swap the DVD-ROM with Liteon 166S without success.

1.Liteon 166S hacked to region free and set to Master.

2.AVLP2 can correctly recognize Liteon 166S and its firmware version.

3. Region 1 and 3 discs are regarded as "BAD DISC REGION".

4. Region 2 discs can not play.

I'm not sure if this is more appealing to most of you but I have a 4 bay external firewire/usb 2.0 enclosure that I'm using for all my high-def stuff. With 4 300-gig drives in it you can have 1.2 terabytes of data in a smallish enclosure. I just connect over the network to the enclosure for all my stuff. You can swap drives in and out if you have more than 4. They have an 8 bay model as well

In case nobody noticed, you can set multiple "watch" folders in the server software so you could just list multiple hard drives and watch anything on any drive connected to your pc. I haven't tried it yet so I'm assuming that's the purpose. I'm not going to bother formatting any fat32 drives just to connect them directly to the Linkplayer.

The enclosure I have was $250 I think at cooldrives.com if anyone's interested. Additional trays for hard drives are a little pricey at $20 a piece but my employer pays for my stuff so it's not a big deal for me. The best thing is there are fans on the front of the trays that suck air through and keep the drives cool.

The network HD will be similar to the Buffalo:

http://www.buffalotech.com/products/product-detail.php?productid=86&categoryid=16

250GB about $320 in US

Originally posted by TUFU
Try to swap the DVD-ROM with Liteon 166S without success. Problems with Liteon drives have been reported on various forums...

Indeed, they would not work at all with the Sigma Xcard, until the "Jan04" driver/application software was released.

Do you ave any other DVD-ROM drives you can try?



Cheers

Originally posted by jakob1321
MB - You know, the DirecTV Tivo Series 2 have the same problem with certain recievers (like mine). It sends out the DD signal, but the reciever doesn't respond. As we figured out on the Tivo boards, seems to be an issue with the way the HDVR2 sends out the stream. I guess it isn't flagged correctly or something along those lines. That could be the issue here.

Oddly enough, the solution for most of us (until D* fixed it in the software) was to go buy one of the $6 toslink to coax converter boxes (not a cable, but an actual device) from Radio Shack. I ran it from coax and converted it to toslink into my receiver and never had a problem. You might try it - if it doesn't work, Radio Shack will always take the box back.

Thanks Jakob1321,

I remember reading all the posts on the TiVo boards with people having trouble with their amps as well, and figured I had found a player that was doing the same for me. I have an HD TiVo HR10-250 and works fine with the amp.

So, picked up the converter at radio shack, but it didn't clear up the problem. I will live with the decode on another machine, it works fine for now.

Thanks again for your advice

mb1010

Wake On Lan works great...

I setup the BIOS in my PC to Wake On Lan, so that when my PC is put in standby mode the Linkplayer2 can wake it up. In addition to enabling this feature in my PC BIOS I had to go to the device manager for my Ethernet Card and check in the advanced properties tab "enable this device to wake computer from standby"

In the Linkplayer2, when I select my PC, a "Wake On Lan" pop up window comes up telling you to wait a moment and then try again. Sure enough, it wakes my PC up, and then a few seconds later I am able to link to my PC.

Very nice... now I just need to add another 200GB SATA drive to my PC and then on to one of those 4 bay HD enclosures or new IODATA UHDL linkplayer ready network storage units.... does it ever end?


All the best,
Ricardo

Folks,
I have quick question .....
Is the player able to output component and composite or S-Video
at the same time ?
If not is there "blind" switch to do that ?

Thanks

Originally posted by lifeisfun
Folks,
I have quick question .....
Is the player able to output component and composite or S-Video
at the same time ?
If not is there "blind" switch to do that ?

Thanks

Only outputs at the same time if set for component 480i output. There is a "TV Mode" button on the remote to cycle through composite/S-video, 480i, 480p, 720p, and 1080i.

In case you haven't seen IO Data's update page for the US version, the firmware update is due on December 23rd, and will include, among other things, support for MPEG2 TS, WMA Pro 5.1 audio, Rhapsody Internet Radio, and Windows Media DRM for Network Devices.

On the server side, they say they are working on LinkServer for Linux, and that the "Advanced Server" for Windows, with real-time transcoding, is due early next year.

http://www.iodata.com/usa/products/AVLP2_SW.php

Originally posted by Cyclone
Only outputs at the same time if set for component 480i output. There is a "TV Mode" button on the remote to cycle through composite/S-video, 480i, 480p, 720p, and 1080i.

Thanks !

I recorded Arrested Development (if you haven't seen this show, run now, see it) on FOX last night to my DVHS machine, then I downloaded it via DVHS Tool to the PC using HDTVtoMPG (http://www.doom9.org/Soft21/DigiTV/HDTVtoMPEG2_1.11-Beta.zip) I edited out the commercials and created a MPG file to serve from the PC.

The file plays back perfectly on the AVel including the AC3 5.1 stream (if only I could get my amp to decode it correctly ;) )

mb1010

Hi All

Does anyone know whether IO is going to release a model with wireless and DVI for the US market anytime soon?

Thank You

USA DVI + WiFi version is going to be released in 2005, no firm dates have been provided by IODATA but 1st Quarter 2005 is the indication.

Ricardo

Monkeyboy,

what is the datarate of your mpeg2? 1080I 04 720P format?

I'm looking to get this player, but the compatable datarates for the player seem awefully low?

I'm finally getting around to trying some more DVD's and here's a few more observations I have:

When dealing with non-anamorphic material, with the display type set to 16:9, the letterbox image is displayed letterboxed in a 4:3 frame, ie, "window boxed" on a 16:9 display. The zoom modes only zoom in the 4:3 frame so it's impossible to zoom the entire picture to fill a 16:9 display. If you don't have a display that will zoom non-NTSC material then you're SOL.

The upconverted output actually looks pretty damn good on a CRT display. Even compared to the output of my FLI2300 equipped scaler the AvelLink's output looks pretty darn good.
However, it appears the Sigma Designs chip suffers from the CUE bug. The FLI2300 has some chroma problems too but they are usually corrected in the software of most devices that use it.

If I am understanding your problem (and I am not sure that I am), I had the window box problem at first using the "fit to screen" mode. When I changed it to "full screen" the problem was resolved.

Originally posted by ckarcher
Monkeyboy,

what is the datarate of your mpeg2? 1080I 04 720P format?

I'm looking to get this player, but the compatable datarates for the player seem awefully low?

Here is a screen grab of the property panel:

http://home.pacbell.net/r-perry/mpgspec.jpg

Watched the file with no problems, studders or hickups.

mb1010

Hello all,

I'm interested to know whether or not this player can detect PAR signalling, either within the AVI or MP4 container?

Can some of you guys try these encodes (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/seemoredigital/PAL_Anamorphic_Tests.zip) and report whether they work or not please?


Cheers

Installed mine last night!

Overall, its look promising. DVD playback DOES LOOK Great.
I do notice the 'softness" of the 1080i output.

I have a 4:3 Sony 36" XBR 800 TV (with anamorphic compression), and I haven't yet figured out what the "perfect" settings are. It seems if I set it up as 16:9 (which is what I do on other players) I get the wrong out-put for 4:3 content.

I installed the server, but I had lots of problems with my Server setup. I was only playing XVid files that I got off of bit-torrent. It took forever for files to start playing, and they would die quickly. Basically the whole performance sucked.

I was about to get depressed, when I remembered that it could play files off of a DVD-ROM disk. So I did a quick test burn to a DVD+RW disk with 3 xvid files in the root UDF directory. All 3 played great! No problems at all.

So I suspect that I have local network issues. I did reconfigure some stuff at the last minute. I think that one of my Cat5 cables in the house has some noise on it. Tonite I'm going to install the server on my laptop and remove the house network from the solution and I will see how it works.

I think what they should do is install a SMB Server software ON THE AVEL itself, so you can share out an external USB drive. That way I could copy files from the PC to the Avel over the network. That would work PERFECT and I wouldn't have to worry about slow network issues during playback. Also the ability to delete files from the USB drive would be nice (to delete after I have played them)

I haven't tried MP3 playback yet.
I watched 2 XVid HDTV feeds (Desperate Housewives, ReGenesis). Both looked quite nice and clearly in HD. (Although they have been reduced to half resolution by whomever encoded them).

More testing tonite. I can also download some of the test streams and try playing them.

The AVEL doesn't seem to have a good handling of network problems. It seems to just hang without any error message. Even a little "NETWORK ERROR" message on the LCD or the screen would be nice. It took me an hour to figure out it was my fault.

I still haven't even tried a Anamorphic DVD yet. I played Simpsons (4:3 source) and played it back in 480p. That looked very nice.

I notice that you CANNOT seem to change the resolution (1080i,720p, etc) on XVid source material. I could only change the resolution output on DVD-Video disks. Not sure what that's about.

Originally posted by SeeMoreDigital
Hello all,

I'm interested to know whether or not this player can detect PAR signalling, either within the AVI or MP4 container?

Can some of you guys try these encodes (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/seemoredigital/PAL_Anamorphic_Tests.zip) and report whether they work or not please?


Cheers

All 4 files seemed to play fine. When set for "full screen" mode, the video appeared to have the proper aspect ratio. I got an "unknown audio codec" message on the MP4 files, but the readme file indicated that those files didn't have audio. Also, the "pause" and "stop" buttons had no effect when playing back the MP4 files. I don't know if that was because the files were so short.

Anyone else hates the blue LED blasting lumens in stand-by mode ?
What the heck is that ?!:mad:

I am really interested in purchasing this player. I have a few questions:

1. For High Definition files (either WMV or TS), can you fast forward reasonably? I have a HTPC, and fast forwarding either does not work or works very poorly. It would be great if fast forward and rewind works correctly.

2. There is a message awhile back that there is a restriction of 4GB for files stored on DVD? Is this true? I have archived TS files to DVD. Some that I have segmented in multiple files and others that is a single 4.5G file that I join with HDTV2Mpeg program.

3. How does the player handle segmented files. Again, I have recorded HD content that are split into multiple segments. Can you create a playlist with all the segments in the movie and play it all at once? Or you have to select individual files to play?

4. How is the quality of HD content on the player compare with HTPC? What about stuttering?

TIA to anybody that can answer any of my questions.

Originally posted by Cyclone
All 4 files seemed to play fine. When set for "full screen" mode, the video appeared to have the proper aspect ratio. I got an "unknown audio codec" message on the MP4 files, but the readme file indicated that those files didn't have audio. Also, the "pause" and "stop" buttons had no effect when playing back the MP4 files. I don't know if that was because the files were so short. Thanks Cyclone,

You're correct. The encodes I posted a link to are very short and do not contain audio.

Could some of you guys try this XviD+AAC encode with DAR signalling in MP4 (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/seemoredigital/XviD+AAC+Subs.zip). It's around 50 seconds long, so it should give you time to play with the pause and stop buttons!

As a Sigma Xcard user, I can confirm DAR signalling in MP4 works perfectly.


Cheers

Is there way to to se info on file that is playing ?
Name, size, codec length, audio inf ?
This is very usefull ( I got this on my KiSS 508 - Sigma 8500 chipset)

The upconverted output actually looks pretty damn good on a CRT display. Even compared to the output of my FLI2300 equipped scaler the AvelLink's output looks pretty darn good.


Still not sure of this for DVD playback on a FP CRT system.

Would like to find out if the V880N video quality via its VGA (DVI using adaptor) is better then the video quality of the component video output of this player for DVD playback only of course. Most DVD playback will be over the network.

Lifeisfun,

No way that I know of to see file property information for what is playing.

SeeMoreDigital,

I tried downloading XviD+AAC encode with DAR signalling in MP4 but the link is bad.

Mishagray,

I haven't had any problems with network playback of my Xvid files. Downloaded some HD DivX and had no problem with that at all over the network as well.

Audio:
The two problems I have noted are now

1) No WMA Lossless support (though future firmware could take care of that).

2) the first 1/4 second or so of my WMA music files get skipped. Sound starts approx 1/4 second into the file, it is noticable with careful listening. This is when playing the files over my network. Exact same rip to max bit rate MP3 doesn't have this problem. My test case is Für Elise from the Charlie Brown Xmas Album, first piano note gets cut off.


Ricardo

Originally posted by uofmtiger
If I am understanding your problem (and I am not sure that I am), I had the window box problem at first using the "fit to screen" mode. When I changed it to "full screen" the problem was resolved.

No matter what setting I use I either have window-boxed output or horizontally stretched output. It's kind of strange because the zoom function still works, it just doesn't zoom the way it should, or at least the way you think it should.

Originally posted by monkeyboy1010
Here is a screen grab of the property panel:

Watched the file with no problems, studders or hickups.

mb1010

Isn't that about 1/4 the total HD file size should be?

Originally posted by RicardoD
SeeMoreDigital,

I tried downloading XviD+AAC encode with DAR signalling in MP4 but the link is bad. Sorry about that... it should be okay now!


