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Sony VGX-XL3 - Page 18

post #511 of 3680
Quote:
Originally Posted by techieg View Post

ChrisL01, the Anodized Heatsink form factor is pretty new because I remember a year or two ago when I was looking at Niveus they did not have the heatsink chassis then. And if you noticed in my last post I mentioned that several of the smaller OEMs use the same new heatsink chassis as I mentioned to have seen with other HTPC OEMs. None of them makes their own case or has the patent to the heatsnk case which makes it open to any and all OEMs by the manufacturers and they all have the same pool of manufacturers of any HTPC case they have the need for, so if S1Digital has the need to use the heatsink case they just have to get it from the same pool of heatsink case nanufacturers as Niveus or any other OEM who uses it.

Hey Techieg,

(I need to search for S1Digital more often - keep missing these posts). Hope you don't mind if I chime in...

We use both off the shelf and customized chassis. The Platinum Edition is based on the Silverstone LC16 chassis and we use it because it's one of the best chassis on the market. Holds lots of drives, is cool and is extremely quiet. Our FX Edition uses a case that is custom made by a vendor in Europe that we buy direct and I believe that no one else in the US offers. And our Server Edition chassis is based on the iStarUSA server cases, but we get customzied to meet our particular needs. Stay tuned for some totally custom stuff we'll be coming out with though.

Niveus use a totally custom case that they designed and you cannot purchase elsewhere.

On another note, you mentioned that you can't do 1080p under Vista Home Premium. What makes you believe that to be the case? We have our systems running 1080p under Home Premium out of the box. No hacks, reg edits, or anything else required.

Paul
post #512 of 3680
s1digital, When do you guys look to have dual OCUR digital cable tuners with cablecard? I ask this because your new Hangar18 product has four tuners (two digital and two analog) but no OCUR even though the product is new but cannot do digital cable premium and HD channels.



Techworxs, Inc. - Computer, Network, VoIP, & Technology Solutions.™
post #513 of 3680
I'm not Paul but I can answer that. S1 already has dual OCURs (aka CableCARD tuners) in all products but the Mini.

Alienware's newest product, the HD Media Server does dual OCURs also. The older Hanger 18 doesn't. The HD Media Server can only be purchased via the CI channel.

Chris
post #514 of 3680
ChrisL01, Can you please post links for the products you are talking about? Yes, they already have OCUR tuners, sorry, i think I mistook S1Digital for Alienware; http://www.alienware.com/product_det..._overview.aspx .



Techworxs, Inc. - Computer, Network, VoIP, & Technology Solutions.™
post #515 of 3680
Right, S1Digital's at www.s1digital.com have dual CableCARD in the Platinum Edition and the FX Edition. The FX Edition is only sold though dealers.

Alienware (separate company owned by Dell), has the Hanger 18 at the link you pointed too which doesn't have CableCARD at all, and another offering called the HD Media Server. It has dual CableCARD, but it not for retail sale. It's only available though customer installers/dealers.

Chris
post #516 of 3680
What may be as interesting is for Tivo to enter the Windows media center market, as in to create new Tivo boxes with Vista Home Premium and Ultimate which they would also integrate other features into besides the inbuilt media center and dual OCUR tuner (they already offer dual cablecard systems anyway). The way I see it, they are losing business to cable provider HD-DVR boxes which customers do not have to buy and costs about the same in monthly fees for services. The two main reasons I don't see Tivo doing this anytime soon are;

1. Cable companies have yet to win all customers over with their no money down HD-DVR STBs as this is a gradual process even though they have removed the DB9/DB25 connector from their new HD-DVR STBs which were used to connect Tivo to the STBs to take control of them, this is what happened to us anyway before I started playing with the idea of procuring the XL3 (I guess there is still the less desirable IR blaster option for Tivo boxes to control STBs with).
2. They would not like the media center free program schedule, this is what they charge monthly fees for and I am sure they want to keep it that way. If they have no choice but to go the Windows media center route, they may want to tie this schedule with other services not locally available on the PC but based on their own remote servers so as to still be able to collect monthly fees.

