Brian,

After testing 12-77 I reported here that the DVD Last of the Mohicans - Directors Expanded Edition - ©1999 did not play properly on the BLT with this firmware. Unfortunately I must report that it still does not play properly with 13-82-060703.

So here we go once again. The image of this film, which is 2:35-1 aspect ratio, does not display at full screen width. Only about 70% of the screen width is utilized by the BLT on my 1080i display. "Zooming" does not help, it only increases the image size vertically, not horizontally.

I have to say that while I really appreciate your involvment, it is very frustrating to go to the trouble of reporting a bug and still not see any improvement on the next so called "release candidate" firmware. One has to wonder if any of the software developers bother to read the bug reports.

Hi
Does anyone know if the Phillips RC9800i media streaming remote will work with my linktheatre, as i have read the linktheatre is not fully UpnP compliant. If anyone has any experience with this i would appreciate their advice.

Since upgrading to the latest firmware all the drifting of audio at DVD errors & scrambling of the first 10 secs of MP3s has gone. Thank God as it nearly went through the window on a couple of occassions

Having to update the firmware from the browser & not in the firmware update page is a strange way do things though. As you think you have the latest version them find out from tech support that youre wrong.

Apologies if i have posted this in the wrong place as this is my first post

Another step backwards. In ver. 12.77 the slideshow would finally start from the picture you selected. Now it's back to starting at the beginning again. And of course the overscan problem is still there. It's been a year and a half and this is pathetic. And where are the obvious improvments needed in the software?

Am i the only one having problems with fit to screen and full screen functions oversizing the video vertically? If you look at the vido in actual size you can see that there's parts missing. I'm running on a 16:9 screen and component 1080i, although i have tried other tvmodes.

"Originally Posted by BrianV
As far as overscan, I agree it's a little too much. I have reported the concerns of this group to our engineers. I will follow up and see if there have been any developments."

Brian gave this response months ago. Every update I'm hopeful, but so far it's never been fixed. It's very frustrating when viewing pictures. You have to click zoom out on the remote two times to see the whole picture.

I was looking at buying one of these, but the posts regarding MP3 crackling at the start have put me off.

Can anyone report if this has been fixed or is still an issue

Thanks

I was looking at buying one of these, but the posts regarding MP3 crackling at the start have put me off.

Can anyone report if this has been fixed or is still an issue

Thanks

The best part of this kit is that they can upgrade the firmware to fix the majority of issues. MP3s only crackled if they were downloaded or ripped separately, MP3s from album rips never seemed to be affected. The latest firmware fixed the crackling permanently on my linktheatre.

The downsides are ...the remote control is rubbish no range & very intermittent. The browser function is fairly useless and navigating with a remote control is very slow.
Best Bits ,,, It streams most media you can either download or rip with a few exceptions. Look back through the posts for more info

I have only ever found 3 files i couldn't play and i view a lot of media files.

mwhitlock, it does, and worst case is you could downgrade back to 12-77 if you don't like the updates.

I've had my LT since February and I did a bios update via the internet when I got it. I have recently moved and where I am I do not have a way to access the internet to check for new updates. Where do I get bios updates and how do I apply them outside of the "automatic" process embedded in the software?

Thanks.....

I am overall happy with this unit but it seems the remote stops working a lot! Any fixes for that in any of these updates?

well i live in texas, bought a wireless linktheater back in sept or nov last year. my current firmware is 07-60-050609-02-LTI-240-000 i wanted to update from verenkoff site, however like all other dvd players i have it wont get the bin file from a burned disc :( so i pointed to the web url in teh service and downloaded it that way. only every single one of the files says wrong signature ?? and the update from the system menu says still no updates past what i already have..

well i live in texas, bought a wireless linktheater back in sept or nov last year. my current firmware is 07-60-050609-02-LTI-240-000 i wanted to update from verenkoff site, however like all other dvd players i have it wont get the bin file from a burned disc :( so i pointed to the web url in teh service and downloaded it that way. only every single one of the files says wrong signature ?? and the update from the system menu says still no updates past what i already have..

Same here. Anything new?

Same here. Anything new?

Hi,
It's probably been mentioned somewhere else.. but I found that o could update the firmware to 13-88 by starting at 7-60 and applying all of the updates in between in incremental order.

