3D playback by newest streaming boxes - Realtek 1186 - Page 2

By my costs, its now almost equal. $230 for 3TB. about the same for 3TB of BD-RE in bulk. But since I can't index them in a menu, I'd have to shelve and print them, and box them, which now adds another $1 per 25Gb. So, burning media is still quite a bit more expensive and not nearly as easy. I used BD-RE because HD is reusable and so is BD-RE. Can't erase the printing though. So using BD-R once the is an advantage in some cost saving if I can get them for a buck each.

Before figuring out how to create iso's and play them in stereoscopic player from Power Director, I burned BD-RE for all my temp renders until the project was complete, then burned the BD-R. They worked great for about 50-60 cycles and then would just fail. Not sure why. But with 50-60 cycles, they sure saved me a lot of money. Now I only use them for times when I want to test a render on my big screen in the home theater. I only own 3 disks and the last time I bought a 25 pack of BD-R was last September.

Nice we have so many options to play our projects. BD-R is still the most expensive in my opinion.

Richard- You are right in your statement that FULL SBS or TB does not display however there are tricks to fool the monitor into doing so using pixel aspect ratio in players like stereoscopic player. For the most part, I see FULL TB or SBS as an intermediate transfer render setting to move my timeline edit from Vegas Pro to Power Director for BD-R authoring. This Full TB or SBS mode is not for playback or display. It's just a way to transport all the resolution to another software tool. And, FYI- I don't use that codec to embed audio either. I render the 6 channels of sound separate as analog wav files for mux in Power Director using their DTS codec.
I see no purpose in using SBS or TB FULL as a display mode since the Vegas codecs don't allow full audio embedded anyway. Best to stick with frame packed for display.

Does the HiMedia, or any of the other boxes, play 3D BD from folder structure (not iso)?

Richard- Do you not have Vegas Pro v11? You can create the TB and SBS FULL files in Vegas Pro. The audio is first rendered to PCM 5.1 file and imported to Power Director. The DTS is only encoded to a BD file structure or using DVDFab, can be compacted into an ISO file after rendering in Power Director.

Richard- The short clip of your kids at the table appears to be a corrupted file. It will load into Vegas Pro but crashes my system. Then I looked closer and I see that it is an improper match of audio to video as they are different lengths. I'm going to attempt to rebuild the file and import it into Vegas the way it should have been done but I make no promises. I'm trying to import it back into one of my TD-10's that is currently empty and reindex it for proper export. Hopefully that will fix what the problem is. The file does play in Vegas 3D, it just won't render and the audio is slightly out of sync which is typical for a clip that was not properly imported.

Is Realteck 1186 still the only chip currently out that can play 3d bd iso? well, besides the marvell chip that kaiboer, oppo, and asus players use. Looks like Sigma is coming some time in 2012 but porbably not till 3q and the Dune being most anticipated and shown at CES but apparenlty they are getting impatient with Sigma delay and maybe look for a new chip. Syabas nmt with Sigma 8910 should be interesting when that ever happens.

Meantime I'd think Oppo (with marvell chip?) is as good or better then that realtek 1186 chip and its players?

So if realteck 1186 based players is really the only other option right now, what is currently the best player using this?

Still the HiMedia 900, because its most supported?

Yes, more specifically, it crashes at 99% when rendering to TB Full. I could not export it back to the int, memory in the TD10. It's there but will not play. I gave up messing with it. I'm not sure what the point of all this was. Back to my own projects.

Suggestion- If you use the TD10 often, get Vegas Pro v11. If you need to do BD with menus, add PD10 Ultra. The two are a very powerful toolbox for just about anything you need to do in project completion. I have one more tool, DVDFab which will generate the ISO package if you plan to have projects with full menus and want to serve them from a box like the Realtek 1186 devices. Obviously, if you're not into editing and project creation all these tools are a waste of money.

