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Sony NSZ-GS7 Network Media Player - Page 2

post #31 of 107
7/12/12 at 4:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by pmcd View Post

You are talking higher end media players not using DLNA. Even the A300 seems to have some issues with some HD audio. The Boxee Box was criticized for its lack of HD audio support. It just seems to me that every time I read a complaint about some media player it involves audio or lack of disk image support or lack of certain subtitle support.

I don't think that HD audio is high on the list of priorities for people buying a $100 media player. Now, as far as Sony goes they presumably want people to buy Blu-ray players and disks. There is no incentive to make it easy to run iso full menu copies of disks, to run digital copies of video at the same quality as Blu-ray, etc... . They want you to run lower quality digital copies. I don't blame them although they do seem to be losing the battle.

The Dune and PCH are very niche products. The Dune in particular appeals to people wanting a no hassle experience playing their Blu-ray backups. That collection of people is tiny. The main use of mkv media players, as I have said many times, is to play content from dubious sources.
philip

DLNA = Issues all the time. It probably the worse thing to use for streaming due to lack of support.
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post #32 of 107
7/12/12 at 5:27pm
My 1st gen bluray gtv box does DLNA (and plex) like a champ. It reads the lossless portion of DTS MA-HD just fine. Test file was an mkv rip of an episode of Lost on blu ray. It plays the HD audio formats on blu rays fine. Google/Sony was just too damn lazy to add support for HD audio in the MediaPlayer app (video view widget).

I am seriously considering ripping all of my blu rays and movies just for the purpose of letting me be lazy later and playing over my lan. The biggest deterrent is lack of HD audio playback over dlna. I want this on a GTV box to combine dlna, plex (or whatever pretty frontend), netflix, amazon, and cable card support while also keeping the WAF I currently have with the old GTV box.
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post #33 of 107
7/12/12 at 7:56pm
Deleted. Sorry. Trying tapatalk and thought I was responding to a new post. Ignore.
Edited by skro - 7/12/12 at 8:10pm
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post #34 of 107
7/12/12 at 8:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by cstmstyle View Post

I am still getting a feel for things as this is my first GoogleTV product with that said initially there is a lot of room for improvement to the software. The hardware in the Sony box seems capable enough. I tested out a few Blu-ray rips I did using MakeMkv and the videos played fine thru the Plex app. The Audio showed as Dolby Digital on my Denon receiver. The Sony media player app still shows as coming soon so hopefully now that the boxes are shipping that will get updated. I do like that I can now use Google Music in my living room without having to use my phone. I will continue to play around with stuff and update this thread.

Hi, did you only have the HD audio track in the mkv? I'm wondering if it took the core track out of the HD audio file, or if it was just playing a secondary audio file?
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post #35 of 107
7/13/12 at 4:44am
I have yet to test it after i found the checkbox to allow audio to passthru. The Plex app is borked since it updated. Anyone know of an alternative to Plex that has a similar front end? GTVbox is no good at this point. Wish I could get Boxee or XMBC on this thing.
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post #36 of 107
7/13/12 at 8:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by cstmstyle View Post

I have yet to test it after i found the checkbox to allow audio to passthru. The Plex app is borked since it updated. Anyone know of an alternative to Plex that has a similar front end? GTVbox is no good at this point. Wish I could get Boxee or XMBC on this thing.

Well, it looks like xbmc is coming soon to android (just announced, no link, sorry I'm on my phone). This can only mean great things for GTV boxes, right???
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post #37 of 107
7/13/12 at 10:37pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by GusGus748s View Post

DLNA = Issues all the time. It probably the worse thing to use for streaming due to lack of support.

True, I have no great urge to use DLNA. Have never liked it. Seems to be getting more popular unfortunately.

philip
Edited by pmcd - 7/13/12 at 10:42pm
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post #38 of 107
7/13/12 at 10:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by skro View Post

Well, it looks like xbmc is coming soon to android (just announced, no link, sorry I'm on my phone). This can only mean great things for GTV boxes, right???