Cheers

Originally posted by RicardoD
Lifeisfun,

No way that I know of to see file property information for what is playing.


Ricardo

I hope that this will be also added in the next firmware ( INFO button)
along with time search ( All this possible on other Sigma players)

Nifty!

I only stumbled on this thread and player news yesterday, searching for info on that Island Fever 3 DVD that supposed to be HD.

But I think I want one of these players. My main focus is making my own HD-DVD's from recordings since I have no faith Hollywood is ready to release many soon. So if any 720p or higher home made combination of Xvid or WM9 with any 5.1 audio can work I'd probably be pretty happy with it.

Any more up to date news on getting one cheaply and quickly?

- Tom

That D4 connector/cable puts out component YPbPr, right? Not RGB?

- Tom

The D4 connector outputs component video.

As far as cheaply and quickly, I-O Data's website is the only place to order it so the price is the price. They usually ship next business day so you can get it pretty quickly.

SeeMoreDigital,

What is DAR signaling?

I did a quick test before going to work and the video and audio of your test file play fine.

All the best,
Ricardo

What is DAR signaling?

Display Aspect Ratio as opposed to Pixel Aspect Ratio (PAR)

Aw, heck. I still have a zillion questions even after skimming this thread. But this looked good enough it was maybe justified to buy the darn thing and then figure out what works and what doesn't. So I just now ordered one from the iodata site.

But I will ask one thing here. It looks like my HDTV encodings will have to be in AVI files, no more than 2 or 4 GB each. Anyone know if there is a way like DVD's to master multiple files together such that they can all be played smoothly as one by this player? HDTV movies will end up making multiple files, too big otherwise.

- Tom

Anyone doing wifi yet? If so, what adaptor are you having success with? Or is there anything mentioned in the manual?

I'm mainly interested in streaming slide shows & music, so I think a G adaptor should be fine here.

SeeMoreDigital,

So was the DAR Xvid file a test to see if it played or more a test of how the apect ratio was handled?

I will have to try it again on my 16:9 projector and pay attention o the aspect ratio. My test this morning was on my 4:3 TV and I am not sure what Zoom setting I had on the player. I have my Linkplayer2 hooked up to both a 4:3 TV and my 16:9 projector, via a component to VGA transcoder with two VGA outputs.

Ricardo

Originally posted by trbarry
Aw, heck. I still have a zillion questions even after skimming this thread. But this looked good enough it was maybe justified to buy the darn thing and then figure out what works and what doesn't. So I just now ordered one from the iodata site.

But I will ask one thing here. It looks like my HDTV encodings will have to be in AVI files, no more than 2 or 4 GB each. Anyone know if there is a way like DVD's to master multiple files together such that they can all be played smoothly as one by this player? HDTV movies will end up making multiple files, too big otherwise.

- Tom

HDTV encodes don't have to be in the avi container. The player will play ts streams and mpeg2 files.

Originally posted by RicardoD
SeeMoreDigital,

So was the DAR Xvid file a test to see if it played or more a test of how the apect ratio was handled?

I will have to try it again on my 16:9 projector and pay attention o the aspect ratio. My test this morning was on my 4:3 TV and I am not sure what Zoom setting I had on the player. I have my Linkplayer2 hooked up to both a 4:3 TV and my 16:9 projector, via a component to VGA transcoder with two VGA outputs. An encode with PAR or DAR signalling (in MP4) should behave/act in exactly the same way as an Mpeg2/DVD stream does...

So as long as your player is set-up to correctly display "wide-screen anamorphic" DVD's, my Mpeg4+AAC in MP4 encode should work without you having to fiddle with your players settings.


Cheers

Fit to screen showed those clips as 4:3 letterboxed on mine

I've had mine for a couple of days now. I have been too busy playing to post :)

Praise
This thing plays everything. Literally. Well almost. I do have a couple of NASA clips that freeze after a few seconds and 1 wmv clip that has some lovely purple all over the picture. Overall though DivX, XviD, mpeg1, mpeg2, wmv, wmv9 and ts all played well. It does handle glitches in ts streams better than my HTPC does. I finally get my game machine back from HTPC duty.

WAF. Much easier on the eyes and ears than my computer in the living room

UI. Simple, even my 10yr old has figured out how to use it already.

Upconverting DVD. The only disc I have checked out so far has been Chronicles of Riddick. One word. Awesome.

Software. Install went fine. Didn't read the manual but managed to figure out how to get everything setup anyway.

Setup. Plug and play, literally. I plugged it in to my network and it addded my server automatically.

Complaints

The picture is soft with the included cable, or maybe not soft but noisy. I haven't decided if I am going to get the JVC cable or wait to see what I-O Data has to offer. In any case there really isn't THAT much to complain about in the PQ department. I only notice it on HD material, DVD looks better than my old RCA junk DVD player.

Blinding blue power LED, still working on a good fix for this.

Occasionally get no audio using network files. Stopping and restarting seems to cure it. Seems to be time dependant, if you wait a second or two before selecting the title after highlighting it seems to have a better success rate.

Occasional stutters and audio dropouts, mostly with .ts files. Should be able to be fixed with a firmware upgrade though.

Server software does not allow specific network adapter binding. My server was available to the world over my internet connection since my server is directly connected to the net for work reasons. Most folks are behind a router so this should not be an issue for them. On the plus side if you had a fast enough 'Net connection you could stream to your friends.

Mutliple files take too long to play the next file. There is a fairly long delay between the end of the first file and the beginning of the next, I am not sure this can be cured with a firmware update but maybe. For now I am just joining all my multipart files together. For an MP3 playlist though there really isn't an option unless you want to make your own mixes.

Only 9 files or folders listed per page in the server browser even when the UI is in HD mode. Moving to 2 columns would help.



All in all I really don't have many complaints about this player. Compared to the cost of the computer I was using it is a bargain. While it does not handle everything quite as well as my HTPC it does handle some things better and most things about the same or better. I do believe that most of the flaws in this player will get worked out with firmware and software updates over the coming months. I am very happy with my AVLP2. I may even get the DVI version when it is released and retire this one to the bedroom.

Originally posted by SeeMoreDigital
An encode with PAR or DAR signalling (in MP4) should behave/act in exactly the same way as an Mpeg2/DVD stream does...

So as long as your player is set-up to correctly display "wide-screen anamorphic" DVD's, my Mpeg4+AAC in MP4 encode should work without you having to fiddle with your players settings.


Cheers

Worked fine on my player

Originally posted by monkeyboy1010
Worked fine on my player Nice one :D


Many thanks

Okay. I replaced the "bad" network connection with an emergency 802.11g feed (disabled the 100baseT). Now my network works great!

It seems that on XVid content, that the FIRST time I hit FF, it does some sort of "scanning" on the media. Overall FF/RW on XVid is less than satisfying.

Originally posted by irgaac
I've had mine for a couple of days now. I have been too busy playing to post :)

....

Server software does not allow specific network adapter binding. My server was available to the world over my internet connection since my server is directly connected to the net for work reasons. Most folks are behind a router so this should not be an issue for them. On the plus side if you had a fast enough 'Net connection you could stream to your friends.
...



YOU CAN do this if you are using the firewall with XP with SP2.

Go. Control Panel.. Windows Firewalll... Exceptions..

Select AvelLink server and hit EDIT button.
Hit Change Scope button,

Change "Any computer" to "My Network".


Viola. The firewall will now restrict access to the local network!

Originally posted by mishagray

It seems that on XVid content, that the FIRST time I hit FF, it does some sort of "scanning" on the media. Overall FF/RW on XVid is less than satisfying.



I must agree FF/RW on XVid sucks :(

Can someone help me test the following files. I want confirmation that WMA files audio output begins 1 second or so into the file.


Test MP3 file: (http://home.comcast.net/~ricardo.david/avsforum/test-lame-mp3.mp3) Should play fine (use as reference)

Test WMA File: (http://home.comcast.net/~ricardo.david/avsforum/test-wma-1.wma) Exact same encode as MP3 file

On my system when playing over the network the first second or so of the WMA file gets chopped off. I clearly hear the intro piano notes missing. This seems to be regardless of the bitrate of the WMA encode.

All the best,
Ricardo

On my system when playing over the network the first second or so of the WMA file gets chopped off. I clearly hear the intro piano notes missing I tested your file and had the same problem.

Your test files played well in my system without inital sound chopped off.

Originally posted by irgaac

--
Mutliple files take too long to play the next file. There is a fairly long delay between the end of the first file and the beginning of the next, I am not sure this can be cured with a firmware update but maybe. For now I am just joining all my multipart files together. For an MP3 playlist though there really isn't an option unless you want to make your own mixes.
--
[/B]

I had put several 720p mpg files with various encoding(divx,3ivx,wm9 etc)
in a same directory and played well with only 2-3 seconds delay between each files. So,if the problem occurred commonly in US model ,then I think a firmware or software upgrade in the future will solve this problem.

Originally posted by RicardoD
Can someone help me test the following files. I want confirmation that WMA files audio output begins 1 second or so into the file.
There is no chopping of music on my player as well. Probably Japanese version doesn't have this issue.

Thank you for testing my files. I hope the Dec. 23 firmware update in the USA corrects this problem.

All the best,
Ricardo

I am really looking forward to the update. I am curious to find out if I will need to have my computer on to access Rhapsody or if the UHLD series will have a way to connect to Rhapsody without computer access.

Does this player convert commercial Region 1 DVDs to 720p and/or 1080i over the D4/Component cable?

I checked out the user manual PDF and saw ACC support and a screenshot of an iTunes folder. Could my iTunes music be streamed through this player from my computer?

Thanks in advanced for any input.

This was asked before, but I haven't seen an answer. How well does it handle fast-forwarding through ts files?
Also, is there any sort of 30-second skip feature or anything?

Originally posted by Wesley Hester
Does this player convert commercial Region 1 DVDs to 720p and/or 1080i over the D4/Component cable?

I checked out the user manual PDF and saw ACC support and a screenshot of an iTunes folder. Could my iTunes music be streamed through this player from my computer?

Thanks in advanced for any input.

Yes. Region 1 DVDs play fine at 720p and 1080i. Its probably what this player does best.

iTunes itself is not streamed. However the server software seems capable of reading a local iTunes database (or maybe it uses a quicktime/itunes interface) and it streams those files directly. That's pretty nice for iTunes users.

I don't know DRM AAC support...

However I do think that music navigator on the DVD player could be nicer. It took my too long to scroll down to an artist at the end of the alphabet.

mishagray, thanks for the feedback. I've been trying to read more of this thread and I unfortunately saw that this player has the CUE.

Everyone, Does this player have the CUE (Chroma Upsampling Error)? That would be a deal-breaker for me. I can get $100 players with good 480p without the CUE (of course, they don't have this player's other great features).

I don't have the same version of TS to compare to but on the one I do have I do not see the banding in the logo that they show on the secrets site. If you can give me some other tests to perform to verify for sure I would be happy to do them.

Originally posted by Jeraden
This was asked before, but I haven't seen an answer. How well does it handle fast-forwarding through ts files?
Also, is there any sort of 30-second skip feature or anything?

All buttons with serach function had been invalid during playing TS files except "slow backward" button which sometimes showed "slow 2x, 4x ---32x" in the screen but actually it played FORWARD slowly at 2x ---32x. But mostly,when I pressed "slow backward" button,the files stopped and jump back to file lists menu.
All of the mpg files converted from TS files with HDTVTOMPEG2 can play well with forward and backward functions either fast or slow.

Has anyone tried playing a divx/xvid file that is at movie lengths ie. 90 minutes and upward?

It seems that a lot of people have been testing with sample clips where sync issues don't come into play.

I know with the Philips DVP 642 this has been a major issue whereby most divx/xvid encoded to specification still have drifting/sync problems.

irgaac- What size ts files did you use on a DVDr? Was the picture better via the player or your computer?

Originally posted by cage

I know with the Philips DVP 642 this has been a major issue whereby most divx/xvid encoded to specification still have drifting/sync problems.

New firmware for the DVP642 out today

Originally posted by Spizz
irgaac- What size ts files did you use on a DVDr? Was the picture better via the player or your computer?

I played it over the network using the shortcut trick. They were about the same, maybe a little softer on the player than my computer.

Are you using a USB drive? If so which one?

No, I am using the included server software running on a couple machines on my network.

I haven't seen any post about this so I just thought I would throw out some random info about using the OSX version(s) of the software.

It works pretty much the same as the PC version, the AVeL interface is the same on the Mac as on the PC.

The Mac version seems to have trouble with a large collection of MP3/MP4, I have yet to get the music part to work on the Mac side. On that note, I have noticed on the PC side it won't load more that 5000 songs, I would imagine that limitation is built in to the software side and not the hardware side.

The Neuston Media Centre (http://www.neuston.com/en/mc500download_mac.asp) for OSX works, unlike the PC version.

It has web support enabled. So you can get RSS feeds, internet radio, ect.

In fact I use it over the AVeL server, the graphics look SOOOO much better (plus the web support).

