3D playback by newest streaming boxes - Realtek 1186 - Page 4

I'm not sure where Micca came into this discussion, since you were previously only referring to HiMedia and Xtreamer. I interpret "feel free" exactly as I stated it. Anyone purchasing one of these units with the intention of playing Russian roulette with the firmware should be encouraged to contact the manufacturer or sales vendor BEFORE doing so to find out what their policy is. I can assure you, since I've spoken with them directly, that Xtreamer will not honor the warranty if flashing their units with anything but official firmware.

Your "understanding" of the way this works is tragically flawed, as explained to you very clearly by the Micca representative in the posts you linked. Unless you are 100% certain the firmware you are trying to flash does not overwrite the boot code (which, in most cases, it will unless it's been modified not to do so), you risk bricking the player. Of course, if you actually owned any of the units you are giving people cross-flashing advice on, you'd know this.

Richard- I'm beginning to have trouble differentiating what you know is fact and what you wish were true.

For this discussion how about we avoid the "should be" and stick to what is, today, what will be as promised by the manufacturer.

It is fun to wish these devices should do whatever we imagine but unfortunately we have to live in the real world with what is.
So with that said- I repeat, if you install a hacker firmware that wipes the mfg backup in the process and the new firmware is flawed and doesn't take, the device is bricked. Even if a backup firmware was available for download, once the device is bricked, how would you instruct it to install any additional firmware from anywhere. Now maybe with your skills could pull the EPROM and stick it in a rom burner and install it that way but that is well beyond what most of us mortals are capable of doing.

Bottom line to all this is quite simple and can be summed up this way-
The risk is great the reward is unknown. You take your chances on a hacker's word who you don't know that it will work fine. But if he overlooked something or his instructions on how to do it were misunderstood or assumed you knew as much as he did,and it fails, you are out $220. If it works and you can boot the device, now go count your penny's and see what you really gained and what you lost.

Moving on- I was asked whether This Himedia could do Netflix. Upon checking I see there is no app for it. I loaded the android boot function and discovered that the 900B appeared to run considerably slower with that feature activated. The playback of network video did not appear to be affected and played fine. I watched several internet TV shows this evening from the 900B and all HD content played fine although the actual quality is more like HD Lite than real HD as I get from my own Vegas productions. But in the android app I could not figure out how to find a nettflix app.
Back to the basic browser, I did figure out how to access the Google onscreen keypad and enter a search and did so for Netflix to see if Netflix could be access from the browser. Every https URL ( needed for my netflix login) was locked out. Seems this Browser is not usable for secure socket link access as that is what the error message says.
Any ideas?

Buy the machine with the best official firmware support. At this point, though, they are all running off the same core firmware. When/if one company starts developing further, you may see better support. The reason many of these devices are able to be cross flashed at all is because the current hardware is pretty much identical. This is commonplace in Chinese manufacturing. Devices are made in the factory, re-badged and sold under different brand names. That has nothing to do with the Realtek chipset itself and does not mean that any and all devices using the 1186 can be flashed with another brand's firmware. It just means you're looking at the same device, regardless of branding.

After updated my Himedia 900A to firmware 1.0.3.5 beta, It's seems that all my (fast panning and fast zoom) test videos TD10E 50i converted to 24p 3D Iso with vegas play smoothly now.
I have test Magic bullet frames with AE for converting 50i to 24p (too slow and result is bad).
Also test Magic bullet frames with Premiere pro (faster than AE) but the result is not smoother than vegas pro 11 with yadif.

There's always sometime, a glitch on 24p sources with the 1186DD chip.

Almost all my problems with the Himedia 900B stock firmware has been my lack of understanding the controls and what the different features do, especially the BD menu choices. Now that I have a pretty good handle on it I think I'm in control.

I have upgraded the HD from an old surplus 500Gb 7200RPM to a 2TB 5900 RPM and the box is running a bit quieter ( actually, it is dead silent now). Temp is still constant 98°F.

With the 3 menu selections I get a choice but can only play 3D with the first one that does not permit any menus. But if I want to see the extra features, I can get to them by selecting the 3rd option BD 1.0. Now while there is no way to see 3D with this, Normally most 3DBD are 2D on the extra features anyway so no loss here. The best option is to set up the options for make selection when you begin to play a title.iso. This is good because I don't need to go into settings and dig down in the menus to change it depending on the content I wish to watch.

I did some digging on other forums and it seems there is a new policy for licensing the BD players and this license forbids any application outside of original disk playback so it is unlikely that Himedia or any other manufacturer will get a license for code to play full menus. This is also limited by the need to be constantly updating the firmware with the higher menu structures due to being java based. A double complication. Probably the best solution for now is HiMedia's second choice for accessing menu driven content which is a firmware, not BD disk based menu that pops up and allows this access. However, it is my understanding the this does not work with ripped ( off) copyrighted content that contains BD Live. I have no way of testing that as I don't do BD Live on my menus I create with PD10. For me, this 2nd choice works just fine.

