Nick

According to the product literature on the Escient site it looks like it is still controlled the same way that Kenwood does it, daisy chained on a single RS-232, check the sellsheet on the website.


Tom

Does that mean that it could be possible with a software upgrade to control multiple sets from one DVDM-100 :D

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 Charles,

I think that you're misunderstanding what they're suggesting. In the set up they're discussing each DVDM-100 would operate as a stand-alone DVD playback system and act as a client for streaming MP3 from the Fireball E unit. The DVDM-100 is essentially a MP-100 client unit with the DVD management features added on.

Originally posted by b00bie
Nick

According to the product literature on the Escient site it looks like it is still controlled the same way that Kenwood does it, daisy chained on a single RS-232, check the sellsheet on the website.


Tom

Does that mean that it could be possible with a software upgrade to control multiple sets from one DVDM-100 :D

Tom:

I went to the Escient website, and although I probably didn't see the sell sheet you're referring to, the press release actually confused me more.

At CEDIA, I spent considerable time at the Escient demo, and talking with their reps. There, they only mentioned Kenwood and Sony DVD changers as being able to be controlled by the unit, but the press release also says Pioneer (the Elite DV-F07 does have a 232 port, so this would make sense). The other thing I was told was that the Escient would not control the changers in a daisy-chain fashion, but on a port-to-port basis, i.e., each changer being separately hooked up to the Escient.

I'm not saying you're wrong. After all, I remember what the sell sheets said when I originally bought my Entre unit, and . . . .

Nick :cool:

Hi


Check out page two.

http://www.escient.com/literature/FireBallDVDM100SellSheet.pdf

Tom

The literature says that with a future software upgrade, Pioneer's can also be supported. Not clear if the software update is for the Pioneer or the 100.

It seems that the Kenwood's will still be controlled via the miniplug, but the sony's and pioneers via the rs-232 ports.

Originally posted by slocko
The literature says that with a future software upgrade, Pioneer's can also be supported. Not clear if the software update is for the Pioneer or the 100.

It seems that the Kenwood's will still be controlled via the miniplug, but the sony's and pioneers via the rs-232 ports.

This is getting interesting or confusing, depending on your perspective.

Let's start with the issue of Pioneer. Checking its website, it says that the DV-F07 is compatible with a PC/Escient. I assume the reference to Escient is recent, but really don't know.

The Pioneer is the oldest of the models that are mentioned. It is a 301 disc changer, as opposed to the others, which are 403 disc changers. It has neither DVD-Audio nor SACD, whereas you can choose one or the other by going the Kenwood DV-5900 route (DVD-Audio), or the Sony route (SACD).

The irony is that, of the three manufacturers, only Pioneer manufactures a "universal" DVD player, which plays both DVD-A and Multichannel SACD. I used to own several Pioneer DV-F727s, which are essentially the same thing as the DV-F07, but miss the 232 port, the glossy Elite look, and, I think, the Legato Link that not many would use anyway. But no one's going to buy a DV-F07 when they can get either the Kenwood or the Sony, if they decide to go the Escient route. Pioneer's inclusion is likely to sell Escient units to those who purchased the DV-F07 when it was one of the only games in town.

By the way, hearkening back to a point Robert made a long time ago, the Escient display is, to my tastes, a lot softer on the eyes than the Entre.

One last point that the Escient rep said: The DVDM-100's remote will control both the Escient and the changer. That's a complaint that we've all had from long ago with the Sovereign system, but I assume that most people solve it with a universal remote anyway. I pressed him on that a little, and he could have been wrong. But that's what he said. They were using a DV-5050 (not a DV-5900) as the attached changer.

Nick :cool:

I am beginning to agree that this mp3 problem is something introduced with the 2.0 software. I just went to delete one mp3 on the entre and it corrupted the entire album. I have never used Media Manager to connect to this entre. So the entre did it all by itself.

Guys having seen the new hard drive solutions for DVD's at Cedia....I would say that Entre and Escient's days are numbered. Granted that at 30K for a real DVD Hard Drive solution they have some time, but we all know how fast R+D money is recouped and how competition drives the price down, I would guess an under 10K solution is not far away and with the advantages of No waiting on Disc change time or Menus and access in multiple rooms. The future looks exciting!!!

Mr. Integration, we never expected to have our systems for more than 3-4 years anyway. New technology being what it is we know that we have to change out our systems every 5 years - just look at receiver advances (Carver hologram than prologic, 5.1, dts, pro-logic II, neo whatever...) I have at least 6 receivers spread throghout the house. Whenever I get the newest receiver, the old one replaces an older one somewhere else in the house, which replaces an even older one...

Lets face facts, by the time we get the entre and dvd players all sorted out and working, blue laser will be here and these components will go into the kids room. The only regret I have is that I don't think the entre and multi changer units will ever work as advertised (my second dv5900 goes back to kenwood since it only reads half the dvd disks, some of the time).

True, but what about the legal issues regarding ripping dvds? How are these companies getting around that?

Did any one stop by Cinemar's booth ad Cedia to see DVDLobby in action?

Curious on any feedback from entre owners regarding dvdlobby.

Originally posted by Mr. Integration
Guys having seen the new hard drive solutions for DVD's at Cedia....I would say that Entre and Escient's days are numbered. Granted that at 30K for a real DVD Hard Drive solution they have some time, but we all know how fast R+D money is recouped and how competition drives the price down, I would guess an under 10K solution is not far away and with the advantages of No waiting on Disc change time or Menus and access in multiple rooms. The future looks exciting!!!

Originally posted by Mr. Integration
Guys having seen the new hard drive solutions for DVD's at Cedia....I would say that Entre and Escient's days are numbered. Granted that at 30K for a real DVD Hard Drive solution they have some time, but we all know how fast R+D money is recouped and how competition drives the price down, I would guess an under 10K solution is not far away and with the advantages of No waiting on Disc change time or Menus and access in multiple rooms. The future looks exciting!!!

I didn't see them, but I've heard of at least one. What I understand--and I am not a copyright lawyer--is that there is still reluctance by many of the manufacturers to jump into a hard drive solution, because it would require a copy of the DVD being made to a hard drive. I've also heard--and, again, I am not acquainted with the legal issues on a firsthand basis--that those who are jumping in are doing so on the basis of an existing statute that would permit one copy to be made for personal use.

The Escient rep that I spoke with specifically said they had no plans to get into that market, just because of the legal uncertanties that exist.

If there is a hard drive solution, which doesn't degrade audio or video content, then the owners of those hard drives are not going to want to buy DVDs, they're going to want to rent or borrow them. I have to believe that if whatever legal obstacles exist are cleared, and if the prices of those hard drive solutions come down, then something's got to give. Of course, all of this may be theoretical, as even a "reduced" price of the hard drive solution may just be a small niche in what is already a small niche.

Nick :cool:

RE: TCP/IP controlling the Entre

Has anyone heard anymore about the bolded bullet point (2 of 3) in Brian's official letter? Any authorized dealers claim to have this information and using it with custom installers? Mr I? David Bott?

Posted by David Bott on 01-09-03 09:56 AM:
Dear David,
Today, Jan. 9th [,2003], Kenwood announced that a software upgrade is under development for the Kenwood Sovereign Entre' Entertainment Hub. Some highlights of which are as follows;
...<snip>...
* Control from external devices via TCP/IP. Control specification will be made available to authorized Kenwood Sovereign Dealers
...<snip>...
Thank you once again for you continued support and all of the constructive discussion on the AVS Forum.
...<snip>...
Brian D. Towne
Director, Product Management
Kenwood USA Corporation

Scott,

FTP failed for me too. Same message. It must be your router. My configuration was dynamic ip.

Or maybe the fact that you have Axcess units somehow plays into the equation.

Originally posted by slocko
Scott, FTP failed for me too. Same message. It must be your router. My configuration was dynamic ip. Or maybe the fact that you have Axcess units somehow plays into the equation. Thanks for testing. Mike had a similar guess about the Axcess. Perhaps the Axcess's setup requires FTP for something (i.e. downloading new versions of the software from the Entre to the Axcess) but it would seem a lot more likely that it uses UDP and not FTP(TCP) for the iRadio and MP3 streaming . UDP is for streaming as a norm it seems.

Originally posted by Mr. Integration
Guys having seen the new hard drive solutions for DVD's at Cedia....I would say that Entre and Escient's days are numbered. Granted that at 30K for a real DVD Hard Drive solution they have some time, but we all know how fast R+D money is recouped and how competition drives the price down, I would guess an under 10K solution is not far away and with the advantages of No waiting on Disc change time or Menus and access in multiple rooms. The future looks exciting!!!

But It will take Divx or MPEG4 to make this work effectively. Give 2 300G hard drives you might be able to get 150 DVDs if you are lucky, certainly less if you don't copy everything.

Re: Connecting to Entre via FTP requires Nexland router/hub?

Well I am current talking to you guys using a LinkSys BEFSR41 ver.2 router connection. My neighbor had one so I borrowed it as a test.

I was able to to use both XP FTP.EXE command line as well CuteFTP to still connect to the Entre.

Anyone with an Axcess out there want to prove the next theory from Mike / Slocko? E-mail me at avsforum@fauque.com or respond to this.

Scott,

Any way you can talk one of us offline into opening up a port on our routers to let you ftp to one of our entres?

I am not sure exactly how to open up a port, but I am willing to be a guinea pig.

At least that would rule out something being special about your entre, if you are able to ftp into one of ours.

Well Media manager refuses to copy over art. Maybe it's too big?

What size should cover art be?

I can change the name of an album, and that synchs, but the cover art refuses.

I also noticed that in the cover art folder for the entre's id, it doesn't have all the cover art that is in the entre.

Scott

I connected from windows ME with the following line, now what?

C:\ME\Desktop>FTP -A 192.166.0.44
> ftp: connect :10060
ftp> bye

C:\ME\Desktop>

Scott,

Have at it -- I've redirected 21 & 23 on 67.122.113.40 to the Entre.

Let me know when you're done.

hmatos


Originally posted by slocko
Scott,

Any way you can talk one of us offline into opening up a port on our routers to let you ftp to one of our entres?

I am not sure exactly how to open up a port, but I am willing to be a guinea pig.

At least that would rule out something being special about your entre, if you are able to ftp into one of ours.

Slocko,

Have you tried manually selecting the cover art in the Entre after synching with MM? I had a problem a few weeks ago where MM would synch with the Entre but the new cover art was not displayed. Turned out the cover art was on the Entre but for some reason had not been tied to the CD. Manually selecting the cover art in the Entre's menu worked. Not sure why this happened, but it doesn't seem to be happening anymore.

BTW, the Entre seems to be able to read CD Text and use it when matching CD's with CDDB. I copied about 10 LPs to wav files this weekend and burned them to CD with appropriate CD-text. The Entre found more than half of them without requiring any sort of manual search, apparently by matching the artist and title from the CD text.

Mike

Wayne, that is the "connection refused" error number. I know because I got it myself a short while ago ... read on.

Originally posted by hmatos
Scott, Have at it -- I've redirected 21 & 23 on 67.122.113.40 to the Entre. Let me know when you're done. hmatos Hmatos, I'm done. I could not connect moments ago but I kind of guessed that ... read on.

FTP: Entre connection answered
Prize will have to go to Mike (Mkellyvich) but Slocko came in 2nd.

After removing the LinkSys router/hub and putting mine back I was having some trouble. That is my information in the Entre TCP/IP settings got reset after I switch it to my 192.168.0.x numbers instead of the 192.168.1.x that LinkSys uses. I finally got those reentred and rebooted the Entre. Test Connection button now worked and I could ping the Entre's IP.

However, I could no longer FTP to it! I figured that swapping of IPs back and forth reset something. Doh! I was not too happy.

OK I decided to verify the Axcess was working. It was not. Keep getting network errors and it told me to reboot. More tinkering and reseting the PE102 HPNA<->ethernet device. Finally got it to work and played some iRadio. BTW, when you reboot the Entre it always says "downloading software...".

Tried FTP again. Now worked! Maybe related to my comments earlier: Perhaps the Axcess's setup requires FTP for something (i.e. downloading new versions of the software from the Entre to the Axcess)Others with the Axcess can certainly verify this. I would have to guess that it will be shutdown in the next downloaded software update to the Entre, however. (Maybe someone should sniff those packets that the Axcess is sending to the Entre for a rainy day).

That'd be sad because like I've said before that we know that Media Manager allows you to put cover art (200x200, slocko) on the Entre and all we are asking is the same for DVDs.

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
I didn't see them, but I've heard of at least one. What I understand--and I am not a copyright lawyer--is that there is still reluctance by many of the manufacturers to jump into a hard drive solution, because it would require a copy of the DVD being made to a hard drive. I've also heard--and, again, I am not acquainted with the legal issues on a firsthand basis--that those who are jumping in are doing so on the basis of an existing statute that would permit one copy to be made for personal use. Well, I am a copyright lawyer, and I can tell you that the answer is as clear as mud. First, there isn't a statute that allows you to make a copy of a disk with a movie on it for personal use. That only applies to backups of computer software. There are also parts of the copyright act that permit limited copying of the data on music CDs to certain devices. Everything else essentially falls into the Fair Use analysis. It is an open question as to what the result would be in such a case, and given that Fair Use is a "rule of reason" it could vary depending on the court in which it is brought and the specific facts of the case. Frankly, I suspect that the argument that copying a DVD to one's own server for personal use is probably a fair use.

But there is a much more significant problem, which is the encryption on the DVDs. In order to make a digital copy of a DVD, with all the menus, supplemental features, seamless branching, etc. intact, it would be necessary to decrypt the data. This decryption is, itself, a separate copyright violation, even if it is done to make a copy that would be a fair use (at least so far, though the cases are ongoing). This is the big hurdle, and until the law changes either in the courts or in Congress, I don't see these devices surviving legal challenge. Now it could be that I am overly stringent in my analysis, given that I am strongly pro-copyright in my outlook, but that is my current thinking. I wouldn't want to be the one to put out one of these devices and get sic'd by Jack Valenti's pit bulls.

Originally posted by rbienstock
<snip>sic'd by Jack Valenti's pit bulls. An interview with him: http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,110698,00.asp

Related: http://www.protectfairuse.org/

P.S. a) still wondering about the TCP/IP connectivity mentioned in Brian's uprade letter b) now wondering if they will be selling more Axcess units (i.e. FTP).

I can't wait for the ruling on the 321studio case.

No luck. I went through all the local cover art, but it wasn't there.

I also resized it to 200 by 200.

I got the feeling that one corrupted album is probably screwing the whole thing.

I think I spend more time playing with this setup, than actually watching or listening to music.

I wish I would have known about these ghost mp3s earlier. I would never have reset my system.

Recently the entre decided to re-look another 250 dvds. I ended up with 125 uknowns total. I have manually looked up 55 dvds, 70 to go. The only bright side, is that I am entering all the unknowns into dvd profiler.

Originally posted by Mkellyvich
Slocko,

Have you tried manually selecting the cover art in the Entre after synching with MM? I had a problem a few weeks ago where MM would synch with the Entre but the new cover art was not displayed. Turned out the cover art was on the Entre but for some reason had not been tied to the CD. Manually selecting the cover art in the Entre's menu worked. Not sure why this happened, but it doesn't seem to be happening anymore.

BTW, the Entre seems to be able to read CD Text and use it when matching CD's with CDDB. I copied about 10 LPs to wav files this weekend and burned them to CD with appropriate CD-text. The Entre found more than half of them without requiring any sort of manual search, apparently by matching the artist and title from the CD text.

Mike

Originally posted by slocko
<snip>The only bright side, is that I am entering all the unknowns into dvd profiler. Assuming you upload your collection the the DVDProfiler area I would suggest that when you e-mail kenwood ( dvdtitles@kenwoodusa.com ) that you point them to your collection (i.e. http://www.dvdprofiler.com/mc.asp?alias=ScottF200&type=O&sc=C&ls=T ). That way they can get the UPC and any other detail necessary for the titles you mention could not be found.

After spending much time this weekend manual searching for 110 unknowns, I'm ready for the Entre to fail again. And this truly does make life easier. Too bad I can't print the movie/slot information.

Scott,

The titles are in Open Globe, it's just that the method that entre software uses to recognize a dvd is very flaky.

I am theorizing that the software scans the dvd and somehow arrives at a checksum that it searches in the database. This process is flawed, because dvds that it recognized with no problems in the past, come up as unknown if you do a lookup all or if you have reset to factory defaults.

Once a disc is tagged as unknown due to an incorrect checksum (if that is the way it works) it will never automatically recognize it again. From that point on, that dvd is associated with the bad information.

In the case of a new release, it doesn't mean the checksum is bad, just that the match is not in the database. So eventually the Get, Movie Info works. With the bad pairings, it will never work.

Theoritically you can remove the discs, and have the entre wipe them out from its index and mabye it will do a better job the second time around.

But I can't see a pattern on why it fails to finds discs it found in the past with no problems. i am beginning to wonder if the reason they do lookups alternating the changers is just not for speed, but if that somehow increases the chances.

That is really the only difference between the first time I set everything up, and the later attempts. The later attempts I did one changer at a time.

That is why I am using dvdprofiler to store the info. I am also storing the magic phrase for the lookups. Of course, I have had so much practice by now, that I can guess the most likely combination for a search to be successful.

Originally posted by aauno
After spending much time this weekend manual searching for 110 unknowns, I'm ready for the Entre to fail again. And this truly does make life easier. Too bad I can't print the movie/slot information.

Originally posted by rbienstock
Well, I am a copyright lawyer, and I can tell you that the answer is as clear as mud. First, there isn't a statute that allows you to make a copy of a disk with a movie on it for personal use. That only applies to backups of computer software. There are also parts of the copyright act that permit limited copying of the data on music CDs to certain devices. Everything else essentially falls into the Fair Use analysis. It is an open question as to what the result would be in such a case, and given that Fair Use is a "rule of reason" it could vary depending on the court in which it is brought and the specific facts of the case. Frankly, I suspect that the argument that copying a DVD to one's own server for personal use is probably a fair use.

But there is a much more significant problem, which is the encryption on the DVDs. In order to make a digital copy of a DVD, with all the menus, supplemental features, seamless branching, etc. intact, it would be necessary to decrypt the data. This decryption is, itself, a separate copyright violation, even if it is done to make a copy that would be a fair use (at least so far, though the cases are ongoing). This is the big hurdle, and until the law changes either in the courts or in Congress, I don't see these devices surviving legal challenge. Now it could be that I am overly stringent in my analysis, given that I am strongly pro-copyright in my outlook, but that is my current thinking. I wouldn't want to be the one to put out one of these devices and get sic'd by Jack Valenti's pit bulls.

Thanks for the explanation, Robert. That's probably the analysis that's going to prohibit the "hard drive solutions" that manufacturers would like to provide.

It will be very difficult for one of these small companies to withstand the attack they can expect from Hollywood, as the legal fees will likely be more than anything they could hope to earn, or already have, in the marketplace. Nor do I expect someone that could withstand it (like a Sony) to hop in to the market.