If it's true then that would be great. Mind you, there would be restrictions such as no support for ISO and so on otherwise GTV would offend the content providers, something which nobody wants to risk doing.

philip
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post #39 of 107
7/14/12 at 7:06am
Well, according to the xbmc developers "The feature-set on Android is the same that you have come to expect from XBMC, no different from its cousin on the desktop." so we will see if it supports ISO, etc. This should be cool!
http://xbmc.org/theuni/2012/07/13/xbmc-for-android/
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post #40 of 107
7/14/12 at 7:46am
This is great news.eek.gif
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post #41 of 107
7/14/12 at 10:12am
For anyone interested in trying XBMC now
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1772433

UPDATE: App force closes on the Sony GoogleTV but runs on my Galaxy Nexus.
Edited by cstmstyle - 7/14/12 at 11:23am
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post #42 of 107
7/14/12 at 1:59pm
Can an owner of one of these devices answer a couple questions on support:
1. SMB Shares?
2. NFS Shares?
3. DVD ISO Playback w/Menus?
4. DVD Folder Playback w/Menus?
5. MPEG2 Transport Stream Playback? (Mpeg2 video / AC3 Audio)
6. MPEG2 Transport Stream Playback? (H.264 Video)
7. BD ISO Playback?
8. BD Folder Playback?
9. MKV w/ H.264 Video?
10. MKV w/ VC1 Video?

More details on the XBMC app port would be appreciated.

Thank you
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post #43 of 107
7/19/12 at 11:28am
Quote:
Originally Posted by skro View Post

Deleted. Sorry. Trying tapatalk and thought I was responding to a new post. Ignore.

I keep trying tapatalk and it is not ideal.

Philip
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post #44 of 107
7/22/12 at 6:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by qz3fwd View Post

Can an owner of one of these devices answer a couple questions on support:
1. SMB Shares? Yes.
2. NFS Shares?
3. DVD ISO Playback w/Menus? haven't tried
4. DVD Folder Playback w/Menus?
5. MPEG2 Transport Stream Playback? (Mpeg2 video / AC3 Audio)
6. MPEG2 Transport Stream Playback? (H.264 Video)
7. BD ISO Playback?
8. BD Folder Playback?
9. MKV w/ H.264 Video?
10. MKV w/ VC1 Video?
More details on the XBMC app port would be appreciated.
Thank you


1. SMB Shares? Yes.
5. MPEG2 Transport Stream Playback? (Mpeg2 video / AC3 Audio) Yes
6. MPEG2 Transport Stream Playback? (H.264 Video) Yes
9. MKV w/ H.264 Video? Yes

Haven't tried the rest yet.

These were tried with Plex and GTVBox via Ethernet. GTVBox has problems with MPEG2 on the Sony (these are .ts files from a mix of HD-PVR and SD Prime capture devices). Files are on a Windows XP server that I use for SageTV recording. The playback would stutter and lag, like the buffering couldn't keep up. Plex gave me problems when using transcoding. Switching to DirectPlay fixed that and works fine.
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post #45 of 107
7/23/12 at 11:01pm
The Sony GTV looks like a neat product but it is locked down so may not run XBMC. GTV seems to be competing with the open ICS players which is odd. Too risky at this point so I cancelled my order. Perhaps when the dust settles ...

Philip
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post #46 of 107
7/25/12 at 7:29pm
BestBuy has the unit on display now. Its a neat device, though I could not figure out how to setup SMB shares playing around with it.
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post #47 of 107
7/25/12 at 9:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by qz3fwd View Post

BestBuy has the unit on display now. Its a neat device, though I could not figure out how to setup SMB shares playing around with it.

The Revue as I recall could not set up smb shares except within certain apps.
Is that supposed to be something GTV2 can do?

Philip
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post #48 of 107
7/26/12 at 3:31pm
Thread Starter 
Using Logitech revue keyboard/controller with Sony NSZ-GS7 - here.
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post #49 of 107
7/27/12 at 6:19am
Has any one actually confirmed no ISO support for DVD rips?

