thxs Nick.

Speaking of serial numbers, mine is 20400133, I purchased mine in April 2002. Does this mean they have only sold 267 units in 1.5 years? Not boding well for DV-900m. My two are all packed, taped and labeled, waiting to be shipped out on Mon via Fedex for about $37 each. Scheduled to arrive on friday for July 14 appointment. Wonder how long it will take to turnarond the units?

That can't be the case, since I bought my unit from Crutchfield in December of 2001 (out of scatch and dent no less), and my serial is 10900385.

If I had to guess, and this is totally a SWAG, I'd say it's more something like: last digit of year built, month of year built, and then a sequential number for the last 5. Though I have no way to confirm that, since there is no manufacture date on the box or the machine.

It's also possible that since the 5050 and the 5900 are essentially the same shell, that the serials cover both models. *shrugs*

My e-mail is on the way!

Oh, and I got my stuff from their points program for registering last week as well. T-shirt, hat, and a pretty nice travel radio with alarm, weather band, and a small digital recorder for notes inside. Nice unit.

Thanks Kenwood. Now if this update only fixes some of the nags with the 5900M, I'll be happy to say once again I'm a satisfied Kenwood customer. :)

Carbo et al,

I searched the forums and found some old posts by Scott and others with example static IP settings. Set the router to static and set the Entre to static with appropriate local (192.168.1.xxx) IPs, gateway, mask, and DNS. Entre connects and performs lookups fine, internet radio plays. Most of the OpenGlobe information appears to be messed up, not sure if their site is down/hosed (movie searches don't work, artist searches produce unbelievable results (search for Michael J. Fox, Back to the Future, or Star Wars and you get "not found" or bogus results, several pages brought up HTTP error screens, etc).

Anyway, I switched the router back to dynamic and tried the Entre on dynamic again - still no dice. Switched the Entre (but not the router) back to static and things seem to work OK. I'll leave it like this until I run into another problem.

Thanks to those who've posted on this topic before.

Mike

Are there any others having the same connectivity problems with the Entre post the update? Either for internet or media manager? I know that Mkelly and I are both on a wireless but am just trying to narrow it down a bit.

Originally posted by slocko
Avant Browser is like the best piece of software on my computers. That guy is a genius. Let us know the results. At least that will make loading up my entre with mp3s easier. <snip> Why didn't anyone warn me this was an expensive hobby?????? :) I am starting to spend beyond my means!!!!!!!!!! :)
I was away on vacation so I haven't tried Media Manager yet but glad first signs show it helping with your 6 limit issue. Indeed Avant Browser is a treat and I love the latest version that allows the google.com toolbar to work! BTW, I think you should seek counseling as you are showing signs...

I just read the past couple days of post to this thread. KW's/David's are consistently inconsistent. None the less glad the day arrived that Nick got feed (ate hat). Nick has got to be a contacted directly by KW to get an award of some sort...for his recent purchases and dedication. I'm nearly floored. Very much looking forward to Nicks future reports of how the changes worked .

Derek,

Actually, I'm on wired Ethernet. Entre seems to be working set up for static IP. The old version of Media Manager works, still have not installed the new version.

Mike

It seems that as time goes by, people are forced to move to static IPs. Would love to see what the real deal with that is.

Derek, are you saying your router is wireless with hard ports that you use with the entre? or are you saying you found a usb wireless adapter that works with the entre?

Guys,

Sorry I was away for the day. I'm glad you got your stuff up and running.

Slocko,

It is hardwired into a Linksys wireless router.

Nothing works now. It shows MP3's but will not play. It will not play internet radio. It is not seen by the Media Manager. It cannot look anything up via Openglobe.

Derek,

Is it possible that you need to open up a port or two on your router? I have 2.0.0.8 on my Enter, and I can play Internet Radio fine via my DLink router.

I am betting that you are right Jon in that there is a setting somewhere that is doing most of all this havok. Unfortunately, I know nothing about routers other than how to get into their settings via internet explorer.

but what does playing mp3s have to do with ports being open?

i thought ports only needed to be open when you wanted someone to come into your network. i think my dlink router by default comes will the all the ports closed.

Slocko,

You're right... the ports have nothing to do with MP3 playback. There may be two different things going on that look like one. Or, it could be a single problem that manifests as two issues. It's very difficult to tell from here.

I haven't tried MP3 playback yet on my Entre using 2.0.0.8. Will try tonight.

MP3 playback working fine for me, as is internet connection. In fact, connecting to net is much quicker than before update. Coincidence?

I finally got my upgrade notice today. My day is July 16. Time to start unloading. Out of curiosity, has anyone yet weighed their 5900 in the original box? What is the weight?

If you are having connnection problems. Check in your settings and see what is assigned to your Entre for IP, Gateway, subnet. After the upgrade mine starting assigning the wrong values. I had to take DHCP out of the look and do a static.

Feeling good to know that the DVD player sent in to Kenwood for repair last week will also have the upgrade done at the same time. It should be back by the end of the week.

maybe if you shut off the router and do dynamic, it will flush out the old values? then you can turn the router back on?

just a guess since i don't anything about how the entre works.

Originally posted by Carbo
If you are having connnection problems. Check in your settings and see what is assigned to your Entre for IP, Gateway, subnet. After the upgrade mine starting assigning the wrong values. I had to take DHCP out of the look and do a static.

Slacko -

Just wanted to say THANKS :D for the help on the DVD Skip issue.

I had in fact turned on the SEQUENTIAL (sp?) feature. Since I do not put audio CD's in my unit I have never read up on this feature.

Now I know.

THANKS AGAIN !!!

SLOCKO -

Sorry I misspelled your NAME !!

that's alright, i do tend to be a slacko tooo!!!!!!!!!!!!! your welcome.

rbienstock,

I haven't weighed the unit but the shipping paperwork from Crutchfield for the unit I just bought showed 39 lbs. The unit was packed in a larger outer cardboard box with peanuts for padding.

Mike

Ok everything has finally settled down a bit, and I am going to stir it up:)

Sent my changer in today Jul 11th appt. Has anyone determined if these upgrades will make the changes promised eariler and has anyone seen or heard about IP addressable?

One more thing.....Do you think D&M Holdings(Denon and Marantz) will continue to support a rival company in an O.E.M. capacity?

Food for thought!!!

Originally posted by Mr. Integration
Ok everything has finally settled down a bit, and I am going to stir it up:)

Sent my changer in today Jul 11th appt. Has anyone determined if these upgrades will make the changes promised eariler and has anyone seen or heard about IP addressable?

One more thing.....Do you think D&M Holdings(Denon and Marantz) will continue to support a rival company in an O.E.M. capacity?

Food for thought!!!

I did read in a recent (post D&M purchase of OpenGlobe) release, that OpenGlobe is going to be more aggressive partnering with Japanese OEMs to futher penetrate that market.

This seems like a positive move for the Industry -- I'd hate to see only Denon and Marantz equipment have the OpenGlobe OS/user interface.

Well, I finally decided to "pull the plug" on my 5050. I unloaded it over the long weekend and replaced the DVDs into my Sony 860 (with like 10 slots to spare). The 5050 has become erratic at playing discs, erratic at ejecting discs, and never lived up to its promise with the Entre. What a shame.

I guess I'll send it for repair and upgrade, then eBay it.

rbienstock

According to the FedEx scale today the 5050 weighs 27.4 lbs and the 5900 27.7, Original box with styrofoam end pieces.


Tom

the entre was 18 lbs in case anyone ever has to send it back. 36 dollars to CA with 3 day shipping from ups.

JustMike -

If you really want to sell your 5050 after repair let me know. I having been activly (sp?) looking for one to add to my 5900/Entre combo.

Now that the upgrades are at hand they might both actually work together
:D.

Thanks !!

I have the original boxes that reflect that the shipping weight was 33 lbs. Of course, I am not including the keyboard, manuals, wires etc. so it should be a little lighter. But, it really does not matter since the size will eventually determine the cost. The original boxes are 25X21X12. Under UPS guidelines, this is considered oversize and they go by the "dimension" to determine cost. In my case the player is being sent from Coral Gables FL (33134) to Long Beach (90810) and the price is $52 if I had dailey pick and an account. As it is the two units will cost me a total of $134. Thats fine with me. However, it could have gone by Fedex for a total of $54 for the two units which would have taken 4 days to arrive. But, the instructions say send by UPS so tommorrow it goes out 3-day select so that it gets there in time for my July 14 appointment. Spent couple hours on Saturday unloading 650+ DVDs, guess we'll see what happens in 4-6 weeks.

I have a RACIST entre. It is still not finding the internet or my CPU. Nor will it play any rap/hiphop MP3's. It seems that it has grown it's own taste for which MP3's it will play.

have you tried rebuilding the library? maybe the database got corrupt and the pointers are no longer pointing to valid locations?

might explain your problem. you have to use the backdoor. do a search on backdoor on dvd hardware and it should pull up the backdoor.

The Single Disc Life

I'm living it now. 600+ DVDS stacked on a cabinet, and, if I choose to watch one, I stick it in the Panasonic RP-91, and then everything is back to normal.

I hope I never have to live this life again. Apart from the sligtlly "different" picture I got from the RP-91 (differences ironed out greatly by the common video processor, and interlaced ouputs), I want the glitz of the list, the ability to tell myself 5 minutes into a movie that I'd made a wrong choice (and pressing another button cures that choice).

Kenwood, it's decadence you'vve sold us, and for that I am eternally grateful.

Nick :cool:

LOL Nick. Slocko, thanks for the tip. I have used the 5555 code to get the Entre to re-register. It seems that it is supposed to list PROD as the network to which the Entre goes to seek Openglobe info but mine did not have it. Then there is a 64000 code that I have not gotten to work as of yet. I will try the library re-build as well. Thanks.

I can't believe what a pain in a** it is to set up an entre. I bought one of the usb->ethernet adaptors listed on the sovereign website and couldn't get it to work. Turns out that you have to dial up to get the update that will make the usb-ethernet adaptor usable. But to dial up you need an account (thanks derek for passing along the kenwood acct info) in addition to dns info (who knew - I asked the kenwood support guy how anyone would know this and he said that they would only know it if they called tech support???). After jumping through hoops and dialing up and successfully registering, I told the entre to get the latest software (2.0.0.8) which took a long time and even then the ethernet connection doesn't work. The kenwood support people don't have a clue - if it doesn't work then reboot, if it doesn't work then reset the unit and try again. I wonder what they will suggest next? (not much else to reset, reboot, retry).

Is it supposed to be this hard just to get the thing to work? I still haven't gotten any use out the entre (I have wasted quite a bit of time, though). I really hope this thing is worth the trouble.

Whew - I feel better already.

I can't believe that I am in a unique situation. Anyone out there been in my shoes and can offer some better help than the kenwood techs????

Chef,

- Double-check that you have 2.0.0.8 installed
- Try another usb-ethernet adapter (one that someone on the list uses successfully)
- Try setting your Entre for a static IP

Once it works, I think you'll be glad you put in the effort up-front.

Well - I for one is very excited about this announced upgrade. The software upgrade works flawless for me so far... With the announced improvements of the 5900M and multi-changer support this will be a killer system!! I have about 900 DVD's/CD's in my collection so the multi- changer support will be great...

I am now on stand-by to buy 2 additional 5900 units, but need a confirmation where I can buy the new generation of these changers (I don't want to buy new changers and then end up having to send them in for upgrade...). Anyone know a dealer that carry these changers and can confirm they are selling "the enhanced generation" ?

I am sure many more enhancements will come in the future... At least the following are expected software improvements that Kenwood/OG has/is stating will come in a future upgrade :
- email
- web
- DVD-A to be added to the Music group rather than the movie group

Now, if we could just get an updated version of the Media Manager to support DVD's I would be perfectly happy with the system.

/Lars
Plano, TX

chefmitch,

You are not alone. I too could not register my Entre. Bought it on a friday night and had to wait until monday for tech support to open up. Turns out I had to use static DNS addresses (198.6.1.1 and 198.6.1.2). I then bought the Belkin USB ethernet adapter so I could use Media Manager. It kind of works. If I do too much, the Entre will lock up and I have to warm boot it (hol the power button down for about 5 seconds).

At least you could upgrade to 2.0.0.8. I'm stuck on 1.1.0.10. Every time I try to upgrade, it tells me it is downloading the updates and fails after a couple of minutes. Very frustrating. Looks like I'm going to have to call tech support again. Sure would be great if I could use a real computer to download the 2.0.0.8 image, burn it to CD then boot the Entre with that CD and do a "manual" upgrade.

Chef, FWIW, I also had to do the dial-in dance when setting up the Entre. I also had to call tech support. Kenwood must be losing a mint on this changer with the support costs. They could have made it a lot easier on themselves by putting this info (about the initial dial-in connection to get the update) up on the web with the list of adapters.

The good news is, once I got it working (with a D-Link, I think) it worked fine. I can't comment on the new build, because the unit's inability to recognize 30% of my DVDs and other issues finally made me return it within my 30-day window at the store.

Maybe somebody with the new release can comment -- has disc identification improved? I've been using DVD Profiler now, and the identification is also not perfect when using the on-disc ID, but it's much better about letting you get the correct disc selected by other means.

Quick question: does anybody know if the 5900 and 5050 have the same MEI MPEG decoder? (I realize the 5900 has the Faroudja chip in it, but I believe that would be separate from the decoder).

Originally posted by SammyB
chefmitch, You are not alone. <snip> Sure would be great if I could use a real computer to download the 2.0.0.8 image, burn it to CD then boot the Entre with that CD and do a "manual" upgrade.

What is odd about all this is that on the FAQ the go out of their way to tell us that they try to update the new units with current software. Perhaps they are doing this but most of the Entres are coming from older manufacturing batches that are are local retailers and not at their (KWs) warehouses.

The FAQ is certainly outdated in other areas. Here is where it talks about CD updates and the "latest" releases of the software (very old text). [David B or Brian T please notify someone to update the FAQs]

FAQ (http://www.kenwoodusa.com/group_info.jsp?categoryTypeId=110&productTypeId=147&productId=2357)
How often will Kenwood and OpenGlobe update my Entré's software?
<snip>Kenwood is making every effort to ensure that every product sold has the latest available version of software loaded at our warehouse. With every software release, we are updating our Entré stock via CD-ROM at our warehouse. (Loading this new software requires that we open the box and power-up the unit.) Loading software at our facility ensures that in the unusual case you should desire to "reset to factory defaults", your Entré will revert to this newer version of the software rather than to the older version installed at the factory.<snip>

if anyone is interested, they can PM me. I found a dealer in NY who will ship out a 5900m. cost for player $995. He said they should be receiving them by the end of the week. He told me he will speak with Kenwood today to see if they are upgraded units and to call him tomorrow.

Thanks to those with the static IP help. Nick with Kenwood tech support just walked me through it and it fixed the Media Manager issue and the online issue.

However, we still have no idea why my Entre will only play 80's MP3's. They were the first ones I put on there is the only thing I can think of. No other genres will play. We have re-built the library and everything else we can think of.

