any updates when the dvi wireless version will be released?? also will the us version output 1080i/720p through dvi?? And how is the picture of the new sigma chipset?? is as good or better than the momitsu or bravo d2??

Completely OFF topic from IOData...

But after seeing screenshots of DirecTV's live MPEG-4 AVC HDTV feed being demo'ed at CES 2005...

*Drool*

Okay. ;)

Originally posted by snoots
mabrym

make a copy of this file then try deleting it and restarting the server software, this path is for the advanced server there is one in the standard server directory in program files iodata also, I'm at work so I can't look as this machine only has advanced on it. If that doesn't work you might try editing the file in a good text editor.

C:\Documents and Settings\your user name\Application Data\I-O DATA DEVICE,INC\AVeL Link Advanced Server\Playlist.xml

Well I tried it but it didn't rebuild. This was for the advanced server, I don't have the files for the other server. I did a search for playlist and iodata and it's not there, I guess the advanced server overwrites it? All my playlists on the "regular" server still play fine.

Have anybody tried to connect an external USB-2 CD player to the AVLP/DVDG and checked if you could play DVDs over DVI that way? Does it play VOBs from USB-2 HDs to DVI?

(Would be no problem to mod it with internal USB-2 to ATAPI board if this is the solution)

I will have to sell my AVLP2 if I cant get it to play DVDs over DVI. Thats my main reason for getting it. HD was just an extra spice.

Anyone else having problems with the loader ?
It usually opens only half way and then reverse back to close :(
It's real challenge to get DVD in or out ....

Originally posted by lifeisfun
Anyone else having problems with the loader ?
It usually opens only half way and then reverse back to close :(
It's real challenge to get DVD in or out ....

Using the eject button on the remote usually does the trick for me....

Originally posted by Bjorn_E
Using the eject button on the remote usually does the trick for me....

thanks !
.... but you have the same problems as well if using eject button on the front panel ?

Originally posted by lifeisfun
thanks !
.... but you have the same problems as well if using eject button on the front panel ?

Yep. Someone didn't do their state machine homework.

Yup

Originally posted by MVBJJ
Had my LinkPlayer since Nov. and I cannot figure out why I lose network connection occassionally while in standby. In other words I no longer can see my folders in my default folder and watch list. My LAN has been bullet proof and I don't suspect any problems with that. I never lose connection while playing a file over the network. Any one found a way to refresh the network connection on the link player? Have tried powering off link player and also selecting the network button on the remote. My only solution is to reboot my main server which refreshes my network connection. Thoughts? Thanks!

How you connect your player and which version of firmware you using ? It maybe cause by the firmware!?

Originally posted by mattdb
Has any one succesfully played any DTS audio only cds? All I get is static. And yes I have a DTS receiver in DTS mode. Yamaha 5490.

Also does anyone have a Marantz SR7500 they are using?

Matt

You using the DVD audio extractor to do so ?
What format you save the dts audio files? as I can help you to check it out.

I have tested playback the 7GB VOB(rip from DVD9) file through network is fine. I think the limitation in USB HDD is that the USB port on player just support FAT32, which limit max file saiz to 4GB.

Originally posted by 5509
How you connect your player and which version of firmware you using ? It maybe cause by the firmware!? \

I am running the latest firmware from last week in December. My link player is connected to a linksys 5 port workgroup switch which is always on. Server connected to port 1 and linkplayer to port 4. Ports 2 and 3 serve other PCs in my kids rooms. Port 5 and uplink are vacant.
Connections are solid while streaming video and audio. Not sure why linkplayer seems to intermittantly lose connection while in standby. Last night connection remained intact. Previous night had to reboot PC to refresh connections. PC server always on as well. Have reported the problem to I-O Data. Seems like I need a way to refresh the connection through linkplayer.

Here is how to configure the LinkPlayer2 and DVArchive so that the LinkPlayer can view and play ReplayTV files through DVArchive:

1) Close DVArchive

2) Copy C:\Program Files\DVArchive\Templates\Standard\Web\common\Info_RTV_SHOW. vm to C:\Program Files\DVArchive\Templates\Custom\Web\common\Info_RTV_SHOW.vm

3) Edit the custom Info_RTV_SHOW.vm file, and change the following line:

<A HREF="$selectedShow.playbackURL"><IMG SRC="$dvarchive.getImageURL("buttons/playShow.gif")" BORDER=0 ALT="[Play]"></A>

to

<A HREF="$selectedShow.playbackURL" vod="mpeg"><IMG SRC="$dvarchive.getImageURL("buttons/playShow.gif")" BORDER=0 ALT="[Play]"></A>


4) Restart DVArchive

5) On the LinkPlayer2, Log in screen, select the "New" button, and then enter a new entry named "DVArchive" with IP "192.168.0.3:28888" (with the IP address and port number for your DVArchive program)

That's it! Now you can select "DVArchive" from the log in screen, browse to a show, and select play to play the shows.

The trick here is the 'A HREF=' link to play MPEG video files must include the string ' vod="mpeg" ' to tell the LinkPlayer that this is a mpeg file. Simply browsing to a file with video/mpeg MIME type is not sufficient.

You can also use ' vod="playlist" ' to indicate playlists of video files, where a playlist file has one video file per line, using the format:

http://192.168.0.1:8042/replayShow.mpg?DVR=Lime&ShowID=1087880398

or

Santa%20Clause|0|0|http://192.168.0.1:8042/replayShow.mpg?DVR=Lime&ShowID=1103849997&ext=.mpg|

Originally posted by imarkup
I read that the unit will show photos of up to 2048x1532 in HDTV resolution. Is that the maximum??

Cameras are now sold with 10-12 megapixels .... PLEASE tell me they did not introduce a stupid limitation like this. This renders the photo viewing useless for all but the simplest pictures.

I understand the HDTV resolution is no where near 6 mega pixels, but at least let me view a "shrunk" version of the photo (with zoom capabilities).

The idea of "converting" photos to a smaller size is laughable. I have 7-8000 photos on the PC. That would be like asking people who ripped their CD collection to MP3 at 320k, to re-encode them at 128k because of a stupid player limitation. Calm down. I have a 7 megapixel camera and it displays the .jpg pictures just fine. This is over network, anyway. I can not, as far as I can tell, zoom the displayed picture however.

Originally posted by imarkup
I read that the unit will show photos of up to 2048x1532 in HDTV resolution. Is that the maximum??

I can display 3MP, 4MP, and 5MP files off of a USB drive plugged into the front of the unit. Also, the network server software has an automatic downsizing option.

What a great thread !

I'm really anxious to buy this player, but before I take the plunge can someone answer this question:

When this player is connected to main HDTV using 1080i component Video and Optical out through digital audio receiver, does it ( or can it?) also output downscaled 480i and analog audio through composite RCA jacks SIMULTANEOUSLY ?

I need this feature so I can feed ChannelPlus modulator and watch videos on TVs in other rooms.

Please let me know, I'm itching to buy this thing :D

Oh my gosh this thread is huge. This player needs it's own forum so people can ask a question without being buried in all this.

Anyway, has anyone missed around with the player and made new skins?

Does anyone know if there is a way to read DVD ISOs. I like to archive my DVDs onto my hard drive to play them instead of loading them into the player. However, you can read the VOB's but there are no menus.

Divx files are cool. Anyway to put chapter points in them? I was thinking of breaking the file up in 10 min chunks and playing them back in order. If I wanted to move chapters I would just do >>| and |<<


I got my player on Friday. I really like it.

Thanks

What a mess. Deeply regret having acquired this item. English support from I-O is a joke.
I would only recommend this device to technicians or those with nothing better to do.
Got the LANDISK and that sent the frustration through the roof.
Way too complex for the average punter like myself.

Originally posted by Horace Oates
What a mess. Deeply regret having acquired this item. English support from I-O is a joke.
I would only recommend this device to technicians or those with nothing better to do.
Got the LANDISK and that sent the frustration through the roof.
Way too complex for the average punter like myself.

It would be nice to let us know more details :)

Originally posted by Horace Oates
What a mess. Deeply regret having acquired this item. English support from I-O is a joke.
I would only recommend this device to technicians or those with nothing better to do.
Got the LANDISK and that sent the frustration through the roof.
Way too complex for the average punter like myself.

yap, please give more detail as we can share experience about this player.

I know this was a problem initially but has anyone had success with playing dual layer DVD's? Commercial and/or burned ones?

I love this player. I'm having no problems playing Commercial and/or burned dvd's + or -.

Where have you bought your LinkPlayer from? I'm in the USA and would like to get one, but hopefully from a place with a return policy.

Thanks much,
Eric

Order it from IO here in the US

http://www.iodata.com/usa/

Originally posted by WillGonz
Anyway, has anyone missed around with the player and made new skins?
See this post: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=4813865&highlight=theme#post4813865

Originally posted by Horace Oates
What a mess. Deeply regret having acquired this item. English support from I-O is a joke.
I would only recommend this device to technicians or those with nothing better to do.
Got the LANDISK and that sent the frustration through the roof.
Way too complex for the average punter like myself. So you're frustrated with the network operation? What about the AVLP2's superb operation as an upconverting DVD player for $250? Or it's ability to play and upconvert all DivX/Xvid, Nero Digital, WMV-HD, High Definition, etc. files and play flawlessly? (especially as compared to Philips DVP642). For those two reasons alone the player is well worth the purchase price. My AVLP2 replaced a Sony NS700p I paid $450 for at Best Buy (the NS700p plays only regular DVD's, and has progressive scan), and the AVLP2 produces a superior picture quality. (It also replaced the DVP642 but that player is junk). Network functionality for the AVLP2 is gravy, albeit, very good tasting gravy :)

Speaking of network operation, for me it was extremely simple. Install and run LinkServer on your PC. Enter PC's IP address into LinkPlayer. That's it. If you are having network problems and are frustrated with IO Data's help (they've always been very responsive to my requests), why don't you post to this thread and maybe someone can help you? No sense deeply regretting anything around here... :)

Calm down. I have a 7 megapixel camera and it displays the .jpg pictures just fine. This is over network, anyway. I can not, as far as I can tell, zoom the displayed picture however. What software are you using for this? I am able to play back files larger than 2048x1532 with the "advanced server" but I am unable to play them using the Momitsu and Avel linkserver.

I didn't even have to put in the IP of the server. It just saw it.

Hey what is with the Divx VOD and the reg code. What can I do with it?

This player is great.

Originally posted by uofmtiger
What software are you using for this? I am able to play back files larger than 2048x1532 with the "advanced server" but I am unable to play them using the Momitsu and Avel linkserver. I'm using Momitsu. I haven't tried with the other two variants. Huh, it was such a non-issue I never thought twice about it. I just checked my settings and I have "enable photo scaling" checked in the Momitsu preferences. Maybe this is the difference?

Can this thing do a custom resolution of say, 1024x768p which is the native resolution of my soon to be purchased plasma?

I don't think so .....

Anybody got any link for the Momitsu server for Mac? Nobody at the Momitsu 880N thread seams to be willing to help me...

Originally posted by WillGonz
Hey what is with the Divx VOD and the reg code. What can I do with it?

Watch DivX VOD, silly. ;)

I believe that there are some links on the DivX site to some VOD sites. I also think DVD Empire offers some DivX VOD porn.

VIDEO ON DEMAND

the divx vod seem like the divx drm, it generate 8 digit code, then you send to the site which support divx vod. So you can playback the divx drm file.

Originally posted by DouglasCleary
Can this thing do a custom resolution of say, 1024x768p which is the native resolution of my soon to be purchased plasma?

Yes, the player support for 1024x768.

Originally posted by 5509
Yes, the player support for 1024x768.

And where you set up that ? ( exactly 768 )

Originally posted by catware
So you're frustrated with the network operation? What about the AVLP2's superb operation as an upconverting DVD player for $250? Or it's ability to play and upconvert all DivX/Xvid, Nero Digital, WMV-HD, High Definition, etc. files and play flawlessly? (especially as compared to Philips DVP642). For those two reasons alone the player is well worth the purchase price. My AVLP2 replaced a Sony NS700p I paid $450 for at Best Buy (the NS700p plays only regular DVD's, and has progressive scan), and the AVLP2 produces a superior picture quality. (It also replaced the DVP642 but that player is junk). Network functionality for the AVLP2 is gravy, albeit, very good tasting gravy :)

Speaking of network operation, for me it was extremely simple. Install and run LinkServer on your PC. Enter PC's IP address into LinkPlayer. That's it. If you are having network problems and are frustrated with IO Data's help (they've always been very responsive to my requests), why don't you post to this thread and maybe someone can help you? No sense deeply regretting anything around here... :)

Well, the cheap bastards could at least afford a professional rewriter to polish that website info. It's a total joke. Almost every paragraph has to be mentally rewritten so this Tom Consumer here can underand it. It's simple when you are a techie who loves this work. Personally I have moved on, I expect stuff to work now, just that. Ten years ago it was different.

Try adding the LANDISK to the setup, it's nuts. Try to to use the LANDISK with the AVel only Vs using it on the network. . . and the remote controller feels like it's about to die in your hands, horribly unresponsive. Plus I am in Japan, with Japanese firmware . . blah blah blah. . . I just want to say that I am stuck with it, I already have DVD players, I wanted a network player that would set up like they show: 1, 3, 3, and you're a happy man? Doesn't work like that, not for this idiot.

Horace Oates, if you don't like this player move on. Why do you have to cuss in your posts?

Originally posted by Bjorn_E
Anybody got any link for the Momitsu server for Mac? Nobody at the Momitsu 880N thread seams to be willing to help me...

You've probably already been there but..

http://www.momitsu.com/dvd_880n_mac.html

It appears you have to request it via email. Apparently, they don't want to share there work with non-momitsu owners.

Okay, I have fully committed and decided to keep the LinkPlayer in my lineup and make it my go-to media player for now, shelving the HTPC for the time being. I have converted my DVD rips to single file .vob's of the main movie only. DVD Shrink made it very easy to create seperate .vob files for trailers & any extras I want to keep, and I just put those in a different folder. Seems to work well so far.