Which brings me to improving the artwork & interface, we need some folks to start creating some nice themes and what not. The interface for the AVeL/Neuston software is HTML based, so there is plenty of room for hacking the interface.

my .02 worth

mb1010

Originally posted by monkeyboy1010


The Neuston Media Centre (http://www.neuston.com/en/mc500download_mac.asp) for OSX works, unlike the PC version.

It has web support enabled. So you can get RSS feeds, internet radio, ect.

In fact I use it over the AVeL server, the graphics look SOOOO much better (plus the web support).

mb1010

Awesome news! I have wanted to get this player if internet radio would work. Does it sync w/ mac iTunes? Does it use the iTunes internet radio stations (or how do you populate the list of internet radio shown on the I-O player?) iTunes playlists? I assume I could still have my movies folder on my PC- I would just need to run two instances of the server, or have my mac share a network drive from the PC for the movie folder, right? Since I am a Mac & PC household (Mac for websurfing & music, PC for movie server), this would be the best of both worlds. For web browsing, does it somehow find your Safari bookmarks? How about photos- I assume it uses your iPhoto library?

Originally posted by irgaac
I've had mine for a couple of days now. I have been too busy playing to post :)

Praise

Upconverting DVD. The only disc I have checked out so far has been Chronicles of Riddick. One word. Awesome.

Complaints

The picture is soft with the included cable, or maybe not soft but noisy. I haven't decided if I am going to get the JVC cable or wait to see what I-O Data has to offer. In any case there really isn't THAT much to complain about in the PQ department. I only notice it on HD material, DVD looks better than my old RCA junk DVD player.



Not sure how to read this? So does Upconverted DVD look as good as a HTPC and HD content looks soft or does everything look soft?

In addition to the Mac questions I asked a few minutes ago, I wonder if any of the early adopters have a MyHD card to compare this to? I use MyHD now for upconverting DVD rips & discs to 720p via HTPC, and it looks very nice. Also for playback of HD .ts or .mpg files. Be curious how PQ compare on the I-O to MyHD.

MIKEMAV -
The LinkPlayer will play Internet Radio. I'm running a Win PC running their server software, just drag any iTunes Radio station into a playlist. Then you can select them from the player. They will take a while to start playing, i'm assuming it does quite a bit of buffering first.

Also, to ALL-
If you haven't checked out the I-O Data, USA site lately, they posted the details to their new UDHL series NAS drives. Looks like those are getting ready for sale, very cool.

Kurt :cool:

Originally posted by A/Vspec
Not sure how to read this? So does Upconverted DVD look as good as a HTPC and HD content looks soft or does everything look soft?

I used a cheap dvd player for playing DVD before and just used the HTPC for recording and playback of HD stuff. HD looks a little soft, nothing major, in fact I hardly notice it at all. It may even just be the difference between the DVI connection I have from my cable box and the component connection on my TV. I have a feeling that a cable replacement would take care of most of the HD part of it if not all. Tom needs to chime in here since he is the only one I know of so far that has a different cable available.

Upconverted DVD looks awesome, I don't know how it compares to HTPC playback though since it was a pain to swap the DVI cable between the cable box and the HTPC everytime I wanted to watch something on the HTPC, that's why DVD chores were handled by an existing cheapie DVD player.

I did some more testing this evening, as far as I can tell this player does not suffer from CUE. Finding Nemo looked so good upconverted to 1080i that the first shark appearance scared both my wife and my son. They both commented that it looked real. I also got rid of all the audio stutter
by changing the sound output to stereo only. I am hoping the next firmware update will improve this as the Japanese version does not seem to have this problem.

The reason I jumped on this player pretty much sight unseen was I needed to replace the HTPC and didn't want to have to burn a bajillion discs. I needed a new DVD player anyway so I was just waiting for a decent network player to come out. This one fills all my needs and at a decent price compared to what it replaced. bottom line is for $250 I don't have to mess with anything anymore, DVD looks fanatastic, no one else in the house sees the difference in PQ on the HD side and I don't have to be there for my family to be able to figure out how to work the thing. I am not a videophile nor an audiophile so my PQ observations may need to be taken with a grain of salt but DVD has never looked better on my 50v500 and nothing about the HD picture makes me want to drag my PC back into the living room. If you are the type of person that spent a couple grand on a dedicated HTPC and then hours and hours tweaking FFDSHOW to get the penultimate PQ then this player is probably not for you. If on the other hand you just want to be able to plug something in and have it work out of the box then it has a lot to recommend it

Originally posted by Paul_PDX
IOData owners with a USB2 drive attached to your AvelLinkPlayer--

Could one of you who has an XP PC on your network open a dos box (CMD)
and run the following command?

net view \\n.n.n.n

where n.n.n.n is the IP address of your IODATA.

Does anything show up???

Did you ever get a reply here?

I noticed some of the network diagrams on the IO-DATA website for this unit showed their NAS unit hanging off the router, WITH the IO-DATA media player in the picture.. Does this unit support access to TRUE NAS equipement? Or is the rumor about using Ximeta-only NAS units true?

I ask this beacsue I have a TRUE IP based NAS 200GB unit on my LAN from Tritton tech.

http://www.trittontechnologies.com/products/TRINAS200.html

F.

I tried to use the player with NEC LT240K ( 4:3 native 16:9 compatible) projector and here is my problem :

Player set to 480p NEC 4:3 - decent picture
Player set to 720p or 1080i NEC 16:9 and the picture seems to be out of focus or smeared ( incl text in menus) :(

I'm using component cable

Any idea why ?

Thanks

I just tried OpenShowCenter, an open source media server program. I tried it on Linux, but it works on any platform that supports Apache/PHP.

Worked good as a replacement for the AVeL Link Server . Besides video/music/photos, it also supports Shoutcast internet radio streams and some web browsing. Even though I only had it running on a 200Mhz Pentium 1, it served up HDTV TS and Divx HD files with no problem (I just had to add .ts and .wmv to the list of supported video formats in the config files).

http://openshowcenter.sourceforge.net/

irgaac, thanks for the CUE input. Anyone else see any CUE with films like Nemo (would be obvious on Nemo and Dad fish)? I only bring it up because of an earlier post in this thread. May get this player next Tuesday if it doesn't have the CUE.

Don't know if this will help anyone, but... it only updates the Music folders when you stop/restart the server software. I never reboot my machine, so this has come into play a few times. Anyway, if you look next to the folders, there are index numbers. If you have a favorite artist that's at the end of the list, just punch in the index number when you're at the list and it will go into that folder.

Really wish they'd fix the browse screen (more columns in HD mode, the ability to go "backward" from the first page, that kind of thing), but this is a quick solution.

Originally posted by mikemav
Awesome news! I have wanted to get this player if internet radio would work. Does it sync w/ mac iTunes? Does it use the iTunes internet radio stations (or how do you populate the list of internet radio shown on the I-O player?) iTunes playlists? I assume I could still have my movies folder on my PC- I would just need to run two instances of the server, or have my mac share a network drive from the PC for the movie folder, right? Since I am a Mac & PC household (Mac for websurfing & music, PC for movie server), this would be the best of both worlds. For web browsing, does it somehow find your Safari bookmarks? How about photos- I assume it uses your iPhoto library?

Mikemav,

Yes, it syncs with Mac iTunes, it uses iTunes Radio stations, it uses iTunes playlists, you can use the Movies folder on the Mac if you wish. I run two instances of the server, one is the AVeL on the PC for most of my video content, and the Mac has Neuston running for music and web. After my last post I FINALLY was patient enough to let the music folder populate on the Neuston server, it works very well, i like the default use of my iPhoto for slide show during music playback.

Web browsing is done with safari bookmarks plus it uses some preloaded links and also RSS feeds.

I want to find some content on the web that I can go to that the browser will allow to play through. Quicktime is not recognized...I wish/hope it will be in the future. It would be nice to go the trailers page at Apple and watch the content from there.

mb1010

C:\net view
Server Name Remark

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
\\VAIO-1 Living Room Sony
\\VAIO-2 Bedroom Sony
The command completed successfully.



C:\net use \\192.168.1.3 ( avplayer IP address )
System error 53 has occurred.

The network path was not found.


C:\ping 192.168.1.3

Pinging 192.168.1.3 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.1.3: bytes=32 time=6ms TTL=254
Reply from 192.168.1.3: bytes=32 time=5ms TTL=254
Reply from 192.168.1.3: bytes=32 time=9ms TTL=254
Reply from 192.168.1.3: bytes=32 time=9ms TTL=254


I have 2 USB drives one XIMETA 160 which has a linux ext2 partition and a fat32 with 80G of 340 kbs mp3's . It works fine with the player even though the supported bitrate is lower ( I don't know if it downconverts the audio or if it supports the higher bitrate )

The 2nd drive is an ACOM. The player sees it but can not browse it as it is formatted with one linux ext2 and one NTFS partition. Hopefully a firmware update will allow NTFS as HD movies from my HD Tivo and HDwonder card are larger than FAT32 can support :( The player correctly identifies the vendor and type of drive it just can't read the NTFS partition or the Linux partition.

Also just for grins I did a port scan of the player IP address and could not find ANY ports open !
Snoots

Thanks for the feedback irgaac. I may just have to pick one up and compare it to my HTPC. I do not do all the tweaking with FFDSHOW (not that I can't, just to lazy;)) and only use a Radeon 7200 card and WinDVD but I do like playing back all my DVD collection from a server in the basement and would like a player that would let me do that with relative ease and still let me just drop in a rental DVD in the player and scale it to my Barco Projector using 720P though as I can see scan lines with 1080i Hi-Def material on my 106" screen (eyes sensitive to artifacts).

Also I would like to stream my music collection from my server in the basement to my Halo C2 so is this machine does that also that would be fantastic.

I wonder if this machine can be taken apart and modified with regular RCA jacks for the component video to help with the video? Anyone look inside this thing yet to see if that is easily done?

Mark-

Not yet but I was thinking the exact same thing.

If you guys are having trouble seeing chroma problems on Finding Nemo, check out the Etch-a-Sketches and red outfits at the beginning of Elf.

Darn. I did not order this to be an audio player so I never even considered the issue. But I recently re-ripped all my CD's to the open source FLAC lossless format.

It would be nice if they could add support for that.

- Tom (still just watching Fedex tracking #'s)

I wonder what the likelihood is of this player supporting network ifo files.

FedEx was late so didn't get mine until day after Thanksgiving :(.
Anyway nice looking player in my closet. Not that ill ever see it on the second floor.

I used the cable that came with my Video Card to hook up the player as beaten to death before the supplied cable is too short.

Player is hooked up to Zektor (http://www.zektor.com/hds4/index.htm) component switch which is hooked up to a Denon 3802 receiver. component to the Panny 5 series 50" plasma.

Player is hooked up to Ethernet via supplied cable to a linksys 10/100/1000 switch all Servers and PC's cat6 straight to the closet.

DVD's plays nice quality is excellent at 1080I to the screen, company yesterday was blown away by some of the scenes.

For some in the house it was the first time seeing HD stuff, and others it was the first time seeing a plasma :D

Network file playback is also excellent with out a studder when files play properly. Ive had some issues with a few ripped DVD's that my media pc plays fine.

Nemo was ripped using DVD shrink all crap was ripped out of the movie the only thing there is the AC3 sound track. File is 3.55 gigs ripped as 1 .vob so some compression may be there i don't remember.

As the movie approaches the layer change i believe this is one of the fish tank scenes I lose audio completely. if i stop the movie re start it and FF past the point the audio works fine (i think) if i go back a bit and play the layer change section audio is gone again.
I will have to play with this some more to be sure what is happening.

Toy Story 1 played fine only what seemed like a 3 min fast forward some time during the movie. Ripped as above.

Toy Story 2 audio went garbled after 3 mins movie is ripped the same way as above.
will have to check again.

Incubus ripped dvd as 3 vob's played perfectly.

Music played fine from what little i played with it. Since I have a Audiotron music isnt all that important to me. Now for my clients on the other hand...
The interface needs some work. Will this player only play up to 192k mp3's? I have many that are higher, around 8000 songs. I will have to play with this some more.

Pictures are an issue for me as i couldn't get many to stream. Im guessing it has something to due with the size of my photos. Pictures from an older Olympus camera (1.4 megapixel??) streamed and quality was ok to good.
Picts from my Minolta Dimage 7hi wont show up on the screen at all slide shows are black with no indication that the player is even doing anything. There is also a sync issue with the component switch. It clicks away for a second before the avel screen shows up and does the same as it tries to display the first image, then all is fine. But it does this every time.

Webboy

PS watching Day After Tomorrow right now downloaded of the net as 1 gig vob files total size 4.36 gigs.

Originally posted by trbarry
... But I recently re-ripped all my CD's to the open source FLAC lossless format. Hi Tom....

So this the place where you spend most of your forum time then :D

Adding some form of "open source" lossless format support would certainly be a plus...

That said, as this player supports the MP4 container, I wonder if Apple's lossless audio format might ever make it into this player... even though it's not open source!