My update is not so encouraging....

My Entre is defective / broken - must replace / repair.

Hopefully, the next one will work without any trouble.....

Sorry to hear that Chef.

Entre setup shows that I have about 160 MP3's. The guide shows that I have about 700. 700 should be the correct number.

Derek I feel for you, but it might be time for you to just reset everything back to the defaults and start over :(

sounds like you have database corruption of some sort. does media manager show the correct number of files?

Media Manager shows the 700 that it should be. To answer the question of whether or not the new Media Manager corrects the bug that kept us from moving any more than 9 or 10 MP3's at a time, it's a big No. At least not on my computer.

David, you might be able to help out on this one . . . Anyone else, feel free to chime in.

As far as I can tell, the Entre functions as the last "pass-through" from Entre/Changer to A/V Preamp/Video Switcher (although not, I believe, the digital audio). Currently, the Entre controls the one changer via the RS232 port.

The changers themselves are still daisy chained, via video and digital audio inputs and outputs. They are not, however, connected to one another via any RS232 connection. Will the upgrade to the changer involve the insertion of a new rear panel to the unit? An additional port? I'm trying to get a sense for any new cables to order, and their lengths, as this requires a little reconfiguration.

Thanks,

Nick :cool:

If both the guide and MM show the correct number of files, then you need to rebuild your library.

Rbienstock,

Thanks. The guide and MM show what it is "suppose" to be. The settings on the entre show only 160 or so which seems to be the number that will play. New songs that I am adding now also play, just not the other 500 plus that have been on there.

Doesn't the 5900 have digital in and out for audio. Maybe they will use that to move the audio from one player to another, with the last first player in the chain being a passthrough to the entre or the amplifier.

I dont' see how esle they can support audio on 3 daisy changed players. otherwise you will be required to have dedicated audio ports for each player.

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
David, you might be able to help out on this one . . . Anyone else, feel free to chime in.

As far as I can tell, the Entre functions as the last "pass-through" from Entre/Changer to A/V Preamp/Video Switcher (although not, I believe, the digital audio). Currently, the Entre controls the one changer via the RS232 port.

The changers themselves are still daisy chained, via video and digital audio inputs and outputs. They are not, however, connected to one another via any RS232 connection. Will the upgrade to the changer involve the insertion of a new rear panel to the unit? An additional port? I'm trying to get a sense for any new cables to order, and their lengths, as this requires a little reconfiguration.

Thanks,

Nick :cool:

Found the list I'd made of controlling the Entre from the wireless keyboard.

ENTRE Keyboard Entries


F1 Pass Through
F2 Options
F3 OpenGlobe
F4 Volume
F5 Volume
F6 Volume Mute
F7 Channel Down
F8 Channel Up
F11 Clear All Text in Edit Box
Shift+F12 Record

Arrow keys and Tab key also work.

I have not tried it since the new software update, so maybe something now corresponds to the Info button.

Nick :cool:

David Bott,

Now that the upgrade is here. I am not sure if you have them daisy chained or not. But can you comment on the way these work now? Wiring and connection wise.

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
F11 Clear All Text in Edit Box
Is there anything on the regular remote that does this (baskspace is such a pain)?

Just spoke with the NY dealer and he is waiting for Kenwood to get back to him on the question if the players he will be receiving are upgraded or not.

Nick make sure you let us know when you confirm with your dealer if they have received new stock.

No luck getting the Entre to "find" the 500 lost MP3's. Per tech support, had to restore to factory settings.

After restoration to original software, entre worked perfectly with dynamic IP. It stopped working immediately upon downloading the update and had to go back to static IP.

Then, I started getting fatal errors after about 4 MP3's with MM. This has probably been covered before, but I then put the MP3's on a cd (about 160 per cd) and ripped them to the entre via it's internal player. It took about 35 minutes to rip all 160 to the harddrive, MUCH faster than MM. Additionally, I use MusicMatch for my MP3's which surprisingly burned the coverart to the cd and the entre picked it up. About 1/3 of the coverart is more than 100kb and thus cannot be dispayed but the other 2/3 is a huge help.

My question to upgrade@kenwoodusa.com:

I have a question about the changer upgrade:

Can you tell me exactly what to expect as a result of this upgrade? I
understand that it will enable daisy-chaining with the Entre (great!), but
there were other features announced a while back in a press release. I
wanted to know what exactly I should be expecting to change when I receive
my changer back from you.

Any info greatly appreciated.


Their answer:


Dear Mr. Jon Deutsch,

This upgrade is only for the Entre control of Sovereign Mega Changers.
Should there be any other changes, it will be announced on our website
http://www.kenwoodusa.com or another newsletter will be emailed to you.

Thank you,

Kenwood USA Corporation


So, either this shoots a hole in the theory that they're going to live up to their press release, or it means that KenwoodUSA's left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing.

Either way, not such good news.

Jon:

Sounds to me like you got a "canned" answer, like DirecTV is so famous far. The way I read the Kenwood response is that they are telling people that only the megachangers need be sent in. Keep in mind that the 5700 model, while only a 5 disc changer, was nevertheless a "changer," and the response sounds to me like they are trying to tell the public that only the megachangers need the upgrade--the 5900 or the 5050.

With the way things have gone, only time will tell. By the way, both Audio Advisor and Vann's are "aware" of the distinction between old stock and those that will be shipped new with the upgrade (ask for Rachel at Audio Advisor, or Jack at Vann's), in the event anyone wants to go that route.

Eventually, I'll be able to tell everyone the differences--if any--between the modified changers and the ones that went out as version two, or whatever they'll be called.

Nick :cool:

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
<snip>With the way things have gone, only time will tell.<snip> It is unclear why David Bott can not find out about this inconsistency instead of "IMHO's" as he has passed on BOTH announcements from Brian/KW.

David, can you help us out here? Certainly you have the contact.

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
Sounds to me like you got a "canned" answer, like DirecTV is so famous far. Nick,

At the risk of getting flamed by David, I think it is fair to say that Kenwood's communications suck, on a good day, and on bad days (which are most days) are even worse. David is quite right to point out that Kenwood has done some terrific things with these products, and, at least as far as we hear from David, has supposedly rolled out some extra fixes. But of course, Kenwood's poor communications skills have served to muddy their message and alienate the very customers who should be overjoyed that the upgrades are finally here.

In the last few days, I've received some communications from Kenwood that I would describe, being charitable, as downright rude. For example, I called up to ask some questions about the upgrade program, and I was told that upgrade questions would only be accepted if given by e-mail. When I asked how I could tell if a retail unit had had the upgrade I was told that they won't make that information available to end users, but "your dealer will know." The first few dealers I spoke to all responded "I haven't been told anything, so I guess our units aren't upgraded." At least based on my and many other inquiries, the dealers have figured out what's what, but why Kenwood wants to go out of their way to make it hard for their customers to know what they're buying is beyond me. If I had just purchased a changer and found out that an upgrade was out, but I had gotten the old version and now I had to send my brand new unit back, I'd be very unhappy. But obviously no one at Kenwood has a clue about how to avoid this.

Another example is that last week I sent two e-mails to Kenwood asking for clarification of the shipping procedure because the original notice regarding the upgrade only said that one was required to send one's changer "freight prepaid" to Kenwood. The e-mail that I got confirming my upgrade appointment specified that I ship the changer by UPS. I asked whether it was an actual requirement that UPS be used for shipping, or whether I could use another carrier, As it happens, I have corporate accounts with FedEx and DHL, and I really dislike UPS, principally because, unlike DHL or FedEx, they won't pick up. I was informed quite curtly, that only deliveries from UPS or FedEx would be accepted. Now, apart from the snide tone of the response, I had quite mixed emotions about it because the reply arrived 5 days after I sent it, and about 30 minutes after FedEx came to pick up my package. I don't know what I would have done if they'd have said that only UPS was accpetable. And what is the point of the restriction anyway, except to give their customers a hard time? Why should they care how the units get there, so long as it gets there in a timely manner?

I think the answer is that Kenwood is really fed up with the whole Sovereign fiasco and are probably only doing this upgrade because they have liability concerns, which is why getting the whole thing going was like pulling teeth and why they are being so grudging about the entire process. I really think that if you hadn't threatened them, none of this would have occurred and we'd never have had the upgrade.

I hope I'm wrong about this, but for me they've managed to turn a silk purse into a sows ear. I can't believe that in the midst of what should be good news, I feel so bad.

Regards,

Robert

Well, I sent my two DV-5900m's out by UPS on Tues - 3 Day Select for a cost of $134. I had e-mailed Kenwood on Monday asking if we could send them by Fed Ex, since it was 1/2 the price and I do have a corporate account with them (not with UPS). FedEx had to leave by Monday afternoon to get there on Friday since my appt was on Monday, 7/14. Anyway, I got the response back today (Wednsday) and was advised that I could send by FedEx, too bad it already went UPS. But for all those yet to send, FedEx is also acceptable.

As to upgrades - the only thing we were promised at purchase time was the three changer support - if any other upgrades are made, its gravy to me.

For those of you wondering what is encompassed by the "changer upgrade", I spoke with customer support about this and unrelated issues with my Entre'/changer. I was told that access time will be improved as well as layer change time during the upgrade. The figure I was given was around 30% improvement, however I cannot recall to which of the two they were refering to. Also Ineglected to inquire about the ability to control the system with a laptop (tci/ip)(sp). Incidently, my "upgrade" date is July.18

Thxs Derek. Good info. What about the id3 tags from your mp3s? They were preserved when you transferred them to the entre?

Originally posted by DerekFSU
No luck getting the Entre to "find" the 500 lost MP3's. Per tech support, had to restore to factory settings.

After restoration to original software, entre worked perfectly with dynamic IP. It stopped working immediately upon downloading the update and had to go back to static IP.

Then, I started getting fatal errors after about 4 MP3's with MM. This has probably been covered before, but I then put the MP3's on a cd (about 160 per cd) and ripped them to the entre via it's internal player. It took about 35 minutes to rip all 160 to the harddrive, MUCH faster than MM. Additionally, I use MusicMatch for my MP3's which surprisingly burned the coverart to the cd and the entre picked it up. About 1/3 of the coverart is more than 100kb and thus cannot be dispayed but the other 2/3 is a huge help.

Originally posted by DerekFSU
This has probably been covered before, but I then put the MP3's on a cd (about 160 per cd) and ripped them to the entre via it's internal player. It took about 35 minutes to rip all 160 to the harddrive, MUCH faster than MM. Additionally, I use MusicMatch for my MP3's which surprisingly burned the coverart to the cd and the entre picked it up. About 1/3 of the coverart is more than 100kb and thus cannot be dispayed but the other 2/3 is a huge help.

DerekFSU and others:
I have been struggling with how to get more MP3s from my computers to the Entre. I use mostly Macs and iTunes. I have a PC, but Media Manager has not worked very well for me (slow and confusing.) I thought to do the same thing....burn an MP3 CD with 100+ songs from my computer, put it in the Entre and rip to the HD. When I tried it (on the old Entre software) it locked up. I assumed the Entre (for some STUPID reason) did not read MP3 CDs. It never said that this was an option in the user guide. Will this work? From DereFSUs post, it sounds like this can be done. Is this a new feature of the V2 software, or did this always work? Maybe I got unlucky with the lockups before. Any ideas what could have gone wrong if this is supposed to work?

Also, about the cover art....can someone go over MusicMatch briefly (or for any Mac owners, can this be done on iTunes?) I would love to have it retrieve cover art (on the PC or the Mac) and burn that onto the MP3 CD. Sounds like a winner.

UPS now does pickup. I was able to setup an account on their website, print out a label on regular paper, which I then taped to the box, and scheduled a pickup. This was for the entre.

Paid for everything via credit card.

I agree 100 percent with every thing you have stated. I wish it would have been another Japanese company, maybe Sony, who would have had the vision Kenwood had.

I just began my parallel effort to come up with an alternate system for dvd management. DVD ripping has advanced to the point that it's now almost like ripping a cd. With the added advantage you can reauthor and remove fbi warnings and menus. DVDlobby has improved and the myhtpc software also looks promising. Having everything on hard disk media is just very attractive.

Maybe like you, I will find that I can't get it integrated enough to my liking, but I am going to give it a try. I am only trying this out because of my current disastifaction with Kenwood customer service and I want an alternative.

Only time will tell which system I end up keeping.

Originally posted by rbienstock
Nick,

At the risk of getting flamed by David, I think it is fair to say that Kenwood's communications suck, on a good day, and on bad days (which are most days) are even worse. David is quite right to point out that Kenwood has done some terrific things with these products, and, at least as far as we hear from David, has supposedly rolled out some extra fixes. But of course, Kenwood's poor communications skills have served to muddy their message and alienate the very customers who should be overjoyed that the upgrades are finally here.

In the last few days, I've received some communications from Kenwood that I would describe, being charitable, as downright rude. For example, I called up to ask some questions about the upgrade program, and I was told that upgrade questions would only be accepted if given by e-mail. When I asked how I could tell if a retail unit had had the upgrade I was told that they won't make that information available to end users, but "your dealer will know." The first few dealers I spoke to all responded "I haven't been told anything, so I guess our units aren't upgraded." At least based on my and many other inquiries, the dealers have figured out what's what, but why Kenwood wants to go out of their way to make it hard for their customers to know what they're buying is beyond me. If I had just purchased a changer and found out that an upgrade was out, but I had gotten the old version and now I had to send my brand new unit back, I'd be very unhappy. But obviously no one at Kenwood has a clue about how to avoid this.

Another example is that last week I sent two e-mails to Kenwood asking for clarification of the shipping procedure because the original notice regarding the upgrade only said that one was required to send one's changer "freight prepaid" to Kenwood. The e-mail that I got confirming my upgrade appointment specified that I ship the changer by UPS. I asked whether it was an actual requirement that UPS be used for shipping, or whether I could use another carrier, As it happens, I have corporate accounts with FedEx and DHL, and I really dislike UPS, principally because, unlike DHL or FedEx, they won't pick up. I was informed quite curtly, that only deliveries from UPS or FedEx would be accepted. Now, apart from the snide tone of the response, I had quite mixed emotions about it because the reply arrived 5 days after I sent it, and about 30 minutes after FedEx came to pick up my package. I don't know what I would have done if they'd have said that only UPS was accpetable. And what is the point of the restriction anyway, except to give their customers a hard time? Why should they care how the units get there, so long as it gets there in a timely manner?

I think the answer is that Kenwood is really fed up with the whole Sovereign fiasco and are probably only doing this upgrade because they have liability concerns, which is why getting the whole thing going was like pulling teeth and why they are being so grudging about the entire process. I really think that if you hadn't threatened them, none of this would have occurred and we'd never have had the upgrade.

I hope I'm wrong about this, but for me they've managed to turn a silk purse into a sows ear. I can't believe that in the midst of what should be good news, I feel so bad.