Eventually, as things look down for them they may be forced into Windows media center based HD-DVRs. Since HD-DVRs are their main focus, hopefully they make more advanced and more customer friendly ones that do not require users to know much more than using a Tivo and still be able to use their Vista, etc. I think the route they have decided on is to take the cablecard route where their HD-DVR has dual cablecard slots behind the box.



Techworxs, Inc. - Computer, Network, VoIP, & Technology Solutions.™
post #517 of 3680
HA! Too bad S1Digital doesn't offer a trade in program! Think of all the Vaio users they would get!
post #518 of 3680
>On another note, you mentioned that you can't do 1080p under Vista Home Premium. What makes you believe that to be the case? We have our systems running 1080p under Home Premium out of the box. No hacks, reg edits, or anything else required.

People on this thread have assumed that the registry edit allowing 1080p on the XL3 is part of a Home vs. Ultimate secret conspiracy. That overlooks what I believe is a more obvious possibility, like maybe on some computers that entry is actually needed but nobody at Sony ever bothered to check out if 1080p was even possible on the XL3. If you go back and read some of the very first posts in this thread, you'll see that a Sony rep used to be a member and opined that they'd only tested the XL3 at 1080i. So it might not be a brilliant secret conspiracy to make you upgrade to Ultimate to get 1080p, it might just be plain incompetence.

Paul, S1 needs to eliminate ALL fans. The big guys never quite got the message of the totally silent PC and that's a major potential differentiator. (Funny thing is, they did get the word when it comes to displays, and you don't see fans on LCD and plasma monitors anymore...why is a fan unacceptable on my monitor but evidently perfectly okay on the computer driving it?) There is a huge difference in marketing a "nearly silent" or "ultra quiet" machine versus being able to say "totally silent operation." P.S. I apologize for calling S1 a "Niveus knockoff," but the model you sold a couple of years ago did look a lot like a Niveus (or I suppose, the Niveus did look a lot like the S1) and, if I recall correctly, the specs were similar.
post #519 of 3680
Quote:
Originally Posted by rjeffb View Post

>I've been meaning to mention this but it kept slipping my mind, something I stumbled upon while researching my stuttering playback problem. Go into control panel, system, device manager, right click on a hard drive, choose properties, then click on the "policies" tab. Am I the only one that has write buffering disabled? Or is this the new default for Vista?

Hi rjeffb, I believe that "Enable Write Caching on the Disk" is Enabled by Default on Vista (at least it is on both my Workstation and Laptop, both running Vista Ultimate).

However, I can confirm that on my XL3(02) it is disabled!

Anyway, I have tried enabling it. The disk seems much more active (which is the reverse of what I would expect!) but that could just be coincdence. I have recorded a number of TV programs since changing the setting but not had chance to watch them and see if it makes any difference yet. I should be able to check tonight and report back tomorrow.

Out of interest... do you think that the stuttering is caused at "Write" time rather than when reading the file for play-back? As far as I am aware the Cache is used for Writes only, so enabling this setting wont help Reads.

Quote:
Originally Posted by rjeffb View Post

>People on this thread have assumed that the registry edit allowing 1080p on the XL3 is part of a Home vs. Ultimate secret conspiracy.

Not a very good one if it is - I have upgraded to Ultimate twice and both times I still needed to make the registry change to get 1080p support.

Cheers, Jim
post #520 of 3680
Quote:


you'll see that a Sony rep used to be a member

...and may still be. It was only after I identified the WinDVD auto-update problem (see #361 above) that it was spookily corrected by Sony. Of course it could just be coincidence...
post #521 of 3680
>Hi rjeffb, I believe that "Enable Write Caching on the Disk" is Enabled by Default on Vista (at least it is on both my Workstation and Laptop, both running Vista Ultimate). However, I can confirm that on my XL3(02) it is disabled!

That's what I figured...although WHY it would be configured so on the XL3 is beyond me. Why would Sony deliberately have hobbled their disk speed? Or assuming that incompetence strikes again, from what previous application would they have inherited write-disabling?

