kind of interesting. wonder if kenwood would take the entre down this road.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2003-10-21-stereo-downloads_x.htm

Yeah, hooking up iTunes or similar service directly to the Entre's hard drive would be pretty killer, if you ask me.

Just purchased this disk and popped it in to the 5900 mega changer and its giving me a reading of cannot play this type of disc. Huh.. Does somebody have any input..Thanks

Awwww, the Entre/5900 on steroids...

http://www.kaleidescape.com/flash.php

Originally posted by DerekFSU
Yes I have, by the famous Craig Miller out of California. The HD movies look good, but usually not so much over DVD that there is really a wow factor.

Had my set calibrated my Criag Miller as well. He did an outstanding job. Craig specializes in Mitsubishi rear projection TVs. So if you've got one and haven't had it calibrated yet, I would highly recommend that you get in touch with Craig. You won't regret it. By the way, he worked all day on my set and wouldn't even let me buy him and his wife lunch or dinner. In fact, I don't think he stopped working long enough to even eat a meal. Just shows how dedicated he is to his work.

Craig and Sue Miller
MG Home Theater Calibrations
(909) 519-2090
MGHomeTheater@earthlink.net

Here's an unusual one. I make a Video CD with just JPEGs and put it into the changer. It does a lookup and ID's it as the Cure's "Interview" CD. I got nothing but a black screen so I may have not done it correctly.

Originally posted by DerekFSU
Awwww, the Entre/5900 on steroids...

http://www.kaleidescape.com/flash.php


Looks great! Any guesses on the price of a server, reader, and a single movie player component? I think I'll fill out the dealer contact screen and see what other info they can give me.

Ken

Is the entre the only way to get inserted DVDS automatically updated with descriptions, etc. I will be running SDI out of the 5900M and I was wondering how I could use the entre with SDI.

Originally posted by proudx
Is the entre the only way to get inserted DVDS automatically updated with descriptions, etc. I will be running SDI out of the 5900M and I was wondering how I could use the entre with SDI.

I've often wondered the same thing, since the 5900 is supposedly amenable to a SDI output, at www.jvb.nl

There would be no need for SDI from the Entre, so the idea would be to connect your SDI-Modded 5900 to your scaler or projector, but go into the same unit with either an s-video or component pass-through from the player-to-the-Entre. I'm assuming that an SDI output would render one of these existing outputs useless (could be wrong, though), so you'd have to use the remaining output for the pass through. In other words, SDI where it counts (if it counts, which is another issue), but Entre usage nonetheless.

If you ever go past one changer, however, you now have another problem, i.e. daisy chaining. This requires not merely SDI outputs but inputs as well. That is the point when I quit thinking about it.

Nick :cool:

Does this machine have its own mind. Hard to believe.. but..
I took Shawshank Redemption out of the 5900 and put it in another dvd player..No problems..Put it back in the 5900. No problems. Found the cover art and ready to go.. I just dont understand it

The kaleidescape is approx 30K with EVERYTHING:)

Are the component video inputs and digital audio inputs on the 5900 for daisy chaining?

If not, what are they for?


Murray Kerdman

Originally posted by rbienstock
Mike,

If you have the component output set to 480p, does the s-video output still work?

Absolutely. I run progressive component into my 57HX81 via the VR-5900 receiver, s-video through the Entre into a Samsung 17" LCD for the Entre menu displays and to display video for DVD-Audio titles, and composite into the modulator for multi-room distribution. All will display simultaneously.

Mike

Murray,

Yes, the inputs on the DV-5900m are intended for use when daisy-chaining the units. I'm not sure of a way to activate them without having another changer connected (but I haven't really explored this possibility).

Mike

I was wondering if some of you more experienced Entre owners could enlighten me on the best method of using Media Manager to transfer mp3's ripped from CD to the PC over to the Entre??? I originally ended up to a point where I could not see the Entre's library at all from the PC, and have since done a factory reset and installed the latest update before adding anything to the Entre. My question is what is the best method to transfer over my mp3's? I ran into a problem after I transferred 3 cd's, one at a time where the 4th cd would start to synchronize and then suddenly stop and say 100% completed. The entre then said I had 44 tracks while it only listed 42. Any of you guys have a fool proof method to transfer them over? Thanks again for any information you may have.

Y2J

Y2J,

Create a CD-RW full of MP3s that are IDd properly by doing a "musicmatch" or similar tool on PC ahead of time. Pop the CD-RW into the Entre and rip away. I understand this is much more reliable than Media Manager.

Jon

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
I've often wondered the same thing, since the 5900 is supposedly amenable to a SDI output, at www.jvb.nl

There would be no need for SDI from the Entre, so the idea would be to connect your SDI-Modded 5900 to your scaler or projector, but go into the same unit with either an s-video or component pass-through from the player-to-the-Entre. I'm assuming that an SDI output would render one of these existing outputs useless (could be wrong, though), so you'd have to use the remaining output for the pass through. In other words, SDI where it counts (if it counts, which is another issue), but Entre usage nonetheless.

If you ever go past one changer, however, you now have another problem, i.e. daisy chaining. This requires not merely SDI outputs but inputs as well. That is the point when I quit thinking about it.

Nick :cool:

can anyone with the sdi mod verify if the svideo and component are still active after the SDI upgrade

This d@%& thing. I come home tonight and try to play a cd and it plays a different one other than the one I picked. The entre gives the right title the dvd player gives the right slot but it plays a different cd. Also every time I try to connect to the Internet to search for a title I have to reset the entre. SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME!!!!!

I had a similar problem and I was just as p!!@d. After a few days I figured out that the I had an empty slot in the DM5900. The Entre shifted about twenty DVDs. I would check for a empty slot or an "unreadable" disc.

No empty slot, no unreadable disc. Thanks for the reply. THIS D@#% THING!!!!!!

Originally posted by proudx
can anyone with the sdi mod verify if the svideo and component are still active after the SDI upgrade

The U.S. outpost of JVB is in Michigan, I think. When I've called there, the fellow is usually pretty helpful. I had two Pioneer DV-F727s modified to be all-region players, and I was very pleased with the results, and the turnaround time (very quick).

I would call JVB, they should be able to help. I don't believe I've ever seen any reports on this thread of anyone modifying the player.

Nick :cool:

Originally posted by vaha
This d@%& thing. I come home tonight and try to play a cd and it plays a different one other than the one I picked. The entre gives the right title the dvd player gives the right slot but it plays a different cd. Also every time I try to connect to the Internet to search for a title I have to reset the entre. SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME!!!!! Sorry for the trouble. That'd really P.O. me as well. I don't play CDs from my DV5900, however, I've had a similar strange thing with DVDs. Almost sounds like your DB is corrupted. Tech Support reminded me a while ago that a "lookup range" fixes problems like this. I realize you stated you had to reboot the Entre using the net but you may have been doing an individual lookup and not 'range lookup'.

Would be damn nice if they had implemented that backup/restore feature that appears to have been in the works. ( mentioned here (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=2816077#post2816077) )

Interstingly, a similar thing happens to me once in a while. But, for me, it's definitely not a database corruption issue. I believe it's a DV5900/Entre softare/hardware issue: The changer "misses" the slots once in a while and swaps locations of discs!

My 'corruptions' are always 1 disc away from being correct. And, on more than one occassion, the 5900M has shoved two discs into 1 slot. This is how I know that it's hardware/software, not DB corruption.

That said, what I'm experiencing may be different from what you guys are experiencing. So, you may have DB corruption, but if your problems are similar to mine, then consider this possibility as well.

The remedy? For me, it's all about being careful. Don't select a disc with the Entre as soon as you turn it on. Wait for the changer to go select the disc it wants to as soon as everything boots up. Once the disc is loaded and playing, then use the Entre to go select the disc you want to play.

It's a pain in the butt... and it's why I wish the changer didn't have the auto-play feature. One thing that I've done to mitigate this pain is to leave the changer ON 24/7. This creates its own set of issues, but at least I have less disc jams and less insertion errors.

I have never experienced the disk swap problem. But I leave the players and entre on 24/7.

Originally posted by JonDeutsch
Interstingly, a similar thing happens to me once in a while. But, for me, it's definitely not a database corruption issue. I believe it's a DV5900/Entre softare/hardware issue: The changer "misses" the slots once in a while and swaps locations of discs!

My 'corruptions' are always 1 disc away from being correct. And, on more than one occassion, the 5900M has shoved two discs into 1 slot. This is how I know that it's hardware/software, not DB corruption.

That said, what I'm experiencing may be different from what you guys are experiencing. So, you may have DB corruption, but if your problems are similar to mine, then consider this possibility as well.

The remedy? For me, it's all about being careful. Don't select a disc with the Entre as soon as you turn it on. Wait for the changer to go select the disc it wants to as soon as everything boots up. Once the disc is loaded and playing, then use the Entre to go select the disc you want to play.

It's a pain in the butt... and it's why I wish the changer didn't have the auto-play feature. One thing that I've done to mitigate this pain is to leave the changer ON 24/7. This creates its own set of issues, but at least I have less disc jams and less insertion errors.

you have to believe that this company will be sued. this must be the one from CEDIA. like i said before, they should have left the recorder out of it and just provide the storage, the ui, the database structure, and the lookup service. let the user rip the dvds and do the transfer.

it looks sweet though. i wish i had one.

Originally posted by Mr. Integration
The kaleidescape is approx 30K with EVERYTHING:)

I got that for the first time on one of my new changers. I think the problem will get worse with time. i've said this many times before, but here it is again :)

on the bright side, my repaired player has not shown this problem even once and it's the one that gets the most use cause it has all the kid movies.

Originally posted by Clingpeach
Just purchased this disk and popped it in to the 5900 mega changer and its giving me a reading of cannot play this type of disc. Huh.. Does somebody have any input..Thanks

JonDeutsch ,

What kind of issues are created by leaving the units on 24/7? Just curious, because that's my solution.

hm

Originally posted by JonDeutsch
Interstingly, a similar thing happens to me once in a while. But, for me, it's definitely not a database corruption issue. I believe it's a DV5900/Entre softare/hardware issue: The changer "misses" the slots once in a while and swaps locations of discs!

My 'corruptions' are always 1 disc away from being correct. And, on more than one occassion, the 5900M has shoved two discs into 1 slot. This is how I know that it's hardware/software, not DB corruption.

That said, what I'm experiencing may be different from what you guys are experiencing. So, you may have DB corruption, but if your problems are similar to mine, then consider this possibility as well.

The remedy? For me, it's all about being careful. Don't select a disc with the Entre as soon as you turn it on. Wait for the changer to go select the disc it wants to as soon as everything boots up. Once the disc is loaded and playing, then use the Entre to go select the disc you want to play.

It's a pain in the butt... and it's why I wish the changer didn't have the auto-play feature. One thing that I've done to mitigate this pain is to leave the changer ON 24/7. This creates its own set of issues, but at least I have less disc jams and less insertion errors.

Originally posted by slocko
you have to believe that this company will be sued.

Maybe. But have any of those companies that came out with DVD copying software been sued yet? None that I'm aware of.

No matter. By the time I had enough money saved up to buy a system like this there will be something even better available.

Yes, several of them have been sued. 321Studios pre-emptively asked the courts to decide if their product is legal or not.

No rulings have been issued yet.

You can follow the lawsuit at www.321studio.com

I also understand that makers of DVD X Copy have been sued and are waiting for a decision, in the mean time, they continue to sell the software.

Originally posted by hmatos
JonDeutsch ,

What kind of issues are created by leaving the units on 24/7? Just curious, because that's my solution.

hm

A couple of issues:

1. For some reason, the changer likes to start playing and changing discs, even if the Entre is off. I don't quite know why. I think it has to do with the state I leave the Entre in. But not sure.
2. The changer background screen is always ON. This creates a problem for me because I use the iScan Pro scaler with autosensing input circuitry. So, when in doubt, it feeds the changer video feed to my TV automatically. A pain in the butt sometimes... I need to turn it off to watch the VCR, for instance.

Originally posted by JonDeutsch
Interstingly, a similar thing happens to me once in a while. But, for me, it's definitely not a database corruption issue. I believe it's a DV5900/Entre softare/hardware issue: The changer "misses" the slots once in a while and swaps locations of discs!

My 'corruptions' are always 1 disc away from being correct. And, on more than one occassion, the 5900M has shoved two discs into 1 slot. This is how I know that it's hardware/software, not DB corruption.<snip> Corruption may have been too strong of word. Confusion may have been better.:rolleyes:

I experienced some "confusion" tonight as well. I took out a rental from slot 401 and replaced it with another disk. After closing the door the Entre thought I was just practicing or something. He still thought I had the 1st rental in slot 401. Solution was/is seems to be to remove the rental close the door, let it detect it is removed, open the door and put the 2nd rental in that same slot. This time it looks that new one up. I think it would also have been resolved by doing a look up range for 401 to 401.

vaha, did you resolve this? Short of removing all CDs, letting it detect that and putting them manually back in the changer. Had you tried look up range?

You are right Scott. The unit does a detection every time the door is opened/closed, but is looking for newly empty or newly filled slots as I understand it. I believe you could open it, rearrange all 403 dvds, and as long as it was not closed during the rearranging, the entre would not think anything changed.

that is why i promptly remove my netflix movies right after i watch them. i want the entre to clear them from memory. i also put my netflix movies in the rental slots as soon as i get them. that way they get looked up ahead of time. when time comes to watch them, they are already in there, ready to go.

Derek,

Just in case, did you have your tv calibrated specifically for HDTV? The calibrations are different for dvd and for HDTV. Maybe that is why you are not seeing a big difference? Granted the material has a lot to do with it also.