Richard-

That was much better. Rendered in 2 minutes to TB Full. I turned on a stereo mix down audio file ( 5.1 DD isn't an option for main concept codec here which is why the separate analog audio render in my work flow for DTS) for your convenience.

Your test file is at:
http://www.tv-shopper.com/RA/

(case sensitive folder)

Should be fully uploaded in 15 minutes

After reading the entire thread on the HiMedia player, it sounds like the majority of users aren't too happy with it. It seems the firmware is still quite buggy, there are problems recognizing hard drives, etc. It's probably better to wait for a more mature product.

Good question, interested in same.

It apparently does play BD from folder structure but I'd recommend reading the HiMedia thread before purchasing one. There seem to be a lot of bugs and quirks with it.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1367468

If we dont want to wait indefinitely though, it seems that as of right now a realtek 1186 based player is the best bet (as there isnt' much else really) and the Realtek seems to have the most support and owners including some custom fw with yamj made by a few technically inclined users.

(Note: I initially posted this in the HiMedia 900b thread but now seemed more appropriate here where its about all Realtek 1186 based players)

I like the sound of the Xtreamer Prodigy better I think based on what I've read. I think someone mentioned here that yamj does work on the Xtreamer Prodigy but not sure and woujld haev to check their forums more. I did see their customer service is terrible and their forums even delete anything bad about them so I dont think they are the best company per se but as far as between the Xtreamer Prodigy vs. the HiMedia900B, the Xtreamer Prodigy seems a little bit better and I like some of the accessories and the 3.5" hdd drive bay in the front as I saw someone mod a HiMedia 900 to have somethign similar but made it wider.

I did see that an Xtreamer Ultra 2 is coming next month (Xtreamer Ultra is basically an HTPC) and this is the new version of it and it comes with XBMC pre installed so takes a lot of the work out of htpc setup. But review i saw on amazon of the first Ultra still said there was extra expenses and headache/install with it and not something I want to deal with especially in secondary room though an htpc in main room eventually would be good as long as it dint' give me more work and aggravation that i dont have time for.

Might be some nice extra features with the Ultra2 next month but it is more and like I said probablhy more work though I really would love xbmc.

I think I'm holding off for now but for the room and current need, either or any of these Realtek 1186 based players would be fine but I'm kind of leaning towards the Xtreamer Prodigy over the Hi Media900

I know this is the HiMedia 900b thread and all but maybe we can get a comparo.

If you look at the bottom of the page for the Prodigy
http://www.xtreamer.net/xtreamer-prodigy-upgraded/

it shows a comparison to other realtek 1186 based players (chinese ones as I believe the HiMedia is) and they act like their Xtreamer brand realtek 1186 based player in the Prodigy has a few advantages.

Is the HiMedia 900b reall not 750mhz like the Xtreamer brand Prodigy unit? or is that just misleading advertising by Xtreamer

oh they are comparing to realtek 1185 @ 500mhz so i'm sure all 1186 are 750. misleading.

What is DVBT? says optional so you prob have to pay extra/sold sep but I reemmber seeing that mentioned i think mentioned on the Oppo bdp-95 bd player over the half the price bdp-93... though i guess the 95 is more for other reasons.

says hdmi 1.4 3d. again probably comparing to realtek 1185 players as any 1186 like the HiMedia 900b i assume is hdmi 1.4 and of course we know it plays 3d bd iso just the same as Xtreamer Prodigy

Claims a "firmware branch" advantage over competing players:
"Unlike our chinese competitors, the Xtreamer prodigy is not based on the original SDK as provided by Realtek. All of them lack so many functions and optimization core the Xtreamer Prodigy has."

A "System" advantage:
"The Xtreamer offer its community both HTML 5 php Json Curl OpenSSL & XML with Sqlite. Most of our competitors does not involve the comunnity in the development of the device like the Xtreamer does."

