Originally posted by DannyFresh
RClifton, I have had my 5900 for 8 months. You want to talk about hours on a machine. The unit literally runs constantly. My son is two and there is always one of his movies on. I can't tell you the last time I watched a movie from begining to end. Anyway it has only happened once. I hope this is not the start of the problems others have had. The Entre on the other hand is the coolest I have purchased to date. I do notice little annoyances everyday. I hope Kenwood doesen't abondon the unit and all of us loyal customers. By the way Does anyone know where Duran Duran Got its name from. HA HA HA HA .... Update the damn thing already!!!

Thanks For The Reply!!


O trust me I know the feeling. My daughter is autistic and is up by 7am every morning. It rarely gets turned off before midnight on a good day because even if she isn't actively watching one of her movies it still has to be playing one :D

The cover art problem started between Tuesday and today. I put in two new DVDs Tuesday night, Entre looked them up no problem with cover art. I bought the Blues Brothers today - Entre found the movie info but no cover art. I'll join the crowd calling Kenwood.

BTW, after I got my changers back from the upgrade I now have two discs that used to read fine that Entre can no longer read. The discs will play fine in either changer, but fail the Entre lookup every time. The Entre tells the changer to read them, the changer starts reading them, then sits there for about 8 minutes seeking and spinning until the Entre decides its had enough. The Entre then puts up a message screen saying that the discs could not be read and should be removed from the player and cleaned. Both discs happen to be bonus discs from Disney movies. Since I rarely look at the bonus material it doesn't really bother me, but it does make me curious.

Mike

The two Disney discs that fail are the bonus materials from Tron and from Beauty and the Beast. Anyone else having trouble with these discs?

Mike

I have some that it can't read, but I believe it's because the outer edge of the discs are not smooth. I can run my fingers around the dvds and feel the roughness. Robert has had luck with buffing the one dvd he had problems with. I haven't had a chance to pick up some sand paper to see if that would work. I think he had a buffing machine. Worked for him and kind of makes sense that it could throw of the laser.

Originally posted by slocko
I have some that it can't read, but I believe it's because the outer edge of the discs are not smooth. I can run my fingers around the dvds and feel the roughness. Robert has had luck with buffing the one dvd he had problems with. I haven't had a chance to pick up some sand paper to see if that would work. I think he had a buffing machine. Worked for him and kind of makes sense that it could throw of the laser. Actually, I just used an emory board (the pale side with the fine grit). And my theory is that what happens is that the disk is unreadable because it gets stuck in the slot and never gets picked up by the transport. I believe that to be the case because I inserted the disc with the label straight up. Then after the unit tired to play it, on both sides, I ejected it and, lo and behold, it was still straight up. Now it is theoretically possible that this was just a conicidence, but I don't think so. And, as to why it reads unreadable disk instead of no disk, my theory is that the no-disk message displays when there is no disk in the slot, not in the transport.

i went to delete the default mp3s that come with the entre and when it was done, i had another ghost mp3 that will not play, has no information, cannot be edited or deleted.

So I am going to bite my hands and restore to factory defaults. I have little faith that Kenwood support has anymore tricks up their sleeve besides rebuilding the index which doesn't fix the problem. i am dreading it, but seeing those mp3s there just bug me.

how do you get 64000 to work? was it removed with the latest software update? i punch it in at the setup screen but it doesn't do anything. 5555 works.

Just put in the call. Kenwood support was not aware of the issue. They are going to notify open globe.

Thanks Slocko for the update.. yep just added 2 more dvd's found the dvd's but no cover art.

I got my changer back from the Kenwood upgrade a couple of weeks ago and just got back from a vacation, so I have not had a chance to reload and connect it. What is the best way to update the Entre database? I will not be putting the discs back in the same order. Someone mentioned selecting the remove changer choice on the OSD when the changer is disconnected (I had been choosing "ignore".) Should I do that before I reconnect it (to clear the guide) or is it better to just connect it even with the previous guide and do a "lookup all"? I DO NOT want to loose all the custom catagories and cover art I have associated with my discs, but I do not want to have duplicates and wrong slot errors as well. I was not able to keep the discs in the same order when I stored them. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks

I would not do a "lookup all" given the current state of the online database because that would make everything get looked up again. Also that won't clear out your old slot assignments, so you'll get duplicates.

Here's what I did: first I sent my changer out to be repaired. Then I bought a new changer and I attached it with no discs inside and turned it on. Then I turned it off and got the disconnected changer message and picked the non-ignore option (I can't remember what it was called, maybe "rebuild "?). I then had it do a scan of an empty changer, which resulted in a blank guide in the Entre. I then put some of my disks back in, and the unit automatically did a Quick Lookup when I closed the changer door. This restored all my previous listings for these disks including most, but not all of my customizations. (The one I know got altered was disk 1 of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, where I had previously modified the listings so that disk 2 was listed as Who Framed Roger Rabbit and disk 1 was listed as Roger Rabbit Shorts. After, they were listed as Who Framed Roger Rabbit Disk 1 and Disk 2.) When my second changer came back, I put the rest of my disks in it, and they were looked up with no problems and all my customizations were saved.

So basically, what you need is a non-destructive method of clearing out the guide on the Entre, and the only way that I've found to do that is the changer-turn-off trick.

BTW, if you're feeling really adventurous, you might consider doing everything I said above but do it with your internet connection turned off. I have no idea what would happen here -- it would be one of two things: either you'll end up with a mass of Unknown Disks, or else everything would work normally as described above. So why would you do it? Because it is possible that the OpenGlobe database is currently unstable, so to the extent that you can avoid it, the better off you'll be. The adventurous part is that we don't know whether contact with the OpenGlobe DB is in any way necessary to restore one's previous disk entries (I don't think it is, but what do I know?).

Cover art appears to be working again.

Does anyone have any report from openglobe as to the issues?

Yes, cover is back in action.....

Ya'll,

Received my upgraded 5900M today, stuck all my DVDs in, hit "read all" to see how many I'd be saved from manually entering titles on.

Went into the library and was shocked to see the discs listed out of "numerical order" and IN "alphabetical order".

Now, either I completely missed this feature before the upgrade (but I don't think I did) or it was part of the upgrade. You can now actually sort the library by TITLE or ARTIST. I think if it were there before, I'd have noticed it (always annoyed me that I had to keep moving discs around in order to keep them listed alphabetically in the library).

Oh - My unit came back in the original box packed within a larger box just loaded to the brim with peanuts. Two thumbs up on the return packaging.


Slan,

Jim

Originally posted by mikemav
I got my changer back from the Kenwood upgrade a couple of weeks ago and just got back from a vacation, so I have not had a chance to reload and connect it. What is the best way to update the Entre database? I will not be putting the discs back in the same order. <snip> Any advice is appreciated. Thanks I did something similar to Robert. When I got my new DV5900 back I just hooked it up as normal. Turned it on then the Entre (avoiding the prompt). It did it's detection thing and found all my disk gone. I then just loaded them back up without regard to order. They just got looked up again. My customized groups then came back. I believe they were the same but I didn't do a lot of customizing in the first place.

I am still not getting covers pulled? Daylight, Jurasic Park III are two I know pulled before but not now, how can folks be saying it is working again?

Am I just brain dead and doing something wrong?

mine was working again. but i just restored to factory defaults <sigh> sucks to be anal.

are you doing disc lookup? that is what i did and it pulled the covers right up. try also, search and change the name.

i got 2 oustanding covers updated which were not working before it kind of said it wasnt there then i did another look up and it came up.. hope that helps

has anyone by any chance own this cd:

putamayo presents romantica: love songs from around the world

i can do a search in open globe and find it with the correct cover art.

but when i do a disc lookup, it finds the cd, gets the tracks, part of the name, but no cover art.

Hi Guys,

I hope someone can help me here. After getting my 5900 upgrade and re-connecting all I get is a flashing power led on the entre. This has been going on for 2 days now. The cd tray is not opening which I read is a good sign. I searched this whole thread and the only thing I found was that an incompatible network adapter could cause this but disconnecting mine hasn't helped. I read about the setup 5555 reset but how can I get a screen image if it isn't booting up? I also have 300 cds converted to mp3s on the drive and do not want to lose them. I have also tried holding the power button for 5 seconds numerous times. Any help would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks
Rudmeister

when you say search in open globe is that on a computer that you are doing it on and then go on to the entre

Another question, As long as the entre is flashing should I still be able to manually play dvds passively thru the entre? Because all I get is audio.

I would remove any usb devices you have connected and unplug it for a few minutes.

plug it back in and it will flash for a few minutes while it's booting up.

if that doesn't work, one person here has had success plugging it in to a different outlet.

Originally posted by Rudmeister
Hi Guys,

I hope someone can help me here. After getting my 5900 upgrade and re-connecting all I get is a flashing power led on the entre. This has been going on for 2 days now. The cd tray is not opening which I read is a good sign. I searched this whole thread and the only thing I found was that an incompatible network adapter could cause this but disconnecting mine hasn't helped. I read about the setup 5555 reset but how can I get a screen image if it isn't booting up? I also have 300 cds converted to mp3s on the drive and do not want to lose them. I have also tried holding the power button for 5 seconds numerous times. Any help would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks
Rudmeister

there is a button on the remote that says openglobe. it brings you to a pseudo internet browser that lets you do searches on music and movies.

if you press it while a song is playing, it gives you information on the group and album.

from this pseudo browser i can search out the album so i know it's in the oepnglobe database, but sadly, i think that is yet another database, and not the one used by the entre for lookups.

my entre is back up again from the factory defaults and i upgraded the software again. thank goodness for hpna that this part is painless.

again this particular cd doesn't have cover art associated with it. so i used used media manager and copied it over.

now to iniate the lookup all function, let it run all night. then lookup all the unknowns, and re-categorize for the 3rd time.



Originally posted by Clingpeach
when you say search in open globe is that on a computer that you are doing it on and then go on to the entre

Thanks Slocko but I tried that already with no luck.

Okay, since incorporating the "music" section, I've spent a lot of time with Media Manager. Here's a tip: If you want real advice on getting it up and running, call Escient. A guy named Tony Armstrong. Knew stuff that we would never know.

In any event, I started adding some Albums via MP3, but I was formatting the recording incorrectly. Rather than take the time to individually record each track, I simply let it record and let the album play. The most specific I got was "Side 1" or "Side 2".

I started doing things over, so that the titles would appear in the track list. Problem is that , even after deleting the original titles from the Media Manager they still appear as empty titles (names with no conents) in the MP3 menu. Is there any way, whether from the Entre or the MM, to altogether delete titles on a scrolling basis:

Strange thing is that from the list of "All," the deletions and additions stuck. It is only when I go to the MP3 list that the the "Deleted" files seem to be listed--but when you click on one, it pulls up the title of the deleted entry (with cover art). When you press enter on Entre, it simply pulls up that entry and says N/A N/A--which, while I'm not quite sure what it means, I thnk it means that housecleaning for Entre can be different from tab to tab. In "All,"the discs I deleted are gone. In MP3, those same discs contined to apeaar, though they are empty.

The issue is housecleaning. What the "All" tab is accurately reflecting, the MP3 tab is not. It's almost as if anyting you ever put there stays in the MP3 list regardless of subsequent changes. Housekeeping iips are appreciated.

Nick :cool:

DUDE, are you drunk? Nick, the first step is admitting that there's a problem. Slowly step away from the bottle.

Nick,

That is the exact reason I went back to factory defaults. They are ghosts. I think that somehow by deleting with Media Manager it corrupts the database. I had two entries and I couldn't stand to see them there.

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
Okay, since incorporating the "music" section, I've spent a lot of time with Media Manager. Here's a tip: If you want real advice on getting it up and running, call Escient. A guy named Tony Armstrong. Knew stuff that we would never know.

In any event, I started adding some Albums via MP3, but I was formatting the recording incorrectly. Rather than take the time to individually record each track, I simply let it record and let the album play. Tje most specific I got was "Side 1" or "Side 2".

I started doing things over, so that tie titles would appear in the track list. Problem is that , even after deleting the original titles from the Media Manager they still appear as empty titles (names with no conents) in the MP3 menu. Is there any way, whether from the Entre or the MM, to altogehter delete titles on a scrolling basis:

Strange thing is that from the list of "All," the deletions and additions stuck. It is only when I go to the MP3 list that the the "Deleted" files seem to be listed--but when you click on one, it pulls up the title of the deleted entry (with cover art). When you press enter on Entre, it simply pulls up that entry and says N/A N/A--which, while I'm not quite sure what it means, I thnk it means that housecleaning for Entre can be different from tab to tab. In "All,"the discs I deleted are gone. In MP3, those same discs contined to apeaar, though they are empty.

The issue is housecleaning. What the "All" tab is accurately reflecting, the MP3 tab is not. It's almost as if anyting you ever put there stays in the MP3 list regardless of subsequent changes. Housekeeping iips are appreciated.

Nick :cool:

Nick,

Just to be sure I understand what you're saying:

You created an MP3 disc and you're having the Entre "Rip to HD"? If so, you'd probably get an Artist called "Various", with Albums like "Custom Disk #???".

I was experiencing the same issue with my Fireball and I was able to get rid of them by deleting the entire Artist,

- go to the Artist, "Various", in the list on MM
- right click
- select "Delete Artist from Library"

Of course, I'm assuming you don't have any "real" albums listed on "Various".

btw, I've worked with Tony Montgomery from Escient and I agree, he's very responsive and always seems to at least try to find a solution. I wasn't aware that you could contact Escient regarding Entre/MM issues.

hmatos

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
Okay, since incorporating the "music" section, I've spent a lot of time with Media Manager. Here's a tip: If you want real advice on getting it up and running, call Escient. A guy named Tony Armstrong. Knew stuff that we would never know.

In any event, I started adding some Albums via MP3, but I was formatting the recording incorrectly. Rather than take the time to individually record each track, I simply let it record and let the album play. Tje most specific I got was "Side 1" or "Side 2".

I started doing things over, so that tie titles would appear in the track list. Problem is that , even after deleting the original titles from the Media Manager they still appear as empty titles (names with no conents) in the MP3 menu. Is there any way, whether from the Entre or the MM, to altogehter delete titles on a scrolling basis:

Strange thing is that from the list of "All," the deletions and additions stuck. It is only when I go to the MP3 list that the the "Deleted" files seem to be listed--but when you click on one, it pulls up the title of the deleted entry (with cover art). When you press enter on Entre, it simply pulls up that entry and says N/A N/A--which, while I'm not quite sure what it means, I thnk it means that housecleaning for Entre can be different from tab to tab. In "All,"the discs I deleted are gone. In MP3, those same discs contined to apeaar, though they are empty.

The issue is housecleaning. What the "All" tab is accurately reflecting, the MP3 tab is not. It's almost as if anyting you ever put there stays in the MP3 list regardless of subsequent changes. Housekeeping iips are appreciated.

Nick :cool:

in my case these mp3 entries did not show up in media manager or when you go to delete files on the entre. they only show up in the mp3 section of the entre guide.

they can't be edited either. you can go into the edit disc screen and put in information, save it, but none of it sticks.

after resetting to defaults and letting run all night, the entre ignored half of my dvds. they were simply not read at all. the changer statistics is missing half of the dvds. i looked for some titles i knew that disc location of, and they were not found in the guide and were not part of the unknowns.

here is a very detailed guide to media manager. not sure if kenwood provides the same guide.

http://www.escient.com/manuals/PipelineUserGuide91002.pdf

Thanks Slocko.

I wonder if the problem with no cover art and scads of unknown disks isn't related to the problem I reported here: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=2375864#post2375864

I say that because we just had a strange thing happen that leads me to believe that the unknown disks with cover art that I reported in that thread is the same issue as the found discs without cover art problem and the completely unknown disk problem that many are reporting.

Here's what happened. My mother-in-law loaned my wife a copy of Divne Secrets of the Yah-Yah Sisterhood (no smirking) which we put into a rental slot. Quick Lookup went to OpenGlobe and the disk wasn't found. No cover art or information. I went into Options and did a lookup disk, and it came back not found. So I entered "Divine Secrets" in the title field and did a Search. Immediately, I got the search screen which displayed the cover art for the disk and had the title and all other information like the full title and the rating displayed. But here's the strange part: it hadn't looked this information up, it was already there -- the Entre hadn't yet even started trying to contact OpenGlobe and the status display was all the way to the left. Then the Entre finally did contact OpenGlobe and reported that the title wasn't found and the display showed Unknown Disk with no cover art. But when I hit Exit, there it was in the Guide, with cover art, title, cast and all other information.

So I'm thinking that somehow there is a glitch in the Entre that is causing these Unknown Disk and no cover art messages. I don't have any discs that aren't already in my Entre other than The Two Towers which I think may be too new to use as a test as it was just released today. But I might suggest to the others who are having a lot of Unknown Disk errors to try to search on the titles and then, if the disks aren't found, hitting Exit and seeing what happens. As to those who are getting the disk information but not the cover art, try browsing the cover art on your Entre and check that the missing art isn't really there. I think that all this may be a bug in the V2.x software.

is there any chance that you are doing a quick lookup without waiting for then entre to detect the new disc and that is confusing it?

i alway let the entre make an attemp on it's own, before doing a lookup.

sounds like a refresh problem of some sort. sounds like while you were mucking around in the screens it was pulling the information in the background. that is why i wonder if it is a timing issue of some sort.

as of yesterday the cover art problem was fixed. this morning all the cover art was there for the discs it did find after going back to factory defaults.

i kicked off another lookup all before i left after blanking out the guide. if it is still not reporting all my dvds as found and unknowns, i will try looking up one changer at a time. that is the way i did it the first time and it had no problems that way.

Originally posted by hmatos
Nick,

Just to be sure I understand what you're saying:

You created an MP3 disc and you're having the Entre "Rip to HD"? If so, you'd probably get an Artist called "Various", with Albums like "Custom Disk #???".

I was experiencing the same issue with my Fireball and I was able to get rid of them by deleting the entire Artist,

- go to the Artist, "Various", in the list on MM
- right click
- select "Delete Artist from Library"

Of course, I'm assuming you don't have any "real" albums listed on "Various".

btw, I've worked with Tony Montgomery from Escient and I agree, he's very responsive and always seems to at least try to find a solution. I wasn't aware that you could contact Escient regarding Entre/MM issues.

hmatos

Here's what I did.

