Does anyone have technical information on the Helios X-Line HD Media players coming from Neodigits? Their website is spartan. Here is the link...

http://www.neodigits.com/new/body/products/Xline/diagram.asp

These looks like they could be nice, but I have yet to see any real info on them (my big question: how is the GUI?). I did notice from the info on their website that it looks like it may require streaming from a computer and not work from a NAS - but we shall see.

Here is the link to their press release:

http://www.neodigits.com/new/body/aboutus/pressroom/new/news/Press%20Releases/20060523/130816594.htm

and here is the text:

NeoDigits soon to launch their
X-Line HD Network Media Players

Total connectivity, absolute access and effortless streaming to revolutionize your digital lifestyles

Hong Kong ¨C Monday, May 22, 2006 ¨C NeoDigits , leading online supplier of early-adopter DVD players to the digital home entertainment segment, has introduced their HELIOS X3000 and X5000 HD Network Media Players both set to be launched by June 2006.

The HELIOS X-Line of HD Network Media Players changes the way you manage, access and enjoy all your multimedia, giving you total freedom to enjoy them in superior audio and high-definition video quality anywhere in (and beyond) your home.

Tim Beloney , Director of Sales for NeoDigits comments, ¡°From digital cameras and camcorders to MP3 players, online content and downloaded movies, digital media is everywhere but rarely connected and easily accessible. The X-Line lets users easily bridge the digital gap from the PC to the living room, and even extend it to the basement or boardroom while maintaining our extreme flexibility and high resolution roots.¡±

He adds, ¡°NeoDigits also takes pride in listening to our customers and providing them with real world solutions they want. Beyond the incredible flexibility and functionality of the X-Line, the HELIOS X5000 is our flagship of quality, high performance, and style.¡±

Total Connectivity

The X-Line's built-in LAN, WIFI and USB ports make it easy to connect and share digital audio, video and images. Using the X-Line, connect your television to any personal computer running the NeoLink server software (or other media server softwares), as well as your laptops, digital cameras, hard drives, projectors, MP3 players, MP4 players, and more.

Create your own home entertainment network between your bedroom, living room, office and den; and access movies, home videos, music, photos, online content and more in any digital storage device on the network and stream them directly to your television.

Absolute Access and Effortless Streaming

With the NeoLink server software , you can easily manage and access the videos, music and photos in your personal computer and play them onto your television.

NeoLink is able to synchronize with Apple iTunes, Real Rhapsody and Napster, supports Windows Media/WinAMP playlists, and does real time transcoding for Real player (RMVB) and 3GPP formats. NeoLink also lets you use your player's intuitive Graphical User Interface (GUI) to directly access your RSS feeds and other favorite online media links from your web browser's bookmarks.

On top of that, the X-Line's GUI lets you access the HELIOS Media Portal allowing you to stream internet radio and television, along with broadcast internet news onto your television without having to use a computer. NeoDigits has included more than 50 pre-set links to popular online media sites, and will add to this list over time. With future firmware upgrades, you will be able to customize your own HELIOS Media Portal as well.

Extreme Clarity

Upscaling to 1080p resolution, the X-Line lets you watch standard DVD titles, MP4, DivX, XviD, DVD VOB, XviD HD, DivX HD, HD TS, WMV HD and more in dazzling high definition.

Luxury of Choice

Available in two varieties, you can choose between the X3000 and the X5000. While both players have the same features and functionality, NeoDigits offers to the absolute home theater and audio enthusiast first-class performance, design and build-quality with the X5000.

The X5000 is designed to impress with its handcrafted brushed aluminum panel and full metal case. The R-core linear power supply gives the X5000 a stable and distortion-free power source. Burr Brown DAC integration offers pure and noise-free digital-to-analog conversion. Higher-end audio components and gold-plated RCA jacks also make the X5000 the ideal player for your audio CDs and music media files. Designed for the avid AV enthusiast, the X5000 lets you indulge in exceptionally rich 2-channel audio quality and further enhanced video performance.

Beyond your Home

With its variety of connectivity options, the X-Line is as flexible in the public and corporate arena as it is in the home. Connect your conference room to your corporate server and stream your multimedia presentation straight to your projector screen. Stream digital advertising, announcements and more from a central server for simultaneous display on public plasma televisions. Get creative with the X-Line. With maximum connectivity, instantly build networks wherever there is need to access and stream digital media to your display devices ¨C all in high-definition, of course.

Revolutionize your Digital Lifestyle

The HELIOS X-Line of HD Network Media Players bring you to the future of networked home entertainment and public infotainment; giving you the power to personalize your digital experiences and the flexibility to access and play all your digital media ¨C whenever you want, wherever you want, however you want.

For further details and specifications on the HELIOS X-Line HD Network Media Players, please visit www.neodigits.com

About NeoDigits

Founded in 2003, NeoDigits has established itself as one of the leading online providers of cutting edge early-adopter technologies to the digital home entertainment market. Having entered the market with their flagship brand of DVD players, NeuNeo, they have since launched their line of DVD products under a new brand name - HELIOS. Young, powerful and dependable with a fresh innovative edge - that is the image that the HELIOS brand represents.

Another player promising the world, curious if it will really deliver.

Hi,

the Neo is just another syabas based player like linktheater, avellink, transgear...
Menus look pretty much the same like all other syabas players.

Sash

Here is a response back I received from Neodigits on these products:

"Thanks for contacting us.

The X-line player will be ready to launch on the early of June as we expected. Once it is in stock, we will provide the player over our web site www.neodigits.com and you could place the order over there directly. The estimated price will be US$379 for the X3000 player and $579 for the X5000 player.

In addition, the network media player will be able to play the video/audio/photo file from your PC which has been installed the NeoLink software. Also this player supports USB port, you will be able to play these files in the storage device via the USB port as well.

BTW, the NeoLink is still on the testing stage. Probably it will be ready to release while the X-line products were in stock."

I assume this means it will likely not work with a NAS device.

For that price, I will still buy it if it:
- Can do HD no problems...19MB/s
- Can play everything I throw at it...says it can already
- Has HDMI
- Is decent looking
- Can replace my virtually useless D-Link 520 (which is a given)
- Has decent support

I did not see that it can decode AC3........maybe I just missed it.

J

I have the X5000

And Yes it works with a NAS, yes it is Syabas Firmware...

And YES it is an excellent player... In 5 months Ive never had a Lockup...

Excellent quality player...

I have the X5000

And Yes it works with a NAS, yes it is Syabas Firmware...

And YES it is an excellent player... In 5 months Ive never had a Lockup...

Excellent quality player...

Since it does not seem to be available in the US yet, can you answer some questions:

SETUP:
Can you describe your setup?
Do you need to leave a computer on that is running the desktop app or are you able to access the NAS directly from the X5000?

INTERFACE:
How is the GUI (do you have any screenshots)? How would you rate it for the WAF?

PERFORMANCE:
Since it does not have an internal HD can you confirm that it is silent? How is it for playing DVD rips? Do you have full navigation abilities (i.e. ff, rw, chapters, etc)? Any stutter at higher bitrates? How is the picture quality of both standard and HD vids? How is playing/navigating a large (10,000+) library of music and/or pictures? Have you tried playing multiple types of files (and if so, which ones)?

Have you tested both wired and wireless capabilities? Any problems with either?

Any other information on or experience with it would be appreciated.

Thanks,

KAS

@KAS

How is the GUI (do you have any screenshots)? How would you rate it for the WAF?

GUI is like all known syabas players (setup screens etc.)

Serverapplication might be the syabas typical one (original title Myihome). It will get some slight modification (changing jpegs for the title screen and buttons) 10000+ MP3 will be as slow as with every syabas based player.

It is always the same way: Sigma reference design board + sdk, syabas firmware + syabas server application. All modifications in the core syabas firmware will sooner or later be in all syabas players depending on their fw versions and if they still pay for getting new firmwares.

Greets,

Sash

I have the X5000

You sure your talking about the same unit? The Helios X-line 3000 & 5000 haven't even been released yet so how could you have one for 5 months?

http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/21/neodigits-helios-x3000-and-x5000-hd-network-media-players/

Just another link with some info...

Jeff

Does anyone know if the helios can play image files?

Does anyone know if the helios can play image files?

It most certainly can - several diifferent formats.

I have been lucky enough to evaluate a pre-release unit and it is without doubt very impressive, both in build quality and performance. I believe it will be ready for release this month.

It most certainly can - several diifferent formats.

I have been lucky enough to evaluate a pre-release unit and it is without doubt very impressive, both in build quality and performance. I believe it will be ready for release this month.

So...what is it actually it most certainly can?
"Image files" could in my world mean either pictures, like JPEG, BMP, TIFF etc
or CD/DVD image files liek ISO, IMG, NRG etc.

Can you specify, please?

/J

I picked up a X5000 demo unit from FedEx yesterday.

First impressions, I did not have time to play with it - very well built, very heavy, I love that black finish. Very quite - no ticks ony other noises you can hear from a spinning disc inside.

Uses same myiHome just like Momitsy V880-N. Having thrown in a DVD with several files in DivX5 - I am under impression that it's somewhat faster in loading DVD contents than V880-N.

Remote control is not as good as I'd expect to find with this unit. Unit seems to be a bit slow to respond to remote control and ignores commands completely sometimes - for example if you are in Setup screen and want to take DVD disc out - you can't.

I'll post more details about X5000 later when I setup its wireless connection.

Regards!

We've been evaluating it also (may sell it). It's similar to the IOData Linkplayer 2, but includes built in WiFi and HDMI output.

It seems to run from any UPnP server as well. We've been playing content off a Infrant NAS with no problems.

So far -

1. WiFi works great - no issues. I am using a Momitsu Media Server to stream - it works great.

2. This unit seems to be more responsive than my Momi V880N, but that's not a fair comparison though, it should be compared to V888N instead.

we are also testing the unite in Germany, with superior results on the digital audio output and excellent results on the analog audio output. It is aresult of the better power supply and the wolfson/burrBron part and the special caps inside the x5000

What's the deal with the 12Mbps limit on MPEG2 playback?? Doesn't that make it virtually useless for HD MPEG2 content?

What's the deal with the 12Mbps limit on MPEG2 playback?? Doesn't that make it virtually useless for HD MPEG2 content?

I have the same concern. I have recorded tons of HDTV material in MPEG2, and most of them are between 15-19 mbps. Which means this players is useless for me!!!! Unless there is some unknown spec that I am not aware of.

I agree....I use 10Mbps HD content..ANything less wont be worth it...there are already enough sunstandard HD players anyway

Ive played HD TS files ar up30mbps no Problem on Both the X3000 and X5000 so not surew there... I think you will find the 12mb is for wireless... And I wouldnt wanan try streaming HD on woreless anyhow...

Yup stable as still and works a treat couldnt be happier with both of them...

The remotes a bit ****** as in its not Strong Enough... However Roy and Tim at Neo already found this out and ALL new units ship with a much incresed IR in the remote...

I suggest anyone who already has the remote, email them, looks exactly the same just alot stringer IR...

Is it a keeper, YOU bet beats the crap out of the Zensonic 500 piece of CRAP I had

So does anyone know where it is available from? and cost?
I'm new so be nice :p

should be available within the next 4 weeks, firmware is really stable, and would be improved weekly,

robert@robertross.de germany

Can any of you guys get the Neo Link software to work properly? I can only activate one folder of videos files and no matter how many time I check the "watch folder tab to add other folders on other drives it never adds them to the main page.

I/m running version 1.2 of the software and just cant seem to get it t o work properly

any ideas anyone?

Since it does not seem to be available in the US yet, can you answer some questions:

Yup

SETUP:
Can you describe your setup?
Do you need to leave a computer on that is running the desktop app or are you able to access the NAS directly from the X5000?

Can do both run from PC if ya wanna leave it on using either Neo Link Software or any other Tversity etc etc even Windows Media Connect, Nero Media home etc etc

or Straight from the NAS works fine PC off I use a Readynas X6 from Infrant

INTERFACE:
How is the GUI (do you have any screenshots)? How would you rate it for the WAF?

Interface is Fast and slick.... Screen shots available from Neodigits..

PERFORMANCE:
Since it does not have an internal HD can you confirm that it is silent? How is it for playing DVD rips? Do you have full navigation abilities (i.e. ff, rw, chapters, etc)? Any stutter at higher bitrates? How is the picture quality of both standard and HD vids? How is playing/navigating a large (10,000+) library of music and/or pictures? Have you tried playing multiple types of files (and if so, which ones)?

Have you tested both wired and wireless capabilities? Any problems with either?

Any other information on or experience with it would be appreciated.

