Netgear NeoTV 550 - Page 97

Sorry if this has been covered. I couldn't find anything. Anyone know how to create a music playlist either with the remote or via the network Neo interface.
Thanks.

Zero. As of now I do not have any storage hanging off my Neo.

Dobutamine - Thanks for software. You are correct, a bit clunky.
Looking at using "yaDIS V2".

I wish Amazon would get the NeoTV550 in stock.

In the Settings & Preferences, go to the Renaming Tab. Change the bottom section called T.V. episode renaming convention to "EYY - T" without the quotes. Although it is a drop down field you can manually edit it. I think that will work but you'll end up with "E03 - The Fonz kills Richie".

The problem now is that MCM does not create one tag per TV episode. I've notified Pete how the Neo requires 1 tag per video so I think he should be implementign a change soon.

Once you have queued up your music and you are satisified there is a OSD prompt that says "Edit Playlist". Can't remember what button it is on the remote but the OSD will tell you. Then you can see the playlist and there is an option to save it.

I've got problems showing any video on this file. Only black picture - but the sound is OK. Anyone got a clue?

does anyone know of an ETA for this unit ?

Why is it that when I play a movie from a network drive(pc) with nfs, it take much longer to start playing movie or start playing again after going to a percentage, then it does with smb?? Smb only takes a few secs to start playing, nfs can take 10-15secs or so. I get better Mbps with nfs according to the network test. Anything in win xp media center that would be slowing nfs?? I use hanewin for nfs server software.

In most cases the delay is due to waiting for drives to spin up in the remote network location. Most devices cache the file list of the remote directories...however when you actually call the video file the drives spin up from sleep...hence the 10-15second delay before the file starts playing

It also happens during a movie when I skip ahead. It never happens with the smb share and always with nfs.

For what it's worth, I'm seeing something similar with OS X (mac). NFS shows faster times in the network test, but high bitrate blu ray based mkv's are basically unwatchable via nfs... and mostly watchable via smb. No idea why. I've even paused the video for several minutes to make sure that the buffer is full, but it quickly returns to an almost frame by frame type play.

Well I get stutter with smb on a few movies. Nfs seems better, but it just takes much longer to begin playing a video. If I am watching a movie and skip to a scene, it takes a few secs with smb to begin playing the video again and up to 15 secs with nfs..don't understand why.

Still waiting for 550 purchase to see if Netgear actually adds Netflix as promised. Trying to get everything else ready. Hardwired network - Linksys E3000 router, Synology DS410 NAS. Router is in a different area from media equipment and would like to add a switch at the media center. I have read some posts of problems with some switches not working correctly as far as internet services. Anyone have recommendations for a 4 or 5 port gig switch?
TIA - Charlie

I see the Neo has a spot to choose different themes. Any idea on if you can create your own or if NG plans on releasing new ones.

There have been several skins created for the 8000 and 9150 but due to changes in the menus, they will not work. At this time, there is no other skins available or documentation on how to create your own and add them to the interface.

I have ordered the NTV550 from Amazon and found it is not available yet and is on back order. So I went looking elsewhere to see if I could get it quicker. I cannot find anyone including Netgear that has it in stock! Have they stopped making this model or is it because of demand.
Anyone know whats up with this?

its generally back ordered and not available yet. seems more units should appear at the end of the month according to Bob from netgear.

Everyone that's read the thread knows.

It's been out in limited release to Fry's stores only.

It hasn't started shipping in the U.S. on a regular basis yet. Frys received one shipment available for delivery and quickly sold out. Some of then retail stores did and might still have them. Amazon hasn't received their first shipment yet, rumored to be later this month.

Is anyone else having a terrible experience with photos?

I really like this box, but the photo handling is worthless right now, as it causes a freeze/crash every time. My movies play very well from my WHS, and the music handling is pretty good. But....I have to restart a frozen box EVERY time I browse photos. I am really sick of unplugging this thing, and it is killing the WAF. Is anyone else using this to look at photos and finding major freezing issues? The slow loading photos are somewhat annoying, but I can live with that. I can't live with a guaranteed freezing box every time I view photos (I'm using a USB stick to cache to photos). Very strange.

I got my NeoTV 550 today. I also purchased a netgear N600 wireless dual band USB adapter (WNDA3100) for it. I will attempt to use it for my network connectivity - if anyone can confirm it works with the NTV550, that would be great. I've tried using/connecting it to both USB ports (in front & in back), no dice.

