Off topic but since this system is what most of us are striving for, I figured I would post:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=479772&perpage=20&pagenumber=1

What does everyone think is the best remote to use witht he Sovereign system? I have tried the harmony,but is doesn't interface very well with the Entre. The Entre remote itself is ok, but not great I find, particularly if you are using the KW receiver. The powertouch I got witht he receiver does not control the Entre (though I hear one can upgrade it at KW).

What do all of you use?

Originally posted by JamezHill
<snip>
Fourth: With the Axcess units (the one component I don't have yet), Can I use it as an alarm clock. It would help me justify its purchase. Is there even a clock feature? I have been looking around but can't find much information on the unit.<snip> This similar slimdevice (http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_overview.html) was pointed out to me by the Conduit developer who is no longer working on it. Pretty cool device with web browser control and playlist creation. Open API, etc. It has alarm clock to tie it back to your post.

MSB, My powertouch controls my entre fine, even has text input. Do you mean your powertouch has not been flashed with/for entre app? I think I recall some of the powertouches had to be loaded with this software (by the dealer). I like the functionality of the powertouch especially the two-way ir function but not the ergonomics. It's a bit ungainly when loaded with 4 c cells.

I use the RS2116 for $30 bucks at Radio Shack.

It requires you buy a parallel cable online to program it, but it does everything you can possible want and it's easy for the kids and wife to use.

You can even do device specific macros. So I setup a macro on the select key that is only active in entre mode that runs play and switches the remote to dvd mode. That way I can use all the dvd functions. I then setup another device specific macro on the guide key that is only active in dvd mode. That macro switches to entre mode and brings up the entre guide.

There is a learning curve, but for the price and flexibility, it can't be beat.

http://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/

for more information.

just saw that the RS2117 is now on sale for the same price. It comes with an RF extender.

anyone else having trouble getting to Kenwood's website? I wonder if they are doing maintenance or adding new products.

Originally posted by Adam Mrotek
MSB, My powertouch controls my entre fine, even has text input. Do you mean your powertouch has not been flashed with/for entre app? I think I recall some of the powertouches had to be loaded with this software (by the dealer). I like the functionality of the powertouch especially the two-way ir function but not the ergonomics. It's a bit ungainly when loaded with 4 c cells.

Hmmn. I guess I need to call KW and find out how to flash the remote.

entre now $400 at:

http://www.vanns.com/shop/search.jsp

Drops anymore, I might just pick another one up for another room.

All the Kenwood Sovereign products come with 2 year warranties if bought from an authorized dealer.

So if you are thinking of getting this unit, Vanns would be the place. No tax, free shipping.

I have to say, that is one hell of a deal. I bought an extra one a few weeks ago from them when the pice was $500!

Hi Guys

I scanned through this thread and found out more than I should have considering I have one of these on my desk.

Two questions and your help would be most appreciated. I cannot for the life of me get this thing to connect to my LAN. I have the prescribed USB adapter, I have tried 6 cables, downed my network etc. I have dynamic IP's etc. I keep getting the DNS error. Any light you can shed would be most appreciated!

Secon, I noticed the software is in the 1.1 range how far out of whack is that? Is there a FAQ I could peruse through?

I bought this to make sense of the DVD collection and bought a 400 plus 3 changer...I am just frustrated with this network issue.

TIA!

Any tips would be most welcome.

I'd like to ask for some help getting two DVD-5900M's to work in a daisy chain.

They are correctly self-identifying as "M" and "1" in the front display panels, and both units have the red "D.C." indicators lit. Neither the M nor the 1 is blinking, so I think the units are self-identifying correctly. (I have powered both units down and unplugged them and powered back up.)

But I do not have any lit brackets around the "M" or the "1" on the display panels, as the manual says I should have (page 52: "When the daisy chain is established, the brackets around the displayed characters light as shown below.")

Both units appear to have the v3 firmware:
M3-0515-01
S3-0427-01
DA3-0312-01
TI1-0803-17

I've got S1 going into M with component video only (no S-Video), and the coax out from S1 into the coax in on M. The control cable is plugged in where it should be (the top "control" port on S1 to the bottom "control" port on M.) I'm not using the "DVD control" port accidentally, and I've made sure the control cable is plugged all the way in (someone else had that problem a while back.)

The Main unit is connected to an Entre (component video only from M to Entre, and optical audio from M straight to the receiver), and that works fine. I temporarily hooked up an S-Video cable from the S1 unit directly to my receiver, and I can play a disc on S1 and get video output, so I think the S1 unit is functioning correctly.

The Entre doesn't recognize the S1 unit either, but that doesn't surprise me. I'm assuming that, if I get the brackets around the "M" and the "S1", then the two DVD players will be talking to each other, and I'm going to guess that then the Entre will recognize S1.

But I can't figure out why the M unit doesn't see the S1 unit.

Can anyone help me, please?

Originally posted by khennessey
I've got S1 going into M with component video only (no S-Video), and the coax out from S1 into the coax in on M. The control cable is plugged in where it should be (the top "control" port on S1 to the bottom "control" port on M.) I'm not using the "DVD control" port accidentally, and I've made sure the control cable is plugged all the way in (someone else had that problem a while back.)

I'm not sure of your meaning here. What is S1? What is M? ("sub1?" "main?")

Are you using stereo cables to connect the changers? They won't work in a daisy chain-to-Entre with mono cables.



Nick :cool:

Yes -- M = main, and S1 = sub1.

What kind of cables should I be using, please?

stereo mini-plugs

Excellent. The stereo mini-plugs worked. Thanks to both of you.

5900M Display Seems to be going bad. All of the indicaters are semi lit up. anyone ever see this problem????? Seems the screen needs to be replaced. Guess what the unit is exactly 2 years old today. So much for warranty!!!

Originally posted by DannyFresh
5900M Display Seems to be going bad. All of the indicaters are semi lit up. anyone ever see this problem????? Seems the screen needs to be replaced. Guess what the unit is exactly 2 years old today. So much for warranty!!! Replace LED yourself from here?

http://www.partsolver.com/SearchResults.asp?ModelID=63342&Keywords=&ManufacturerID=85&ModelNumber=DV5900M&SearchType=ModelNumber&x=63&y=14

yeah mine went dim a while ago.

if you didn't register your newer changer or have it repaired, and it's still under warranty, you might be able to simply use that receipt with the out of warranty changer.

in those cases, the serial number hasn't been registered yet.

Originally posted by ForceReconUSC
<snip>Two questions and your help would be most appreciated. I cannot for the life of me get this thing to connect to my LAN. I have the prescribed USB adapter, I have tried 6 cables, downed my network etc. I have dynamic IP's etc. I keep getting the DNS error. Any light you can shed would be most appreciated!

Secon, I noticed the software is in the 1.1 range how far out of whack is that? Is there a FAQ I could peruse through?<snip> Many/most are using static IPs. It has been reported that Kenwood acknowledged dynamic is broken. (see this (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=3768677#post3768677) post.)

Closest FAQ is http://homepage.mac.com/jbryer/SovereignFAQ.html but it needs some updates such as the above info.

I believe it was with 1.10 that I switched to static after wasting a weekend of my life.

You should try to get the current: 2.0.0.8. KW didn't really provide all details on every upgrade they did. This one supports mulit-changers and I don't recall what else.

Originally posted by sfogg
Soon to be new Entre user here. I've tried searching the threads and I can not seem to find a step by step hard drive upgrade procedure. The FAQ just lists general steps not exactly what needs to be done. Does anyone have a step by step procedure for a hard drive upgrade or optimally a ISO image of the CDR that is needed? I'd like to put a 120gB drive in the Entre.

Also is the older versions of DVEDIT available anywhere? I can't seem to find that.

Thanks, Shawn I have several versions of DVDEdit (EXEcutables). I don't think any that I have have an install. I don't recall if there was one. If someone has one I'd add it to my collection. To then swap between versions is just to replace the EXE (i.e. rename old, rename new).

Replace LED yourself from here??????????

I don't know if it is the LED or the whole "Info" board. Anyone know if it can be fixed at home????

$399 for a Kenwood Entre! Nice... Maybe I will convert back to Kenwood. Thanks for the heads up. Placed an order a few minutes ago.

Also, I should have some time on my hands towards the end of the month. I will check into that array limit. <wink> <wink>

Happy Holidays!
-NiteOwl

Originally posted by NiteOwl
$399 for a Kenwood Entre! Nice... Maybe I will convert back to Kenwood. Thanks for the heads up. Placed an order a few minutes ago.

Also, I should have some time on my hands towards the end of the month. I will check into that array limit. <wink> <wink>

Happy Holidays!
-NiteOwl

Hey, Joe!

The price was too tempting for me, too. I'm glad I've got the Escients, but it will come in handy to have this one, too.


Nick :cool:

Hey Nick,

Long time... can't believe how time flies! My Entre went south on me. I think it was around September or October. It was out of warranty, so I decided to junk it. Maybe this one will be better. I haven't even touched my HT equipment in months. I may do the 120gb upgrade on it as soon as I get it. Is this mod working fine for everyone?

-Joe

Hey all,

I have seen the dimming of the changer lights. If memory servers me right I was messing around with settings of either the changer or the reciever and changed the display to dim by accident. I believe there are three settings full on, dim, and full off. Check this before doing anything rash like changing LED's or boards etc.

Fz

While waiting impatiently for Monday to call KW I somehow managed to get my entre to connect to the internet via my LAN. I proceeded ( blindly) to download Version 2.x and promptly can no longer connect to the internet!

I was using Dynamic IP addresses, I pay for 3 " IP slots from Cox" but none of these are fixed IP's..am I hosed?

This is really a test of my patience for sure....reminds me of Windows 95 PNP.

Scott, thanks for your reply.

Originally posted by ForceReconUSC
While waiting impatiently for Monday to call KW I somehow managed to get my entre to connect to the internet via my LAN. I proceeded ( blindly) to download Version 2.x and promptly can no longer connect to the internet! I was using Dynamic IP addresses, I pay for 3 " IP slots from Cox" but none of these are fixed IP's..am I hosed?<snip> "HUGE" not hardly...unless you had to selling your soul to do this then it is minor.

You should really be using a LINKSYS router (or varoius thinks like this talked about recently). You can get have dynamic or static IPs on your local NET (192.168.x.x). You would only have to pay for 1 IP slot from COX unless this messes with your conscience or they will be really harsh if they ever find out. With the router you NAT security as well this is a HUGE benefit!

new router ( does it have to be wireless?) that generates a static IP? How are the KW support people in your opinion? My first call will be tommorow.

Thanks for all your help!

Jon

Originally posted by ForceReconUSC
new router ( does it have to be wireless?) that generates a static IP? How are the KW support people in your opinion? My first call will be tommorow. Thanks for all your help! Jon In the past few weeks wireless ones have been suggested in this thread. Normally this is because you don't have hardwires near your Entre or for other reasons (i.e. for your laptop or to avoid wiring for other devices).

Let me try to help with terminalogy. One of these routers will "generate" a local lan IP (192.168.x.x) via built in DHCP services. Or you can just specify a unique local IP in the device (ie. Entre / PC / etc) you are working with and specify static IP obtaining method on that device (ie. Entre / PC / etc). In this latter case the router doesn't really "Generate" the IP per se. I'm fairly sure that is how the LINKSYS works.

I have a different router and set it up differently but I won't explain lest I confuse the issue!

Dynamic ip must be broken only for ethernet. I am using dynamic via hpna with no problems.

Jon,

Can you still see the ip addres that was assigned before you upgraded?

If you do, simply write it down and switch to static and type it in.

If you don't see it anymore, go to a computer on your network, run a command session (window key-r, cmd, enter)

Type ipconfig and jot down the ip address you see.

That is the address of your computer.

Increase the last octet by one, and at the command window ping the ip address you created by increasing the last octet.

If you get no reply, chances are it's available and you can use it with the entre. There is a slight chance that you have another computer or device that is currently powered off or disconnected using the ip address you created.

I am glad I found this board.

I called KW and the 2nd level of support talked me through rebuilding my LAN and now works perfectly.

Very impressed with the support. They mentioned that at CES they will be releasing a new version of the Entre.

Again, thanks to all.

Jon

120 Gb HDD upgrade (WDD 5400rpm drive) is still working fine (upgrade was done in June). 500+ albums at 320kbps, and still have ~45% free space (400+ hours remaining). Picked up two Axcess terminals recently and have been enjoying many albums all over again (nice to have local music in the breakfast nook and garage). Overall, I continue to be very happy with the Sovereign system after 2.5 years.

Cheers,

Mike

Originally posted by ForceReconUSC
They mentioned that at CES they will be releasing a new version of the Entre.


Jon

If it's the one we saw from CEDIA, they can keep it. If, however, it builds on the existing architecture, bring it on.

Nick :cool:

They did not go into much detail, only that it was more capable etc.

I di lay into them that the web-site was horrible and should have clearly mentioned upgrading the firmware would eliminate dynamic IP support etc.

He agreed and said if he had a dollar.....sigh. But they were very helpful.

So far so good, I am happy. No is the general view that the Media Manager is not a good thing? It found my entre no problem. However the 20gigs is not needed as I have a couple of new VAIO MCE2005's with about 100gigs of iTunes and the Media Center software handling the load. I really wanted this for DVD management.

Again, thank you all. Unlike the BMW or college football forums I frequent everyone here is top-notch.

Fight On!

Jon

ForceReconUSC,

BTW I'm USC class of '94! I agree with you 100%. MCE2004/5 are light years ahead of the Entre. I am working on a DVD manager plug-in for MCE2005. I have all the management features working already (even get my cd/dvd info from AMG (allmovie.com). All I need now is the serial interface to talk to the changers. Once this is working... I don't think anything that Escient or Kenwood creates will touch it.

I have an HP MCE 2005. Review and Pic here:
http://msmvps.com/chrisl/archive/2004/10/12/15668.aspx
between it, the media extender (which beats the the kenwod axcess to a bloody pulp), and xbox extender (looking to buy it soon.) --- man what joy! Something that finally works as advertised!

-NiteOwl

Originally posted by NiteOwl
ForceReconUSC,

BTW I'm USC class of '94! I agree with you 100%. MCE2004/5 are light years ahead of the Entre. I am working on a DVD manager plug-in for MCE2005. I have all the management features working already (even get my cd/dvd info from AMG (allmovie.com). All I need now is the serial interface to talk to the changers. Once this is working... I don't think anything that Escient or Kenwood creates will touch it.

I have an HP MCE 2005. Review and Pic here:
http://msmvps.com/chrisl/archive/2004/10/12/15668.aspx
between it, the media extender (which beats the the kenwod axcess to a bloody pulp), and xbox extender (looking to buy it soon.) --- man what joy! Something that finally works as advertised!

-NiteOwl

WOW! THis sounds (and looks) fantastic...If I understand you, you are creating the ability to have it speak to the 5900M changers? Please keep us informed!

NiteOwl,

I have the same thing. It works great so far. I would be interested in that set up also when you get it working so let me know. It would be awesome to have that kind of display/GUI controlling the changers.

Do you have it working like the My music folder? where you just pick from cover art?

This guy has an even better DVD collection plug in. I am going to model it after his (look and feel). His only catalogs DVDs. I remember there was someone before that had his playing ISO images or VIDEO_TS folders of DVDs. But pretty much the final version will look like this plus serial communication to the 5900m and 5050m.
http://www.binnerup.dk/mce/mydvdcollection/

-niteowl

I was class of 92 and 95 for Law School. The Marines took some of my time...but I am loving every minute of the last three years on the gridiron!

My wife has the HP MCE but I am a Sony VAIO guy and have a desktop/laptop running MCE2005...so far so good. I wish they would come up with a cheaper "kalidscape" system in light of such cheap storage costs it has to be on the software side of the ledger.

Well I got the entre to find 130 of my 212 DVD's I loaded...I guess a little below average but I am going to buy a Keyboard as using the supplied remote sucks for manually imputing this stuff.

A Big Fight On! Beat the Sooners.

You might want to talk to Mario, author of DVDLobby. His product at one point had a plugin for the Kenwood changers.

I think Mediastorm actually got a hold of the protocol specs. Search this thread for his id.

