After trying to enable WEP on my wireless router again last night, I am still having a problem connecting. I was thinking that maybe it was me, but after double and triple checking I'm a little lost. My router is set up and I know that it is correct because I have no problem with my laptop connecting over WEP with MAC address filtering enabled. I troubleshooted all possible scenarios without success. Is it possible that my Motorola Cable Modem Wireless Router won't work with the LT? This is the only conclussion I can fathom.

Originally posted by SeeMoreDigital
Hi BrianV

Have you guys considered adding NeroDigital Certification support (for Mpeg4/SP/ASP in .MP4 encodes)... at sometime in the future?


Cheers

Yes, we have had pre-lim talks with them.

Originally posted by d_gasser
Problem solved!

It turns out the 2000-2002 Mitsubishi RPTVs accept only 480i or 480p on two of their three sets of component inputs. Only the "DTV" input handles 1080i, and once I switched the LT box over to that input channel everything was happy.

Now that that problem is solved, I need to figure out the correct firewall settings to get Internet radio to work and wait for firmware to fix the annoying MP3 playback glitches.

Two additional problems I noticed are that the unit occasionally (as in 1 out of 10 times or so) stops playing an MP3 prematurely, almost like it loses connection to the PC. It also fairly frequently takes a long (> 1 minute) pause while rendering thumbnails for a photo album, during which time the unit is completely unresponsive to input. I have checked out the location of the box with two other wireless-G devices, and both get top-notch signal in that location, and I don't see any problems in router or firewall logs.

The web browser also seems to take an inordinate amount of time to render even simple pages. Yahoo's main page took around 3 minutes to render this morning (it pulls up on the PC running the server software in < 1 second).

One additional suggestion for future improvement: Remove the annoying "INVALID" message when using unanticipated remote buttons in different modes. If I press the "music" button while browsing a photo album the device should do something logical like go to the main Music menu, not just flash an unfriendly "INVALID" on the screen. Navigation between menus and modes in general seems very picky and is going to result in very low WAF until the interface is a bit more intuitive.

Can anyone else with a Mitsu verify this?

Something sounds strange with your network. Your times seem unreasonably long. Can you try using the wired port and using ethernet to determine if perhaps your unit's wireless performance is sub-par.

I've reported most of the remote functionality that seems awry.

Originally posted by chrixx
After trying to enable WEP on my wireless router again last night, I am still having a problem connecting. I was thinking that maybe it was me, but after double and triple checking I'm a little lost. My router is set up and I know that it is correct because I have no problem with my laptop connecting over WEP with MAC address filtering enabled. I troubleshooted all possible scenarios without success. Is it possible that my Motorola Cable Modem Wireless Router won't work with the LT? This is the only conclussion I can fathom.

Connecting to the wireless network has nothing to do with the cable modem. You should try simplifying the situation:

1) Disable MAC-Filter (Mac filter is pretty bad security, anyone who knows anything can get around a standard mac filter in about 5 seconds).

2) Make sure your WEP key is a real WEP key (5, 10, 13, or 26 characters long). Try using the WEP key: 12345 on the router to verify whether WEP is working properly. Then create a more difficult to guess key following the WEP protocol:

WEP 64 bit ASCII - 5 alphanumeric characters
WEP 128 bit ASCII - 10 alphanumeric characters
WEP 64 bit HEX - 13 HEX characters
WEP 128 bit HEX - 26 HEX characters

Some routers will allow you to enter more or less characters and they'll "fill in the rest". Then only their cards will fill in the rest when you try to use them. For instance Linksys cards with Linksys routers will work, but throw in another card and it won't know how to fill in the blanks. The LT adheres to standard WEP implementations, it doesn't fill in blanks.

Brian,

Do you know if any of the issues I have raised in yesterday post will be fixed in tonight firmware release? Especially my video playback problems is very critical, since I cannot play DVDs and my home videos.

Thanks,
David

dup

Originally posted by BrianV
Can anyone else with a Mitsu verify this?

Something sounds strange with your network. Your times seem unreasonably long. Can you try using the wired port and using ethernet to determine if perhaps your unit's wireless performance is sub-par.

I've reported most of the remote functionality that seems awry.

Thanks again for the quick response, Brian.

For confirmation, check out the back ports on any of those Mits models -- the Component1 and Component2 input groups are labelled "480i/480p input" and the DTV group is labelled "480i/480p/1080i input." I'm sure some folks in the RPTV section here or over at Home Theater Spot can confirm on similar models, though.

I don't have an easy way of getting Ethernet to other rooms in the house; this is one of the reasons I was looking for something like the LinkTheater to begin with. I can possibly move the unit and a smaller TV into my office where I can connect wired, I suppose, but I'm not sure what that's going to prove.

Any chance adding an antenna would help? I notice one other user in this thread reporting adding one helped out with similar-sounding performance glitches.

Originally posted by dkeller
Brian,

Do you know if any of the issues I have raised in yesterday post will be fixed in tonight firmware release? Especially my video playback problems is very critical, since I cannot play DVDs and my home videos.

Thanks,
David

What video probs were you having? Like I stated earlier, this firmware update is a firmware update that was created before I came to avsforums and posted, thus none of these issues were necessarily addressed in this version.

Originally posted by d_gasser
Thanks again for the quick response, Brian.

For confirmation, check out the back ports on any of those Mits models -- the Component1 and Component2 input groups are labelled "480i/480p input" and the DTV group is labelled "480i/480p/1080i input." I'm sure some folks in the RPTV section here or over at Home Theater Spot can confirm on similar models, though.

I don't have an easy way of getting Ethernet to other rooms in the house; this is one of the reasons I was looking for something like the LinkTheater to begin with. I can possibly move the unit and a smaller TV into my office where I can connect wired, I suppose, but I'm not sure what that's going to prove.

Any chance adding an antenna would help? I notice one other user in this thread reporting adding one helped out with similar-sounding performance glitches.

If you can verify the performance on another tv using a wired connection you can determine if your problems are wireless related or other. Could be a 2.4ghz phone in your home that's screwing things up or possibly a microwave.

Originally posted by BrianV
What video probs were you having? Like I stated earlier, this firmware update is a firmware update that was created before I came to avsforums and posted, thus none of these issues were necessarily addressed in this version.

Here it is again:

1. Home video playback issues (critical)
I have digitized all my home videos (VHS & DV) into MPEG2 movies. For some reason a lot of them don’t have sound when played. Video plays fine, but no sound. You can cure that by pressing stop & play buttons number of times (sometimes up to 30, no kidding). To test this problem further, I have copied one of the movies to DVD+RW disk and played directly from player itself. Sure enough, sound came up every time. But playing this movie from DVD disk exhibits new problem: video freezes every few seconds. I have uploaded sample that illustrates this problem, you can download it from here: test.zip (http://www.mndc.com/test/test.zip)

2. Commercial DVD playback issues (critical)
When playing commercial DVDs video plays fine but there is no sound. You can get sound if you connect stereo (analog) connections, but it’s not acceptable solution. Curiously enough, I-O Data player had exactly the same problem with some A/V receivers in the earlier firmware releases (do Buffalo & I-O Data use third party firmware development?)

I have also reported issues with remote, WMA tags and photo image resolution, but they are less critical than video problems I have.

David

Originally posted by BrianV
If you can verify the performance on another tv using a wired connection you can determine if your problems are wireless related or other. Could be a 2.4ghz phone in your home that's screwing things up or possibly a microwave.

Actually that brings up a faint hope: is the wireless on this unit built completely into the board or is it on a modular card (eg. standard PCMCIA card)? I would dearly love to have a 802.11a version and get out of the noisy and crowded 2.4GHz band. I have some experience with streaming media over wireless and unless you have deep buffers or are 2' from your access point dropouts are a likely scenario. Nevermind when your (or you neighbour's) cordless phone rings or someone starts up a microwave nearby. And this doesn't even take into account having a couple neighours with wireless (if you are lucky the dolts have left them on the same default channel). My LinkTheater (which is in transit now :D ) will likely be hooked up via the 100BT. I just cannot handle the flakyness of wireless when it comes to high bandwidth media streaming in the 2.4GHz band.

Applied the new firmware. Haven't notice any difference. Anyone else see anything that has change?

Default video size selectable now.

The glitch at the begining of the MP3 gone. The random stutter sound on VOB files seems to be gone as well.

What's the DRM fix? The wmv files that play before (using WMC) still play and the ones didn't play before still don't.

I was able to play Movielink video trailers that seemed to be DRM protected (before the FW update they would not play).

I'm dling a full movie now to verify.

I'm using:
http://www.movielink.com (to get the movies)
http://download.microsoft.com/download/4/7/A/47AA030D-4070-4D2E-B1B8-1CF92CB4F29F/wmcsetup.exe (for Windows Media Connect Server to deal w/ MS-DRM)

I had to add the Movielink dir to my WMC share list:
C:\Program Files\Movielink\MovielinkManager\data\content

I also had to change the properties of the actual avi files in the above dir to not be 'hidden'

Then, of course, on the login screen on the LT I chose the WMC server instead of the usual LT server.

(Yes, Movielink is a little wonky in terms of quality and policy, but please use another forum / thread to debate it's merits, I was mainly using it to check MS-DRM for video)

Originally posted by BrianV
Connecting to the wireless network has nothing to do with the cable modem. You should try simplifying the situation:

1) Disable MAC-Filter (Mac filter is pretty bad security, anyone who knows anything can get around a standard mac filter in about 5 seconds).

2) Make sure your WEP key is a real WEP key (5, 10, 13, or 26 characters long). Try using the WEP key: 12345 on the router to verify whether WEP is working properly. Then create a more difficult to guess key following the WEP protocol:

WEP 64 bit ASCII - 5 alphanumeric characters
WEP 128 bit ASCII - 10 alphanumeric characters
WEP 64 bit HEX - 13 HEX characters
WEP 128 bit HEX - 26 HEX characters

Some routers will allow you to enter more or less characters and they'll "fill in the rest". Then only their cards will fill in the rest when you try to use them. For instance Linksys cards with Linksys routers will work, but throw in another card and it won't know how to fill in the blanks. The LT adheres to standard WEP implementations, it doesn't fill in blanks.

Sorry if I confussed you about the cable modem. I have a Motorola Cable Modem Wireless Router Combo Unit (SBG900 Wireless Surfboard Gateway). Here is how I have it set up right now and it is working:

1. MAC Filtering is enabled with my LT and Laptop MAC addresses listed in the allowed list.
2. Firewall is set to High Security - This shouldn't impact anything between my PC and the LT.
3. ESSID broadcast is disabled.
4. WEP is disabled.

Everything seems to be working fine with these settings. I run into a problem as soon as I turn on WEP (128 bit HEX). After making the changes and inputting them into the LT, I loose connection. However, my laptop still connects flawlessly. That is what brought me to the possible conclussion that the LT's wireless connection may not compatible with the Motorola's WEP settings. Is this possible? Thanks

Originally posted by chrixx
That is what brought me to the possible conclussion that the LT's wireless connection may not compatible with the Motorola's WEP settings. Is this possible? Thanks

WEP is very sensitive to the passphrase/key that you enter into it. Brian eariler gave suggestions on how to set your WEP key on all devices using the standard HEX and ASCII.

Here it is:

2) Make sure your WEP key is a real WEP key (5, 10, 13, or 26 characters long). Try using the WEP key: 12345 on the router to verify whether WEP is working properly. Then create a more difficult to guess key following the WEP protocol:

WEP 64 bit ASCII - 5 alphanumeric characters
WEP 128 bit ASCII - 10 alphanumeric characters
WEP 64 bit HEX - 13 HEX characters
WEP 128 bit HEX - 26 HEX characters

Some routers will allow you to enter more or less characters and they'll "fill in the rest". Then only their cards will fill in the rest when you try to use them. For instance Linksys cards with Linksys routers will work, but throw in another card and it won't know how to fill in the blanks. The LT adheres to standard WEP implementations, it doesn't fill in blanks.

Whenever I've had issues getting WEP keys synched it has always been the differences between how different manufactures generate their keys. The best answer is to enter in the same HEX or ASCII code into all devices. It would be nice if there was a utility to convert ASCII into HEX to make this easier.

Drew

The Belkin software on my laptop has a function where you type in a code word and it generates a 26 char HEX key. I then typed that code into the LT and it worked. Neat thing is I can regenerate the code anytime by typing in the code word into the software.

Whew, ok, I just read through the 27 pages today.

First, why isn't this in the dvd player section? This is a dvd player and I wish I saw this thread long time ago.

I second the need for discrete on/off codes.

I'm worried about the digital coax/optical audio problems I see with this player. Seeing that the iodata player had problems with my Pioneer 1014 (now fixed in the iodata), I'm worried this player may have the problem too. Is anyone using this with the Pioneer 1014?

I'm still not sure if this player can play .ts files out of box or not, can anyone confirm?

BrianV, (if you're still here)
Seeing that you're in Austin, TX, is there anywhere in Austin that I can quickly just go and pick up one of these players or just look at and demo?

After applying the new firmware, i can no longer play TS files, they stop every few seconds then start again. I had to roll back to the old firmware to fix it.

wow, this thread is definitely amazing and has made me seriously think about selling my pinnacle showcenter 1000g and buy the LT for a lot of reasons.

bryan, i have some quick questions, or anyone else that can answer it.

1) what's the max peak bitrate this chip can handle for mpeg4 xvid or divx files? 10-12 mbps? right now, showcenter is about 2.5-3mbps, and video can be choppy and stuttering at times, and makes it hard to enjoy the movie you're watching of course. i'm assuming LT would handle normal 720x480 xvid/divx files a lot better than the pinnacle showcenter because it can handle the bitrate peaks better.
2) i have rhapsody with pinnacle showcenter right now and love it, except pinnacle's software to play rhapsody songs is very buggy. i saw you're going to include rhapsody in the next software release... so if you're a current rhapsody member, LT will play it right?
3) i'm assuming this chip doesn't support divx 3.x files right?

thanks!!! can't wait to buy this thing soon!

Originally posted by drew138

Whenever I've had issues getting WEP keys synched it has always been the differences between how different manufactures generate their keys. The best answer is to enter in the same HEX or ASCII code into all devices. It would be nice if there was a utility to convert ASCII into HEX to make this easier.

Drew

Would this serve my purpose?

http://www.andrewscompanies.com/tools/wep.asp

Originally posted by chrixx
Would this serve my purpose?

http://www.andrewscompanies.com/tools/wep.asp

That link should work if you take the key length (e.g. 128hex) and copy that key into all of your devices. Not to be paranoid, but using that service from home will give the site owner your IP address as well as the WEP keys you are generating. Not likely anything could be interpreted/compromised from this, just an observation.

There is actually a good link on that page providing a WEP overview.
http://www.practicallynetworked.com/support/mixed_wep.htm
Take a read through this and it shuold help you figure out the right key structure for all of your devices. It really is way more confusing than it should be. The device manufactures all tried to make it easier for the end user and what they did was make it crazy complicated.

Good luck.

Drew

Originally posted by dennismullen
Brian, Did you have a chance to verify that "actual size" does the same as "fit to screen". Small photos are enlarged, etc. They are not actual size.

And that a 1920 x 1080 picture in 1080i mode, instead of the exact picture, has a small portion of each side is cut off.

A 1920x1080 picture in 1080i mode is the same size as in 720p mode. A third of the picture should be cut off in 720 mode, "actual size".



Brian, I finally figured out that when you push the zoom button, and it says "Zoom On" the arrow buttons make the image larger and smaller.

When I open a 1920x1080 picture, I have to go to zoom mode and push the down button twice to make the whole picture come into view. The default opening of the picture has the edges cropped off.

Thanks again.

How's the build quality on the player?

DVD Specific questions:
Does this player pass blacker than black (using DVE or THX)?

How's the layer change on movies? Noticeable?

Has anyone checked the pixel cropping on the player using AVIA?

Can you adjust the video/picture levels from the player (brightness/contrast/color/tint and black levels)?

Has anyone had any problems reading DVD movies on DVD-R/DVD+R? What media are you using?

I have zero optical audio issues, running into an older Pioneer Elite reciever....Meaning it works perfectly for me audio wise....

Originally posted by dkeller
Here it is again:

1. Home video playback issues (critical)
I have digitized all my home videos (VHS & DV) into MPEG2 movies. For some reason a lot of them don’t have sound when played. Video plays fine, but no sound. You can cure that by pressing stop & play buttons number of times (sometimes up to 30, no kidding). To test this problem further, I have copied one of the movies to DVD+RW disk and played directly from player itself. Sure enough, sound came up every time. But playing this movie from DVD disk exhibits new problem: video freezes every few seconds. I have uploaded sample that illustrates this problem, you can download it from here: test.zip (http://www.mndc.com/test/test.zip)

2. Commercial DVD playback issues (critical)
When playing commercial DVDs video plays fine but there is no sound. You can get sound if you connect stereo (analog) connections, but it’s not acceptable solution. Curiously enough, I-O Data player had exactly the same problem with some A/V receivers in the earlier firmware releases (do Buffalo & I-O Data use third party firmware development?)

I have also reported issues with remote, WMA tags and photo image resolution, but they are less critical than video problems I have.

David

Another guy had similar audio playback problems with a specific receiver. He tried another receiver and it worked fine. If you want, you can send me the model number.

I'll check that sample file but what I really need to know is the audio codec you're using. I'm on the road right now and can't download a 60MB file.

Originally posted by Tmd720
Default video size selectable now.

The glitch at the begining of the MP3 gone. The random stutter sound on VOB files seems to be gone as well.

What's the DRM fix? The wmv files that play before (using WMC) still play and the ones didn't play before still don't.

I don't recall whether the shipping version had WMC support but I guess it did. Can you download a file from www.wmvhd.com and play it? One that supports DRM? I know you can with the new firmware.

Other changes:

USB/Disc navigation removes the first video/audio/photo selection screen (which was somewhat redundant). The 'Play' button works now as a Play All feature when browsing the USB or Disc.

Originally posted by Mopsothoth
I was able to play Movielink video trailers that seemed to be DRM protected (before the FW update they would not play).

I'm dling a full movie now to verify.

I'm using:
http://www.movielink.com (to get the movies)
http://download.microsoft.com/download/4/7/A/47AA030D-4070-4D2E-B1B8-1CF92CB4F29F/wmcsetup.exe (for Windows Media Connect Server to deal w/ MS-DRM)

I had to add the Movielink dir to my WMC share list:
C:\Program Files\Movielink\MovielinkManager\data\content

I also had to change the properties of the actual avi files in the above dir to not be 'hidden'

Then, of course, on the login screen on the LT I chose the WMC server instead of the usual LT server.

(Yes, Movielink is a little wonky in terms of quality and policy, but please use another forum / thread to debate it's merits, I was mainly using it to check MS-DRM for video)

That's the same way I do it, and this version firmware allows that, the previous didn't. You confirmed my original thoughts.

The next version of PC Software will support WMC with the software client so you don't have to use that stripped down WMC interface.

Originally posted by chrixx
Sorry if I confussed you about the cable modem. I have a Motorola Cable Modem Wireless Router Combo Unit (SBG900 Wireless Surfboard Gateway). Here is how I have it set up right now and it is working:

1. MAC Filtering is enabled with my LT and Laptop MAC addresses listed in the allowed list.
2. Firewall is set to High Security - This shouldn't impact anything between my PC and the LT.
3. ESSID broadcast is disabled.
4. WEP is disabled.