Regards,

Robert

I can tell you that after ripping the MP3's from the MP3 cd, the track, album, and cover art were in place. The only noticeable downside thus far is that about 1/3 of all coverart was over the 100kb limit and thus displayed the default Openglobe logo.

I use MusicMatch on a PC so I cannot comment on the itunes or Mac. Someone somewhere recommended Musicmatch to me for it's tagging capabilities. It has a feature called "supertagging" that goes online to ID track number, name, album title, year, and coverart. I used the burning software within Musicmatch as opposed to something like Roxio or Nero. I do not know if those other programs would also transport the coverart. It is not perfect but has been the best I've found thus far.

I second musicmatch. Derek, that was me that pointed you musicmath :)

Glad that worked out for you.

Musicmatch will also retag your existing collection if you don't have the tags setup.

You da man Slocko. Since about 99% of my music selection is "shared," I had to use Musicmatch to create tags and fix file names on all of them and it works great.

Originally posted by slocko
DVD ripping has advanced to the point that it's now almost like ripping a cd. Two BIG differences: CD aren't encrypted while DVDs are and CDs contain phonorecords while DVDs contain audiovisual works.

To the extent that under a particular circumstance ripping a CD is fair use (and there are particular provision that make certain kinds of copying of phonorecords fair use), those safe harbors from the Audio Home Recording Act don't apply to audiovisual works, and defeating the encryption is, in itself, a copyright violation under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Thus while you technically can do it, it isn't legal. This is not the proper forum to discuss whether or not the law is correct, but it is still the law.

Given that one can buy Terrabytes of NAS storage for the same price as some of the more expensive DVD playback systems, it seems natural for someone to try to market a DVD server that works just like the many digital audio servers out there. Unfortunately, that isn't possible under current laws. Also, this isn't a situation like the various lawsuits going on now regarding whether or not certain kinds of copying/sharing is fair use -- because cracking the encriptyon is a necessary first step, the fair use issue never comes up. The issue of whether the law can stop you from cracking the encryption to make a legal copy is in the courts now, but hasn't been looking good for the vendors of the cracking software, so far.

Understood, but I can't wait for the law to catch up to what consumers want. Hopefully the 321Studio case comes out in our favor, but it doesn't look good.

I found a 2 TB NAS for under 5K. But I am going to build my own. Still cheaper that way.

I just spoke with the NY Dealer. According to Kenwood all the units that he will be shipped will be upgraded. The bad news is that they won't deliver them till next week. I wouldn't be surprised if even that date turns out to be incorrect.

If it doesn't happen next week, I guess I will bite the bullet and unload my player without having a 2nd one.

I forget where I saw it but I have seen a product like the entre audio server only for DVD's. It held something like 300 DVD's and was WAY expensive, like 20K I think.

for 20k you can not only hire someone to put together a top of the line htpc fully integrated into your Home Theater, but also rip your dvds for you :) !!

It's on the truck from UPS. I'll need to run over to the UPS office tonight and sign for the unit. They tried to deliver, but I was at work. You might want to leave alternate delivery instructions.

woohoo!!!! the answers to our questions might be answered tonight.

do you want us to call your boss and pretend you are urgently needed at home :)

Does anyone know if the Entre' update now supports DVD audio???

Originally posted by Mr. Integration
Does anyone know if the Entre' update now supports DVD audio???
Alas, it does not seem to. My DVD-Audio discs are still in the MOVIE area.

Does it give info on tracks and cover art now?

Originally posted by Mr. Integration
Does it give info on tracks and cover art now?

Nope. Just the same as it has always been.

Originally posted by Mr. Integration
Does it give info on tracks and cover art now?
Unfortunately, I don't know. I just shipped out my changer for the upgrade today. $58- ouch.

On the MP3 CD issue.....if you make a CD in your computer of MP3 files, to have the Entre's built in drive read this properly and be able to rip these to the HD, what file structure is needed? In other words, I can burn an MP3 CD with about 150 songs, and I can have them all in one folder at the root level of the CD, or I can have my program make folders for each artist, album, etc.. I'm thinking maybe this was why the Entre locked up and choaked on my CD....it may have had many folders, one for each artist or album. Does this make a difference for those who have tried it?

I did it straight from Musicmatch which puts a few extra files on there for cover art or something else but no other folders. If not musicmatch, I'd burn it straight like a data cd and no folders.

I ran "update software" last night to check the Entre's internet connection and the unit downloaded and installed an update (I already had version 2 of the software, so this is an update since then). Software version number on the system information screen did not change, I'd guess this is update is bug fixes for version 2. The unit checked all the libraries after the update but did not rebuild everything like it did with the version 2 update. My speculation is that maybe this patch addresses the dynamic IP problem, but since my unit is working with static IP settings (and DHCP enabled on the router) I didn't try setting the configuration back to DHCP to check.

Mike

Originally posted by Mkellyvich
I ran "update software" last night to check the Entre's internet connection<snip> If you just wanted to check the connection why didn't you use the new test button? Just curious.

It was an interesting find on the new update and speculation. Not sure I'll try dynamic tho' because I wasted enough of my life on that Entre's internet connection with the .10 release.:rolleyes:

I tried switch to dynamic after the second update and nothing happens.

I still can't get my entre to connect to the internet. I'm using the linksys 100TX adapter. I have tried both dynamic and static and nothing works. Maybe it has something to do with the way my system is routed. I have a two way satillite system (starband) that goes to modem to ethernet card in main computer from second card to adapter to entre. Kenwood has been called several times but I might as well talked to the wall. Listen, I'm at the end of my rope and need help! I'll be the first to admit that I'm computer stupid so please be kind. Thanks Dave

Scott,

Just habit with the update check - it works as a connection check and it's interesting to find out if the software is current. I used the new test connection feature several times when trying to resolve the problems with DHCP after the version 2 update. Either one will tell you if you are reaching OpenGlobe.

Mike

Originally posted by vaha
I still can't get my entre to connect to the internet. I'm using the linksys 100TX adapter. I have tried both dynamic and static and nothing works. Maybe it has something to do with the way my system is routed. I have a two way satillite system (starband) that goes to modem to ethernet card in main computer from second card to adapter to entre. Kenwood has been called several times but I might as well talked to the wall. Listen, I'm at the end of my rope and need help! I'll be the first to admit that I'm computer stupid so please be kind. Thanks Dave

Your PC has two network cards? You're implying that you are using your PC as a router, correct?

Udell

well they are going to give me a new entre. unfortunately i wait for them to fax paperwork to corporate and then they send a new unit out via ground. from california to east coast ground must be what 7 days?

so at least 10 days before i get my entre back.

isn't it kind of expensive to replace the entire unit everytime a hard drive goes bad? you would think they would have a bunch of imaged drives sitting around.

by the way, i am grateful i am getting a new one. didn't want to sound like an ingrate.

So far Kenwood has replaced my Entree and twice replaced my changer. I wonder what will happen when the warranty expires.

Is there any way to create an image of the hard drive as a backup if the drive crashes? If so does the new drive have to be a certain size? This is kinda scary to think the whole thing would have to be replaced.

princer,

There is a way -- it's not pretty! I was able to do it by performing a "dd" using linux. If you want the painful details, just send me a pm.

HM

Originally posted by vaha
I still can't get my entre to connect to the internet. I'm using the linksys 100TX adapter. I have tried both dynamic and static and nothing works. Maybe it has something to do with the way my system is routed. I have a two way satillite system (starband) that goes to modem to ethernet card in main computer from second card to adapter to entre. Kenwood has been called several times but I might as well talked to the wall. Listen, I'm at the end of my rope and need help! I'll be the first to admit that I'm computer stupid so please be kind. Thanks Dave Have you tried connecting your Entre-->--100TX-->--modem-->--starband directly? i.e. remove the computer from the equation. Have you had other PCs or ethernet deviced connected to that 2nd eithernet card (NIC) and they've worked OK or is this a new setup. In any event try the simple approach first.

I did see your LinkSys 100TX adapter is listed on the install tips page (http://www.kenwoodusa.com/group_info.jsp?categoryTypeId=130&productId=2357&productTypeId=147) but if this Entre is brand new you may not be able to use that "new" device until you upgrade the Entre software. This has been talked about several times in this thread. Perhaps the LinkSys is one that worked from the getgo but I don't recall.

Which adapter has worked the best for the Entre?

Netmate, only available from Kenwood as far as I know.

Netmate worked perfectly. You need to do a google search. I bought it a couple of weeks ago. Kenwood I dont think are selling them anymore but it is coming out of Netmate direclty. They were great to deal with

http://www.catc.com/products/netmate.html

Found the link for you. This is the best way to go

Originally posted by Mr. Integration
Which adapter has worked the best for the Entre? Some suggest just using HPNA especially if you ever plan on using the Axcess which only has HPNA connections. NetGear's PE102 is what I'm using (as is David B and others). I still used the ethernet adapter for the Entre, however.

Originally posted by uh2
Your PC has two network cards? You're implying that you are using your PC as a router, correct?

Udell Yes

Originally posted by ScottF200
Have you tried connecting your Entre-->--100TX-->--modem-->--starband directly? i.e. remove the computer from the equation. Have you had other PCs or ethernet deviced connected to that 2nd eithernet card (NIC) and they've worked OK or is this a new setup. In any event try the simple approach first.

I did see your LinkSys 100TX adapter is listed on the install tips page (http://www.kenwoodusa.com/group_info.jsp?categoryTypeId=130&productId=2357&productTypeId=147) but if this Entre is brand new you may not be able to use that "new" device until you upgrade the Entre software. This has been talked about several times in this thread. Perhaps the LinkSys is one that worked from the getgo but I don't recall. Scott thanks for your reply. I haven't tried other PCs in the 2nd card but I will give it a try. I have tried direct connect. The software has been upgraded. Thanks again, Dave

RE: v2.0 "Parental Control"
Anyone investigate the "new" Entre v2.0 feature listed on the mailing called "Parental Control for movies has been implemeted"? I guess that means tha what was there already in the setup screens (from day 1) never worked? I wasn't using it but I do recall the issue about not being able to push the 'Plus 1' (2&3) rental play hard buttons on the front of the DV5900 early on. We either determined or guessed that it had to do with Parental Control (i.e. your kids bring over their friends parent's DVDs). As I recall we suggested that may be a good thing but only if you had set up Parental Control via the menu's already. Before the fixed it (so the play buttons worked) we didn't even have the Parental Control turned on.

RE: v2.0 "Access to the internet radio is faster"
When I first read that I thought it was Axcess...which seemed to back up my experience/feeling that the Axcess's communication with the Entre was faster after the software upgrade (of the Entre and Axcess). Perhaps it was just the internet radio access from the Axcess that I noticed.

We're running out of time to make upgrade appointments. Has anyone been able to confirm yet whether or not the upgrade addresses the access speed updates? I really would hate to take all my disks out and pay to mail it in if it is just Entre-related fixes. Thanks.

I guess they didn't do the upgrades during your repair?

Originally posted by aauno
It's on the truck from UPS. I'll need to run over to the UPS office tonight and sign for the unit. They tried to deliver, but I was at work. You might want to leave alternate delivery instructions.

CB
I dont know why you would even hesitate to send in you player. They are going to upgrade to multi-function for free (except for the initial cost of shipping). If they throw in the other upgrades - its just gravy. Even if you don't need multifunction you shoucl have it done. IT'S FREE. and if you ever decide to sell the unit on e-bay, which do you think will be more valuable, my guess would be the upgraded unit. Its not the hard to unload, just have plenty of old cd-r holders, or buy a 400 cd binder for $25, or go to the hardware store and buy a dowl that is the same circumfrence as the dvd hole. Don't miss the boat waiting to see if those other upgrades are inlcuded, if they're not so what, are you able to exchange your current unit for one of the "new" ones that might be coming out next week (where have we heard "next week" before). This is a gift horse, don't look it in the mouth until it is too late.

Has anybody else who sent the email in for an upgrade appointment not been responded to by Kenwood?

Originally posted by crbaldwin
We're running out of time to make upgrade appointments. Has anyone been able to confirm yet whether or not the upgrade addresses the access speed updates? I really would hate to take all my disks out and pay to mail it in if it is just Entre-related fixes. Thanks.


I would suggest getting the upgrade while you can for free. I am 99% sure that the update address layer change and spin-up's. The items you mention are software related and this is a software update with a new firmware chip. (from what I know.)

You can not go wrong getting the upgrade for you never know what you may choose to do in the future. Add another changer or even sell it. If you end up selling it, someone may ask if it has been updated. My .02

As much as I hate to say this . . . ANYONE WHO IS ELIGBLE FOR THE UPRGRADE SHOULD TAKE ADVANTAGE NOW ... if you don't send it in for the upgrade now, all I can say is you are st@#$d. Just my .02, I hope I did not offend anyone. :) OK after contemplation, if you are not sure about upgrading, than you shouldn't, this way they won't be overloaded with upgrades and I might get my two players back that much faster..:p

DerekFSU, I got my e-mail appt within 3 hours of e-mailing them. When I asked whether FedEx was ok instead of UPS it still only took them two days. So if you have not heard from them, I would send another e-mail asking for a status.

Ok, thanks. I'll send it in. I guess the worst case is one of you Entre owners would be more inclined to buy it from me later :).

crbaldwin, you are exactly right, I am now 3/4 full on my second player and if/when my wife goes on another trip without me, I will try a smuggle another unit into the audio/visual cabinet and hope she doesn't notice. :)

Unless you're a long ways off from 400, there's not a lot of compelling reasons not to do it now. You're not only getting the upgrade for free now, but you're getting the return shipping for free. The place I ship from is high priced but too convenient for me to go elsewhere, and shipping three changers was $240, thank you. I had to get them there expedited, so that increased it somewhat, but no one is reporting a cheap experience.

But, at least Kenwood is paying the freight back. If they reserve the right to charge for the upgrade in the future, you should also consider that the current program gets you your return shipping included. Quite frankly, that's probably why Kenwood is not necessarily encouraging "everyone" to send theirs in, because this is money out of their pocket, and the shipping is not insignificant. Bite the bullet and get it done. Mine were supposedly done yesterday, so I'll call Kenwood next week to inquire of tracking numbers back.

As an aside, I should mention that, in substitute while my changers have been gone, I've been running a Panasonic RP-91, which, as many of you know, is a very well-reputed player. From its interlaced output to my Faroudja NRS, it's a great picture, but frankly I prefer the Kenwood (with 0 IRE setting). These "changers" are still great players, and fit in any high end scheme.

By the way, I've had lots of DVD players, and compared lots. These continue to fare well against any. With the Entre added, it's just no contest as far as I'm concerned. That is, if you're integrating a DVD into a home theater, the Entre+Changer is oceans ahead of anything else, at least at the moment.

Nick :cool:

For some of the hard-cores out there, we want it to do everything. The DV-5900M is supposed to handle the 24/96 Digital Audio Discs, of which there are only a handful, but it was reported by some of us in this very thread that the signal couldn't get passed . . . it would send it, but then it would be riddled with dropouts. It's not a big issue, but I wonder if the new players (or the upgraded ones) will fix this bug.