There is another 3D glitch too. I think there is a wrok around this but haven't found it yet. Not really giving it much priority. The glitch is when designing a menu for 3D content in PD10 that uses both 2D and 3D in a window. The menu will display as SBS Half 2D in the window of the 3D content, but the main screen will be normal 2D. If I put the monitor in the 3D mode then the menu 2D screen is all messed up but the program will appear normal 3D once it is selected This also may be an issue of my monitor compatibility. I haven't taken the Hi Media into the HT and watch it on the 3D projector yet. I may discover a new set of gremlins there.

At the end of the day, the evaluation of the Himedia 900B with stock firmware is doing what I need.
It is playing my 3D edited productions in 1080 24p with very high quality.
It will access menu driven content I created with Power Director 10 with some less than perfect functions as compared to the OPPO BD93 ( which will likely be lost when I turn on the next firmware update.
Once in 3D program the HiMedia player content is same quality as from my OPPO BD-R 3D.
Playback over the Lan is possible too but my lan being 802.11b is not fast enough and it tends to buffer frequently, So, All I ask is to be able to copy content from my computer to the HiMedia local drive and I'm happy. The Himedia has sufficient file management control too.

I also discovered that the sata drive connection on the side of the case is not a true sata connection, but rather it is a USB 2.0 connection. I have not tested the e-sata port. It even shows up as another USB drive, not an additional HDD.

Not in how I think you mean "capabilities". Only difference is how you find them. As I said the external sata drive is really a USB connection to the 900b OS. With respect to the file playback, no difference at all, including performance.

Hey Richard, I just got back from Epcot an hour ago, and I shot the fireworks display this time with my twin TD10 using a 24" IA. can't wait to get home to pair the 3D on this.

No. I run them on 2D 1080 24p FX mode with x.v. color. The results are stunning. And now with Vegas Pro capable of smooth rendering at 24p the end result looks as good as any 3D BluRay movie.

I may experiment some time with 60p mode if I see a reason for it, such as lots of action but so far the most action I have shot is fireworks performance. Someday the goal is to shoot everything in 60p but until the bluray disks are compatible with that I will stick to 24p and no conversions.

Richard- FYI- Back when I first started shooting I saw my TD10 was default to no x.v. color. My original Disney productions were all shot that way. Today, using X.V. color ON I get much better color quality. Now when I compare today's video with what I shot and edited before the original work looks washed out. Both my display monitors (projector and Vizio) support X.V. color so the difference really shows.

Note- In order to realize x.v. color gamut, you must have a source that supports it and use at minimum 1.3 HDMI, and a monitor that supports it.

I have the egreat r300 player based on newest realtek chip.

I noticed there is a setting to adjust 3D depth during playback of blu-ray 3D ISO. The default value is 8 out of 14 I think.

Does anyone know what best setting might be? I ask as normal 3D blu-ray players asks what size screen you have and adjusts depth according to that.

With these media players i would like to do the same.

Thanks

Don, I understand the advantages of the extended gamut, but what happens if I shoot in x.v. mode but play the videos on a device (TV, computer monitor/software) that does not have that capability? Will the video look worse than if I had shot without x.v.? I assume it must, as then there would be no reason to shoot ever in non-x.v. So non x.v. gives you better compatability?

mark- This is my opinion- x.v. mode bit rate is backward compatible.
I have not seen a reduction of quality here but then I'm using 3D monitors that are X.V. capable. Only a significant improvement in quality with it on. I think the advantage of shutting down the higher bit rate option in the camcorder is to reserve hard drive recording time. The X.V. Mode is supposed to default to 8 bit if the monitor does not support the higher bit rate modes. The highest mode is 16 bit. but I believe this is only available on broadcast monitors. 10 and 12 bit are the most common modes in consumer TV's.

I began shooting X.V. mode in June of 2011 so all my initial work in May2011 is done with that off. Now when I compare with my Sony VPL VW90ES projector the difference in color saturation and depth is obvious. The older 8 bit looks a bit washed out by comparison. If I look at the video on my computer monitor which is an older RGBHV connected the two look the same. You need a minimum of HDMI 1.3 connection for x.v. color and all hardware has to support it.

I read somewhere, that the JVC TD1 is X.V. mode by default ( always on)

Keeping on topic- the HiMedia900b uses x.v. mode in "auto" setting in the setup menu.

I just got the ASUS BDS-700 player.

Build quality looks great, has option for English.

You can choose 1080p/60 for hdmi out.

There are already 2 firmwares on their site, for NTSC choose that version and pal choose that.

Menu is basic and easy and fast. Nice!!!!

Only supports dlna but I knew this.

Here is what I found.

