brite-View CinemaTube - Page 9

Would be nice to have...other stuff is probably more important right now...


"proceed"??? PLEASE don't proceed on the arbitrary video mode changes or at least not to 720p. You won't piss off as many people as switching to 1080p but I'm sure I won't be the only one mad. If a user configures to the lowest supported mode that you allow, you simply can not switch to a different mode in the UI especially not a higher bandwidth mode.


Smart engineers. Always a good sign. Engineers triumphing over marketing and the bean counters, Even better!

You need N for Blu-Ray throughput to keep everyone happy...

Too expensive..better alternatives...darn I knew I was dreaming...

Other than your shipping, brite-View US (both of you???) get an A++ for effort and at least a B+ for results!

can any of the owners compare it to the PQ of WDTV? I knew others who prefer the PQ of the WDTV over the egreatm34

If its better or no difference at all then all is good..

anybody tried streaming the HD audio to their receivers yet? Does it display the True-HD etc on the receivers. I have ordered mine and it will be here by end of october...yeah that long..but I am not in a hurry and I am hoping that the outstanding issues will be resolved.

akakillroy -

Thanks for spending time testing the player for us. Do let us know if you are successful with the DMG file.

I have got playon to work on mine, although I am running xp. Hulu is working along with a bunch of other ones. Excellent feature

Yea it does. You can delete and rename files, which is great feature. Also if you use the ********** you can download.

brite view I noticed it does not power down the external harddrive when you power off. I thought you said it should?

http://www.brite-view.com/warranty_registration.php

It discusses warranty only.

Can you post these remote code in a format that we can copy and paste the individual codes, like excel or text file instead of an image?

I currently have the first generation PopcornHour and the Divco Tvix 4000. I have to use NFS with these devices to stream DVD ISOs (standard def) from my home server (wired network). If I do not use NFS, then I can see some stuttering.

Can someone who has a CinemaTube confirm that DVD iso files can be played without any hiccups over a wired network using Windows file sharing. I am looking to replace Tvix box with one of these devices.

brite-view: I am also thinking of getting the 720P CinemaCube for a family member. Can you confirm if it will work on PAL tv, 240V A/C. Also will it play 1080P video files (even though the output is 720P). (just curious to see if 1080P file will be playable, downscaled). Thnx.

was that a portable external drive (2.5 inch based with no independent power supply, runs off usb) or a regular external drive (3.5 inch based that requires its own power supply)?

I asked the same question early in the thread. Here is the link.

Jay

tversity media server is not working for Netflix unfortunatelly (although it has the great advantage to be free)
PlayOn seems to be the best solution and I download the last version (14 days trial) but unfortunallty I have the buffering problem. I can see my instant queue for Netflix or my subscriptions for HUlu/Youtube...but when I click on a video file, there is a buffering message on the screen, then stop then play then buffering again and so on ... Until I push the stop button myself to go back to the precedent menu.
I checked my firewall (everything is open). I have Vista and the upnp is working fine for the videos on my own network (including really high resolution video).
Will look in PlayOn forum but seems Cinematube is really new, it will be difficult.
If any of you has tips, I'll take them.
Thanks

brite-View - Just got my shipment tracking email and wonder if it's just a holder for Oct shipping or something I can expect sooner? This's for last week order. Thx.

I'm having the exact same issue. Is there anyone else out there with the "buffering problem"?

@hvn4179 - please contact service5@zinnetusa.com for shipping status.

@user-name - no worries regarding the 720p GUI, since the sreen will be down-graded to 576p or 480p to fit the CRT TV automatically.

@superflysocal - done. Sorry no Excel sheet is allowed to be uploaded, so it's a Word doc instead.

 

BV-5005HD RCU Code.doc 58k . file

@sandun: if you need to use the CinemaCube with the PAL TV, the only option is HDMI out. Also some 1080p videos would appeart to be lagging on CinemaCube.

the latter..my wdtv powers down the external. The light stays on but the harddrive spins down

Thanks for this, I will try and program this tonight into my Harmony 890 remote.

hey britetube , is there some other way to buy your media player , other than paypal ? maybe money exchange ? and I want it 99$ so I want it fast

First things first...

I am really impressed with the playback. I've tried .mkv, .avi, .iso, and .m2ts with no problems at all. Really loving it. All of this streamed over my network from my media server.

My problem...

I have about 7 Tbs of movies and TV shows spread across 9 hard drives on my media center PC. I'm constantly adding content via PVR and so the drives are not set up as a RAID. (I know there are ways to do this differently, but that ship has sailed )

This hasn't been a problem in the past because I use XBMC on an Xbox and it makes it so I don't need to have a RAID. XBMC allows you to add sources and lets those sources pull from multiple drives. For instance, I add a source called Kid Movies and then XBMC lets me point to the three different drives in my PC that have folders with all our Kids Shows.