Embedded Jukebox:
The Xtreamer offer its community both HTML 5 php Json Curl OpenSSL & XML with Sqlite. Most of our competitors does not involve the comunnity in the development of the device like the Xtreamer does.

passive cooling, wireless headset are a few other Check marks it has that it claims its "chinese competitors" dont

i know its mostly a bunch of marketing bs but a few things do seem legit slight advantage and again I really like the front loading 3.5" hdd bay though for now I"m mostly going to use 2.5" usb hdd so i can switch between whichever player I choose soon for the lower level and for connection to 3d bd player in main room.

Makes me wish my pch had a quicker easier way to connect/disconnect the 3.5" hdd so i can switch between that and whatever media tank I get in other room.

Does the HiMedia 900b have front loading3.5" hdd? i think i remember its top loading but seemed to be a pretty easy flip lid so I guess its not much different but the front loading is nice and like i said i saw someoen mod their HiMedia 900b to have that but it made it raelly wide while somehow the Xtreamer Prodigy doesn't seem that wide even with front loading 3.5" hdd bay.

Probably makign too much out of this being its just for secondary room right now and mostly just for 3d bd iso from usb hdd and since for those i'm already used to not having yamj on the main room 3d bd player that can play files then id otn need a lot of bells and whistles and it does seem i can get the HiMedia 900b for a little less then Xtreamer Prodigy.

But i like hte accessories with Xtreamer and maybe I try it and then if it can do everythign my pch can do including run yamj that is already on the internal 3.5" sata hdd in my pch then that would be perfect because with 2 Xtreamer Prodigy I can easily pull out the 3.5" sata hdd from the front loading bay to move the content between rooms.

in fact even better would be if one media player (Xtreamer Prodigy) could stream from another so I woudn't have to pull out hdd at all becaues the main reason i dont stream is because I dont like to leave pc and be dpendent on that but streaming between media playuers would be cool though as I said witht eh front loading 3.5" hdd bay, it seems easy to pull it out and put it in another of same device.

And while the frlip up top lid of the HiMedia 900b is probalby almost as easy, the front loading bay seems more "hot swappable" and faster to do that so hm.

Like I said, if the Xtreamer Prodigy can do everything my PCH A-110 can do (which should be hard other then using yamj and my front end gui the same way) then I would maybe even get 2 of them so i can not only tak ehte content on my 2.5" usb powered hdd's but also can move the 3.5" internal hdd between players/rooms.

maybe even get a fast hotswap enclosure for 3.5" hdd for my pc so i can more quikly transfer files from pc to the media player hdd rather then over the network which at least on the pch is much slower then usb 2.0 even.

thoughts and recommendations welcome but I am leaning towards the Xtreamer Prodigy and if I like it possibly a 2nd one though that would probably be dumb as I should be waiting for Sigma 8910 based playes from Syabas (pch) and Dune.

And still thinking about that Xtreamer brand Ultra 2 pc coming in March with XBMC (the be to end all jukebox programs) pre loaded though I know there will still be some htpc related install and maintenance etc with the Ultra and it seems it only takes 2.5" internal hdd and cant tell how swappable it is.

And if i'm go ing to use 2.5" I mine as well use the usb powered 2.5" like WD passport. as long as those get cheaper and similar capacity of 3.5" (2.5" always going to be more expensive and WD passport at least still maxes out at 1tb i think) i should still maybe just stick to those as easiest to transfer between devices and pc. But as long as i get a good quick easy swappable 3.5" enclosure for the pc then i can probably easily switch a 3.5" sata hdd between the pc and roms with media players as long as they have a front loading hot swap bay like the Xtreamer Prodigy does.

probably just get one of those for now but I'm surprised that when I asked what is or are the best meda players capable of 3d bd iso (still only realtek 1186 I guess) that the Xtreamer brand Prodigy unit isn't mentioned more.