Everything seems to be working fine with these settings. I run into a problem as soon as I turn on WEP (128 bit HEX). After making the changes and inputting them into the LT, I loose connection. However, my laptop still connects flawlessly. That is what brought me to the possible conclussion that the LT's wireless connection may not compatible with the Motorola's WEP settings. Is this possible? Thanks

Well inputting a WEP 128 bit HEX key requires a 26 digit HEX key which could be inputted incorrectly. I recommend you try WEP 64 ASCII first, then WEP64 HEX, and so on and so forth. Determine what does work and what doesn't work and we'll troubleshoot it from there.

Originally posted by Ja Phule
Whew, ok, I just read through the 27 pages today.

First, why isn't this in the dvd player section? This is a dvd player and I wish I saw this thread long time ago.

I second the need for discrete on/off codes.

I'm worried about the digital coax/optical audio problems I see with this player. Seeing that the iodata player had problems with my Pioneer 1014 (now fixed in the iodata), I'm worried this player may have the problem too. Is anyone using this with the Pioneer 1014?

I'm still not sure if this player can play .ts files out of box or not, can anyone confirm?

BrianV, (if you're still here)
Seeing that you're in Austin, TX, is there anywhere in Austin that I can quickly just go and pick up one of these players or just look at and demo?

You can swing by the office with your Pioneer player and we'll see if it works.

Email me at brian@buffalotech.com if you want to do something like this. The product should be at Fry's in the future but it's not right now.

Originally posted by OverLap
After applying the new firmware, i can no longer play TS files, they stop every few seconds then start again. I had to roll back to the old firmware to fix it.

That sounds funny, can anyone else verify this. I ran that firmware for two months and although I rarely play TS files I have played one or two without hitch.

Originally posted by chrixx
Would this serve my purpose?

http://www.andrewscompanies.com/tools/wep.asp

As long as the HEX key is exactly 26 characters long you'll be ok. Don't enter any shorter versions, it MUST be 26 characters.

I have tested 26 character HEX on the LT and it works fine.

Originally posted by dennismullen
Brian, I finally figured out that when you push the zoom button, and it says "Zoom On" the arrow buttons make the image larger and smaller.

When I open a 1920x1080 picture, I have to go to zoom mode and push the down button twice to make the whole picture come into view. The default opening of the picture has the edges cropped off.

Thanks again.

On mine it seems like it's zoomed in one notch but you couldn't notice it without zooming in and out.

PS - I use your image for HD image presentations all the time. You have anymore you want to share?

UPDATE:

I have new PC Software today. It has numerous fixes including:

-Add Support for Media Service Plugins
-Music Radio has been Upgraded
-Ability to Change Port
-Replaced Directory Web Sites with RSS News Feed
-Changed RSS Look and Feel
-Add Support for WMC Streaming to LinkTheater Software
-Upgrade to Tomcat 5.5.7

I will be uploading this to my private site today for 'preview' to anyone on this site. Please PM me if you want to check out the software early. I will also post a few plug-ins for you to check out and have fun with. Within the next couple of weeks I'll post the Plug-In design PDF which shows you how to make/build your own.

Originally posted by dennismullen
When I open a 1920x1080 picture, I have to go to zoom mode and push the down button twice to make the whole picture come into view. The default opening of the picture has the edges cropped off.


I assumed that was because the TV is setup with overscan so you can't physically see all 1080 lines. Mine is similar to yours.

ok, i just bought LT on buy.com....should get it in 3-4 days...amazed at how well bryan supports this forum and how active he is...awesome! wish pinnacle was this way... but goodbye pinnacle.. hello buffalo tech...

anyone want to buy my showcenter? :)

let me know about my 3 questions above, but i guess i'll find out. i know sigma has a problem playing divx 3.x files in the showcenter, but i'm not sure if this is possible in their new chip you have in the LT. i'm pretty sure bitrate is about 10-12mbps for mpeg 4 files, HD and non-HD.... so i'm sure i'll see a huge improvement in my high bandwidth mpeg 4 files that i already attempt to play on my showcenter.

Originally posted by BrianV
On mine it seems like it's zoomed in one notch but you couldn't notice it without zooming in and out.

PS - I use your image for HD image presentations all the time. You have anymore you want to share?

It sure seems that on an HDTV it should be right on the money. If it does vary from TV to TV a calibration mode would be nice.
On some pictures it doesn't matter. On others it ruins the whole composition.

Also, I somtimes have a problem were when I hit play to run a slideshow the DVD starts playing instead. It's very frustrating having to sit through the FBI warning before I can bail out.

I'd be happy to send you more Demo pictures. It's hard to get people to look at my hard work. Don't want to choke your bandwidth though. How many can you use?

Yeah 12 mbps seems to be the bitrate of this sigma-chip. I've played A LOT of Divx files and haven't seen one that causes a problem (except GMC encoded ones). I don't know if any were 3.x but I assume at least one was.

It seems the AC3 problems that people had with the linkplayer was due to something with them not using the latest version of the Sigma Designs hardware library, and has been fixed now that they've updated it. I think this may be the case with the buffalo player and ac3 problems that people are reporting.

There was a thread about it here:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=4985192#post4985192

I would like to bring my receiver to the buffalo office but I have all of my equipment stacked on top of it (not the best thing to do) plus the wiring is pretty crazy. It's also a nice 35lbs beast. :)

Originally posted by Ja Phule
It seems the AC3 problems that people had with the linkplayer was due to something with them not using the latest version of the Sigma Designs hardware library, and has been fixed now that they've updated it. I think this may be the case with the buffalo player and ac3 problems that people are reporting.

There was a thread about it here:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=4985192#post4985192

I would like to bring my receiver to the buffalo office but I have all of my equipment stacked on top of it (not the best thing to do) plus the wiring is pretty crazy. It's also a nice 35lbs beast. :) What amazes me is that this apparent Sigma problem, has been known for around four months now... but nothing appears to have been resolved...

...Kinda makes me wonder what Sigma are proposing to do about the situation.... Maybe Keith Jack can comment?


Cheers

It seems to have been fixed though by sigma.

Originally posted by Ja Phule
It seems to have been fixed though by sigma. It would be very helpful to obtain an official statement from Sigma.


Cheers

Will this player pillarbox 4:3 DVDs. Many dvd players don't do this, stretching 4:3 content in the full 16:9 window on 16:9 displays. Pillarboxing will add black bars to the side of the 4:3 image and display the image correctly. Will the video options (stretch to fit) accomplish this? Basically, if I set my display type to 16:9 and play a 4:3 dvd over 480p, will it be stretched or pillarboxed?

BrianV,
Any chance of sending a demo unit to have this dvd player reviewed in the "Secrets Home Theater Benchmark". It would be nice to see how this player performs against some of the "best of the bests."

See more information about the benchmark here:
http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_7_3/dvd-benchmark-introduction-9-2000.html

Originally posted by BrianV
Another guy had similar audio playback problems with a specific receiver. He tried another receiver and it worked fine. If you want, you can send me the model number.

I'll check that sample file but what I really need to know is the audio codec you're using. I'm on the road right now and can't download a 60MB file.

Brian.

Home videos that I having problem with encoded with 48Khz sample rate. I have re-encoded one of them with 44.1Khz and LT plays video with sound each time. I have spend several weeks to convert all my home vidoes to MPEG movies, I will hate to do it again.

I still have no sound over digital output when playing commercial DVDs. I have Sony DB-930 A/V receiver. Like I said, I own I-O Data player that I want to replace with LT, and it had the same problem that was fixed in firmware two releases ago.

Another problem that I want to address is that PC software scales my images from 5MB to 640x480 before sends them to LT. You can see that on info screen and also see those images stored in LT subdirectory of "My Documents and Settings". Strangely, if I use PC software that comes with I-O Data player, it's generates 960x720 images. So we have double problem here that Buffalo need to resolve: first of all, PC software should scale images to 1440x1080 size and second LT player should display them in that resolution and not scale down to 960x720.

Thanks,
David

Originally posted by qrazy
We have your back Brian :) :)

Has anyone else experienced a little skip while playing VOB's??

I am not talking about the delay between VOB's, but during some it acts like it skips a few seconds of video, almost seemlessly....I know this sounds weird, but it is doing this fo rme...Not all vids either, just some...I converted them over to single VOB's as described earlier in this thread....I have 2 other computers on thsi network, and both of them can play the VOB over the network without these little skips....I thought, perhaps the PC sending out the stream may not be up to snuff, but it easily exceeds the minimum requirements posted in the BLT manual....I also can play the Divx HD trailers flawlessy......Anyway, I thought I would ask....

Thanks....

Ok, no one has responded to this yet, so I assume I am the only person having this problem....I downloaded the latest firmware upgrade last night. Ran through a few of my videos and they are still doing it.....I did notice something that maybe can give someone an idea of what this may be from. When it does this, it actually restarts the clock (the one that shows how many seconds the video has been playing for example....Say it gets to 20 seconds, then it has a little skip and the counter resets to zero). I have also noticed, the skip is in the same place every time. Whether the file was multiple VOB's or a single VOB.....When I play it on the pc the file resides on with PowerDVD it is not there, when I play it on another pc over the network using PowerDVD it is not there.....
Any ideas...

Originally posted by qrazy
Ok, no one has responded to this yet, so I assume I am the only person having this problem....I downloaded the latest firmware upgrade last night. Ran through a few of my videos and they are still doing it.....I did notice something that maybe can give someone an idea of what this may be from. When it does this, it actually restarts the clock (the one that shows how many seconds the video has been playing for example....Say it gets to 20 seconds, then it has a little skip and the counter resets to zero). I have also noticed, the skip is in the same place every time. Whether the file was multiple VOB's or a single VOB.....When I play it on the pc the file resides on with PowerDVD it is not there, when I play it on another pc over the network using PowerDVD it is not there.....
Any ideas...

Sounds almost like the LT is seeing "chapter" marks or something like them every 20 seconds. I'm surprised no one else has seen this....but you said you only see it on one of three PC's?

Thanks....It isn't an every 20 second thing....It happens randomly and in some videos more often than others....But it always happens at the same exact point on each video that it does it on...
Say video a it does it 20 seconds in...Then again 8:02 in....If I play it again tomorrow on the BLT it will happen at 20 seconds in and again at 8:02...
Video b does it 5:52 in, then again 55 minutes later....The next tiem I play it, it will do it again...

I see it on the BLT only...Not on any of my PC's....I have 2 other PC's on the network, and the video will play fine on both of them wothout the little hiccup...

It will play a Divx of the same video without the skips, however the video quality is not as good....

hmm....

I turned on 64 bit WEP on my router last night and the LT connected, but I still can't get it to work with 128 bit WEP. So I guess I am going to use 64 bit WEP (better than nothing at all).

I am running all my video from DVDs that were copied using DVD Shrink. I don't use any compression and only keep the original title with the 5.1 or DTS track. The LT does a great job playing these files. I only have 2 gripes...

1. When playing these VOBs, I can not chapter advance. I can FF >> but can not chapter advance >|. I just get an invalid on the screen. It works fine from my PC using PowerDVD, but not with the LT. Any possibility of getting this function?

2. When using fit to screen, there are black bars on the left and right of the screen. What are the odds of this getting fixed? It just seems odd that if I put a DVD into the LT and play the movie there are no black bars on the sides, but if I stream the same video from my PC I get the black bars. What causes this?

for the people who have VOB problems... can't you just use auto GK or GK to convert these to xvid or divx? save space on your hard drive as well... i've converted my dvds to divx and saves me a LOT of space.. i know it takes a little time to convert, but worth it. auto GK does everything for you... just copy the dvd with dvd decryptor in IFO mode and augo gk does the rest...

i think most network players that play VOB files over the network have this problem and it's not easy to solve unless they do some serious IFO parsing. to include chapters and menus etc...pinnacle showcenter has told everyone they will not support VOB files and only support playing the actual VOB files without chapter or menu support. VOB files are not supported but can be played on the showcenter. so converting my dvds to xvid's and divx's, at least i can search and fast forward with no problems, and no skips/pauses between VOB files.

any suppport for matroska? i'm assuming nero isn't supported right?

Video Files dat, mpg, mpe, mpeg, m2v, m1v, vob, avi, asf, divx, xvid, rmp4, mp4, vro, m4v, m2p, hnl, wmv, wmv hd, divx hd

I tried the Divx thing...While it was another step (takes time when you have 120 GB worth of files), I could also percieve a reduction in quality....I want it to look the best possible.....

Hi, I'm new here.

This is a great forum and Brian V is obviously a large part of the reason for the success of the LinkTheater. Kudos.

I am looking at the LinkTheater for use as a media server for captured HDTV streams and movies, music and pictures stored on my Mac. I am now using a DP 1.8 G5 Mac recording HDTV (MPEG2 streams) via an EyeTV 500 box and EyeTV software v 1.7.1.

I have seen that Elgato's EyeConnect public beta 2 has been tested with the LinkTheater and that it has been noted that the LinkTheater will not playback Apple Lossless format music. Has anyone tried the LinkTheater to playback HDTV streams from a Mac?

Is Eyeconnect needed?

Thanks for the great information here! If this is possible (or plausible), I will get an LT and hopefully have something to add to this forum.

Originally posted by qrazy
I tried the Divx thing...While it was another step (takes time when you have 120 GB worth of files), I could also percieve a reduction in quality....I want it to look the best possible.....

sometimes, yes... have you tried max quality of 2 gigs per divx? at least, you'll save 1/2 if not 1/3 the space sometimes... at 2 gigs, i have a very hard time seeing any loss in quality, based on 2pass high quality encode.

Hi Music...Yes, I tried that, and got a 2.3 gb file from about 4.6GB..I could really see the difference...Then, I ran it through Dr. Divx EKG and got the file to almost 3 gb, and it was a lot better, but on my HDTV and the file being scaled by the Linktheater, it still does not look as good as the native VOB......

Originally posted by qrazy
Hi Music...Yes, I tried that, and got a 2.3 gb file from about 4.6GB..I could really see the difference...Then, I ran it through Dr. Divx EKG and got the file to almost 3 gb, and it was a lot better, but on my HDTV and the file being scaled by the Linktheater, it still does not look as good as the native VOB......

yeah, then it's not worth it. the VOB files are always going to be better quality than homegrown xvid/divx file conversions, since they were mastered with multuple passes using high quality encoder hardware/software. i've seen them do 10 passes for the VOB files when mastered. i only do 2 pass at most...

would be very nice to be able to watch the whole dvd on your hard drive like a normal dvd instead of converting them, but up to bryan :) don't know what's possible there...

the other thing you could try is to use the mpeg-2 quantizer in divx5 for more sharpness if that's what you're missing...

should be getting the LT tomorrow, but wanted to know before i get if this is supported:

- 3ivx (.mp4)
- nero digital (.mp4)
- rhapsody (i'm a member and use it on the showcenter currently)
- matroska (.mkv)
- divx (.divx)

and if chapter support is supported in mp4, mkv, or divx files.

thanks! look forwarding to trying this out tomorrow.

Well here's another option for you guys to consider...

It's perfectly possible (and compliant) to mux Mpeg2 video, along with 6Ch AAC audio into the .MP4 container. It's even possible to add chapter points.

So if this player does get around to offering NeroDigital Certification there would be no need re-encode the Mpeg2 source at all ;)

Now... does anybody know/has anybody tried playing Mpeg2 in .MP4?


Cheers

when i get this player tomorrow, i will try it out if you want. do you have a sample file i can try? if not, i can create my own and using an mpeg2 file as the source instead of the usual mpeg4 file.

I guess I could whip-up an Mpeg2/AAC in .MP4 test file for you to try!

In answer to your previous questions: - The player should be able to support 3ivx Mpeg4 SP video muxed into both .MP4 and .AVI containers.
The player should be able to support NeroDigital Mpeg4 SP/ASP video muxed into the .MP4 container
I don't know about rhapsody
The player does not support the Matroska container
According to DivX (DXN) most DivX Certified players should be able to fully support .divx after a firmware upgrade And... because the player is not NeroDigital certified, it will not support chapter selection or subtitles in .MP4. And I doubt whether the player supports AAC audio stream selection either!


Cheers

Can anyone with the player answer these questions I posted earlier?

How's the build quality on the player?

DVD Specific questions:
Does this player pass blacker than black (using DVE or THX)?

How's the layer change on movies? Noticeable?

Has anyone checked the pixel cropping on the player using AVIA?

Can you adjust the video/picture levels from the player (brightness/contrast/color/tint and black levels)?

Has anyone had any problems reading DVD movies on DVD-R/DVD+R? What media are you using?

Does this player pillarbox 4:3 content using your 16:9 display?

The build quality is about average; nothing special, nothing to complain about.

It seems to handle DVD aspect ratios properly. 4:3 comes out 4:3 and fills the screen top-bottom, 16:9 comes out 16:9 and fills the whole screen.

I've burned a few DVD+R DVD's, and they play okay.

There seems to be some overscan, but I haven't measured it.

Zonegray,
Thanks for the reply.

Hi everyone, I seem to have a few issues with the Buffalo Linktheater, and hoping for some insight..

This will be somewhat long winded, and hopefully I make sense.

I got this a month, it's pretty much sat idle because of some issues I've had with it.

My first issue is my girlfriend and I have around 8000 MP3/WMA's. These were on a linux box with a Samba drive mapped to our PC's. When I changed the default directory of the LinkTheater software to this folder it locked up both the server software and the LT itself. So I then spent hours cleaning up this 80 gig drive here, copying those over and putting them in the default "My Documents\My Music" folder, this caused the server software to start eating CPU cycles like crazy. I have a P4 3GHZ with hyperthreading and it was basically munching 50% of the CPU. I thought it might be building some sort of data base, so I let it run overnight and still killing the CPU when I woke up. Next I moved the songs to a different folder on my D:\ drive, and added it as a "watch folder". This stopped the server software from killing my CPU. But the LT will only see 5000 of the songs. A limit in the LT itself or server software? I would LOVE LOVE LOVE seeing a Linux version of the server software. My linux box is up 24x7 and my PC is not.

Even after the recent (Mid April 05) firmware update, the mp3 playback still seems to freak out between songs, okay not as bad, but still happening. This might be due to not enough signal strength, but since the unit has no way to display this (HINT HINT) - I am a bit worried about this unit now as it past the date of where I can return to get my money back. I was anxiously awaiting this firmware which was supposed to fix mp3 playback, and it's still now just an over priced DVD player. :(

I've emailed Buffalo support several times with one reply typical of someone who was clueless or didn't care. Telling me to map a drive from my server. This after I mentioned it was mapped, directly to that folder. I just think the server software gets the UNC name (I think is the name) of the folder so it ends up looking like:

\\WORKGROUP\MACHINE\SHARED FOLDER

instead of Z:\My Music\


Curious if anyone has experienced these issuses, and any way to resolve them.

Thanks

Originally posted by BrianV
Yeah, you can play the VOBS fine, the IFOs will display but they won't be interactive. This is what I do:

DVD Decrypt a DVD movie, dump the decrypt into a folder, point LinkTheater to that folder, press the Play_all button. It'll stream the VOBS perfectly with a ~2 second pause between VOBS.

Hopefully we can get a little better implementaiton of this in the future, I wasn't aware so many people were interested in doing this.

