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Official Ceton Echo Extender Info Thread - Page 212

post #6331 of 7564
3/2/13 at 7:35am
Quote:
Originally Posted by shortcut3d View Post

There is one specific Intel NIC that people are having difficulty with on the SiliconDust forums. http://www.silicondust.com/forum2/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=14076&start=30 Someone figured out the driver version one would need to play nice with WMC. Unfortunately, the Intel utility and some locations on their website do not have the latest driver. Try here http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=18713&lang=eng

Also your router could cause issues. http://forum1.netgear.com/showthread.php?t=67681

Also try switching the Ethernet cable connecting your Echo.

Thanks for the info.

Kinda weird though. Checked my Intel Driver version number in Device Manager 12.2.45.0 8/10/2012 Followed the link that you gave me which pointed to driver Version 18.0 dated 1/11/2013

Installed the newer driver and sure enough Device Manager shows 12.2.45.0 installed. I double checked the inf file(s) that came with the download to see what version they showed and they were indeed 12.2.45.0 Strangeness.

Anyway, thanks again for the tip and I'll report back any changes.
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post #6332 of 7564
3/2/13 at 8:11am
I recently modified My Music Library (I deleted lower-quality files and RIPPED CD's in losslessly). Everything is as I want it on the HTPC, but the Echo is riddled with "old" versions of files that no longer exist.

Anybody know a way to force the Echo to rescan and remove the missing shortcuts?
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post #6333 of 7564
3/2/13 at 8:13am
Quote:
Originally Posted by psuKinger View Post

I recently modified My Music Library (I deleted lower-quality files and RIPPED CD's in losslessly). Everything is as I want it on the HTPC, but the Echo is riddled with "old" versions of files that no longer exist.

Anybody know a way to force the Echo to rescan and remove the missing shortcuts?

Losslessly? Don't you mean lossy?

At any rate you can update your libraries in the settings menu I believe.
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post #6334 of 7564
3/2/13 at 8:54am
We apologize for any inconvenience, Echo downloads should be available again.

-Michael
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post #6335 of 7564
3/2/13 at 9:17am
Yup...back up
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post #6336 of 7564
3/2/13 at 11:42am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sammy2 View Post

Losslessly? Don't you mean lossy?.
Sammy2--

He probably does mean "losslessly." For example, I have my entire CD collection (and about one-third of my LP collection) stored in FLAC format on my server. FLAC is completely lossless, and I play my music through Squeezebox players located in my den, my exercise room, and my living room. Incidentally, this gives me playback fidelity equal to that of a very expensive CD player, since there is no motor vibration or instability associated with a CD player, and (in the den) the pure digital output gives me the advantage of the high quality DAC in my Denon receiver, which the DACs in the Squeezebox players are better than in most CD players.

Yesterday, I tried to explain to some colleagues at work the difference in sound quality between MP3s and WAV/FLAC files. Philistines that they are, they said they don't hear any difference.
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post #6337 of 7564
3/2/13 at 11:48am
Quote:
Originally Posted by dsurkin View Post

Sammy2--

He probably does mean "losslessly." For example, I have my entire CD collection (and about one-third of my LP collection) stored in FLAC format on my server. FLAC is completely lossless, and I play my music through Squeezebox players located in my den, my exercise room, and my living room. Incidentally, this gives me playback fidelity equal to that of a very expensive CD player, since there is no motor vibration or instability associated with a CD player, and (in the den) the pure digital output gives me the advantage of the high quality DAC in my Denon receiver, which the DACs in the Squeezebox players are better than in most CD players.

Yesterday, I tried to explain to some colleagues at work the difference in sound quality between MP3s and WAV/FLAC files. Philistines that they are, they said they don't hear any difference.


Re-reading the post in question, I agree. It is lossless used as an adverb or whatever in the form of losslessly by adding the "ly" on the end it is defining the method of ripping the CD's. It is surprising how many people don't understand the difference between WAV and MP3 without even bringing FLAC into the discussion at all. I use MP3 in my truck because fidelity doesn't matter with the noise of a diesel engine but the stuff I play at home is all lossless.
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post #6338 of 7564
3/3/13 at 11:58am
HTPC in the main t.v. room

I do very much enjoy having an HTPC in the family room instead of a headless setup. I took a quick pic of watching two channels at once allowing me to watch the Illinois game and the Daytona 500 at the same time. I also have game console emulators running everything from the Atari 2600 to the Wii in HD if one feels like playing games instead of watching t.v. . Streaming via the web with sites such as Crackle allows watching free movies while access to Comcast streaming allows on demand and some live t.v. channels. Sorry, but even with Android running on the Echo, it will never replace my HTPC in the family room.