=======================================
RUN UPDATE (13-82-060703-03-LTI-240-000.bin)
RUN UPDATE (13-82-060509-03-LTI-240-000.bin)
RUN UPDATE (12-77-060218-03-LTI-240-000.bin)
RUN UPDATE (11-63-051214-03-LTI-240-000.bin)
RUN UPDATE (10-79-051019-03-LTI-240-000.bin)
RUN UPDATE (09-13-050815-02-LTI-240-000.bin)
RUN UPDATE (08-31-050711-02-LTI-240-000.bin)
=======================================
If you want more info you also might try bltowners group on yahoo

hope that helps...

Can the BLT display photos or a slideshow and play music at the same time?

Can the display time of slideshow photos be set by the user?

What is the lag time while the next photo is being loaded?

Does this player handle .ISO videos?

Hi,
It's probably been mentioned somewhere else.. but I found that o could update the firmware to 13-88 by starting at 7-60 and applying all of the updates in between in incremental order.

=======================================
RUN UPDATE (13-82-060703-03-LTI-240-000.bin)
RUN UPDATE (13-82-060509-03-LTI-240-000.bin)
RUN UPDATE (12-77-060218-03-LTI-240-000.bin)
RUN UPDATE (11-63-051214-03-LTI-240-000.bin)
RUN UPDATE (10-79-051019-03-LTI-240-000.bin)
RUN UPDATE (09-13-050815-02-LTI-240-000.bin)
RUN UPDATE (08-31-050711-02-LTI-240-000.bin)
=======================================
If you want more info you also might try bltowners group on yahoo

hope that helps...

I have no idea how to do any of that! I understand the concept of flashing hardware devices as I am a network admin and support over 100 PC's and pritners and switches and stuff. typically we flash ahrdware with either boot disks or executables run at a command line. However the only way to flash the BLT is via their automated process.......

There has to be a nother way to flash it and that is what I am looking for.

Thanks!

Can the BLT display photos or a slideshow and play music at the same time?

Can the display time of slideshow photos be set by the user?

What is the lag time while the next photo is being loaded?

Does this player handle .ISO videos?

1. Yes, with the proper server software.

2. Yes

3. Few seconds depending on the size of the file.

4. Yes, with the proper server software.

I had an old AccessDTV card that got some updated software so I thought I would give it another try on my updated computer because it wasn't supposed to work with dual core.

Well, I installed and it worked and I did a test recording, Digital over antenna. I wanted to see if the Buffalo would view it and guess what? It looked great! It works!

Has anyone installed/configured or tried out the Linux software for the Buffalo Media player?

1. Yes, with the proper server software.

2. Yes

3. Few seconds depending on the size of the file.

4. Yes, with the proper server software.

What is the proper server software?

Okay...this is not as bad as it could be but it really messes up the GUI. I updated from 12.77 to 13.88 or whatever the last one was. After a reboot I have lost all backgrounds, and buttons and the font is super thick. For example the letter "O" is so thick you can barely tell there is a hole in it. Now I am wondering why this happened. I rolled back the bios to 12.77 and it is still screwed up. I get no boot-up screen anymore and it kicks me directly to the log-in screen. It is pure black and the text is almost unreadable. It is thick and blurry.

When I login to my PC with linktheatre server software from the Linktheatre the fonts correct themselves and a background loads up. Then when I go back to the main interface of the linktheatre the backgroiund stays but the fonts go back to being blurry.

It appears that from a functional standpoint it is working. But the interface looks like crap now. The buttons along the top of the settings menu are missing but I can still move across them as I can see the highlight box. When I click I get the proper menus....again...the GUI is seriously messed up..

How do I get it back? I tried to load the original bios that came on my unit form the site and it says wrong version or whatever.

Thanks for any help! I am wishing I never touched it! It's also important to note that everything was fine up through 13.82. That is when the GUI when kablooey!

Peace!

I have had a LinkTheater for a very long time and i remember when I first got it (probably 18 months ago) there was an update that my player automatically updated (when i went to the setup menu and asked it to). I was pretty happy to see this feature but there has never been an update since. Looking at this discussion list it appears this must be wrong. How can I get the latest version? Can I download to the PC and then bring over to the LinkTheater on the memory card or CD?

Same problem here as ksnyde. I live in Germany and need a PAL firmware but cannot seem to find any updates on the net. My Player is from March 2006 and has had no updates over the built-in function so far...

