Netgear NeoTV 550 - Page 198

Yes, it does have issues with TrueHD. It is hit or miss for me so I always keep a core DTS track with all my MKV's. I've never had a problem with DTS-MA.

I only wanted it for HD video/audio (MKV files) so I'll pass. Fry's has one less return.

Only with certain very specialized conditions.
While I do not favor mkv I do use these for test purposes.
Your 550 will freeze on mkv if:
The codec is VC1
The audio is DB THD
and you enable subtitles during playback.

I have encountered this problem with HDDVD rips like Blade Runner, 2001. I have reported this to Netgear but it has not been fixed.
I now use Clown_BD to process HDDVD to BR in the BDMV folder, this avoids that freezing problem but it does lose chapter info. No big deal for me.

Thanks. So if I don't use subtitles both TrueHD and DTS-HD MA bitstream without issue (MKV HD files)? If so, I can live with that...

Update: Well I had Fry's match Amazon's price ($95) and picked one up. Just trying to talk myself into giving it a try. A couple of weeks ago I picked up a WD TV Live Streaming and so far I love it. Really like the interface and after getting used to how it does its scraping I'm happy with that as well. I realize it offers a lot of online content (Netflix 1080p) which could be nice in my den and since I'm not too concerned about DTS-HD MA in there I think I'll stick with it in the den.

Now I need something for my dedicated room (projector, etc) and I'm concerned about DTS-HD MA in there to a fair degree and that's where this guy comes into play. All I care about in there is HD video/audio. So it sounds like the better solution as long as I'm not giving up too much some place else. Since I don't care about anything else I can't see what... but it better handle the HD audio nicely.

Now that you have the 550 make some mkv with:
http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2010...er-eac3to-gui/
which what I used for my tests.

Use mediainfo to find a movie with VC1, DB THD and subtitles and create an mkv but add DB 5.1 and or Multi PCM if available as an alternate.
I stream these from my WHS (HP EX490) via CAT6 HW to the 550.

Test with DB THD as I outline earlier.
Note: I have not experienced any problems with DTS HD MA.

Is anyone using any of the iPad based remote controls out there (iRule, Roomie, etc) to control their device? I saw the link to the other remote in this thread, but I was wondering if any of the 'universal' remote apps out there are able to control the device. If not, what are you guys doing..controlling the major components via iRule/Roomie and then opening the Neotv app separately to browse the library?

I am using iRule to control my 550 via IR. I had only one problem. iRule, by default, sends the IR command 3 times. I had to cut this back to 1 for the navigation arrows. I haven't tried IP control.

I use my Harmony 700 remote - I have to be careful not to hold down the arrow keys too long otherwise I get double presses. I haven't tried the iOS app yet.

http://www.jamieburchell.com/neotv/

Works great!

I have my neotv 100% controlled by ip in irule. I shared my codes I typed them all out.
look for it in under user then vendor netgear.

Thanks for the feedback, it looks like iRule is preferred. I was originally leaning towards Roomie b/c reviews made it seem like it was much easier to setup vs. iRule. If that's not the case, it makes the decision to go w/iRule easier. I don't want to have to spend hours troubleshooting/setting up if it can be avoided.

Have you tried Jamie's app based on iViewer? It's free and there is no setup whatsoever you just copy and paste a link, can't beat that.

Yes, I will try that out first before buying an app, but I was thinking it would be easier to just have 1 app as an integrated solution. Waiting for my projector to get back from warranty work before I can play around w/these solutions.

I guess they are trying to get rid of them quickly since the NeoTV550 has been discontinued, and no further support will be provided for it. You can get it now for $85.00 dollars shipped!

I was thinking of buying one due to the price, but I know that I will eventually regret buying it, and I'll have to sell if for a lot less. However, I know there are other that will be happy about buying it.

here's the link:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...3&AID=10605978

I was a really early adopter of this streamer, but returned it after only two days. Thought it was a POS back then. But, I'm surprised to see this thread still going strong, so gotta ask... what does the NeoTV 550 have going for it? BD-ISO's with full menus, bitstreaming hd audio, anything else?