Then again, write buffering is most effective at writing lots of small files so I wouldn't expect to see a big improvement in, say, recording a 10GB file or moving a video from one drive to another.

>Out of interest... do you think that the stuttering is caused at "Write" time rather than when reading the file for play-back?

If you read the original posts you'll see that this stuttering was specific to a network drive, and I discovered the disabling of the write-ahead purely coincidental to investigating why my network drive stuttered but local drives don't. The stuttering was related to which type of drive was recording, not whether or not buffering was on. In answer to your question, I proved that stuttering was introduced at recording because a stuttering file moved to a local drive still stuttered, while a non-stuttering file moved to a network drive doesn't stutter. Appears to be an ability to keep up with the data flow and a lack of network buffering (no option to turn on write-ahead for a network drive, and increasing or eliminating the pagefile had no effect). This was not tried with a gigabit router and one of the newer gigabit network drives so I cannot say if increasing throughput speed alone would fix the problem.

>I have upgraded to Ultimate twice and both times I still needed to make the registry change to get 1080p support.

! ! ! ! ! ! WHAT ? ? ? ? ?

Well, that tosses one theory out the [Vista] Windows...but it does explain why some people on this thread couldn't get 1080p when upgrading. We had assumed that it was because you needed a particular NV driver to mesh with Ultimate. (Bzzzzzt!...wrong answer!)

On my Ultimate installation (archived as an Acronis image), the registry didn't contain any trace of a disableHD key at all.
post #522 of 3680
Quote:


>I have upgraded to Ultimate twice and both times I still needed to make the registry change to get 1080p support.

! ! ! ! ! ! WHAT ? ? ? ? ?

Actual process was in both instances:
Base (re-)install
Apply all Vista updates
Apply all Sony Updates
Edit registry (DisableHDTVres to 0)
Set 1920*1080 60hz (i.e. 1080p)
Upgrade to Ultimate
System reset itself to 1080i
Apply all Vista Ultimate Updates
Edit registry (DisableHDTVres to 0)
Set 1920*1080 60hz (i.e. 1080p)


It didn't register 1st time around that the stuttering you see is on network drives. Hmmm - 'cause I see it on the standard (Intel Raided) drive. I guess it could be that the Digital signal is breaking up - though I would be surprised with the new aerial in place. What I haven't done is replayed the same stuttering sequence to see if it happens in the same place in the file or not. I'll try some analysis!
post #523 of 3680
So, I have just received my order from Sony. I have now confirmed that "US TUNER USB HARNESS" (part number 196523011) is indeed the wire needed to connect the OCUR tuner to the USB connection on the motherboard. Now I have ordered the additional OCUR tuner (part number: 178971811). More info when I receive and test.

DenCollins, a cheaper way to get additional HDDs is to order external HDDs with between 1TB, 1.5TB, or 2TB in the enclosure so that you get two HDDs that you can remove from the enclosure and use for the XL3. It may save you some dough as opposed to buying the HDDs separately, that was how I did mine anyway; http://www.compuplus.com/i-WD-My-Boo...260v23c5692y91



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post #524 of 3680
>I see it on the standard (Intel Raided) drive. I guess it could be that the Digital signal is breaking up

Yes, the first thing to do is to see if it occurs at the same point when you play back the same clip. If it does not, then it is not an artifact of the recording process (note the deliberate double negative, as the opposite is not necesarilly true). The second thing to do is to try skipping rapidly through the entire video (in bursts, not just holding down the skip button, which after a few seconds will simply jump to the end of the video and defeat the point of the experiment). If your recording is suffering from corruption, presumably from dropped data, at some point the skipping will become erratic and possibly even freeze Media Center completely.

If skipping works okay, then the next thing to try is to record the exact same show again. If the second instance stutters in exactly the same place, then it isn't your aerial or signal. If the stuttering is gone or occurs at a significantly different point, then it is your aerial or signal. Finally, if the stuttering is still present, just not at exactly the same spot, then you don't have enough information to draw a conclusion (it could be your playback, or it could be dropped frames, or it could be your signal and the timing of the stutter is just coincidence). (For the engineering-minded, the preceeding is called a fault tree.)