Originally posted by NiteOwl
This guy has an even better DVD collection plug in. I am going to model it after his (look and feel). His only catalogs DVDs. I remember there was someone before that had his playing ISO images or VIDEO_TS folders of DVDs. But pretty much the final version will look like this plus serial communication to the 5900m and 5050m.
http://www.binnerup.dk/mce/mydvdcollection/

-niteowl

Originally posted by NiteOwl
This guy has an even better DVD collection plug in. I am going to model it after his (look and feel). His only catalogs DVDs. I remember there was someone before that had his playing ISO images or VIDEO_TS folders of DVDs. But pretty much the final version will look like this plus serial communication to the 5900m and 5050m.
http://www.binnerup.dk/mce/mydvdcollection/

-niteowl

Welcome Back Joe!

Man would this thing be slick and something that I would think could bring you in a TON of cash if you could get it working with the Media Centers. Couldn't you (we) put a comm. sniffer on the changers and(or) Entre to see what RS232 commands it responds to? I thought I remember one of our com-padres doing that (or trying it) a while back.

Anyhow, let us know your progress or if you need any help with this (testing, coding etc...).

Happy Holidays!
Kevin

Kevin,

I wasn't aware that you can sniff serial communications. Thanks for the heads up. This insight will definately go a long way. I will keep you posted.

-joe

Originally posted by ForceReconUSC
I was class of 92 and 95 for Law School. The Marines took some of my time...but I am loving every minute of the last three years on the gridiron!



Law school? Law school?

Lawyers and home theater are a bad mix ;)

Nick :cool:

Not to mention a Lawyer AND a USC Grad to boot! An even Worse mix ;) Of course being an ex-Marine myself he can't be All bad!

Go Irish!!

Originally posted by slocko
You might want to talk to Mario, author of DVDLobby. His product at one point had a plugin for the Kenwood changers.

I think Mediastorm actually got a hold of the protocol specs. Search this thread for his id.

I didn't have access to it (link below).


Posted by MediaStorm on 10-06-02 11:33 AM:
For anyone interested in the 5900 RS232 protocol information, I have posted the full documentation that Kenwood provided to P3 partners at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nirvislist/files/rs232-dv5900m.doc
(This was the easiest place to put the file that was still relevant to all parties).
The documentation DOES provide all information concerning multiple changer control and access to all features available.
If anyone has a similar document for the RS232 command set for the VR5700/VR5900 receivers I would be extremely greatful if you would pass it along to me.
Enjoy.
MediaStorm

Originally posted by NiteOwl
I am working on a DVD manager plug-in for MCE2005. I have all the management features working already (even get my cd/dvd info from AMG (allmovie.com). All I need now is the serial interface to talk to the changers. Once this is working... I don't think anything that Escient or Kenwood creates will touch it.

You are my hero!

I have been unimpressed with my Entre. I bought a Windows Media Center PC last year and overall it seems pretty decent--not good enough to replace my HDirecTiVo, but a nice complement. And I have even toyed with the idea of building a plug-in myself so that I can replace the Entre, but it sounds like you've beat me to it (thankfully, because who has the time?).

I came across a project at SourceForge called JuKen that is a project to document and develop tools to access the PC-Link functionality of the Kenwood Mega-Changers. This may be of some help to you, if you haven't discovered this already.

sourceforge.net/projects/juken/

Please share a web page address, blog, forum, etc. that allows us to monitor your progress. My Entre recently crashed and I'd be much more interested in phasing it out rather than trying to get it to work.

Originally posted by krichter1
Not to mention a Lawyer AND a USC Grad to boot! An even Worse mix ;) Of course being an ex-Marine myself he can't be All bad!

Go Irish!!

I figured after the last three whippings the last thing I would see is a "Go Irish" quote.:)

I hope for keeping the sanity of Catholics world-wide that CW turns out better than TW did for ND.

In the meantime USC is locking up yet another monster recruiting class....and not losing any of it's coaches.

Fight On!

Well I got the entre and Open View to see all but 3 of my 245 DVD's in the changer. I noticed that todays purchase of LOTR ROTK did not show up as well.

Is there a time delay in their data base?

Other than some user error with the RC so far so good. I had the Sony Navitus but it was just to large to use daily, any ideas for a decent all in one RC? Had the Pronto, thought about the iPronto but it had horrible reviews...how about the KW stuff?

TIA

Originally posted by ForceReconUSC
Well I got the entre and Open View to see all but 3 of my 245 DVD's in the changer. I noticed that todays purchase of LOTR ROTK did not show up as well.

Is there a time delay in their data base?


I'm confused. Earlier you stated: "Well I got the entre to find 130 of my 212 DVD's I loaded". Now you are talking about 3 out of 245.

What is "Open View"?

Their database is remarkable compared to what it used to be!! Many have seen less than a week or so before new "popular" DVDs get recognized. Shrek2 was the last one we complained about and it was only a few days. I still think they are buying/renting them and adding them. Others don't agree.

When I first got internet connectivity and let the entre do "its" thing it found about 130 of the discs.
I then went in individually and selected the edit..find disc and it found all but 3 of the DVD's including my Japanese version of DUNE ( strange)
I was perplexed why in the automated mode it passed on about 80 but when selected individually it found nearly all of them???
I am glad to hear it gets updated, in fact the KW people assured me they were in fact ramping up it's staff for support of not only this product but future ones.
Jon

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
If it's the one we saw from CEDIA, they can keep it. If, however, it builds on the existing architecture, bring it on. What was wrong with what they showed at CEDIA?

So here's the weirdest thing: I've been unable to get DVDEdit to run for months now. I keept getting the Run-Time error, and basically gave up. Then Joe shows up here after an extended absence, and last night when I fired up DVDEdit for the first time in a long time to see if I could put in cover art on Lady Snowblood, it worked again. Coincidence? I don't think so? :)

So in theory, if Joe would post more, DVDEdit should be able to get past the 951 disc limit I've encountered. ;)

Dave Masters

Originally posted by rbienstock
What was wrong with what they showed at CEDIA? I believe the references was to the rumor that the new Entre would not do OG movie look ups if I recall Nicks comments correctly. It was unclear what method it would use then as this is a the obvious major benefit of the product.

Originally posted by ForceReconUSC
When I first got internet connectivity and let the entre do "its" thing it found about 130 of the discs.I then went in individually and selected the edit..find disc and it found all but 3 of the DVD's including my Japanese version of DUNE ( strange) I was perplexed why in the automated mode it passed on about 80 but when selected individually it found nearly all of them??? I am glad to hear it gets updated, in fact the KW people assured me they were in fact ramping up it's staff for support of not only this product but future ones. Jon Thanks. I understand now. Of course you it did appear you bought 33 (245-212) more DVDs between those two points as well <grin>. Perhaps you need a 12 step program.

Your Open View comment meant OpenGlobe I presume.

Here is a snippet of the XML info that they keep for DVDs.

Using the manual OG search method you would be searching for DVD title information. Their text search algorithm is goofy as most would agree. Robert even had a thread for a while so we all could help each other pick the 'right' words.

Using the automatic look up method many believe it uses heuristics and data it can extract from reading the DVD. ie. # "titles", number of frames, value of frames, etc. Many have always assumed this was part of Gracenote VideoID technology or very similar if not it exactly.

<dvdname>Ice Age - Special Edition (Disc 1)</dvdname>
<ogid>P13307</ogid>
<md5key>2a483835328a01c54a3bb7801649fa7d</md5key>
<title titlenum="3">
<name>Title 3</name>
<frames>225 15</frames>
</title>
<title titlenum="7">
<name>Title 7</name>
<frames>15 623 15 149 149 149 149 149 149 149 149 15 450 15 15</frames>
</title>

purchases as I have a feeeling a new format like DVD-HD is looming...of course buying some movies for the 3rd time VHS-LD-DVD is such a joy...not.

Is it me or when I ripped a couple of main stream CD's onto the HD for testing the database could locate the titles/tracks but not the cover art???

Glad I am using my MC PC for music.

Jon

BTW Thanks for the other info.

Originally posted by ScottF200
I believe the references was to the rumor that the new Entre would not do OG movie look ups if I recall Nicks comments correctly. It was unclear what method it would use then as this is a the obvious major benefit of the product.

Scott is correct. While I can't believe they'd do something like that, I guess there are stranger things.

Nick :cool:

I would rather it hooked into dvd profiler anyway

Regarding remotes for the sovereign system, I've been using Marantz RC-2000 mk II remotes with the system since I've had it. Controls up to 10 components, backlit, great programmability, great macros, hard buttons for most-often-used functions, and soft buttons with LCD naming for all the nitty-gritty commands. Programming is straightforward and the unit will learn just about any IR commands. Only drawbacks are size (fine for me, two-hand use for my wife) and the four-character limit for naming the soft buttons.

These remotes can be had fairly cheap (less than $100) on e-bay.

cheers,

Mike

As I stated before the display on my changer seems to be fading in and out. It is definately not the screen itself but some other source inside the changer is causing it. It will appear as normal sometimes but most of the time the background icons are dimly lit. Then after a few minutes it will go back to normal. I have not had time to open the changer as there are 400 discs inside and in order to remove it from my rack it will have to be emptied. I post again when and if I can find what is causing it...

DannyFresh,

I've had the same issue, on and off with both changers (I think both). Every now and then, the display on the changer will go very dim and sometimes show giberish. Usually, powering it off (power button on changer, not remote), will correct the issue. It doesn't seem to affect playback, so I haven't worried too much about it.

hm

Originally posted by DannyFresh
As I stated before the display on my changer seems to be fading in and out. It is definately not the screen itself but some other source inside the changer is causing it. It will appear as normal sometimes but most of the time the background icons are dimly lit. Then after a few minutes it will go back to normal. I have not had time to open the changer as there are 400 discs inside and in order to remove it from my rack it will have to be emptied. I post again when and if I can find what is causing it...

dwm55,

i haven't looked at the code yet. but it is possible that there is an array limit being hit. since there are so many tcp/ip data packets sent when receiving data from the entre' this is a very real possibility. have you guys tried using the genre pulldown, this would give you a smaller set of data. i guess its possible that the program is crashing and not allowing you to get far enough as to make that selection.

i just received my entre'... was so excited that i took a day off from work :) i will be working on upgrading the hd then will take a look at the code later today.

-joe

Originally posted by NiteOwl
<snip>would someone be kind enough as to forward me the url & logon to the golden disk site-joe Joe, I have no idea what you are talking about but you may want to check your e-mail.

Originally posted by hmatos
DannyFresh,

I've had the same issue, on and off with both changers (I think both). Every now and then, the display on the changer will go very dim and sometimes show giberish. Usually, powering it off (power button on changer, not remote), will correct the issue. It doesn't seem to affect playback, so I haven't worried too much about it.

hm

Yes, that is what is happening HM, It is bugging the hell out of me, so I will take it in for service tommorrow. Funny thing the unit is about 3 days out of warranty. Hope it's not too expensive to fix. I opened the unit to see if I could locate a short of some kind, but no such luck was had!!!

I brought my changer in for a repair for the problem I stated in the previous post. I was told that the problem lies in the power supply. The unit is 3 days out of warranty so the estimate for the fix was about $150.00.

that's expensive relative to what the changers can be had for now a days.

Vanns now has refurb Entres for under $300. http://www.vanns.com/shop/servlet/item/features/536345941

Nick :cool:

Thanks for the tip Nick, I just bought a refurbed Entre (for back-up) and another Axcess. Free 2nd day air on both to boot! They say they will arrive x-mas eve.

How sad is it that the access is the same price as the entre. I would like to get an access but can't justify the price when I could get another entre for the same price. Anyone know of any good deals on an access?

-Jason

yup, $299 at Vanns! I think it's the only place that sells sovereign anymore.

1201

Does anyone have a DVDEdit original download from the old site which would still have "installable" packaging? I only have the EXEcutables and the DLL.

Someone I'm talking with is getting "runtime error ‘429’: ActiveX component can’t create object" and I'm not sure if something is not registered or not.

Joe used this (http://www.chilkatsoft.com/ChilkatXml.asp) (ChilkatXml) freeware to do the XML stuff as I understand. There is "(FREE) XML ActiveX" download/install available here (http://www.chilkatsoft.com/downloads.asp) but I don't know about extra baggage.

I did find registry entres using regedit/search after my post.

I think on Joes site there was a “full” and a “exe” only download. It is the full I’m looking for.

Scott, I got a few versions with the installers. v1.1 and v2.2 I believe. Where do you want them eamiled to....

Guys,

I just can't seem to have any luck with these Kenwood products. The new Entre I purchased from Vanns doesn't do OG lookups when a new disk is inserted. Every disk I add to my changers yields UNKNOWN. It doesn't even try to do a lookup. If I do a manual lookup on a per disk basis, the info is found. Using the changer management options yields UNKNOWN. Anyone know what might be causing this?

Joe,

Stupid question, but does it work right with the stock drive? Maybe your unit is just broken.

Joe,

This may be overly simplistic but have you made sure your unit says 'PROD' in the settings under server?

Originally posted by NiteOwl
Guys,

I just can't seem to have any luck with these Kenwood products. The new Entre I purchased from Vanns doesn't do OG lookups when a new disk is inserted. Every disk I add to my changers yields UNKNOWN. It doesn't even try to do a lookup. If I do a manual lookup on a per disk basis, the info is found. Using the changer management options yields UNKNOWN. Anyone know what might be causing this? Quite strange. You stated "changer management options" so I assume you tried all three (quick, range, all)? Range is supposed to "force" a lookup in comparison to "quick".

Does Options|Menu and "Get Movie Info" do anything. Normally I think this takes the "UNKNOWNs" info captured when the disc was first read and just looks that up in the OG (ie. no rereading of disc)?

My auto-OG-lookup doesn't happen unless I have the guide displaying. If it is not display (ie. situation right after watching a movie), then I have to press the guide button [and that triggers the lookup]. Once on the guide subsequent opening/closing of the changers doors [detection] cause the auto-OG-lookup.

Have you peeked at the XML files? Do they have all the track details...that is did the Entre get all those details from your changer?

No answers I realize just recap and basic questions.

Originally posted by NiteOwl
Guys,

I just can't seem to have any luck with these Kenwood products. The new Entre I purchased from Vanns doesn't do OG lookups when a new disk is inserted. Every disk I add to my changers yields UNKNOWN. It doesn't even try to do a lookup. If I do a manual lookup on a per disk basis, the info is found. Using the changer management options yields UNKNOWN. Anyone know what might be causing this?

Joe:

This is a "problem" that I've had with every Entre I've owned, and with the Escient DVDM-100s that I own. I find that a lot depends on what the changer does with the disc when it is first inserted; if the changer starts its "detection" sweep, then, shortly after that, the Entre will automatically start to look up the title; if, for whatever reason, the detection sweep isn't done, then it doesn't look up a thing.

I've used the range lookup as a failsafe with both the Entre and the Escient.

How many changers do you have hooked up? Stereo miniplugs from changer to changer, and from main to Entre?

Nick :cool:

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
This is a "problem" that I've had with every Entre I've owned, and with the Escient DVDM-100s that I own. I find that a lot depends on what the changer does with the disc when it is first inserted; if the changer starts its "detection" sweep, then, shortly after that, the Entre will automatically start to look up the title; if, for whatever reason, the detection sweep isn't done, then it doesn't look up a thing.
<SNIP> That could be interpreted as "working as designed" especially if works that way on the Entre and Es-DVDM.

I'm quite sure that my "detection" happens every single time I open and close the door on both of my changers. Is my rule-of-thumb diffferent than yours/others?My auto-OG-lookup doesn't happen unless I have the guide displaying. If it is not display (ie. situation right after watching a movie), then I have to press the guide button [and that triggers the lookup]. Once on the guide subsequent opening/closing of the changers doors [detection] cause the auto-OG-lookup.

My Entre won't do the lookup unless the movie guide is displayed, if is not then pressing "Movie" triggers the lookup, just as Scott stated....

I am having a problem with changer number 2, the display will say something like disc 118, but when I eject the disc it is actually 120 being ejected. Some kind of allignment problem....

Originally posted by ForceReconUSC
I am glad I found this board.

I called KW and the 2nd level of support talked me through rebuilding my LAN and now works perfectly.

Very impressed with the support. They mentioned that at CES they will be releasing a new version of the Entre.

Again, thanks to all.

Jon

Hmmmm. I wonder where they got the idea that a new Entre would be shown at CES?

Sorry to say, it isn't so.

Works by design is Kenwood's Motto (good or bad!) My lookups don't happen unless I'm on the GUI either.

As far as a changer being off by a couple of discs... try a hard reset of the changer to get it to resync.

tgaut,
how do you know they won't have a new Entre at CES?

My Entre is dead. The red standby light continues to flash and the CD tray is ejecting. From this forum's reports, this sounds like it can't boot from the hard-disk and it is ejecting the CD for the OS?