Yes, Craig spends 10-12 hours per tv and does everything. My HD looks phenomenal. It's only on HBO and Showtime that I usually find them to be "not all that much better" than DVD's.

Hey Guys,

Quick Question... I went out and purchased a VR5900. Now I have a 5050 DVD changer connected to the entre and entre to the vr5900. I like that I can control everything with the Entre's remote. I gotta get my PowerTouch 3 ready. One problem I am experiencing is that if I turn on/off either the entre or vr 5900, both turn on or off. This is great, but the 5050 stay on at all times. Is there a way to make the entre and vr5900 turn off the dvd changer as well? I know I might be able to do it as a macro in the PowerTouch, heck I was doing it on my ProntoPro. Since this is supposed to be a tightly integrated system, I would have imagined this functionality should be intuitive.

-NiteOwl

Hmm, mine is on a macro so I am not sure. I have then same situation as whenever I reset the entre, it turns to receiver off but not the changer.

last night i was re-reading the manual for the vr-5700 and it mentioned that you can connect kenwood products together with those miniplug things for better integration. for example, playing a cd will autmatically change the input on the reciever to the cd input.

i don't know if you connect the player to the receiver with that miniplug if it would turn it off or not.

I think mine does that now for when I choose "Entre" on my pronto, it switches to the CDR input on the receiver when the guide comes up. Is the miniplug a different idea?

The moment you play an mp3, the entre will switch the receiver to CDR, but it does that via the rs-232 cable. Same for power on/off and playing a DVD.

For some reason they didn't extend rs-232 control for power on and off for the dvd changer.

What I am talking about is similar, but it's achieved using the miniplulg connections. So if you didn't own the entre, but owned a kenwood receiver and cd player, you could have it change to the correct input. It probably even works with changer as well, without having the entre.

I am just no sure, if it includes power commands. Most likely not.

Guys,
The system control cable (miniplug), will not automate power to the DVD changer, There isn't a system control input on either the 5050M or the 5900M. The only input available on either changer is "Changer Control" from what I gather all this is, is an emitter extended into the changer. (Slocko) In addition to the stuff you read in the 5700 manual, The moment you decide to use your Sovereign receiver in a dual room, dual source environment, everything you read is out the window. The receiver will no longer control "Inputs" on the receiver, This will only work if you have the receiver set up for one zone. With the VR-5900 Kenwood also has what they call "Perfect Macro" This uses the "TV Power Sensor" input, available only on the VR-5900 of the Sovereign line. It checks to see if the TV is on before it sends the television's power command. (i.e., If the TV is on it omits the power command when sending the macro, If the TV is off it continues to send the TV's power command. This prevents the macro from accidentally turning the TV off when it is meant to be on or vice versa. The only problem with "Perfect Macro" is that it's not that perfect. I have tried to use the "PSS-TV" sensor. It seems to work about 50% of the time. Some times it sends commands not meant to be sent.

I have the changer hooked up with the miniplug (IR repeater) from the VR-5900. It does not make the changers turn off together with the Entre and Receiver. What it does do (that is kind of cool) is relay commands for the changer such as menu and arrows via the Powertouch's RF link.

I think macro is going to be the only way to do this. One thing I hate is that sending the power off command puts the changer in standby mode. You can't get it out of that mode manually without the remote. I for one do not leave my prontopro out for my kids to play with. Sooo I have to think this through... makes you think what Kenwood was thinking. ARGH!!

the 5900m hit a new low on ebay. there is a 3 day auction with the opening price for $120. Not damaged as far as the description goes.

also an entre for $400 opening price.

Is there any software out there that can act as the entre on say a pc and automatically create dvd titles and descriptions on the DV-5900.

I need something like this as if I do a sdi out of the 5900 the 5900 on screen display will be my only way to display the menus.

I take it I could not use an entres OSD with a sdi moded 5900.

Originally posted by proudx
Is there any software out there that can act as the entre on say a pc and automatically create dvd titles and descriptions on the DV-5900.

I need something like this as if I do a sdi out of the 5900 the 5900 on screen display will be my only way to display the menus.

I take it I could not use an entres OSD with a sdi moded 5900.

You don't have to display the Entre menus on the same device you use to display DVD output from the DV-5900m. I run the s-video out from the Entre into a Samsung LCD PC/TV display for the menus (I also run s-video from the DV-5900m to the Entre so I can see DVD-A menus without turning on the big TV. I run the component out from the DV-5900m to my display via the receiver. It is pretty nice to have the menus and information display available without stopping the movie, or to be able to browse through music without wondering if you're burning the menu images into your $$$ HDTV. I power the LCD display from one of the receiver's switched outlets so it comes on whenever the receiver is switched on.

You can obviously use any TV with an composite or s-video input to display the Entre menus - a cheap 13" TV would be fine. The LCD is nice because it takes up less space.

Mike

the 5900m hit a new low on ebay. there is a 3 day auction with the opening price for $120. Not damaged as far as the description goes.

I would be very wary about those auctions !! The seller has no "Feedback". When I originally started looking for my Sovereign components, I sucessfully won some auctions on E-Bay. A number of those winning bids turned out to be SCAMS. I won a VR-5900 for about $900, The guy said he was in NJ. When I asked where he wanted me to sent the money, he wanted a wire transfer to the Dominican Republic. I never sent him the money, but others did. I did receive an e-mail from the Postmaster General in NJ looking for any e-mails from him, that they could trace.. BE CAREFUL!!

DannyFresh... What you say is soooo true. I have noticed this trend as well.

If you notice the auctioner always wants a wire transfer, money order or a check. Even if they opt use Paypal, they will only take an eCheck. They do not want to use credit cards (ever!). BTW PayPal (which I think is a scam in itself), will make you opt of your CC protection if you use them via their service agreement. Its illegal for them to do that, but they think ppl are gullible. This happened to me once when I was going to purchase my Yamaha RX V3000. The person I was buying from was taking their sweet time... so I called Paypal. These jerks said, "all we can do is initiate an investigation." I responded, "Yeah right... I will just call BofA and tell them the situation (I used a BofA Visa CC not a check card -stay away from check cards too-) and was credited my $$$ back the same day. This pissed Paypal and they closed my account.

If the auctioner will not use CCs as a form of payment... bottomline don't pay them a cent. You have no protection using other payment methods.

my 2 cents

Night Owl,
I will only use Citibank. They have told me on a number of occasions, I am protected for 90 days from the date the charge is posted to my account. I have "Stopped Payment" using PayPal only once, and it wasn't a great deal of money. They did not close my account but issued me a so called warning !!!

i have to agree. on one of my auctions the winner didn't contact me right away. after trying to reach him, i noticed he had unregistered and that his email was from poland. this guy then figured out my name and looked up my phone number on the web and tried to convince me to ship him the item.

of course by this time i had already offered it to the second highest bidder and had shipped it out to him.

has anyone had their speakers calibrated using a sound meter and the instructions in the manual for the vr5700/5900?

it tells you to use 0 decibels as the reference point on the receiver. that's pretty loud. but i do admit, my speakers sound better after doing this poor man's calibration.

wow. a new low for the 5900m. 20 dollar opening price with no reserve.

slocko,

opening price doesn't have much to do with new lows, IMHO. It's just a sales strategy, not necessarily a reflection of value.

That said, I'm all for the lowering of value! I'd be nice to get another high-end mega changer at dirt-cheap prices, now that I can link 'em together.

true, but 20 dollars is pretty damn low for a product that on average sells between 800-900. i think it was only a 3 day auction too.

Does the Entre control more than one 5050 or 5900 changers now?

If so, does it do it reliably. What is the cheapest anyone has seen a 5050 and 5900 for?

-NiteOwl

unfortunately yes :D this caused me to buy a 2nd changer. Darn Kenwood for fixing the Entre!!!! When the entre was finally fixed with 2.0.0.8 a lot of us bought 2nd 5900s.

I can PM you the info on a New York dealer that sells the 5900 for $950 I think it was, plus shipping.

But I think Derek knows a dealer that can give it to you at cost or something like that. You might want to PM him.

I can't believe it, but I am now at the halfway mark on my 2nd 5900m. I never thought I would reach that mark so fast, but the 2nd Season of 24, plus the 4th Season of sopranos, Looney Tunes, Indian Jones have pushed up the count quickly.

Has anyone had their changer upgraded after that initial period several months ago? I'm sure I'll top the 300 mark after Christmas and may want to add a second changer.

Jason

i wouldn't buy any on ebay or unauthorized dealers simply because you won't know if they have been upgraded to work with 2.0.0.8 for mulitple changer support.

i think kenwood made sure to get all their dealers new stock that was upgraded. an authorized dealer might still have old stock.

Jason,

Someone here got it done after the free upgrade offer. I think it was $175. You might want to use the search box on top and search for upgrade.

Here's The Upgrade Form From Kenwood:

Let me get this straight... Kenwood advertises multiple changer support. It doesn't work until a few weeks ago. Now they want $175 to upgrade our changers?

Originally posted by NiteOwl
Let me get this straight... Kenwood advertises multiple changer support. It doesn't work until a few weeks ago. Now they want $175 to upgrade our changers? The short of it is...that's incorrect...mainly. They advertised it...we complained since day 2...little was done or mentioned except it is possibly being worked on...Nick started getting serious about making them answer one way or another (legal-wise)...hmmm - they then announced it...they gave free upgrades for a month (July?) or so after you just paid shipping. All new players have the upgrade or should...you can check this with the secret handshake...now they are charging $75+$35 shipping. See previous links form. We got other things beside multi-changer support...such as .5 second layer changer or less. I don't see it anymore.

good news. JVB digital has confirmed that adding the SDI output will not disable the other video outputs. I am going to be getting my new player modified "if the transaction goes though" and will let you know how it turns out. I am planning on using a pocketpc with dvd lobby and some plugins to control the thing.

Originally posted by proudx
good news. JVB digital has confirmed that adding the SDI output will not disable the other video outputs. I am going to be getting my new player modified "if the transaction goes though" and will let you know how it turns out. I am planning on using a pocketpc with dvd lobby and some plugins to control the thing.

I am very interested in what develops. Keep in mind that sdi may not be the end-all, be-all in dvd playback, at least as mentioned over in the video processor forum, dealing with the HD Leeza (which is a most confusing thread, inasmuch as you will read through pages and pages, and not realize whether Key Digital ever made a good or bad product), but it's certainly worth a try, so long as you have a scaler or pc that does justice to the sdi signal.

I'm assuming that you'll just use the sdi signal with the player, and not worry about the Entre unit.

Nick :cool:

I guess it was $75.00 plus shipping.

It took them almost 2 years to comply with their advertised claim of mulitple changer support.

I think most of that time was simply trying to decide if it was cheaper to be sued or attempt to comply.

By the way, DVDLobby no longer requires DVDProfiler. They finally have their own feed. Lookup happens via UPC. Still don't know if they were successful with multi-changer support.

Originally posted by NiteOwl
Let me get this straight... Kenwood advertises multiple changer support. It doesn't work until a few weeks ago. Now they want $175 to upgrade our changers?

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
I am very interested in what develops. Keep in mind that sdi may not be the end-all, be-all in dvd playback, at least as mentioned over in the video processor forum, dealing with the HD Leeza (which is a most confusing thread, inasmuch as you will read through pages and pages, and not realize whether Key Digital ever made a good or bad product), but it's certainly worth a try, so long as you have a scaler or pc that does justice to the sdi signal.

I'm assuming that you'll just use the sdi signal with the player, and not worry about the Entre unit.

Nick :cool:

well it is not just going sdi it is going sdi into a holograph3d II card and scaled and processed by the holographs fli2300 and output at 1440X960 or 1440X720 to my projector.

Originally posted by NiteOwl
Does the Entre control more than one 5050 or 5900 changers now?

If so, does it do it reliably. What is the cheapest anyone has seen a 5050 and 5900 for?

-NiteOwl

Hi Joe:

The control factor is very reliable. I've got three hooked up to each Entre, and not a failure yet.

For each set, there is one DV-5900, and two DV-5050s. The two main differences between the units are DVD-Audio and Faroudja processing--both are in the 5900, but not the 5050. However, if neither of these things are terribly important to you, then you've got the same machine in the 5050, which is far less expensive.

Nick :cool:

Thanks for the info Nick... unfortunately my only 5050m is version 1. I guess it has to go to Kenwood for an upgrade before I get another. Are these changers not upgradable via a cd/dvd?

Originally posted by NiteOwl
Thanks for the info Nick... unfortunately my only 5050m is version 1. I guess it has to go to Kenwood for an upgrade before I get another. Are these changers not upgradable via a cd/dvd?

Well, according to David Bott--by the way, David, where in tarnation have you been?--they were upgraded via a cd/dvd, but that they wouldn't release the disc. In any case, I don't know of anyone that got theirs upgraded without the hassle of boxing it up and sending it in.

Since you're in California, you could expect better turn-around time, and I'm betting that the competition to get them done is all but gone. If you're at or approaching the 400 disc point, however, you really don't have an alternative.

Besides, the Entre works super-cool with multiple changers. You will appreciate it. If you have decent 5.1 audio system, you may want to consider the DV-5900M for the DVD-Audio capability.

Good luck.

Nick :cool:

How does one check to see if it's(dvd changers) upgraded again?

Originally posted by Carbo
How does one check to see if it's(dvd changers) upgraded again?

Hold down the STOP button on the player and press 0 on the remote.

Bob

That is pretty lame of Kenwood to not let us upgrade our changers. Don't they realize the hassle of having to take the DVDs out, shipping this huge monster, having to pay them to do such a simple thing, put the DVDs back in, go through the ordeal of id'ing the tons of unknowns all over again...

Well I'll stop there... its best to not say anything if you have nothing good to say.