- to start off the YouTube can play HD videos. Cool, nice touch.

- using your smart phone to control it was sweet and you can use your smart device to enter text for you tube, etc. Nice!!!

The bad........

Tried several dlna servers, like mezzmo, twonky, Nero home 4, but get crazy stuttering. Audio will also kick out and in when stuttering.

When playing same files from USB connected, all was smoother, but, still stuttered once in a while!!!!!

ISO BD 3d from USB did play in 3D and menus. However, again had stuttering on some movies!!!!

My cheap WD, egreat r300, and dune 3.0 all can play same files (except 3D iso) without stutteing from both USB and dlna.

I am waiting for my 2nd unit to arrive in few days and will test with that to see if my 1st unit is faulty!!!

So far VERY UNIMPRESSED!!!! Expected better from ASUS especially when they are using same chip as Oppo bdp-93!!!!

Can't beleive it can't even stream hd video without stuttering when my other players do just fine!!!

Again, might be bad unit, but doubt it!!!!

Also to top things off, tried playing few MKV blu-ray files I made with makemkv, and when it tried to play file via dlna it said unsupported format!!

Again, all my other media players will steam same files!!

When playing that same MKV from USB drive, it played..

Note: I live in Canada, and player works with NTSC and 120v power.

Will keep you all posted when I try 2nd unit.

As of now ..... STAY AWAY FROM THIS PLAYER!!!!!

Go for the buggy realtek players as they are way better than this!!!!

Curious what LAN you are using.
I have the older 100kbs here and it will not stream ( dlna) any HD. Does fine in SD content. Local USB hard drives work fine. So, I only use LAN for transferring content.
I have PCH210, HiMedia 900b and OPPO BD93 for media serving.

I use gigbit LAN. On all my other media players ( egreat r300, WD, dune 3.0, and when I had an Oppo 93......which I now miss. Lol) all were able to stream HD perfect over LAN. Even though those devices were only 10/100 LAN.

thanks for your review of the Asus 3d bd bluray player. i was curious about this because I am still looking for a 2nd player in addition to my bdp-93 to play 3d bd isos and like how it does full menu while the HiMedia 900b and other realtek 1186 based players don't but the Asus doesn't sound good.

Seems odd in general that it would stutter when playing from usb hdd as nothing usually ever stutters when played from hdd, usually just when trying to stream. And especially strange since I thought the Asus BDS-700 was based on the Oppo bdp-93.

Any suggestion for another player that plays 3d bd iso? or should I just try to get another oppo that doesn't have the newest fw yet that disables iso playback altogether which is stupid considering that is the whole reason to get that player so you can rip your bd's and not have to have discs floating raound getting scratched but rather can keep them safely stored.

Please let me know what my best bet would be for a secondary player to play 3d bd iso in additon to the oppo. I guess since i have full menus on that I could do without it on the secondary player but sometimes you really need menu.

How far are we from any enw players coming out or is realtek 1186 still it?

Not soon if ever. The problem is not technical, it's legal. The BDA won't license these media players for ripped content. Your best bet is to try and get another OPPO BD-93 and never connect it to the internet and update the firmware. This isn't OPPO's fault. They were threatened with loss of license to make Blu Ray players if they didn't remove the app to play iso files.

get another $500 oppo? I guess you can update it via usb to the newest fw that still played iso's.

I guess we need to boycot the bluray industry then if they dont allow us to rip our bought discs so that we can not only keep them from getting scratched but also so we dont have to fumble with discs which is what gets them messed up.

There will be plenty of media tanks that play isos as there always has been. They just need to have the more powerful chip/tech to play 3d iso's thats all and as you said its not the tech thats the problem.

The media tanks dont care about bd license and at worst you just wont be able to have menus like ones now but that why I was waiting because I think new media tanks that play 3d bd iso will be able to plaly menu unlike the realteck 1186 based one though again i guess the lack of menus is the license factor not that the hardware can't play menus.

for a secondary player i'm sure a realtek 1186 bsed will be fine and that will play everything else plus have the benefit of working with a jukebox

but himedia 900b i think needed a custom fw to work withyamj and even then its a custom version of yamj with the fileype changed or somethign meaning i dont think my currently already setup instances of yamj from pch will work on it so I didnt buy it.

full menus on the oppo but no jukebox (have to just scroll file names to select video to play), and then media tank in other room with jukebox (pref yamj since i have it setup already and famil with it) but no menus.

thats fine tradeoff. just need to find which media tank will be good to work with my usb hdd's with my iso's on them and work with yamj and the HiMedia 900b doens't seeem to be a great choice, not bad but just not great either mostly for the fact as I said, if I'm going to give up menus then I want it to work with regular yamj not a tweaked version that needs a special custom fw to even worht with it.

Even if new Sigma chip is delayed, i'm sure someone can and will easily make a realtek 1186 based streamer that actually works with yamj.