This may or may not have been brought up already, but I'm new here, and just now reading the thread (all 20 some pages worth), so before I get to the end and forget, I thought I would mention to use DVD-Decrypter in single file mode when ripping. You need NTFS for this as files can exceed 4 gig. DVD Decrypter will then rip the movie to one file. You lose chapter info. But for a movie where you normally just sit and watch it, never using chapters, it works good with the couple of movies I've messed around doing this to. I haven't put much time into this as other "issues" with the LT have kept me from doing much with it. :(

I'm a big fan of foreign tv programs and naturally I have to use subtitles. Too stupid and lazy to learn the foreign language fluently. Some video files come with "hard subs" (subs in the video stream) and others come with "soft subs" which are separate .srt files that contain the text. The LT, which I absolutely love, displays and decodes the .srt files, but the font size on the screen is way too small. I've tried to increase the font size of the text in the .srt file, but the LT keeps defaulting to the small font. Can the font size be increased? If not, can it be fixed in firmware?

.srt files are associated with Divx files BTW....I think :rolleyes:

Anybody with a solution to this?

I knew Buffalo support was great...but this goes above and beyond.
Brian = awesome product manager!

Originally posted by dennismullen
It sure seems that on an HDTV it should be right on the money. If it does vary from TV to TV a calibration mode would be nice.
On some pictures it doesn't matter. On others it ruins the whole composition.

Also, I somtimes have a problem were when I hit play to run a slideshow the DVD starts playing instead. It's very frustrating having to sit through the FBI warning before I can bail out.

I'd be happy to send you more Demo pictures. It's hard to get people to look at my hard work. Don't want to choke your bandwidth though. How many can you use?

5-10 would be cool. You know the email address. Thanks

Originally posted by Ja Phule
Will this player pillarbox 4:3 DVDs. Many dvd players don't do this, stretching 4:3 content in the full 16:9 window on 16:9 displays. Pillarboxing will add black bars to the side of the 4:3 image and display the image correctly. Will the video options (stretch to fit) accomplish this? Basically, if I set my display type to 16:9 and play a 4:3 dvd over 480p, will it be stretched or pillarboxed?
Can anyone else answer this? I can't remember and I don't have one right in front of me. I have noticed it stretch and zoom on different occassions.

Originally posted by Ja Phule
BrianV,
Any chance of sending a demo unit to have this dvd player reviewed in the "Secrets Home Theater Benchmark". It would be nice to see how this player performs against some of the "best of the bests."

See more information about the benchmark here:
http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_7_3/dvd-benchmark-introduction-9-2000.html

Email our PR agent at kelly@klrcommunications.com

I know we only have a limited amount authorized for PR/Reviews.

Originally posted by dkeller
Brian.

Home videos that I having problem with encoded with 48Khz sample rate. I have re-encoded one of them with 44.1Khz and LT plays video with sound each time. I have spend several weeks to convert all my home vidoes to MPEG movies, I will hate to do it again.

I still have no sound over digital output when playing commercial DVDs. I have Sony DB-930 A/V receiver. Like I said, I own I-O Data player that I want to replace with LT, and it had the same problem that was fixed in firmware two releases ago.

Another problem that I want to address is that PC software scales my images from 5MB to 640x480 before sends them to LT. You can see that on info screen and also see those images stored in LT subdirectory of "My Documents and Settings". Strangely, if I use PC software that comes with I-O Data player, it's generates 960x720 images. So we have double problem here that Buffalo need to resolve: first of all, PC software should scale images to 1440x1080 size and second LT player should display them in that resolution and not scale down to 960x720.

Thanks,
David

David,
I'll ask sigma about the firmware fix for your audio problem. I'll let you know what I hear from them. Using the PC Software, what setting are you using (Fit To Screen, Full Screen, Actual Size)? My setup doesn't seem to do what yours is doing.

Originally posted by qrazy
Ok, no one has responded to this yet, so I assume I am the only person having this problem....I downloaded the latest firmware upgrade last night. Ran through a few of my videos and they are still doing it.....I did notice something that maybe can give someone an idea of what this may be from. When it does this, it actually restarts the clock (the one that shows how many seconds the video has been playing for example....Say it gets to 20 seconds, then it has a little skip and the counter resets to zero). I have also noticed, the skip is in the same place every time. Whether the file was multiple VOB's or a single VOB.....When I play it on the pc the file resides on with PowerDVD it is not there, when I play it on another pc over the network using PowerDVD it is not there.....
Any ideas...

I haven't seen it at all. If you are willing to upload a VOB that has the problem to my FTP site I can try it on my setup. PM me if you're interested.

Originally posted by chrixx
I turned on 64 bit WEP on my router last night and the LT connected, but I still can't get it to work with 128 bit WEP. So I guess I am going to use 64 bit WEP (better than nothing at all).

I am running all my video from DVDs that were copied using DVD Shrink. I don't use any compression and only keep the original title with the 5.1 or DTS track. The LT does a great job playing these files. I only have 2 gripes...

1. When playing these VOBs, I can not chapter advance. I can FF >> but can not chapter advance >|. I just get an invalid on the screen. It works fine from my PC using PowerDVD, but not with the LT. Any possibility of getting this function?

2. When using fit to screen, there are black bars on the left and right of the screen. What are the odds of this getting fixed? It just seems odd that if I put a DVD into the LT and play the movie there are no black bars on the sides, but if I stream the same video from my PC I get the black bars. What causes this?
Try using a WEP passphrase of 1234567890 to see if that works (WEP 128 ASCII).

1. Since the IFOs aren't being processed I don't expect chapters to work. Hopefully we can get that feature added.

2. I'll look into this, but fit to screen just makes the image/video fit to the screen without zooming/cropping/stretching. DVD movies aren't exactly 16:9.

Originally posted by musicnyman
for the people who have VOB problems... can't you just use auto GK or GK to convert these to xvid or divx? save space on your hard drive as well... i've converted my dvds to divx and saves me a LOT of space.. i know it takes a little time to convert, but worth it. auto GK does everything for you... just copy the dvd with dvd decryptor in IFO mode and augo gk does the rest...

i think most network players that play VOB files over the network have this problem and it's not easy to solve unless they do some serious IFO parsing. to include chapters and menus etc...pinnacle showcenter has told everyone they will not support VOB files and only support playing the actual VOB files without chapter or menu support. VOB files are not supported but can be played on the showcenter. so converting my dvds to xvid's and divx's, at least i can search and fast forward with no problems, and no skips/pauses between VOB files.

any suppport for matroska? i'm assuming nero isn't supported right?

Video Files dat, mpg, mpe, mpeg, m2v, m1v, vob, avi, asf, divx, xvid, rmp4, mp4, vro, m4v, m2p, hnl, wmv, wmv hd, divx hd

I haven't heard of matroska so I assume we don't support it. Nero isn't supported right now, but we're in talks with them.

Originally posted by Powie
Hi everyone, I seem to have a few issues with the Buffalo Linktheater, and hoping for some insight..

This will be somewhat long winded, and hopefully I make sense.

I got this a month, it's pretty much sat idle because of some issues I've had with it.

My first issue is my girlfriend and I have around 8000 MP3/WMA's. These were on a linux box with a Samba drive mapped to our PC's. When I changed the default directory of the LinkTheater software to this folder it locked up both the server software and the LT itself. So I then spent hours cleaning up this 80 gig drive here, copying those over and putting them in the default "My Documents\My Music" folder, this caused the server software to start eating CPU cycles like crazy. I have a P4 3GHZ with hyperthreading and it was basically munching 50% of the CPU. I thought it might be building some sort of data base, so I let it run overnight and still killing the CPU when I woke up. Next I moved the songs to a different folder on my D:\ drive, and added it as a "watch folder". This stopped the server software from killing my CPU. But the LT will only see 5000 of the songs. A limit in the LT itself or server software? I would LOVE LOVE LOVE seeing a Linux version of the server software. My linux box is up 24x7 and my PC is not.

Even after the recent (Mid April 05) firmware update, the mp3 playback still seems to freak out between songs, okay not as bad, but still happening. This might be due to not enough signal strength, but since the unit has no way to display this (HINT HINT) - I am a bit worried about this unit now as it past the date of where I can return to get my money back. I was anxiously awaiting this firmware which was supposed to fix mp3 playback, and it's still now just an over priced DVD player. :(

I've emailed Buffalo support several times with one reply typical of someone who was clueless or didn't care. Telling me to map a drive from my server. This after I mentioned it was mapped, directly to that folder. I just think the server software gets the UNC name (I think is the name) of the folder so it ends up looking like:

\\WORKGROUP\MACHINE\SHARED FOLDER

instead of Z:\My Music\


Curious if anyone has experienced these issuses, and any way to resolve them.

Thanks

The server software will take A LONG time parsing id3 tags and directory information for 8000 songs, especially when you add a network drive in. I can likely get you Linux software in the next week or two.

Originally posted by Powie
This may or may not have been brought up already, but I'm new here, and just now reading the thread (all 20 some pages worth), so before I get to the end and forget, I thought I would mention to use DVD-Decrypter in single file mode when ripping. You need NTFS for this as files can exceed 4 gig. DVD Decrypter will then rip the movie to one file. You lose chapter info. But for a movie where you normally just sit and watch it, never using chapters, it works good with the couple of movies I've messed around doing this to. I haven't put much time into this as other "issues" with the LT have kept me from doing much with it. :(
Good thinking!

Originally posted by LexyGS4ever
I'm a big fan of foreign tv programs and naturally I have to use subtitles. Too stupid and lazy to learn the foreign language fluently. Some video files come with "hard subs" (subs in the video stream) and others come with "soft subs" which are separate .srt files that contain the text. The LT, which I absolutely love, displays and decodes the .srt files, but the font size on the screen is way too small. I've tried to increase the font size of the text in the .srt file, but the LT keeps defaulting to the small font. Can the font size be increased? If not, can it be fixed in firmware?

.srt files are associated with Divx files BTW....I think :rolleyes:

Anybody with a solution to this?

I knew Buffalo support was great...but this goes above and beyond.
Brian = awesome product manager!
I know of no way to increase the font size, but I'll report it to our engineers.

Thanks

Originally posted by BrianV
I haven't heard of matroska so I assume we don't support it. Nero isn't supported right now, but we're in talks with them.

nero digital support would be a biggie for me and a lot of other users that i've seen on this forum and doom9's forum. easy to create mp4 files with chapter support.

looking forward to it! thanks!

Originally posted by BrianV
The server software will take A LONG time parsing id3 tags and directory information for 8000 songs, especially when you add a network drive in. I can likely get you Linux software in the next week or two.

But the watch folders have 5000 file limit? I'm wondering if this also exists in the default folder, and perhaps a bug in the software is causing it to lock up. The "network" is gigabit, so I think after hours of letting it sit, it could read that info?
I did recently format that computers HDD and reinstall XP, I will try it again.

Thanks BrianV, I sent you a PM about the linux software, and would love getting my hands on it. As well as beta versions of the Windows versions.

While I am here I have also seen a few posts where people say a page down/up button would be nice. Well last I checked (a few weeks ago) you can use the chapter forward/back buttons to move down/up a page in the built in browser, and while scrolling through song lists.

another interesting container is the .divx format. i'm not sure if divx is done testing and it's out in production yet, but it would be nice to be able to support this as well in the future. you guys looking at this as well bryan?

thanks,

The Linktheater is Divx certified.....

Originally posted by qrazy
The Linktheater is Divx certified.....

correct, but i think firmware has to be upgraded to support .divx. normal divx AVI's play fine i'm sure.

Does anyone know if there is a way to do the following:

1) While listening to music (MP3), go back to the song list without needing to press "stop" and stop the music from playing? All of the other media players I have tried allow you to go "back" without having to stop the current song from playing.

2) While listening to music, go directly to another activity like browsing JPEGs without having to press stop (i.e. while listening to music, press the "pictures" button to go directly to the pictures activity)? This also has been a feature on all of the other media players I have tried.

3) Is there a way to play video or slideshows in a "window" rather than fullscreen so that you can browse other video files or JPEGs while still playing the video or slideshow? The Prismiq player supported this feature, and I found it to be extremely useful.

*EDIT*

4) Also, I have my MP3s in folders by artist; is there a way to choose a song in the middle of a "list" of songs within a folder and play all songs after that song? For example, in my Van Morrison folder, I would like to scroll down to Moondance, select it (to start playing the song) and have all of the songs after Moondance play. Currently, when I highlight Moondance and press the "play" button, the first song in the folder starts playing rather than the song I had highlighted. If I select Moondance (by pressing the OK button), Moondance starts playing, but when that song is done, I am returned to the music folder rather than the next song.

Whew! Does that make sense? :)
Thanks all,
Kirt

After reinstalling xp my internet radio and web directory are working. I reinstalled all the programs that I suspected might be causing the problem AVG,ZA Adaware ect... one at a time hoping to see what breaks it but so far its still running smooth. If I ever figure out what caused the problem ill let everyone know.

just got this today. very impressed. couple of things:

- downloaded some samples from www.wmvhd.com. video works fine but not audio. i'm using digital output.
- on the pinnacle showcenter, there was a great feature where you could go to a certain percentage in an xvid/divx file. you would hit 5 for 50% and 9 for 90% etc... any way you can do that on the LT? i tried but didn't work.

O.K... So I bought a Buffalo WBR-G54S router to go with my LT with the assumption that I would then be able to use AOSS mode. I set up the router. Everything works great. Pressed the AOSS button on the router for 5 seconds, per the manual, and the AOSS light started flashing. Ran downstairs and hit the AOSS button on the LT. Screen displyed "AOSS In Progress..." and then after about 30 seconds, error: "An AOSS-mode Access Point was not detected"

What gives??

Originally posted by BrianV
The server software will take A LONG time parsing id3 tags and directory information for 8000 songs, especially when you add a network drive in. I can likely get you Linux software in the next week or two.

Hi BrianV,

Ok as I mentioned I would try again since my box was recently formatted, and XP freshly installed. My music library is currently on my F: drive, in a folder named "My Music", if I point the default music folder to this directory, the LinkTheater server software kills the CPU. If this CPU did not support HyperThreading it would be at 100% CPU use, for hours. So reading id3 tags is not what it's doing. As there is also no disk access going on. This has to be a bug, as I can add this as a watch folder fine. I cleaned the folder up some so there are about 6000 mp3's. I'm going to try moving them over to my default "My Documents\My Music" folder later.

You mention a Linux version, mind answering a few questions? Does it require a GUI to config? Is there an optional GUI config tool? Sometimes I'm SSH'ed in to my server, and others VNC, or local. Does the linux version support all features, and recieve attention, or is it done as an after thought? I'm hoping some other Linux/BSD/Opensource people will speak up so Buffalo knows there is a "need" not just a "that would be nice". I want to come home, fire up the entertainment center, and play songs. Not run upstairs, wait for XP to boot.

Buffalo BADLY needs a community section on its webpage. While this is a nice forum, support needs to be handled there. I would bet most people here are "above average HT-PC-Geeks", so we were able to stumble across this thread. But a billion dollar company needs a forum software like PHPBB, running on your Fedora/Apache webserver. I mention phpBB2 as it's free as well as Apache/Fedora. So when Average Joe taking that leap and wants to buy a LT, he has issues, he goes to forums.buffalotech.com and gets help. With a community section, Buffalo and other users help each other out. Areas could be setup for each of your products, with downloads, FAQ's, all located in one easy to find place. Up until last month I ran a phpBB2 system for years, and would be more than willing to help set it up.

The more I think about it, the more I think a "must have" feature of the LT is a signal strength indicator of some sort, even a simple # from 1-100. If at all possible. This will only make us wireless people's lives easier.

I downloaded the Japanese version of the server software, noticed it's at version 1.46 or something, when are we gonna see this version? :) Sorry to bug ya, just was very excited to get this product, then let down when it couldn't play my extensive mp3 selection on my nice A/V system. Now I'm psyched again as someone out there is listening. And seeing a slight improvement of playback with the recent firmware update. :)

Goofy, but could the display on front of the LT be made to display the time when it's idle? You know a good advertising campaign could be "This isn't your parents VCR", then at the end of the commercial, show the LT with the clock set to the right time and not flashing 12:00. lol of course done automatically, maybe via NTP?

If the play back of IFOs is prohibitive to accomplish what about some functionality that would let one mount a DVD that was ripped to an ISO and then play it back over the network as a real DVD? Use DVD decrypter to rip to ISO, mount ISO using utility that comes with Nero or CloneDVD or any of the other utilities that mount ISOs, then have the LT server software share this mounted drive/dvd as something that can be run. In reality select the ISO on the LT and all of the above is done on the PC side and the DVD just starts playing.

I know this requires a running PC which we'd all prefer to do without, but if this is a way to get real playback with all functionality of a ripped DVD then I for one would be happy to accept the solution as this is one of the main reasons I want to upgrade from my mediamvp.

And just a note, I too was thrilled to find this thread today and just finished all 30 pages and really like BrianV's presence here and would love to know if users are using the new pc software Brian mentioned and if they like it, and Brian, what items are slated for next firmware updgrae (top of the engineers list.)

Thanks

DC: If I understand what you're trying to get at, I believe the LT will already play ripped DVDs fine as long as they're streamed from a PC (you don't have to "mount" the ISO as a virtual drive)...it's when you try to play it off a USB drive that you have the "between VOB delay" problem. But I could be wrong, since I don't have an LT yet...thisis just what I'm inferring from other posters.

Originally posted by Scribble
After reinstalling xp my internet radio and web directory are working. I reinstalled all the programs that I suspected might be causing the problem AVG,ZA Adaware ect... one at a time hoping to see what breaks it but so far its still running smooth. If I ever figure out what caused the problem ill let everyone know.

Scribble,

Remember I am experiencing the same difficulties with "internet access" that you reported. I assume you have reinstalled XP/SP2? But have you installed any of the Windows security updates issued since SP2? I have faithfully installed all of Microsoft's "critical updates" and I wonder if the problem may be related to one of them. This could explain why these internet features work for some users and not others.

Another thought - I am using Mozilla Foxfire, not IE. Were you also using Foxfire?

Originally posted by Deacon Crusher
If the play back of IFOs is prohibitive to accomplish what about some functionality that would let one mount a DVD that was ripped to an ISO and then play it back over the network as a real DVD? Use DVD decrypter to rip to ISO, mount ISO using utility that comes with Nero or CloneDVD or any of the other utilities that mount ISOs, then have the LT server software share this mounted drive/dvd as something that can be run. In reality select the ISO on the LT and all of the above is done on the PC side and the DVD just starts playing.


Deacon:

Have you actually tried this? I don't think what you suggested will work. If it does, half of the people here, myself included, would be happy.

Originally posted by musicnyman
- on the pinnacle showcenter, there was a great feature where you could go to a certain percentage in an xvid/divx file. you would hit 5 for 50% and 9 for 90% etc... any way you can do that on the LT? i tried but didn't work.

Use the left/right buttons on the 4-way navigation pad. Push right once, and it says "jump to 1%". Each time you press it, it'll increment 1%. When you stop pressing, it'll make the jump.

A little clunky, but workable. It'd be much nicer if it incremented 2% or 3%. The Pinnacle implementation would be even better.

yeah. pinnacle had both 1% and 10% incrementers which is nice if you have to increment by 50-80% at at time :)

i found the 1% as well, but getting to 50 or 80% of the movie is time consuming :)

so i tried playing a vob file copied from dvd decrypter tonight and it would end each chapter (cut off) too early before moving onto the next. i used dvd decrypter in IFO mode and created one 4.5 gig VOB file.

has anyone had this problem as well? i'm 100% up to date on the firmware. divx/xvid files play fine, if not perfectly, so i'm very happy with this so far... a lot of people on this forum are talking about playing dvds directly so i figured i'd give it a shot.

i'll try some more tomorrow to see if they have the same problems, or if it's just this one dvd. just figured i'd mention it.