I think there was also a hardware modification, even though when i compared the two players, i didn't notice a difference.

Originally posted by NiteOwl
Well I'll stop there... its best to not say anything if you have nothing good to say.

If that were true we probably never would have been offered the upgrade. We have Nick to thank for that.

Ken

That and this thread would be less than 10 pages.

ROFL

You sure are right... Nick for President!

-NiteOwl

The beauty of this forum and this thread in particular is that we have had lots of things to jointly offer to others, who also happen to have purchased this product.

The contribution of people like Scott Fauque, Jose Sampo (NiteOwl), David Bott, Slocko and numerous others has made this a product much closer to its potential than what Kenwood was originally willing to relinquish. As for me, I'm just the Luca Brasi of the bunch. Yes, I was serious (to those who don't know the history . . . deadly serious . . . the complaint was being drafted for court), about making Kenwood deliver. But they have . . .

Now, the challenge is to the experts--Scott, Jose, others--to continue to take this to the next generation. Face it folks, we now have to approach Kenwood like they're the New York Yankees ("Why didn't you win the World Series, even though you've made the playoffs a thousand years in a row"?).

We are now in the position of the Six-Million Dollar Man: "The Technology is there." We know, from the ingenious efforts of Jose and Scott, that this can be taken to the next level. We also know that there's nothing--and I mean nothing even beginning to approach the setup we have. Our challenge is to let Kenwood know that we will tout these capabilities, with enthusiasm, so long as Kenwood doesn't stop in making this the product what it can and should be.

Do not let Kenwood rest. They have produced a special product, and we are in the position to be part of making it more special. Scott, Jose, Slocko, Heroildo, others, . . . the baton has been passed to you.

Nick :cool:

YEAH, I'm with him. Now... about that Media Manager...

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
Well, according to David Bott--by the way, David, where in tarnation have you been?--they were upgraded via a cd/dvd, but that they wouldn't release the disc. <snip> I'm confused since the "official" memo from Brian Towne stated "hardware" upgrade.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=2387807&highlight=hardware#post2387807

Link above shows memo that states hardware

Scott,

The software of the 5900m was updated via cd. But in addition to the software upgrade, I remember David saying it also involved a hardware modification. So you pretty much had to send it in.

Opened Media Manger and it would not connect to the entre. I had a switch installed before and it worked fine, but due to issues of having to reboot the entre after being turned off for several hours Kenwood suggested I install a router. I'm still having problems with the entre connecting to the net but it will do so if I reboot. Anyone have any suggestions as to why MM will not connect to the entre. Thanks Dave

Guys,

I created an MS Windows based MP3 player that connects to the Entre. The purpose was so I can listen to my music collection while working remotely. I have not tested it outside of the LAN yet. I am going to release it this evening for general testing. I was going to ask Kenwood permission first. But I have decided to not even pursue that angle. As I see it, when I was sold this setup I was deceived into thinking that the OpenGlobe portal would allow this functionality. That is water under the bridge... I am not bitter about that... as a matter of fact - I LOVE THIS SYSTEM... so much so that I have replaced all my other high end equipment for nothing but Kenwood products (5050m mega changer, 5900 receiver, 2 axcess units, powertouch III remote.. etc). I am even thinking about a 5900 mega changer.
Only question I have is this... can Kenwood do anything to me for releasing this product? As far as I see there are no hacks. It employs the same calls that MM uses to get information out of the Entre.
The name of the app is EntreMP3... is Entre trademarked? Should I rename the app and not have any references to Kenwood or Entre?

-NiteOwl

Originally posted by slocko
the 5900m hit a new low on ebay. there is a 3 day auction with the opening price for $120. Not damaged as far as the description goes.

also an entre for $400 opening price.

There is an upgraded 5050M now on Ebay as well.

Originally posted by NiteOwl
<snip>The name of the app is EntreMP3... is Entre trademarked? Should I rename the app and not have any references to Kenwood or Entre?<snip> 1) Their products name is called Entré (general translation meaning "Entred")and not Entre.
2) This (http://www.kenwoodusa.com/sovereign.jsp?section=3) provides the definition of the word : Entré (from Old French en.tree) (on-tra) noun a. The act of entering. b. The power, permission, or liberty to enter; admittance.
3) Neither that web page of theirs or this (http://www.kenwoodusa.com/product/product.jsp?productId=2357&productLineId=2) one describing the product shows trademark references.

You might consider removing the "Kenwood" name and symbol/graphic which are clearly theirs.

Guys,

Thanks for the valuable insight that you have provided. I am holding off release until I hear back from an intellectual property lawyer. Should be very soon. As a safeguard, I am stripping all references to Kenwood and Entre'. One feature I'd like to add in the near future is the ability to download music to modern mp3 players... Entre' supports too few, not to mention outdated, players.

In the meantime, I will get back to working on my current project... building an app that will allow us to edit our dvd collection, upload coverart, and sync with dvdprofiler. Since the two app are very similar, it shouldn't be long.

Side note... I installed the Escient Pipeline software. Why did they strip down Pipeline and call it MM... Wouldn't it be simplier to keep their code bases the same? Did Kenwood just not want more support calls... probably why they opted for a simplier app? Also NetNamer is useless for DVDs right?

Originally posted by NiteOwl
Also NetNamer is useless for DVDs right?

Not entirely. Even though NetNamer will give you a message about the disc being read not being the correct type or something like that, it will give you a screen with just two fields to enter text. Artist and Title. If it's a movie, just type in the Movie name in the Title box, copy, and save. It will then be stored in your changer's memory and display when selected. Works for musical DVDs and DVD-A discs as well and you can enter the Artist for those if you like.

Bob

It makes even less sense that one application will not manage both devices and the application don't seem to coexist on the same machine. I actually install/uninstall whenever I need to use one or the other.



Originally posted by NiteOwl
Guys,

Thanks for the valuable insight that you have provided. I am holding off release until I hear back from an intellectual property lawyer. Should be very soon. As a safeguard, I am stripping all references to Kenwood and Entre'. One feature I'd like to add in the near future is the ability to download music to modern mp3 players... Entre' supports too few, not to mention outdated, players.

In the meantime, I will get back to working on my current project... building an app that will allow us to edit our dvd collection, upload coverart, and sync with dvdprofiler. Since the two app are very similar, it shouldn't be long.

Side note... I installed the Escient Pipeline software. Why did they strip down Pipeline and call it MM... Wouldn't it be simplier to keep their code bases the same? Did Kenwood just not want more support calls... probably why they opted for a simplier app? Also NetNamer is useless for DVDs right?

Guys,

Does anyone have a contact at Kenwood, preferably legal? I would like to ask them permission to distribute the app. I heard back from a few people regarding legal issues, I got some pretty scary answers.

-Niteowl

In windows xp they added support for something called assemblies. they have private and shared assemblies. with assemblies you can put the clsid information that goes in the registry when you register a dll or an ocx into an xml file called the manifest.

Windows XP automatically looks for the manifest file when an executable is called and the activation context loaded. So any class id registry calls are redirected toward the manifest. It's a subset of .NET called win32 assemblies.

As you can see, this will allow you to create an application that is completely self sufficent in one directory and is an excellent way to resolve conflicting applications like Pipeline and MM. If you are interested I can try and get you the utility that creates the manifest files. However, you would have to know all the dlls and ocx that make up each application, including whatever it dumps into system32. So I don't know if you are willing to figure that out. The easisest way is to snaphot the installation.


Originally posted by hmatos
It makes even less sense that one application will not manage both devices and the application don't seem to coexist on the same machine. I actually install/uninstall whenever I need to use one or the other.

Another problem to overcome is the installer. If the Pipeline installer finds MM already installed it will only let you modify or remove that installation. I think they share a common set of files, because they always overwrite one another. Any ideas on this one?

Here is a thought when Pipeline is going through the unit discovery process, what id(s) is it looking for. I am sure that since the Entre has the Kenwood OEMname, it is filtered out. Though it does respond to the discovery command. Out of curiosity what oemname is the fireball? Escient?

Jose,

If you use a tool like winstall or wise, you can snapshot the installation of each one independently. That will give you all the files and registries that changed between the pre-snapshot and the post-snapshot.

You can then build your own installation for each one using a simple xcopy if you are able to generate valid manifests files for all the ocxs and dlls.

Thinking about it, you might not even need to use assemblies. I bet the dlls and ocxs used are the same and the only difference are hardcoded registry entries. If you snapshot each installation you will be able to see HKLM entries that probably make each application different. You can then setup a batchfile that prior to launching MM or Pipeline, deletes the relevant registry entries and imports the correpsonding ones.

Sounds like a challenge. If only I had the time.

Guys,

I have taken the questionable functionality out of the MP3 Player (being able to connect to the entre remotely). Understandably while the intention was good... it does loom the question of piracy. One would just have to pass out their ip address to share files. I didn't want to go there. Bottomline, the app ONLY works on a LAN. It will automatically scan for the unit (assuming 255.255.255.0 subnet mask) and connects to it automatically.

Here is a link to it: http://www.geocities.com/kenwoodentre/

If Kenwood has a problem with this. I would be more than happy to take it down. Same applies to the DVDedit app. The DVDedit app will be ready in a few days.

-NiteOwl

NiteOwl,

I'm getting a WMP error when clicking on an MP3 file in your app:

Windows Media Player cannot open. You may need to reboot to complete installation of a downloaded component. Please verify that the path and filename are correct and try again. (Error=800C0005)

I tried to reboot, but it didn't help. Any ideas?

Originally posted by JonDeutsch
NiteOwl,

I'm getting a WMP error when clicking on an MP3 file in your app:

Windows Media Player cannot open. You may need to reboot to complete installation of a downloaded component. Please verify that the path and filename are correct and try again. (Error=800C0005)

I tried to reboot, but it didn't help. Any ideas?

That error number would seem to indicate the file name / format given was not correct: see: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q234292

I'll try the latest version as all the betas worked for me.


It is working for me...but I installed into the same directory as the betas. Presumably you got your entire Artist/Album list OK then clicked on one and all of the correct MP3s shows up?

Unrelated tip. Begin your playlist names with an '*' to make them float to the top. He may add the sort "playlist" automatically in the future so this would not be necessary and you could rename them back. My thinking was that I could use playlist to listen to a set of songs (< 200).

I may create an auto MS player native playlist in the future (i.e. *.WPL files). *.WPL are powerful "XML" files I've mentioned in past post.

Originally posted by NiteOwl
<snip>I have taken the questionable functionality out of the MP3 Player (being able to connect to the entre remotely).<snip> I don't get why you removed the Media Player Bar....wait...

...you didn't.

Right click on an artist and then choose from the pop up menu to display it.

I gather that you guys don't have the same mp3s you put on the entre on your computer?

Just making sure I am not misunderstanding the use of the app. This app is so you can play mp3s from your entre that you don't have already ripped on your computer right?

Thanks for the tip on the "show media player bar"

That helps me -- a little. I click on the MP3 from the list, and the MP3 file ends up in my "track" list (along with the time next to it). But, that play icon on the player bar never enables... it's always shadowed.

Weird.

Also, are there other purposes for this app? I wonder why all of my CD media show up in the list if it's not playable via my computer? Is this just a limitation of the ability to specifically parse out unplayable tracks?

NiteOwl... this is very cool... I am seeing potential for all kinds of great applications now that you've connected my PC to my Entre (who cares if it doesn't work for me! I still think it's great).

I'd love to see an app that let me search all the tracks by keyword, and then click on a resulting track in the results list and tell the Entre to play that track (be it MP3, CD, or whatever) on my home theater.

I always thought that that was a killer feature that they left out of the UI. Now we can have it!

Originally posted by slocko
I gather that you guys don't have the same mp3s you put on the entre on your computer? Just making sure I am not misunderstanding the use of the app. This app is so you can play mp3s from your entre that you don't have already ripped on your computer right? I think NiteOwl wanted to play his MP3s on the Entre remotely (outside of his house). See his previous post about that, however. Also:

a) allows you to utilized the playlist that you created on the Entre (directly or via Media Manager)
b) if you don't have those MP3s ripped on your PC (or other PCs on your lan) but only did it using the Entre's Transport. For most they have the MP3s on their PC because that is where they ripped them OR because they backed the ones up from the Entre to their PC. So these people use MS Player or their fav to play their MP3s.

Sorry,

I should have posted a tutorial.

Here is how you get the tracks to play:

After your albums are displayed on the upper list, double click on any album. Wait a sec.. sometimes you have to wait a little longer... Then you will see the tracks populated in the lower list.

Double click on the track you want to hear. It should start to play. When it begins to play you should see the coverart (if any is available) and the elapse time.

You can also right click on the upper list and un/check HIDE MEDIA PLAYER BAR to toggle its display.

The purpose for this app, was so I could play my MP3 collection remotely (ie. from work.) I wanted to release it with the option of specifying an ip address. But to make a long story short, issues prevented me from doing so.

I understand many people have their MP3 collection on their PCs as well. I, for one, do not. I prefer to listen to them on my through the Entre. They sound so much better there than on my PCs little tin box speakers. There are times, when I just can't listen to them via the Entre. For example like at night when my kids are asleep and I'm up late coding. I prefer this setup because it also frees my pc's hard drive of redundant copies of the same music.

-NiteOwl

Guys,

I'm sorry that I forgot to parse out the physical CD entries. Since I don't have CDs in my changer, I totally forgot about that issue. I will get this resolved after I am done with the DVD editting app.

-NiteOwl

Thanks NO!

I've been absent awhile and don't remember seeing if there is way to get a list of the DVDs in the 5900. Media Manager is ok for CDs, but no help for DVDs. I did a search on the forum and found nothing. Help?