Thanks,

KAS

1. Absolutely DEAD quiet both the X5000 and the X3000 cant even here the DVD drive when playing DVD's

2. DVD Rips fine yup and full access menus chapters ff rew all work no problems..

3. No Stuttering at all on any of the files Ive played includinh 1080i and 720p TS files...

3. My Current Music Directory contains 27515 Mp3's, about 4-5 Secs to read em all..

4. HD is superb and just got better with a more optimised firmware for video...

5. Havent found anything yet it doesnt play with the exception of some older WMV8 files... Everything else, Divx Xvid, HD Divx , Mpeg 1 &2 etc etc of course it wont do anything H.264 as the 8621 chipset doesnt support H.264..

6. Wired network plays EVERYTHING form HD down flawlessly, Playes a TS file the other day on my new LCS at 1080P and was smooth as...

7. Wireless is great for everything but HD, just not enuf bandwidth but your stright old divx mpegs etc no dramas at all... ive changed out the MINI PCI card to a 108Mbps version and worked fine too still HD shouldnt be streamed over wirless..

Nope all in all they are an absulte Dream to use ...

Can any of you guys get the Neo Link software to work properly? I can only activate one folder of videos files and no matter how many time I check the "watch folder tab to add other folders on other drives it never adds them to the main page.

I/m running version 1.2 of the software and just cant seem to get it t o work properly

any ideas anyone?

YUP KNOW EXACTLY what it is... heheh same thng happened to me...

YOU need to totally UNINSTALL the MyIhome software that they used to use (albeith neolink is a modded version of it anyhow) I had your exact problem...

had to uninstall, do a reg clean del all evidence of it and WALA... All worked... Could share everything then...

For those who have problems with NeoLink software - feel free to download and install Momitsu's version - it'll work for you without a problem both Windows and Linux versions. I am personally running both Momitsu versions.

100% of my movies are dvd.iso. If the player cannot play .iso file, then it is useless to me.

You sure your talking about the same unit? The Helios X-line 3000 & 5000 haven't even been released yet so how could you have one for 5 months?

Yes Im Sure... Ive had one cos Ive been beta testing Actually I have 3 units

X3620 (now called the X5000)
X5000
and
X3000

Very sure Acutally Ive had the X3620 for 8 months Since January....

And Yes they are available the 1st batch just sold out real quick...

5 were given away as prizes during the world cup to boot... by neodigits..

For those who have problems with NeoLink software - feel free to download and install Momitsu's version - it'll work for you without a problem both Windows and Linux versions. I am personally running both Momitsu versions.

Got a link for the download ?

Momitsu MMC for Windows 1.4 - http://www.momitsu.com/products/v880n/mmc1.4.zip
Momitsu MMC for Linux 1.0 - http://www.momitsu.com/v880n_mmc.html

Why do you need this server-based software? Cant this machine establish an smb session, get the files it needs, decode them then send them to the display without additional software?

Finally got Neo Link to work correctly, thanks to Wayne12 (cheers mate :) )

Just curious to know, as I prefer the look of pic based menus like MCE, Meedio when i was running a HTPC does anyone know of a media server programme that will run with the Helios units that allow you to view the list of movies via jpeg and not a list view?

Aarrgh. Just when I had thought I'd solved it all:
- TViX for streaming media
- DENON 1930CI for DVDs

This comes along! :eek:

This unit sounds exactly like what I've been waiting for. I hope it comes out soon. Can anyone confirm that it will access content from a NAS correctly?

Thanks.

This unit sounds exactly like what I've been waiting for. I hope it comes out soon. Can anyone confirm that it will access content from a NAS correctly?

Thanks.

Yes I run a Infrant ReadyNas X6 off it perfectly, either thru built in UPNP player or thru Neo Link somes up either way...

Momitsu MMC for Windows 1.4 - http://www.momitsu.com/products/v880n/mmc1.4.zip
Momitsu MMC for Linux 1.0 - http://www.momitsu.com/v880n_mmc.html

Thanks I was looking for 1.6, which has th HD streaming added, although the Neo Link does HD no problems, it has annoying bug where it takes you to the top of each directory when you exit, Roys working on a fix for it now.... But... Still waiting by the way new firmware just released.. for X5000 and X3000

http://www.neodigits.com/download/X5000_Aug_16_2006.zip

http://www.neodigits.com/download/X3000_Aug_16_2006.zip

Release note:
1) Fixed DVD/MPEG1 playback "1 second" fast forward issue
2) Added FLAC music file support.
3) New USB driver. Supports NTFS partition format and better compatibility.
4) Fixed screen flicker after video playback issue
5) Fixed time code display error for TS file playback
6) Icon color reduced from true color to 256 color to improve system
stability.

I'm also beta testing X3000/5000 - so far these units are the best I have seen - and I've tested several!! - in terms of build quality (the X5000 is incredibly solid and heavy), playback performance, supported formats, etc.

However, one format that really should be supported is .iso for DVDs. More and more people are ripping directly to .iso - it's so much more convenient.

SMB (Samba) support would be nice as it would remove the need for server applications. UPnP works well though. Works beautifully with Infrant NAS boxes.

Admittedly, the GUI is rather bland (although it's a little nicer than Snazio, for example). At this point, nothing beats the Kiss GUI (DP-600) - it really is the benchmark for these players.

New member with a question : no matter how I examine the features list of both the X3000 and the X5000, I simply cannot see any difference. What are the differences between the 2 models?

As far as I can see, the X3000 is slimmer and they mention the audio decoder stats, but that's it. :confused:

New member with a question : no matter how I examine the features list of both the X3000 and the X5000, I simply cannot see any difference. What are the differences between the 2 models?

As far as I can see, the X3000 is slimmer and they mention the audio decoder stats, but that's it. :confused:


x5000 has 8mm aluminium Front plate, huge power supply, Wolfson DACs, Burr Browm op´s and Elna caps, Sound is in Analog and digital incredible

Robert from Germany

I'm also beta testing X3000/5000 - so far these units are the best I have seen - and I've tested several!! - in terms of build quality (the X5000 is incredibly solid and heavy), playback performance, supported formats, etc.

However, one format that really should be supported is .iso for DVDs. More and more people are ripping directly to .iso - it's so much more convenient.

SMB (Samba) support would be nice as it would remove the need for server applications. UPnP works well though. Works beautifully with Infrant NAS boxes.

Admittedly, the GUI is rather bland (although it's a little nicer than Snazio, for example). At this point, nothing beats the Kiss GUI (DP-600) - it really is the benchmark for these players.

ISO DVD playback is coming for now I use Wizd with the Players and playback all my ISO's no problems at all thru the X5000 and X3000... Id say about another 1 firmware away...

SMB (samba) is alot harder to implemet as the boys over at Zensonic figured out...Ive asked roy to see if it can get added, pretty sure it can but a matter of time...

Yeah seen better GIU's but then again it looks good enough for the amount of time its u... BUT in sying that IF anyone can doa better GUI, do some Photoshop Samples and post em here and Ill get Roy to have look and see if we cant implements..

x5000 has 8mm aluminium Front plate, huge power supply, Wolfson DACs, Burr Browm op´s and Elna caps, Sound is in Analog and digital incredible

Robert from GermanyThanks for taking the time to reply. From what I understand, it seems all of these enhancements are sound-related. However, I plan on using the latest AC3-compatible Logitech surround sound system, so I fail to see how getting the X5000 as opposed to the X3000 would benefit me in any way.

Frankly, unless somebody can come up with a reason I'm entirely missing in regards to getting the X5000, it sure looks like the X3000 is the unit for me. :)

Again, thanks.

Hi All

While I am enamoured by the potential of these devices (acting as both a DVD player and content streamer), it still seems that they currently fall somewhat short.

I understand the "single device" argument but looking at the specs, it still seems like I'm better off going for separates or am I missing something?

Guys

Anyone want a FREE X5000 and T-Shirt...???

Neodigits emailed me today, no ones entering their Competition for a Free X5000 ???

Only about 20 thus far and a week a way....

So go over and enter... BEST chance to get a X5000 for FREE..... wonder how many entires could go in in a week...???

SEE Here

http://c.neodigits.com/blog

I doubt the contest applies to Canadian citizens, so I'll pass.

I'll most likely be getting one of those devices in a month or so. Hopefully, the firmware upgrades will be significantly improving the already-established features and enabling others, as well as fixing whichever bugs rear their ugly heads. :)

Will these players playback dvd's with full menu support off of a NAS? Are these players just like the iodata and buffalo with a sigma chipset and third party middleware? Can the GUI artwork be replaced by the user? Does the dvd drive suck like the iodata and buffalo where it wont play dvd's as well as a $29 walmart dvd player and locks up/intermittently skips or speeds up???

How about playing back high bitrate HD transport streams off a ReadyNAS?
How about NFS support or SMB support?
The manual and setup guides hint at sluggish response times. How bad is it?
Is it really limited to 12 Mbps for mpeg2 and 8 Mbps for WMV?
The specs list 1080p component out but the front panel only goes up to 1080i.
Does it really support 1080p and if so is it 1080 50,60, or 24???
Is the DVD player region free or locked to region 1 or 2? Can it be unlocked by a remote hack?

1. Yes itll Playback FULL dvds off of a NAS

2. No its not like the Buffalo and Iodata players but does use the same middleare...

3. Yes artowrks for gui will be able to be changed by the user...

4. The DVD drive is a lite-on, in mine, all are PC DVD drives in players with accoustic management software... no lockups or anything playing DVD's in poor quality media..
Speedup and skip dont happen, (speed up did was fixed in last firmware)

5. Played HD TS Streams 1080i off NAS no problems

6. No SMB support as yet

7. No sluggishness on anything for me... at all..

8. NO and Yes

9. Yes it does 1080P as to what, Im assuming its 1080P@60 but I dont have a 1080P panel to check..

10. Region Free outa the box..

Wayne

I doubt the contest applies to Canadian citizens, so I'll pass.

I'll most likely be getting one of those devices in a month or so. Hopefully, the firmware upgrades will be significantly improving the already-established features and enabling others, as well as fixing whichever bugs rear their ugly heads. :)

Certainly does include Canadians... SO enter away..

OK-I have several more questions:
1. What chipset/hardware powers the box-sigma?
2. Does it rely on server side software or will it stream off a ReadyNAS. Does it rely on Upnp?
3. Does it support closed captioning for the deaf?
4. Does it support changing audio streams for HD transport streams. Say I have a ts with German & English. How is this accomplished? Can you specify a default language and it is smart enough to play this language if it exists in the ts?
5. What are the maximum bitrates supported for mpeg2&wmv, over the network.
6. What about seperate subtitle support?
7. Does it support H.264/AVC?
8. When will it be avaliable and are you accepting any more beta testers.
9. Will it be avaliable in black only or also silver/brushed aluminum?
10. What OS does it run. Linux? If so will a SDK be avaliable or is it closed source/locked down.
12. Will you have US distributors or will I order it overseas and pay a fortune in shipping. (Maybe digitalconnection.com will have it)
13. If I have a HD ts in segmented files (matrix.001.ts ->matrix.100.ts) will it playback these seamlessly or will there be pauses during the transition from one segment to the next. (This feature is VERY important/convenient for me).
14. Finally-If I own a Tvix 5000-why would I want this device instead? (Dont care about the integral dvd drive)

OK-I have several more questions:
1. What chipset/hardware powers the box-sigma?
2. Does it rely on server side software or will it stream off a ReadyNAS. Does it rely on Upnp?
3. Does it support closed captioning for the deaf?
4. Does it support changing audio streams for HD transport streams. Say I have a ts with German & English. How is this accomplished? Can you specify a default language and it is smart enough to play this language if it exists in the ts?
5. What are the maximum bitrates supported for mpeg2&wmv, over the network.
6. What about seperate subtitle support?
7. Does it support H.264/AVC?
8. When will it be avaliable and are you accepting any more beta testers.
9. Will it be avaliable in black only or also silver/brushed aluminum?
10. What OS does it run. Linux? If so will a SDK be avaliable or is it closed source/locked down.
12. Will you have US distributors or will I order it overseas and pay a fortune in shipping. (Maybe digitalconnection.com will have it)
13. If I have a HD ts in segmented files (matrix.001.ts ->matrix.100.ts) will it playback these seamlessly or will there be pauses during the transition from one segment to the next. (This feature is VERY important/convenient for me).
14. Finally-If I own a Tvix 5000-why would I want this device instead? (Dont care about the integral dvd drive)

1. Sigma 8620
2. itll stream directly off the NAS if its UNPN compliant
3. Yes
4. Not sure, yes you can set default lang..
5. Wired or wirless... Wired is more than capabale of doing 1080i
6.Yes
7. No no NWMP current supports H.264 (wait for the 8622 Chipset to be released)
8. Its avaialble now...
9. Available in Black and Black only 8-)
10. Linux, open afaik
11. You missed
12. YEs there will be a USA Distributor already is. Afaik email neodiigts..
13. Dunno havent tested it.
14. If you have to ask that question... you probably dont need it... they are so very different porducts..