So now I want to play with internet radio & RSS. How does one set this up with the Momitsu server?Where do I enter the web radio stations I want to use? I have downloaded iTunes for PC and have it set up to use iTunes music folder, where I imported all my MP3's. But how does the web radio work, and can you enter custom stations (like those from shoutcast?) How about RSS feeds? Any way to show weather forecast, for instance? Perhaps I will just have it go to my yahoo page, but that may be too large to see well. Anyone messed around with radio or web on the Momitsu server?

Originally posted by lmengel
You've probably already been there but..

http://www.momitsu.com/dvd_880n_mac.html

It appears you have to request it via email. Apparently, they don't want to share there work with non-momitsu owners.

Yes, been there. They require a Momitsu serial number...

/BE

I was able to get radiostations but I think they were just pulled from my iTunes for pc. I will look when I get home . The web browsing was very slow on my player and since I am still using an older 4:3 tv was not too usable.

Don't know about the PC's Itune, but on my apple, I created a new Itune's playlist called IRadio (any name will do) and dragged the radio stations from Itune's Radio to it. I believe all you need to add shout cast stations, is to drag them over there too.

This works on the Linkplayer server too.

Originally posted by mikemav
Where do I enter the web radio stations I want to use?
If you go to the "internet" section, you will see links for RSS and Internet Radio. These appear to be fixed content provided by an external server.

I haven't found a way to add stations to the built-in list, but you can set up your own stations by creating a "station.pls" file in the "C:\program files\MOMITSU MEDIA CENTER\webapps\ROOT" folder (going from memory, but I think that is right - this is the base directory for the images and other static content). "Station.pls" must be a text file containing the URL of the radio station. Then you can create a "favorites" link in Internet Explorer pointing to "http://192.168.0.1:8000/station.pls" (fill in your IP address and port number).

Then you can just go to the LinkPlayer, browse to "Internet" on the momitsu server, and you will see your list of internet explorer favorites. Select the link for station.pls to start playing the station.

I am pretty interested in this player. I have thought about going a couple ways with this setup. I have a 300 gig drive that I want to use as the source for the av link. I thought about serving the 300 gig drive off of another pc, but do I have to do this? I want to put the drive on the usb port of the avlink, but then I can not serve the files on the drive to other pcs on the network. (can I?) The other thing is I want to play all of the files for the movies I have copied, but I need for it to play the menus. Let me know if all of this makes sense...

It won't play the menus.
The problem with connecting the drive directly to the player is that it has to be formatted FAT32. That means you cannot have files larger than 2GB.

Will they put out a firmware that will work with NTFS? If not, that is really dumb. Most people nowadays use NTFS. It is more effecient. Dang.

I'm almost tempted to packet sniff and reverse engineer the server software and write my own server software...

Hrm.

Wish it was open source.

Originally posted by 5509
You using the DVD audio extractor to do so ?
What format you save the dts audio files? as I can help you to check it out.

I just downloaded some DTS CD from usenet to see how they would sound.

One was Dire Straits and the other was some Floyd

Originally posted by Kermee
I'm almost tempted to packet sniff and reverse engineer the server software and write my own server software...

Hrm.

Wish it was open source.

Well, adding things like different backgrounds, changing font sizes, etc... has already been done, at least for the Momitus (see the great theme by Jakob.) What I would love to see next (and gladly PayPal a developer for) is some more rich media content on the web pages generated by the server. Such as cover art for DVDs and music; that would be a great start. If we figure out how to insert a picture on the detail page for an entry (the one you get when you hit enter on a list of DVD folders, for example, and it takes you to the actual file)........then the sky is the limit. Since it is just a web server really, I don't see why third party applications can't be linked. Wouldn't it be great to have it tied to something like DVD Profiler to auto-lookup the info in the PC & add it to the server's XML info?

To me the ultimate would be a script when you insert a disc on the PC that
A) asks you "do you want to play this on the HTPC or add to library?,
B) (if add to library), looks it up on DVD profiler or similar&
B1), rips it using command line parameters from DVD Decrypter, &
B2) adds the Profiler info (pic, short description) to the Linkplayer server database.

That way I could go through the 200+ more DVD discs I own that I want to rip much more quickly.
Of course, .ifo from the network support would be great, but as discussed, that may be a client side (LinkPlayer firmware) issue.

mikemav,

I'm tempted to looking into this. I'm not trying to get anyone's hopes up, but my own need for some of these features will probably spur some type of development time I can spare in my free time for server software.

BTW- I've looked at the IOData firmware size and the actual flash file is 1,507,344 bytes. Only about 1,099,140 bytes of it actually has any 'software' in it. It's definitely not ROMFS unlike the KiSS stand-lone units which run Linux.

Originally posted by mikemav
Well, adding things like different backgrounds, changing font sizes, etc... has already been done, at least for the Momitus (see the great theme by Jakob.) What I would love to see next (and gladly PayPal a developer for) is some more rich media content on the web pages generated by the server. Such as cover art for DVDs and music; that would be a great start. If we figure out how to insert a picture on the detail page for an entry (the one you get when you hit enter on a list of DVD folders, for example, and it takes you to the actual file)........then the sky is the limit. Since it is just a web server really, I don't see why third party applications can't be linked. Wouldn't it be great to have it tied to something like DVD Profiler to auto-lookup the info in the PC & add it to the server's XML info?

To me the ultimate would be a script when you insert a disc on the PC that
A) asks you "do you want to play this on the HTPC or add to library?,
B) (if add to library), looks it up on DVD profiler or similar&
B1), rips it using command line parameters from DVD Decrypter, &
B2) adds the Profiler info (pic, short description) to the Linkplayer server database.

That way I could go through the 200+ more DVD discs I own that I want to rip much more quickly.
Of course, .ifo from the network support would be great, but as discussed, that may be a client side (LinkPlayer firmware) issue.

Originally posted by Kermee
BTW- I've looked at the IOData firmware size and the actual flash file is 1,507,344 bytes. Only about 1,099,140 bytes of it actually has any 'software' in it. It's definitely not ROMFS unlike the KiSS stand-lone units which run Linux.

Do you have any idea about what format it could be, if its not romfs?

/BE

It seems that IO-DATA USA Technical Support, in San Jose , doesn’t exist. I purchased the Link Player (it works great) & the 300gig Hard Drive (not working). The Hard Drive worked for about 5 minutes transferring data from my computer to the Hard Drive then quit. All it does is the power light keeps flashing for hours with the power switch in the on or off position. It will not transfer data.
I’ve EMAILED IO-DATA numerous times but have not heard from them.
I’ve called the Customer Care Center numerous times but have only talked to a recorded message. I’ve left my name and telephone number.
My next step is to call my bank and have them VOID my VISA payment to I-O DATA.
Maybe then they will get in touch with me.

There was holiday in Japan ...

What I would like to see is a way to read DVD ISO's. There is another product that does this the Modix HD-3510 www . tomshardware . com/consumer/20050106/modix-08.html

Under the section "Total Control With DVD Directories" you can basically select an IFO file and the menu loads. That would be really sweet with this player.

Anyone have any word on a way to do Divx chapter points? Maybe I can split the divx file up every five minutes and then play it in order and then I can skip files as if they were chapters.

My LinkPlayer2 will not output DTS Audio from a DTS Audio CD. I can put the disc in my Sampo and in my Playstion2 and I get great audio to my Marantz SR7500.

Maybe they can fix this in the future firmware. I would love to be able to play these through the network.

Matt

Originally posted by Kermee
I'm almost tempted to packet sniff and reverse engineer the server software and write my own server software...

There is no need to packet sniff. It works like a standard web browser, so you can use Internet Explorer to look at what it does. Just go to http://localhost:8000 and then view the source. Video streaming is done using standard HTTP/1.1 and the "Range" header to control the file location.

You could fairly easily reproduce the behavior with a stock web server (Apache) with some server CGI scripts. The key tricks are:

1) to get internet radio or just general audio streaming, create a .pls file, with one line containing the URL of the internet radio stream or pointing to the mp3 file on your local server.

2) to play mpeg video files directly, use a link like this:

<A HREF="http://192.168.0.1:8000/whatever.mpg" vod="mpeg">

The trick here is the vod="mpeg" tells the LinkPlayer that this will be a video stream. (For some silly reason it doesn't auto-detect when it gets the video/mpeg mime type.)

3) to play mpeg video files via a playlist file (which will allow concatenating multiple files - should work like chapters I think), use a link like this:

<A HREF="http://192.168.0.1:8000/whatever.pls" vod="playlist">

The trick here is the vod="playlist" tells the LinkPlayer that this is a playlist file containing video streams, with one line per video stream. The whatever.pls file then must contain the URL of the video stream, something like

http://192.168.0.1:8000/whatever.mpg

It also accepts this form of playlist:

Stream Title Here|0|0|http://192.168.0.1:8000/whatever.mpg|


Also, back a few pages jakob mentioned that he was starting to write his own server: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=4842925#post4842925 He has been quiet, so maybe he is hard at work ;)

I've tweaked jakob1321's theme so it works nicely in non-HD-Browser mode, and changed the logo to "LinkPlayer". See the attached .zip file. To install, just extract this into the C:\Program Files\MOMITSU MEDIA CENTER\webapps\ROOT\theme directory, and then select the new "linkserver" theme in the Momitsu application. This theme will not work in the I-O Data version of the server software.

To reduce the size I didn't include the "slide" subdirectory, so you should copy that directory over to the new "linkplayer" theme directory from some other theme, if you want to use the default slide show while playing music.

Hey Flipflop,

Have you tried this playlist idea with video files yet? (i.e. mpg or vob's?) I am curious to know if this method has any pauses between the files as is experienced with playing vob's out of a directory.

I would think this might eliminate the large VOB file issue all have been dealing with due to the pauses between vob files.

BTW, I ordered my linkplayer the other day and can't wait to try it out with my HTPC and video server. I will be one of those that will need to redo their video collection to make it compatible with the linkplayers network file restrictions (file size, and menu issues).

I may have missed this information, but can the LinkPlayer software navigate to "virtual" CD/DVD drives located on a PC?

And if so, might it be able to play an .ISO image of a Mpeg2/DVD file?


Cheers

Originally posted by SeeMoreDigital
I may have missed this information, but can the LinkPlayer software navigate to "virtual" CD/DVD drives located on a PC?

And if so, might it be able to play an .ISO image of a Mpeg2/DVD file?


Cheers

I asked a similar question a while back (check the last post on page 34) and the following response from irgaac on page 35:

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.

Bummer - that would have been a good work around.

Has anyone been able to playback a WMV DVD on the Avel player? All I get are color blocks on the entire screen. I am using the December 29th firmware. Thanks!

my understanding is no one has foudn the discrete code yet ... not sure about the other questions.

Originally posted by SeeMoreDigital
I may have missed this information, but can the LinkPlayer software navigate to "virtual" CD/DVD drives located on a PC?

And if so, might it be able to play an .ISO image of a Mpeg2/DVD file?


Cheers

I was thinking the same, maybe if it was on the PC hosting the server software it would allow access to the virtual drive. I can't test this until this weekend when I expect to get my unit but that is definitly on my list of things to try. Anyone out there try this approach?? Let us know if this works. Thx

Can anyone confirm if this player supports discreet on / off commands or if there is a workaround? (play or eject turn on the unit when in standby)

Can't seem to get a reply from I O data.

TIA,

Rob

Looks like the USA DVI version won't be out till later this year. I emailed IO Data and got this response...

Thank you for the good question. But now we cannot say when it will be available in 2005. I guess Q3, but cannot guarantee. I can say one thing. It will be a much higher spec product. Perhaps, the current LinkPlayer users may have more interest to buy this new one. Thank you.

I have noticed that the remote can be slow or unresponsive even in dvd mode. It appears that the ir receiver is deep in the front of the unit and may be blocked partially. Has anyone who has dismantled their unit looked into this?

Matt

Originally posted by Dolfo
Bummer - that would have been a good work around. Indeed.... What a damn shame!


Cheers

Why would that be any different than connecting to the server's DVD drive (which does work)? How could it differentiate between a physical and a virtual drive?

Originally posted by SeeMoreDigital
I may have missed this information, but can the LinkPlayer software navigate to "virtual" CD/DVD drives located on a PC?

And if so, might it be able to play an .ISO image of a Mpeg2/DVD file?


Cheers

Ok this is what I did.

I made my virtual drive watchable in the Server software.
I use Alcohol 120% to mount the ISO.
I use AnyDVD to turn off CSS.
I then select the VOB and play it from the player in my living room.
However, it is a bummer that the menus don't show up.
Only one works at a time.
However, if someone wrote their own server software they could add a feature to automount the DVD when the DVD is Selected. I could do this with IIS and CGI scripts. I hope to be able to do this so it looks good with menus and all. Because then it would be like having an unlimited DVD changer.

Originally posted by WillGonz
I use Alcohol 120% to mount the ISO.
I use AnyDVD to turn off CSS.
Why not turn of CSS during iso creation and save a step? As for iso mounting, I use daemon tools (free).

Has anyone tried what Flipflop suggested and create a playlist using either Mpeg or VOB's? What I am curious about is whether this method has a pause between files (this is relating to 1 gig VOB files or similar) when playing them back via network.

I would try this but do not have my player yet to attempt this.

Originally posted by Kewan
Looks like the USA DVI version won't be out till later this year. I emailed IO Data and got this response...

Thank you for the good question. But now we cannot say when it will be available in 2005. I guess Q3, but cannot guarantee. I can say one thing. It will be a much higher spec product. Perhaps, the current LinkPlayer users may have more interest to buy this new one. Thank you.

"much higher spec product"

I wonder what that means exactly. Is it going to include much of the hardware/software "enhancements" that we have noticed the current player lacks (such as multi-channel analog audio outputs and IFO handling)? I have been under the impression they would just re-package the player that TUFU originally bought with English menus, but that wouldn't be "much higher spec" than the current player (of course, DVI support will pump up the specs a little, but not that much) and definitely would not need so long to develop (unless they need that much time to finalize their licensing for DVI usage).

I think they refer to H.264 and HDCP support, etc...

Perhaps it will use the Sigma 8630 chip...