Unless there's some very good fortune, and very unusual circumstances, I would not expect to see such a "solution" for years, if that.

Nick :cool:

Originally posted by ScottF200
An interview with him: http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,110698,00.asp

Related: http://www.protectfairuse.org/

P.S. a) still wondering about the TCP/IP connectivity mentioned in Brian's uprade letter b) now wondering if they will be selling more Axcess units (i.e. FTP). This is not the place to get into this whole discussion, but most of what you'll read on the protectfairuse site is wishful thinking, not legal analysis. There is no such thing in the law as "fair use rights." What fair use means is that under certain circumstances, a use that would otherwise be infringing is excused. It does not give anyone the right to infringe, but merely excuses the infringement. A perfect analogy is the scene in "Dirty Harry" (or is it "Magnum Force") where Eastwood sticks his gun in the bad guy's face and says "Go ahead, make my day." In real life, if he had shot, Harry would probably have been convicted of Murder. "Self Defense" is like fair use, it is a situation where an action (here, using deadly force) is excused because of the circumstances (you're being threatened by deadly force). You don't have the right to go out and deliberately put yourself in jeopardy in order to enable yourself to exercise "self defense rights."

Originally posted by kelliot
But It will take Divx or MPEG4 to make this work effectively. Give 2 300G hard drives you might be able to get 150 DVDs if you are lucky, certainly less if you don't copy everything.

No necessarily: I just got back from CEDIA, and I work for a Pro-AV dealer who sells AMX control systems, so I spent quite a bit of time in their booth. The day of the show opening, AMX (a large touchpanel/control system company) anounced they had bought a new company and from this, introduced MAX by AMX, your "Integrated Content Server.'
http://www.amx.com/press-releases.asp?release=2003-09-05a
Several storage sizes of two main versions are avaialble: one is for music, the other is music and movies ("MMS", for multimedia server.) The SMALLEST MMS model they have is the 125, which stores up to 125 DVDs of full content, at the exact same quality as the original disc. This uses 1.2 terabytes. They also have 200, 300, 350, 400, and 900 DVD models (900 model is 7.2 terabytes!) They output via gigabit ethernet to the AVM (audio video module) which is the breakout box that you would put at each display/system. The system can support multiple simultaneous streams with up to 8 MMS boxes.

Price: about $10K for the 150 DVD equilivent. This is a real product now. I did not get details about how they rip and how they get around copyright laws. It has a built-in DVD/CDRW drive. All the rep said is that "you need to answer some questions, like YES I own this disc". Hopefully we will see more specifics soon. Clearly this is too expensive for most of us now, but if Hollywood can't stop it, this IS the future.

I also found it it runs on LINUX, has PC spftware in addition to full AMX and Crestron control support, and the AVW has aspect ratio control, digital audio, S-video, and VGA outputs (no component?) Is says VGA runs at 1024x768 @ 60hz, but there may be more that is adjustable there. Here is a link for the PDF spec sheet:
http://www.amx.com/techdocs/1002759.pdf

Clearly this is too expensive for most of us now, but if Hollywood can't stop it, this IS the future.



I agree that this kind of product would be incredible, however, in addition to the copyright issues described above, I think it will still face a price/capability battle with disc-changer based solutions such as the Sovereign line-up (assuming it is continued) because of HD-DVD. For example, let's say HD-DVD capacity will be 25 gigabytes, then you would need a hard drive capacity of approximately 30 Terabytes to match what an Entre & 3 DVD changer system would hold (if the Sovereign line-up is eventually updated for HD-DVD).

I know hard drives keep getting bigger and cheaper, but with disc capacities getting bigger and bigger (CD to DVD to HD-DVD to ??), it appears that disc-changers may be useful for a long time.

Clearly this is too expensive for most of us now, but if Hollywood can't stop it, this IS the future.



I agree that this kind of product would be incredible, however, in addition to the copyright issues described above, I think it will still face a price/capability battle with disc-changer based solutions such as the Sovereign line-up (assuming it is continued) because of HD-DVD. For example, let's say HD-DVD capacity will be 25 gigabytes, then you would need a hard drive capacity of approximately 30 Terabytes to match what an Entre & 3 DVD changer system would hold (if the Sovereign line-up is eventually updated for HD-DVD).

I know hard drives keep getting bigger and cheaper, but with disc capacities getting bigger and bigger (CD to DVD to HD-DVD to ??), it appears that disc-changers may be useful for a long time.

I think a HD-DVD jukebox solution is years away. The actual sale of the discs would have to hit a critical mass before anyone even dreams of creating that type of jukebox.

By that time, true video on demand services might make the point moot for hard disc storage. I am not sure I would want to own all the movies I own now, if I had the option to watch any movie I wanted at any time, without owning it. At the same or better quality than dvd. Another factor to consider.

One way to get around the copyright issue, is for the vendor to simply not provide the ability to rip the dvd. Provide a mechanism to transfer the files over, but not the hardware to perform the rip. Sort of like dvdlobby. You get the interface, nothing else. They could do one better. Provide the interface, the hardware, and the storage. Just not a way to produce the content.

Originally posted by slocko
One way to get around the copyright issue, is for the vendor to simply not provide the ability to rip the dvd. Provide a mechanism to transfer the files over, but not the hardware to perform the rip. Sort of like dvdlobby. You get the interface, nothing else. They could do one better. Provide the interface, the hardware, and the storage. Just not a way to produce the content.

From what I heard in the AMX booth, this does rip the DVD. Could be wrong, but that was what I was told. We'll see what comes of this.

My whole house is controlled via the AMX Netlinx System.. Their prices never come down..But i have to say it controls my escient, entre, audio, video, telephone, HVAC, security, cameras, timing issues, macro's etc etc very well. BUT VERY VERY EXPENSIVE.. There are more of the home automation systems coming on to the market every day but for a lot cheaper I think

Originally posted by rbienstock
This is not the place to get into this whole discussion, but most of what you'll read on the protectfairuse site is wishful thinking, not legal analysis. There is no such thing in the law as "fair use rights."<snip> Thanks for the information from a professional point of view. I wasn't picking a side with my post just pointing out both view points at a highlevel. I can see both sides. Using my developer logic it seems ripping a MP3 to my harddisk for my easy listening is equivalent to ripping a movie to one of these new AV HD devices...assuming I bought both disc in question.

Did the firmware upgrade improve compatibility with other formats? i.e. DVD-R and DVD+R. Not that it wouldn't work before.

Does anyone have the clint eastwood flick "Absolute Power" in their collection?

This was one disc that the entre looked up with no problems in the past. Now it won't, and what is worse, I cannot figure out the search criteria to do a lookup.

It's such a simple title that the combinations are limited. I have tried Absolute Power:
Absolute Power,
: Absolute Power
- Absolue Power
Absolute P
Absolute
Absolute -

Originally posted by ScottF200

FTP: Entre connection answered
Prize will have to go to Mike (Mkellyvich) but Slocko came in 2nd.

OK I decided to verify the Axcess was working. It was not. Keep getting network errors and it told me to reboot. More tinkering and reseting the PE102 HPNA<->ethernet device. Finally got it to work and played some iRadio. BTW, when you reboot the Entre it always says "downloading software...".

Tried FTP again. Now worked! Maybe related to my comments earlier: Others with the Axcess can certainly verify this. I would have to guess that it will be shutdown in the next downloaded software update to the Entre, however. (Maybe someone should sniff those packets that the Axcess is sending to the Entre for a rainy day).

That'd be sad because like I've said before that we know that Media Manager allows you to put cover art (200x200, slocko) on the Entre and all we are asking is the same for DVDs.

Hi Scott:

Let me see if I understand your conclusions:

1. Adding an Axcess unit possibly opens the FTP "door" that has been shut to us as we've tried to FTP to Entre? (He says, all of a sudden deciding that an Axcess unit might now be in order).

But:

2. The next time that Entre's software is updated, you believe that this "door" will get shut.

3. If I'm right about what you're suggesting--and I realize that you need more verification--why would the door being shut necessarily follow from the next software update? (Unless it's because Kenwood reads this and wants to shut it?)

Thanks,

Nick :cool:

Scott is being pessimistic. It could also be that Kenwood enhances Media Manager to handle dvds by the time they release the next upgrade :)

Heck, I'd be happy with Media Manager just plain workin'.

So other than making many of us move to a static IP, did we get anything else out of the Entre update? I'm pretty sure that my ghosting issues are arising from the update and may just stay away from it.

Originally posted by slocko
Scott is being pessimistic. It could also be that Kenwood enhances Media Manager to handle dvds by the time they release the next upgrade :)

I suspect an enhancement like that would come from Escient. Isn't their Pipeline the same thing as Media Manager?

However, what Kenwood offers in the Entre is such a greater value than what Escient is offering. Somehow, since Escient really did develop it, I don't understand that.

Nick :cool:

I think the 1.0 version that the entre comes with had stability problems of it's own, but it might have only affected Internet Radio.

I also think that 2.0 has created the ghosting problem.



Originally posted by DerekFSU
So other than making many of us move to a static IP, did we get anything else out of the Entre update? I'm pretty sure that my ghosting issues are arising from the update and may just stay away from it.

I used Kenwood loosely.

I think Escient wanted Kenwood to have a product that was very different from their own.

I still think their (Escient) solution is better, even if more expensive.

Let's hope that kenwood negotiated a good contract so that Escient doesn't abandon them.

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
I suspect an enhancement like that would come from Escient. Isn't their Pipeline the same thing as Media Manager?

However, what Kenwood offers in the Entre is such a greater value than what Escient is offering. Somehow, since Escient really did develop it, I don't understand that.

Nick :cool:

Hello All,

I am very interested in the FTP and TELNET capability. Any info anyone else can shed on this would be greatly appreciated.

Also, I have been fiddling with my Entre's HD for a few days now. Does anyone know what filesystem is used by the Entre? I have tried FreeBsd, as I can see references within some of the partitions, to no avail.

-NiteOwl

Another thing,

I cant seem to be able to burn any Cds on my entre, it always gets stuck on the UPDATING, PLEASE WAIT after I selecting AUDIO CD

I deleted all my MP3s off the system thinking it was a bad mp3.
Now I see the ghost flaw, when empty it shows 2 mp3s that were deleted long ago.

-NiteOwl

DerekFSU

There is a gentleman who posts on here once in a while MediaStorm, I have as of yet been unable to hook up with him (apparently our ISP's don't see eye to eye) but I know that he has been working on a program to replace MediaManager and an offshoot of this is utilization of the RS-232 protocol to control the changers via DVDLobby a really great looking GUI. Perhaps he might be able to post a Beta someplace that we could try out.


Tom

Tom, I'd be all over that. Some beta program couldn't be much worse than the current version of Media Manager.

Some more observations.

Lookup range does not work if you leave the door open on the changer. Noticed this last night. I thought it was broken.

I had a logitech wireless duo keyboard in the basement that i decided to try with the Entre and it works. I left it connected overnight, and it still worked. That was a small bit of good news for me.

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm?page=products/details&CRID=1&CONTENTID=5061&countryid=19&languageid=1

Did anyone pull up the new Sleeping Beauty? It didn't recognize it automatically, and the only combination I didn't try last night was

Sleeping Beauty (

I will try that one today. 50 unknowns to go.

Another bug with 2.0 is that sometimes when you remove the cd from the tray after ripping, it fails to update that you have removed it. Even a rebuild of the indexes will not clear it up, until you put another cd in.

This has happened twice.

Derek,

I think that you need 2.0 to handle multiple dvd support. Another reason some people will not be able to stay at the old rev.

Everyone that has experienced the ghosting issue, should call Kenwood. I am calling them today. It should not be too difficult for them to reproduce.

Agreed. Media Manager simply does not work for me. Tried on two different computers. Of course, it could just be that ghosting issue has corrupted something to the point MM cannot synch correctly.

The safest way to delete an mp3 is to put the mp3 in a group, and then delete the group with the music. I haven't had any problems doing that.

So set up a dummy group called Erase, and dump any mp3s in there that you want to delete, and then delete the entire group, with options, more, delete group.

Originally posted by DerekFSU
Tom, I'd be all over that. Some beta program couldn't be much worse than the current version of Media Manager.

David, I accidentally posted this in another thread --

I'm having an odd problem, can someone with multiple changers hooked up to their Entre look at the Changer's "Setup/Audio" screen on their SUB-1 changer and tell me what the audio options are set to?

For some reason, I'm not getting audio out of discs played on the SUB-1 changer in the Rental Zone, I haven't tried the regular slots (yet).

f.y.i -- it seems that your SUB-1 changer can have different settings for Audio & Video (under SETUP). Which is kind of odd, because it's a nightmare trying to get control of that second changer when it's hooked up to the Main & the Entre.

I had to power-off the Entre, Main Changer, and then hook up an s-video cable to get to the visual output. I noticed that when I went through the setup on the second changer, it did not match what the Main was set to. So I'd get things like, it didn't no I had a 16:9 monitor, so it would squeeze the image. Hope this all makes sense -- figured someone might find it useful later.

slocko, I experienced the same behavior with the lookups failing if you open the door on the changer. It also freaks out if you hit stop on one of the changers while a lookup-all or lookup-range is in progress. Very strange.

hmatos

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
However, what Kenwood offers in the Entre is such a greater value than what Escient is offering. Somehow, since Escient really did develop it, I don't understand that. It's really pretty easy to understand. Consider the following: Adobe PhotoShop Elements costs costs $100 dollars and has 90% of the functionality of PhotoShop, which costs $600, and Elements has a number of convenience features not contained in PhotoShop. Thus Elements is by far the better value. But if you need plug-ins or some of the advanced features, you have to go with the more expensive product. (And here, I won't even dare mention that you can also get 90% of the functionality of a Lexicon MP-12 in a sub-$1000 A/V receiver.)

In some ways, it is the same with Escient. To duplicate what you get from the Entre, you have to buy both a Fireball E and a DVDM-100, which, obviously, means two boxes, not to mention the increased price. So what do you get for the increased price? Well, first, the smallest HD in a Fireball is twice the size of the drive in the Entre. Next, because you have two boxes, each one can serve as a separate zone for playback purposes. Next, your units have ethernet connections built in and don't need to have unreliable USB interfaces or HPNA bridges. Next, the Fireball E uses more current hardware and processors (the Entre uses the same hardware as the original Fireball 20). Next you can rip audio to the hard drive as uncompressed WAV files, if you want to. Next, you get the glitzy skin on the GUI. Next, you get alternative viewing modes, including the nice Cover Art mode. Next, if you can connect changers from two different manufacturers to each box, even though you can only do one brand per box. I know for a fact that you can use the DV-5900M as a CD changer with a Fireball E. I don't know, but I suspect that, if they aren't already supported, one could use it to control Sony DVP-CX777ES changers and get control over SACDs.

Next, it works with a variety of different control systems, while the Entre ostensibly doesn't). I say ostensibly, because my system guy tells me that many of the Escient supplied protocols do work with the Entre, but that Kenwood claim not to know what these are or how they work (I guess they want you to buy the Sovereign receiver for that purpose) and are unable to help with any sort of integration work.

Now don't discount this last aspect. Nick, you and I are coming at audio from a place that is somewhat dated. For us, A/V is a "do-it-yourself" hobby which is all about finding the right gear at the right price and then tweaking it for optimum performance and compatibility among components. In this hobby, the fundamental question is always "how much performance do you need, want or can afford?" You've probably noticed that in the last 3-5 years a huge chunk of what was once "high-end" audio has simply vanished. In its place, the dealers' high-margin value-added service has changed from helping you figure out which low impedance flat panel speaker won't blow up the flabby power supply in your tube amp, to putting in integrated systems that put all your audio/video needs into a single easy-to-use package. Now I hear you saying, "but that's exactly what the Entre does!" and you're correct. But Kenwood doesn't see it that way. They are still catering to the do-it-yourself hobbyist market, and have designed a product line, that, if you get all the pieces, will do nearly everything that the custom systems do at a fraction of the price. What you lose is, (1) beyond a certain point, the system isn't truly customizable or scalable and (2) everything has to come from Kenwood. And even though Escient is designing the OS for both their own product and the Entre, it is pretty clear that the Entre has the "lite" version, and is also conceivable that it gets earlier and possibly less stable versions of the code as well. I have no doubt that the reason for the many delays in upgrading the Entre software were due to Escient's use of the code in the development of the DVDM-100.

Escient, on the other hand, at one point wouldn't even sell you their hardware -- you could only buy it from a custom installer who would supply the value added service of setting you up configuring your system and maybe even burning your CDs. I've heard that they now will let you buy a unit from a dealer and set it up your self, but I don't know this for sure. Because the whole point of the custom installation/integration business model is: (1) you make more money by selling 20,000 units with a $500 profit margin than you do by selling 200,000 units with a $20 profit margin (although at this point, I'd bet that Kenwood would be overjoyed to have sold 20,000 Entres); and (2) the user gets all of his hand-holding and support from the integrator/installer not from the manufacturer. Thus an end user would never have to threaten to bring a class action against the manufacturer for failing to do a promised upgrade, because long before things got to that point, the integrator would have pulled the Entre out of your system and substituted something that worked as promised.

[I don't know, but I suspect that, if they aren't already supported, one could use it to control Sony DVP-CX777ES changers and get control over SACDs]

Robert- you're right about Escient controlling Sony new mega-dvd/sacd changer, according to the Escient guy at Cedia.

Regards,
Barry

Originally posted by batlas
[I don't know, but I suspect that, if they aren't already supported, one could use it to control Sony DVP-CX777ES changers and get control over SACDs]

Robert- you're right about Escient controlling Sony new mega-dvd/sacd changer, according to the Escient guy at Cedia.

Regards,
Barry Barry,

My post may have been a bit unclear. It is true that the DVDM-100 supports it, that's in the sell sheet. The question is whether you can use it as a CD changer with a Fireball E.

DerekFSU

As an addendum to my previous post, I may have misstated something, I believe that MediaStorm was working on a Netnamer replacement not MediaManager sorry for the confusion.


Tom

I can't believe no one here has purchased Sleeping Beauty.

It's the first time it's available on DVD. Been waiting for years for this one.

All the lookups I do either pull up two different chinese versions and a russian ballet version.

Any one here?????????????

I don't think the entre will automatically recognize this one because it's full and wide screen on the same disc. always has problems with those.

On that note, maybe someone can help me with a few of my titles. I've tried every combination, but nothing:

Jurassic Park The Lost World
Beauty and the Beast
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Hocus Pocus
Gross Pointe Blank
Stephen King's The Stand
The Patriot (not the Steven Segal version)

Thanks!

Originally posted by slocko
I can't believe no one here has purchased Sleeping Beauty.

It's the first time it's available on DVD. Been waiting for years for this one.

All the lookups I do either pull up two different chinese versions and a russian ballet version.

Any one here?????????????

I don't think the entre will automatically recognize this one because it's full and wide screen on the same disc. always has problems with those.