The firmware version stated on the setup-screen is 08-32-050711-02-LTI-254-000.

Where can I get new updates and how do I flash them?

I joined the BLTOwners group on Yahoo and they were able to answer my question. You can get EU updates from here:

(actually it won't let me post any URL's until i've posted 5 messages ... very annoying)

Hope this helps.

this is just to get to my count of 5 so i can post a URL

again

I joined the BLTOwners group on Yahoo and they were able to answer my question. You can get EU updates from here:

EU Updates for BLT (http://www.buffalo-technology.com/linktheater/index.htm)

Hope this helps.

In version 12.94 they fixed a problem where the slideshow always started with the first picture in the folder.
Very frustrating if you have hundreds of files, stop, and want to start where you left off.
For some reason the problem is back again in version 13.82.

The problem where the edges of the picture are cropped (overscan) has never been fixed,
even though Brian (Buffalo rep) admitted it was a problem here.

Why they keep the upgrades a secret and make you join a special club to get them is beyond me.

Thanx so much for the link. I also joined the Yahoo-group yesterday but am still waiting for the admin to let me in...

All the files on the firmware site are .bin files. When I tried to burn them on a CD I got an error... How do I get the files into my BLT??? And: Do I have to upgrade one after one or just flash the latest?

The "secret club" is very strange indeed. When i first got my BLT it actually did pick up an update within the first week and I was really happy to see this integration. In the future I expect that this will be standard but it's not that common today. BLT had a great feature and then walked away from it.

BTW, I'm using the 8.32 version and haven't seen a posting that describes the benefits of each subsequent release. I'll probably update anyway due to my lack of any real contraint and seemlessly unending punishment but it would be nice to know what i'm supposedly getting for my troubles. Does anyone know if such a list exists?

Why they keep the upgrades a secret and make you join a special club to get them is beyond me.

The upgrades are actually beta releases, not full releases. You had to sign up to become a beta tester. At some point, perhaps one of the betas will actually turn into an official release and be available via the "standard" upgrade path.

The Yahoo bltowners group is the best place for info.

Steve.

Hello,

I'm steaming video from media center pc via 200Mbs Homeplug to my Linktheater.

If I play recorded tv the audio is always out of sync.

If I play HD divx the auido stays in sync until I fast forward.

Is this common and are there any settings I can play with to stop this ?

Many thanks
Duncan

The upgrades are actually beta releases, not full releases. You had to sign up to become a beta tester. At some point, perhaps one of the betas will actually turn into an official release and be available via the "standard" upgrade path.
Steve.

It's been a year and a half!

Buffalo has all but stopped supporting this product.
The updates are farther, and farther apart. Every update fixes one thing and breaks another.
All the promises of new features have gone unfullfiled.

An "official release" is no where in sight.

It's been a year and a half!

Buffalo has all but stopped supporting this product. The updates are farther, and farther apart. Every update fixes one thing and breaks another. All the promises of new features have gone unfullfiled.

An "official release" is no where in sight.
Haven't you guys figured out yet that Buffalo will NEVER issue another "official release" for this product?

I pretty much have come to that conclusion as well. Well this sucks this thing is actually a good product but lacks the software and interface to be up to mainstream use.

pretty this sums it up. dont buy buffalo products. wtf no x264 support. ****k this co. ****** comp. rep and buggy player

Just fyi, there aint no network DVD Media player that has X264 yet.

wow

Im having problems adding plugins to my blt. I'm extracting to the proper folder under my documents ('LinkTheater Library' folder that resides inside your 'My Documents' folder.), but they dont seem to be showing up on the blt. Any help on how to properly add and get plugins to work on the blt would be great. Thanks in advance for helping this newbe

All,

With Vista coming out there are a ton of V2 extenders in the queue that will get introduced at CES or soon there after. IMOP there will be a new version of this player and thus why it has not been updated in a while. Consumer electronics don't stay "active" for that long.... it is time for a new one.

Maybe I am all wet on this but...

Haven't you guys figured out yet that Buffalo will NEVER issue another "official release" for this product?


maybe they decided to drop this product off the market. The development and tech supports might be 'gone' after some consolidation. A good guess is our general "BrianV" no longer here. Working hard does not always promise to return appreciation but being in some club with some right players would bring a destiny. It's poor if the club is not for you.