Night Owl,

I'm having the same problems as Jon - error message indicating WMP can't start. System is an HP 873n MCE PC with WMP 9. Any ideas?

Thanks for making this available,

Mike

Guys,

What settings are you using for the Enhancer and DCDi on the 5900M? On a large number of my DVDs the FBI warning is on a black background with "WARNING" spelled out in large red letters. I'm getting a smearing effect on these large red letters and I was wondering if the Enhancer or DCDi settings had anything to do with it.

Thanks,

Ken


BTW, my current settings: Enhancer is at +1 and DCDi is turned on. My 5900M is set to progressive and connected via component cables to a Denon 5803 Receiver and from there connected via component cables to a Mitsubishi 65908 RPTV.

Originally posted by K_Thompson
Guys,

What settings are you using for the Enhancer and DCDi on the 5900M? On a large number of my DVDs the FBI warning is on a black background with "WARNING" spelled out in large red letters. I'm getting a smearing effect on these large red letters and I was wondering if the Enhancer or DCDi settings had anything to do with it.

Thanks,

Ken


BTW, my current settings: Enhancer is at +1 and DCDi is turned on.

On my 5900M connected to a Samsung HLN567W DLP via component and set to progressive.....I turned Enhancement off and left DCDi on. The effect was very easy to see on the sharpness patterns on DVE and Avia. Now all lines and text are very clear and sharp without any extra edge artifacts, smearing, or blurring.

My .02 worth.

Bob

Anyone else having problems downloading coverart?

Since it can't identify my new releases, I really can't tell if it is having problems downloading cover art. I burned a 3 cds and had no problems looking up cover art.

A weird problem happened last night. The entre kept going into Open Globe Menu by itself. I would start a movie and all of a sudden it would switch back to the entre and into Open Globe. I would exit and 2 seconds later it was back in Open Globe.

I made sure the remote didn't have the button stuck by mistake. Had to reboot it to make it stop.

I am having the same problem with downloading cover art. Glad to see (not for everyone else, however) that it was not just a problem on my end. Our DV-5900M died for the second time and Kenwood replaced it. We just got a new one back this week.

Same here. Cover art for Lion King didn't come down.

Anyone else getting this problem? WARNING! If you try to update, it will clear your current list of internet radio stations.

No Lion King cover art . . . however . . .

We have the technology.

Nick :cool:

Im pretty upset..Ive been playing my entre and 5900 for some months now without too many hassles.. Now all of a sudden I keep getting disc errors sayiing that this type of disc cannot be played. Now its saying it on most of my dvds.. Whats going on can someone help. Im now trying to reboot for the umpteenth time

Originally posted by SammyB
Anyone else getting this problem? WARNING! If you try to update, it will clear your current list of internet radio stations.

This is normal. It's going to tell you that everytime you update your software or evertime you update your radio stations.

sorry Clingpeach. I know people don't believe me, but most unreadable disc errors just get worse until they reach the stage you are at.

just take a deep breath and start looking up service centers. go to www.kenwoodusa.com and if you are lucky there is going to be one you can drive to. you are going to need a copy of your purchase receipt to validate the 2 year warranty.

The Service Centre in my area is awful..They couldnt handle anything the last time and I had to send it back to California I think..Does anybody have the contact details of the California Office there. Im pretty desperate

my service center in NJ is excellent. If you are interested i can give you the info and you can call them. they repaired my 5900 and i haven't had one single unreadable disc error yet. it's been probably 6 months since it was repaired. it works better than when it was new.

they stock all the parts and they turned it around in less than 5 days.

Thanks Slocko I would love it....

Whatever you do, DO NOT SEND TO THE VIRGINIA BEACH service center. They are HORRIBLE!

As is the Hartsdale, NY Center..will wait on Slocko to answer me to send it to the NJ branch

what a poor service search engine.

i was putting in my full address and was not gettting hits for national service centers. so finally i decided to just put in my zip code and it pulled up the service center.

Kenwood Svc Ctr, Atlantic
400 Morris Ave Ste 102
Denville, NJ 07834-1362
(973) 586-3999

if you have the eject problem, make sure you tell them. they glued mine and it is working great. on my new player it stopped working. so unless it's glued, that spring manages to pop loose somehow.

My unit went back to CA (from Miami) for replacement. Like Slocko said, once the read error starts it only gets worse. I sent to the CA center for the level three upgrade, than back for the read error and it still was not reading. I have now been waiting for the replacement unit for two weeks. Hope it gets shipped soon.

Hmmm . . . I've just gotten a few read errors over the past few weeks. They've occurred before, but I'm not liking what I'm reading.

Now to the Quick Lookup question. Has anyone had any luck with this Entre feature, with regard to newly loaded discs? If I add, say, three or four new discs, the Quick Lookup will usually display some message like "thirty discs to lookup" and then quickly perform "lookup" duty on discs that have already been added. Then it ignores the new ones.

I usually have to do Lookup Range (or whatever it's called) to guarantee I'm adding new discs. Of course, lately OpenGlobe has been slow to react to new titles (Terminator 3, Sopranos 4th Season, etc.).

Nick :cool:

I got the unreadeable disc error once on my new player. So I am pretty pessimistic on the outcome long term. It also depends on the amount of use you give the player. So if you have the defect, but don't do much movie watching on the player, then it will take a very long time for it to get progressively worse.

Quick Lookup as I understand only does lookups based on the information it has stored on dvds it has looked up in the past, but not found a match. So basically unknown dvds. Even if you type in your own information, it still treats is as an unknown and does a quick lookup based on whatever it has cached the very first time you inserted the disc and it did the lookup.

However, it doesn't seem to work very well. Nemo was an example. The quick lookup did not pick up the fact that it had been added to the database. I had to do a manual search to find the title. That is annoying. But on the other hand, "24 hours 2nd Season" and "Indiana Jones Trigoloy" was found by quick lookup about two weeks after being released. Lion King is another example of having to do a manual search.

Lookup Range will look them up from scratch, so that is probably the safest method to use. Then again, I am not sure if that would have found Nemo and Lion King.

Can someone verify if they found Lion King or Nemo without doing a manual search?

Nemo was found automatically when i put in the cd..
Slocko I have a question..Im wondering whether the Entre is at fault for not reading the disc and not the 5900.. could that be a possibility and we are perhaps looking at the wrong piece of equipment. Just a thought

My 5900 became un-useable before I ever hooked up the entre. It was only when they added multi-changer support that I brought out my entre from the basement and bought a second changer and ditched the Pioneer jukebox.

Interesting. So it found Nemo on it's own. It sounds like quick lookup doesn't work for all titles in the database. So lookup range is the best alternative to make sure all titles in the database are found once it's updated.

I had forgotten about lookup range. I guess I will do that from now on.

Originally posted by Clingpeach
Nemo was found automatically when i put in the cd..
Slocko I have a question..Im wondering whether the Entre is at fault for not reading the disc and not the 5900.. could that be a possibility and we are perhaps looking at the wrong piece of equipment. Just a thought Adele,

There are two different issues, that have only one thing in common, which is that they are described in two words, the second of which is "disk" and the first of which begins with a "u". A lot of people here get tehm confused, but they are really quite different. "Unknown Disk" is what happens when the Entre is unable to identify a disk in its online database, and so you get no cover art or details about the disk. But the disk still plays normally in the changer. This is purely an Entre issue (well OpenGlobe actually, but it applies only to the Entre). "Unreadable Disk" is something entirely different. Here, what happens is that you tell the changer to load the disk and the "reading" message displays for a very long time and eventually times out, then the changer flips the disk thinking that perhaps you loaded it backwards. It will then try to read the other side of the disk, and when that fails will display "unreadable disk." This is a problem with the loading mechanism of the changer, and as Slocko indicated, gets worse over time. Some unreadable disks have little burrs on the edge and I have had moderate success with filing those burrs down with an emery board. The Sovereign players are quite complex mechanically (the disk turntable does a lot of moving around as well as spinning). I am convinced that the unreadable disk message occurs because something is getting caught and the disk is actually not spinning. But what a real fix is is anybody's guess.

You guys are great in helping me understand things..Thanks so much for helping me out here

Has anyone tried to use any Asian versions of DVD's in thier 5900m. I was wondering if they would play or not???? There some movies that are out of print but are available packed with chinese lettering on the box Any Help???

Does anyone know how you can completely clear the memory of a 5900? Like a full factory reset? Thanks.

-apnar

i don't know off the top of my head, but it's in the manual. Scott also posted another type of reset that is not in the manual.

it only plays region 1 dvds. so i doubt they would play. you can make it region free. i think www.jvb.com does it.

Originally posted by slocko
i don't know off the top of my head, but it's in the manual. Scott also posted another type of reset that is not in the manual.

Thanks, I found it in the manual. Have to hold down User File while powering on, then power off and on again, the machine starts up in standby and lastly you have to hit play. Seemed to do the trick.

-apnar

I'm not sure I completely understand the announcement, but I think that it means that any thread started before 1/1/03 will get archived even if it is still getting active posts. That means that this thread is a candidate for the archive. Should we create a new thread to continue the conversation in the active forum?

All,

My uncle (who I do all his home theater work for) has given up on the Kenwood system and asked me to sell it all. There is an Entre, 2 new (came upgraded) 5900s and 2 older (non-upgraded) 5900s (he had 2 originally didn't want to send them in for upgrades, so bought two new ones). I'm going to keep the Entre and one newer 5900 for myself and sell the other 3 5900s. I figured I'd offer them up to you guys first before heading over to ebay.

He didn't report any "unreadable disk" errors on any of the units, and I've test played a few disks in each myself and they all worked perfectly. All are in pretty much perfect physical condition. Here are the details of the units, version listed is the first thing show doing the Stop - 0 on the remote:

Serial: 109000XX
Version: M 1-0809-03
Eject Works

Serial: 207004XX
Version: M 2-0110-01
Eject is Broken

Serial: 307000XX
Version: M 3-0515-01
Eject Works

If anyone is interested, drop me a PM or email (apnar at botch.com). Thanks.

-apnar

Originally posted by David Bott
When this is complete, the main "LIVE" AVS Forum site will contain only threads that have been posted to since January 1st, 2003. All older threads/posts will have been moved into a READ ONLY archive. A link to the archive will be on the main site so the data can still be referenced in this new archive.
I beleive that the key phrase is: "the main LIVE AVS Forum site will contain only threads that have been POSTED TO since January 1st, 2003." I think that this thread will be alive and well after the archive.

DISCLAIMER:
Parsing other peoples statements is NOT an exact science... your mileage may vary.

Guys, I have seen so refurbed changers on ebay. They state they are version 2.00, via the kenwood upgrade. Thay say the have multi changer support when using an Entre. I seem to remember Robert stating that after the upgrade offered bu KW, the changer was a version 3.00 changer. What gives, and will they support multiple changers. I was hoping to pick up a 5050 for my music cd collection.

i think they are just saying it's 2nd generation.

Originally posted by slocko
it only plays region 1 dvds. so i doubt they would play. you can make it region free. i think www.jvb.com does it.

It's www.jvb.nl Slocko. Never heard of "nl" before, but that's how you get there.

Nick :cool:

.nl is the internet country code for The Netherlands, which is were I believe the company was originally based before opening an additional location in Michigan.

Guys,

I am pleased to finally make available the DVDedit application I promised a few weeks ago. It is still missing the ability to to upload coverart. I hope to make that available before 12/15. I have been working on the ability to sync with DVDProfiler, but there are a few issues that need to be resolved.

Here is the link to the app:
http://www.geocities.com/kenwoodentre


Known issue(s):
1) Sometimes the app hangs when requesting DVD information. Simply restart the app. I don't think the request even makes it out. Have to diagnose the cause.

-NiteOwl

Thanks NiteOwl. I look forward to trying this out tonight.

Guys,
I forgot to add an important feature that Scott requested before I packaged this version. The feature requested was that of displaying the changer and slot number for the dvds. I completely forgot about this. I will upload another new installer for those that haven't download the other version. A separate exe file will also be there so the people that downloaded the other 3.5mb installer don't have to do that again. Just overwrite the old exe file.

-NiteOwl

After sending my Entre in due to a bad upgrade, apparently 2.0 upgrade killed my Entre, I have given up on it. The thing came back with the S-Video all screwed up and out of sync. Sent it back. Guess what it comes back with the S-Video all screwed up. So after months of wasted time I have a changer with still no working controller.

Anyone have any good ideas for a PC based solution? For example does DVD Lobby control a DV-5900M. Or does anyone know where I can get my hands on the protocol for the DV-5900M. I'll write my own.

One very pissed customer and Home Automation programmer. This has already cost Kenwood the sale of 6 changers and 3 controllers. I had my largest installation client order the new Video Request controllers and Sony changers. Just wished the Video Request would control the DV-5900M.

Rabi

DVD Lobby does control the 5900, but I don't know if they ever got past beta on controlling them directly via serial control. Definetley doable via slinke though.

Drop Mario a line at cinemar. I'm sure those guys will get back to you quickly.

Just keep in mind that a pc solution will require a lot of investment in time and configuration and tweaking.

i'm keeping my eye on the Roku. Once it can reliable play VOBs over the network, I will probably prefer that over a HTPC. There is also another device called the Telly that looks promising. Of course, these solutions required that you backup everything to the hard drive.

Slocko-

I am looking at the same two products. Have you looked into MythTV at all? The picture of the UI on their web site look amazing, but I no nothin gabout setting up a Linux box (nor do I have time to find out..) so that may not be the solution to replace my Entre until it is earier to set-up. That is what the Roku seems so much like a good possibility. The thing I really love about the Myth UI is on the DVD page, you can choose to play a disc or rip it to HD (even with settting for the ripping) right from the GUI (and in a wife freindly way!) http://www.mythtv.org/modules.php?name=MythFeatures
Wish I knew someone who built and sold boxes based on this concept. I would love an open source "Entre" that could play .VOB ripped DVDs, .TS hi-def content (or even capture it with a PCI tuner card like the MyHD I have) and files extracted from my TiVo. That would be the ultimate!