I bought it from Jamal back in March. Since it is discontinued (refurb), what kind of support can I expect from Kenwood? I saw that Vanns is offering them for $299 now... What do you think a repair would cost? Can I download the OS CD from somewhere?


Honestly, I have been disappointed with the Entre product. I find the remote flakey, user interface slow, and the pass through feature makes it impossible for clean automation (we need an IR code specifically for turning off pass-through mode). My hope was to make it wife friendly, like a TiVo, but it leaves a lot to be desired... I am otherwise pleased with my other Sovereign components (DV5900M and VR5900), particularly with the PQ of the DVD changer.

So rather than replace the Entre with another Entre, is there a HTPC option that would allow me greater flexibility by integrating something like MCE and also give me control over my DVD/CD mega changer? Basically, does any HTPC solution hold a candle to the promise of the Entre?

The best solution I have read so far is to use MainLobby and DVD Lobby. I'd have to enter the slot numbers along with the DVD information into the DVD lobby database, then hook into selection so that it switches to the correct slot and clicks Play. Sounds low tech (and manual) compared to the Auto-detection capability of the Entre, but maybe it'll work fine. Is this the best that I can expect if I ignore the Entre?

Also, does anybody have a HTPC command the VR5900 via RS232?


NiteOwl, how is the MCE plug-in coming along? That would totally be the preferable solution.

Originally posted by Adam Mrotek
tgaut,
how do you know they won't have a new Entre at CES?

I work for Kenwood as a Product Training Specialist.

Today I finished the final preparation of the Home Audio products that are shipping to Vegas for CES. See you in the booth?

(Run, Duck, Hide)

tgaut:

Have you heard anything about the new Sovereign lineup and if so, some thing you can share?

Thanks
Kevin

Originally posted by tgaut
I work for Kenwood as a Product Training Specialist.

Today I finished the final preparation of the Home Audio products that are shipping to Vegas for CES. See you in the booth?

(Run, Duck, Hide)

I will be there. Just tell us this: Will the new Entre communicate with OpenGlobe, or no?

Thanks,

Nick :cool:

New Sovereign is in the early stages of development with pretty much anything and everything on the table. Until it is ready to show, I can't say anything, even a time frame. Sorry.

At CES we'll show the standard 2005 Kenwood line, as well as prototypes of new higher end (NOT Sovereign) receivers and mega changer. (Think universal player with HDMI connection, still daisy-chained up to three units.)

Originally posted by tgaut
New Sovereign is in the early stages of development with pretty much anything and everything on the table. Until it is ready to show, I can't say anything, even a time frame. Sorry.

At CES we'll show the standard 2005 Kenwood line, as well as prototypes of new higher end (NOT Sovereign) receivers and mega changer. (Think universal player with HDMI connection, still daisy-chained up to three units.)

HDMI . . . universal changers . . . some very attractive thoughts.

But Kenwood can keep them if there is not an Entre with the same GUI, or better, and the same internet connectivity that we've come to expect. Anything less is a deal-breaker, utterly.

Hang on to your old Sovereign products, folks, because the very fact that such changers would be released without an Entre is the worst news that anyone on this board could fathom.

Nick :cool:

Nick,

Note that I said these were high end but NOT Sovereign products, I.E. it fills the gap between the standard components and Sovereign.

Sovereign is still in development and will not be shown at CES because it is in development.

A changer that comes out without an Entre does not exclude a changer coming out with an Entre.

I have completed the changes needed to switch from an ethernet adapter to HPNA using Netgear's PE102. I must admit the Hpna adapter was a little high in price compared to the ethernet adapter, but at $85.00 I'd consider it a bargin seeing as to what they are getting on EBAY now since the Entre's have dropped so low in price and more and more can afford to purchase them. Anyway all I can say is I wish I had gone the HPNA way the first time around. This is without a doubt the way to go. All the ethernet glitch's are now gone and my Axcess works the way it is supposed to. I havn't had a chance to try the playlist thing yet, I'm just as happy selecting one track at a time. By the way, maybe I am imagining it but lookups of music and movies seems tto be a little faster with HPNA..

I am new to this forum so pardon my not having chimed in on this before. I too had problems with ethernet in the beginning. I purchased the entire Sovereign lineup from Tweeter's about Christmas '01. I am a network/systems engineer by trade and I freelance consult for a living. When I first encountered this problem I had suggested the Sovereign lineup to a client and therefore I had plenty of reason to come to grips with some of the challenges that the system has to offer. I have found some answers to some of the challenges.

The answer that I found that works well for this one is to reserve the IP address to the DHCP server by MAC address. If one hardcodes the two together it seems to resolve all issues I have had with the ethernet setup. I have some theories why, but am not sure of any of this as once I had it working I saw no need to sniff packets and see what was going on. This was such a quick and easy fix I didn't think it warranted further investigation. I do believe it is however related to a combination of the Entree OS and the Entree USB hardware. I think the USB hardware goes to sleep when the Entree is not currently using it. This could cause your DHCP lease to be reserved but not reissued when it "wakes up". Also possible is that the lease process goes through a "nack ack" process and that may not be complete if the usb adapter sleeps and wakes up. In any case, I have no issues getting to the entree or the entree getting to the Internet on a switched ethernet setup with 9 collision domains as long as I hard code the MAC address to the IP address at the DHCP server. I am using Windows server 2003 but it also worked fine on server 2000 before I upgraded. I assume this could be done at a hardware router as well.

For those of us using cheap routers and not Windows Server, there is a different solution that will work.

In the Linksys, Netgear, and D-Link routers, there is the ability to set the address range that the DHCP server will assign. In the Linksys router, you do this by setting the DHCP starting IP address in one field and the maximum number of DHCP users in another.

Set a static IP address in the Entre which is just beyond the range of addresses that the DHCP server will assign.

For example, set the DHCP server to assign IP addresses within the range of, say 192.168.1.2 through 192.168.1.150. Then set the Entre's static IP address to 192.168.1.151. Any address within the same 192.168.1.xxx subnet will work (xxx = any number up to 254).

The other quirk is that both USB ports need to be connected to the Ethernet hub/switch/router to work properly and both ports are set to the same static address.

I had initial problems with setting up the Ethernet connections to the Entre, but found my problems were due to an address conflict with a print server that had been set to the same static address two years earlier (poor address management on my part). Since I resolved the address conflict, the Entre works perfectly through an Ethernet connection.

Of course, I'm not trying to use an Axcess, which I believe requires HPNA to work.

Dave Masters

"The other quirk is that both USB ports need to be connected to the Ethernet hub/switch/router to work properly and both ports are set to the same static address. "

I have not had this as an issue. I have the Netmate and the Belkin adapters and both work fine setup the way I described. Neither worked consistently any other way. I was constantly having to reboot the Entree in order to get it to reinitialize the ethernet adapter. I also do not use the Axcess product so a HPNA is not something I need, nor want. As a systems engineer, the whole HPNA tech is cool, but not for me. I require things to attach to cat5e cabling because, well I want a Gigabit backbone damnit!!!

Also, I believe that even an inexpensive router can reserve IP leases to specific MAC addresses.

Anyone have any idea why I can't get a 4:3 flag out of the DV-5900m when the progressive switch is set to on? This has bugged me for a long time. My television won't let me stretch or zoom a 16:9 progressive signal manually. It sees it, stretches it and thats that! If I switch off the progressive, and lose Farouda scanning then it outputs a 4:3 interlaced signal.

It also doesn't send a 16:9 flag even if it's set correctly either, it shows up as 4:3 even in 16:9 media and I have to manually stretch the picture. It sure is a pain in the butt. Anyone ever able to resolve this or even notice it? Could it maybe just be my television?

Originally posted by deguello
"Also, I believe that even an inexpensive router can reserve IP leases to specific MAC addresses.

You're giving these inexpensive home routers too much credit. Certainly my Linksys router(s) and D-Link's popular home routers are incapable of reserving an IP address to a specific MAC address. The configuration options are very limited to make setup easy.

I'm not a network engineer (a lowly IT Architect by trade), but it seems to me that reserving a lease and setting a static IP address accomplishes the same thing. I would like to understand how the two are different from the Entre's perspective, so feel free to PM me with a deeper explaination of the differences. In large networks, I can understand why you would want every device managed through DHCP, but for us simple home users, setting a static address is probably the quickest and easiest way to make the Entre work.

I'm a little confused whether you have both or only one USB port connected to your Ethernet network. I was able to get to Openglobe with only one USB port connected, but needed to connect both to get FTP and DVDEdit to work.

Dave

Originally posted by deguello
Anyone have any idea why I can't get a 4:3 flag out of the DV-5900m when the progressive switch is set to on? This has bugged me for a long time. My television won't let me stretch or zoom a 16:9 progressive signal manually. It sees it, stretches it and thats that! If I switch off the progressive, and lose Farouda scanning then it outputs a 4:3 interlaced signal.

It also doesn't send a 16:9 flag even if it's set correctly either, it shows up as 4:3 even in 16:9 media and I have to manually stretch the picture. It sure is a pain in the butt. Anyone ever able to resolve this or even notice it? Could it maybe just be my television?

You've gone into the 5900's video setup menus and correctly set the kind of display you have? If so, there are probably electronics inside your display that will cause all progressive scan signals - whether 4:3 or 16:9 to be stretched to fill the screen. Lots of RPTVs will lock into "full mode" when detecting a progressive scan signal. Check the owner's manual for your display to be sure.

"but it seems to me that reserving a lease and setting a static IP address accomplishes the same thing. I would like to understand how the two are different from the Entre's perspective"

The difference to the Entree is that he is software and handles DHCP however he was written to handle it, I don't exactly see any guarantees of adherance to any governing body of standards, so I assume that they wrote it to any standard they felt suited their needs.

Well, this is just my theory, but do you remember when the Entree was newer, if you told it to go look for a manual update, the first thing it said it was doing was a "dhcp lookup" then "checking for updates"? Even with a static address. My assumption is that Escient assumed most people would be using DHCP and they wrote the software on the Entree accordingly. So to summarize, DHCP got the bulk of development and everything else was a fix or sub development. Kind of like how MS develops primarily on their platforms and Intel processors, everything else is secondary.

So to put the whole theory together, if the Entree software wants to "DHCP lookup" before it goes out to the Internet, then my thoughts were that the reason a hard coded IP did not always work was because the USB ethernet somehow stopped working and a subroutine did not check for static configuration (or reinitialization) and only a subset of a DHCP "nack ack" in order to reinitialize the adapter. A DHCP lookup had been written into the code somewhere where the subroutine author never went back and verified that hard coded IP's worked well. He assumed that a hard coded IP would always be active, but that a "DHCP lookup" would need to be reobtained at times, again in theory, because he was not always able to reconnect to the Entree himself, so instead of investigating what was not working, he developed a sub-routine to insure that what he was working on had a failsafe, even though it was only a small subset of the overall group of features. I hope that's clear as mud and again all unsubstantiated guesses.

"I'm a little confused whether you have both or only one USB port connected to your Ethernet network. I was able to get to Openglobe with only one USB port connected, but needed to connect both to get FTP and DVDEdit to work."

I have only one USB port connected to my network, the other has a keyboard connected to it, one that is no longer supported (I will disconnect it and let you know if it has any adverse effect if you like). With a full install version of DVDEdit, was able to get both DVDEdit and FTP to work. Many thanks to ScottF and DannyFresh!

"You've gone into the 5900's video setup menus and correctly set the kind of display you have?"

Yes, I have changed everything numerous times and even reset to factory defaults using both methods that I am aware of (Pon/UserSet and Pon/Library).

"If so, there are probably electronics inside your display that will cause all progressive scan signals - whether 4:3 or 16:9 to be stretched to fill the screen."

I have called and reviewed the owners manual. RCA/Thompson seems to be terribly apathetic about the issue. I can't find any info on whether or not this is the issue. I am assuming so. I did buy a performance guarantee and service policy for this item, which I never ever do, but since I had so much trouble with the Entree at first, I decided that I would get one on any expensive item that had major software on it from now on. Since the RCA Scenium line is a Windows CE product, I felt sure that a performance policy was in order. I wonder how BestBuy is gonna respond to this if I show them a $5000 TV won't take a 4:3 progressive signal without stretching to 16:9?

deguello,

I tried the various combinations on my Sony Grand Wega LCD projection TV.

A 4:3 video allowed me to manually stretch or zoom the display, but didn't do anything automatically.

A video with full wide screen (Finding Nemo) went to full screen automatically.

A letterboxed "wide screen" video performed like the 4:3 allowing me to manually stretch and zoom.

Thanks tgaut,

I hooked the DV5900m up to my Dwin Transvision and had no trouble outputting a 4:3 480p signal that was automatically recognized. The Dwin also allowed me to zoom or stretch. A 16:9 480p signal auto stretched as well. So it looks to me like the DVD player is passing the video flags correctly. You are using a DV5900m aren't you tgaut?

For what it's worth BB is coming out to look at it. I tried to just get an RMA without sending a tech out, but they want to make sure that I am not having user error first I guess. I wonder how many times they will try to "fix it" before they give up? Thompson does not acknowledge the problem at all, but oddly enough their new lineup specifically states a fix for this issue as a "feature".

Originally posted by deguello

You are using a DV5900m aren't you tgaut?



But of course!

Neighbor's 5900 DVD player just died. She needs a second one anyway so I need to find her one while she sends the other one into the service center. Where are folks buying them? Anyone have Jamal's (sp?) info?

Hey all,

I have searched and searched the thread and can't seem t find my answer.

When creating discs on a pc to transfer to the entre, what should the file name format be?

artist-song-track-song
artist_song_track_song
artist song track song
song track artist album

etc. etc etc.

Any help?

Fz

The entre will use the info from the id3 tags. I just copied the files over using my existing directory structure that happens to be artist/album/xx Title.mp3 where xx is the track number.

-Jason


Originally posted by fz1234
Hey all,

I have searched and searched the thread and can't seem t find my answer.

When creating discs on a pc to transfer to the entre, what should the file name format be?

artist-song-track-song
artist_song_track_song
artist song track song
song track artist album

etc. etc etc.

Any help?

Fz

After arguing for 30 minutes about the semantics of a design flaw vs. a design feature, BB local management finally decided that they would make me happy and said they would replace the TV. I told the manager that I would need a couple of days to research since I didn’t want to buy another service policy due to the amount of hassle that I had to go through to get my TV replaced/repaired. He agreed, but noted that he would sell me another policy if I would agree that “engineering designs”, however inconvenient, were not covered by the PSP. I suggested this situation was similar to a vehicle being sold in America that would not accelerate to freeway speeds and the manufacturer saying it was a feature.

There will be no (per management policy) bringing my DV5900m up to the store to make sure I can get a progressive scan signal out to any TV’s on display at BB. I am thinking that there are really only two choices to choose from now, the new RCA Scenium and the Samsung. From what I can gather here, it seems the most popular choice is the Samsung. However, being that this is the Sovereign thread, I know that I can only come out of the Entrée in component cable format. Can I pump a 4:3 480p signal into the Samsung HL-P6163W that is currently available at BB and be able to select format or at least not be forced to an incorrect format? I also have a HR 10-250 connected and am sure I can go 720p over HDMI to it and would still have a DVI for HTPC, I think? Can anyone confirm any of this information? If you would make another choice from what BB has on their site, what would it be and why, keeping in mind that I have the entire Sovereign setup as my primary entertainment setup, outside of DTV. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Anyone got Jamal's 411?

A fascinating thing is happening: The Kenwood Sovereign Entre (not the product, but the "digital media hub" concept of what the Entre represents) is up against Windows XP.

Granted, I'm talking about a special version of XP -- Media Center Edition, but nevertheless, this is shaping up to be a very interesting fight for a paradigm: will the home media manager be a dedicated a/v device that specializes in media management (ie., Entre) or will it be a "skin" atop of a powerful, flexible "WinTel" box, disguised as an easy-to-use media management system?

Two years ago, I would have never had even guessed that XP/MCE could hold a candle to a dedicated unit like the Entre. But now, well, HP has taken Microsoft's typically bland and half-baked concept to a new level of intrigue. How? By simply shoving XP/MCE into a A/V unit, shipping it with an A/V remote, and calling it an A/V media center unit.

Now, for us who own an Entre, we still know that this is a wolf in sheep's clothing, but we also know that we only wish the Entre was more open, flexible, and customizable to serve our varied needs and interests.