We hope to see you back BrianV. If the company does not regconize you, we, the customers, will always appreciate and miss you although you are not the one who could make iit happened, the new FW with all promised features (NTFS, ...)

I am trying to get VideoLan to work with the Linktheater and I know people on sites says it works. I guess I don't know how to set it up. Could someone please provide me the steps to configure VideoLan to work with the LinkTheater.

Thanks so much!

Any way to enable all my music in itunes to work with linktheater.

Can anyone confirm the latest firmware revision? Brian's website lists 13-82-060703 as a release candidate or beta, but I just purchased a BLT and it already has this version. Was the release candidate promoted to full production? Is there any new betas out there?

I too am having problems getting Plugins to work. When I go to Services, I only have iTunes and Web Links. I have no RSS Feeds or Music Radio like the manual shows.

So far I'm pretty dissapointed in the BLT. I'm about ready to put my GoVideo D2730 back into my system. It wasn't fancy, but it was reliable and I could at least browse my music collection while a song was playing.

Any way to enable all my music in itunes to work with linktheater.

You should be able to use the playlists you have in itunes with the Linktheater. Are you using the most recent Linktheater software, I believe version 1.6?

how would I access the playlist from the buffalo?

Not sure why people aren't responding - its a great box and its priced under $100 now. Given that you can pay $300 for an AppleTV thing that doesn't do half of what the BLT does, its a great deal. I was using my notebook as a media server but the BLT is just a fantastic alternative.

1. Plugins

Put your plugins in C:\Program Files\LinkTheater\webapps\ROOT\service and they will work (at least as well as they are supposed to - some are better than others). The instructions are simply wrong (maybe its supposed to be some sort of intelligence test).

2. Firmware

There is a page of firmware at verenkoff[dot]com/update1277.html - given that Brian is long gone, I don't think there is a big deal posting this. If there is, I'll delete this immediately. I upgraded to the Japanese firmware which (allegedly) does WPA but I wasn't able to get it to work. To install the firmware, create a browser bookmark for that URL and then navigate to the page using the BLT bookmark app and then click on the appropriate firmware.

Not sure why people aren't responding - its a great box and its priced under $100 now. Given that you can pay $300 for an AppleTV thing that doesn't do half of what the BLT does, its a great deal. I was using my notebook as a media server but the BLT is just a fantastic alternative.

I agree I bought it for just over a hundred bucks on sale. The unit does have its problems (doesn't play every DVD *WHY?* and when the wireless network lags it can bomb out) but that said, I haven't found a DIVX it can't play and the Japanese firmware combined with a region free hack make for an excellent box. With the Japanese firmware the wpa works, and still has played 90% of the DVDs I've thrown at it.

Wizd, upnp, or Swisscenter may not have all the features of the default windows server, but you could easily run one of them off a sub$400 NAS.

I'm wondering if the networked DVD player has gone the way of the Black Rhino, or if we'll see more in the future.

Lastly I wouldn't count out Brian just yet, one of these days he may surprise you! ;)

IMHO the networked DVD player is really what consumers want. but don't know to ask. The big problem with these devices is the UI...or lack there of. For mass distribution we need a device that can search via genre, date, etc and display cover art for DVD's that are "backed up" on a external drive. Only then does it come compelling for Joe Six pack. Only us "power" users would even think this is a usable product in it's current state

Also. at this point it needs a combo HD DVD / BD drive for the high end community.

but just my .02

Chris,

The software is out there somewhere. I have the kenwood entre (the very first media player ever sold in the U.S.) connected to two or three kenwood 5900m players (each holding 400 disks). The entre actually connects to gracenotes and than allows the homeowner to search by genre or title. The only problem I have had is that the darn players are so sensitive that you need at least two spares at all times and keep sending the broken one back to kenwood to fix. Alas, I have given up trying to get them fixed and they now act as storage for the DVDs. There must be someway to hack the entre so that it reads an NAS the same way as it does the player. I am only holding off until I can get at least 8 terabytes of NAS storage at a price my wife wont hurt me for.

Hi All.