Thanks Slacko, I will check them out. I have no problem with tweak, configuring or programming. I wrote a propriatary automation system for a company this last couple of years. I just want something that is going to work. The sad thing is that I did not have any problems until this last upgrade.

if you are willing to put in the time, then building a HTPC is for you. There is this guy called Orbitz who replaced the windows xp shell with DVDLOBBY. If you optimize windows XP so only the necessary services load, you can speed up boot time. He turned his HTPC into a set top box. You can also control the whole thing from a pocketpc.

With DVDLobby you can have it play a movie that is either in the 5900, your hard drive, or from the dvd drive on the computer. The graphics are outstanding. They now added support for movie lookup. so you dont' have to use dvd profiler if you dont' want to. it has it's own look up engine.

I am finally getting my PC Case delivered in two weeks. This is probably the best looking PC Case out there if you are interested:

http://www.atechfabrication.com/products/HTPC_case.htm

If you don't want to wait for it or don't want to spend as much:

http://www.crtcinema.com/store/?page=shop/v2flypage&product_id=181&category_id=fe706219eb37fb03f87e663333f82fb7

I have this case, but never did anything with it (decided to wait on the atech). If you like it, I can give you a good deal on it.

I am not looking forward to building my HTPC. The Roku looks very promising but it might be a few months before they have VOB support.

Here is another one that also looks promising. Not in the US, but soon:

http://www.neuston.com/en/mc500.asp

Here is the Telly, but it doesn't have high res output.

http://interact-tv.com/digitalvideos.php

So finally we have some products that are addressing this niche. Digital playback through high resolution outputs.

In a year or two we will probably have access to an incredible product that costs under $500.

Night Owl,
I just downloaded and installed DVDedit. This is awesome, can't wait for the cover art feature......

Originally posted by NiteOwl
Guys,

I am pleased to finally make available the DVDedit application I promised a few weeks ago. It is still missing the ability to to upload coverart. I hope to make that available before 12/15. I have been working on the ability to sync with DVDProfiler, but there are a few issues that need to be resolved.

Here is the link to the app:
http://www.geocities.com/kenwoodentre


Known issue(s):
1) Sometimes the app hangs when requesting DVD information. Simply restart the app. I don't think the request even makes it out. Have to diagnose the cause.

-NiteOwl I'm having two problems: (1) I don't get a complete list of the disks on my Entre. I get a variable number, sometimes ending with "E" and some times ending with "G". (2) If I click on any title, I get the following message: Run-time error '-2147220514 (800403e8)' An error occurred calling InternetOpenUrl function. Clicking OK closes the program.

Robert,

That is caused by fragmentation in the data packets coming from the Entre. I am trying to resolve that, it just doesn't happen consistently for me. Sometimes it happens two or three times in a row other times it doesn't happen for days. I suggest running the app a couple of times... If it fails consistantly, forward me the specs of your network and the two XML files in the install directory (dvds.xml & dvdinfo.xml).

-NiteOwl

Joe:

Very cool, and hats off, thanks, thanks, thanks, but . . .

1. I'm having the same problem Robert does, i.e., I only get the first half of my discs listed (A-L).

2. Despite the fact that the Entre FTP program "recognizes" both Entres, even when I choose "Movies" Entre, I still get pulled up the "Music Entre" list, which is far less DVDs (just DVD-Audios and some stray Music DVDs). The only way I was able to pull up the truncated list from my "Movies" Entre was to reboot the Music Entre, then make sure I ran the DVDEdit program--that was the first time I pulled up the list of "Movies"--abridged as it was.

Do you still have two Entres? Let me know if you want me to do anything "special" by way of beta testing with my two.

P.S. I should be receiving an Escient DVD M-100 soon, so let me know if there's anything you want me to try in that regard.

Thanks for all your great work.

Nick :cool:

Thanks to Jill at Kenwood, I have received a new 5900m in exchange for my 5900m that had the "unreadable disk error" bug. I will be installing it in my system this weekend, in between turkey and cranberry sauce.

Any chance that this is what afflicts MM??????????

Originally posted by NiteOwl
Robert,

That is caused by fragmentation in the data packets coming from the Entre. I am trying to resolve that, it just doesn't happen consistently for me. Sometimes it happens two or three times in a row other times it doesn't happen for days. I suggest running the app a couple of times... If it fails consistantly, forward me the specs of your network and the two XML files in the install directory (dvds.xml & dvdinfo.xml).

-NiteOwl

Nick,

I will add the code to allow you select which Entre you want. I will also look further into the fragmentation issue.

Robert,

I'm wondering if you might have multiple Entre/Fireball units as well.

-NiteOwl

Originally posted by NiteOwl
Nick,
I will add the code to allow you select which Entre you want. I will also look further into the fragmentation issue.

Robert,
I'm wondering if you might have multiple Entre/Fireball units as well.
-NiteOwl Related to multiple 5900s or to the number of DVDs...thinking out loud.

Originally posted by NiteOwl
Robert,

I'm wondering if you might have multiple Entre/Fireball units as well. No, just one.

I conducted a search in this thread and I wasn't getting any hits so maybe my search terms were incorrect....

I loaded 10 DVD's into my 5900 and the Entre "recognized" 9 (by recognized I mean that if the cover art wasn't available such as LOTR-TT Disc 3 & 4)I at least got an "unknown" listing on my Entre). What's perplexing is the following:

a) In slot #87, "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" is missing and nowhere in the Entre is their an "unknown" assigned to slot 87. If I manually enter, via remote, to play disc 87, the disc will play. Essentially slot 87 is missing completely in the Entre directory.

Question - (This sounds like the missing 261 slot (or whatever) problem)How can I have the Entre recognize and fill slot 87? I've done a "look up this disc" and the Entre immediately reverts back to its original, incorrect, title listings with nothing new in the "Unknown" area.

b) My DVD-A disc "Buena Vista Social Club" was reassigned a completely new and wrong title, downloading art work and everything. This disc has been in the system for well over a year!

Question - Should I just perform a "look up this disc" search? Anyone else have the Entre reassign titles incorrectly?

Thanks

Flavorguy

try lookup range and use 87 as the starting and ending point.

lookup range is under setup, changer management.

you can also try removing disc 87 along with another disc. wait for the entre to do it's automatic lookup, and then reinsert them.

Great suggestions Slocko - I'll give them a try sometime over the next few days...

I wish I was smart enough to follow your threads about MP3 management. Right now I'm using the entre just for DVD management and playback and I know that it can do more... the ripping thing and MP3 stuff is just too hard for me to handle at this juncture...:p

Night Owl,

Your proggie really does the trick, I have noticed though, when you make changes. Sometimes new catogories are created on the Entre. Not a big deal I usually just delete them. When will the cover art version be available??

Originally posted by flavorguy
I conducted a search in this thread and I wasn't getting any hits so maybe my search terms were incorrect....

I loaded 10 DVD's into my 5900 and the Entre "recognized" 9 (by recognized I mean that if the cover art wasn't available such as LOTR-TT Disc 3 & 4)I at least got an "unknown" listing on my Entre). What's perplexing is the following:

a) In slot #87, "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" is missing and nowhere in the Entre is their an "unknown" assigned to slot 87. If I manually enter, via remote, to play disc 87, the disc will play. Essentially slot 87 is missing completely in the Entre directory.

Question - (This sounds like the missing 261 slot (or whatever) problem)How can I have the Entre recognize and fill slot 87? I've done a "look up this disc" and the Entre immediately reverts back to its original, incorrect, title listings with nothing new in the "Unknown" area.

b) My DVD-A disc "Buena Vista Social Club" was reassigned a completely new and wrong title, downloading art work and everything. This disc has been in the system for well over a year!

Question - Should I just perform a "look up this disc" search? Anyone else have the Entre reassign titles incorrectly?

Thanks

Flavorguy

Try taking the disc out altogether. Then reset the 5900 (hold down the power button on the changer, and the "user file" button at the same time, then power back on--it will re-initialize), so that the Entre and the Changer now look at slot 87 as empty.

Once that's done, re-insert the disc. Then do a range lookup of 87 to 87 in your changer. That should get it done, unless you've found a new disc 255 problem.

Nick :cool:

Danny,

Entre categories are listed as "Genre" on my form. You might want to make sure that you are not specifying a new category/genre. I will pay more attention to this... though I have not noticed new ones being created, without me selecting a new one from the pull down.

I'll try to get the coverart feature done by 12/15...

Thanks,
NiteOwl

FYI...

Robert is testing a new version for me. It fixes the fragmentation issue some are having. I think, as Scott has suggested, that most of the people with multiple changers were experiencing the incomplete DVD list (fragmentation).

-NiteOwl

Originally posted by NiteOwl
Robert is testing a new version for me. It fixes the fragmentation issue some are having. I think, as Scott has suggested, that most of the people with multiple changers were experiencing the incomplete DVD list (fragmentation). Interestingly, I saw this message here before I even got your e-mail. It may fix the logon issue (i.e., it worked right off the bat without having to be closed and restarted to get it to see any CDs) but it only displayed the first 112 of my 500 disks. Also, the logon issue isn't perfectly fixed, because when I tryed re-running it, I didn't get the list and had to close it and restart a few times to get the list back.

Also, I still can't actually edit a disk (because of the runtime error I wrote you about). The addition of disk numbering is a nice touch, by the way.

Jose,

Any chance you can figure out how groups work and gives us a way to quickly edit groups?

right now the entre gui for setting up and organizing groups is a pain in the arse. instead of listing all the dvds in a group first, it lists them alphabetically when you go into edit mode. so if i want to quickly edit my unwatched group to remove movies i have watched already, i have to scroll through 600 discs looking for checkmarks to see if i need to remove the dvd from the group.

does anyone know why sometimes when you press guide it automatically begins playing the movie highlighted in the guide or song?

this really screws up my macros. i have had to remove the guide key from the sequence.

Originally posted by slocko
does anyone know why sometimes when you press guide it automatically begins playing the movie highlighted in the guide or song?

this really screws up my macros. i have had to remove the guide key from the sequence.

Hmm, a problem I actually "don't" have. When something is already playing (music), it will toggle between guide and cover art but that's it. It doesn't do anything on the movie screen. Why would you hit guide if you are already in it?

maybe i'm doing something wrong.

this problem only happens when i am left on the kenwood 5900 screen after hitting stop on a dvd. pressing guide doesn't alway take me back. sometimes it just plays the movie again.
it seems to be a pass through problem.

Night Owl,
When I said it creates new catagories, I don't mean totally new ones. I adds another custom catagory of one that has already been added for example: I have created a catagory with all childrens titles called "Childrens Movies" after transmitting the updated info using your proggy, I I'll get an additional catagory something like "Childrens Movies $%()#)" I can delete it with no problem though. The original catagory "Childrens Movies" stays intact.

Danny,

Ahhh OK I totally misunderstood. Let me look into that. Off hand, I can tell you I have not noticed that. When I move a title to a new category, for example from Adventure (which exists with multiple titles) to Western (which doesn't exist) - the Western category is created with only the new title as expected.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone... I'm off to my folks home for a few days... Hope you all have a great holiday and long weekend.

-NiteOwl

I used Slocko's suggestion of having the Entre look up a range - beginning and ending with my missing disc. This worked .. thanks

Still not seeing anything regarding LOTR-TT Disc 3&4 although disc 1&2 loaded up with the correct cover art work...

Has anyone been having problems with the Internet radio stations? I don't usually listen much but I just noticed that some of the Sirius stations aren't working. I downloaded the new radio list to make sure that I had the latest stuff but no change.

Did I miss and announcement? I use to listen to the some of the Sirius stations a while ago and I haven't been using the single Axcess unit I have.

I'm posting this on the Technical Discussion Thread, and the General Thread, for hopes that a lifeline will be sent.

Back before Joe's DVDEdit arrived, I made a mistake in editing some disc information. I revised an xml file to include actors, descriptive information, etc., but mistakenly just copied the same xml file for all 4 discs (Sopranos 4th Season). The result was that 4 discs appeared in the Entre guide as being in slot 60. To make it worse, not one of them was in slot 60, as that slot was occupied by a prior season's disc of the Sopranos (which I copied a lot of the information from).

I first emptied the Changer of the discs, reinserted them, and tried a disc lookup. What ultimately happened is that Sopranos Season 4 did appear on the Entre in the right slots (I had to FTP cover art), but the "old" season 4 remained, all being depicted as if they occupied slot 60.

What I then did (and am now going to undo, but it will still leave the problem), was to identify the xml files of the "ghost" DVDs, and to delete those files. Well, that made matters worse. What now appears in the Entre Guide is the remaining "ghost" DVDs, with no slot identified, and no cover art. It simply indicates that the title is captured as "internal DVD" (something I've never heard of in the Entre).

I tried to rebuild the library, hoping that Slocko's cure for MP3 ghosts would work, but that process involved deleting a particular group first, which isn't an option here--I wouldn't know what to first delete.

If anyone can hazard a guess as to what's happening, I'd be interested.

Thanks,

Nick :cool:

Obviously something from the old slot 60 got copied over that is confusing the system. Couldn't you fix things by doing a disk lookup on the relevent titles to refresh them with the online data and then start over?

Originally posted by rbienstock
Obviously something from the old slot 60 got copied over that is confusing the system. Couldn't you fix things by doing a disk lookup on the relevent titles to refresh them with the online data and then start over?

I tried that. It has all the stubbornness of the ghost MP3 files.