What I find fascinating and depressing is that while the Entre/Escient interface is by far the slickest, most consumer A/V-friendly UI I've seen on a mass-produced consumer electronics device, it has not broken into the mainstream. Is it as flexible as I'd want? No. But I think it passes the "wife" test with flying colors, and I think that it's a shame that D&M haven't better leveraged the heck out of the UI design shop that they have in their corporatation. I just hate to see the best innovation not succeed because of poor marketing and/or bad timing.

By comparison, the XP/MCE interface is functional, but really not as approachable as the Entre (at least for me and a small sample of people I know). Yes, MCE is relatively easy to navigate, and yes, MCE is much, much better than I expected. But ultimately, it is a skin, and at least for me, the skin is, well, skin deep.

It's unfortunate that we will not be seeing Entre II at 2005's CES. Kenwood had more than enough time to design/develop Entre II. Clearly, there are some political difficulties at Kenwood, and it's not surprising. Things are getting more complicated by the day. Questions like "which standard -- WMV or AAC -- should I comply with for DRM?" and "will we get sued for continuing to support MP3 ripping from a changer?" and "how do we keep this thing easy to use if we allow LAN streaming?" and "should we support photos too? But we're an A/V company, why are we doing photos?"

However, the company that answers these questions in such a way that keeps the interface focused on managing and exposing digital media to the average consumer will win the race.

Because of this, I believe that A/V companies like Sony, Kenwood, Samsung, and new entries like Apple (yeah, how about that -- I just categorized Apple as an A/V company, which I'd be happy to discuss later) are better equipped to align their offerings with the real needs of the digital media customer of today and tomorrow. Their cultures have the right "DNA" to build it right. These companies should not be afraid to use standards-based hardware and low-level software to built their devices. Give Kenwood a Linux platform, and they will build a system that is nothing like XP/MCE. They will build another Entre-like device, because that is what is in their DNA. That's why they chose to partner with Escient/OpenGlobe way back then instead of Microsoft. Organizational DNA is why Microsoft and HP are partners, and why D&M bought Escient/OpenGlobe.

What the digital media ecosystem could use is a broad coalition of companies creating a competing OS "standard" to compete with XP/MCE. I'd like to see D&M partner with the major CE vendors like Sony, Panny, Kenwood and others to get behind Escient as a standard, and put the resoureces into it to create a competing digital media hub platform that each CE vendor could customize to ensure uniqueness and competitiveness, all the while keeping a well-kept, up-to-date, superior "AVOS" that gives XP/MCE a run for its money.

I have a windows desktop, a windows laptop, a windows smartphone, so why not a windows a/v device :) i can't wait for a windows cordless phone that i can synch my outlook contacts to.

as i said before, with the addition of hd-tivo, the amount of hd programming to watch has simply cut into dvd viewing. the entre is not the focal point of my entertainment system anymore.

if my tivo could display photos at hd quality and play mp3s and ripped dvds, then i would never even consider a media pc. i would be happy with one unit that did it all.

Slocko brings up a good point about another player in the ecosystem: TiVo. With their new features, they are also vying to be the digital media manager, but focused on the TV instead of the DVD or CD. The TV has always won the media battle when compared to DVD, CD, or radio, and it likely will for as long as the eye can see.

So, with that, TiVo is positioned very well to be a competitor to XP/MCE and the Escient/Entre/AVbox of the future. Yes, XP/MCE does perform PVR functions, but it's not a no-brainer like TiVo. You can never underestimate the "no-brainer" factor.

The problem is, TiVo is marginal in terms of market share (% of TV owners) and in terms of resources (small company). However, like Escient, TiVo has a pretty slick UI team, and there is a lot of potential for this company if they can successfully expand beyond their PVR roots and also keep the customer in mind when negotiating with the Hollywood to limit customer digital rights options.

So, there are three major players, coming from three distinct angles. Which one will dominate?

And why is Sony on the sidelines on all of this?
And, what does Apple have up its sleeve?
D&M made some very strategic buys over the past 2 years, and now own a lot of the right components to be a big player in digital hubs. Where are they? What are they planning?

When someone buys TiVo (Sony or Apple), we're going to have a very interesting change in the digital media hub ecosystem.

over the holidays i visited my family and saw my brothers all in one apple computer. it was a breathtaking piece of design.

a 20 inch widescreen with just a single ac cord. everything was inside the monitor.

i too expect great things from apple in the future.

Originally posted by JonDeutsch
Because of this, I believe that A/V companies like Sony, Kenwood, Samsung, and new entries like Apple (yeah, how about that -- I just categorized Apple as an A/V company, which I'd be happy to discuss later) are better equipped to align their offerings with the real needs of the digital media customer of today and tomorrow. Their cultures have the right "DNA" to build it right. These companies should not be afraid to use standards-based hardware and low-level software to built their devices. Give Kenwood a Linux platform, and they will build a system that is nothing like XP/MCE. They will build another Entre-like device, because that is what is in their DNA. That's why they chose to partner with Escient/OpenGlobe way back then instead of Microsoft. Organizational DNA is why Microsoft and HP are partners, and why D&M bought Escient/OpenGlobe.



What I found interesting was HP's announcement that they were building a Linux based media center for the Home Theater crowd, rather than for PC enthusiasts, which they admitted their currect offering is targeted for. HP said their new consumer media center would be ready in the fall and would meet a "mass-market" price point.

Here's a snipet from the WSJ article:

Ms. Fiorina said the company this spring will introduce a more advanced entertainment center, updated to support tuning and recording of high-definition programming. Whereas that product is aimed at today's PC users, she said, H-P in the fall plans to kick off a separate line of products, dubbed media "hubs," that have more features and are aimed more at mainstream consumers.

That new line will be based on the Linux operating system, unlike other H-P products that use Windows software from longtime partner Microsoft Corp. The hub will come with an electronic programming guide and software to update itself automatically, she said. The company is not disclosing pricing for the hub or entertainment-center products, though Ms. Fiorina vowed to make them available at "mass market" price points.

I hope HP will work with the likes of Kenwood to enhance their product to include the management of DVD collections like I have. When I looked at their current media center, I liked the look, but was disappointed that it could not interface to DVD changers.

be careful what you wish for!!!!

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20050106005721&newsLang=en

exactly what i was talking about, except it won't be Tivo!!!! :(

Tivo is in trouble now.

Originally posted by slocko
i can't wait for a windows cordless phone that i can synch my outlook contacts to. I have been using one for many years... http://www.tpcug.org/newsletter/nl_2000/february2000/microsoft_phone.htm
unfortunately Microsoft stop making it a few years ago.

Does anyone know if it is possible to record audio, ethier music or movie dialog, to Entre's HD creating an MP3? I have tried to to do this but can't seem to get any analog audio levels even though the cables are connected properly.

does anyonwe know where I can find a remote for the VR-5700 receiver? How much?

Thanks..

So was anyone there? Was there anything new (like those rumored universal changers)?

Originally posted by rbienstock
So was anyone there? Was there anything new (like those rumored universal changers)?

I was there. The new items shown were DivX certified DVD players, DLNA, and mock-ups of the new high-end Kenwood componenets. Unfortunately, we were unable to show Sovereign because it is still in development.

I'll post a picture soon.

Originally posted by rbienstock
So was anyone there? Was there anything new (like those rumored universal changers)?

There were some buckets of steam (vaporware) at Kenwood. "These aren't really working, but they might look like this if we ever made them . . ."

The only other changer I saw was the only one I'm aware of is current, i.e, the Sony ES. I saw this at the Escient booth. By the way, Escient is coming out with a new product that combines the DVDM-100 with a Fireball: In short, it's coming out with an Entre unit.

Things are looking mighty bleak for the changer-controller end of the universe.

Nick :cool:

First of all I would like to thank everyone associated with this thread. I have been setting up and refining my sovereign system for quite some time and could not have made it this far without all of your help.

The reason for my post is that I am looking for a copy of DVDEdit. I am aware that it was sold and that the only versions that might be available would most likely come from within this forum.

I am anxious to get rid of the unknown discs in my entre and from what I have read this program is the key to achieving that.


Any help is much appreciated thank you.

Yes, the disc is inserted correctly. Today, the discs either (a) woudn't play at all ( would just indicate "reading," but no visual), or would give me the message as if it were inserted incorrectly.

These are Two DV-5050Ms and a DV-5900 hooked up to an Escient DVDM100.

I'm going to unplug everything and hope it all goes away.

I've rebooted everything, re-initialized the changers . . . all to no avail.

It's getting frustrating because the escient is fairly new.


Nick :cool:

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
There were some buckets of steam (vaporware) at Kenwood. "These aren't really working, but they might look like this if we ever made them . . ."



Nick,

Once again, it was good to finally meet you!

Please don't take offense, but I don't believe the above is an accurate account of our conversation. As I recall (because I said it hundreds of times during the show) I said "These are mock-ups of what these units will look like when they are released in September."

Attached is a photo of the mock-up for those who were unable to attend CES.

Nick, for your piece of mind, maybe you should buy a Sony changer to keep around to test the Escient with. That way you will know if it's the changer or the Escient.

I will bet it's the Kenwood changer, given the poor quality of the Kenwood changers. But at least you would know.

Originally posted by JonDeutsch

What the digital media ecosystem could use is a broad coalition of companies creating a competing OS "standard" to compete with XP/MCE. I'd like to see D&M partner with the major CE vendors like Sony, Panny, Kenwood and others to get behind Escient as a standard, and put the resoureces into it to create a competing digital media hub platform that each CE vendor could customize to ensure uniqueness and competitiveness, all the while keeping a well-kept, up-to-date, superior "AVOS" that gives XP/MCE a run for its money.

JonDeutsch,
This isn't Escient, but otherwise it sounds like what you're asking for.


Quotes from DLNA.org

Vision
Members of the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) share a vision of a wired and wireless interoperable network of Personal Computers (PC), Consumer Electronics (CE) and mobile devices in the home enabling a seamless environment for sharing and growing new digital media and content services.

Charter
DLNA is focused on delivering an interoperability framework of design guidelines based on open industry standards to complete the cross-industry digital convergence.

Introduced in June 2003 as the Digital Home Working Group (DHWG), Digital Living Network Alliance is a cross-industry organization of leading consumer electronics, computing industry and mobile device companies. Today, DLNA is led by Fujitsu, HP, Intel, IBM, Kenwood, Lenovo, Microsoft, NEC Personal Products, Nokia, Panasonic (Matsushita Electric Industrial), Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and Thomson.

Originally posted by tgaut
<snip> Please don't take offense <snip> And likewise please don't take offense at some of the "remarks". I can't necessarily speak for others but we've had our fair share of frustration for the past 2-3 years being strong supporters of the Kenwood Sovereign line. Overall, with the bumps and bruises, I'm still pretty happy with my purchase. The tweaking we have been able to do has probably helped my satisfaction to a large degree.

My point is that I am glad to have you aboard to share with us what you can. -- Thanks, Scott Fauque

Ditto!

Originally posted by ScottF200
And likewise please don't take offense at some of the "remarks".

Scott,

I started with Kenwood in August 2004, and one of the things they had me do early on was to read this entire thread. So, I know the frustrations many of you have had. After lurking for a while I asked if I could get on this thread as an "official" Kenwood presence, and received an OK.

I have learned a GREAT deal from all of you. I wanted to return the favor by being able to disseminate what information I could, and to send up the line any issues that I see here. Even after all the issues, most people seem to still love their systems, and that says a lot! I've even read some very complimentary posts from Nick!:)

So just let it fly - - -I think I can take it.

Originally posted by tgaut
Scott, I started with Kenwood in August 2004, and one of the things they had me do early on was to read this entire thread. So, I know the frustrations many of you have had. After lurking for a while I asked if I could get on this thread as an "official" Kenwood presence, and received an OK.

I have learned a GREAT deal from all of you. I wanted to return the favor by being able to disseminate what information I could, and to send up the line any issues that I see here. <snip> Appreciate that background. Glad they are watching/listening ... sometimes employees hands are tied in terms of what their company / politics / legalities allow to be said or even acted upon so I/we'll try to keep that in mind.

There was another KW chap here as well but I think that was before the 3 changer support and Nick was really "feisty" then <grin>.

I suspect you read the corresponding technical thread as well? We've experimented a bit as you would have seen ... tip toeing as we go because we are concerned about a) breaking our machines and/or b) having KW/E "come after us".

tgaut, it's nice to know Kenwood cares. Brian towne was the last official from Kenwood to post on this thread, albeit long ago. My question to you is whether you are interested in resolving longstanding issues with the entre' today or are you looking for input for the future entre'? Either way I too am happy to have you here. Just like to know your angle.

I don't think Brian ever posted, David would quote him.

The last guy from Kenwood was Jeff and we ran him out of here in a hurry :)

Slocko,

I remember the "Jeff" portion of the thread well. That was my main concern about popping above the radar. But, you guy's are our customers and I want to do what I can to help with issues. Remember that most of you are light-years ahead of me on the Entre.

Adam,
What long standing issues? I can't make any promises other than to take up the issues with the appropriate person. As to the future, we're interested in any input.

I didn't know about the technical thread. Time to go searching.

Tgaut,

Some long-standing issues with the current Sovereign line from my perspective:

Lack of DVD-Audio support. This was promised in the manual, and has yet to be realized. Currently, DVD-Audios are categorized in the "MOVIE" section, which obviously makes no sense. As a result, I cannot play DVD-Audios along side of my CDs or MP3s, meaning that my music is logically split up instead of integrated (which is the whole idea behind the Entre in the first place!)

DVD Rental Zone. When I put in a DVD, the Entre does not automatically look it up. I have to do a manual lookup, which is a pain and takes time. If I don't do a lookup, the disc does not display on the Entre, so I can't even select it. Watching a movie then takes about 5 minutes to setup, which makes the "wife" angry at technology.

Support for portable media devices. The Entre ships with a front-side USB port to download MP3s to portable MP3 players. Unfortunately, the list of supported devices is limited to whatever was around 3 years ago when Entre was launched. Since then, there have been no additions (to my knowledge) of supported MP3 players. Of course, this is a growing area, and it would be very nice if we could use this feature on all the new portable jukebox devices (I have an Archos Gmini400, fwiw).

PC-based media management. It's unreliable, slow, and useless. And, worse, there seems to be no way to bulk upload MP3 files to the Entre other than copying from a CD-R. This stinks, as the media manager was an important component of the original Entre experience for many. 3rd party hacks like DVD Edit were devised to supplement the malfunctioning media manager, but that has nothing to do with Kenwood supporting their product.

OK, I think that's enough for now. :)

Jon

Originally posted by JonDeutsch
DVD Rental Zone. When I put in a DVD, the Entre does not automatically look it up. I have to do a manual lookup, which is a pain and takes time. If I don't do a lookup, the disc does not display on the Entre, so I can't even select it. Watching a movie then takes about 5 minutes to setup, which makes the "wife" angry at technology. This is indeed odd, as this works perfectly in my setup. I'm wondering what you are doing. If you have a disk in any slot, including the rental zone, and you remove it and immediately replace it with another disk, no lookup ever occurs. That's the way the Entre has always worked, which, if you think about it is sensible, because you might very well remove a disk, discover that it wasn't the one you wanted to remove and immediately replace it.

If you want to swap discs in any slot, including the rental zone, and have them looked up, you need to do this:
1. Open the door,
2. Remove the old disk,
3. Close the door,
4. Wait for a Quick Lookup to occur which will remove the old disk from the database,
5. Open the door,
6. Insert the new disk,
7. Close the door.

You should then have the disk looked up automatically. You can, of course, also simply swap the disks and then force a Quick Lookup from the menu if you want to.

Originally posted by tgaut
Please don't take offense, but I don't believe the above is an accurate account of our conversation. As I recall (because I said it hundreds of times during the show) I said "These are mock-ups of what these units will look like when they are released in September."

Tgaut,

A bit of clarification, please: are these units in the mockup non-Sovereign units that will be released in September or are they the Sovereigns and there is also going to be a new universal changer released at some point? The photo isn't too clear. What are these units, anyway?

Finally, do you have a name or should we just call you Tgaut?

Originally posted by JonDeutsch
Jon

Lack of DVD-Audio support. This was promised in the manual, and has yet to be realized. Currently, DVD-Audios are categorized in the "MOVIE" section, which obviously makes no sense. As a result, I cannot play DVD-Audios along side of my CDs or MP3s, meaning that my music is logically split up instead of integrated (which is the whole idea behind the Entre in the first place!)
.

The manual says that DVD-A will show as an unknown in the DVD group until the DVD-A database is operational. I'll check to see if this is a Kenwood or OpenGlobe issue.