Cheers

webboy10169

I played my 320kbs MP3's from the "My Music" folder on an external USB Fat32 drive with no problems. I doubt if the player converts them so my guess is the spec's are not 100% accurate.

Originally posted by snoots
webboy10169

I played my 320kbs MP3's from the "My Music" folder on an external USB Fat32 drive with no problems. I doubt if the player converts them so my guess is the spec's are not 100% accurate.
Cool i'll have to try them.

Day after tomorrow seems to be playing fine. I thought i heard a pause as it changed vob files not sure thought.

Does it do this? Anyone??

ripping xmen widescreen dts version right now...

Hi Tom....

So this the place where you spend most of your forum time then

Adding some form of "open source" lossless format support would certainly be a plus...

CMoreD -

Yep, more time on AVS now. I'm afraid to go to Doom9 and have folks there expect me to find the time to fix bugs in all my filters. ;)

I'd certainly love Linkplayer support for ANY lossless format since it is simple (and lossless) to convert between them all. But I'd really prefer FLAC if I had the choice.

Apple's lossless is proprietary, not AAC based, right?

In any event, playing audio on this beast is not my top priority.

- Tom

But I'd really prefer FLAC if I had the choice.I would love to see this added, too. Right now, FLAC files do not show up in the music directory. It will play lossless wav files if you have that kind of space on your hard drive. I tested a couple Ogg files and they seem to play well, too. I did have the first few seconds skip like I did on the WMA files. I did not test it again, so this could have been a hiccup in my network.Im guessing it has something to due with the size of my photos.The machine is very picky about playing files beyond it's size limitation. Be careful if you resize them because the size limitation from the network (2048x1532) is larger than the size it allows from a USB hard drive plugged into the front of it or a DVD (1600x1200).

I had a problem with Nemo. It occurred during the explosion seen and it skipped the video past the next seen. I could rewind and see the scene (the pelican water bubble scene), but when I played it , it skipped over it every time. The audio also experienced a glitch that needed to be FFW through to get it back on track,

Originally posted by webboy10169
Day after tomorrow seems to be playing fine. I thought i heard a pause as it changed vob files not sure thought.


A slight pause? When I played some ripped VOB's when the end of one file was reached it jumped back into the menu and I had to select the next VOB manually. How did you rip your files? File mode, IFO mode?

Originally posted by gtrogue
A slight pause? When I played some ripped VOB's when the end of one file was reached it jumped back into the menu and I had to select the next VOB manually. How did you rip your files? File mode, IFO mode?

Did you select play all in that folder?

All movies are being ripped using DVDShrink in 1 gig chunks (no crap, no compression, AC3 or DTS sound tracks only) stored to the network( i have a terabyte in the house/office)

I ripped XMEN (which im watching now), XMEN2, and Spiderman so far today.

Day after tomorrow i didnt rip (downloaded it).

Issues i was seeing with disney movies were ripped months ago i plan on re ripping these and possibility all my movies again judging on the outcome after viewing XMEN.

Anyway to attach this thing to a nas device namely a Snap 4100?? Anyone?

Ok there was a slight pause between VOB files and a screen that said now playing 2 of 6. :(

This is no good... Can this be suppressed? Or at this point should i just rip all my stuff as 1 file?

actualy thats no good either as no chapter marks are available there would be no way of jumping to a specific point in a movie.

Ripping as individual chapters would create this pause in between every file thats at least 30 times a movie. not good either.

How are people ripping their Movies?

I dont feel like rereading this entire thread.

Originally posted by trbarry
Apple's lossless is proprietary, not AAC based, right? Yes...

From what I understand, it's virtually the same as Apples other lossless format, except it's muxed into MP4... as a private stream.


Cheers

Originally posted by snoots

The player correctly identifies the vendor and type of drive it just can't read the NTFS partition or the Linux partition.

Snoots [/B]

Any luck seeing ethernet NAS units off a router from the IO-DATA unit (not USB connected units). ?

F.

I will set the switches on my Ximeta drive and try it later. I'm working on a TIVO drive now.

Any one using a movie download service? can these files be played using this player?

flamaest

Turned on the network side of my NDAS drive. Both of my XP machines immediatly saw the drive, never could get the player to see the disk. I'm not sure what mechanicsm the player is using to access network resources.

Originally posted by snoots
flamaest

Turned on the network side of my NDAS drive. Both of my XP machines immediatly saw the drive, never could get the player to see the disk. I'm not sure what mechanicsm the player is using to access network resources.

This is very interesting.. Would like to contact you offline to dicuss.

My understanding of the Ximeta drive is that it's not a true NAS drive, since it requires propriatary software on the target system/s to be accessed.

NAS Devices such as:

-Tritton TRI-NAS200
-Guslink OC-NAS-80G and
-SNAP NAS products

and others use standard routing protocols (inc UPnP) to share data through the LAN.. You mentioend that you have another NAS drive? ALCO or something? How did accessing that drive workout through the network?

My main issue with most Media Players these days is the lack of NAS access capability. Hopefully the IO-DATA unit can-or-will deliver.. :)

The only MP I have seen state that it can use a networked NAS, without a computer is the MediaGate (MG-100):

http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/archives/000442.php

Thanks,
Fabian.

For some unknown reason my player Can't nolonger
FWD and REV DivX/Xvid files :( I get only message INVALID

Anyone else with the same problem ?

I think server software is gonna be a fact of live...even though I hate the idea, especially if its being provided by a consumer electronics company who may not have its heart in developing / supporting software. But at least it looks like the uPnP software will help break the proprietary hardware/software solutions. And it does look like there will be more NAS devices with built-in software.

I had been hanging out in the Digital Audio & Photo Servers forum looking for a music / digi-picture appliance....there looks to be alot of uPnP software in development (including Microsofts' dumbed-down, version 1 freebie), so I'm hopeful things catch up, as right now I think the hardware is ahead of the software. :(

Anybody have the new Harry Potter DVD? My player just freaked right out playing the extras disc.

I have Windows XP Home and I am able to listen to music on my Linksever when I choose "scan for song information". However, I have now checked the "use Itunes as the default directory" and I get a "Please wait" message on my Linkserver. Any ideas why? I have had the unit connected for at least an hour. I have a little over 18,000 songs in my Itunes library.

Originally posted by gtrogue
A slight pause? When I played some ripped VOB's when the end of one file was reached it jumped back into the menu and I had to select the next VOB manually. How did you rip your files? File mode, IFO mode?

From the menu, instead of pressing the "Enter" button in the center, press the "Play/Pause" button. It should play the vobs in sequence.

Ironic when playing WMV-HD 720p files, the picture is sharper and more detailed when AVLP2 is outputting as 1080i.

FYI

Not ironic, technicaly explained by by your deinterlacer scaler combination to be somewhat not so sharply working from source to your display?

Originally posted by lifeisfun
I tried to use the player with NEC LT240K ( 4:3 native 16:9 compatible) projector and here is my problem :

Player set to 480p NEC 4:3 - decent picture
Player set to 720p or 1080i NEC 16:9 and the picture seems to be out of focus or smeared ( incl text in menus) :(

I'm using component cable

Any idea why ?

Thanks

I had waited for someone owning AVLP2 and PJ to answer your questions.
I also had read your thread in Digital Display.
But, it seemed that there were no responses yet.

I'll tried my best to share my experiences( I used component output rarely either in AVLP2 or V880).

I only tested and compared the screen in "setup menu" with different resolution of component.

My projector is Mitsubishi D1208 (1024X768 masked to 1024x576) with a
110" screen.

Yes, I can see the picture seemed a little blurred in 720p/1080i comparing to 480p. The picture in 480p seemed most stable and sharp. Maybe it was what you described " out of focus or smeared".
Same things happened with DVI 480p VS 720p/1080i .
But the differences in DVI seemed very subtle comparing to the difference in component.

Actually,this phenomenon did not surprise me because I had seen same things in V880. In V880,the picture in1080i(not 720p)(either from component or DVI) seemed blurred,even worse was the subtitle in movies became blurred and shadowed. I had used custom resolution in V880 and set it to 1024x576,but I still can not see any differences to 480p. In v880,I mostly used 480p or 720p to see movies .

I guess my PJ scaled every signals sent to it and my PJ had a better scaling
than DVD player's. Other PJs may do different so the conclusions may also be different.

I didn't test and compare the films in 720p or 1080i such as WMVHD or TS files. Just like Tom said WMVHD 720p files are sharper in picture outputing as 1080i.

As you know TUFU component out on V880 was soft, the new V880DX or N are fixed and now are a lot better.

I wonder what cabling you use, component, what length? For me 3 foot/1meter gives better performance than 30 foot/10meter , sometimes this is overlooked? (not taken into account?)

I tried short VGA connection on V880 (the old one) and picture was the best ever, very sharp on detailed testing patterns. Then a 5 meter HQ VGA washed it out again..

All we need is a ceiling mount for our dvd players :)

Originally posted by Tom Roper
From the menu, instead of pressing the "Enter" button in the center, press the "Play/Pause" button. It should play the vobs in sequence.

With or without the pause inbetween vob files?

Originally posted by webboy10169
With or without the pause inbetween vob files?

Not without pause. In fact, worse because it reverts back to the menu briefly.

Playing 1 of 4

Playing 2 of 4

etc.

I mentioned before that native 720p WMV-HD played back sharper, with more detail when output as 1080i....a few points about that.

1.) My monitor is native 720p, and thus re-scales the AVLP2 1080i back to 720p.

2.) The monitor seems to do that more effectively than the AVLP2 handles 720p natively, which it appears it actually doesn't. Seems as if 720p is going through the AVLP2 scaler, even when outputting 720p.

3.) The AVLP2 menu when output at 1080i to the 720p native monitor, is less sharp and detailed than when output at 720p, but the source file itself is better at 1080i. Strange, but true in my case...

That is all very strange, but possibly good news for me feeding a 1080i RPTV.
(but mine is still in transit)

- Tom

Originally posted by Tom Roper
Not without pause. In fact, worse because it reverts back to the menu briefly.

Playing 1 of 4

Playing 2 of 4

etc.

So in fact right now it seems that the only way is to rip all dvd's as 1 big vob file. The draw back is no way to jump forward in a movie just to fast foward.

This needs to be fixed.

Originally posted by webboy10169
So in fact right now it seems that the only way is to rip all dvd's as 1 big vob file. The draw back is no way to jump forward in a movie just to fast foward.

This needs to be fixed.

And, IIRC, isn't there a file size limit as well? Will it play back a 5-8GB single VOB from the network? Or is that limitation only with directly connected USB drives? Either way, it still needs to be fixed. I have about 50 movies ripped with multiple VOBs, the default way DVD Decrypter does it. Does someone who already owns one of these players want to email I-O Data about this problem? Also please mention we would like support for networked .IFO files as well (so we can get DVD Menus as well.)

Originally posted by mikemav
And, IIRC, isn't there a file size limit as well? Will it play back a 5-8GB single VOB from the network? Or is that limitation only with directly connected USB drives? Either way, it still needs to be fixed. I have about 50 movies ripped with multiple VOBs, the default way DVD Decrypter does it. Does someone who already owns one of these players want to email I-O Data about this problem? Also please mention we would like support for networked .IFO files as well (so we can get DVD Menus as well.)

I have had no problem playing any size off the network My saving private ryan is 7.2 gigs. I believe its more of an issue with fat32 vs ntfs I did email them just a little while ago asking just that is there a way around this pause and when will ifo files be supported.

Im planning on ripping a few hundred dvd in the next week or so and would like to get this ironed out. dont want to rerip again. as this will be the second time already...

Originally posted by flamaest


My main issue with most Media Players these days is the lack of NAS access capability. Hopefully the IO-DATA unit can-or-will deliver.. :)



The LinkPlayer does require a media server, either on a PC or embedded on their recently announced NAS device, the UHDL Network Drive. I've seen a post somewhere from an insider indicating they would eventually supply a Linux version of the media server. If that was avaiable, presumably one could hack other linux based NAS devices like the Buffalo LinkServer to install the server. Even better, augment the device to allow simple NAS access using SMB.

Originally posted by sanssome
The LinkPlayer does require a media server, either on a PC or embedded on their recently announced NAS device, the UHDL Network Drive. I've seen a post somewhere from an insider indicating they would eventually supply a Linux version of the media server. If that was avaiable, presumably one could hack other linux based NAS devices like the Buffalo LinkServer to install the server. Even better, augment the device to allow simple NAS access using SMB.

NAS access using SMB would be nice as a "real NAS" uses smb ah-la snap

Originally posted by webboy10169
So in fact right now it seems that the only way is to rip all dvd's as 1 big vob file. The draw back is no way to jump forward in a movie just to fast foward.

This needs to be fixed.