Since I am now going to use the Sovereign changers for the first time with CDs (I'll take what the Entre adds in exchange for giving up some of the advantages of my trusty Sony 90ES changers), would those already using it with CDs suggest that I segregate as many CDs into one changer as possible (It will still spill over into two, because of the amount that I have)? The reason I ask is, with the increased speed of the disc change, I'm hoping (but I've never really investigated) that some reasonable version of a "shuffle" mode can be implemented on the the Sovereign changers. If not . . . well, I'll live with it, but, in a system with two Entres, I assume I have some flexibility to just make one a "music" Entre, while the other is just a "movie" Entre. I realize the DVD-Audio category defeats that to some extent, but that sounds like the most reasonable approach.

Nick :cool:

The disk change time drove me insane when I would include cd's on playlists. I went ahead and ripped the tracks I wanted to the entre so I did not have to wait.

Nick,

{sarcastic and dream mode ON}
Actually, with Kenwood's new, innovative multi-changer "DJ" architecture, you'll want 1/2 of each changer full of CDs because while changer 1 is playing your current track, changer 2 is prepping --Disc Jocky style--the next disc to spin up as soon as the current track is complete!
{sarcastic and dream mode OFF}

Seriously, I use my Sovereign system primarily to play music. Unlike Derek, I am not completely turned off by the disc change time. It is slow, but in my opinion, worth the added fidelity of using the source vs. compressed MP3.

Sure, ideally, I could buy a 900GB HD and rip all my CDs to .wav files and have them instantly accessible in perfect quality. In 5 years, I'm sure mega changers for CDs will make no sense. But until then, I'll stick to the slow disc change speed. Plus, since I usually like several tracks on a CD, it only changes discs once every 7-10 songs.

Yes, there is a shuffle mode on the changers. But it's only "useful" (and I put that in big quotes) if you put the effort into categorizing all of your CDs on the changer itself -- using the NetNamerDV software. This is something you most likely don't want to do. It's a completely redundant process to the Entre's, is pretty buggy (I had many lock-ups during setup), and requires a non-GUI, non-intuitive button-pushing process, navigating menus using the LCD display, to enter a shuffle mode based upon Genre or custom user group you need to create and categorize on the physical changer. Unfortuantely, nothing native to the changer is leveraged from the intelligence on the Entre.

As far as I can see, you'll want to keep your DVD-Vs on the 5900M for the possibility of a slightly better video output stage (even though you're going out interlaced, doesn't DCDi happen before the progressive out stage?). Beyond that, your CDs can go anywhere -- unless you're really intrigued by the process described above.

Nick,

Regarding shuffle mode - the changers have a native (non-entre) shuffle capability but as Jon pointed out it is (in my opinion) prohibitively labor-intensive to get any sort of playlist-like functionality. That said, the Entre supports playlists quite nicely, and includes a shuffle mode (under the Options screen) that will shuffle within playlists and shuffle multiple playlists. Today after lunch I took about 15 minutes, created a playlist of about 150 songs, and had great background music to write research papers to all afternoon. The playlist was mixed CD and MP3 songs. For casual listening I don't mind the long disc change times - this could be annoying to someone trying to maintain a consistently loud atmosphere at a party, but it doesn't bother me for the kind of listening I do. Assuming the playlist functionality works across changers the way it works between the Entre (MP3) and single changer (CD), I think you'll find it doesn't matter how you segregate your discs amongst the changers. We'll both find out later this month - I've added a second changer and will have 500+ CDs spanned across the changers (along with my meager movie collection) once the units are back from the upgrade (#1 went in this week, #2 goes in the 25th).

Mike

Originally posted by JonDeutsch
Sure, ideally, I could buy a 900GB HD and rip all my CDs to .wav files and have them instantly accessible in perfect quality. In 5 years, I'm sure mega changers for CDs will make no sense.
They make no sense now. I've done exactly what you proposed above (using a disk array) and it cost a shade more than a 5050, and less than a 5900. If I hadn't made it a redundant (mirror) array to minimize the chance of having to re-rip everything, it would have cost less than a pair of budget changers, which is what I would have needed to house the CD's...

Plus, I have all my music instantly at my fingertips. PLUS, I can stream it to computers or SliMP3 players all over my house.

Originally posted by JustMike
They make no sense now. I've done exactly what you proposed above (using a disk array) and it cost a shade more than a 5050, and less than a 5900. If I hadn't made it a redundant (mirror) array to minimize the chance of having to re-rip everything, it would have cost less than a pair of budget changers, which is what I would have needed to house the CD's... Yes, but what you're describing isn't a consumer product, but something that you put together yourself using PCs, software, NAS arrays, etc. And what your UI looks like. I'd guess, isn't anywhere near as slick as the Entre, forget about the glitz that one gets with a Fireball. A consumer can get this same functionality with a user-friendly and pretty UI in a variety of products today, but for the sort of capacity you're talking about, would have to spend in the $10K-$20K range. When Jon says 5 years away, he doesn't mean that the technology doesn't exist today, but that it will take around 5 years for that technology to reach the consumer in a reasonably priced plug-and-play turnkey solution.

I got my DSL finally(in a new place) and I ran the Entre software update that worked great and now I can't get past DHCP lookup even in the "test connection" mode, has anyone else experienced this?

I tried resetting the Entre, both hard and soft and resetting the modem/router.

Originally posted by rbienstock
Yes, but what you're describing isn't a consumer product, but something that you put together yourself using PCs, software, NAS arrays, etc. And what your UI looks like. I'd guess, isn't anywhere near as slick as the Entre, forget about the glitz that one gets with a Fireball. A consumer can get this same functionality with a user-friendly and pretty UI in a variety of products today, but for the sort of capacity you're talking about, would have to spend in the $10K-$20K range. When Jon says 5 years away, he doesn't mean that the technology doesn't exist today, but that it will take around 5 years for that technology to reach the consumer in a reasonably priced plug-and-play turnkey solution.

Bingo.

While I am a high-tech guy (computer science background, lots of PCs in the office, electronic music studio, wireless LAN, etc.), I'm pretty bullish on having my Home Theater/familly room...

- Look and feel like a room you'd want to relax in and enjoy yourself (ie., no server racks :)) so when listening to music, you can relax
- Have a set of usable entertainment technologies that I, my fiancee, and visitors/friends can operate on their own

The Entre/Sovereign system does, indeed, come as close to this ideal as possible in the "prosumer" price/performance category. It consolidates the interface to almost all of my media (including my growing collection of DVD-As). It also happens to (thankfully) be of excellent quality for video and audio reproduction. A rare combo, esp. at the price that I bought the components for!

Also, my Marantz RC-5200 (Pronto semi-clone) remote control helps a great deal in abstracting the complexities of all the different hardware, and making all of the technologies and common entertainment processes simple, action-oriented procedures (the homepage of the remote has big icons labeled Watch TV, Play a DVD, Listen to Music, etc... which macros everything into place. So all the user has to do is click on the action, select their disc/station/show and play.) I spent a ton of time designing (and redesigning) the remote control interface so it's really fairly simple to do anything you need to do on my home theater.

Where does my system fall short? Well, my ReplayTV is a different UI than the Entre UI. But it looks promising that D&M holdings will be taking care of that problem in due course!

Oh, and my 60" HD-RPTV isn't as "family room friendly" as, say, a plasma TV would be. I gotta work on that... probably around the same time I get around to WAVing all my CDs into a mega hard-drive system.

Oh, and another thing... :)

Microsoft really blew it with their Windows XP Media Center Edition OS initiative. (I felt so strongly about it, I even applied to MSFT to Program Manage that product line!)

MSFT had (still has?) the opportunity to create a true home theater system OS -- one like what OpenGlobe created, but based on a more extensible platform (something MSFT is good at).

Instead, they created yet another PC OS that focuses on multi-media. BIG DEAL. So, they've finally created a version of Windows to compete with the Amiga. Congrats, MSFT.

What MSFT needed to do is to leverage the core technologies, APIs, plug-n-play architecture, and possibly even the lacking CE platform to create a home theater Master Control Unit that became the internet-connected "brain" of a home theater system. It should blend into the background, and only show itself as a Master of Ceremonies and Librarian.

However, MSFT is still so PC-focused, they can't get their heads out of their perspectives to see that.

Frankly, what MSFT needed to do is buy OpenGlobe (before D&M did, obviously), and leverage their HT user-experience expertise to create a really usable "skin" for their more robust, stable, supported, and extensible architecture.

Since MSFT can't seem to do it, I now believe Apple has an opportunity. Apple/Jobs seem design-focused enough culturally to really meld the computing and home entertainment worlds together. They're proving it out with products like the iPod, iTunes, and other solutions that less-technical artistic types are latching on to. Their latest foray into selling actual music is a very interesting twist for Apple. They're leaving computing and entering technology-driven entertainment. Interesting, if not encouraging.

Imagine taking the innovation that Apple puts into their products, software, and design and throwing the "Home Theater Master of Ceremonies/Librarian" challenge at them? Even better, if Apple did it, it'd be a Unix-based backbone, which is in theory even more stable, extensible, and open than the XP backbone.

I'd bet we'd have fun things to talk about if/when that happens.

Mr Integration,

The version 2 software seems to have broken the Entre's DHCP functionality for many of us. I was able to get past this by setting the Entre to static IPs. Search the forum for "DHCP" and "mask" and you'll get maybe a dozen or so posts that between them have enough info to walk you though the dynamic-static setup change. In my case the tricky part was having to set the router to static IP temporarily via one of the PCs on my network, set the Entre to static with appropriate local IP, mask, and DNS values (see the posts), establish a connection between the Entre and the router, then set the router back to dynamic so the rest of the PCs on the network could see the router. I did this without logging out of the router's setup utility, which kept me from having to change any network setup parameters on my PCs.

Mike

Mr. Integration, Regarding your problem with DHCP functionality, I had a similar problem and could not get through that portion of the " test connection" mode. After trying various different things including unplugging/replugging, rebooting etc., what finally resolved this issue for me was switching from the Netmate adapter to the Belkin adapter.After this change I was able to connect to the WAN.

I have the Belkin F5D5050 already....that is strange. Are you using the same?

I am also using the same ; Belkin 5050. My Netmate adapter stopped working several months ago so I ordered the Belkin. When I got the Belkin
it did not work either. After some time on the phone with Kenwood support they told me to send the Entre' in because it was not recognizing the usb adapter. I decided to wait several months to send everything at once when the upgrade was to occur. Just before I was about to send the Entre' in it occurred to me to test out the adapters since we had received the software update. Lo and behold the Netmate's light was on again.Unfortunately, no matter what I did I could not get past DHCP on the "test connection",However, when I rebooted with the Belkin I was able to reach "test connection to Openglobe" whereupon a red x appeared. After my wife played with the router settings everything worked fine. I have the Entre' hardwired to the router,a wireless network and vpn.

Oh yes tech support had me go through a 5555 reboot followed by a 64000 reboot. H ope this helps.

Originally posted by Adam Mrotek
Oh yes tech support had me go through a 5555 reboot followed by a 64000 reboot. H ope this helps. Can you expand on what the 64000 reboot does. This is the 2nd time I've heard it mentioned and I have never heard of an explanation. Perhaps it was discussed in another thread or other forum. Thanks.

They had me use the 64000 after a 5555 to force a re-registration. I thought that was what I was doing with the 5555 but they had it followed by the 64000. Don't know more than that.

Scott, If I knew what it did I would tell you. I can tell you that it did not wipe out any of the CD/DVD information in memory. The one interesting thing is that they had me do it in conjunction with a 5555 reboot.

I'm moving both Entres around, but thus far only disconnected one (temporarily) from the router. It's now back up. Neither Entre, of course, has a changer attached to it.

Neither will go out to the Internet now. In fact, when I went into the setup menu for each to see the internet settings, everything was wiped out.

Should I have expected this with the disconnection of the changers (which are not yet back)? I'm assuming I'm going to do an entirely new library rebuild once the changers get back, but shouldn't I still be able to get out to OpenGlobe even without changers attached? Any guesses?

Nick :cool:

Okay, I don't want to take the thread off-topic, but I'll just answer questions rbienstock and others raised. PM me if you want to discuss further.

The UI for my jukebox on the computer is iTunes, which is an excellent, consumer-friendly UI with easy playlist management and so on. I wish it had cover art, but I don't need it.

Elsewhere in the house, I use SliMP3 players or other iTunes clients. The SliMP3 has a wonderfully-simple UI that makes it super-simple to find and play music. It's a pleasure to use.

Setting up the system was not significantly more trouble than setting up the Entre was. I mean, there is a 144-page thread here which deals in large measures with the "easy to use" Entre, after all. ;)

Nick, my changer is in VA getting fixed again and my entre works fine without it. After I received the changer back the first time, the entre re-built my library as they were not put back in the same order but that was it.

Loaded up the new changer Friday night.
I started with 5 discs to make sure the disc flip problem was ok, and it was.

I then attempted to load new Entree software. The software kept warning me of the dangers and to hit select to continue. I was afraid to cancel because of other users problems with the software, but I did cancel after 3 hours.

Saturday morning the software loaded in about 10 minutes. I lost the ability to use DHCP, so i switched to static IP address. I did a lookup all to repopulate the guide. After about 3 hours the lookup ended. I was updating the unknowns, which went quicker then I remember. It was then I noticed only 200 out of 400 dvd's were reflected in the entree. The stat screen showed 203 empty slots, when only the rental slots were empty. I had filled this changer with 400 dvd's.

I redid the lookup all and this time the stat page shows 26 empty slots, it should only show 3 empty slots. In looking at some the unknown dvds it has a location of "internal dvd", which is not possible as far as I know.

Any thoughts on reducing the empty slot statistic? And also the "internal DVD" location? I expect my second changer back this week, then I'll be able to test the multi-changer functions. Has Kenwood every heard of quality control or product testing?

Has Kenwood every heard of quality control or product testing?
I *think* the finger you want to be pointing is at OpenGlobe, but the answer to your question (in my opinion) is "no".

Actually, the statistical function never worked for me in the past. However, with this latest upgrade it works perfect where it is correctly reflecting the number of empty slots and the break-down of DVD's vs CD's. Also, after I updated my software I am still able to use the dynamic IP allocation with no problems what so ever. Just to let you all know that the upgrade works fine at least for me... (i.e. the reported problems may be rare).

I want to buy 2 additional changers now since the multi-changer fix is available, but rather than buying 2 "old" changes and sending them in for an upgrade (for $150) I would of course prefer to buy new upgraded changers... However, I have so far not heard of anyone being able to buy the upgraded changers. Anyone know what the story is here ??

Originally posted by Lars158
However, I have so far not heard of anyone being able to buy the upgraded changers. Anyone know what the story is here ??

From Nick: Please check yourself, but this is what Kenwood told me last week regarding which serial numbers are "already" upgraded units.
SN: 30400400 AND HIGHER
I would still double check with Kenwood, but that's what they told me directly.