I just finished setting up my LT. I must say that I am very impressed. I cannot compare it to my htpc that I am using Joveplayer and a Real Magic Xcard but it is inexpensive and does a decent job of playing most of my digital media. Also, it has a built in DVD player.

I have a few questions...Does the new firmware fix the 2 second pause between VOBs? It is working great and unless the new firmware has a lot of fixes, I don't want to upgrade. You know what they say, if it ain't broke don't fix it.
The other question has to do with NTFS. I have been reading that the LT cannot mount NTFS partitions but I think that only applies to USB drives. Is my assumption correct? I just played a movie off of an NTFS partion on my server and with the exception of the pauses, it works great.

Thanks.

Originally posted by expedition
I just finished setting up my LT. I must say that I am very impressed. I cannot compare it to my htpc that I am using Joveplayer and a Real Magic Xcard but it is inexpensive and does a decent job of playing most of my digital media. Also, it has a built in DVD player.

I have a few questions...Does the new firmware fix the 2 second pause between VOBs? It is working great and unless the new firmware has a lot of fixes, I don't want to upgrade. You know what they say, if it ain't broke don't fix it.
The other question has to do with NTFS. I have been reading that the LT cannot mount NTFS partitions but I think that only applies to USB drives. Is my assumption correct? I just played a movie off of an NTFS partion on my server and with the exception of the pauses, it works great.

Thanks.

the pause between vob files for one movie can be fixed by using dvd decrypter in IFO mode and creating one big vob file instead of multiple.

Originally posted by SeeMoreDigital
I guess I could whip-up an Mpeg2/AAC in .MP4 test file for you to try!

In answer to your previous questions: - The player should be able to support 3ivx Mpeg4 SP video muxed into both .MP4 and .AVI containers.
The player should be able to support NeroDigital Mpeg4 SP/ASP video muxed into the .MP4 container
I don't know about rhapsody
The player does not support the Matroska container
According to DivX (DXN) most DivX Certified players should be able to fully support .divx after a firmware upgrade And... because the player is not NeroDigital certified, it will not support chapter selection or subtitles in .MP4. And I doubt whether the player supports AAC audio stream selection either!


Cheers

so SMD, looks like you're right. it will play a nero digital mp4 file, but can't do chapters and extras yet... and won't play AAC either.

I'm just starting to play with my new Linktheater but have hit a bit of stumbling block with the, IMHO, antiquated "server" paradigm. It runs as a user app with user specific settings. This is well and good for any single user system (1995 called and they want their OS back) but this is 2005 and just about anyone with a media server is running it on a multiuser OS and the server should be running as an service with a single configuration.

Linktheater should run with one config and all the time regardless of who is logged in (if anyone) and what they are doing. Right now the "server" has to be in the startup, doesn't run unless someone is logged in, and runs with different settings depending on who is logged in. On top of that it appears you can have dueling servers. An example of a more modern and robust paradigm is Slimserver where the server is a service and you interact with it via a web interface (that you can password protect if you wish).

Now I am actually hoping that someone will tell me I've missed something and this is how you run it as a service with a single configuration. Please...? Right now the server is rather useless unless I leave myself logged in all the time and if the server happens to get rebooted (eg. power failure, crash, etc.); if I am not around to login then any other viewers are pooched until I get home. This is rediculous. Sorry for sounding so agitated; I'm just completely taken aback and agast by such a primitive server design in such an otherwise advanced product.

OK after throwing many of the types of discs in my collection at the LinkTheater I have the following:

DVD(NTSCR1): Fine of course. Seems not to mind RCE when in Region 0 which is a good thing.

DVD(PALR2): Converts picture OK, including anamorphic. Bad stutters every second as previously reported. I suspect this is due to just not convering 50 fields to 60. In otherwords it seems to be firing off 50 fields in the first 5/6 of a second then just holding the last fields for 1/6 of a second.

DVDR: Fine for the ones I had.

VCD: Seems fine although perhaps not the best I've seen.

SVCD: I don't think I actually have one.

CD: Fine.

CDR: Fine

CD+G: No go.

I think that's it.

Now as for the rest of the interface it seems pretty good with two oddities and observations so far (actually these are probably server issues):

-I don't think the publishing of favorites is a particularly good idea. I don't actually use IE and it does not seem to be properly grabbing my Moz ones so I'm not affected so far but I'm sure some people out there will be embarassed. :eek: :D There does not actually seem to be a way to turn this off; of course if this were a proper service you would not even have this questionable feature.

-I have a wierd link just below the four 'Video, Music, Photo, Internet' buttons; in the bottom right corner of the screen. It is titled 'telus' (my ISP) but links to another site (that I have visited but is in no way related). Anyone know where this might be coming from?

I received this unit on Thursday.....

My observations:

Commercial DVDs: Dolby digital light clicks on my Sony STR-DE835 but no sound whatsoever....DTS track on LOTR:TTEE works fine...weird...this happens on both optical and coaxial connection.

CDs sound great through optical connection

DIVX, DIVX HD, WMV, WMV-HD look great except no digital sound on WMV-HD, I can only receive sound through analog ouputs on player

MP3s sound good although menu is cumbersome...selecting playlist does not do anything...album art is a neat feature but burn in is an issue...screen saver should cut on...

HD files....1 of about 20 TS files were able to play and I could only receive audio through analog outputs...worthless

Sounds like an RMA to buy.com will be necessary.

yeah, same thing here... some files don't play through digital out. they should all play through digital out instead of having to switch from analog to digital for difference videos.

Originally posted by meast
O.K... So I bought a Buffalo WBR-G54S router to go with my LT with the assumption that I would then be able to use AOSS mode. I set up the router. Everything works great. Pressed the AOSS button on the router for 5 seconds, per the manual, and the AOSS light started flashing. Ran downstairs and hit the AOSS button on the LT. Screen displyed "AOSS In Progress..." and then after about 30 seconds, error: "An AOSS-mode Access Point was not detected"

What gives??

meast,
AOSS runs at 25% power per some requirement in Japan. I've been wokring on getting it to run at 100%. You should try plugging the LT into a wall outlet near your router and running AOSS there. You don't need to hook it up to a TV, just give it a minute to start up, re-run the button pressing process, and wait for about a minute after the AOSS light goes solid on the router.

Originally posted by Flip221
Does anyone know if there is a way to do the following:

1) While listening to music (MP3), go back to the song list without needing to press "stop" and stop the music from playing? All of the other media players I have tried allow you to go "back" without having to stop the current song from playing.

2) While listening to music, go directly to another activity like browsing JPEGs without having to press stop (i.e. while listening to music, press the "pictures" button to go directly to the pictures activity)? This also has been a feature on all of the other media players I have tried.

3) Is there a way to play video or slideshows in a "window" rather than fullscreen so that you can browse other video files or JPEGs while still playing the video or slideshow? The Prismiq player supported this feature, and I found it to be extremely useful.

*EDIT*

4) Also, I have my MP3s in folders by artist; is there a way to choose a song in the middle of a "list" of songs within a folder and play all songs after that song? For example, in my Van Morrison folder, I would like to scroll down to Moondance, select it (to start playing the song) and have all of the songs after Moondance play. Currently, when I highlight Moondance and press the "play" button, the first song in the folder starts playing rather than the song I had highlighted. If I select Moondance (by pressing the OK button), Moondance starts playing, but when that song is done, I am returned to the music folder rather than the next song.

Whew! Does that make sense? :)
Thanks all,
Kirt

I'd like to get number 1 working for everyone as it has been mentioned before. I don't know about the window and browsing, but we'll see.

3. You can press the blue right or left button to skip to a certain %.

4. No way of doing that, but I'll see if there's some way to make that happen. The problem is if you start adding a lot of buttons and options to mp3 playback it becomes a little too difficult for regular users to use.

Originally posted by Powie
Hi BrianV,

Ok as I mentioned I would try again since my box was recently formatted, and XP freshly installed. My music library is currently on my F: drive, in a folder named "My Music", if I point the default music folder to this directory, the LinkTheater server software kills the CPU. If this CPU did not support HyperThreading it would be at 100% CPU use, for hours. So reading id3 tags is not what it's doing. As there is also no disk access going on. This has to be a bug, as I can add this as a watch folder fine. I cleaned the folder up some so there are about 6000 mp3's. I'm going to try moving them over to my default "My Documents\My Music" folder later.

You mention a Linux version, mind answering a few questions? Does it require a GUI to config? Is there an optional GUI config tool? Sometimes I'm SSH'ed in to my server, and others VNC, or local. Does the linux version support all features, and recieve attention, or is it done as an after thought? I'm hoping some other Linux/BSD/Opensource people will speak up so Buffalo knows there is a "need" not just a "that would be nice". I want to come home, fire up the entertainment center, and play songs. Not run upstairs, wait for XP to boot.

Buffalo BADLY needs a community section on its webpage. While this is a nice forum, support needs to be handled there. I would bet most people here are "above average HT-PC-Geeks", so we were able to stumble across this thread. But a billion dollar company needs a forum software like PHPBB, running on your Fedora/Apache webserver. I mention phpBB2 as it's free as well as Apache/Fedora. So when Average Joe taking that leap and wants to buy a LT, he has issues, he goes to forums.buffalotech.com and gets help. With a community section, Buffalo and other users help each other out. Areas could be setup for each of your products, with downloads, FAQ's, all located in one easy to find place. Up until last month I ran a phpBB2 system for years, and would be more than willing to help set it up.

The more I think about it, the more I think a "must have" feature of the LT is a signal strength indicator of some sort, even a simple # from 1-100. If at all possible. This will only make us wireless people's lives easier.

I downloaded the Japanese version of the server software, noticed it's at version 1.46 or something, when are we gonna see this version? :) Sorry to bug ya, just was very excited to get this product, then let down when it couldn't play my extensive mp3 selection on my nice A/V system. Now I'm psyched again as someone out there is listening. And seeing a slight improvement of playback with the recent firmware update. :)

Goofy, but could the display on front of the LT be made to display the time when it's idle? You know a good advertising campaign could be "This isn't your parents VCR", then at the end of the commercial, show the LT with the clock set to the right time and not flashing 12:00. lol of course done automatically, maybe via NTP?

Powie, I do think it's a bug. PM me and I'll send you some other software to try.

The Linux version of the software does not require a GUI. It's like the Mac software where the specific options are set through the remote control.

Most companies DO not have a forum, especially larger companies. Linksys and D-Link don't have user communities because they're too hard to moderate. I spend over an hour (sometimes a lot more) per day just working with you guys both on and off this forum. If we were to create a forum of some sort then we'd be obliged to monitor it regularly. I'm the only one who can do this, and I also travel A LOT so I do most of this on my free time. We have discussed it though and it is in the talks. We'll likely see a TeraStation forum first.

I can probably get SNR or signal strength reported.

Which Japanese software did you download, PM me a link to it. That would be a clever advertisement, but with the expense of advertising I don't think an automatic setting clock is a feature to brag about on a $350 product. We'd rather focus on the actual feature-set. By idle do you mean when the device is 'Off'?

Originally posted by Deacon Crusher
If the play back of IFOs is prohibitive to accomplish what about some functionality that would let one mount a DVD that was ripped to an ISO and then play it back over the network as a real DVD? Use DVD decrypter to rip to ISO, mount ISO using utility that comes with Nero or CloneDVD or any of the other utilities that mount ISOs, then have the LT server software share this mounted drive/dvd as something that can be run. In reality select the ISO on the LT and all of the above is done on the PC side and the DVD just starts playing.

I know this requires a running PC which we'd all prefer to do without, but if this is a way to get real playback with all functionality of a ripped DVD then I for one would be happy to accept the solution as this is one of the main reasons I want to upgrade from my mediamvp.

And just a note, I too was thrilled to find this thread today and just finished all 30 pages and really like BrianV's presence here and would love to know if users are using the new pc software Brian mentioned and if they like it, and Brian, what items are slated for next firmware updgrae (top of the engineers list.)

Thanks

Surprisingly no one has PM'd me about the new software so I don't think anyone has downloaded it.

I haven't checked with the engineers regarding "the list" in a week or two. I'll touch base next week and figure out what's to be expected.

Originally posted by expedition
I just finished setting up my LT. I must say that I am very impressed. I cannot compare it to my htpc that I am using Joveplayer and a Real Magic Xcard but it is inexpensive and does a decent job of playing most of my digital media. Also, it has a built in DVD player.

I have a few questions...Does the new firmware fix the 2 second pause between VOBs? It is working great and unless the new firmware has a lot of fixes, I don't want to upgrade. You know what they say, if it ain't broke don't fix it.
The other question has to do with NTFS. I have been reading that the LT cannot mount NTFS partitions but I think that only applies to USB drives. Is my assumption correct? I just played a movie off of an NTFS partion on my server and with the exception of the pauses, it works great.

Thanks.

It can't mount a USB drive, it doesn't matter what the partition is on the PC.

The new firmware DOES NOT fix the VOB issue.

Originally posted by Daryle Tilroe
I'm just starting to play with my new Linktheater but have hit a bit of stumbling block with the, IMHO, antiquated "server" paradigm. It runs as a user app with user specific settings. This is well and good for any single user system (1995 called and they want their OS back) but this is 2005 and just about anyone with a media server is running it on a multiuser OS and the server should be running as an service with a single configuration.

Linktheater should run with one config and all the time regardless of who is logged in (if anyone) and what they are doing. Right now the "server" has to be in the startup, doesn't run unless someone is logged in, and runs with different settings depending on who is logged in. On top of that it appears you can have dueling servers. An example of a more modern and robust paradigm is Slimserver where the server is a service and you interact with it via a web interface (that you can password protect if you wish).

Now I am actually hoping that someone will tell me I've missed something and this is how you run it as a service with a single configuration. Please...? Right now the server is rather useless unless I leave myself logged in all the time and if the server happens to get rebooted (eg. power failure, crash, etc.); if I am not around to login then any other viewers are pooched until I get home. This is rediculous. Sorry for sounding so agitated; I'm just completely taken aback and agast by such a primitive server design in such an otherwise advanced product.

Have you tried making a registry entry to run it regardless of the user. I think you do bring a good point and I'm sure we can figure out some simple way to make this run as a service.

Originally posted by Daryle Tilroe
OK after throwing many of the types of discs in my collection at the LinkTheater I have the following:

DVD(NTSCR1): Fine of course. Seems not to mind RCE when in Region 0 which is a good thing.

DVD(PALR2): Converts picture OK, including anamorphic. Bad stutters every second as previously reported. I suspect this is due to just not convering 50 fields to 60. In otherwords it seems to be firing off 50 fields in the first 5/6 of a second then just holding the last fields for 1/6 of a second.

DVDR: Fine for the ones I had.

VCD: Seems fine although perhaps not the best I've seen.

SVCD: I don't think I actually have one.

CD: Fine.

CDR: Fine

CD+G: No go.

I think that's it.

Now as for the rest of the interface it seems pretty good with two oddities and observations so far (actually these are probably server issues):

-I don't think the publishing of favorites is a particularly good idea. I don't actually use IE and it does not seem to be properly grabbing my Moz ones so I'm not affected so far but I'm sure some people out there will be embarassed. :eek: :D There does not actually seem to be a way to turn this off; of course if this were a proper service you would not even have this questionable feature.

-I have a wierd link just below the four 'Video, Music, Photo, Internet' buttons; in the bottom right corner of the screen. It is titled 'telus' (my ISP) but links to another site (that I have visited but is in no way related). Anyone know where this might be coming from?

I understand the issue your bring up with the bookmarks. We should be able to disable it.

I have NO idea about that extraneous info on your screen. Can you take a picture of it and email it to me? brian@buffalotech.com

Originally posted by musicnyman
yeah, same thing here... some files don't play through digital out. they should all play through digital out instead of having to switch from analog to digital for difference videos.

I have yet to see this problem on the three setups I use, but it is apparent there is a problem. I'll see if I can find out more about it.

Also to the guy posted above, for the 50th time, WMV-HD.com files use WMA9 Pro codec. We have the codec support in a beta version now, so it's likely the next firmware update will have support for it.

Ok another bug, while my girlfriend and I were watching "Don't Look Now" DVD I went to the "setup" screen as usual checking for a/v options, and when trying to go back to the main screen the "Cursor" moved back to the main menu, but the background art stayed on the setup screen. The movie did play fine otherwise.

I think I know what may be causing my problem with the LT server software. I think I have a few Corrupt mp3's. I downloaded some Ashampoo check and repair tool, but its going to take forever to scan all my mp3's as this doesn't do recursive directory checking. And since all my mp3's are nicely organized by artist, album, etc this would take days to go thru one dir at a time. Does anyone know of a MP3 scanning util which will check for corrupt mp3s. Prefereably freeware/ XP and even linux is ok too. But it must be able to do a recursive search! . I got thinking this could be the problem when viewing mp3's on the LT, one of th id3 tags was this long line of garbage characters. Please PM me as to not go too much off topic here. But since I seem to be the only one having issues with CPU usage with the server, it must be one or more files in my collection causing the server to go into a loop.

Originally posted by BrianV
Powie, I do think it's a bug. PM me and I'll send you some other software to try.

The Linux version of the software does not require a GUI. It's like the Mac software where the specific options are set through the remote control.

Most companies DO not have a forum, especially larger companies. Linksys and D-Link don't have user communities because they're too hard to moderate. I spend over an hour (sometimes a lot more) per day just working with you guys both on and off this forum. If we were to create a forum of some sort then we'd be obliged to monitor it regularly. I'm the only one who can do this, and I also travel A LOT so I do most of this on my free time. We have discussed it though and it is in the talks. We'll likely see a TeraStation forum first.

I can probably get SNR or signal strength reported.

Which Japanese software did you download, PM me a link to it. That would be a clever advertisement, but with the expense of advertising I don't think an automatic setting clock is a feature to brag about on a $350 product. We'd rather focus on the actual feature-set. By idle do you mean when the device is 'Off'?

I tried finding the link again on that .jp site. Perhaps I confused it with their PCcast software, as that's all I can find? Or is thats whats used over there? I did notice they have some much better looking XML than we have here in the states.
http://buffalo.melcoinc.co.jp/products/catalog/item/p/pc-p3lwg_dvd/index.html

There's the URL, scroll down to the middle of the page, look how nice those screenshots are of the Photo album, etc. I actually downloaded what I think is the 1.50 beta, but it wont install, and of course I cant read japanese :( And I can't find the 1.46 or whatever it was that would install a few weeks ago. (Though I didn't go as far as installing it, because it's all japanese), I just downloaded it because I thought it might be multi-linugual install, as many japanese do speak/read english. But anyway the bottom of that page has a download link.

As for when it's idle, if its not playing a song, dvd, slide show, it could be displaying time. Okay like I said silly, and should be a VERY low priority item.