It would seem to me that this should be a non-issue. I would think the player would treat VOBs played over the network the same as VOBs on a disk (a la commercial DVDs). I wonder if this might be a problem with the Server or the player's interface to the Server - it sounds like it requests one VOB, buffers it a little, plays it completely, requests the next one, buffers, plays, etc. That would explain why there may not be any discernible pause when playing back from the disk (the disk access is probably a LOT faster than the network access). Actually, now that I am thinking about this a little, maybe it has to do it this way since there probably is no second buffer to prepare the next VOB in anticipation of the current VOB completing and there may not be an easy way to determine when the current VOB is about to complete (there's no "rule" that defines how big VOBs have to be, though I guess the server interface could send the VOB size or something when the file is fetched).

Out of curiosity, for those of you noticing these pauses,
1. how fast is your network connection between the PC and the LinkPlayer?
2. are you noticing the pauses with VOBs stored on the PCs internal hard drive, USB hard drive attached to the PC, USB hard drive attached to the LinkPlayer, or all of the above?
3. if you notice the pauses in multiple cases in (2), are the pauses longer/shorter in some cases than others?

I'm sorry if you have already answered some of these in your previous posts - I am kinda dizzy from all of the information you guys keep pouring onto us ;)

Edit:
4. which server are you using - the one that came with the LinkPlayer or an alternate?

Originally posted by TUFU
I had waited for someone owning AVLP2 and PJ to answer your questions.
I also had read your thread in Digital Display.
But, it seemed that there were no responses yet.

I'll tried my best to share my experiences( I used component output rarely either in AVLP2 or V880).

I only tested and compared the screen in "setup menu" with different resolution of component.

My projector is Mitsubishi D1208 (1024X768 masked to 1024x576) with a
110" screen.

Yes, I can see the picture seemed a little blurred in 720p/1080i comparing to 480p. The picture in 480p seemed most stable and sharp. Maybe it was what you described " out of focus or smeared".
Same things happened with DVI 480p VS 720p/1080i .
But the differences in DVI seemed very subtle comparing to the difference in component.

Actually,this phenomenon did not surprise me because I had seen same things in V880. In V880,the picture in1080i(not 720p)(either from component or DVI) seemed blurred,even worse was the subtitle in movies became blurred and shadowed. I had used custom resolution in V880 and set it to 1024x576,but I still can not see any differences to 480p. In v880,I mostly used 480p or 720p to see movies .

I guess my PJ scaled every signals sent to it and my PJ had a better scaling
than DVD player's. Other PJs may do different so the conclusions may also be different.

I didn't test and compare the films in 720p or 1080i such as WMVHD or TS files. Just like Tom said WMVHD 720p files are sharper in picture outputing as 1080i.

Thanks for reply !
I'm glad that this problem is not just on my set up :)
I ordered Zinwell scaler and will experiment further

Originally posted by Dolfo
It would seem to me that this should be a non-issue. I would think the player would treat VOBs played over the network the same as VOBs on a disk (a la commercial DVDs). I wonder if this might be a problem with the Server or the player's interface to the Server - it sounds like it requests one VOB, buffers it a little, plays it completely, requests the next one, buffers, plays, etc. That would explain why there may not be any discernible pause when playing back from the disk (the disk access is probably a LOT faster than the network access). Actually, now that I am thinking about this a little, maybe it has to do it this way since there probably is no second buffer to prepare the next VOB in anticipation of the current VOB completing and there may not be an easy way to determine when the current VOB is about to complete (there's no "rule" that defines how big VOBs have to be, though I guess the server interface could send the VOB size or something when the file is fetched).

Out of curiosity, for those of you noticing these pauses,
1. how fast is your network connection between the PC and the LinkPlayer?
2. are you noticing the pauses with VOBs stored on the PCs internal hard drive, USB hard drive attached to the PC, USB hard drive attached to the LinkPlayer, or all of the above?
3. if you notice the pauses in multiple cases in (2), are the pauses longer/shorter in some cases than others?

I'm sorry if you have already answered some of these in your previous posts - I am kinda dizzy from all of the information you guys keep pouring onto us ;)

Well if im not mistaken its the IFO file that takes care of the seamless intergration of vob files. Open up any software dvd player and load up 2 vob files and there will be a pause between file changes. load up the same movie using the IFO file and changes are seamless. So this tells me that there is more to a IFO file than just the list of files to be played.

I am only seeing these pauses over the network as i have no usb hard drives that have enough space to deal with movies. And i dont really feel like moving files to test it.

As far as my network all CAT6 running linksys gigabyte so speed isnt the issue.

Originally posted by sanssome
The LinkPlayer does require a media server, either on a PC or embedded on their recently announced NAS device, the UHDL Network Drive. I've seen a post somewhere from an insider indicating they would eventually supply a Linux version of the media server. If that was avaiable, presumably one could hack other linux based NAS devices like the Buffalo LinkServer to install the server. Even better, augment the device to allow simple NAS access using SMB.

What about when you ONLY use a standard USB drive connected to the media player itself.. I don;t think the link player requires the server software in this case. Am I mistaken?

F.

Originally posted by webboy10169
Well if im not mistaken its the IFO file that takes care of the seamless intergration of vob files. Open up any software dvd player and load up 2 vob files and there will be a pause between file changes. load up the same movie using the IFO file and changes are seamless. So this tells me that there is more to a IFO file than just the list of files to be played.

I am only seeing these pauses over the network as i have no usb hard drives that have enough space to deal with movies. And i dont really feel like moving files to test it.

As far as my network all CAT6 running linksys gigabyte so speed isnt the issue.

After reading up a little on the subject of DVD file structure, I think you're absolutely right - the IFO seems to have some duration information that might help with this problem. It looks like IFO support is key to resolving this.

Originally posted by flamaest
What about when you ONLY use a standard USB drive connected to the media player itself.. I don;t think the link player requires the server software in this case. Am I mistaken?

F.

You're right, direct USB drive attached file access does work. Apparently adding SMB file access support to the network stack is more complicated than they were willing to tackle in the first release of the firmware. If they can stream and process media from a hard drive, why can't they do they same over a socket? Personally I do not know what they gain having a media server, though I think it transcodes media and probably supplies some media file structure and organizational features not native in the device, with USB access being more primitive. I guess someone who actually has a LinkPlayer may be able to comment on this.

BTW...I do see their software "Update" site has a FAQ that does indeed state Linux media server support is in the works.

Originally posted by sanssome
The LinkPlayer does require a media server, either on a PC or embedded on their recently announced NAS device, the UHDL Network Drive. I've seen a post somewhere from an insider indicating they would eventually supply a Linux version of the media server. If that was avaiable, presumably one could hack other linux based NAS devices like the Buffalo LinkServer to install the server. Even better, augment the device to allow simple NAS access using SMB.

DOH :o I just ordered the Buffalo LinkStation since I was under the impression that it should work:rolleyes:

I just streamed master&commander.vob a 1280X1088 HDtivo file 10.9 Gig. Also used the fast play buttons and the audio synced right up after hitting play ! pressing the right arrow keys that show a % to jump to worked ok as well.

Originally posted by snoots
I just streamed master&commander.vob a 1280X1088 HDtivo file 10.9 Gig. Also used the fast play buttons and the audio synced right up after hitting play ! pressing the right arrow keys that show a % to jump to worked ok as well.

Snoots- not to go too much into subjects that should not be discussed here, but how many steps in the process did you use on the .VOB? Was it direct from HDTT app? Or did you have to do the VLC thing to the file as well? I have the HD TiVo w/ the same "features" as yours. If you follow the other forum, you know that some files need to be further processed to be playable w/ FF, RW, and audio on the MyHD card. Also, do you have MyHD to compare to? I am curious how the PQ and usability of the I-O compares, both on HD files and on DVDs.

I was trying is see if anyone had posted anything on how to play purchased itune music on the AVeL LinkPlayer2 and came across the Neutston Server Software post. I guess I fail to see how a server for another product will work with the LinkPlayer.

Can you expound on the subject and explain how you get it to work on the Mac and LinkPlayer2?

Also any ideas on how to play the m4p protected itune store files?

Question: Can this device send data out two video output at the same time, e.g. Component and S-video ?
The reason I'm asking, I'd like to only use a small display when using the device as a network audio player instead of using my RPTV for song selections.

Originally posted by gac001
Question: Can this device send data out two video output at the same time, e.g. Component and S-video ?
The reason I'm asking, I'd like to only use a small display when using the device as a network audio player instead of using my RPTV for song selections.

When the player is in 480i mode my understanding is all outputs are active. I have not verified this. If it is correct then you could leave the smaller display hooked up at all times and just use the remote to change back to 480i to get output on the small display. I will see if I can drag a small TV into the living room and verify this for sure.

Originally posted by irgaac
When the player is in 480i mode my understanding is all outputs are active. I have not verified this. If it is correct then you could leave the smaller display hooked up at all times and just use the remote to change back to 480i to get output on the small display. I will see if I can drag a small TV into the living room and verify this for sure.

It would be interesting to also see if the S-Video output is active during HD modes as well - it won't be outputting in HD resolution of course, but maybe it is still actively streaming the 480i video. If this is the case, gac001 could leave the smaller display connected and wouldn't need to worry about changing modes.

I've been following this thread since its inception. I finally gave in and ordered one today (North American model). If it arrives by Friday, FedEx 2nd Day, I'll give her a good workout over the weekend with all of my WMV9-HD, DivX and XviD HD materials.

Originally posted by irgaac
When the player is in 480i mode my understanding is all outputs are active. I have not verified this. If it is correct then you could leave the smaller display hooked up at all times and just use the remote to change back to 480i to get output on the small display. I will see if I can drag a small TV into the living room and verify this for sure.

I ran a long composite from the dvd to my computer 480i mode sent video to both screens only now if someone can check svideo side i dont have a long enough cable...

Originally posted by snoots
I just streamed master&commander.vob a 1280X1088 HDtivo file 10.9 Gig. Also used the fast play buttons and the audio synced right up after hitting play ! pressing the right arrow keys that show a % to jump to worked ok as well.

How was the quality of the video? compared to HDTiVo. as far as there scalers go..

Im doing my research now to "upgrade" my SD and HDTiVo. Sure would like to know hot you did your HDTiVo. as The "Underground forum" isnt giving too much info away on them.

Anyway which did a better job displaying the vid?

Anyone using this player with a 8" CRT Front Projector with a 100" screen or bigger?????

The video quality was good, the only thing I noticed was the aspect ratio seems a little funny. However I have the player hooked up to a non hdtv using the D4 cable set to 480 i through the component input. Most of the video I have ran through the player look great as far as sharpness and overall picture quality. I have already removed the recording from my HD tivo so I can't really do a comparison. since the file was on my PC. The playback on my PC looks good on the LCD monitor and also on the attached 36 " Sony tv but it is running off SVHS from an ATI card in my pc. On the pc I played back the vob file using windvd 6.

Irgaac and webboy thanks for the info.

Composite is good enough since this is only to do music selection. Digital pictures and video will be sent to the big screen.
Now, I just need to find out if I can order this thing from Canada.

How are people organizing there ripped dvd's? Coming from a pc hooked up to the plasma using MYHTPC/Meedio for an interface. Im ise to folder/file structure.

Judging from the email i received back from Tech Support they havent a clue about IFO files. So with no future in site on IFO files we have to rip dvd's as 1 big vob file.

Should we just dump vob files into one directory? or each vob in a folder?

How would you organize 200 movies?

New press release from MS and Sigma --

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2004/nov04/11-30SigmaDesignsPR.asp

Sounds like the Kiss is about to ship in Europe also with 2005 for US...

Some other players are also mentioned.

Kiss promised the DP-600 year ago :) and postponing since then....

Originally posted by webboy10169
How are people organizing there ripped dvd's? Coming from a pc hooked up to the plasma using MYHTPC/Meedio for an interface. Im ise to folder/file structure.

Judging from the email i received back from Tech Support they havent a clue about IFO files. So with no future in site on IFO files we have to rip dvd's as 1 big vob file.

Should we just dump vob files into one directory? or each vob in a folder?

How would you organize 200 movies?
Does it support playlists of vob files? Does it support playlists at all?

Originally posted by webboy10169
How are people organizing there ripped dvd's? Coming from a pc hooked up to the plasma using MYHTPC/Meedio for an interface. Im ise to folder/file structure.

Judging from the email i received back from Tech Support they havent a clue about IFO files. So with no future in site on IFO files we have to rip dvd's as 1 big vob file.

Should we just dump vob files into one directory? or each vob in a folder?

How would you organize 200 movies?

Ripping as one big VOB isn't so bad, especially since you can use the right and left arrow keys to go to a place a certain percentage into the video. That works fairly well in place of chapter stops.

As for organization, I created a main directory that has a directory for each movie inside it. Inside that folder is the VOB for the movie. I then added the main directory to the LinkServer watch list.

Originally posted by Paul_PDX
New press release from MS and Sigma --

[snip]

Sounds like the Kiss is about to ship in Europe also with 2005 for US...

Some other players are also mentioned.

I notice Microsoft did not mention availability of the LinkPlayer in the US. I wonder if they are simply unaware or careful in not wanting to divert business away from Windows XP Media Center devices.