From Nick:
quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please check yourself, but this is what Kenwood told me last week regarding which serial numbers are "already" upgraded units.
SN: 30400400 AND HIGHER
I would still double check with Kenwood, but that's what they told me directly.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Right, and I know several people have checked with their dealers but from what I understand no dealer have to date been able to confirm whether they have changers with serial numbers higher than : 30400400. If anyone know, please let us all know who carry them (or PM me) since I want to place an order asap...

My understanding of DHCP is that it is preferable to a static IP address, and primarily because of two computers "conflicting" with the same static IP address.

Well, the only way I could get either of my Entres up and running again--without the changers--was to do the 5555 reboot AND assign it a static IP address (which I had the info from Entre 1).

Now I've got both Entres up and connected to the internet, but both have the same static IP address assigned. Is this going to create a problem? I tried and tried to get both Entres re-connected with "dynamic" but each one just got so far as acquiring information for internet radio, but then just stayed in that loop. When I finally tried the static IP with Entre 2, it worked; I then did the same with Entre 1.

Any concerns about this setup?

Nick :cool:

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
My understanding of DHCP is that it is preferable to a static IP address, and primarily because of two computers "conflicting" with the same static IP address.

Well, the only way I could get either of my Entres up and running again--without the changers--was to do the 5555 reboot AND assign it a static IP address (which I had the info from Entre 1).

Now I've got both Entres up and connected to the internet, but both have the same static IP address assigned. Is this going to create a problem? I tried and tried to get both Entres re-connected with "dynamic" but each one just got so far as acquiring information for internet radio, but then just stayed in that loop. When I finally tried the static IP with Entre 2, it worked; I then did the same with Entre 1.

Any concerns about this setup?

Nick :cool:

Yes, you want to assign each Entre a different static IP. Otherwise, like you stated, they will conflict and that's not good. Try changing the last IP number by adding 1 to it.

Originally posted by JonDeutsch
Yes, you want to assign each Entre a different static IP. Otherwise, like you stated, they will conflict and that's not good. Try changing the last IP number by adding 1 to it.

Would it be a problem if I just went into the internet configuration menu from Setup, changed it, and saved it? Or would it have to re-register with the new IP address?

Nick :cool:

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
Would it be a problem if I just went into the internet configuration menu from Setup, changed it, and saved it? Or would it have to re-register with the new IP address?

Nick :cool:

I do not believe you need to re-register. Just change it, save it, and probably "cold boot" it (unplug it).

Mike,

I don't have any questions, really. I have completely up to speed on what is out there in the world of MP3 servers. I have no doubt that what you've got set up is both highly functional and reletively inexpensive. In essentially the same way that, as a practical matter, an HTPC costs less than a DVD player and a scaler. But I'd wager that the consumer market for HTPCs is less than 1% of the market for stand-alone progressive scan DVD players, and is probably not even a significant percentage of the households that have both a DVD player and some sort of scaler. The fact is that the much vaunted convergence between computers and home entertainment notwithstanding, the general public really wants their home entertainment devices to look, feel and behave like home entertainment devices, not computers. Your own past experience should confirm this: anyone could pop a $200 street ATI All-In-Wonder card in their computer and have an instant PVR with no subscription fees. Yet how many people are really doing this compared to the combined users of TiVo and ReplayTV?

FWIW, in my current home, I've got my CDs in Pioneer changes controlled by Wintrax (http://www.cdcontrol.com). This software works great, more or less, and, when coupled with two changers and a mixer will interleave the songs between teh two changes and prefetch the next track for instant transitions, and even, if desired, crossfade the tracks. In my new home, still under construction, I will have an AudioRequest server that has some pretty terrific features of its own (see http://www.request.com).

I don't have much experience with iTunes not being a Mac person, though I hear it is pretty slick. Out of curiosity, does it do "gapless" playback (i.e., when playing an entire album that is a series of connected tracks like "Dark Side of the Moon", do the consecutive tracks play continuously, or are there brief gaps between songs while the next file loads into the MP3 decoder?

I am going to be selling an entre and before putting it on ebay or ??, I thought I would see if anyone on this forum is interested.

The entre is factory sealed (brand-spankin' new).

Please PM me if you are interested.

Thanks,

Mitch

For those that are interested I found an installers checklist for connecting an Escient fireball to an ISP and compatible changers (including Kenwood). Could be of help for some of those with cable modem issues.

Anyone got their changer back yet with a report for us less lucky?

Originally posted by vaha
Yes

Have you had any other devices connecting via the internet on the second NIC? Are you using static routes? Internet connection sharing? I need more details on your setup.


Udell

Okay . . . now a new problem.

Worried about two Entres with the same IP address, I changed both, but also forced a 5555 re-registration of both.

Entre 1, with the CATC NETMATE adapter is working.

Entre 2 cuts off the reboot process. As soon as it gets to the point of "installing internet radio stations . . ." the Entre shuts off, as if I did a hard button reboot. When I try again, either static or dynamic, the same thing occurs. Of course, when I change to dynamic, I've still got my "static" information filled in, but I don't understand why this Entre will only go so far in the process. I realize no one else has two Entres, but anything like this when trying a reboot since the V2 software?

Thanks,

Nick :cool:

Sorry Nick, but I am still in stone age with dial up, which seems to be mcuh faster to connect than ever before. Of course I imagine it will take several days to recognize all the dvd's when I get my two dvd players back. When are yours due back? Mine were due for appt today and arrived last thursday.

I have two calls into them today. They acknowledge timely receipt (I could've told them that by showing them the UPS tracking number) and that they have "sent" them on to the appropriate center. Sent? I thought we were sending them to the right place, not a clearing house for more shipping.

In any case, I have a name, an extension, and a promise that I will plague her daily until I find out how long they intend to waltz about, while at the same time demanding the units be shipped within days, on just days notice.


I'll bet that, the minute I get them back, first thing I'm doing is getting Entre #2 replaced.

Lots of disc stacked on a cabinet.

Nick :cool:

A bit of props for Kenwood- After receiving my changer back from the VA center, it still didn't work so I returned it last week. Because they thought it had been fixed, they asked that I return it to VA instead of CA. I included a note asking them to coordinate with CA for the firmware update so it did not have to come back to me and then sent to CA. I got an email from them today telling me it was leaving VA tomorrow for CA and that everything had been arranged for the firmware update. This should have taken another 4 calls but they did it perfectly.

Originally posted by uh2
Have you had any other devices connecting via the internet on the second NIC? Are you using static routes? Internet connection sharing? I need more details on your setup.


Udell Thanks for your reply. Yes to all your questions. I am in the process of switching to a different adapter. I'm going to try the belkin 5050.

Hi everyone

I'm awaiting the return of my upgraded changer which had an appointment on Friday 7/11. I would like to get another changer and daisy chain the two. This may have been discussed in this forum, but I can't find it by searching. The manual describes connecting the video and audio from one unit to the other, but does not talk about control of the sub unit. There are a couple of inputs for DVD control. How are these hooked up? How will the Entre be able to read the disc info from the sub unit? It seems that the upgrade must include another rs232 connector to daisy chain with the "main" unit. I guess I'll find out when my unit is returned.

Any thoughts?

Thanks, Jeff

From earlier post:
"Saturday morning the software loaded in about 10 minutes. I lost the ability to use DHCP, so i switched to static IP address. I did a lookup all to repopulate the guide. After about 3 hours the lookup ended. I was updating the unknowns, which went quicker then I remember. It was then I noticed only 200 out of 400 dvd's were reflected in the entree. The stat screen showed 203 empty slots, when only the rental slots were empty. I had filled this changer with 400 dvd's.

I redid the lookup all and this time the stat page shows 26 empty slots, it should only show 3 empty slots. In looking at some the unknown dvds it has a location of "internal dvd", which is not possible as far as I know.

Any thoughts on reducing the empty slot statistic? And also the "internal DVD" location? I expect my second changer back this week, then I'll be able to test the multi-changer functions. Has Kenwood every heard of quality control or product testing?"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kenwood wanted me to look into the "Internal DVD" location problem when I got home on Monday. Write down the slots with disc and then try ejecting the locations not recorded with a disc. Too bad there isn't a report of which dvd's are in what slot. I was going to do this manualy.

But, new problem when I got home, the Entree power light was flashing. I couldn't get the Entree to reboot. I tried a soft reboot (holding power button in for 2 minutes), hard reboot (unpluging unit from power), and also tried soft and hard reboot with enternet USB unplugged.

Kenwood asked me to send the unit to their servicer center. This is my second Entree to be sent in for service. How can Kenwood make any money with all the replacement units they are using for warranty claims?

Scorecard
2 Entrees replaced
2 DV-5050M replaced for disc flip problems

someone here had a similar problem with the reboot. they had to move it to a different outlet I think?

as long as the tray doesn't open, it should boot up. if you get the tray popping open, then most likely that is the hard drive.

try plugging it in somewhere else. i know it sounds hokey, but it worked for another poster.

The tray does pop open.

sorry to hear that.

found a dealer with one unit who said it was upgraded. however the serial number is 30400094, which is below the number Nick posted.

i have called several dealers and they are all telling me the units shipped yesterday from california.

wish kenwood would have coordinated this better.

Originally posted by slocko
wish kenwood would have coordinated this better. Just this? Any sensible company would have gotten these into the retail channels first. Surely, it is easier to build the new features into the units than it is to upgrade them. Surely they must have realized that there would be lots of pent-up demand for existing customers to buy additional changers once multi-changer support was a reality. Given the fact that they haven't been shipping changers without multi-changer support for some time and dealer stock is pretty low, surely they wouldn't want to alienate their dealers by not being able to supply new stock at the exact time that demand is high. And who is this Shirley anyway?:D

Seriously, look at the approach taken by Lexicon, who have a superb reputation for handling upgrades. Whenever they have issues a software upgrade, the upgrade is available on all shipping models at the time it is publically announced. Whenever there is a hardware upgrade that requires either a trade-in or sending one's unit back in, the trade-in period always kicks in a few weeks after initial shipment so that new paying customers get first dibs on the available units until production ramps up. Now here, I think that we long-time owners deserve a break, so the fact that we can upgrade our units right away isn't a reason to complain, but they still fell down on the flip-side: they never should have announced the upgrade until such time as one could go to the store and buy an upgraded changer.

And don't get me started on their policy of keeping the information on how to tell if a changer is upgraded a secret. I know that we have Nick's uncorroborated, but almost certainly accurate, report of the magic serial numbers, but I'm sure that not all current and future Kenwood customers belong to this forum. I see no reason to withhold this information. What Bozos!!!!

Originally posted by rbienstock
And don't get me started on their policy of keeping the information on how to tell if a changer is upgraded a secret. I know that we have Nick's uncorroborated, but almost certainly accurate, report of the magic serial numbers, but I'm sure that not all current and future Kenwood customers belong to this forum. I see no reason to withhold this information. What Bozos!!!!

Actually, despite the fact that I wrote it down as they said it, and confirmed it afterward with them, my own faith in it required me to issue the caveat that people should call Kenwood themselves. I can only tell you that I accurately reported the information that Kenwood Technical support gave me . . . I'm not vouching for its accuracy.

Today, however, I received an email from Audio Advisor, one of the vendors from which I'm purchasing new changers, that two of them shipped. My sales representative at Audio Advisor was completely apprised of the issue, and had assured me twice that she would verify "compliance" before then new units shipped (if you want a sales rep at Audio Advisor who is acquainted with the issue, ask for Megan). Nevertheless, I will speak with her in the morning, now that I've received the email, to verify that nothing has slipped through the cracks. I'll also report on the serial numbers when the units are received later this week.

Now, for the story of the Entre that won't restart, read the next post . . .

Nick :cool:

Well, I was on the phone with Kenwood Technical Support today about the unit that keeps cutting out as soon as the "install" of internet radio stations starts.

Ultimately, they had me do a 5555 reboot and, without me really caring (I had nothing saved to this unit), do a factory rebuild. That was two hours ago.

Know what? The red light on the front of the Entre is still blinking. I've tried unplugging it, pressing the hard button on the front to reboot, but, as we all recall, that light has to stop blinking before I can access it. Two hours seems a bit much . . .

Anyone ever do the factory rebuild, and have this problem? I've got to get the standby light to remain static to see if resetting it to factory default will cure the problems of trying to reinstall . . .

Nick :cool:

My saleman told me about another dead one after they upgrade. What's going on with the software upgrade?

i always had my nagging suspicion that the upgrade had something to do with my dead entre. but since most people where not affected, it's hard to tell.

Nick, I think your entre is dead. i let mine blink all night to no avail. is your tray popping out?

No, it started. And I got the unit, in its factory-default mode, to connect to the internet dynamically--but only after I switched the USB/Ethernet adapter to the CATC Netmate--one of the "original" ones that work with Entre.

Ultimately, however, after getting the software update to the 2.0.0.8, I had to do the 5555 reboot again, and then assign the static IP . . . however, both Entres are up and running again, both have different static IPs, and I have a fragile hold on things . . .

There are definitely issues with the new software update. By the way, Kenwood Technical support even admitted it . . .

I'm expecting more breakdowns. And I haven't even connected changers to it yet . . .


Nick :cool:

Well, I was finally able to get 2.0.0.8 installed! YIPPEE! The tech support fella was very helpful. Turns out, something between my ISP and Openglobe is not working properly. It took all night for it to scan my MP3's. I just tried playing some music and got only two of those annoying dropouts (about one second of silence during playback) after about 5 songs. This is an improvement. I used to get two dropouts per song.

Also, the cover art didn't display properly. It grabbed the bits from the desktop so it looked like my cover art was part of the guide. I used to get these problems back when I was programming Windows 3.1 GUIs.

Hopefully, the next update will fix the playback problem. I don't really care about the cover art.

I received two new units today from Audio Authority. Both serial numbers were below the ones previously given me by Kenwood, so I spoke with Kenwood Support about whether I should open them both.

I was given the "test" to check to see if the units were upgraded. Technical support verified the test at the other end with both an upgraded and a non-upgraded unit. As it turns out, both my units passed the "has it been upgraded test" (I'm still working on hookup), and both were below the serial number previously given. I was told that they may have bumped up the serial number previously, just to be safe.

The Procedure

1. Turn the Power on the Changer

2. Hold the "STOP" button down on the unit.

3. While you are holding the "stop" button down on the unit, press "0" on your remote. You will then see numbers that flash in a sequence on the unit readout.

4. If you see:

M3-0515-01

S3-0427-01

DV-0312-01

You have an upgraded unit. Note there could be variations on the sequence of numbers you'll see, but those were the ones read to me by Kenwood Technical Support, and both of those were on the new DV-5050 units.

5. If you see:

M1-0625-01

S1-0625-01

DV-1115-03

or some variation of the above, you have a non upgraded unit. The apparent distinction is whether a "3" appears in the first two of the codes.