As for a forum, I actually thought of setting one up. But my worry is it will eventually take over my bandwidth. I really like this product, despite a few short comings. Right now I don't think it would be too much of an issue, as this product is new, but in a year when more people have done addon's, replacement servers, new templates, and so on. I'll do some more thinking on this. But yes you are right most companies do not have forums, which goes along with poor tech support period for any thing now a days, but that's a whole other issue of cooporate greed. (As I mentioned I emailed tech support at buffalo 4 times with 1 reply, from someone who didn't care to even "read" what I had said.) I called one night too, was impressed someone was there on a saturday night at 9pm. But he was clueless, and could only say "I think a firmware is coming", when I mentioned my server issues, he was silent, and you could hear a pin drop.... :)

I'll PM you for the server update, as it would be nice if it fixed my problem, and I would not need to spend days finding maybe one mp3 with a corrupt tag.

Again thanks a ton for coming here and helping us all out. Please take my sarcasm lightly, as I love this product. Though my girlfriend is starting to hate it because I'm back to spending hours messing with it.. lol

Originally posted by BrianV
Surprisingly no one has PM'd me about the new software so I don't think anyone has downloaded it.


I did PM you but the message has gone unread.

Originally posted by dennismullen
I did PM you but the message has gone unread.

Ditto. 10/14/05 10:03 AM.

Some newbee questions

I’m considering purchasing an LT and I’ve gone thru the 30+ pages here trying to decide if this is an easier path then trying to setup an HTPC. I’ve never been able to get my HTPC to perform as it should. Can’t seem to get passed powerstrip. Can only get low resolutions to work. (ati9600 to Cresenodo Transcoder w/ component out to infocus 4805/ sony xbr450) After reading thru this I’m not sure if I’m trading in one set problems for another. The main things I’m looking for is high quality dvd playback, picture viewing, internet surfing, playing downloaded video, ie divx, avi, etc. (w/o sacrificing all my free time getting it to work)

My questions;

1) Can I view or use my desktop and surf the ned just like being on the computer monitor?

2) I went thru the manual and could not find anything about how you connect the PC (via hardwire) to the LT. How are they connected if not using wifi?

3) Will I be able to switch back and forth between my pj and tv with ease?

Thanks for any input guys...

Just curious to those that have problems with the digital audio out....I don't have any problems there so bear with me....Do you actually have the digital out AND analog connected at teh same time on the BLT??? If so perhaps connecting ONLY the digital out and trying it...Maybe it is getting confused...I dunno...I ONLY have a digital out (Toslink) connected, and all sounds are passed through my Zektor switch and then onto my Pioneer Elite receiver without any hiccups....Have you tried hitting the audio button while the video is playing....I know thats how I can cycle through the 2 channel and DTS, AC3 audios tracks that are in my file...Sometiimes it takes a few seconds for it to find and play the track when I switch it with the audio button...Press it once and wait a minute and see what happens.......Are you sure the file is not corrupted...If you have another PC or laptop you can through on your network, can it play the smae file wihtout issue, and acknowledge the AC3 stream is working...?


Just thoughts....

Good luck....

Brian make sure you check your PM's here at AVSFORUMS....Seems like several have sent htem to you...I know I sent 1......

THanks again Brian...

Originally posted by Barley


While playing a DVD I noticed that audio was not in sync with video. It was annoyingly off track by a half second or so. Also, the background for an interactive DVD menu failed to load and I only saw the icon on a black screen. This only happened once. On another interactive menu page, after clicking one of the selections the cursor sometimes would just move to the bottom of screen and not go into the content. Sometimes it would play the content and sometimes not. Could this be a bug in the DVD itself.


I'm pretty new to the HT scene, but I read somewhere that playing a DVD with your Audio set to a different mode than the stream, ie playing stereo audio, on a 5.1 stream, or maybe it's the other way around. :) Try changing the audio mode of your reciever.

I too will say I've seen issues with different DVD menus doing goofy things.
Will report titles as I come across them.

Originally posted by mcpfrid
Some newbee questions

I’m considering purchasing an LT and I’ve gone thru the 30+ pages here trying to decide if this is an easier path then trying to setup an HTPC. I’ve never been able to get my HTPC to perform as it should. Can’t seem to get passed powerstrip. Can only get low resolutions to work. (ati9600 to Cresenodo Transcoder w/ component out to infocus 4805/ sony xbr450) After reading thru this I’m not sure if I’m trading in one set problems for another. The main things I’m looking for is high quality dvd playback, picture viewing, internet surfing, playing downloaded video, ie divx, avi, etc. (w/o sacrificing all my free time getting it to work)

My questions;

1) Can I view or use my desktop and surf the ned just like being on the computer monitor?

2) I went thru the manual and could not find anything about how you connect the PC (via hardwire) to the LT. How are they connected if not using wifi?

3) Will I be able to switch back and forth between my pj and tv with ease?

Thanks for any input guys...

1> I dont work for Buffalo but thought I would try to help, No you cannot view the desktop, unless you perhaps use some "server" software that has a web interface such as VNC? Neat Idea, I'll try it later myself. The LT does have a VERY BASIC web browser, and if connected to a PC will use IE or Firefox bookmarks.

2> You will need a switch or hub or crossover cable to connect this to a PC.
Best to use a router that handles NAT/DHCP which almost every wireless does, most have built in ports for a hardwire connection too. You'll need to know some basic networking to get this working no matter what.

3> No you will need to change your own PJ's. Sorry lost me on this question?

Originally posted by BrianV
Have you tried making a registry entry to run it regardless of the user. I think you do bring a good point and I'm sure we can figure out some simple way to make this run as a service.

I might be cool if the software could also support multi users each with their own custom template/music folders without that user having to log in and out of a computer to set this. Right now you can password protect it, how about a different password loads different templates. A bit advanced, but would be nifty.
And great for those with kids. Maybe a locking screen saver too for certain people logged in to the LT.

Originally posted by BrianV
A/VSpec, yes the company who writes that software is pretty popular amongst Asian manufacturers.

No plans that I know of for DVD/CD art, but I'll go ahead and ask about it.

My idea on this.... Have a somewhat framed window. The LT Looks for 2 files in each movie folder, a title.jpg, and title.txt, the jpg displayed in one little frame, the text describing the movie in another. Or maybe a .txt file with a url pointing to IMDB.org that would diplay the movie info/pic in a frame...

Oh my. i can see my future dream home theater becoming a reality.....

Originally posted by qrazy
Just curious to those that have problems with the digital audio out....I don't have any problems there so bear with me....Do you actually have the digital out AND analog connected at teh same time on the BLT??? If so perhaps connecting ONLY the digital out and trying it...Maybe it is getting confused...I dunno...I ONLY have a digital out (Toslink) connected, and all sounds are passed through my Zektor switch and then onto my Pioneer Elite receiver without any hiccups....Have you tried hitting the audio button while the video is playing....I know thats how I can cycle through the 2 channel and DTS, AC3 audios tracks that are in my file...Sometiimes it takes a few seconds for it to find and play the track when I switch it with the audio button...Press it once and wait a minute and see what happens.......Are you sure the file is not corrupted...If you have another PC or laptop you can through on your network, can it play the smae file wihtout issue, and acknowledge the AC3 stream is working...?


Just thoughts....

Good luck....

i JUST have digital out. no analog connected at all.

Originally posted by BrianV
Have you tried making a registry entry to run it regardless of the user. I think you do bring a good point and I'm sure we can figure out some simple way to make this run as a service.

That sort of misses the point. It should be a service that runs at startup time and has a single configuration per machine. I don't believe people really want a different config per user nor to have to leave a user logged in to have the server running. I do hope it's a rather simple reconfiguration to set this up as a proper service. For the Slimdevice's example download Slimserver (http://www.slimdevices.com/downloads/SlimServer_v6.0.1/SlimServer_v6.0.1.exe) install as administrator and see what I mean. It comes with the java based software emulator for the Squeezebox, Softsqueeze; so you can also try out some of the other audio interface, sorting, searching, features as well. Note that I don't propose you rewrite your server in Perl like Slimserver or anything like that; just that you follow the same server paradigm: to wit run as a service, single configuration, interact via your app (with password protection if enabled).

Originally posted by BrianV
Most companies DO not have a forum, especially larger companies...

I very much second the motion for a forum or mailing list; at least for the 'power users'.

Originally posted by BrianV
I understand the issue your bring up with the bookmarks. We should be able to disable it.

I have NO idea about that extraneous info on your screen. Can you take a picture of it and email it to me? brian@buffalotech.com

As I said if this was running as a service it would not even be a meaningful feature since there would be no user. The idea of having bookmarks is a good one but they should be the LinkTheater's bookmarks *NOT* any particular user's. Even under the present server model it is particularly poor etiquette to steal and broadcast a user's bookmarks.

I'll email you a couple pics in a bit.

Now in the longer term I will be setting up the LT on a universal but in the last day of playing around I have been using the stock remote. I don't know whether to blame this on engineering (who should know better) or industrial design (who are likely clueless) but the IR LED is recessed under a retarded 'hood' that severely cuts down on the vertical half of the transmission cone. Someone was really asleep at the wheel on this one. I will probably take a hacksaw to it once I decide to keep the LT for certain. It is driving me insane to have to aim the remote far higher than any of my others.

In running through my scant collection of VOBs (mostly the usual DD/THX trailers) I have noticed that a few have some stuttering. I'll probably just send one to Brian; but has anyone seen this? Perhaps a few just push the bit rate? For the record I'm wired since I don't trust 2.4 GHz for high bandwidth media streaming.

I assume you have reinstalled XP/SP2? But have you installed any of the Windows security updates issued since SP2? I have faithfully installed all of Microsoft's "critical updates" and I wonder if the problem may be related to one of them.
The new box is running XP/SP2 with all patches, the old box was never even patched with sp1 so I don't think thats the issue.

Another thought - I am using Mozilla Foxfire, not IE. Were you also using Foxfire
Both boxes are running Mozilla so thats not it either.

I noticed that the server software installed java. Ive seen jre 1.5 breaks old code before and it may be happening here but I haven't had time to really investigated this theory so...

right now I'm thinking its either a java problem or some malware showing its ugly head.

Originally posted by mcpfrid
Some newbee questions

I’m considering purchasing an LT and I’ve gone thru the 30+ pages here trying to decide if this is an easier path then trying to setup an HTPC. I’ve never been able to get my HTPC to perform as it should. Can’t seem to get passed powerstrip. Can only get low resolutions to work. (ati9600 to Cresenodo Transcoder w/ component out to infocus 4805/ sony xbr450) After reading thru this I’m not sure if I’m trading in one set problems for another. The main things I’m looking for is high quality dvd playback, picture viewing, internet surfing, playing downloaded video, ie divx, avi, etc. (w/o sacrificing all my free time getting it to work)

My questions;

1) Can I view or use my desktop and surf the ned just like being on the computer monitor?

2) I went thru the manual and could not find anything about how you connect the PC (via hardwire) to the LT. How are they connected if not using wifi?

3) Will I be able to switch back and forth between my pj and tv with ease?

Thanks for any input guys...

1. No

2. There's an RJ45 port on the back of the Linktheater. Plug that into a switch that your PC is connected to and it works the same.

3. You'd have to recable it between your projector and tv just like a regular DVD player.

Brian I also pm'd you about the new server software a few days ago but it is still marked as unread

Originally posted by Daryle Tilroe
Now in the longer term I will be setting up the LT on a universal but in the last day of playing around I have been using the stock remote. I don't know whether to blame this on engineering (who should know better) or industrial design (who are likely clueless) but the IR LED is recessed under a retarded 'hood' that severely cuts down on the vertical half of the transmission cone. Someone was really asleep at the wheel on this one. I will probably take a hacksaw to it once I decide to keep the LT for certain. It is driving me insane to have to aim the remote far higher than any of my others.

Post a how-to when you hack it :)

Ok, I just checked my PMs and there are like 25 requests for the software. Unfortunately, AVSForums.com has NOT been emailing me notifying me of the PM's, and that's the only way I was checking to see if they were there. Now I have to manually check for PMs.

Anyways, I'll start answering them now.

PS - Someone had asked about an 802.11a version. We'll likely wait to make an 802.11n (draft) version as opposed to making an 11a one.

PM's answered.

I'm signing off for the weekend, so I'll catch up with you during the week, but I'll be in Vegas for NAB so I'll be somewhat pre-occupied.

Okay so I was bored today, and setup a phpBB2 forum just for us BLT freaks. (even started working on a FAQ which is posted there).

BrianV has said he would visit and reply to both forums. He also said he would check about getting a link from the Buffalotech.com website.

The more I understand how this device works, the more potential I see for this becoming my HTPC (except for games).

Any way the current URL is:

http://www.my-blt.com

There are no banner ad's, fluff, etc. I'm not doing this for anything more than I know how frustrated I was when I got this device which has some potential only recently realized.

Hotmail and Yahoo email addresses are not allowed, and I've not edited the new user text there to reflect that yet.

Originally posted by BrianV
PS - Someone had asked about an 802.11a version. We'll likely wait to make an 802.11n (draft) version as opposed to making an 11a one.

Partly answers my question. Although I suspect it may be years before we see 802.11n in the wild. What I'm curious about now is if the current wireless is built onto the main PCB or if it is a potentially upgradeable card. I know I should have popped the hood on my unit before I stacked it away and hooked it up; I'm to lazy right now to take it back out. :D Perhaps some kind soul out there who has not yet hooked up their unit can take the top off and snap a few pics for us? :cool:

I'm dying to get one of these, but I can't find a canadian retailer for them! what gives?!?!

Originally posted by Powie
Okay so I was bored today, and setup a phpBB2 forum just for us BLT freaks. (even started working on a FAQ which is posted there).

BrianV has said he would visit and reply to both forums. He also said he would check about getting a link from the Buffalotech.com website.

The more I understand how this device works, the more potential I see for this becoming my HTPC (except for games).

Any way the current URL is:

http://www.my-blt.com

There are no banner ad's, fluff, etc. I'm not doing this for anything more than I know how frustrated I was when I got this device which has some potential only recently realized.

Hotmail and Yahoo email addresses are not allowed, and I've not edited the new user text there to reflect that yet.


OK Powie, I signed up. Let's see if we can get your board up to critical mass.

On another topic, I've downloaded the new server software and the new plug ins. Now I'm seeing several new links at the bottom of the main LT page, including Flicker?, Rhapsody, Internet Radio, Yahoo Search, Podcast, etc. I've been playing around with them and also downloaded the Magic of Flight wmvhd. Wow, very cool, I may have to buy this one.

Originally posted by Daryle Tilroe
That sort of misses the point. It should be a service that runs at startup time and has a single configuration per machine. I don't believe people really want a different config per user nor to have to leave a user logged in to have the server running. I do hope it's a rather simple reconfiguration to set this up as a proper service. For the Slimdevice's example download Slimserver (http://www.slimdevices.com/downloads/SlimServer_v6.0.1/SlimServer_v6.0.1.exe) install as administrator and see what I mean. It comes with the java based software emulator for the Squeezebox, Softsqueeze; so you can also try out some of the other audio interface, sorting, searching, features as well. Note that I don't propose you rewrite your server in Perl like Slimserver or anything like that; just that you follow the same server paradigm: to wit run as a service, single configuration, interact via your app (with password protection if enabled).

http://www.firedaemon.com/

There are plenty of apps out there that you can use to make the software run as a service. Google is your friend.

Originally posted by dgackey
http://www.firedaemon.com/

There are plenty of apps out there that you can use to make the software run as a service. Google is your friend.

Thanks. I'm actually already aware of firedaemon and other methods to make an app into a pseudo service. I was going to start playing around with it as a stop gap but, as I pointed out before, I shouldn't have to and the paradigm for the LT server is plain wrong for any modern OS. No server software that you expect to be running the same way all the time 24/7 and serving multiple clients should be structured as an app with different settings when run as different users. Also it appears so far that I might have trouble with the config since the LT server uses the current users 'Application Data' folder for many of it's settings (when the local setup program is run it actually just shows the current user's setting not those of the running server). Actually enough said, I've made my point. I can and will likely hack around to get it running somewhat more correctly but it really needs to be restructured; particularly if a unix/linux/mac port is being considered.

PS. I mistyped above. I meant settings in the current user's 'My Documents' folder and in their HKCU Software Key. I was thinking of another app.

Originally posted by ogg1e
I'm dying to get one of these, but I can't find a canadian retailer for them! what gives?!?!

Can't speak for retail but TechData, a distributor, carries them.

OK...Concerning my skipping thing....Brian asked me to make a smaller version of the file I have and upload it for him to look at.....When I use DD or Dshrink and stop it after the point it skips. The resultant smaller file does NOT skip.....When I let the process continue, and it creates the entire file about 4.3 GBs, it skips.....What could cause this?? ANy ideas??? I am running NTFS.....

Originally posted by Daryle Tilroe
Partly answers my question. Although I suspect it may be years before we see 802.11n in the wild. What I'm curious about now is if the current wireless is built onto the main PCB or if it is a potentially upgradeable card. I know I should have popped the hood on my unit before I stacked it away and hooked it up; I'm to lazy right now to take it back out. :D Perhaps some kind soul out there who has not yet hooked up their unit can take the top off and snap a few pics for us? :cool:

It's mini-pci so it could be upgraded. However, 802.11n uses a different antenna structure than 802.11b/g as well as 802.11a so you'd be modifying it heavily to support that. While on that subject, even if we were to offer an 11a upgrade, the internal antennas are 2.4 ghz antennas and wouldn't work with 11a.

PS - 11n draft versions will be out this year.

Originally posted by ogg1e
I'm dying to get one of these, but I can't find a canadian retailer for them! what gives?!?!
http://www.1click2computers.com/product_details/detail.asp?prod_id=PC%2DP3LWG%2FDVD&from_dist=T

Originally posted by qrazy
OK...Concerning my skipping thing....Brian asked me to make a smaller version of the file I have and upload it for him to look at.....When I use DD or Dshrink and stop it after the point it skips. The resultant smaller file does NOT skip.....When I let the process continue, and it creates the entire file about 4.3 GBs, it skips.....What could cause this?? ANy ideas??? I am running NTFS.....

So you're saying it only happens when you use the larger file? Have you tried it on a wired network?

i have no problems playing huge VOB files wired. i'm assuming the wirless network can't handle the bandwidth...

Originally posted by BrianV
It's mini-pci so it could be upgraded. However, 802.11n uses a different antenna structure than 802.11b/g as well as 802.11a so you'd be modifying it heavily to support that. While on that subject, even if we were to offer an 11a upgrade, the internal antennas are 2.4 ghz antennas and wouldn't work with 11a.

PS - 11n draft versions will be out this year.

That's good if firmware would support other cards. IIRC 802.11n has both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz versions (don't know if they will have a dual band implementation in the end). I presume an antenna change would only be required if you put in a 5 GHz or dual band 802.11n card. In the short term though it might be nice if Buffalo made sure the firmware supported the 802.11a version of whatever mini-pci wireless card is in the LT and let people know they could upgrade (with the proper antenna of course). OTOH unless you get lots of problems with 2.4 GHz interference dropouts I suppose it might not be worth it. Myself; my LT is wired since in the past I have experienced problems with the microwave and cordless phone interupting streaming media (never mind my neighbours appliances and wireless networks as well).

Originally posted by BrianV
So you're saying it only happens when you use the larger file? Have you tried it on a wired network?

I am wired......Everything on my network is wired....Nothing wireless.... :(

Originally posted by Daryle Tilroe
That's good if firmware would support other cards. IIRC 802.11n has both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz versions (don't know if they will have a dual band implementation in the end). I presume an antenna change would only be required if you put in a 5 GHz or dual band 802.11n card. In the short term though it might be nice if Buffalo made sure the firmware supported the 802.11a version of whatever mini-pci wireless card is in the LT and let people know they could upgrade (with the proper antenna of course). OTOH unless you get lots of problems with 2.4 GHz interference dropouts I suppose it might not be worth it. Myself; my LT is wired since in the past I have experienced problems with the microwave and cordless phone interupting streaming media (never mind my neighbours appliances and wireless networks as well).