I only just saw it once i believe in this thread regarding that yamj works on it? if exactly the same as the pch then that would be huge as I would be able to just connect the 3.5" sata i have in my pch to it and more esily my 2.5" ext. usb with tv shows on it between teh pch and the Xtreamer Prodigy.

and if i like it better maybe i demote the pch to the basement and make the Prodigy the main room player (as it is way newer and while I know its not the best and plenty complaints about Xtreamer brand just as HiMedia i'm sure its got to be better then old pch a-110 by now) so maybe I'd even get a second Xtreamer Prodigy or get the Xtreamer Ultra for main room which woudl use same accessories (i like the small wireless kb with trackpad they offer though i read one review saying it wasnt' that good) and only problem with the Ultra 2 would be how to connect the 3.5" hdd, id have to use antoher enclosure to connect it to the Xtreamer Ultra and again all the aggravation with an htpc which is what is is despite having a lot of stuff pre insalled.

if only Xtreamer Prodigy could use xbmc I'd get 2 but thats where the Sigma smp8910 players come in without the trouble of htpc. So I beter just get 1 realtek 1186 player for now and leanign toards the Xtreamer Prodigy still somehow even over HiMedia unless I"m missing something.

only sucky thing is with keeping my pch a-110, is not being able to take out the internal 3.5" sata hdd to put in the front loading bay of the Prodigy which again, as long as yamj works exactly the sasme on the Prodigy exactly how its setup on the hdd's i have it on that work in pch then that will tempt me to dump the pch for another Prodigy just for that front load easy swap 3.5" bay.

Surprise! My HiMedia HD900B arrived today from China.

Setup was pretty simple and it works great! It plays 3D BD iso files over the wifi network easily. I had a spare 500Gb hard drive here so I stuck that in but so far I haven't figured out how to transfer the iso files from my computer to the local drive. I can select it and select copy, then go to the local host ( assume this is the HD900B hard drive but when I press the button to paste it to the drive folder, up pops a failure bubble for a second. The manual doesn't seem much help so I'll be looking for owner support on this part. I'm sure there is something procedurally I'm not doing right. Tackle it again tomorrow!

Don, does it playback also self created 3D isos by using Vegas?

OK, I finally figured out the procedure to copy 3d iso from my computer via lan to the 900B hard drive without "no disk space" errors. Apparently I did not format the drive properly before. It's now copying a 23Gb iso to the 900 via wifi and will take some time.

Wolfgang- 3D isos from Vegas Pro render - flawlessly over wifi. Did not watch my entire program as it is 50 minutes long but the first few minutes looked OK and FF worked great.
I haven't tested one with menus that I made with PD10 and generated the iso using DVDFAB yet.

Time to get some sleep while this big file copies to the 900B HDD.

I do anticipate network issues with playback that is why for prime time viewing, I'll use the internal drive but it is nice with this device to be able to quickly play a new rendering that is still on my computer in another room.

In addition to an internal sata drive with flip open access, the 900B has an external sata plug as well as USB3.0 ports and USB 2.0 ports. Lots of room for adding media drives.

The manual is well written but just not very detailed on how to do some operations.

Great to hear that Vegas-ISOs work... what seems to be still not true for the Prodigy 3D.

Richard- I will test in about an hour. 900b is in transfer mode right now, moving about 200Gb of iso's.

I did see in the 900B menus that TB and SBS 3D playback is allowed and selectable, by I would guess that neither would be "Full" mode but rather half. To do Full would require the device to scale the file back to half or be rated for 4K x 2K framing which the 900b is not. Even then the TB file would not fit but a SBS full would.
Remember what I told you, the TB file I made is mostly an intermediate rendering way to keep resolution for transfer between Vegas and Power director. It is not intended for viewing. Unless you have a graphics card capable of 4K. I don't!

The firmware I am using is what came with the 900B. I doubt it is the beta you referenced. I will check into it and see what new firmware offers. Been reading about these other firmwares people been testing. Seems there are many troubles experimenting. I intend to use the device, not experiment, so if it does what I want, well enough, I don't see a need to upgrade to beta releases.