I recorded albums directly to Entre. The record option, I believe, was "Rip to HD." What I didn't realize at the time was that you should start this by identifying the Artist and Album, and then individually record each track (meaing that if Track 1 is 4:12 in length, that's how "long" you assign to the recording session for each track). You can then title each track by the particular song title. It's tedious, but the end result is better.

Prior to doing it this way, I had just recorded "side 1" of the album, and then "side 2." Thus, if Side 1 was 32:30 of music, that's how much time I would assign to it. What you miss out on when you do it that way, is that, when looking up the album under the MP3, you can't really choose individual cut off that album.

Problem is, once I "redid" the tracks, I wanted to delete the "side 1" and "side 2" stuff. I deleted the albums from MM, and they're gone from the Media Manager. However, the OSD on Entre has the "tabs" on the top, which say things like "all," "cd," "MP3." On the "all" tab, you get a list of everything in the system, in order, and this comported with what I saw on the MM. However, when I scrolled on the OSD of the Entre to the MP3 Tab, the stuff that I deleted on the MM, and which was gone from the "all"
tab, was still there under MP3. When you clicked on it, it would list the N/A/N/A thing, but I just couldn't get rid of the list on the MP3 tab.

Thus, the Media Manager would read correctly. The "All" tab on the Entre would read correctly. But the "MP3" tab on the Entre refused to get rid of titles I'd deleted, even when you click on those titles they reveal to be empty. You just can't get them off the list.

Nick :cool:

the option is "rip mp3 from external" i believe, something like that. "rip to hd" is only for the cd tray i think.

i had the same exact problem after using MM to delete.

slocko,

I believe you're right.

Nick,

I've never used that functionality, but it does sound like you're having the same problem that caused slocko to perform a refresh. When I was using the Entre for MP3's, I also had this problem. I have no idea what causes it in the first place. If you're real adventurous, you might try manipulating the Access tables that MM uses to store it's information on the PC. I've had limited success with this. Unfortunately, I don't think it's the PC application that causes all the weird problems, I believe it's the application that actually processes the information on the Entre.

I would just ignore it -- I belive I had started to prefix the bad entires with a 'Z', this way they're all the way at the bottom and I would hardly ever see them. It was either this or a refresh. It's a shame, Escient has such a great product that would be even better if they could just get these small bugs out of the software components.

hmatos


Originally posted by slocko
the option is "rip mp3 from external" i believe, something like that. "rip to hd" is only for the cd tray i think.

i had the same exact problem after using MM to delete.

i was going to try manipulating the tables, but since the entries don't show up in MM, I didn't bother.

I think you are right that it's the entre, and not MM. The reason is that once this problem occurred, I deleted mp3s using the entre and it happened again. Of course, it could be that there was corruption already and that caused it to happend a second time outside of MM.

That is what led me to go back to defaults since I didn't trust the database at that point.

My ghost mp3s could not be edited in any way. So I couldn't even add Z to them. I even tried re-ripping the cd back to the hard drive hoping that somehow that would repair the bad link but that caused even more weirdness. the newly ripped album would not show up in the mp3 group.

Ignoring it is what I intend on doing. Since the usual menu I scroll from is the "all" menu (because the only MP3 files I intend on having is from old albums that are not available on CD), it won't be terribly important for the MP3 tab to be accurate, becasue the "all" tab is accurate. It would be nice, but it's not the worst thing in the world.

I have to believe, though, that it would be the simplest of things to just create a "line item" option to delete the entry altogether. Like when you click on Options, after scrolling to an item, just highlight the item and hit "delete." In fact, that's what seems to exist from the options menu, but then when you're trying to delete the "ghost" MP3 files, when you hit "delete," a new menu appears, telling you to hit record for the items you want to delete--but the ghost entry isn't there.

Maybe that's why it's a ghost. I can see how this would be incredibly frustrating if someone had lots of MP3 files.

Nick :cool:

Woodstock was what set this off.

Since I split things between music and movies, I included the DVD Woodstock (the real Woodstock) with the music Entre.

OpenGlobe lookup now renders some Woodstock Jazz Festival.

Shift over to the Movie Entre. I was searching for cover art in the unit for an obscure test disc called DVD Demystified, which I thought I had once downloaded. Since Entre keeps all the old cover art on its hard drive, I thought it might be there somewhere (I had recently uncovered the disc outside of the changer, and wanted to add it).

As I was scrolling through the "Movie" Entre I came upon the Woodstock--the real one--cover art for the DVD. Problem for me is that it's on the wrong unit. I can't think of a way to export cover art from one Entre to another, but . . . what about this:

In Media Manager, you can assign any cover art you want to any CD. Let's say that you just put a weird disc in your unit, one you didn't intend to keep, and then assigned the Woodstock DVD cover art to it. You could then at least send the cover art to the Entre unit, which would record it on its hard drive.

Problem, I know, is then somehow getting that cover art to appear as available cover art in choices for DVDs--but maybe somebody has thought of a way to do that?

Nick :cool:

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
Woodstock was what set this off.

Since I split things between music and movies, I included the DVD Woodstock (the real Woodstock) with the music Entre.
<snip>
In Media Manager, you can assign any cover art you want to any CD.<snip>

Perhaps a silly question but why don't you find the JPG with a google.com search and download it to your PC. You may want to resize it in MSPaint or the like. I recall Jeff telling us the "right" size/ratio to use. I realize that defeats your challenge <g>.

<snipped image as it is in Nick's reply below and I didn't want 2 big pictures showing up>

Nick,

If you found it once, you can find it again. Just keep trying the different combinations.

Originally posted by ScottF200
Perhaps a silly question but why don't you find the JPG with a google.com search and download it to your PC. You may want to resize it in MSPaint or the like. I recall Jeff telling us the "right" size/ratio to use. I realize that defeats your challenge <g>.

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0790729350.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Hi Scott:

Maybe I'm missing something. Certainly I can find the cover art for Woodstock on the internet. And, I could download it, save it, and probably figure out how to resize it with the graphics program I use.

But, once it's downloaded to my PC, how do I get it over to the cover art image for the Entre DVD? Scott, if you know this one, you've conquered Entre. Seriously, if there's a way to do that, that's precisely what I want to know.

Thanks,

Nick :cool:

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
Hi Scott:

Maybe I'm missing something. Certainly I can find the cover art for Woodstock on the internet. And, I could download it, save it, and probably figure out how to resize it with the graphics program I use.

But, once it's downloaded to my PC, how do I get it over to the cover art image for the Entre DVD? Scott, if you know this one, you've conquered Entre. Seriously, if there's a way to do that, that's precisely what I want to know.

Thanks,

Nick :cool: Well Nick...what will you give me if I tell you...oh perhaps a slight used jacket <hehehe>. OK to be honest I had misunderstood (read misread) your post. So at the time I did not know how to do that.

HOWEVER...the following never happened and I just made it up (a lawyer caveat <g>).

1) Using some "cute" FTP software it is possible to connect to the Entre by pointing to it's IP address. This assumes your PC that is doing the FTP is on the same local network. If you can use Media Manager to talk to the Entre from your PC then you should be able to use a FTP pgm.
2) Drilling down directories one could find the place where DVD cover art is stored (say in theory: 7.0.5//Database/Movies/Covers)
3) Below that theoretical directory could be further directories named: s0-s9
4) Below each of those directories could again be more directories named: s0-s9
5) Why would they name directories that way is a guess?
5a) Programming method for hashing file names and then using that hash value to quickly get to a subdirectory (i.e. RUSH_HOUR could hash to ...s0/s0)
5b) because some OSes have strange performance or internal limitations on how many files can be put in them
5c) seemed like a darn good idea by some programmer who was trying out a new function call
6) One would notice if they select a DVD via the normal Entre interface (on the TV) then choose Options then choose Select Cover (or was that edit then Select Cover)...that the order of the cover art is not alphabetical. In my case, I saw RushHour2 then JackFrost then AceVent, etc. This did correspond to what I would see in s0/s0 then s0/s1 then s0/s2 subdirectories. The exact same order.
6) 'downloading' one of the existing JPG cover arts and then looking at it's properties one could see the sizes of a couple of them (example 1: w258xh365; example 2: w269xw365 (pixels))
7) download the Woodstock JPG to your PC then resize it to be a height of 365 pixels and let the width adjust automatically.
8) upload that to subdirectory s0/s0 using a "cute" FTP program. Disconnect from the entre.
9) Go to the Entre (i.e. walk)
10) Get to the menu option that allows you to select cover....hmm..what do we find but RushHour2, *Woodstock*, JackFrost, etc....select Woodstock and press record.
11) pat self on back and then quiver thinking you may break something.
12) go back in and remove Woodstock cover art from that selection (using Entre menu)
13) using some "cute" FTP pgm to go delete Woodstock.JPG from s0/s0 for fear of breaking something

Post this to impress your Entre loving friends...the end

Re: DV5900 in state of detection

Prior to any of the above (Entre cover stuff) I found my DV5900 in a perpetual state "DETECTION".

Events:
- 2 nights ago the wife and I watched 'How to loose a guy in 10 day' - no smirking
- 10 minutes prior to that I added 6 DVDs that my wife bought (1 of them being the above). The Entre automatically looked them all up EXCEPT didn't get the cover art.
- Tonight I used the 'edit disc' option to do the 'look up this disc'. It found the cover art. I did this for each of those 6 disc.
- Now the DV5900 is in a constant state of "DETECTION".

Things I've tried:
a) pressing STOP - nothing
b) turning on and off via the remote
c) turning on and off via the button on the player
d) disconnecting the unit from 110v power for 30ish seconds
e) disconnecting the unit from the Entre (RS232)
f) removing a disc (normally when you open and close it it will do a DETECTION) - thought this may resync it
g) try selection a DVD from the Entre menu - it gets ignored

Question: Has this happened to anyone else and I just missed it or it faded from my memory? Suggestions beyond what I've tried?

I'm not certain that my series of events outlined above caused the DV5900 to be "driven" in a way that would put it in this weird state but it is suspicious.

Thanks in advance.

I'm getting pretty disgusted with the entre. When I got back my entre from kenwood, i hooked my players and it found everything with 20 unknowns out of 565 dvds. Last night i only hooked up one player and did a look up all and it came back with 40 unknowns. This thing is really flaky.

Back to factory defaults and I am trying again. No wonder some people are giving up. 40 Unknowns from just one changer is a lot. Good thing I know that it can do better than that.

Scott, that is great work. hopefully kenwood doesn't remove access. I wish you would have posted sooner. I might have tried to remove those ghost mp3s by browsing the entre's file structure.

Scott,

So is there anything else that, "never happened"? ;)

The ftp of the cover art will come in very handy, if I ever get my new changer back from Kenwood. I remember there were quite a few titles in my collection that it did not have covers for. I just tried it on one of my fireballs and it worked great.

hm

Originally posted by ScottF200
Well Nick...what will you give me if I tell you...oh perhaps a slight used jacket <hehehe>. OK to be honest I had misunderstood (read misread) your post. So at the time I did not know how to do that.

HOWEVER...the following never happened and I just made it up (a lawyer caveat <g>).

1) Using some "cute" FTP software it is possible to connect to the Entre
2) Drilling down directories one could find the place where DVD cover art is stored (say in theory: 7.0.5//Database/Movies/Covers)
3) Below that theoretical directory could be further directories named: s0-s9
4) Below each of those directories could again be more directories named: s0-s9
5) Why would they name directories that way is a guess?
5a) Programming method for hashing file names and then using that hash value to quickly get to a subdirectory (i.e. RUSH_HOUR could hash to ...s0/s0)
5b) because some OSes have strange performance or internal limitations on how many files can be put in them
5c) seemed like a darn good idea by just programmer
6) One would notice if they select a DVD via the normal Entre interface (on the TV) then choose Options then choose Select Cover (or was that edit then Select Cover)...that the order of the cover art is not alphabetical. In my case, I saw RushHour2 then JackFrost then AceVent, etc. This did correspond to what I would see in s0/s0 then s0/s1 then s0/s2 subdirectories. The exact same order.
6) 'downloading' one of the existing JPG cover arts and then looking at it's properties one could see the sizes of a couple of them (example 1: w258xh365; example 2: w269xw365 (pixels))
7) download the Woodstock JPG to your PC then resize it to be a height of 365 pixels and let the width adjust automatically.
8) upload that to subdirectory s0/s0 using a "cute" FTP program. Disconnect from the entre.
9) Go to the Entre (i.e. walk)
10) Get to the menu option that allows you to select cover....hmm..what do we find but RushHour2, *Woodstock*, JackFrost, etc....select Woodstock and press record.
11) pat self on back and then quiver thinking you may break something.
12) go back in and remove Woodstock cover art from that selection (using Entre menu)
13) using some "cute" FTP pgm to go delete Woodstock.JPG from s0/s0 for fear of breaking something

Post this to impress your Entre loving friends...the end

Scott,

Are you still having problems with your changer being in "DETECTION" mode
? Have you tried reinitializing it?
1;Turn off the changer (manually)
2;Press and hold down "USER FILE' button.
3;While continuing to hold down "USER FILE" button turn on the changer.
4;Changer should read "INITIALIZE" and then I believe "OK".
5;Turn power off then on again manually.
hope this helps.

Regarding my post about the flashing lite on entre turns out it was my bad. I had removed the hard drive to try and pull the mp3s off of it and left the jumper on slave when put back in entre.

However I have 2 more questions
1. After doing a complete lookup I was pleasantly surprised,Only 5 out of 300 discs needed to be looked up manually. However under music menu it lists 2 cds that are not there, In fact there are movies in the slots where it says these are. Is there a way to temove them from the list?
2. Scott with your "cute"ftp are you able to pull mp3s off of the entre?

Rud, seems the music ghost has struck again!!!!!

did you have any luck reading the drive you removed?

I went back to defaults again and now when I try to upgrade it downloads the upgrade and when it goes to verify it, it says the open globe server is busy, try later.

I have pretty much decided against re-categorizing the entre groups. I will just add one group to put my unwatched movies in it (which i have plenty) and that will be the extent of it. Hopefully I can also add mp3s via MM. Trying to keep the work to a minimum since you never know when you might have to restore to defaults.

Scott:

Theoretically speaking of course . . .

If one downloaded such a program to a laptop, how do you connect the laptop to the Entre? I know there's an extra USB output on the rear (since one of them is used for the USB/Ethernet connection to the adapter), so I guess that would be a way . . .

Or, would there be another way? I'm encouraged by hmatos's comment above that this worked with a Fireball, as I believe the Entre is just a rebadged Fireball, or something close to it.

By the way, thanks for the offer in the email, which I may take you up on. Just goes to show the class of the community of members on this forum.

Thanks,

Nick :cool:

Originally posted by Adam Mrotek
Scott,

Are you still having problems with your changer being in "DETECTION" mode
? Have you tried reinitializing it?
1;Turn off the changer (manually)
2;Press and hold down "USER FILE' button.
3;While continuing to hold down "USER FILE" button turn on the changer.
4;Changer should read "INITIALIZE" and then I believe "OK".
5;Turn power off then on again manually.
hope this helps. Thank you for the reply Adam. I had not tried that and forgot about it. I had high hopes but to no avail. The thing is possessed I swear (like some of your Entres :confused: ). I even took out all my disc tonight and the thing still just constantly tries to detect new disc.

I really have no clue how the thing knows when you put in a new disc and what slot it is in. I've openned the door and put multiple disc in at once. That is without rotating the platter 1 'notch' for each new disc. There must be a sensor somewhere and as it is spinning it identifies the presence of a disc in a slot. I'm bummed. I'll call Kenwood tomorrow.

I am having the same thing, when the units power up the start running detection mode each time.

Of course all 6 of my changers are doing this... and I am still not pulling up cover art? Do we know for sure if openglobe is working?

Do I have to 55555555555555555 the blank blank blank things to get them looking up DVDs? I am really getting tired of doing look ups on over 2000 dvds.

At this point I do not care what the ecsient solution costs, my health and piece of mind is worth it.

Charles

have you tried removing the two disc from the player and letting the entre detect the removal?

are they listed in the delete music section of the menus?

Originally posted by Rudmeister
Regarding my post about the flashing lite on entre turns out it was my bad. I had removed the hard drive to try and pull the mp3s off of it and left the jumper on slave when put back in entre.

However I have 2 more questions
1. After doing a complete lookup I was pleasantly surprised,Only 5 out of 300 discs needed to be looked up manually. However under music menu it lists 2 cds that are not there, In fact there are movies in the slots where it says these are. Is there a way to temove them from the list?
2. Scott with your "cute"ftp are you able to pull mp3s off of the entre?

Originally posted by Rudmeister
<snip>2. Scott with your "cute"ftp are you able to pull mp3s off of the entre? I'm using CuteFTP from GlobalSCAPE (www.cuteftp.com). There are a multiple of GUI FTP programs out there. FTP definition is here http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/F/FTP.html but most probably know about it. On that page is a link "Downloadable FTP, Archie, and finger utilities" with various FTP utilities. My above work with the cover art was pretty basic.

I was not able to locate MP3s in the file structure but the obvious place was "7.0.5/Database/MP3/MP3s". I suspect they just have the file attributes set so you can't see them unless logged in with a special userid/root.

WARNING: I would suspect that adding cover art is pretty harmless but you really never know. I don't think I'd want to edit the various XML (cool) files that are located in various directories. The Entre's operating system seems pretty sensitive enough with enough bugs so I wouldn't want to add to it. Play at your own risk. If you change a file the for goodness sakes back it up first!!!

Nick, I am not an FTP expert, but your laptop has to be on the same network as the entre. Once on the entre you would ftp to the ip address of the entre.

I'm not sure what the default id and password may be. maybe using anonymous might be good enough.

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
Scott:

Theoretically speaking of course . . .

If one downloaded such a program to a laptop, how do you connect the laptop to the Entre? I know there's an extra USB output on the rear (since one of them is used for the USB/Ethernet connection to the adapter), so I guess that would be a way . . .

Or, would there be another way? I'm encouraged by hmatos's comment above that this worked with a Fireball, as I believe the Entre is just a rebadged Fireball, or something close to it.