I'm not going to tell you that the RAID0 could have caused stuttering, because the XL3 has ceased to surprise me, but it would seem to be really, really unlikely.
post #525 of 3680
Well on a very small sample of 2, it appears the stuttering has been fixed. Watched 2 recordings (1st 1hour, 2nd 30min) last night and not a single stutter. I haven't tried a full Skip through any recordings, but every 20 mins do skip through the commercials. I have noticed on previous stuttering recordings that after doing so after a few mins playback it suddenly had trouble keeping up. Pause playback for a few seconds and all was well again. However last night, not a sign of a problem. Thanks rjeffb, I'll try the tests you suggest.

I feel a full list of actions required to achieve a stable system coming on...
post #526 of 3680
Here are the posts as of prior to the AVS server crash;

rjeffb Posted;
>I have noticed on previous stuttering recordings that after doing so after a few mins playback it suddenly had trouble keeping up. Pause playback for a few seconds and all was well again.

That's the same thing I was experiencing. A small amount of skipping works just fine; somewhat more, and the system becomes erratic, but if playback is paused for a while, it somehow catches up (perhaps a buffer, although demonstrably not the pagefile); continue to skip without letting it catch up and the system never recovers.

This happens consistently when recording to network, and the longer the recording, the quicker the problem surfaces. It has happened exactly one time when recording to the local D: drive. The exact cause remains a mystery, because while I can explain network problems as inability to keep up with the data stream, it's harder to dismiss local recording because dropped frames in the incoming signal result in pixelation and I get that fairly often, with no effect on skipping. I suspect that this relates to lost MPEG key frames: the chronic inability of a network drive to maintain data stream would lose key frames continuously, while signal gaps would only occassionally mean a dropped key frame and very rarely indeed drop enough key frames to affect skipping.

I could prove this with a program like VirtualDub, but no, since ms-dvr files are encrypted I guess that won't work. In any event, if my theory is correct then a) there's nothing you can do about it (other than making sure your aerial is receiving the cleanest possible signal) and b) it will be an extremely rare event anyway.


DenCollins Posted;
Tech,
Thanks for that info But...I already have a WD 1 TB My Book hooked up to the Vaio. I purchased this drive shortly after the Vaio as I wanted to have something to backup to.
Now, I use it for all my recorded content.

As for the Vaio Front: New Development

A few days later after I installed the Nvidia 168.75 driver I notice that I am having sound problems. The audio signal will play in WMC navigation (Menus beeps) But it won't play if I switch to tv and tune in to a station. Video is present, but no sound.
So I try updating the sigma tel drivers. Restart: it work for a whiles and then fakes out.
Then I uninstall the drivers. Restart: Window windows looks for a driver finds "Microsoft Digital Device' driver and installs it. It fixed the problem BUT... if go to Sound control panel I don't see any options for HDMI or S/PDIF. No problem I don't use S/PDIF anyhow.

But it doesn't end there. Something new has cropped up. I go to watch a live program and I decide that maybe the wife should see this. So I hit more info to record but the media center comes back and tells me that "There is no Video signal for this station." and the only option I have is to go to recorded TV. WTF? I'm Watching this station through media center!! How could there be no Signal???

I'm beginning to smell a System restore coming about. But...this time I want break that raid and be done with it once and for all. It's such a waste to have a 500gb drive only to run the os.


techieg Posted;
DenCollins, you are not alone on the "Not video signal for this station..." when you hit record. This happens on certain shows which I believe is set to deter you from recording them. As a follower of the MMA world, whenever I try to record HDNet Fights I get this same error but this same error does not occur when I try to record other shows on the same station. So from my observation its not the TV signal, its the DRM, because if its the TV signal it will give the same "no signal" error no matter what one tries to record on that station. When it gives this error, as soon as I cancel recording it displays the channel without issues but as soon as I hit record again it brings back the media center bluescreen with the error. But I am surpsied at this though because I had recorded HDNet Fights before without issues.