Beauty and the Beast - S
Patriot,

My experience any title with the word "The" always has the article at the end with a comma preceeding it.

For Beauty and the Beast, the dash S will bring up disc 2 which I edited to read disc 1.

Did you try using the dash, the colon, and the comma for the other titles? Sometimes trying those punctation marks at the beginning of the title works too. The movie "The One" with Jet Li has something at the beginning followed by colon I think, title name : One, The"

By the way my entre found Snow White and The Patriot automatically. I would love to know why it's so hit and miss. Have you tried using range lookup for each title? You can do 255 to 255, changer 1. That will cause it to actually read the disc again.

also try adding parens. (

heck, I even tried standing on one leg while I was facing east and covering my eyes :p

Let me give all that a try. That is really weird that your Entre found them. But I remember this from the last time around with this equipment. I think there are just many different versions of the discs and if it's off by just one little digit (assuming checksum) -- you're hosed.

I think it's pretty funny that it can find the bonus features disc, but can't identify the feature film.

Originally posted by slocko
also try adding parens. (

Tried both and nothing --

Patriot, ---> Steven Segal Version
Beauty and the Beast - S ---> Nothing

Originally posted by slocko
Beauty and the Beast - S
Patriot,

My experience any title with the word "The" always has the article at the end with a comma preceeding it.

For Beauty and the Beast, the dash S will bring up disc 2 which I edited to read disc 1.

Did you try using the dash, the colon, and the comma for the other titles? Sometimes trying those punctation marks at the beginning of the title works too. The movie "The One" with Jet Li has something at the beginning followed by colon I think, title name : One, The"

By the way my entre found Snow White and The Patriot automatically. I would love to know why it's so hit and miss. Have you tried using range lookup for each title? You can do 255 to 255, changer 1. That will cause it to actually read the disc again.

Soooo Slocko, you have this thing for "Sleeping Beauty" and you've been waiting for years... Have you seen anyone about this? Maybe a support group for cartoon infatuation? Just kidding, Widescreen Review gave great marks to this DVD. They were very impressed as I remember.

For Patriot it looked up the superbit version even though that is not the one I have. Try : Patriot

I will look at it when I get home.

Maybe it was Beauty and the Beast,

Make sure you are using spaces before and after the dash.

I just checked an earlier post of mine, and I definetely used Beauty and the Beast -

make sure you put in the spaces.

Okay, that's just retarded -- but it did work. I was missing the space after the "-". I can't believe they haven't improved the search engine. It's a shame they don't use something like Amazon's -- that thing can find anything!

Originally posted by slocko
Make sure you are using spaces before and after the dash.

I just checked an earlier post of mine, and I definetely used Beauty and the Beast -

make sure you put in the spaces.

LOL. good one.

The only gripe I have is that Disney only put the spanish track on the full screen version, and not the wide screen. I was very surprised by that.

Disney is like the only company that does an oustanding job with language tracks. Most of the time they will do 5.1 in Spanish and even re-do the songs in Spanish.

Dreamworks is the worse. They don't seem to bother with Spanish tracks at all. Even though they do exist because in Latin countries they are used in the theaters. Just that Dreamworks doesn't bother when remastering the dvd to include them. So a movie like EL Dorado which deals with the Spanish Conquest doesn't have a spanish track.

Originally posted by DerekFSU
Soooo Slocko, you have this thing for "Sleeping Beauty" and you've been waiting for years... Have you seen anyone about this? Maybe a support group for cartoon infatuation? Just kidding, Widescreen Review gave great marks to this DVD. They were very impressed as I remember.

This worked! "Patriot" -- anyone find "Batman" the 1989 version?

Originally posted by slocko
For Patriot it looked up the superbit version even though that is not the one I have. Try : Patriot

I will look at it when I get home.

Maybe it was Beauty and the Beast,

Really? I didn't think the space after would make a difference.

Time to try Abosolute Power and Sleeping beauty again.

Originally posted by hmatos
Okay, that's just retarded -- but it did work. I was missing the space after the "-". I can't believe they haven't improved the search engine. It's a shame they don't use something like Amazon's -- that thing can find anything!

I had mentioned earlier in this thread that I was posting on the Audio Request forum with a bunch of questions regarding their just-announced VRQ-1 changer controller. What follows are my questions and their answers:

Q-1. What are the inputs and outputs on the unit both audio and video? Will it pass 6-channel analog SACD? Progressive component video? Bitstream DD/DTS?

A-1) The Inputs and outputs of the video and audio are those of the actual DVD-Changer, in this case the new Progressive Scan Sony 7777ES. It has Component, S-Video, Composite, analog and digital outs. So it will output all the DD/DTA/SACD audio.

Q-2. Will one eventually be able to use other changers than the Sony (such as the superb Kenwood changers)?

A-2) We are looking to support other RS-232 DVD changers including the Kenwood.

Q-3. What commands will the unit pass through to the changers? Will it only be transport controls, or will one be able to fully control the changer through the VRQ-1?

A-3) Depending on the protocol of the changers, we should fully control the changer. In the case of the Sony, we have pretty good control.

Q-4. What information about the DVD will be contained in the VRQ-1's guides? Presumably, you'd have to have titles, but beyond that, will it have cover art? Cast info? Other descriptive information such as year of release, rating, etc? How about Special Features? Also, will one be able to navigate to a specific scene in the same way that one can pick a specific track on a music album?

A-4) We are finalizing the metadata, but we will have all the major information of the DVD.

Q-5. Are there any parental controls?

A-5) Yes, this was a major request.

Q-6. Does each VRQ-1 interface with a single changer with a limit of 4 in the system or can one VRQ-1 interface with all four changers?

A-6) The VRQ-1 will interface 4 changers each, for a total of 1600 DVDs.

Q-7. Are there any streaming or remote capabilities (i.e., using a second unit as a separate client or zone)?

A-7) Additional VRQ control will probably not be in the first firmware, but maybe in future versions. It will not stream, as the video and audio is coming straight from the changers into your A/V switch or matrix. Ethernet and serial control will be there of course.

I'm now going to follow up on the issues of daisy chaining changers, changer control and menu metadata, and will report back.

I'm wondering if this is an Openglobe issue or my DSL provider's:

I select one of the Sirius Radio Stations and the following happens:

"Locating Internet Radio Server"
"Station Not Available"
"Locating Internet Radio Server"
"Bufffering data"

Then it starts playing. This seems to happen on my Entre & Fireball. Also, anyone else notice skipping sometimes?

hmatos

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
Hi Scott:
Let me see if I understand your conclusions:
1. Adding an Axcess unit possibly opens the FTP "door" that has been shut to us as we've tried to FTP to Entre? (He says, all of a sudden deciding that an KW Axcess unit might now be in order).
But:
2. The next time that Entre's software is updated, you believe that this "door" will get shut.
3. If I'm right about what you're suggesting--and I realize that you need more verification--why would the door being shut necessarily follow from the next software update? (Unless it's because Kenwood reads this and wants to shut it?)
Thanks,
Nick :cool:

Nick, You are exactly right about my conclusion. I looked thru the thread the day before for all posters talking about the Axcess and PM'd them to try to get some more confirmation. I haven't heard back from any of them.

KW/OG could very well choose to stop this FTP access. The MP3s seems to be on another partition of that drive so they are safe from a legal stand point about it being a server to get MP3 from...it would seem. There are some interesting XML files and such.

However, all I'm interested in doing is to upload some cover art the same way they do it with Media Manager for CD cover art.

I suspect that OG didn't write MM (aka Pipeline) to update DVD info because they didn't have a product that would utilize it. They do now but as Robert informed us we have the 'lite' version and their system may not be compatible. So if they (OG) come out with a Pipeline that updated DVD info who knows if it will be compatible with our 'lite' version.

In any event, I can use a simple "DOS" batch file to do FTPing of the cover art to the DVD directory.

FWIW, its seems to me that the underlying architecture of Media Manager is pretty neat. It has a variety of relational database tables that it uses Microsoft Access to query. As a database tools developer I appreciate what it is doing. It synchronizes, it seems, with a database and builds XML files on the Entre. At least the XML files are updated after the MM synchronization is over. i.e. I use MM to change cover art for a CD, sync it, then look on the Entre and the XML files are updated.

I did have MM act a little flaky on me doing cover art. I have a theory on that but still testing.

In any event it would sure seem reasonable that OG could write the most basic program to take a cover are JPG/GIF that it is pointed to and upload it. Also give us a list of the ones there that we previous uploaded to delete (not that they are very big).

The KW Axcess is a pretty neat little device. You'll need an HPNA to ethernet device, however. David B and I use NetGear PE102. Turin2006 uses Linksys HPB200. dsnenne uses a D-link product of some sort. I have PC speakers hooked up to mine. All the PC speaker packages you get typically come with a small subwoofer which certainly adds to what the little Axcess does.

Scott,

MM is not updating cover art for me, so I am definetely interested in your conclusions.

I think something is corrupt on the entre and that it can't find the cover art that i synch over.

Originally posted by ScottF200
Nick, You are exactly right about my conclusion. I looked thru the thread the day before for all posters talking about the Axcess and PM'd them to try to get some more confirmation. I haven't heard back from any of them.

Just when I thought I was out . . . they pull me back in. Okay, I guess I could use an Axcess unit. But here's a question . . .

Is the Axcess tied to the IP address of the Entre? I ask because I have two Entre units, and, to the extent I might want to "use" the Axcess with both, could I reset and switch?

Actually, I've created all of one playlist with the Entre, and found it convenient today. It might not be such a bad thing to ensconce myself with some of the drudgery I might bring home (read: work). The 20 watt amplifier would probably be enough to drive two small Klipsch speakers I still have.


Thanks,

Nick :cool:

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
Just when I thought I was out . . . they pull me back in. Okay, I guess I could use an Axcess unit. But here's a question . . .
Is the Axcess tied to the IP address of the Entre? I ask because I have two Entre units, and, to the extent I might want to "use" the Axcess with both, could I reset and switch?
Actually, I've created all of one playlist with the Entre, and found it convenient today. It might not be such a bad thing to ensconce myself with some of the drudgery I might bring home (read: work). The 20 watt amplifier would probably be enough to drive two small Klipsch speakers I still have.
Thanks,
Nick :cool: Hey, don't blame me for your compulsiveness :D . When you start up MM it does a "discovery" of all the Entre's on your network. It then brings you up a dropdown list of what it finds and lets you pick an Entre. In my case I only have one so my list is small. You name your Entre on the Entre's setup screens. I call mine "HT" because I don't have a fancy keyboard like you guys hooked up so I was hunt-n-peek'n on the remote. Otherwise I might have called it: Fauque's Home Theater Entre or something.

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
...Is the Axcess tied to the IP address of the Entre? I ask because I have two Entre units, and, to the extent I might want to "use" the Axcess with both, could I reset and switch? Nick, sorry I didn't answer your question as I talked about MM. The answer is the same, however, as when you start the Axcess it also prompts you for the Entre of your choice. I assume whichever one you point it to it will then 'open' up. I obviously can't test this, however.

Wait...where is Charles (wagncv). He had 2 Entre's and 6ish Changers. I wonder if he got an Axcess as well. If he uses MM then he would have gotten the choice with that too...but the Axcess seems to be the [FTP] question.

Perhaps find a place with a good return policy.

Originally posted by ScottF200
Hey, don't blame me for your compulsiveness :D . When you start up MM it does a "discovery" of all the Entre's on your network. It then brings you up a dropdown list of what it finds and lets you pick an Entre. In my case I only have one so my list is small. You name your Entre on the Entre's setup screens. I call mine "HT" because I don't have a fancy keyboard like you guys hooked up so I was hunt-n-peek'n on the remote. Otherwise I might have called it: Fauque's Home Theater Entre or something.

Hmmm . . . maybe not. Or maybe so.

When I first started using MM about a month ago (after all changers were back from Kenwood, everything hooked up), I had to assign the "names" to the respective Entre units. One was Music, the other Movies.

For a while, it was hit and miss as to which one MM would display in the drop-down box, and, for a while, I couldn't get in touch with the one I needed to be in touch with--the Music Entre. Now, after finding it, it's the only one that ever appears in the drop down box. I'll have to go back and check my settings for the other Entre, as I may have undone something there that would preclude further contact.

Here's the real gripe I have with MM. Sometimes, I will click on it, and, after awhile, voila, there's my whole music library of CDs and MP3 files, all in glorious cover art, and, or soon to be imported cover art.

Other times, I fire it up and it identifies nothing at all in my music sytem, just a bunch of categories, of blues, rocks, tunes, etc.---just categories. And it is equally hit and miss as to whether I'll get the useless version, or the one that actually works.

I just tried getting into MM before this post and it wasn't letting me in, although it purported to be connected to my library. Now, I'll try it again, and there it will all be . . . or maybe I'll have to try three times. So, is this the consensual experience of MM, or does this sound off the beaten path?
It generally works well enough to keep it.

Hey, for the hard cores on this thread. who've been there since day one, people like David Bott, Scott Fauque, myself, Robert Bienstock we've come a long way, so just by way of preview, here's what my system will comprise by Christmas.

Music Entre Movies Entre Escient DVDM-100

DV-5900 1 DV-5900 1 Sony 400 disc ES SACD/DVD

DV-5050 2 DV-5050 2
DV 5050 3 DV-5050 3

ALthough Escient says that you can only use one brand per Escient, it's at least worth a try. And, I'm really going to give it to them if SACDs appear as "CDs." The other expected improvement--they said it---was that DVD-Audio would be moved out of Movies into Music. While that's cold comfort for the sovereign owner, it's at least a step in the right direction, one Kenwood might be permitted to follow.

The reason? Scott had it: Compulsion. Other reasons do include wanting complete and utter control over varying mediums. The Escient unit supposedly does not operate on the same remote frequecy as the Kenwood (and supposedly also controls the changer)

Nick :cool:

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
<snip>
Music Entre | Movies Entre | Escient DVDM-100
----------- | ------------ | ----------------
DV-5900 1 . | DV-5900 1 .. | Sony 400 disc ES SACD/DVD
DV-5050 2 . | DV-5050 2
DV 5050 3 . | DV-5050 3
<snip>

Re: Build a table in a post.
Use Courier font. See FONT drop down. See above.

Re: MM picking right Entre.
See attached Properties within MM. You can set it up to only look at one of your Entre's (mine being 192.168.0.10). This is called "Device IP discovery" in the MM help. (BTW, I never used this before until tonight. After reading your post I recalled something in the help file and then found it. It worked OK for me once I set it. By default it used the mask of 255.255.255.255 which is in the doc and I saw in my firewall software.)

Re: MM
It's networking ability seems a little finicky no doubt. Various people are having trouble. I recall back when Robert and another chap were having trouble doing wireless I believe and I'm not sure we heard the outcome.

It may have something to do with the type of protocol that it uses: UDP. I mentioned this in a post a short while ago (couple days). Maybe that is all that the Entre's OS supports.

I use OutPost as my software firewall. When I've set up UPD/PORT rules for the Media Manager application on two different occasions I've had trouble with MM not sync'ing or hanging. After both of those test I set up my firewall to just allow MM to do whatever it wanted. It has been stable and working as expected when I do that. Not sure if it is a timing thing (rules slow it down and cause issues) or if my firewall doesn't work properly with that protocol.

When testing tonight with Outpost rules and causing problems, I corrupted my local database. Subsequently, MM compacted it as it normally does and it showed up EMPTY in MM. I *rebooted* the Entre. I then brought up MM and it fixed my local database.

I also as a test just deleted my local database (or just move it to a backup directory). MM just recreated it and downloaded all the information from the Entre again.

Summary: MM seems to work for me for fixing cover art when my firewall is not in the way. I don't upload MP3s which is a place others have had problems. The MM interface is lacking no doubt as it look like someone created the interface with a canned wizard, however, I think underlying it has good db structures. The communcations aspect of it could use some error/retry logic.

Attachment shows the Entre's location where Media Manager (MM) puts the cover art that you select from your local harddisk.

Whenever you select cover art, it will move it to it's install directory. In my case:

C:\Program Files\Media Manager\Kenwood\<your_entre_#>\Music\Covers\
(XP's thumbnail view is a cool way of viewing that directory)

If you pick that cover art again (from a dir different than above), he will tell you that by the way of a warning message. He will tell you he already has that cover art and that he will overlay it if you choose. I recall that he has the full directory path in his error message.

Scott, on one of my computers the entre# directory is full of cover art that I had on my previous entre that crashed. So I think also the software does a synch of cover art that is on the entre to MM.

This synch sometimes doesn't occur and that causes the behavior that Nick sees. Of course this is all conjecture on my part.

thxs for giving me the idea of wiping out the local database. maybe that will fix my cover art problem.

Originally posted by slocko
Scott, on one of my computers the entre# directory is full of cover art that I had on my previous entre that crashed. So I think also the software does a synch of cover art that is on the entre to MM.

This synch sometimes doesn't occur and that causes the behavior that Nick sees. Of course this is all conjecture on my part. I just deleted all the cover art in the aforementioned local directory (moved to backup dir). When I started up MM he downloaded all the cover art again and repopulated that directory. He downloaded the ones that I added as well and were listed in that previous attachment.

It makes sense he does this when the cover art directory is empty because he would have to have that logic for the first time you run MM anyway.


Of course deleting local things like the DB and cover art assumes that your Entre structures and data is OK as that is his source. I have no idea if you wipe out the Entre info whether MM would put the it back. And don't ask me to try it!!

i am pretty confident Mr. MM always does a synch from the entre to the pc when it starts up, and then a synch from the pc to the entre when you exit.

of course, it's not a mirror synch, else information on the entre would get wiped out whenver the first synch fails.

if i have time today, i will delete the entire entre directory in MM and try it. I have nothing to lose but my sanity.

40 unknowns to go. i try and do ten a day. they wireless keyboard has helped tremendously.

Originally posted by slocko
i am pretty confident Mr. MM always does a synch from the entre to the pc when it starts up, and then a synch from the pc to the entre when you exit. of course, it's not a mirror synch, else information on the entre would get wiped out whenver the first synch fails. <snip> Agreed. I wasn't questioning that as the MM messages indicate this.

There is a "music.db" on the Entre (over a meg) that I believed logically corresponds to the local MS Access database, Media Manager.mdb. I know deleting the local database will cause it to be rebuilt by MM. I wasn't sure that if "music.db" was deleted from the Entre whether Mm would indirectly cause it to be rebuilt from scratch. This is what I wasn't going to try. The Entre system is a bit sensitive [read has some bugs] anyway so I don't want to force it to into some "error logic" that may not exist!

There are XML files on the Entre for each MP3/Album. I'm guessing that is what the Entre GUI interface uses but who knows. Perhaps MM builds the XML and then the Entre uses that to build its "music.db" which the interface uses. Sniffing the UDP packets may show that MS Access builds XML. Probably some standard API features/functions in MS Access tool set to build XML. You can open and save_as XML files even in MS Excel, for example.