By the way, thanks for the offer in the email, which I may take you up on. Just goes to show the class of the community of members on this forum.

Thanks,

Nick :cool:

Originally posted by wagncv
I am having the same thing, when the units power up the start running detection mode each time.

Of course all 6 of my changers are doing this... and I am still not pulling up cover art? Do we know for sure if openglobe is working?

Do I have to 55555555555555555 the blank blank blank things to get them looking up DVDs? I am really getting tired of doing look ups on over 2000 dvds.

At this point I do not care what the ecsient solution costs, my health and piece of mind is worth it.

Charles I'm guessing you were talking to me. I'm not sure if you are describing what I'm seeing. I think it is normal for it to do a DETECTION upon powerup and when you open/close the door. My just never stops the spinning/detection process. A disc can be playing and it is just "grinding" away.

I pulled cover art last night but doing an individual disc "disc edit" and then "lookup". I did this for 6 disc in a few minutes. That was the last thing I recall I did before the wierd DETECTION problem but I don't know if it is related.

The thing is the problem (detection) is with the DV5900 changer and mine is not even connected to the Entre. The 5555 thing is only for the "Entre's" memory (harddisk). You may be right about your health. I'm only dealing with one. With six I'd be batty (er).

is it entre related? can you unplug it from the entre and re-intialize it?

the entre is refusing to complete the upgrade. so i tried to go ahead and do lookups without the upgrade. it now refuses to lookup discs in the newer changer. it detects the changer, but it doesn't iniate a lookup and if i try force one it reads zero disc loaded.

i decided to unplug the rs232 cable and plug it into the 2nd changer and make that the main. it detected it right away and began looking up discs.

once it's done, i'll turn on the slave (former main1) and see if it detects it.

this is so much fun.

Originally posted by ScottF200
Thank you for the reply Adam. I had not tried that and forgot about it. I had high hopes but to no avail. The thing is possessed I swear (like some of your Entres :confused: ). I even took out all my disc tonight and the thing still just constantly tries to detect new disc.

I really have no clue how the thing knows when you put in a new disc and what slot it is in. I've openned the door and put multiple disc in at once. That is without rotating the platter 1 'notch' for each new disc. There must be a sensor somewhere and as it is spinning it identifies the presence of a disc in a slot. I'm bummed. I'll call Kenwood tomorrow.

Originally posted by slocko
Nick, I am not an FTP expert, but your laptop has to be on the same network as the entre. Once on the entre you would ftp to the ip address of the entre.

I'm not sure what the default id and password may be. maybe using anonymous might be good enough. Nick, slocko is exactly right. Since you use Media Manager that is telling me that you have a local network and are able to connect to the Entre. Just use the Entre's IP address. CUTEFTP log: COMMAND:> USER anonymous
331 Guest login ok, send 'psos' as password.
COMMAND:> PASS *****
230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply.
STATUS:> Login successful.
P.S. You are most welcome. If you want to talk/walkthru just e-mail me.

Charles,

Why don't you bite the bullet and start over. Do the 5555 and restore to factory defaults. Before you do that, unplug all the changers and only leave one as main.

Leave the changer off, and upgrade to 2.0.0.8. Once that is done, turn on the changer and wait to see if it detects it and starts the lookup. Leave it running over night and see how well it did.

If you are satisified, plug in the second changer and power it on. The entre should detect it and start the lookup. Leave it overnight and repeat with the third.

Originally posted by wagncv
I am having the same thing, when the units power up the start running detection mode each time.

Of course all 6 of my changers are doing this... and I am still not pulling up cover art? Do we know for sure if openglobe is working?

Do I have to 55555555555555555 the blank blank blank things to get them looking up DVDs? I am really getting tired of doing look ups on over 2000 dvds.

At this point I do not care what the ecsient solution costs, my health and piece of mind is worth it.

Charles

Great minds think alike.... I am doing that as I type!

Thanks Charles

Originally posted by ScottF200
Nick, slocko is exactly right. Since you use Media Manager that is telling me that you have a local network and are able to connect to the Entre. Just use the Entre's IP address. CUTEFTP log:
P.S. You are most welcome. If you want to talk/walkthru just e-mail me.

I just downloaded the 30 day trial version for $8.99. If it works out right, I'll buy the CD for $39.99.

What this will also address is the DVD-Cover Art problem. Those would get loaded, I imagine, in the Movies cover art section, since that's where DVD-Audio is located (definitely).

Hopefully, I'll have time to play with it this weekend and get a feel for whether it's something I want to have in my arsenal.

This could of course be solved completely with an Entre Media Manager that controls DVDs.

Slocko, Scott, Thanks for your help.

Nick :cool:

I think most entre owners can support the product better than the Kenwood support guys :D

Does the earlier version of the entre software support static IP... I entered a static IP after restoring factory defults and am trying to go through authentication and it keeps saying the connection is failing.

Before I did the reset, I check the connection from within version 2 software and it pinged openglobe with no problems.

Any thougths on what might be the problem?

Charles

I can ping the entre's static IP, just can not get it to authenticate. I know it is not my equipment.

Charles

i think something is wrong with open globe. I can't finish the upgrade. keeps telling me to try again later. it's probably related to the earlier cover art problem. portions of their databases may be down. i say portions, because it was able to do lookups on most of the dvds.

i think Danny was having the same problem I was having and a day went by before he was able to download the upgrade.

i think the 2.0.0.8 software improved the algorithms for matching dvds. With the 1.0 software, I am getting 30 unknowns out of 155 dvds in my 2nd changer. With the 2.0 software, the number was much lower. It was like 7 on the second changer.

i really hope this upgrade glitch is temporary. tomorrow is another day. without the software upgrade i can't do lookups on the 2nd changer.

Charles,

Are you using the netmate adapter? i think that is the only one supported with the default software. You might have to resort to dial up to load the new software, assuming you can get through.

never mind, you said you can ping it, so the entre is on the network. you must be running into a version of the problem i am having with the upgrade. try it again in the morning. i calling it quits for now.

I am using the linksys phone bridge to my broad band, the other equipment pluged in to the setup are working and I can ping the entre.

I will try tomorrow, if it still does not work I might try dial up.

Thanks

Charles

Is there anyway to erase all MP3's without checking them one by one or by restoring to factory defaults? ( I don't want to do it in Media Manager either, too unstable)

Derek,

You can delete albums one at a time. Hilight the album and press the button on the remote with the circular arrows on it. That tags all the mp3s in that album.

I haven't played with it enough to see if you can use that button to hilight all the files.

Scott,

Are you still having the "DETECTION" problem with your changer? I would guess that the way that the changer "detects" when a disc is physically in the changer is optically. There is what appears to be a red laser light under the carousel as you are looking into it through the access portal.Perhaps something other than a disc is blocking the laser in certain or all slot areas and making it appear to the changer that there are discs where there are none. Was it not you who had the problem with the foam "peanut" stuck in your changer? Just a guess.

Originally posted by Adam Mrotek
Scott, Are you still having the "DETECTION" problem with your changer? I would guess that the way that the changer "detects" when a disc is physically in the changer is optically. There is what appears to be a red laser light under the carousel as you are looking into it through the access portal.Perhaps something other than a disc is blocking the laser in certain or all slot areas and making it appear to the changer that there are discs where there are none. Was it not you who had the problem with the foam "peanut" stuck in your changer? Just a guess. Adam, I'm still having problems even after unloading all the disc and unhooking it from everything but 110v. As a matter of fact I did have the peanut issue and I did take it out of the cabinet last night and put it on the kitchen island for a peek inside. I did not find anything but then I didn't know where the sensor was. Good guess on the red light as I didn't see any other location around the unit. Of course would they have a red laser light pointed up to where the user would stare at it?!? I thought it was just to see the slot as you put it in. "Red" is the special color used for darkness, right?

I may end up using a can of compressed air (keyboard cleaner) or my air compressor to see if there are stray peanuts where I can't see them.

I called KW support this morning and they told me that you could also hold down the 'library' button similar to the 'user-file' button for an "initialization". Apparently holding down the 'library' button is akin to a factory reset as it wipes out any customization you had on the DV5900m. Not an issue for me as the Entre controls it. I will cross my fingers and try that tonight. If that doesn't work then I may have to send it in. That'd suck!

You also lose everything with the user file combo. Curious to see if the library button does something extra.

Scott,

Why is it you do not want to try unplugging it.Is it because you are afraid of losing any customization on your changer?

Just erased 1600 MP3's by deleting about 30 albums at a time in Media Manager. It would sync quickly but then show nothing on the entre. I would then "close library", "open library" and resync. After this little process, the albums would be erased.

After erasing them all, the entre says that I still have 215 MP3 files (under the delete music screen) even though it is empty. My prior ghosting issue was with the guide showing the MP3s that were not really there. This seems to be the opposite with the guide showing nothing.

Originally posted by Adam Mrotek
Why is it you do not want to try unplugging it. Is it because you are afraid of losing any customization on your changer? Sorry that I was unclear. My sentence was meant to clarify that I don't have it plugged into the Entre, a receiver, or anything else that could interfere with the DV5900M. I had unplugged it from the 110v as well to no avail. That is the only way I get it to stop the DETECTION :rolleyes:

Scott:

You made reference in an earlier post to "pointing" the cute FTP program to the Entre. I assume that means entering the Entre IP address as an FTP site that you want the program to connect to. Is that what you meant?

I might have screwed up on the download, after the install, but I don't think so.

When I open up the program, it brings me to the "Site Manager." I created a site on it called Entre, and entered the Entre IP address as the "FTP Host Address."

After that, the following appears by default:

User name: anonymous
Password:*********

FTP Site Connection Port: 21

Login Type: Anonymous (you can choose between this, "normal," or "double."

I assumed that this would bring me to the Entre Directories. Can't Connect. I'm going to call their support desk tomorrow (closed now) to check it out. Any thoughts?

Nick :cool:

i still can't upgrade!!!!!!!!!! this is driving me insane. it downloads everything and when it goes to validate it says try again later.

I've been getting a DNS Server error for the last few hours. Could that be it?

Nick :cool:

Weird. I went ahead and "restored to factory settings" in order to get rid of the ghost MP3's. After inputting the static IP info, I fully expected for it to not accept the Netmate adapter until I dialed up for the upgrade. No rejection. It immediately worked with the ethernet connection, no dialup needed. Slocko, I cannot upgrade either. It gets almost to the end and then says that it cannot be completed.

Derek, I always thought the netmate was the only usb-ethernet adapter supported right out of the box.

Good thing I am not the only one with this problem. I guess we better call tomorrow am and report the problem.

The last time I restored, I thought I had to dialup but I could be wrong. Now, when I am ripping MP3 cds to the Entre, it lists several of the songs on the record page as only being 1 second long. After the ripping, the songs play fine.

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
<snip> I assume that means entering the Entre IP address as an FTP site that you want the program to connect to. Is that what you meant?
Yep, that is what I meant. I attached a JPG of what mine looks like. You don't need to specify a name/password. HTH (NOTE: your IP address would be different than mine...more than likely. That is just the local lan IP address I assigned to my Entre using my NexLand hub. See your Entre's setup menus.)

Spoke to tech support at Kenwood today... not sure why, but he did tell me that most of the information provided on this forum was incorrect and that we are causing most of our problems.

He did tell me that open globe changed servers and that you have to do 64000 at start up to get it pointed to the correct server.

He also informed me that my system is working, even though it is not pulling covers and not finding DVDs it found in the past. I told him we was wrong, that if I can not find dvds through the menu system as designed and the thing reboots when it feels like it then I would say it was not working!

I to have been trying all day to update after a factory restore... just no luck even over dialup... I am just plan aggravated!

Charles

same here. i keep hearing this famous 64000 yet no one can tell me how exactly you execute it. even kenwood support had no idea what 64000 was.

if they changed servers then it's very likely that is the cause of our problems.

what does "doing a 64000 at startup" mean?

When you first set up the entre you have this welcome screen that starts to take you through setting up the system. On this screen, using the remote you type 64000 and the system will reboot. Once this is done it is supposed to have reset the server to PROD.

You may have to do a forced authentication from the 5555 setup screen to get to the setup sequence.

Charles

Originally posted by DerekFSU
Just erased 1600 MP3's by deleting about 30 albums at a time in Media Manager. It would sync quickly but then show nothing on the entre. I would then "close library", "open library" and resync. After this little process, the albums would be erased.

After erasing them all, the entre says that I still have 215 MP3 files (under the delete music screen) even though it is empty. My prior ghosting issue was with the guide showing the MP3s that were not really there. This seems to be the opposite with the guide showing nothing. Actually, these are just two different flavors of the same issue. I think that the issue is that the files are erased, but still live in some part of the index. thus if you were to rebuild the libraries, the guide entries would show the entries, but they would not really be there and not be playable. If you delete them again, they vanish from the guide, but still get counted in the delete music screen. I have yet to find a way to kill these files.

Originally posted by rbienstock
Actually, these are just two different flavors of the same issue. I think that the issue is that the files are erased, but still live in some part of the index. thus if you were to rebuild the libraries, the guide entries would show the entries, but they would not really be there and not be playable. If you delete them again, they vanish from the guide, but still get counted in the delete music screen. I have yet to find a way to kill these files.

Nor have I, other than restoring to factory settings.

Is everyone still having dvd look up problems? I am and just wondering if I am alone with this issue?

Charles

once again Kenwood support hasn't really provided useful information.

I tried 64000 and I was hopeful because it made me go through all the same steps, but the entre was slower, which I thought was a good sign. Alas, I got the same error. CAnnot complete at this time, try later.

So if you reset to factory defaults and you don't have any problems, don't bother with 64000. It just makes your entre slower.

To call support in the morning. Charles, Derek, please call and complain. That will be at least 3 of us complaining about not being able to upgrade to 2.0 to use multi-changer support.

Charles,

What exactly is your lookup problem? If you mean that after doing a factory reset, it is not finding dvds it found before, I have the same problem. But that could be the 1.0 software not being as good at identifying dvds as 2.0.

With 1.0 i had 40 unknowns out of 155. With 2.0 it was only like 7.

talk to you guys tomorrow. i'm off to bed.

As you guys are talking about trying to update the software on your Entres, I added some discs to changers attached to two different Entres yesterday.

In both Entres, I started getting the DNS failure, check internet connections message. Nothing has been changed, so I'm guessing that there's something wrong at OpenGlobe's end. It was the same this morning.

I've tried rebooting both Entres, and even tried forcing reregistration with one of them, but the same error comes up.

The rest of the computers in my home are on the same network, and there's no difficulty in getting out to the internet. Anyone experiencing this now?

Nick :cool:

At about 7:45PM Eastern time Thursday I re-ran the lookup on the new release of "Animal House" (bought it Tuesday and got cover art and description from the previous DVD release Tuesday night so I wanted to check it). Also ran "The Two Towers". Lookup ran fine, found the new cover and description ok for both discs. So, as of early yesterday evening the DVD lookup was still functional.

Mike

Lookups seem fine. It's just that Charles, Derek, and I can't upgrade to 2.0 after going back to factory defaults. With the 1.0 software it can find dvds, even though the quick lookup process is not as accurate as the one in 2.0.

Nick your problem may be related, though it's hard to know for sure. As of this morning I still couldn't upgrade to 2.0. I should just have lived with the ghost mp3s.

I wish open globe monitored this thread. Having to go through Kenwood for open globe issues just delays the process.

RE: DV5900M DETECTION
Holding down the 'library' button (up and to right of big carosel rotation dial) and using the DV5900M power button got rid of my detection problem. It shows 'NO DISC' which is only good because I removed all my disc.

Holding the the DV5900M stop button and pressing 0 on the remote still shows I'm at version 3 which I would expect. I (& my wife) could swear the carosel is moving slower now, however. It's either tired or we are.

The Entre has 6 or so ghost DVDs in 3 different groups, however. I'm not sure that these are ones that I customized. One group is custom but the other groups (Action, Music) are builtin but I may have edit them to put DVDs in them explicitly. Causing the ghosting? Rush Hour and Rush Hour 2 were ones that were in the Action group, however, and logically I would have expected them to automatically be put them and not the case that I would have customized that group and added them. Can another confirm they have Rush Hour in the Action. Come-on fess up.

I'm doing the 5555 on the Entre and the rebuild index now to hopefully get rid of the ghost. UPDDATE: the rebuild did not help. I still have ghost. I will put the disk in the slots the Entre thinks they are in and keep my sanity intact. As a test putting them in a different slot then made double entries. Optionally I suppose I could try to find the XML files that represent those ghost and fix them but I'm not feeling that lucky so I'll just leave well enough alone!

BTW, a couple sample DVDs inserted did show that they Entre lookup was working OK for me.

Whatever you do, don't go back to factory defaults. You might not be able to get back to 2.0.

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
As you guys are talking about trying to update the software on your Entres, I added some discs to changers attached to two different Entres yesterday.

In both Entres, I started getting the DNS failure, check internet connections message. Nothing has been changed, so I'm guessing that there's something wrong at OpenGlobe's end. It was the same this morning.

I've tried rebooting both Entres, and even tried forcing reregistration with one of them, but the same error comes up.

The rest of the computers in my home are on the same network, and there's no difficulty in getting out to the internet. Anyone experiencing this now?

Nick :cool:

OK, I can give you a few tips:

1. Did you test your internet connection using the new test connection feature? If not, do so, as this feature is quite useful and even restarts connections that are broken as well as testing.

2. Assuming that your connection is good, have you gone to your router to look at its log (assuming that you've set it up to log) see what the site id or IP address the Entre is looking for when it tries to contact OpenGlobe? I remember doing this once and it wasn't openglobe.net, but I don't remember what it was, and I'm away for the weekend and can't check my router until Tuesday. If someone here knows the site, that would be useful information to post to the forum.

3. In any event, once you know the site ID or the IP address, you could open up a DOS window and type in tracert <site ID or IP address> and you'd get shown all the different routers your signal goes through to reach its destination. Either the signal will go through (in which case the site is up and there is something wrong with your Entres), or it will fall down someplace on route. If it falls down at the very last step, then the site is down and you just gotta wait (or complain). If it falls down en-route, then the giltch is in someone's ISP's routers (either yours or OpenGlobe's) If it is yours, you could try complaining, but most ISP's aren't responsive about issues like this.

