Netgear NeoTV 550 - Page 5

I figured you got the names swapped. Its beginning to sound like both of these devices are going to be really good!

To say the least, interesting...

Better than a converted router/switch box. But since all my gear sits behind the wall that holds my HDTV, I guess looks don't mean much to me.

Sorry for persisting but how does it exactly work?

1) AutoFPS means there is no "AutoResolution" so you are stuck in the resolution you select. Am I right? For example if I select SDTV my blu-rays will play at 480i?

2) SDTV -> 480i/576i
EDTV -> 480p/576p
Are the above correct?

3) If I select 1080p what is the refresh rate for the players menu? 50 / 59.94 / 60hz

4) Assuming the answer to Q3 above is 59.94hz what happens if I play a PAL dvd and have AutoFPS enabled. Will it automatically switch to 50hz or does the AutoFPS work only for 23.976hz content.

5) Is "24p" 23.976hz or 24.000hz?

1) The is also an auto mode for resolution.
2) I believe those are the rates
3) not sure but probably depends if autoFPS is on and what FPS the content is
4) not sure
5) not sure

I'm really more the "audio" guy.

No problem. Thanks for the help. Appreciated. I don't see any player coming close to the 550 so I'll be ordering one.

Points I like about the player:
1) Brand, yeah yeah I know I prefer netgear to dune or popcorn shoot me
2) I don't like the design/materials but I don't hate it either (see a200 soapbox or c200/dune '80s vcr look)
3) No fan
4) dvd and blu-ray support (FULL supports yeah that's FULL in capitals I can't believe what passes as dvd/blu-ray playback nowadays - especially wdtv owners)
5) Some form of autoresolution/fps. Most players can't tell 576i from 1080p60 and play everything at the latter happily skipping frames like there is no tomorrow
6) No useless streaming/widgets/games/toys whatever they are, these things do my head in as do overdesigned, complex, useless "features". I just want to watch my dvd/blu-ray collection preferably in "transport" mode i.e no extra processing/scaling/deinterlacing/colour space conversion/etc./etc.

This is good news that flac files that are multichannel are definitely supported, and at 8/16/24 and up to 192kHz. Now if they can get it working for those sample files...

Thanks for the update and testing robkwil61, very much appreciated.

+1


+1

It's not clear to me that your question has been answered yet for the 550, and it is important for me -- will it function in native transport mode and send DVD's out in 480i and BD out in 1080p without my having to manually reset the output resolution.

I have yet to see a player that can operate in other than a fixed resolution mode -- set it for your displays resolution and everything is scaled to that resolution by the player before output. I accept that some people consider their players to do a good job at up-conversion, but people with higher-end video processors would argue the point and rather let their external equipment handle the job.

If it doesn't do native mode, I hope there is at least a button on the remote to toggle resolution rather than having to go into the menu structure to change it.

P.S. I like Netgear too.

I'm sure there are media players that will do what you are asking.
I know the Nixeus Fusion is one of them.

Hi,

You set the 550 to the resolution of your display and everything will be scaled to that resolution.
You CAN override this setting during movie playback via a popup menu. So, if you want it to output the DVD you're watching as 480i then you can do that without having to stop the movie, delve into the menus, change the setting and then recommence the movie.

That review linked to earlier in the thread explains this. See below

NeoTV 550 Upscaling

See the 6 screenshots half way down on this page for things you can change "on-the-fly" NeoTV 550 resolution overrides

HTH

Here are two differentiators that may be important to some:

1) No component out on the Boxee Box. This is a problem for me because I would like to feed HDMI to my theater and component to a video matrix switch.

2) NeoTV 550 is more likely to have IP control for 2-way communication with other devices. This is important to me because I'd like to interface my streamer with my Control4 system. The EVA series from Netgear interfaces so I'm hoping the NeoTV will as well.

As for aesthetics, one man's "cool" is another man's "WTF were they thinking!?" I'm in the latter camp when it comes to the Boxee Box.

I know that the 550 doesn't do "Source Direct". My dream is they add it via firmware Anyone know where/how we can email them.

It is a myth you need a higher end video processor, I bet any processor in any tv/receiver/projector/etc. will do a far better job than any streaming player.

My kuro when fed 480i from dvds performs ivtc and plays back at 72hz applying much different processing say to a 1080p60 signal. My 1k blu-ray player upscaling dvd couldn't match it let alone a streamer.

My next projector will have the hqv vida chip along with super-resolution (epson's dvd upscaling) so I certainly don't want my dvds (I have a large collection) coming out at 1080p60.

Manually changing resolution during playback is not ideal but it is better than nothing. Why can't all streamers play content as is (as all dvd players have done since the beginning). Processing the image can only ruin it, leave that to the display or a proper processor.


