brite-View CinemaTube

Thanks for posting - just want to let everyone know we're watching the forum too, so hit us with your questions, if any.

Have a great day everyone.

Hi guys.

The CinemaTube looks like a very compelling product for the price. I noticed that TP is one of the supported formats. Does this mean it will play files recorded in BeyondTV's TP format or are there other TP variations?

Thanks.

Does this support AC3?

DTS-the 7.1-channel surround sound can be decoded, but only be downmixed and output to 2 channels

How come 7.1 is downmixed to stereo?
How about 6.1 audio?

Is the GUI of your own making or is this the same GUI used in other products? These devices are becoming more and more common and prices are getting lower, which is all great, but not much thought seems to be put towards good UI design. Please tell me that this is something you care about.

Huh???? It downmixed from 5.1 or 7.1 DTS sound to only 2 channels stereos? At lot of MKV movies files are in DTS so that means we can only hear the sound in stereos only?

DTS Downmix means that the player can decode the DTS and output it in 2.0 directly to the TV. If you have a receiver, than the player can Passthrough the DTS for your receiver decode it in glorious 5.1!

Thanks for the explanation. That is a big relief to know that.

But what about AC3 audio? A lot of MKV movie files has AC3 audio format. Does it decode that audio format?

any player that decodes DTS pretty much by design has to also decode dolby.

edit: post made because i cant have a ding on my record of like 872 coherent posts.

I was looking at the screenshot of the different screens and right now I'm using XBMC which doesn't support HD but it lets me get info on the movies and create DVD covers even through movies that are on my media servers.

Is this possible or are the screenshots showing how rudimentary the front end will really look?

Questions for the Brite-View rep:

-What processor is this using?
-Is the firmware open source?
-Any chance this is NMT-compatible?
-Does this have full SSA subtitle support? (including color, position and multi-line functionality)
-The UI screenshots on your website are a bit small. Any chance we could get some more/better pics? Maybe a UI walkthrough video?
-There are a couple screenshots showing movie thumbnails. Are these auto-generated by the player or does the user have to provide them? Will you be providing a utility to scrape / manage thumbnails or other metadata / artwork?
-One of the main drawbacks of streamers like this is their inability to easily manage large media collections. does the UI allow you to search or jump to a letter, or is pageup/pagedown the only way to navigate a large folder?

More info here

@candre23

-What processor is this using?
==>MIPS24Kc 400MHz, main chip:Realtek RTD1073

-Is the firmware open source?
==>No, it is produced by Realtek.

-Any chance this is NMT-compatible?
==> So far we have no certification about NMT, if there is ODM/OEM project, we will start it.

-Does this have full SSA subtitle support? (including color, position and multi-line functionality)
==> No. The color cannot be changed.

-The UI screenshots on your website are a bit small. Any chance we could get some more/better pics? Maybe a UI walkthrough video?
==> Please check out the videos at www.youtube.com/wejustclick

-There are a couple screenshots showing movie thumbnails. Are these auto-generated by the player or does the user have to provide them? Will you be providing a utility to scrape / manage thumbnails or other metadata / artwork?
==>In current version, only photos are shown as thumbnails. These are auto-generated by the player.

-One of the main drawbacks of streamers like this is their inability to easily manage large media collections. does the UI allow you to search or jump to a letter, or is pageup/pagedown the only way to navigate a large folder?
==>In current version, it does not allow users to search or jump to a letter. It provide directory traversal, and when browsing photo thumbnails, it provides pageup/pagedown and large amount jumping.

Thank you for your prompt reply.

Brite-View rep:

Can you please reply to post #3?

Thanks

3-in-1 features...and one of them being the Torrent capability.

Why is this an important feature? I know that I only speak for myself and that others may find it useful. However, I think that downloading files from Torrent should be done using a computer because you don't know if the file that you download is safe or not. What about torrent files with computer virus? Would it affect the device? I am sure that people downloading files from Torrent using this device usually download either music or video files....but still.

Also, is YouTube a good feature also? Most of the youtube video files are in low resolution. If you watch in on a high-def TV, the picture would look horrible. Again, I think that this feature is more dedicated to computer user than a TV user.

@corinium sorry my bad - yes it supports TP and plays all files in .TP format.

@Vancomycin you have very good points. However, the advantage of letting a setup box like the CinemaTube doing the downloading is that 1) it takes the job away from the computer (energy efficient @only 10 watts VS. 90 watts just to turn the computer on) so you don't have to run the computer all day/night long; and 2) the CinemaTube only recognizes media formats, so it skips the "blanks" or the "fake" that you sometimes find in torrents. This way, it actually protects the computer from virus attacks.