Wayne

4. This feature is a necessity for me.
5. Wired-Will it play 45 Mb/s mpeg2's. What is the maximum bitrate at which point the hardware will choke. (assuming it is on a gigabit network streaming off a high end server with no load)
8. The website only says pre-order (EU only).... If it is avaliable one would not know since it essentially says-coming soon to a theater near you.
10.Linux is what I thought, but will the company actually allow code to be develpoed/run on it.
The roku photobridge was linux based but they held back even with a SDK avaliable.
Maybe someone in the community could add features 4 & 13 if it was truly open and not just a link pointing to the outdated sigma reference SDK.
11.Yeah-good call.
13.This feature is also a necessity for me. The one thing the tvix doesnt have.
14.Not really. They basically use the same chipset and have similar capabilities its just this unit may have better audio components, no hard drive, and adds an optical drive.
The unit is basically an iodata with slightly different software and added audio hardware. What am I missing that makes them so different other than the way they look?
Maybe its the targeted market segment?

How about the fact that it outputs in 1080P?

How are these units for photo play?


1. Are photos displayed in HD?

2. Are there rotate and zoom functions?

3. During a slideshow, is the next photo loaded while the current photo is being viewed (buffering)?

4. What is the typical lag time between photos during a slide show?

5. Can photos and music be played concurrently?

6. Can photos be played randomly? From different folders?

7. Can music be played randomly? From different folders?

8. Is an option available to have 5:4 photos display as 16:9?

Mike

"How about the fact that it outputs in 1080P?" Tvix also outputs 1080p!

The X5000 looks like what I have been waiting for. For a long, long time! Its the only streamer CE device that I know that actually looks like a CE device :).

A few questions of my own:

1) So, from reading this thread, I can not stream 1080p over the wireless correct? Such as BluRay / HD-DVD?

2) instead of building a server, I can use a NAS device right? do I connect it directly to the RJ45 or do I need a router, server PC, etc. I'd probably need to connect it a wired LAN so I can actually get files onto the NAS right?

3) to get a NAS of any decent size (1TB to 2TB), I'd probably need to get one of those NAS raid setups?

4) how is the cataloging UI? Is there even one? At face value, this thing looks like a poor mans Kalidescape, but I haven't seen anything about cataloging / searching media like the Kalidescape does. It doesn't go out to the internet and download DVD covers, fill in movie info, etc?

5) Oh yeah... is it possible to connect the NAS through the wired connector and then access the two devices remotely over wireless? there is really no way for me to get an RJ45 drop from the TV area to my office. So I'd basically have to get a router that supports wired AND wireless (and hook the nas and the X5000) to it, and then be able to access the two devices through the wireless. Does such a beast exist?

Sledge,

To your number 5, I've had trouble with consistant performance of standard def over wireless, let alone the HD you might be looking for here. I've been looking to get HD upstairs, but have not wanted to wire up in order to get it. The new Netgear HDX101 POWERLINE HD ETHERNET ADAPTER is getting a lot of good comments from what I've read. You might want to consider it, rather then wireless for media streaming, it uses your existing home wiring to connect.

-mike

Fundamentally, this streamer is another variation on the IoData LinkPlayer 2, but with HDMI and some jazzed up audio components(and hopefully a fully functioning dvd drive). It uses the same sigma chipset and SDK. I hope for their sake they provide better support than IoData. Same middleware provider syabas-that could be a real problem. It's nice to see they support full DVD menu support over the network. I see they list Divx 6 and wonder if maybe they support divx 6 media format(menus)? Probably not.

"How about the fact that it outputs in 1080P?" Tvix also outputs 1080p!No, it doesn't. 1080i, yes. 1080P, no.

1) So, from reading this thread, I can not stream 1080p over the wireless correct? Such as BluRay / HD-DVD?Absolutely not. You would need approximately 4 times the bandwith to accomplish that at full quality with no stuttering.

No, it doesn't. 1080i, yes. 1080P, no1080p. Yes it does. Look at latest FW.

Cheers

On the products page, they only advertize 1080i. Strange that a firmware release would enable 1080P. :confused:

Dunno, but it says it on this FW release page :http://www.tvix.co.kr/ENG/boards/PressRelease.aspx?act=RD&itemid=267

My guess is that the set display on the front of the box only has upto 1080i, and not 1080p, so looks a little daft when is actually using 1080p on screen. Probably will update the front display with a 1080p when they bring out the 5101.

Cheers

Considering that I run my tvix at 1080p, I can tell you that it does in fact support 1920x1080p which was added in the 1.7.3 firmware.

Can the Helios provide 480i over HDMI? If not - is it on a wish list?

If you have a high end outboard scaler - this is absolutely preferable for DVD playback especially when you have a display with a whacky native resolution.

Regards,

Ash

Just a response to my own question above.....

I emailed tech support and got a reply that the Helios will output 480i over HDMI.

This is good news.

Regards,

Ash

I personally don't understand why anybody would want to have that "feature." That's like wishing a new 2006-made motherboard would have ISA slots. :confused:

Once this unit offers ISO playback I will buy this in a heartbeat!

In terms of the player supporting 480i over HDMI - this is important if you have a top notch outboard scaler.

People talk about using EAC and ASIO playback to ensure that when they rip and playback CDs - they get the pure unadulterated digital content delivered to an outboard DAC for best quality.

Well - 480i over HDMI is analogous to the music example. While the Helios may well upscale well, if you have an expensive outboard scaler like an Iscan - then why would you want the Media Player to de-interlace and upscale the image only for the outboard scaler to play with it too.

In theory - you want the least amount of processing required for the highest quality image.For me - this means unmangled 480i over HDMI.

Thus, I am just using the media player to stream the video from a central server.

GX270 ... I wasn't sure about the .ISO support of this player so I just emailed tech support and asked them. It appears you have pre-empted their response with the answer. I too hope they add this functionality soon.

Regards,

Ash

my understanding is that the sigma chip is

1. not capable of sending 480i over hdmi (unfortunately)
2. not capable of scaling to 1080p, only 1080i

has anyone with a 1080p-input capable TV set verified that the output of the helios is truly 1080p?
(not all 1080p sets support 1080p input)

edit: just occurred to me.......by 1080p support, do they mean it can stream a 1080p file (but convert/scale it to 720p or 1080i on the hdmi output)?

In terms of the player supporting 480i over HDMI - this is important if you have a top notch outboard scaler.

In theory - you want the least amount of processing required for the highest quality image.For me - this means unmangled 480i over HDMI.

Thus, I am just using the media player to stream the video from a central server.

Regards,

Ash

i'm also using a media player to stream video from a central server.

i'd love to have 480i over hdmi but that seems to be a chip limitation, so the only
option i see is to double feed the scaler with hdmi and component, using component for the 480i.

a bigger question is: can the helios output at the same rate at the input or does it always scale to a single fixed output resolution? for best use of a scaler, like a vp30/50, you'd like the unmodified digital stream to be scaled by DVDO, not by
sigma designs.

is there an option to pass through the signal unscaled??

Cat6man,

Helios tech support confirmed to me via email that 480i over HDMI was supported by the player - even though the supporting documentation I read contradicts this. This leads me to believe that maybe it was a firmware update that enabled it.

It concerns me if you say this is something that the chipset cannot support - because that statement and the one I got from tech support contradict each other. I will email them again to confirm.

Finally - your statement about the desirability of streaming a file at its "native" rate and having an outboard scaler process it is bang on the money. I have yet to see anyone even refer to this as a desirable capability although I have often thought this would be considered Nirvana.

Someone in the HTPC forum suggested it - I think they said one of the well known PCI based MPEG 2 decoder card supports it - but that card also has the Chroma bug and I saw this as undesirable. I wish this feature - getting unfettered decoded digital content streamed content at the native resolution - was more commonly talked about - because then it might reach someone's wish list for device capability.

Regards,

Ash

I have exchanged email with Helios support asking specifically about 480i over HDMI for the purpose of deinterlacing and scaling in a separate standalone video processor. They confirmed for me that this is supported. their web page also lists 480i as a supported resolution, but it does not clearly and unambiguously state that this is supported over HDMI, which is why I asked the question.

I think they understand the customer requirement. On their DVD player they state "480i/576i output options via HDMI. Ideal for using with an external scaler", so I think they get the whole idea of external scaling (not true of other companies I have contacted where I have had to explain the configuration over and over and what exactly a video processor is)

Now we need someone who has one of these to confirm that it delivers and how it performs. Anyone know when the X3000 will be available in the US?

I have exchanged email with Helios support asking specifically about 480i over HDMI for the purpose of deinterlacing and scaling in a separate standalone video processor. They confirmed for me that this is supported. their web page also lists 480i as a supported resolution, but it does not clearly and unambiguously state that this is supported over HDMI, which is why I asked the question.

I think they understand the customer requirement. On their DVD player they state "480i/576i output options via HDMI. Ideal for using with an external scaler", so I think they get the whole idea of external scaling (not true of other companies I have contacted where I have had to explain the configuration over and over and what exactly a video processor is)

Now we need someone who has one of these to confirm that it delivers and how it performs. Anyone know when the X3000 will be available in the US?

i'd like to see someone confirm that 480i works over hdmi.
other posts (can't remember where) included a statement that it was a timing issue
with the 8620 chips

comfirmation of 1080p output would also be nice (disclaimer: i don't want sigma doing my upscaling...i'd just like to see tests with real equipment that verify claims, not just seeing something listed in a menu---don't mean to be harsh but upscaling to 1080p and deinterlacing is hard to do well

I have exchanged email with Helios support asking specifically about 480i over HDMI for the purpose of deinterlacing and scaling in a separate standalone video processor. They confirmed for me that this is supported. their web page also lists 480i as a supported resolution, but it does not clearly and unambiguously state that this is supported over HDMI, which is why I asked the question.

I think they understand the customer requirement. On their DVD player they state "480i/576i output options via HDMI. Ideal for using with an external scaler", so I think they get the whole idea of external scaling (not true of other companies I have contacted where I have had to explain the configuration over and over and what exactly a video processor is)

Now we need someone who has one of these to confirm that it delivers and how it performs. Anyone know when the X3000 will be available in the US?

480i content is probably not very common in Europe..........i hope they have beta testers in the US

most dvd players cannot output 480i over hdmi........some do though....none of the boxes i know of that use the 8620 chip support 480i over hdmi.....if helios can do it,
i wonder why the others say they cannot?

480i content is probably not very common in Europe..........i hope they have beta testers in the US

most dvd players cannot output 480i over hdmi........some do though....none of the boxes i know of that use the 8620 chip support 480i over hdmi.....if helios can do it,
i wonder why the others say they cannot?
This is weird.... A while back I asked the same question and this was their reply:
"Thanks for your interest in our products.

First, from HDMI output, the X-line player will not be able to output 480i/576i resolution, 480p/576p/720p/720p@50Hz/1080i/1080i@50Hz/1080p is supported.

And from the component output, besides the resolutions above, 480i/576i is supported as well."

This was in July though, so things could have changed. I would love to see this feature as well (since I have a VP).

So folks, keep bugging them about it, and if they can physically do it, they might, or they already have...
I will await the first real review here soon to confirm it or not. In the meantime I just have to play with my Tvix5000 (which sadly only do 480/576p until further) (well,in that respect I asked DVIco if they could implement 480i and they said it should be possible, but not enough people had asked for it yet).

If you look at their firmware release notes for their upscaling DVD player (no network capability), they did introduce 480i over HDMI through a firmware update. So maybe it was something they only recently figured out how to support.

If you look at their firmware release notes for their upscaling DVD player (no network capability), they did introduce 480i over HDMI through a firmware update. So maybe it was something they only recently figured out how to support.

but that box probably doesn't use the 8620L chip, which is apparently the bottleneck.

no one with a beta unit out there capable of testing 480i over hdmi?????

We'll be getting in our first shipment next week. I'll gladly test it out asap!

Something I'd be glad to see a full-length review by an imparial party.

Helios posting approximately when the next firmware is supposed to come out would also be appreciated. As it stands, it's been more than a month and the product is finally slowly starting to hit wide distribution channels, yet in the last 35 days, no new firmwares have been released. I sincerely doubt all problems have been fixed and am just wondering which bugs might exist, or which improvements should be made. Additional support for extra codecs would be appreciated, such as MOV, for instance.

http://www.mpcclub.com/modules/Reviews/reviews/Helios_X5000_Review.pdf

After reading the mpcclub review and seeing the screenshots that clearly did not show 480i over HDMI as an output resolution, I asked the tech support guys at Helios again about 480i over HDMI. This time they say it won't support it. They thought I was asking about their DVD player when I asked, which does do 480i.

Does the Helios play smootly TS files from USB drives?

Does it supports the close captioned subtitles within US TS files?

Thanks for any answer.

Robena, the answers are already in this thread. Yes to both, IIRC.

patja, keep in mind, that is a *very* old review.

Robena, the answers are already in this thread. Yes to both, IIRC.

All network players claim to support subtitles, but none of the ones I tested do it for TS files.

I'd appreciate if somebody could report having actually tried with TS files. I don't think I saw that on the thread.