Just wondering - in order to make the USB based "N" dongle to work - what option do I select - there's only wired and standalone ?

Just an FYI, this is my 3rd video streamer. 1st one was the original WDTV unit, my 2nd unit is a brite-view CinemaTube, and now the NTV550.

My initial impressions of playing an .MKV file via a USB drive connected locally to the unit has left me with mixed thoughts -wondering if anyone else has similar experiences.

I played Avatar, a 22Gb MKV file which has the following encoding:

AVC (H.264) Video (14.2Mbps)
1920 X 1080, 23.97 fps
HDTV 60Hz 1080p24 (SidePanel)

The picture stutters BIG time. The same exact movie plays just fine with the brite-view unit

Any thoughts ?

So far, this is the only movie of the handful that is causing this issue but it has me concerned.

Thanks !


The unit's system info is as follows:

Free Memory 38272 KB
Version info: Kernel #20 PREEMPT Thu Sep
Firmware: 3.0.234 NA

edit1: found firmware 3.0.275 - currently in process of applying - will post results afterwards
edit2: Hooray !!!! after applying the firmware, Avatar no longer stutters

Still unable to make the wireless USB dongle to work - any feedback is greatly appreciated.

I'm not having this issue with Photos but with Music. It only happens with a cache drive plugged in. I tried a few different drives and the same result.

In my case I can easily and reproducibly crash the whole box just by browsing music. It starts creating thumbanils for caching and then it must hit a bad one or something and it just freaks out and crashes the whole box as you describe. In your case it sounds like you have a funky pic where I have some funk cover art but the code is the same. We need to figure out how to send this crash to netgear. Guess its time to try their support out and report a few issues.

Sean

OK

So I got the harmony remote sorted out this evening. as others had reported the stock Neo550 profile works great except for directional arrow presses being randomly repeated. Changing the speed settings on the Harmony Software did not help. Learning the command from the factory remote did not help. Learning the commands from the factory remote in RAW mode solves the problem and 100ms command spacing works well. So all you harmony folks out there do a learn RAW and you can ditch the stock remote.

hope this helps.

Sean

Thanks for the info, I will just have to cool my jets till it gets here.

Interesting. I'll try without the USB drive. what type of flash drive are you using when you get the crash? I'm using a new Patriot 2 GB USB drive I just picked up in Frys.


edit---- just tried without the USB drive and it still froze when looking at a picture. I'm wondering if I should try swapping out my unit?

edit #2 ----- just tried using a network share as the photo cache. worked great for caching the thumbnails (very quick)...but the NTV550 still froze on the 2nd photo I selected. rebooting again. I have this issue with both the stable and beta (275) firmware.

Thanks,
Brandon

Did some one try a bd Rom to success? What is the cheapest option?

I've done it. You need the "bdallow" file that's floating around (search the thread to find a link for it) on the root of either a USB stick or SD card.

It worked, boot times seem a little slow, but I've been using an HTPC for BR playback so that's my only point of reference. Playback was fine but I did get an "I/O" error that hardlocked the player at one point - this might have been because I was testing with guts of a USB hard drive enclosure, and all the connections were rather insecure.

The drive just shows up as whatever USB port you plugged into - I used the back port and it just shows up on the neo as "back USB".

The bummer is that while BDs work regular DVDs wont! I have to imagine fixing this would be pretty trivial, but since Netgear hasn't officially released the BD playback files, there's no idea on if they or an enterprising hacker will fix that.

As for the cheapest option, just check around. I got a $30 Asus drive on BF from newegg. In theory there's little reason why any particular drive wouldn't work.

As far as anybody knows, there's no wireless USB dongle support at all in the Neo, and that's been confirmed by Bob Silver here in these forums.

People have theorized that there might be a few that it supports because their old EVA series media streamers did -
EAW111
WNDA3100 (v1)
WN111V2

But remember that nobody has verified this as true.

As a beta tester, Netgear sent me a EVAW111. It did work once I got a Netgear router. But I could never get it to work with my Linksys router. However, the recommended deviced from their product page lists the WNCE2001.

Not to call you out specifically, but it's silly to keep telling people Netgear recommends the WNCE2001 when they're asking about usb wireless dongles. An ethernet bridge isn't the same, and honestly their recommendation for which bridge to use is pretty silly since any wireless N bridge would do the job.