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post #6339 of 7564
3/3/13 at 1:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Haba View Post

HTPC in the main t.v. room

I do very much enjoy having an HTPC in the family room instead of a headless setup. I took a quick pic of watching two channels at once allowing me to watch the Illinois game and the Daytona 500 at the same time. I also have game console emulators running everything from the Atari 2600 to the Wii in HD if one feels like playing games instead of watching t.v. . Streaming via the web with sites such as Crackle allows watching free movies while access to Comcast streaming allows on demand and some live t.v. channels. Sorry, but even with Android running on the Echo, it will never replace my HTPC in the family room.


Picture in picture, or having multiple streams on one screen, is something that should have long ago been possible on an HTPC. It's good I'm not more of a sports fan, or I'd not really be able to make use of cablecard PC tuners.
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post #6340 of 7564
3/3/13 at 2:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mcturkey View Post

Picture in picture, or having multiple streams on one screen, is something that should have long ago been possible on an HTPC. It's good I'm not more of a sports fan, or I'd not really be able to make use of cablecard PC tuners.

You mean like this?

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post #6341 of 7564
3/3/13 at 3:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken.F View Post

You mean like this?


Yeah - how are you achieving that?
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post #6342 of 7564
3/3/13 at 3:37pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mcturkey View Post

Yeah - how are you achieving that?

That's the Echo playing in the main screen and the PIP window is the TV tuner.
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post #6343 of 7564
3/3/13 at 3:44pm
PiP would be great, but I'm more interested in doing a 2x2 video wall arrangement....

With CBS, TNT, TBS and TruTV....

In about 2 weeks... ifyaknowhatimean.
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post #6344 of 7564
3/3/13 at 4:01pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by tgrinch View Post

I would try having it boot just to the default WMC menu to start (stock). If that looks good, monitor your process list as you attempt to jump into live tv manually - see if you see similar churn. If not, re-enable booting to LiveTV and ensure it happens again. Assuming it does, you may be able to deduce that it's a combination of the echo add-in with the LiveTV setting and report to Ceton as necessary...

Quote:
Originally Posted by jchusky77 View Post

Yeah...dont have the start up page be livetv....it messes it up. Ceton is aware of this. I had this issue..had the Echo start up on main page and livetv works fine.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Haba View Post

I understand what you going for here with the instant on, but you need to realize the Echo is not a cable box such as a DTA type box, it's more like a Genie Mini. The Echo left powered on with live t.v. is using a tuner from the main box just like a Genie Mini when it's in use, removing a tuner from the tuner pool on the main box restricting recordings or not allowing other clients to use. I would rather Ceton not focus on this issue, but rather advise users to go to the main menu if you are going to leave the Echo powered on.

So thanks guys, I changed the Echo to start up on the guide like Sammy instead of Live TV and everything is better now. No more sporadic starting/stopping of processes on the HTPC and best of all, no more stuttering with the Echo sitting idle.

I'll have to see how much better my setup performs now that that's all straightened out. I also updated my 2 HDhomerun Primes to the latest firmware so hopefully that helps with a few errors I've been seeing as we'll. I'm still trying to WAF my HTPC setup before I even think about putting the last TiVo on EBay. Getting closer I believe.
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post #6345 of 7564
3/3/13 at 4:06pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ajhieb View Post

PiP would be great, but I'm more interested in doing a 2x2 video wall arrangement....
I was just reading Junkyard Jumbotron last week. It looks like an interesting idea but not much info on it.

I should add it's for static images only, not video.
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post #6346 of 7564
3/3/13 at 8:43pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dsurkin View Post

Sammy2--

He probably does mean "losslessly." For example, I have my entire CD collection (and about one-third of my LP collection) stored in FLAC format on my server. FLAC is completely lossless, and I play my music through Squeezebox players located in my den, my exercise room, and my living room. Incidentally, this gives me playback fidelity equal to that of a very expensive CD player, since there is no motor vibration or instability associated with a CD player, and (in the den) the pure digital output gives me the advantage of the high quality DAC in my Denon receiver, which the DACs in the Squeezebox players are better than in most CD players.

Yesterday, I tried to explain to some colleagues at work the difference in sound quality between MP3s and WAV/FLAC files. Philistines that they are, they said they don't hear any difference.

Yep.