Again, check for yourselves, but this was what Kenwood gave me, and it worked on these units. He did suggest there may be "other" numbers that will work (mean it was upgraded) but these for sure.

Nick :cool:

Nick,

Have you hooked up the units yet? I'm quite curious how the second and third changers transfer data back to the Entre (RS-232 or system control jacks), and whether the movie/music lists are consolidated or managed changer by changer.

Mike

I ran the numbers on the DV-5900M (recent purchase from Crutchfield that has not been sent in for upgrade) and got slightly different results:

M 2-0110-01
S 1-1114-01
DA2-0129-01
TI1-0803-17

Just a guess, but since the instructions for shipping the unit asked us to mark the box for "Stage 3 Upgrade" and the difference in Nick's numbers occurs in the second digit (M3, S3, etc) I'd guess this unit does not have the new firmware. It will be interesting to see what numbers the new/upgraded DV-5900Ms show.

Mike

. . . getting there. But a question:

1. Entre has only one digital output, which is a toslink. For those of us who prefer that their preamp receive a coax signal, I assume that, with daisy chained units, I can just run the coax output from the "main" unit.

I know this works in a normal daisy chain without the Entre controlling more than one changer, but I'm in new territory here . . . that's the hookup I'm going to use, i.e., no digital output from the Entre, but directly via coax from Main Changer to preamp.

It'll be late before I know anything, because, for all I know, the Entre is down again. But, we shall soon see . . .

Nick :cool:

Nick,

I can't see why that wouldn't work, but you will only get analog audio from the Entre's analog output when playing a CD from the Entre's internal CD drive. MP3s are analog-only regardless, so skipping the digital out on the Entre won't affect MP3 playback.

When used with the Kenwood receiver you don't have to worry about this since the Entre will command the receiver to switch to the DVD input when something is played from the changer.

Mike

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
Entre has only one digital output, which is a toslink. For those of us who prefer that their preamp receive a coax signal, I assume that, with daisy chained units, I can just run the coax output from the "main" unit.

I know this works in a normal daisy chain without the Entre controlling more than one changer, but I'm in new territory here . . . that's the hookup I'm going to use, i.e., no digital output from the Entre, but directly via coax from Main Changer to preamp. If this works with one changer, it should work with the daisy chain given that the daiy chain is supposed to be a pure pass-through. As I'm sure you know, if you set things up like this, you will lose the ability to get a digital signal when playing a CD in the Entre's CD player. No great loss considering the number of other players that you have.

FWIW, I'm not sure that your issues with the TOSlink cable are that significant. I don't think that one can realistically hear an audible difference between the signal from a good quality coax and fiber cable. In fact, on paper fiber has a lot going for it: no impedence issues, no RF issues, no distance limitations. As long as the cable has good quality fiber in it. I think that most of the issues with TOSlink cables have to do with the potential problem of the cable not being plugged in properly, which would cause audible dropouts (and was why, when the 96/24 bug was encountered, Kenwood recommended that we use coax, though, as it turned out, this was not the fault of the cable), as opposed to the hi-fi rags complaints about optical, which is that the sound is degraded is some subtle ways. This just does not happen.

Also, FWIW, when I first got the Entre, I was unsure whether the audio and video would be degraded by running through the Entre, so I kept my 5900 plugged into the same two inputs (digital and 5.1 analog) on my MC-12 that it had always been plugged into. I used the second video and digital outputs to connect the changer to the Entre and put the Entre into a throd input of the MC-12. I even used the skinny toslink cable to connect the 5900 to the Entre. Even with this set up, I noticed no difference in audio or video performance between the 5900 playing through the Entre and the direct output of the 5900.

So you haven't answered some of the most significant questions: [list=1]
Are there any new connectors on the upgraded changers, or any other visible changes to the hardware?
Is there anything new in the way that the changers connect to the Entre or each other?
Is there any new documentation?
Are the layer changes faster?
Is the "last disk play on startup" bug fixed?
Are the disk to disk changes faster?
Is the 96/24 DAD bug fixed?
[/list=1]

Originally posted by rbienstock

FWIW, I'm not sure that your issues with the TOSlink cable are that significant. I don't think that one can realistically hear an audible difference between the signal from a good quality coax and fiber cable. In fact, on paper fiber has a lot going for it: no impedence issues, no RF issues, no distance limitations. As long as the cable has good quality fiber in it. I think that most of the issues with TOSlink cables have to do with the potential problem of the cable not being plugged in properly, which would cause audible dropouts (and was why, when the 96/24 bug was encountered, Kenwood recommended that we use coax, though, as it turned out, this was not the fault of the cable), as opposed to the hi-fi rags complaints about optical, which is that the sound is degraded is some subtle ways. This just does not happen.

No, I agree with you. The only persuasive argument that I've ever really experienced in favor of coaxial is that it is a more secure termination. However, my issues are Man's Battle With Cabinetry. The rat's nest of cables that I have hooked up to the MC-12, in a cabinet whose thick oak makes me curse its Amish builder, makes me want to leave things in place. There already was a coax to my "DVD II", and I just wanted to be able to move the cable.

The Entre I'm hooking up tonight is the "movie" Entre--only DVD-Videos. The other one has the audio--both analog and digital--output from it. But I'll never use the Entre as a CD player, and, despite having it hooked up that way, I've always run the DVD directly to the surround processor--now that the connection is in place (and trying to get behind a MC-12 filled with cables, from just above it in a cabinet, to the very lowest inputs on the rear panel . . .


So you haven't answered some of the most significant questions: [list=1]
Are there any new connectors on the upgraded changers, or any other visible changes to the hardware?
Is there anything new in the way that the changers connect to the Entre or each other?
Is there any new documentation?
Are the layer changes faster?
Is the "last disk play on startup" bug fixed?
Are the disk to disk changes faster?
Is the 96/24 DAD bug fixed?
[/list=1]

Believe me, it's been about 5 or 6 hours just to get everything moved around, so that's been my battle, but, as I write, I'm trying a few things.

The hardware appears identical.

I'm happy to report that the disc change speed is greatly improved.

No new documentation that I've noticed.

Don't know about the other stuff yet . . . tomorrow.

The only process for connecting the changers is the same . . . video and audio inputs and outputs, and a control cable going out from the Main to Sub 1, same thing to Sub 2 . . .

Tomorrow the million dollar question gets answered: What happens when I connect the 2d changer? But these things are looking good so far . . .

Nick :cool:

"No new documentation that I've noticed."

Kenwood stated to me that the updated manual will be posted on their website. I am just waiting on where and when. But they will post it I was told. As you know, this will be for Entre owners with the changes to the new software that were made. For no real changes where made to hardware operation.

I have to leave for a haircut (what few remain), but hookup on the two changers should be completed by this afternoon.

Everyone . . . You are going to be very pleased with disc change speed, compared to what we're used to. This thing cranks.

Nick :cool:

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
I have to leave for a haircut (what few remain), but hookup on the two changers should be completed by this afternoon.

Everyone . . . You are going to be very pleased with disc change speed, compared to what we're used to. This thing cranks.

Nick :cool:

Vanity over allegiance to his fellow Home Theater colleagues. Now we know enough about Nick's moral character. :)

And, I'm going to get carpel tunnel syndrom from crossing my fingers so hard over the hope that my upgraded changer is as speedy as Nick's new changers.

My upgrade appointment was yesterday. I assume that either my changer got upgraded, or else they noticed that my changer has the "disk doesn't stick out on eject" bug and sent it to repair and I lost my place in the queue. Either way, I have no idea what is going on. For those who have already upgraded, did you get any feedback from Kenwood letting you know the status of your unit or do they just ship it back without any further communication?

Robert

My three changers were also scheduled for yesterday, I have heard nothing from Kenwood at all.


Tom

Robert

My appointment was last Friday. Haven't heard anything, either.

Jeff

just ordered mine from the new york store. they came in today.

might as well and go ahead and schedule that upgrade!!!!!!!!!! :)

Originally posted by slocko
just ordered mine from the new york store. they came in today.

might as well and go ahead and schedule that upgrade!!!!!!!!!! :)

Slocko:

Don't send them anywhere without doing the upgrade test first. Although the mystery of multichanger support will soon be solved (I loaded four in each changer, and the Entre is "looking up" Changer 1 as I write), you may find that you already have upgraded units.

I can verify mine is upgraded because the disc change speed is night and day. Let's hope more good news is on the way, because I'm just going by instincts on how to set up multichangers (i.e., using the manual).

Nick :cool:

the one that the store shipped out to me today is supposed to have the upgrades already. that is what kenwood told them.

that is all i was waiting for. i will run the test on the new player just to make sure. once that is verified, i will load my old player into the new one and send the old one in for the upgrade. still well within kenwood's time table. glad i had some patience.

my new entre still hasn't shipped from kenwood :(

hopefully it arrives soon.

Hi Slocko, can you share with us the dealer in NY that have these new changers ? I want to order a couple also... Thanks, /Lars

Ok...New Entre User Manual posted...

DOWNLOAD UPDATED ENTRE MANUAL (ftp://docs.kenwoodusa.com/manuals/OM-MR-H1USER_SETUPv2.0-2003-KUSA.pdf)

AWESOM !! Thanks David !! :D

I noticed that the first few pages say:

.... Entre' Entertainment Hub, ver. 3.0

Then starting on page V it changes to ver. 2.0

Any thoughts??

It will be updated (typo) and reposted.

I PMed you the info.

Originally posted by Lars158
Hi Slocko, can you share with us the dealer in NY that have these new changers ? I want to order a couple also... Thanks, /Lars

Originally posted by Lars158
Hi Slocko, can you share with us the dealer in NY that have these new changers ? I want to order a couple also... Thanks, /Lars

Sent all three changers in via FedEx-arrived on 9th for 10th appointment.

Started calling Sovereign support on the 14th. Spoke with support said they’d research and call me back. Didn’t happen.

Called again on 15th and emailed. Still no reply to email. Spoke with support again. Was told that two units would be shipped on 16th and was told that I should call on the 16th to get tracking numbers. Also told that one unit (they provided the serial number) had problems and would be delayed for repair before the upgrade was completed.

Called on 16th. They said they had to email the person with the information and someone would call me. Didn’t happen.

Called again on 17th. Said the person with info would have to return my call. I advised of all the unfulfilled promises of return phone calls and they checked again. Confirmed they have the tracking numbers but that they would email them today to the address used for the return process. Will wait until about 15 minutes before closing and call back, if no email arrives.

And the reason for the above post was for?

LOL

Was replying to 2924, 2925 and 2926 posts today to commiserate on tracking saga. Hit wrong button.

I am getting ready to ship my 5900m to kenwood for the upgrade and I need a phone number for fedex.

What phone number did you use?

1-800-GOFEDEX

I obviously wasn't clear on what # I was looking for.

In the recipients address, FEDEX want the Recipients phone number. I am looking for the phone # of the kenwood service center.

thx.

I downloaded the new manual, and there is a lot of new information, which is good. One thing that is confusing given the recent events is this line, from page 161 (Troubleshooting):
"Entre cannot control Sub 1 or Sub 2 changers."

Note that on page 19, it does say the new version of the Entre can control up to three changers connected "together in a chain."

Lookup is in process now of about 650 discs, all movies.

Entre shifts between changers as lookup ensues. The readout tells you "reading disc in changer 1," or "reading disc in changer 2."

It identified 806 discs to process (only two changers right now). It appears to shift between changers--looks up slot 1 in Changer 1, then slot 1 in Changer 2. Lookup appears to be going pretty fast--about 50 discs in the first 10 minutes or so.

My one teeny concern is that, before I initiated the lookup process, I got a picture from the Main Unit, but tried to hit "sub 1" to take me to the 2d changer. I need to give both of them the appropriate settings (screen size, PCM downconversion, IRE level), and I just got a blue screen with Sub 1. There might be a problem with the connectors, so we'll see. Fortunately, I've got the 2d changer outputting both s-video and component video into the main changer, so I can test both connections.

I am getting a very good feeling about how well this is working. This product may have just jumped some major steps.

By the way, make sure you use a stereo mini-pin connector to connect the units together (like the one they supply, two rings around the termination, not one . . . ), because using a mono pin didn't work. That was my one and only call to Technical Support today . . . but there's still time.

Nick :cool:

My upgrade appointment was July 11. Keep in mind that I sent in 3 changers.

I just received the following email from Kenwood:

Dear Mr. Nick Satullo,



The Sovereign Upgrade has been completed on your unit(s). Below is the return shipping information.

Model Number Serial Number Ship Date UPS Tracking#
DV-5900M 10900013 7/16/2003 [Deleted]
DV-5050M 10800148 7/16/2003 [Deleted]




DV-5050M 20600022


This unit is current in for repair. Once the repair and the upgrade are completed, we will email you the shipping information.





Thanks for your patronage

There was nothing wrong of which I was aware with any of the units, but I'll live with it. I'm frankly glad they gave them all the once-over before applying the upgrade. They sent both units UPS 3 day select, so I think it'll be Monday before I receive them.

In any case, for anyone that was wondering what the status of your unit was, you'll apparently get an email after shipment or designation for repair. They shipped it back 5 days after the upgrade, so that's not bad.

Nick :cool:

DITTO for me. My email came about an hour ago. Three changers in. Two turned around and one being repaired. With a 7/10 upgrade mine are schedule to arrive on 7/21. So far so good.

I just received a phone call from a very nice woman at Kenwood, I was informed that my 5900 was defective and was being replaced by a brand new one from dealer stock, I was given the new serial # 10800479. This would indicate to me that there is no way to tell if you have a modified unit unless you use the "test" that Nick eluded to in an earlier post. I never had any problem with the unit but apparently it had a serious enough failure to warrant a replacement. At any rate all three of my changers are on their way back so I am very anxiously awaiting them. From Nick's preliminary reports it appears that Kenwood addressed all the serious issues with this upgrade...BRAVO Kenwood.


Tom

Oh my g*d, the new entre manual is 182 pages long, you would think they could send us all a new manual, it will take forever to print out ...


Just kidding, could not think of anything else to gripe about. Geeez, what are we going to do for the next year or so?

My two went in for July 14 upgrade. Waiting for notice of fix. In the meantime I am now trying to set up a wireless network using Linksys new WRT54AG (has capability for all three 801 standards). Unfortunately, I have been unable to connect the computer to the internet using the router. But I did get the Wireless - G Ethernet bridge, which should permit me to simply plug the thing into the back of the entre and get 54 mps throughput. Of course none of that speed will do me anygood until I can get the router to connect to the internet. So many things to screw up and so little time to do it. :)

Originally posted by mikemav
I downloaded the new manual, and there is a lot of new information, which is good. One thing that is confusing given the recent events is this line, from page 161 (Troubleshooting):
"Entre cannot control Sub 1 or Sub 2 changers."

Note that on page 19, it does say the new version of the Entre can control up to three changers connected "together in a chain."

What the statement "Entré cannot control Sub1 or Sub2 changers" means is that if a changer, which is switched to Sub1 or Sub2, is connected to the Entré via RS-232C, the Entré cannot control the changer.