Originally posted by ScottF200
Nick, sorry I didn't answer your question as I talked about MM. The answer is the same, however, as when you start the Axcess it also prompts you for the Entre of your choice. I assume whichever one you point it to it will then 'open' up. I obviously can't test this, however.

Wait...where is Chuck Wagner (not sure if I have his name right but I'll correct later). He had 2 Entre's and 6ish Changers. I wonder if he got an Axcess as well. If he uses MM then he would have gotten the choice with that too...but the Axcess seems to be the [FTP] question.

Perhaps find a place with a good return policy.

Sorry guys, I have been on the road and swamped... I have not had the chance to test the Axcess, as it is a new purchase....

I might get to play this weekend and will report my findings..

Charles

I've been doing a lot of experimenting with cover art searches and will have much to report later but I thought that I should report to Nick ASAP that I found cover art for Woodstock using the search "Woodstock: ". The disk is illogically titled "Woodstock: The Directors Cut" in the database. FWIW, I couldn't find the phrase Director's cut anywhere on the packaging of the disk. Go figure.

First, thanks to Robert for his detective work on Woodstock. I knew it was there (its image remains on the wrong Entre), but couldn't locate it. It's done now.

And on to Media Manager . . .

I only started to use Media Manager When the upgrades came out. And, once I got the initial stuff done of recording some never-made-it-to-CD stuff (how, for those old enough to remember the Curved Air Album Air Cut, never made it to CD is utterly inexplicable . . . ), I haven't really had to use it.

Tonight I did. It has always been hit-or-miss as to whether it actually connects or synchronizes to the Entre unit (and there is still the mystery of why both don't appear in the drop-down box, despite the fact that both have appeared--just never at the same time), but, ultimately, I've been able to break through. By that, I mean complete synchronization, i.e., the MM goes through the final step of copying the cover art to your PC. I have MM loaded on two different computers in the same home (same network), and have connected in days past from either.

Tonight I needed to connect, to add cover art to a CD which didn't get picked up in OpenGlobe. When I tried to connect from my laptop, I would get the initial synchronization, but the final step . . . "copying cover to PC" would never complete, and I would never truly synchronize (and therefore couldn't connect and fix the cover art problem).

Now, here's where I really fouled things up. I assumed that something had inadertently "happened" to the program, and I decided to uninstall it completely, and then reinstall it. Well, that worked fine, except that once I reinstalled it, it had neither Entre in the drop down box.

The other PC still finds the Music Entre, but, as with this one, never gets past, say, three of the horizontal bars from scrolling across the progress screen. But now I can't even bring up either Entre unit since uninstalling and reinstalling.

So, two problems:

Lockup in getting "out" from the PC to the Entre, so I can't synchronize the units.

Just getting the newly reinstalled MM on my laptop to even "detect" the Entre unit it used to know about before I killed and resurrected it.

Thanks,

Nick :cool:

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
<snip>Tonight I did. It has always been hit-or-miss as to whether it actually connects or synchronizes to the Entre unit<snip> Nick, did you explicitly specify your Musics IP address in the Discovery tab as I mentioned in yesterdays 11:35 post? Note there is an attachment as well in that post. It appears you could provide both units IPs and perhaps get both in the dropdown but I would just try the Music's IP.

You should test that your PC is able to "see" the Entre on the network. If not then it is not a MM issue. As a test you shoud get to a command prompt (C:>) via Start|Run|COMMAND|<enter> and do a PING.

C:\>ping 192.168.0.10

Pinging 192.168.0.10 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.0.10: bytes=32 time=5ms TTL=255
Reply from 192.168.0.10: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=255
Reply from 192.168.0.10: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=255
Reply from 192.168.0.10: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=255

Ping statistics for 192.168.0.10:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 4ms, Maximum = 5ms, Average = 4ms

C:\>exit<enter>

This will verify you can "see" your Entre(s). Try both IPs.

Also, I assume you have the latest MM which is 2.0.0.3005. My memory could be failing but I'm sure a new one came a year or so ago. I didn't know when you downloaded yours. Probably just recently so you are likely OK. Checked my old PC and it had MM 1.2.4.2046.

Nick, have you tried "teaching" MM where to look for your Entres? I had a similar problem a while back (reistalled MM, Entre no longer found) and solved it like this.

After the "Search for Network Device" screen comes up empty, click on Cancel, then on the Tools menu of MM, then on the Preferences submenu. Click on the Discovery tab. On the right hand box, enter every possible Broadcast Mark assigned by your server to your Entres and other devices (especially if you have a DHCP, since the address may change). In my case, I entered "192.168.1.101", "192.168.1.102", and so on until I got all possible sequential addresses listed on the window to the left (press "Add" after entering each address).

Close, retsart MM and see if your Entre(s) are found.

--
Umberto

That solved 2/3 of both problems. I had excluded (and may again exclude) the Movies Entre IP address from that tab. Now they're both in the drop down box, and, we'll see if the cover art uploads.

Nick :cool:

Originally posted by Turin2006
<snip>(especially if you have a DHCP, since the address may change). In my case, I entered "192.168.1.101", "192.168.1.102", and so on until I got all possible sequential addresses listed on the window to the left (press "Add" after entering each address).
<snip> Umberto, good point. If you have your Entre set up as dynamic then hard coding an IP may not be best or provide many as you suggested. Many people seem to have static IPs in their Entre's so on those IPs would need to be added to MM's Discovery tab. Also I think you could have used 192.168.1.255 . i.e. mask of xFF or all [binary] ones as MM's help states.

Say do you have an Axcess? If so did you try the FTP. I was thinking I PM'd you.

I've been looking at the various hints here, as well as some obversations of my own, and have come to the conclusion that the method by which the Entre does searches is pretty stupid. In part the problem lies in the way that the Entre itself operates. One of my big complaints about the Entre when it had version 1.x of the software was that it sorted things in a very peculiar manner. Essentially, it looked at every character in the title and ranked them by looking at the entire string. This is kind of hard to explain, but it essentially means that under the old software, "Back to the Future III" would sort before "Back to the Future II" which would come before "Back to the Future." This got really annoying with numeric titles where "Pokemon 10" "Pokemon 1" and "Pokemon 2" would sort in that order. At least Microsoft's idiotic sorting algorithm was smart enough to put 10 after 1, although unitl XP, they still put it before 2. Anyway, they've fixed that now in 2.x.

They did not, however, correct some of the other glitches in the way the Entre sorts. For example, sorting is still case sensitive, with capital letters first. Thus "Back Up" (an imaginary title) would sort [b]before[/] "Back to the Future." I found this out because I couldn't figure out why my wife's "Lord Peter Whimsey" disk kept coming before "Lord of the Rings." Also, spaces are not ignored in the sorts. Thus "XYZ " comes before "XYZ". Thus what it does, I think, is a pure ASCII search looking at the whole character string. The "end of line" character, whatever it is, must have a very high number, which explains why shorter titles get sorted after longer titles with the same beginning.

Now how does this bear on the online searches? It becomes pretty clear that the Entre is programmed so that it stops looking after it encounters the first match and that it uses the same criteria that it sorts on to do the searches. Thus if the title is in the OG database with some stuff after your search term, just using your search term may not be enough. I found several missing titles by searching for "search term " where "search term' failed. Also, playing around with capitalization was sometimes helpful. I'd suggest doing your first pass with initial caps on each word, even those like "of" and "the" that are normally not capitalized in they aren't the first word of the title. Finally, you never know what strange stuff people add to the database, like "Directors Cut" (with and without apostrophes), THX, DTS and other garbage. The good news is that these titles with extra stuff float up to the top of the list, but the bad news is that if you search for a shorter version of the title that actually exists, that will come after and the longer version never gets found. That is why searches for "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" and "Beauty and the Beast" kept finding the wrong versions. But if you search on "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - " and "Beauty and the Beast - ", you get the proper versions.

The change in search ordering also allowed me to find "Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto" and "Godfather, The" for the first time. You can also get the second Jurassic Park film by searching on "The Lost World - Jurassic Park II" (I could be wrong about the punctuation, I don't remember now). The point is that if you can't find what you want, you have to try guessing and throwing in punctuation and spaces. And it is a very good idea to put in a space at the end if you think one might have been used.

There are still a lot of misses that I haven't been able to uncover. My son has a bunch of baseball DVDs that are almost universally not found no matter what I try, and I have many music titles (DVD-vs, not DVD-As) that aren't found no matter what I do (including every title that features Jimi Hendrix). Most mysterious of all is that I have a 14 disk box set of "Monty Python's Flying Circus" where discs 2-4 and 7-14 are found, but I can't seem to find discs 1, 5 or 6! If anyone has found these, I'd really appreciate finding out how.

I hope that this is helpful and that some more unknown disks can now be found. I have another suggestion: perhaps a new thread should get started which would set out the search terms that successfully locate some of the hard to find disks, so one could find them without having to search through a 3000+ message long thread.

Great Idea Robert.. I would be happy to contribute to the wiered DVD title search.

Originally posted by rbienstock
I've been doing a lot of experimenting with cover art searches and will have much to report later but I thought that I should report to Nick ASAP that I found cover art for Woodstock using the search "Woodstock: ". The disk is illogically titled "Woodstock: The Director's Cut" in the database. FWIW, I couldn't find the phrase Director's cut anywhere on the packaging of the disk. Go figure.

Some good search observations in your other more later post. This is about the craziest thing with the Entre/OG!!!! Imagine if some software we bought had a search interface as stupid as the Entre/OGs. It'd be uninstalled so fast. We've all complained for nearly 2 years about it. Crazy they don't provide a web interface at least that we can do search on their database. Wouldn't you just love to get a list back. Even in a browser interface then we would know what to type in the Entre search dialog. If I was the developer/product_lead at OG I'd be downright embarrassed about it's search capability.

I was hoping you may have found a website that gives us an idea of what titles they use or are basing their typing of them on. The monkey they have at OG should be using Amazon or something and then type in the title exactly as it appears there. That could help us.

If you search for "Woodstock: The Directors Cut" (include quotes) at www.google.com You will find some hits. Google may remove the : though when it searches (i.e. noise characters).

This site has that exact title. http://www.audio-ideas.com/reviews/woodstock.html . I noticed the cover has the words "The Director's Cut!". Of course a lot of DVDs of the same content seem to have some different cover art so your packaging just must be different than that one.

So as an added tip to yours I'd suggest doing various google searches and see what others have used for the title and then try that in the Entre. Also throw in DVD in the search box. ie. the Woodstock example.

Originally posted by ScottF200
Umberto, good point. If you have your Entre set up as dynamic then hard coding an IP may not be best or provide many as you suggested. Many people seem to have static IPs in their Entre's so on those IPs would need to be added to MM's Discovery tab. Also I think you could have used 192.168.1.255 . i.e. mask of xFF or all [binary] ones as MM's help states.

Say do you have an Axcess? If so did you try the FTP. I was thinking I PM'd you.

Scott, I tried the 255 mask at first, but for some reasons MM would often hang or crash during the initial network search. So I just entered the few possible IP's that my router / DHCP could assign to my various devices, one by one instead. It's been working fine so far.

I do have an Axcess, although I have "relegated" it to the guest room... ;) It kept turning off by itself for no apparent reasons and without warnings, even after the software upgrade. I have since purchased an Audiotron for our master bedroom.

Bu the way, although it lacks the built-in amplifier of the Axcess , the Audiotron is otherwise a far superior remote server, in my experience. It streams MP3's as well as WMA's directly from my desktop's hard drive, it plays all the Shoutcast and Icecast broadcasts that I like (Radio Paradise, KCRW, RadioStorm, etc) which Entre'/Axcess cannot stream, it has a much better display and does everything "faster" than the Axcess. It even has an alarm clock! You can get Ethernet or HPNA versions (I got the latter for simplicity). I highly recommend it.

Anyway, I don't read this thread as often as I'd like, could you point me to the post that refers to the FTP "thing" I should try?

--
Umberto

Also, don't forget that your title might come after other stuff. So it might say Special Edition - One, The

So sometimes trying punctation before the search phrase helps.

If someone has Absolute Power in their collection, can they tell me the exact title that the entre uses?

The only thing I haven't tried is all Capitals. I will try that later on today.

My entre found all the Godfather titles automatically during the discovery phase. If I would have known Robert, I would have told you exactly what to use to pull it up.

rbienstock,

You mentioned earlier about an Audio Request Forum. I can't seem to find it, would you post a link for me please ?

There are two:

http://216.122.166.140/cgi-bin/wwwthreads/wwwthreads.pl

http://www.arqlink.com/forums/


Originally posted by AJF
rbienstock,

You mentioned earlier about an Audio Request Forum. I can't seem to find it, would you post a link for me please ?

Originally posted by AJF
You mentioned earlier about an Audio Request Forum. I can't seem to find it, would you post a link for me please ? There are actually two. The old board, which has been up for years is here (http://boards.request.com/cgi-bin/wwwthreads/wwwthreads.pl?Cat=). A newer board, that I've never used is located here (http://www.arqlink.com/forums/). I don't know why they maintain two boards, and will ask that today.

Originally posted by Turin2006
<snip>I do have an Axcess, although I have "relegated" it to the guest room... ;) It kept turning off by itself for no apparent reasons and without warnings, even after the software upgrade. I have since purchased an Audiotron for our master bedroom.
<snip>Audiotron is otherwise a far superior remote server<snip>
Anyway, I don't read this thread as often as I'd like, could you point me to the post that refers to the FTP "thing" I should try? -- Umberto RE: Audiotron vs Axcess
As you describe it and as I recall from some past post, this does sound superior. My Axcess is on our kitchen desk and supplies music to a couple different rooms. The AUX option works well for a input from a old boom box always set to a local radio station we like. The Axcess has been pretty stable and since the upgrade it seems faster and has retry logic to reconnect to the server (Entre).

After spending all this hard earned $ on the Sovereign 'system', I'm kind of committed to making it work with it's flaws and all. Some of you folks have a money tree and I wish you'd send me some seeds <grin>.

RE: FTP
With the Axcess on/upon_startup I can FTP to the Entre's IP. Noone else owning an Axcess has admitted to being able to do this. I sent you a PM with the "DOS" FTP command to use as a simple test. If you do a forum search under "AVS Forum > DVD and Movies > DVD Players" for FTP and my userid you should find various latest hits. If you need more info PM or e-mail me at avsforum at sign fauque dot com .

I see no reason to move from the Kenwood, because of all that it does--for now. And, if Kenwood would announce that it's offering a DVD Changer in its Sovereign line that would do SACD on top of DVD-A, I wouldn't even consider the Sony DVD changer, nor the Escient DVDM-100.

Watch what happens: Escient will come down enough in price on a "better" one piece Entre, and Pioneer will update its changer to be 400 discs and "universal." Then everyone will buy Escient and Pioneer and no one will buy either Sony or Kenwood.

It can't be that big of a deal to make the DV-5900 II (or whatever) that will also decode multichannel SACD. It would eliminate the need for an outboard switcher for six-channel analog outputs, as I am only aware of one unit that will accomodate more than one set.

Nick :cool:

Originally posted by rbienstock
<snip>Most mysterious of all is that I have a 14 disk box set of "Monty Python's Flying Circus" where discs 2-4 and 7-14 are found, but I can't seem to find discs 1, 5 or 6! If anyone has found these, I'd really appreciate finding out how.

I hope that this is helpful and that some more unknown disks can now be found. I have another suggestion: perhaps a new thread should get started which would set out the search terms that successfully locate some of the hard to find disks, so one could find them without having to search through a 3000+ message long thread. Robert, I tried to do some google searches to see what different formats people were typing for the Monty Python's. I found:

Monty Python's Flying Cirus - Vol. 8 (DVD)
Monty Python's Flying Cirus DVD Set 1
Monty Python's Flying Cirus: DVD Set 1, Episodes 1-6 (1969)
Monty Python's Flying Cirus: Season 1, Set 1
Monty Python's Flying Cirus/ DVD Set 2
Monty Python's Flying Cirus, Disc 8 DVD

I had no luck with any of the various above. Typically I would just put in the unique character. i.e. : or , I did not try it with spaces after them as I forgot.

I first tryied just "Monty Python's" to see what it returned. I think it was:

Monty Python's Flying Cirus (DVD 10)

P.S. Sounds like a good idea to create a new thread for this stuff.

Originally posted by ScottF200
Monty Python's Flying Cirus - Vol. 8 (DVD)
Monty Python's Flying Cirus DVD Set 1
Monty Python's Flying Cirus: DVD Set 1, Episodes 1-6 (1969)
Monty Python's Flying Cirus: Season 1, Set 1
Monty Python's Flying Cirus/ DVD Set 2
Monty Python's Flying Cirus, Disc 8 DVD

I had no luck with any of the various above. Typically I would just put in the unique character. i.e. : or , I did not try it with spaces after them as I forgot.

I first tryied just "Monty Python's" to see what it returned. I think it was:

Monty Python's Flying Cirus (DVD 10)

P.S. Sounds like a good idea to create a new thread for this stuff. Scott,

I note that all of the search terms you listed above contain the word Cirus, not Circus. I don't know if you spelled it wrong in your searches, or just in the report here. FWIW, I also tried doing searches without the apostrophe, but that didn't help any. At some point later on, I'm going to try putting the apostrophe after the "s" and see if that helps. Note that your search results somewhat confirms what I had previously reported: given that longer strings come before shorter strings, if all the disks have (DVD #) appended at the end (as they all appear to have), the one ending in (DVD 10) will always be first. The obvious solution to these search issues, short of allowing to access the DB over the web which I'm pretty sure will never happen, would be that when an exact match isn't found, that the system would display a list of possible choices for the user to pick. Unfortunately, I don't think that the Entre is set up to accommodate this. The more I think about this, I think that the best solution would be to follow the DVD Profiler approach and allow the user to search on the UPC code. I'm not at home now, so I can't check it, but I wonder what would happen if one tried a search on a UPC code.

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
I see no reason to move from the Kenwood, because of all that it does--for now. And, if Kenwood would announce that it's offering a DVD Changer in its Sovereign line that would do SACD on top of DVD-A, I wouldn't even consider the Sony DVD changer, nor the Escient DVDM-100.

Watch what happens: Escient will come down enough in price on a "better" one piece Entre, and Pioneer will update its changer to be 400 discs and "universal." Then everyone will buy Escient and Pioneer and no one will buy either Sony or Kenwood.

It can't be that big of a deal to make the DV-5900 II (or whatever) that will also decode multichannel SACD. It would eliminate the need for an outboard switcher for six-channel analog outputs, as I am only aware of one unit that will accomodate more than one set. FWIW, I have no desire to move away from the Entre at this time either, and probably not for the Escient in any case. From what I know about the rollout of both the Power Play and the Fireball, the first version of each was pretty buggy. At some point, though, it might make some sense for me if only because I don't use my Entre for anything but DVD, so a movie-only device makes sense for me, but only if it would work MUCH better than the Entre or played much better with my Crestron control system. I don't see that happening soon. The Audio Request unit, OTOH, could be the best solution for me as I also have a Request audio system. It is, of course, the most expensive solution of all because it is only a controller and costs $2,500. It doesn't even include a switcher like the Escient does.