In respone to qz3fwd's question 'Will these players playback dvd's with full menu support off of a NAS?' You replied : 1. Yes itll Playback FULL dvds off of a NASWayne


I received my X3000 last PM. Installed the neodigits 1.3 server on my WinXPro machine and I updated the firmware on the X3000 via the web (very smooth operation). I added my DVD backup folder (ifo/vob files) to the watch list in the neodigit server. From the X3000, I can list and play each individual VOB file. However, I cannot even list the IFO file, much less playback DVD’s with full menu support. How is this done? Did you use different server software? If so, which and specifically how is it configured. I have an NFS server on XP if that is what is needed. I have a TViX. Using an NFS server on XP I simply point to VIDEO_TS.IFO, hit play, and I’m watching the full DVD – menus and all. I don’t have to select individual VOBs. It plays just like I loaded the physical DVD in a DVD player. This is the functionality I was hoping for with the X3000. I’d be happy with the TViX except it is really poor at playing mp3s (can’t read ID3v2 tags, poor playlist management, slow switching between songs…) I was hoping the X300 could do it all. So, can the X3000 play DVDs backed-up on a server or not? Thanks

Good morning.

Does anyone have the dimensions of the X3000? Looking at this as a solution for streaming to our bedroom TV (from my NAS.. this will do that, right?). But do to space, I need to be sure it will fit where we can put it.

Thanks.

Good morning.

Does anyone have the dimensions of the X3000? Looking at this as a solution for streaming to our bedroom TV (from my NAS.. this will do that, right?). But do to space, I need to be sure it will fit where we can put it.

Thanks.

It is 16 7/8" wide, 14" deep (excluding rear RCA jacks), and 2 3/4" high (bottom of feet to top of case)

It doesn't support IFO/ISO yet. I am told by their tech support that they are aware this is a popular requirement and they are working on it for a future firmware release.

Can you try another software package like WizD. http://wizd.sourceforge.net/index.htm It would be interesting to see if it works and adds IFO/ISO support (I have no idea if it would)

Can you try another software package like WizD. It would be interesting to see if it works and adds IFO/ISO support (I have no idea if it would)

I have tried WizD. WizD seems to read the IFO, collate a title set and present it to the Helios. It creates a file named VOB.wizd.bookmark in the folder (VIDEO_TS in my case) that the DVD is stored in. So, for example, a DVD rip that consists of a main movie, several trailers, and previews will be listed as title 1, title 2, and so on. If you pick the longest title you are watching the main movie. However, you never access the interactive menu as it appears when you watch a physical DVD. This method does avoid the need to explicitly select and play VTS_01_1.VOB, VTS_01_2.VOB VTS_01_3 etc.

It is not quite what I was hoping for. Thus far, I have tried 4 media players and this seems to be a common problem in UPnP devices but not with devices that use simple NFS or SMB shares (they have their own set of problems). Perhaps this is an insurmountable limitation of the UPnP standard? Or, perhaps, I’m doing something wrong. Wayne12 had alluded that the Helios would have full DVD navigation support for DVDs stored on a network and I was hoping the X3000 would deliver. Maybe it can, but I can’t figure it out. If anyone has succeeded in DVD navigation over a network using the Helios, I’d love to know how. Thanks.

Hi all,

I’m new on this forum, my first post. I just happened upon the Helios X models and from all I can gather these are just what I’m looking for. However, I have a few questions I hope someone can answer.

First, is there much difference in listening to the sound from the X3000 vs. the X5000? Be mindful that I’m an old fart and my hearing may not be as acute as you young bucks :) Also I notice the X5000 includes power conditioning, does this make a noticeable difference?

Second, can I hook up a different TV (or monitor) to each output and watch them all simultaneously? I have a mixture of std. TV’s and monitors around the house.

And finally, will it stream and play 720p over a 10/100 LAN?

Thanks guys,

Hi Flt

I have tried WizD. WizD seems to read the IFO, collate a title set and present it to the Helios. It creates a file named VOB.wizd.bookmark in the folder (VIDEO_TS in my case) that the DVD is stored in. So, for example, a DVD rip that consists of a main movie, several trailers, and previews will be listed as title 1, title 2, and so on. If you pick the longest title you are watching the main movie. However, you never access the interactive menu as it appears when you watch a physical DVD. This method does avoid the need to explicitly select and play VTS_01_1.VOB, VTS_01_2.VOB VTS_01_3 etc.

It is not quite what I was hoping for. Thus far, I have tried 4 media players and this seems to be a common problem in UPnP devices but not with devices that use simple NFS or SMB shares (they have their own set of problems). Perhaps this is an insurmountable limitation of the UPnP standard? Or, perhaps, I’m doing something wrong. Wayne12 had alluded that the Helios would have full DVD navigation support for DVDs stored on a network and I was hoping the X3000 would deliver. Maybe it can, but I can’t figure it out. If anyone has succeeded in DVD navigation over a network using the Helios, I’d love to know how. Thanks.

the Zensonic z500 does this nicely over SMB (though they call it an expimental feature). it supports IFO and ISO. some ISO rips have had hangup problems but i have not yet had an issue with an IFO rip, so i use those
exclusively now.

i also use WiZD with my JVC/IOData machine but prefer the z500 approach.

Robena, the answers are already in this thread. Yes to both, IIRC.

Actually, Helios support kindly informed me that these players do not support captions with TS files.

I was right to ask...

the Zensonic z500 does this nicely over SMB.

I did have a similar experience with the Z500. Although, its playback of DVD/IFO was not as robust as the TViX. I would have kept the Z500 over the TViX (the Z has much better mp3 support), but I had problems with the Z's sharing of SMBs. Specifically, the Z seemed to be able to only read a share if WinXP Pro was set to simple sharing and the Guest account was active. For me, this is a no-starter as I have directories I wish to share with specific users that I want login verification for. As such, I do not use simple sharing. If the Z could have done that, it would be the player I stuck with. Why my 5 year Turtle Beach Auditron can login in to the SMB server like it was another WinXP client and these new devices can’t is beyond me. The TViX uses SMB, but can also use NFS. NFS servers can be set to share only certain folders with certain MACs. That’s an acceptable solution for me. Also, NFS is faster than SMB (less overhead), but I agree that for the bandwidth needed to play DVDs, SMB sharing is more than adequate.

Ziova (the new Zensonic) has now removed the ‘experimental’ disclaimer. So, it looks like Ziova (http://www.ziova.com/cs505_specs.php) is serious about keeping IFO parsing support.

Still would like a much better user interface than the bland Neo Link list for movies, do they have any intention of upgrading the software to allow movie selection by viewing folder jpegs?

This is the response from NeoDigits on the navigation.

____________________

Yes! I assume he means to navigate by looking at the cover of the DVD or CD. We are looking into a complete redesign of our firmware and this is one thing we want to do. It would be very cool indeed.

We appreciate any feedback you have .

snip...

Ziova (the new Zensonic) has now removed the ‘experimental’ disclaimer. So, it looks like Ziova (http://www.ziova.com/cs505_specs.php) is serious about keeping IFO parsing support.

DJ01, it seems like you have had the pleasure to testrun a few of the streamers (tvix-5000, Helios X-series and the Z500, more?)

Any clear favorites? Or any really bad issues?
I know a lot about them after reading about them, but hands-on experience is only been done on the Tvix.
I would love to have Upnp (toward my ReadyNAS), which the tvix lacks.

The perfect streamer is hard to find... it seems like it would take 2-3 boxes to get it all perfect... ;)

DJ01, it seems like you have had the pleasure to testrun a few of the streamers (tvix-5000, Helios X-series and the Z500, more?)

Any clear favorites? Or any really bad issues?
I know a lot about them after reading about them, but hands-on experience is only been done on the Tvix.
I would love to have Upnp (toward my ReadyNAS), which the tvix lacks.

The perfect streamer is hard to find... it seems like it would take 2-3 boxes to get it all perfect... ;)

dj01, I second Meenenator's request. I've got a Snazio 1350, a Rhapsody N35, and a Galaxy ipTV box (which runs the same software as the Snazio it appears, but works slightly better). None really seem to work 100% reliably. I strictly use these boxes against an Infrant NAS box, either UPnP or SMB, whatever the player happens to support. What I find most frustrating is that formats that work for say the Snazio won't work on the Rhapsody and vice-versa. But, WinDVD on my XP box will play everything I throw at it... I don't get why this is so hard, or why some of these companies didn't just license something like WinDVDs player software and put their own GUI on it...

Anyway, dj01, I'd love to hear your pluses and minuses on what you've tried. I can't (or won't) keep buying boxes just to find one that works. I simply want to be able to put movies on my NAS and have a box on the wired net be able to play them. I tend to try an iso image, a copy of the AUDIO_TS/VIDEO_TS directory, a single vob of the movie, and then multiple vob files for my experiments.

Anyway, dj01, I'd love to hear your pluses and minuses on what you've tried.


I have tried the TViX, Zensonic 500, Helios 3000, and the PixelMagic MB100. A while back I tried the Medialounge 520, but it would be unfair for me to comment on that product as they may have made firmware changes since then.

You should understand my goals because it affects how I view these players. Specifically, I want to play ripped DVDs that are stored on a WinXP machine over a network as if I had loaded a disc in a DVD player. I don’t care if that is .iso or ifo/vob as I can work with either. I want to play mp3s with some reasonable functionality – playlists, sort by genre, artists, and other ID3V2 fields. I also want a player that is responsive – when I hit the next track button I want it to change now not 10 seconds from now. I want to avoid having to use WinXP simple sharing because I’m paranoid. I use a gigabit network (yes, I use a commercial grade hardware firewall between me and the net but I’m still paranoid). I don’t care about wireless. I’d like to stream HD (>720p) reliably, but this is a lower priority for me than DVD/mp3. I’d like the UI to be easy to navigate, but it does not have to be glitzy. I don’t want or need a hard drive in the player – that would be another media resource to have to keep updated. It must be reliable. I do not want to have to reboot the player in the middle of movies.

So, here goes…

All of the players use the Sigma 8620/21 chip (http://www.sigmadesigns.com/public/Products/EM8620L/pdf_files/EM8620L_br.pdf). So none of them decode h.264 and they are all sluggish with jpeg. None of the players is perfectly smooth with HD playback. I suspect this chip is of marginal processing power for HD. Some upcoming players are incorporating the EM8622/23 chips which I would hope is better at all of these tasks (hardware decode of h.264, jpeg, faster clock and more memory).

TViX:
The TViX uses NFS and SMB, no UPnP. I use NFS and limit the NFS share to only the media directory (so my paranoia is abated). The TViX plays back DVD rips very reliably (I use DVD Decrypt and more recently DVD shrink without compression). It is hands down the best virtual DVD player. It does as well as the others at streaming HD under NFS, jumpy under SMB when the bit rate exceeded 12 to 14 Mbps. It is a poor mp3 player. It can read m3u playlists, but only reads ID3v1 tags. It does not use the tags to enhance the playback experience (sort by artist…), but will display the info on the screen. There is a long time lag between music tracks (9-10 seconds). The time lag seems to depend on how many files you put in a folder. I have grown accustomed to putting all my mp3s in one folder and letting my players sort them out (WinAmp, iTunes, musicmatch, Turtle Beach Audiotron for the network). The response from TViX tech support is that I should put my files in many separate folders. I have experimented with an internal drive in the TViX and it is no faster at switching tracks. The build quality is mediocre (it’s made of plastic and it feels like it). I don’t use an internal hard drive, so it is very quite. Some people love the looks; I’d prefer a piece of equipment that looks like all my other AV equipment. The UI is pretty crude – it basically presents you with folder views. However, it is easy to navigate and works for my needs.

Zensonic/Zoiva:
The Z500 uses SMB and UPnP. It cannot log into an SMB with a password so you share with everyone if you go that route under WinXP (maybe an NAS can limit MAC addresses that it will serve under SMB??). Unfortunately, if you want the virtual DVD experience you must use the SMB share and even then it is not as robust as the TViX. The UPnP interface works well for other media. Mp3 playback is reasonably advanced under UPnP as is going through jpegs. It plays HD media, but not as smoothly as the TViX. It came with Twonky. Under Twonky, I could manage to play individual VOBs but not the whole main movie (my VOBs are ripped to 1GB limits). This was not a good movie night experience. I also tried the WIZD UPnP server to play DVDs. WIZD would play all the VOBs in the main movie back to back without user intervention, but no menu navigation features. So, I guess you could use SMB for ripped DVDs (this worked but was not as reliable as the TViX) and UPnP for other media. The build quality was excellent. I liked the little joy stick on the remote.

