The 'I can't believe you want the largest room in the house' HT build.1 - Page 26

Bought myself a Birthday present! I have been tormenting myself over which media player to get for my NAS drive (still to be assembled - expect a call soon Sly Peter! Scoured AVS, checked over threads, spoke to people and had all but decided on the Dune model Smart D-1 for just shy of $400. Problem was I had not seen any of the models in real life. As luck would have it, one of my mate's brother has a Dune and I went and had a look. Very nice unit with a nice interface. Then went to Streamaster in Sydney and saw the Popcorn Hour A300 in action. End result, I bought the PCH A300 for $259.00, which saved me some money. It did everything I was after and was cheaper.

Got it home last night, plugged it in, turned it on, hooked it up to the internet. Simple set-up wizard and within 15 mins I was up and running. The Media Jukebox found the 20 odd movies I had on HDD and I had cover art and synopses for all of them soon after. NOW I understand why so many guys are doing away with physical media. Media Servers are most definitely the way to go.

On a less positive outcome, I purchased a used X-Box 360 HD-DVD drive to rip my HD-DVD's to the hard drive. It arrived well, but as per the listing on Ebay, sans power cable. Thinking that a large company like Microsoft would keep spare parts for at least 7 years after production ceased, I gave them a call. No such luck. No parts available. Great support there! I know that HD-DVD failed but surely there should be some support, even in the form of spare parts. So, I have a NAS drive which will be eagerly waiting for about 200 HD-DVD's to be ripped to it's waiting folders, only to have nothing to rip them with.

Does anyone have any idea how I can obtain a power cable for this add on module. I have tried local electronics shops and it looks to be a proprietry connection - good work Bill! I mean, it's a bloody 12 volt power cable. Surely they could have gone with something off the shelf! Anyone point me in the right direction? Alternatively, does anyone have a cable which I can borrow for a few weeks so that I can get these movies ripped to the hard drive? I can't imagine that I will need the drive once this is done.

Thanks all.

Greg

Hi there RT,

I agree. I have always liked having the original movie and jacket, but since buying my Sony 400 disc BD carousel player, the jackets have been packed away in boxes anyway. After I have cleared the backlog of ripping discs, I can see that the server will be a much simpler option and much less clunky than the Sony player. Nice to have the discs as back up anyways.

Thanks for trying on the cable. I have found the same thing. Will post in the X-Box section on the forum and see if anything shows up. Otherwise I will be opening up the console and solddering in the power supply lead myself.

Cheers

Greg

Hi David,
That's what I'm after but none of the plugs fit. It's a strange looking arrangement. Typical Microsoft!
Cheers
Greg

Hi Peter, that would be great if I could borrow it for a while. I will give you a call after Easter.
Cheers mate
Greg

Hi there Michael,

Thanks for your kind words mate. Really appreciate it. The build has been half pleasure, half therapy and a bit of angst thrown in there as well. I am sure that all people who have travelled the DIY route could say the same. The things that you think will take no time take forever and vice versa. It's been a lot of time and a lot of expense but I really am enjoying having the room. So is my son, who the room is really for anyway.

The build came at the right time in my life. For anyone who has gone through a separation and are not able to live with their kid(s) on a daily basis, they will know that getting home after work is kinda tough... building the room has kept me well and truly occupied during these quiet times and now I have room that both my son and I enjoy immensely. It's not finished yet, and the last push is taking longer than I would have liked, but I will get there. In the not too distant future I hope I could not have got this far without the kind support, sweat and efforts of some of the local AVS community. It's a fantastic network of people.

Great to have another Aussie on board. Would be great to check out a thread of yours when you do finally succumb to the HT Gods and make financial offerings that will result in years of terminal poverty!

Cheers

Greg

Hi there mate,

Thanks very much for the offer. I think that Peter (The Sly or Peter #435 in Sydney as I refer to him ) may have the cord and he is local. I will let you know if he can't find it and really appreciate your offer. Strange that you say that it plugs into the back of the 360 as that's what Peter #435 told me as well, however the manual at this link shows that it needs a power cable.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927345#3

Does anyone know if this drive will take sufficient power from a USB to operate? I may try this tonight if I have the right USB cable.

In terms of HD-DVD, its demise was the starting point of my movie collection. I think I had only paid for a few full priced movies in the failed format, but when it went belly-up, I purchased a stack of movies (150-200). Some are terrible (Balls of Fire comes to mind) but then I also have Serenity, BSG Series 1, The River, The Deer Hunter, all of the Superman Movies, Batman Begins and the Matrix Collection which are some of my faves. As an aside, I watched Superman Returns again on the weekend. Of course, being a Warner title, locked up mid movie. These discs are going down fast as I had heard. FYI, it played up at the same point on both of my HD-DVD players. I am hoping that the X-Box drive manages to play the discs enough to rip them. If not, I will rip what I can and then replace the others with Bluray.

On another happy note, I purchased my NAS drive and after exchanging it once due to a malfunction, it would appear that one of the drives is DOA, causing the drive not to boot up. I have three operational drives but will get the one defective drive replaced and set up the Raids before I rip anything. I am also battling with the Popcorn Hour A-300 with some titles not being reliable so Peter M, watch this space before you lay down your hard earned.

Cheers all.

Greg

You had better hurry.... mine locked up last time it was played. You're right though. It's an absolute classic and I cannot believe that it's not released on Blu yet.

Cheers

Greg

OK, so I plugged in the X-Box HD-DVD with the USB and guess what..... No power. Looks like the AC power adapter is definitely required. Bummer. Anyway, I will throw myself at the mercy of The Sly and maybe he can lend me his for as long as it takes to rip 200 odd discs.

Thanks for your help in any case guys. The dodgy Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB disk will be winging it's way back to the shop in the next day or so so that atleast I can get my NAS drive up and running correctly. Oh, I guess I could always do some work in my theatre. Actually, just came out of there. Watched The Muppets Movie 2011, which just arrived from Amazon. Of course, I justified the purchase as one for my boy, but realistically, I am a bit of a Muppets fan and it was a nice trip down memory lane. Brought back some really nice memories from Childhood. Great to see them again in full HD. Great audio and picture quality as well.

Hi Michael,

Just checked out your photos. Nice screen and equipment. Which PJ are you using? What's the size of that screen?

Hi Tony,
Agreed.... Definitely worth the upgrade. I have both the DVD and the HD-DVD and the latter is considerably better with the lossless soundtrack. Eagles recordings are just awesome.... Wish that Hell Freezes Over was available in Bluray. Pretty sure that will never happen.

Ok, that's funny. See what happens when there's no progress in my build. I get people treating my thread like it's an amusement park. May I remind you that I am the master of my domain!

Hi RT,
If there is any material slower than Molasses, that will be my build. Although I am going to make an effort to get some fabric track up this Sunday and Monday so I can try to get things wrapped up. I have a feeling I have spent the vast majority of what money I need to in order to finish (just realised what a stupid thing that was to say!) so I have little to no excuse in not pushing forward. Time is fast approaching to take down the screen and projector to get some more work done. Of course, talk is cheap.....