Sony LocationFree Player Pak

Just get wireless ethernet adapters for your laptop and PSP. You can connect wirelessly directly to the Sony base station--or to your wireless router. Be aware that you'll need to update to base station firmware to v2.0 to use it with a PSP. I tried to do this update a week ago but the download always fails.

I just orderer the newer lf-x11 kit, and it should be here thursday. My wireless router resides in my AV cabinet, and I will be using the 12" display as well as my psp and PC on this, both home and abroad. (presuming everything works as advertised).

I just wish they made a kit with a larger display.

I'll let you guys know when I get it set up thursday night, and then I'm going out of town next week so I'll be able to test the over the internet access as well.

Since they announced the PSP as LocationFree capable, I have been trying to think of a way to get it to work with the x-1 Base Station. Right now, Sony claims it only works with the x-11 and the Base Sation LF-PK1 ($350). I do not know why they would not make it backwards compatible for the LF-x1 owners!!! How lame!

Is there a work-around? There is a special button on the new Base Station that you have to push to permanently associate the PSP to the Base Station to use it at home and abroad.

The LF-X1 does not have this feature, but can it be tricked into doing it by 'binding' the PSP to the old X1 Base Station like you would bind another LF-X1 monitor?

Do you guys know anyone on here that could shed some light? Please pass this one around.

Thanks.
Steve
____________
Slingbox
SA 8300DVR
Dish 610DVR
Sony LF-X1
Sony KDF-E50A10
SonyDVPCX995VKIT 400 DVD-HDMI Upscaling
D-Link DSM-320RD DVD/Wirless Media Player
Netgear MP101
Netgear WGT634U
Netgear SC101
Netgear WGX101
Netgear WGM124
Netgear WPN802
SMCWMR-AG Media Streamer
SMCWAA-B Wireless Audio Adapter
Apple IPOD Mini 4.0g
Toshiba PDA-1032

Quick newbie questions...forgive me.

1) Is this system designed to allow viewing of conten on a PSP outside of the home network (i.e., can I watch live tv/dvr recordings while at work, tapping into their wifi network)?

2) Generally, how do you browse/control your DVR content using the remote viewer software? Is there a list of compatible DVRs (I have the E* 942--which doesn't have an s-video out, unfortunately, so I know there's a 'workaround' right there)? Do you have the option to download it to the PSP while at home?

Yes, you can connect through your existing wireless router (don't forget to set UPnP for the port through which you want to connect to the base station). I was just pointing out that the Sony base station itself has the wireless interface built in.

Nope, didn't get the upgrade to work through the Sony Support web site. The Sony Tech Support guy, Jason, told me they've been having "issues" with the downloads. He did e-mail me the base station-only firmware update. He also told me that the PSP software v2.5 update package includes the base station v2.0 firmware update.

My real complaint on this system is how dependent it is on having a wintel box around for all the updates. The FAQs read like you can't update the base station firmware without a PC, correct? You'd think it could update as easily through direct download as my PSP and DVR set-top do. I don't own any wintel boxes (yet)...Mac house, here. Sony needs to get with, they don't even offer their new PSP media management software in a cross platform version. Their customers (multimedia hounds by and large) are probably disproportionately more Mac users than the general office/bean counter PC market share would suggest. Their biggest competition on other fronts is Apple (i.e. Walkman/iPod duel), you'd think they'd acknowledge that market with support software to beat them at their own game (think Apple's FrontRow). Other companies are indeed filling the gap by making software to run the PSP management, but it doesn't excuse laziness on the part of the parent company. I guess they're hurting for cash and can only afford to hire lo-ball Microsoft workshop grads who can't do comprehensive ports/coding...I deal with IT guys at different facilities who are limited like that a LOT, so no surprise.

BTW, I found an interesting (if not heartening) review of the system on Amazon.com. The author had high expectations and mucho install frustration and was quite disappointed with the playback image quality. I wonder if this setup is all promise/little delivery? Bummer if true.

ok, got it early last night.
This is the second version for american shores, the lf-x11. I can't compare to the experiences of those who have the lf-x1 but so far I'm very impressed.

Time and again I get into an early adopter technology/product and find that it's about 90% of what it should be, with the missing 10% being stupid easy mistakes.