4. There is one more outside possibility, which is that you have a true DNS error. The best way to test this is as follows: I assume that you have your computer set up to use the DNS assigned to you by your ISP while you have your Entre set up to use the UUNet DNS (198.something) in the Entre documentation. If that is so, do this: at a DOS prompt, type ping <site ID from step 3> and your computer should try to resolve the domain name and when it pings the machine it will ping the actual IP address. Then go into your PC TCP/IP settings and change your DNS server to the UUNet server recommended by Kenwood and do the test again. If, this time, the ping command can't resolve the address, then the UUNet DNS caching server is at fault. FWIW, given the reliability of those servers, I'd think it would be extremely unlikely, but not impossible, that this is the problem.

Hope this helps.

Just spoke with Kenwood support. They want me to use static dns.

dns servers 198.6.1.1, 198.6.1.2

He said I can leave the setting on dynamic but to enter the dns entries.

Derek, Charles if you are home now and can try this out, let me know. Thxs.

I can't try it until I get home.

*sigh* Keyboard remote just broke. What the bloody heck else can go wrong with this unit?

Kenwood, take this personally...you suck.

Originally posted by slocko
Just spoke with Kenwood support. They want me to use static dns.

dns servers 198.6.1.1, 198.6.1.2

He said I can leave the setting on dynamic but to enter the dns entries.

Derek, Charles if you are home now and can try this out, let me know. Thxs.

I can't try it until I get home.

This cured the DNS failure on one of my Entres. I'm now trying the other one.

Nick :cool:

While our problems our different, your results have given me hope.

Slocko,

I am already on static and thus have not had any connection issues other than Openglobe for the update. According to Kenwood about 5 minutes ago, they have received a bunch of calls, Openglobe is working on the problem, and there is not ETA.

my upgrade went through finally without me changing anything. I guess open globe doesn't know how to do dns changes.

strange, i guess they fixed it. i didn't change to static or put in dns entries and it went through.

Originally posted by DigitalGriffin
*sigh* Keyboard remote just broke. <snip> If it is the keyboard (& note the batteries) there are probably a number of Entre owners that have not even taken theirs out of the clear plastic bubble packaging...thus you could get one.

Slocko,

What does it mean when you reboot your Entre' and the disc drawer ejects like it's sticking it's tongue out at you?

Originally posted by wagncv
Spoke to tech support at Kenwood today... not sure why, but he did tell me that most of the information provided on this forum was incorrect and that we are causing most of our problems.<snip>

Re: forum incorrect
The tech support I talked to today (M) was not nearly so negative. Matter of fact it was nearly the opposite attitude. Of course, they are probably correct and only about 1/3 of what we discuss is correct. This is true in similar professional situations I'm familiar with regarding software and advanced users.

Still in some cases we have no big choice. Support doesn't always know or have a previous incident/issue/ref#/customer_case so they trouble shoot. I experienced that with my DETECTION problem. I called them back today to let them know that the LIBRARY+POWER worked...so they would have a reference case. Help some poor sucker (like me) down the road as I see it.

Re: LIBRARY+POWER
BTW, this appears to only work when there are no disc in the unit. I had did it again tonight when I had one disc in and it read "DISC-IN". The tech support person told me that this INITIALIZATION is what the testing folks use to reset the unit back to a "new" one. i.e. Factory Reset.

Re: GHOST DVDs
Support had me do a range lookup as he said that usually recognized empty slots better then other means. It worked for me and got rid of my ghost DVDs. Loading it back up tonight.

Originally posted by Adam Mrotek
Slocko,

What does it mean when you reboot your Entre' and the disc drawer ejects like it's sticking it's tongue out at you?

That was exactly what meant the beginning of the End of the last Entre for me. Once it started doing that, it was when the Entre could not "finish" its install of software from OpenGlobe--after doing the 5555 and the 64000 thing--and it had to be replaced. I seem to recall someone else reporting that as well.

If you're still able to connect, I wouldn't worry about it. But that was the behavior mine exhibited before it died.

Nick :cool:

Thanks Nick,

That's what I was afraid of. It took three successive reboots in order for it to turn back on. Darn just when I was able to get both usb ports working at the same time-- for about 20 minutes. Maybe it's just mine but I can't get the prescribed Logitech wireless keyboard to work for very long anymore. I have a hunch it has something to do with the other usb adapter being used for the ethernet adapter concurrently. What an unstable platform!

Has anyone that did a factory restore over the last few days been able to get the software to update? I have tried over home phone network and dial up. Dial up is the only method I can get the progress bar to show downloading, but it never gets to the end.. always says can not complete at this time.... any suggestions.

I am using the DNS addresses stated in the notes above. Good news is my other entre that I did not retore is working great! Now that they have the servers fixed.

Charles

Charles,

My entre finally updated last night. I didn't change anything. Try going back to dynamic. Kenwood might have given me bad information.

Also, maybe I slipped in through some small window when the system was up. According to Derek there was no ETA on when the problem would be fixed, even though you would hope by now it is fixed.

Quite a few of us have had entres die. That tongue sticking out is an autonomous reflex as it undergoes death :)

A few of us have had the entre drive crash. I think about 5 of us here. Hopefuelly it's an insignificant statiscal blip, and not a long term worry.


Originally posted by Adam Mrotek
Slocko,

What does it mean when you reboot your Entre' and the disc drawer ejects like it's sticking it's tongue out at you?

8/29/03 during the day my update failed. Last night I think I got the update because when I check now it says 2.0.0.8 weeeee...

Wayne

See Wayne, that is what kenwood support means when they say we don't know what we are doing. You are not supposed to try the update while you are awake. You are supposed to try it when you are sleep!!! :)

Hi All...Question for you that use the Entre's Internet Radio and Sirius.

I have noticed that when the text of the artiest and title comes down, it makes the song skip (at the beginning of the song). This seems to have started about a week ago. At one point, long ago, this was happening and it was due to how the info was sent in the stream and Openglode had to filter it out, and did. Well, not it seems to be back again so I am guessing the stream changed.

So...does anyone else hear this issue? Just checking before I try to bring it to someones attention. (Currently listening to US1)

Thanks

I think some of here know a few tricks support doesn't know :)

How many of them know to use an ftp client to browse the entre's file structure?

Or how many can go into the mdb tables in media manager and modify data?

Or how many can clone the contents of the entre's hard drive, even if it can only be copied back to another entre drive?

I don't doubt there are experts at kenwood, but they probably don't work in support.

[/B][/QUOTE]

Well, tech services did not help me too much, although he was very nice. My second dv5900m has a problem reading some (50%) of my disks, while the first does not appear to have that problem. Tech Services said to reset the ROM by turning off the unit and holding User File button while turning the unit back on. All I succeeded in doing was disconnecting it from the entre. I had to reboot the entre (holding breath and dreading the tongue). THe entre found the second player, but the disk recognition problem is still there. Funny, it took three attempts to get the player to read Chicago (the movie). On the first two it said worng disk format. On the third attempt it read the disk. NOw it playes the disk, but only after a long read time. Many other disks are still unread. I will call tech srvice next week to see if they have nay other ideas. In order to get the player out of my cabinet, I have to disassbemble a lot of things, so I would rather not have to do that.

try the library power button that worked for Scott. It seems different from the User File button because that one didn't do anything for Scott's problem. It may do a more thorough reset.

Originally posted by David Bott
Hi All...Question for you that use the Entre's Internet Radio and Sirius.

I have noticed that when the text of the artiest and title comes down, it makes the song skip (at the beginning of the song). This seems to have started about a week ago. At one point, long ago, this was happening and it was due to how the info was sent in the stream and Openglode had to filter it out, and did. Well, not it seems to be back again so I am guessing the stream changed.

So...does anyone else hear this issue? Just checking before I try to bring it to someones attention. (Currently listening to US1)

Thanks

Yes, I have noticed the skipping, but the skip seems to happen after my entre has already received title data. The title data is already shown on the screen when the stream skips. I've checked a few times using different stations ie. 60's 70's 80's......

Nick, were you ever able to connect to the Entre via FTP? I'm trying to do so and running into the same disconnect problems you described.

Mike

Originally posted by slocko
Charles,

My entre finally updated last night. I didn't change anything. Try going back to dynamic. Kenwood might have given me bad information.

Also, maybe I slipped in through some small window when the system was up. According to Derek there was no ETA on when the problem would be fixed, even though you would hope by now it is fixed.

Did you update through dial-up or broad band?

Charles

through my broadband via hpna.

MKellyvich, How did your cable come out??? Were you able to hardwire your powertouch???

Originally posted by Mkellyvich
Nick, were you ever able to connect to the Entre via FTP? I'm trying to do so and running into the same disconnect problems you described.

Mike

No. I downloaded the program that Scott referred to, and then took a flyer on another trial version of the same program, and yet another trial version of another program. Spent about $10, so it's no big deal, but I've yet to find one that can connect to either Entre.

I'm going to get my IS guy from work to stop out one night, because I really want this to work. The main reason is DVD-Audio, which is hit and miss with cover art, in a big way.

I would like to hear of anyone that has been able to connect to their Entre unit via a FTP GUI program.

Nick :cool:

Used on/library to reset in attempt to get disk recognition - no luck. But, new question - If second dv5900m is hooked up to entre (along with main) do the front panel lights stay off? No matter what I do, I can not get the front panel display to light up on the second dv5900m. Any suggestions would be appreciated (besides sending it back to Kenwood - which I get a strong feeling will be happening sometime next week). This is starting to get very tedious.

Zinja,

Did you try using the changer remote to turn it on? Remember to address it first (MAIN or SUB1).

Yes, display comes when I first turn on the changer, than goes off. If I use the remote, with sub1 pushed the blue bar on the door will chnage brightness, as I toggle through using the display button.

Also my entre has been updated for at least a month, no problems with it. This morning the display says "update in progress, please wait" guess I will have to wait and see what that is all about.

the changers have a setting in the main menu for the display that can be on, auto, and off. any chance you set it to auto?

on auto mode, the display turns off as soon as the movie starts playing. that is the setting i use since i don't have a cabinet to hide everything.

I think the secret for getting your update with your entre is to go to sleep and not set there and watch it.... mine finally updated last night!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now to star testing... my other entre has been working great since the database issue was fixed.

How do we get kenwood to post a site that allows use to get status on openglobe status or to post question?

Charles

Originally posted by Mkellyvich
Nick, were you ever able to connect to the Entre via FTP? I'm trying to do so and running into the same disconnect problems you described. Mike Are you using CUTEFTP? Did you see my post containing the screen of the CUTEFTP site manager where I had the username/id blank as well as the password. It seemed that CUTEFTP entred a 5 character password (note the 5 stars) which I guessed was 'guest'. The message from the UNIX OS using the 'anonymous' username/id actually said to use 'psos' as I recall. If I would have saw 4 stars for the password then I would have assumed that CUTEFTP read that line returned from the OS and used 'psos' as the password. Again I saw 5 stars so I assumed CUTEFTP automatically/by_default used "guest" as the password.

Prior to Nick posting the questions I just used CUTEFTP 'Quick Connect' option which just allows you to ad-hoc enter an FTP site name/IP# with or without name/password. I didn't enter either.

P.S. I'm having a little trouble with my local lan otherwise I'd play around for you guys trying things.

I know I can get an answer to this question from someone. Why is it that when I rip my cd's to the internal hard disk, they will play for me then, but when I try to listen to them a few days later the bit rate reads 0 and they won't play at all. I have to re-rip the cd and the whole thing statrs over again in a few days????

Quick question. I've been trying to sell my 5050M on the AV marketplace, but have come across a relatively inexpensive open box Entre (<$600). Even though the Entre is end of life, should I go for the Entre and keep the 5050M? Or is the Kenwood system unforgivably broken and too expensive by todays's standards to consider.

Also is the Entre HD hackable/upgradeable through Ghost or any sector-by-sector HD copy utility?

Originally posted by kelliot
Quick question. I've been trying to sell my 5050M on the AV marketplace, but have come across a relatively inexpensive open box Entre (<$600). Even though the Entre is end of life, should I go for the Entre and keep the 5050M? Or is the Kenwood system unforgivably broken and too expensive by todays's standards to consider.

Also is the Entre HD hackable/upgradeable through Ghost or any sector-by-sector HD copy utility?

Hardly quick questions, Ken, but I'll try to give the right answers.

Other than a few who despaired at the early under-achievement, nearly everyone who has used an Entre with Changer winds up hooked on the system.

Although we're running into new issues that seem more OpenGlobe related (based on servers being up or down), the system is vastly improved from the time that even the few who despaired gave up. The things we identify as "issues" should be seen in the context of a product that provides a feature set that is, for all intents and purposes, unrivaled.

I know I couldn't be without a system lacking an Entre, despite the problems I've had, so I don't agree that Entre is "end of life," or that the system is even "broken." As far as I'm concerned, it's finally working "like" it should have worked when it was released, but Kenwood gets the better-late-than-never credit it deserves. Far too many "nevers" in the world of high end audio/video products. People who owned Proceed products last year, thought they had something that was hiqh quality and would be supported for years. Ask their opinion of the type of company they'd like to deal with, Kenwood or the quintessentially "high end" Madrigal.

Talk to the people who bought "the best" A/V preamp/processor a few years ago, the Citation 7.0, and waited patiently for two years as Citation (which had been acquired by Madrigal) promised a digital upgrade, and even faked one at a Consumer Show, by putting the shell of an existing Citation 7.0 out for display with a new "digital input" that was just a hole drilled in the shell.

I owned the Proceed PAV/PDSD. I owned the Citation 7.0. It was one of the reasons that I was dead serious that I'd be damned if I was just going to sit around for a third time while things got promised, and then the inevitable press release would come--and you've wasted years, and have not been happy with what you bought.

Kenwood was playing with that fire. But Kenwood was unique, and came through. The product is working fine--and, yes, I know more problems will follow--but it's unique.

As for whether it's hackable, well you can search this thread and you can learn that one person found a way to back up the hard drive, and we're right now talking about an FTP program to transpher cover art graphics; those would fall into the classification of open questions.

Ultimately, it's what you want to spend, and what you want. But, in that process, you should understand that a lot of progress has been made by Kenwood in recent months, and it's a system that offers features that you can't really buy--in this packaging--anywhere else in the world.

It's well worth it to me. Differing budgets and other personal issues aside, two Entres and Six Changers (2 5900s, 4 5050s), are a bargain in my system. That package cost less than my 4 surround speakers.

You judge if it's worth it to you.

Nick :cool:

that's a darn good price. i would definetely give the system a spin because you can easily get the same price on ebay if you end up not liking it. i think the cheapest i have seen an entre go is $700 on ebay.

Originally posted by kelliot
Quick question. I've been trying to sell my 5050M on the AV marketplace, but have come across a relatively inexpensive open box Entre (<$600). Even though the Entre is end of life, should I go for the Entre and keep the 5050M? Or is the Kenwood system unforgivably broken and too expensive by todays's standards to consider.

Also is the Entre HD hackable/upgradeable through Ghost or any sector-by-sector HD copy utility?

Scott,

I've tried both CuteFTP and CoffeeCup Free FTP. Tried using blank username/password, "anonymous" username with blank/guest/psos passwords. All fail to connect. The default port ID seems to be 21 - is this the port you were able to connect through?

Thanks,

Mike

Danny,

I haven't made the cable yet - misread the bitmap and bought two stereo plugs instead of a stereo and a mono plug. Haven't had time to go back to RadioShack to get the other plug yet, probably will get to it this weekend. I'm thinking about wiring the cable to an RJ-45 connector on each end so in the new house I can move the remote from room to room by patching appropriate cat5 drops together.

Mike

BTW, for anyone in the Baltimore area - Tweeter in Glen Burnie has an open box VR-5900 w/o remote for $488. Quite a good deal for a $2500 receiver.

Mike

Ken, just be careful what nick says. Ever since Kenwood sent him a jacket he's been awful nice about what he says about them. :) (I am still waiting for my jacket)

the specs on the vr-5900 say it has GUI customization? How good is it? Also it has a tv power sensor input? how is that used?

I have the 5700, but I might trade up for those 2 features.

Originally posted by Mkellyvich
I've tried both CuteFTP and CoffeeCup Free FTP. Tried using blank username/password, "anonymous" username with blank/guest/psos passwords. All fail to connect. The default port ID seems to be 21 - is this the port you were able to connect through? Mike/Nick/et al., I may have mislead you folks a bit.

I just tried using the FTP "DOS" pgm built into XP to connect. It didn't like a blank name. I just used "guest" as the name and either "guest" or "psos" as the password and it let me in the same as the CuteFTP pgm did. <pause> Actually I just reviewed my previous entry in this post (08-27-03 10:40 PM) and it shows a user id of "anonymous" (alias of guest (see msgs below)).:

CUTEFTP log:
COMMAND:> USER anonymous
331 Guest login ok, send 'psos' as password.
COMMAND:> PASS *****
230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply.
STATUS:> Login successful.Summary:
- use "guest" or "anonymous" as username
- use "guest" or "psos" as password

Attached is the cover for Bad Company which I've mentioned in this thread before because the Entre/OG always finds the Western "Bad Company (1972)". Perhaps they do have the current one but without a OG web page interface to their database for searching they sure are making this difficult on us and have for a few years now. I'm not saying I used the attached correctly sized cover art mind you nor am I saying I used a cover art scan from my Racquetball match DVD (which no doubt OG would not have/add).

Sorry but again if someone theoretical used the information I mentioned and something happens don't get on my case....GET on KW/OG as they they should provide at the least a simple interface to add cover art. Wouldn't it be nice if KW/OG added a "user" subdirectory on the Entre or at least a simple program to behind the scenes FTP all the cover art on your harddisk to someplace that you could then select when you are in the Entre user interface. PLEASE KW/OG. If you have to prioritize a backup of the HD is a higher one, tho.

Scott,

No combination of the user and passwords you suggested wants to connect with CoffeeCup Free FTP. Trying the DOS connection gives the following message:

ftp> open 192.168.1.10
>ftp: connect :unknown error number

Adding the port # (21) gives the same result.

Any ideas?