The way to hook up multi changers is as follows:

First, the changers need to be connected through their daisy-chain
connections. The first changer needs to be set to MAIN, the second changer to SUB1, etc. Then the Entré's "TO CD/DVD CHANGER" RS-232C port needs to be connected to the first changer. This is where the statement, "Entre can control up to three changers connected "together in a chain" comes from.

Bottom line, if you try to hook up the RS-232C port of the Entré to a changer that is selected to Sub1 or Sub2, it will not work.

maybe kenwood is simply matching serial numbers against a list of serial numbers they knew had problems.

Well, I sort of had to start over. Too long of a story, but, suffice to say this:
If you're daisy chaining the units via component video and s-video (which I do, because I use component for the projector, but a television monitor for Entre use for other things--and I like the ability to compare the signals) . . . then one of the s-video outputs might be down.

I couldn't get a signal from the sub1 changer via s-video, but I always had it output via the first of two s-video outputs on the changer. It is possible that s-video ouput 1 just didn't work, whereas s-video ouput 2 does. There's also a possibility it was cabling, but two different s-video outputs didn't work from s-video ouput 1.

Also, I just realized that, in a daisy chain situation, you really are compelled to use coaxial cable except at the output stage. Remember, for daisy chaining, you need both audio & video inputs (to receive the signal from the next changer down the line), and, while there's a digital coaxial input on the rear of the changer, there's no toslink input. There's only a toslink output.

And, despite my earlier enthusiasm on disc download speed from Entre, you're looking at about 100 discs per hour, so, it would be nice to think that you just do it at bedtime . . . but, for some reason, the process inexplicably cut out after about 300 discs. Then, for hookup reasons, I had to unload the second changer and start over . . . which is where I'm at now.

But, now that I know everything's working (and that's a fragile state of affairs), I'm actually pretty psyched over what it appears the system can do, and the increased speed.

Nick :cool:

Originally posted by David Bott
Ok...New Entre User Manual posted...
DOWNLOAD UPDATED ENTRE MANUAL

Entré displayed a message about a DNS Failure
"This message means that Entrés IP address is not being recognized by the Internet. To fix the problem, try setting up Entré to use a static IP address (or a different IP address if you are already using static IP addresses)." [so they are also saying that DHCP is not reliable?]

...

This is about the strangest description/forumula I've heard (unless they are taking worse case and assuming the computer you check is the one with the first IP in your network then they are adding 5 (4 computers+1 Entre or just 5 in case you add 5 more "computers/ethernet devices" in the future) to get 114. Very curious.

"5. Calculate an IP address:
a. Enter the first three segments of the IP address you noted from the
computer in step 2. These segments identify the parts of your net-
work that are not unique to a particular computer or device (such as
Entré).they must match the ones from your computer.
b. Use the following formula to calculate the last number (the "node):

Total Number of Computers + Node Number from Computer + 5 =
New Node Number

For example, there are four computers on your network, and the IP
address from the computer you checked is 192.168.0.105. The new
Entré node number would be as follows:

4 + 105 + 5 = 114

c. Enter the number you just calcuated in the fourth segment."

[edited to fix color]

Originally posted by ScottF200
[b]Entré displayed a message about a DNS Failure[b]
"This message means that Entrés IP address is not being recognized by the Internet. To fix the problem, try setting up Entré to use a static IP address (or a different IP address if you are already using static IP addresses)." [so they are also saying that DHCP is not reliable?]

...

This is about the strangest description/forumula I've heard (unless they are taking worse case and assuming the computer you check is the one with the first IP in your network then they are adding 5 (4 computers+1 Entre or just 5 in case you add 5 more "computers/ethernet devices" in the future) to get 114. Very curious.

The fact that they're putting it in the manual suggests to me that they don't expect to get this problem solved soon. While I'm not terribly adept at the issue, everyone I've asked says that a dynamically assigned IP address is preferable to static.

When I was talking with Technical Support, they did acknowledge what the people on this forum have learned . . . that the problem came with the new software update. Kenwood concedes it's an Entre issue, but I'm hoping that they're busily fixing it. Instead, enshrining the static IP formula in the new manual suggests that they may not now understand the problems.

What's great about the manual being available online is that the revisions to it can be made on an ongoing basis (right!), and we can keep up. But, so far, Kenwood's getting very high marks on this whole upgrade issue. The fact that they're communicating with us (sometimes) and the turnaround is demonstrating the real commitment to the product line that I frankly feared they didn't have. They do.

Nick :cool:

Originally posted by David Bott
Ok...New Entre User Manual posted...

DOWNLOAD UPDATED ENTRE MANUAL (ftp://docs.kenwoodusa.com/manuals/OM-MR-H1USER_SETUPv2.0-2003-KUSA.pdf)

Anyone else having trouble downloading this? I get an error page every time I try and get the manual. Besides clicking on the link, I tried cutting and pasting the URL into a new IE window.

Any suggestions?

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
<snip>What's great about the manual being available online is that the revisions to it can be made on an ongoing basis (right!), and we can keep up. But, so far, Kenwood's getting very high marks on this whole upgrade issue. The fact that they're communicating with us (sometimes) and the turnaround is demonstrating the real commitment to the product line that I frankly feared they didn't have. They do.

It is great that is is on-line and downloadable (Thanks DB). I did searches for stuff I'm interested in. NOTE: I did not find a reference to the new "test connection" option yet.

KW/OG/DB are probably rolling their eyes regularly as they read most post here <grin> for many of the things we say and come up with.

I think if the changers sent in for upgrades have the same improvements as the ones you got and the fact they are diagnosising problems and fixing them during the upgrade (although the upgrade on that particular unit may have failed so they had no choice)....then I think mnay many of us will be happy and applaud what they have finally done. Thanks KW...no doubt you will double your sales and then some after this and hopefully recoupe your cost plus keep profitable so you can keep supporting the products!!!

Originally posted by chefmitch
Anyone else having trouble downloading this? I get an error page every time I try and get the manual. Besides clicking on the link, I tried cutting and pasting the URL into a new IE window.

Any suggestions?

I didn't have any trouble but it is an FTP link so you browser would have to support that...which all do I thought. Perhaps a firewall issue on your end?

You can use native commands. Create two files as follows and put them in your c:\ directory. Run download.bat from a command prompt (START->RUN "CMD" for XP or "COMMAND" for WinXX). Your manual is in your c:\ drive after running this.

download.batftp -n -s:download.cmd
download.cmd
open docs.kenwoodusa.com
user anonymous youremail@yourisp.com [last part is your e-mail address and is the password - remove this bracketed text]
lcd c:\
cd manuals
binary
get OM-MR-H1USER_SETUPv2.0-2003-KUSA.pdf
bye

Well, finally got my wireless network up and running (o.k. so I only got one computer to actually connect with the router and internet). I went to connect my Linksys wireless ethernet bridge to the entre with my Netmate Link adapter. NOw mind you, I got this Netmate Link adapter on e-bay about 12 months ago for the awesome price of $5 - shipping actually cost as much. NOw I went to hook it into this ethernet bridge and low and behold, I got an error, its not compatible with the entre. I looked at the new manual and it looks like I am going to have to spkurge because my CATC Netmate Link is model U-ETH-NMO1 and the compatible one is "02". Just my luck. Anyone interested in buying a slightly used U-ETH-NM01?

I actually received the upgraded unit back from Kenwood before their email ;) My DV-5900M was also shipped out yesterday (via 3-Day Select, although I work literally down the street from their warehouse) and delivered this morning by UPS.

I need to dismantle a HUGE cabinet around my RPTV to put the monster back in service (one of my weekend projects...), and I still have not purchased my second unit to daisy chain to, so my feedback isn't goint to help much. However:

- The unit arrives devoid of any leaflets and/or literature. If you shipped it in a plain box, it will come back in a Sovereign box. My unit was wrapped with several layers of bubble wrap and a yellow sticky on top of the unit had my name, model and s/n handwritten on it, that's all.

- Nick's version test (hold Stop on unit, press "0" on remote) returns the following:
M 3-0515-01
S 3-0427-01
DA3-0302-01
TI1-0803-17

- The rattling noise during pause / read and, occasionally, play, which many units seem to be suffering from, is still there. This is a bummer, I was really hoping they would have fixed this minor annoyance while upgrading. The noise does seem to be a tad more muffled than before (once I put the unit back inside the cabinet it may get as loud as I remembered it, though). So, if your unit "rattled' before, chances are it still will do so after the upgrade, i'm afraid.

- I can confirm that disc changes (I only loaded a few discs here and there to test) appear to be much faster. I timed anywhere between 23 and 30 seconds, from disc stop to next disc playing, which is like a Ferrari compared to before. The carousel in particular seems to be spinning at warp speed.

--
Umberto B - Gardena, CA

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
While I'm not terribly adept at the issue, everyone I've asked says that a dynamically assigned IP address is preferable to static. No way. If you can do it, static is always preferable. There are a whole host of reasons why you'd want a device to have the same address all the time, and a whole bunch of kludgy things that some applications and services have to do to work around the changes from dynamic addressing. There are only two ways in which dynamic have advantages: (1) the user isn't required to configure anything, and people like my mother who need me to come over and help her change the orientation on her printed pages from portrait to landscape can hardly be expected to properly configure their network settings, so DHCP eliminates all of these support headaches, and (2) some devices (ReplayTV comes to mind) are designed so that on bootup they look for a DHCP server and grab an address if a server is found, and, if not, use a manually entered address (instead of what one would think would be the correct approach, which is to look and see if a static address is specified and only look for a DHCP server if no static address is programmed). With such devices, you may have long bootup times until the device fails to find the DHCP server, times out and continues to boot.

FWIW, in my home network, all devices that are there all the time have static addresses, including all my computers, 3 Replay TVs and the Entre. I do have DHCP turned on so that if anyone comes over with a laptop, they can plug into the network and get an IP.

FWIW, I too just got my notice that my changer had been upgraded. I've been sending a whole bunch of e-mails to upgrade@kenwoodusa.com because customer support refused to discuss anything having to do with the upgrade with me and said that the only way for me to get any information about the upgrade is via e-mail (another example of their wonderful customer friendly communication skills). I've looked back at all the replies I've received (only three replies to seven e-mails) all the replies were sent on successive Thursdays, so my guess is that the person who reads and/or replies to user mail only does so once per week. This would explain why people here all got their e-mails on the same day even though their units were upgraded at different times and one even reported that the unit came back (3 day air) before he got the upgrade notification. Jeez!

In any event, I'm concerned because prior to sending in my changer, I pointed out to Kenwood that my changer had "had a minor defect since the day that I bought it -- the discs do not get pushed out the way that they are supposed to when one ejects it. The selected disk is supposed to protrude about 1/8" when you push eject on it, but they don't on my changer. I was told that this is a known problem and a fairly easy fix and I asked whether it would be possible for you to repair this simultaneously with the upgrade." I sent this by e-mail and in a note enclosed with the changer when I sent it back. After the third e-mail asking this question, Kenwood wrote back saying "If your unit has a malfunction and requires a repair, it will still go through the evaluation process and then forwarded to our factory service center for the repair. After the repair is completed, it will then receive the upgrade." It isn't ecen clear that my messages were being answered by a person, because they had a "canned" flavor. My e-mail notice regarding the upgrade was also canned and just said that my changer had been upgraded and had been sent back on the same day as my upgrade appointment. I assume from this that it was NOT fixed, but, of course, I'll have to wait until next Thursday to get an answer from Kenwood, although I'll know sooner because my changer should come back on Monday.

An open message to Kenwood: I may be alone here, but personally I would have preferred to pay, say $50 for the upgrade just to have the ability to have a real person to communicate with. Kenwood: love the equipment, hate the company. I can't believe that there's an entity out there that makes Microsoft look good. This is so infuriating and sad.

Originally posted by chefmitch
Anyone else having trouble downloading this? I get an error page every time I try and get the manual. Besides clicking on the link, I tried cutting and pasting the URL into a new IE window. Any suggestions? BTW, the Kenwood site points to this new manual as well and does it the same way that David did (i.e. via FTP link)

http://www.kenwoodusa.com/support/manual.jsp?divisionId=2&categoryId=147

A little odd, however, that on the Tips and Install page they use HTTP to get the tech manuals (connection ways). It is from the 'upload.kenwoodusa.com' site vs the 'docs.kenwoodusa.com' site, tho. Perhaps they should have the manual be HTTP'able as well for those (browsers/users setups) that are FTP challenged.

http://www.kenwoodusa.com/group_info.jsp?categoryTypeId=130&productId=2357&productTypeId=147

Has anyone ever used Phillps for extened warranty on electronics. My retailer sells Phillps warranties. With the problems I have had with my Kenwood products, I think I should buy the extended warranty. If Kenwood would offer extended warranties, I would perfer to buy from Kenwood.

As of 7/16/2003
2 Entre's replaced under warranty
2 DV-5050M changers replaced under warranty

From the new Entre manual, page page 112,
"Entré displays DVD Audio discs as “Unknown Disc” under
the DVD category in the Movie mode. Once the on-line
DVD Audio database is operational, DVD Audio discs
automatically appear in the Music mode."

I had never heard of the on-line DVD Audio database. Guess this is good news for those folks in moving the DVD audio to the Music category.

Originally posted by DerekFSU
From the new Entre manual, page page 112,
"Entré displays DVD Audio discs as “Unknown Disc” under
the DVD category in the Movie mode. Once the on-line
DVD Audio database is operational, DVD Audio discs
automatically appear in the Music mode."

I had never heard of the on-line DVD Audio database. Guess this is good news for those folks in moving the DVD audio to the Music category.

I believe this is the line that was in the manual 2 years ago. So, not such great news, but at least they haven't given up hope on it by removing the line completely.

Oh well, you can tell I just read it for the first time.

I've decided to send my 5900 in for the updates. I have a couple of questions, though. I no longer have the original box. Can anyone comment on the best way to pack my changer? If I take it to the local FedEx office will they pack it for me? If my appointment is for the 28th, when should I ship it by?

Thanks,
Ken

My Dead Entre, the one that got as far as about 500 + discs now has a new phenomenon: Not only won't it go on (red light just blinks), but the cd tray just keeps opening.

Reading through previous posts, that sounds like a big Uh-Oh.

Luckily, Kenwood still has a not-so-low-priced lawyer that decided to take a few days off from work, and has worked harder on getting these two new changers set up on one Entre than I would at work. Except there I have clients who pay me. And now I'm on a mission.

Luckily, too, I have this second Entre sitting around, which was to be the "Music Entre," so I've swapped out the units, and I'm just doing the "Lookup All" on it. I've hooked up the dead Entre to the connections that were awaiting the arrival of more changers, but I've got a bad feeling. For example.

Disc tray keeps opening.

When I connected the Ethernet cable to the dead Entre, from the CATC Netmate (the best USB/Ethernet adapter, for these purposes) I get no light on the Netmate--a definite negative in my experience.