However, the problem as it now has developed, is that there are 4 "N/A" entries on the Entre Guide, with no designation of slot 60--but not removable either. These now read "internal DVD," for identification of their slot.

There is one entry (hmm. . ."entry on the Entre") that I did something different with. It is where the xml file did not display the slot in which the disc was located (most xml files do display the slot), but I "added" that information, to "help" the Entre recognize that is was, in fact, in slot 259.

I think the message I'm getting is that, whenever you revise the xml files, it's okay to add things like actors, movie ratings, disc time, etc. . . . However it is not okay to revise disc location. Apparently, the Entre does not like to be "told" this from a revision, but wants to get it from the Changer. That's the only thing I can surmise.

Nick :cool:

Nick,

at your own risk, you can try deleting any of the xml files in the groups directory and rebooting.

in theory, every group has a corresponding xml. on boot up, when the entre checks it's directory structure, it will notice a missing xml file and rebuild the entire index. apparently the rebuild option in the index is not as thorough, or maybe it's broken.

7.0.5/Database/Movies/Groups/Drama/drama.xml would be an example.

all this is in theory. i really haven't played with it to the extent you guys have. in my opinion having to do what you are doing for a new series like sopranos 4th season really sucks.

the entre is not performing as advertised. i don't mind having a utility that makes it easier to re-arrange groups or to edit more obscure titles. But not having new releases available in a timely matter, sort of defeats the purpose of the entre.

Originally posted by slocko
Nick,

at your own risk, you can try deleting any of the xml files in the groups directory and rebooting.

Well, I took the risk, and I have met the enemy--I lie bloody, and quite bowed. Everything is gone except for one movie that was totally home-grown (a movie called "Trial and Error" that is not accessible via OpenGlobe, but which I created cover Art, xml files, etc. for).

I have assumed that I may have to go back to factory default to "really" cure the problem, and that may yet await me tonight. I'm assuming--and I'm asking anyone to correct my assumption, if I'm wrong--that, in a worst case scenario, I just have to go back to default and let the Entre spend a busy night looking up almost 700 discs. I recognize I will have to update the software first.

I'm trying a forced re-registration first, just in case that rebuilds the library the way I hoped that the reboot would do.

I'm also assuming that if I take it down to Factory Default, transferred cover art will remain in the Entre's archives. If anyone has a thought on that, I'd be interested there, too.

I'll keep your all posted. Perhaps this information will be useful in further understanding this.

Nick :cool:

Guys,

I had some time this morning and fixed a few issues. I am not sure if I fixed the issue of an incomplete dvd list. I have a theory of what may have caused that, but can't test the fix for sure. Robert and Nick, please get back to me if you test this version. I only have one changer with 230 DVDs. This might contribute to me not experiencing the incomplete list.

I posted the updated version to the geocities site.

-NiteOwl

i forgot to tell you to make a copy of the file you were going to delete.

which one did you delete? did the reboot say rebuidling index?

Originally posted by NiteOwl
Guys,

I had some time this morning and fixed a few issues. I am not sure if I fixed the issue of an incomplete dvd list. I have a theory of what may have caused that, but can't test the fix for sure. Robert and Nick, please get back to me if you test this version. I only have one changer with 230 DVDs. This might contribute to me not experiencing the incomplete list.

I posted the updated version to the geocities site.

-NiteOwl Well things are getting better, but still not there. 1.14 gets a list every time, and the list is much longer than before, but I still only get 320 out of 500 titles. Also, if this is a help, the last title on the list is a blank line with just the disk number. Finally, I still can't edit any disk because I'm getting the same runtime error.

Nick,

Try a lookup all before you reload the software. All the movies should still be in your hard drive, you just need to look them all up again. It should be fast since they are already there.

Did you buy any chance delete the ALL.xml.

Originally posted by rbienstock
Well things are getting better, but still not there. 1.14 gets a list every time, and the list is much longer than before, but I still only get 320 out of 500 titles. Also, if this is a help, the last title on the list is a blank line with just the disk number. Finally, I still can't edit any disk because I'm getting the same runtime error.

I got a few more, but it stopped at 331 discs. For what it's worth, it really only took me a few more down into the Ls, going alphabetically.

Joe, What I did with the 1.14 exe file was to overwrite the exe file in the DVDEdit program that was installed from the installer. I assume this is okay?

I'm still having problems getting the DVD Edit program to recognize the Movies Entre. The only tried and true way is to reboot the Music Entre, and, while it's flashing, make my DVDEdit connection.

I've noticed that, after a few edits, the program hangs up or times out, whatever we want to call it.

Joe, is there any chance of adding "stars" to the edit program, as well? This is one of the key pieces of information that Entre highlights, and we'd be able to fill in everything, if that were the case. Of course, beggars can't be choosers, and all of us owe you a debt of gratitude for the time you've spent on what promises to be the most useful utility to Entre that we've seen.

By the way, all . . . If you ever go back to factory default, nothing, and I mean nothing is saved (no FTP'd files). It gave me an opportunity to do some much needed maintenance on things, but it also pointed out to me the need to keep a current DVD Profiler going to mirror image what's in your changers. If the day comes when you want to know everything that's in there, and in what slot, the DVD Profiler will come in handy. It's better than poking through the carousel to see just where things are.

Slocko . . . I deleted ALL the xml files in the groups directory of the DVD database.

Nick :cool:

Nick,

As of now, DVDedit automatically connects to the first Entre that responds to the discovery command. I will add multiple Entre support as soon as I iron out this issue with multiple changers. I am assuming this is a multiple changer issue, because I have not heard of this happening to anyone with only one changer.

Robert -- I figured out what is causing the runtime error for you. I will send you another version to test.

I hope to get a green light from the wifey to purchase a 5900... It will move my movies to into it and keep the 5050 for music. Hopefully she lets me use it before X-mas. : ) This will help sorting out the multiple changer issue. It be nice if we had a good contact at Kenwood... maybe they could loan me one... ;) Apple used to send me free machines to develop on a few years ago. I still have the loaner Mac Millenium edition, been like 5 years now.

Nick, concerning your issue with copying other XML files... you have to make sure that the 3rd line which contains the <rsrc> tag(ie. <rsrc href="erp://KMC-1080xxxx/ExternalChanger?changer=KDVD1;slot=00040"/> is editted to reflect the right changer and slot position. From the example above you will notice the xml file was for KDVD1 slot 40. You might have overlooked that issue and for that reason, you had multiple entries for your slot 60.

-NiteOwl

ouch Nick. Sorry if I wasn't as clear at I should have been. Just deleting one xml file would have been enough to test the theory. You could always have just copied it back.

i'm desperately trying to make time to perform a backup up of my entre's hard drive. once i've done it, i'll post a step by step guide so people can have something to fall back on.

I have noticed no Sirius stream are working. Anyone no what gives?????

I have noticed no Sirius streams are working. Anyone know what gives?????

i remember reading the agreement was for two years. maybe it expired and will not be renewed?

Used it last week and things were fine. I'll check later on after the game.

I tried using DVDEdit this weekend and it never loads the list of DVDs. I tried rebooting my computer and Entre with no luck. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Jason

Jason, the software is still beta. I'm sure NiteOwl will iron out all the problems eventually.

slocko,

I realize that and was wondering if I was doing something wrong. I used it several times before this fine. Kinda curious that it just stopped working. I simply mention it to hopefully help niteowl out. Not sure if there is a pattern. Also, I see that some people are having problems with larger libraries. I have about 230 DVDs in my 5900.

Jason

sorry, didn't mean to sound critical. just in case you thought it was a fully functioning app.

Stickman:

Which version are you using? If its not 1.1 - please go back to 1.1. I found a bug in the upgraded version I posted. If you upgraded, that is most likely when it stopped working for you.

I think I am close to fixing this issue, and will release another version soon. Turns out that for some reason, the entre (every now and then) sends data packets out of sequence.

-NiteOwl

Excuse the Newbe post but this thread is over 4000 posts long and my DVD player will be dust before I could catch up to the conversation.

I have a DV-5050M that I'm very disapointed with. I see most of the people in this discussion have the 5900 with an Entre. I'm so disgusted with my 5050 and Netnamer that I refuse to invest in any additional Kenwood equipment. Most of my shear frustration is with Netnamer and the fact that Kenwood hasn't had a new version to fix the obvious bugs in it. Also the fact that Kenwood refuses to answer ANY of the 15 emails I sent to support. (Sorry for the rant)

I see that NightOwl has written his own app but it does not appear to work without an Entre. First can anyone confirm that there is no better Netnamer than the posted 1.31. Second, Does NightOwls app work without a Entre? (it doesnt appear to.)

If there is no better version of Netnamer and nothing available that works without a Entre can anyone tell me if they have decoded the Kenwood serial port protocol?

Since I can't get Kenwood to Help I'm gonna have to write my own NetNamer software. I've hooked up my serial port sniffer to it and I have captured a bunch of stuff that I'll start analizing tomorrow but if someone has already done this it would help not to have to re-invent the wheel.

BTW, just for fun I had Netnamer do a READALLDISKS and checked off just disk 100 which is a DVD called "A Perfect Murder" This is what the serial sniffer returned:

Request: 12/1/2003 10:11:39 PM.264309364 (+33.7968750000 seconds)
05 .

Answer: 12/1/2003 10:11:39 PM.264309364 (+0.0000000000 seconds)
06 .

Request: 12/1/2003 10:11:39 PM.279934364 (+0.0156250000 seconds)
02 0B 0A 00 01 64 00 00 01 00 00 00 02 00 83 .....d........ƒ

Answer: 12/1/2003 10:11:39 PM.311184364 (+0.0312500000 seconds)
06 .

Request: 12/1/2003 10:11:39 PM.311184364 (+0.0000000000 seconds)
04 .

Answer: 12/1/2003 10:11:39 PM.342434364 (+0.0312500000 seconds)
06 05 ..

Request: 12/1/2003 10:11:39 PM.373684364 (+0.0000000000 seconds)
06 .

Answer: 12/1/2003 10:11:39 PM.420559364 (+0.0468750000 seconds)
02 13 08 00 01 60 00 00 00 00 00 00 84 .....`......„

Request: 12/1/2003 10:11:39 PM.420559364 (+0.0000000000 seconds)
06 .

Answer: 12/1/2003 10:11:39 PM.467434364 (+0.0468750000 seconds)
04 .

Request: 12/1/2003 10:11:39 PM.467434364 (+0.0000000000 seconds)
06 .

Answer: 12/1/2003 10:12:11 PM.545559364 (+32.0781250000 seconds)
05 .

Request: 12/1/2003 10:12:11 PM.561184364 (+0.0156250000 seconds)
06 .

Answer: 12/1/2003 10:12:11 PM.561184364 (+0.0000000000 seconds)
02 12 0B 00 01 64 00 01 01 00 00 11 01 00 01 69 .....d.........i


I suspect the last line above contains the information about the DVD. I'm not familure with the Id Tags they put on DVD but maybe someone who knows can enlighten me. The disk has the number 16643.7.B silkscreened on it and the box has the ISBN # 0-7907-3841-4 and Barcode # is 85391 66432

<Rant>One of the things that irks me is it appears that Kenwood is getting the DVD Tag information but they want you to purchase an Entre to use it. I may have been willing to do that before I posted 15 messages without a single reply but not any more. </Rant>

Anyway... After the system Scans it outputs every disk in the system. Here is the same disks output

Answer: 12/1/2003 10:12:13 PM.748684364 (+1.3593750000 seconds)

02 FE 17 00 01 01 64 00 11 01 00 41 20 50 65 72 .þ....d....A Per
66 65 63 74 20 4D 75 72 64 65 72 BA fect Murderº

The only Item I've figured out is the 7th & 8th byte are probably the slot number byte swapped.

Sorry for the long winded post. If anyone has any thoughts please let me know.

the app niteowl has written only works with an entre.

the serial protocol was partially decoded through reverse engineering. then someone accidently got hold of the actual specs on the protocol :)

do a search and find an id called mediastorm i believe, and PM him. at the top of this page there is a search this thread feature. you can try searching on serial to see if any related posts come up. we haven't heard from mediastorm in a very long time.

through some astute observations and a dose of good luck, we have been able to make some decent progress in hacking the entre. you might want to consider spending your energies there since it has a rich GUI already done for you.

see this thread for more information.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=311141

in case anyone is interested.

i created an upgrade device code for the RS2116/2117 radio shack universal remote. with this device code you can perform most of the functions of the entre remote. this way you don't have to learn them and use up your memory.

those of you with jp1 remotes will know what i am talking about. the file can be found at the jp1 group in yahoo.

Originally posted by NiteOwl
Stickman:

Which version are you using? If its not 1.1 - please go back to 1.1. I found a bug in the upgraded version I posted. If you upgraded, that is most likely when it stopped working for you.

I think I am close to fixing this issue, and will release another version soon. Turns out that for some reason, the entre (every now and then) sends data packets out of sequence.

-NiteOwl

Hi Joe:

First, let me say that if this never goes beyond what you've already done, you've done worlds of good for the enthusiasts on this board. We all owe you a lot of thanks for your unselfish efforts. That is true whether the ultimate version pans out or not.

I offer the following only for whether it assists. I did as you said, above, and went back to the 1.1 version. What happens is that, most of the time, the DVD titles will display themselves (In my case A-L), and it appears that I can make changes--but when I enter the changes, the screen just flips back to the titles. In the times that I have been successful in loading changes, I get a scrolling bar at the bottom which indicates the progress of the edit.

Again, thanks for your great work.

Nick :cool:

I echo Nick's sentiment. You have done good work plugging the holes left by Kenwood.

I'm getting close to breaking down and using your app to fill in the information for Sopranos Season 4.