I'm new to the forum and I'm hoping I can get some solid advice. I have a pre-existing wireless network in my home that works great. I have a large amount of mp3's and jpg's, plus I have a Pioneer HD tv capable of 780p. I have not been satisfied with the appearance of the jpg photos when I burn them to a dvd and play them on the tv. The photos are hi-res digital files, yet something is lost in the translation somehow. I would really like to find a solution that will wirelessly display the jpgs from my PC onto my HD monitor. I was thinking this buffalo HD WMP would do the trick...it's now $100 on the internet. But WOW, the reviews on this forum and in other places stinks. Mostly the complaints are about windows media and divx streaming. I do not plan to do either. I just want to play mp3's and also play jpgs (not at the same time, necessarily). Can anyone out there tell me what the quality of the jpg will look like on a 720p monitor when using this Buffalo unit? Will it look as clear as the HD stations? I borrowed my friend's Hauppage wireless unit, and I was not impressed with how the jpgs displayed, but then again, the best connectivity it could offer was s-video. Thanks so much for any ideas!

Hi All.

I'm new to the forum and I'm hoping I can get some solid advice. I have a pre-existing wireless network in my home that works great. I have a large amount of mp3's and jpg's, plus I have a Pioneer HD tv capable of 780p. I have not been satisfied with the appearance of the jpg photos when I burn them to a dvd and play them on the tv. The photos are hi-res digital files, yet something is lost in the translation somehow. I would really like to find a solution that will wirelessly display the jpgs from my PC onto my HD monitor. I was thinking this buffalo HD WMP would do the trick...it's now $100 on the internet. But WOW, the reviews on this forum and in other places stinks. Mostly the complaints are about windows media and divx streaming. I do not plan to do either. I just want to play mp3's and also play jpgs (not at the same time, necessarily). Can anyone out there tell me what the quality of the jpg will look like on a 720p monitor when using this Buffalo unit? Will it look as clear as the HD stations? I borrowed my friend's Hauppage wireless unit, and I was not impressed with how the jpgs displayed, but then again, the best connectivity it could offer was s-video. Thanks so much for any ideas!
The LinkTheater does a great job of displaying JPG photos in high definition through the component video output to my 720p plasma monitor. However, it absolutely sucks for playing back MP3 files, which was the main task I purchased it for. The user interface for finding and choosing music files is horrendous, like what you'd expect from first year computer programming students (ones that were flunking the course). And my unit could never play back MP3s without a few seconds of random jittery dropouts at the start of every song. (Mine was connected via hardwired Ethernet, so the problem had nothing to do with WiFi issues.)

My suggestion would be to skip the LinkTheater, then bite the bullet and get an Apple TV unit.

Hi Lightbox,

Thanks for the info, great post.

The poor mp3 interface you described will definitely keep me looking elsewhere. Seems there are only so many wireless-capable media streamers out there. Although I wouldn't have thought to check out the apple ($$$), it may boil down to having eliminated most all the others due to complaints about something or another. This isn't new technology. It's a dag-gone computer, with wireless. They should have a cheap unit out there somewhere that can do it all, effortlessly and with no hiccups. I wish they would all quit cheapening out on the GUI.

Thanks again.

Has anyone got a link to the european (PAL) version of the new firmware? I read about it somewhere but cannot find it anymore...
The link from dashrat contains only the firmware for north american versions...

Finally I've got this device. It looks like it has been discontinued everywhere except for US. Here in Canada I managed to get it for $150 after one month of waiting. Still being very cheap, this is going to be my secondary media player, and will reside in a bedroom of the house we're building. But for now, it's connected to our brand-new display - Samsung LNT4661F (46", 1080p). As far as I can tell, a proper media player for our new TV does not exist yet. Helios X3000 comes close, but I'll wait for EM8634 based devices, which can handle AVC video, and reportedly will be available some time next year. Buffalo (or it's now Linksys?) will probably also join the race.

Now back to the Linktheater. I've only played with it for a couple of days, but already noted some issues. (Of course I knew there would be issues.) I'll keep browsing this and other forums, but meanwhile may be someone will provide the answers? The unit now has the most recent (Japanese) firmware.

- Continuous playback of files. With the native server software, when I press "Play" inside a folder, it will play all the files in the folder (including all subfolders, which is nice), starting from the first one. Has anyone figured out how to play the files continuously starting from the highlighted one?