I like things very streamlined, so I actually removed the HDDs from the enclosure and put them in the XL3 itself so I don't have unnecessary equipment hanging from it plus so as not to take up I/O ports I could use for other things (such as a bluetooth antenna for a headphone & mic for my VoIP softphone so I can make and receive calls from my couch while I do other things on the XL3), not sure if you did the same thing.

Something new I also experienced is that media center sometimes would say there is no cablecard when I try to watch some HD channels, what I do is skip to another HD channel to confirm that the cablecard is actually working and come back to the previous channel then I am able to watch it. I am starting to think it may be because I moved the tuner connection from USB3 to USB5 on the motherboard in preparation for the additional tuner, just a speculation. When I receive the additional tuner, I will most likely do another complete system restore after first testing straight out just to make sure the system installs properly with both OCUR tuners already in place.


DenCollins Posted;
Quote:
Originally Posted by techieg View Post
DenCollins, you are not alone on the "Not video signal for this station..." when you hit record. This happens on certain shows which I believe is set to deter you from recording them. As a follower of the MMA world, whenever I try to record HDNET Fights I get this same error but this same error does not occur when I try to record other shows on the same station. So from my observation its not the TV signal, its the DRM, because if its the TV signal it will give the same "no signal" error no matter what one tries to record on that station. When it gives this error, as soon as I cancel recording it displays the channel without issues but as soon as I hit record again it brings back the media center bluescreen with the error.
Tech,
You pretty much "hit the nail on the head" as I am getting exactly the things as you mentioned. On another note, I too, like things to streamlined as well. But when I opened up the vaio it looked like just two much to bear. So I opted for an external.



JST200 Posted;
Quote:
Something new I also experienced is that media center sometimes would say there is no cablecard when I try to watch some HD channels, what I do is skip to another HD channel to confirm that the cablecard is actually working and come back to the previous channel then I am able to watch it. I am starting to think it may be because I moved the tuner connection from USB3 to USB5 on the motherboard in preparation for the additional tuner, just a speculation. When I receive the additional tuner, I will most likely do another complete system restore after first testing straight out just to make sure the system installs properly with both OCUR tuners already in place.
OK - I get the same effect, but remember I am using Digital (Aerial) Tuners not Cablecard like you.

I have a theory... techieg says the cards are USB based (at least that's what I assume he means by USB3 and USB5). There is a Power Options setting related to USB. Go to Power Options > Change Plan Settings (for whichever plan you choose) > Change Advanced Power Settings > USB Settings > USB Selective Suspend Setting which can be enabled ort disabled. By default on the XL302 (and XL3) it is enabled. On all my other Vista systems it is disabled. Now although when you hover over it it says it relates to "Windows Hybrid Hard Disk Agressive Power Savings" I wonder if it actually relates to all USB devices. My theory is it is like the PCI Express setting I have mentioned before, in that it shuts down USB devices when they are unused and the system is having trouble waking them up again. Anyway, I have set it to Disabled and I think, from a very small sample, that the Digital Tuners always come up active.

Might be worth a go?

Cheers, Jim


rjeffb Posted;
>I already have a WD 1 TB My Book hooked up to the Vaio. I purchased this drive shortly after the Vaio as I wanted to have something to backup to. Now, I use it for all my recorded content.

So D.C., can you confirm that the MyBook is where Media Center directs all recorded TV, and that you don't have any problems with playback or skipping? Also, is it USB or Firewire? (the reason I ask is I have a MB 750 running on FW800, and it occassionally goes to sleep and cannot be woken up or even recognized without a reboot).

For people who have upgraded to Ultimate, this could be an excellent workaround to the "Ultimate doesn't like you changing hard drives" validation problem. It was discussed way back when as a possible workaround but to my knowledge nobody ever actually tried it to see if an external drive could handle the HD throughput (except my attempt at using entwork drives, which was a bust).



rjeffb Posted;
>I am starting to think it may be because I moved the tuner connection from USB3 to USB5 on the motherboard in preparation for the additional tuner, just a speculation.