I have LinkPlayer envy at the moment, but may just wait to see what 2005 brings. A lot of product announcements have been made by various vendors and certainly there will be some Windows Media Center based units available. The products are definitely maturing (said by a Prismiq owner with first hand experience of first generation issues.)

The Microsoft press release is exactly why I'm not keen on Blu-ray or HD-DVD...it isn't needed.

I installed the AVel Link Server to my PC, to get ready for the first firmware upgrade, tentatively scheduled for late December. With that upgrade, I think we can expect support for WMV10 DRM and mpeg2TS. I think some people have had success with mpeg2TS files already, but mine don't play.

I can see the appeal people are finding with streaming content from their PC/Mac to the LinkPlayer2. Music, video, photos...this is slick.

Anyway...I'm thinking there's a lot of bang for the buck with this thing. All in all, it's been quite a bit more robust and stable than I was expecting. I-O Data seems to have competently developed this product with very few bugs. It generally works as advertised, or better.

I can't wait for the DVI/WiFi version to arrive in the U.S. But even this current U.S. spec version lacking DVI and WiFi is pretty darn satisfying.

Originally posted by lifeisfun
Kiss promised the DP-600 year ago :) and postponing since then.... Good news is that it's running in our demo room and will be in our demo suite at CES. Pretty slick unit...

It also sounds like a couple more players will be using your chip-set too. Can you confirm Keith: -

http://www.mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=74217

Buffalo - Link Theater (Japan only)
LITE-ON - ???? (TBC).


Cheers

EDIT: Does the Kiss player have DVI and 6Ch analogue audio outputs?

Originally posted by gtrogue
Ripping as one big VOB isn't so bad, especially since you can use the right and left arrow keys to go to a place a certain percentage into the video. That works fairly well in place of chapter stops.

As for organization, I created a main directory that has a directory for each movie inside it. Inside that folder is the VOB for the movie. I then added the main directory to the LinkServer watch list.

Makes sense thats the way i have it i was looknig to avoid that extra click into the directory. Ill have to see if the play button works on a dir. Watch list huh and what does this do??

After looking at the other players based on the same chip set it seems that non of the others support IFO files either. Is this a limitation with the Sigma chip set? Will we never have IFO and menu's working for ripped dvd's?

That might be a good reason to not to reccomend this player to clients...

Originally posted by webboy10169
Watch list huh and what does this do??


In the Linkserver software you set a default folder for video files. You can also set "watch" folders that gets included under the "Video" directory on the Linkplayer.
Example, if you add a directory called "DVD Rips" as a watch folder when you click the "Video" heading on the Linkplayer you will see a directory called DVD Rips and all the video files in the default videos folder.
You set the watch folders up in the video preferences section of the Linkserver software.


I-O Data's newsletter they sent out a couple of weeks ago said that Windows Media DRM for network devices and WMA Pro support would be included in the December firmware release. The DRM update should mean that files downloaded from CinemaNow and/or Movielink will be playable by the Linkplayer as well as WMV-HD DVD's.

Originally posted by gtrogue
In the Linkserver software you set a default folder for video files. You can also set "watch" folders that gets included under the "Video" directory on the Linkplayer.
Example, if you add a directory called "DVD Rips" as a watch folder when you click the "Video" heading on the Linkplayer you will see a directory called DVD Rips and all the video files in the default videos folder.
You set the watch folders up in the video preferences section of the Linkserver software.


I-O Data's newsletter they sent out a couple of weeks ago said that Windows Media DRM for network devices and WMA Pro support would be included in the December firmware release. The DRM update should mean that files downloaded from CinemaNow and/or Movielink will be playable by the Linkplayer as well as WMV-HD DVD's.

So in essence you can have multiple directory's to dump video files into.
This was something i was going to ask for. I have movies/vids in various folders on a drive. along with many pc that have video also. The main server has run out of disc space as i prepare to build a new server just for dvd's. So i guess then there would be no need to install the server software on multiple machines. Interesting.

Originally posted by webboy10169
Makes sense thats the way i have it i was looknig to avoid that extra click into the directory. Ill have to see if the play button works on a dir. Watch list huh and what does this do??

After looking at the other players based on the same chip set it seems that non of the others support IFO files either. Is this a limitation with the Sigma chip set? Will we never have IFO and menu's working for ripped dvd's?

That might be a good reason to not to reccomend this player to clients...

The DVD "backup" software I use is Elby's CloneDVD 2. They also have a free piece of software called Virtual CloneDrive which supposedly (I have never had the need to use it so I don't know for sure that it works as described) lets you mount a DVD image as if it were a DVD drive (here (http://www.elby.de/en/products/clone_dvd/manual/drive.html) is a link to the Virtual CloneDrive page on their website). I wonder if a mounted image would appear to the LinkPlayer as an attached DVD Drive and play normally (bypassing the need for IFO support)? I just went over to Doom9 and checked real quick and there is another set of tools called Daemon Tools (here (http://www.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/portal/daemonhelp.php) is link to the Daemon Tools web manual) that does the same thing. It would be interesting to see if this works, though it may be more involved than most of you are looking for. If anybody tries this, let me know if it works.

So in essence you can have multiple directory's to dump video files into.
This was something i was going to ask for. I have movies/vids in various folders on a drive. along with many pc that have video also. The main server has run out of disc space as i prepare to build a new server just for dvd's. So i guess then there would be no need to install the server software on multiple machines. Interesting.

If you set the default folder as a drive letter, you can navigate to any folder or sub-folder.

Here's the skinny on how the server works. The Link Server is actually just a stripped down copy of an APACHE web server, it uses mime types to handle the streaming of files over the network. Since all files have to be streamed to the AVLP2 you won't be able to use images or mounted drives since the AVLP2 cannot connect directly to a shared drive. I have also tried mounting a shared folder on another machine into the watch list, it will show up in the folder list on the player but it won't stream the file for whatever reason.

Originally posted by irgaac
Here's the skinny on how the server works. The Link Server is actually just a stripped down copy of an APACHE web server, it uses mime types to handle the streaming of files over the network. Since all files have to be streamed to the AVLP2 you won't be able to use images or mounted drives since the AVLP2 cannot connect directly to a shared drive. I have also tried mounting a shared folder on another machine into the watch list, it will show up in the folder list on the player but it won't stream the file for whatever reason.

OK - I thought that, since you can play video from a DVD drive attached to the remote PC, you should be able to play from a virtual drive as well. Maybe not. Bummer.

How then will the NAS drives that IO-Data has coming out soon be able to work The IODATA website instructions specifically show the NAS as a "shared drive" from the avelink player that shows up on the main menu as a separate entitiy. as well as a shared drive on the pc. Perhaps the NAS drives include a firmware web server ?

Sorry I looked again and the NAS drives have an onboard version of the apache server installed on them !

If you check IODATAs web site you will see they do contain an embedded LinkPlayer server and FTP server.

I was able to use a mapped drive from a WinXP Pro machine mapped to the linkserver XP machine with no problems
I only tested it with mp3's and pictures, I did not try a video

Copied a Tivo "huff" episode.vob to a mapped drive on another pc. Set the avlinkserver to SMy Videos and it showed up in the player menu and streamed ok. Maybe I missunderstood the earlier posts. I might not have understood the question or the intention. Looks like to me mapped folders work ok.

Originally posted by Dolfo
--- I wonder if a mounted image would appear to the LinkPlayer as an attached DVD Drive and play normally (bypassing the need for IFO support)? I just went over to Doom9 and checked real quick and there is another set of tools called Daemon Tools (here (http://www.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/portal/daemonhelp.php) is link to the Daemon Tools web manual) that does the same thing. It would be interesting to see if this works, though it may be more involved than most of you are looking for. If anybody tries this, let me know if it works.

I had tried it without success.
Just like you can point the video destination or watch list to a DVD-ROM drive, you can mount a virtual drive with daemon tool. But you can only access the file in VOB mode not IFO mode.

Originally posted by snoots
Sorry I looked again and the NAS drives have an onboard version of the apache server installed on them !

Actually, I read that these IO-DATA NAS units are using the XIMETA NDAS protocol in their firmeare and that the link player will have the ability to read this protocol.

I don't like this because it does not embrace the true NAS technology which would open the floodgates of a multitue of inexpensive NAS storage sources. The XIMETA avenue must have been easier to implement.

F.

Time for my nightly picture quality rant...

I received a response to an email I sent to JVB Digital regarding whether the I-O Data LinkPlayer can be SDI-modded. I received the following reply:

Looking at the specs of the processor, SDI will not be possible. SDI needs access to
the MPEG decoder. EM8620L has the MPEG decoder and DA converters cased in one chip.
Therefore there are no physical points to tab off the MPEG signal.

Notice that the D/A converters are onboard the EM8620L video processor. Translation? The "soft" 720p component output is a characteristic of the Sigma design, and all players using it for a core, including the Buffalo, Vertex Link, Kiss, Malata, Momitsu, Bravo will have the same issue.

Bring on the DVI units, I-O Data!

Originally posted by Tom Roper
Notice that the D/A converters are onboard the EM8620L video processor. Translation? The "soft" 720p component output is a characteristic of the Sigma design, and all players using it for a core, including the Buffalo, Vertex Link, Kiss, Malata, Momitsu, Bravo will have the same issue.

Most DVD/MPEG decoder chips included on-chip video D/A converters for many years now... :)

I asked our engineers about this. Response was that there is no reason for this to happen unless (1) the analog output filters are not quite correct or (2) the SW settings for the internal digital filters are not correct. We took great pains in the design to improve analog video performance over the earlier chips, even to the point on incorporating 150 MHz 12-bit DACs.

We're getting a unit for our CES suite, maybe we can play with it after the show and determine what the problem is.

BTW, you can read about the EM8620L chip at http://www.sigmadesigns.com/products/em8620Lseries.htm

Keith,

As you have one of the Kiss players with you.

Are you able to confirm whether they have incorporated 6Ch analogue audio outputs and DVI as standard?


Cheers

I got my linkplayer2 last night though I didn't have much time to play with it yet. But it does appear to play my 720p Xvid Raiders of Ark off my PC just fine, with 5.1 ac3 audio through my av receiver. Softness is not bothersome on 55" RPTV with only 7" guns, but that needs calibration again anyway so I might not notice it as much as some. I'll try again later with more detailed material.

I haven't installed any updates yet. When I tried to update firmware I got a blue screen with some Japanese characters on it and only one place to click. Don't know what that means though my firmware date is still back at last march or so. For broadband I'm using Comcast with a combo cable modem/gateway/router and auto-ip in the player. Hope that's not a problem.

- Tom

Originally posted by kjack
We took great pains in the design to improve analog video performance over the earlier chips, even to the point on incorporating 150 MHz 12-bit DACs.

OK, this is actually more impressive than I would have expected. These are pretty powerful DACs, considering they are being included in the video processor ASIC. I wonder if IODATA's analog path from the ASIC to the connector is softening the picture? Hmmm...

Thanks for keeping us updated kjack!

I asked our engineers about this. Response was that there is no reason for this to happen unless (1) the analog output filters are not quite correct or ...

Keith -

Filters?

We can do filters.

Analog filters are often included to keep the FCC happy but if you can properly describe them then there are probably folks here that could fix them so they are not "not quite correct". ;)

- Tom

My native 720p DLP RPTV has some optical overscan from the projection lens even when displaying a pixel perfect bit mapped 1:1 image via the VGA or DVI input, using a HTPC or satellite STB.

But the LinkPlayer2 adds even more overscan, and I think this may be partly responsible for a perception of a loss of fine detail. This might not be an issue at all for raster based CRT RPTV.

I've also mentioned previously, the picture is cleaner when using a D4-component cable from JVC (links earlier in thread). It doesn't really change the resolution of fine detail, rather it just cleans up the background noise that masks the otherwise fine texture(s).

The most objective comparison I can make, is when A/B'ing between the JVC 720p camcorder, and the same file played simultaneously via the LinkPlayer2. Both images are arriving via component inputs, but the 720p images from the JVC camcorder do have noticeably more fine detail, but also less overscan. Perhaps the added overscan is a contributing factor to the softness perception noted with the LinkPlayer2.

I think I mentioned it before but analog upconverted 1080i output on my CRT display does not exibit any softness or blurriness.
I think the blurriness the digital display folks see is from their displays converting the picture again to its native resolution and additional A/D-D/A conversions.
The output from the LinkPlayer and from my FLi2300 equipped scaler are almost identical. Any difference between the two is mostly evident in the two different chroma problems that each have.

Originally posted by gtrogue
I think the blurriness the digital display folks see is from their displays converting the picture again to its native resolution and additional A/D-D/A conversions.


For the comparison I described with the JVC camcorder, I respectfully disagree. That was the point of doing the side-by-side, A/B comparison with another native 720p source matching the display resolution of the monitor.

The AVLP2 outputs native 720p also, and the additional A/D-D/A conversions apply for both the JVC and the I-O Data in the comparison.

