Netgear NeoTV 550 - Page 86

IMO, when you are in the "digital domain" and if you stream content to a decent external amp which has decent DACs, then there is no difference between devices. A 1:1 digital copy is a 1:1 digital copy. Some people will waffle on about "jitter", but again in my opinion, this is mostly BS. I don't have a NEO (yet) but I do have a Dune (same chip set) and reasonable AV gear (Yamaha RX-V3800 and B&W speakers) and I cannot detect any difference between flac files streamed from my NAS and the same disc played through a £900 CD player.

The thing with all these media players, is that they all play audio files just fine but don't have the "jukebox" type of funtionality you get with dedicated devices such as the Squeezebox and Sonos systems mentioned. The main thing being that you have to have the TV on, just to play music (or at least to find it).

Has anyone played DVD discs in an external drive attached to the 550? I know that Blu-Rays work by using the bdallow files on an SD card, but it appears that DVD's aren't supported, which I find a bit daft. So can anyone confirm if DVD discs can be played please?

HI, Is it possible to disable the sound on the HDMI connection. I'm getting sound on both HDMI and Optical. I would just like sound on the optical cable connected to my Sony AVR. I have tried all the settings in the Audio PassThrough setting in the Audio menu but get sound output on both HDMI and Optical no matter what option I choose.

Thanks,

This works fine on my system. I set my passthrough setting to S/DIF only. Sometimes after a change in audio settings you must restart the Neo. Is your HDMI connected from the Neo directly to the TV or does it go through your Sony AVR?

I'm not sure what you mean specifically about it not having a jukebox type of functionality. You can queue music files on the fly. And you can always access the web interface from any browswer, like an iPad, smart phone, or laptop. Even a real jukebox has to have some type of user input. I guess I'm curious what the SB or Sonos can do that the Neo can't.

Actually, I think you have to set your preferences up first for the default tracks and subtitles. But you may have to also use the Customize option instead of using Full Rip.

YouTube made some changes at their end. As a result YouTube playback is broken on all Netgear devices (8000/91xx, Neo). Netgear engineers are looking into this. This has happened several times in the past, and they can usually fix this without a firmware update. Just changes on Netgear's backend. However, I think Netgear needs a better way to communicate with YouTube, as I don't hear about other "YouTube" players breaking when they make changes. Or at least Netgear needs to have better communications with the YouTube folks so they can know when a change is going to occur and be prepared.

I've not had any issues queueing up music. Where are your music files stored? Typically when the Neo gives an error, it is because it can't find the file, or there is a permissions issue with the file/folder. Another problem could be a corrupt library catalogue, although I've only seen that happen on the 8000/91xx models. Perhaps try a restart and then do a full scan?

Seems like my limited exploration of MCM, the trailers downloaded were in FLV format. Which I didn't think the Neo even supported. However, if it shows up in the catalog, the Neo thinks it supports them. For example, a standalone VOB won't show up when a full scan is performed, but if you rename the .vob to .mpg it will show up and play.

Well, after playing with it for a good long time last night, my initial reactions are really positive. Keep in mind this is my first streamer and I'm coming from an HTPC (Athlon 250, Radeon 5450, 4G ram, WMC with Media Browser added on).

Pros:
- So far the Neo has played every file I've thrown at it with flying colors. I know others have had issues, but it's played back 50 or so files I tested with no problems with aspect ratios/subtitles/etc. Changing options on the fly was simple as well, and timeseek/% jump is awesome.

- Setup was simple. I've got shares setup on my Synology using NFS, and the Neo saw them all and immediately scanned them without issue. The options are all pretty straightforward (except for SACK processing, whatever that is).

- Bluray disc playback does work with an attached USB drive. Load times were decent but probably on the long side.

- The interface is fast, including displaying cover art view. Probably faster than my HTPC was! I'm using a usb stick to cache images though.

- Although I'll be using my Harmony, the included remote is pretty nice as well. Nothing fantastic but pretty solid given the price point.

- The tagging I did with MCM works fantastically, and cover art and descriptions work great.

- Quiet! I know that's a given seeing as there's no fan, but after fighting issues with my HTPC it's a blessing.

Cons -
- The interface is decent but is a bit scatterbrained. Changing options (like queue mode, folder view, subtitles, etc) all require hitting different buttons and they're not always logical choices. It will make using my harmony a bit harder.

- On the same note, I agree with some earlier reviews that it would be nice to have the Neo have "default" options available for navigation (ie, just show me my video share instead of having to select it every time).

- No built-in wireless. I know why they did it but since I don't care about .iso playback I hate having another gizmo I have to put in my entertainment center.

- An attached BR drive apparently won't playback DVDS! I need to test more but 2 common retail discs wouldn't play.

- Metadata works great, EXCEPT for individual TV show episodes. Probably more a tagging/MCM issue than something directly with the Neo. I know several people have complained about this.

- So far I can't use youtube at all. Multiple attempts errored out.

- BR Disc playback crashed a couple of times with IO errors that required a hard reboot. Could be related to the way I've got the drive connected (hacked up a HDD enclosure).