I didn't know about the fusion but a search brought up it uses the inferior 8655 chip. I wish the 550 used the 8646 chip (beefier processor, 3d acceleration, GbE) but the 8642 will have to do for now.


Thanks. This makes everything crystal clear. The 550 has serious potential. Adding a "Source Direct" mode would make this a player comparable to standalones and the only player worth buying if you're a videophile.

Reading up on the fusion above another advantage of the 550 is that it doesn't have useless space for a harddisk or cooling for it. I can't stand those oversized players that you can fit a noise and heat generator (hard disk) which is just 2TB in size, all for a couple of blu-ray movies? My multi terabyte server sits in another room where noone can hear it and gets upgraded as hard disks get cheaper and cheaper.

I believe the 550 doesn't have wifi which is again a plus. Wifi is adequate for internet/phones/netbooks/ipads/etc. but painfully slow and unusable compared to my cat6 GbE.

Anyone have any info on availability? I check almost everyday us/europe/uk/etc. nothing so far.

Apart from the brand issue, how are the new Dune Smart players not "coming close" to the 550? Overall feature sets look really similar AFAIK

Actually, it's Netgear that has to prove itself not Dune. So far it seems that the Dune players are the only streamers that can realiably stream any full bit rate blu-ray ISO. Having said that, I'm also very interested in the Netgear unit because of the gapless playback for music and because of the built-in scraper for movies. If it can stream full bit rate blu-rays without issue I may go with this over one of the new Dune players.

Wonder when we can pre-order? Boxee beat them to market but I intend to test this box as well and keep the better of the two..

Boxee doesn't do menus for DVD or BR ISOs last I saw, so that kinda knocks them into a lesser "class" of box IMHO... the only real competitor I see for the 550 are the new dune Smart units... full ISO/BR-ISO menus and 7.1 audio in the $200-$250 range.

This is correct, but in the Anandtech reviewer on these forums stated that they are actively seeking full BD licensing. So, yes, I agree, the only players in this range that do full BD support are the Dunes and the 550. Of the two, I'm leaning toward the 550 because I believe it will get Netflix sooner, it has a more family-friendly UI, and it seems to handle music/photos a bit better.

However, it sounds like there is a very good possibility that Boxee will get full menu BD support shortly. I completely understand the "I'll believe it when I see it" view on this, but in this particular case I believe it will happen soon. So, in my mind, it is a direct competitor to the 550 and the new Dunes (but I could be proven wrong if the BD licensing falls through).

+1! My Dune base has been nothing short of outstanding in the almost year I have had it. NOTHING else comes close for me for playing back my Blu-ray Iso's...

I wonder whether it's best to stream BD ISOs from NTV550 or just burn straight to BDs & play via 400 sony BD Changer??? I would need ~20TB for 400 BDs, right?

The Poporn Hour C200, A200, (and even the popBox) has no issues streaming full bitrate BD ISOs either.

Burning BD-R is not cheap. Quality Verbatim BD-R (not to be confused with BD-R LTH) are selling for $3/each in bulk so burning 400 BD-R would cost you $1200. And, of course, you would have to compress any titles that exceeded the 25GB BD-R capacity.

But then why would you have to burn all those BD-R for a changer instead of just using your original disks? You're not pirating, are you?

It's really not a bad option if you only want to access them on one TV but if your collection grows past 400 than what do you do? I'm already at 550. Also, loading blu-ray ISOs is much faster than accessing the disc directly. Currently, I'm only ripping the movie only to MKV and the movie starts within 3-5 seconds of pressing play streaming to my WDTV Live units from my WHS, my Oppo which is a fast loading BD player seems slow by comparison.

Having said that, if you don't anticipate your collection will grow past 400 and you do all your movie watching at one TV you could save yourself a lot of time by just dropping the original disc into the changer. Because I was almost 500 BDs in before buying my WHS ripping my movies to it has felt almost like a second job.

Always want back up copies of my precious $20 BDs The changer scratches some of mine

Whoever is saying STREAMING BD ISOs is not pirating is out of this world

You can preorder already from Netgear. It comes to less than $210 including shipping. Your confirmation will report an estimated release date of Oct. 31.

In my research, I have yet to see a pirated ISO.
They are usually MKV & AVI.

Oh they are out there. Maybe not BD but definitely DVD. Don't ask me how I know.

Thanks, then hopefully Amazon should have it soon. Can't beat their return policy if not as advertised. IMHO, it will be a real contest between this and the Boxee I pre-ordered yesterday,

Maybe, I need to do more research then.

NTV550 seems to be too good to be true...all via 10/100 ethernet.

Is NETGEAR encouraging us to pirate dvds & bds???

I'll take 3 when it's ~$100