The install base for 802.11a is relatively small (compared to 11n), and the LinkTheater isn't designed to be taken apart by consumers. The additional requirement of replacing the antennas presents a lot of problem because I believe the antennas are soldered on.

It's just not realistic to offer an upgrade path (11n or 11a). The NEXT version of the product will likely include 11n MIMO.

Originally posted by BrianV
I'd like to get number 1 working for everyone as it has been mentioned before. I don't know about the window and browsing, but we'll see.

3. You can press the blue right or left button to skip to a certain %.

4. No way of doing that, but I'll see if there's some way to make that happen. The problem is if you start adding a lot of buttons and options to mp3 playback it becomes a little too difficult for regular users to use.

I may not have been clear on #4. We shouldn't need another button or anything like that...

Let's say I have a folder with 50 songs in it. Is it possible to scroll to song #25 using the LT interface, start playing song #25, and have song 26-50 continue playing after song 25 has finished?

Currently, the only choice we are given is to "play all" starting with song #1. It seems we should somehow be able to start with any song in a folder and have the next song play automatically.

Thanks for the help!
Kirt

OK......More for the Mystery......I downloaded the new software....Installed it, and I have the same skipping, in exactly the sme spot.....Now here is the weird thing!!!!!

If I run it in slow motion it DOES NOT SKIP that section!!!! Only when I play it at full speed!!!! Slow x 2, - x32 plays it fine.....Normal speed it skips about 2 seconds or so and resets the timer counter to 0:00.......Any other thoughts???

The Rhapsody Plug-In looks very nice! Very impressed with the album art and new interface!

Any idea when it will actually be functional?

Keep up the good work!
Kirt

Originally posted by BrianV
The install base for 802.11a is relatively small (compared to 11n), and the LinkTheater isn't designed to be taken apart by consumers. The additional requirement of replacing the antennas presents a lot of problem because I believe the antennas are soldered on.

It's just not realistic to offer an upgrade path (11n or 11a). The NEXT version of the product will likely include 11n MIMO.

Heh :). We are not your average consumers. ;) For example I hacked around with APEXs for years; including making a dual boot EPROM and socket and resurecting a badly flashed loader by desoldering the suface mount PLCC EEPROM with a heat gun, flashing it in my EPROM programmer, and reflowing it back on. I do know what you mean though about the "average" consumer but realize that most of us could probably at least build our own PC so swaping a wireless card and antenna would be rather simple. So... hypothetically speaking, do the drivers in the current firmware happen to support the 802.11a or n version of the card. Not that you would recommend anyone trying it. :D

Originally posted by BrianV
The install base for 802.11a is relatively small (compared to 11n)

I just notice that you said 'n' not 'b/g' . Do you mean the installed base for 'n' is large because of backwards compatability to 'b/g' in the 2.4 GHz band?

Did I miss a post somewhere? Where is this new server software everybody keeps talking about??

Originally posted by meast
Did I miss a post somewhere? Where is this new server software everybody keeps talking about??

Meast,

You can dowload it at:

http://www.verenkoff.com/Buffalo/LinkTheater/PC/

Terry

Originally posted by qrazy
I am wired......Everything on my network is wired....Nothing wireless.... :(

Sorry I didn't reply originally... I have this problem and I am running wired as well.

I just returned a DSM-320 and got the LT this Saturday, primarily based on the traffic on this forum. My goal is to ditch my mechanical Sony DVD jukeboxes (a 200 and a 400) and put all my DVD's on disk.

To this end I've tried various kinds of rips and transcodes, I'm seeing the weird skipping (same spot always) on at least one of the disks I tried ripping. I ripped it several ways (IFO mode (all streams and just video/audio), and File mode). Pulling down the whole thing in file mode obviously had other issues, but playing the vob with the appropriate cell in it I see the same weird 2ish second skip at the same exact spot every time.

I also noticed that reversing (1x or higher) on these vobs looks really strange: it appears to play a little snippet (perhaps 500ms) then back up much less, say 100ms, and play again. The effect is you see the same thing over and over and make slow backwards progress. FWIW the missing 2 seconds is visible when you crawl over it backwards like this.

Put in my vote for real IFO parsing as a feature, I don't really want to set to ripping hundreds of DVD's w/o making it very mechanical and just pulling them over wholesale. I also don't really want to lose any of the content. It would be cool if they could implement a loopback mount (Daemon Tools in windows land) so I could just mount whole ISO's as DVD's and use the existing DVD player engine to run them... (even if that would mean losing the upconversion). I suppose the server is more designed for streaming than random access so maybe that's a no-starter.

-Eric

ERIC!!!! Thank you...Just knowing someone else is having the same problem eases my mind greatly.....I have been trying everything trying to isolate what the problem could be....I see the same issues with the reversing, but I don't reverse much, so no big deal for me.....If you had any idea, the amount of HOURS I have spent trying to figure this out.......I have completely replaced 120GB's worth of data at least twice now, trying different methods.....Oddly enough, have you tried making a snippet of one of the files....When I interuppted the DVDShrink process right after where it would skip, it would create a file only up to the point I stopped it. That file (only about 60 megs or so), played fine past the spot it would normally skip....When I ran it through Shrink again, but let it finish it has the skips....This is with zero compression BTW.....I also tried the same thing with DVDD.....THe file is obviously OK, because if you go slow motion through that area it does not skip and the data is there, and playable to the BLT....
Thanks again Eric....

Originally posted by musicnyman
i have no problems playing huge VOB files wired. i'm assuming the wirless network can't handle the bandwidth...

I have been using the LT wireless for a week or two. I use it almost exclusively to stream large VOBs. I would say that the kids are playing 5 entire movies a day (I doubt they watch them). I would say that I get a freeze on at least 3 movies. It's not a big deal because it is usually not much longer than a hiccup and then returns to normal. My wireless router is directly above the LT so distance is not the issue. It may be because of the size of the file or just uncontrollable interference. Either way, I will eventually have it wired and that should take care of it. I think that it is really unrealistic "right now" to stream digital media over wireless and not expect any kind of connectivity issues or hiccups.

Have any of you guys tried de-muxing your "long VOB's" into elementary streams and then re-muxing them into either .MPG container or into the .VOB container again?


Cheers

Chrixx......I am not wireless.....Thats was Musicmans assumption.....Perhaps your freeze is not realted to being wireless, maybe its the same thing Wric and I are experiencing...

At one time SMD, I started using the method you provided here for me...But that was when I was trying the different compression types (ie. Divx)....Once I decided to stay original for quality issues, I had abandoned that, as it was more complicated than doing it with Shrink or DD.....Perhaps if I get some time this week, I can experiment more....The "lomg" VOBS, are really not that long...Only 4.3 GB for example on the one I have been refering to...1:25 seconds in everytime it has a little skip, same spot everytime, then resets to zero....Playing it in slow motion through 1:22 -1:30 its all there, and plays it fine....Thats whats weird about it.....
thanksfor the replies though....

does this player offer the ability to skip those annoying previews that are starting to show up at the start of DVDs?

I watched 'shaun of the dead' on the weekend, and it's the 1st one in my collection that has that crap. My pioneer player can't skip it. If the linktheather can skip them, I'm ordering one tomorrow!

Have any of you technophiles out there been able to find a way to make Rhapsody work with the new software that Brian made available?

My wife is complaining that the LT doesn't support Rhapsody again... :)

Thanks,
Kirt

Originally posted by ogg1e
does this player offer the ability to skip those annoying previews that are starting to show up at the start of DVDs?

I watched 'shaun of the dead' on the weekend, and it's the 1st one in my collection that has that crap. My pioneer player can't skip it. If the linktheather can skip them, I'm ordering one tomorrow!

When you rip a DVD in 'IFO' mode you pick which subset of video to extract (usually the 'main movie'). To be able to force you to watch it (disable UOP's) they have to put them in a seperate program chain (I don't think the UOP blocking is a Cell thing, the spec is closed and I've never read it), so its likely you'll always be able to find the clean 'main movie' chain.

The LT doesn't currently play the ripped movie chains 100% correctly (skips small portions of the video), and you lose subtitling as a feature -- other than that you do get a nice clean movie without any required advertising goobers.

Originally posted by Ericv13
When you rip a DVD in 'IFO' mode you pick which subset of video to extract (usually the 'main movie'). To be able to force you to watch it (disable UOP's) they have to put them in a seperate program chain (I don't think the UOP blocking is a Cell thing, the spec is closed and I've never read it), so its likely you'll always be able to find the clean 'main movie' chain.

The LT doesn't currently play the ripped movie chains 100% correctly (skips small portions of the video), and you lose subtitling as a feature -- other than that you do get a nice clean movie without any required advertising goobers.

eric, that might be the same problem i'm seeing right, that i posted earlier? where it seems to end each chapter too early and cuts it off? i copied the movie in IFO mode in dvd decypter as well as one big VOB file. not seeing this when converting to divx or xvid of course, only when playing VOB files copied in IFO mode.

and yes, supported IFO parsing would be amazing. i think it would make a lOT of people happy and i know a lot of network players don't support this right now. just gotta trick LT into thinking the network ISO/VOB chains is a real dvd somehow :)

Originally posted by Ericv13
When you rip a DVD in 'IFO' mode you pick which subset of video to extract (usually the 'main movie'). To be able to force you to watch it (disable UOP's) they have to put them in a seperate program chain (I don't think the UOP blocking is a Cell thing, the spec is closed and I've never read it), so its likely you'll always be able to find the clean 'main movie' chain. By the way... DVD Decrypter describes UOP's as being PUO's (Prohibited User Operations) ...


Cheers

My player seems to overscan a lot. In 480i it is close, 480p is acceptable but 1080i is just too much. Is there any thing I can do to fix this without having my tv recalibrated?

Steven

so i have over 500 movies, xvid and divx files in one folder. on the pinnacle showcenter, i was able to hit 1 on the remote to go to A,B,C movies, 2 for B,C,D movies. i know i can hit the numbers above to go to the different pages, but when i have 500+ movies, it takes a while to get to the Y or Z's. on the showcenter, i could hit one button and it would go the that set of movies and it was very easy. anyway you can do that on the LT? i tried and it doesn't work unless i'm doing something wrong.

if not, can i submit this as a suggestion?

thanks,

Originally posted by SeeMoreDigital
By the way... DVD Decrypter describes UOP's as being PUO's (Prohibited User Operations) ...


Cheers

You're quite right, I had the name wrong. Sorry.

OK...I installed the server software, on a totally different PC on my network, and the IFO'd the same video to the other PC (did not copy the file), and it has the same exact skipping, in the same EXACT spot on the video....

Any ideas Brian??? Could it be a bad unit???

Thanks....

Originally posted by Ericv13
When you rip a DVD in 'IFO' mode you pick which subset of video to extract (usually the 'main movie'). To be able to force you to watch it (disable UOP's) they have to put them in a seperate program chain (I don't think the UOP blocking is a Cell thing, the spec is closed and I've never read it), so its likely you'll always be able to find the clean 'main movie' chain.

The LT doesn't currently play the ripped movie chains 100% correctly (skips small portions of the video), and you lose subtitling as a feature -- other than that you do get a nice clean movie without any required advertising goobers.


I meant actually playing the DVD, not ripping it onto my PC. Can you fast forward the DVD through that preview crap?

ogg1e,

Most of the previews can be skipped by hitting the "menu" button on most players.

Some on-screen warnings and a few other things (like the studio logo, for example) often cannot be skipped. That is because the record companies put little flags called "Prohibited User Operations" onto the disk. Those flags are allowed as described in DVD-video standard and can be set at various levels in menus, commands, VOB objects, etc.

Your best bet is to use a player that does not honor PUO flags (i.e. ignores them). That way you can skip through any warnings, commercials, logos, and a few other things (e.g. some parental controls and some particular type of region enforcement stuff)

I am not aware of any standalone players that can be configured to ignore PUOs, though. However, there are quite a few software players that do. IFOEdit, for example, ignores PUOs when its "playback" function is invoked.

There are also many players/tools that simply play the MPEG-2 stream that is found inside the VOB file. You will lose all the menus that way, though.

The easiest way is to configure your DVD ripping software to "remove" or "reset" any PUO flags that may be found in any IFO and VOB files before ripping.

Assuming that you own the DVD, I think it makes sense that you don't want to stare at the same warnings, studio and authoring company logos every time you start the same movie from your collection.

I hope this helps.

Originally posted by ogg1e
does this player offer the ability to skip those annoying previews that are starting to show up at the start of DVDs?

I watched 'shaun of the dead' on the weekend, and it's the 1st one in my collection that has that crap. My pioneer player can't skip it. If the linktheather can skip them, I'm ordering one tomorrow!

Originally posted by musicnyman
so i have over 500 movies, xvid and divx files in one folder. on the pinnacle showcenter, i was able to hit 1 on the remote to go to A,B,C movies, 2 for B,C,D movies. i know i can hit the numbers above to go to the different pages, but when i have 500+ movies, it takes a while to get to the Y or Z's. on the showcenter, i could hit one button and it would go the that set of movies and it was very easy. anyway you can do that on the LT? i tried and it doesn't work unless i'm doing something wrong.

if not, can i submit this as a suggestion?

thanks,

The more time I spend with the LT, the more the limitations of the user interface start to annoy.

qrazy,

I believe this may be an issue with the Sigma Designs EM8620L chip itself. AVeL LinkPlayer2 has the same issue on some movies

The problem is likely caused by DVD authoring errors. If you look at the IFO files (or look for the name of the DVD authoring company on the jacket of the DVD), after a while you'll be able to tell that DVDs authored by particular company(s) are likely to have this problem.

To me, most of the Disney movies have this problem. The symptoms are, like you said, that the video skips at the same point in the movie every time you play it.

That is because of an incorrect data in the VOB file. It is possible that the error was introduced by the DVD authoring company on purpose, but it is also possible that the error is just a simple mistake that the authoring company may not be aware of.

Either way, it appears that most (if not all) standalone DVD players can figure that out and deal with the error without causing a video slip. However, player based on Sigma Designs EM8620L chipset skip the video at that point.

The guys over at the AVeL LinkPlayer forum figured out a workaround for this a long time ago.

I believe the fix involved running some kind of commercially available "DVD doctor" application that did in fact detect mastering errors in the original VOB file and fixed them. After that, reportedly the movie was not skipping anymore.

I don't remember the name of the "doctor" software, though. You may want to search for it in the AVeL threads.

I, personally, would like to see both Buffalo and I-O Data push back on Sigma to make sure the same issue does not affect the next generation of Sigma chipsets.

For not, this "DVD doctor" seems to be the only workaround. Hey, I think I remembered the name of the application afterall. I think it was called "video re-do" or "VideoReDo" or something of that sort.

I hope this helps.


Originally posted by qrazy
OK...I installed the server software, on a totally different PC on my network, and the IFO'd the same video to the other PC (did not copy the file), and it has the same exact skipping, in the same EXACT spot on the video....

Any ideas Brian??? Could it be a bad unit???

Thanks....

Has anyone been able to get the LinkTheater to read from a Tritton NAS? I have a Tritton device and wonder if it will work.

I hooked up my LinkTheater last night and set it up to stream from my PC as a way to save time. There are SO many usability tweaks that could be done to make the UI and the remote control interaction more intuitive and user friendly. For instance, the ugly 'Invalid' tag that comes up on the screen when you press a button on the remote that the machine doesn't respond to under its current state is horrible. Also, the way the cursor moves with the direction button is weird. It treats things on the left side of the screen as a different column rather than navigating top to bottom for most links - that's whack.

This is clearly a 1.0 product. That said, it's a well implemented 1.0 product. The remote is begging for a scroll wheel or track ball. That would be on my wish list. I would also wish for more DRAM and/or a faster CPU. After intuitive UI, the design vector I'd be most concerned about is navigation speed. A better remote and more powerful set of chips will help you attain this. I am committed to getting the firmware releases and tracking the progress. Brian and his team at Buffalo deserve a ton of credit for their work.

The WAF factor is a bit low, but it's small enough to hide this away in the rack as a second "experimental" product. In the future I'd hope for a DVD record function and a small hard drive for editing commercials out of tv content. Also, I hope that 2.0 will be BluRay or HD-DVD compliant. That would make it an easier purchase to justify.

It will be interesting to see how the LT stacks up against the upcoming KISS products which are also based on Sigma chips.

qrazy,

here is the thread that I was talking about earlier. It may fix the problem you are observing with your DVD.

(Fix the URL below and go):

w w w.iodata.com/usa/forum/showthread.php?p=563#post563


Originally posted by qrazy
OK...I installed the server software, on a totally different PC on my network, and the IFO'd the same video to the other PC (did not copy the file), and it has the same exact skipping, in the same EXACT spot on the video....

Any ideas Brian??? Could it be a bad unit???

Thanks....

Originally posted by tallrussian

Your best bet is to use a player that does not honor PUO flags (i.e. ignores them). That way you can skip through any warnings, commercials, logos, and a few other things (e.g. some parental controls and some particular type of region enforcement stuff)

I am not aware of any standalone players that can be configured to ignore PUOs, though.

Many STB can be made to skip these; I've never owned a standalone player that honored PUO flags. :D Modified firmware is your friend. Damn if I want to be forced to read crap from the FBI, Interpol, or Studio ads on a DVD I paid for. I thought the current BLT did *not* honor them but I'm not 100% sure since I've only tried one or two DVDs (mostly been testing the Netplay). I should go though a few and see.

Well, I thought it was fixed when I ordered and attached the Buffalo antenna but it is not.

When I am playing a VOB sometimes my Audio Receiver's Digital light comes on and the file does not play sound. I hit pause and wait for it to go off and back to saying just DVD (the connection type) then it plays again fine.

I tried hooking up wired temporarily but it is not a wireless issue.

I am connected optically from the LinkTheater to my Audio Receiver. I saw where someone else had some issues optically. Could it be the optical connection causing the problem? I haven't tried any other connection yet.

Any others having this problem and is there a solution?

OK...Where to begin...

Mrtbig: Optically works fine for me, I know that doesn't really help you, but at least you know it can work. May seem silly, but do you have Dolby Digital 5.1 selected in your LinkTheater setup?

Tallrussian: W00t!! I think you nailed it right on the head....I downloaded the trial version, ran 1 stream through it. It seemed to play fine, without skips!! Only problem is having to pay $50 for a program to make them play correctly, when playing it through the DVD player plays them fine..... :(
Anyways....THANKS AGAIN TALLRUSSIAN!!!

[QUOTE]Originally posted by qrazy
[B]OK...Where to begin...

Mrtbig: Optically works fine for me, I know that doesn't really help you, but at least you know it can work. May seem silly, but do you have Dolby Digital 5.1 selected in your LinkTheater setup?

qrazy,

The only sound setting I see under setup is under DVD and that is currently set at AC3 5.1. The other option is stereo.

Originally posted by mrtbig
[QUOTE]Originally posted by qrazy
[B]OK...Where to begin...

Mrtbig: Optically works fine for me, I know that doesn't really help you, but at least you know it can work. May seem silly, but do you have Dolby Digital 5.1 selected in your LinkTheater setup?

qrazy,

The only sound setting I see under setup is under DVD and that is currently set at AC3 5.1. The other option is stereo.