Mike

Originally posted by Mkellyvich
Scott, No combination of the user and passwords you suggested wants to connect with CoffeeCup Free FTP. Trying the DOS connection gives the following message:
ftp> open 192.168.1.10
>ftp: connect :unknown error number
Adding the port # (21) gives the same result.
Any ideas?
Mike Mike, if you want you can PM me and I will give you my number so you can call and we can take this off line. I'm assuming that 192.168.1.10 is *your* Entre's IP address? Mine is 192.168.0.10 but that is because of how my setup is. Everyone can set theirs up uniquely (normally last couple nodes (aka subnet/segment) or just the last node (i.e. 10 can be 2 or 5 or x up to 255). One of your Entre setup screen (Primary TCP/IP menu option?) shows your IP.

I just did the "open" command like you showed and it work. I assume you can PING your Entre's IP using the "DOS" PING command? If not then you have a more basic problem. i.e. wrong IP number or local lan has some restriction (outgoing FTP firewall software on your PC?).
Scott

Originally posted by zinja
Ken, just be careful what nick says. Ever since Kenwood sent him a jacket he's been awful nice about what he says about them. :) (I am still waiting for my jacket)

It's a nice jacket, too. But if I was winking at Kenwood, I wouldn't have said anything about it on the forum.

Kenwood will do what is in its best interests from a standpoint of profit, which is fine with me, so long as that process involves good product and good service. For what it's worth, I had several communications "privately" on the subject of the claim I was going to bring, and I know for a fact that my letter, which basically said that a suit under various consumer statutes would be brought, and class certification would be sought, was read by Kenwood. I'm happy that they announced the upgrade program on the day after my deadline to them, because my letter to the people that contacted me made clear that this would be the relief we'd seek, and the upgrade program would render an action in court unnecessary.

So I suspect that Kenwood's affection for me is based a lot more over the fact that I'm not speaking the language of litigation anymore--and I have to tell you, class certification in this case would have proved very problematic for Kenwood, because it would pertain to all Sovereign products. Point is, I was never, ever, approaching this as a lawyer looking for a case, I was just interested in getting a product working that I loved in my system. Yes, I'm sure they also like me because I bought all those changers and two Entres, but it really doesn't matter to me. They've finally come through--and if they screw up again, I'll be the first to complain about it, jackets and trinkets aside.

While I generally detest the image of the lawyer as the lawsuit-happy maverick who is only in it for the money, you know as well as I do Mike, that the case against Kenwood would've been pretty easy to make. There should actually be more suits brought in the Consumer Electronics/Audio Video realm, because it's really the only thing that will keep some of these companies honest.

The Proceed PAV/PDSD was the "future proof" $10,000 processor that had one or two upgrades, and was disbanded. The Citation 7.0, which I've referred to in another post--and these are just my personal scars. Especially in today's environment, where upgrades and changes are a fact of life, it is simply wrong for companies to promise that things are "future proof," or the like, just to get people to buy. However, there is a great reluctance by the A/V enthusiast to take on these companies, almost as if they were attacking a good institution, as if they were attacking a church.

Lexicon is the best company I've ever dealt with, but Kenwood has now crossed over from one column to another--from the bad apple column to the good egg column. Since I was not bashful about heaping criticism on Kenwood when it deserved it, I won't hesitate to praise, either, when it's deserved. And I'll give the whole story, including the fact of the jacket, and the recent VIP treatment they've given me, and why they have self interest in treating me well.

Point is, there are so many examples of outright fraud in the consumer electronics industry, and a few lawyers taking on some of these companies would at least make them think before they promised--and we'd be better off for it.

By the way, Mike, Kenwood asked me to check on what size jacket you wanted . . .

Nick :cool:

That is some poweful kool-aid :D

But the Entre and changer combination is very cool and has set a high bar for the htpc I am going to build. Finally got all the parts. Now for the long learning curve ahead. Supposedly there is gold at the end of the rainbow.

I think the update might have something to do with the ghosting. I had a problem with them right after the first upgrade. I re-did everything and things seemed to be fine. I then had about 215 MP3 ghosts this past week. After I re-set to factory settings, I reloaded about 1700 files. All was fine until I finally received the updated software yesterday. It now says that I have 3200 MP3 files on my Entre instead of the correct 1700.

Nick, I was only gently ribbing you about the Jacket (I am a large and getting larger).

I agree with you on the litigation. It is not something that one ordinarily wants to resort to, especially since we are in this forum for the entertainment aspect of our hobby. And I do call this AV thing we do a hobby. In all hobbies there is a great deal of exploration and adventure and some adversity. As an example, my father used to spend hundreds of hours building a remote control airplane, sometimes they would fly beautifully and the longer you could keep it in the air and make perfect landings the more he wanted to build more challenging aircraft to fly. But, when you spend hundreds of hours building a plane and it crashes on the first take-off, you are more apt then not to try a different aircraft to build and fly.

I say all this because I, like everyone else in this forum, have waited (and complained and threatened) for the Sovereign system to come together. The only reason I purchased the entre was to have multi-changer support. My computer rips cd's just fine and anyway I am listening to music less and concentrating on video more. So I want and expect a Kenwood system to operrate as advertised - and after 1.5 years it just has not done that.

I was very excited that Kenwood did their update program - just read my past posts and you will see that I was supportive of their upgrade program.

BUT, here I sit today, with one player only reading half the disks, an entre that seems to be working (although everyone else seems to be experiencing meltdowns) and still no system that you would be proud to show your friends (at least my friends would call me crazy for sticking with it for so long - my wife already does call me crazy/stupid for staying the course). I already have resigned myself to the fact that I will spend another weekend unloading 200 DVD's and breaking down my cabinet to get the player unhooked from all its wires and sending the unit to timboktoo or some other unlikely place, where some kenwood technician will decide it either is not a problem (after all it reads 200 of the 400 DVD's) or will tell me that it needs a new rom/laser or some other part that must be manufactured in North Korea and shipped here via the Suez canel and don't worry it will arrive in 6 months.

Am I frustrated, you bet, after spending hundreds of hours (and Nick I know you will appreciate the time, since I now bill out at $400/ hour as a securities litigation attorney) it is quickly coming to the point when I will be asking Kenwood for the proverbial full refund. After all, in several months, Sony will catch up, or Samsung will bring something new out or even worse the blue laser will replace the current DVD laser and we can all begin collecting our movies again (I still have over a hundred laser disks that play just fine on the pioneer laser player).

Obviously, I still have some hope that this $5,000 entry level mulit-changer system will bear fruit, but it is disappointing to say the least, that either the machines (the entre or the dv-5900m) are too unstable or unreliable to put in your AV rack and just enjoy the show. I can tell you, my $99 Panasonic single play DVD player has given me far more pleasure then the pain that my $5,000 system has given me.

Just wanted to rant and rave, I still want my Jacket (large thank you very much) and I still want my entre system to work as it was promised.

P.S. I think its funny that many of my now obsolete av equipment have extra connections, serial ports and usb ports with the explanation that they will be used for "Future updates." Just curious, how come they never seem to need to use those extra connections?:D

I assume that guys like Derek and Slocko are talking about it because they either just got Entres back or changers back . . . but we are talking about version 2.0.0.8, correct?

I believe that this was the version released just prior to the changers being upgraded, so it's got a few months use already. Was the ghosting not an issue with the prior versions?

Nick :cool:

Originally posted by Mkellyvich
BTW, for anyone in the Baltimore area - Tweeter in Glen Burnie has an open box VR-5900 w/o remote for $488. Quite a good deal for a $2500 receiver.

Mike

Too bad I don't live in Maryland. I went for the Entre. It didn't have a remote, so I asked them to look around and they found a Powertouch that they threw in for free. It was at Good Guys, they have a 30 day return policy. If I could find a VR-5900, then I'd have close to the full package. I hope its not necessary.

One question I have right now. What upgrade might my 5050 need and what is required to get it?

Nick, yes I am referring to 2.0.0.8. I did not have any ghosting issues prior.

I can't explain it, but the entre will not identify discs that it did when I loaded the second changer orginally, prior to going back to ground zero.

I give up at this point. I will just try to lookup the dvds manually. It finds 30 unknowns out of 155 dvds. Way too many. Who knows how many more it will fail to find once I connect the other changer that has 400 dvds.

I finally got my replacment changer and it works beautifully. No grinding noise and it ejects.



Originally posted by Nick Satullo
I assume that guys like Derek and Slocko are talking about it because they either just got Entres back or changers back . . . but we are talking about version 2.0.0.8, correct?

I believe that this was the version released just prior to the changers being upgraded, so it's got a few months use already. Was the ghosting not an issue with the prior versions?

Nick :cool:

RE: internet connection recovery
After having some ISP related internet problems where I had all my equipment (PC, Entre Ethernet, NetGear HPNA for Axcess) unplugged while diagnosing...I hooked it all back up and the Axcess and the Entre just worked.

WITHOUT rebooting either of them. (I recall having various issues before)

With the TEST button within TCP/IP area of the Entre menu system and the faster Axcess to Entre/iRadio I'd say the spent quite a bit of time fixing up the networking aspect of these guys. There may be the server side issues at OG recently but the hardware/local_software seems to have improved.

Just a positive observation unless I'm unique.

well out of the 400 another 32 unknown, for a total of 63 unknowns.

how have other people done with the unknowns?

i just don't understand why discs it read before, now it cannot find.

Originally posted by ScottF200
[With the TEST button within TCP/IP area of the Entre menu system and the faster Axcess to Entre/iRadio I'd say the spent quite a bit of time fixing up the networking aspect of these guys. There may be the server side issues at OG recently but the hardware/local_software seems to have improved.

Just a positive observation unless I'm unique. Yeah, that test button is great, primarily because it doesn't just test, but will actually repair a broken connection that previously couldn't be fixed without a reboot. Good one Kenwood!

Is there any way to do multi-zone MP3 with the entre but without the axcess? Some other type of smarthome device? I am trying to have multiple MP3 zones without having one touchscreen in a room for smarthome stuff and another for Kenwood.

Originally posted by slocko
well out of the 400 another 32 unknown, for a total of 63 unknowns.

how have other people done with the unknowns?

i just don't understand why discs it read before, now it cannot find.

2 changers 480 DVD - 110 unknown

Originally posted by ScottF200

Sorry but again if someone theoretical used the information I mentioned and something happens don't get on my case....GET on KW/OG as they they should provide at the least a simple interface to add cover art. Wouldn't it be nice if KW/OG added a "user" subdirectory on the Entre or at least a simple program to behind the scenes FTP all the cover art on your harddisk to someplace that you could then select when you are in the Entre user interface. PLEASE KW/OG. If you have to prioritize a backup of the HD is a higher one, tho.

Understood. We buys our tickets and we takes our chances. You were very clear in the limitations you expressed, and I appreciate the insight. If I want guarantees, that's what I pay for at the store.

Nick :cool:

How do I delete all my music cd's from the entre.

you can go into options and select delete music. using the circular arrow button on the entre remote, you can select albums at a time.

other than a factory reset i think that is the fastest way.

Wow I thought I had it bad. Adele had a good suggestion. Use dvdprofiler to keep track of the exact search phrase used to lookup a dvd.

I would love to talk to an open globe engineer or software developer about the way their discovery engine works. Their has to be a reason why sometimes it can automatically find a title and sometimes not.

Originally posted by aauno
2 changers 480 DVD - 110 unknown

Make sure that you can use the powertouch to emulate the entre remote. there are a lot of buttons that you will need to use in setting up the entre, especially for searching, unless you get yourself a compatible keyboard.

Originally posted by kelliot
Too bad I don't live in Maryland. I went for the Entre. It didn't have a remote, so I asked them to look around and they found a Powertouch that they threw in for free. It was at Good Guys, they have a 30 day return policy. If I could find a VR-5900, then I'd have close to the full package. I hope its not necessary.

I think you can wait and see if you like the system before you send in the changer in for an upgrade.

The only two areas of benifit for the upgrade is faster layer change and ability to daisy chain two or three changers together so the entre can manage them.

Since you only have one, I dont know if it's even worth upgrading it now that you have to pay a fee plus shipping. I think it was $75.00

Originally posted by kelliot
One question I have right now. What upgrade might my 5050 need and what is required to get it?

Originally posted by slocko
you can go into options and select delete music. using the circular arrow button on the entre remote, you can select albums at a time.

other than a factory reset i think that is the fastest way. Instead of waiting for your answer I went ahead and erased my music groups. How do I get them back and how do I do a factory reset? Thanks for your reply.

Originally posted by slocko
I think you can wait and see if you like the system before you send in the changer in for an upgrade.

The only two areas of benifit for the upgrade is faster layer change and ability to daisy chain two or three changers together so the entre can manage them.

Since you only have one, I dont know if it's even worth upgrading it now that you have to pay a fee plus shipping. I think it was $75.00

slocko, thanks for the info. Its at least upgrading to the latest Openglobe software right now. It reminds me of my ReplayTV 5040s. I.e. a bitch to get networked right but OK afterward. I got a keyboard and need to look at the manual for the Powertouch. If nothing else it will be good for evenings of entertainment.

BTW, I went wired on the keyboard, a Logitech 967233-0403. It was as close as I could find to the Kenwood verified keyboard. I'd love to be able to put a 300G Maxtor in this puppy. If anyone knows how, PM me. Also, where can I find a cheap remote for it?, the Powertouch viewability sucks.

Has anyone else had a problem with CD cover art lately?

Go back into options and choose create group. It might be in the second screen when you press more. You are going to have to recreate the names and then select music to put into the groups.

You go to factory reset by pressing setup, once the menu is up, press 5555 and the option will be there for factory reset.

That will wipe everything out and take you back to version 1.0 of the software. You then have to upgrade back to 2.0.



Originally posted by vaha
Instead of waiting for your answer I went ahead and erased my music groups. How do I get them back and how do I do a factory reset? Thanks for your reply.

i don't know how much effort has gone into cloning a drive, but the only success reported was by hmatos. He was able to make a copy of it using linux, but he was only able to restore the image to the same drive, not a different drive.

I have to PM him when the time comes, because it is way too much work to get back all the customizations if you have restore to factory defaults or send it in for repair. I am hoping that you can restore to another entre drive, and not the same exact drive.

I wonder if you got a hold of one of the Escient drives if you could use it for the entre. That would be interesting to test out since they have 40 gig models.

Originally posted by kelliot
slocko, thanks for the info. Its at least upgrading to the latest Openglobe software right now. It reminds me of my ReplayTV 5040s. I.e. a bitch to get networked right but OK afterward. I got a keyboard and need to look at the manual for the Powertouch. If nothing else it will be good for evenings of entertainment.

BTW, I went wired on the keyboard, a Logitech 967233-0403. It was as close as I could find to the Kenwood verified keyboard. I'd love to be able to put a 300G Maxtor in this puppy. If anyone knows how, PM me. Also, where can I find a cheap remote for it?, the Powertouch viewability sucks.

Just wanted to log in with some more minor problems.
1. My cable modem had been working fine until I tried to reactivate my wireless keyboard. This was resolved by using (I think it was Nick's posting) the DNS 1 and 2 addresses while still retaining a dynamic PRIMARY TCP/IP setting. Works fine now however, I'm not so sure this was the real solution for when I bring this screen up it now renders DNS 1 and 2 blank, and yet connection still works. I've noticed though that sometimes these numbers will appear (I had them registered for my secondary settings) and sometimes they won't. Strange.
2. I suddenly experienced a problem with my second changer (5900) no longer being able to "read" any discs.Upon further inspection I noticed a scraping sound coming from inside the changer as the carousel was turning. As if this was not bad enough I could not get the disc to return to it's respective slot. Finally the carousel stopped moving at all. It was jammed. After removing the cover I noticed that the discs were ever so slightly rubbing against the hub at the hub's 3 o'clock position as you are looking from above. The discs seemed to be making contact at the 9 o'clock position respective to their position on the right side of the player. Next I noticed when I tried to put the disc that was qued up into motion that there were 2 discs inhabiting " play" area. When I was able to pull them out (by pushing eject and waiting for the entire play mechanism to rotate 45 degrees and then cutting power to keep it from going the full 90 degrees) I noticed there were not 2 but three discs! Closed it back up and it works again but it still scrapes the side of the hub.
Now wouldn't it be nice if someone could post a separate page that had a list of all the problems we've encountered and a list of possible remedies. Sure would save people some time and possibly some hair!

It's possible that by putting in the DNS entries you repaired the broken connection. Next time try test connection to see if it works.

Some people have had problems with jamed discs. I am surprised I haven't yet with the amount of use I give it. That will probably be my next problem :)

I want to thank you guys for clearing up the banana plug mystery. I now switched to banana plugs for all my connections and I am in heaven. What a difference. It's so easy to unhook and hookup.

Adam

Check the alignment of the top and bottom halves of the carousel, there are several tabs that plug in between the two halves, one of my changers came back with a scraping noise and that's what it turned out to be. I simply loosened the screw above the tab that was misaligned and popped it back into place. Good luck.


Tom

P.S. I still have a VERY slightly used Entre for sale...anyone interested PM me.

I will be at CEDIA Froday and Saturday. I noticed this class in the manufacturer's product training guide:
How to Install and Integrate FireBall Digital Media
Management Products
Saturday, September 6th , 9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
Room: Council – Westin
Instructor: TBA
Escient, the company that brought the first true convergence entertainment
products to the CEDIA channel, will cover how to install, setup, network, integrate,
program, and troubleshoot the entire FireBall line-up, Escient peripherals, and
other new exciting products you have been asking for!
Specifics include FireBall Digital Media Managers, as well as some review of
PipeLine™. Class will cover setup, configuration, Internet and networking tips,
control modules and connectivity for IR and RS-232 integration with partners’
products such as ADA, AMX, Audio Access, Crestron, ELAN, RTI, Xantech and
more. Attend this two-hour course to become the expert in leveraging Escient
products within your installations, to bring profitable, intuitive, leading-edge
products into your clients’ homes.

Does anyone think this would be worthwhile to us Entre owners? How simiar are the producst and software. I know someone said Pipeline is basically Media Manager. Any thoughts?