So far, the biggest thing that's impressed me has been how SEAMLESS the setup has been. After unboxing, I had my 12" companion tablet set up with the custom remote to control my dish 942, I had my psp partnered up, and the base unit set to serve over the internet in about 15 minutes.

Read again: 15 minutes.

And it works. Well.

I took the tablet outside, where the signal has to go through 4 walls (one of them being stucco with chicken wire) and about 50" away, I have full connectivity. No need to switch to the wide mode.

It's loud enough to hear over the spa jets on full (too loud for my tastes, don't like bothering the neighbors).

The base unit is connected to my wifi router directly with an ethernet cable (my wifi router resides in my AV cabinet) so when I connect with my psp I can chose to connect over the locationfree WAP, or I can connect over my home WAP.

Training the remote:
so, setting up the virtual remote to control the 942. There was a built in code for a dish reciever, and that one did all the number keys, but didn't control the pvr keys (pause, play, etc)

You can actually program the remote using the tablet pad, which was very easy and quick. Again, this was all done in about 15 minutes or so.

The only thing I haven't figured out yet is to have the 'custom remote' show up for the psp, but I didn't get any more time to really play with it last night.

The web browser is adequate, and I can go to www.homestarrunner.com

There's also a paint program that is surprisingly featured. Includes soft brushes and blurring.

What specific excerszes/tests would you guys like me to run?

oh, I should add that at no time did I have to power up my wintel box ;>

Yup. EXACTLY that, providing that there's no firewall where you work. The tablet also has an ethernet port in case the network you are visiting isn't wifi. I took my psp next door and joined my neighbors network. He's on an entirely different broadband provider, and I was able to watch and do basic control using just my psp. I might as well have been in an airport.

Also, I should note that I had to open a port on my firewall at home, and register with a ddns, but there is a web page favorite on the tablet that actually does it for you. Somebody at sony was thinking ahead.


Basically, you can load a 'custom remote' for each source. There was one which controlled most of the 942 functions, but I had to learn the ir for some other functions using the tablet. Not sure how you would do this in a psp/lfk1 only scenario. My 942 and 625 recievers are both on a home rg6 network that feeds all of the tvs. the 625 shows up on ch.4 and the 942 shows up on ch.73, so just about any tv in the house can watch either reciever (the bigscreen in the living room is not hooked up this way).
I just hooked the lfk-1 to the rg6 and both were available. I reckon crystal clear picture quality here isn't the goal so the rg6 doesn't bother me.

ptw, I did that last night. I installed the SW on my laptop, and connected through my regular home network.

I started to look around to shut down the LocationFree WAP, so my tablet and psp both connected via the existing wifi point.

I was able to connect the tablet and the psp to my established wifi point and connect to the base station using the net av function, but I realized that I might be putting a lot of un-necessary strain on my internet connection. It's good in theory, but there's no reason that I can see to NOT have the second WAP available. Makes the connection for the tablet easier, and I don't have to worry about that traffic affecting the other clients on my wifi.

Also, did want to note: the tablet has a pop3 mail client on it. I have a ppc phone and that's where I get all of my mail, but my girlfriend has to boot up her laptop etc to check her mail. We set up the pop3 access for her account, and she's able to check her mail no problem. It even polls every nn minutes (we set it to 60) and a light comes on when she has new email. There is a password protect that you can establish to keep other people from reading the email, and at first this stymied us because it didn't want to take the password she was trying to set it to, no matter what she tried. Turns out there's a default password of 0000 that you have to enter, and then you can give it a custom password. The printed documentation makes no mention of this.

Thanks for the status reports Buji, and I look forward to hearing about the Player Pak, ptwyzard. I'm thinking I may need to hold off a bit, see how you brave souls fare, and get a dual-booting Intel Mac portable in a few months, with Windows XP on it I could have the 'best of both worlds'. Great to hear a success story in the set-up. BTW, what kind of quality/issues, if any, have you noticed on the PSP versus the tablet, Buji?

Newbie question:
the LocationFree product will let you watch content on their tablets using wireless where your PC is the source?

Got my first on-site look at the Sony LF-X11 (12") at ABT Electronics this past weekend, and tried to see it running on a PSP at the Sony Style store at Old Orchard mall in Skokie as well (no luck, their network was down and I didn't have time/knowledge to reset their LocationFree system).