Don't underestimate the dificulties of putting together a universal player. No existing solution is wholly successful, and, as I understand it, demand for these players is pretty small. I think that the strategy of both the DVD-A and SACD camps is to use playback for their format as a "stealth" feature, i.e., as something that they throw in that the buyer later discovers is useful, rather than as a direct selling point. I have also heard, but can't confirm, that the SACD group, which makes pretty extensive efforts to promote the format, will not promote any player that does DVD-A. I'll check their site later today to confirm if this is, indeed, the case.

Thanks Robert.

Originally posted by rbienstock
.

Don't underestimate the dificulties of putting together a universal player. No existing solution is wholly successful, and, as I understand it, demand for these players is pretty small. I think that the strategy of both the DVD-A and SACD camps is to use playback for their format as a "stealth" feature, i.e., as something that they throw in that the buyer later discovers is useful, rather than as a direct selling point. I have also heard, but can't confirm, that the SACD group, which makes pretty extensive efforts to promote the format, will not promote any player that does DVD-A. I'll check their site later today to confirm if this is, indeed, the case.

I don't know if the fact that we're talking changers makes it a different ballgame (as opposed to single disc players), but, offhand, I can think of Denon, Marantz, Pioneer, and Onkyo that are making them. That won't even count the Lexicon (which I believe is a rebadged and upgraded Pioneer), or the new Theta that's coming out . . . but my sense is that it can't be that difficult, nor is it necessarily that expensive. My friend just got the Pioneer Elite version for a little over $600 (I don't know the list).

I'm not sure what your reference is to the fact these have problems on their own. They may well--I have just never read of anyone complaining that either DVD-Audio playback or SACD playback was compromised in comparison to a unit that only did one of those things. My own sense is that the main plague of both formats, and every player that decodes either or both, is the analog output issue, with time alignment and bass management not finding a digital exit out of the player and into the preamp/processor (I don't know your preference, Robert, but I do not digitize the analog signal into the Lex--I suspect most on the SMR Forum do).

Certainly, I don't expect a Sony or Philips player to carry DVD-Audio, whether it carries SACD or not; but I don't see the reticence from other manufacturers to include both, and, I suppose, the only one I'd really stack up there in the DVD-Audio only camp (and I could be wrong on this) would be Meridian. Krell is doing things rather strangely, but my guess is that you'll see them proliferate, rather than otherwise. I'm sure you're right that manufacturers only consider these as "add-ons," but, for that matter, the entire DVD-Audio and SACD markets are the smallest of niche markets anyway. What's already been provided in terms of hardware probably greatly outstrips the real demand for it, but I'd bet it will continue to keep coming.

Time will tell. I'm telling myself that, for my personal Christmas present, I'm going to at least wind up with one of the Sony DVD changers (which has an outstanding look to it . . . saw it at CEDIA), and, if can connive the right price out of one the dealers, I may also end up with the Escient DVDM-100, only for that purpose. I don't know what month Christmas will come this year ;)

Nick :cool:

I loaded a bunch of movies into the 5900 but the Entre decided that several movies were not found in the database.

They were:

The Core
Bulletproof Monk
Casablanca
Jurassic Park II: The Lost World
Amalie
A Man Apart
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Solaris


Questions:

Has anyone gotten these movies to find info/covers automagically?
Has anyone figured out good key words to get these in their database?
Does anyone know if there's a place to submit unknowns to be added to the database?

Is there a thread for this kind of discussion yet?

Thanks!

Originally posted by rbienstock
I note that all of the search terms you listed above contain the word Cirus, not Circus. I don't know if you spelled it wrong in your searches, or just in the report here.<snip> search on a UPC code. Oops. It was just a typo in my post. I cut and pasted the first part and typed the suffixes. On the Entre search...once I found the (DVD 10) then I just backspaced to test the new suffix attempt so I know that was correct as well. I may try that UPC. I don't own it but I could look it up in DVD Profiler. Heck I could try my Bad Company UPC as well since it won't find that one either. At least my cover art is OK on Bad Company now ;)

Originally posted by DuvalMagic
I loaded a bunch of movies into the 5900 but the Entre decided that several movies were not found in the database.

They were:

The Core
Bulletproof Monk
Casablanca
Jurassic Park II: The Lost World
Amalie
A Man Apart
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Solaris


Questions:

Has anyone gotten these movies to find info/covers automagically?
Has anyone figured out good key words to get these in their database?
Does anyone know if there's a place to submit unknowns to be added to the database?

Is there a thread for this kind of discussion yet?

Thanks!

Casablanca is there. So is Amelie (I think my spelling is correct, ergo . . ) Don't know about the others.

Nick :cool:

It just found Bullet Proof Monk this morning -- so try to do a "lookup disc".

Originally posted by DuvalMagic
I loaded a bunch of movies into the 5900 but the Entre decided that several movies were not found in the database.

They were:

The Core
Bulletproof Monk
Casablanca
Jurassic Park II: The Lost World
Amalie
A Man Apart
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Solaris


Questions:

Has anyone gotten these movies to find info/covers automagically?
Has anyone figured out good key words to get these in their database?
Does anyone know if there's a place to submit unknowns to be added to the database?

Is there a thread for this kind of discussion yet?

Thanks!

And so.... to jump on the bandwagon. These are the ones that I cannot find:
Dog Day Afternoon (I know a known problem)
Earth Wind & Fire: Live in Japan
Bonfire of the Vanities

Jurasic Park II I think was mentioned in a previous thread.. Try do a search on these threads and see what comes up

Sorry not Bonfire of the Vanities
Kramer vs Kramer

This afternoon it found on its own:

The Core
Bulletproof Monk
A Man Apart

I was able to manual find:
Casablanca
Amalie


Here's the movies I still haven't found:
Jurassic Park II: The Lost World (Was covered in a previous post, but the suggestion didn't work)
Gross Point Blanc
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Solaris (Found the old 60's version - looking for the new Clooney version)


Someone should start a support group for this :)

DuvalMagic,

Sounds like you and I own alot of the same stuff --

try, "Grosse Pointe Blank"


Originally posted by DuvalMagic
This afternoon it found on its own:

The Core
Bulletproof Monk
A Man Apart

I was able to manual find:
Casablanca
Amalie


Here's the movies I still haven't found:
Jurassic Park II: The Lost World (Was covered in a previous post, but the suggestion didn't work)
Gross Point Blanc
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Solaris (Found the old 60's version - looking for the new Clooney version)


Someone should start a support group for this :)

Originally posted by DuvalMagic
Jurassic Park II: The Lost World (Was covered in a previous post, but the suggestion didn't work) I know that the cover art is there, because I have it. The file name for the cover is LOSTWORLDDT-_-7EB154BD. So I'm guessing that the trick is that it somehow has DTS in the title somewhere. I wish I could recreate how I found it, but I am pretty fussy about how I have my titles listed, so I have customized most of what I have, if only to remove spurious data like THX, DTS, Special Edition, etc.

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
I don't know if the fact that we're talking changers makes it a different ballgame (as opposed to single disc players), but, offhand, I can think of Denon, Marantz, Pioneer, and Onkyo that are making them. That won't even count the Lexicon (which I believe is a rebadged and upgraded Pioneer), or the new Theta that's coming out . . . but my sense is that it can't be that difficult, nor is it necessarily that expensive. My friend just got the Pioneer Elite version for a little over $600 (I don't know the list).

I'm not sure what your reference is to the fact these have problems on their own. They may well--I have just never read of anyone complaining that either DVD-Audio playback or SACD playback was compromised in comparison to a unit that only did one of those things. My own sense is that the main plague of both formats, and every player that decodes either or both, is the analog output issue, with time alignment and bass management not finding a digital exit out of the player and into the preamp/processor (I don't know your preference, Robert, but I do not digitize the analog signal into the Lex--I suspect most on the SMR Forum do). When I said that no universal player is wholly successful, I was specifically referring to all of the above players. Including the Marantz 8300 which I own and which is, I believe, the machine on which the RT-10 is based (both units do use Pioneer video chips). All of these units share a common flaw, which is that they are incapable of doing either bass management and/or time alignment in one or both of the high-resolution audio modes. Thus if you have one of these and you want to use a pass-through input on your system, you need some sort of outboard unit to do the bass management/time alignment. I know that there is an Outlaw unit that does bass management, but I know of no way to add aftermarket time alignment. Moreover, I imagine that any unit that did that would be unacceptable to the SACD crowd because doing time alignment properly in the analog domain is extremely difficult and doing it digitally means converting to PCM which is anathema to the SACD fans.

FWIW, I do digitize my 5.1 sources for three reasons: (1) The time alignment is really crucial and I find that the sound on analog bypass sounds really bad because of the lack of alignment, (2) I have basically full-range speakers with no subwoofers, and so have no way to get the sub-woofer channel without bass management, and (3) I like to have control over the balance between the side and rear speakers. There is an additional issue for me, which I suspect may also apply to you if you do SACD, which is that the MC-12 won't let you access any of the 2-channel Logic 7 modes on an input that is set to 5.1 analog. Thus if you play a 2-channel SACD no matter which mode you pick, all you'll get is the Front speakers. Now if you are doing analog bypass, maybe this is OK with you, but I really want to be able to do Logic 7 processing on my 2 channel sources. I've found that the best sounds I've ever heard on my system have come from 96/24 DADs processed in Logic 7. The only way to enable processing of 2-channel high-resolution sources is for the unit to have a second 2-channel output that you would have to plug into an additional analog input on the MC-12. I haven't got one of these free even if my player had such an output, which it doesn't, as many other similar players do not.

Originally posted by rbienstock
I know that the cover art is there, because I have it. The file name for the cover is LOSTWORLDDT-_-7EB154BD. So I'm guessing that the trick is that it somehow has DTS in the title somewhere. I wish I could recreate how I found it, but I am pretty fussy about how I have my titles listed, so I have customized most of what I have, if only to remove spurious data like THX, DTS, Special Edition, etc. Robert, do you want the honor of creating a new thread for the OG DVD titles?

Originally posted by rbienstock


There is an additional issue for me, which I suspect may also apply to you if you do SACD, which is that the MC-12 won't let you access any of the 2-channel Logic 7 modes on an input that is set to 5.1 analog. Thus if you play a 2-channel SACD no matter which mode you pick, all you'll get is the Front speakers. Now if you are doing analog bypass, maybe this is OK with you, but I really want to be able to do Logic 7 processing on my 2 channel sources. I've found that the best sounds I've ever heard on my system have come from 96/24 DADs processed in Logic 7. The only way to enable processing of 2-channel high-resolution sources is for the unit to have a second 2-channel output that you would have to plug into an additional analog input on the MC-12. I haven't got one of these free even if my player had such an output, which it doesn't, as many other similar players do not.

Well, that's the only time I do digitize it. I currently use the Sony 555ES for SACD playback, and it's got both 5.1 and two channel analog outputs, and I found out a while back that you had to go out of the two channel output (which now reminds me to check the specs on the Sony changer . . .). Actually, I won't listen to anything in two channel any longer, and I'll gladly take the Logic 7 digitized of two channel SACD (and the BS&T disc sounds superb this way . . . as do most).

While I agree with you in principle regarding time alignment and bass management, I have tried both extensively and still prefer the analog bypass (although I do use the Outlaw unit, and it helped tighten up a bit what was already an excellent sound). Like anything else, it's a cost/benefit thing (losing control over bass and time alignment--to an extent--versus the virtue of the missing step of conversion).

My speakers are pretty much full range (the front three anyway), and the surrounds are no slouches either (Aerial SR3s). However, I could not fathom going through life without subs. My front mains, the Aerial 10ts, although certainly rated as full range, simply do not give me the same bass extension as my subwoofers. I've had sloppy subs in my system, but a good sub (or a pair of them), for me, do great things no matter what the setup.

It would be great if there really was a digital solution. Now DeLahoya and Mosely are squaring off . . .

Nick :cool:

Originally posted by ScottF200
Robert, do you want the honor of creating a new thread for the OG DVD titles? I was in the process of creating it when you posted this message. :)

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
My speakers are pretty much full range (the front three anyway), and the surrounds are no slouches either (Aerial SR3s). However, I could not fathom going through life without subs. My front mains, the Aerial 10ts, although certainly rated as full range, simply do not give me the same bass extension as my subwoofers. I've had sloppy subs in my system, but a good sub (or a pair of them), for me, do great things no matter what the setup. My main speakers are B&W 801 Matrix Series 2. These speakers come with a "bass alignment" filter that alters the bass response giving a substantial boost to the low end that is tailored to the natural response of the speakers and makes them completely flat down to 20 Hz. I use a high-end version of this filter, but the response is the same. I did once try hooking up a SW to the Lexicon LFE output, but I didn't really feel that it added anything. I do roll off my center, side and rear speakers (all B&W 805 Matrix 2s) at 40 Hz, so the bass management is useful to me.

Sorry, guys. I keyed out when the fight started, and I think I just witnessed the greatest travesty in the sport of boxing.

Utterly, utterly disgusting.


Nick :cool:

Originally posted by rbienstock
My main speakers are B&W 801 Matrix Series 2. These speakers come with a "bass alignment" filter that alters the bass response giving a substantial boost to the low end that is tailored to the natural response of the speakers and makes them completely flat down to 20 Hz. I use a high-end version of this filter, but the response is the same. I did once try hooking up a SW to the Lexicon LFE output, but I didn't really feel that it added anything. I do roll off my center, side and rear speakers (all B&W 805 Matrix 2s) at 40 Hz, so the bass management is useful to me.

Well, your speakers are outstanding, but I'd be interested in which sub you tried, what sources, etc. I remember when I bought my Aerials, Michael Kelly telling me (when he didn't make a sub) that, for the 10ts, no sub was needed, neither for the center channel CC5. Well, after trying it that way for awhile, I concluded he was wrong, and then Aerial started to make subs, so I guess he's now a convert as he touts his SW-12 (which many feel is one of the best subs available--I use Velodyne HGS18s) as the perfect fit for both music or cinema, with, of course, his other speakers.

If you're happy, that's all that matters. You have great stuff and obviously know the equipment well, so I'll be the last to say you're wrong--I'm probably wrong. Maybe it' the difference in amplfication that causes me to hear such an improvement with a sub, but, for me, it's there. Then again, I was certain that that I had watched a one-sided championship fight last night, and then the judges told me there really had been another fight. After that one, I don't know if I could pick anything right.

Nick :cool:

I was playing around with the entre a little and connected it to my pc via the serial port. Used Hyperterminal in windows to run a connection using 9600 baud.

It connected right away and you were able to see the entre booting with all sorts of partition information flying by, including the 7.05 folders Scott sees through ftp.

There is a point in the bootup where it asks for a cd, so I imagine this is how they image these machines.

Unfortunately, when it's done booting up it seems to be waiting for a keystroke combination of some sort. If we could figure it out, it might dump you to a command line where we can create our own id and password. If we were to accomplish that, we could then telnet to the entre, instead of ftp.

If someone has a serial port sniffer, they should try it, maybe some valuable information could be learned from it.

I logged the session. You can take a look at it if you are interested.

Originally posted by slocko
I logged the session. You can take a look at it if you are interested. You are a bad boy:eek: ;)

P.S. I had to do a right click and 'save target as' to see this.

Originally posted by DuvalMagic
Jurassic Park II: The Lost World (Was covered in a previous post, but the suggestion didn't work)

Someone should start a support group for this :) Your wish is my command. Look here: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=2672563#post2672563

You encouraged me!

Originally posted by ScottF200
You are a bad boy:eek: ;)

P.S. I had to do a right click and 'save target as' to see this.

Hello all, I just picked up an open box 5900M from Good Guys and had some questions. First, on a practical level, my unit came without the remote (the keyboard did come with it) so I was wondering if someone had an extra they were willing to parting with cheaply.

Second, I called Kenwood tech support and determined that it does not have the upgrade I've read about hear in other posts. Is it worth it and what do you really get out of it? (They said I would have to pay for it--even though I just bought the machine--because the dealer was responsible for upgrading it and I bought it "as is" since Good Guys has dropped Kenwood). I don't have an Entre and am not sure I will be getting one, so will the upgrade really benefit me?

Third, I tried hooking up the component video outs (set to progressive on the back switch) to an InFocus ScreenPlay 7200 projector I'm currently trying out and had numerous glitches that appeared to be sync-like problems. As soon as I switched to Interlaced, they went away. This could be an issue with the projector, but I'm pretty sure I've sent it other progressive component sources and they worked fine. So, any ideas?

Finally, I'm trying to get my ahead around the whole DVD automation thing and am curious about pluses and minuses of the Entre vs. the new Escient box vs. software such as DVD Lobby? For example, since the 5900M has an RS-232, why do you need (or do you need) a Slinke box with an RS-232 to sit between the PC and the 5900? Or is that the wrong questiont to ask?

I realize that some of this may have been addressed elsewhere in this thread, but to be honest, it's so long; it's hard to find stuff (and the search engine isn't the greatest...)

Any and all comments are appreciated.

Bob O'Donnell

P.S. Does anyone know if you can modify a Pioneer FV-727 to add a serial port so that it can be controlled as well? I have one and am curious...

1) Sorry, not parting with my remotes !!!!
2) If you plan on getting an entre and want to daisy chain more than one unit, you need the upgrade. If you are the type that is bothered by a 3 second layer changer, get the upgrade. Other than that, there are really no other benifits.
3) No idea on the component issue. I don't think anyone here has reported that issue.
4) Escient is probably going to be better supported and more stable. If you are into home automation, then Escient would be preferable over the Entre. Escient also sells a touch screen as an accessory which should add a nice touch. Then again, Escient is going to be a lot more money.

Dvdlobby has a new plugin for the 5900 which negates the needs for slinke. I haven't heard much about how the testing is going with it. DVDLobby offers a lot of flexibility and graphically, it's unmatched. The creators provide great support. However, it's not as an integrated solution since you have to enter your titles into dvdprofiler and then export to dvdlobby. It's gotten a little more seamless, but until the creators of dvdprofiler release an sdk, it won't get any more automated than that. Remote control also has to be integrated into your htpc system.

Ultimately only you can decide which route to take. Two people here tried htpc solutions and they preferred the entre. One of them tried DVDLobby in it's early stages and gave up on it. Usually it's the wife that kills it !!!!

Originally posted by BobOD
Hello all, I just picked up an open box 5900M from Good Guys and had some questions. First, on a practical level, my unit came without the remote (the keyboard did come with it) so I was wondering if someone had an extra they were willing to parting with cheaply.

Second, I called Kenwood tech support and determined that it does not have the upgrade I've read about hear in other posts. Is it worth it and what do you really get out of it? (They said I would have to pay for it--even though I just bought the machine--because the dealer was responsible for upgrading it and I bought it "as is" since Good Guys has dropped Kenwood). I don't have an Entre and am not sure I will be getting one, so will the upgrade really benefit me?