That is the one...I figured you had it correct, just making sure....

Have you tried a different toslink cable? Or a different optical in port on your receiver? I have mine run through a switcher before it goes to my receiver and it still works fine.....I would test it direct to the receiver for you, but it is virtually impossible to reach without tearing my whole home theater setup apart....

The Tallrussian provided a good resource to some possible common problems between our BLT and the Avel player (they share the same chip)....

Mrtbig, have a look at this thread:

http://www.iodata.com/usa/forum/showthread.php?t=14

Looks like they had the same problem, and possible a firmware fix can be had....

Update:

I strung a wire temp to hook up wired to see if made any difference and it did not.

I went to the link at Avel, my receiver is the Sony STR DE-845 which is basically the same as the Sony STR DE-945 they have listed on the Avel site with issues that were fixed by a firmware update.

I also found from another post about Video Redo and the problem with skips, I may be having the same issue only I am saying the sound light comes on. In Armageddon it happens right at the start every time.

I ran the VOB through Video Redo and it never had a problem at the start where it normally does. I played it wireless as well as wired.

So, I guess we need a firmware update for receivers or it is a sound issue with the chip that needs a firmware update.

Originally posted by mrtbig
Update:

I strung a wire temp to hook up wired to see if made any difference and it did not.

I went to the link at Avel, my receiver is the Sony STR DE-845 which is basically the same as the Sony STR DE-945 they have listed on the Avel site with issues that were fixed by a firmware update.

I also found from another post about Video Redo and the problem with skips, I may be having the same issue only I am saying the sound light comes on. In Armageddon it happens right at the start every time.

I ran the VOB through Video Redo and it never had a problem at the start where it normally does. I played it wireless as well as wired.

So, I guess we need a firmware update for receivers or it is a sound issue with the chip that needs a firmware update.

I have Sony DB-930 and have the same sounds issues over optical link. I own Avel player (that I intend to sell) and this problem was fixed in firmware. I have two different sound problems:

1. No sound over optical on commercial DVDs. No workaround, need Buffalo to release firmware fix.
2. No sound for home videos (from DV & VHS camcorders) encoded with 48KHz. I can make sound appear if I press 'stop' and 'play' button till it works (5-30+ times, very annoying). If I encode those videos with 44.1KHz, I have no sound issues, it plays with sound every time.

Brian, any ETA on firmware release to fix our sound issues? We know that is fixable, since I-O Data released it for their player.

David

FYI, BrianV, here is another little player that can play DVD IFO files.

http://www.i4u.com/section-viewarticle-81.html
http://www.macpower.com.tw/products/hdd2/mvisto

Drew

Originally posted by drew138
FYI, BrianV, here is another little player that can play DVD IFO files.

w w w.i4u.com/section-viewarticle-81.html
w w w.macpower.com.tw/products/hdd2/mvisto

Drew

I don't get why there are so many of these things with attached or built in storage and no obvious way to get stuff into/out of them. What market is it serving? It seems that to use any of these you need to disconnect the unit from your a/v stack, take it somewhere with a computer, then push stuff across. It also means if you have N TV's you have to buy N times the storage so each one can have a duplicate.

Is it that setting up a network is just too hard for many people?

I really appreciate the design of the LT now that I've had it for a few days: since the menu system is driven by html I can use it to talk to my home control system, weather station, get weather forecasts from wunderground, and peek at survellance cameras and alarm system status. I'm having to 'simplify' some of my services HTML output to make it display right, but that's not too bad so far (I'd like to know how to lay out the prettier menus and have the buttons looks nice).

I can imagine (thought it doesn't work as is) having this thing act like a myth frontend by just going to the myth built in web browser (its output is too complicated and the LT can't seem to deal with the MPEG2 files in NUV containers, but that likely can be fixed) and streaming shows from it. My biggest issue with Myth to date is lack of a good TV-OUT option -- the good quality one, using a PVR350, works fine to play recorded MPEG2 content, but you can't make xine/oggle (IFO capable players) play DVD's through it for various reasons.

I can stick one of these at every TV and have HDTV quality output anywhere using simple ethernet instead of a quality impaired video via an RF distribution system.

The video quality is just stunningly good.

In short, if this thing would just actually play DVD's properly it is a revolutionary step in a/v / home automation; it looks like the competitors with their lack of network ability or the few other network units that have a very closed system that will only play videos have completely missed the boat.

I am curious why they did not release this player with a 100/1000 NIC. Who is really running their network on 10 Mbs? It would have probably been a good idea to have a 100/1000 for streaming media. Has anyone connected this unit to a GB network? How does it react receiving from a GB server?

Originally posted by chrixx
I am curious why they did not release this player with a 100/1000 NIC. Who is really running their network on 10 Mbs? It would have probably been a good idea to have a 100/1000 for streaming media. Has anyone connected this unit to a GB network? How does it react receiving from a GB server? The chip-set is supposedly capable of supporting 1000Mbps...

Well... this is what the guys over at Zensonic have said about their proposed Z500 player (http://www.z500series.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=62[/url), which is based around the same chip-set.


Cheers

So just go my new Buffalo Media Server set up and here's the top things that I like and dislike about it so far:

Dislikes:
- Times out trying to access Music (Music points to a mapped network drive with 24k music files - at least 4k of which are loose in the top level folder) - while I'm not terribly surprised that it can't handle that many files, I'd love to hear suggestions as to how we could get this to work. Our temporary solution is to create a bunch of playlists and just point Music to the folder of playlists. This seems to work fine (except see the next comment). Our next solution is to try to install LinkTheater directly on the computer with the media and see if that improves things.

- Can't use Playlists during slideshows - in BLT you can set a playlist of music to play while you are a showing a particular folder of photos, but the music won't actually play - we discovered that the slideshow feature doesn't seem to work with playlists - you need to select an actual folder of music. (Which was annoying because of the first problem I mentioned.) Or it could just have problems with playlists on a mapped drive - who knows...

- When we link Photos to a mapped drive, only the first folder we select will play, after that, (until we reboot) we can't play any other folder but that one (they'll pause at the My Photo Album screen). We haven't played with this extensively and photos on a local drive seem to play just fine, so I'm sure once we install BLT directly on our server, this will no longer be a problem.

- Buffalo needs to update Logitech/Harmony's list of universal remote commands - we use a Harmony remote and while the Harmony system recognized the device, it only provided the most basic DVD and navigation buttons on our universal Harmony remote. Since there are at least a dozen other useful buttons on the Buffalo remote like "Setup", "Home", and "Return", we've got to keep both remotes out or spend a lot of time training the Harmony remote.

- First song played is usually scratchy for about 2 seconds

Likes:
- Has played every DVD beautifully and almost all of our video files without a problem. The quality looks really good. I love that it can handle just about any format.

- Ability to play photo slideshows while listening to music (we could get this to work if all the content was local to the machine)

- Unit looks really nice :)

- Great price (buy.com) for the functionality it provides

Haven't tried USB storage or a data CD yet. Haven't tried a VOB or replaytv MPG yet. I did get the latest firmware (4/11 I think), but it doesn't seem to have affected any of the problems we're seeing.

-Aurora

Originally posted by chrixx
I am curious why they did not release this player with a 100/1000 NIC. Who is really running their network on 10 Mbs? It would have probably been a good idea to have a 100/1000 for streaming media. Has anyone connected this unit to a GB network? How does it react receiving from a GB server?

Mine is connected at 100mbit to a small switch (netgear combo hub/wireless thingie) which then feeds into a biggig switch (cisco catalyst): the servers are all running at 1000 and it seems to work fine (I would hope so, TCP is designed for this sort of thing).

I can't imagine it would work well on a 10mbit network, DVD playback tops out around 9mbit (and there's overhead with TCP/IP).

As an aside: I tried the Nero MediaHome server, what a total POS: they will not allow it to run unless you are using 192.168.0.* as your network address (it pops up a dialog if you try saying for 'security reasons' it won't run); their tech support says I should renumber my network (ha!). 100% toy.

qrazy,

you are welcome. I'm glad it helped.

Upon further investigation, I'm starting to believe that these errors were put into the VOB file on purpose by the DVD authoring company (i.e. the movie studio). Probably in an attempt to make DVD backups worthless or difficult to watch.

My guess is that the program chain or some other piece of information in the IFO file on the original DVD indicates which cells are to be skipped. That is why the movie plays normally if you watch it on a standalone player (i.e. starting from the main menu).

But if you rip just the VOB file and feed that into an MPEG-2 decoder, the decoder will not know that there are bogus cells that are to be skipped. Decoding of the bad cells causes some kind of overload in the player, which then causes some part of the video to be skipped.

That is my guess. Interestly, my AVeL LinkPlayer is connected through a 100base-T hub that shows network utilization. I see that the utilization goes to 100% and the network chokes when one of these skips occur. Then, a few seconds later, everything is back to normal and the video resumes.

Happily, VideoReDo can find those bad cells and trim them out of the VOB stream.

Just my 2 cents. I hope Buffalo (and/or I-O Data) eventually will find the root cause of this and fix it.

Originally posted by qrazy
OK...Where to begin...

Mrtbig: Optically works fine for me, I know that doesn't really help you, but at least you know it can work. May seem silly, but do you have Dolby Digital 5.1 selected in your LinkTheater setup?

Tallrussian: W00t!! I think you nailed it right on the head....I downloaded the trial version, ran 1 stream through it. It seemed to play fine, without skips!! Only problem is having to pay $50 for a program to make them play correctly, when playing it through the DVD player plays them fine..... :(
Anyways....THANKS AGAIN TALLRUSSIAN!!!

Originally posted by Aurora
So just go my new Buffalo Media Server set up and here's the top things that I like and dislike about it so far:

Dislikes: (PARAPHRASED)

- Buffalo needs to update Logitech/Harmony's list of universal remote commands - we use a Harmony remote and while the Harmony system recognized the device, it only provided the most basic DVD and navigation buttons on our universal Harmony remote. Since there are at least a dozen other useful buttons on the Buffalo remote like "Setup", "Home", and "Return", we've got to keep both remotes out or spend a lot of time training the Harmony remote.

-Aurora

I noticed the same thing. You can go in and "learn" the commands you need and add activity buttons to "recreate" the remote. I have taken this approach, and am able to effectively emulate the entire LT remote. The only downside is the difficulty inputting alpha characters.

Good luck! :)
Kirt

Originally posted by Flip221
I noticed the same thing. You can go in and "learn" the commands you need and add activity buttons to "recreate" the remote. I have taken this approach, and am able to effectively emulate the entire LT remote. The only downside is the difficulty inputting alpha characters.

Good luck! :)
Kirt

I have done this as well and it is working great. It takes a little while to get everything "learned", but it is well worth the effort :)

Originally posted by qrazy
Tallrussian: W00t!! I think you nailed it right on the head....I downloaded the trial version, ran 1 stream through it. It seemed to play fine, without skips!! Only problem is having to pay $50 for a program to make them play correctly . . . .

If it helps ease the pain: VideoReDo is a great MPEG editor. Its only real competition (Womble) costs at least twice as much.

Originally posted by lsarver
If it helps ease the pain: VideoReDo is a great MPEG editor. Its only real competition (Womble) costs at least twice as much.
Hi Lsarver,
I wasn't actually complaining that Videoredo cost $50 ( I think it is very reasonable for what it does), I was moaning about the fact that I have to pay another $50 to play a file over my network correctly that plays fine if I write it to a DVD....

:) Videoredo looks like a nice program....

Hi All,

I've been following this thread for a bit, and just got my LT yesterday. I'm having a problem with some XVid files. When I play them on the LT about 10-15% of each side gets lost. I have it set to play in actual size, and have tried the other options as well. To make sure it wasn't my file/tv I played the file from my laptop via S-Video using the free Divx player from here: @divx.com and it played correctly (had it set to full screen mode).

My setup is LT connected to reciever via S-Video, reciever connected to tv via S-Video. The TV is just standard size (i.e. not HD).

I'm running firmware 05-03-050204-02-LTI-240-000, and Link Theater 1.1 on the PC side.

If I right click on the file, windows reports it is 640x368.

Any ideas how to fix this?

Thanks,
Justin

Hit the zoom button on the remote to cycle through the 3 settings....Actual, fit to screen, and zoom...I think the latest firmware defaults to fit to screen....

Originally posted by qrazy
Hit the zoom button on the remote to cycle through the 3 settings....Actual, fit to screen, and zoom...I think the latest firmware defaults to fit to screen.... I have these settings within my ADS Media-Link device!

And it would seem there are quite a few devices using the same type of "Networking GUI": -

http://img225.echo.cx/img225/9382/networkingguis4ep.gif

God knows why the GUI don't offer the same "display" settings as you would find in an typical DVD player or digital set-top box!


Cheers

SMD that is interesting...... :) And of course cool, that have all of them :) :)

I think the GUI on teh BLT is setup to be very basic...Easy for the family to use, if you know what I mean..... :)

:)

What's just as interesting is....

There are other device manufacturers who seem to be creating their own "networking softwares"... that appear to offer greater flexibility.

It looks like this one will let you play ISO's: -

http://img91.echo.cx/img91/8931/network8bl.gif


Cheers

Is that like Twonkyvision??

Quick report on new server s/w:
Flickr - pretty cool, does a slideshow of 'public' pictures for a user.

Podcast - very cool, some stutter on some of the shows, but besides just playing audio from the RSS, it also downloads and display some of the images included in the RSS (e.g. picture of Dawn and Drew when that show is playing)

Rhapsody - spotty, running uPnP real rhap server on PC, UI shows up, but no Albums/Artist listed. "Rhapsody Stations" listed, but can't select them to play. Anyone else get this to work yet?

Which subtitles are supported?
".srt", ".ssa", ".sub" or ".smi"

Thanks
Chan

Originally posted by SeeMoreDigital
What's just as interesting is....

There are other device manufacturers who seem to be creating their own "networking softwares"... that appear to offer greater flexibility.

It looks like this one will let you play ISO's: -

http://img91.echo.cx/img91/8931/network8bl.gif


Cheers

It would seem if you could get the software to recognize it, you could mount a folder like a drive...Assign it a drive letter, and have your ISO there....

I dunno...Just thinking out loud I guess....

Here's some more devices that reads NTFS for playback: Unibrain iZak (http://www.unibrain.com/iZak/iZak.htm).
LaCie Silverscreen (http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10481)

These are similar to the TViX, except they use 2.5" drives, and you can't buy them without the drive.

HD playback test.

Would someone with the LT be so kind to test how well this HDTV MPEG2 clip (LOTR 5 minute clip) will playback across a wired/wireless LAN?

w w w.eff.org/broadcastflag/LotRclip2-mpg.torrent

please fix the above URL first.

********** d/l.

Many thanks.

Originally posted by iBart
HD playback test.

Would someone with the LT be so kind to test how well this HDTV MPEG2 clip (LOTR 5 minute clip) will playback across a wired/wireless LAN?

w w w.eff.org/broadcastflag/LotRclip2-mpg.torrent

please fix the above URL first.

********** d/l.

Many thanks.

Sorry can't do the torrent thing....Give me another way to download it and I can check it...I have a PC standing by with the server software loaded, and my HDTV beckoning for some good feeds :)

Will this unit ever support Flac?

Originally posted by Flip221
Have any of you technophiles out there been able to find a way to make Rhapsody work with the new software that Brian made available?

My wife is complaining that the LT doesn't support Rhapsody again... :)

Thanks,
Kirt

The firmware you're running doesn't support the rhap:// protocol so wait until another release comes before that plugin works fully. I just put it up there so you could get an idea of what we can do with plug-ins.

Originally posted by Stevenage
My player seems to overscan a lot. In 480i it is close, 480p is acceptable but 1080i is just too much. Is there any thing I can do to fix this without having my tv recalibrated?

Steven

Originally posted by qrazy
OK...I installed the server software, on a totally different PC on my network, and the IFO'd the same video to the other PC (did not copy the file), and it has the same exact skipping, in the same EXACT spot on the video....

Any ideas Brian??? Could it be a bad unit???

Thanks....

I'll report all of these DVD/IFO problems that are related to the EM8620L.

Originally posted by glen tivo
Has anyone been able to get the LinkTheater to read from a Tritton NAS? I have a Tritton device and wonder if it will work.

I hooked up my LinkTheater last night and set it up to stream from my PC as a way to save time. There are SO many usability tweaks that could be done to make the UI and the remote control interaction more intuitive and user friendly. For instance, the ugly 'Invalid' tag that comes up on the screen when you press a button on the remote that the machine doesn't respond to under its current state is horrible. Also, the way the cursor moves with the direction button is weird. It treats things on the left side of the screen as a different column rather than navigating top to bottom for most links - that's whack.

This is clearly a 1.0 product. That said, it's a well implemented 1.0 product. The remote is begging for a scroll wheel or track ball. That would be on my wish list. I would also wish for more DRAM and/or a faster CPU. After intuitive UI, the design vector I'd be most concerned about is navigation speed. A better remote and more powerful set of chips will help you attain this. I am committed to getting the firmware releases and tracking the progress. Brian and his team at Buffalo deserve a ton of credit for their work.

The WAF factor is a bit low, but it's small enough to hide this away in the rack as a second "experimental" product. In the future I'd hope for a DVD record function and a small hard drive for editing commercials out of tv content. Also, I hope that 2.0 will be BluRay or HD-DVD compliant. That would make it an easier purchase to justify.

It will be interesting to see how the LT stacks up against the upcoming KISS products which are also based on Sigma chips.

Triton would have to make a firmware that runs a webserver that links to our implmentation requirements. Otherwise you'll need to map network drives on PCs and run the PC Software.

Originally posted by chrixx
I am curious why they did not release this player with a 100/1000 NIC. Who is really running their network on 10 Mbs? It would have probably been a good idea to have a 100/1000 for streaming media. Has anyone connected this unit to a GB network? How does it react receiving from a GB server?

1000mbps wouldn't do anything for this player. The maximum file size it can really handle streaming is 13mbps per the 8620L chip. For almost all files, including WMV HD stuff, 10mbps would even be acceptable.

Originally posted by Aurora
So just go my new Buffalo Media Server set up and here's the top things that I like and dislike about it so far:

Dislikes:
- Times out trying to access Music (Music points to a mapped network drive with 24k music files - at least 4k of which are loose in the top level folder) - while I'm not terribly surprised that it can't handle that many files, I'd love to hear suggestions as to how we could get this to work. Our temporary solution is to create a bunch of playlists and just point Music to the folder of playlists. This seems to work fine (except see the next comment). Our next solution is to try to install LinkTheater directly on the computer with the media and see if that improves things.

- Can't use Playlists during slideshows - in BLT you can set a playlist of music to play while you are a showing a particular folder of photos, but the music won't actually play - we discovered that the slideshow feature doesn't seem to work with playlists - you need to select an actual folder of music. (Which was annoying because of the first problem I mentioned.) Or it could just have problems with playlists on a mapped drive - who knows...

- When we link Photos to a mapped drive, only the first folder we select will play, after that, (until we reboot) we can't play any other folder but that one (they'll pause at the My Photo Album screen). We haven't played with this extensively and photos on a local drive seem to play just fine, so I'm sure once we install BLT directly on our server, this will no longer be a problem.