This is great for my wife...she turns on the xbox...loads XBMC...selects Videos...Kid Movies...and there is a list of every show that my kids would want to watch all in one list. I can't tell you how convenient this is for people who have a lot of media. So on my Xbox I have three sources set up...Kid Movies (pulls from 3 different drives), Movies (pulls from 5 different drives), TV Shows (pulls from 8 different drives).

When you click on any of those main categories...you get a list of everything that falls under it.

The CinemaTube works differently...and frankly, we won't use it like this.
My wife has to:
1. go to PC Media...
2. click my shortcuts...
3. click mediacenter...
4. click the d drive...
5. click kids shows...
6. look through all those and see that the movie they wanted wasn't on that drive
7. back out and go to drive e:
8. click kids shows 2...
8. look through all those and see that the movie they wanted wasn't on that drive
9. Wash...
10. Rinse...
11. Repeat...
12. turn off the cinematube to go yell at husband for messing with a system that worked perfectly fine...
13. put blankets on coach for husband to spend the night
14. slam door

So...am I doing something wrong? Is there a way to set up main categories and have the cinematube pull from multiple paths that I set up in order to show the specified files in that category?

Or...is there any way to run XBMC on the CinemaTube? Because my xbox won't play 720 or 1080p and I would love for this box to answer all my needs.

Sorry for the long post, but thank you for being so active on these forums and for putting out a great product at such a great price.

You're not doing anything wrong. XBMC has a "library mode" that arranges your media based on type or genre, regardless of where it is physically located. Cinematube (and all streamers, for that matter) are not nearly that complex. They simply let you browse the folder structure of your network.

You can work around this limitation on the back end with something like FlexRAID-View. You would essentially merge the contents of all your folders containing kids shows into one virtual drive which the Cinematube could access directly.

As for running XBMC on the Cinematube (or any realtek/sigma streamer), the answer is a very firm "No". Both Realtek and Sigma chips suffer the double-whammy of being low-power and locked down from the manufacturer. See this thread for a more detailed answer.

If you really want XBMC in a small set-top device, you can install it on a $150 Apple TV. Though currently limited to 720p playback, full 1080p support via a Broadcom mPCIe card is already in development.

Sorry for going off-topic but can you please provide a link or more info regarding the 1080p Apple TV add-on. Thanks.

Jay

It's all in this thread.

Cliff-notes version: Broadcom developed a hardware accelerated h.264 mPCIe card for netbooks. You can get them on ebay for <$25. The XBMC team is adding support for this card as we speak. It should be ready for a stable release in 1-2 months (hopefully sooner). The only caveat is that this card replaces the mPCIe wifi card already in the ATV, so if you want to keep using wifi, you'll have to get a USB dongle.

I have limited experience with the newer crop of streamer/players and have what may be a dumb question. Is there the ability to develop "library mode" type applications that will work for different brands of streamers. For example there are several new devices that user the realtek chipset. Can you develop "add-on" software that could work on all the similar players or does it have to be developed for a specific brand/model? IMO the Cinematube will have limited usefulness for most people if ease-of-use software does not become available is a reasonable amount of time. Thanks.

Jay

Probably not at the consumer/user level. Although linux-based, a surprising amount of the Realtek UI is locked down. Realtek themselves, or possibly one of the manufacturers (Xtreamer is trying, without much success) could do it, but they have no incentive to do so. Software development costs money, and these are already low-margin devices.

Sigma-based NMT streamers have a more open development platform, and library-based UI enhancements already exist in abundance. YAMJ, My Lil Movie Jukebox, Movie Flow, and Movie Portal are a few of the better examples.

@marzoqi: please email service5@zinnetusa.com to see if we have such options. Thanks!

Ordered one on the 18th. Never received a confirmation email of any kind.
I was about to post a question here to inquire about my order. But just received a Fedex shipping email. The package was picked up at San Jose. Cool.

Ok I found a solution for the buffering problem on playeon. You just have to unselect "Always process entire video" in the General settings sheet.
Netflix, Hulu, Youtube, CBS, CNN and many more work great. This is really awesome.

I just got my two and fired up the one with my Sammy 46A650. Upgraded the firmware with no sweats, disabled the preview (agree this is a pain and takes up too much room, plus I don't like having to press ok twice.)

Two issues I am having. Using HDMI, I have to turn the volume up to 100 (max) on the TV to hear it (tried 4 mkvs) and by default subtitles are on. Any advice?

BTW, this thread is great, and having brite-view respond to our questions/suggestions is very promising and something they will need to do to be a leader in this market.

update...two more issues...can't FF or RW more than 2x and resume does not work with mkv. Hope these can get fixed.

update 2...figured out the audio...it's amazing what the volume buttons on the remote do! Default volume is 13 of 26. Setting to 26, allows me to lower my TV audio to 48.

does it support rmvb format?
I tried one in usb drive, it can't recognize the file name.

@Romsfou awesome! Glad it finally worked.

@jmorehouse: did you try the volume control button on CinemaTube's remote control? Is the subtitle embedded in the movie? I'll report the MKV FF and RW + resume issue. Thank you for the feedback.