- I also tried TVersity, because I have many lossless audio files (flac and ape). I managed to play both flac and ape files with TVersity. But the big problem was that it wouldn't let me play files continuously - only one at a time. "Play" button doesn't do anything, only "Enter" works. Also, while playing, Next and Previous buttons do not work. This makes TVersity unusable for my purposes. Has anyone else did better job with Linktheater + TVersity? Do you know of any other transcoding media server (the one which would transcode flac/ape files to WAV/PCM on the fly) which would work with LT?

- Do you know if LT supports lossless WMA? I saw someone in this forum commented a couple of years ago that it didn't work, with BrianV getting back saying that it would be fixed soon. I hate M$ stuff for many different reasons, but if it works with LT (incl. tags), I am willing to spend some time re-encoding my files to WMA. I plan to test it myself, and will post my results here.

- Finally, I tried to play one of my PAL DVDs, and the image was seriously distorted (squashed vertically). I have to check if this was an anamorphic DVD. Has anyone else experienced that? May be it's a new bug (in the Japanese firmwhere)?

Thanks for any feedback.

Answering one of my questions: BLT with the newest (Japanese) firmware does not support lossless WMA files. I converted one of my files to WMA 9.2 lossless using dbPower, and BLT told me that it's an "invalid WMA".

Which machine, exactly, do you have? Is the DVD wireless one?

I have PC-P3LWG/DVD.

I ve been using the linktheater for few years now, upgrading firmware and software from Brian Verenkoff webpage. I'm quite satisfied with the unit for what I'm using it for, mostly playing avi files from my computer. However, I would like to play some streamed music, mostly AVX files. Is there a way to do that with the linktheater? Thanks.

I have PC-P3LWG/DVD.

I actually wrote to Brian Verenkoff last month and he gave me a link to an updated ENGLISH version of the firmware. It has the crash from the screensaver fixed, so maybe it will work better with WMAs.

There are still some issues, DVD menus don't always work, the menu screen didn't look as nice as it did with the Japanese firmware, and if playback is interrupted you get the gibberish as it catches up, but hey it shows someone's still working on it. :D

http://www.verenkoff.com/update2109.html

I'm surprised they are still working on the firmware! I thought that with the BLT prices in US that low (I heard about 89$ deals) it is common sense that there would be essentially no customer support. Thank you for the link - I'll give it a try tonight.

I doubt though that this update will have anything to do with WMA. I will try another possibility - using Windows Media Player 11 with some free software (google for "media center edition 2005 with flac", the link with the title "The Lossless Audio Blog" is the one) to transcode flac (and perhaps ape) files on the fly. I'll post my findings.

I actually wrote to Brian Verenkoff last month and he gave me a link to an updated ENGLISH version of the firmware. It has the crash from the screensaver fixed, so maybe it will work better with WMAs.

There are still some issues, DVD menus don't always work, the menu screen didn't look as nice as it did with the Japanese firmware, and if playback is interrupted you get the gibberish as it catches up, but hey it shows someone's still working on it. :D

http://www.verenkoff.com/update2109.html

There is a new firmware available from the BLT menu (21.10). There are both US and EU versions. For more details, check the bltowners yahoo group.

Wish I could read it at the BLT group.

Membership STILL pending.

:o

I got my membership after 3-4 days. But you don't need to have an access to the bltowners group to do the update - apparently, you can do that through the "Update" feature of the BLT (so it's a new official, non-beta release). I'm going to try it tonight.

Please let us know how you fare!

I've just posted my first findings on bltowners. Here's the summary: in the new 21.10 US version, nothing changed compared to the previous one (21.09 US), except that the zoom feature now works better, and I can watch my 16:9 PAL DVDs on my NTSC HDTV full-screen and with the proper aspect ratio.

Given that this is the first official (non-beta) firmware release in a long time, and that the product is being discontinued, I wouldn't be surprised if it were the last BLT's firmware from Buffalo...

For me on issue it addressed is with the beta I had trouble accessing the menus, whereas now the same DVDs appear to work.

I'd been hoping for one last improvement, info would give the total length of the movie, as opposed to just the elapsed time, but we can't have everything. :)

My guess was that Buffalo has a contract with Sybas and the player may be selling better in Japan, so the update was largely done as part of some oroginal contract based on more optimism about the sales.

Based on how I've used it so far if it plays DVDs better I'm happy with this being the last update.

Question for Buffalo LT users.

I was able to do Album based sorting on my Itunes library. But since I installed Itunes 7, I have not been able to do that. When I click the albums option at the bottom, LT says there is no content in this directory or something like that.