It is a poor mans dune. Uses same chipset and works almost perfectly for full bd isos and menus and also dvd.

Have had one for a year now and have virtually no complaints.
I recently converted four 3D BD movies to 50% SBS format in an mkv container and copied to a WHS.
These stream via a 1Gbs CAT6 to the Neo and then to an Epson 3010 3D projector. The resulting 3D is essentially identical to the same movies played from a Panny 210 3D BR player.

My Dune H1 will do the same but loses the audio on 2 of these movies, the 550 does not.

Especially considering the recent price increase from Dune the 550 is a bargain.

+1. Working flawlessly for me for a long time for all BD and DV full disc folders as well as MKVs. I bought another one too when the price was about $100 and that's going great too. Too bad Netgear dropped this one - fixing the few outstanding issues (if possible) would have made this an excellent product. For the record, I tried and returned the Dune after comparing the two when the price was closer - so money was not the criteria, performance was. I liked Neo more than Dune. YMMV, of course.

For me, it was bit-perfect and gapless FLAC, including all sample rates without decimation, and multi-channel too (I ripped most of my 5.1 DVD-Audio discs).

Also uncompressed DVD-Video rips look better played through the 550 than the actual disc through my Blu-ray player (Sony). My Blu-ray player does all of the internet streaming channels I want so no need for me to have that on the 550.

+1, +1
I bought mine for $80 (used). I only use it for BR, DVD and FLAC, but it does those three things without a hiccup. It also has a decent movie / music wall, without having to add a jukebox.

+0 It's ok. Works with BD ISO and DVD folders served from WHS but it's too temperamental leading to a low WAF. It needs some more updates and I've seen that it doesn't support TrueHD on MKV.

Update: See treefrog100's comment about TrueHD on MKV: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...7#post21929347
Update: See Charles R findings below.

for the current price of about $80, you got something else that plays bd iso files and bitstreams hd audio without issue?

I just wish BD subtitles would display properly.

It's fine for hollywood fare (english with occasional forced subs) but is terrible for chatty foreign films - the subtitles literally flash on the screen. It's much worse at 24p, better at 60 hz.

That's a good question.

It does the majority of the time. There are just certain circumstances where it wouldn't play the True HD track. In fact, I haven't had a TrueHD hiccup in about 12 months. My theory is that MakeMKV has had some updates on their end that helped this situation in some way.

Thanks for the update treefrog100. I'll give TrueHD MKVs via MakeMkv a try.

Just a tip for those of you using this for music: m3u playlists made on your computer do work on the 550. Your playlists just need to have relative paths, not absolute paths.

Before I knew this I could only play my m3u playlists randomly, or play one song at a time, which of course made the playlists pretty much useless, but since I changed the paths when I play the first song the rest play in order.

When listening to a playlist hit home and then info on the remote and you can see the album art for the currently playing, previous, and next tracks.

New feature: Access attached devices from PC

Access your attached NTV550 devices by opening \\\\NEOTV550 from your PC, or use unit's IP address

However, when I try to access the NTV550 from my Mac, all I see is a single share called "Attached Devices" which contains a shortcuts/aliases that do not work. Clicking on one causes an error "The alias cannot be opened because the original item cannot be found".

Has anyone else gotten this to work from a Mac?

I just played a MKV with TrueHD. In the beginning (after the studio logo/theme) I didn't have any audio (at all) and one time when I resumed from a pause I didn't as well. By simply selecting the TrueHD track the sound came back fine. It played perfectly during the movie.

Non-related topics I found creating a custom skin was very easy and Tagsuite created the .TAG files very nicely (via OS X).

Does anyone have this working/streaming from an HDHomeRun tuner?