Go into Device Manager, right click on USB (and possibly HID, although I doubt it), and choose "scan for hardware changes." I've had USB experiences where when I move something from one port to another Windows is constantly "re-finding" it (implying that it's first "losing" it), but when I do this re-scan Windows remembers what port it's actually connected to. No harm in trying.


DenCollins Posted;
Quote:
Originally Posted by rjeffb View Post
>
So D.C., can you confirm that the MyBook is where Media Center directs all recorded TV, and that you don't have any problems with playback or skipping? Also, is it USB or Firewire? (the reason I ask is I have a MB 750 running on FW800, and it occassionally goes to sleep and cannot be woken up or even recognized without a reboot).
rjeffb: Yes, my recorded content is going directly to the WD Drive. If you remember a few posts back i was complaining about "Blocking" showing up in my recorded shows. I thought there was a bad sector on my internals and I thought by sending it there would solve the problem. It did..But I think your theory was more correct as to it records what it sees. Also, My WD drive is hooked up via USB even though I have the Firewire option. In my own opinion I never thought that Windows handled firewire very good in the first place. As I'm sure you are aware there is a "Sleep" utility that comes with the WD . It might be worth a look to see if that is what is sending your WD into neverland.


techieg Posted;
FYI, it is a much better solution to install your HDDs internally via a SATA cable (10" left angle) because it is able to move data at speeds of up to 3GB/s where USB2.0 is only up to 480MB/s and Firewire is only up to 800MB/s.

Real world comparison of USB and Firewire; Although high-speed USB 2.0 runs at a higher signaling rate (480 Mbit/s) than FireWire 400, typical USB PC-hosts rarely exceed sustained transfers of 35 MB/s (280 Mb/s), with 30 MB/s (240 Mb/s) being more typical (the theoretical limit for a USB 2.0 high-speed bulk transfer is 53.125 MB/s). This is likely due to USB's reliance on the host-processor to manage low-level USB protocol, whereas FireWire automates the same tasks in the interface hardware. For example, the FireWire host interface supports memory-mapped devices, which allows high-level protocols to run without loading the host CPU with interrupts and buffer-copy operations. Although FireWire 800 is substantially faster than Hi-Speed USB, they both transfer/stream data at a very much lower rate than onboard SATA II @ up to 3GB/s data rate. Microsoft Windows Vista was known to only supports 1394a (Firewire 400 described above), with 1394b support expected later in a service pack.
You guys may want to give this a thought and move your HDDs internally for top speed access to eliminate any chance of stuttering, this also helps to avoid moving and disconnections of HDDs, and once internal, the system will automatically handle idling of the HDDs instead of putting them to sleep externally and not being able to wake them up when they are needed. All my three HDDs are internal via SATA II cables and I do not have any stuttering or data access issues on TV, multimedia, gaming, or anything at all. Just a general FYI from reading you guys' posts on stuttering on external HDDs.

DenCollins, I understand what you mean, but once you put in the HDDs internally then that is it for that, you do not need to do it over again. Just take a deep breathe and do it once and for all. Just make sure you do it in order; C: HDD bottom-most - SATA port 0, Middle HDD - SATA port 1, Topmost HDD - SATA port 3 (the Blu-Ray drive resides on SATA port 2, you don't need to move it.

JST200, I will look into your suggestion on the USB power scheme, it could probably help even more with dual OCUR tuners heat dissipation management, thanx.