Third, I tried hooking up the component video outs (set to progressive on the back switch) to an InFocus ScreenPlay 7200 projector I'm currently trying out and had numerous glitches that appeared to be sync-like problems. As soon as I switched to Interlaced, they went away. This could be an issue with the projector, but I'm pretty sure I've sent it other progressive component sources and they worked fine. So, any ideas?

Finally, I'm trying to get my ahead around the whole DVD automation thing and am curious about pluses and minuses of the Entre vs. the new Escient box vs. software such as DVD Lobby? For example, since the 5900M has an RS-232, why do you need (or do you need) a Slinke box with an RS-232 to sit between the PC and the 5900? Or is that the wrong questiont to ask?

I realize that some of this may have been addressed elsewhere in this thread, but to be honest, it's so long; it's hard to find stuff (and the search engine isn't the greatest...)

Any and all comments are appreciated.

Bob O'Donnell

P.S. Does anyone know if you can modify a Pioneer FV-727 to add a serial port so that it can be controlled as well? I have one and am curious...

The eject mechanism in the DV-5900M really stinks. I had had a unit that wouldn't eject from day one. The door opens, the carousel spins, but the disk won't stick out (I could make a joke along the lines of the caption of this message, but I'll resist). Bought a new upgraded unit last August, and eject worked perfectly. As of today, it won't work either.

I remember someone here saying that it was a fairly simple fix that could be implemented with a hot glue gun. I'm sure that it is too much to hope for, but does anyone here have access to the 5900 service manuals or service bulletins that might describe how to fix this. If you look back on my previous posts, you'll see how dissatisfied I've been with my local repair center, and I don't think that I could cope with having to deal with them again.

BobOD

You’re no newbie. I’ve had my 5900 for over a year and just learned today why I could not get the progressive to work. So much for tech support, and reading the manual.

“(set to progressive on the back switch)” you gota luv it.. hehe

Wayne

Originally posted by BobOD
Hello all, I just picked up an open box 5900M from Good Guys and had some questions. First, on a practical level, my unit came without the remote (the keyboard did come with it) so I was wondering if someone had an extra they were willing to parting with cheaply.

Bob, Kenwood has to have them. Although I've got extras, the problem is that if you ever sell the unit, you want to have the remote to go along with it. I'm sure they can get you one, and they can't be expensive. Perhaps even better, if you have a Pronto, someone can just send you the remote codes.

Second, I called Kenwood tech support and determined that it does not have the upgrade I've read about hear in other posts. Is it worth it and what do you really get out of it? (They said I would have to pay for it--even though I just bought the machine--because the dealer was responsible for upgrading it and I bought it "as is" since Good Guys has dropped Kenwood). I don't have an Entre and am not sure I will be getting one, so will the upgrade really benefit me?

It's really hard to answer this. The upgraded units do have advantages for disc and layer change, as well as being able to daisy chain them if you ever get to the point of a second changer. While I'd be tempted to say that, at this point, you should wait it out, the only thing you have to be concerned about is if Kenwood just stops offering the upgrade, even if you're willing to pay for it.

Third, I tried hooking up the component video outs (set to progressive on the back switch) to an InFocus ScreenPlay 7200 projector I'm currently trying out and had numerous glitches that appeared to be sync-like problems. As soon as I switched to Interlaced, they went away. This could be an issue with the projector, but I'm pretty sure I've sent it other progressive component sources and they worked fine. So, any ideas?

Not sure what you mean by glitches, but, if there's an internal scaler in the projector, it might not accept a progressive signal. My scaler won't, and the progressive scan option is completely wasted on me. I like the Sovereign scheme for all the other things it does.

Finally, I'm trying to get my ahead around the whole DVD automation thing and am curious about pluses and minuses of the Entre vs. the new Escient box vs. software such as DVD Lobby? For example, since the 5900M has an RS-232, why do you need (or do you need) a Slinke box with an RS-232 to sit between the PC and the 5900? Or is that the wrong questiont to ask?

I realize that some of this may have been addressed elsewhere in this thread, but to be honest, it's so long; it's hard to find stuff (and the search engine isn't the greatest...)

Any and all comments are appreciated.

Bob O'Donnell

P.S. Does anyone know if you can modify a Pioneer FV-727 to add a serial port so that it can be controlled as well? I have one and am curious...

Sorry, but the pluses and minuses are going to require as much reading of the thread as possible. Several of those who frequent this thread--which has really become its own forum--have commented at length on the issues of value. Short answer: From a value standpoint, you really can't beat the Entre. Robert Bienstock has recently offered some useful observations on that point. Don't know about modifying the Pioneer.

Nick :cool:

Robert,

Fixing the problem is pretty easy. It's a tiny spring that comes loose. Unfortunately, it's at the bottom out of sight, underneath the carousel.

So unless you feel comfortable taking it apart, you will have to live with it or ship it to my authorized center in NJ. They fixed it on my original changer by glueing it in place. The new changer works as advertised, but maybe with use it will pop out of place.

It really helps out with the unknowns.

Originally posted by rbienstock
The eject mechanism in the DV-5900M really stinks. I had had a unit that wouldn't eject from day one. The door opens, the carousel spins, but the disk won't stick out (I could make a joke along the lines of the caption of this message, but I'll resist). Bought a new upgraded unit last August, and eject worked perfectly. As of today, it won't work either.

I remember someone here saying that it was a fairly simple fix that could be implemented with a hot glue gun. I'm sure that it is too much to hope for, but does anyone here have access to the 5900 service manuals or service bulletins that might describe how to fix this. If you look back on my previous posts, you'll see how dissatisfied I've been with my local repair center, and I don't think that I could cope with having to deal with them again.

Originally posted by BobOD
<snip>I realize that some of this may have been addressed elsewhere in this thread, but to be honest, it's so long; it's hard to find stuff (and the search engine isn't the greatest...)

Any and all comments are appreciated.
<snip> One trick people use is to click on:


Thread ---> Show Printable Version | Email this Page | Unsubscribe from this thread

at the top of the page. Then click on

'Show all xxxx posts from this thread on one page'

in the upper right of that resulting page. Then do a 'save as' to a TXT file from your browser. Search that one to find some 'hits'.

Also you could do a 'save as' to a HTML file from your browser.

These are good for current search and for some a little later after your eyes stop being glazed over.

Obviously after the 'Show all xxxx pages...' you could just do a CNTL-F or the equivalent in your browser to have your browser search that page. But that is for short term searching.

i don't know if it was added after the software update or if it was always there, but there is a "Search this thread" box at the top of every page.

quick way to pull up results.

Originally posted by rbienstock
The eject mechanism in the DV-5900M really stinks. I had had a unit that wouldn't eject from day one. The door opens, the carousel spins, but the disk won't stick out (I could make a joke along the lines of the caption of this message, but I'll resist). Bought a new upgraded unit last August, and eject worked perfectly. As of today, it won't work either.
<snip> a) use a pair of tweezer with the tips dipped in the liquid rubber that is for handles on tools b) only use every 3 or 4 slot so there is space around each disc to grab onto.:D :rolleyes:

Originally posted by slocko
i don't know if it was added after the software update or if it was always there, but there is a "Search this thread" box at the top of every page. quick way to pull up results. Excellent tip!!! I had just downloaded the 'Print all xxx..' to a .HTML file because I was going to attach it to a subsequent post in compressed format. It is 3 Meg uncompress and 1 Meg compressed (zip). Too big. Search this thread worked well.

Heroildo,

In answer to one of your earlier difficulties, the easiest way to gain control of a dvd changer so you can go into the setup menu, is to have the entre play a dvd from the changer you want to control.

Once the entre selects a dvd from a changer, only that changer responds to the remote control. At least that has been my experience. I think the entre is able to lock the other changer via rs-232 control.

slocko,

Thanks! I accidentally figured that out this weekend. Any chance you're experiencing the same problem I reported earlier with Internet Radio Stations?

hm


Originally posted by slocko
Heroildo,

In answer to one of your earlier difficulties, the easiest way to gain control of a dvd changer so you can go into the setup menu, is to have the entre play a dvd from the changer you want to control.

Once the entre selects a dvd from a changer, only that changer responds to the remote control. At least that has been my experience. I think the entre is able to lock the other changer via rs-232 control.

I haven't listened to radio stations in a while, but David did report a problem a week or two ago, about internet radio stations.

Well, from the post slocko made here is what I can see (though i don't own an Entre, so...)

1. Appears to be a small form factor version of some Unix derivative for an OS (understands fsk, chkdsk, etc.)
2. Machine has 23 megs of RAM and a Segate harddisk
3. Partitions out the a** - i counted 9
4. The SL11 is listed on the web as a generic USB controller
5. The builder speaks the Queen's english (they spelled it initialisation afterall)
6. USB drivers have to be built for each device the USB port needs
7. mdm.ini I suspect is the modem init string

No clue what the actual OS is however from the post. Has anybody popped the top on their Entre to see what the primary processor is? ;)

Oh, and all those partitions and fsck/chkdsk commands might be why some of you are getting lots of flashing lights during bootups.

Checking all of that data takes a lot of time. So if you have a lot of blinking red light and not much action, maybe hook up a laptop and watch what's going on?

Rebooting obvioulsy won't fix it, since the OS seems to be set up to default to running a full check when the partitions are shut down poorly, whatever that means for an entre?

I mounted the drive on my PC and was able to use a diskeditor to find references to freebsd. Might be a derivative of it. maybe netbsd. I could not get the drive to mount under freebsd. I will try netbsd.

Originally posted by fireboy92k
<snip>No clue what the actual OS is however from the post. Has anybody popped the top on their Entre to see what the primary processor is? ;) From previous post: "pSOSystem" shows up in messages when you FTP to it. Also you can find news announcements such as: http://www.windriver.com/news/press/20020214.html

The way the eject mech works is quite simple once you see how it operates. The spring holds the eject arm in its closed position. When the eject button is pressed a mechanical slide goes under the eject arm and wallah the disk noses out 1/4 inch. I have seen the innards of the 5900m and would guess the 5050m is quite the same. My mech didn't work from the first day I brought it home. To repair the mech yourself looks to be really tricky. Like Slocko stated it is way under the carousel, and much must be removed to get to it. with the cover off the unit if you look down the middle and to the front you can see a bit of the mech operate.(You Cannot See Where The Spring Goes!!) My suggestion if anyone at kenwood is listening is to manufacture the units case with a small "Trap Door"(held on by a screw) accessible from the underside of the unit right where the spring belongs. Fixing the problem would be a snap if the entire unit didn't have to be disassembled.

Scott

When i contacted tech support about not being able to record the Entre, the tech gave me Wind Rivers phone # to see if they could help. The Wind guys bounced me around to a few techs, but they all said “we just write the code for the os”.

I guess this link might help also; http://www.windriver.com/platforms/platformvdt/

Wayne

It's an IBM PowerPC chip.

Originally posted by fireboy92k
Well, from the post slocko made here is what I can see (though i don't own an Entre, so...)

1. Appears to be a small form factor version of some Unix derivative for an OS (understands fsk, chkdsk, etc.)
2. Machine has 23 megs of RAM and a Segate harddisk
3. Partitions out the a** - i counted 9
4. The SL11 is listed on the web as a generic USB controller
5. The builder speaks the Queen's english (they spelled it initialisation afterall)
6. USB drivers have to be built for each device the USB port needs
7. mdm.ini I suspect is the modem init string

No clue what the actual OS is however from the post. Has anybody popped the top on their Entre to see what the primary processor is? ;)

pic 1

pic 2

pic 3

In Media Manager, I've got the custom tab set, on one computer, to both Entre IP addresses (two Entres). In the dropdown box for which device I want to contact, both Entres get displayed.

On another computer, I eliminated the IP address of the "movies" Entre, just in case attempting connection was getting fouled up by having two Entres displayed.

Usually, everything starts out fine, with Media Manager saying "initializing local database," and then I choose which Entre's Library I want to open. That's where the problem comes in.

I get the message, "synchronizing with client device," and the synchronization reaches apparent 100% completion. However, after that gets done, the display of the Entre's Library appears empty. In the upper right hand corner of Media Manager, the box appears to have no contents--no albums, no artists, nothing. Just the generic empty library.

Apparently, the Media Manager thinks it has "synchronized" with the local client device, but it has not. At least it is not in touch with its contents.

I've had this come up before, even when Media Manager was working, but it was hit and miss. One time I'd get the failed synchronization, the next I'd get a hit. But for at least a week, I get nothing. Anyone?

Thanks,

Nick :cool:

Nick,

That happens quite a bit for me --

On the PC side, delete the subdirectories for your Entre units which are located under the Kenwood directory ..

Example:

\Program Files
... \Kenwood
.... \Media Manager
..... \Kenwood
...... \MusicEntre
...... \Movie Entre

You want to delete the directories that correspond to your Entre's name or IP address.

The Entre will sometimes get stuck during a sync and I'm guessing the process is still waiting for something. If deleting the directory does not work, go ahead and delete the directory and also reboot the Entre(s).

hm

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
In Media Manager, I've got the custom tab set, on one computer, to both Entre IP addresses (two Entres). In the dropdown box for which device I want to contact, both Entres get displayed.

On another computer, I eliminated the IP address of the "movies" Entre, just in case attempting connection was getting fouled up by having two Entres displayed.

Usually, everything starts out fine, with Media Manager saying "initializing local database," and then I choose which Entre's Library I want to open. That's where the problem comes in.

I get the message, "synchronizing with client device," and the synchronization reaches apparent 100% completion. However, after that gets done, the display of the Entre's Library appears empty. In the upper right hand corner of Media Manager, the box appears to have no contents--no albums, no artists, nothing. Just the generic empty library.

Apparently, the Media Manager thinks it has "synchronized" with the local client device, but it has not. At least it is not in touch with its contents.

I've had this come up before, even when Media Manager was working, but it was hit and miss. One time I'd get the failed synchronization, the next I'd get a hit. But for at least a week, I get nothing. Anyone?

Thanks,

Nick :cool:

Nick,

Happens to me ALL the time including right now. It usually happens when I have done something of significance such as moving a bunch of files from one genre to another or having burned a bunch straight to the HD. Mine will sometimes show the music groups and even allow changes to their names without ever syncing or showing the actual files. Other times it gets hung or says that it cannot sync with device. It's the worst POS software with which I have ever dealt.

Also, it will let me to try and sync 2 or 3 times and then it just stops seeing the entre. I then have to reset the entre for it to be seen by MM. If the entre was "on" during this attempted sync, it is visually hung up. In the past, which includes last week, after a few days of trying and trying and trying, it will just suddenly work. That is until I try and make more changes.

Sounds like you guys are starting to experience the same problems I’ve been having for a while. It seems like the new updates have made MM behave worse then ever….. I think MM needs a time-out….

Wayne

Is there a problem with continuing to use the older version of MM?

You know, I don't think it's just a matter of using the old MM -- it's got to be more than that. I think the software that's running on the Entre also has a lot to do with it.

I remember about a year and a half ago, back when that version was released that caused some of our libraries to be duplicated (we had like 4 enties for the same DVD) -- it seems to me that MM worked a lot better before that release of the Entre software. I remember having loaded about 15GB work of MP3 files encoded at 128 (a lot of files). I can't even load one CD's worth of songs without MM totally wigging out.

hm
Originally posted by JonDeutsch
Is there a problem with continuing to use the older version of MM?

Good idea. Is the old version still available on the Kenwood site? Come to think of it, I had these same problems with the original version as well.

No doubt, I have a lot of issues with my (old) version of MM, but if they got worse with the new release, I'll stick with the current version.

The big question is, do I risk corrupting my Entre by using the old version? Also, are there (heaven forbit, Kenwood!) release notes for the new version of MM?

a little off topic but i just hooked up this usb live to my pc and connected the entre via svideo to usb.

since my pc is right next to my a/v rack this worked well. i can now do maintenance on the entre without having to turn on my tv.

http://www.hauppauge.com/html/products.htm#usb

Since I have been entering so many unknowns via the keyboard, i have been able to do everything i need to do without using the remote, except for record.

so tonight i decided to try several different key combinations until i found shift,f12 together equates to record on the remote.

so now i can simply go to an unknown title and press:

1) f2 to go into the title
2) arrow down to edit disc and press enter
3) f11 to clear the unknown text and type in search string
4) arrow over to search disc button and press enter
5) press enter to execute search
6) press shift-f12 to save title

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
Found the list I'd made of controlling the Entre from the wireless keyboard.

ENTRE Keyboard Entries


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

Arrow keys and Tab key also work.

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

Nick :cool:

control escape is power off
shift escape is a power toggle.

Slocko,

The one big bug I've found with using the keyboard, and this may apply only to the one I've been using, is that key repeat doesn't seem to work. To move the cursor multiple spaces, you have to press it multiple times, and you can't just hold it down and have it repeat. The same applies to any other key as well. It could be my keyboard (Gyration Wireless), so I'm wondering if repeat works on your keyboard.

Robert:

The repeat feature never worked with my Compaq wired USB keyboard, either.

--
Umberto

Has anyone found a discrete on/off code for the "Pass Through" feature of the Entre, ot is that strictly a toggle-type of command as on the original remote? Just trying to fine tune my universal remote.

--
Umberto

Isn't there a list somewhere of the DVD's that don't show up in Openglobe? I have some DVD audios that I cannot find the coverart.

Originally posted by DerekFSU
Isn't there a list somewhere of the DVD's that don't show up in Openglobe? I have some DVD audios that I cannot find the coverart.

The list is what we need--the new thread Robert created will really do all we can in solving the problem.

As for the DVD-Audios, most don't appear. There are aberrations to be sure (Deep Purple Smoke On The Water, Fleetwood Mac Rumours, some R.E.M. discs, Linkin Park, Eric Clapton Reptile . . . those, among others, are for some reason there (and sometimes the reason is that there is a DVD-Video counterpart). However, I suspect that there may be some leakage from DVD Profiler into the OG database, because they only recently started to appear in DVD Profiler as well--and, again, not with the certainty that DVD-Video appears.

I believe that some of us wondered aloud whether Kenwood would affirmatively make DVD-Audio part of the titles they're capturing in the database, but I guess the real answer is that it's up to Escient. There would now technically be a reason for Escient to add DVD-Audio, as the Kenwood DV-5900 is one of its supported lines for it's new DVD changer controller.

Again, we need a straight line, with UPC codes included, from the consumer to OpenGlobe--not merely to verify what's out there, but to actually provide, in the same way participants provide to DVD Profiler, the information that will keep the library razor sharp.

Nick :cool:

I haven't tried. I'll check that out and report back. In what situation would you need to use repeat?

F11 clears all text in any edit box. So if you go into the description field you can just F11 the entire description.