DVD Rental Zone. When I put in a DVD, the Entre does not automatically look it up. I have to do a manual lookup, which is a pain and takes time. If I don't do a lookup, the disc does not display on the Entre, so I can't even select it. Watching a movie then takes about 5 minutes to setup, which makes the "wife" angry at technology.

rbienstock addresses this before I could, but it appears that you and I use the +3 slots differently. I use them for temporary discs that I am going to watch right now; I put them in and press the play button for that slot. All cover art etc., I have in my hand.


Support for portable media devices. The Entre ships with a front-side USB port to download MP3s to portable MP3 players. Unfortunately, the list of supported devices is limited to whatever was around 3 years ago when Entre was launched. Since then, there have been no additions (to my knowledge) of supported MP3 players. Of course, this is a growing area, and it would be very nice if we could use this feature on all the new portable jukebox devices (I have an Archos Gmini400, fwiw).

I'm not real hopeful on this one. Current devices would have to have drivers loaded to the Entre in order to download the files.

PC-based media management. It's unreliable, slow, and useless. And, worse, there seems to be no way to bulk upload MP3 files to the Entre other than copying from a CD-R. This stinks, as the media manager was an important component of the original Entre experience for many. 3rd party hacks like DVD Edit were devised to supplement the malfunctioning media manager, but that has nothing to do with Kenwood supporting their product.

In 2001 networks, and the capability to easily move files wasn't very common. Loading the discs you owned directly into the media manager was a good solution for that time. Now uploading and/or streaming is the best way and that is where we are going with DLNA.

As for the media manager software, I will pass it up the line, but again I'm not real hopeful.

rbienstock,
The units shown at CES are Kenwood Non Sovereign units intended to fill the gap between our current components and the Sovereign line. The unit on the bottom (DV-M81) is a universal player. Sovereign will have the same look but with brushed aluminum on the left and right panels.

David

Jon, mine works like Robert described. You always have to remove the discs and let the entre do a lookup to remove them from the guide.

This behavior is not with swapping, it's with simple adding (and removing). The changer does do a "quick lookup" but the Entre does not seem to pick up any changes, forcing me to do a manual lookup on a disc range (400-403).

Good to know it's not a design flaw, bad to know that my unit is acting funny, and worse to know that there's no one at Kenwood that would really be able to help me solve this problem. The phone support at Kenwood is always nice, but usually I know about 10x more than they know, so it's hardly even worth calling.

Jon

Originally posted by rbienstock
This is indeed odd, as this works perfectly in my setup. I'm wondering what you are doing. If you have a disk in any slot, including the rental zone, and you remove it and immediately replace it with another disk, no lookup ever occurs. That's the way the Entre has always worked, which, if you think about it is sensible, because you might very well remove a disk, discover that it wasn't the one you wanted to remove and immediately replace it.

If you want to swap discs in any slot, including the rental zone, and have them looked up, you need to do this:
1. Open the door,
2. Remove the old disk,
3. Close the door,
4. Wait for a Quick Lookup to occur which will remove the old disk from the database,
5. Open the door,
6. Insert the new disk,
7. Close the door.

You should then have the disk looked up automatically. You can, of course, also simply swap the disks and then force a Quick Lookup from the menu if you want to.

First, thanks for the prompt replys tgaut (David?)!

Regarding DVD-Audio and OpenGlobe. Yes, it's on them to actually support DVD-Audio meta data, but why would that stop Kenwood from organizing DVD-Audio discs into the MUSIC menu? Do you need OpenGlobe to do that? The Entre does know a DVD-Audio disc when it's loaded. It just puts it into the MOVIE/DVD-AUDIO section as an uknown disc. Why can't you just put it into the MUSIC/DVD-AUDIO section as an uknown disc for starters?

Originally posted by tgaut
rbienstock addresses this before I could, but it appears that you and I use the +3 slots differently. I use them for temporary discs that I am going to watch right now; I put them in and press the play button for that slot. All cover art etc., I have in my hand.


If I do that, my Entre "interrupts" me because about 5 mins into the film, it decides it wants to look up the info and takes me to the menu interface! So, I've stopped using the built-in "play" button, which would be just fine by me if it worked.


I'm not real hopeful on this one. Current devices would have to have drivers loaded to the Entre in order to download the files.


Exactly, which is why the Entre has that wonderful ability to accept downloads from Kenwood! Look at every net-connected device on the market, and you can see its common practice to provide software updates that keep the device you invested a lot of money in practical and usable as things change.


In 2001 networks, and the capability to easily move files wasn't very common. Loading the discs you owned directly into the media manager was a good solution for that time. Now uploading and/or streaming is the best way and that is where we are going with DLNA.


But Entre doesn't support uploading or streaming or DNLA. So, this leaves us with the Entre being an "island" instead of a "connected device."


As for the media manager software, I will pass it up the line, but again I'm not real hopeful.


Neither am I, but thanks.

Jon

Jon,

Is it possible you are waiting long enough for the entre to pick up the change? You indicate that if you hit play, 5 minutes it gets interrupted by the entre. So it seems to be working.

I know on my entre it some times takes a very long time for the entre to get triggered to do the lookup. That is why I load my rentals right away and not right before I watch them.

Slocko,

Yeah, I hear you. The thing is, that "5 minutes" is really variable, and sometimes it's 2 minutes, and sometimes it seems to never happen.

But, directly to your point, we shouldn't have to load rentals in the night before, should we?

Nope.

Jon

tgaut (David), thanks for the prompt reply. On the issue of longstanding problems one thing I would like to see are integration modules that would allow the entre' to interface with 3rd party controllers. I have an Elan home control system with touchscreens and although elan and Kenwood are VIP partners there are no modules to allow the elan to control the entre. There are modules for the vr5900 and escient products though. I guess some of us just kind of feel Kenwood has just given up upgrading and support of this incarnation of the entre'. It seems that with a little polish the entre could really shine. Perhaps they never met their sales goals and decided not to put good money after bad. I for one hope that Kenwood continues with a new entre, but I wonder if it would be better to develop your own software so that you are not dependent on escient.

Originally posted by JonDeutsch
Yeah, I hear you. The thing is, that "5 minutes" is really variable, and sometimes it's 2 minutes, and sometimes it seems to never happen.
I don't seem to have this problem. There is an common eject and play button and then there is an eject and play button for each of the 3 rental slots. I typically press the slots eject button, put in the disc and press the slots play button (as I recall then shuts the door). I don't recall the interruption.

Clearly a basic problem with the UI, however, if it is not consistent and foolproof for such a common usage.

I would expect that if they really wanted to have the Entre look up the rental slots then it would seem like they would delay that for at least 3 hours...ie no interrupting the movie I just put in to watch.

Originally posted by Adam Mrotek
tgaut (David), thanks for the prompt reply. On the issue of longstanding problems one thing I would like to see are integration modules that would allow the entre' to interface with 3rd party controllers. I have an Elan home control system with touchscreens and although elan and Kenwood are VIP partners there are no modules to allow the elan to control the entre. There are modules for the vr5900 and escient products though. I guess some of us just kind of feel Kenwood has just given up upgrading and support of this incarnation of the entre'. It seems that with a little polish the entre could really shine. Perhaps they never met their sales goals and decided not to put good money after bad. I for one hope that Kenwood continues with a new entre, but I wonder if it would be better to develop your own software so that you are not dependent on escient.
I don't know about Elan, but the Crestron modules for the Escient DVD M-100 and Fireball have all the necessary codes to control the Entre via IP or RS-232. The M-100 code works on the movie side and the Fireball on the audio side. Works fine too. You should see if Elan has Escient modules available.

Originally posted by tgaut
The units shown at CES are Kenwood Non Sovereign units intended to fill the gap between our current components and the Sovereign line. The unit on the bottom (DV-M81) is a universal player. Sovereign will have the same look but with brushed aluminum on the left and right panels.
David,

Can these units be daisy chained? Can they be controlled by the current version of the Entre?

Thanks for the tip Robert. I was under the impression that the Escient was controlled via rs-232 and that the entre did not have a free port when fully connected to other sovereign products. I was also hoping not to have to program all the ir codes. Should have got the Crestron!

Adam,

The Entre uses tcp/ip port 226 instead of an rs-232 port. Robert is right the escient modules work fine on the entre. I have used them trough crestron, windows and telnet. The Elan system will need an ethernet connection and the port set up.

Fz

I hear you. I've trained myself to open up the netflix mailer as soon as I get the mail and put them in the entre and wait for them to be looked up.

I rarely watch them right away. Next time I will try Scott's idea to test it out.

Originally posted by JonDeutsch
Slocko,

Yeah, I hear you. The thing is, that "5 minutes" is really variable, and sometimes it's 2 minutes, and sometimes it seems to never happen.

But, directly to your point, we shouldn't have to load rentals in the night before, should we?

Nope.

Jon

Originally posted by rbienstock
David,

Can these units be daisy chained? Can they be controlled by the current version of the Entre?

They can be daisy chained, but since they will be using DLNA they won't be controlled by the Entre.

David

Originally posted by tgaut
They can be daisy chained, but since they will be using DLNA they won't be controlled by the Entre.

David

What exactly is DLNA? Will the new Sovereign line have it?

Originally posted by K_Thompson
What exactly is DLNA? Will the new Sovereign line have it?

Go back to post 5876 on January 11.

More info at DLNA.org

I feel certain Sovereign will have it as well, but can't say for certain.

David

Sorry for the Off Topic, but I thought you guys would be interested:

The beginning of obsolence is here:

These are tenatively scheduled for the Fourth Quarter of 2005 and the First Quarter of 2006. Links to the actual articles are also inlcuded.

Warner/New Line/HBO/etc. just announced 52 HD-DVD titles for release Q4 '05:

http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2005/Jan/1106003.htm

ABOVE THE LAW
ALEXANDER
ANGELS IN AMERICA (HBO)
AUSTIN POWERS: INTERNATIONAL MAN OF MYSTERY (NEW LINE)
BATMAN BEGINS
BLADE (NEW LINE)
CATWOMAN
CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY
CONSTANTINE
CONTACT
DARK CITY (NEW LINE)
THE DUKES OF HAZZARD
ERASER
EXECUTIVE DECISION
FINAL DESTINATION (NEW LINE)
FRIDAY (NEW LINE)
FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON (HBO)
THE FUGITIVE
GOTHIKA
HARD TO KILL
HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE
HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS
HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN
HOUSE OF WAX (2005)
THE LAST SAMURAI
THE MASK (NEW LINE)
THE MATRIX
THE MATRIX RELOADED
THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS
MAVERICK
MILLION DOLLAR BABY
THE MUSIC MAN
MYSTIC RIVER
NEXT OF KIN
NORTH BY NORTHWEST
OCEAN'S ELEVEN
OCEAN'S TWELVE
PASSENGER 57
THE PERFECT STORM
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (2004)
THE PLAYER (NEW LINE)
THE POLAR EXPRESS
RED PLANET
RUSH HOUR (NEW LINE)
SE7EN (NEW LINE)
SOLDIER
THE SOPRANOS (HBO)
SPAWN (NEW LINE)
SWORDFISH
TROY
UNDER SIEGE
U.S. MARSHALS
WILD WILD WEST

Paramount just announced 21 HD-DVD titles for Q4 '05:

http://www.mysan.de/international/article21498.html

THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE
SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS
ELIZABETHTOWN
COACH CARTER
ITALIAN JOB
SCHOOL OF ROCK
SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW
FORREST GUMP
BRAVEHEART
GHOST
GREASE
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 2
BLACK RAIN
SAVE THE LAST DANCE
SLEEPY HOLLOW
U2 RATTLE & HUM
VANILLA SKY
LARA CROFT: TOMB RAIDER
STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT
WE WERE SOLDIERS

Universal just announced 16 HD-DVD titles, likely for Q1 '06:

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/s...02774126&EDATE=

THE BOURNE SUPREMACY
THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK
VAN HELSING
APOLLO 13
U-571
12 MONKEYS
DUNE
THE THING
END OF DAYS
BACKDRAFT
WATERWORLD
THE BONE COLLECTOR
SPY GAME
PITCH BLACK
CONAN THE BARBARIAN
DANTE'S PEAK

Escient has a new product, called the DVDM-300. Check it out here http://www.escient.com/releases/escient_jan0605_1.html

As far as I can tell, it's simply an Entre with a larger storage capacity.

Of course, all of these Escient based products were very similar, except that the Entre always did more than the others for the money. That's what made it stand out for value.

Now, to our new welcome friend on this thread, David (tgaut--and it was nice to meet you at CES), as well as to everyone else, I think our discussion should get immediately to the point and stay there: will there be an Entre-based control system for future "Sovereign" or "high end Kenwood" (whatever you want to call them) changers? The next logical question is whether they'll be "forward-compatible" (if such a term exists) with either of the upcoming HD DVD formats (blu ray or HD DVD). In fact, due to the paucity of of multichannel audio releases for SACD and DVD-Audio, I'd venture to guess that universality in that respect would be nice, but not nearly as critical as being universal for blu ray and HD DVD.

This, David, is the question I'm sure you can't answer, because no decisions have been made. But, I have to tell you, it's really the only one that we want to know. We all assume that there will be some manufacturer that will produce a DVD changer and, before Kenwood, we did well enough with Pioneer and Sony. And if we are forced to return to those barbaric days, I suppose we will, because DVD changers reflect a philosophy. The people that have them will continue to have them, though they may be different models.

Right now, the only "current" product that gives us what our champagne tastes have acquired is Escient and Sony. Oh, I suppose that some might trade the user interface for a changer with an HDMI output, but champagne and caviar are tough things to dump. Now, Sony already has a single disc HDMI DVD player, and it is going HDMI in a big way on its displays, so I expect that its next generation of changers will also have HDMI outputs. And if Sony is the only one then compatible with the Escient, well, I have to tell you where my money will be spent.

Still, all of this is to say what a great, great, product the Kenwood Entre is, and why its platform should not be abandoned. The proof positive of that is that Escient is selling what is essentially an Entre with larger storage capacity for about three times the price. That's why, out of sheer principle, when I saw Vanns dumping their last stock of Entres for $400 I picked one up, although hardly needing another.

Kenwood needs to say, now, definitively, and with as much precision as possible, that there will be an Entre, that it will have either access to Openglobe or the equivalent of Openglobe. Anything less means that Kenwood is again in the mode of "suggesting" but not committing, and we played that game far too long in the past. On the other hand, if you just don't know whether there ever will be such a product, then say that. I think it is safe to say that the people on this thread will give strong and first consideration to Kenwood, all other things being equal; a great step in that direction is to be straight with us on Kenwood's actual intentions in this regard. Everything else is fluff.

Nick :cool:

Nick is on the money. I switched to Escient last month just to have a stable platform and am so happy that I did. I still use it with the Sovereign receiver and 5900 changer. With Escient getting a software update this month that will make it IP addressable, it's stability and control will be light years ahead of the entre.

Nick,

I agree with you 100%. Prior to replying to your post I sent your info to the Product Manager with a plea to keep the backwards compatibility with the current Entre so the new changers can be used with them.

As to the features and capabilities of the new Sovereign product it truly is not finalized. Be assured that I pass the needs and desires from this thread on to the people involved in that development.

Blu-Ray and HD ... I just don't know. Since the non-Sovereign changer has HDMI the Sovereign will have to have it as well.

As I said previously I've read this thread from beginning to end and I know the problems and issues from before. I have no desire to go there again, but I have no information to say anything definitively.

Be assured that as soon as I know, you'll know.

David

And make sure that the future Entre supports 3 changers ;)

While it would be nice for the new changers to be backwards compatible, I don't think anyone will be shocked if they aren't. Especially if they are HDMI.

Since the current Entre does not have HDMI, I think the advantage of HDMI would be lost and I get the feeling that the main selling point of the changers is going to be HDMI.

On the other hand, if the new changer supports both HD formats and is backwards compatible with the Entre, then a lot of current Entre owners will be tempted to buy new changers to take advantage of HD content, even though the Entre would be non-HDMI.

As I see it, Sony will probably not make their changers universal (at least not initially), so Kenwood has an opportunity to grab some market share in the changer market.

The one shown at CES was universal, so again I'll ASSUME the sovereign will be as well.

David

Universal for Music or universal for Video? Or both?

Sad that we have these format wars again.

Originally posted by slocko
Universal for Music or universal for Video? Or both?

Sad that we have these format wars again.

Sorry. Universal for audio. Don't know about video yet.

Looking at the Fireball that Nick referenced, I'm amazed it doesn't have HDMI.

I suspect the reason was to remain compatible with the Sony and Kenwood changers.