I ripped my entire CD collection to FLAC. Sadly, I couldn't find a good solution for making FLAC work (well) inside WMP/WMC. The files will play, but album art disappears, I update it in WMP, and then if I close WMP and reopen it, it's once again *forgotten* all the album art I *discovered* just moments earlier.

So I offloaded all my FLACS to an external for safe-keeping, after converting them to WMA-lossless (for now). Seem to work better in the WMC environment.

Anyway, updating the libraries from the Extender did the trick. Bizarre to me how doing it at the HTPC isnt sufficient, and I had to perform it repeatedly, for each extender individually... I woulda thought the extender purely *extends* whatever is currently at the HTPC... But clearly something is going on locally for each extender to *remember* those old file locations long after they've been changed.
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post #6347 of 7564
3/3/13 at 8:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by kmeleon View Post



So thanks guys, I changed the Echo to start up on the guide like Sammy instead of Live TV and everything is better now. No more sporadic starting/stopping of processes on the HTPC and best of all, no more stuttering with the Echo sitting idle.

I'll have to see how much better my setup performs now that that's all straightened out. I also updated my 2 HDhomerun Primes to the latest firmware so hopefully that helps with a few errors I've been seeing as we'll. I'm still trying to WAF my HTPC setup before I even think about putting the last TiVo on EBay. Getting closer I believe.

I also changed to start directly to the guide. However, after any one button press live TV starts. This actually happens to any of the start up options.

Any fix for suddenly starting live TV from another menu?
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post #6348 of 7564
3/3/13 at 8:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by psuKinger View Post

Quote:
Originally Posted by dsurkin View Post

Sammy2--

He probably does mean "losslessly." For example, I have my entire CD collection (and about one-third of my LP collection) stored in FLAC format on my server. FLAC is completely lossless, and I play my music through Squeezebox players located in my den, my exercise room, and my living room. Incidentally, this gives me playback fidelity equal to that of a very expensive CD player, since there is no motor vibration or instability associated with a CD player, and (in the den) the pure digital output gives me the advantage of the high quality DAC in my Denon receiver, which the DACs in the Squeezebox players are better than in most CD players.

Yesterday, I tried to explain to some colleagues at work the difference in sound quality between MP3s and WAV/FLAC files. Philistines that they are, they said they don't hear any difference.

Yep.

I ripped my entire CD collection to FLAC. Sadly, I couldn't find a good solution for making FLAC work (well) inside WMP/WMC. The files will play, but album art disappears, I update it in WMP, and then if I close WMP and reopen it, it's once again *forgotten* all the album art I *discovered* just moments earlier.

So I offloaded all my FLACS to an external for safe-keeping, after converting them to WMA-lossless (for now). Seem to work better in the WMC environment.

Anyway, updating the libraries from the Extender did the trick. Bizarre to me how doing it at the HTPC isnt sufficient, and I had to perform it repeatedly, for each extender individually... I woulda thought the extender purely *extends* whatever is currently at the HTPC... But clearly something is going on locally for each extender to *remember* those old file locations long after they've been changed.

Each extender has its own user and content library on the HTPC allowing different libraries on different extenders throughout the home. I do agree that the process should work a bit more seamless.
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post #6349 of 7564
3/3/13 at 9:10pm
WMC is terrible at album art. About half of my collection has none. I don't like the music player in WMC either.

I use PLEX for a player on my HTPC but PLEX doesn't work on extenders. It would be nice to have a good player in the echo for local content. Maybe when android comes out that will happen?
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post #6350 of 7564
3/4/13 at 3:48am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sammy2 View Post

WMC is terrible at album art. About half of my collection has none. I don't like the music player in WMC either.

I use PLEX for a player on my HTPC but PLEX doesn't work on extenders. It would be nice to have a good player in the echo for local content. Maybe when android comes out that will happen?

Agreed. I've read good things about Foobar2000 (and specifically how well it handles FLAC), but It is my understanding that it won't work with Extenders either.

My "primary listening area" is connected to an extender, not my HTPC. Soooo... WMA-lossless it is (for the time being). In terms of having your album art and getting good/smooth performance inside WMP/WMC, so far, I've been pleased.
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post #6351 of 7564
3/4/13 at 10:10am
Quote:
Originally Posted by mcturkey View Post

Picture in picture, or having multiple streams on one screen, is something that should have long ago been possible on an HTPC. It's good I'm not more of a sports fan, or I'd not really be able to make use of cablecard PC tuners.