I licked the problem with my remote controlling the entre navigation menus and the dvd menus at the same time.

Solution was to use a special protocol found at jp1 that allows me to create a device specific macro. Since I had created the upgrade device for the entre remote, I was able to setup the music/radio features as one device, and the movie features as a seperate device. With my device specific macro, I can assign a macro to the SELECT key that plays the movie (using the enter key) and switches to dvd mode leaving me to navigate the dvd menu.

I then created another DSM (device specific macro) and bound it to the GUIDE key in dvd mode. This macro switches the movie device and brings up the guide.

The key to all this was being able to use DSMs and being able to separate the movies functions from the music/radio functions.

To all your tinkers out there, the RS 2116 or RS2117 can be found at Radio Shack for $29.95. With the JP1 cable which you purchase from the JP1 site and the free software, you can program this baby to do anything. It's a cheap remote you can leave with the babysitter. This remote does everything and has kept me from upgrading to a Pronto so far. Highly recommend it.

Yep, you've done an awesome job. Can I slip you $5 to fix Media Manager now?

Do any of you guys use the 5050 for music since you don't need the faroudja?

Originally posted by DannyFresh
I have noticed no Sirius streams are working. Anyone know what gives????? This still doesn't appear to be working...at least for me. Others? It works ok when you just go to their website and login as guest. I wrote but others should too....Kenwood Sovereign EntreReports EntreReports@kenwoodusa.com . Thanks.

Originally posted by slocko
through some astute observations and a dose of good luck, we have been able to make some decent progress in hacking the entre. you might want to consider spending your energies there since it has a rich GUI already done for you.


I hesitate to invest anymore $$ in a company who refuses to answer any of my support requests and does not have a phone number for support on their WEB site.

If anyone has the protocol spec PLEASE send it to me at Jimm@InletCorp.com I'm really hating NetNamer and would like to write my own replacement and maybe interface it with my home automation system.

Thanks for your help.

Are there 60 sirius stations available on the entre? i never counted them, but it didn't seem like 60.

http://www.escient.com/releases/partner_jan0802.htm

Sirius is not working for me either. The other stations seem fine.

interesting review and was even updated to add the latest changes.

http://www.laaudiofile.com/sovereign.html

i fired off an email to Sirius. I don't expect any meaningful information, but you never know.

I was in the process of writing RS232 control dll/driver for the Kenwood DV-5900M. The protocol is available thankfully by deadsock at juken.sourceforge.net.

I was going to:
1) Integrate it into windows explorer so you could navigate by disc number, artist, or genre. Click on the folder and it would automatically play the disc.

2) Use it with Yamaha control code so that the DSP mode and input on yamaha receivers would change based off which disc you were playing.

It's fairly complex, and I got most of the commands written, but not the section to handle the reports handed back by the changer.

There are similar projects available on the net.

~D.

If you want source, I'll zip up what I have and mail it.

Originally posted by slocko
interesting review and was even updated to add the latest changes.

http://www.laaudiofile.com/sovereign.html

If I had seen this when it was written, I would have been less patient. I'm still a little amused when I read:

"These new features will make Entré and other Kenwood Sovereign components even more suitable for installations in high-end integrated home systems," said Towne. "Of particular importance is the addition of three-changer support, a feature we've had a lot of requests for."
Towne said the technology upgrade for Kenwood DVD megachangers, affecting models DV-5900 and DVD-5050, would make disc loading 20 percent faster and would make layer changes (needed when playing 2-layer discs) 59 percent faster. Damping to reduce noise caused by elliptical discs (discs which have a slightly off-center hole) has also been added.

New DVD megachangers shipped in March will incorporate the new improvements, Towne said, and beginning at that time, current owners can receive the technology upgrade to their changers at no cost by contacting Kenwood customer service and shipping the unit to Kenwood's service center.

I love the part about three changer support being "a feature we've had a lot of requests for." Gee, I wonder why people were requesting it so much?

Nick :cool:

Originally posted by DigitalGriffin
If you want source, I'll zip up what I have and mail it.


Thanks for the pointer to the serial protocol. And yes please send me the source you have and I'll be happy to add to it and ship it back.

Jim

Jimm@InletCorp.com


So far I am completly unhappy with my Kenwood and have since found out its an outdated unit (level 1) even though I brought it only 6 months ago from Crutchfield. Does the "Level 3" update stop the player from playing the last disk on power on. I find my unit starts playing the last disk when I power it on. Pressing the stop button on the remote causes the "NOT" symbol to appear and the player refuses to stop until it plays ALL the opening tracks. (I guess the DVD Disk is in control) Fixing this alone is worth shipping it back for the update.

Originally posted by JimMcGowanInlet
Thanks for the pointer to the serial protocol. And yes please send me the source you have and I'll be happy to add to it and ship it back.

Jim

Jimm@InletCorp.com


So far I am completly unhappy with my Kenwood and have since found out its an outdated unit (level 1) even though I brought it only 6 months ago from Crutchfield. Does the "Level 3" update stop the player from playing the last disk on power on. I find my unit starts playing the last disk when I power it on. Pressing the stop button on the remote causes the "NOT" symbol to appear and the player refuses to stop until it plays ALL the opening tracks. (I guess the DVD Disk is in control) Fixing this alone is worth shipping it back for the update.

The level 3 update does not stop the the disc from playing when you power on. It does remove layer change issues, and also greatly increases disc change speed from abominably slow to merely slow.

Other than those two issues, the main reason for the upgrade was multichanger support. Although you purchased your unit in May or June, the upgrade had not yet been confirmed at that time. It wasn't until July 1 that we received the emails confirming it, so even if you had asked Crutchfield whether you were getting an upgraded unit at the time of your purchase, they wouldn't have known what you were talking about. Since you did purchase yours before July 1, I'm assuming that you got notice of the upgrade, which was sent to everyone that had registered their product purchase.

While I can appreciate your frustration, I think I can safely say that the DV-5900 is one type of product without the Entre, and an entirely different one with the Entre. While I would still pick the DV-5900 among all other DVD megachangers, purely for daisy-chaining ability and DVD-Audio, it is in a different world than other changers when you add the Entre to the mix.

A lot of people have given up on the Entre for various reasons, and this actually helps from an Entre-availability standpoint. Keep your eBay eyes open, and, if you ever take the Entre leap, let us know how you feel about it then.

Nick :cool:

Jim,

You can stop that power up issue with a stop, delay, stop sequence in your macro. it will look like it's going to continue, but then it will stop.

Also, the entre stops the dvd player from playing a disc, whenever it's control. So if you were to power up both the changer and the entre, the entre would stop the changer from playing the disk as soon as it initializes.

I did register my product but it appears that Kenwood feels a 5050 customer doesn't rank with a 5900 customer so I haven't received any notice.

You folks seem to be really happy with your Entres but Im just so frustrated that Kewood ignored "15" seperate support emails and doesn't post a support phone number on their web site.

<Rant>
If Kenwood was making any attempt at helping me/us THE CUSTOMER I would be considering an Entre. But the complete ignorance of customer service makes me say I'll never buy another Kenwood product. In fact I'll bet if someone didn't Hack the product into a useable format there would be alot of additional frustration from everyone.

In all honisty the product is in bad shape out of the box and Kenwoods customer service ranks in the top 10 worst I've experianced. It seems to me that the product management Team for "The New Coke" went to work for Kenwood.

Its been 6 months since I brought the 5050 and downloaded Netnamer 1.31. Not one software update has been released to fix the blaitant bugs in Netnamer. For less then the price of one 5050 a programer could have fixed the bugs in NetNamer. For the price of one 5900 a programer could have added 10 new features. Instead Kenwood choose to piss off the customer. I hope my little protest adds to their path to bankruptcy,
</Rant>

Sorry for the rant but there's no customer service phone number for me to call Kenwood to complain. I'd send them an email but my last 15 support requests went into the bit bucket so I can just imagine where a rant would end up.

Originally posted by JimMcGowanInlet
<snip> doesn't post a support phone number on their web site. <snip> We understand more than you can imagine. Here is the number to their support. HTH.

1-800-536-9663, opt 1, then ext 8500. California time 10:30am - 6pm

Jim,

Kenwood's Sovereign product line is a great first attempt for all that they managed to pull off. I am completely sold on it... just wish it would be further developed.

I think the bottom line is that it was a bad decision for Kenwood to partner with anyone (Escient/OpenGlobe) on this venture. I would bet the farm that if everything was developed in house, this entire product line would be 3x better. Not to mention the revenue stream of any ecommerce transactions over the Entre. Nonetheless, I do sympathize with you regarding the lack of support and updates. But you also have to look at Kenwood's perspective. I am sure this has been a loosing proposition for them. I am sure they never met their sales goals. Kenwood, as a corporation, has to justify every penny spent to its stock holders. This is the nature of business.

Given the bugs in the system, I still respect and appreciate the work that went into it. I think that if more units had been sold there would have been more money thrown at further R&D. Maybe if you had an Entre your perspective would change a little. When I got my Entre after my 5050, it definately changed my perspective. I am getting ready to purchase a 5900... I just wish we could upgrade the changers with a DVD - instead of shipping them in.

Just my 2 cents...

Originally posted by JimMcGowanInlet
I did register my product but it appears that Kenwood feels a 5050 customer doesn't rank with a 5900 customer so I haven't received any notice.

There's your angle. I would call Kenwood and advise that you were never notified of the upgrade, and you're really upset now that the free program is over. This may be enough to get you a free upgrade, which is all you could really hope for in any event.

I would quickly get over the general consumer disappointment you feel, because NiteOwl's comments are really the point: Kenwood lost money on this product line, and, although it doesn't seem "fair," there's going to be very little movement you'll extract from them on that basis. I would start looking here

http://cgi.*********/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3061711250&category=50600

Or other nearby places (Slocko, are you trying to acquire another one now?).

I guess the message I've got is that most of us here would agree with you, but for the features brought by the Entre. It's unfortunately not a product that you can say, "I'd buy it if they show further initiative . . ." Rather, it's a product that basically begs to be bought on faith, but there are many here that will confirm the ensemble to be well worth it, and then some, despite its limitations (and lack of service and support is one of those limitations). For anyone that's lived with an Entre for any length of time, there's no turning back. You'll have to trust the general satisfaction shared by many on the subject of what an Entre will do for you.

Nick :cool:

Yep Nick. I want a 2nd one to play with. My next goal is to try and increase the disk size now that I have a backup of the original. I didn't feel like having to remove it from my rack everytime I wanted to play with it.

Actually, I don't expect to win it and would be very surprised if I did. It's not critical right now for me.

Bad News everyone. I just got this reply from Sirius:

Dear Hans,

Thank you for contacting SIRIUS regarding your Kenwood MRH-1 Entre Hub.
We are more than happy to assist you in this matter. Your service
provider chose not to renew their contract with Sirius for the right to
provide this service to the Kenwood Sovereign Entre Systems. As of
November 27th SIRIUS discontinued service operations with your service
provider. There is no plan today to provide further access through the
Kenwood Sovereign Entre System to SIRIUS.

In order to continue receiving SIRIUS you can purchase either a Kenwood
KTC-H2A Plug N Play or a DT-7000S home receiver and tie it into your
Kenwood Sovereign Entre system. The sound quality of these receivers
will be far superior to the free streaming version that was supplied by
the Open Globe connection. You can use the Retailer Locator on our Web
site to find a SIRIUS retailer near you. To do this:

- Go to our Web site at:

http://www.sirius.com

- Select the "Get SIRIUS" link
- Select the "Find a Store" link

In addition to the 60 originally programmed streams of 100% commercial
free music, you will receive 40 streams of news, sports, talk and family programs. Bringing you the latest updates and information from some of
the most respected names in the business. For example: NPR, PRI, CNBC,
CNN, Bloomberg, Radio Disney, E! Entertainment, A&E and Discovery to
name a few. You can hear the NBA and NHL on our 3 play-by-play streams
and on up to 9 of our regular streams, which offer play-by-play during
scheduled game times. As well as Major League Baseball (MLB) SIRIUS
live audio broadcasts on ESPN Radio and much more.

When you choose our Preferred Annual Subscription Plan, you receive one
year of Sirius service for the price of 11 months, only and get one
month free for $142.45. It?s like getting one month free. We offer
various subscription plans ranging from monthly to six years. All
subscription plans of one year or more offer free months of service. We also have a lifetime subscription plan for $399 for the life of the
receiver.

We are dedicated to providing quality service and customer satisfaction. We encourage comments on how we can improve our service.

Sincerely,

Chantell
SIRIUS Customer Care Agent

Originally posted by NiteOwl
I think that if more units had been sold there would have been more money thrown at further R&D.

I seriously doubt it either way because open globe was bought by Denon recently. Why would Denon support Kenwood? The Entre` interface was developed by OpenGlobe. Very similar interfaces (identical really) are available on Escient, and Compaq systems using Open Globe. Since Open Globe developed the interface, I doubt they will be dumping more money into supporting new products by Kenwood.

Hopefully Kenwood had a buyout clause with OpenGlobe to protect them from shutouts for current owners. Otherwise, it's only a matter of time.

This is totally off topic, but in case you haven't heard yet, there's a 20% off coupon available for Deep Discount DVD from the DVD Talk forum. All you need to do is type in DVDTALK in the promotional code field on the Deep Discount DVD checkout page and you'll get the 20% discount. The coupon is good till 12/5. The coupon cannot be used for pre-orders or other non-dvd merchandise.

Enjoy,

Ken

I hate to be a scrouge, but advertiser posting is HIGHLY discouraged here lest it become a clearing house for companies, thereby ruining this forum's intent.