First impression, very nice, simple interface and hookup strategy and impementation. The tablet looked great. In fact, my wife was all over having one in the house after seeing it in action, rattling off about how she could use it in this and that situation. I was thinking about how cool it was going to be to be able to access our Dish 942 DVR and especially our new 400-disc DVD juke (loading up the collection, only 40 discs in but nice so far) from anywhere in WiFi roam land on the PSP/laptop.

The reason we didn't buy 'on the spot'? The image quality was startlingly poor. Very serious macroblocking. It was streaming in near real-time, and granted I didn't set it up or tweak it (can you customize the PQ settings I wonder?), but the compression artifacting was distractingly bad...just like the reviewer on Amazon suggested. I wonder if you owners could chime in on your experiences in regards to PQ (incl. tweaks, your network speeds, any caveats, etc.). Anyone have an idea what codec/s the system uses for the streaming? Are they proprietary? If so, I wonder if they'd do better paying a little license fee to Microsoft or Apple for better performance from their codecs/streaming systems?

In short, the functionality in theory and the hardware itself sounds/looks great...but the imagery it produces, not so much. Today's announcement by Tivo that their TivoToGo will allow downloads to PSP/video iPod early next year further proves that "this is the future"...I just hope Sony gets the streaming PQ up to at least 80-90% as good as the original or it'll be a no go for a lot of folks who'd love to give them some cash.

Well, the biggest thing I've noticed so far is that you can't set up your own custom remote on the psp and the pc like you can on the tablet. I just got confirmation that they are releasing new remote codes on 12/3 or so, but no word on being able to create your own remotes for the pc client or psp. So far this is the biggest fault of the whole system, in that the code they cupploy for the 942 (for example) controls the reciever just fine except for the media control buttons (play, pause, etc). Using the tablet, this is not a problem because you can easily set up a custom remote and learn those functions, but those custom functions seem to be stored on the tablet client instead of the base station, which is kinda weird. When I connect with the psp or the pc, i'm relegated to using one of their remote code sets.


I don't see why you couldn't use the output of your video card (if it supported composit or svga) just like viewing your computer on your tv. This wouldn't be a remote session like vnc or anything like that though. Probably not what you meant in your question.


They don't have a ppc client that I can find, and they address this directly on their FAQ pages saying basically not yet, but keep checking back so maybe they're working on it.


Really? So far when I'm connected directly to the base station, I've been very impressed with the quality, and any issues like macroblocking I've only seen once I put it in wide mode. Definitely at about 95%+ quality. Most of the time, it just looks like I'm watching a small tv.
Granted, this isn't dvd quality either, but on the 12" display I'd say it looks great. especially considering what's happening behind the scenes.
Perhaps the tablet was connecting in wide mode, or not directly via the base station. When you connect your psp/pc/tablet using a different network other than the base station (using the netAV mode) you can select the rate, and the default rate is pretty crummy. basically, it's a comprimise mode you can set to deal with a less than stellar wifi hot spot if the one you find doesn't support 300KBs.

Tomorrow I will start testing from the road. I'm taking the tablet as well as my pc and psp.

Now that's what I'm talking about...! Seriously, can't wait to hear what you experience when you're truly 'location free.' As for the macroblocking, it wouldn't surprise me to find they had the system set up to the defaults, resulting in horrible PQ. Seems the XL-11 system is definitely the one to go with for full painless functionality (hope they do indeed update their remote codes list, or the PSP functionality will be seriously crippled). Thanks for continuing to shed light on your first hand results...

So I got a peek at the 12" Location Free setup a second time, at Tweeter on Michigan Ave/Chicago. Looked better, coming off cable t.v. in the store. There was still a healthy amount of secondary compression artifacting, but not quite as much as I'd seen at Abt the previous week. Definitely cool functionality, but I'd really love to see the PQ as good as can be then make my decision to jump in.

What's the latest, Buji?! Anyone else?!

ok, sorry to keep y'all waiting. Turkey day was busier than I expected.

Ok, the good news:

With decent wifi/broadband access and LF pack, there's no reason you shouldn't be able to enjoy your home media content while away.

The bad news: There are some expected comprimises.

