I have now been using the new Tvix M3100U a couple of weeks. Comparing with my old Media Center PC, the GUI looks very dull, but fortunately the functionality is excellent.

The unit is very stable, no freezes/lockups, even tried to make it crash, doing extensive rewinding and forwarding in video files (something that makes most other players on the market crash), but the M3100U was stable as rock. The DVD iso/ifo playback is flawless.

The only flaw with video is that playing back a single vob file (not in a complete dvd structure) you only get video but no audio. I have a bunch of music videos in vob format and I can't understand why the audio does not work when playing them. If I play a complete ripped DVD file structure the audio works without problems. Any ideas of what is causing this?

The bad news is the music playback, while it does exactly what it advertises (and yay it successfully displays Japanese file names and ID3 tags) it is lacking features.

- The player is not gapless
- Would be nice with a lossless codec, like ape or flac
- A better GUI so that you see tag info without hitting "info" button would be great

The biggest antifeature is that there is no way to turn off looping, if you play audio files in a folder, the player loops them for infinity. I really hope this is something they fix with a future firmware.

Hi visuatrox, the Tvix M3100U is one of the media streamers/severs that I'm
considering (along with Novatron's IAMM NTD36HD and the MEDIAMAN HVX-3500).

Can I ask how you find it with avi/xvid files. 99% of what I use my current set up (Windows MCE 2005 PC) for, is to watch downloaded avi's and on rare occasions, the odd dvd. You mention doing extensive rewinding and forwarding in video files, does that include AVI's or are you talk video as in vob files, etc? Being able to ffd and rewind avi's would be cool, cause I can only skip forward and backwards (30 secs) with MCE.

I had the same problem with some VOBs not playing the audio (also some mpeg files) with my 5000. I ran the files through DVD movie factory and nero, and got the audio to work again.

I would love to know why this bug is there, and let TVIX know so they can fix it. But the work around is not that bad.

(OK the original post referred to the upcoming 5101--my bad!)

originalsnuffy "I had the same problem ... with my 5101"
OK originalsnuffy are you just teasing :( us or do you really have a 5101 :cool: and where did you get it from?

Oh sorry. 5101 on my mind. I meant the 5000.

Gotta wait till nov or dec for the 5101. And who knows how long until it is stable.

Course maybe our DVICO/TVIX friends will get it right at the start this time...

Hi all,

I'm a M-3100U user and I am very happy of it :) . Of course few details can be improved: :cool:
- TAG ID3-v2 is not supported but only ID3-v1
- remain time could be improved (e.g. when several files are played or playlist)
- audio details could be added (2.1/5.1/6.1...)
- directory browsing (e.g. use other icon or sign + if subdirectories exist)
- show when several pages (i.e. > 10 lines) exist (e.g. arrow up/down icons or [...])
- include subdirectories into directory tagged AutoMp3/AutoJpg

I expected that these suggestions were very small to implement :p but discover the answer from Divco support I received: "Currently, we did most of things we can do with M3000 series. This is because of due to the limit of HW. We will release a new firmware which will be mainly bug fix. However, we keep implementing M5000 for better features." :o

For me it looks clear: this product is dead and/or code size is full... I'm disapointed :( about it because I bought it only one month ago because I don't need network or HDTV, i.e. I don't need M5000 series. :mad:

This M-3100U is still a good product but don't expect future release with revolution like great thumbnail browsing which is under beta testing with the M-5000 series or play ogg files with jpeg files displaying.

Hope this light future users in their choice to select their player.
Ciao
:cool:

Is there any M-3100U user or only 5000 series users? :o

I have it, but problems playing xvid files. The colors are shaking on the screen.
happens with reds and blues very bad. Hard to watch cartoons. Divx 3 works fine.
Is there anyway to convert back to Divx3?

Hi,

I've had the 3100 for about a month now, and I'm very happy with it. It's perfect for DivX/XviD playback. No problems with packed bitstreams, but Q-PEL and S-VOP(GMC) wont play properly.

The subtitle timing, and the shape of the characters could be a lot better.

When you zoom a DVD, you also zoom the subtitles, so they don't fit the screen.

You can stretch the picture, one way at the time. Perfect if the movie has bad aspect ratio!