You're going to have to compare two native HDTV sources to see it. If you look at just the AVLP2 output, it'll look sharp by itself. In any case, "bluriness" grossly overstates what I carefully tried to express in a subtle sense, as a loss of fine detail.

Originally posted by gtrogue
I think I mentioned it before but analog upconverted 1080i output on my CRT display does not exibit any softness or blurriness.
I think the blurriness the digital display folks see is from their displays converting the picture again to its native resolution and additional A/D-D/A conversions.
The output from the LinkPlayer and from my FLi2300 equipped scaler are almost identical. Any difference between the two is mostly evident in the two different chroma problems that each have.

Does your FLi2300 scaler process and playback HD material or does it just upconvert SD material to HD resolutions? Since it is a scaler, I am guessing it serves to upconvert, which is very different than the test that Tom is conducting and wouldn't yield the same results.

It processes and upconverts HD content as well.

I should also add that I don't see any loss of fine detail when upconverting 720p WMVHD material to 1080i or when converting 1080p material to 1080i.

Originally posted by gtrogue

I should also add that I don't see any loss of fine detail when upconverting 720p WMVHD material to 1080i or when converting 1080p material to 1080i.

Nor do I see a loss of fine detail when upconverting 720p to 1080i. Ironically in fact, I would say the upconverted 720p to 1080i looks better than the native 720p, even on my native 720p monitor. Shouldn't be this way!

The loss of fine detail I see is when comparing two 720p sources playing simultaneously, one from the JVC camcorder, the other from the AVLP2, and A/B'ing between them with the remote control for the monitor.

For some perspective here, I'm not the only one with this observation. TUFU also confirmed a softer image from the component output compared to the DVI, on his Japanese spec unit that contains both.

I would also add, the 720p images played from a HTPC are more finely detailed also, but this is probably a consequence of the 1:1 bit mapped pixels from the VGA output, and thus not a fair comparison.

But to my way of thinking, comparing identical native 720p output over identical component connections, one from the AVLP2, the other from the JVC camcorder playing the same file, at the same time, and A/B'ing between them on the monitor is as fair as I can make the comparison.

In view of Keith's comments on the 150mHz 12 bit DAC, and my own observation about the excessive overscan on the AVLP2, is my concern that I-O Data's implementation of the Sigma scaler is causing the loss of fine detail, or my perception of it thereof.

I see what your saying now.
Do you have a MyHD card you could compare the output to?
I have a MyHD but that PC is out of commision at the moment.

It looks like some WMVHD discs from Europe are finally shipping. There is a thread here (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=477235) about them.

Even though the discs use on-disc DRM I still think the WM DRM for network devices will be required to play them on the LinkPlayer. Not to mention that the audio is encoded using the WMA 9 Pro codec.
Hurry up with that firmware update I-O Data!

Originally posted by kjack
We're getting a unit for our CES suite, maybe we can play with it after the show and determine what the problem is.


kjack , thanks again for you being here :)

Can you please verify the information on KiSS DP-600 players , it's importent for a lot of future customers in Europe - we have to make a descission "to wait or not to wait" and so far the the "backside" info we were getting out of KiSS that the software for DP-600 was not yet "worked on" , that they are busy with other players (DP-558) , do you have more info ?

Also can you please unswer me on my last PM :)

And another thing, I have a few questions on prev. chip (EM8510/8560 - btw: why EM8560 info is not on Sigma site ? ) :

(Sorry guys I know it's wrong topic but where else you can catch a live Sigma engeneer :) )
- It was stated that this chip (unlike it's pedcessors EM8500/EM8550) can decode DivX 3.11 in hardware, but now from some "warnings" on KiSS DP-558 FAQ (on their site) I understend that video "may ocatinaly freez with gigh bitrate DivX 3.11" for me it's sounds like software transcoding that works better then in prev. chips because of faster CPU and more memory. Am I right ?


Btw: You really did GREAT work on analog output for EM85xx series , the MTK' and ESS' MPEG4 decoding output is anywhere near to that produced by Sigma chips !
I just hope the "softness" issue will be resolved and the quality will be at least as good as on prev. chip !

Originally posted by Lord KiRon

(Sorry guys I know it's wrong topic but where else you can catch a live Sigma engeneer :) )


He always around. Just go start a thread in the Video Processors forum with the title "Sigma Designs' chips suck!" and I'm sure he'll read it. ;)

Originally posted by gtrogue
Do you have a MyHD card you could compare the output to?
I have a MyHD...

How do you spell...ENVY?

Originally posted by lifeisfun
For some unknown reason my player Can't nolonger
FWD and REV DivX/Xvid files :( I get only message INVALID

Anyone else with the same problem ?

Miracle ! Rev and Fwd is working again ...
Why ? I have no idea ...

Here is the list of Hardware that will work with the player from the Web Site:

Options
We are pleased to introduce hardware options for all LinkPlayer users. If you are looking for something or you need more ideas, please try to cotact to us (Mail to info@iodata.com).


Cables (not available)
- D4 to Component Extend Cable
- D4 to Component Long Cable (1.5m)
- D4 to Component Long Cable (3.5m)


DataBase / Storage
- I-O DATA Network Hard Disk 160GB (UHDL-160U)
- I-O DATA Network Hard Disk 300GB (UHDL-300U)
- I-O DATA Standard Flash Memories (more details)


DVD Burning Drive
- Plextor DVD drive series


Monitors / HDTV


Speakers (not available)
- Creative 5.1ch Sround Speaker System


USB Storage
- I-O DATA Gundam USB Flash Memories (EDG Series)


Video Capture / Recording
- Plextor Convert X series


I never notice a few of these before

DVD Burning Drive
- Plextor DVD drive series
or
Video Capture / Recording
- Plextor Convert X series

I have ConvertX PVR, I will hook it up when I get home this evening and see what happens...

I can't imagine the ConvertX will work plugged direct into the AVLP2. I imagine they mean it make compatible DIVX for this players streams....

I saw the Plextor burners there also and all I can think is they are saying they have tested disks burnt on the Plextor in the LinkPlayer.

The English on the IODATA site is improving but still we have to second guess a lot of what we read there....

Originally posted by Paul_PDX
I can't imagine the ConvertX will work plugged direct into the AVLP2. I imagine they mean it make compatible DIVX for this players streams....

I saw the Plextor burners there also and all I can think is they are saying they have tested disks burnt on the Plextor in the LinkPlayer.

The English on the IODATA site is improving but still we have to second guess a lot of what we read there....

Indeed, that is also what I was getting from it, once I read it again for the 15th time. ;)

Will give it a try anyway...never know.

mb1010

Plexor burner had been listed in the compatible device of AVLP2 in Japan I-O DATA web. What I didn't understand was I had a new model of I-O DATA USB2.0 NEC3500A burner which was not recognized by AVLP2.
Don't know whether a region-free USB2.0 dvd burner will allow playing in IFO mode like usual DVD and without region limitation(I doubt..).

Sorry,I had tried to connect my I-O DATA USB2.0 dvd burner to AVLP2 without success before I had the firmware upgrade weeks ago. Now I had seen that DVR-IUN16W had been listed in the compatible devices.
I'll test and report it as soon as possible.

Originally posted by SeeMoreDigital
As you have one of the Kiss players with you. Are you able to confirm whether they have incorporated 6Ch analogue audio outputs and DVI as standard?

Sorry, can't talk about it due to NDAs and all that stuff...

Originally posted by trbarry
Filters?

We can do filters.

Analog filters are often included to keep the FCC happy but if you can properly describe them then there are probably folks here that could fix them so they are not "not quite correct". ;)

I'll see what I can scrape up.

Might be interesting to bypass the component output filters and see what happens...but I take no responsibility if the display gets fried. Displays that digitize the analog signals have lowpass filters on the inputs anyway.

Originally posted by Lord KiRon
Can you please verify the information on KiSS DP-600 players , it's importent for a lot of future customers in Europe - we have to make a descission "to wait or not to wait" ... Let me just use a quote from Kiss in our press release with Microsoft yesterday...

------------
KiSS Technology. Exemplifying this new class of Windows Media Video-enabled DVD player is the latest product from KiSS Technology, the DP-600 networked DVD player, which includes a wide range of groundbreaking capabilities. A key focus for the DP-600 design is its rich layer of interactivity with linkages to an extensive range of online services, such as gaming, weather forecasts and Web radio. This new player will offer the entertainment enthusiast the option of accessing Windows Media Video content in high-definition resolutions and other digital entertainment through published, downloaded or streaming media. This player will be available in retail outlets in December in Europe, with potential U.S. availability in 2005, for an estimated retail price of $299.
-----------

And it is playing those WMV HD discs from Europe just fine... :)

why EM8560 info is not on Sigma site ? I'm in the process of adding it. Long story why it's not there, don't blame me... :)

It was stated that this chip (unlike it's pedcessors EM8500/EM8550) can decode DivX 3.11 in hardware, but now from some "warnings" on KiSS DP-558 FAQ (on their site) I understend that video "may ocatinaly freez with gigh bitrate DivX 3.11" for me it's sounds like software transcoding that works better then in prev. chips because of faster CPU and more memory. Am I right ? The EM8620L decodes it in hardware (no transcoding), so can handle almost anything you throw at it, except for the GMC limitations you're aware of. The EM8510/8560 still do transcoding, taking advantage of faster CPU and memory.

I just hope the "softness" issue will be resolved and the quality will be at least as good as on prev. chip ! It should be, just need to find the cause. I saw it being used inside a 50" 720p plasma HDTV, it looked drop dead beautiful. So I know it's possible for 720p to look good...

Keith-
Can you comment on the possibilities of any of the players based on this chip playing networked .ifo files to support DVD menus? I'm talking of course about non-encrypted DVD rips (taking the MPAA burden off you & the manufacturer.) Is this a hardware limitation, or does someone just need to add this file type to there server app's abilities? Since the player itself can support .ifo/DVD menus from discs in its tray, why not over the network? Other commercial products such as Power DVD and Theatertek support .ifo playback from rips, as you probably know. Any insight would be most appreciated. Thanks

My AVLP2 won't play about 75% of my DVD-Video from DVD-R media.

The DVD-ROM drive plays some of it, then just coughs, sputters, stutters and finally freezes.

I've emailed customer support.

Originally posted by Tom Roper
My AVLP2 won't play about 75% of my DVD-Video from DVD-R media.

The DVD-ROM drive plays some of it, then just coughs, sputters, stutters and finally freezes.

I've emailed customer support. This is not good.

I wonder which DVD-ROM manufacturer I-O DATA is using... or even manufacturers...


Cheers

Originally posted by Tom Roper
My AVLP2 won't play about 75% of my DVD-Video from DVD-R media.

The DVD-ROM drive plays some of it, then just coughs, sputters, stutters and finally freezes.

I've emailed customer support.

What about DVD+R? Do you have the means to test that as well for us?

Originally posted by Dolfo
What about DVD+R? Do you have the means to test that as well for us?

Ive burned 3 movies to DVD+R disks and all is well. NO ISSUES with DVD+R over here...

I guess I'm the first person to be sending it back, and the weird thing is, the shop.iodata.com web site won't let me complete an RMA. It always says that I need to fill in all the required fields, even though they're all filled in and there's only five or so of them. IO Data's support says that they can't do it via email, i'll have to fill out the form, even if the form doesn't work. I guess that's one way of dodging returns.

Maybe I would have been happier had I waited for the DVI version, because it would eliminate the crappy component quality and would have been a few firmware releases on. As it is, even my wife (who isn't a videophile by any stretch of imagination) says the video looks extremely soft. I've tried it on my CRT and a friend's plasma, and we had the same problem on both systems. His system running the Attack of the Clones dvd looked sharper than the Linkplayer running a 720p wmv of it. Even with the various clips from wmvhd and divx look fabulous coming out of the LP until you compare it with a HTPC running into the same TV.

I have problems with dvd-r's, too. Better response than with my Lite-on, but still not as good as even my cheap apex.

I hate the server software, but IOData says that UPnP, while mentioned, isn't active yet but will be with the next firmware update. So you'll be able to use the Nero stuff if you want.

Anyway, if anyone has had any success with the RMA form, please let me know. Their tech support hasn't been able to help.

I too have noticed DVD-R skipping on several titles, at first I thought it was my 2 year old sons need to grind his Nemo DVD (backup copy #5) on the hardwood floor before he puts in the player. ;)...but now I'm concerned it may be the player.

More testing needed,

mb1010

Originally posted by monkeyboy1010
I too have noticed DVD-R skipping on several titles, at first I thought it was my 2 year old sons need to grind his Nemo DVD (backup copy #5) on the hardwood floor before he puts in the player. ;)...but now I'm concerned it may be the player.

More testing needed,

mb1010

This also happens on "ripped" dvd's Ive seen it watching Nemo and the last potter movie.

Originally posted by Tom Roper
My AVLP2 won't play about 75% of my DVD-Video from DVD-R media.

The DVD-ROM drive plays some of it, then just coughs, sputters, stutters and finally freezes.