But has David ever said that there will be a "new" Entre? I'm only reading about new changers, not new control systems. That's what's got me concerned.

Universal changers in the sense they're being pitched no longer mean a thing. Both SACD and DVD-Audio are on life support. Ever hear of "HDCD?" Both are about to enter that realm: Acronmyms that no one even cares about.

The universal changers that we will care very much about are the ones that resolve the difference between blu ray and HD DVD, if there is indeed the format war that seems squaring off so belligerently now. But that's not what's being discussed at the moment.

So it's not that I object to universal changers, I'm glad they're universal than otherwise; it's just that it's no big deal whatsoever, since there is precious little to enjoy in multichannel audio and, for that reason, is not a selling point. If I am confronted with changer that can be controlled by an escient or entre, but is not universal, as opposed to one that is universal but is just plain jane, the choice is easy--keep the universal version. I'll make do the same way I've been making do (an escient controlling a sony, and a kenwood controlling a kenwood, giving me both SACD and DVD-A).

Now if the choice is a changer that can be controlled by escient or entre, or one that can't but has HDMI and is universal, well, to me, it's still a lousy choice. The premium I put on the user interface here is high priority to me because, like I said in another post, changers are a philosophy, and anything short of an entre-like user interface/ replete with OpenGlobe, is regression that is hard to swallow.

I can see which way this is headed. If Kenwood wants a proprietary interest in this thread, and open communication with the people that have spent the most money on its products, then answering the question of will there or won't there be an Entre--and, by the way, that question isn't answered by telling us about changers that are universal with HDMI switching--shoud be open and shut. Tell us what to expect. We may still decide to stick with you.

Nick :cool:

Originally posted by ScottF200
<snip> I suspect you read the corresponding technical thread as well? We've experimented a bit as you would have seen ... tip toeing as we go because we are concerned about a) breaking our machines and/or b) having KW/E "come after us".

Re: I didn't know about the technical thread. Time to go searching.

tgaut (too confusing to call you David - ie. thread starter!),
I don't think I ever pointed you to the tech thread or if you mentioned you found it.
Sovereign Tech thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=311141&perpage=30&pagenumber=1)

Nick,

My speculation is that Kenwood lost a lot of money on the Entre due to whatever licensing deal they had with Escient. The market for a changer management device was too small. That is probably the reason that Escient is so expensive. That is the only way for them to make money on the units.

So Kenwood will decide to stick to selling the actual changers and media streaming devices. They already have a product in this area.

Escient on the other hand, craters to a higer end market and will continue to build new versions that will support hd content. Especially since their customer most likely will rebuild their dvd collections. With each HD title their client buys, the less appealing their current product becomes.

Us Entre folks, are more price conscious and will rebuild slowly.

In the less traumatic turmoil of my doings, such as my interaction with devices like Entre and Escient, I may have been prone to outspokenness but, I hope, not overstatement. So I go out on a limb when I say that:

This has been one of those days.

My movies situation had evolved to the following configuration: Three Kenwood Changers 5900s and 5050s controlled by an Escient DVDM-100, formerly controlled, albeit slightly differently, from a Kenwood Entre.


I had a virtual swamp of other escient and entre units about the house, probably five in all. My compulsiveness is a minor issue here.

Within the last few days, the previously correctly loaded escient dvdm-100 would refuse to "summon" the movies from the guide, indiscriminately, and leave me in a sort of Kenwood waiting land where you just stare at the big K. A few would get pulled, but there was definitely something wrong.

Since it was an option, I substituted a second dvdm-100 for the first. What this did was to connect to the interenet, and to correctly load all discs from changers 2 & 3 (not 1). Acquring a guide in that fashion, the dvdm-100 then correctly "summoned" from its circumscribed guide, producing a movie when I called for it. But no matter how many times I tried, I could not load a thing from changer 1.

I then even took the step switching each disc from that changer into another changer I knew was working. All four hundred discs, switched. Still no can do. No loading of changer 1.

Problem is, who knows whether the new problem has anything to do with the first problem?

So now I regress. I pull an out available Kenwood Entre, a rehap from Jamal. This had been working until recently in my basement, so it is not as if I have no experience with the unit. I hook everything up the entre way, with the old belkin adapter, and now I've been stuck on "installing radio stadions" for at leat an hour, and I'd already rebooted out of such a position once before.

There's not one thing about this scenario that makes a bit of sense. Perhaps it's a message from above (and maybe my compulsiveness is more an issue than I want to admit ;).

Nick :cool:

Let me take a stab at it:

1) changer one does not work with dvdm #1, but 2 and 3 do.
2) changer one also does not work with dvdm #2.
3) discs in changer one work in any other changer. rules out the discs being a problem.

I will have to say that changer one is the problem. Given the history of changer problems in general, there is a good chance it's the changer.

It might also have caused the first dvdm to exhibit problems.

On the entre problem, I can only guess that the site is down and that is why you are stuck there. I believe that has happened to me in the past.

You might have to prepare a golden disc and use that instead.

also try moving changer one further down the chain to number 2 or 3. If the problem moves, then another indication that possibly it's the changer.

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
<snip>Within the last few days, the previously correctly loaded escient dvdm-100 would refuse to "summon" the movies from the guide, <snip> Considering what you pay for Escient, have you tried their support. I would expect them to give you top notch and quick support...ie. part of the "extra" cost of the system.

I am slowly concluding that Escient's analysis is correct, i.e., at least one, and possibly two, of the changers have simply hit that stretch on the highway. Strange that it would occurr simultaneously, or perhaps I just noticed it then. One refused to look up discs at all (and wouldn't play them even without a controller like an Entre or Escient), and the other just gives me the "unplayable lie" message (or am I confusing that with my normal golf game?).

You get the picture. I don't.

I'm going to keep a set of Kenwoods strictly for CD and DVD-Audio and move to a new set of Sony DVPCX777ES for movie playback. We'll see if that makes any difference.

Nick :cool:

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
I am slowly concluding that Escient's analysis is correct, i.e., at least one, and possibly two, of the changers have simply hit that stretch on the highway. Strange that it would occurr simultaneously, or perhaps I just noticed it then. One refused to look up discs at all (and wouldn't play them even without a controller like an Entre or Escient), and the other just gives me the "unplayable lie" message (or am I confusing that with my normal golf game?).

You get the picture. I don't.

I'm going to keep a set of Kenwoods strictly for CD and DVD-Audio and move to a new set of Sony DVPCX777ES for movie playback. We'll see if that makes any difference.
1. I wouldn't give up without letting the changers sit unplugged and then doing a reset first. Sometimes that brings them back to life.

2. Does the CX777 do disk flip like the Kenwood? The official specs are silent. I hate double sided discs, and this is one feature of the Kenwood that I think is really useful that I haven't seen elsewhere.

Originally posted by rbienstock
1. I wouldn't give up without letting the changers sit unplugged and then doing a reset first. Sometimes that brings them back to life.<snip> Nice point. Rem: "you could also hold down the 'library' button similar to the 'user-file' button for an "initialization". Apparently holding down the 'library' button is akin to a factory reset as it wipes out any customization you had on the DV5900m." per another post of mine via KW support.

Originally posted by ScottF200
Nice point. Rem: "you could also hold down the 'library' button similar to the 'user-file' button for an "initialization". Apparently holding down the 'library' button is akin to a factory reset as it wipes out any customization you had on the DV5900m." per another post of mine via KW support.

Thanks, Guys. The pull-the-plug apparently worked (except for one, but that's been moved to the basement--appears that the Escient+Sony experiment will begin there).

I'll have to check the manual on the Sony to see if it works with flippers.

Nick :cool:

DVDEdit downloadable:

Tech thread post (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=5002166#post5002166)

P.S. Friendly tip: Remember that you can use the "Search this thread:" option at the top of the thread. This can be very handy because it is fast.

While attempting to edit my DVD info using DVDEdit ver 2.4 I consistently get a Run Time '5' Error message.

This error occurs when I try and upload cover art to the Entre.

If I try to upload changes in text (i.e. director, actors, movie title, etc) I simply see that in the status bar that DVDEdit is preparing to upload to the entre but nothing ever happens.

I know run time errors have been an issue in the past but I can not find an instance similar to what I am experiencing.

Does any body out there have any ideas?

Just a bit of background.

I have tried being connected to my network both wireless and wired. I am running through a linksys router that is hooked to an 8-port switch that feeds the entre.

I have successfully uploaded changes using media manager.

Any and all help is appreciated. Thanks.

Originally posted by skellerman
<snip>I have successfully uploaded changes using media manager.<snip> If you are using firewall software did you give MM access? Do same for DVDEdit. Or turn firewall off as a test. Of course, it appears that DVDEdit was able to download the information from the Entre but just did not seem to upload it. Just something else to double check.

Scott,

I have both MM and DVDEdit listed as exceptions and also previously tried connecting without the firewall in place. Still no luck but thanks for the suggetion.

Steve

I know this is no longer a supported program.
But I'm no network engineer. I know that most of you are much smarter than I.

I'm getting a "Run-time error '429':
ActiveX component can't create object

The software does see my Entre and then downloads the movie info.

But during the "Reading DVDs.xml" info it then crashes.

I really miss the use of this software. Got a bunch of DVD's for Christmas and still can't get them listed the way I want with cover art.

Thanks!

-Brad

Originally posted by Bchase
<snip>I'm getting a "Run-time error '429':
ActiveX component can't create object<snip> See this post (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=5003028#post5003028) and uninstall, reinstall full, then overlay 2.2 with 2.4 EXE. My thought it this will register your ActiveX componets properly. Food for thought anyway.

Thanks Scott!

That seemed to work.

Now I've spent the last 45min looking for an older post referencing to a web site that someone used to download cover art.

I remember having to look up the art on the web page but then having to change from 150 to 250 on the properties so the art was sized correctly for the Entre.

If anyone remembers this post I would be very helpfull.

Thanks again for the quick help!!!

-Brad

PM NiteOwl. He was the one that had posted the web site.

It's on the tip of my brain, but I can't retrieve it!

okay found it:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=3071136#post3071136

searched for the keyword resize and followed the conversation.

Thanks Scott,

I can't imagine what this thread would be like without your help!

-Brad

Originally posted by slocko
okay found it:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=3071136#post3071136
searched for the keyword resize and followed the conversation. I use DVD Profiler images since I already have them on my PC. I'm using the paid for version (of course!) and when you click on a small image on the main screen to get the fullsize one then you can right-click on the image (built in browser after all), save as, then resize as needed.

Additional info from an old e-mail I had.

I use 365 height because that is what the majority of DVD coverarts are that the Entre downloads from OG. I assume they made them that size for a reason – smallest size, best view without scaling, etc. I discovered this after downloading all the Entre files to my PC and just randomly looking in the coverart directories and noting the pattern.

If I ever need to adjust the ratio I just use the built in XP software. Right-click, resize picture, advanced button and then ### x 365. No fuss.

Originally posted by Bchase
Thanks Scott, I can't imagine what this thread would be like without your help! -Brad Glad to help. I hope my tips can help many more than one so I typically like forums more than one-on-one e-mails but they have their place. Obviously I'm only one of many great posters and contributors here.

Since I generally have my Entre working very well in my system. I just got my iPronto working with everything...but, there are a couple of DVD's that could use real cover art and I too have DVD-Profiler...where is DVDedit? Is it difficult to use?
TIA
Jon

Originally posted by ForceReconUSC
Since I generally have my Entre working very well in my system. I just got my iPronto working with everything...but, there are a couple of DVD's that could use real cover art and I too have DVD-Profiler...where is DVDedit? Is it difficult to use? TIA Jon

See this post (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=5003028#post5003028)

It doesn't work for all as some get runtime errors. If it works then my tips are:
- test with a 1 char descript change to see if it works
- be careful about cutting and pasting text from other apps (ie. DVD Profiler, websites) as only basic latin chars (simple ASCII) are understood by the Entre -- after DVDEdit uploads it then the Entre may still fail the XML validation. (generally paste text into notepad and then cut the text again out of notepad to cleanse---as I recall).
- see prev post about coverart sizes (pixels) but there is a bytes limit too (50K or something).

I haven't been on this thread for about three months...great to see it still around... sorry for the following novel below...

Due to the a change in internet providers and switching to a cable modem, my Entre has been off line for about one year. During this timeframe, by 5900 changer also developed the dreaded "unreadable disc" error, and completely froze on me. The 5900 was within 14 days of warranty. I physically drove to the Denville repair facility. They repaired the unit, but when they did this, they unloaded all my discs (the unit was completely frozen so I couldn't open the door to unload and I didn't want to void the warranty) and returned them to me in plastic sleeves...

After the repair (and it was nice to have the eject button finally work) I attempted to reload the discs manually back in their "original" slots, but I made a mistake. I hooked up the Entre and the 5900 and before I knew it, the Entre began a "find disc" search and deleted about the first 35 slots in the guide... (my first Movie in the Entre Guide now begins with the letter "G")

I have approximately 150 DVD/CD's which remain unloaded. about 125 had been looked up originally by Entre. Their profiles still exist in the Entre. The other 25 discs I entered manually (since I had no internet connection)

On Friday, I plan to connect the Entre to my newly installed cable modem/netgear router via a Belken F5D5050 USB - Ethernet converter.

If this was you, would you start over, erase the Entre, and start a brand new look -up?

Any step by step advice on how I should proceed on resurrecting my system?

Has there been any software upgrades or other issues I need to check on?

Any other advice?

Flavorguy,

You should be ok - the Entre should have all the info for the discs still in the database (it just deletes them from the guide because it doesn't see them in the changer). When I moved last year I unloaded all the discs and left the Entre and changer in their boxes for several months. When I reloaded the changer I did not try to match discs to the previous slots - all I did was hook everything up, power it up before reloading the discs, let the Entre see that there were no discs in the changer (it did the typical quick lookup after the changer reported detecting no discs), then load all the discs and do a "lookup all". The Entre used the disc info already in the local database to identify the discs - this was evident because all of the home movie DVDs I had in the changer were properly identified with the info and cover art I had loaded previously loaded via DVDedit.

I would not do any sort of re-initialization on the Entre unless you have some sort of unrecoverable problem looking up the discs. In my case, everything worked fine just letting the Entre look up the discs after I reloaded them in the changer.

Hope this helps,

Mike

Originally posted by Mkellyvich
<snip>The Entre used the disc info already in the local database to identify the discs<snip> As I recall from the manual or sales info this was a feature so when you loan DVDs out, or took one on the plane that it would remember the information. Funny I recall it being a fairly low limit on how many it keep track of ... I got the feeling it was a LRU type management.

I recall many of us having to deal with this when we got our free upgrades to v3. Seems like Roberts instructions were different and I tried looking at the FAQ ( http://homepage.mac.com/jbryer/SovereignFAQ.html ) but I didn't see his instructions.

Just turn off the changer. The entre will detect it's offline and offer to remove all dvds from the guide. Say yes.

Then turn it back on and it should start looking them all up, but it will first look on the hard drive to retrieve the information. It should be fairly quick.

I did this when I consolidate my two changers. I emptied both and then just filled up one of them. Put the other one away.

"Get movie info" will still identify new dvd info for dvds that no longer are in the changer. So the information is still on the Entre.

It works...I am buying a lotto ticket.

Jon

Originally posted by ForceReconUSC
It works...I am buying a lotto ticket. Jon Great news. Thanks go to Joe who spent countless hours getting that to the point where it would work for many people. I was one of the beta tester and provided feedback on design and workability but he was thee "man".

Hey all,
just received my Entre and 5050 today, I got it updated to 2.0.0.8 and put all of my disks into the 5050, it has now started the quicklookup but I am at disk 8 and elapsed time of 43 minutes, Is this normal?
I have broadband and am using the usb to ethernet connector

Brent

While I am just a newbie too, I went through this recently. My exp. has been it is not normal, try pulling that disc out and seeing if it continues.
You can also do a range search in changer mgt. pick a segment of your discs and see if that does not work.

My guess is that disc has "stumped your system" The good news is there are excellent people on this thread and KW support has been terrific for me.

G/L

Jon

Forcereconusc,
Yup, I cancelled it and it said it couldn't read disks 1-10, I just started over and I am at disk 14 with elapsed time of 10 minutes, and it found all of the previous disks. I don't know why it wasn't working the first time.

Brent

Has anyone had any issues recently with the Entre mis-identifying disks. I recently had to start from scratch (complete software re-install). I've noticed that sometimes the Entre will attach descriptive information to disk 10 that actually belongs to disk 25 (for example).