Originally posted by rbienstock
Slocko,

The one big bug I've found with using the keyboard, and this may apply only to the one I've been using, is that key repeat doesn't seem to work. To move the cursor multiple spaces, you have to press it multiple times, and you can't just hold it down and have it repeat. The same applies to any other key as well. It could be my keyboard (Gyration Wireless), so I'm wondering if repeat works on your keyboard.

btw, if for whatever reason you happen to be using the Entre's remote to enter text -- the play button will clear out whatever text box you're in.

Originally posted by slocko
I haven't tried. I'll check that out and report back. In what situation would you need to use repeat?

F11 clears all text in any edit box. So if you go into the description field you can just F11 the entire description.

that is great to know. sometimes i may feel to lazy to whip out the keyboard. thxs.

Originally posted by slocko
I haven't tried. I'll check that out and report back. In what situation would you need to use repeat? I edit all my titles to remove spurious information after the title, such as "Collector's Edition Director's Cut (DTS) (THX) (Disk 2)". The fastest way would be to go to the title box, which gets you to the end of the title and hold down the backspace key until all the extra text is gone.

On that note, has anyone figured out how to quickly get to the begining of a text box? Here's an example:

If you're editing the title and it's pretty long -- if you cursor back too far/fast trying to get to the first character in the title, it will jump to the previous field on the screen (or maybe right to the end of the field, can't remember which).

Originally posted by rbienstock
I edit all my titles to remove spurious information after the title, such as "Collector's Edition Director's Cut (DTS) (THX) (Disk 2)". The fastest way would be to go to the title box, which gets you to the end of the title and hold down the backspace key until all the extra text is gone.

on the keyboard I think home and end work.

In one of the setup menus on the Entre (utilities or statistics, maybe?) there is an identification of the unit's serial number, its IP address, etc.

There is a line for "Server." In one of my discussions with Kenwood Tech support, I was told that "Server" should have the word "Prod" after it. If not . . . well, it wasn't right. He said that I would not get Media Manager working without that identification.

I have had Media Manager working before, and it now appears to work on one of my Entres, but not the other--of course, it's just working on the wrong one.

Nonetheless, neither Entre unit displays anything after the "Server" identification. Not "Prod," not anything.

Does anyone have any identification of the Server ID in the Entre setup?

Nick :cool:

if you go into setup on the entre, there is a system information screen somewhere. i think i have seen the word PROD in there.

if you go into setup on the entre, there is a system information screen somewhere. i think i have seen the word PROD in there.

others in this thread have said that you have to force a re-registration to get that to show prod. search this thread for registration.

you are right, the keyboard does not report.

Whats the deal on this "PROD" thing, I looked and I don't have it either. My MM links I just can't add any music.

Wayne

PS: slocko all I could find on registration was to set ip address and reboot, is this the procedure?

search for 5555 (the backdoor).

Quote:

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

i just checked. my system information screen says PROD for server.

Until today, I never had the PROD identification as the server.

Very strange. Last night, I had a devil of a time rebooting the Music Entre. Kenwood tech support imagined my Netmate USB/Ethernet adapter was the problem, but that wasn't it. It just wouldn't connect to the internet, despite several attempts at 5555/64000. Ultimately, after just giving up and retrying the following hour, it all worked out.

For the first time, one of my Entres identified PROD as the server. The Movies Entre, while connected to the Internet just fine, did not identify PROD as the Server. As we speak, I've done the 5555/64000 reboot to it, to see if I get the PROD server identification.

However . . .

Even last night, when my Music Entre "finally" got it right (for the first time ever) from a standpoint of identifying PROD, the connection to Media Manager did not work. Even worse, the Media Manager connection to my Movies Entre did work--too bad I need it for the other Entre.

In other words, the right internet settings in your Entre apparently make no difference in connecting to Media Manager. You can connect to it without the PROD, and it works fine; you can have the right server identification, and there's not an explanation in the world.

I've just done the 5555/64000 reboot of the Movies Entre, and I'm going to see if the status quo remains, despite the fact that both Entres now have the right server identification.

Nick :cool:

Wayne,

Have you tried going into your MM directory and deleting the folder that corresponds to your entre id number?

Since MM sychronizes everytime you connect, it will just recreate the folder.

Like Heroildo said, sometimes the synch doesn't complete successfully, but something stays behind that causes the synch to continously fail.

Originally posted by Wayne Zworld
Whats the deal on this "PROD" thing, I looked and I don't have it either. My MM links I just can't add any music.

Wayne

PS: slocko all I could find on registration was to set ip address and reboot, is this the procedure?

I just tried my own advice. I deleted everything under the kenwood folder, including the kenwood folder.

It connects and recreates everything, but does not synch cover art. Since I deleted the default cover art folder, it now just has blanks for all the albums. I tried synching cover art to the entre, but that also failed. So right now MM is pretty useless.

Since others don't have problems, I am assuming that my ghost mp3 is somehow inteferring with the synch of cover art.

If someone has a copy of the older version, let me know and I will gladly try that version.

Originally posted by slocko
IIf someone has a copy of the older version, let me know and I will gladly try that version.

Make that two of us. I'd really like to try installing the different version to see if I can get a reaction.

Nick :cool:

slocko

Thanks for all your advice. I'm thinking your on the right trail "I am assuming that my ghost mp3 is somehow inteferring ". I just did the 5555/64000 thing and know I have ghost mp's that were deleted month's ago.


Wayne

PS: Still can't up-load mp3's but can still synch

Just did the same exercise on a second computer with the same results.

Wish I had an Axcess unit so I could try and fix this ghost issue via ftp.

Originally posted by slocko
<snip>If someone has a copy of the older version, let me know and I will gladly try that version. I have the 1.2.4 version still in the ZIP but it is 12 meg. Not exactly easy to e-mail around. I could chunk it up if you guys really really want to try it.

i'll pm you later with some ftp information. thxs.

ScottF200,

You seem fairly computer savy so maybe you could attempt to capture the initial communication between the Entre and the Axcess that turns on FTP. If we can figure out the traffic we may be able to artificially create it and trick the Entre to turn on FTP. There are some easy to use tools that will allow you to capture the traffic from another computer on your network.

Assuming you are using windows:

First you need to install a packet capture driver from http://winpcap.polito.it here is a direct link to the installer (http://winpcap.polito.it/install/bin/WinPcap_3_0.exe)

Then install the nice GUI from http://www.ethereal.com here is a direct link to the installer (http://aleron.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/ethereal/ethereal-setup-0.9.15.exe)

After you get both installed, unpair your Axcess and Entre like you did before. Then launch Ethereal and select Start from the Capture menu, make sure the correct ethernet card is selected and click OK (rest of the defaults should be ok) to start capturing. Once it is capturing repair the Axcess and Entre, when all is done and they are working click Stop on the capture. You can then save the capture (File -> Save As) put it in a zip file and post it here.

Hope you are feeling adventurous :)

-apnar

Originally posted by apnar
ScottF200, You seem fairly computer savy so maybe you could attempt to capture the initial communication between the Entre and the Axcess that turns on FTP. If we can figure out the traffic we may be able to artificially create it and trick the Entre to turn on FTP. There are some easy to use tools that will allow you to capture the traffic from another computer on your network.
<snip>
After you get both installed, unpair your Axcess and Entre like you did before. Then launch Ethereal and select Start from the Capture menu (make sure the correct ethernet card is selected). Once it is capturing repair the Axcess and Entre, when all is done and they are working click Stop on the capture. You can then save the capture (File -> Save As) put it in a zip file and post it here. Hope you are feeling adventurous :) -apnar Actually I did exactly that last weekend. I tried Ethereal and a couple others. Oddly though I could not see many packets. I only saw a few DNS and NetBios ones as I recall which I could tell were the Axcess's IP and the Entre's IP. I was really wondering if my NIC was going into promiscuous mode or not. I guess if I saw any other than my computers IP's then it must be getting all packets on the network. I also wondered if there was some weird communication going on as the Axcess is on HPNA and the Entre is on Ethernet (they talk via the PE102). I'm happy to take this offline with you. I'm at avsforum (at sign) fauque.com .

I've just acquired an Axcess unit, and, thanks to a tip from Scott on the inital setup, I'm getting some reaction from it (it's installing firmware, loading, telling me not to power down . . . I think I got Axcess V. 2.04). If it works, I will report back on whether this helps the FTP situation, since only Scott has made it to the Next Dimension.


Nick :cool:

Axcess confirmed. FTP opens Entre. Scott gets Nobel Prize for cracking code.

Nick :cool:

Originally posted by ScottF200
Oddly though I could not see many packets. I only saw a few DNS and NetBios ones as I recall which I could tell were the Axcess's IP and the Entre's IP.

The PE102 is likely a dumb device and just spits what it sees on one side out the other so it shouldn't be a problem. Looking at your equipment though you are likely having an issue with your Pro800. It has a built in 8 port switch which I'm guessing you are using. With the switch it only sends traffic out a port if it needs to go out that port so you never see the entre traffic.

To get around this you can use a hub. Plug the hub into one of the Pro800 ports and then plug your computer and the PE102 into the hub as well.

If you don't have a hub around you could plug your computer directly into the PE102 if you have a cross over cable.

I'm fine with offline, can be reached at apnar[at]botch.com

-apnar

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
I've just acquired an Axcess unit, and, thanks to a tip from Scott on the inital setup, I'm getting some reaction from it (it's installin firmware, loading, telling me not to power down . . . I think I got Axcess V. 2.04). If it works, I will report back on whether this helps the FTP situation, since only Scott has made it to the Next Dimension. Nick :cool: The tip I gave Nick was to set both Prim and Secondary to Ethernet in Network Connections setup screen. The Entre (USB->ethernet) talks to the PE102 (Ethernet->HPNA) which then talks to the Axcess (HPNA). I believe alternatively you could have the Entre talk to the Axcess just via HPNA (phone line - or techincally just the wire without dial tone).

Nick, I'd love to take credit but I just got this connection to work then got help from you guys guessing what our differences were.

Originally posted by apnar
<snip>your Pro800. It has a built in 8 port switch which I'm guessing you are using. With the switch it only sends traffic out a port if it needs to go out that port so you never see the entre traffic. To get around this you can use a hub. Plug the hub into one of the Pro800 ports and then plug your computer and the PE102 into the hub as well.<snip> Ah! I had my suspicision as I was doing a bunch of reading back then but I didn't know if my Pro800 was "switch" or "hub". (One of the places I read about switches vs hubs was here: http://grc.com/oo/packetsniff.htm.) I'll see about borrowing a hub.

I just uploaded about 80 DVD-Audio cover Arts. I'm nearly current now.

Once the Axcess unit synched with the network, the Cute FTP opened up. I was going to be careful about the way I did things, one at a time, adding a piece, then deleting it . . .

Then I took a flyer.

First, I went to dvdpricesearch.com, and, with the Entre screen in front of me, just picked out each dvd-audio disc from which I was missing cover art. Most of it was there, although I had to go to a few other sites to obtain all that was missing.

The Cute FTP program has panels on left (your PC) and right (your FTP destination--in this case, Entre). Once you pull up the file in which you've saved the cover art (after adjusting it like Scott said to 365 pixels high, preserving the aspect ratio of the cover), you can then just drag the JPG file from your PC to the right hand box and drop it in the Entre.

I first loaded about 10 of them. Then, I began to edit the cover art. The first disc I edited was Aaron Neville's Devotion. Once I saw the disc edited, and appearing in the Entre guide, I then deleted it from the Cute panel, so that it would not be in the "stored" cover art of the Entre.

However, after doing that, the cover art from Devotion not only disappeared from the cover art file, but it disappeared from the Entre Guide. At that point, I just said the hell with it, reloaded the Neville cover art, and then kept it all in the Entre "cover art library," as I edited the discs. All worked, and when I closed the FTP program, I simply left the cover art in the Entre, primarily because of my experience with deleting it.

After doing this, I tried using the Entre, and it worked fine. I also checked the internet connection to see if anything there had been affected, and it didn't appear to be (the connection test to the internet went through fine).

Nick :cool:

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
I just uploaded about 80 DVD-Audio cover Arts.<snip> Once I saw the disc edited, and appearing in the Entre guide, I then deleted it from the Cute panel, so that it would not be in the "stored" cover art of the Entre.

However, after doing that, the cover art from Devotion not only disappeared from the cover art file, but it disappeared from the Entre Guide.<snip> Nick, there are XML files that represent each DVD. They have the description and all the details you see in the guide/info. They also have an explicit reference to where the cover art is located (i.e. path and file name). As you saw when they reference a missing one they get confused.

I was going to post an example of the XML here but I don't think that definition is in the public domain. For those with Microsoft Access and have looked at the media manager database tables you would see something similar in one of the columns of their table when you add your own cover art. It's file path to the cover art is distinctly different than the ones auto downloaded by Entre/OG.

BTW, did I mention: CONGRATS!!http://smileys.smileycentral.com/smiley18.gif

P.S. I would explicitly "disconnect" from the Entre and not just close CuteFTP. It may do that but I'd rather be safe and not the Entre think there is a thread open. Use Menu option File then Connections then Disconnect or click on the icon that looks like a wall plug is just unplugged from a plugin. Just to the right of the lightening bolt icon.

I am so happy for you computer expert people. So when are you coming to my house to fix this or can you just get into my computer from your own home?

Anyone know where I can get a cheap Axcess?

They should have made MM a simple ftp transfer tool. Forget this synch nonsense.

Just a simple tool to FTP the missing gaps the entre cannot lookup on its own.

Congrats Nick. Did it by any chance fix your MM problems?

Originally posted by DerekFSU
I am so happy for you computer expert people. So when are you coming to my house to fix this or can you just get into my computer from your own home? Actually what we did does not require you to be an expert with computers. Getting the FTP "axcess" was the key.

What we ALL should really be doing is to write EntreReports@kenwoodusa.com and request they provide a simple method of uploading cover art to the Entre for DVDs. It could be a very very very light version of Media Manager. Actually just a simple interface to list cover art there and allow them to be deleted and added to (not the ones downloaded by Entre/OG just the custom ones).

Alas it would be slightly more complicated than that because they'd have to search the XMLs or the DB on the Entre to verify that a piece of cover art was not explicitly tied to one of the DVDs already. They could avoid that complexity just by supporting ADD and UPDATE however. The files are small anyway (14k ish). Write them is my advice.

Originally posted by slocko
They should have made MM a simple ftp transfer tool. Forget this synch nonsense.

Just a simple tool to FTP the missing gaps the entre cannot lookup on its own.

Congrats Nick. Did it by any chance fix your MM problems?

My problems with MM continue. When I receive from Scott the earlier version, I'll see if that helps.

Has anyone downloaded Escient Pipeline? It looks very familiar ;)

Nick :cool:

Originally posted by ScottF200
Nick, there are XML files that represent each DVD. They have the description and all the details you see in the guide/info. They also have an explicit reference to where the cover art is located (i.e. path and file name). As you saw when they reference a missing one they get confused.

I was going to post an example of the XML here but I don't think that definition is in the public domain. For those with Microsoft Access and have looked at the media manager database tables you would see something similar in one of the columns of their table when you add your own cover art. It's file path to the cover art is distinctly different than the ones auto downloaded by Entre/OG.

BTW, did I mention: CONGRATS!!http://smileys.smileycentral.com/smiley18.gif

P.S. I would explicitly "disconnect" from the Entre and not just close CuteFTP. It may do that but I'd rather be safe and not the Entre think there is a thread open. Use Menu option File then Connections then Disconnect or click on the icon that looks like a wall plug is just unplugged from a plugin. Just to the right of the lightening bolt icon.

Thanks for the tip on the disconnect. I'll do it that way.

In the s0 subfile of the movies cover art, there only appeared to be one jpeg file, and that's where I dumped all my "new" cover art, which worked fine. I later saw the XML files to which Scott referred, and I guess the message would be don't touch those.

I wonder how much space each subfile has, to hold new cover art.

After doing things like that with Music Entre, I attempted to synch the Axcess unit with the other Entre, to take care of what cover art is missing from it. However, since I have two Entres, I have problems that others won't. Once the Axcess had synched to the first Entre unit, even when I attempted entering the second Entre's IP address in the Axcess, it "stuck" to Entre 1. Perhaps Scott's tip on disconnect might be the issue, but I suspect it's because we set up a secondary connection on Entre 1, coming out of it not merely with the USB cable, but also the phone line, directly into a phone jack (this was after setting up the Linksys bridge).

I probably will have to switch those connections around (from Entre 1 to Entre 2) in order to have any hopes of getting the Axcess to recognize that unit. Any tips on how that might be accomplished will be appreciated.

Thanks,

Nick :cool:

I bet Scott has a good chance of fixing the ghost mp3 issues via FTP.

Scott why don't you delete a few mp3s on your entre so you can have mp3s issues and be motivated to fix them :D

OK, so is there someone we can pay to write their own version of MM that would actually work? I would definitely chip in.

Originally posted by slocko
I bet Scott has a good chance of fixing the ghost mp3 issues via FTP.

Scott why don't you delete a few mp3s on your entre so you can have mp3s issues and be motivated to fix them :D

I'm going to look at this one, too. I have only a few ghosts, but I know the issue.

Nick :cool:

It's just as bad and won't work on an Entre.

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
My problems with MM continue. When I receive from Scott the earlier version, I'll see if that helps.

Has anyone downloaded Escient Pipeline? It looks very familiar ;)

Nick :cool:

Nick,

You might want to recreate the ghost problem on your movie entre and play with that one.

That way, worse case scenario, you don't have to reload, or recopy music to the entre.

To me it sounds like these problems with MM and the ghosting is all related. I bet that when you delete mp3s, the xml files that describe everything, are not getting properly updated.

So while the mp3 may be gone from the hard drive, the xml file didn't get updated.

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
I'm going to look at this one, too. I have only a few ghosts, but I know the issue.

Nick :cool:

Scott,

Do you have a program that can spoof a mac address on your pc?

I am thinking that the easiest way to implement the ftp is by having the ftp daemon running on the entre have the mac address range in its cache that corresponds to kenwood devices. It will only open the port for that mac address range. It might need only the first 2 or 3 bits.

I will do a search later to see if that type of program exists. If it does, i will try to spoof the entre's mac on my pc to see if that is enough to open the port.

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
<snip> In the s0 subfile of the movies cover art, there only appeared to be one jpeg file, and that's where I dumped all my "new" cover art, which worked fine. I later saw the XML files to which Scott referred, and I guess the message would be don't touch those.

I wonder how much space each subfile has, to hold new cover art.
<snip>

Nick, initially I had a post that suggested to put the cover art in s0. After that I saw that MM put the CD cover art in the "main" cover art directory. That is the directory (or subfile to use your term) where the first level of s0 through s9 directories are located. I posted again with a picture (gif) showing where MM put the cover art and I suggested that the DVD cover art go in the same relative location. This is where I have mine. I did not put them in the s0 directory. I'm not sure that it matters. It would be a pain for you to fix as you just can't move those JPGs. You would have to edit each disc to remove them. Move the JPGs then edit the disc again.