I will be at CEDIA Froday and Saturday. I noticed this class in the manufacturer's product training guide:

"How to Install and Integrate FireBall Digital Media
Management Products
Saturday, September 6th , 9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
Room: Council – Westin
Instructor: TBA
Escient, the company that brought the first true convergence entertainment
products to the CEDIA channel, will cover how to install, setup, network, integrate,
program, and troubleshoot the entire FireBall line-up, Escient peripherals, and
other new exciting products you have been asking for!
Specifics include FireBall Digital Media Managers, as well as some review of
PipeLine™. Class will cover setup, configuration, Internet and networking tips,
control modules and connectivity for IR and RS-232 integration with partners’
products such as ADA, AMX, Audio Access, Crestron, ELAN, RTI, Xantech and
more. Attend this two-hour course to become the expert in leveraging Escient
products within your installations, to bring profitable, intuitive, leading-edge
products into your clients’ homes."

Does anyone think this would be worthwhile to us Entre owners? How simiar are the producst and software. I know someone said Pipeline is basically Media Manager. Any thoughts?

Originally posted by mikemav

Does anyone think this would be worthwhile to us Entre owners? How simiar are the producst and software. I know someone said Pipeline is basically Media Manager. Any thoughts?

Based on my conversations with Escient, they know a lot more about Entre and Media Manager than Kenwood does, because they essentially made it.

I would think this would be a very worthwhile class. You might wind up knowing more than anyone does.

Nick :cool:

make sure you ask them how do you back up the contents of the hard drive so you don't lose it all. of course, that is if you don't mind putting the instructor on the spot :D

Ok this is off subject but the guys here have been through so much together I wanted to share this here....David feel free to move or delete this if it REALLY does not belong:

I have just purchased the MOST amazing piece of equiptment for my system and it does not make picture or sound.....it cleans power.


I got the Richard Gray Power companies RGPC1200 and it made more of a difference in my system that any other piece besides speakers.

Within the first hour of being plugged in it made a huge difference in the Video quality and now I am hearing a soundstage that I have never heard before.


It was not cheap (2000) but since this is a hobby we all spend entirely too much on this stuff already:)

The company gives you a 30 day return(no questions asked)policy so I suggest to anyone that loves this stuff as much as I do....to run not walk to get one of these ASAP and no I don't work for the company in fact I was skeptical until I tried one here is a place to read up on the science of it.

www.audiolinesource.com

Mr. I

i have always wondered about it. if it could afford it, i would love to try one. let's start a collection for me :)

Originally posted by Mkellyvich
Danny,

I haven't made the cable yet - misread the bitmap and bought two stereo plugs instead of a stereo and a mono plug. Haven't had time to go back to RadioShack to get the other plug yet, probably will get to it this weekend. I'm thinking about wiring the cable to an RJ-45 connector on each end so in the new house I can move the remote from room to room by patching appropriate cat5 drops together.

Mike

Mkellyvich,

About that mono plug your talking about. I dont know what the deal is with that in the picture. attached is a picture of the one that was sent to me from Kenwood. You will notice there is no mono plug!!! Also on the bottom half of the instruction sheet I sent you there is no mono plug there either

Ooops The file was to large here it is again!!

Well, My changer is on its way to Cerritos. My fingers are crossed :D Wish Me luck Guys...

I have been able to upgrade my Escient Fireball to 120GB. I have not been able to upgrade the Entre or the Compaq MC-1, using the same procedure. You might be able to use a Fireball's drive in an Entre, but I'm not sure what you'd get out of that. You'd lose DVD functionality. I've been playing around trying to see if I can upgrade the Entre, I'll post to this board (if it's okay) when I come up with something.

If anyone is interested, the process to backup your drives is pretty simple -- although it will require that you open up your Entre and a PC (you could probably use a MAC running Jaguar, but I haven't tried to).


How to make a backup of your Entre hard drive:

These instructions were copied from the Hinsdale TIVO upgrade FAQ and slightly modified for our purpose. If you're not comfortable installing hardware into your PC, then you probably shouldn't be doing this. This procedure has worked for me, but I cannot guarantee or be held responsible for any damage you might cause to your PC or your Entre.

You can obtain the latest upgrade CD by going to the Tivo Community Forum and looking under the Upgrade/Hack section. There will be instructions on how to download it and how to create the CD.

You cannot use this procedure to expand your Entre's storage -- feel free to give it a try -- but it won't work.

1. Get a Linux boot CD, you'll need this for the "dd" (Device Dump). Or better yet, if you know someone who's comfortable with Unix/Linux, just take your Entre's drive out and ask them to make a raw device copy of it via the dd command. If you're in Northern CA and don't mind making the drive, I'll be happy to make a copy for you.

2.Power off your PC and Entre. Open up the cases. Make a note of what drives are connected to what IDE channels. Remove the Entre's drive. You'll have to take the drive cage out, it's only 2 screws and pretty easy to remove. Just be careful!

We're only going to be working with the secondary IDE channel, but for safety's sake ... please unplug any hard drives from the IDE channels. Your CD drive should be the Master on the Primary IDE channel. This is what allows your PC to boot from a CD. If your PC is not able to boot from a CD, then you'll have to download a boot floppy -- or mess with your BIOS setup.

3. Connect the "ORIGINAL" Entre drive to the Secondary IDE channel, the original drive should be set as Master from the factory.

4. Take your "NEW" drive and make sure it is set as the Slave drive, connect it to the cable connected to the Secondary IDE channel also.

This will make your "ORIGINAL" drive the Master on the Secondary IDE connector, and the "NEW" drive will be the Slave on the Secondary IDE connector.

5. Turn on and boot the PC with the Boot CD in the drive. You'll see a lot of messages, somewhere in there you'll see some messages which specifically mention "/dev/hdd" and "/dev/hdc". It's alot easier if you get a similar drive (same capacity) and not the same exact drive as what's in the Entre (should be a Seagate 20GB). You should be able to tell which drive is connected to which channel either from your bios' startup screen or from the linux boot up messages.

6. Once again, I can't stress this enough -- MAKE ABSOLUTELY SURE that /dev/hdc (Secondary IDE Channel, Master Drive) is the Entre's ORIGINAL drive and that /dev/hdd (Secondary IDE Channel Slave Drive) is the NEW drive. Type the following command without the quotes:


"dd conv=noerror,sync if=/dev/hdc of=/dev/hdd bs=32k"

7. This can take a LONG time -- it took me about 2.5 hours (P3/700 256MB RAM) to generate a backup of an Entre drive that had nothing on it (except the current version of the operating system). The dd program does not give any visual feedback until it is finished. Your hard drive activity light (or you'll actually hear drive chatter) should show activity through the entire process. The backup time can take anywhere from 2+ hours. The time varies due to drive size, CPU speed, etc.

8. Make sure when the command is finished that no errors were reported. The program should report X number of blocks in and X numbers of blocks out. These numbers should be equal. If there were errors, you need to go back through this section and see if you skipped a step.

9. The last step is to verify that your backup is good. Just change the NEW drive to Master and plug it into the Entre. Power up and see if it boots. If it doesn't boot, chances are you forgot to make it the master drive.



Originally posted by slocko
i don't know how much effort has gone into cloning a drive, but the only success reported was by hmatos. He was able to make a copy of it using linux, but he was only able to restore the image to the same drive, not a different drive.

I have to PM him when the time comes, because it is way too much work to get back all the customizations if you have restore to factory defaults or send it in for repair. I am hoping that you can restore to another entre drive, and not the same exact drive.

I wonder if you got a hold of one of the Escient drives if you could use it for the entre. That would be interesting to test out since they have 40 gig models.

I didn't want to post anything here until the whole process was completed, but now that it is, I thought that it would be worthwhile to detail the entire saga of my upgrade experience (some of which was posted here earlier). From the day that I got it, my DV-5900M had had a defective eject mechanism, and discs did not stick out 1/8" the way that they are supposed to when you push the eject button. So when I sent in my e-mail asking for my V3 upgrade appointment, I indicated that the unit had a problem and asked if they could fix it at the same time as the upgrade. What I got back was a canned reply giving my my appointment time, so when I sent my unit back for the V3 upgrade, I taped a letter to the changer detailing the problem.

When the unit was returned, the first thing I did was to plug it in, apply the test that Nick had mentioned to confirm the V3 upgrade and test the eject button. Of course the eject problem hadn't been fixed. In addition, the unit had been pretty poorly packaged with old broken peices of styrofoam, and I had mentioned both the bad packaging and the failure to repair here on the forum. David Bott alerted Kenwood to these issues (which is why, I suspect, after the first few of us got back our badly packaged units, the remainder of the upgraded units were returned beautifully double boxed) and he PM'd me that he had specifically referred my problem to someone at Kenwood. Thanks again David!

In any event, a few days later, someone from Kenwood called me and told me to send my unit to their New Jersey service center to have the problem fixed. In the interim, now that I had multiplayer support, I went out and bought a second DV-5900M. Once I had the two units side by side, it was clear that there was a second problem with my old unit: the FL display was very dim. So dim, in fact, that at its brightest setting it was dimmer than the new unit on its dim setting. Also, the new unit had a number of elements that displayed in red that had never lit up on my old unit. Until I had the two units side by side, I never suspected that there was anything wrong with my old unit. So I taped a letter to the unit explaining both problems, taped it to the unit and sent it off to New Jersey.

A few days later, I got the unit back, this time perfectly packed. I opened it and looked at the work order, which said that the problem to be fixed was the eject mechanism and nothing about my display. I plugged it in and, sure enough, the eject mechanism now worked, but the display was still dim. So I called the New Jersey service center who claimed that (1) they had replaced the display (even though the work order didn't say that) and (2) the unit had to have been damaged in transit because they had checked the entire unit and it was working perfectly when it left there. Thus they wanted me to put in a claim to UPS for shipping damage even though there was no visible evidence of any damage to the carton and the unit now had the exact same defect as it had when I sent it to them and they claimed to have fixed (but forgot to put down on the work order). Sheesh! Anyway, I told them that there was no way I was going to put in a fraudulent claim to UPS and called Kenwood to complain.

There I spoke to a very nice woman in customer support who told me to send them a letter explaining what had happened, and when she got it, she called me back and said that Kenwood would swap my unit for a new one. So I sent it back, and the new one arrived last night, exactly seven weeks to the day after I sent the unit out for the upgrade. But the good news is that the new player works perfectly and my system is now humming away with the Entre and two changers. In the end, Kenwood's Customer Service came through (thanks Jill!), but one only wishes that they could have gotten it right to begin with. <sigh> Still, I'm now a happy camper and Kenwood deserves kudos for making things right.

Wow, our stories are almost IDENTICAL.

Anyone know now many hours of music an Entre holds at 128k?

Well, I hope Kenwood will "make it right" for me as well. My changer came back from the upgrade with dirt and hair all over the inside. I used a small vacuum I have for cleaning computers to get as much dirt out as I could. I then noticed than several slots in the 200's and 300's had some kind of VERY sticky yellow glue in them. It was not hot glue drippings and would not come out of the slots with anything we tried. I called KW and told them that I was very unhappy with the condition in which my changer was returned to me. It was absolutely spotless inside when I sent it in for the upgrade. I wanted an immediate replacement sent to me and they could just bill my credit card until the one they messed up was returned to them. But they said they couldn't do things that way and they must see my changer first before making any further decisions. If they do decide to repair it, they better test it thoroughly inside and out before sending it back, and it better not have a single scratch on it...otherwise they will be getting it right back. I'm hoping they will send me a new unit (no refurbs) and just be done with it.

I guess other companies have spoiled me with excellent customer service/support by making sure I am not without my equipment for more than a day or two if something fails or especially if it was a screw up on their end.

Very Aggravated,

Bob

Mr. Matos,

Thxs for the detailed post. Some questions.

1) You say it can't be used to expand storage. Does that mean if I restore the image to 120 gig drive, the entre does not boot up? Or does it mean that it boots up, but the extra space is not recognized? (Okay, I read your post more carefully and answered that question. You can restore to any drive, you just don't get extra capacity.)
2) If you were to put in a bigger fireball drive, and do a restore, what are the chances you would end up with more space? Since you now have an extra fireball drive, you might want to try it, if you haven't already.
3) What other methods have you tried besides the DD copy? Ghost, Partition Magic, etc????
4) With partition magic you can expand partitions. I wonder if something along those lines needs to be explored to expand the storage.

Thanks and hopefully some one cracks this. If you did it to the Fireball, it sounds theortically possible. Of course, I think no one ever cracked the Compaq.

eraSED

slocko,

#1 Yes, you can use any size drive, but you'll only be able to use the original 20GB.

#2 It's a little more complicated than that. There are files in the root directory of the Entre which tell it what the partitions look like and how many of those partitions are used for media. There is also code specific to the device in the root directory. So, the best you could hope for, is that the Entre would become a Fireball. Did I explain that well enough? If you took the fireball drive and then overlayed it using a backup of an Entre, the best that would happen is that you would have music partitions that were initialized, but the Entre would still not know they were there.

#3 The Escient/OpenGlobe products use "raw devices", basically it's software is the only software which knows exactly how to read/write to those partitions. Which is why you can't just mount the drives in Linux/Unix/DOS. I've tried most of the tools you mentioned, the result is always the same -- the drive is unusable because the software packages can't interpret the partition table. I believe 2 of the partitions on the drive are a DOS like filesystem. I believe /7.0.2 and /7.0.5 are the only ones which are readable.

#4 see #3

I may have a way to expand the drive, by performing a "dd" of the 20GB drive to a 120GB drive. I would then rewrite the partition information files and initialize the new music partitions. This is basically the wait I upgraded my fireball. Unfortunately, the Fireball, Entre, and Compaq MC-1 do not use the same boot code, so I'm sort of stuck.

Hope this all makes sense,

Heroildo

Originally posted by slocko
Mr. Matos,

Thxs for the detailed post. Some questions.

1) You say it can't be used to expand storage. Does that mean if I restore the image to 120 gig drive, the entre does not boot up? Or does it mean that it boots up, but the extra space is not recognized? (Okay, I read your post more carefully and answered that question. You can restore to any drive, you just don't get extra capacity.)
2) If you were to put in a bigger fireball drive, and do a restore, what are the chances you would end up with more space? Since you now have an extra fireball drive, you might want to try it, if you haven't already.
3) What other methods have you tried besides the DD copy? Ghost, Partition Magic, etc????
4) With partition magic you can expand partitions. I wonder if something along those lines needs to be explored to expand the storage.

Thanks and hopefully some one cracks this. If you did it to the Fireball, it sounds theortically possible. Of course, I think no one ever cracked the Compaq.

Help. I want to purchase another 5900m or 5050m. How can I tell if the unit includes the upgrade already??

If you it's a unit you can power on, there is a key combinations that you press that will tell you if it has the upgrade or not.

If it's from a store, simply ask them to make sure it's an upgraded unit. I think kenwood made a good effort to remove stock from all their authorized dealers. If it's not an authorized dealer, then I would be wary.

You can search for the key combination, even though I can't think of a good search criteria to pull it up.

If you like I can PM an authorized dealer in New York City who can ship you a 5900 for $995.00 plus shipping. All of his are new stock from Kenwood and they are upgraded. I bought one from him, and recently had it exchanged for another one. Both were upgraded and they are a pleasure to deal with.

Originally posted by Bob_422
Well, I hope Kenwood will "make it right" for me as well. My changer came back from the upgrade with dirt and hair all over the inside. I used a small vacuum I have for cleaning computers to get as much dirt out as I could. I then noticed than several slots in the 200's and 300's had some kind of VERY sticky yellow glue in them. It was not hot glue drippings and would not come out of the slots with anything we tried. I called KW and told them that I was very unhappy with the condition in which my changer was returned to me. It was absolutely spotless inside when I sent it in for the upgrade. I wanted an immediate replacement sent to me and they could just bill my credit card until the one they messed up was returned to them. But they said they couldn't do things that way and they must see my changer first before making any further decisions. If they do decide to repair it, they better test it thoroughly inside and out before sending it back, and it better not have a single scratch on it...otherwise they will be getting it right back. I'm hoping they will send me a new unit (no refurbs) and just be done with it.

I guess other companies have spoiled me with excellent customer service/support by making sure I am not without my equipment for more than a day or two if something fails or especially if it was a screw up on their end.

Very Aggravated,

Bob Bob,

I feel your pain, but let me make one suggestion: in all my dealings with Kenwood, I never asked them to replace my unit, only that they fix it amd make sure that I got a unit that was fully functional. It was they who decided that the best way to do that was to replace it. I'm sure that if I got all beligerent instead of aggrieved and insisted on getting a replacement, I would have met resistance. Because all I asked them to do was to make things right in the abstract, that gave them the space to do the right thing.

Originally posted by DannyFresh
Help. I want to purchase another 5900m or 5050m. How can I tell if the unit includes the upgrade already?? With the unit turned on and all recognition over, hold down the Stop button on the unit while pressing 0 on the remote. If the display shows a series of numbers beginning with 3, then you have a V3 (upgraded) unit.

It's been six weeks for me, and not a sign of my changer anywhere. I was told that it was shipped last week...but I sincerely doubt that story. I wish I could be as happy as some of the folks on this forum about Kenwood's customer support.


Originally posted by rbienstock
[B

There I spoke to a very nice woman in customer support who told me to send them a letter explaining what had happened, and when she got it, she called me back and said that Kenwood would swap my unit for a new one. So I sent it back, and the new one arrived last night, exactly seven weeks to the day after I sent the unit out for the upgrade. But the good news is that the new player works perfectly and my system is now humming away with the Entre and two changers. In the end, Kenwood's Customer Service came through (thanks Jill!), but one only wishes that they could have gotten it right to begin with. <sigh> Still, I'm now a happy camper and Kenwood deserves kudos for making things right. [/B]

Slock,
I saw your post about your inerest in the vr-5900 Why not just pick up a powertouch III. It will work with your vr-5700. The power sensor really doesn't work that well. Kenwood calls it "Perfect Macro" I am using the one that detects maginetic fields. The other ones might work a little better. I am thinking about trying the one that detects a video siginal. The only reason I opted for the VR-5900 was the dual IR input sensors option.(I also got a killer deal on it, $1300.0 Brand Spanking New) I want to use the unit to feed audio and video to a second zone. The VR-5900 has seperate IR inputs for Zones A & B. I control the unit from my garage for tunes by the pool, and from my basement for a second theater setup.

PS. The motorized panel on the 5900 is pretty cool also..

