AVS Forum banner

Velocity Micro MCE

137K views 1K replies 129 participants last post by  Larry Stewart 
#1 ·
The cablecard thread was getting a bit off topic so I have created this thread for more general questions about the new Velocity Micro Media Center systems.


I'm Hoping Chris will join us here soon. I should probably state that I don't work for Velocity Micro, so I don't have much information other than what I gleamed during the order process for my system.


Since I started this, I'll go ahead and ask the first questions:


Chris, we talked earlier on email about raid options on the new MCE's. Can you tell us more about how the Raidstorm raid system works. Since the initial system will be using the software version, what expansion features will it offer if we want to add more drive space in the furture?


Lastly, how much hard drive space (locations for hard drives) does the CineMagix Grand Theater system have?
 
#1,102 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Eugen Paval /forum/post/11340470


I also want to thank you very much for all your support and wish you well in your new endeavors. I believe I speak for everyone here when I say you are a man with a passion and it is a pitty VM lost a person like you. But hey, I am sure you thought about this, you should start your own media center boutique. I will recommed you to everyone I know. Seriously, if you didn't think about it...

Ditto.


As I have blogged, your presence on this forum was the main reason why I bought my CableCard Media Center PC from VM-- and an additional gaming rig from them.
 
#1,103 ·
Thank you guys so much, it really makes me feel good to hear all of this...


If anyone wishes to speak with me, I find myself with a bit more free time these days. My contact info is chris AT morleydigital DOT com or you can buzz me @ 832-236-0834. I'll be blogging about my adventures @ www.morleydigital.com


BTW, what do you guys think of Omaura? www.omaura.com
 
#1,104 ·
Wow, this was a very sudden, end of the week resignation. Just Friday morning you even advised someone to check back with you in a month about about the updated software suite from VM, so it doesn't seem like this was planned.


Is everything still business as usual at Velocity Micro? Stable enough to have faith they'll be around for the near future?


Sorry to see you go Chris, your very informative responses will be missed.
 
#1,105 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by VideoJames /forum/post/11342798


Wow, this was a very sudden, end of the week resignation. Just Friday morning you even advised someone to check back with you in a month about about the updated software suite from VM, so it doesn't seem like this was planned.


Is everything still business as usual at Velocity Micro? Stable enough to have faith they'll be around for the near future?


Sorry to see you go Chris, your very informative responses will be missed.

I hope you guys can understand that I do not wish to go into details. This was something I was planning on, just not sure of the timing.


As to VM - they're a fine company and they'll do just fine without me, I may even buy a Grand Theater from them since I had to turn mine in...
 
#1,106 ·
Hey guys - if anyone is interested in buying my grand theater - let me know - or - if you know of anyone - mac user here and i just can't get into VISTA - its in perfect condition. so PM me if your interested. i live in nyc so if anyone is in the area your more than welcome to come over and test it out.
 
#1,107 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisMorley /forum/post/11341669


Thank you guys so much, it really makes me feel good to hear all of this...


If anyone wishes to speak with me, I find myself with a bit more free time these days. My contact info is chris AT morleydigital DOT com or you can buzz me @ 832-236-0834. I'll be blogging about my adventures @ www.morleydigital.com


BTW, what do you guys think of Omaura? www.omaura.com

So, you decided to strike out on your own...interesting...
 
#1,108 ·
I hate to say it, but the news of Chris moving on has stalled my VM order. I was already a little concerned with quality problems reported here (and elsewhere on the web), especially in terms of motherboard failures. Components I can deal with, but the motherboard would be a...mother. I really wish that cablecard tuners were available in general so I could just head over to Frys and build my own box.
 
#1,109 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by jmallory /forum/post/11327653


It was a provisioning problem. They had the programming on one of the cards completely screwed up. The tech that was here said they fixed the programming, did a "hard hit" on the card (this may be the INIT command that Microsoft refers to in the Cablecard FAQ,) and then did a "soft hit" (probably the actual HIT command) and that cleared the problem.


BTW, these are Motorola CC's.


-- Jim

The problem reappeared again...I am having Comcast replace the "suspect" cable card on Wednesday morning...will give an update.
 
#1,110 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by BTDT /forum/post/11353045


I hate to say it, but the news of Chris moving on has stalled my VM order. I was already a little concerned with quality problems reported here (and elsewhere on the web), especially in terms of motherboard failures. Components I can deal with, but the motherboard would be a...mother. I really wish that cablecard tuners were available in general so I could just head over to Frys and build my own box.