Originally posted by epsilon
Why not turn of CSS during iso creation and save a step? As for iso mounting, I use daemon tools (free). Agreed.. I generate my ISO's using DVDdecrypter and mount them with Daemon tools

The good thing is, at least starcruiser, was able to navigate to the virtual drive!


Cheers

Originally posted by epsilon
I think they refer to H.264 and HDCP support, etc...

Perhaps it will use the Sigma 8630 chip... This is exactly what Jack Akira told me. The 8620 chip is pretty slow and the next US release they are working on is based on the 8630 chip and will support H.264. It is due out sometime later this year.

Originally posted by starcruiser
Have you tried this playlist idea with video files yet? (i.e. mpg or vob's?) I am curious to know if this method has any pauses between the files as is experienced with playing vob's out of a directory.
I've tried it, and it does work, but there is a short break between the files. You can use the previous/next remote buttons to change files. If you rip your DVD with one file per chapter, then the short pause would be only at the chapter breaks, and you could skip around by chapter easily enough.

well since you guys are mentioning that the newer version will have the newer better chipset, do you think its worth buying the current version?

Originally posted by Chhuong
well since you guys are mentioning that the newer version will have the newer better chipset, do you think its worth buying the current version?

I doubt players with the new chipset will be out before next year.

Great. The DVD loader in my AVLP2 just died. Tried 4 different commercial discs. A couple DVD-R's, DVD+R's and CD-R's.

"Spin spin... Click. Spin Spin... Click."

Changed speed settings from 'Very Slow' to 'Slow' to 'Default'. No changed. Rolled back firmware. Cold-cycled the player. No change.

Guess it's time to RMA. *Sigh*

Originally posted by FlipFlop
I've tried it, and it does work, but there is a short break between the files. You can use the previous/next remote buttons to change files. If you rip your DVD with one file per chapter, then the short pause would be only at the chapter breaks, and you could skip around by chapter easily enough. Can you confirm how you managed to get the .ISO movie started?

Were you able to navigate to the DVD's "VIDEO_TS.IFO" file? Or did the DVD just start up by itself, once the "virtual drive" was selected?


Cheers

Originally posted by SeeMoreDigital
Can you confirm how you managed to get the .ISO movie started?

Were you able to navigate to the DVD's "VIDEO_TS.IFO" file? Or did the DVD just start up by itself, once the "virtual drive" was selected?
All I did was create a playlist of .vob files. No menus, no IFO, no ISO, no virtual drive. IF you rip the DVD with one .vob file per chapter, then the forward/next buttons can be used to jump by chapter.

The playlist looked like this:


Chapter 1|0|0|http://192.168.0.1:8000/dvd/VTS_1_1.VOB|
Chapter 2|0|0|http://192.168.0.1:8000/dvd/VTS_1_2.VOB|
Chapter 3|0|0|http://192.168.0.1:8000/dvd/VTS_1_3.VOB|
Chapter 4|0|0|http://192.168.0.1:8000/dvd/VTS_1_4.VOB|
Chapter 5|0|0|http://192.168.0.1:8000/dvd/VTS_1_5.VOB|
Chapter 6|0|0|http://192.168.0.1:8000/dvd/VTS_1_6.VOB|
Chapter 7|0|0|http://192.168.0.1:8000/dvd/VTS_1_7.VOB|

Save this in "c:\program files\momitsu media server\webapps\root\dvd\test.pls"

Then you need an HTML file with a link to this, with the special "vod" flag so it gets played as a streaming video instead of streaming audio:

<html><head></head><body>
<a href="http://192.168.0.1:8000/dvd/test.pls" vod="playlist">Test DVD</A>
</body>

Save this in "c:\program files\momitsu media server\webapps\root\dvd\test.html"

Now if you bring up the http://192.168.0.1:8000/dvd/test.html page on the LinkPlayer, you can click the link to play the movie. The easiest way to do this is to navigate there on your computer and save a "Favorites" link. This link will then show in the internet section on the Linkplayer (using Momitsu software).

The trick is the DVD files must be in a subfolder of "c:\program files\momitsu media server\webapps\root" so the are visible through the web links without the special "playvideo" scripts. Also, the web server is case-Sensitive, even though windows is not, so you mush make sure your URLs all have the proper case.

This is awkward to set up this way, but it may be possible to parse out the IFO files and automatically generate pages and links like this with a web server CGI script. If you could also convert the menu MPEG movies into static JPEG bitmaps, you might even be able to recreate a set of web pages that somewhat resembles the menu structure.

When I play DVD's off the network, I have just been navigating to the VIDEO folder and selecting play all. No Chapter points, and there is a slight pause between files.

Seems to be the same as creating a playlist. Just on the fly.

Matt

Originally posted by catware
This is exactly what Jack Akira told me. The 8620 chip is pretty slow and the next US release they are working on is based on the 8630 chip and will support H.264. It is due out sometime later this year.

Hmmm - I guess they abandoned the release of the AVLP2/DVDG in the U.S.? The current U.S. version is the AVLP2/DVDLA and the AVLP2/DVDG was supposed to be the same player, but with HDCP-compliant DVI output. I would think a player with the new Sigma chipset would probably carry a "AVLP3" designation, indicating a new line and highlighting the more advanced chipset.

I guess we'll see later this year.

Originally posted by mattdb
Seems to be the same as creating a playlist. Just on the fly.
Exactly! What I was attempting to point out is how to manually do the same thing and get the LinkPlayer to stream the video. By understanding this, it would be possible to, for example, make a server script that parses the IFO file, and creates playlists organized by content descriptions in the IFO file. Then you get one playlist for the main movie, different playlists for special features, and hide the files that are for menu transitions. This would make video selection somewhat cleaner than the current browse-and-play-all method, especially for things like Finding Nemo which has 30 or so separate videos, most of which are simply menu transitions.

http://www.exit1.org/dvdrip/ is written in perl, and has some IFO file parsing routines that could be used in scripts to make these playlists.

However, since the Linkplayer simply renders HTML pages, you are very restricted in what you can do as far as reproducing the menus. I wonder if they support Flash or Java where a browser-side application could be written?

Originally posted by FlipFlop
Exactly! What I was attempting to point out is how to manually do the same thing and get the LinkPlayer to stream the video. By understanding this, it would be possible to, for example, make a server script that parses the IFO file, and creates playlists organized by content descriptions in the IFO file. Then you get one playlist for the main movie, different playlists for special features, and hide the files that are for menu transitions. This would make video selection somewhat cleaner than the current browse-and-play-all method, especially for things like Finding Nemo which has 30 or so separate videos, most of which are simply menu transitions.

http://www.exit1.org/dvdrip/ is written in perl, and has some IFO file parsing routines that could be used in scripts to make these playlists.

However, since the Linkplayer simply renders HTML pages, you are very restricted in what you can do as far as reproducing the menus. I wonder if they support Flash or Java where a browser-side application could be written?

The menus themselves are usually .vob files or titles on the DVD structure. I noticed this when doing a play-all on that very disc (Nemo.) One of the files it played was the menu with motion video. If you could play that and overlay HTML links somehow on the background video, it would work like the DVD. However, I don't think you can play video & browse links at the same time. It is probably using some kind of mode-switch to switch between the file browse mode and the play mode.

Originally posted by Dolfo
Hmmm - I guess they abandoned the release of the AVLP2/DVDG in the U.S.? The current U.S. version is the AVLP2/DVDLA and the AVLP2/DVDG was supposed to be the same player, but with HDCP-compliant DVI output. I would think a player with the new Sigma chipset would probably carry a "AVLP3" designation, indicating a new line and highlighting the more advanced chipset.

I guess we'll see later this year. Yes, that's what he told me. Jack is [one of?] the Sales Manager[s?] at the San Jose, CA office. When I was at their office to purchase the AVLP2, I asked him when the DVI version would be released. Instead he replied that the next US release will have the 8630 chipset model because the 8620 is too slow for H.264, and they are trying to have it out "later this year" or so.

To answer Chhuong's question, I do think it is worth buying the current AVLP2. It is plenty fast (in my experience) for playing current High Definition DivX/Xvid and WMV-HD content. The only slowness I experience with the AVLP2 are in network/usb menu transitions (~4 seconds) and selection changes (0 - ~1sec). But this player is much better than the Philips DVP642 I had before. I had rampant lipsyncing problems and it didn't play 2/3 of the DivX/Xvid content I had without my having to reencode. The AVLP2 plays literally everthing I throw at it (not literally throw). I don't know anything about what H.264 offers.

As gtrogue said, the next player won't likely be out until next Christmas, if at all in '05. When it is released there will be something bigger, better, and faster than that right around the corner - there always, always is. The question you must answer for yourself is how long you want to wait, and what your minimum entry requirements are.

I was finally able to get album covers to display while playing mp3s. But it seems the only way to do this is to put each cover in it's own folder. Since all my cover jpgs are in the folders with the mp3s from the album, I'm going to make a copy of all these folders and then delete the mp3s from them leaving only the cover. That's got to be faster than creating and naming new folders in Explorer. But I have one problem. The album cover displays for about 2 seconds, then it fades away and the default picture fades in. Then the cover fades back in. Is there any way to get the cover to display longer?

Originally posted by catware
Yes, that's what he told me. Jack is [one of?] the Sales Manager[s?] at the San Jose, CA office. When I was at their office to purchase the AVLP2, I asked him when the DVI version would be released. Instead he replied that the next US release will have the 8630 chipset model because the 8620 is too slow for H.264, and they are trying to have it out "later this year" or so. Thinking "why would they shoot themselves in the foot?", we called I-O Data to see what's going on.

They said it was a misunderstanding -- the AVLP2 will still be introduced in the US and Europe as announced. They will be doing another version later this year that will add support for H.264 (based on the SMP8630 chip).

So no need to panic... :)

Originally posted by kjack
Thinking "why would they shoot themselves in the foot?", we called I-O Data to see what's going on.

They said it was a misunderstanding -- the AVLP2 will still be introduced in the US and Europe as announced. They will be doing another version later this year that will add support for H.264 (based on the SMP8630 chip).

So no need to panic... :)

Thanks for following up on this, kjack! I thought it sounded kinda strange that they would do something like that. This may be another example of why it is important to have Reps who speak English fluently when interfacing with customers in the U.S.

For all you Daemon tools users. I am in the process of creating an automounter. Basically you'll be able to have all your images in a folder or under different folders. The script will dynamically update with a list of DVD images. Once you select the movie you want to watch. It will then mount to your virtual drive and you can play it.

Originally posted by WillGonz
For all you Daemon tools users. I am in the process of creating an automounter. Basically you'll be able to have all your images in a folder or under different folders. The script will dynamically update with a list of DVD images. Once you select the movie you want to watch. It will then mount to your virtual drive and you can play it.

Ooooh! Keep us posted! Thanks!

Anyone who's changed out the DVD loader in their IOData AVLP2... How hard was it? What's the process?

Thanks!

Originally posted by Kermee
Anyone who's changed out the DVD loader in their IOData AVLP2... How hard was it? What's the process?

Thanks!


Did you change your mind about the RMA ?

Originally posted by lifeisfun
Did you change your mind about the RMA ?

Heh. Yeah. Decided for $29 from Newegg, shipped, for a new Lite-On 167T (Black), might as well try out a new loader since it would probably cost close to half of the $29 just to ship the unit to IOData USA for RMA. Tom Roper seemed to have good luck with the 167T, so I decided to give it a try. Hopefully it'll be here by early next week.

I don't use the loader much (which perplexes me why it died suddenly) and it's not entirely a huge priority, so I can wait until early next week to fix it.

In other news...

I've been encoding MPEG-2 TS of 'Band of Brothers' HDTV to DivX HD lately and have been having fun watching them over the IOData. On my small 40" Toshiba RPTV, I can barely tell the difference between the MPEG-2 TS and my encoded copy. That's after downsampling to 1280x720p/23.976 and reducing the video bitrate by almost a third. (Around 5 Mbps). **Kermee waits for the purists to scream bloody murder***.

I'm working up on a nice 1TB RAID-5 server for when I move into my new home hopefully when it's complete within 6 weeks. IOData is being connected to an InFocus SP4805 and a Da-Lite 92" HCCV that's being installed during trim time and then hooked up to a Denon AVR-3805 which will be connected to a nice 7.1 in-wall/in-ceiling (except the sub which I almost had put in-wall) Polk's.

Fun times I hope soon!

What software are you using to transcode. I have been trying with WMVHD and having bad luck with the AC3-- Is there an easy route using DivXHD???

BTW I also have been trying 5Mbit as my average stream rate with WMVHD and the image has been great -- just not the sound...

I'm using VirtualDubMod and DivX 5.2.1 (using DivX HD Certified Specs). If someone wants a guide (with pretty pictures and neat stuff) write-up, let me know.

For WMV9, I do the WMV9VCM which is very similar to the DivX 5.2.1 method I use. There's many ways to do it, but so far with WMV9VCM/VirtualDubMod, I mux in the original AC3 with the WMV9HD and don't do the whole WMA9/WMA9 Pro stuff.

Originally posted by Kermee
I'm using VirtualDubMod and DivX 5.2.1 (using DivX HD Certified Specs). If someone wants a guide (with pretty pictures and neat stuff) write-up, let me know.

For WMV9, I do the WMV9VCM which is very similar to the DivX 5.2.1 method I use. There's many ways to do it, but so far with WMV9VCM/VirtualDubMod, I mux in the original AC3 with the WMV9HD and don't do the whole WMA9/WMA9 Pro stuff.

A guide would be a great add on to the FAQ. What is WMV9VCM. When I googled most of what I get is in Japanese???

Thanks

Thanks kermee --
I just Answered my own question its the codec...
Was using Windows media encoder --- this looks like a lot easier way to get compressed HD content for my LinkPlayer...

I'll try writing it up before the weekend.

I don't use the loader either ... I guess I should give it good test as well ...
To ship the unit from Canada to California would cost fortune as well ...

One thing that's odd about the loader is I've noticed it occasionally spins up (with a disc in it) while playing a network stream.

I downloaded and compiled the "wizd" open source server for Windows (using cygwin - because it is a unix program). It works ok, and is pretty quick. It simply displays directories, like the advanced server, but it shows file sizes, and doesn't differentiate separate music/photo/video trees - its all in the same directory tree.