Danny,

What about the on screen display for the receiver? That sounds interesting.

I have no interest in the Power touch or any remote I can't program from my computer.

That is a good deal. That is what I paid for the 5700. The 5700 also has dual zones, but not the discrete. I also want to do the dual zone thinghie eventually. the kenwood comparison tool is pretty good for seeing the differences.

fyi -- Escient has updated their website and it appears they have announced their DVD product.

Originally posted by slocko
Danny,

What about the on screen display for the receiver? That sounds interesting.

I have no interest in the Power touch or any remote I can't program from my computer.

That is a good deal. That is what I paid for the 5700. The 5700 also has dual zones, but not the discrete. I also want to do the dual zone thinghie eventually. the kenwood comparison tool is pretty good for seeing the differences.

Slock,
I don' t understand what you mean "On screen display for the receiver" ?? Do you mean the GUI on the powertouch for the receiver?? I also have a Pronto, but I haven't used it in a good 6 months. I like the idea of getting "Feedback" for the remote. This way I can see instantly if the command was acknowledged by the receiver. I have tried using the IR-9991 Kenwood offers, but you have to be in "line of sight" for the ir receiver/transmitter to send and receive your commands. It took to long to receive the feedback commands where as you had to stay within "sight" of the transmitter to receive the "feedback" Two of the three powertouch's I use are hardwired to the VR-5900. I also like the way you can "clone" the Powertouch. I saw a module that was available for Sovereign receivers enabling full control from a "Crestron" system. (I think it was Crestron). But that just opens a whole other can of worms !! Talk about expensive !! What kind of remote control are you using with your setup??

Originally posted by hmatos
fyi -- Escient has updated their website and it appears they have announced their DVD product.

:D :D :DThose menu's, That interface !! I could swear I've seen that somewhere before. :D :D :D

Nice. Looks like a killer product. It says it supports SACD and DVD-Audio. Wonder if that means the player in the tray supports it, not openglobe.

Can't wait to see some pricing.

I noticed that the transport controls have the same limitations as the entre's remote.

Love the touch screen option. Touch screen would be the best way to select and play music. Just like a jukebox.

All in all, looks like an integrator's dream machine.

Originally posted by hmatos
fyi -- Escient has updated their website and it appears they have announced their DVD product.

Kenwood's site says:

GUI Screen Customization

I gather that means that you can set all of the receivers settings using an on screen display on your TV. Lot of middle to high end receivers offer this now.

Does your receiver have a special video out to indicate this ability? Or look in the manual.

It sounds interesting.

For my current needs, I use a simple universal IR radio shack remote. I can configure it from my pc very easily and can hold it with one hand and operate in the dark.

it works so well that i haven't had to invest in a Pronto.

Originally posted by DannyFresh
Slock,
I don' t understand what you mean "On screen display for the receiver" ?? Do you mean the GUI on the powertouch for the receiver?? I also have a Pronto, but I haven't used it in a good 6 months. I like the idea of getting "Feedback" for the remote. This way I can see instantly if the command was acknowledged by the receiver. I have tried using the IR-9991 Kenwood offers, but you have to be in "line of sight" for the ir receiver/transmitter to send and receive your commands. It took to long to receive the feedback commands where as you had to stay within "sight" of the transmitter to receive the "feedback" Two of the three powertouch's I use are hardwired to the VR-5900. I also like the way you can "clone" the Powertouch. I saw a module that was available for Sovereign receivers enabling full control from a "Crestron" system. (I think it was Crestron). But that just opens a whole other can of worms !! Talk about expensive !! What kind of remote control are you using with your setup??

Originally posted by hmatos
fyi -- Escient has updated their website and it appears they have announced their DVD product. This is what some may have been waiting for. The link to the brochure is here (http://www.escient.com/literature/FireBallDVDM100SellSheet.pdf). A few notable things. First, it has built-in ethernet (Yay!) and 4 RS-232 ports. Although it can link only three changers, you can mix and match changers from different manufacturers. Thus you could have both Kenwood DV-5900M and Sony DVP-CX777ES units attached to the same Fireball, thus enabling SACD and DVD-A playback in one system. They clearly didn't learn one lesson from the Entre: although you have transport control through the unit, you don't have menu navigation. But, and this is a big plus, you get Escient's helpful and friendly relationship with the makers of high-end home automation products, which should result in nice third-part remote solutions to integration issues.

The brochure is mildly deceptive because the unit won't let you stream MP-3s without a Fireball E unit attached. It isn't clear how big a hard drive is in it. Given that the database will just have disk listings and cover art, maybe it does it all in flash memory. The UI is the same interface we're used to in the Entre with a pretty 3D skin applied. The brochure isn't clear whether there are any additional DVD sort modes (the audio Fireballs have more sort modes than the Entre does -- Album, Artist and Song as well as CD art). Entre uses Artist mode only for music and a variant of Album for DVD. I'd love an artist mode for DVD (sort by star) but if I had one, I'd probably use the cover art most of all, which displays thumbnails of the CD/DVD cover art that you can click to select.

I can't say for sure, but given that I don't really use the music features of the Entre at all, this new Fireball may make sense for me, particularly as it will let me continue to use my 5900 changers which I love.

Originally posted by slocko
Kenwood's site says:

GUI Screen Customization

I gather that means that you can set all of the receivers settings using an on screen display on your TV. Lot of middle to high end receivers offer this now.

Does your receiver have a special video out to indicate this ability? Or look in the manual.

It sounds interesting.

For my current needs, I use a simple universal IR radio shack remote. I can configure it from my pc very easily and can hold it with one hand and operate in the dark.

it works so well that i haven't had to invest in a Pronto.

Slock,
"GUI" is short for for " Graphical User Interface" this has nothing to do with the TV. All it means is that on the powertouch itself you can move, resize, rename, copy, paste, learn new commands etc. The receivers settings are changed using the remote. As the changes take effect you receive visual confirmation on the powertouch itself. This is really not a big deal when you are using Sovereign receivers because most settings can be controlled from the receivers front panel. I previously owner a VR-2090 (1998) which had an annoying "Powerpad" remote(RC-ER0907 : No Touchscreen, everything controlled from a joystick). and a VR-3100 (1999-2000) which had a "first generation" powertouch. (RC-R1008 : No GUI Customization). both of those units had no controls on the front panel (Other Than Volume - Mute etc.), all settings had to be adjusted using the remote. Originally that is why there was "feedback" there was no other way to confirm your settings. Also the units were useless without the remotes. Not until the "4000's" (VR-4090 - VR-4700 - VR-4900) series were you able to control from the front panel ie. "Multi Control" I almost purchased a VR-4900 a few weeks before the Sovereign line was introduced. The ads for the Entre blew my socks off !!

In the standalone section at the bottom they don't mention mp3, so that should be clear enough. It also says it has many sort features.

Wireless keyboard is included.

I still think it's not a coincidence it has been almost two years since the entre was released.

Flash memory would make sense and probably make it stable and faster to boot.

That is what I would have understood normally, but on the comparison tool, it says the 5700 doesn't have this ability.

Yet, I can use my 5700 remote to change the receivers settings and get confirmation. That remote is also two way.

So I didn't think GUI refers to that.

Also, since competing products offer OSD, I thought maybe they were referrring to an OSD.

Originally posted by DannyFresh
Slock,
"GUI" is short for for " Graphical User Interface" this has nothing to do with the TV. All it means is that on the powertouch itself you can move, resize, rename, copy, paste, learn new commands etc. The receivers settings are changed using the remote. As the changes take effect you receive visual confirmation on the powertouch itself. This is really not a big deal when you are using Sovereign receivers because most settings can be controlled from the receivers front panel. I previously owner a VR-2090 (1998) which had an annoying "Powerpad" remote(RC-ER0907 : No Touchscreen, everything controlled from a joystick). and a VR-3100 (1999-2000) which had a "first generation" powertouch. (RC-R1008 : No GUI Customization). both of those units had no controls on the front panel (Other Than Volume - Mute etc.), all settings had to be adjusted using the remote. Originally that is why there was "feedback" there was no other way to confirm your settings. Also the units were useless without the remotes. Not until the "4000's" (VR-4090 - VR-4700 - VR-4900) series were you able to control from the front panel ie. "Multi Control" I almost purchased a VR-4900 a few weeks before the Sovereign line was introduced. The ads for the Entre blew my socks off !!

Originally posted by slocko
Nice. Looks like a killer product. It says it supports SACD and DVD-Audio. Wonder if that means the player in the tray supports it, not openglobe.

Can't wait to see some pricing.

The press release indicates a MSRP of $1,999.

http://www.escient.com/releases/escient_sept0303.htm

Ken

What seems to make this Fireball product better than the Entre? With it's inability to play MP3's by itself, it looks a bit less than the Entre.

Originally posted by slocko
That is what I would have understood normally, but on the comparison tool, it says the 5700 doesn't have this ability.

Yet, I can use my 5700 remote to change the receivers settings and get confirmation. That remote is also two way.

So I didn't think GUI refers to that.

Also, since competing products offer OSD, I thought maybe they were referrring to an OSD.

Slock,

I think they are refering to the GUI customization is not available because you cannot customize the remote that is included with the VR-5700.(RC-R0913) However the Powertouch III will work with a VR-5700. Even the units I refered to before can be controlled by a powertouch III. Kenwood never changed the ir codes used with those receivers. (They just added more ir control commands) There are probably a a few codes available on the Powertouch III That will not work with your VR-5700 only because your unit does not have those features. This is what their website says about the Powertouch III (RC-R1111) The models listed below are "Dual Room/Dual Source" receivers. The VR-4700 was not capable of this, therefore it is not listed.
ACCESSORY FEATURES
Allows 2-Way Communication with VR-5900/5700/ 5090/5080/ 4900/3100/2090 in Dual-Room Applications

I'm not sure if it'll actually be better than the Entre -- but I have noticed that my Fireball seems a little more stable/consistent than my Entre. Just my 2 cents, YMMV. Hopefully some of the improvements (stability) they come up with on this new product, will see their way into future Entre updates.

hm

Originally posted by DerekFSU
What seems to make this Fireball product better than the Entre? With it's inability to play MP3's by itself, it looks a bit less than the Entre.

The press release says the unit can handle dvd menus. so maybe, they did fix that problem from the entre.

$2k. Expensive, but maybe it can be found for a lot less. If you already own fireball products, this is a no brainer.

In a way this bodes well for the entre. The code is being supported and the backend seems like it will be around for a while.

Stability? What's that? Does that actually occur in cutting edge products? I've yet to have that experience.

I don't know about that -- I expect a little stability, two years into the product's life. ;)

But seriously, I have to agree with you -- I think my TIVO is the only "cutting edge" product that seems pretty stable and is still working well. I've gone through so much electronics that end up being ebay'd or on some back shelf in a closet.

hm


Originally posted by DerekFSU
Stability? What's that? Does that actually occur in cutting edge products? I've yet to have that experience.

I really hope the Entre can benefit from the release of Escient's new unit. The interface pictures look almost identical to those of the Entre with a sort of "makeover" The OS, I would think, would work on the same principal as the Entre does. So lets all hope this is a "good thing" I'll be looking foward to Entre's Version 3+ update.

It seems to engineered for home integration. Maybe that can be done with the entre too, but it's not really advertised.

Touchscreen available. That is a really cool accessory. I use a touch screen at the checkout aisles at my supermarket and the deli, and home depot. You can't beat the speed and ease of use of touchscreens.

Press release states full DVD menus will be supported. They also state it will control a/v receivers. Again, that helps integration.

With entre you are limited to 20 gig drive and no official way to upgrade it. By separating out the music, you can get bigger capacities with Escient.

Ethernet is built in and the interface is accessible. I think that alone makes it more stable.

Without mp3s, it shouldn't need a hard drive so it should be able to boot faster and probably more stable.

It's a lot of little things put together that make it a better product. Of course, it costs more.

Originally posted by DerekFSU
What seems to make this Fireball product better than the Entre? With it's inability to play MP3's by itself, it looks a bit less than the Entre.

I would love to see if the dvd lookup engine is the same or better.

Not to be the voice of doom.. But I have an Escient Fireball System. You have no idea how bad the Pipeline Software is...About a month ago Escient did a software upgrade which knocked out everyones playlist settings. It took weeks to reset it..So..just my 2 cents worth.. Its not much better than the Entre's shortcommings.. Not that thats a big help. But lets wait till the jury is in

Slocko, great point on the home integration. I didn't even notice the whole touchscreen deal. I've actually posted on here twice about finding a way to do that with the Entre without the Axcess.

Media Manager is basically the same software. I can hardly ever get the damn thing to work. I just keep getting Run Time errors. I tried to install Pipline just for the hell of it, and it replaces the same files Media Manager has installed already, but cannot "identify client device" The funny thing is the files that are used to install the two different programs are almost identical in size, except for the data cabs. Ther "data2" cab is about 225kb bigger in the pipline install. I have been fooling around with the two softwares to no avail yet. I was under the impression that Pipline was far more superior that Media manager!

Wouldn't you gain a lot by changing to the Escient version? You wouldn't need to use up another set of video inputs on your display device and the hookup would be simplified no?

I think for someone in your position (fireball owner), funds allowing, this product is a natural fit.

Originally posted by Clingpeach
Not to be the voice of doom.. But I have an Escient Fireball System. You have no idea how bad the Pipeline Software is...About a month ago Escient did a software upgrade which knocked out everyones playlist settings. It took weeks to reset it..So..just my 2 cents worth.. Its not much better than the Entre's shortcommings.. Not that thats a big help. But lets wait till the jury is in

Slocko, hi...
I am an owner of an Escient Fireball which is adequate at best. I am an owner of the Entre and a 5900, adequate at best. All purchased at below cost. Why would i want another "adequate" machine..I think I will just plod along.. Certainly dont want to push any more funds Escients way until they produce at least decent software. I use the fireball ONLY for downloaded mp3 files and to hook into a sony cd changer. I use the Entre ONLY for dvds

Clingpeach,

Excellent point! When I re-purchased the Entre & 5900's, I knew what I was getting myself into and I only did it because I got a great deal and because there's nothing else out there at that price. As for my Fireballs, same thing, I would not have paid the $2k they wanted for one of these.

Oops, I guess I spoke too soon -- another announcement from CEDIA -- this one from Request Audio (Escient's biggest competitor).

http://request.com/pdf/NewProductInfo.pdf


Right now, I'm satisfied with what I ended up with. I too, use/will use the Entre/5900 for DVD/DVD-A and the Fireballs for MP3's.

As for the comments (from other folks) regarding Media Manager and Pipeline -- this software is by far the worse application I've ever had to use! It really makes you wonder if they have anyone testing. How could this ever have passed QA? When it does work (if you're lucky), it's god-awful slow ... Like I said in a prior post, I finally gave up using it to transfer mp3 files. I now make sure the tag information is correct and then I burn it to a CD/RW and then just have the Fireball rip it. It's so much easier than begging Media Manager to "really" transfer the file and synchronize with the Fireball.


hm

Originally posted by Clingpeach
Slocko, hi...
I am an owner of an Escient Fireball which is adequate at best. I am an owner of the Entre and a 5900, adequate at best. All purchased at below cost. Why would i want another "adequate" machine..I think I will just plod along.. Certainly dont want to push any more funds Escients way until they produce at least decent software. I use the fireball ONLY for downloaded mp3 files and to hook into a sony cd changer. I use the Entre ONLY for dvds

toys and more toys!!!!!! can't wait to see pics of the audiorequest interface.

if money was not an issue, i would consolidate on one platform. probably Escient. it just makes the setup that much simpler.

Re: FTP
If you have theoretically tried to FTP to the Entre and have been successful please let me know (avsforum at sign fauque.com). As far as I know I'm the only one and I haven't found the reason. If you failed I'd like to know as well because I'm looking for a commonality. I did notice that MM puts the cover art at the same level in the directory structure as the first set of s0-s9 directories I mentioned in previous post. That would probably be the best place to put movie cover art as well since there is an existing convention (MM and music cover art).

I noticed MM uses UDP. Sounds like from a common description of UDP (see below) that it would not be an ideal choice for a stable interface to a sensitive piece of AV equipment :rolleyes:

>>
http://compnetworking.about.com/library/glossary/bldef-udp.htm
Definition: UDP is a lightweight transport built on top of IP. UDP squeezes extra performance from IP by not implementing some of the features a more heavyweight protocol like TCP offers. Specifically, UDP allows individual packets to be dropped (with no retries) and UDP packets to be received in a different order than they were sent.

UDP is often used in videoconferencing applications or games where optimal performance is preferred over guaranteed message delivery. UDP is one of the oldest network protocols, introduced in 1980 in RFC document 768.

Also Known As: User Datagram Protocol
<<

...Touchscreen available. That is a really cool accessory. I use a touch screen at the checkout aisles at my supermarket and the deli, and home depot. You can't beat the speed and ease of use of touchscreens .

Slocko-

I paid the piper sort of, but my dealer in Chester NJ and I developed touch screen control of my Entre/5900 using a VIA control from Elan. The Entre menu comes up on the VIA screen and by touching certain areas of the screen I can move up, down, select movies/cd's, and bring up the other entre commands.

This dealer, who was not handling Kenwood Sovereign, has now integrated several homes using the Entre/5900 set-up.

PM me if you need more info. Since I paid him for all of the programming, the cost to others should be significantly reduced since all he needs to do is copy over my codes/macro's

Originally posted by ScottF200
If you have theoretically tried to FTP to the Entre and have been successful please let me know (avsforum at fauque dot com).<snip> Theoretically you could test this by the simple command of (see bold text of what I actually typed below). Note the "-A" does an anonymous login.

C:\>ftp -A 192.168.0.10
Connected to 192.168.0.10.
220 192.168.0.10 pSOSystem FTP server (@(#)(#)pVER IA/MIPS, Version 3.1.0, Built
on 12/03/1999) ready.
331 Guest login ok, send 'psos' as password.
230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply.
Anonymous login succeeded for Owner@HT3GHZ
ftp> bye
221 Goodbye.
C:\>

I'm not suggesting hacking any of the files there. Theoretically, adding DVD cover art to a directory does not seem like an unreasonable thing to be allowed to do. Hey MM does it!