The details:

Ok, so my parents still use Dial-up. I knew this going into it, and figured I'd test from my sister's apartment (where she sneaks in on other open wifi networks) and I'd also see if I could do the same at my parents' house.

I was able to get a flaky connection from my parent's house from an unlocked wifi network somewhere in their neighborhood. When the connection held, it held at about 60% strength, and bandwidth tests showed I was connected with a good 500KBs or so connection. I was able to watch full quality on this connection, and it mirrored my connection at home. The only problem was that network would 'cycle' or something every minute or so, so it was out. (had nothing to do with the tablet, both my psp and PC showed the same thing).

So another network I was able to snag at my parent's house was stable, but not as fast (300KBs). When I connected to this network I was able to watch full quality, but it would hesitate every 15 seconds or so and the screen would freeze while the sound continued. I bumped the rate down to '4' (out of '6') and it was smooth sailing, with frequent but not bothersome artifacts. I watched 'The Office' this way and I thought it was fine. I did not chose to watch 'Surface' or 'Lost' this way though, because I wanted to wait until I got home to watch them in HD.

The tablet has a VERY strong wifi antenna. Much stronger than the psp, and considerably stronger than the antenna in my laptop. The tablet also has a relatively quick 'realtime' signal strength indicator, and I wasa able to get the tablet into a sweet spot pretty easily for maximum connection.

When comparing the PSP and PC performance vs. the tablet, other than the tablet's amazing antenna I would say performance of the actual NETAV connection was even on the platforms, with the one issue being that I don't have full control of my 942 using those other platforms (see the above posted issue regarding the custom remote)

Overall, if I had to leave for a week or so (what the locationfree functionality appeals to me for) and I knew I was somewhere where I had some kind of connectivity, I would really be happy I brought this along.
I used to travel to NY for a week about once a month for work, and when I came back I always had to spend the weekend 'catching up' and stuff. I will be very happy when/if I have to start making those trips again that I have this toy.

more about the response times in a minute.

Ok, so the other compromise, was the well documented delay between remote commands and seeing the results on the screen. This is easy to understand if you think about it for a minute: Your command has to go up the internet to your base station and then the results show up in the video stream which has to be streamed down to me.

I would say that the longest delay I saw was a couple of seconds, so I really had to time my keypresses. Additionally, I found that occaisonally when using the 10-key to enter channel numbers directly, it would add weird pauses and duplicates (example, entering 202 would result in 2222222000 (five second pause) 2. This basically didn't happen so much when using the guide and entering the numbers, but only when doing it from a full motion screen. I don't know if the additional bandwidth being used for full screen video was causing the difference, or if it's the way the reciever caches commands in the guide mode.

Surprisingly, this didn't annoy me THAT much. It changed the way I used the reciever, for sure, and when a commercial came up, I knew I had to hit only 4 skip forwards and just wait instead of being lighning quick on the remote etc.

The other thing worth mentioning is that when you are away and connecting via the NETAV, you can't browse the web at the same time and have the PIP function on the video etc. I presume this is to guarantee the netav performance and not allow the user to choke it down by going to homestarrunner.com at the same time they are watching TV.

Ok, so overall?

I'm very happy with this device, which I bought for 95% it's functionality just at home. I've been trying to justify having a tablet pc around the house for quick internet lookups etc, and at the same time was trying to find an easy way to put TV/sound out by the spa.

While researching cheap projecters to put by the spa, I was thinking I would need simple hookups and do a wireless av (2.4 ghz) transmitter thing, so the only thing that needed to be plugged in when we went out to the spa was the electric cord for the projector (I do have a shielded indoor outdoor outlet on the wall near the spa) .

Also, in the back of my mind, I've been thinking about how to put an LCD or something in the kitchen (and really didn't relish the idea of running new RG6 or anything).

I knew about this product's predecessor, and when the update on my psp came out with a client for it, I really grew a little interested but didn't think that was going to fulfill my tv requirements at the spa or in the kitchen. Once I read about the improvements in the tablet, I knew I should give this a shot, and man has it worked out well.