It doesn't autodetect, so you need to manually set it on using the "New" button on the linkplayer. Also, photo display is done with web pages, so they don't look very good. But, it is open source, so things are fixable. It really helps to be able to see file sizes.

I've attached the windows executable (requires the cygwin dll file - see http://www.cygwin.com) You will also need to get the wizd distribution for the server configuration and files. Distribution is at http://www.geocities.co.jp/SiliconValley-SanJose/3271/ Get the wizd_0_12.tar.gz file from that location. Edit the wizd.conf file to change the port number, if you want to run this along with the Linkserver or Momitsu software.

Is anyone else using the LinkPlayer2 to play .TP files recorded by the DVICO FusionHDTV tuner card? I have intermittant results, using the Advanced Server. (I have edited the server configuration to enable TP files as video/mpeg, with the fake="ts" so the .tp files play without having to manually rename them.)

Anyway, sometimes it works fine, but more often the audio stutters. If I convert the .tp file to .mpg (program stream) using HDTV2MPEG, I usually get a little better results, but generally I still get stuttering audio. If I convert the .tp file to .mpg (program stream) using VLC, (without reencoding), then I usually get decent results without the audio stuttering. The bit rate is the same in all cases, and I get the same results off of the DVD drive as over the network, so I don't think it is a bitrate problem.

Is this a software bug, or some sort of hardware limitation?

Another bug I've noticed: MPEG2-TS files (ATSC) don't play back with the correct aspect ratio with "square pixel" selected and a 4:3 display. If I convert the file to a PS, then the aspect ratio is correct.

Originally posted by kjack
...They said it was a misunderstanding -- the AVLP2 will still be introduced in the US and Europe as announced. They will be doing another version later this year that will add support for H.264 (based on the SMP8630 chip). If this is the case... why would anybody want to buy an device fitted with an EM8620 chip-set.... They might as well wait until devices appear with the SMP8630 chip-set!

I here rumours that KISS have postponed the release date (again) for their EM8620 chip-set based players... Do you know why Keith?


Cheers

Probably not doable, but what I'd like to see is a way to pickup the album cover that you store in itunes as the image to display while playing a song.

Originally posted by Kermee
I've been encoding MPEG-2 TS of 'Band of Brothers' HDTV to DivX HD lately and have been having fun watching them over the IOData. On my small 40" Toshiba RPTV, I can barely tell the difference between the MPEG-2 TS and my encoded copy. That's after downsampling to 1280x720p/23.976 and reducing the video bitrate by almost a third. (Around 5 Mbps). **Kermee waits for the purists to scream bloody murder***. Ah, Band of Brothers, the finest production I've ever seen put on celluloid! I've been thinking of getting the TS of that too to augment my metal boxed DVD collection; your comments have helped me make that decision :)

What filter do you use in VirtualDubMod? Resize to 1280x720 but with which method? I'll probably use Xvid because it's (a) free and (b) got better reviews for HD encoding than DivX (reviewed on Doom9). How long does it take you to encode roughly? I probably have exactly the same 40" Toshiba -- 40H80? Finally, how do you concatenate the .ts files for VirtualDubMod -- HDTVtoMPeg2?

I had a problem with VirtualDubMod crashing on .vob files so I just started using DGMPGDec and AviSynth with regular VirtualDub. This works well but takes 15 hours per hour of footage for 2 pass 720p Xvid conversion on my 3.0Ghz P4.

Thanks Kermee!

Originally posted by 5509
Yes, the player support for 1024x768.

Can anyone else confirm this? If so how does one specify the resolution?

NO, I think that the person who confirmed this is " out to lunch on this one..."

Ok back to my ISO mounter.

Here are the requirements so far.

Daemon Tools
Windows 2000 or XP
IIS installed

What this will do:

You will be able to specify watch folders that will find your ISO's by extension. So NRG,ISO,BIN,etc. Whatever Daemon Takes it will find.

From your player you will be able to select a DVD image and it will mount. Then you select an icon to play the mounted image.
When you return to the menu after watching the movie it will tell you what is currently mounted and you can then select another image.

I am thinking when you select the movie it will show a picture of the DVD cover if you have obtained it and added it to the directory.

V880 had custom resolution to specifiy 1024x768.But this function was not available in AVLP2. However,the DVI version of AVLP2 in Japan had several resolutions including DVI 1024X768 to be choosed.

Originally posted by FlipFlop
Is anyone else using the LinkPlayer2 to play .TP files recorded by the DVICO FusionHDTV tuner card? I have intermittant results, using the Advanced Server. Anyway, sometimes it works fine, but more often the audio stutters.
Did some more tests. Recorded files from all of my HDTV channels. All of them had 2-channel audio. Some work ok, some don't. However, the ones that don't, fail with both the optical and coax connections, but work fine through the analog stereo connections, even while the digital signal is messed up!

It is interesting that I only have this problem on MPEG2-TS files (and only some of them, and only some of the time). I have had no problems at all with the optical connection with VOB files with AC3 output, and fewer problems when I convert the MPEG2-TS file to a MPEG2-PS file.

Is this a bug that can be fixed, or do I have a defective unit?

P.S. my receiver is an Onkyo HT-R500

Originally posted by WillGonz
Ok back to my ISO mounter.

Here are the requirements so far.

Daemon Tools
Windows 2000 or XP
IIS installed

What this will do:

You will be able to specify watch folders that will find your ISO's by extension. So NRG,ISO,BIN,etc. Whatever Daemon Takes it will find.

From your player you will be able to select a DVD image and it will mount. Then you select an icon to play the mounted image.
When you return to the menu after watching the movie it will tell you what is currently mounted and you can then select another image.

I am thinking when you select the movie it will show a picture of the DVD cover if you have obtained it and added it to the directory.

This sounds awesome ... but can you make it work with something other than IIS? I absolutely hate it.

Does this player affect **********? I keep getting NAT errors, even though I set port forwarding in my Netgear router. Link Player is using an IP address ending in .02, which is what ipconfig tells me is the address. But when I was at the Netgear page setting up ports, an address ending in .01 was also listed, identical otherwise. I don't know much about this sort of thing, but is the Link Player limiting my upload speed? Why else would I get NAT errors - my Windows firewall is disabled and Zone Alarm has been set to allow access to Azureus.

Buffalo LinkTheater available in February:

http://www.buffalotech.com/products/product-detail.php?productid=96&categoryid=18

Originally posted by mabrym
Does this player affect **********? I keep getting NAT errors, even though I set port forwarding in my Netgear router. Link Player is using an IP address ending in .02, which is what ipconfig tells me is the address. But when I was at the Netgear page setting up ports, an address ending in .01 was also listed, identical otherwise. I don't know much about this sort of thing, but is the Link Player limiting my upload speed? Why else would I get NAT errors - my Windows firewall is disabled and Zone Alarm has been set to allow access to Azureus. In short, the answer is no, the AVLP2 would not be affecting NAT errors or upload speed (two entirely different things) on the computer running **********. I have 6-8 computers on my LAN, including the AVLP2. One of these has used ********** for a dozen tv episodes in the last week. No problems.

WRT NAT errors, since the DHCP on SOHO/home routers often like to start at xxx.xxx.xxx.1 and count up, I suggest setting the IP manually on your ********** computer to something farther away, like xxx.xxx.xxx.90, and port forward the torrent ports to that IP. Upload speed would not be affected at all by the AVLP2. Torrent upload speed is miniscule compared to modern etherrnet networks, even if you're only running 10Mbps. You should have zero problems serving files to the AVLP2 and participating in a swarm.

For further problems, this isn't the venue for answers. ;)

Based on same sigma chip set as Linkplayer, but with wireless connection and $100 more.

At least maybe we'll have another ms server software (no apple support) to use with our player.

Originally posted by mabrym
Does this player affect **********? I keep getting NAT errors, even though I set port forwarding in my Netgear router. Link Player is using an IP address ending in .02, which is what ipconfig tells me is the address. But when I was at the Netgear page setting up ports, an address ending in .01 was also listed, identical otherwise. I don't know much about this sort of thing, but is the Link Player limiting my upload speed? Why else would I get NAT errors - my Windows firewall is disabled and Zone Alarm has been set to allow access to Azureus.

as stated above you really should set your ********** machine to a static IP. Netgear routers have their dynamic range at the begining (.1 going up) so the static range would be towards the end (probably .100 or .150 and up) ... you can see this from your router config.

If you're having your ********** machine obtain an IP via DHCP (automatically) ... and you're doing port forwarding at the router, it's possible that the IP address at your ********** machine could change ... then your router would be forwarding traffic to the wrong place.

in short, set you ********** machine to a static IP, and redirect the port forwards to the new address.

Well, I figured since I spent all my free time in the last 3 days reading every post in this thread I deserved to get one of these! My wife didn't quite buy that story, but after explaining to her how this $250 box will nicely close the loop on all the other equipment we've been building up, she agreed! Just ordered the AvelLink and a Audio Authority 1154a switcher.

I have a question, though. I use all fixed IP addresses on the 5 computers and 2 Tivos on my LAN. My router is actually a Linux box, and I'm pretty sure I have DHCP turned off. I assume that I will be able to AvelLink with a fixed-IP LAN? I am going to RTFM today, after I rest my eyes from the 1800 posts I've been reading! But this thread has been great!

-Bruce

the only problem you would have is if the LinkPlayer doesn't allow you to set a static (i'm sure it does) ... even if it doesn't there's ways around it.

but from a communications stand point, talking to a static IP is no different from talking to a dynamic ip.

I wrote before RTFM:


I assume that I will be able to AvelLink with a fixed-IP LAN?


The answer is definitely YES. It's on page 37 of the manual.

-Bruce

I also got the 1154a with the LinkPplayer; the only PITA with that is that the Avel always sends a video signal out, unless it's hard-powered off (from the front panel).

I'm also running a fixed IP.

You can't turn off the AvelLink video output from the remote?

Geesh, that's just like the HR10-250 HD Tivo that is going to be sharing the 1154a with! Hmm, I might want to re-think - maybe I don't need an auto-switcher, but a switcher with a remote.

Correct. Unfortunately, my Dish receiver behaves the same (Xbox's ok). I'm getting used to getting up and switching...

After looking at the 1154A manual, Epsilon, does this sound feasable? Disable the "video" sensing ability for the AvelLink. Give the AvelLink priority over the Dish. If the audio goes blank for 15 seconds on the AvelLink, it will switch to Dish. Is there a button on the AvelLink remote that will instantly produce an audio output (like the bloop bloops on Tivo?). Do you see where my logic is going?

Edit: Here's the answer: Turn off the video sensing for the Dish. When you want it to switch to AvelLink, you just turn the channel to a channel you don't get (no audio). It will take 15 seconds to switch over, though. hmmm

Sorry for the hi-Jack. We should probably take this to PM

One last hijack, since this partly pertains to the LinkPlayer.

Thanks to your suggestion, I RTFMed and saw what you were talking about. Your second suggestion does work because the Dish box, unlike the Avel, doesn't send audio out when turned off, so I can switch based on its on/off status. The LinkPlayer is now connected to the last (lowest priority) input and I no longer have to get off the couch...

Originally posted by mabrym
Does this player affect **********? I keep getting NAT errors, even though I set port forwarding in my Netgear router. Link Player is using an IP address ending in .02, which is what ipconfig tells me is the address. But when I was at the Netgear page setting up ports, an address ending in .01 was also listed, identical otherwise. I don't know much about this sort of thing, but is the Link Player limiting my upload speed? Why else would I get NAT errors - my Windows firewall is disabled and Zone Alarm has been set to allow access to Azureus.

Check your IP settings, if you are seeing an IP address with .01 edit the settings to eliminate the zero since windowz doesn't like the zero in a IP as indicated below...

192.168.0.01 is potentially a bad IP

192.168.0.1 is a good IP

THis minor typo will wreck havoc on your IP network

Originally posted by starcruiser
Check your IP settings, if you are seeing an IP address with .01 edit the settings to eliminate the zero since windowz doesn't like the zero in a IP as indicated below...

192.168.0.01 is potentially a bad IP

192.168.0.1 is a good IP

THis minor typo will wreck havoc on your IP network

The typo was in my message, it's .1 and .2. And now that I know a little more, I see .1 is the IP address of the router. Didn't realize it was different than the computer. So now I'm going to try and set my IP address on the computer to .150 and forward ports 6881-9 to that. And that should end this hijack. If it doesn't work it's off to another forum for that kind of thing, thanks everyone.

When I get home I'm going to go through the laborious process of assigning album cover art to each album of mp3s, now that I've put each image into it's own folder. They really need to come up with a smoother way of doing this.

Do you think we will soon see third party software written for this player?

just received my avel linkplayer loving it so far, just doing a few tests, and noticed it has minor macroblocking while playing dvd's, I tested using mulan SE and can see minor macroblocking, I thought the sigma chipsets are known for not having any mb issues?? my momitsu doesn't have a problem playing mulan SE. Is it the 8620 chipset??

Originally posted by lmengel
Based on same sigma chip set as Linkplayer, but with wireless connection and $100 more.

At least maybe we'll have another ms server software (no apple support) to use with our player.

The LinkTheater without wireless is priced same as LinkPlayer2

I got most of my covers associated with the albums. What a pain. You have to select the photo album from a drop down list and you have to scroll all the way down from the top to the album you want every time. After I was done I realized I did this for the Avel Link Server instead of Momitsu which is the one I prefer. Is there anyway I could copy a file from Avel to Momitsu with those associations?

Will there be a firmware fix so that when you zoom 4:3 material or older letterboxed dvd's (non anamorphic) that it will stretch to fill a 16:9 tv???

I don't believe this. I got ********** working and now the Link Player doesn't. I went in to change the IP address and followed the manual to the letter and now I've got a blank screen, I can't even get into setup. I reinstalled it but it didn't change anything.

Originally posted by mabrym
I got most of my covers associated with the albums. What a pain. You have to select the photo album from a drop down list and you have to scroll all the way down from the top to the album you want every time. After I was done I realized I did this for the Avel Link Server instead of Momitsu which is the one I prefer. Is there anyway I could copy a file from Avel to Momitsu with those associations?