And unfortunately we have to disable the YouTube function atm until we work out the legal issues with YouTube. YouTube in HD was going to be available soon on our box. Hopefully this will all get resolved soon.

I tried to order at the Amazon site and it would not take an order on this device. Not a good sign..

@billp1 - sorry about that - the first 100 units for pre-order were already sold out on Tuesday, Sep 1. We're trying to allocate more, so if you'd like to secure one from the second batch please email us at service5@zinnetusa.com.

See details on top of http://www.brite-view.com/store.php

Although I don't care much about the "planned" YouTube feature and the established Torrent feature, I did ordered the unit on Tuesday, Sept. 1 and the order went through so hopefully I will get the first shipment by September 21 (according to the site). I even got an email message reguarding the cancelled YouTube XL feature and the developing Flickr feature.

At about $106, I find that the price is reasonable to test this device out. I hope it will not disappoint. One thing that I wish it has is the full DTS-HD, Dolby True HD, and DTS-HD MA instead of flickr, youtube, or torrent.

Thanks for the info. Maybe I will learn to like the Torrent feature once I get to play with it.

@Vancomycin thanks for your interest in our product and we'll strive to provide the best support, too.

Regarding your request on the full DTS-HD, Dolby True HD, and DTS-HD MA: we have requested the chip manufactor to provide such solutions. However, their answer is that, in order to protect Blu-ray content, right now both Dolby and DTS can be decoded but are downmixed to 2-channel only.

The advange is that, when you encounter such audio format, you will always be able to hear the audio part and view the video fine. The disadvantage is of course no "true HD" audio.

The technology keeps progressing though, and hopefully this will not be an issue in the near future.

Thanks again. Have a great weekend.

So are you saying that if the .mkv movie has DTS or AC3 sound, I will not hear sound coming from my 5.1 system? In other words, if I hook up the CinemaTube to my receiver that is hooked up to 4 speakers and the subwoofer, I can only hear sound coming from only 2 front speakers?

The way I understand its specs is thru the optical S/P DIF, full DTS/AC3 (decoded by receiver) and stereo sound with HDMI into the TV, for example.

What if the CinemaTube is connected to my receiver using HDMI instead of optical S/P DIF?

I would think it would be supported with the exception of requiring your receiver to do the decoding. The feature they are talking about is so you could connect it directly to your TV via HDMI and still be able to hear sound from your "stereo" speakers IN your TV, hence the down mixing to stereo.

Unless I am mistaken, which I hope not I am one of the first 100 to get one as soon as it is shipped ;-)

My WDTV passes the DTS signal to my receiver with no issues, I would think they would be shooting themselves in the foot if they did not support that.

brite-View;

Network shares, will I be able to connect to my Mac (imac/MacBook) shares?

Can I transfer media to a connected drive (connected to the Cinema Tube) from my Mac/Mac Book connected to the same network?

I too would like know more about MAC support! I think I read it doesnt read MAC formatted volumes but they DO plan to in a future upgrade.

Would like to hear directly from them what the plan is.

Hello everyone, thanks for all these questions.

*Regarding DTS, AC3:

In order to protect Bluray contents, DTS prohibits DMP (digital media player) products from decoding DTS HD directly. All the DTS HD (7.1 CH original) contents must be decoded as 5.1 CH output. If you set the CinemaTube audio as “S/P Dif raw” or “HDMI raw”, it will get 5.1 CH output.

And, if you set the CinemaTube audio as “S/P Dif LPCM” or “HDMI LPCM”, it will get 2 CH (stero) output. These two CH were downmixed by 5.1 CH.

AC3:
It's like DTS. When you set the CinemaTube audio as “S/P Dif LPCM” or “HDMI LPCM”, it will get 2 CH (stero) output. But when you set it into “S/P Dif raw” or “HDMI raw”, no output can be found. (It is abnormal.)

Realtek (the chip manufacturer) will solve this problem in the next version; CinemaTube users can update their firmware via the “online update”.

If the CinemaTube is connected to your receiver using HDMI instead of optical S/P DIF, --> you need use the other interfaces(e.g. Y/Pb/Pr) to connect TV.

“My WDTV passes the DTS signal to my receiver with no issues…”
—>I think that is 5.1 CH. Can you confirm?

*Regarding MAC support:
You can install the “SAMBA” function on MAC, and then you may share you MAC folders for the CinemaTube or other devices to access.

For now, CinemaTube can not access the MAC propriety hard disk(HFS+) directly but
Realtek will support MAC file system in Q4 this year or Q1 next year. Users may update firmware via “online update” for MAC formatted drive support.