DenCollins Posted:

During my travels to find the elusive answers for the vaio I came across this site:
http://dougknox.com/xpmce/index.htm
There may be some stuff there that may come in handy someday.

techieg Posted:
Quote:
Originally Posted by DenCollins View Post
During my travels to find the elusive answers for the vaio I came across this site:
http://dougknox.com/xpmce/index.htm
There may be some stuff there that may come in handy someday.
Yup, that was where I got the OCUR check utility last year. I posted the Microsoft media center digital cable newsgroup thread that had this link.


rjeffb Posted:
>You guys may want to give this a thought and move your HDDs internally for top speed access

Oh, I did not in any way mean to imply I was recommending this over internal. Just that for people who upgrade to Ultimate and find that upgrading their hard drive creates an issue because of doing so, this might be another option they could consider. Personally, I find the MyBook too noisy when it winds up and spools down to be suitable for "silent PC" watching anyway. But in any event, if saving to USB creates stuttering or skipping problems, then it's a non-starter anyway.

techieg Posted:

I did not mean to imply that you were trying to sway anyone in any direction, my comments was not particularly directed at anyone, it was just a general FYI for everyone with external HDDs to consider according to the stuttering issues being experienced with external HDDs.



Techworxs, Inc. - Computer, Network, VoIP, & Technology Solutions.™
post #527 of 3680
Kudos to Tech for rebuilding the thread after the server loss, thanks.

Tech, are both cards working? Can you post some screenshots showing how having the second card shows up within settings, or conflict resolution, or advanced record, etc.? Or is there anything within Media Center that even suggests a second tuner is present?
post #528 of 3680
Quote:
Originally Posted by rjeffb View Post

Kudos to Tech for rebuilding the thread after the server loss, thanks.

Tech, are both cards working? Can you post some screenshots showing how having the second card shows up within settings, or conflict resolution, or advanced record, etc.? Or is there anything within Media Center that even suggests a second tuner is present?

Thanx for the acknowledgment. I ordered the additional OCUR tuner on Monday, I don't have it yet. They said it will take five to seven business days from shipment, and they said it could take up to 72hrs to ship since I did not pay more for expedited shipping, I just checked the order status and it still says "Open" so it is yet to ship three days after. Although Sony products rock but the company sucks to be a customer with them because they are just too money hungry and expensive. Sure thing, when I do get it I will make sure to snip every page that has anything to do with both tuners into a jpeg image and post here (I love the Vista snipping tool).



Techworxs, Inc. - Computer, Network, VoIP, & Technology Solutions.™
post #529 of 3680
Tech:

I too would like to see that extra tuner setup. Please post some pics when you get a chance.
post #530 of 3680
Quote:
Originally Posted by DenCollins View Post

Tech:

I too would like to see that extra tuner setup. Please post some pics when you get a chance.

I will certainly post images of the setup. UPS just confirmed that it is scheduled for delivery tomorrow...I can't wait.



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post #531 of 3680
As if we didn't have enough on our hands with the vaio. Now WMC invades the kitchen!
http://thegreenbutton.com/blogs/chri...07/241659.aspx
post #532 of 3680
Quote:
Originally Posted by DenCollins View Post

As if we didn't have enough on our hand with the vaio. Now WMC invades the kitchen!
http://thegreenbutton.com/blogs/chri...07/241659.aspx

I am extremely unsure about who conjures up these highly unlikely and risky ideas. "Rackmount" home servers media centers in the kitchen? Let's see how it all plays out anyway, I know I won't be getting any new media centers for years to come (I guess that is why I am suping up what I've got right now).



Techworxs, Inc. - Computer, Network, VoIP, & Technology Solutions.™
post #533 of 3680
Quote:
Originally Posted by techieg View Post

I am extremely unsure about who conjures up these highly unlikely and risky ideas. "Rackmount" home servers media centers in the kitchen? Let's see how it all plays out anyway, I know I won't be getting any new media centers for years to come (I guess that is why I am suping up what I've got right now).

I'm extremely unsure about them too, by them I mean you because no one else suggested such a thing.

You might want to go back and give it another read to see the concept of Media Center in the kitchen would come from a 17in touchscreen that has a CableCARD tuner embedded. I guess you could put a Home Server (rackmount or standalone) in the kitchen, but I sure wouldn't suggest it and I don't think anyone at S1 would either.

Chris
post #534 of 3680
It sucks big time. The delivery of the new tuner was rescheduled for Monday.

Anyone seen this; http://www.oq.tv/index.php?id=66&L=1 . Current LCD TVs with inbuilt media centers come in small sizes such as the proposed S1Digital 17" and Sony 22" LT series (http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/...52921644513278), but this one is about 40".



