JVC RS 45 / Sony HW30 / BenQ W7000 / Epson 5010 mini-shootout - Page 84

Slysoft's AnyDVD HD. Once it's installed (and configured the way you want), you're a few simple clicks away from creating a Blu-ray or Blu-ray 3D iso file.

Oh, and you'll need lots of hard drive space to back up Blu-ray discs.

Interesting device, may get me one after the others in here have had it for a while longer and watched more content.
3TB holds how many 2 hour blurays these days with ALMOST lossless codec compression (barely lossy)?

I say almost lossless and I mean really to the point you cannot tell. I guess some of you are using straight lossless, but I'd probably try something slightly compressed to cram more onto one drive...

60 movies x 50 GB = 3TB, roughly, though not all movies are a full 50GB. Probably about 70 movies. And that's with true lossless Dolby True HD or DTS HD MA. It's unlikely there are more than about 70 3D movies you'd want to own right now, so probably a personal 3D library would fit on one drive at this point in time. A personal 2D Blu-ray library? Much less likely. That's why some of us have large arrays for such libraries.

Thanks for the update, I just ordered one. At this price it is worth playing with.
Hope it really works well without too many issues. My unit will arrive on Wednesday.

Thx for the info.

I have an external 3TB drive that I plan to try with it. It's USB 3.0.

Zombie, did you say it uses standard NTFS format, or did I imagine that?

I really like Win7 Media Center with the MyMovies GUI. I think I'll give it one more try, after doing a full system backup with Acronis, so I can restore everything if I have HDMI level issues.

I'll put my entire 3D collection on the 3TB drive and see how that goes with this new device, then see if there's any way to integrate the other films on my UnRaid servers within a GUI. Options are always nice.

I wish I had FIOS as an option. Dish HD, back in the early days, used to have much better image quality. These days, it's all about quantity, and the bandwidth is far too limited to maintain a really good looking picture.

Thanks for the confirmation and thanks a lot for the offer, I'll let you know but for many reasons it's unlikely to happen if I have to import from the US. Maybe the changes will trickle up to the 900B at some point? In any case it's good to know the Realtek are able to provide proper 24p for both 2D and 3D.

My HTPC is working now (touching wood), and I'm still hoping that Dune will release a new model soon with either the 8910 (very unlikely) or a modified 86xx with HDMI 1.4 support (most likely). I really need MyMovies support and unfortunately Brian confirmed it wasn't on the table for the himedia/compatible models.

Please let us know your opinion when you've done more testing, I'll PM/email you if I have off topic questions...

Since we all built up a collection of PCs over time, I add them to each room connected to Gigabit Ethernet.
I'm waiting for Windows 8 and purchasing a laptop with GPS built-in. In other words I want to use navigation yet maintain my privacy.
I use Power DVD Ultra and Virtual Clone Drive. I've have to disable three Cyberlink services and block several of the .exe programs from steaming advertising with Windows Firewall.
The key concept is that I remain the System Administrator, as no one else has my best interest in mind.
I read the reviews of the Micca player at Amazon. Nice hardware, but the usual frustrations.
The smartest advice I can give is to use the WASAPI add-on for pcm audio, to bypass the degrading effects of Windows audio processing. I use it for Foobar 2000 along with the new USB DAC speakers like the Adam Audio Artist series. No frustrations - just the next level of performance.

No back to 1:1 mapping, ghosting, flicker and bright, high contrast images.

Hmm - this Micca looks pretty interesting. Was thinking about getting a Dune, but this might be the better choice. What kind of UI does it have? I've got a WDTV Live Hub that I could move to the bedroom.

Which Cyberlink services do you disable to get rid of the ads?

Ordered the Micca last night, now AnyDVD HD, then 3TB and I'm in business right?

Thanks I'll check it out.

Ordered an Epson 6010 since my JVC 40 is just too damn dim for 3D. If the blacks and 2D are adequate on the Epson, I'll sell the JVC. If not, I'll decide what to do then. May just keep both and use one based on what I'm watching.

Anyway, the 6010 comes with two glasses so I'm covered for two people. My understand that the Xpand 103's don't work well with the Epson. I have several of these and want to confirm whether or not they will work. If not, what's the best glasses to use with the Epson (in addition to their own)?

I use the Optoma which are the Less Expensive Version of
the MonsterVision glasses without paying the Monster Price.
They are RF -NOT IR - they are the BEST.

The Sony PS3 glasses work well with the Epson 6010. They recharge via USB, so I keep a 4-port USB hub on the mantle and have four sets charging all the time. I don't like them quite as well as the ones that came with the Epson, but they're a lot cheaper. I picked some up from Best Buy for $40 on sale.

Thanks for the replies on the glasses. I'll research both options a go from there if I need to add any.

Can someone confirm that the X103s do NOT work with the 5010/6010s?

I have the X104s that I was using for my JVC and what I've read is that they work with the Epson line. I don't use my JVC for 3D anymore so I was getting ready to unload the glasses. If you're interested PM me.

Does the Micca support 4TB drives? If I am going to drop a single drive into the machine itself, it might as well be the largest available for the moment...

My findings with the HiMedia 900A:

1. Plays 3D ISOs from a directly attached HD with no issues whatsoever...no stuttering and no frame dropping that I can detect.

2. Playing 3D ISOs with a USB attached drive is a hit or miss situation....plays some of them fine and stutters badly on others. I think it is a bitrate issue.

3. Playing either 2D MKV or 3D ISO over a gigabit network results in stuttering. Playing the same 2D files over the same network using J. River Media Center 17, Media Player Classic, or Zoomplayer or using the SageTV HD300 box results in flawless playback, so I am convinced that the problem is not in my network, but rather in HiMedia's poorly written Linux code.

4. Networking to the 900A is not the best...writing files to the directly attached hard drive is very slow, and when I delete a file, the free space is not recovered. I have to disconnect the drive from the 900A and attach it to a Windows machine to recover the space...very strange.

So, as long as I limit the HiMedia device to playing back 3D ISO files on the single drive I have directly attached, it works fine and I am happy enough. Even if the hardware is identical, if Micca's firmware can sort out some of the issues that HiMedia is not resolving, then it will be more than worth the price...

I have owned 4 different units so far:

early Popcorn Hour - complete garbage
early HDX - complete garbage
HiMedia - works well enough, but has issues as described above
SageTV - Far and away the best player to date - nothing comes even close to its abilities as a 2D player in terms of networking smoothness, 24 FPS playback, features, interface, etc. It is just such a shame that Google bought them out (before they went 3D) just to shelve the entire product line...

Micca - just ordered one...

Will do...I will report back here as soon as I get the unit and test it under varied conditions and connection types...the good, the bad, and the ugly...

So has anyone here compared the HW30 to the VW95? I know the 95 is way more, but how much better is the image quality of the VW95?