Helios X3000:
UPnP only. I have no problem with UPnP as it does generally lead to a better user interface and more sophisticated features. The UPnP server can do some pre-digesting of the media before it serves it to the player. However, as far as I know, no current UPnP player can replicate the DVD experience without falling back on an NFS or SMB server. So, under UPnP, you can use WIZD and achieve a similar DVD playback experience as the Z500. Unlike the Z, you have no other option. The neodigits tech support assures me that DVD playback will be fully implemented, including menu navigation, in the next firmware revision. If that is true, then you don’t need SMB or NFS assuming you can host an UPnP server application. Hopefully, DVD navigation will work with any UPnP sever, not just the neodigits version. The build quality of the player is excellent, but the remote is terrible (small spongy keys that don’t always activate). This player is new, and it shows. It is spastic all the way around. For example, when playing mp3s, the next button yields only an invalid operation error instead of the next song. It locks up more frequently than the other players (at the other end of the spectrum, the TViX rarely locks up). However, the general roughness and beta like feel of this player will likely improve with a few firmware revisions. If they implement full DVD playback (IFO navigation…) and clean it up, then this player may be a one stop shopping experience.

PixelMagic MB100:
Basically, a TViX in a different form factor. It does have better connectivity options than the TViX. However, its firmware is not as polished as the TViX so it is also spastic, although not as much as the Helios. The build quality is OK, and like the TViX, it is a form factor that you either love or not depending on personal preference.

The bottom line:
I share misko’s frustration. None of these players are ready for prime time (the non-techie world). None of these players do it all even for techies. The Helios might in a few firmware revisions (except h.264) but right now it won’t give the virtual DVD experience and the firmware is rough. If all you want to do is playback virtual DVDs I think the answer is the TViX. If you can live with some glichy virtual DVD playback, then the Z500 is pretty nice and offers a better mp3 experience than the TViX. If PixelMagic gets their firmware cleaned up, it is potentially better than the TViX due to better connectivity. If you have not seen it yet, jhue does a nice little summary sheet of available products (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=585212&page=1&pp=30). As for me, I’m sticking with the TViX for video and my old Turtle Beach Audiotron for mp3s. I’m keeping an eye on the Helios firmware updates and look forward to players incorporating the more powerful sigma chips.

dj01,
Thanks for the very complete writeup. My needs are very much like yours, and like you I really don't want a disk in the player. Well, I'll keep on waiting or get a Tivx for just DVD since it seems the best. I guess I need to look at what the Sigma chipsets provide. Since my laptop which runs WinDVD works fine, and doesn't have a Sigma chipset, I have to assume it's a cost saving measure to allow slower processors yet still decode the various streams.
Thanks again.

dj01,

Great summary. Thank you!
At least there are more people out there which can't find the "perfect" player.
I have been thinking of a slimdevice/soundbridge for mp3/audio, but never got around to it, since its here I think the Tvix has its largest potential for improvement, although pictures are a bit slow.

I used a play@tv a while back. I loved that interface/GUI. It would be nice if they could give us something like it. It did however require a PC in the loop (to serve the media-library to the streamer). But if they could make a dual-option.

1. Have a PC-server application which could show the content of you media-library (library could consist of media(movie/music/pictures) from all your partitions and NAS-boxes etc) .
2. Use the simple explorer style (as today) when not running the server-application.

Maybe too much to hope for.
But, I must say the GUI on the play@tv is the best I ever seen on a streamer so far. Maybe not as good as MCE/Tvedia and those.

This isn't too encouraging. I e-mail NeoDigits last week about the possibility of x264 support and never got a reply. No big loss, since I'll just build myself an HTPC.

Can this unit upscale and display 720p, 1080i, or 1080p out the HDMI for commercial (copy protected) DVDs?

Thanks.

dj01 - thanks for the great summary!

I'm also trying to find a player, and it is hard to find gem posts like yours in threads I might not otherwise have read.

(I will also be keeping both my AudioTrons, at least for now...)

I have tried the TViX, Zensonic 500, Helios 3000, and the PixelMagic MB100.

Damn. I'm glad I *finally* came across this thread. I have been researching the purchase of a network media player for the last few hours and all 4 of the aforementioned models have been bouncing about my screen. I was waiting for the Apple 'iTV' to surface next spring, but am getting impatient. Also, there is some debate as to what formats the iTV will support. It makes sense to wait for something that will support h.264, I suppose. I guess, for now, I can maintain the insanity of playing divx/xvid over my network from a wirelessly connected laptop hooked to my Vizio GL42D via VGA and audio piped into my A/V tuner with crappy RCA.

/me hates on cables and cords of all types.


Thanks dj01.

...All of the players use the Sigma 8620/21 chip (http://www.sigmadesigns.com/public/Products/EM8620L/pdf_files/EM8620L_br.pdf). So none of them decode h.264 and they are all sluggish with jpeg. None of the players is perfectly smooth with HD playback. I suspect this chip is of marginal processing power for HD...I must take issue with this statement. While I don't have any of the units dj01 has mentioned, I do have a Pinnacle ShowCenter 200 which uses this Sigma chip, and it plays all manner of HDTV flawlessly (over CAT5E/100baseT). So the chip is indeed capable.

I'm here because I am looking for a new DVD player, and the idea of one that has a networking capability has lots of appeal to me, but wonder about the 8620 and DVD playback. It occurs to me as I write this thread that I need to try the HQV Benchmark disc with my Pinnacle 200 (duh!). Gonna do that and see how the 8620 performs!

I must take issue with this statement. While I don't have any of the units dj01 has mentioned, I do have a Pinnacle ShowCenter 200 which uses this Sigma chip, and it plays all manner of HDTV flawlessly (over CAT5E/100baseT). So the chip is indeed capable.


ditto on the above....i have 2 z500 units and they play HDTV perfectly.
i use twonky and tversity and both upnp servers have zero problems with hdtv files (recorded by BTV from OTA with fusion5gold tuners). i use a wired lan and have never had any problems with hdtv, so i don't know why the 8620 has a bad rep for that (it certainly deserves a bad rep for other things, but hdtv playback is not one of them).

there is also a beta release (made available to all owners, not just beta testers) for the z500 that demonstrates that HDTV can be played over SMB as well......

i have 2 z500s, 1 jvc/iodata plus i tried the dsm520 but returned it as unusable.

i find the jvc/iodata flaky at times, certainly more so than the z500, and will probably sell it when i find something that meets all my needs (another z500 if they get there first).

things i need in a networked media player that does not yet exist to my knowledge:

1. rock solid iso or ifo playback of dvd files........the z500 plays most (but not all...some of the problems may be related to security features but who knows) but DVDs are not my main use (that would be BTV recorded video)

2. easy cursor oriented skipping around commercials......coming in next z500 upgrade around end of Nov we're told (already works great in jvc/iodata.....and easily programmed into pronto remote macro to skip ahead for multiples of 1% of file).

3. same resolution pass through-------the 8620 stinks at de-interlacing 480i and scaling (yes it upscales but the quality is less than you can get in most of this year's new hdtv sets)........and the gap is growing, as video signal processors get more and more sophistocated and the 862x family stagnates.......if high quality video matters to you, you don't want the 8620 (in any player) doing the video signal processing.
what is needed is a mode where the output resolution is set to the input resolution....leave the signal alone and let the more expensive TV do its job (your mileage may vary, depending on your tv set, how fussy you are about video images, etc)

so far, no one has addressed this issue at all


i have not tried the divx so i really cannot comment on it, other than to say it cannot have any hdtv advantage over the z500 since the z500 is perfect here in that respect.

when the 3 above issues are solved by someone, i'll be in line to get one.

Can this unit upscale and display 720p, 1080i, or 1080p out the HDMI for commercial (copy protected) DVDs?

Thanks.

why would you want to? if your hdtv set is recent, it will probably do a much better job upscaling and de-interlacing than the 8620 chip

does anyone with one of these machine have the time to check if
480i can be sent over hdmi, as they claim?

I have the X3000. It is a no-go.

I have tried the TViX, Zensonic 500, Helios 3000, and the PixelMagic MB100. A while back I tried the Medialoun........
.......
Turtle Beach Audiotron for mp3s. I’m keeping an eye on the Helios firmware updates and look forward to players incorporating the more powerful sigma chips.


dj01;
Thanks for your excellent write up. I am trying to get an overview about the current market and your post helped a tremendously!

Thanks again!
_____
Axel

I hope that Helios has a lot of money to pay their middleware provider : Syabas !
Because nothing is free on earth, and particular development needs to be paid to Syabas.

About ISO DVD support with firmware, I don't think it will come soon. Many other Syabas customers announced such a feature, and it has never happened :(

Same for SMB, according to one Syabas customer, it is not top-priority for Syabas, so we'll have to wait for that.

Last, about Wizd, it is not Upnp at all, it is only using SSDP part of the protocol to announce itself on the network. But apart from that, it is not Upnp compliant, wizd will work only with Syabas players.

I have an X3000, but the remote died due to a leaky battery.

Does anybody has a Universal Remote or a Pronto customized file for this player?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I have an X3000, but the remote died due to a leaky battery.

Does anybody has a Universal Remote or a Pronto customized file for this player?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Did you email NeoDigits? What did they say? I'd expect them to send you a replacement.

Yes, they were very supportive and said they would send a replacement, but I don't know when and how long it will take to arrive.

Hello guys (from France),
Today i just returned a KISS DP-600 because it doesn't play Networked DVD on my PC. The Freekiss or PClink soft can't list the .IFO files and click on them. It can only list and play .VOB files but it need to load video_ts.ifo files to "boot" the DVD and get menus etc.
The KISS support team confirms me that it can't play any DVD via the network.
How disappointed I was...
So as this time i am looking for a DVDplayer who can load .IFO files like FREECOM players or simply XBOX players !
That's amazing that this function is so rare these days. How watching DVD without loading the video_ts.ifo file !
Does the Helios players capable to do that ?
I read some replies about that who said not...
Please help !

I'm confused...

Can anyone clarify the situation with dolby digital/DTS on the X3000? For instance, if I put in a DVD such as Lord of the Rings, which has a DTS track, will I be able to select and play that audio track properly using a digital optical connection? I'm hearing mixed reports of when DTS is and is not supported.

EDIT: One other inquiry: Can anyone comment on the quality of DVD upconversion with this player?

Thank you.

I'm confused...

Can anyone clarify the situation with dolby digital/DTS on the X3000? For instance, if I put in a DVD such as Lord of the Rings, which has a DTS track, will I be able to select and play that audio track properly using a digital optical connection? I'm hearing mixed reports of when DTS is and is not supported.

EDIT: One other inquiry: Can anyone comment on the quality of DVD upconversion with this player?

Thank you.

Audio - with X5000 I've had no issues with any audio over optical so far. That's the only audio cable between X5000 and my Yamaha receiver.

Upconversion - I had a chance to watch Mi-III on X3000 hooked up with HDMI to two different plasmas - Samsung 4273 and Pioneer 5070. IMHO, upconversion worked great, pics were smooth, no artifacts. Again, I just enjoyed the movie and wasn't looking for problems.

Awesome news, thank you! I have a Panasonic plasma, so I'm looking forward to a player without macroblocking like the Oppo.

Dear Mr LECHENE,

Thanks for your interest in our products.

Unfortunately the X-Line player will not be able to support IFO/ISO format at the moment, however, this feature will be reviewed in further firmware.

Please feel free to let me know when you have any further questions.

Regards,
Peter


-----Original Message-----
From:
Received: 11/10/2006 12:22 AM
To:
Subject: RE: Inquiry about HELIOS X-Line


Dear Neodigits team,

Today i just returned a KISS DP-600 because it doesn't play Networked DVD on my PC. The Freekiss or PClink soft can't list the .IFO files and click on them. It can only list and play .VOB files but it need to load video_ts.ifo files to "boot" the DVD and get menus etc.
The KISS support team confirms me that it can't play any DVD via the network.
How disappointed I was...
So as this time i am looking for a DVDplayer who can load .IFO files like FREECOM players or simply XBOX players !
That's amazing that this function is so rare these days. How watching DVD without loading the video_ts.ifo file !
Does the Helios players capable to do that ?
If yes would you send me some screenshots showing networked .IFO files from the browser Helios menu and loading them without problems ?

Best regards,

-

Does anyone know how to switch on the remote from small letters to capital letters for the WEP-Key or URL..

thanks

Robert

From reading this review (http://www.dvdactive.com/reviews/technology/neodigits-helios-x3000-network-media-player.html) it seems like it's not possible to switch between upper and lowercase. Perhaps someone here knows how, because I don't actually own one of these yet.

One other question from me: do the X3000/5000 work with Logitech Harmony remotes?

I am using an X3000 with a harmony remote just fine

Dear Mr LECHENE,

Thanks for your interest in our products.

Unfortunately the X-Line player will not be able to support IFO/ISO format at the moment, however, this feature will be reviewed in further firmware.

Please feel free to let me know when you have any further questions.