I've emailed customer support.

This is not good news. Almost all my DVD's I make copies with DVD-R to play in my portable DVD player.




Signed:

The other Tom Roper
Houston

It took 36 pages for people to chime in on problems with playing DVD's! Thanks a lot! I just ordered one yesterday because I saw nothing negative on DVD playback.

It seams that all Sigma based "DVD players" had a lot DVD playablility problems , that was their week spot , each new firmware fixed some but introduced some new :(
I was hoping that EM8620L will solve that but it looks like we in the same movie once again :(

Originally posted by blackmax2k1
It took 36 pages for people to chime in on problems with playing DVD's! Thanks a lot! I just ordered one yesterday because I saw nothing negative on DVD playback.
This seems to be an isolated incident and futhur testing needs to be done no one is really reporting if its a specific commercial dvd that can be duplicated. Or if this is just issues with certain types of burnable media. Any way i thought you bought a HK DVD31??

Come on now, if this player is everything you want except it has a problem with DVD-Rs, are you really going to be upset about that? Just go to Best Buy or any other store in town and pick up a $30 or $40 DVD player for the DVD-Rs and don't worry about it. I'm always amazed when people complain because a DVD player is not 100% perfect. The fact is, DVD players are computers, and there's always a glitch somewhere. These days I think it's essential that you have at least 2 different players just for this kind of thing. Now if you'd just shelled out $1000 for one of the semi-highend players, maybe you should expect perfection. And more than likely, the DVD-R problem will probably be addressed in a future firmware update.

The Sigma playability problems are not the fault of Sigma, but the manufacturers of the players cutting corners and not designing the players up to Sigma specifications. (No, I don't work for Sigma, just repeating what I've heard for other Sigma-based players.)

I'm sorry Blackmax. I'm testing this stuff as fast as I can. It's been playing WMV9 fine from DVD-R media. It's been playing DVD Video fine from store-bought DVDs.

The problem seems to *most* (but not always) occur toward the latter parts of a movie, or about 1 hour+ into the movie, and usually closer to 1:20. To this point, I had been sampling DVD Video on DVD-R media, and not noticing a problem, but not watching whole movies in entirety.

My WMV9 video on DVD-R media have not had any problems, but they are short, usually filling less than 1/2 the disk.

It seems like it's a physical problem when the optical pickup nears the outer 25% of the disk surface. Was assuming it was just mine, and surprised a few others seem to be having issues as well.

The stuttering/freezing problem is not limited to just ripped backup copies of commercial DVDs. It also happens on DVD recordings I've made.

Originally posted by CJayB
Come on now, if this player is everything you want except it has a problem with DVD-Rs, are you really going to be upset about that? Just go to Best Buy or any other store in town and pick up a $30 or $40 DVD player for the DVD-Rs and don't worry about it. I'm always amazed when people complain because a DVD player is not 100% perfect.

I don't want a $30 player. I want a $240 player that upconverts my DVD's/DVD-R's, and as an added bonus, has network ability. This thing is a DVD player first. It should work in doing that.

I'll post my review when I get it.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by blackmax2k1
[B]I don't want a $30 player. I want a $240 player that upconverts my DVD's/DVD-R's, and as an added bonus, has network ability. This thing is a DVD player first. It should work in doing that.

I agree with blackmax2k it's a DVD player first and should be able to play both formats. I have an old Skyworth that has been flawless for the past 3 years. I just ordered mine on Tuesday.

I started with one of the problem DVDs, a recording I made off HBO of Minority Report starring Tom Cruise. It was skipping, then freezing on chapter 16 consistently.

First, I played it back in a variety of players.

1.) Panasonic RP82 - no problem
2.) Pioneer DV563A - no problem
3.) Panasonic DMR-E80H - no problem
4.) Compaq Presario Laptop PIII Windows 98SE - no problem
5.) Toshiba Portable 2.8mhz P4-HT - no problem
6.) AVLP2 LinkPlayer2 - consistent problem on chapter 16

I took the problem DVD, copied it and reburned to another DVD-R.

THAT one plays fine in the AVLP2.

*********************************
Conclusion:

It's obviously a problem the AVLP2 is having with my DVD-R media burns. Five out of six players have no problem with the same media. No one has ever told me that a DVD-R I burned for them played with problems.

It sucks...I don't know what to do. Anyone know if these DVD-ROM drives have generic replacements?

Originally posted by jakob1321

Anyway, if anyone has had any success with the RMA form, please let me know. Their tech support hasn't been able to help.

The form worked for me. Have not received response yet. Hoping customer support can save the day...

You know, it's not just DVD-R's. My Aliens dvd hangs for about three or four seconds (never in the same spot) about an hour and half into it. The second disk of the harry potter 3 set won't play in it at all. It goes through the menu sequence at 16x or so and then locks up. It won't play the Star Wars dvd's, either, without hiccups but I ignored that because others have had so many problems with them.

I agree with Tom - most of the lockups appear to be near the end of the discs.

That's not even the primary problem. The biggest problem (besides the soft output) is the network support. Firstly, the eject button seems to be disabled (even if it's not currently playing anything over the network) in random situations when the box is in "network" mode. I could see it disabling the eject button from the remote if it's playing something as a precaution, but it's horrible to have to wait two or three minutes for the thing to do a hard reboot because it randomly locks the drive. Also, the player gives no feedback for network errors, and will sometimes actually lock up. I can deal with the pauses between songs. I can't deal with a fifteen second delay for movie files when you don't know if it's going to play it or if it's locked up again.

The inability to catch the '&' bug (or at least mention it in the documentation) in directory names is a glaring error. I fought with the software for over a day before I finally realized that's what it was. They thought to fix it for the title name, so they could at least post something on the web site about the problem. It's extremely frustrating for nothing to give you an error message and still not have the thing work. It took looking at the neuston (sp?) server to find out about it.

I'm assuming the drive is IDE like the Lite-On. I know the chipset supports a couple of different interfaces, but I can't imagine they wouldn't use IDE for this. Whether or not you could fit one of the shorter Lite-on drives in it is anybody's guess. That being said, the Lite-on drives are extremely noisy, and once you've factored in a new drive and a new D4 cable and all of that, you're looking at an extra hundred bucks. if you're going ot keep it, it'd be worth it to save the money, sell it when the "expensive" DVI version comes out and use the extra hundred to buy the improved model.


On the other hand, Dell is about to launch a Non-TV Media Center 2k5 box (with DVI out) in january or febuary for relatively cheap. They're ditching the keyboard/mouse/monitor/tv tuner stuff so that they can release it in line with the costs of other networked dvd players.

Originally posted by Tom Roper
I'm sorry Blackmax. I'm testing this stuff as fast as I can. It's been playing WMV9 fine from DVD-R media. It's been playing DVD Video fine from store-bought DVDs.

The problem seems to *most* (but not always) occur toward the latter parts of a movie, or about 1 hour+ into the movie, and usually closer to 1:20. To this point, I had been sampling DVD Video on DVD-R media, and not noticing a problem, but not watching whole movies in entirety.

My WMV9 video on DVD-R media have not had any problems, but they are short, usually filling less than 1/2 the disk.

It seems like it's a physical problem when the optical pickup nears the outer 25% of the disk surface. Was assuming it was just mine, and surprised a few others seem to be having issues as well.

The stuttering/freezing problem is not limited to just ripped backup copies of commercial DVDs. It also happens on DVD recordings I've made.

Ya know this 1:20 thing and the issue I had with nemo, is this a culprit of a layer change? I will have to go back and check nemo to see if its still happening. I re ripped nemo to one vob and removed the layer break.

most if not all issued I'm seeing occur around the layer break this is with ripped dvd's. I have seen no issues with "store bought" dvd's but thats the one thing im trying to eliminate dvd's period. So most of my testing is with rips and video files.

Good news, Tom. I got an email from IO Data saying that they were generating an RMA number anyway.

Originally posted by jakob1321
[B]You know, it's not just DVD-R's. My Aliens dvd hangs for about three or four seconds (never in the same spot) about an hour and half into it. The second disk of the harry potter 3 set won't play in it at all. It goes through the menu sequence at 16x or so and then locks up. It won't play the Star Wars dvd's, either, without hiccups but I ignored that because others have had so many problems with them.


I have potter3 i'll see if this does the same here. Ripped starwars already and gave the disc's back cant check those.


I agree with Tom - most of the lockups appear to be near the end of the discs.

That's not even the primary problem. The biggest problem (besides the soft output) is the network support. Firstly, the eject button seems to be disabled (even if it's not currently playing anything over the network) in random situations when the box is in "network" mode. I could see it disabling the eject button from the remote if it's playing something as a precaution, but it's horrible to have to wait two or three minutes for the thing to do a hard reboot because it randomly locks the drive. Also, the player gives no feedback for network errors, and will sometimes actually lock up. I can deal with the pauses between songs. I can't deal with a fifteen second delay for movie files when you don't know if it's going to play it or if it's locked up again.

The eject button thing is an issue. I have not had to reboot my player at all.
I have seen error messages come back from the player but this was when browsing pictures. it seemed as if the network timed out or something. An error message on screen(TV) saying web page unavailable or something like that.

Originally posted by jakob1321
Good news, Tom. I got an email from IO Data saying that they were generating an RMA number anyway.

You were right again, I was wrong...the RMA link is broken.

I received a response to my request for an email, with a link to the RMA form page, that had NO FORM.

Your other observations and comments on the Lite-On loader, "&" and networking problem were helpful too, thanks.

I have not observed any network errors. I wonder if it's because I'm not using a router? I have only a single cross-Lan cable running between the PC and the AVLP2.

I thought I read that without the router, you couldn't have internet access. I'm not sure about that. By setting my dial-up network property to enable access from home network LAN, I was able to log into the blue page for the firmware update page without problem.

Originally posted by Tom Roper

It seems like it's a physical problem when the optical pickup nears the outer 25% of the disk surface. Was assuming it was just mine, and surprised a few others seem to be having issues as well.

The stuttering/freezing problem is not limited to just ripped backup copies of commercial DVDs. It also happens on DVD recordings I've made.


This is disturbing because it sounds very similar to a problem Denon had with some players. They had to replace transports in order to fix it.

I think the best players at reading discs are Pioneers. I had a 563A and it played everything with no lockups or stuttering.

Originally posted by jakob1321

I hate the server software, but IOData says that UPnP, while mentioned, isn't active yet but will be with the next firmware update. So you'll be able to use the Nero stuff if you want.

.

umm.. UPnP huh.? Well that is the latest standard to be adopted by current NAS units. Specifically the Tritton does UPnP.. This will be interesting.

F.

Well, I broke down and ordered one. Today is my birthday, so happy birthday to me! I was waiting for the KISS DP-600 since it may have DVI, but I heard from my source that while it was due to ship in the US this month up to a week ago, it was recently "delayed" by Microsoft!? Is there no end to the reach the guys from Redmond have? Anyway, hope I like the I-O. At least for now, I have all component switching anyway. My current Pioneer 563 DVD is literally inches in front of my component matrix switcher, so I may be the one guy on the planet that can use the included stubby cable conveniently.

Speaking of that, whomever reported on the JVC cable's improvements (I recall it may have been Tom?).......... was that comparison against just the shorty factory cable, or that cable & barrell RCA's to a longer component cable? Even if the short factory cable reaches for me, if there is a visible PQ improvement w/ the JVC I may have to consider it.

I have a MyHD connected RGB to my projector, and it is my primary movie DVD player (the cheap Pioneer is for simple wife/kid playback.) I also have a "special" HD TiVo that I can get shows from, if you know what I mean. So I will be able to do good comparison tests vs. HTPC/ MyHD DVD upscaling & from HD sources as well. Should be interesting. I'll report next week when it arrives. Wish I had it for this weekend.

On my player I noticed the EJECT DVD causes the unit to lock up in my machine if I am in Network mode. Not to mention the fact that the eject button response seems flaky. So many times you are hitting it twice and it opens half way and closes on you. Like its playing a game of catch me if you can. My wife and I have been through this a few times. You want to curse the machine at that moment.

I still love this thing however cause of the added features it brings to my family room. I've only watch 3 DVDs with no problem and it has been playing my Xvid files without any issue as well. Looking forward to the new firmware.

Ricardo

My unit just arrived today. Will be playing with it over the weekend.

Hmmm, I haven't had any problems with eject other than it will stop whatever is playing over the network when you hit the eject button.

DVD playback has been fine for me also other than the extras disk for HP 3, every other DVD I have thrown in it has been fine, but we aren't talking very many yet. I have ben playing with the network stuff much mroe than the DVd side of it.

Originally posted by irgaac
Hmmm, I haven't had any problems with eject other than it will stop whatever is playing over the network when you hit the eject button.

That is how mine behaves as well.

They authorized an exchange of my I-O Data LinkPlayer2. I remain hopeful, but my main reason for this post is to express my satisfaction with the I-O Data support group. Since before I purchased and after, they have been courteous and responsive.