To each their own, I guess. Being a sports fan was the primary reason I got into HTPC. Piicture-in-picture doesn't do it for me; I prefer 3 seperate screens running three different games.

HTPC is the best bang-for-your-buck when you want/need all those tuners. And an added bonus: the remote passcodes for the HTPC, an Xbox, and the Echo are all different. So you don't even need anything elaborate to control them all side-by-side in the same room. Just program a harmony for the 3 distinct boxes, and everything *works*.

3 cable boxes can't do that... And they'd cost a helluva lot more to *not* do it, too.
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post #6352 of 7564
3/4/13 at 12:01pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by psuKinger View Post

To each their own, I guess. Being a sports fan was the primary reason I got into HTPC. Piicture-in-picture doesn't do it for me; I prefer 3 seperate screens running three different games.

HTPC is the best bang-for-your-buck when you want/need all those tuners. And an added bonus: the remote passcodes for the HTPC, an Xbox, and the Echo are all different. So you don't even need anything elaborate to control them all side-by-side in the same room. Just program a harmony for the 3 distinct boxes, and everything *works*.

3 cable boxes can't do that... And they'd cost a helluva lot more to *not* do it, too.

I'd rather be able to split one giant screen to show multiple games - I shouldn't need to have multiple devices when the tuners are all present in the same box. It's a lot of money to have multiple devices and multiple displays in one room like that.
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post #6353 of 7564
3/4/13 at 12:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by psuKinger View Post

Agreed. I've read good things about Foobar2000 (and specifically how well it handles FLAC), but It is my understanding that it won't work with Extenders either.

My "primary listening area" is connected to an extender, not my HTPC. Soooo... WMA-lossless it is (for the time being). In terms of having your album art and getting good/smooth performance inside WMP/WMC, so far, I've been pleased.

Hmm - I haven't had any issues with album art and FLAC... I did have to install a WMP plugin for FLAC metadata (WMPTagPlus), but after that, all works well on both the main htpc and extenders.
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post #6354 of 7564
3/4/13 at 12:25pm
So that is basically a FLAC decoder? Where do you get it?

I just don't like the player within WMC and am not sure whey some of my album art is not showing while using the interface, which I don't like as much as PLEX's either.
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post #6355 of 7564
3/4/13 at 12:35pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sammy2 View Post

So that is basically a FLAC decoder? Where do you get it?

I just don't like the player within WMC and am not sure whey some of my album art is not showing while using the interface, which I don't like as much as PLEX's either.

Here: http://bmproductions.fixnum.org/index.htm?http://bmproductions.fixnum.org/wmptagplus/
It's not a decoder though, it's a plug-in that allows tags on FLAC and other file types to show in WMP (and WMC).
You can get decoder here: http://www.xiph.org/dshow/

CFC
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post #6356 of 7564
3/4/13 at 12:44pm
Thanks.. I assume that this plugin works with WMC in addition to WMP?

I see the link to the directshow decoder for FLAC there too.
Edited by Sammy2 - 3/4/13 at 12:51pm
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post #6357 of 7564
3/4/13 at 2:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ajhieb View Post

PiP would be great, but I'm more interested in doing a 2x2 video wall arrangement....

With CBS, TNT, TBS and TruTV....

In about 2 weeks... ifyaknowhatimean.
Yep, I know what you mean:


Just finished this up a couple weeks ago. Planned on using Echos to drive the upper screens but after the price was announced I ended up getting DMA2100s off of ebay. Got the idea from someone in this thread who pointed me to http://www.hdhomesportsbar.com/
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post #6358 of 7564
3/4/13 at 4:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sammy2 View Post

Thanks.. I assume that this plugin works with WMC in addition to WMP?

I see the link to the directshow decoder for FLAC there too.

Right, WMPTagPlus is simply a plugin for FLAC metadata support in WMP. I don't think there's anything specific that requires it to "work" with WMC, outside of WMC using WMP for library management.

FYI, I use Shark007 which has built-in decoder support so I didn't install the directshow decoder separately (which I would guess is using the same/similar decoder as the separate install)
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post #6359 of 7564
3/4/13 at 4:26pm
Thanks!
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post #6360 of 7564
3/4/13 at 8:06pm
smcmillan2:

Very cool and nicely done!

I'm glad that someone even remembered that I did that so long ago....

I'm in the middle of a total re-do at our new place, and I'm having a nightmare with the Echo's I chose.

I am fearing I should have just stuck with the DMA 2100's that I originally used, at least they worked!
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