Can you post instructions on how you got the covers associated with the albums? I am using ITune, and I would like to get the covers for my music library.

Over at Iodata Japan they just came out with a Wireless G version without a DVD drive (a network player only).

I noticed it has the typical footnotes about WNA9 PRo and WMV 9 with WMA audion so I decide to Babelfish the footnotes:

Original: (EDITED: looks like AVSFORUM doesn't like Japanese Kana and Kanji)

�¦1 ‰¹�º‚ÉWMA9 Pro‚ðŽg—p‚µ‚Ä‚¢‚éWMV HDƒRƒ“ƒeƒ“ƒc‚ÉŠÖ‚µ‚Ä‚Í�Aƒtƒ@�[ƒ€ƒAƒbƒvƒf�[ƒg‚É‚æ‚è‘Ήž—\’è�i’ñ‹ŸŽžŠú–¢’è�j
�¦2 •¾ŽÐƒ†�[ƒU�[ƒTƒ|�[ƒg‘Î�ÛŠO‚Æ‚È‚è‚Ü‚·�B

Babelfish munging of it:
*1 In regard to the WMV HD contents which use WMA9 Pro for 1 sound, correspondence schedule (offer timewise undecided)
*2 it is outside 2 our company user support objects depending upon firm update.

It looks like they still don't have a commitment on when they will have a fix in Japan....


New box could be useful for TVS that don't need a DVD drive (like in kitchens ...):

http://www.iodata.jp/prod/multimedia/video/2005/avlp2g/index.htm

Do you think we should start a new thread for mods and new added functionality??

Originally posted by mabrym
I don't believe this. I got ********** working and now the Link Player doesn't. I went in to change the IP address and followed the manual to the letter and now I've got a blank screen, I can't even get into setup. I reinstalled it but it didn't change anything.
I don't understand what you mean "reinstalled". The only changes you need to make are in the Player setup (unique ip, proper mask, gateway). Nothing should be done on the PC side. If you can't get into setup though, sounds like the player's dead. Does it do anything at all? Have you tried unplugging it for a few minutes?

Originally posted by lifeisfun
The LinkTheater without wireless is priced same as LinkPlayer2

Where are you seeing information about a model without wireless, or the prices for that matter? Does it appear there are any advantages to the LinkTheater over the LinkPlayer2 (other than the fact that the Buffalo website is written in real English)?

They sell sel both in Japan for 21.700 yen
I presume it will be the same competitive pricing in US

Originally posted by epsilon
I don't understand what you mean "reinstalled". The only changes you need to make are in the Player setup (unique ip, proper mask, gateway). Nothing should be done on the PC side. If you can't get into setup though, sounds like the player's dead. Does it do anything at all? Have you tried unplugging it for a few minutes?

After it stopped working I reinstalled. Now it's working again, with my computer back to it's original IP address. I'm thought I followed the instructions correctly as far as IP, mask, gateway, when using a static address, but maybe I had a wrong number somewhere. I'll try again.

new beta version available at iodata

http://www.iodata.com/usa/support/downloads/advancedserver-beta2.zip

Originally posted by Wolfgang
Can you post instructions on how you got the covers associated with the albums? I am using ITune, and I would like to get the covers for my music library.

For each music album, you have to select a photo album. These photo albums have to be stored in the photo folder on the computer. So you have to create a seperate photo album for each music album. I created a folder called Covers, with subfolders for each album - Bob Dylan/Blood on the Tracks/cover.jpg. Go into the Music section of the Avel server, then you click on a particular album, and select the photo album from the drop down list.

It will then display the cover for a few seconds, then it fades out and an image of musical notes fades in. Then it fades out and the cover fades in, over and over. Well, I found that image of notes annoying, so I replaced the file, which is called slide-english.jpg, located in iodata/Avel link server/webapps/Root/theme/avellink/slide with a jpg file called blank.jpg. It's just a black picture. You can find that in avel link server/app/images/avellink. Or substitute any picture. Or add a collection of images for each album if you want.

Hold everything. Don't do all the work required, because it doesn't seem to work reliably. Sometimes the covers display, sometimes they don't. I can't quite figure it out, right now an album is playing and I went to the computer and the right cover is associated with the album, but on the TV screen it is not displaying. But on the previous album it did.

Will continue testing.

Hi all, I've read through these treads, but I didn't find a clear answer to my question. I don't need the Linkplayer2 for the networking features, I just want a player to playback my Divx HD and WMVHD files I have burned to DVD . . . will this do that adequately? Thanks!

Originally posted by brianvann
Hi all, I've read through these treads, but I didn't find a clear answer to my question. I don't need the Linkplayer2 for the networking features, I just want a player to playback my Divx HD and WMVHD files I have burned to DVD . . . will this do that adequately? Thanks!

Yes, as long as the audio and video are encoded in a format the player understands.

If you want to mess with the file that controls the slideshow when you play music. It is located here:
C:\Program Files\I-O DATA DEVICE,INC\AVeL Link Server\webapps\ROOT\WEB-INF\classes\syabas\myihome\application\music\action\goslide_ jsp.class

Also the company that actually creates the software to interface your player with the PC is Syabas http://www.Syabas.com I already tried to contact them to get a dev kit but they won't send it out.

So if you have a way to modify the class above, you could possibly make it show the image forever and it will stop fading in and out.

Originally posted by mabrym
Hold everything. Don't do all the work required, because it doesn't seem to work reliably. Sometimes the covers display, sometimes they don't. I can't quite figure it out, right now an album is playing and I went to the computer and the right cover is associated with the album, but on the TV screen it is not displaying. But on the previous album it did.

Will continue testing.

OK, it does work. I was having problems because of my slow computer. I had several other programs running and it was slow to respond. But once I closed a few it worked fine.

I know a lot of people have been requesting a lot of extra features which the current server software doesn't do natively. I also know it looks like a few people are working on either modifying the current software or creating new software.

If someone is willing to consolidate a "Wish List" of features, features within reason of course, a friend and I may possibly work on implementing these extra features into new server software.

Originally posted by Kermee
I know a lot of people have been requesting a lot of extra features which the current server software doesn't do natively. I also know it looks like a few people are working on either modifying the current software or creating new software.

If someone is willing to consolidate a "Wish List" of features, features within reason of course, a friend and I may possibly work on implementing these extra features into new server software.

Great! Do you think you can inplement it so generic that it will work on the PC server as well as the Mac server?

Maybe a new thread should be started about the server software available as I see theres a lot of people that are using the Momitsu Server Software and some that use the Linkplayer software. I would like to know which is the best and if they all work with all players (I have the V880N).

I just figured out how to change the slide pictures that are displayed in the while MP3's are being played using the Momitsu server software but it looks like in only displays the 7 or so slides in that folder even if there are more?

Originally posted by Bjorn_E
Great! Do you think you can inplement it so generic that it will work on the PC server as well as the Mac server?

Are you forcing me to go buy two of those $499 USD mini Mac's? ;) It would be a good excuse... :P

My Lite-On 167T (black, Retail) just arrived today. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and bug Tom Roper tonight as I swap out the DVD loader. ;)

Announcing a new add-on. I created a little Application that will allow you to Right Click on Folders in Explorer and then Pick Create Watch Folder. I found creating it with the server software was a little annoying because I was in explorer moving files around and thought it would be cool to integrate it. So I started coding away to make this work. It was a pain, because the original programmers didn't follow the rules. Different things that are normally done one way were done a different way. After reverse engineering, I was able to get it all working.

Enjoy.

William

P.S.
Oh and it is beta. So let me know if you run into any problems. I have a support forum for it, that information is in the readme and in the program's about box.

So with all this cool stuff with the server software.... how long with it be until we have cover art for our DVD movies on the server???? :)

Originally posted by Kermee
My Lite-On 167T (black, Retail) just arrived today. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and bug Tom Roper tonight as I swap out the DVD loader. ;)

Whelp :confused: How'd it go?

Originally posted by Tom Roper
Whelp :confused: How'd it go?

SUCCESS! Working on the post WITH pictures now! Holy SMOKES. What a HUGE improvement over the factory DVD loader...

I apologize in advance for all these pictures, but I think in the end it will help most people who might want to do this. A lot of thanks out to Tom Roper for posting and giving us a lot of information. And thanks to EOP Science & Technology, Inc. for making a DVD loader which died on me one month into my AVLP2 ownership. This basically 'nudged' me into trying this.



http://www.hs2000talk.com/images/avlp2/avlp2_liteon_01.jpg
Here is the patient and the organ for transplant.



http://www.hs2000talk.com/images/avlp2/avlp2_liteon_02.jpg
There are two screws on each side of the AVLP2. And three screws on the back. Remove them and pull the cover off.



http://www.hs2000talk.com/images/avlp2/avlp2_liteon_03.jpg
In goes the Lite-On 167T (Black!) and I even got the factory faceplate to snap onto the tray! You probably can't tell from the picture, but the factory tray faceplate is perfectly flush with the front panel. Just like factory with the old EOP.



http://www.hs2000talk.com/images/avlp2/avlp2_liteon_04.jpg
And there is the Lite-On 167T opened.



http://www.hs2000talk.com/images/avlp2/avlp2_liteon_05.jpg
And there's my 'secret' trick. Hot glue gun using the post for the OLD DVD loader. A little dab there...



http://www.hs2000talk.com/images/avlp2/avlp2_liteon_06.jpg
.... and a little dab on the other post on the other side....



http://www.hs2000talk.com/images/avlp2/avlp2_liteon_07.jpg
Put it all back together and turn on the machine and go to setup... There's the Lite-On DVD 167T!

This Lite-On 167T was definitely worth the money ($29, hot glue gun and a philips screwdriver) and about an hour spent on doing this project. The drive is noticebly a LOT more responsive, quicker and doesn't seem to need to seek as often as the factory DVD loader. Other than during startup of the disc, the drive is virtually silent and seems to adhere to the 'Drive Speed' setting in the new firmware. I currently have it set to 'Very Slow' and tried some commercial DVD's and homemade HD-DVD's (UDF), and it works PERFECTLY.

Couple things I learned while installing the Lite-On 167T:
[list=1]
Yes. It really is possible to swap the DVD loader! Tom and folks weren't kidding!
Make SURE you set your DVD-ROM drive's region in a PC first. My Lite-On, brand new out of a retail box for $29 shipped, does NOT have the region set. It's fairly easy. I'll cover it below.
There are four screws which holds the old DVD loader. Remove those. On the Lite-On 167T, pop the tray out and remove both the tray faceplate and the drive faceplate.
When removing the tray faceplate off the EOP, be VERY careful NOT to break it.
The AVLP2 faceplate will fit onto the Lite-On 167T but be very careful.
After setting the Region Code on the 167T, I left mine jumpered on "Master".
You will see there is an aluminum shield which kind of prevents the Lite-On 167T from becoming flush with the front of the unit. Carefully KEEP pushing against it.
Make sure the 167T sits on top of the screw posts for the old loader. From my pictures, you should see how mine is seated.
[/list=1]
I used a Windows XP machine to set the region on the 167T. Go into 'Control Panel' and go to 'Performance and Maintainance' and then 'System' if you're in Category View or directly to 'System' if you have the Control Panel in Classic View.

Once in system, go to the 'Hardware' tab. Click on the 'Device Manager' button. On the new window which comes up, expand the 'DVD/CD-ROM Drives' root. You should see something similar to this:

http://www.hs2000talk.com/images/avlp2/device_manager.png

Right click on 'LITE-ON DVD SOHD-167T', or whichever loader you are using, and left-click on 'Properties'. While in the 'Properties' pane, hit 'DVD Region'.

http://www.hs2000talk.com/images/avlp2/liteon_properties_01.png

Select 'United States'. Hit 'OK' and then you'll see this. Hit 'OK' again.

http://www.hs2000talk.com/images/avlp2/liteon_properties_03.png

It will then look similar to this:

http://www.hs2000talk.com/images/avlp2/liteon_properties_02.png

There you go. You just set the region of your DVD-ROM drive... One of the RARE times you actually will WANT to. Leaving it unset or set to a different Region will make it virtually impossible for you to use the DVD side of the AVLP2.

Any chance to make it region free ?
Did you test the old drive in PC ?

Originally posted by lifeisfun
Any chance to make it region free ?
Did you test the old drive in PC ?

It looks like the unit is region locked by the firmware.

Here's the info from the old loader:

http://www.hs2000talk.com/images/avlp2/nero_info_eop.png


http://www.hs2000talk.com/images/avlp2/dvdproinfo_eop.png

Thanks for posting detailed information regarding the "original drive".

I had suspected that the original drive would have been region free, which you've managed to confirm!

I guess the ideal solution for people thinking of upgrading their DVD-ROM drives, would be to flash upgrade them to "RCP1 - Region Free" (with a PC), prior to installing into the I-O DATA player.


On a slightly different note.... when you connect I-O DATA's original DVD-ROM drive to your PC, how well does it work?


Interesting also, that according to DVDINFO Pro, the original drive can't read DVD+R/RW/L media.... That's very poor!


Cheers

Originally posted by SeeMoreDigital
Interesting also, that according to DVDINFO Pro, the original drive can't read DVD+R/RW/L media.... That's very poor!


Cheers

This really stood out to me as well, though I thought others here had confirmed earlier that DVD+R's played back fine on the LinkPlayer2. What kind of a DVD loader in this type of application would NOT support +R/RW?

Can somebody who still has the original loader try playing a movie burned to DVD+R to verify this?

Originally posted by Kermee
I know a lot of people have been requesting a lot of extra features which the current server software doesn't do natively. I also know it looks like a few people are working on either modifying the current software or creating new software.

If someone is willing to consolidate a "Wish List" of features, features within reason of course, a friend and I may possibly work on implementing these extra features into new server software.

The big wish I have is the ability to select more than one file at a time for playback. I emailed the company and they said they could not implement a playlist feature because it would require more flash memory so I don't know. I don't need the ability to create and save playlists permanently, just the ability to add a number of files to a queue like WMP or Media Jukebox, or even my old 200 CD changer could remember 20 tracks or albums to play.