- Buffalo needs to update Logitech/Harmony's list of universal remote commands - we use a Harmony remote and while the Harmony system recognized the device, it only provided the most basic DVD and navigation buttons on our universal Harmony remote. Since there are at least a dozen other useful buttons on the Buffalo remote like "Setup", "Home", and "Return", we've got to keep both remotes out or spend a lot of time training the Harmony remote.

- First song played is usually scratchy for about 2 seconds

Likes:
- Has played every DVD beautifully and almost all of our video files without a problem. The quality looks really good. I love that it can handle just about any format.

- Ability to play photo slideshows while listening to music (we could get this to work if all the content was local to the machine)

- Unit looks really nice :)

- Great price (buy.com) for the functionality it provides

Haven't tried USB storage or a data CD yet. Haven't tried a VOB or replaytv MPG yet. I did get the latest firmware (4/11 I think), but it doesn't seem to have affected any of the problems we're seeing.

-Aurora

Glad you like the player, and the dislikes have pretty much all been reported.

Originally posted by themojo
Hi All,

I've been following this thread for a bit, and just got my LT yesterday. I'm having a problem with some XVid files. When I play them on the LT about 10-15% of each side gets lost. I have it set to play in actual size, and have tried the other options as well. To make sure it wasn't my file/tv I played the file from my laptop via S-Video using the free Divx player from here: @divx.com and it played correctly (had it set to full screen mode).

My setup is LT connected to reciever via S-Video, reciever connected to tv via S-Video. The TV is just standard size (i.e. not HD).

I'm running firmware 05-03-050204-02-LTI-240-000, and Link Theater 1.1 on the PC side.

If I right click on the file, windows reports it is 640x368.

Any ideas how to fix this?

Thanks,
Justin

Play around with the zoom setting. With S-Video you should be runing 640x480 so it should fit on the screen in actual size mode with black bars on the top and bottom.

Originally posted by nosml
Will this unit ever support Flac?

It has been added to the feature request list. We can't just do things overnight so please be patient.

Anyone hear of any work being done on a DVD Upconvert firmware hack? It sounds as though it would be easy if you knew what you were doing. It would make this really good product, Great.

-DT

Originally posted by BrianV
It has been added to the feature request list. We can't just do things overnight so please be patient.

No hurry here. Thanks for all the hard work. If you could clarify one thing though: will Flac support be a firmware upgrade, or will I need to wait for a new unit. I am not planning to make my purchase until the summer.

FWIW I got a reply back from Tech Support after asking about IFO parsing support:

The Linktheater does not support ripped DVDs. In either the IFO or ISO format. It will play only the actual VOB files from a ripped DVD, but not the ifo files. Therefore none of the extra features such as chapters or menus will work. Buffalo does not expect to provide support for these files in the future.

They didn't reply to the question about upgrading the chipset firmware to deal with the VOB skipping issue.

I also looked into the mVisto thingie a bit more, it will only play things stored on the built in 2.5" drive (100G seems to be the max), since it has no network and the USB port acts like a disk rather than driving one this unit seems to be a no starter to put a DVD collection on ($500 for ~20 DVDs). With a little h/w hacking it could likely be connected to a 400G 3.5" drive, but that's still pricey for a 'changer' (80 DVD's for $600ish) -- the larger Sony changer I have is 400 discs for about $600.

Originally posted by Ericv13
They didn't reply to the question about upgrading the chipset firmware to deal with the VOB skipping issue. Have some of you guy's had a look at using Elecard's/Moonlight's Xmuxer (http://www.elecard.com/products/xmuxer.shtml), as a possible cure?


Cheers

Originally posted by Ericv13
FWIW I got a reply back from Tech Support after asking about IFO parsing support:



They didn't reply to the question about upgrading the chipset firmware to deal with the VOB skipping issue.

I also looked into the mVisto thingie a bit more, it will only play things stored on the built in 2.5" drive (100G seems to be the max), since it has no network and the USB port acts like a disk rather than driving one this unit seems to be a no starter to put a DVD collection on ($500 for ~20 DVDs). With a little h/w hacking it could likely be connected to a 400G 3.5" drive, but that's still pricey for a 'changer' (80 DVD's for $600ish) -- the larger Sony changer I have is 400 discs for about $600.

Instead of hacking up the mVisto thing, you could just get a Tivx and put your own drive in it...Both cases though as you mentioned have no network ability....

P.S. Eric, check your PM's....I answered your PM to me and added several others...You still haven't read them.... :)

Originally posted by BrianV
I'll report all of these DVD/IFO problems that are related to the EM8620L.

Thanks Brian,
It does appear that running the stream through VideoRedo fixes the problem for me...Is there anyway throug a firmware release we could get the network play to bypass those errors like the physical DVD drive does??? Then we wouldn't have to run all of our streams through VideoRedo....

Originally posted by qrazy
Thanks Brian,
It does appear that running the stream through VideoRedo fixes the problem for me... Hi qrazy,

What are the restrictions in the "Trial Version" of VideoRedo?


Cheers

Originally posted by Ericv13
FWIW I got a reply back from Tech Support after asking about IFO parsing support:



They didn't reply to the question about upgrading the chipset firmware to deal with the VOB skipping issue.

I also looked into the mVisto thingie a bit more, it will only play things stored on the built in 2.5" drive (100G seems to be the max), since it has no network and the USB port acts like a disk rather than driving one this unit seems to be a no starter to put a DVD collection on ($500 for ~20 DVDs). With a little h/w hacking it could likely be connected to a 400G 3.5" drive, but that's still pricey for a 'changer' (80 DVD's for $600ish) -- the larger Sony changer I have is 400 discs for about $600.
Well, The TViX (http://www.tvix.co.kr/Eng/Products/TVixC3000U.aspx) uses a user installed 3.5" GB, and retails for only $180 (at Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0007PP59Y/qid=1114171890/sr=8-3/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl23/104-4886466-1611127?v=glance&s=electronics&n=507846), with a car kit). It supports up to 400GB, and supports IFO and ISO, with full navigation. Like the mVisto, Lacie Silverscreen, and Unibrain iZak, it has two modes of operation. When connected by USB to a PC, it behaves like an external drive. When connected to a TV, it is a multimedia player. The media player reads from the drive through the IDE interface, but supports multiple formats (FAT32, NTFS, HFS+).

One of the appealing things about these units is the portability. I can rip my kids DVD collection onto it, and hook it up in the minivan. No more worries about damaging DVDs, and no need to carry the entire collection around. I can have more than one hard-drive (one for the kids, one for the adults), and swap them out depending on who is watching.

Most of us already have large 3.5 disks that we are using to store the movies, so it's just a matter of installing it in the TViX instead of in a computer or NAS.

Exactly Greg, thats why I replied the way I did above mentioning the Tivx...The downside for me (and its a killer) is no network support...While it would be great to use it in the car once and a while I would use a device like the BLT everyday in my house...The networkability is key....

Originally posted by SeeMoreDigital
Hi qrazy,

What are the restrictions in the "Trial Version" of VideoRedo?


Cheers

It is time limited....I had a message popup saying it will only do 90 minutes or something like that....I ran it on the main video I was having a problem with, and it did in fact fix it. I tried running it on a couple of others that had problems but it only made it a portion of the way through them. It said it was finished, but it was not the complete length (1.2 gb of a 4.3 gb file).....It also has a popup staing if you buy the software these annoying popups will go away... :)

I don't have the extra $50 to throw at it right now, so it's skipsville for me... :(

Originally posted by qrazy
It is time limited....I had a message popup saying it will only do 90 minutes or something like that....I ran it on the main video I was having a problem with, and it did in fact fix it. I tried running it on a couple of others that had problems but it only made it a portion of the way through them. It said it was finished, but it was not the complete length (1.2 gb of a 4.3 gb file).....It also has a popup staing if you buy the software these annoying popups will go away... :)

I don't have the extra $50 to throw at it right now, so it's skipsville for me... :(


It will ask for a key and you can get one for about 20 days for free which gives you full functionality. Just go to the website and register and they will email you a key. I am currently putting the VOBs I have ripped through it. I watched Fast and Furious all the way through the other night with no problems. I first ripped with DVD Decrypter using IFO mode and unchecking all audio except the AC3 6channel English version.

Terry

Yeah, thanks mrtbig....I knew you could ask for the key, but I don't want to do that until I have the time to use it ;)

Thanks for filling in the gaps though.... :)

Originally posted by qrazy
Yeah, thanks mrtbig....I knew you could ask for the key, but I don't want to do that until I have the time to use it ;)

Thanks for filling in the gaps though.... :)

2 questions, how bad is the skipping that you are fixing with this software? Does it make the movie unwatchable or is it just an annoying glitch once and a while? How frequent?

Second, how long does it take to run a movie through Videoredo from start to finish?

Thanks

Drew

Brian, can you comment on Buffalo's tech support reply aboud IFO/ISO parsing as not on the supported feature request list? Further comment would be appreceiated.

We'd also be very interested to understand why there is no plan to support this feature. It seems there must be a reason. Of course, as you can see from the board, this would be viewed as a killer application, and would also drive sales of Terrastation as well for seemless storage!

Drew

Well its annoying for me, because my 7 year old, yells out..."Hey that just skipped, it skippe dhte part where so and so said hi"... You know how kids are, they know every word throught every video because they watched it 2000 times...Hence the need for the BLT (BTW, I hope Brian doesn't mind me calling it the BLT, its just easier to type, and i love BLT's :) ).....
Different videos have different amounts and lengths of skips....There is no hard a fast rule....

It took about 40 minutes to run the one I ran through it....Which is why I would prefer to not have to do that to every one.. :)

Originally posted by qrazy
Exactly Greg, thats why I replied the way I did above mentioning the Tivx...The downside for me (and its a killer) is no network support...While it would be great to use it in the car once and a while I would use a device like the BLT everyday in my house...The networkability is key....
In case you missed it, I mentioned the Mediagate MG-35 (http://www.airlinktek.com/english/prod_mg35.htm) earlier in this thread. It seems to support IFO playback over the network. So far it is being sold by stores in Korea, Australia, and the UK. I suppose that US stores will sell it eventually. Or you could wait for the Mediagate MG-350HD (http://www.airlinktek.com/english/prod_mg350.htm) which decodes hi-def.

Yeah Erik, I was watching for the 350HD, but I couldn't wait any longer, and the price I got on the BLT was pretty good....Top that off with Brians work here, and thats what sold me on the BLT....
The 350HD does look interesting though....

Originally posted by drew138
2 questions, how bad is the skipping that you are fixing with this software? Does it make the movie unwatchable or is it just an annoying glitch once and a while? How frequent?

Second, how long does it take to run a movie through Videoredo from start to finish?

Thanks

Drew


The skips vary with the movie, but it loses sound sometimes, sometime I am able to pause for a while and recontinue but is annoying enough to put through VideoRedo.

The time is obviously based on the size of the VOB from a movie, but to give you an idea I just ripped Secondhand Lions which is a shorter 4GB VOB and it took about 6 1/2 minutes to go through DVD Decrypter. I ran it through VideoRedo and it took about the same 6 1/2 minutes. So total of 13 minutes for this movie and it is well worth it.

I use IFO mode and only check AC3 6 channel English in Decrypter and use QuickStream Fix under tools in Video Redo.

Ok, so i've been watching this thread and reading that .ts files will play back but I'm wondering if the BLT will keep up with a 1080i ts file. I currently have a XBox with XBMC that cannot keep up with a 1080i because the processor is too slow but .. If anyone needs a sample to playback I can provide too.

Originally posted by BrianV
Play around with the zoom setting. With S-Video you should be runing 640x480 so it should fit on the screen in actual size mode with black bars on the top and bottom.

As noted I have tried all modes with this file, and no luck. Jeff from tech support reported: "This is currently a known bug in the linktheater", is that true? Will it be fixed?

Thanks,
Justin

Originally posted by ajalger
Ok, so i've been watching this thread and reading that .ts files will play back but I'm wondering if the BLT will keep up with a 1080i ts file. I currently have a XBox with XBMC that cannot keep up with a 1080i because the processor is too slow but .. If anyone needs a sample to playback I can provide too.

No problem as long as your network connection is good.

Originally posted by ajalger
Ok, so i've been watching this thread and reading that .ts files will play back but I'm wondering if the BLT will keep up with a 1080i ts file. I currently have a XBox with XBMC that cannot keep up with a 1080i because the processor is too slow but .. If anyone needs a sample to playback I can provide too.

standard resolution .ts files play fine. but there isn't enough bandwidth to play 1080i. some of these .ts files are at 38Mbps whcih is way over the chip's bandwidth capabilities as far as i know.

i've been converting the .ts files to divx HD or WMV HD. a little extra work, but works.

i'd be curious to find out if anyone else is doing this on this forum. what's the best way to keep your HD content on the LT? anyone else use anything else other than divx HD or WMV HD?

Tech support seems to be in the dark about these vob problems:

Thank you for contacting Buffalo technical support. The problem you are having looks like to be with the way the DVD's are being riped not with the Linktheater it self. I woudl reccomend tryign a diffrent program to rip the dvd or contact the maker of yoru software to see if there is a fix for this issue.

Sounds to me more like RIP problems than LT issues -- are these happening mostly with newer backups of your newer DVD titles?

edited: (Funny -- looks like Buffalo has the same thought as me)

Originally posted by musicnyman
standard resolution .ts files play fine. but there isn't enough bandwidth to play 1080i. some of these .ts files are at 38Mbps whcih is way over the chip's bandwidth capabilities as far as i know.

i've been converting the .ts files to divx HD or WMV HD. a little extra work, but works.

i'd be curious to find out if anyone else is doing this on this forum. what's the best way to keep your HD content on the LT? anyone else use anything else other than divx HD or WMV HD?

This is what i was thinking as well.. I used Dr Divx to convert to divx hd with what looks like good results but is WMV HD a better choice? Seems like Dr Divx limits the size to 1280x720 .. I don't yet have a HDTV but I am thinking of picking up one of the new 60" Sammy 1080p DLPs that are coming out in a few months..

Any good writeups to creating wmvhd? Dr Divx is quite simple but it does take a bit of time to run..

Originally posted by ajalger
This is what i was thinking as well.. I used Dr Divx to convert to divx hd with what looks like good results but is WMV HD a better choice? Seems like Dr Divx limits the size to 1280x720 .. I don't yet have a HDTV but I am thinking of picking up one of the new 60" Sammy 1080p DLPs that are coming out in a few months..

Any good writeups to creating wmvhd? Dr Divx is quite simple but it does take a bit of time to run..

wmv is slower than divx, and i think divx quality is just as good as wmv, if not better and easier and faster to encode.

i've encoded 1920x1088 divx files with no problem using auto gk to include the .ts file as an input source. i've also tried xvid HD files and look fine. supports high resolution as well. keeps the ac3 file as well.

try it out...

AutoGK is very nice.. I tried GK which was just kludgy to me but AutoGK is definately automatic. I'm running some encodes now to see what i get.

Originally posted by ajalger
AutoGK is very nice.. I tried GK which was just kludgy to me but AutoGK is definately automatic. I'm running some encodes now to see what i get.

yeah, i started with GK and then i found out len0x created AutoGK which makes automated encodes very nice and easy. supports HD as well for divx and xvid's. and .TS as a source.

Originally posted by Paul_PDX
Sounds to me more like RIP problems than LT issues -- are these happening mostly with newer backups of your newer DVD titles?

edited: (Funny -- looks like Buffalo has the same thought as me)

It may be related to the source material...But it IS DEFINATELY NOT related the the rip itself....Have tried 3 different RIP methods on 2 different machines....It's not the rip.....TallRussian clearly defined the problem, and even gae a link to a forum with the same issues.....Its back a few pages if you want to read more about it....

i know AVI has a 2 gig limitation. that's true in the LT as well right?

for HD content, i'd want to create 4 or 5 gig file sizes, since it's hard to squeeze a good quality divx HD into a 2 gig AVI divx or xvid file.

what do people on this board use for HD content? i know mpeg can support more than 2 gigs in file size, but i'd rather use mpeg4 if possible. even WMV if i have to. does nero HD digital mp4 support higher file sizes?

thanks,

The Sigma Chipset only does the video and transcoding:

Page two shows the major functionality. All io other than memory and video audio is implementation dependent.

http://www.sigmadesigns.com/pdf_docs/EM8620L_brochure.pdf

. Networking isincluded in Sigmas reference design such as this one:

http://www.sigmadesigns.com/products/DVD8620LNET.htm

but manufacturerers of the end boxes can leave out parts and or use lower spec or higher spec components depending on their price points and target customers.

Originally posted by nosml
No hurry here. Thanks for all the hard work. If you could clarify one thing though: will Flac support be a firmware upgrade, or will I need to wait for a new unit. I am not planning to make my purchase until the summer.

I imagine the current hardware can support FLAC so I'd like to say it would be a firmware upgrade but I can't make any promises.

Originally posted by qrazy
Thanks Brian,
It does appear that running the stream through VideoRedo fixes the problem for me...Is there anyway throug a firmware release we could get the network play to bypass those errors like the physical DVD drive does??? Then we wouldn't have to run all of our streams through VideoRedo....

Yes, I've reported this.

Also, someone informed me that DVD's play better if the player is set to Region 1 and not Region 0. So those of you who are having DVD skipping problems (from commercial DVD playback), go ahead and see if the problem is there when in Region 1 mode as well.

Originally posted by drew138
Brian, can you comment on Buffalo's tech support reply aboud IFO/ISO parsing as not on the supported feature request list? Further comment would be appreceiated.

We'd also be very interested to understand why there is no plan to support this feature. It seems there must be a reason. Of course, as you can see from the board, this would be viewed as a killer application, and would also drive sales of Terrastation as well for seemless storage!

Drew

You guys SHOULD not be calling tech support, you are way above them. Tech Support is for people who don't know how to hook the product up. Only super tiny companies who have 1-2 tech support guys can have support at your levels. I don't communicate with tech support regularly so they don't know what is coming and what isn't coming.

Please just post here or email me.

Originally posted by musicnyman
standard resolution .ts files play fine. but there isn't enough bandwidth to play 1080i. some of these .ts files are at 38Mbps whcih is way over the chip's bandwidth capabilities as far as i know.

i've been converting the .ts files to divx HD or WMV HD. a little extra work, but works.

i'd be curious to find out if anyone else is doing this on this forum. what's the best way to keep your HD content on the LT? anyone else use anything else other than divx HD or WMV HD?

The sigma chip is rated around 12 Mbps, so 38 Mbps files are just too much for today's technology.

Good Day,

Has anyone else that has been running the beta LT software been experiencing occasional lock-ups at the Home screen of the LT interface? It seems that after I use the LT for a while and then return to the Home screen, I am unable to re-connect to the default server without power cycling the LT. I get an error message in red text on a white background saying (among other things) that the LT can not connect.

I'm not complaining (as I chose to run the beta software) but am curious if I'm the only one experiencing this issue.

The other thing I have noticed is that after I've used the LT for a while, a "house" icon appears inside the icon for my default media server on the Home screen of the LT interface. The system only appears to lock-up when the "house" icon is present. Any ideas?

Also: does anyone know of a way to get back to the "Videos/Music/Photos" page rather than going back to the Home screen?

Thanks all,
Kirt

Brian,
did you mean to leave a reply?

Steven

Originally posted by BrianV

Re: Overscan

quote:Originally posted by Stevenage
My player seems to overscan a lot. In 480i it is close, 480p is acceptable but 1080i is just too much. Is there any thing I can do to fix this without having my tv recalibrated?