Anyone else see this? It's really frustrating, it's my 4th time this week trying to lookup all my discs.

hm

It seems to be an issue with the changer, not the Entre -- for some reason, it'll play disc 2, but it thinks it's playing disc 1 (if that makes any sense).

Anyone else see this?

wondering if someone could email me a copy of dvd-edit?

brentmorley at cableone dot net

Originally posted by dogdvr
wondering if someone could email me a copy of dvd-edit?
brentmorley at cableone dot net
Did you see my recent and earlier post:
DVDEdit downloadable:

Tech thread post (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=5002166#post5002166)

P.S. Friendly tip: Remember that you can use the "Search this thread:" option at the top of the thread. This can be very handy because it is fast.
Perhaps you did but the download didn't work?

Originally posted by hmatos
Has anyone had any issues recently with the Entre mis-identifying disks. I recently had to start from scratch (complete software re-install). I've noticed that sometimes the Entre will attach descriptive information to disk 10 that actually belongs to disk 25 (for example).
Anyone else see this? It's really frustrating, it's my 4th time this week trying to lookup all my discs.
hm
It seems to be an issue with the changer, not the Entre -- for some reason, it'll play disc 2, but it thinks it's playing disc 1 (if that makes any sense).
Anyone else see this? This vaguely sounds familiar as if I had it but I don't recall reading about others having it. It is a vague memory but I think I either just turned the changer on/off or did one or both of the init sequences.

Thanks Scott,
I swear I read the technical thread but somehow I missed that one, I had tried to go through this thread and the technical thread (alot of information!)

Brent

Ok I tried dvdedit today and it said connecting then my entre shut off.
It now has a flashing red light and will not restart.
any suggestions?

Well, my movies are now Kenwood-Free. A changer breaks down, an Entre breaks down, and I had two full triple sets in use (one for music, one for movies . . . )

So I've wound up with an Escient DVDM-100 connected to 3 Sony DVP-CX777ES units, as of yesterday. I had contemplated this when one of the Kenwooods in my movies-daisy-chain had broken down, silently resurrected, and now broken down again.

A brand new Entre (Vanns: $400) connected to three Kenwood changers still controls my CD and DVD-Audio collection in my "room." The remaining usable Entre and changers have migrated, where all HT equipment ultimately migrates, to the "basement system."

The first comparison I'll make is that I think the Sony-Escient combination does work with more simplicity, and more speedily. Last night, when I watched my first flick, the picture from the Sony on my projector was gorgeous, but I'm reluctant w/out having done any real a/b to say that it was any better than the Kenwood. These would be interlaced component outputs from each changer, since I'm only comparing DVD playback onto the same projector/scaler/screen, and don't use the progressive scan feature on the changers. That is one place where the DV-5900M would presumably have the upper hand over other players, if it were relevant.

It is nice to have three changers where the eject mechanism reliably works on each. This is something that would break, usually in the first half hour of operation, with the Kenwood changers I've had.

For what it's worth, I now have two items purchased from Jamal on eBay, he of the refurb realm, an Entre and a DV-5900M. After about six months usage of each, both stopped working. I'll likely send them in for repair, but . . . . good thing the Vanns deal was around.

The Entre and Kenwood changers remain in my system, and, for my money, have made me expect a certain level of performance from a changing system that I can't easily get rid of. I will say, however, that as I look forward to "completing" the collection of a DVD library (and look forward to "beginning" the groundwork on a HD-DVD or Blu-Ray library), that it feels a bit more secure to be dealing with current products.

Nick :cool:

Originally posted by dogdvr
Ok I tried dvdedit today and it said connecting then my entre shut off.
It now has a flashing red light and will not restart. any suggestions? I assume you have tried rebooting a couple times? That is holding the power button down for 5+ seconds for a "warm reboot" and then also a unplug for 15-30 seconds for a "cold reboot".

Joe designed DVDEdit to technically work like Media Manager does to the best of my knowledge. That is "request permission" (handle) from the Entre, upload data to a temp directory and then let the Entre see the info in the temp dir. The Entre then validates the XML and "applies" the changes to the database and the real XML files. All that being said, I don't see how it would "hurt" your system.

Other things we have done such as "correcting" XML files via edit/ftping could possibly "hurt" the system but not DVDEdit.

Nick,

Could you please do a test for me? Do you have any DADs (the 96/24 PCM DVD-Video format used by Classic records and others)? If you do, could you check whether the Sony changers can pass a 96KHz signal to the MC-12? As I'm sure you know, the Kenwood can not pass such a signal, and I now have to sue a single-disc Marantz player to play these discs. I now have a pretty big collection of home brewed DADs and I'd love to have them in a changer.

FWIW, I was thinking about moving to a DVD-M100, but I've changed my mind. Mainly, I don't think that my experience with the M100 would be so vastly superior to the Entre to warrant the cost and hassle of changing. My first choice, if I were to make a change, would be a Kaleidescape system, but it is simply too expensive at this time. I'm hoping that things will come down. If that doesn't happen, I'm seriously looking at the Video Request product. This offers a few advantages over the Escient product: (1) it integrates better with a Crestron remote control system, (2) it allows direct access to the chapters on a disc, and (3) it is a pure control device and does not contain any internal video switching. It integrates with a select few video switches, with more to come at a later time. This opens the possibility of using it with changers that have DVI/HDMI output (or even with modified Sony changers)

I have stopped using my changers for movies. So I have a Kenwood 5050 dvd changer laying around. If anyone is interested in it, send me a PM.

I really loved these products. I am still using the Entre and one changer for music, but It will not fill up any time soon, so the second which was for movies is not needed.

Plus like Nick said with HD DVD around the corner, here we go again with are collections.

Originally posted by rbienstock
Nick,

Could you please do a test for me? Do you have any DADs (the 96/24 PCM DVD-Video format used by Classic records and others)? If you do, could you check whether the Sony changers can pass a 96KHz signal to the MC-12? As I'm sure you know, the Kenwood can not pass such a signal, and I now have to sue a single-disc Marantz player to play these discs. I now have a pretty big collection of home brewed DADs and I'd love to have them in a changer.

I do have a few. You may recall that each of us identified this as a bugaboo on the Kenwood ages ago; the digital signal would intermittently drop out (you can get it for seconds at a time).

Let me locate my Chesky Sampler disc (I have a few others) and give it a whirl. May take awhile. It would have been easy on my "old" Entre, that was fully updated via a working DVDEdit. I had all that stuff marked and numbered correctly, almost like the database worked perfectly. Now there may be an issue of locating it in the changer.

(I don't know if anyone else noticed, but strange things began to happen--both to Entre and the DVDM-100 from the OpenGlobe/Escient Database on non-CD/non-DVD-Video discs . . . .multiple identifications of "Circus" (whatever that is) "Cleopatra," the movie "Giant" . . . Neil Young music . . . all wrong, too) . . . all of this has made a mockery of a once precise Entre listing of music. Only the CDs are reliable, and I can't get any version of DVDEdit to work, ever, and the array of DVDs in my music collection is not large (since it's limited to only DVD Audios and, arguably, DADs).

I recently changed to a Sony digital projector with an HDMI input. Because of my predilection for changers (and the generally excellent job done by the analog component connectors) the HDMI is generally useless to me for DVD playback, but it is an outstanding projector and I use the HDMI output from my HD TiVo, and also have one of the cheap Sony DVD single disc players with an HDMI output, and have tried it. There is a slight difference, but this could also be owing to the fact that my projector wants to receive a 1080i signal initially and deinterlace it from there (no outboard scaling, as with a CRT projector).

Sony has been the one constant in the DVD Changer fare, since we've been using these devices; Kenwood took the concept light years ahead of anyone before it, though Escient deserves a lot of that credit. Despite what I've seen and enjoyed from HDMI with DVD and a top-shelf projector, I would trade it for one that had an Escient/Entre control system and component video outputs, if that were the choice.

I'm hoping the next player I purchase is an Escient and/or Entre controlled (not the current version of either) megachanger that has HDMI outputs, will handle Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, and, for good measure, will be backward compatible with existing DVDs.

Oh, yes. You can make them universal for SACD and DVD-A, too. Although there's a software industry that seems more related to the collection of antiques, not cutting edge technology.

Nick :cool:

HPNA seems to be a less hassle networking solution for many...so

From the iPAQ music center yahoo thread (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ipaqmusiccenter/messages) : For those of you having trouble connecting to the internet who also have cable or DSL, you may want to take a look at:

http://store.yahoo.com/software-blowouts/2who165dslro.html

For $29, it's a HPNA 2 2WIRE HomePortal 165 DSL /Cable Router . I use a Compaq CP-1 HPNA 2 router and have never had problems connecting to the internet via my cable modem and router hooked to the hpna port on the MC-1. Don't know anything about this one, but for $29 it might be worth a chance.

Scott,
I didn't think the dvdedit caused it but might give some idea as to what happened, I have tried holding the power and unplugging it, no luck.
The only thing I see is Pshell on the front screen and a flashing red light.
the cd doesn't eject so I cant try the 2.0.0.8 cd

Brent

dogdvr,

I had a similar problem while doing a hard drive upgrade. I did not have the pshell on the screen but the unit was constantly trying to boot. My solution was to access the cd drive's eject button, however you can not access it while the drive is inside the Entre. If you open up the Entre and get to the front of the drive you will be able to eject the disc. Too bad Kenwood didn't put a hole in the front of the Entre for situations such as these.

FZ

i am trying to open port 226 on my entre to use the crestron escient module. can anyone tell me how to open port 226? thanks,
anthony

That seems interesting for the price.

Any ideas how I would use that in conjunction with a wireless router?

Would it be as simple as taking the out from the 2wire and plugging it into the wireless router input?

So the chain would be DSL/Cable modem > 2wire > wirelss router

Originally posted by ScottF200
HPNA seems to be a less hassle networking solution for many...so

From the iPAQ music center yahoo thread (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ipaqmusiccenter/messages) :

fz1234,
I found that if you use a paper clip approximately 1/3 of the way to the right on the bottom of the cd drawer you can release it, I did get it open and had to reinstall everything

I am looking to organize the mp3's on my PC. Not all files have the same file name format. Can anyone suggest software that will go through and reformat the file name and maybe even check with cddb to make sure all info is correct and cmplete.

Thanks,

try musicmatch.

"It seems to be an issue with the changer, not the Entre -- for some reason, it'll play disc 2, but it thinks it's playing disc 1 (if that makes any sense)."

Mine just did something like this too. The changer and the Entre seem to be one DVD off. If I play a movie from the Guide it ends up playing the DVD below the one I selected in the guide. I tried it on 4 or 5 DVDs and it seems to be consistant.

I've got the Entre updating its guide now with the changer off then I'll try to relook up all the movies again to see if it corrects that.

Is there a way to backup the Entre's guide for times like this that it might get a little confused?

Thanks,

Shawn

FYI, from the iPAC thread:

--- In ipaqmusiccenter@yahoogroups.com, "Scott" <ipaqmusiccenter@f...>
wrote:
>
> Hello,
> I'm an Entre owner (same/similar underlying "OS").
>
> Is it my understanding that changing any of the library.prp entries
> to true and rebooting will cause the "OS" to rebuild the
> corresponding database from the xml files that are located in the s0-
> s9/s0-s9 (subdirs)?
>
> Movies.indexRebuild=false
> Music.indexRebuild=false
> Radio.indexRebuild=false
>
> So is the DB only used for "index" and quick access to the XML files
> then? Meaning the "source" for everything is the XML files?
>
> Thanks, Scott Fauque


Answer in tech thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=5061225#post5061225)

I couldn't find any way around this -- I'm waiting for my other changer to get back from service and I'll send this one in. I don't think it's the Entre, but I won't know until I get the other changer back.

As for backing up the guide, it can be done, it's a bit of a pain though. Once I opened up FTP access to the Entre, I download from the Entre, 7.0.5/Database/Movies/ (all directories). I was then able to keep this as a backup and apply it when needed.

It's a bit of a hassle, but it's a nice to have. Keep in mind though, it gets really messy once you start moving discs around. I just recently gave up using the backup, because I had moved so many discs around both changers, that the Guide was about 40% accurate.

Hope this all makes sense.

hm


Originally posted by sfogg
"It seems to be an issue with the changer, not the Entre -- for some reason, it'll play disc 2, but it thinks it's playing disc 1 (if that makes any sense)."

Mine just did something like this too. The changer and the Entre seem to be one DVD off. If I play a movie from the Guide it ends up playing the DVD below the one I selected in the guide. I tried it on 4 or 5 DVDs and it seems to be consistant.

I've got the Entre updating its guide now with the changer off then I'll try to relook up all the movies again to see if it corrects that.

Is there a way to backup the Entre's guide for times like this that it might get a little confused?

Thanks,

Shawn

"I don't think it's the Entre, but I won't know until I get the other changer back. "

For my problem I think it was the Entre since it was always one off in the guide and that was consistant even when the slot numbers jump all around. Could easily be wrong about that though.

Wish I knew what I did to cause this problem as I really don't want to have to deal with this again.

The changer seems to be acting a little flakey too, after I finally got it to do a 'lookup all' about 140 of the DVDs it couldn't read this time through. :(

Thanks for the info on backing up the Entre, I do see how that could be a pain if you change your library around a lot.

Shawn

PS. Anyone ever get a service manual for the changers? I wonder if they can be re-aligned easily if needed? One of these days I need to open it up and see about that as well as an SDI mod for the 5050.

Here's the way I determined that it was the changer --

1. Select a movie in the Entre's Guide, note what slot number it thinks the movie is in.

2. Take a look at your changer, what slot does it show it's playing?

3. Now eject the disc, take a look at what slot the changer ejected.

In my case, I selected "Abyss", which the Entre thought was in slot 2. It played, "Mean Girls", which it thought was in slot 3. When I went downstairs, the Changer's screen displayed, "2", but when I ejected, it was disc "3". I then went ahead and used the scroll wheel to go to disc "1" and it displayed "1" on the LCD, but it was actually on disc "2".

I hit the power button and it cleared it up for a little while. But never long enough to actually perform a "lookup all". So I'm pretty much hosed until I get my other changer back. I'll know for sure which device is having the issue at that point. Something else that's really weird about this changer, it doesn't seem to go to a slot in the same way as my other changer. If I use the wheel to go to slot 200 and then move to 220 using the wheel. It will slowly go two to four slots to the right, then two slots to the left, then all the way around, and then finally to the location I was trying to get to.

hm

Originally posted by sfogg
"I don't think it's the Entre, but I won't know until I get the other changer back. "

For my problem I think it was the Entre since it was always one off in the guide and that was consistant even when the slot numbers jump all around. Could easily be wrong about that though.

Wish I knew what I did to cause this problem as I really don't want to have to deal with this again.

The changer seems to be acting a little flakey too, after I finally got it to do a 'lookup all' about 140 of the DVDs it couldn't read this time through. :(

Thanks for the info on backing up the Entre, I do see how that could be a pain if you change your library around a lot.

Shawn

PS. Anyone ever get a service manual for the changers? I wonder if they can be re-aligned easily if needed? One of these days I need to open it up and see about that as well as an SDI mod for the 5050.

"1. Select a movie in the Entre's Guide, note what slot number it thinks the movie is in.
2. Take a look at your changer, what slot does it show it's playing?
3. Now eject the disc, take a look at what slot the changer ejected."

I'll have to try that, my changer isn't in the same room as I was so I didn't look at it.

I do have another changer but it isn't hooked up. If the setup is still acting funny I'll try loading a few of the problem discs in the other changer and see if it can play them.

"So I'm pretty much hosed until I get my other changer back."

Do you know if for out of warranty repairs does Kenwood charge based on time and materials or do they have a fixed repair cost?

Shawn

:p I'll let you know ... I'm in the same boat.

Originally posted by sfogg
"1. Select a movie in the Entre's Guide, note what slot number it thinks the movie is in.
2. Take a look at your changer, what slot does it show it's playing?
3. Now eject the disc, take a look at what slot the changer ejected."

I'll have to try that, my changer isn't in the same room as I was so I didn't look at it.

I do have another changer but it isn't hooked up. If the setup is still acting funny I'll try loading a few of the problem discs in the other changer and see if it can play them.

"So I'm pretty much hosed until I get my other changer back."

Do you know if for out of warranty repairs does Kenwood charge based on time and materials or do they have a fixed repair cost?

Shawn

"I'll let you know ... I'm in the same boat."

Thanks, is the changer you have out to be repaired for the same problem? If so when you get it back could you let me know what they repaired/replaced in the unit? I just bought the service manual for the changers and am curious on what they replace to see if maybe it would be a relatively simple DIY repair.