"could not implement a playlist feature because it would require more flash memory "

Possibly they could implement only a "next file" playlist that could seemlessly joined the next file to be played. Then the server could cleverly change that file as needed on the fly if there was even some way for the player to communicate the entire list info to the server before starting play. The servers have lots of memory.

- Tom

Originally posted by Dolfo
This really stood out to me as well, though I thought others here had confirmed earlier that DVD+R's played back fine on the LinkPlayer2. What kind of a DVD loader in this type of application would NOT support +R/RW?

Can somebody who still has the original loader try playing a movie burned to DVD+R to verify this?

DVD+r playback fine over here using HP 4x dvd+r's

Very well done Kermee! But the only credit I deserve is for breaking the EPO loader and scrambling to find a suitable replacement. If you haven't, you should bookmark your photos of the procedure to the FAQ topic.

Also, you might note occasionally that if you have the drive speed set to "very slow" in the AVLP2 setup menu, some high bit rate mpegs may play back in pseudo-fast-forward, about 2-3x. At least it happened that way for me when playing back a recording of the Rose Bowl, it would suddenly go into FF and I couldn't prevent it or stop it, except by restoring the default drive speed setting in the AVLP2 setup menu. Something to watch for. I'm not really sure the Lite-On needs the drive speed settings. The AVLP2 "Very Slow" setting did seem to limit the drive speed, but for me, I found it better to accept the default setting and let it do it's own thing. It slows down to a quiet real-time speed on it's own after you stop searching chapters or FF'ing.

Wow...i'm gone for a few weeks...and i'm not even going to bother with reading through the new posts....sheesh.

Anyway, it's cool that kermee is working on some server software. I am currently building a separate web server in vb.net so that i can post the server software I came up with. It'll be nice having multiple people doing their own thing. I have no digital media programming experience so hopefull someone else will implement something with that.


Some wishlists of what people are looking for *would* be great.

TDK 4x dvd+r's working :)

If it's possible:

Treat DVD ISO's like an AVI file. No need to mount. DVD menus and other content would show up. It would be like having the DVD in the player. Why??? 10000 Disc changer. 8)

MP3's show ID Tag info.

Better time information on Divx movies. All it says on the player is NETWORK. It would be cool if there was a time elapsed and time remaining display.

Fake Divx Chapter points. Would be nice if on the Server you could have a option. "Make Chapter points every ______ Minutes." Here you would indicate 5,10,15,20 minutes etc. Then when you press the >>| key on the remote it will advance the movie to the next fake chapter point.

For an extra challenge. Make a fake divx chapter menu. It would be in HTML and it would have scenes clipped from the movie in 30 second loops from the point of your fake chapter point. The server would have to extract the frames from the file as separate clips. Then Display them on screen with a grid. You select the clip and it plays the avi from that point. Once you view a movie in this way, it will take a while to display it. When you view it a second time, it will be a lot quicker, because the server has already built the clips. You don't have to worry about sound because you don't need it for the scene preview.

Originally posted by jakob1321


Some wishlists of what people are looking for *would* be great.

My requests (some harder than others, I'm sure)
1) Cover Art while in file browser.
- ideal would be list view similar to current Momitsu or I-O server, and when you click on a line item, it flips to a page w/ a pic (from your PC) and short description. Even better would be cover/description import from something like DVD Profiler, and/or lookup of new covers when file is added to the server app media folders. Main Lobby & DVD Lobby do this on a HTPC. screenshot (http://www.cinemaronline.com/images/800.450.dvdlobbyprotv.jpg) of the nice way DVD Lobby for IR remote does it. Don't copy too closely unless you want to be in trouble w/ Mario, who is a good guy!
2) .ifo playback from network, of course. Still don't know if this is even possible without hacked player firmware, but no one has yet confirmed it is NOT possible.
3) News headlines & weather 7 day on the main page across the bottom
4) Ability to have content from multiple watch folders show up without showing the root watch folders on the main video files list. In other words, I keep my files on 4) 250GB hard drives. DVD movie copies of films I own are on two, called VIDEO_1 and VIDEO_2. I just want a list of my movies, I do not want to have to see
-Video 1
--click to see all those movies
-Video 2
--click to see those movies
etc...

I want to see all the files in all the watch folders as one list. If I want separator files, I should be able to add those under the root level. So, Video 1 & Video 2 contain 50 movies at root level. Video 2 also has a sub-folder called "_Kids_Movies", so it should appear:
_Kids Movies
--- with kids movies inside
Movie 1
Movie 2
Movie 3, etc....

5) Ability to search for and add internet radio stations (like ShoutCast) via the server, ala the Meedio plug-in (http://www.meedio.com/maid/detail.php?mode=detail&plugin_id={010EC394-7ED8-4FFB-81EB-2462F8C9DCB1})

Right now, all I would like to have is IFO support.

Matt

jakob1321 ,

I have some VB.NET experience... Excellent you're working in that environment. I'm going to take a shot at it with Java since it looks like some people might want to port it to different platforms.

You know what would be really funny was if I could hook up a DVD-RW burner into the IOData and use up the remaining 500K or so left in the firmware to write code to support DVD+R packet-writing. ;)

Everyone,

Good suggestions. Keep'em coming.

Has anyone been able to get the linkplayer to work with a Snap Server?? What's a Snap Server? Well, it was one of the first Network Attached Storage devices. You plug it into your network and you have a file server. It also supports HTML. So, has anyone been successful with using this guy as a media server?

Originally posted by WillGonz
Has anyone been able to get the linkplayer to work with a Snap Server?? What's a Snap Server? Well, it was one of the first Network Attached Storage devices. You plug it into your network and you have a file server. It also supports HTML. So, has anyone been successful with using this guy as a media server?
I have a Snap 4100 on the home network. Although i dont use it for personal stuff I am storing a few movies on it. I can play some more but from what ive seen so far the only way to access it is to map a drive on the pc and then add that drive as a watch folder. Like i said though i will play more later.

What snap do you have as different snaps have different OS's...

I think I have the 4100 too. It is two 20 gig drives to make up 40 gigs.

P.S. Have you all seen the screenshots of the latest version of Xbox Media Center? Dang talk about features. Automatically looks up information on imdb.com. Pulls the dvd covers from the site.

Plays divx too.

Hey jakob1321 & everone interested in the software, I do suggest we start a thread to only talk server-software, as I've tried to bring it up but haven't got much of a response.

Does anyone know if we already have uPnP, or if its in the plans? I could have sworn early on it was on the features list, but a few attempts haven't gotten so far. I'll be more interested in hearing about / maybe contributing to a vb.net effort if its including uPnP.

Don't forget to surf over to intel's site, as they have a whole uPnP developers toolkit, which includes network sniffers & certification tools, etc.

Originally posted by highgrovemanor
Hey jakob1321 & everone interested in the software, I do suggest we start a thread to only talk server-software, as I've tried to bring it up but haven't got much of a response..

I did give a new thread a shot, but didn't get any bites:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=496964

There are a number of Japanese efforts at open source servers. I've been playing with "wizd" and have gotten it to work fairly well with LinkPlayer - added support for photo slideshows and .url internet shortcuts (aka Internet Explorer Favorites).

The "uPNP" support in the player is simply automatic device recognition. As far as I can tell, they don't advertise themselves as a "media renderer" device, just as a "syabas" device, and therefore they will only interoperate with "syabas" type servers.

Originally posted by webboy10169
I have a Snap 4100 on the home network. Although i dont use it for personal stuff I am storing a few movies on it. I can play some more but from what ive seen so far the only way to access it is to map a drive on the pc and then add that drive as a watch folder. Like i said though i will play more later.

What snap do you have as different snaps have different OS's...

The Snap Server is a true NAS unit. The IO-DATA unit cannot hit a real NAS without a PC in between. The IO-DATA "NDAS" units for sale are NAs's with ximeta on their firmware.

The only sigma Media player I have seen to hit a REAL NAS without a PC is this unit just released at CES:


AL-TECH MG-350-HD about $120

http://www.globalsources.com/si/6008803342479/ProductDetail/Portable-digital/product_id-1000550831/action-GetProduct.htm

Fabian.

Originally posted by FlipFlop
I did give a new thread a shot, but didn't get any bites:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=496964

There are a number of Japanese efforts at open source servers. I've been playing with "wizd" and have gotten it to work fairly well with LinkPlayer - added support for photo slideshows and .url internet shortcuts (aka Internet Explorer Favorites).

The "uPNP" support in the player is simply automatic device recognition. As far as I can tell, they don't advertise themselves as a "media renderer" device, just as a "syabas" device, and therefore they will only interoperate with "syabas" type servers.

Does this mean the linkplayer won't work with a non-sysabas UPnP server
such as "twonkyvision" (http://twonkyvision.com)? If you haven't heard of
this server before you should check it out. The list of features seems quite
impressive. I have not run it myself (no linkplayer yet), but I'm very curious
how well such features as integration with iTunes and Adobe Photoshop
catalog are done. It not free, but its pretty reasonable at around $20 US.

Does anyone know any Infrared keyboards that will work with the Avel Player? For example the WebTV keyboard. Could make typing a lot faster and easier.

The IO-DATA "NDAS" units for sale are NAs's with ximeta on their firmware.

Which brings me to ask, can a ximeta netdisk be configured to work without a PC?

When I was a Kenwood Entre/DVD changer owner and following that monster thread, here is what was done to make it a little more manageable. The thread (at about 2500 posts when I sold my unit) went very much like this one. A lot of questions, a lot of great info, and a lot of new thoughts. Then someone had the bright idea to start a new thread for Kenwood Entre software development, hacking and modification. That way those of us who wanted to develop new ideas and try out beta stuff people were working on could have at it, but casual users could still use the main thread if they had no interest in modification. If you think it is a good idea or this subject, perhaps we can create a similar thread specifically for this new development & mods. The recent posts about alternate server software, Jakob1321's original post about the altered Momitsu theme, the loader swap info, etc.. could all be copied to the new thread to start it off.

Imengel

The UHDL is not ximeta, it runs a small linux kernel partition and the large data partition is shared using SAMBA. I have hacked into mine. There is a thread on it one level up. I also have a ximeta 160 gig netdisk and it requires special linux and windows drivers in order to work. The UHDL series do not require anything other than the network initially having DHCP to be up and running. I also just acquired a KURO-BOX hg which is a nas kit that you can put your own disk in, it also runs linux and I am looking at putting a server app on it. The nice part about it is you can add bigger drives whenever you want, it also has gigabit ethernet and usb.

Originally posted by mikemav
...start a new thread for [...] software development, hacking and modification. That way those of us who wanted to develop new ideas and try out beta stuff people were working on could have at it, but casual users could still use the main thread if they had no interest in modification. Agreed, such as what snoots did for the UHDL. I recommend going to FlipFlop's thread here: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=496964

FYI, here is the UHDL link; snoots has some great info:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=489253

I've never actively followed a thread before in AVS forum, I've just lurked for info for the past 4 years since I first got my Toshiba 40H80, and never realized the proclivity for having multi-thousand post threads. In fact, several people have bragged about this ("1500 posts? That's nothing, I used to be in the 5000 post XYZ thread"--etc.) I guess it's to keep all the info in one space. The question is, due to the volume of posts and number of members in avsforum, would you rather risk comments/questions disappearing from the thread subjects page or further back in a monster thread, for those who don't have time to read avsforum often enough to catch everything. In the absence of a specific AVLP2 forum, I suppose the monster thread method is better.

P.S. I too have VB and VC++ experience; I do all the programming for my company. PM me if there's some way to help out.

Originally posted by catware
Agreed, such as what snoots did for the UHDL. I recommend going to FlipFlop's thread here: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=496964


Not sure if it is possible for the author to change the title of the thread, but if so, perhaps FlipFlop may be open to changing the name to something like "I-O LinkPlayer Server Development and Player Modifications"? It may get more hits if it is a more generic title and we link these two threads to each other.

How about another forum? With a dedicated Avel Link Server Forum. Now I am not trying to steal you all from this forum. Just trying to add another resource. Check out my homepage in my profile, if you're interested.

Agreed....

Maybe a moderator can sift thru' all the posts relating to the players "network topics" and form a new thread!

That said... given that both of I-O DATA's players are "High-Def" maybe this entire thread should have been placed in this section of the forum (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=42), and not the DVD Players (Standard Def) section anyway!


Cheers

I sent iodata an email a few weeks ago requesting that they setup a user forum and they responded that they were trying to get one up and running by the end of the month...




Thank you for the comment. I'm Jack in charge of Marketing. And I apologize this late response because I just came back from CES today.

We are planning to launch a AVeL LinkPlayer forum (maybe in the end of
this month). I will keep discussing LinkPlayer issues with you and all
users.

Best Regards,

Mitsuo Jack Akita------------------------------------------
Sales & Marketing Manager,
I-O DATA DEVICE USA, INC.
[E-mail] Removed
-----------------------------------------------------------


I also sent him a description of how it should be set up.

Originally posted by snoots
Imengel

The UHDL is not ximeta, it runs a small linux kernel partition and the large data partition is shared using SAMBA. I have hacked into mine. There is a thread on it one level up. I also have a ximeta 160 gig netdisk and it requires special linux and windows drivers in order to work. The UHDL series do not require anything other than the network initially having DHCP to be up and running. I also just acquired a KURO-BOX hg which is a nas kit that you can put your own disk in, it also runs linux and I am looking at putting a server app on it. The nice part about it is you can add bigger drives whenever you want, it also has gigabit ethernet and usb.

If you get it working on your KURO I'll be interested to test it on my Linkstation :)

A couple more I thought of:
1) Ability to delete files from the PC after viewing, from the GUI on the player. MyHD can do this. I just watch the Alias season premier I had recorded on the MyHD card via the LinkPlayer. Now I need to fire up the computer to delete that 18Gb file. Would be much easier to select it on the list in the LinkPlayer menu, hit a "delete from server" button, and "yes" to a confirmation dialog to have it deleted.
2) Ability to play .ty files from Tivo. I know snoots was working on this and even had I-O involved before CES, but I think it is not working yet. In theory, a transcoding app like Advanced Server should be able to use the .ty DirectShow filters to convert to streaming MPEG. If this was fixed, with TyShow server enabled on a hacked tiVo, wouldn't this allow you to play files still stored on the networked TiVo on the LinkPlayer as well? That would be fantastic. Finally one media player for all sources. This is really key and would have a huge appeal for those of us that are able to tinker but have tired of the HTPC route.