Anybody else seen similar problem?

I had the same problem with version 1.6 of the linktheater software on the PC. When I switched back to 1.4 it worked with ITunes 7.3.2.6

Thanks, will I loose any functionality with switch back to 1.4?

Not that I cared about. I didn't really check out 1.6 because I couldn't get it to talk to Itunes.

Help,

I've done a lot of reading and am so confused. I upgraded the firmware to 21.10 and the video is shrunk very badly. I would like to get back to firmware 13.82 but can figure out how to. I have the 13.82 firmware to apply it but can't figure out how to. I've read a few post of changing an html file.

If someone can give me some explicit step by step instruction I would be very greatful.

What I've done so far is create a web page and and on the page created a link to the file as follows

href=13-82-060703-03-LTI-240-000.bin "tvid=1" "update" (Not including the ") Then copy the file and htm file to my thumb drive and when I run it I get a file not found or not of proper type.

Edit:

It seams I need a copy of brians HTML page. I saw a couple of examples of how to modify it but I guess without his HTML page I'm screwed. Can someone give me a copy or sample of his page.

Go to the Yahoo group http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/bltowners/ the Moderator has setup a web site like Brian's that has a lot of firmware files.

Also a couple of things. Check the output (by hitting TV out (I think, I'm not home atm)) and make sure you're putting out the right resolution. Try the zoom key too.

Go to the Yahoo group http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/bltowners/ the Moderator has setup a web site like Brian's that has a lot of firmware files.

Also a couple of things. Check the output (by hitting TV out (I think, I'm not home atm)) and make sure you're putting out the right resolution. Try the zoom key too.


Thank you for the responce,

I joined the bltowners group about 2 weeks ago and never got a responce to my request to join the group.

I did go through the different resolutions with the TV button and zoom key. I found that if I leave it set to component standard the DVD looks ok but when I set it to match my HDTV resolution of 720p or 1080i the video looks letterboxed like watching a 4:3 standard TV and the image is streched from top to bottom but HD content such as an HD divx 1280x720 or a .ts file look great. It seems the DVD player in the linktheater can't tell if the DVD is 4:3 or 16:9 and adjust for it. It seems it just wants to play all DVD's at the 4:3 aspect ratio. I did check the DVD resolution with gspot and it is reported as 720x480 16:9.

I also did figure out what I was doing wrong as far as firmware. I was able to downgrade my firmware with the firmware found on brians page to 13-82 but that was no help.

I'm wondering if I should downgrade again to an even earler version.

I joined the bltowners group about 2 weeks ago and never got a responce to my request to join the group.

It seems the DVD player in the linktheater can't tell if the DVD is 4:3 or 16:9 and adjust for it. It seems it just wants to play all DVD's at the 4:3 aspect ratio. I did check the DVD resolution with gspot and it is reported as 720x480 16:9.


It took me a while to get a response too. She'll get to you.

Ah, and DVD resolution. Say no more! Apparently with the later firmwares there is some issue with the DMCA/patent BS that made them remove the up sampling from the American version of the firmware. You need to get the EU version and the hack it to be region free.

You should consider yourself lucky though. I was never able to get DVD playback to the point where I could reliably use it. I RMA'd one player and the replacement has the same problem. DVDs get jumpy right near the end.

I have a DVD player that upsamples to 1080p and outputs a digital video signal over HDMI. If that's okay by the DMCA, I don't see why the LinkTheater can't output a measly 1080i over an analog connection.

Besides, who in their right mind would copy a DVD by recording and digitizing an upsampled analog signal? DeCSS is so ubiquitous, it's practically standard, and that does a 100% perfectly lossless job with a lot less work.

I think its to train people that they need hdmi for HD, I don't think any hd-dvd or bluray discs are restricting the analog hd outputs.

It took me a while to get a response too. She'll get to you.

Ah, and DVD resolution. Say no more! Apparently with the later firmwares there is some issue with the DMCA/patent BS that made them remove the up sampling from the American version of the firmware. You need to get the EU version and the hack it to be region free.

You should consider yourself lucky though. I was never able to get DVD playback to the point where I could reliably use it. I RMA'd one player and the replacement has the same problem. DVDs get jumpy right near the end.