There are five fan speeds. The higher speed you have, the longer the hard drive will live. If you have it on step 4 or 5, you hear the fan loud and clear, so if you want to high speed, and keep the low volume, you'll have to change the fan.

So I tried to open my Tvix, but it seems like you have to pull the front off!?
Has anyone managed opening the damn thing...? (Or am I just blind, missing some screws?)

I also want to know if it's possible to replace the IDE cable?


- TAG ID3-v2 is not supported but only ID3-v1

There isn't even id3v1!


I have it, but problems playing xvid files. The colors are shaking on the screen.
happens with reds and blues very bad. Hard to watch cartoons. Divx 3 works fine.
Is there anyway to convert back to Divx3?
You can install Ffdshow, and then use VirtualDub to save it with another codec. Easy to find out how to do it ;)

Hi,

I've had the 3100 for about a month now, and I'm very happy with it. It's perfect for DivX/XviD playback. No problems with packed bitstreams, but Q-PEL and S-VOP(GMC) wont play properly.

The subtitle timing, and the shape of the characters could be a lot better.

When you zoom a DVD, you also zoom the subtitles, so they don't fit the screen.

You can stretch the picture, one way at the time. Perfect if the movie has bad aspect ratio!

There are five fan speeds. The higher speed you have, the longer the hard drive will live. If you have it on step 4 or 5, you hear the fan loud and clear, so if you want to high speed, and keep the low volume, you'll have to change the fan.

So I tried to open my Tvix, but it seems like you have to pull the front off!?
Has anyone managed opening the damn thing...? (Or am I just blind, missing some screws?)

I also want to know if it's possible to replace the IDE cable?


There isn't even id3v1!



You can install Ffdshow, and then use VirtualDub to save it with another codec. Easy to find out how to do it ;)

Thanks! Can you show me how? I need to go to divx 3, also will this fix the audio sync problems???
Thanks soo much!
I have every eposide of the simpsons they play fine on the computer, put the audio is off bad on the tvix. Thanks.

It seems like I can't post any URLs right now, so I'll just have to tell you to look for guides, and the codec pack K-Lite using Google...

There isn't even id3v1!
It works for me (firmware 1.9.5 for 3100u). I use now both tags into my mp3 files and id3v1 tag can be shown by INFO remote key.



I have it, but problems playing xvid files. The colors are shaking on the screen.
happens with reds and blues very bad. Hard to watch cartoons. Divx 3 works fine.
Is there anyway to convert back to Divx3?
May be it's not linked to the encoder because all my XviD works perfectly. Check your connection cable: I recommend S-Video gold cable as I'm using.

Please don't change Xvid to Divx3! XviD works very well and provides very good results if it is well configured. Really better than divx3!
1/ download this XviD encoder by Koepi (search google for koepi xvid)
2/ Install it!
3/ Configure it (do it only once forever!)
- No GMC, No QPEL, No Packet bitstream
- Select profile DXN_HT_PAL
- Motion search Precision : 6- Ultra High and VHQ Mode : 1- Mode decision
- mini I/P/B frame quantizers set to 2, Trellis set
- Set Chroma motion, VHQ with B-frames also and Maximum I-frame interval à 300(NTSC) or 250 (PAL)
- 2nd pass: I-frame->10/1/20, Overflow ->5/5/5, Curve->0%/15%
4/ Now you can use it: select 2 pass mode and video bit rate target (you can calculate it by XviD, function of final video size: e.g. 1000bits/s for 600 pixel width size give good result. Personnaly I'm using software "ripp-it after me" (RIAM) (search google for ripp-it telecharger pack, then go to the bottom of the page (it's french but english language can be selected). RIAM do calculation for you: resize movie, select Xvid, MP3 bit rate and target: check quality >= 0.20.

Note: what about encoder you will use to re-encode, if your source file is wrong it will not be better if you reencode it excepted if you use some filters to improve it. But believe me when I say that XviD as configured upper will give you best result you have never seen! Check yourself from same original DVD source and compare result on your TV!

Cheerio,
Tregor

That's strange... I'm pretty sure I have 1.9.5, but I'd better take another look then...