For anyone who's had dead Entres lately, please let me know. Seems like I'd read that Kenwood was willing to bite the bullet on these, and just take them back and send new units. I want to have a head start in the converstation before I report it to Technical Support.

In the interim, this one's loading anyway. I may yet be able to report on success. The bugs are swarming, though.

Nick :cool:

I have had the tray pop out on occasion during a reset but never consistantly. Mine is still alive, knock on wood.

Derek, that might explain why you had so many problems with the upgrade. That drive could be ready to die. These drives might be hiccuping during the upgrade and causing it not to install correctly. In your case, you probably got far enough that it didn't corrupt the boot sector.

If I were you, I would resign myself to the fact, that eventually that drive will die.

Of course this is all a theory :)

it's kind of expensive, but those mailbox etcera or equivalent, will pack it and ship it. they do charge a premium for it though.

Originally posted by K_Thompson
I've decided to send my 5900 in for the updates. I have a couple of questions, though. I no longer have the original box. Can anyone comment on the best way to pack my changer? If I take it to the local FedEx office will they pack it for me? If my appointment is for the 28th, when should I ship it by?

Thanks,
Ken

they will ship it via fedex or ups.

Slocko,

You may be correct. After all the MP3 files were "corrupted," I had to restore to factory defaults. I then re-burned all 1200 MP3's to the Entre and things were working. Just now I went to play some MP3's and it refused. It goes to the play screen with the enlarged cover art but does nothing more.

Ken,

I shipped mine back in the original box. So you'll have to figure in some money for shipping, etc.

I can tell you that I sent mine 3 day express UPS, but I checked with FEDEX and the USPS as well. For the same service they were all about the say, around $75 to ship 3 day.

I would not ship it ground, since you'll get no way of knowing when it will get there. Spend a little more, and get a guranteed delivery day, and then back up. If you ship via this method, know that it has to go out early in the morning to make it though, or late in the afternoon on the previous day (my experience has been generally you can think about noon as a break point).

The box was about 40 lbs.

Hope this helps.

when i get my entre back, i am seriously considering not bothering to put mp3s on it.

as much as i love the interface, it's a lot of lost time if the drive crashes.

if i do burn my mp3s again, i might keep the entre off when i am not using it. that case might not have been designed to keep a drive running 24hrs.

I turn everything off at night.

WOW! A hundred pages, what a saga or perhaps an epic, David keeper of the statistics, how many threads have hit the hundred mark?

Slocko

It is a widly held opinion that most of the wear and tear on a hard drive occurs during power up/down, supposedly the drive will last longer if left running, hard to believe isn't it.


Tom

Originally posted by b00bie
Slocko

It is a widly held opinion that most of the wear and tear on a hard drive occurs during power up/down, supposedly the drive will last longer if left running, hard to believe isn't it.
Tom
The one variable here is heat. I think the above is true if the HD is kept at reasonable temperatures throughout. I wonder how hot the Entre's HD gets if left on for months on end?

Jon

Your right heat is a big factor, I have two UTV's that get really hot, but even if you turn them off they dont really go off, I bought several laptop coolers to place under them to help allieviate the heat, perhaps something like that with the Entre would be appropriate.


Tom

Originally posted by fireboy92k
Ken,
(...)
I would not ship it ground, since you'll get no way of knowing when it will get there. Spend a little more, and get a guranteed delivery day, and then back up. If you ship via this method, know that it has to go out early in the morning to make it though, or late in the afternoon on the previous day (my experience has been generally you can think about noon as a break point).

FYI, UPS Ground packages can be traced online using the tracking number provided upon shipping, and UPS guarantees delivery date of Ground packages as well as any other of their services. Depending on how far you are from California, Ground can actually be as fast or faster than 3-Day Select, and a whole lot cheaper. If you live in Northern/Central California, the changer will actually get to Long Beach in 2 business days, in Southern Claifornia the next business day.

Also, if you heve been using the optical Toslink in/out on the back of the changer, make sure you plug the outlet(s) before sending the unit back to Kenwood, possibly with the plug originally provided. You don't want dust to get in there, and there is plenty of dust in those cardboard boxes.

--
Umberto B - Gardena, CA

it's supposed to be standard case engineering to make sure air circulates well inside the case, but with Kenwood you never know. My entre was right next to the AC vent, and it had plently of ventilation space on top.

who knows, maybe the drive never stops spinning, even when you power it off. power off seems more like standby mode because it comes back on so fast.

funny if the archille's heel of this system turns out to be the entre hard drive.

by the way, the 5900m that i ordered came today. probably because it just had to cross the river to get here :)

did any one else order from Capital Audio Electronics?

Slocko, thanks for the tip about Capital Audio. They were quite a bit cheaper than Audio Advisor. Unfortunately, the 5900m I ordered has to go a little farther than across the river. (Try half the country.)

Two changers , . . One Entre . . . 614 movies. Loaded (While it looks like I've got them all from the menu, I did notice 3 AVIAs in the menu . . . looks like some normal Entre Housekeeping).

Other Entre . . . Dead. Kenwood told me to send it in for a replacement.

But Multichanger works, and it works well. I've particularly tried changing in the Entre Guide from a movie that's in changer one to the second changer, and it takes care of all . . . shifts you into the "sub1" mode of control for the changer.

Apparently, there's no need to switch back and forth with the remote to sub1, main, etc. Once you're there, the changer remote works regardless of whether you've pressed main, sub1, sub2 on the remote.

We have liftoff.

Nick :cool:

well i have to say kenwood has managed to disappoint me again.

the brand new 5900m has two defects. the eject button doesn't work and a horrible grinding noise.

i opened it up to take a peek, and noticed they now put a big plastic covering over the center of the unit. this is probably to keep dust out of the laser while a disk is playing.

the spring that controls the eject mechanism has detached from it's anchors. unfortunately there is no easy way to reach that area, especially with the new plastic covering in the center. i have the feeling that these springs become detached during transport.

the grinding noise is due to the fact that the carousel appears warped. so when it spins around, a certain section of the carousel grinds the dvds against the top of the carousel. very nice.

it's not worth returning because who knows what the next one might look like. once i get the other one back from kenwood, i will unload this one back into the original player, and take this new one to my authorized center where I hope they can just replace the carousel and he can glue the spring.

Nick, congratulations. Hopefully we will join you soon.

by the way, to my untrained eye, i didn't see a hardware difference on the inside besides the see through plastic covering I mentioned.

so it could very well be a whole board that got replaced with different chips.

Originally posted by slocko
by the way, to my untrained eye, i didn't see a hardware difference on the inside besides the see through plastic covering I mentioned.

so it could very well be a whole board that got replaced with different chips.

Did they add SACD capabilities? They might as well while they're in there messing around :).

Have you noticed any differences (improvements) in the UI of the library function on the changer itself?

Originally posted by crbaldwin
Did they add SACD capabilities? They might as well while they're in there messing around :).

Have you noticed any differences (improvements) in the UI of the library function on the changer itself?

To "sneak in" SACD capability would be the hardware easter egg that ends all easter eggs. Considering SACD requires a completely different (non-PCM) way of reading data off the disc, it's more unlikely than, say, Kenwood sneaking in the ability to support SVCD, which would be a great bonus for me.

But again, highly unlikely. I'm just thrilled to pieces that they sped the changer up during the upgrade! All they really had to do is give us multi-changer. They gave us more. It's hard to believe. Thank you, Kenwood, Sovereign division.

Let's just hope all of our Entres either die within the 2 year warranty period, or last forever. All of these ejecting Entres are getting me concerned.

Have anyone with the upgraded changer noticed any improvement in the layer change speed ? I thought I read somewhere that the 1-3 second layer change have been more or less eliminated with the upgrade... If that's the case it would be a great improvement! Can anyone confirm ?

I have not seen a "new" DV-5900M yet, though I'm currently using two new DV-50505s. There was absolutely no hardware changes that I could detect.

As a side issue, there is an input on the rear of all changers called DVD Control. This is not the same input designed for daisy-chain connection. Although it doesn't call itself an IR Repeater input, it works that way. Thus, if, like me, you have devices in cabinets and don't like sticking things on top of the remote sensor on the player, you can simply run a cable from that DVD control input to the IR receiver--like the IR Powermids I use.

Still haven't watched a movie all the way through yet, so I can't comment on the layer change. And, frankly, I get the feeling that for the bulk of you out there that never got to the point of having to deal with that second changer, you'll miss to some extent the hugesness of what multichanger support offers.

Ah, no SACD support, but why do I get the feeling that, once this upgrade program is past us, that's exactly what you're going to see in the super duper version of the changer. Actually, now that I think of it, despite the fact that Audio Authority gave me a "decent" price on a new, upgraded DV-5900M (10% off, plus free shipping), I don't know why I need a second one of those anyway. Especially speculating as I am (and it's no more than specualtion--so don't ask) that we'll see the next generation changer as a truly universal transport.

Nick :cool:

when i pressed play on both players at the same time, the upgraded one started playing maybe 2-3 seconds faster. both players loaded the disc about the same time, but the upgraded one read the disc for less time.

i didn't play with library UI, and probably won't since i use the entre.

haven't watched a movie yet, and i did, i am so used to it, that i might not even notice the improvement.

I got my 2 changers back from upgrade yesterday. BEFORE MY APPOINTMENT DATE! (which was the 21st but I sent them in early)

I also got the email notification that they shipped the day they left Kenwood.

I give KW an excellent for the process, even if it a year late..

I set everything up, reloaded my 650 dvd's did a Lookup All, and found one problem.

I relocated a number of dvd's from MAIN to SUB 1 and each of the relocated , DVD's now appear twice in the Guide, once in their original changer/slot position and again in the new one.

To be clear my set up process was as follows:
Re Connected Entre & 2 Changers
Reloaded All DVD's Relocating ~ 50 DVD's from MAIN to SUB1 unit
Fired up
Used 5555 menu to re register
Did Lookup ALL (Went to sleep... took ~40 secs per disk)
Next morning... Found Dups in guide per above for each relocated disk
Used 5555 menu to rebuild index
Dups still there


Any ideas how I can delete the duplicate entries? It's a lot like the dup problems described back on pages 40-50 of this thread but the solutions described there don't work! Arghhh..

Everything else is working lika a champ! Real multi changer support!

Help!

Fred

Anyone with a new changer, did they fix the "feature" of it auto playing at power on? (yes I know most have a macro work around for this)

-apnar

Originally posted by fredisdead69
Any ideas how I can delete the duplicate entries? It's a lot like the dup problems described back on pages 40-50 of this thread but the solutions described there don't work! Arghhh.. Here's what I'd do, which should work: (1) unload the changers, (2) do a complete lookup -- you should now have a completely empty guide. (3) reinsert discs and do another lookup. This should almost certainly give you an accurate guide with any old personalization intact.

There might be a simpler answer, though I don't have any changers with which I can test this (mine isn't back from the upgrade). Just turn off changer 1 (i.e., your old changer with the duplicate entiries). You'll get a lost communication with the changer message with three options. I don't recall what they are, but one is "Ignore" which is the one you don't want to pick. One of the other two choices, I don't remember which, clears the guide for that changer, after which you should be able to turn the changer back on and do a new lookup.

i haven't verified that i have the new software, so i can't say for 100 percent, but no they didn't fix that it seems.

Originally posted by apnar
Anyone with a new changer, did they fix the "feature" of it auto playing at power on? (yes I know most have a macro work around for this)

-apnar

For those of you who have received their updated chagers back from Kenwood:

What was the turnaround time from the day you shipped your changer(s) to the day you receiced it/them back from Kenwood? I'd like to have an idea of how long I'll be without my one and only source for watching DVDs. And no, I don't have a DVD drive on my computer.

BTW, thanks to everyone who commented on my shipping questions. You were all a big help.

Ken

K, you can always use this as an excuse to get a PS2 or an Xbox.

Originally posted by K_Thompson
<snip>I'd like to have an idea of how long I'll be without my one and only source for watching DVDs.<snip> Maybe during that time you could seek some counseling?:p

Well I sent mine on the 7th and according to UPS they are sitting at my local office and will be delivered tomorrow, so for me it's two weeks.

Tom

rbienstock:

Your "Turn Off the Changer" approach worked. I turned off changer 1. got the message, chose the option (not ignore) which deleted the entries in the DB for changer 1 and then did a lookup range for the first changer.

Only glitch I had was reluctance to read slots 210-215, I worked around this and all seems well. Tried the reluctant slots again the next morning and they read fine.

TO THE REST OF THE ENTRE COMMUNITY:

I am seeing a number of oddities.

The most irritating relates to title look ups and network stability. I have found that many 'Unknown' disks not found during range lookups I can find if I look them up manually through the look up function in the options menu for the individual disk.

Additionally, I find that after doing about 10-15 manual 'lookup' functions, the entre loses its network connection, and it stays lost until I reboot the entre (pulling the plug).

I have tried using both dynamic addressing and static, both work for a while, then the entre loses the connection. I have a dsl service and am using a netgear HPNA-Ethernet bridge which has worked fine for the last year with the entre with complete stability.

I am inclined to agree with other posters who have noted that KW/OG has broken something in the networking area with the 2.0.0.8 release which I am running.

Finally, my dreaded "I refuse to read any disk" error which has been commented on before by other users many, many pages back, is still there. To wit: during high intensity access (ie. reading and switching from one disk to another in short order, as you would do loading an "unknown" disk to view the first min or so to see what it is, then switching to the guide and updating the disk description then selecting another) the changer eventually starts generating the message "can't read that kind of disc" then trys to flip to the other side. The only cure is to disconnect power and wait a while, and it goes away. This scenario is only really seen when doing mass updating of descriptions, or loading of new disks, but I had hoped they fixed it. Alas no..

The good news, is that once you finish the set up hell, the unit operates well in "normal" operating mode.

Thx.

PS: The multi changer functions work great most of the time, but I have found that if I jump back and forth between disks in MAIN and SUB1 (while identifying Unknown dvd's to manually set the titles) that the MAIN changer sometimes stops responding. Cycling power to the changers clears up the freeze!

Looks to me that there need to be a few maintenence fixes out soon!

It's almost like working with windows!

PPS: My turn around time from units sent to KW to receive back from KW was 2 weeks. I am 2 UPS days delivery to/from KW's socal facility.

Fred

Well my changers came back today they all appear to be working and they all show version 3 codes when I run the check. My "new" replacement 5900 is not new it came shipped in a 5050 box wrapped in bubble-wrap not secured in the box and is scratched in several places (not from shipping). Intrinsically I have no problem with a repaired unit as long as it works properly, but here again Kenwood has lied to me. I am glad that they tested the units and replaced my defective one but why couldn't they just say they were sending a refurb. Boy dealing with these people is like watching your mother-in-law drive your new Lexus over a cliff, you want to be happy but you just can't. I will not be setting my changers up again for a few weeks (putting in a new kitchen...no time) but I will try to give them a thorough testing before I install everything back behind the wall in the theater...............

Tom