See this link to the picture on where MM puts the cover art. http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=2662431&fullpage=1

Congratulations Scott and Nick for blowing open the door to this mystery. As I see it, the biggest hurdle no be overcome now is to determine how the Axcess opens up FTP access to the Entre so that one can accomplish that without the purchase of a $400 item that one may not need for any other purpose.

While you guys are browsing around inside the Entre, I'm wondering whether you have seen whether, in addition to adding cover art, whether there is any way to modify other data in the database, for example, by entering description and cast info to unknown disks. I know that one could type the description in manually, but cut and paste from DVD Profiler would be so much easier. Also there is no way to manually add cast info. I'd also like to be able to manually edit cast info. The order of cast members is quite odd. For example, they give Robbie Coltrae top billing on Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Judy Dench top billing on "Die Another Day."

Originally posted by slocko
Scott, Do you have a program that can spoof a mac address on your pc? I am thinking that the easiest way to implement the ftp is by having the ftp daemon running on the entre have the mac address range in its cache that corresponds to kenwood devices. It will only open the port for that mac address range. It might need only the first 2 or 3 bits. I will do a search later to see if that type of program exists. If it does, i will try to spoof the entre's mac on my pc to see if that is enough to open the port. I don't have one (spoofing MAC pgm) but a quick google search showed they exist. I'd be pretty surprised if that'd work but then again... I'll try to locate a HUB and look at few packets with apnar.

BTW, have all you guys e-mailed KW/OG asking for a tool to add DVD cover art? I sent mine in. Perhaps a collective voice will ring louder. (It does for the customers that use the product I develop/manage.)

I'm certainly they don't like reading this FTP access/axcess business but they really should give us an alternative. Any day there will be a software update to shut it off.:(

Originally posted by rbienstock
<snip> While you guys are browsing around inside the Entre, I'm wondering whether you have seen whether, in addition to adding cover art, whether there is any way to modify other data in the database, for example, by entering description and cast info to unknown disks. I know that one could type the description in manually, but cut and paste from DVD Profiler would be so much easier. Also there is no way to manually add cast info. I'd also like to be able to manually edit cast info. The order of cast members is quite odd. For example, they give Robbie Coltrae top billing on Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Judy Dench top billing on "Die Another Day." I have looked at the XML files related to each DVD before. I do not know if editing them causes a direct change on the screen. I got the feeling because there is a database as well that information is stored in two places. It seems, however, that the user interface is driven off XML. That is kind of cool because of all the tools and standards on manipulating XML these days.

I have HP and the CofS so I know what you mean. I did locate the XML file for that DVD. It appears that the cast are shown on the screen in the order they appear in the XML file. Note that it is not just a text list in the XML but they are broken down by elements (see http://xmlfiles.com/xml/xml_syntax.asp for some XML basics).

You can tell from looking at the XML that it was designed out for the future. For example in the 'cast' area they have propername, firstname, lastname, role, etc. Most elements are empty.

I'm leery for changing this and testing it. It has a MD5Key element in the XML. This could be a 'signature' (like checksum) and may break if I edit the text. It could also be used to verify file transfers which I've read is one of the uses. Also the text would appear to be sensitive. By that I mean in place of an apostrophe they have stuff like this: he&apos;s . Tells me the parser is sensitive. Cutting and pasting may cause a problem. One could do a 'change all' to fix the " ' "s to "&apos;" but what else could there be lingering.

XML Entity examples:
"To insert a special character such as < or > literally in XML (for example, inside an attribute value), you must write it as an entity. An entity consists of the character's symbolic name enclosed with “&” and “;”. The most frequently used entities are:
&lt; - The less-than (<) character
&gt; - The greater-than (>) character
&amp; - The ampersand (&) character"

Originally posted by ScottF200
Nick, initially I had a post that suggested to put the cover art in s0. After that I saw that MM put the CD cover art in the "main" cover art directory. That is the directory (or subfile to use your term) where the first level of s0 through s9 directories are located. I posted again with a picture (gif) showing where MM put the cover art and I suggested that the DVD cover art go in the same relative location. This is where I have mine. I did not put them in the s0 directory. I'm not sure that it matters. It would be a pain for you to fix as you just can't move those JPGs. You would have to edit each disc to remove them. Move the JPGs then edit the disc again.

See this link to the picture on where MM puts the cover art. http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=2662431&fullpage=1

Scott, keep in mind that MM only puts cover art in the "music" directory (you know about this stuff, so I'll quit calling it a subfile). The DVD-As that I added go in the Movies/Covers directory. If I add something to Music, I'll go there, of course.

I'm going to post a series of horrendous pictures (tiny laptop, but I really haven't cracked the art of digital photography) which will lay out my understanding of what goes on.

After you open up the Entre, and go into the "database" directory, you see this setup:

From the first image, I surmise that what we have are the same options that Entre poses to us when we turn it on--Music, Movies, MP3, etc.

If I would go into the Movies section (which, unfortunately, is where DVD-Audio cover art is located), I would see this:


Nick :cool:

Now turn to the next . . .

I thus go into the covers section of the movie directory. I see this:

Nick :cool:

I clicked on the s0 directory. There was already a jpeg image in there, so it didn't appear as a hostile place for more. After dumping my jpeg images for DVD-Audio covers in it, it looked like:

Nick :cool:

Well, he's right. His first tip to put it in the s0 file has worked fine.

As a parting shot, here's what the program looks like in action. To the left is the contents of my DVD-A Covers directory that I created and stuffed with covers. To the right is the Entre s0 directory, in which I dumped those covers [oops! It's actually the contents of the Music Directory "covers"]. From there, I was able to edit all the discs and get cover art for all but one (and that will come tomorrow).

Of course, I will replace those images from websites like CDNOW.Com, since there's a prominent "10%" off stamped in the lower right corner of the jpeg cover art image. It's easy enough to scan the images and load them like that.

Nick :cool:

Obviously, this FTP is to the Entre? How are you logging in & what ID are you using? Also, has anyone cracked the Linux Root on this box?

Thanks,

Troy

It's not linux. If it was, there would be a linux license in the box. It's WindRiver I believe which uses something called pSOS.

I am currently researching them to see if the file system is published somewhere. If it is, it will point the way on how to increase the partition sizes for larger drives.

You can go ahead and connect it to your pc via rs232 and run a hyperterminal session on it. You can also telnet to it, but no root access yet.

Originally posted by tdampier
Obviously, this FTP is to the Entre? How are you logging in & what ID are you using? Also, has anyone cracked the Linux Root on this box?

Thanks,

Troy

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
Scott, keep in mind that MM only puts cover art in the "music" directory (you know about this stuff, so I'll quit calling it a subfile). The DVD-As that I added go in the Movies/Covers directory. If I add something to Music, I'll go there, of course. The subtles of words...I realize that DVD-As are in the movie directory and music it's own. I stated 'relative directory'. Wait I' have a better idea than word to show what I mean:


7.0.5/Database/Music/Covers <-- this is where MM puts cover art

7.0.5/Database/Movies/Covers <-- this is where I think DVD-A/movie art should go. (relative/corresponding to music location)
7.0.5/Database/Movies/Covers/s0 <-- this is where I originally said to put it


Sorry if I was unclear or misleading. As we both saw putting cover are in the numbered directories (s0 thru s9) still makes them available for selection via the Entre.

Originally posted by tdampier
Obviously, this FTP is to the Entre? How are you logging in & what ID are you using? Also, has anyone cracked the Linux Root on this box? Thanks, Troy Troy, in a nutshell I was the only one able to FTP to the Entre using guest id. Others could not. Difference turned out to be I had Axcess device which opened up FTP port. Nick bought an Axcess and is able to now as well. At the top of this page is "Search this Thread:" box. If you put FTP in there you can read about how we got here.

Although at this point I think other thread readers are probably pretty tired of listening about FTP since most can't do it.

Scott

I'm not keep it up...

Wayne

Wayne, I'm not touching that one!

I find all of this FTP talk very interesting and extremely valuable. I just wish I could do it, but I'm not going to buy an Axess just so I can. Keep up the good work guys, and maybe you will find another key that unlocks ftp access. Or maybe the people at Kenwood will get a clue and see how important this is to us and get us a working version of MM with DVD support.

BTW, I am still waiting for my changer since sending it back after the upgrade was botched. No CDs or DVDs to listen to or watch since early July....geeze.

Bob

Well, about half the reason I bought an Axcess was for this, but, ever since I started using an Entre for music, I did want one for another location in the house.

Scott, I have only glanced at the Axcess manual, but can I access my CD collection without having copied it as an MP3 file to the Entre? I'm assuming I can't, but you may advise otherwise.

Scott's suggestion to email Kenwood is the best, since they should see the benefit of permitting us to add things that aren't contemplated by the current scheme. I'm assuming that they could make a goof-proof place to at least store cover art.

I too would love the cut and paste ability that Robert suggests.

Nick :cool:

I am sure you already know but Escient developed this box for Kenwood. I actually used to be able to telnet to this box prior to putting it behind a wireless bridge.

I will try to connect it up directly and see what I get. Perhaps it was prior to me installing the latest upgrade to the OS.

I did read the following link

http://www.escient.com/newsroomarchive.htm

Which if you read between the lines you are correct it is WindRiver's OS.

http://www.windriver.com/products/vxworks5/index.html

Interesting presentation of the OS at Berkley

http://bwrc.eecs.berkeley.edu/Classes/CS252/Notes/Lec26a-sw.pdf
http://e-www.motorola.com/files/sndf/doc/reports_presentations/SNDF2003_DALLAS_K2210.pdf

And it was not developed by them but came from:

http://www.businesswire.com/webbox/bw.040301/210932534.htm

However I would surmise it is running a Linux/BSD kernel for networking features.

Qing Li, a senior member of technical staff at Wind River, just published a book "Real-Time Concepts for Embedded Systems". The books covers various RTOS including VxWorks. It's a good book for beginners.

Has anyone telnetted to this box successfully?

It actually appears to be using NFS as the remote mount file system. Does anyone know the path via FTP that they can give me and the file system type on the Entre?

Thanks,

Troy

All the FTP stuff makes as much sense to me as that high school latin class and is just as exciting. But I want you guys to keep on rollin' in the hopes of fixing this damn thing. Like I said, I'll help pay for it if someone can do it.

FWIW, if you have two Entres . . . and I think I've only seen one other person beside me mention that . . . the Axcess unit will synch with both, so that you get a sort-of drop down screen in the Axcess, and you choose which one you want to use. I've corrected all movies and dvd-audio cover art.

I also find that, if I'm using the FTP program, the particular Entre unit I'm trying to transer to has to be powered on, not merely in standby. Also, the Axcess unit has to be powered on, not just standby.

One could look at it as a really expensive Media Manager program, but I will use it in its own right as well.

Nick :cool:

Originally posted by ScottF200
The subtles of words...I realize that DVD-As are in the movie directory and music it's own. I stated 'relative directory'. Wait I' have a better idea than word to show what I mean:


7.0.5/Database/Music/Covers <-- this is where MM puts cover art

7.0.5/Database/Movies/Covers <-- this is where I think DVD-A/movie art should go. (relative/corresponding to music location)
7.0.5/Database/Movies/Covers/s0 <-- this is where I originally said to put it


Sorry if I was unclear or misleading. As we both saw putting cover are in the numbered directories (s0 thru s9) still makes them available for selection via the Entre.

I was unclear, not you.

I was able tonight to get the Axcess unit synched to both Entres, and I added the DVD-Cover art that was missing (only about 10 titles of over 600). I added them as your post suggests.

While it worked, there was a strange difference. When I had dumped everything in the s0 directory, they were the first covers to appear in the section where the cover art is stored. It made things a great deal easier, as I did not have to scroll down to "find" what I was going to use, since I only added what I was going to use--and it was right on top.

When I put these 10 covers in the Entre Movies Covers section, the first 4 made it to the top . . . the remaining 6 were moved all the way down to the bottom (i.e., a 600 disc sandwich). This made it a little bit tedious to edit the cover art, as you have to make the journey to the bottom of the pile for each piece of cover art you add.

But, I'm spooked enough to just keep doing it that way, and, now it won't be so hard, since it will be the occasional one-at-a-time disc.

Type your jpeg titles in lower case letters, as the ones in my Entre are all upper case; it makes them easier to find if you have to search through the stack of covers in that directory.

Nick :cool:

VCD. I knew it would show up under music but I cannot get it to play the video. It goes to the normal album screen and plays wonderful audio from the VCD but no video, only the album screen. What to do?

I know i sound completely uneducated.. What is an access unit.. My entre is controlled by my amx system but am always looking for new stuff. Please can you enlighten me

Awww, the incredible power of the "passthrough" button.

Since you don't use your entre for music, it wouldn't be much good to you, unless you want to spend $400 just to add cover art to your movies. I would just wait because eventually we will crack this thing and you won't need the Axcess unit for that.

The Axcess lets you stream internet radio and mp3s from your entre to Axcess. It has a 20 watt amplifier and you connect speakers to it. It has built in hpna, so you can just plug it in to your phone line if you have an hpna setup. Good for a place like another room where you want to listen to music you have stored in the entre. I believe Escient offers a similar product for the fireball.

Scott accidently found out that he was able to ftp to his entre, and via ftp he could copy cover art to the entre for dvds not found by the entre. Eventually it was traced to the fact that he was the only with an Axcess unit and having one on the network seems to open up the ftp port.

Originally posted by Clingpeach
I know i sound completely uneducated.. What is an access unit.. My entre is controlled by my amx system but am always looking for new stuff. Please can you enlighten me

Clingpeach, Link to it is here: http://www.kenwoodusa.com/product/product.jsp?productId=2358

Nick, a) as far as I know the axcess only accesses MP3s on the Entre's harddisk and not CDs. b) *very* strange how some of your cover art was at the bottom of the list. The list appears to be unorderd so I thought it got what ever was in the "root" directory, then s0/s0, then s0/s1...then s9/s8, then s9/s9 (two levels of s0-s9 directories).

Bob_422, you've been waiting since July!!! You gotta call Jill as others have.

Slocko, Since my Entre is working pretty stable...I do not want you to jinx me with that ghost MP3 problem :) so I would be tempted to do evil things like delete an entire XML file that was bogus (ghost).

Troy, thanks for the links. From past postings we knew of the much of that. Some of that RTOS stuff is pretty wild. I work on the big [blue] iron so it is even wilder to me.

Nick/Robert, about editing the XML desc. It seems that it is a standard to use "symbolics" called entities for special chars like &, <, ', in XML. I tried looking for a XML text converter (free/shareware) but havent found one. ie. copy a description from DVDProfiler or someplace else then convert it to "XML valid text" (i.e. replace ' with &apos;, etc) but I didn't find one. Not sure if I'm "feeling lucky [punk]" enough to try it. Actually I could probably use MS Access or Excell as they write out XML and I'm guessing would convert it.

You could always use IE as a test for any xml file you create or edit.

If IE can display it without syntax errors, then the chances are good that the file is a valid xml file.

Originally posted by slocko
You could always use IE as a test for any xml file you create or edit.

If IE can display it without syntax errors, then the chances are good that the file is a valid xml file. Good point. I had tried bring up one of their XML files in IE but it errored because they have a reference to a DTD definition file reference that points to the openglobe.net site which is invalid. (DTD term (http://www.hyperdictionary.com/dictionary/Document+Type+Definition)) I'd just have to edit that out or only test the Description part.

By the way, my mac spoof test didn't work.

I cloned the entre's address on my pc and tried ftp, but it wanted to ftp to my pc instead of the entre. Which was interesting because even though the ip address was explicitly the entres, it looked at the mac physical address and directed to my machine.

So I changed the last digit, and it still failed.

I was pretty sure they were opening that port via mac address range. Time to put the thinking cap back on. Hopefully the analysis of the packets will yield some clues.

Originally posted by slocko
By the way, my mac spoof test didn't work.

I cloned the entre's address on my pc and tried ftp, but it wanted to ftp to my pc instead of the entre. Which was interesting because even though the ip address was explicitly the entres, it looked at the mac physical address and directed to my machine.

So I changed the last digit, and it still failed.

I was pretty sure they were opening that port via mac address range. Time to put the thinking cap back on. Hopefully the analysis of the packets will yield some clues.

slocko,

I highly doubt it has to do with the MAC address but if you did want to try it you'd likely want to set your computer to duplicate a Axcess not and Entre. You could ask someone with an Axcess nicely for their MAC address and give that a try.

-apnar

Scott,

Funny how things work. My changer showed up a few hours after my post yesterday. Kenwood replaced it with a brand new one this time. The serial number starts with 300 but we all know that is meaningless. There were no stickers, labels stamps or other markings on the box with a "3" or anything that would indicate it was upgraded. It was not double boxed.......grrrrrr! I opened it up, sat it on the kitchen table and plugged it in to give it a quick check. Powered it up, held stop on the front panel and pressed 0 on the remote. I saw the codes with the 3s as Nick described so it should be current. The Disc Eject worked, much to my surprise, and it could read a DVD. So far, so good. It takes two people to move my entertainment center, so I won't get to hook it up until this weekend. I need to rearrange components anyway to make room for a second changer that I will probably get in early '04.

So all in all, I have to thank Kenwood for doing the right thing in the end, even though it took a very long time. And here's to hoping I won't have any unreadable disc problems.

Bob

bob, i think kenwood solved that problem with the new changers.

Anyone get SVCDs to work? I had a VCD working but the quality was horrible so I tried the SVCD. It does the same stuttering that folks on here compained about a while ago. Anyone get it to work?

Originally posted by Bob_422

So all in all, I have to thank Kenwood for doing the right thing in the end, even though it took a very long time. And here's to hoping I won't have any unreadable disc problems.

Bob

Bob:

I have noticed, of every DVD player I've seen, none is as finicky as the Kenwood changers, in that they do not forgive discs which have even a slight trace of streaks or smudge on them. Every unreadable disc problem I've had has been cured by cleaning off the play surface of the disc. However, these are discs that will play fine, without being cleaned off, in a different player.

You will appreciate the upgrade in disc change speed, as well as layer change. Other than that, it's the same changer (unless you're daisy chaining, which means it's a much different player).

Nick :cool:

Nick,

I have to say that after my kenwood was repaired and the new unit i bought, i haven't had a single unreadable disc error.

Quite the opposite, I have seen one disc that was badly scratched (netflix) get further on the kenwood than on the old trusty pioneer.

So I think Kenwood ironed out that problem. I don't even clean the netflix dvds anymore. Hopefully i haven't jinxed myself.

Derek,

With dvd burners so cheap now, I woud just buy one and author everything to DVD format. I think the 5900 for sure plays the -R format and can play some +R depending on the brand. Or vice versa.

Originally posted by DerekFSU
Anyone get SVCDs to work? I had a VCD working but the quality was horrible so I tried the SVCD. It does the same stuttering that folks on here compained about a while ago. Anyone get it to work?

Slocko, thanks for the buying tip but my trailor down here in Tallahassee ain't got no more room. Now how about those SVCD? It's a matter of principle.