Overall, I'm really happy with the device. It strikes me as a really good local content streamer, with some questionable add-ons. I'll probably just use the Sony BD470 I got for disc playback and online streaming rather than fight the Neo. But for local streaming? The HTPC's gone!

Thanks for the heads up on Youtube.

For music, it was just... odd. It started working but I don't know exactly what changed to make it work. There's a setting to toggle queue mode, which I used, and I did a full rescan as well, and it started working. One thing I noticed was when it wasn't working was that the error message only included the first word in the song title, rather than the full name (my mp3s don't use underscores). It almost seemed like it was failing to parse the full name of the song.

In any event, it's working now.

I believe it's down to the media type not being allowed via an external optical drive, as the error when trying a DVD disc is the same as the error generated when trying a Blu-Ray disc before using the bdallow files on an SD card.

I'm sure that if Blu-Rays can be played using the bdallow files, then DVD's could also be played by having a couple of similar files, or the media type being added to the bdallow files.

The big question is, will Netgear do that or not?

Well, considering that the bdallow file that's floating around isn't even available directly from Netgear, it's hard to say. Obviously attached drive playback isn't at the top of their priority list.

I see, I didn't realise it wasn't from Netgear. Maybe the clever person who hacked it can kindly do the same for DVD.

Hi Robkwil61. HDMI is connected directly to the TV. I have S/DIF connected to my Sony AVR DB-940. I have tried all 4 options in the Audio pass through menu setting and restarted after each change and each time the sound comes from both Optical and HDMI !!! Is there a setting somewhere else that I'm missing? I'm on the latest firmware 286eu

Thanks

Actually, I didn't realise you could access the browser from an iphone. I guess that would get around one of the main disadvantages of using a media player for music - having to have the TV on to find what you want to play. That is providing you have an iphone or some sort of handheld with display, which could be used instead of (say) a Sonos remote).

Sounds like the Neo might be better than most although external playlists (e.g pls files) would be useful. Of course, the Sonos also gives you the ability to play different music in different zones, all controlled by a central remote, but that's a whole new ball game (and at a hefty price tag).

A picture of the interface is in that review. Controlling your NTV550 from an iPhone. It doesn't look very slick tho

But on a more positive note, I've also spotted there is a page explaining how the NTV550 Movie Wall works. I've been searching how and low for a great how-to

Obviously you need to select spdif only, but did you try a full shutdown, removing power?
As a temporary measure can't you set your tv to not play hdmi audio or play audio from rca instead of hdmi for that particular source?
If robkwil61 says it works you need to try again.

No, you're not missing anything... let me double check my setup, which is just like yours except i have a Denon AVR. Maybe something changed in the latest firmware and I missed it. Generally I have my Harmony One remote mute the TV but that is just a left over from the 9150 days which did not mute HDMI.

Just curious.. if you hit mute on the remote, does it mute both the optical and HDMI audio?

Thanks 720P. Yes I have reset the box and pulled the power. I'll raise a case with Netgear as I'm having other Audio issues (the NEO incorrectly recognises the dolby digital 5.1 audio tracks as LPCM 7.1 on full DVD backups in ISO format).

Thanks for all your help.

Despite getting a pre-order in at Fry's a week before release, my status is showing up as "backordered". I have to say I'm disappointed in that, especially when hearing stories of people being able to pick these up at a retail store. Ah well, such is life, I suppose.

I may have missed it, but does anyone remember Bob indicating when additional units would be available after xmas?

Stock refresh won't occur until mid January. Bob Silver

Ooooh, that's nice. I think I'm sold and will have to get me one. It'll have to wait 'till into the new year though. Anyone want to buy Dune Base 3.0?

The product specifications does not state what kind of SD cards are supported. Are SDHC and SDXC cards supported?

SDHC works fine. Haven't tried a SDXC. A 1GB card will suffice. You can pick them up for a song and a dance if you don't already have one. I used the one from my very first digital camera I owned.

SDHC is definitely supported. I *think* the card has to be NTFS formatted however - I tried a few time with FAT32 formatted cards and it didn't seem to work. Rob's right though - anything over a couple of gigs would be a waste unless you want to playback media from the card. It only uses them for BDlive and image caching.

.275 beta is out. Fixes youtube and some AutoFPS. It can be found on the netgear neotv550 beta forum. Trying it now.

http://forum1.netgear.com/showthread.php?t=59613

LOL! I've been going round all the forums I'm following for the Neo to tell everyone about this new firmware and someone has beaten me to it every single time

Thanks for the link Dopus, just downloading it now - any feedback on the new FW before I flash my Neo

forgot to say - well done Netgear for managing to get two new FW updates out since launch... I had a few days with V2.34, maybe 10 days on V2.68.... I hope this is a sign of NTGR wanting to support the Neo for the longterm

Did not fix the AutoFPS problems for me.

With display type set to 1080p50 (PAL) and auto fps enabled and display mode to auto, it still does not shift to 1080p60 for my ntsc avi files or full hd 1080p29.somthing files. So for me its just like the .268 firmware.

Youtube I have not tested yet.

Going to try to set display Type to ntsc to check if it changes to 1080p50 for Pal files.....tried it.. did not help

24FPS files (23,976) changes like it should.

Seems to work fine for me.