Well mine is scheduled to ship this friday so we will see what happens. I'm not as patient as some of the people here and will call my credit card company and dispute the charges if it gets longer than 2 weeks.
 
#1,112 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by almostinsane /forum/post/11354617


Well mine is scheduled to ship this friday so we will see what happens. I'm not as patient as some of the people here and will call my credit card company and dispute the charges if it gets longer than 2 weeks.

I would be really surprised to see a timely delivery for a cablecard system but maybe they caught up with backorders. Anyway, wish you luck, once you got your system up it is a pleasure to watch TV. I really liked TIVO, I was a two years early ReplayTV customer, I even used for a year and a half the crappy Scientific Atlanta UI (HD 8300 Explorer) so I have reference points. MCE is briliant and the system is good apart from being noisy. But then this is fixable.
 
#1,113 ·
Well, if you're looking for bang for the buck the Campus Edition Vector GX under Home Office is a great system, but if you want a DCT ready media center if you decide down the road to go that direction, the CineMagix S85 is a great deal too.
 
#1,114 ·
Hey Guys,


I've been reading all the messages in this thread about problems pairing the CableCard in my internal tuner (1) with my VM C85 I. I've had 3 Seattle - Comcast techs out with many CableCards and have never had any sort of sucess. I recently installed a EDA-FT08100 Electroline Drop Amp with 0 dB return loss, so i thought i would try again to pair. No luck, I keep getting this message in the trace window (and blue mce doesnt have enough info to tune to this channel screen) when trying to tune to a digital channel.

[51:595568.3] cas.c => CASSetChannel: channel number 107, source ID 0, mode Live (parsing result 0)

[52:595568.3] tunemngr.c => TuneByVirtualChannelNumber: data for channel 107 is not available in SI database

[53:595568.3] cas.c => CASSetChannel: returning 0x81001005

[54:595568.3] upnphttp.c => ProcessEnvelope: failed to call method SetChannel. Error 0x81001005

[55:595568.3] httpd.c => HttpServerTask: failed to process 2 - '/Device/Services/89333102-EBE5-11D8-AC9B-0006BB102893/CAS/control'. Error 0x81001005



Should I try reinstalling the OS and try pairing again or should i just call up VM and try to figure out what is going on? I really don't want to get Comcast involved again untill i have some more information on what is going on.


Thanks in advance!
 
#1,117 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by jmallory /forum/post/11353671


The problem reappeared again...I am having Comcast replace the "suspect" cable card on Wednesday morning...will give an update.

Comcast came out today to work on it. They replaced the main line that feeds the MDU (I live in a townhouse) and I assume he probably also redid some terminations as well. The problem cleared with no further action by Comcast, may have been a signal strength problem. Tech said the main line looked like an animal has been chewing through it. I will know in a few days but my signal strength (from the DCT diags) have gone from about -19 dbmv to about -12 and my LG TV shows increased signal strength on the ClearQAM channels. I will keep everyone updated.


-- Jim
 
#1,118 ·
Hi Chris -


What specs do you recommend if I want to power a Dell 3007WFP (eg, some gaming and mostly Vista at 2560x1600) AND use 2 DCTs w/ Blu-ray? And I also like to have lots of things going on at the same, like downloading / encoding / watching HDTV / etc.


I like to get a good value but also want to do all the stuff above, is it possible?? Btw, why isn't the 8800 GTX card offered anymore? Would I need it for the configuration you'd recommend? Please advise, thanks!
 
#1,119 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by ddog2k /forum/post/11393644


Hi Chris -


What specs do you recommend if I want to power a Dell 3007WFP (eg, some gaming and mostly Vista at 2560x1600) AND use 2 DCTs w/ Blu-ray? And I also like to have lots of things going on at the same, like downloading / encoding / watching HDTV / etc.


I like to get a good value but also want to do all the stuff above, is it possible?? Btw, why isn't the 8800 GTX card offered anymore? Would I need it for the configuration you'd recommend? Please advise, thanks!

Well, the thing to remember is that the only cards that can do dual link HDCP would be the ATI Radeon HD series, so you're going to want to go down that route for protected content. And since you want to game at that resolution I'd recommend dual Radeon HD 2900XT 1GB cards in CrossFire. Which means you'll need Bad Axe II - the previous board for the CineMagix S85. You may want to see if VM would be willing to configure this for you.