I found out on another forum that it is possible to replace the IDE cable. So as soon as I've found out how to open the player, I'll check out if you can connect two hard drives. If not, I'll see if I can make some kind of power switch, so you can easilly switch between two (or more) drives... Anyone more who's interested? :p

Hi

can somebody help as Divco can't seem to!

I have an M3100u and it works fine for video and photo but I have real probelms with MP3s.

CDs I have ripped, that play fine on any number of PCs and also played fine on an old Freecom media player all have regular gaps in the playback. This happens starts anywhere between 12 and 25 secs and then repeats every 10 secs or so afterwards.

The thing is mp3s I have downloaded all play absolutley fine.

I have uploaed two files at the divco site but they can't figure it out.

I really need to know if I should send it back to get a new one as having c400 cds to rerip does not inspire me.

Please help.

Is it possible to use
folder icons on the M-3100u?

Hi

can somebody help as Divco can't seem to!

I have an M3100u and it works fine for video and photo but I have real probelms with MP3s.

CDs I have ripped, that play fine on any number of PCs and also played fine on an old Freecom media player all have regular gaps in the playback. This happens starts anywhere between 12 and 25 secs and then repeats every 10 secs or so afterwards.

The thing is mp3s I have downloaded all play absolutley fine.

I have uploaed two files at the divco site but they can't figure it out.

I really need to know if I should send it back to get a new one as having c400 cds to rerip does not inspire me.

Please help.

Have you run a Windows Check Disk on your TVIX Box HDD yet?

If not you may wish to try that.

Thanks,
Paul
TVIX Box Digital Multimedia Players (http://www.tvixbox.com)

Is it possible to use
folder icons on the M-3100u?

See this thread
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=801719

i have some questions about the M-3100U, i hope you guys can answer them:


- what play modes are there? shuffle, repeat, but can it shuffle through all music files, or just one folder?

- do iso-files work like stated in the manual, or do you have to point the player to a .ifo file?

- can it play .wav files?

- can it play .ogg files?

- how loud is the fan? is it possible to turn it down without overheating the HDD?

- how is jpeg play? are there transitions possible and are there any limits in sizes?

- would you recommend it? i don't need/want a highdef player, developments are not over and i just want a "cheap but good" case for a spare PATA hdd.

I hope you can answer my questions, thanks!

mine is loaned out at the moment so I can only answer 2 of your questions...

I leave the fan set at normal (quiet and now over-heating)

ISO files play great (with menu support), and it makes it a very clean file system. I use CloneDVD to save my DVD's as iso files (with menus).

Hope this helps. :rolleyes:

NOTE: If you have a Panasonic TV stay away from this model! Every time I use any Panasonic remote code, the 3100 shuts off!

This helps a bit... i hope you can answer my other questions when you have yours back!

Especially, i like to hear about the play modes, now i know that iso-files play great...

Does this Panasonic remote problem also apply to older CRT-like models? And has it to do with the REMOTE or the TV itself, or the codes used? Because i use only a universal remote.

I have a 2005 Panasonic CRT HDTV. It is the codebase itself that is the problem. It doesn't make any difference if I use my original remote or a Harmony... anytime I hit a button on the Panasonic, the TViX shuts off. I contacted Dvico about this. They acknowledged the problem, but had NO fix. They told me to move the TViX away from the TV! ha ha..

So, they used the same codes as Panasonic... that's pretty stupid! My TV (nonHD) is at least 15 years old, so maybe it doesn't have to be problem. I certainly will keep it in mind, though!

I like to hear more from you when you have your unit back...

You might want to check out the official forum at http://forum.tvixbox.com/viewforum.php?f=1&sid=c59048e38a5d067a24d429d1c34f512b

A rather large quote from the manual...