Also, is there support for SMB to map my server share where all my movies are located or do I have to use DLNA and app like Plex? If so, does Plex have to transcode the video files if they are in a format that the Sony can already read, such as MKV?
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post #50 of 107
7/27/12 at 6:25am
It would be a shame if no iso support like the sigma/Realtek/intel SOC offer. Forget about using apps like plex.we need to be able to connect a hard drive via USB and just play them any format
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post #51 of 107
7/27/12 at 9:42am
Quote:
Originally Posted by stepmback View Post

Has any one actually confirmed no ISO support for DVD rips?
Also, is there support for SMB to map my server share where all my movies are located or do I have to use DLNA and app like Plex? If so, does Plex have to transcode the video files if they are in a format that the Sony can already read, such as MKV?

I suspect some of the omitted container formats are entirely to appease the content owners?
Do you really think google wants to piss off Universal/Warner/Sony/Fox by offering DVD/BD Folder/ISO streaming over SMB/NFS shares?
Forget about the fact that these kinds of features are what customers want/expect, but Google bowed to its big content overlords.
I cannot fathom why, since big content has already snubbed them off and blocked streaming services for the most part to google tv devices as I understand things.
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post #52 of 107
7/27/12 at 11:45am
Quote:
Originally Posted by qz3fwd View Post


I suspect some of the omitted container formats are entirely to appease the content owners?
Do you really think google wants to piss off Universal/Warner/Sony/Fox by offering DVD/BD Folder/ISO streaming over SMB/NFS shares?
Forget about the fact that these kinds of features are what customers want/expect, but Google bowed to its big content overlords.
I cannot fathom why, since big content has already snubbed them off and blocked streaming services for the most part to google tv devices as I understand things.

You are probably right that google does not want to offend content providers. That is the same for all the major companies. The whole backing up of a Blu-ray to a disk implies you are circumventing the copy protection. The legal status of that varies from place to place. Google needs content. They don't produce any. What else do you expect them to do? It's the same with Apple. They are at the mercy of the content providers. DLNA and Plex will never support disk images for the reasons you give.

The only media players, other than hacked ones, which support these seem to be those with no access to premium content. I guess content providers want to be paid for their products. Not entirely unreasonable.

Philip
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post #53 of 107
7/28/12 at 12:06pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by pmcd View Post

You are probably right that google does not want to offend content providers. That is the same for all the major companies. The whole backing up of a Blu-ray to a disk implies you are circumventing the copy protection. The legal status of that varies from place to place. Google needs content. They don't produce any. What else do you expect them to do? It's the same with Apple. They are at the mercy of the content providers. DLNA and Plex will never support disk images for the reasons you give.
The only media players, other than hacked ones, which support these seem to be those with no access to premium content. I guess content providers want to be paid for their products. Not entirely unreasonable.
Philip
Well it would at least be nice if googletv/android would have a rich enough programming API which exposes the
functionality to support dvd / bd / etc... formats so that third parties could add support through apps. Additionally, many manufacturers like sigma support these features and actually allow the customer to use them. I suppose there is a patent royalty cost to the oem to consider, but at the end of the day products will not sell well if they do not meet customers expectations.
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post #54 of 107
7/28/12 at 1:36pm
@qz3fwd

The client base for the Dune, PCH and other Chinese media players in the US is tiny. Basically, those types of players appeal to two groups: serious Blu-ray collectors and grey area users. Both the ATV and Roku outsell all of them combined. I really don't think disk playback is a priority for the vast majority of customers in the US. Legal issues are far more important to Apple, Sony, Microsoft, etc... As disk sales continue to decline, relatively speaking, you will find more and more content excluded from the grey market companies. They really have no future in my opinion.

You can get a pretty good estimate of the people interested in disk playback by looking at the ATV2 and ATV3. The price of the ATV2 is over twice that of the new one. Sales of ATV2's don't come close to those of the ATV3. We all know why people are willing to pay absurd premiums for the ATV2. I don't think Sony is after that market.