Originally posted by mikemav
A couple more I thought of:
1) Ability to delete files from the PC after viewing, from the GUI on the player. MyHD can do this. I just watch the Alias season premier I had recorded on the MyHD card via the LinkPlayer. Now I need to fire up the computer to delete that 18Gb file. Would be much easier to select it on the list in the LinkPlayer menu, hit a "delete from server" button, and "yes" to a confirmation dialog to have it deleted.
2) Ability to play .ty files from Tivo. I know snoots was working on this and even had I-O involved before CES, but I think it is not working yet. In theory, a transcoding app like Advanced Server should be able to use the .ty DirectShow filters to convert to streaming MPEG. If this was fixed, with TyShow server enabled on a hacked tiVo, wouldn't this allow you to play files still stored on the networked TiVo on the LinkPlayer as well? That would be fantastic. Finally one media player for all sources. This is really key and would have a huge appeal for those of us that are able to tinker but have tired of the HTPC route.

This would be genius...

Originally posted by lmengel
Which brings me to ask, can a ximeta netdisk be configured to work without a PC?

For the owners of the IO-DATA HARD-DRIVE units.. Can you access these IO-DATA hard disks from a computer , when the IO-DATA NAS is hanging off the router?

F.

Originally posted by mikemav
A couple more I thought of:
1) Ability to delete files from the PC after viewing, from the GUI on the player. MyHD can do this. I just watch the Alias season premier I had recorded on the MyHD card via the LinkPlayer. Now I need to fire up the computer to delete that 18Gb file. Would be much easier to select it on the list in the LinkPlayer menu, hit a "delete from server" button, and "yes" to a confirmation dialog to have it deleted.
2) Ability to play .ty files from Tivo. I know snoots was working on this and even had I-O involved before CES, but I think it is not working yet. In theory, a transcoding app like Advanced Server should be able to use the .ty DirectShow filters to convert to streaming MPEG. If this was fixed, with TyShow server enabled on a hacked tiVo, wouldn't this allow you to play files still stored on the networked TiVo on the LinkPlayer as well? That would be fantastic. Finally one media player for all sources. This is really key and would have a huge appeal for those of us that are able to tinker but have tired of the HTPC route.

#1. This would definitely be do-able.

#2. This is a bit harder since I don't own a TiVo nor have any .ty files but hopefully snoots can figure more about it out. My basic understanding is that a .ty file is just another way to mux the MPEG video and audio, but I could be wrong.

I've tried both the Momitsu and Avel versions of the "media center" server software on my XP SP2 PC, and both exhibit the same symptom: the mouse "hangs" (hourglass) when I go to configure the server, add watch folders, etc. The Link Player, however, can see the server, and the default shares under "My Documents".

I have a feeling it's a Windows or Java problem, since I can dual boot my system under XP SP1, and neither server shows this problem. This isn't a valid workaround for me, though, since I need to boot under SP2.

Has anyone else experienced this behavior, or know what the conflict might be?

Originally posted by Kermee
#1. This would definitely be do-able.

#2. This is a bit harder since I don't own a TiVo nor have any .ty files but hopefully snoots can figure more about it out. My basic understanding is that a .ty file is just another way to mux the MPEG video and audio, but I could be wrong.

I'm sure I can get you a file. Just need to check into an FTP I used to have access to. I wonder if snoots ever heard anything back from Jack or anyone else at I-O as well. You are correct about the MPEG- I have not tried it myself, but I hear if you have the TyShow (directshow) filters installed, the files will play in WMP on the PC. IIRC, snoots got audio from some files and not others, and no video. Still probably doable though with the proper help from inside or enough tinkering. I am not a DirectShow filter expert by any means. Once I get a place I can put a 100MB or so sample clip, perhaps a few people can take a shot at it. I'm sure snoots was doing his best, but we are all busy, so the more eyes the better.

PM me if you don't find a place to stick it and I can let you use some space on my site.

I'll be pissing off the replay gods allowing Tivo files to reside on my server ... but it's for the greater good ;-)

I spent about an hour with my AvelLink last night. Hookup and installation was easy. The manual doesn't discuss everything, but was adequate. I have and HD Tvio and a SD (T-60) Tivo networked.

The box recognized and played .ty files on my PC that were simply moved there with tytools. I was worried that I might have to process them first to .vob or .mpg - but the test cases I had worked, except OTA. I had only two OTA test cases from the local CBS and PBS affiliates and the sound did not work at all on them. I had an SD program from my series 1 (edited and processed to .vob) and it played, FF and RW without any problems at all. For HD shows (HBO-HD, ESPN-HD, DISC-HD and HDNet) they played and paused fine. If I FF or RW, the sound would get all messed up, however, it seemed that if I paused for about 10-20 seconds, the sound would get fixed up.

I played a DVD (Eric Clapton Guitar fest) via 1080i output and it seemed to be darn close to the HD version I remember seeing on PBS HD. (lost that one due to a hacking accident!)

The digital pictures browser/slide show is a really cool way to show your pictures. Is there a way to make the black bars gray? I already have a very slight burn-in situation (I blame the wife on falling asleep with the bars on), so I'm very nervous about black bars.

The wife acceptance factor for me turned out pretty darn good. She claimed that the Doobie Brothers concert I was streaming looked better than the one that was on the HD Tivo (where it came from). I wasn't sure about that, but I didn't argue!! The picture quality and sound (Dolby Digital 5.1 when it was originally passed) seemed identical to the original Tivo versions.

The AvelLink obviously isn't for everyone. There are some small (to me) issues. But, the company seems to be committed to make it even better with the firmware upgrades. If you are hardcore enough to network your Tivo, then you probably will be a good candidate for something like this. At $250, I think the AvelLink is the best buy, though I haven't tried the competition.

I look forward to hacking this box, now! Or at a minimum, customizing the PC/client software.

-Bruce

IMPORTANT ADENDUM: I was wrong, they were NOT .ty files, but .vob files converted from .ty with tytools. Sorry, my wrong.

Originally posted by Pariah69
I've tried both the Momitsu and Avel versions of the "media center" server software on my XP SP2 PC, and both exhibit the same symptom: the mouse "hangs" (hourglass) when I go to configure the server, add watch folders, etc. The Link Player, however, can see the server, and the default shares under "My Documents".
Unfortunately this seems to be pretty standard behavior with the server software, when you have large numbers of photos and/or mp3s. The only solution I've found is to limit the number of files that the server can serve.

Also, once things get messed up it generally doesn't recover until you close the server, delete the database files in My Documents (stored in IO Data or Momitsu subdirectory), and restart.

buckeye1010

I have not been able to get ty files to playback from my pc. Can you describe the changes you made to the server-config.xml to get them to work. I have tried sd and hd tys with no luck other than an occasional bit of sound.

Snoots.

flamaest

You can access the uhdl from any pc on the network, both my xp boxes see it and I need to check my linux box to make sure it can access the samba share. I have the UHDL plugged into a linksys gigabit switch which is uplinked to a Netgear 802.11g router/switch. You can let it use dhcp or after logging in I am pretty sure you can set a manual IP if you need to.

oops - wait a minute. Sorry about that. I forgot, I DID convert shows over from .ty to .vob, in one step via tytools. The night before I got the box, I did a select all and converted all my shows overnight. However, at least it was one all-at-once step for me. I'll have to edit my post. Part of the problem with me getting that wrong was that the AvelLink didn't show all the file extensions - a file that ended in ".ty.vob" would show up as just ".ty" - hence my confusion. My apologies.

I sent IO-DATA a dvd with the tyshow filters ( open source ) and a ty file of a movie of my tivo, I have not heard back from them as of yet. I am hopefull that we can play un converted tys as that would be nirvana for me. No more converting everything to mpeg or vobs, just extract, archive and play !!!

Yea I noticed the file extension thing too. I got excited thinking the ty worked, then realized it was a converted one :)

Could you rename the .ty to .mpg and will it play?

since this got on the top of the next page it did not make sense .

Renaming ty to mpg or any other file format does not work.

Originally posted by snoots
I sent IO-DATA a dvd with the tyshow filters ( open source ) and a ty file of a movie of my tivo, I have not heard back from them as of yet. I am hopefull that we can play un converted tys as that would be nirvana for me. No more converting everything to mpeg or vobs, just extract, archive and play !!!

Also, would streaming work? That would be even more amazing. I thought with TyShow links enabled in TivoWeb+ and the right TyShow filters, you could stream to the PC while the shows were still on the TiVo. If that would work (once .ty files play at all), then it would be amazing. Sounds doable on paper if I-O can get the ty filters working.

On a windows box I can use tivoweb + to view the now showing page,
hit view and the recorded show plays on the pc using the directshow filters. This works from my Sony T60 Series I , my DSR7000 Series II and in some cases my HDtivo, depending on file size.

Originally posted by Pariah69
I've tried both the Momitsu and Avel versions of the "media center" server software on my XP SP2 PC, and both exhibit the same symptom: the mouse "hangs" (hourglass) when I go to configure the server, add watch folders, etc. The Link Player, however, can see the server, and the default shares under "My Documents".

I have a feeling it's a Windows or Java problem, since I can dual boot my system under XP SP1, and neither server shows this problem. This isn't a valid workaround for me, though, since I need to boot under SP2.

Has anyone else experienced this behavior, or know what the conflict might be?

If you want to create watch folders. You can use my utility CreateWatchFolder.zip which is attached on an earlier post from me.

Originally posted by snoots
On a windows box I can use tivoweb + to view the now showing page,
hit view and the recorded show plays on the pc using the directshow filters. This works from my Sony T60 Series I , my DSR7000 Series II and in some cases my HDtivo, depending on file size.
Thanks snoots. I have not tried to use those filters yet to stream to PC. In theory then, if we can get files from the PC playing on the LinkPlayer using Advanced Server (if/when .ty is worked out), then maybe it would work without moving the files off the Tivo, as you say it does now streamed from TiVo to PC media player.

Originally posted by snoots
I sent IO-DATA a dvd with the tyshow filters ( open source ) Tyshow is copy-left with a GPL library license. Is IO-Data comfortable working with 3rd party GPL code? Last I tried, tyshow worked with SD .ty content but couldn't play back HD content. Maybe this has been fixed or I had a problem with my directshow filters. Does anybody have tyshow working with HD?

It plays back HD up to the 4 gig limit and crashes there. I'm sorry but could you explain the copy-left part. I am not familiar with that term. Thanks

http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/copyleft.html
BTW, I agree that it would be cool if io-data integrated HD ty playback into such a cheap consumer box.

Originally posted by bcc
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/copyleft.html
BTW, I agree that it would be cool if io-data integrated HD ty playback into such a cheap consumer box.

Hi bcc- glad to see you are following this discussion. I think any implementation that plays .ty files would need to be in conjunction with a server-side app that transcodes to .mpeg, since the box cannot play .ty locally. There is hope there as many other "unsupported" file types have been added by transcoding at the PC w/ the Advanced Server. But without a firmware upgrade for this (not likely) I do not think it will play them unless they are transcoded on the server. Since we know that is possible using DirectShow filters, seems like it could happen though.

Doesn't TY have several slightly different packaging formats --

MPEG 2 with MTS Stereo (from standalone players)
MPEG 2 with PCM (from directv receivers)
MPEG 2 with AC3 (from directv receivers)
MPEG 2 HD with PCM (from the HD DirecTivo)
MPEG 2 HD with AC3 (from the HD DirecTivo)

IODATA/Sigma might actually need some of each type.

Anyone who has some sample .ty's, please PM me.

Thanks bcc for the link to copyleft

Originally posted by mikemav
Hi bcc- glad to see you are following this discussion.Guess I'm like a cold that you can't quite shake off :) I think any implementation that plays .ty files would need to be in conjunction with a server-side app that transcodes to .mpeg, since the box cannot play .ty locally. There is hope there as many other "unsupported" file types have been added by transcoding at the PC w/ the Advanced Server. But without a firmware upgrade for this (not likely) I do not think it will play them unless they are transcoded on the server. Since we know that is possible using DirectShow filters, seems like it could happen though. But then you'd want this other server to have enough computing resources to decode the .ty into .mpg in real time. I bet the HD tivo doesn't have enough spare CPU cycles to do this for HD (in software). Not to mention lack of network bandwidth on the tivo. Are people somehow using tyshow's vserver mode with HD?

Not much to report...I have something working (purely serve, though) that uses XSL for the formatting and will do deletes now. :)

It picks up any folder.jpg (what XP puts in the directory as the folder image) to show as a thumbnail for albums, but you could do that however you want. I haven't gotten to the point of actually going out on the web and fetching info (like cover art) yet. Anybody know if there's a web service out there that will provide those?

Anyway, i'll try to get a very simple alpha of the stuff I have now out sometime by the end of next week.


Edited to add: ifos are supported as such as it'll read them and stitch together the VOB's, but that's it.

Originally posted by Kermee
#1. This would definitely be do-able.

#2. This is a bit harder since I don't own a TiVo nor have any .ty files but hopefully snoots can figure more about it out. My basic understanding is that a .ty file is just another way to mux the MPEG video and audio, but I could be wrong.
How about a way to control this device other than the poor remote included.
say a embedded web server that could be controled threw a laptop or pocket pc.

Some of us arn't sitting in front of our equipment :(

Originally posted by FlipFlop
Unfortunately this seems to be pretty standard behavior with the server software, when you have large numbers of photos and/or mp3s. The only solution I've found is to limit the number of files that the server can serve.

Also, once things get messed up it generally doesn't recover until you close the server, delete the database files in My Documents (stored in IO Data or Momitsu subdirectory), and restart.

Interesting. I probably have a few hundred hundred pictures and mp3s, I would be disappointed in this product if the server software can't handle that...

But now I've got a Catch-22. I can't limit the number of files the server can see, because I can't start up the server and configure the default folders. In other words, where are the config files I can edit, so that the server doesn't default to "My Documents" when it starts up?