BTW, I checked my setup. I started it doing a lookup all this morning on the discs it couldn't read last night. I don't think it read a single one all day as it was still trying to read them and the list it gave started at the slot number I gave it. I tried watching one of the found discs but it came up as unreadable.

I'll have to swap out for the other changer and see if I have better luck.

Shawn

i think my repaired changer may be heading south again. a year after it was repaired.

i got a pixelated screen while playing a dvd, it then froze and skipped ahead to the next chapter.

i remember getting these types of errors before. hopefully just a dirty disc, but second time in 3 months.

i am hopeful since I've yet to experience an unreadable disc error.

Shawn:

If I understand your problem correctly, your changer produces the disc that is slotted right next to the one in the Entre guide that you selected? Is this intermittent, or is it always doing it, for every disc?

I've always had this problem, intermittently.

One approach would be:

Let's assume the "confused" slots are 70-73. Take the discs out. Let the changer do a detection sweep and note that there are no discs in those slots.

Then take those three discs and put them in three empty slots in the changer (assuming you have them). Do a "range lookup" for the three newly minted slots. The Entre should find them and identify them in those slots (though you may not yet have lost the earlier entries from the earlier slots in the guide).

Then take three new discs. Put them in 70-73 (again, assuming these are the offending slots). Do a range lookup for those slots. Entre should now give you a new guide, and usually everything starts to work again.

Nick :cool:

Hi Nick,

" your changer produces the disc that is slotted right next to the one in the Entre guide that you selected? Is this intermittent, or is it always doing it, for every disc?"

It appears to be doing it for every disc. I tried a couple of DVDs in the first few slots then a couple in the 100s range and a couple in the 200s range. It kept loading the disc in the guide one down from what I actually selected.

I ended up turning on the Entre with the changer off and letting it remote everything from the Guide and having it lookup all but now the changer seems to be having problems reading many of my DVDs.

I may open it up and see if it looks like it needs a cleaning or anything. While I'm in there I may see about an SDI mod to the unit. From the service manual I am pretty sure I found the pins I'd need to connect to but I don't know for sure which format the decoder in the 5050 uses to feed the video DAC. I have a spare SDI output card so I may just hook it up and see if it works. If not I'd need a different type of SDI output card. If the SDI out does work I'll need to figure out a way of daisy chaining multiple changers for SDI. I have a few ideas there but need to poke around inside first to double check a couple of things.

Thanks,

Shawn

I hate to tell you, but I've had my changer in 4 times in less than 2 years for this very same issue. Each time they say they align the laser pickup. It will then work for few months without issue, then slowly it creeps up again until finally, no discs can be viewed because of the skipping/freezing.

hm


Originally posted by slocko
i think my repaired changer may be heading south again. a year after it was repaired.

i got a pixelated screen while playing a dvd, it then froze and skipped ahead to the next chapter.

i remember getting these types of errors before. hopefully just a dirty disc, but second time in 3 months.

i am hopeful since I've yet to experience an unreadable disc error.

"Each time they say they align the laser pickup. It will then work for few months without issue, then slowly it creeps up again until finally, no discs can be viewed because of the skipping/freezing."

Figures, alignment isn't mentioned at all in the service manual.

Shawn

One of the nice things that the DVDM-100 does, in contrast to the Entre, relates to looking up movies. When, for example, you look up a movie by title that has more than one entry what you get is a list of all the entries ("Fallen," Fallen Angels," etc.) and then you choose from the list.

As I recall, that used to be one of the maddening things about the Entre. Since I haven't used an Entre for movies for awhile, I don't believe that type of improvement ever emerged.

There is limited changer control fromt the Escient remote, too, but at least the changers turn on and off automatically when the DVDM-100 leads the way.

Nick :cool:

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
One of the nice things that the DVDM-100 does, in contrast to the Entre, relates to looking up movies. When, for example, you look up a movie by title that has more than one entry what you get is a list of all the entries ("Fallen," Fallen Angels," etc.) and then you choose from the list.
What do you mean "look up" on the Entre? Do you mean searching for the movie in OpenGlobe? If so, that's a good change. If you mean looking it up in the database, then there's no such thing on the Entre unless I missed it. All you can do is to enter the first letter of the title and then browse to the title. I know that the DVDM-100 is supposed to have a cover art view where you just display the covers and then select to play. Does it also have a star or director view where you can select a disc by those criteria?

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
There is limited changer control fromt the Escient remote, too, but at least the changers turn on and off automatically when the DVDM-100 leads the way. Does this mean that if the changer is turned off and you select a movie from teh DVDM-100, that it turns the changer on? That is good. AudioRequest says that they had to do a firmware upgrade on the Sony changers to get that feature to work with their changer controller. What about the Kenwood "turn-on-play-disk" glitch (where the last loaded disk plays when you turn the changer on)?

Well... I tried the other changer last night. This was a 'new' refurb 5050. Kenwood service did a lousy job putting it back together. The top half of the spindle was seated improperly in the bottom half so in a couple of places plastic tabs were sticking out that should have been inside the bottom half of the spindle. A disc in the changer hits the tabs when rotated by that area. Thankfully I noticed this after I had only loaded 10 DVDs or so.

Luckily that was easy enough to fix, just pulling the cover and loosing a few screws which hold the top spindle down, reseating it properly then tightening down the screws again. I didn't get a chance to try the changer yet though as while I was in there I noticed some white lithium grease in a few of the holding slots so I cleaned that up to keep it from getting on the discs. I didn't get a chance after that to give it a try.

Shawn

Originally posted by rbienstock
What do you mean "look up" on the Entre? Do you mean searching for the movie in OpenGlobe? If so, that's a good change. If you mean looking it up in the database, then there's no such thing on the Entre unless I missed it. All you can do is to enter the first letter of the title and then browse to the title. I know that the DVDM-100 is supposed to have a cover art view where you just display the covers and then select to play. Does it also have a star or director view where you can select a disc by those criteria?

Yes, I mean looking it up on OpenGlobe (on "Escient" as the DVDM-100 calls OpenGlobe). It's when you search for a disc on OpenGlobe using a title. For example, there are two movies called "Trial & Error." I never used to be able to get the cover art from OpenGlobe on the later release (1997). It would always turn up the earlier one, an early sixties British Comedy.

The DVDM-100 will produce both, and ask you to choose which one you want.

The DVDM-100 does have a "View" button, that turns the OSD from the Entre-resembling guide to one in which just the cover art is displayed.

Does this mean that if the changer is turned off and you select a movie from teh DVDM-100, that it turns the changer on? That is good. AudioRequest says that they had to do a firmware upgrade on the Sony changers to get that feature to work with their changer controller. What about the Kenwood "turn-on-play-disk" glitch (where the last loaded disk plays when you turn the changer on)?

Yes, sort of. You can't select a movie from the DVDM-100 without turning it on, and, once you turn it on, the changers automatically power up.

With the Escient and the Sony changers, there is no glitch where the last loaded disc starts to play.

There are some features on the Sony changers which either don't work very well, or I am not using correctly. One such feature is that the changers are setup (once you go through a custom setup) to default to certain positions--so that, as a matter of priority, the Sony changer is supposed to default to the DTS audio (if it's there), then the Dolby Digital 5.1 signal, then the Dolby Digital 2.0 signal, and then Dolby Surround. With most discs it works, but others are problematic. I have to go back in to check to see that the settings on all three are the same, but I thought I set them all that way.

The Escient/Sony combination is a very good one, and, in all, at least a slight improvement over the Kenwood, from a functionality standpoint. Both systems are superb performers, and, in fairness to Kenwood, I'm talking about three brand new changers with a unit that wasn't even released until about two years after it.

I could continue to be happy with an Entre and three Kenwood changers, because, when working right, I think they set the standard, and there is simply no way I could ever go back to a single disc player again. These are just a bit more current. If your Sovereign combination is working fine, then there is no need to change.

Nick :cool:

The refurb 5050 that Kenwood had put back together badly is working now. It is reading discs and talking with the Entre fine. I'm a little concerned about this one though as there seems to be more side to side wobble/play in the tray then the other one. Not sure if that is just a tolerance thing or if something else is wrong with it.

As far as the 5050 that stopped being able to read any of my discs I opened that one up to take a look at it. Makes sense that it can't read the discs... it isn't spinning them up when it tries to play them. For anyone that has had a unreadable player repaired any chance you have the paper work on the repair and that it lists what was replaced? The exploded view of the parts in the player don't quite specify where the motor that spins up the disc is located. I've narrowed it down (I think) to one of two parts. One is about $100 the other is $140.

Without taking the changer apart for real I can't really see that area enough. It looks like it would be a major rubix cube to get access to that area. I'll have to check with Kenwood and see if they will give me an idea on what this typically costs to fix and then decide if I want to attempt to tackle this myself.

Shawn

Shawn,

When you have the changer open and attempt to play a disc, do you hear the motor try to spin the disk up but the disc won't go? I once had a Pioneer 6-disc changer that would unsuccessfully try to spin up discs. Through trial and error I determined that the rubber vibration isolators on the mechanism that clamps the disc to the motor (disc clutch?) had dried out and contracted enough to prevent the clutch from gripping the disc. Four thin washers fixed that unit for a total cost of ~75 cents (plus a couple hours of messing with the player). That was back around 1992 - my sister still uses that changer today.

Just a thought...

Mike

Hi Mike,

Thanks, I don't think it is trying to spin up the disc but I'll check that too. I need to verify that the motor is getting power to try to spin it up but that isn't easy because of where the mechnism is and because the whole thing rotates around 180 degrees.

Thanks,

Shawn

I guess I know who I am going to send my changer to for repair! :)

When I had mine repaired, the guy told me that the part cost $100. Mine got to the point where discs wouldn't even load anymore.

I don't have the paperwork anymore.



Originally posted by sfogg
The refurb 5050 that Kenwood had put back together badly is working now. It is reading discs and talking with the Entre fine. I'm a little concerned about this one though as there seems to be more side to side wobble/play in the tray then the other one. Not sure if that is just a tolerance thing or if something else is wrong with it.

As far as the 5050 that stopped being able to read any of my discs I opened that one up to take a look at it. Makes sense that it can't read the discs... it isn't spinning them up when it tries to play them. For anyone that has had a unreadable player repaired any chance you have the paper work on the repair and that it lists what was replaced? The exploded view of the parts in the player don't quite specify where the motor that spins up the disc is located. I've narrowed it down (I think) to one of two parts. One is about $100 the other is $140.

Without taking the changer apart for real I can't really see that area enough. It looks like it would be a major rubix cube to get access to that area. I'll have to check with Kenwood and see if they will give me an idea on what this typically costs to fix and then decide if I want to attempt to tackle this myself.

Shawn

"When I had mine repaired, the guy told me that the part cost $100. Mine got to the point where discs wouldn't even load anymore."

Thanks, I checked with one of the online Kenwood parts dealers and the circuit board that controls the laser assembly (and that might have the motor on it) is like $97. The housing that board fits into (which also might have the motor on it) is $140. I'll probably have to take apart some of the transport unit to really see where the motor is and to test it better.

Shawn

Does anyone know where I can get a remote for the vr-5700,5080 and 5090 receiver? Anyone have to they want to get rid of?

Thanks..

Question to Nick:

When you changed out your Kenwood changers to the Sony's, did you have to again enter information manually for disks not recognized by the DVDM-100 and the Kenwood changers, or did the DVDM-100 recognize these disks when read with the Sony's by matching the internal information previously specified for those DVD's ?

I have about 900 DVD's on my 3 Kenwood changers and I am considering to swap to the Sony's to get better performance (quicker, less jam situations etc). My only worry is that I have entered information manually for about 300 of these DVD's (I have many reg 2's), including cover arts. I do not want to go through this again by swapping the changers...

Thanks, /Lars

Originally posted by Lars158
Question to Nick:

When you changed out your Kenwood changers to the Sony's, did you have to again enter information manually for disks not recognized by the DVDM-100 and the Kenwood changers, or did the DVDM-100 recognize these disks when read with the Sony's by matching the internal information previously specified for those DVD's ?

It matched the internal information. This had to be the case, since it found cover art for discs that I had to manually enter (there's an FTP ability with the Escient), and, for that matter, the internet was down while the DVDM-100 was "finding" all these discs. It was obviously recalling them from when they had been entered from the Kenwood changers, albeit in completely new slots.

I have about 900 DVD's on my 3 Kenwood changers and I am considering to swap to the Sony's to get better performance (quicker, less jam situations etc). My only worry is that I have entered information manually for about 300 of these DVD's (I have many reg 2's), including cover arts. I do not want to go through this again by swapping the changers...

Assuming you have a DVDM-100, I don't think you've got anything to worry about. But, then again, I think the same thing was true of Entre. But you obviously can't hook up Sony changers to an Entre.

Hope this helps.

Nick :cool:

While I don't own a DVDM-100, I'm pretty sure the information has to be stored on the DVDM, probably in flash since from what I remember it doesn't have a hard drive.

It probably stores each dvd id with an entry in the database. So when it re-reads the dvds from the Sony, it will match up the dvd id with the previous entry.

The entre always checks it's database first, before going out to the internet. So I think you will be fine.

Originally posted by Lars158
Question to Nick:

When you changed out your Kenwood changers to the Sony's, did you have to again enter information manually for disks not recognized by the DVDM-100 and the Kenwood changers, or did the DVDM-100 recognize these disks when read with the Sony's by matching the internal information previously specified for those DVD's ?

I have about 900 DVD's on my 3 Kenwood changers and I am considering to swap to the Sony's to get better performance (quicker, less jam situations etc). My only worry is that I have entered information manually for about 300 of these DVD's (I have many reg 2's), including cover arts. I do not want to go through this again by swapping the changers...

Thanks, /Lars

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
<snip>(there's an FTP ability with the Escient)<snip> I assume this means that FTP access is always available and an Axcess or other special 'turn on FTP' software is not needed. That is to say Escients does not provide any software for uploading cover art or edit DVD info just like Kenwood does not. All these true statements?

sbonaparte,

Check your PM.

Originally posted by ScottF200
I assume this means that FTP access is always available and an Axcess or other special 'turn on FTP' software is not needed. That is to say Escients does not provide any software for uploading cover art or edit DVD info just like Kenwood does not. All these true statements?

Yes. You just need an FTP program. If you enter the password "movies," then it will permit you to dump cover art into the movies section. If you enter the password "music," then you can dump it into the music section.

However, during the FTP process, you do not get the full view of what's inside the Escient, in the same way we did as with the Entre, i.e., all the files and subfiles. It's really very limited.

Nick :cool:

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
<snip>However, during the FTP process, you do not get the full view of what's inside the Escient, in the same way we did as with the Entre, i.e., all the files and subfiles. It's really very limited. Nick :cool: That's "funny". Wonder if it has always worked like that or just since they read our KW Entre tech thread and said :eek:

Nick have you tried anonymous to see if it works?

Originally posted by Nick Satullo
It matched the internal information. This had to be the case, since it found cover art for discs that I had to manually enter (there's an FTP ability with the Escient), and, for that matter, the internet was down while the DVDM-100 was "finding" all these discs. It was obviously recalling them from when they had been entered from the Kenwood changers, albeit in completely new slots.

[b]

Assuming you have a DVDM-100, I don't think you've got anything to worry about. But, then again, I think the same thing was true of Entre. But you obviously can't hook up Sony changers to an Entre.

Hope this helps.

Nick :cool:

Thanks for the confirmation - I will now probably go ahead and change to Sony in my setup since it should be an easy migration...

Yes, i do have the DVDM-100 (had an Entree in the past but got frustrated when the multi-changer support did not work that well, so I changed to the Escient but kept the Kenwood DVD changers). I have used the DVDM-100 FTP transfer mechanism to load the 100+ cover arts for my manual entries - and I find it to work very well.

/Lars

Well, I haven't gotten the busted 5050 working yet. But while I was in there I worked out SDI moding the 5050. I also made it so you can SDI mod all of the daisy chained changers and they will pass through the SDI signal from whichever unit is playing the DVD similar to how they work with analog video.

Shawn

Originally posted by sfogg
Well, I haven't gotten the busted 5050 working yet. But while I was in there I worked out SDI moding the 5050. I also made it so you can SDI mod all of the daisy chained changers and they will pass through the SDI signal from whichever unit is playing the DVD similar to how they work with analog video.

Shawn
Tell me more! I have been considering the SDI mod on my 2 5900's but couldn't figure out the daisy chaining....