You just hit the nail on the head. I remembered going through the same thing when I got my oppo digital upsampling dvd player about 2 years ago. It would upsample from hdmi but not from component. Then I read it was because the DCMA ruling. So the same thing holds true for the linktheater. I just got access to the bltowners forum so I gather I can get the EU firmware and the hack from there. Is there any spicific version of the EU firmware I should use?

The last one 21.10 (?) works best. Search for Shaaz's page, about a month or two back.

It starts as PAL, but if you hit TV-Out a couple of times it will eventually cycle to something you can use. Then Slow 2960 from the Home screen to change the region.

mwhitlock: I don't understand it either, but that's what the group says.

The last one 21.10 (?) works best. Search for Shaaz's page, about a month or two back.

It starts as PAL, but if you hit TV-Out a couple of times it will eventually cycle to something you can use. Then Slow 2960 from the Home screen to change the region.

mwhitlock: I don't understand it either, but that's what the group says.

I've done a little more reading in the btlowners group. I found that the EU firmware will upsample DVD's but only in PAL it will not upsample in NTSC. Also it will not fix the problem of outputting a 16:9 aspect as 4:3. This is my biggest problem. All DVD's that I play output in 4:3 regardless of the players aspect ratio setting (standard or widescreen TV). I can manually set my TV to 16:9 but the linktheater will not do it.

Has anyone physically plugged an 802.11n card into this unit yet? (Not worried about the antenna mod) If so, what is the make and model of said card?

I am more worried if the firmware supports an 802.11n card. I was thinking of doing the following:
(1) Open Linkstation
(2) Remove current minipci.
(3) Plug into my laptop.
(4) Find drivers on internet.
(5) Find if there is an equivalent 802.11n card made by the same manufacturer of the current minipci card
(6) Purchase the n card.
(7) Pop into my unit to see if it is recognized

As a further note, I currently own the following:
Galaxy IPTV 3500
XBOX 360
DLINK DSM-520

I was curious if anyone linked up a minipci 802.11n card into the above (less the 360 as 360 would require some sort of adapter)

One cool thing I would like to see is a usb stick drive with 802.11n on it, where the stick drive would act as a normal USB drive with files in it, except that it would be able to mount shares over the wireless and see remote content as virtual local directories.

Guys, I recently purchases a second-hand Buffalo Linktheater, and I'm using it with the latest version of Wizd. It's working fine for 90% of what I need it for, but I have two issues with the device, that I can't explain.

1) When I turn it on, it will sometimes display a black screen between the splash screen and the Login screen. The display will show login already, but I cannot do anything using the buttons on the device or the remote. After about 30-60 seconds, the real login screen will appear. This does not always happen, but only about 50% of the time. I cannot explain it.

2) The device cannot play MP3 files. Whenever I select a file, it will go black, but within 1 second, it will return to the mp3 listing. I've verified that wizd is actually serving the mp3 using a web browser, and it does. What's really odd is that it has no problems playing Shoutcast streams, only mp3 files. I've tried different files with different bitrates (128 vbr - 320 cbr), but none of them played.

FYI, I'm running the latest Europe 21.10 firmware (21-10-070823-03-LTI-254-000.bin). Everything else on the device (playing avi's, playing mpeg2, playing dvd/cd, internet browsing) works fine.

Anyone still running one of these old boxes? Mine still works fine with Linktheater-1.4 running on my old PC under XP. But I can't get that to work on my new Windows 7 machine. Anybody know a good media server package to run on the PC side. I mostly want to be able to see my I-tunes directory and play by genre.

Pete

Yeah, I'm still using mine. I have a PC running PlayOn and use this as the output to my television. Been working fine for a couple of years now. Download all of television using uTorrent and ShowRSS.

The only problem is that it can't handle full 720p HD or better, but that is probably the old PC, not the box.

I'm planning on upgrading to the Boxee Box when it comes out this fall. Considering that I paid $30 for it and it allowed me to stop paying my cable company $100/month over 3-4 years ago, I think it was a good investment.

Anyone still running one of these old boxes? Mine still works fine with Linktheater-1.4 running on my old PC under XP. But I can't get that to work on my new Windows 7 machine. Anybody know a good media server package to run on the PC side. I mostly want to be able to see my I-tunes directory and play by genre.

Pete

Thanks I'll check it out. Does PlayOnn do mp3 and photos too or just video.

Pete

PS. I got Swisscenter to run under Windows 7 just fine.