Regards,
Peter


-----Original Message-----
From:
Received: 11/10/2006 12:22 AM
To:
Subject: RE: Inquiry about HELIOS X-Line


Dear Neodigits team,

Today i just returned a KISS DP-600 because it doesn't play Networked DVD on my PC. The Freekiss or PClink soft can't list the .IFO files and click on them. It can only list and play .VOB files but it need to load video_ts.ifo files to "boot" the DVD and get menus etc.
The KISS support team confirms me that it can't play any DVD via the network.
How disappointed I was...
So as this time i am looking for a DVDplayer who can load .IFO files like FREECOM players or simply XBOX players !
That's amazing that this function is so rare these days. How watching DVD without loading the video_ts.ifo file !
Does the Helios players capable to do that ?
If yes would you send me some screenshots showing networked .IFO files from the browser Helios menu and loading them without problems ?

Best regards,

AFAIK, you can watch ISO files with Wizd - http://wizd.sourceforge.net

I have tried the TViX, Zensonic 500, Helios 3000, and the PixelMagic MB100. A while back I tried the Medialounge 520, but it would be unfair for me to comment on that product as they may have made firmware changes since then.

You should understand my goals because it affects how I view these players. Specifically, I want to play ripped DVDs that are stored on a WinXP machine over a network as if I had loaded a disc in a DVD player. I don’t care if that is .iso or ifo/vob as I can work with either. I want to play mp3s with some reasonable functionality – playlists, sort by genre, artists, and other ID3V2 fields. I also want a player that is responsive – when I hit the next track button I want it to change now not 10 seconds from now. I want to avoid having to use WinXP simple sharing because I’m paranoid. I use a gigabit network (yes, I use a commercial grade hardware firewall between me and the net but I’m still paranoid). I don’t care about wireless. I’d like to stream HD (>720p) reliably, but this is a lower priority for me than DVD/mp3. I’d like the UI to be easy to navigate, but it does not have to be glitzy. I don’t want or need a hard drive in the player – that would be another media resource to have to keep updated. It must be reliable. I do not want to have to reboot the player in the middle of movies.

So, here goes…

All of the players use the Sigma 8620/21 chip (http://www.sigmadesigns.com/public/Products/EM8620L/pdf_files/EM8620L_br.pdf). So none of them decode h.264 and they are all sluggish with jpeg. None of the players is perfectly smooth with HD playback. I suspect this chip is of marginal processing power for HD. Some upcoming players are incorporating the EM8622/23 chips which I would hope is better at all of these tasks (hardware decode of h.264, jpeg, faster clock and more memory).

TViX:
The TViX uses NFS and SMB, no UPnP. I use NFS and limit the NFS share to only the media directory (so my paranoia is abated). The TViX plays back DVD rips very reliably (I use DVD Decrypt and more recently DVD shrink without compression). It is hands down the best virtual DVD player. It does as well as the others at streaming HD under NFS, jumpy under SMB when the bit rate exceeded 12 to 14 Mbps. It is a poor mp3 player. It can read m3u playlists, but only reads ID3v1 tags. It does not use the tags to enhance the playback experience (sort by artist…), but will display the info on the screen. There is a long time lag between music tracks (9-10 seconds). The time lag seems to depend on how many files you put in a folder. I have grown accustomed to putting all my mp3s in one folder and letting my players sort them out (WinAmp, iTunes, musicmatch, Turtle Beach Audiotron for the network). The response from TViX tech support is that I should put my files in many separate folders. I have experimented with an internal drive in the TViX and it is no faster at switching tracks. The build quality is mediocre (it’s made of plastic and it feels like it). I don’t use an internal hard drive, so it is very quite. Some people love the looks; I’d prefer a piece of equipment that looks like all my other AV equipment. The UI is pretty crude – it basically presents you with folder views. However, it is easy to navigate and works for my needs.

Zensonic/Zoiva:
The Z500 uses SMB and UPnP. It cannot log into an SMB with a password so you share with everyone if you go that route under WinXP (maybe an NAS can limit MAC addresses that it will serve under SMB??). Unfortunately, if you want the virtual DVD experience you must use the SMB share and even then it is not as robust as the TViX. The UPnP interface works well for other media. Mp3 playback is reasonably advanced under UPnP as is going through jpegs. It plays HD media, but not as smoothly as the TViX. It came with Twonky. Under Twonky, I could manage to play individual VOBs but not the whole main movie (my VOBs are ripped to 1GB limits). This was not a good movie night experience. I also tried the WIZD UPnP server to play DVDs. WIZD would play all the VOBs in the main movie back to back without user intervention, but no menu navigation features. So, I guess you could use SMB for ripped DVDs (this worked but was not as reliable as the TViX) and UPnP for other media. The build quality was excellent. I liked the little joy stick on the remote.

Helios X3000:
UPnP only. I have no problem with UPnP as it does generally lead to a better user interface and more sophisticated features. The UPnP server can do some pre-digesting of the media before it serves it to the player. However, as far as I know, no current UPnP player can replicate the DVD experience without falling back on an NFS or SMB server. So, under UPnP, you can use WIZD and achieve a similar DVD playback experience as the Z500. Unlike the Z, you have no other option. The neodigits tech support assures me that DVD playback will be fully implemented, including menu navigation, in the next firmware revision. If that is true, then you don’t need SMB or NFS assuming you can host an UPnP server application. Hopefully, DVD navigation will work with any UPnP sever, not just the neodigits version. The build quality of the player is excellent, but the remote is terrible (small spongy keys that don’t always activate). This player is new, and it shows. It is spastic all the way around. For example, when playing mp3s, the next button yields only an invalid operation error instead of the next song. It locks up more frequently than the other players (at the other end of the spectrum, the TViX rarely locks up). However, the general roughness and beta like feel of this player will likely improve with a few firmware revisions. If they implement full DVD playback (IFO navigation…) and clean it up, then this player may be a one stop shopping experience.

PixelMagic MB100:
Basically, a TViX in a different form factor. It does have better connectivity options than the TViX. However, its firmware is not as polished as the TViX so it is also spastic, although not as much as the Helios. The build quality is OK, and like the TViX, it is a form factor that you either love or not depending on personal preference.

The bottom line:
I share misko’s frustration. None of these players are ready for prime time (the non-techie world). None of these players do it all even for techies. The Helios might in a few firmware revisions (except h.264) but right now it won’t give the virtual DVD experience and the firmware is rough. If all you want to do is playback virtual DVDs I think the answer is the TViX. If you can live with some glichy virtual DVD playback, then the Z500 is pretty nice and offers a better mp3 experience than the TViX. If PixelMagic gets their firmware cleaned up, it is potentially better than the TViX due to better connectivity. If you have not seen it yet, jhue does a nice little summary sheet of available products (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=585212&page=1&pp=30). As for me, I’m sticking with the TViX for video and my old Turtle Beach Audiotron for mp3s. I’m keeping an eye on the Helios firmware updates and look forward to players incorporating the more powerful sigma chips.

This is a very interesting post. I purchased a TViX M5000 and am extremely disappointed with it for a number of reasons which I will come to, so I though I would look in the forum for Helios and see what people are saying about it.

None the wiser really, since conclusion is that no manufacturer has got it right just yet.

Problems with the TViX are as follows:

As a music player:

You cannot browse by genre, artist, album title etc, only by folder name on the PC. Since I used Windows Media Player to "ingest" my CD collection, there is a folder for each artist, but if I want to find something on a compilation album (by Artist) I can't.

You cannot browse whilst listening, as soon as you take your browser out of the current folder, playback stops, even though you haven't selected anything else.

As a photo display device.

Huge huge problem is that when you open a directory containing your photos, the unit does not display thumbnails. it is therefore next to impossible to find the photograph you want to display without wading through tons of snaps you don't want to see! Huge PITA.

Incidentally, my old media player, a Linksys WMA11 which cost me all of £40 does all these things above! (though no video support).

As a hard disk video player.

Pretty good in fact with DVD ISO and IFO files plus any HD content I have been able to find on the net and download, but I and many many others are getting sparkles on the display when using the digital (DVI) output. Component output is clear of sparkles though.

Other problem is you cannot simultaneously output S-VID (to a conventional CRT TV) plus Component or DVI (to a projector). You can with every DVD player I have tried, with the TiVX you have to choose either Composite and Y/C or Component and DVI. SUCH A PAIN!.

Other problems:

No RGB output on SCART, so connecting via SCART to a good TV isn't an option.
No 15pin computer style D-SUB connector, so connecting to a display using that mode also isn't an option.
No HDMI, meaning you have to use DVI to HDMI adaptor, possibly the reason for the sparkles.
So in fact connectivity wise, it's crap!

Good things:

Sound quality via digital output to my home cinema amp is great.
Picture quality when looking at photos is stunning (if you can find the photo you want :confused:
Front panel display is very handy for confirmation that the unit is doing what you think it should.
FTP transfer from PC is great (though slow) - this is the reason why I chose the unit over the MB100.


OK, so this is a post in the Helios Forum, reason being I would love a Helios owner to specifically tell me how the X3000 or X5000 compares with each of the above

Just wondering if anybody with an X3000 on order has had their order ship yet since Neodigits got them back in stock? My order is stuck on "pending"

Thanks.

I just came across a review for the X5000:
Review (http://www.denguru.com/2006/11/30/neodigits_helios_x5000_hd_network_media_player/)

Anybody knows if there is a Mac OS version of the Neolink server software?

I just read through this entire thread with great interest in these products. I have to agree with someone else in this forum that suggested that many of the products in this classification are not completely ready for prime time yet. Most seem quite 'half baked' / first generation / beta. It sounds like Helios may have suggested over the past 6 months that they would add features such as ability to read VOB files. As it is now December and CES is less than 6 weeks away, I would suggest that the current generation of Helios or other products in this generation are now 'fully baked' and next models with new chipsets, features, etc., will be announced in Las Vegas.

I've already purchased a Metal Gear Box IPTV-DMG and returned it. Helios sounds and physically looks like a pretty decent product. I think I may just wait until after CES 2007 to decide what to purchase. I know new technology is forever coming but this major event is too close to make a rushed decision today.

Thoughts?

David,

After purchasing an x5000 and promptly returning it because my nearly 4 year old Roku HD1000 does a better job, I realize that the current crop of media servers based on the Sigma chipsets are very poor. I am attending CES and will also be searching for something that "does the job" in a decent fashion. Hopefully, the crazy cost of the the hotels this year will be worth the dazzling array of new technology that we will see.

I wish I could go this year. I'm looking forward to reading all the reports as they are published. I think this is one space that is primed for what I'm calling a 'middleware appliance'. Hopefully a new, more user friend and robust set of offerings is forthcoming. Until then, I'm not rushing to purchase anything. I'll keep depending on my mediacenter pc with a USB attached external drive and my xbox360 as an extender.


David,

After purchasing an x5000 and promptly returning it because my nearly 4 year old Roku HD1000 does a better job, I realize that the current crop of media servers based on the Sigma chipsets are very poor. I am attending CES and will also be searching for something that "does the job" in a decent fashion. Hopefully, the crazy cost of the the hotels this year will be worth the dazzling array of new technology that we will see.

David,

After purchasing an x5000 and promptly returning it because my nearly 4 year old Roku HD1000 does a better job, I realize that the current crop of media servers based on the Sigma chipsets are very poor. I am attending CES and will also be searching for something that "does the job" in a decent fashion. Hopefully, the crazy cost of the the hotels this year will be worth the dazzling array of new technology that we will see.

What exactly is causing the disappointment? Can you be more specific?

Hi Chappy,

1. The quality of the output from the Sigma chipset is poor (bad contrast, blacks, whites, etc.)
2. The user interfaces that the various Sigma-based players use is not friendly at all.
3. The processors that accompany the Sigma-based players are underpowered
4. Most Sigma-based players require some kind of pc-based software
5. The bitrates that the Sigma-based players can handle is insufficient for current standards (blue-ray is 30Mbps, sony HD videocams are 24Mbps, over the air HD is 19Mbps)
6. The Sigma-based players do not process files seamlessly (delays in photo viewing and inter-track music streaming)
7. The Sigma-based players use very poor scalars that are not programmable to allow various size formats for video
8. The Sigma-based players don't enable opensource programming efforts well and are thus not very extendable.

These are the examples that come to mind right away.

Hi Chappy,

1. The quality of the output from the Sigma chipset is poor (bad contrast, blacks, whites, etc.)
2. The user interfaces that the various Sigma-based players use is not friendly at all.
3. The processors that accompany the Sigma-based players are underpowered
4. Most Sigma-based players require some kind of pc-based software
5. The bitrates that the Sigma-based players can handle is insufficient for current standards (blue-ray is 30Mbps, sony HD videocams are 24Mbps, over the air HD is 19Mbps)
6. The Sigma-based players do not process files seamlessly (delays in photo viewing and inter-track music streaming)
7. The Sigma-based players use very poor scalars that are not programmable to allow various size formats for video
8. The Sigma-based players don't enable opensource programming efforts well and are thus not very extendable.

These are the examples that come to mind right away.

The list above is too generalized and broad to be useful.

I have both a X3000 and a Z500.