I will never say we will never have a juke box NMT device the way everyone wants it. I'm just saying that with present laws ( DMCA) that has no Fair Use Provision like we had with analog copyright law, and the structure in use with Blu Ray and the tight grip the BDA has over manufacturers, It is highly unlikely we will see a solution in the near future. Bottom line, if you want to create your NMT with nice iMDB GUI and downloaded movie info, like what Popcorn Hour does, then 2DBD is here and works. Still it's not legal but that's a different debate. At least technically, the devices are out there for now and they work. With OPPO we have a way to store full 3DBD iso's and play them using the licensed java code locked in time to December 2011. It should play 3DBD and 3DBD made before that time and a crap shoot for disks in the future. Those are the options for now.

As for this excuse of getting scratches on a disk because you played it too much. I think that is a pile of Pooh! Sure a disk could get damaged but how often does that happen? Unless you are in the habit of playing Frisbee with your 3DBD, I'd say it has never happened. But let's say that one in a million times you did get a deep accidental scratch. What is the cost to replace the disk? $25 maybe?
I don't buy 2DBD. I rent them and with so much content out there I rarely ever have time to watch a movie twice. Owning the movie is silly. Right now I do buy every 3DBD release out, usually 2 per month. I buy them because it is near impossible to rent them conveniently. I sure as damn well not going to watch the 3DBD and then rip it to iso to add cost of HDD storage too. Even most of my 3DBD, probably haven't been watched more than once because there is just no time with all the new content. But that's just me. We all have our own amount of time to spend watching and some love to watch the same movie over and over. For them the iso player would be easier.

By the way you don't understand how discs can get scratched or how ppl would like to keep them put away in another area other then cluttered in their viewing room, or how movies would want to be watched more then once...you obviously dont have kids.

little bit close minded of you to assume everyones viewing habits are like your own. Ppl with kids have enough clutter and want to keep the discs put away in another spot in storage, plus kids do scratch, even break discs. And kids like to watch stuff many times.

My 5 year old Daughter has destroyed a lot of discs although not intentionally. Kids are kids and stuff happens. I can't tell you how many times she's watched Tangled and Kung Fu Panda but I now have the dialog down pat! I burn a copy of any stuff she likes so she has one she can destroy with over use. I don't know how she does it but she's scratched a couple to the point of no return.

How do you know so obviously that Don doesn't have kids? Where is your assumption based on?

Right, thanks.
Intuitive guess! I have grand kids. But when mine was growing up, she was properly disciplined and didn't touch Daddy's media collection, guns, or ammo. But I am wrong to assume most parents teach their kids respect for others property, even within the family. The grandkids love papa's theater but they don't even mess with the remote control here. The one who is old enough to talk now comes and asks to watch a movie and comes and asks to switch to another movie.

Accidents do happen, however. Most recently one grandson age 3 got impatient with the OPPO BD-83SE I gave to my daughter as I didn't need it anymore. He broke the drawer by pulling on it. Stripped one of the plastic pinion gears but OPPO support was kind enough to send me one free! Now, grandson isn't allowed to touch the disks or players at home. I told my daughter she needs to educate first before he takes these freedoms and breaks stuff.

I'd say, if you want to blame your kids, shame on you! Kids are a result of your training. Give them some respect of your time and they will return the favor of respecting you and your disks.

Another suggestion to stay legal and have it work, older kid proof- Ever heard of digital copy? It is better suited for your undisciplined older kids who play frisbee with BD. Or just get them Netflix. BTW, Netflix is one menu my 3 year old can operate himself with the Roku Remote control. he knows the DVD's are off limits but Roku is his to scan and play. Nothing to really break

PS- Didn't mean to scold. I just get annoyed when young parents try to tell me I don't understand because I don't understand kids. Besides, if you are under 48, you are young enough to be my kid. I think I understand you pretty well. ( Old geezerd in training)

Quatre, you said:


Don replyed that he has grand children. What do you think about your statement after Don's reply?

Furthermore you stated:

Don seems to understand this very well. However his experience with his children is different than you have with children. Based on this response do you still think he doesn't understand how discs can get scratched?

Another statement of you:

After hearing Don's reply what do you think now?

GUYS, could anybody help me synch image + sound on my Prodigy? It's way off. Is there a shrotcut on the RC? Dune has it...

Also, I cannot output 24p (tried to active it on the video set up, but the box with all the resolutions won't show 1080-24p, only 1080-60p).

I have a 3D Onkyo RV, a Panny 7000 projector and the best cables in the market. Yes, I have the new firmware too.

Last but not least, the freaking Prodigy won't display my folders in my HDD, just the loooong list of movies!
I have a Dune but it crashed and I tried using my Prodigy (as a back up) -- but I'm kinda lost!

Thanks for your help --
Helcio