In regards to the usb wireless keyboard: My keyboard stopped functioning altogether after a short period of time and despite numerous reboots which initially reset functionality to the keyboard it no longer worked. Just recently I discovered, after reading a review on the ENTRE', that there exists on the front a usb port. After uncovering the rubber seal I realized there really is one in front (perhaps for downloading mp3's). I plugged in my usb keyboard adapter and it works! Let's hope this is more stable than the rear ports.

If the Sirius broadcasting renewal by Kenwood has been canceled what happens when they pull all of the way out of the product and you have to rebuild the unit from scratch? This means the unit has to contact Kenwood to receive the updated software since it is not CD installable..

Had to bring bad news but since kenwood is locked out of Openglobe how long before Openglobe goes were change the format of Openglobe data "to enchance" ha ha it's functionally but since Kenwood will not pay for any upgrades and is attempting to abandone the product or Openglobe will not provide the software updates to old product we are locked out all together..

Is there any protection? Or is someone got to have to create a workaround for the entire kenwood service to keep the units alive..

It's amazing since the product has not been on the market for that long at they may soon become useless.. If Kenwood has no money people will not fund some of the features forever and just like Sirius you will find out some day you can't rebuild your Entr'e or get Openglobe updates...

that's funny. when i read that, in the review link i posted i think, i thought exactly the same thing. but i promptly forgot about it, and didn't look at the front fo the unit. i think the reviewer mentioned that it had a usb port in the front for mp3 players.

sure makes it easier to plug in the keyboard.

Originally posted by Adam Mrotek
In regards to the usb wireless keyboard: My keyboard stopped functioning altogether after a short period of time and despite numerous reboots which initially reset functionality to the keyboard it no longer worked. Just recently I discovered, after reading a review on the ENTRE', that there exists on the front a usb port. After uncovering the rubber seal I realized there really is one in front (perhaps for downloading mp3's). I plugged in my usb keyboard adapter and it works! Let's hope this is more stable than the rear ports.

worse case scenerio, we use niteowl's app to manually input the dvd information. eventually he might be able to have it sync with dvdprofiler.

as it is, the dumb thing takes so long to find some titles that you might as well enter it yourself. still no Sopranos season 4.

it's definetely not a good sign, but you can argue that it was a freebie. i was never happen with the quality of the radio streams anyway.

what is disturbing, though not surprising, is the continuing lack of communication from kenwood. if the product is ever cancelled, we would be the last ones to know.

Originally posted by sbonaparte
If the Sirius broadcasting renewal by Kenwood has been canceled what happens when they pull all of the way out of the product and you have to rebuild the unit from scratch? This means the unit has to contact Kenwood to receive the updated software since it is not CD installable..

Had to bring bad news but since kenwood is locked out of Openglobe how long before Openglobe goes were change the format of Openglobe data "to enchance" ha ha it's functionally but since Kenwood will not pay for any upgrades and is attempting to abandone the product or Openglobe will not provide the software updates to old product we are locked out all together..

Is there any protection? Or is someone got to have to create a workaround for the entire kenwood service to keep the units alive..

It's amazing since the product has not been on the market for that long at they may soon become useless.. If Kenwood has no money people will not fund some of the features forever and just like Sirius you will find out some day you can't rebuild your Entr'e or get Openglobe updates...

Dont mean to be a smart ass but if the Entre stops receiving updates, that a BIG plus for me. :)

Now if they would also do me the favor of removing the ads as well. Well guess you can't have your cake and eat it too.

-NiteOwl

Slocko,
After getting my keyboard to work using the front usb port I lost my ethernet ability through the rear port. Now I remember this happened the last time. I could never get the wireless usb keyboard to work simultaneously with the ethernet (using the usb adapter). Are you having similar results? Has anyone else been successful?
So close yet so far!

Originally posted by NiteOwl
Another thing... has anyone tried accessing the Sirius streams via a web browser? If the streams are still there, we might just have to manually add the stations. -NiteOwl They stopped working. The SOBs! (KW). I only listened to the sirius radio stations. Quality was fine for me as a "radio" station. Unless I missed something you can't purchase a subscription to get the Entre to work as they yanked it altogether. What a stupid design. Now you can buy another KW product (see slocko's email above) or some other product...BUT but I already have the damn Axcess that I have connected to my Entre to listen to Sirius. SOBs!

can't help you there since i don't use the usb for ethernet. i use hpna.

i had many troubles with wireless keyboards until i found the logitech keyboard that comes withe the mx500.

Originally posted by Adam Mrotek
Slocko,
After getting my keyboard to work using the front usb port I lost my ethernet ability through the rear port. Now I remember this happened the last time. I could never get the wireless usb keyboard to work simultaneously with the ethernet (using the usb adapter). Are you having similar results? Has anyone else been successful?
So close yet so far!

I agree Scott. I might even have subscribed to listen to them at higher quality. I never got used to the quality of the streams on my main system. i didn't get an axcess unit, so i imagine it sounded fine on that.

i'll buy your axcess for 50 percent :)

does it stream if you are navigating the entre menu on the main unit?

Originally posted by ScottF200
They stopped working. The SOBs! (KW). I only listened to the sirius radio stations. Quality was fine for me as a "radio" station. Unless I missed something you can't purchase a subscription to get the Entre to work as they yanked it altogether. What a stupid design. Now you can buy another KW product (see slocko's email above) or some other product...BUT but I already have the damn Axcess that I have connected to my Entre to listen to Sirius. SOBs!

Slocko,
Did you use the keyboards which were supposedly supported by the Entre's software? Are these the wireless keyboards that you were having pro
blems with?
I just did a 5555 reregistration of my Entre' in hopes that this will fix my usb issues. Good thing I'm on vacation, I'll need the time for all that info that needs to be keyed in on all the lookups.
I spoke with someone named Nick at Kenwood, he tells me that they are still looking into the Sirius issue-- so I guess it's not over yet. Too bad you can't import Sirius into the Entre' from an external decoder.

By the way slocko, where do you get this "mx500" keyboard. Do I have to buy an "mx500".Isn't this the separate amplifier that Kenwood makes which complements the vr5900? What is the nomenclature?

Originally posted by slocko
<snip>i'll buy your axcess for 50 percent :) <snip> Nick may take you up on that 50% deal but not me. Those things are not cheap! I think I will be looking at the other radio stations. Now that I can FTP to the Entre I can create a dummy i-radio entry on the entre using the remote. Then locate that XML file, FTP it down to the PC and edit it with the real ASX I want by cutting and pasting from MS Media Player. Then FTP it back. It was painful experimenting using the remote. The lack of communication from KW on this really irks me..can you tell :)

Of course I have the AUX input on the Axcess connected to an old boombox in the basement on a decent local radio station. A whole lot of irony to all this sometimes. Geeks and toys <grin>.

Originally posted by slocko
does it stream if you are navigating the entre menu on the main unit? I interpret what you are asking to be does the Entre CPU have enough horsepower to handle the GUI and stream to an Axcess without slowdown to the GUI. The GUI is not that quick to begin with but it does not seem to be effected by playing an Axcess. Remember they designed it so that you can play 4 Axcess units at onces each having their own stream. Overall I'm happy with the Axcess but it is a little silly looking and the LCD is absurdly small. How much can those things cost for goodness sakes.

Originally posted by Adam Mrotek
Slocko,
After getting my keyboard to work using the front usb port I lost my ethernet ability through the rear port. Now I remember this happened the last time. I could never get the wireless usb keyboard to work simultaneously with the ethernet (using the usb adapter). Are you having similar results? Has anyone else been successful?
So close yet so far!

I have been using the front usb port for a Logitech wireless keyboard, and have not had a problem. In fact, I leave a receiver apparatus constantly plugged in to each Entre. Strangely, although I had to buy two keyboard sets to get a second receiver, one keyboard works with one Entre, the other works with the second Entre. Neither work with the "wrong" Entre, although keyboard/receiver units from Logitech are the identical models.

Nick :cool:

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
In fact, I leave a receiver apparatus constantly plugged in to each Entre. Strangely, although I had to buy two keyboard sets to get a second receiver, one keyboard works with one Entre, the other works with the second Entre. Neither work with the "wrong" Entre, although keyboard/receiver units from Logitech are the identical models. The Logitech keyboards all transmit a unique ID which is ignored by all receivers except the one programmed for it. Imagine the chaos if you had a large office with many keyboards in it if one kb could control more than one CPU. Incidently, Logitech doesn't encrypt the kb data screen, which many think presents a security risk if people type sensitive data such as passwords.

This one works for sure, but you have to buy the bundle:

Part Number 967231-0403

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm?page=products%2Fproductlist_action&CRID=24&countryid=19&languageid=1&SelectFeature=5098

This is what I was using on my desktop, before I bought a 17 inch laptop and made it my primary pc. One day, I decided to try it since I was having so many problems with other usb keyboards. I plugged it in to the usb port in the back and it worked and doesn't die on me.

Originally posted by rbienstock
<snip>Incidently, Logitech doesn't encrypt the kb data screen, which many think presents a security risk if people type sensitive data such as passwords. Perhaps they started on some models? On this page (http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm?page=products/details&CRID=1&CONTENTID=5061&countryid=19&languageid=1) it says "Cordless freedom through multi-channel digital radio technology with secure encryption"

I don't know if this is the place for it, but here goes,.. I am interested in investing in an in-wall middle atlantic rack to mount all my sovereign gear as well as a Parasound theater amp, power supply etc.. using custom rackmounts. Has any one had any expereince with these racks?? Any tips would be extremely helpful..I was thinking of using a Slim series rack??

Slocko,
Thanks for the feedback. I will order one tomorrow based on your experience with this model. I previously ordered one online which had the correct serial numbers, however, I believe they sent me a different model as the serial number on the keyboard was different. It would work but seemed to somehow knock my ethernet usb offline. Incidentally. I don't know if anyone brought this up before but there are at least two different keyboards supplied with the dv5900m. When I purchased two more dv5900's several months ago I acquired one more keyboard with one of them. I only recently noticed that the new one was considerably different, allowing more functionality with the Entre'. The old one (rc-kb3) may actually be a later model as the "new" one (rc-kb2) seems to have a lower number. It also has a room B button? They both default to upper case when keying in titles.
Danny,
have you looked at an avrack? I was going to buy one but bought a wheeled rack instead. The wheels are nice as they allow you to easily spin your entire system for wiring access. The avrack essentially does the same thing although more elegantly.

Adam,

Remember that I don't use the USB for ethernet, so you could very well have the same problem.

If you have a phone line near your entre and a phone line near your router, maybe the easier solution is to buy the hpna ethernet bridge and wire the entre via hpna. It's super stable with no issues and if you ever have to revert to factory defaults, it will work right away without having to update the software first.

Does this sound fishy to you guys:

Re: entre

this system came to me by the way of my business in which we clearence excess corprate equipment my understanding is that they bought enough for all locations and shortly after closed locations and this is how it came to me.

if you have anymore questions please dont hesitate to drop me an email

thanks for you intrest.

dan pouche

The guy has zero feedback on ebay, even though the account was opened in May of 2002. The emal linked to his account was expired. So I emailed him to the address listed in the description and that was his reply.

Clearly he has no idea what an entre is. I'm thinking of retracting the bid.

Adam,

It would not surprise me in the least if Kenwood also failed to notify support about not renewing the Sirius contract.

Originally posted by Adam Mrotek
I spoke with someone named Nick at Kenwood, he tells me that they are still looking into the Sirius issue-- so I guess it's not over yet. Too bad you can't import Sirius into the Entre' from an external decoder.

Scott, you mean you are not using NiteOwl's RadioEdit?????? :)

Originally posted by ScottF200
Now that I can FTP to the Entre I can create a dummy i-radio entry on the entre using the remote. Then locate that XML file, FTP it down to the PC and edit it with the real ASX I want by cutting and pasting from MS Media Player. Then FTP it back. It was painful experimenting using the remote. The lack of communication from KW on this really irks me..can you tell :)

Are you saying you can now use they 5900m keyboard with the Entre?????

Originally posted by Adam Mrotek
Incidentally. I don't know if anyone brought this up before but there are at least two different keyboards supplied with the dv5900m. When I purchased two more dv5900's several months ago I acquired one more keyboard with one of them. I only recently noticed that the new one was considerably different, allowing more functionality with the Entre'. The old one (rc-kb3) may actually be a later model as the "new" one (rc-kb2) seems to have a lower number. It also has a room B button? They both default to upper case when keying in titles.

Slocko,
Yes, you can use the 5900m keyboard for certain applications with the Entre'. Remember as far as I know there are at least two flavors of this keyboard, with one having far more functionality in respect to the Entre'. That being said it is still a poor substitute for a fully functional usb keyboard as it does not have as many key-functions. However if you need to input text it is much faster than using the remote! One of the many idiosyncrasies I have found is they default to upper case and you must hold down the shift key for lower case, this can be a little disconcerting. As i recall from the past this keyboard was not functional with respect to the Entre', so it's drivers must have been included with one of the recent upgrades.

the uppercase thing is also the same for the native osd on the 5900m.

Slocko,
In regards to the Sirius issue support seemed like they were aware of the situation. If this is true it would seem to me that Kenwood does not want to invest any money into this. He also said that that the dv5900m was discontinued, that they normally produce a model for 1 year and this was produced for two years. i don't know if this meas it will be superseded.

i think of the engineering that went into the axcess units and the number sold must have been miniscule.

Originally posted by Adam Mrotek
He also said that that the dv5900m was discontinued, that they normally produce a model for 1 year and this was produced for two years. i don't know if this meas it will be superseded.

I wonder if this means it will be difficult finding additional changers when our current units fill up. I've got one empty slot left in mine and that one will be occupied within a few days. I won't be in a position to buy another one till around the end of January, though.