I have almost 8000 mp3s in my music and the server software works ok for me. The only bad part is navigating the collection using the linkplayer remote

I have about 6000 files total in watch folders on my server and have no problems with the server software at all. How many files do the folks that are having problems have in your watch folders?

Originally posted by jakob1321
Not much to report...I have something working (purely serve, though) that uses XSL for the formatting and will do deletes now. :)

It picks up any folder.jpg (what XP puts in the directory as the folder image) to show as a thumbnail for albums, but you could do that however you want. I haven't gotten to the point of actually going out on the web and fetching info (like cover art) yet. Anybody know if there's a web service out there that will provide those?

Anyway, i'll try to get a very simple alpha of the stuff I have now out sometime by the end of next week.


Edited to add: ifos are supported as such as it'll read them and stitch together the VOB's, but that's it.

jakob- great work so far. Really appreciate your efforts and everyone else's as well to improve this great product. Is your server work based on the Momitsu, the I-O Advanced, or totally home-brew? Reason I ask is I still have the need to tweak the theme to make the text big on the GUI. I think it was you who originally modified the Momitsu theme, right? So add that to the wish list: whoever is working on server software, please let us tweak the theme & text sizes on screen. With the stupid limitation of having to have the player in HD Browser mode to make zoom (aspect ratio, really) work, some of us need to increase the text sizes to see on smaller auxiliary sets.

A fellow Doom9 forum member/moderator called bond has created a MP4 test CD, some you guys may be interested in.

The 12.8MB "MP4 Test CD" currently comprises of the following files: -
audio folder

audio/mpeg-1 sub-folder
mpeg1/mp2 sub-sub-folder
mp2_2lame_sp-divx_3ivx.mp4
mp2_2lame_sp-divx_mp4ui.mp4

audio/mpeg1/mp3 sub-folder
mp3-cbr_lame_sp-divx_3ivx.mp4
mp3-cbr_lame_sp-divx_mp4box.mp4
mp3-cbr_lame_sp-divx_mp4ui.mp4
mp3-vbr_lame_sp-divx_3ivx.mp4
mp3-vbr_lame_sp-divx_mp4box.mp4
mp3-vbr_lame_sp-divx_mp4ui.mp4

audio/mpeg-4 folder
aac-he_vbr-nero_sp-divx_3ivx.mp4
aac-he_vbr-nero_sp-divx_mp4box.mp4
aac-he_vbr-nero_sp-divx_mp4ui.mp4
aac-lc_cbr-qt_sp-divx_3ivx.mp4
aac-lc_cbr-qt_sp-divx_mp4box.mp4
aac-lc_cbr-qt_sp-divx_mp4ui.mp4

audio/mpeg-4/multichannel sub-folder
aac-lc-5.1_vbr-nero_sp-divx_3ivx.mp4

------------------------------------------

special folder

special/pictures folder
jpg_mp4box.mp4
png_mp4box.mp4

special/private folder
alac_itunes.m4a
theora_mp4box.mp4
vorbis_mp4box.mp4

special/subtitles folder
timedtext_mp4box.mp4
vobsub_sp-3ivx_3ivx.mp4
vobsub_sp-3ivx_mp4ui.mp4

special/systems folder
kangaroo.mp4

special/xcd folder
sp_3ivx_mp4box.mp4.dat

------------------------------------------

video folder

asp-adapt_nero_mp4box.mp4
asp-custom_xvid_mp4box.mp4
asp-gmc-1wp_divx_mp4box.mp4
asp-gmc-3wp_xvid_mp4box.mp4
asp-mpeg_xvid_mp4box.mp4
asp-qpel_divx_mp4box.mp4
sp_3ivx_mp4box.mp4

video/anamorphic sub-folder
sp-par-ntsc_xvid_mp4box.mp4
sp-par-ntsc_xvid_mp4ui.mp4
video/avc sub-folder
avc-base_nero.mp4

video/b-frames sub-folder
asp-1b-pb_divx_3ivx.mp4
asp-1b-pb_divx_mp4box.mp4
asp-1b-pb_divx_mp4ui.mp4
asp-3b_xvid_3ivx.mp4
asp-3b_xvid_3ivx.mp4
asp-3b_xvid_mp4ui.mp4

video/chapters sub-folder
chapters_sp-3ivx_3ivx.mp4
chapters_sp-3ivx_nero-64bitmdat.mp4

video/mpeg1-2 sub-folder
mpeg1-tmpg_cbr-noB_mp4box.mp4
mpeg1-tmpg_cbr-noB_mp4ui.mp4
mpeg2-tmpg_cbr-noB_mp4box.mp4
mpeg2-tmpg_cbr-noB_mp4ui.mp4

If any of you are interested, please visit us over on the Doom9 forum (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=88680), where you can download the file and submit your findings...


Many thanks

Originally posted by WillGonz
If you want to mess with the file that controls the slideshow when you play music. It is located here:
C:\Program Files\I-O DATA DEVICE,INC\AVeL Link Server\webapps\ROOT\WEB-INF\classes\syabas\myihome\application\music\action\goslide_ jsp.class

Also the company that actually creates the software to interface your player with the PC is Syabas http://www.Syabas.com I already tried to contact them to get a dev kit but they won't send it out.

So if you have a way to modify the class above, you could possibly make it show the image forever and it will stop fading in and out.

I downloaded a program that allows me to edit class files but all that one has inside was Size = 5319 and a couple of other lines. You sure that's the exact file? Not that I would know what to do with it anyway, I was hoping I would find something really simple with a value of 5 (covers display for about 5 seconds). But I have a brother who is a programmer, and even though he does C++ he might know a little about Java.

Any more info available on the buffalo nas products? In thinking the 1 terabyte model. http://www.buffalotech.com/products/product-detail.php?productid=97&categoryid=19 might be nice

and they show it directly hooked up to there player. Im wondering If this device is hooked to the network will it function with our player without a pc (UHDL) like io data's

Io data's solution is nice but at 300 gigs for 500 bucks... kinda pricey

Originally posted by mabrym
I downloaded a program that allows me to edit class files but all that one has inside was Size = 5319 and a couple of other lines. You sure that's the exact file? Not that I would know what to do with it anyway, I was hoping I would find something really simple with a value of 5 (covers display for about 5 seconds). But I have a brother who is a programmer, and even though he does C++ he might know a little about Java.

Attached is a picture of what I got. Apparently you can't edit a class file because it is in it's compiled state. If I am wrong, then someone let me know and tell us how to make it so we can edit it.

Originally posted by WillGonz
Attached is a picture of what I got. Apparently you can't edit a class file because it is in it's compiled state. If I am wrong, then someone let me know and tell us how to make it so we can edit it.

Yes class files are compiled sitting in a run time state. Years ago i use to use a program called mocha to decompile class files. Do a search i dont know if this software still exists. As you know reverse engineering is frowned upon...

<edit>
useful reading http://www.devdaily.com/java/edu/pj/pj010020/
</edit>

Originally posted by Pariah69
Interesting. I probably have a few hundred hundred pictures and mp3s, I would be disappointed in this product if the server software can't handle that...

But now I've got a Catch-22. I can't limit the number of files the server can see, because I can't start up the server and configure the default folders. In other words, where are the config files I can edit, so that the server doesn't default to "My Documents" when it starts up?
I have around 7000 mp3 files, and around 1000 photos. IO-Data says it should handle up to 9999 files http://www.iodata.com/usa/products/AVLP2_FAQ.php#ML

My problem might have been a corrupted database, or maybe some corrupted mp3 or jpg files somewhere in the directories. I tried out the new Advanced Server beta, and that program works fine. I was never able to get the Momitsu or standard LinkServer programs to work with my full photos or mp3 directories, only with sub-sets of them.

See http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=4950415&highlight=database#post4950415 for details on where the programs store their data sets.

Originally posted by webboy10169
Yes class files are compiled sitting in a run time state. Years ago i use to use a program called mocha to decompile class files. Do a search i dont know if this software still exists. As you know reverse engineering is frowned upon...

<edit>
useful reading http://www.devdaily.com/java/edu/pj/pj010020/
</edit>

I'll see if my brother wants to give it a try. But as I've described, I've taken a lot of time to associate all my album covers with the music folders and I don't want to do that again, so if I have to reinstall the server, which folders/files to I need to make a copy of, which ones control the slide shows for music?

A related question - I did all this for the "standard" server. Can I copy these files into the Momitsu folder so the slide show will work with that?

Edit - I guess I know which ones control the slide show, but which one specifically controls the "associations" of covers to albums?

Hi,

I have converted some DVDs to XVid using Auto Gordion Knot. When I play the files they play well. When I use the rihgt arrow to jump to a certain % then the player freezes. The only option is power off and turn the power back on.

This does not happen always. It happnes at 89% with one Xvid file and with another it happens around 55%. Before the freeze happens, the audio plays for a few seconds while the video is blank and then the player freezes.


Another problem I have noticed is if you have a lot of videos in a folder and you play a video and then stop the video and select another video. If I do this a few times the player freezes.

Any idea what the problem could be? I am using the latest firmware 04-33-041227-01-IOD-234-000.

I have the same freezing->cycle power problem with Xvids (occasionally), but don't have a solution. I'm guessing it's a bug, related to non-conformity to the Xvid standard. Can anyone confirm if this problem exists with other video formats?

You can use JAD decompiler http://kpdus.tripod.com/jad.html. There are several front ends for it. I like to use DJ http://members.fortunecity.com/neshkov/dj.html

I am not sure if JAD comes bundled with DJ or if its a separate download.

I personally do not have this player but am following this thread. I am looking to pickup a DVI version when its out (hopefully soon).

If anyone does do this do be careful - I was listening to an album last night and fell asleep. When I woke up today the music had stopped of course but the slide show was still going. So there's a risk of burn-in if the picture never fades out. If this works I'll just set it to display for a couple of minutes and then fade out and back in. Maybe four minutes, that's about the average song length.

Originally posted by goenkar

I personally do not have this player but am following this thread. I am looking to pickup a DVI version when its out (hopefully soon).

I don't think that's supposed to happen for a year, if not longer. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. That's a long time to read a thread. :)

edit - correcting myself - possibly later this year

Originally posted by webboy10169
Any more info available on the buffalo nas products? In thinking the 1 terabyte model. http://www.buffalotech.com/products/product-detail.php?productid=97&categoryid=19 might be nice

and they show it directly hooked up to there player. Im wondering If this device is hooked to the network will it function with our player without a pc (UHDL) like io data's

Io data's solution is nice but at 300 gigs for 500 bucks... kinda pricey
Once Buffalo's LinkTheater is on the market ( Feb 05) The linkstation server that is now available only in Japan should be available for Linkstation.

I just enabled the "pcast" server in my kuro-box hg and tried to connect to it, it is the linkstation software from the "linkstation" I don't think it will work. I could not connect to it or using a port scanner find any open ports other than the web admin, telnet and ftp ports.

Is anyone else viewing slide shows on a 4:3 TV screen in 480i mode? When I do this, the image is slightly squished, with black bars on either side, even though the digital photo is 4:3 which should fill the entire screen. I contacted IOData support, but they think the problem is with my TV. But video play back with the correct aspect ratio, so I don't see how it could be my TV.

Could someone else confirm that photos are squished in the 4:3 display mode on their player too?

Originally posted by mabrym
I don't think that's supposed to happen for a year, if not longer. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. That's a long time to read a thread. :)

edit - correcting myself - possibly later this year

I THINK KJACK RECENTLY CONFIRMED THAT THE DVI VERSION WAS SCHEDULED FOR RELEASE IN THE U.S. SOMETIME SOON AND THEN THE NEXT VERSION OF THE LINKPLAYER (WITH THE NEW SIGMA CHIP) IS SCHEDULED FOR RELEASE BY THE END OF THE YEAR.

Originally posted by mabrym
I don't think that's supposed to happen for a year, if not longer. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. That's a long time to read a thread. :)

edit - correcting myself - possibly later this year

I THINK KJACK RECENTLY CONFIRMED THAT THE DVI VERSION WAS SCHEDULED FOR RELEASE IN THE U.S. SOMETIME SOON AND THEN THE NEXT VERSION OF THE LINKPLAYER (WITH THE NEW SIGMA CHIP) IS SCHEDULED FOR RELEASE BY THE END OF THE YEAR.

Originally posted by mabrym
I don't think that's supposed to happen for a year, if not longer. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. That's a long time to read a thread. :)

edit - correcting myself - possibly later this year

I THINK KJACK RECENTLY CONFIRMED THAT THE DVI VERSION WAS SCHEDULED FOR RELEASE IN THE U.S. SOMETIME SOON AND THEN THE NEXT VERSION OF THE LINKPLAYER (WITH THE NEW SIGMA CHIP) IS SCHEDULED FOR RELEASE BY THE END OF THE YEAR.

Originally posted by snoots
I just enabled the "pcast" server in my kuro-box hg and tried to connect to it, it is the linkstation software from the "linkstation" I don't think it will work. I could not connect to it or using a port scanner find any open ports other than the web admin, telnet and ftp ports.
That's disapointing :(
Did you configure the server ?
The LinkTheater looks identical to LinkPlayer .....

Originally posted by catware
I have the same freezing->cycle power problem with Xvids (occasionally), but don't have a solution. I'm guessing it's a bug, related to non-conformity to the Xvid standard. Can anyone confirm if this problem exists with other video formats?

May be it is a problem with Xvid conformity. I get the same problem when I try to play TV show recordings. Now that I think more, I realise all those problem videos where recorded in XVid format.

Is there a 100% guaranteed way to ensure Xvid's 100% conformity with the Link Player2?

Again, can anyone confirm if this problem exists with other video formats?

I have not been able to find any configuration other than the webadmin page that sets the share folder and permissions. It is configured and the box was rebooted. I grep'd a bunch of files looking for port numbers etc but did not find any. There are only 2 pcast files I could find in the cgi-bin directory. I also downloaded the buffalo media server for pc from a japanes page but found that it is the same as the standard iodata and momitsu servers.

Any of you with HDTIVO's may be happy to know that scottwkurth has found and fixed the 4gig hd ty windows media player problem :) :) :) over at DD