Philip
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post #55 of 107
10/7/12 at 1:45pm
Well-I broke down and ordered the Sony from Amazon to satisfy my curiousity.
I hope I find that I like the device once it arrives sometime next week?
Worst case is I can return it to Amazon for a partial/full refund if I find that I dont like it.
Amazon seems very responsive in the past when I received a damaged item and I have never returned anything to them for a refund,
so I am sure they wont act like BestBuy if I return the box?
I am excited and always look forward to the postman/ups/fedex driver dropping off new toys at my door step!
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post #56 of 107
11/3/12 at 11:23am
Quote:
Originally Posted by qz3fwd View Post

Well-I broke down and ordered the Sony from Amazon to satisfy my curiousity.
I hope I find that I like the device once it arrives sometime next week?
Worst case is I can return it to Amazon for a partial/full refund if I find that I dont like it.
Amazon seems very responsive in the past when I received a damaged item and I have never returned anything to them for a refund,
so I am sure they wont act like BestBuy if I return the box?
I am excited and always look forward to the postman/ups/fedex driver dropping off new toys at my door step!

The Sony unit with Plex is really good. It Direct Plays everything (not DTS audio) and the remote is fantastic. It has become my favourite Plex media player at this point.

Philip
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post #57 of 107
11/3/12 at 3:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by pmcd View Post

The Sony unit with Plex is really good. It Direct Plays everything (not DTS audio) and the remote is fantastic. It has become my favourite Plex media player at this point.
Philip

My new project is HDHomeRun Prime + new IPad decoding 18 mbps mpeg2 ts's.
We will see if the new ipad's cpu/gpu/wifi can keep playback these streams without stuttering horribly.

InstaTV Pro was designed for such as task and just stumbled upon it earlier today after doing some research on the ipad's inability to mount SMB/NFS shares for playback.

I wonder how the Sony box is selling nowadays? My feeling is its price is simply too high and people are not fooled anymore into shelling out premium dollars for the sony name?
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post #58 of 107
11/3/12 at 4:32pm
The Sony box may not be selling well for a variety of reasons. For the most part the cheap boxes feel cheap. The Sony box feels great. It has a fantastic remote, the support is good and the picture is really nice. It's been worth the price for me at least.

You may be right that the price is too high. It would be unfortunate if we all end up having to buy dollar store players because people won't pay more for a media player than the price of a few movies.

I just got the new iPad and iPad Mini. I can't really test 18mbps mpeg2's, but the device is really faster. Mind you, I prefer the Mini so far (still too early of course).

Philip
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post #59 of 107
11/5/12 at 4:41am
I agree that the Sony has great picture quality, I noticed it right away after replacing the Revue with it. The remote is cool and the support is awesome, I have got 2 updates for it since I bought it a couple months ago. Much better than the Revue support was. Also the sound volume is fixed compared to the revue where it had lower volume for some reason. When we were using the Revue we had to turn the volume up 5 notches more than we have to now just to hear it.

We just got the ipad 4 and ipad mini last Friday and so far we prefer the mini also, it's just so much lighter and easier to hold. I can't really tell much difference between the retina screen and the older one even when we hold the mini right next to the ipad 4. My wife uses the ipad every day so she said she could tell a difference. Still though both are really nice.
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post #60 of 107
11/27/12 at 10:57pm
I hate to revive a dead/dying thread but...

Now that this unit has been out for a decent amount of time. Can anyone explain what its pro's and cons are?
My current set up has me playing all my PC content via PS3 media server. While it is sufficient for my needs, it certainly isn't the best. I own a phat ps3 so i don't have lossless audio, nor am i able to play mkv files (at least the way i have it set up). Is this unit good with hulu/netflix/amazon prime (using a vpn i would assume).

Ive read quite a few bad reviews, but would like some opinions from those a little more educated on the subject.

Thank you

- Fido
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