One of the most glaring defects with the X3000 is the poor ff/rew. If a scene can be described sequentially as 123456789, when fast forwarding what you will see is something like 12221122123321233444333 etc. It does not go forward, it goes back and forth, and it does not go forward very fast. This is with a mpeg2 VOB. xvid and wmv avi's are better.

I do like the press 1 to jump to 10%, press 2 to jump to 20% etc. feature. It can be used as a bit of a workaround to the ff/rew problem.

Both products are subject to seemingly random total lockups requiring a hard power cycling.

Any more reviews of the Helios X5000? I'm trying to decide between this and the Tvix 5000U.

thanks in advance

Why isn't anyone looking at Microsoft Media Center PC's? It seems that all these devices are trying to function as a PC so why not just get the real deal. Sure they cost more, but they are a hell of a lot more flexible. Everyone loves to bash Microsoft, but I for one think they have done a great job in this area. Just my 2 cents.

Update: You could even build your own and install MythTV for free, granted the total system will still cost more than the options listed above.

Why isn't anyone looking at Microsoft Media Center PC's? It seems that all these devices are trying to function as a PC so why not just get the real deal. Sure they cost more, but they are a hell of a lot more flexible. Everyone loves to bash Microsoft, but I for one think they have done a great job in this area. Just my 2 cents.

I spent a long time researching an HTPC. It was going to cost me about $1500 and would not run silent at any rate. A small box of tricks to play DVDs and HD movies is all I need...

I spent a long time researching an HTPC. It was going to cost me about $1500 and would not run silent at any rate. A small box of tricks to play DVDs and HD movies is all I need...

You could get a Mac Mini, which is $599.

Or you could wait for Apple's iTV, but I am sure you would be restricted by what formats are supported. I hate it how Apple locks their hardware down and over-simplifies their software.

I've been a long time HTPC user, both MCE, custom (MyHD, Xcard, Tvedia, Holo3d), and I've dabbled with MythTV. I came to the network media players looking for an appliance-like experience not subject to driver updates/tweaking/instability, and with a bias to coupling them with a standalone external video processor. I have two network media players now, the Zensonic Z500 and Helios X3000. Neither of them can be recommended. They both lockup frequently and fail to play ripped ISOs/IFOs reliably (or at all in the case of the X3000...but the X3000 is much more consistent and stable at VOB and AVI playback). So I am thinking of going back to the HTPC just because even though it took much more maintenance, at least I could watch a movie...or if I couldn't it was always within my own power to fix it rather than wait for a vendor to issue new firmware.

Yes, I think we have to wait for the next generation of network media players (this summer) unfortunately....

Netgear launches Digital Entertainer HD Today!

"Netgear threw down today with the Digital Entertainer HD EVA8000, a new digital media adapter specifically designed to stream HD content (not that it doesn't do lower res video as well as music and pictures) from multiple PCs across a home network and to your TV. This thing rocks the draft 802.11n WiFi, and has an HDMI port which outputs 1080p, composite and component video out, RCA, coaxial and optical digtal audio out, a USB port for streaming content off of an iPod or any USB mass storage drive, and support for playback of MP3, WAV, WMA, FLAC, M4A, AAC, AC3 audio files (including stuff purchased from the iTunes Music Store, but only if you're a Windows user) and MPEG1/2/4, WMV, XviD, H.264 video files. The Digital Entertainer HD will also stream internet radio, read RSS feeds, let you schedule programs to record and pause and rewind live TV if your PC has a TV tuner, and even has a "Follow Me" mode that allows you to pause content in one room and resume it in another (if you own more than one Digital Entertainer HD). Should be out in the first quarter of this year with a retail price of $349."

http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/07/netgear-launches-digital-entertainer-hd/

Netgear launches Digital Entertainer HD Today!



If it runs the same software as the EVA700, prepare to be unimpressed. It's the standard GUI that many other boxes use (I can't think of the vendor off hand that wrote the code), but it's basically a file browser. Ah, Syabas I believe is the vendor of the software. Same as the Snazzi, Galaxy, etc boxes.

Just got an email from NeoDigits to get an X3000 for -$100 off the web site price. I have both the other DVD players and I have been pretty happy with them for the price point and what they do. The remotes suck. But whats the general feeling for a X3000 for -$100 worth it? BTW for anyone who wants one for -$100 just do this: To register, enter 'X3000Helios' as the discount code in your shopping cart, and click on the 'update' button. It will take $100 off the price. Oh and its good for 5 days only I guess starting 01/08/07

Just got an email from NeoDigits to get an X3000 for -$100 off the web site price. I have both the other DVD players and I have been pretty happy with them for the price point and what they do. The remotes suck. But whats the general feeling for a X3000 for -$100 worth it? BTW for anyone who wants one for -$100 just do this: To register, enter 'X3000Helios' as the discount code in your shopping cart, and click on the 'update' button. It will take $100 off the price. Oh and its good for 5 days only I guess starting 01/08/07

Perhaps an indication they have new models to be unveiled soon!

If you can live without IFO and ISO support then the X3000 is pretty good. Oh it also lacks SMB/direct file share support. As I noted above it has been much more stable for me than the Z500 I have.

Just got an email from NeoDigits to get an X3000 for -$100 off the web site price. I have both the other DVD players and I have been pretty happy with them for the price point and what they do. The remotes suck. But whats the general feeling for a X3000 for -$100 worth it? BTW for anyone who wants one for -$100 just do this: To register, enter 'X3000Helios' as the discount code in your shopping cart, and click on the 'update' button. It will take $100 off the price. Oh and its good for 5 days only I guess starting 01/08/07

Thanks for the tip, I got on the website and ordered one. Fingers and toes crossed that it will indeed play my DRM'd files OK!

Thanks for the tip, I got on the website and ordered one. Fingers and toes crossed that it will indeed play my DRM'd files OK!

Did you ask Helios support whether their unit supports DRM? I think better to do that before you plonk down some $$.

Acording to the user manual it does.

Hi All

How is this unit as a DVD player, does it behave well.
I have an older 1080i HDTV without HDMI in the family room and am looking for an upscaling player that outputs over component, this being the first unit that I have seen that does that.
I found this thread while searching for media player to handle my movies, I have a Squeezebox for my music, have not been to impressed with NeoLink server software for this player, but it might work for now given the above need.
Or does someone have recomendation for a different DVD player.

Thanks

Review of X5000 at Secrets (http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-bin/shootout.cgi?function=search&articles=all&type=&manufacturer=75&maxprice=0&deInt=0&mpeg=0). Don't know how recent it is.

Has anyone tried a 4:2:2 ts file with the Helios and does it play?

Another one bites the dust. Less than an hour out of the box and I don't like it much.

Jittery playback of DVDs (and a noisy drive too), very poor response on remote commands (bad remote perhaps?) and also buttons on the remote stick way too readily. Contrary to the user manual....won't play DRM'd files.

However, packaged Media Link software seems really good.

I'm generally pleased with the X5000 which I got two weeks ago. I promptly upgraded the firmware to the latest 20070108 version, and downloaded the latest NeoLink software. Here are my main beefs:

1. Biggest disappointment so far: Despite "iTunes Support" features, it will not play files ripped using iTunes into AAC format. Even video files ripped with AAC will not play audio, although video will play fine. Generally, highlight any audio or video file then press the "Info" button on the remote. If you see "MP4" it will NOT play. If you've got all your media files in iTunes with AAC or M4A format and unwilling to convert them all to MP3 or AC3, you might reconsider getting the X5000. iTunes support only comes with the included NeoLink software. I've since switched to WizD media server; faster, better interface but no iTunes support. In WizD, if you don't see [INFO] next to the file, the file will not play or will not have sound, so you can easily ignore it. I'm hoping that with the next firmware upgrade, they will fix this GLARING bug.

2. No support for WMA-PRO audio-encoded WMV9/HD files. I was looking forward to playing sample files from Microsoft to show off the 1080p upconversion using WMV9/HD files. The video plays beautifully with no jitter. But no audio! Then you press "Info" on the remote, it shows "ASF (WMV9 + WMA PRO)". Very disappointing!

3. Bad Remote Design. This has been discussed to death in other threads. Rumor has it that a "3rd Generation Remote" will be available soon as a replacement. So enough said.

But despite all these, I love the picture and audio quality, when it accepts the file format, that is. These file format problems can all be remedied in firmware. And when they do, I expect to love this box even more!

Does anyone with an X3000 know if it will play a file with the following specs?

Video: XVID 960x528 23.98fps 1829Kbps [Video 0]
Audio: Dolby AC3 48000Hz stereo 448Kbps [Audio 1]

I'm thinking I'm going to return this Mediagate MD-35 I just bought and get a Helios player instead. I've just got to be sure it runs the formats I need first.

If you can post a file somewhere for download I'll give it a test for you.

I have just purchased the x3000 and forgot to think about dvr-ms playback, as i record my tv through media center. I emailed tech support and got the following reply:

Thanks for your interest in our products.

In current firmware, the X3000 player will not be able to support DVR-MS format.

However, we also received same feedback from other customer and this suggestion was posted to our engineers already. What can be done is to expand the features and functionalities of NeoLink, to let it perform real time "transcoding" for unsupported video formats.
However, we can not promise you when it will be available to release.

Thanks again for your time.

Regards,
Peter
Customer Support

So there is some hope for DVR-MS support. Hope this helps

Anyone having problems with jittery DVD playback?
I am experiencing audio dropouts and picture freezes too often on my X5000.
Using the latest firmware.
Any idea?

Hi I am new to these forums but I do read them frequently.

I am thinking about purchasing X3000. I read in the manual that both X3000 and X5000 suport DivX/Xvid files up to 2Gig. What would be the point of playing HD Divx if the file size is limited by 2 Gig?

Does anyone of you guys play HD DivX/Xvid on this player? What is the biggest filesize you have played? This there a way around the file size?

That seems to be the only issue for me. Otherwise this player looks great.

Hi I am new to these forums but I do read them frequently.

I am thinking about purchasing X3000. I read in the manual that both X3000 and X5000 suport DivX/Xvid files up to 2Gig. What would be the point of playing HD Divx if the file size is limited by 2 Gig?

Does anyone of you guys play HD DivX/Xvid on this player? What is the biggest filesize you have played? This there a way around the file size?

That seems to be the only issue for me. Otherwise this player looks great.

I didn't even know there is an limit of 2G...I have many HD Xvid files and never had problem streaming them. I use the ethernet port and not wireless...Don't know if there would be an issues streaming wireless.

I just watched Snatch and that is 2.6G...no issues.

I have the x3000. Pretty cool, lots of potential, but...


Poor remote
Poor wireless
DVDs freeze up often
HDMI to DVI doesn't work
Poor image browsing capabilities
Poor music library navigation


The remote has been discussed before. The buttons often stick (one corner seems to go under the edge of the plastic or something).

Wireless setup was difficult with any encryption turned on. So I turned it off. It played small video files fine, but not larger ones--they would hang fairly early. I bought a Buffalo Airstation Turbo something and it works fine! I just plug the x3000 into it via ethernet cable. This works out for me, anyway, because I can use the Airstation for my SlingBox as well. :)

NTSC DVDs* used to play okay, but since the December firmware upgrade, they freeze up pretty often. Neodigits acknowledges the problem and promises a firmware fix (but they've been saying that since late January). I have actually had to rip DVDs to my PC to play them on my "DVD Player"! This is pretty annoying, as I bought the x3000 primarily to replace my dying DVD player.

*Oddly, it seems like my PAL DVDs play fine.

Again, HDMI to DVI worked fine prior to the December firmware upgrade. Again, Neodigits acknowledges a problem and promises a fix in the next firmware update.

When browsing images, thumbnails are created, but the images themselves usually don't display. It may be a size limitation or something, but I can't browse 95% of the images in my library.

Music plays fine, but navigation and searching are very poor.

For the Image and Music issues, I have tried wizd. Not much better, if at all, in that regard.

But I do typically use wizd: I can watch DVD files (when I'm too lazy to convert them to divx or xvid) and it uses less resources on my computer.

I also tried Windows Media Player for my music library. Navigation and searching are bad there, too.

Both wizd and the Helios player have problems with some video formats. WMV7? I think that one has given me problems. Any other server software out there that I should try?

Despite all these complaints, I do like my x3000. After years of watching downloaded bt vids on my PC, I find it really cool to be able to watch them on a TV in another room very easily. And the USB connection is really cool if I have copied a video file onto my thumbdrive. As I said, lots of potential here.

-Z

Just received my X5000 from HIDEF Lifestyle (quick ship, great price!). A bit quirky configuraiton at first with use of composite cable and firmware upgrades. Got past that, installed Neolink and immediately started streaming a large library of movies stored in VOB format. Wow! I had lost faith having tested other streamers but this finally is starting to look promising. This was my primary use of the X5000. Will test music and photos next.

Infrant ReadyNAS NV+ and 4x 750GB ES drives arrive tomorrow .. then move all multimedia data to NAS, etc.