I have the home page of the browser set to a yahoo yellow pages local to my zip code, so quick phone number lookups are completed in about 30 seconds, from the time we walk into the room where I store it to dialing. Also, we have a few handy favorites like IMDB marked and other quick lookup type things. Coupled with the quick startup of the unit to browser mode (again, 15 seconds or so to turn on the unit which it initializes and then bring up the browser) this has really made me appreciate getting the tablet instead of just the base unit. I already went on about how my Girlfriend is using it to check her email etc.

The only thing I would like better would be a larger display outside at the spa, but I don't have to plug anything in so setup and takedown is a no-brainer when I'm towelling off etc.

The battery life has also surprised me. Since it's dark outside, I usually turn the brightness all the way down before I go out to the spa, and it's lasted well into 3 hours without going halfway down the battery meter. I did have it run out on me Saturday when i'd been watching tv for about an hour and a half in the spa after returning from my trip (hey, I'd been driving the car for 12 hours, I needed that Spa!) I didn't charge the tablet the entire time I was away and it was at about 1 third battery when I started watching tv that night.

Since I'm also using this just for music in the spa (tuning to a satellite music channel) it would be nice if I could completely turn off the backlight when in video mode, and I can't seem to find that option. But now I'm getting picky.

Any questions?

I've been meaning to post for a few days--really appreciate the further details of your hands-on w/ the Location Free system. I do have a couple of questions:1) how does the unit deal with HD or 16:9 anamorphic content, i.e. do you have to set something up for 4:3/letterbox downrezzing on the source output or what?; 2) have you heard anything specific out of Sony on their timeline for resolving the remote control codes issue for PC/PSP viewing?; 3) could you talk about the PQ quality of watching DVDs playing through the system, (one of my top interests in this system is the idea of hooking up my new Sony DVD jukebox to it, enabling access to my movie collection anywhere/anytime).

Once again, thanks!!

According to the rep I talked to, they were supposed to be releasing new code sets on 12/03 (today) but I noticed the other day that there was a new version posted, but it doesn't have all the codes for the 942 yet. I need to call again...

As for the way it displays anamorphic content, the tablet itself has no ratio correction like the psp does. The 942 I'm using has ratio control where I can adjust the pic etc so I just do it there. The 942 also takes care of the downrezzing for me too so...

Also, I don't have a dvd player hooked up to it, but I would venture a guess that it would work fine, but it's never going to be as good of a picture as a direct wired connection. I find it completely serviceable for watching tv around the house/ on the road, but for something I want the full HT experience for, I'll watch it in the HT.

I should also mention that I'm using the tablet right now to write this post

Quick follow-up as I happened to stop by a Sony Style this afternoon on hopes they had their LocationFree set up properly this time. While they couldn't get the DVD player that was hooked into the PSP running (all I saw was the DVD's screen saver), I did get an eye of a DVD playing on the 12" tablet.

Wow. What a difference from what I'd seen on the previous systems viewing cable inputs. Goes to show how crappy SD cable is...the on-the-fly transcoding/re-encoding was obviously just compounding the artifacts/pixellation already present, because the DVD looked quite good. It was what I'd hoped for from this system, a solid 85-90% percieved quality of the original (I say percieved, as it's probably less but on the smaller screens, quite acceptable).

Since I'd most likely be looking at DVDs or HD movies downrezzed off of my 942 DVR, I bet the results will look quite good. I would assume my 1.5 Mbs DSL and home WiFi network will offer enough bandwidth, according to the above posted experiences as well. Hmmm, might be making a purchase sometime soon...

Can't believe nobody else is giving this system a rundown on the forum. It's seemingly quite functional (even more-so than the Slingbox), decently priced, and pretty widely available--could be a breakout hit if the word gets out.

I agree whole-heartedly, but I think it's still being percieved as an extremely early adopter type product. Sony needs to start marketing it and needs to address the few usability issues that exist.

I will say though, that even under $400 the base station alone didn't seem like enough value (given the comprimises) but the tablet makes the deal, because of it's other functions etc.

I've been spreading the word at my office (a post-production facility) and have perked a couple of ears on the client service uses of such a system in-house. Imagine entertaining clients with PSPs and the ability to watch TV or select a DVD or play games...shhhweet! Only caveat is getting the PSP WiFi to work with a 'hidden' password protected network, which Sony doesn't seem to support yet.

And I want such for myself .