The 8800 GTX doesn't fit in the TX chassis if that's what you're looking at...
 
#1,120 ·
Anyone ever heard of two CABLEcards losing there minds at the same time. I have one of the first S85's that shipped, and it ran like a dream from the firmware update until last Saturday.

I was trying to watch ESPNHD, and got about 3 seconds of video, and then a "call your cable operator" flash screen. After that none of my protected channels would tune.


Also, Chris, I tried to do a reinstall of the OS, and when I did, two strange things happened. The OS, after the install, showed a different -OEM- code (the one that is generated using the Vista activation code that you put in during install) then the shipped install, and my key for Digital Cable wouldn't work.
 
#1,121 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Axlrod /forum/post/11436728


Anyone ever heard of two CABLEcards losing there minds at the same time. I have one of the first S85's that shipped, and it ran like a dream from the firmware update until last Saturday.

I was trying to watch ESPNHD, and got about 3 seconds of video, and then a "call your cable operator" flash screen. After that none of my protected channels would tune.

Do you still get some channels? I had the same problem with one DCT and it turned out to be a signal strength problem. The signal strength was good enough for one DCT but not the other. Comcast came out and ran the line from the pole and I went from -19dBmv to -12dBmv and that fixed the problem. One thing you can look for is in the "trace" section of the debug web page for the DCT is a message basically describing corruption in the VCT (Virtual Channel Table, what binds the channel you tune to the frequency and/or QAM allocation the program sits on). That is what I was seeing when I had my problems. I just checked the system again and it is still fine.


-- Jim
 
#1,122 ·
Axlrod -


That's indeed strange. Jim has some good suggestions, and as to the OEM act issue, you might want to call VM and talk to Iggy, he's the guy that handles that stuff for product development...
 
#1,123 ·
I see that Velocity Micro is now offering a Super Multi Blue Blu-ray / HD-DVD Hybrid drive in the CineMagix Grand Theater. However, I am surprised that the option costs almost twice as much extra that the MSRP prices quoted on Gizmodo and other sites for the LG GGW-H20LI and GGC-H20LI drives (assuming one of those drives is the model used).

Gizmodo : Second Gen LG Hybrid HD Optical Drives (GGW-H20LI and GGC-H20LI)

Velocity Micro: CineMagix Grand Theater


Maybe they are still using the previous generation LG GGW-H10NI drive, which has a price around in that range:

GGW-H10NI Super Multi Blue BD Drive/HD DVD Reader
 
#1,124 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Stormwind /forum/post/11469299


I see that Velocity Micro is now offering a Super Multi Blue Blu-ray / HD-DVD Hybrid drive in the CineMagix Grand Theater. However, I am surprised that the option costs almost twice as much extra that the MSRP prices quoted on Gizmodo and other sites for the LG GGW-H20LI and GGC-H20LI drives (assuming one of those drives is the model used).

Gizmodo : Second Gen LG Hybrid HD Optical Drives (GGW-H20LI and GGC-H20LI)

Velocity Micro: CineMagix Grand Theater


Maybe they are still using the previous generation LG GGW-H10NI drive, which has a price around in that range:

GGW-H10NI Super Multi Blue BD Drive/HD DVD Reader


Yes, those two new, low cost drives were not available in the channel when I left VM. If they are now I wouldn't know...
 
#1,125 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisMorley /forum/post/11435596


Well, the thing to remember is that the only cards that can do dual link HDCP would be the ATI Radeon HD series, so you're going to want to go down that route for protected content. And since you want to game at that resolution I'd recommend dual Radeon HD 2900XT 1GB cards in CrossFire. Which means you'll need Bad Axe II - the previous board for the CineMagix S85. You may want to see if VM would be willing to configure this for you.


The 8800 GTX doesn't fit in the TX chassis if that's what you're looking at...

Chris - wouldn't one 8800GTX do the job? I'm really not a hardcore gamer, just want to be able to play and see a few in full glory on the 3700WFP. I think the 8800GTX is HDCP and Dual Link, isn't it?
 
#1,126 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by ddog2k /forum/post/11475802


Chris - wouldn't one 8800GTX do the job? I'm really not a hardcore gamer, just want to be able to play and see a few in full glory on the 3700WFP. I think the 8800GTX is HDCP and Dual Link, isn't it?


It can't do both at the same time.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top