What the TViX is?
Enjoy your digital movies, music and photos on your TV!! TViX can be used as a multimedia jukebox,
music tank, photo album and even as a portable storage. TViX brings all of your digital contents to the
living room so that you can enjoy movie, music and photos with your family, friends or colleagues.
Multimedia Jukebox
TViX supports most of the video formats including MPEG-1, MPEG-2 (AVI, VOB) and MPEG-4 (AVI,
XviD) movies on the internet. CD or DVD can be copied into TViX and you can enjoy your favorite
contents on TV. Download your favorite contents into TViX and go vacation with it.
TViX is a portable multimedia jukebox!!
- Supporting ISO file format (4GB or more), but not available AVI file of 2GB or above.
- Under the NTFS format system, over 4 GB of video file(mpg) is supported
Music Tank
Put all of your music files into TViX and travel with it!! TViX can play variety of audio files such as MP3,
Ogg Vorbis or WMA through the TV speaker or your existing audio system. To listen to your favorite
music files continuously, you can organize a custom play list and enjoy music all day without changing
CDs.
Photo Album
TViX is also a Digital photo album which can hold tens of thousands of high resolution digital photos.
Take digital pictures and store the files in TViX. Instead of bringing your whole family to your PC
monitor to watch the digital photos, enjoy the photos on TV sitting on a comfortable sofa in your living
room. Life is so good.
Portable Storage
TViX uses a 3.5” HDD as its contents storage and it works just like a external USB 2.0 hard drive when
you connect it to your PC. When sharing multimedia files with your friends, you can do it so fast by
using the latest USB2.0 interface. USB2.0 lets you transfer data at 480Mbps!!

It is a cool box to take to partys...

Thanks for the info, but i already found that website tvixbox...

Since the manual is really limited on information, i have two questions left:

On my mp3-player i have the following play modes:
- normal
- normal folder
- repeat 1
- repeat folder
- repeat all
- shuffle folder
- shuffle all
- shuffle repeat
1) Can you (or someone else) tell me which ones are supported from this list?

2) How is JPEG playback? on mpcclub, someone wrote there is a limit at 1024x768, but is this for the pictures themselves, or just output? can i for example, play pictures of 2048x1536?

Thanks for your help! ;)

dunno if any one can help having trouble playing some avi's on a tvix 3100 namely the avi's's I've rip from my DVDs the avi's I've download work fun tho please can some one help!:confused:

cheers

Well its all about how you encode them. I use to backup my dvds with nero and TVix did not like them. I switched to shrink and have had zero problems since. Its a trial and error process. The only sure fire way is to do a iso, that seems to have the least amout of issues.

hmmm i used mac the ripper and hand brake to encode them they are h.264 divx encoded, i would us iso's but there so damn big is there anyway to get my tvix to read them or to convert the current avi's to an encoding that the tvix will read?

:(

I have had problems with my M3100u when playing mp3s. Mine was returned to the supplier who sent it back after testing saying there was nothing wrong with it. The playback of audio in My Music resulted in recurrent pausing after 23 seconds, 33 seconds ---.

I have managed, with some assistance, to identify the problem and let K.J.Global know about it. The source of the trouble is downloaded album art. When ripping my CDs to mp3 with Media Player 11 and MediaMonkey I dowloaded album art. This is embedded in the folders for the albums as jpegs and thumb.db files.

Although the music plays back smoothly on a computer the M-3100u can't cope. Switching off Slideshow in Settings gives uninterrupted mp3 playback but the album art flashes like a neon sign and drives you to distraction.

A friend tested the device with his TV and immediately encountered the same problem. Classical albums played back perfectly, which was a further clue, because there were no associated pictures of artists.

If you remove all these picture files from the albums, playback of mp3s on the M-3100u will be perfect. Unfortunately, this is likely to take some time. I must have around 200 albums and the task took a couple of hours.

This forum seems to have plenty of experts but my knowledge is fairly basic. To remove the "infestation" of pictures I used Windows Explorer. You have to enable a search for hidden system files which gives a frightening warning about Windows possibly not working or programs not opening. Relax, because if you connect the TViX up via usb to the computer you are working on an external hard drive so operations are safe.

There is a freeware program called FreeCommander which has been recommended to me. This might be easier and quicker to use for stripping out the picture files.

I hope that I at least get my money for carriage back because so far the matter has taken up an awful lot of time. I also bought a new set of component and audio cables just in case that was the reason things were not working properly. Component definitely gives a superior picture with photos and video on 720P. So far, the playback of mp3s seems to be OK now the art is cleared. I may be able to start enjoying the device at last.

I kept away from media players with networking capabilities and went for something really basic so as to avoid problems. I'd put a smiley here if I knew how.