AFAIK, you can watch ISO files with Wizd - http://wizd.sourceforge.net

Thanks for letting me know about Wizd, it works great with my link player, and now I can play ISO files as well! You made my day

Thanks for letting me know about Wizd, it works great with my link player, and now I can play ISO files as well! You made my day
IMHO WIZD + Linkplayer2 is about as good as it gets...not perfect but as good as anything that is in the market now. BTW CompUSA is now carrying Linkplayer2 in their stores and on online.

IMHO WIZD + Linkplayer2 is about as good as it gets...not perfect but as good as anything that is in the market now. BTW CompUSA is now carrying Linkplayer2 in their stores and on online.Actually there are a few devices that can parse/play DVD back-ups without WIZD.

My Zensonic Z500 offers "Full disc" and "Movie-only" DVD .ISO and IFO file parsing/ playback. I store all my DVD .ISO back-up's on external USB2 HDD's. Which I connect either directly to the players front USB port or to my PC and share via my network.

My "Full disc" DVD .ISO files play and navigate in exactly the same way as the original DVD ;)

Actually there are a few devices that can parse/play DVD back-ups without WIZD.

My Zensonic Z500 offers "Full disc" and "Movie-only" DVD .ISO and IFO file parsing/ playback. I store all my DVD .ISO back-up's on external USB2 HDD's. Which I connect either directly to the players front USB port or to my PC and share via my network.

My "Full disc" DVD .ISO files play and navigate in exactly the same way as the original DVD ;)
Out of curiosity...what is it about the Z500 you do not like? Seems that you are like me...pretty happy with what we have but not totally.

What I do not like about the LP2:
- Poor support
- No more product development
- No NFS, requires server software on a windows machine
- Requires hardware mod to get really good (snapshots) digital picture display

One other very important feature that WIZD, which runs as an executable, provides is file deletion. There are four adults in my household and I record shows for each...it would be s constant battle to keep up with what has been watched and needs to be deleted...does the Z500 have anything like that?

Would the x3000 or x5000 be able to stream HD-DVD back ups?

No, I don't think it does yet. But it does play XVID so converting the 'backups' to XVID will let you play those movies.


Would the x3000 or x5000 be able to stream HD-DVD back ups?

Out of curiosity...what is it about the Z500 you do not like? Seems that you are like me...pretty happy with what we have but not totally.

What I do not like about the LP2:
- Poor support
- No more product development
- No NFS, requires server software on a windows machine
- Requires hardware mod to get really good (snapshots) digital picture display

One other very important feature that WIZD, which runs as an executable, provides is file deletion. There are four adults in my household and I record shows for each...it would be s constant battle to keep up with what has been watched and needs to be deleted...does the Z500 have anything like that? No, the Z500 does not offer file deletion.

The Z500's GUI is totally different to Syabas devices such the Helios, I-O Data, Buffalo, Snazio etc.

Support is excellent, with a 24hr dedicated manufacturers forum.
New products (Ziova CS505 and 510) are set to be released within the next couple of months.
The Z500 can connect to any PC via SMB network connection sharing (which is capable of playing 19Mbps HDTV sources). Without requiring any software to be installed. It also comes bundled with TwonkyVision UPnP media serving software (which does need installing on a PC). NTFS formatted drives are supported via the players front USB connection.
Photographic images look excellent. Although anything above a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels can be slow to load (but this is more to do with limitations to Sigma's chip-set).

Would the x3000 or x5000 be able to stream HD-DVD back ups?Both blue laser disc formats can contain either, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC or VC-1 high profile video streams....

Sigma's EM8620L chip-set does not support MPEG-4 AVC or VC-1 high profile!


Cheers

Has anyone here used Nero Recode to convert DVDs to mpeg4 content to stream on an X3000? I can't get any audio from any of the recoded movies on the x3000, but the same files play fine on both my computer and on a Palm Treo 650.

I sure hope they release that promised patch real soon, my wife and son are about to kill me since it only plays about 50% of the DVDs they try to watch...

Has anyone here used Nero Recode to convert DVDs to mpeg4 content to stream on an X3000? I can't get any audio from any of the recoded movies on the x3000, but the same files play fine on both my computer and on a Palm Treo 650.AFAIK, Nero Recode will encode your DVDs with Nero Digital codec which is not supported by X3000. I'd recommend you to use another tool to convert to DivX or XviD.

I sure hope they release that promised patch real soon, my wife and son are about to kill me since it only plays about 50% of the DVDs they try to watch...What DVDs are not playing for you? Even if you put them into the loader?

AFAIK, Nero Recode will encode your DVDs with Nero Digital codec which is not supported by X3000. I'd recommend you to use another tool to convert to DivX or XviD.

What DVDs are not playing for you? Even if you put them into the loader?


Nero will use whatever codec you tell it to encode with. I've tried Xvid, Divx, and a couple of others. Though I'll have to admit, I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing with any of the encoding software. Its just the audio that doesn't work though, the video part is fine.

On the DVDs, there is no rhyme or reason that I can find. A few of the titles off the top of my head are:
Cars, Ice Age2, Jackass2, Little Miss Sunshine

Others work just fine. Oh, and the ones that don't work, I can rip on my computer and play the VOBs.

I already sent the first X3000 back on RMA, and this is the new one.

Did you ask Helios support whether their unit supports DRM? I think better to do that before you plonk down some $$.

That question has been done to death Chuna aka Raj (one of the owners of Zensonic and the Z500).. for those that dont know...

So please the answer is and has always been YES....

Ah welcome back Wayne. Nice to see you again.. I see you have dug up a post from 4 months ago. You should be telling the guy who was looking to make that purchase the answer not me, I was just asking them to check with Helios on that. My spelling is not right though but close enough ;)

Ah welcome back Wayne. Nice to see you again.. I see you have dug up a post from 4 months ago. You should be telling the guy who was looking to make that purchase the answer not me, I was just asking them to check with Helios on that. My spelling is not right though but close enough ;)

Raj Still enjoying my trouble free X5000 and X3000 without a hitch 2 years now and not a failure but thanks for saying hello again...

Raj Still enjoying my trouble free X5000 and X3000 without a hitch 2 years now and not a failure but thanks for saying hello again...I'm truly happy for you Wayne!

I'm generally pleased with the X5000 which I got two weeks ago. I promptly upgraded the firmware to the latest 20070108 version, and downloaded the latest NeoLink software. Here are my main beefs:



2. No support for WMA-PRO audio-encoded WMV9/HD files. I was looking forward to playing sample files from Microsoft to show off the 1080p upconversion using WMV9/HD files. The video plays beautifully with no jitter. But no audio! Then you press "Info" on the remote, it shows "ASF (WMV9 + WMA PRO)". Very disappointing!

WMV9/HD files with WMA pro audio plays on my x3000. But my receiver will not play the audio in 5.1. The audio only plays if I use speakers on the TV or use 2.0 stereo on my receiver instead of optical 5.1. Did you try the files with 2 channel audio?

WMV9/HD files with WMA pro audio plays on my x3000. But my receiver will not play the audio in 5.1. The audio only plays if I use speakers on the TV or use 2.0 stereo on my receiver instead of optical 5.1. Did you try the files with 2 channel audio?

I have the X-5000 and I can stream WMV9/HD with WMA 10 Pro. I've been streaming files >10GB without issue...

On the 5.1 audio. I had audio trouble when I was encoding from HD-DVD to WMV, but found that you need to check your bitrate. Seems the highest bitrate you can stream is 640kbps.

If you take your existing file and use Windows Media Encoder and encode to the lower bitrate then use WM stream edit to put the video and new audio together, then it plays beautifully.

100% of my movies are dvd.iso. If the player cannot play .iso file, then it is useless to me.
You can play ISO if you use wizd instead of the neolink software.

where is the USB port on X-3000?
I can't find it!

where is the USB port on X-3000?
I can't find it!

Bottom-right corner...
http://img.hkflix.com/images/hardware/helios_x3000_p2.jpg

where is the USB port on X-3000?
I can't find it!Can you see it?

http://www.broadbandcarrier.net/images/X3000%20front.jpg

http://www.broadbandcarrier.net/images/X3000%20rear.jpg


Cheers

Hi all. Well, I've been trolling here for a bit trying to gleen information on the X3000.

So here's my story (I'll keep it short)

I HAD a Zensoic Z500 (hated it)

I HAVE a Mediagate 350HD. I like it. It plays my .ISO files without fail.

I also have an Infrant NV+

I'm LOOKING for a device that has a DVD drive in it and can play my .ISO images.

I just read here that using the NV+ with the built-in media server (which happens to be Wizd) I would be able to serve my .ISO files onto the X3000.

Is this correct?

I have a X3000 and Infrant NV+. The Wizd embedded in the Infrant NV+ doesn't seem to show iso's.

I've also run the Wizd software from a PC at one point, and although it would enable streaming from ISOs, it doesn't provide full menu support. It just plays the biggest item, which is pretty much always the main movie track. Works OK as long as you don't care about full DVD menu support.

How do you find music files and picture management?

I don't use the music or pictures features at all. I only use it to play wmv and mpeg2 video from my Infrant ReadyNAS.

I have a Buffalo Linktheater DVD player connected through a network by upnp to a Buffalo Terastation 1TB NAS drive and I've had issues with it. I don't really trust the DVD player as it locks up once in awhile so I mostly use my Phillips DVD/Recorder for playing DVDs. The linktheater works fine for playing all the home movies from the NAS drive and so that's all I use it for. I wanted to use it to play all my mp3s fom the NAS drive but I have a problem with the menus which makes no sense. I use a file system by genre and would like to point the player to that parent directory and have it play all music in all the sub directories. Instead you have to point it at a mp3 and it will play all in that directory only.

Would I like the 5000 and would it be easier to play content?

To go further and explain another problem. I have a 300CD juke box which I use to play CDs and this has been my best option for playing music and for the most part I don't use the Linktheater but recently the unit lost all the inputed information for all the CDs and I don't want to input all the CD information to it again. I think I'd like a simpler unit and would like to remove my Juke box as well as the Phillips DVD player/recorder and end up with just one nice unit. The cost is not much of an issue either but I hate all this having stuff that never works right. My Phillips DVD recorder is another ruin in which I spent the most I could on a hard drive unit and have never been able to figure the unit out because the menus are so bad. I've never used it to record and frankly it's easy on my laptop DVD recorder and the menus are easier to understand. With the use of the NAS drive and the ability by way of universal remotes and modulating a channel for the Linktheater it is nice to have content available from any TV in the house.

Sorry for ranting.

John

Nero will use whatever codec you tell it to encode with. I've tried Xvid, Divx, and a couple of others. Though I'll have to admit, I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing with any of the encoding software. Its just the audio that doesn't work though, the video part is fine.

On the DVDs, there is no rhyme or reason that I can find. A few of the titles off the top of my head are:
Cars, Ice Age2, Jackass2, Little Miss Sunshine

Others work just fine. Oh, and the ones that don't work, I can rip on my computer and play the VOBs.

I already sent the first X3000 back on RMA, and this is the new one.

casca -

Did you ever get this issue resolved? I just got my X3000 on Wed 7/18 and much to my disappointment I'm having audio problems with my Nero Digital files as well. I made the mistake of using the HE AAC 5.1ch encoding on most of my movies and I now know that that particular format definitely isn't supported by the X3000. I have many over videos however that are encoded with the 5.1ch LC AAC format audio. I have my X3000 connected to my Denon receiver with 6 cables from the analog outputs on the X3000 to the Ext In RCA jacks on my Denon. When I play a file I do get sound, but the subwoofer channel isn't working - only a low frequency hum out of the sub with no LFE at all.

I'm sending mine back to Hidef Lifestyles next week for a replacement to see if this is just a bad unit. But based on the fact that I was able to play a DivX encoded file with 5.1ch AC3 audio last night I'm starting to think the X3000 won't do the job.

-Kevin

For you Helios users, I just want to rip my audio CDs in a lossless codec (FLAC is fine) to a large HDD and then send the digital (2 ch) signal without jitter to my Benchmark DAC. The unit must be user friendly, perfectly quiet, and have a visual GUI so I can see what I am playing. And I don't want to have to use wirelss streaming from any PCs. Which of the Helios models (if any) will do that for me. Thanks.

I just received my X3000 yesterday.

Can another X3000 owner confirm if ALIENS (the full uncompressed ISO) will play Chapter 4 (immediately at the start of the chapter) without stuttering? Please also let me know what firmware you are using.

I noticed that the firmware on this one is dated Sep 12 2007 as 61-35-070912-01-HLO-288-060. The Helios website does not even have this firmware up so perhaps this is a faulty firmware?

Thanks!

I just received my Helios X-3000 and the firmware is 61-35-070912-01-HLO-288-060 (Same as the post below). It does not seem to be on the Helios website. Even after all these months.

With this firmware, I have noticed occasional video stutter. Possibly during VOB change.

http://shopping.yahoo.com/?name=woot#woot
$279.99 + $5 shipping