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post #535 of 3680
Quote:
Originally Posted by techieg View Post

Anyone seen this; http://www.oq.tv/index.php?id=66&L=1 . Current LCD TVs with inbuilt media centers come in small sizes such as the proposed S1Digital 17" and Sony 22" LT series (http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/...52921644513278), but this one is about 40".

I didn't see anything "small" @ the oq.tv site and it looks as though they are still running WMC 2005. The Sony looks nice...BUT...if you look at the spec sheet it shows an external ATI Tuner. Bummer! Why didn't sony just build the tuner in?
post #536 of 3680
What I would like to know is how media center can group series recordings into folders similar to Tivo and STBs rather than just dump it all into the Recorded TV folder. For example if you schedule LOST to record the whole season, I wonder if it is possible for media center to create a "LOST" folder within the Recorded TV folder where it will put all the LOST season recordings and arrange by date/time so that one can watch in that order rather than the current way series recordings are done with all dumped into the same Recorded TV folder along with everything else without grouping of any kind. Heard of this company/service acquired by MS and provided for free?; https://www.foldershare.com/ .

It sucks being a Sony customer big time, I still can't believe that I ordered the tuner on Monday and it did not ship till Thursday, now I have to wait till Monday to get it, who does business like that?



Techworxs, Inc. - Computer, Network, VoIP, & Technology Solutions.™
post #537 of 3680
Quote:
Originally Posted by techieg View Post

What I would like to know is how media center can group series recordings into folders similar to Tivo and STBs rather than just dump it all into the Recorded TV folder. For example if you schedule LOST to record the whole season, I wonder if it is possible for media center to create a "LOST" folder within the Recorded TV folder where it will put all the LOST season recordings and arrange by date/time so that one can watch in that order rather than the current way series recordings are done with all dumped into the same Recorded TV folder along with everything else without grouping of any kind. Heard of this company/service acquired by MS and provided for free?; https://www.foldershare.com/ .

It sucks being a Sony customer big time, I still can't believe that I ordered the tuner on Monday and it did not ship till Thursday, now I have to wait till Monday to get it, who does business like that?

I don't know if it's possible to Automaticaly put all of the Lost episodes in one folder. Maybe there is a plugin somewhere for this. The closest thing I've seen for this is Here: http://www.fjdrasch.com/WHS/home.htm

But that is a WHS add-in.

And yes you are right about sony. early on I tried to order the original Vista os disks for the vaio. I submitted my CC# and put the order in. Weeks later I was wondering whatever happened to that? I checked the website and the order was listed as "Open". Somewhere along the line I called sony and after being transfered 5 times, I finally got someone in parts. I gave them my order number and they couldn't find "ANY" record of it. WOW! Talk about Bad Service!
post #538 of 3680
Quote:
Originally Posted by techieg View Post

What I would like to know is how media center can group series recordings into folders similar to Tivo and STBs rather than just dump it all into the Recorded TV folder. For example if you schedule LOST to record the whole season, I wonder if it is possible for media center to create a "LOST" folder within the Recorded TV folder where it will put all the LOST season recordings and arrange by date/time so that one can watch in that order rather than the current way series recordings are done with all dumped into the same Recorded TV folder along with everything else without grouping of any kind. Heard of this company/service acquired by MS and provided for free?; https://www.foldershare.com/ .

Just change the Recorded TV view to Title instead of Recorded Date. It will lump everything into different "groups" based on the title of the show.

Chris
post #539 of 3680
So can somebody tell me..."What is it with the Nvidia 168.75 Driver and the Sigma Tel Audio Drivers?"

It seems that with this Nvidia 168.75 the sound via HDMI just drops off randomly. I looked through the entire sound panel and I can't seem to find a answer. I'm only using HDMI. I'm beginning to think that the 168.75 driver isn't compatible with the sigma tel audio codec. What am I missing here?
post #540 of 3680
Can you post the link to the driver here I don't think I have come across it before.



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