ScottF200,

It failed, here's the output:

from a MAC running 10.2.6:

ftp: connect: Connection refused

from a PC running XP:

ftp: connect :Unknown error number

Originally posted by ScottF200
Theoretically you could test this by the simple command of (see bold text of what I actually typed below). Note the "-A" does an anonymous login.

C:\>ftp -A 192.168.0.10
Connected to 192.168.0.10.
220 192.168.0.10 pSOSystem FTP server (@(#)(#)pVER IA/MIPS, Version 3.1.0, Built
on 12/03/1999) ready.
331 Guest login ok, send 'psos' as password.
230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply.
Anonymous login succeeded for Owner@HT3GHZ
ftp> bye
221 Goodbye.
C:\>

I'm not suggesting hacking any of the files there. Theoretically, adding DVD cover art to a directory does not seem like an unreasonable thing to be allowed to do. Hey MM does it!

Scott,

I get the same result as Hmatos when trying this connection through my XPMCE PC.

Mike

Originally posted by ScottF200
Theoretically you could test this by the simple command of (see bold text of what I actually typed below). Note the "-A" does an anonymous login.

C:\>ftp -A 192.168.0.10
Connected to 192.168.0.10.
220 192.168.0.10 pSOSystem FTP server (@(#)(#)pVER IA/MIPS, Version 3.1.0, Built
on 12/03/1999) ready.
331 Guest login ok, send 'psos' as password.
230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply.
Anonymous login succeeded for Owner@HT3GHZ
ftp> bye
221 Goodbye.
C:\>

I'm not suggesting hacking any of the files there. Theoretically, adding DVD cover art to a directory does not seem like an unreasonable thing to be allowed to do. Hey MM does it! FWIW,I get the connection refused message too, using two different FTP applications, as well as FTP from the Windows command line, Internet Explorer and Navigator. I'm wondering three things: (1) could the Entre be using a non-standard port for FTP? (2) could it be doing something odd with the guest password? The standard default anonymous guest login is guest@unknown, but your message is showing "psos" and "Owner@HT3GHZ". I have no idea what these are. (3) What happens if you try to FTP from the command line without the -A parameter. Ordinarily with other servers you'd get prompted for a UID and password and could enter "anonymous" and "guest@unknown" and get in annonymously. Does that work here?

Is it possible that you are using some sort of non-standard settings in your FTP program? Also, I recall that you are using a high-end router in your system. Is it possible that you've done something to the configuration there that is allowing you to get in while others can't?

flavorguy, your PM is not working. I would love to find out more about the elan touch screen interface. Please PM me.

i won't have time to play with ftp this weekend, but you guys should try static ip versus dynamic just to rule it out. sounds dumb, but you never know.

My entre uses static IP.

Originally posted by slocko
i won't have time to play with ftp this weekend, but you guys should try static ip versus dynamic just to rule it out. sounds dumb, but you never know.

Mine is static as well. I've also tried the command line FTP with and without the -A parameter with no difference in outcome.

Mike

Originally posted by DerekFSU
What seems to make this Fireball product better than the Entre? With it's inability to play MP3's by itself, it looks a bit less than the Entre. So let's compare these new devices, from Escient and Audio Request.

First, let's take the Escient. Before discussing what you get by getting it, one has to focus on what you lose, which is all of the MP3 features of the Entre. I basically don't use these, but if one does, then that is a big strike against the new Escient unit. FWIW, I checked out the audio Fireballs a while back and decided on an Audio Request unit for streaming which is much nicer and more stable (though at a far higher price).

So what do you get in the newer unit?: (1) an ethernet port, which, to me is very important. (2) The ability to mix and match changers from different manufacturers. Also very important to me because I think that the likelihood of Kenwood making a changer that supports both DVD-A and SACD is nil, but with this device one can integrate different changers that support one format or the other. (3) Support for a wide battery of third-party control products, including TCP/IP! And the control protocol is bidirectional. (My Crestron guy said that he was unable to get any info from Kenwood about integrating their remote with the Entre. They integrate Fireballs with Crestron on a daily basis.) (4) The glitzy Fireball skin on the UI. YMMV, but I much prefer this to the Entre UI. (5) Support for Escient's touch panel. Don't underestimate this, because not only do you get nicer control, but you can avoid passing your A/V signals through the unit because you don't need to view the menus on your monitor.

Other things that you may get that the brochure is unclear about: (a) More viewing modes, including Cover Art (very cool with a touch screen). Clearly you get this for CD, but for DVDs it is unclear. (b) Maybe better support because Escient are developing the software for both systems. (c) Escient had a failed DVD product called the Power Play. Although this product was a mess (my dealer refused to sell me one, thankfully) it did have one pretty awesome feature. Just like the Entre Music Guide shows the tracks on a CD, the Power Play DVD guide would let you drill down to the chapters and Special Features of a DVD and access them directly from the Power Play guide bypassing the menus of the DVD itself. That was way cool.

Now as to the Audio Request, we know next to nothing other than the fact that at present it only supports one Sony changer. I've posted about a half-dozen questions about it on their message board, and will report back as to what they reply.

Originally posted by rbienstock
[B]So let's compare these new devices, from Escient and Audio Request.

First, let's take the Escient. Before discussing what you get by getting it, one has to focus on what you lose, which is all of the MP3 features of the Entre. I basically don't use these, but if one does, then that is a big strike against the new Escient unit. FWIW, I checked out the audio Fireballs a while back and decided on an Audio Request unit for streaming which is much nicer and more stable (though at a far higher price).

So what do you get in the newer unit?: (1) an ethernet port, which, to me is very important. (2) The ability to mix and match changers from different manufacturers. Also very important to me because I think that the likelihood of Kenwood making a changer that supports both DVD-A and SACD is nil, but with this device one can integrate different changers that support one format or the other.



Three thoughts on the Escient compared to the Entre. One, the sell sheet says it only supports one brand of changer per DVDM-100. (So you would need to get another DVDM-100 if you wanted to control SACD in addition to DVD-A). That's a big problem unless a universal changer is made because of cost and not having a consolidated menu. Second thought, if you get the E-120 Fireball (albeit at an additional cost), then in a complete Escient system (E-12- with DVDM-100) you could control up to 1209 DVD's and (same as with the Entre) and you would also have 6 times the storage capacity for MP3's. (120 gigabite hard drive in E-120 vs. 20 Gig in Entre). So I think the Escient system could have a lot more capability than the Entre could. Finally, if you had the money, it appears that you could connect 3 changers directly to the E-120 to control up to 1209 CD's if you want uncompressed music, although I think it would not be in the same menu with the DVD's on the DVDM-100 and the access times would be slower. Again, I think there are more capabilities with the Escient than with the Entre.

Since CEDIA is only a 4.5 hour drive, I couldn't let the chance go by.

The Escient will control only the Kenwood or Sony DVD changers. I just saw the Sony, at the CEDIA show, and it is impressive looking (the ES model). If you were to apply the famous "build quality" standard, you would say it appears to be the best quality changer out there.

And, for $1999, you can connect up to three of them to the Escient, minus the MP3 capability of Entre, and control it in a similar fashion, though not by daisy chaining. The Escient has separate RS232 ports for each changer.

Now, of course, the investment is quite a bit more if you want the Escient and the server unit, if you want to equal the capability of the Entre unit, all things considered.

While I spent a good deal of time at the Escient booth and talked a lot about it, I did not ask (or think to ask) the question that has been raised above, about whether you can control different changer brands from the same Escient unit. That would be an important consideration, if you want to have both DVD-Audio (only offered in the Kenwood), and Multichannel SACD (only offered in the Sony) in one system, with one control unit.

By the way, I mentioned the often-noted criticism of keeping the DVD-Audio discs in the "Movie" section to the guys at Escient. Response? You're right, we'll change it. I can still feel the tug on my leg, but it was a great response. I wonder how hard it would be to implement, and, if done, whether Entre units could be similarly updated. The DVD-Audio capability belongs in the music section.

I also asked, and the Escient rep did not know, whether there will be a separate folder, when connected to the Sony changer, of "SACD," as opposed to just including it as a redbook CD. I hope there is.

Based on what I saw of the Sony, it answers my dilemma of wanting a good changer for SACD use. You will be impressed when you see it. I wasn't necessarily thrilled by the all-silver color, but that's the new Sony line.

Nick :cool:

Originally posted by DerekFSU
What seems to make this Fireball product better than the Entre? With it's inability to play MP3's by itself, it looks a bit less than the Entre.

Exactly. And if you play or record MP3s from your unit a lot, then it's a lot less--actually, for a bit more.

Nick :cool:

Originally posted by sipester
Three thoughts on the Escient compared to the Entre. One, the sell sheet says it only supports one brand of changer per DVDM-100. (So you would need to get another DVDM-100 if you wanted to control SACD in addition to DVD-A). That's a big problem unless a universal changer is made because of cost and not having a consolidated menu.

Oops! I missed that (see what I get for ignoring the part that is in boldface and red). :o :D

Originally posted by sipester
Finally, if you had the money, it appears that you could connect 3 changers directly to the E-120 to control up to 1209 CD's if you want uncompressed music, although I think it would not be in the same menu with the DVD's on the DVDM-100 and the access times would be slower. I don't think it would. I'm guessing here, but I'd think that the DVDM-100 would have Music, Radio and Movie sections like the Entre and that CDs in changers connected to an E-120 would show up in the Music menu. But, if you have those kind of bucks and you want uncompressed music, you're much better off with an AudioRequest Tera or Fusion which can stream both uncompressed WAV and lossless FLAC. Thus you eliminate the CD changers entirely except that you might want one for ripping.

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
While I spent a good deal of time at the Escient booth and talked a lot about it, I did not ask (or think to ask) the question that has been raised above, about whether you can control different changer brands from the same Escient unit. That would be an important consideration, if you want to have both DVD-Audio (only offered in the Kenwood), and Multichannel SACD (only offered in the Sony) in one system, with one control unit. Unfortunatly, as Sipester pointed out above, I failed to read the bold print. Here's some boilerplate I'm sure you're familiar with: "The paragraph headings contained in this Agreement are inserted for convenience only and shall not affect in any way the meaning or interpretation of this Agreement." I guess I took that too much to heart when reading the Escient sell sheet. ;)

I called Kenwood service tonight about my DV5900 failing to read 1/2 the disks (which same disks were read in my other dv5900). Jill was very nice about the situtation. She said she was sorry to hear about the problem. She did state that the machine was tested when it came in and after the upgrade and that perhaps something went bad during the shipping. In any event she is having me send it back to California (from Miami, Fl) and they will reimburse me for the shipping. It will go out on Monday and I guess will see how things go from there.

My Entre shows 10.6 hours of space left, yet I can’t even upload 1 track. I’m using media manager 2.x and go thought the standard import music then synchronize, but the media transfer happens to fast and after synhcro no new mp3’s. I even tried deleting existing music to make space. Once last week when playing around I uploaded 5 tracks from 1 mp3 at once woooow..

I have the new updated firmware already.

Please help, tech support said to put a post up here, big help they are.

Wayne

Wayne, I have had much more luck burning to a CD and then ripping within the entre. Have you tried the noral reset and then tried the transfer again?

Originally posted by DerekFSU
Wayne, I have had much more luck burning to a CD and then ripping within the entre. Have you tried the noral reset and then tried the transfer again?

Derek tried the CD burn trick with no luck.

Do you mean the power off or hold power button reset, if so yes. I even tried library rebuild before the upgraded firmware to no avail. All the rebuild did was bring back old mp3’s I deleted.

Wayne

Wayne,

Your problem is one I don't think anyone here has had before. We had have ghost mp3s, entre only plays 80s music not rap. But not this particular problem. At least to the best of my memory.

If you tried rebuild and reboot, then I don't think there is much else to try. If you go to the Escient site, see if you can find a support number for the fireball. If not, download the pipeline manual from their website, and their is a support number for Escient. Give them a call and maybe they would be willing to help you. Long shot, but hey who knows.

Originally posted by rbienstock
FWIW,I get the connection refused message too, using two different FTP applications, as well as FTP from the Windows command line, Internet Explorer and Navigator. I'm wondering three things: (1) could the Entre be using a non-standard port for FTP? (2) could it be doing something odd with the guest password? The standard default anonymous guest login is guest@unknown, but your message is showing "psos" and "Owner@HT3GHZ". I have no idea what these are. (3) What happens if you try to FTP from the command line without the -A parameter. Ordinarily with other servers you'd get prompted for a UID and password and could enter "anonymous" and "guest@unknown" and get in annonymously. Does that work here?

Is it possible that you are using some sort of non-standard settings in your FTP program? Also, I recall that you are using a high-end router in your system. Is it possible that you've done something to the configuration there that is allowing you to get in while others can't?


Good questions Robert.

It appears to be using the standard FTP port of 21. I have used CuteFTP and Win 98&XP FTP.exe with and without the -A. I've used anonymous, guest and <enter> all as USERids per previous post. Seems there are numerous FTP servers and all try to support a standard but are somewhat different. "Owner@HT3GHZ" is text that I changed in that message before posting. It is the equivalent of winlogon and computer name. Apparently defaulted by using the -A (capital) anonymous FTP option.

CuteFTP log/displays show that the Entre's OS does not like PASV (passive) so CuteFTP switches to PORT (normal) which is successful. IE did not work for me but my research shows that most browsers try to use PASV Latest IE may be different.. Good FTP info here: http://war.jgaa.com:8080/ftp/?cmd=about

Re: high-end router
That is true. I'm using NexLand (Symantec's now) Pro800. FYI, I use static IP (192.168.0.x) in the Entre assigned by the hub/routers using the Entre MAC address. Others who are failing are using LinkSys (Robert,Mike,Heroildo) as far as I know. Nick is using D-Link. I was first ruling out the hub/router because Heroildo (hmato) is able to connect to his Fireball ("same OS msgs") but he can not connect to his Entre on the same local lan using the same settings (static IP & 192.168.1.x). My Entre TCP/IP settings. (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=2379766&fullpage=1)

Potentially an issue with how NAT is handled on the different routers/hubs. This page may be a clue but not an answer: http://www.practicallynetworked.com/support/linksys_ftp_port.htm . This really appears to be a situation of FTPing to a site that is external (not 192.168.x.x) and how that site sees your local LAN private IP vs your real public IP provided by your ISP to the hub/router doing NAT. There may be some relationship to FTPing within your local LAN. I have some doubts as this process seems to be *after* you are connected and doing PORT/PASV. Your guys cases are just trying to connect in the first place and getting 'refused'. Great general understanding of NAT description here (http://www.dslreports.com/faq/security?text=1).

Anyone feel free to e-mail me offline per my previous post about this stuff. Of course mine works :D so it is just you guys I'm trying to help :rolleyes: .

FYI, I use Outpost as my software firewall so I'm able to see the ports and such used. Thus how I'm validiating some of this. However, I don't use sniffer software so I an not verifying/decoding any packets. Potentially could do that with someone 'advanced' user who is failing for comparison purposes.

I'm wondering if FTP port 21 could be forwarded to the Entre IP in the LinkSys as a test. i.e. setup at http://192.168.1.1/Forward.htm . See page 3 here: Titan FTP server PDF doc example (http://www.southrivertech.com/support/titanftp/kb03001.pdf)

Another guess. I wonder if the Entre's OS used FTP IDENT? I didn't see it but it may happen so fast I missed it. Set up explained here: FTP IDENT info (http://www.netknowledgebase.com/tutorials/linksys.html) . I checked the OutPost log, however, and didn't see Port IDENT 113.


P.S. Jill = http://smileys.smileycentral.com/smiley2.gif apparently.

Yep Wayne, yours sounds like a new problem. My current MP3 problem is the entre is showiing that I have 3200 MP3's on there and it should only be 1600. I think the upgrade has possessed the entres.

Slocko and Derek

Thanks for your reply. I have about 5200 MP3’s and 300 CD’s with all the cover-art and about 150 DVD’s with about 70% art and 100% correct titles. The thought of doing a reset and starting all over again, makes me ponder the meaning of life, and were did I put those bullets…. LOL

Wayne

PS: If I had $100 dollars for every time someone told me; “You’re the first one to have that problem” I would be a very wealthy man… hehe

Originally posted by slocko
It seems to engineered for home integration. Maybe that can be done with the entre too, but it's not really advertised.

Touchscreen available. That is a really cool accessory. I use a touch screen at the checkout aisles at my supermarket and the deli, and home depot. You can't beat the speed and ease of use of touchscreens.

Press release states full DVD menus will be supported. They also state it will control a/v receivers. Again, that helps integration.

With entre you are limited to 20 gig drive and no official way to upgrade it. By separating out the music, you can get bigger capacities with Escient.

Ethernet is built in and the interface is accessible. I think that alone makes it more stable.

Without mp3s, it shouldn't need a hard drive so it should be able to boot faster and probably more stable.

It's a lot of little things put together that make it a better product. Of course, it costs more.



Slocko

I like the way you think, I’m currently runing an Audiotron because of the Entre`s limited hd space. Audiotron has a nice Java based 3’rd market front-end called JavaTron. It would be nice to control the DVD changers and all my MP3 music with one GUI front end… Humm… anybody looking for an Entre` with a fresh reset… hehe

Wayne

Did anyone ask the escient folks if you can get access to all DVDM-100s conntected to a fireball. (on same menu) The site says you can connect up to 4 DVDM-100s to one fireball... now that means you can get 3 changers per dvdm that gives you 12 DVD changers for a total of 4836 DVDs, plus 3 cd changers at 1200, plus MP3...

Now that would last me for a while and would be way cool!!!!

Charles

Originally posted by wagncv
Did anyone ask the escient folks if you can get access to all DVDM-100s conntected to a fireball. (on same menu) The site says you can connect up to 4 DVDM-100s to one fireball... now that means you can get 3 changers per dvdm that gives you 12 DVD changers for a total of 4836 DVDs, plus 3 cd changers at 1200, plus MP3...

Now that would last me for a while and would be way cool!!!!

Charles

I would bet against it. The means by which the DVDM-100 will control more than one changer is by separate connection of each changer to a different 232 port on the Escient. This is not the same as Kenwood, which employs daisy chaining of units (and which I think accounts for the menu of more than one changer).

Only a guess.

Nick :cool: