Neat and small HD media player

Found lately very small media player. Not streaming, but really good companion on the go. Just take your favourite movies with you either on SD or USB and play via HDMI in 1080p! Impressive from the product with size of iPod.

Specifications:

• Media Storage Support:USB devices with file systems: FAT, FAT32 and NTFS* (* editing functions not supported on NTFS formatted devices). SD, MMC, SD and SDHC Memory card devices with file systems: FAT and FAT32 only.
• Video: MPEG1/2/4(MPG, VOB, AVI), DivX (avi), XviD (avi), resolution up to 720 x 480 30fps / 720 x 576 25fps.
• Audio: MP3,WMA and OGG.
• Photos: JPEG, BMP and GIF Support 1080p when use HDMI output to TV.
• Subtitles: SRT/SM/SSA/SUB
• Functions: Playback, copy, delete and reformat
• Inputs: 1x USB2.0 and 1x SD/MMC/MS Card
• Outputs: 1x HDMI 1.3 and 1x Composite(A/V)

Installed today Twonky Media Server ver 5.1

Installed today Twonky Media Server ver 5.1, previous version was 5.0.68. I'll give later review, what differences I saw. Twonky claims, that performance is much better, as they use new database engine instead of their legacy.

Download link is here: http://www.twonkyforum.com/downloads/5.1/index.html

Popcorn Hour A-110 and C-200 comparison

There is new Popcorn Hour model out -- C-200. But what animal is it really. My old A-110 actually beats by big score other media streamers, specially in HD, H.264 and .MKV section.

Comparison in the nutshell:

What it means in reality? Easier setup and operation, using built-in LCD. Faster UI responses and shorter buffering times. Gigabit interface speeds up large photo streaming over copper network, added BluRay capability and AVCHD support.

Seems like superiour streamer!

NEW! Popcorn Hour C-200 is new impressive product!

Engadget: http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/16/popcornhours-latest-c200-media-box-is-blu-ray-and-anything-else/

Look also Media Tank forum: http://www.networkedmediatank.com/showthread.php?tid=23731

It has everyhing in, what You can imagine about media streamer. Latest model A-110 was already winner in HD, new one, Popcorn Hour C-200 will be even better.

More after the break...

Onkyo TX-SR706 upscaler still overheats

Last time I swapped my Onkyo TX-SR706 head unit under the warranty and installed 12 cm fan to cool video upscaling cirquitry. One day I saw again singnal disappearing in fast image shanges on my plasma. I found my fan mis-placed and stopped. Clearly same overheating problem. Put fan correctly back to the right position, ontop of Faroudja chipset and image loss never ever happened. 

First Atom-based HD streamer

We used to see big noisy media center pc-s and Sigma chip based network media tanks with awkward user interface. This is media center pc / HD network media streamer, using Intel Atom processor. Due to low-power HD hardware decoder, it's capable to show 1080p HD through HDMI 1.3  interface. System is passive cooled and silent.

Hardware decoder video format support: 

   H.264/AVC SP, MP and HP at Level 4.1 up to 40 Mbps

   SMPTE VC-1 SP, MP and AP at Level 3 up to 40 Mbps

   MPEG-2 MP at ML  and MPEG-2 MP at HL, up to 125Mbps

Uncompressed video output

• YUV 4:2:0, YUV 4:2:2

• NV12 planar YCbCr format

• YUY2, UYVY packed YCbCr format

• 480i, 480p, 576i, 576p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p support  

Read more from Habey USA pages

CD turned 30

Was it really 30 Years ago?! I remember debates about digital sound. Many analog fans claimed it artificial and unnatural. Time flies...

Read Engadget story

Updated my Popcorn Hour A-110 firmware today

I updated my Popcorn Hour 110 firmware today. Hmm, nothing really changed visibly?!

TwonkyMedia Server 5.0.55 seems to be working now

Installed today bug-fixed version of TwonkyMedia Server 5.0. Seems, it rescans content now.

Its unsupported version and not found easily from their website. 

Download working Twonky 5.0.55 here

Few new notable HD titles

I've found few new titles in HD, mainly 720p in .MKV format H.264.

1. Cadillac Records
   
2. Changeling
   
3. Sex Drive
   
4. The Visitor
   
5. Wanted
   
6. RocknRolla
   

You can borrow these titles in HD format from Your friends wia bittorrent network. Use MiniNova.org or other servise fo find title needed. 

My workflow:

1. Type in name of the title to MiniNova.org search box

2. Select Movies tab

3. Sort by Seeders 

4. Ctrl+f to open find in browser

5. Type 720 or 1080 to find first HD version in the list (if available)

6. Download torrent and activate bittorrent client uTorrent or BitTorrent

7. Move downloaded file to correct location

8. Unpack RAR files (usually HD movies are in multiple .RAR's)

9. Put .MKV in the right directory

SwarmPlayer -- stream directly form torrents

SwarmPlayer 1.0.1

Torrents, downloading and streaming are going to merge. Alredy now You may stream video over peer-to-peer bittorrent network, using new streaming client SwarmPlayer.

Workflow today

Find torrent from EzTv etc

Download TV Show, using uTorrent or BitTorrent etc

Store it to media server

View it from big screen media streamer or computer screen

Workflow tomorrow

Find torrent from EzTv etc

Stream it directly

So, there will be no need with messing with home media server. Just pick the show and look. 

Internals of my 2 TB Atom media server

My server is not connected to display, keboard and mouse. It's entirely controlled via LogMeIn software. Only used connections are Intel Pro 1000 Gigabit LAN (expansion card on tthe right) and 220V mains (top left).

 
Please notice 2 x 1 TB SATA HDDS, connected to motherboard via red SATA cables. Power supply is in front of the computer (left on the photo). You van see low profile Intel Pro 1000 LAN card. I use it instead of integratet realtek Fast Ethernet (100 Mbit) LAN.

My Atom server configuration:

• MITX Intel Little Falls D945GCLF motherboard
  
• Intel Atom 230 1,6 GHz CPU;
  
• Intel 945GC / 82801GB I/O Controller ICH7 chipset;
  
• RAM 2 GB (1 SIMM);
  
• HDD 2 x 1 TB Western Digital Caviar Green;
  
• Intel PRO 1000 GT Gigabit LAN adappter;
  
• Windows XP x32 SP3;
  
• TwonkyServer media streaming

Moved from BitTorrent to uTorrent

I uninstalled BitTorrent and installed uTorrent. Reason -- lately I had more and more unclear error messages. I have hopes that it works well, as uTorrent is one of most popular torrents available. I need stabile product, as I leave my media server un-attended for weeks and if I lose torrent in the middle, I lose lot of time to restart and recheck all downloads.

Californication season 2 in HD 720

For HD and/or Californication friends: S02 is all available in HD 720 from eztv.it 

 

Atom HDD performance is OK

I measured HDD performance, using HD Tune 2.55 (free edition). I was quite positively surprised. Average read speed 70 MB/s is more than enough for any kind of HD streaming, large .MKV copying and .RAR unpacking. Anyway, bottleneck is Gigabit Ethernet, allowing max 40-50 MB/s throughput.

Speed is about the same, what I had 2 wears ago, using RocketRaid PCI RAID controller and 2 x 250 GB HDD-s. Not bad. What surprised me most, was very low CPU usage, what shows good chipset.

My Atom server configuration:

• Intel Atom 230 1,6 GHz CPU;
  
• Intel 945GC/ICH7 chipset;
  
• RAM 2 GB (1 SIMM);
  
• HDD 1 TB Western Digital;
  
• Intel PRO 1000 Gigabit LAN card;
  
• Windows XP x32 SP3;
  
• TwonkyServer media streaming
  

Soon I add another 1 TB HDD, HD movies will fill 1 Tera quite quickly.

Do not upgrade to TwonkyServer 5.0

Lately I installed new Intel Atom based media server hardware, moved my media library over to that and installed newest TwonkyServer 5.0. Shouldn't! New server is buggy and has one very bad flaw -- it doesn't update media library after copying new files to media folders. Only way to get new files visible is to rebuild all database. It is so annoying that I have to move back to 4.4 version. Don't know how, cause there is no download page for older versions anymore.

Shame, Twonky

Edit: Twonky added download page also for previous versions

Atom server is serving HD

So, yesterday I unpacked all arrived components of my green media server, nicknamed "Atom". All components arrived separately and I really felt like 20 years ago, assembling first PC. I was able to lift in ITX motherboard to ITX minitower, first removing power supply off the way. Space was scarce. I installed 1 TB hard disk to its place. Soon I install next one to other 3,5" media bay, ment for multi-card reader or floppy. I installed Intel Pro 1000 Gigabit network card to free PCI slot, I fill use it instead of motherboards Realtek 100 Mbit one. 

Then I cabeled everything - power to system board, fans, power to drives, front panel lights and swiches, SATA, IDE. 

Luckily I had old IDE CD ROM drive to make Win XP x32 install and after that Intel Express driver install. I was most convinient system driver set install I've see - chipset, LAN card, display driver and sound device drivers were installed smoothly in one batch.

I installed XP SP3, AVG Free anti-virus, SmartDefrag and new Twonky 5.0 server. I also added LogMeIn client and HDtune. 

Technical specifications and benchmarks after the break.

Nice 4-disk NAS (Atom-based)

Very interesting product TS-439 Pro Turbo NAS. Employing energy-efficient and quite powerful Intel Atom. Still only NAS. No torrent clent etc. I believe, that its possible to install Twonky server, but requires skills -- not so trivial operation. They have solution for Squeezbox, but not for generic UPnP clients.

So, is very powerful and reliable data store for files and backup, but not so much for home entertenment and media streaming.

More: http://www.qnap.com/pro_detail_feature.asp?p_id=110

HD movies in the viewing queue

Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona

Few new titles arrived today into my BitTorrent "complete" folder:

Vicki, Christina, Barcelona, HD 720 

Wanted, HD 720

The Visitor, HD 720

Burn After Reading HD 720

All titles are H.264 in .MKV container. So, If one is interested to look HD stuff from the net, should buy accordingly .MKV compatible device. Be aware, that many HD devices are not able to handle H.264 / MKV. My 0.02 cents -- read carefulle tech specs before buying.

All from MiniNova

Atom based green media server

So, I decided to get more green or greener. Instead of Intel quad processor platform I go to more moderate Atom plaform.

2 x 1.0 TB SATA HDD in RAID 1 (mirrored)

MB MITX Intel Little Falls D945GCLF;

Intel 945GC/ICH7 chipset;

Atom 230 (1.6GHz, 512KB); RAM 1x DDR2 667 2GB;

10/100 LAN, 6xUSB2; 

2x SATA, PATA; 

Intel GMA950

One might ask, why I didnt go to NAS, easy and cheap. Because of certain requirements:

• easy to install and manage Twonky media server software
  
• possibility to use BitTorrent client
  
• possibility to unpack .rar and .zip files (lot of 4+ GB .mkv's are breaked down to dozens of .rar pieces)
  

My current server pulls from the wall about 170 Watts. Knowing that Atom uses some 4 Watts and about the same chipset, power drop should be considerable. 

After the break new readings...

HD stuff viewed

When I started this HD streaming forum some time ago, there was practically no HD content available online at all. Now, the situation is much better. My last viewing list:

• Appaloosa HD 720; 4,5 GB MKV;
  
• Transsiberian, HD 720; 4,5 GB MKV;
  
• Burn After Reading HD 720; 4,6 GB MKV;
  
• Gattaca HD 720; 4,3 GB MKV;
  

There is 50/50 possibility to find HD version in torrents. Most times 720, but sometimes also 1080 version. Usually I sort all torrents by seeders, most populars up, then I try to find most seeded HD version. I usually recognize it by size (> 4GB) or I do quick in-page browster search Ctrl+f 720 or 1080. 

My A-110 plays all MKV with flying colors, so it has been eye-opening to look good-quality HD stuff at home. It's like goint to the street after laser eye surgery...

Places to find HD stuff:

http://www.mininova.org/

http://thepiratebay.org/

http://eztv.it/index.php (for TV series)

Folding@home supercomputer

This indeed not HD related, but I have been busy building my personal supercomputer (PSC) for Folding@home application. Currently I broke 5 TFLOPS barrier, but new milestones to hit.

Take a look of my Estonia Donates Folding@home supercomputer project

My new challenge

Green is this year black. So, I'll downgrade my media server power-wise, trying to retain full HD capabilities.

Outline of new architecture:

• Intel Atom processor and corresponding 2 SATA MB (Instead of Quad Xeon)
  
• 2 x 1TB striped RAID (speed, no fault tolerance, data backup is done separately)
  
• MS Windows 7 beta
  
• BitTorrent v6
  
• TwonkyMedia 5
  
• LogMeIn Free remote controlled, no LCD, no keyboard
  

I really hope to cut power consumption down multiple times. Numbers and Watts after the break.

TwonkyMedia Manager 1.0 and Server 5.0 are out

TwonkyMedia has news. They changed their ancient website to more modern, updated server 4.4.9 to 5.0 and added brand new product - Media Manager. Actually Media Server is now a component in Media Manager (also separately downloadable).

Twonky Media Manager 1.0

This product is for PC / Notebook scenario. In case, You are using NAS or dedicated Linux / PC server, You may upgrade to Media Server 5.0

Main improvements in version 5.0

• new database structure that uses less memory;
  
• server-side user-playlist support;
  
• new transcoding architecture; 
  
• new plug-in that includes support for Internet feeds like Flickr photo, YouTube™ video
• new Internet radio stations
  

More detailed test later. Be tuned :)

New HD "steel" keeps coming....

Netgear Digital Entertainer Elite

2 new HD Streamers/Players in just few days:

• Netgear Digital Entertainer Elite
  
• SageTV HD Theater

Netgear Digital Entertainer Elite

What makes it "elite". For me it starts from form factor, it's good in my rack woth Onkyo head unit etc. Secondly, all major HD formats and digital audio formats are supported.

Mentionable features

• HDD is self installable
  
• Progressive download capable with HDD model
  
• Draft-N wireless
  
• Max 40 Mbps throughput
  
• All major video formats, including ISO, VOB, MKV
  
• Home theatre audio: DTS 5.1; DTS-HD master audio; Dolby Tru-HD, Dolby AC3 and other formats suported

Cons

• Fan

SageTV Theater

SageTV HD Theater 200

• Fan-less quiet design.
• Video formats: MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, H.264 up to 1080p, AVI, MKV, MOV, ASF, VOB, WMV9/VC-1 up to 1080p;
• Audio formats: MP2, MP3, AAC, WMA, Vorbis (stereo only), AC3 (stereo down-mix/pass-through), FLAC, DTS (pass-through);
• Video Out: 1 HDMI, 1 Component, 1 Composite, 1 S-Video
• Audio Out: Left/Right audio output and optical S/PDIF
  

Seems that HD is soon taking over...

myiHome is too basic server

Firs I tested today myiHome UPnP server ver 3.5.1, downloaded it from Syabase homepage as last version. I was greatly disappointed with this server. Didn't recognize and show some of my HD content (Bourne Ultimatum MKV-s for one example), didn't play MOST of my HD content

Only later I found out that there is alsi much newe version on Networked Media Tank homepage -- ver 5.1.3 (sic!).

Sure, I'm spoiled by functionality and speed of TwonkyMedia, but still -- myiHome is far too basic UPnP server tested so far. I really lihe Syabas hardware, using myself Popcorn Hour A-110 Networked Media Tank. But for some reason, their server software is not up to the level. 

Cons music:

• Not user friendly, if You got 600 artists like me,
  took ages to find Robbie Williams album Intensive Care (my fav usability test)
  no artist or album index
• Doesn't show title, elapsed time, track info etc..
  
• No album art
  

Cons general:

• Takes 50 MB-s of HDD, Twonky only <3>

Pro's

• Ver 5.1.3 plays most of 1080 HD stuff I had on my server, including:
  IMAX Blue Planet MPEG2 .TS
  1000 Places to See Gambodia .MKV
  Bourne Ultimatum .MKV
  Hancoc .MKV
  Victoria Secrets 2007 .TS

Making long story short -- I removed myiHome from my server after 1 hour of testing. Not recommended. Alternative: TwonkyMedia server. 

New product category - HD streaming Blu-Ray players

www.netflix.com

Samsung BD-P2550

First we got Xbox 360 streaming HD Netflix online DVD rental with more than 100 000 titles. Then We heard about Samsung's BD-P2500 and BD-P2550 Blu-ray decks. Now LG BD300 has also capable of streaming HD from Netflix.

Its easy way to tranform users through technology they are familiar with. Imagine, Blu-Ray is playing virtual HD disks on service basis.

Popcorn Hour, son of Syabas Technology

Syabas Technology is the company, having many media technologies, including network media tank (NMT) and media streamer. Popcorn Hour and few other NMT-s like HDX 1080 are based on Syabas NMT platform. Today I downloaded their UPnP streamer MyiHome 3.5.1 Win version and installed to my 2,5 TB media server. 

What is the difference between DMP (digital media player, streamer) and NMT (networked media tank):

• DMP: streaming client
  
• NMT: streaming client, HDD, UPnP server
  

Test results and personal preferences compared against TwonkyMedia 4.4.9 tomorrow...

Tomacro -- another HD streamer from Shenzhen

This is Tomacro's new LIM 320s. In Tomacro company media streamers called DMA - Digital Media Access devices. Their latest model seems quite capable, covering all HD container formats and video codexes used in HD:

• MPEG2-HD; .mpg, .tp, .ts, .avi, .mkv
  
• WMV-HD/VC-1: .wmv, .evo, ts, .avi, .mkv
  
• H.264(Mpeg4-AVC): .mov, .m2ts, .mp4, .ts, .avi, .mkv
  
• Mpeg4(DivX-HD, Xvid-HD): .avi, .mkv
  

All main SD videos are also covered, also music and photo streaming.

Player is based on  Sigma Design ® SMP 8635 (exactly the same model what is used in my favourite Popcorn Hour A-110), offering HDMI 1.3 functionality, including embedded audio.

Interesting non-streaming HD media player

WD TV

Western Digital (WD) has quite interesting, though not UPnP streaming product WD TV HD media player. It plays from USB HDD movies and photos in 1080p HD through HDMI. It also plays music files. In short, copy all Your media to portable USB drive and show it everythere.

I personally see this product as additional media interface to WD Passport USB HDD's although it supports other USB drives also.

Must watch: Top Gear Polar Special

Indeed, in 1080 HD format. Available in MiniNova, just search Polar Special 1080.

Excellent image and sound quality and quite a project! Be aware, that it's 7 Gbytes .MKV or so in HD.

Excellent TV show torrent site

We know, that its quite a headacke to find quality c0ntent from torrents. Some have spanish audio, some really bad quality, etc...Lately I started to use really exellent site to download new TV Shows. There are currently 2, what I'm following:

• Top Gear (season 12)
  
• Californiacation (season 2)
  

So, just find Your fav from EZTV and enjoy...

HD bandwidth compared to SD

Left HD 1080    standard SD 352 lines on the right

I did some research today, looked few titels in HD and SD, comparing bitrates, both video and audio. Its really good to see, that better-quality matherial has more bandwitht for sound (up to 1,5 Mbts) than usually watched crappy XviD movies (sound and video combined less than 1 Mbps).

My content:

1. Top Gear MKV 1080p H.264
   
2. Hancock MKV 1080p H.264
   
3. Bourne MKV 1080p VC1
   
4. Mariposa ASF 1080p WMV
   
5. 1000 Places Cambodia MKV 1080p MPEG4
   
6. Californiavation MKV 720p H.264
   
7. SI Swimsuite 2008 AVI 720p XviD
   
8. Average SD AVI 352i XviD
   

So, video bandwith was generally 10-16 Mbps for HD and ca 1 Mbps for SD XviD. Sound took about 350 Kbps, in DTS 1500 Kbps, in crappy XviD DVD rip about 127 Kbps.

Popcorn Hour is for HD content!

So, today had some spare time and upgraded Twonky Media server to ver 4.4.9 -- version supporting .MKV containers. 

Some days earlier I hooked up my new Popcorn Hour A-110. Now I'm confident and assured, that its next level vompared with D-link DSM-520

Few things to mention:

• HDMI 1.3, audio support, one cable for all
  
• .MKV and H.264 support
• fast forward forks well with HD, also jump to 10%-20%-30%...

Cons

• I don't like form factor, doesn't nicely fit in into my home theatre rack
  
• plasma screen is flickering between menu -> play and other functions
  
• No album art, playing MP3-s

Tested HD content

1. The Bourne Ultimatum 2007 1080p (HD-DVD rip)
   
2. Hancock 1080 (Blu-Ray rip)
   
3. Top Gear Polar Special 2007 1080p (BBC-HD H.264)
   

More detailed report will follow, but as far I can only recommend Popcorn Hour A-110 and Twonky Media 4.4.9.

Mysterious ways of UPS (Popcorn Hour)

As You know, I ordered Popcorn Hour S-110 lately. Quite interesting reading is UPS report. My packet has been in quite many countries:

TALLINN,EE 11/12/2008 9:54 A.M.  

VANTAA, FI          11/12/2008 7:38 A.M.  

MALMO STURUP,SE 11/12/2008 5:14 A.M.  

KOELN ,DE 11/11/2008 9:46 P.M.

DUBAI,AE 11/11/2008 6:50 P.M.  

CHEK LAP KOK,HK 11/11/2008 11:03 A.M.  

PAMPANGA,PH 11/11/2008 3:48 A.M.

SHENZHEN, CN 11/10/2008 6:55 P.M.

So, it has been in 8 countries all together. 

Popcorn Hour Media Tank S-110 soon to be reviewed

Your order has shipped!

 

Nov 11

Full shipment -  Popcorn Hour has shipped your order.

Track UPS package #UPS-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  

 

Nov 11

Tracking data added -  Popcorn Hour has added new tracking data to your order. 

Track UPS package #UPS-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

 

Oct 24

$264.00 charge -  Your credit card (MASTERCARD xxx-yyyy) was charged for $264.00. "GOOGLE *Popcorn Hour" will appear on your credit card statement.

 

Oct 17

Order received - Popcorn Hour received your order.

 

Oct 17

Order placed - Your order was placed with Popcorn Hour. A confirmation email was sent to you by Google.

Onkyo Blu-ray -- not streaming, but HD

Onkyo DV-BD606P Blu-ray player

My digital home employs Onkyo steel. I had postponed the blu-ray player purchase, cause Onkyo stepped on HD DVD path and first DV-BD606P Blu-ray was just launced. It supports Dolby® TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio™ surround sound and minimizes the number of cables to one -- HDMI (plus power cable indeed..). Put my order in few days ago, hope to receive it in the end of the year -- Europe is so far from USA and Japan...

Digital signal path in AV streaming

Watching cable SD by Internet provider (IPTV)

• IPTV Provider, ADSL IP data
  
• Thomson SpeedTouch 780 IPTV boadband router
  Twisted Pair ADSL IP data -> HTTP Ethernet 10/100 Mbps 
  
• Amino Aminet A110
  Video: HTTP protocol Ethernet 10-baseT -> 576i component (Mpeg2) 
  Audio: Coax S/P-DIF PCM
• Onkyo TX-SR706 FLI-2310  
  Video: Component 576i/50 -> HDMI 1080i
  Audio: 
• Hitachi 42" HD plasma
  HDMI 1080i -> image

As You see, there is still one stage in analog. Hope to het new Aminet A130 or A530 box with HDMI to het over it.

Changed Onkyo TX-SR706 under warranty

Due to HDMI blankout problems I changed my head unit under the warranty. New one functions perfectly.

Hooking up the modern 7,1 receiver takes at least an hour, inluding Audyssey automatic speaker level adjusting etc. Huge number of different inputs causes mistakes and adds some thrill...

Onkyo TX-SR706 Faroudja DCDi is overheating

I have used it only 2 days, but I'm quite sure, that Faroudja DCDi Cinema scaler is overheating, if natural cooling not well provided. Plasma is losing signal in conjunctiton with fast screen transitions. In my case cable set to box and DVD component signals are up-converted to 1080p by Faroudja DCDi Cinema scaler.

All the other user csenarios work well. Signal from Dlink DSM-520 HDMI is also up-converted to 1080i HDMI output. Today I watched 3 consequent Fifth Gear series from my Media Server / DSM-520 but no siglal losses occured. Then I swiched over to cable and signal started to disappear in every minuta or so. In my case I up-converted component signal to HDMI 1080i. I swiched my receiver off for an hour, it cooled down and problems disappeared. 

I'm planning to modify my TX-SR706, installing fan and heat-sink to FLI2310 DCDi chip.

I'll report more later...

Waiting for my Popcorn Hour A-110 to arrive

Your order is in progress. Oct 24

• $264.00 charge -  Your credit card (MASTERCARD xxx-yyyy) was charged for $264.00. "GOOGLE *Popcorn Hour" will appear on your credit card statement
  
• Oct 17 Order received - Popcorn Hour received your order
  
• Oct 17 Order placed - Your order was placed with Popcorn Hour. A confirmation email was sent to you by Google.
  

New head unit Onkyo TX-SR706

Onkyo TX-SR706

Yesterday  I bought new THX® Select2™ Plus 7.1-Channel  Onkyo TX-SR706 head unit to my multimedia entertainment center and swiched my old Onkyo TX-L55. Why I did so? Same question was asked by my spouse.

1. Video swiching capabilities

I have different video sourses with different output formats 

   a. Dlink DSM 520 has HDMI output

   b. DVD player is Component

   c. Aminet 110 cable set top box has component output

So, swiching from one source to another causes manual input selection on my Hitachi 42" plasma. It doesn't have direct selection, so You have either to cycle through 8 or so inputs or find right input through the menu. Old TX-L55 didn't have HDMI swiching or even pass-through at all.

Now all video swiching is done by Onkyo, cause it converts every signal (analog and digital) to 1 HDMI output in 1080 format. So sweet. No input selection whatsoever. And only 2 cables are passed to plasma monitor (power and HDMI) instead of thick bunch of component and scart cables.

2. Video up-scaling

Onkyo TX-SR706 has clever Faroudja DCDi Cinema scaler, incorporating FLI2310 chip, upscaling up to 1080p every single input -- digital or analog, component and even composite. Being honest, I didn't see much improvement compared with my HD TV internal upscaler after 1 hour of using new feature, but will comment this topic later.

3. Audyssey

Now I can really sure, that my surround sound is as close as possible, as film director ment. Usually front-back-surround balance is not correct and subwoofer is out of balance. Onkyo passes series short sweep-signals through all surround speakers and tunes cross-over frequencies, dB gains and time corrections. It takes time (5-10 minutes), but worth it.

More Pro's

There is plenty of digital audio inputs, both optical and coax. No need for precise planning and every single connection is digital. New remode is so much better. Source and remote operation happens from one button and other are much better planned.

Con's

Onkyo was in HD DVD clan and hasn't been able to finish their blu-ray player yet. So, it will be on the shelves early next year perhaps. So, I didn't buy new DVD player, but waiting for Onkyo blu-ray.

0,5 TeraByte mark hit

So, I lately crossed the 0,5 TeraByte milestone of movies, music and images on my 2,5 TB media server:

1100 Videos, 475 GB
6800 Music tracks, 44 GB
25 000 Photos, 42 GB

As You see, most of the digital data today is movies.

Dlink really weak in HD

I have been the patriot of Dlink products in media streaming. Currently I have 2 pc of DSM 520 and one DSM 320 streaming off my 2,5 TB Dell PowerEdge quad-core media server. Mostly I watch TV-shows like Friends, Top Gear etc and lot of MPEG4 movies. But more and more movies are coming out in HD, ripped off from blu-ray or recorded from the HD cable/terrestial. In most of the cases these are in .TS format, .MKV Matroska containers, H.264 whitch is pain in the a.. for Dlink. Converting is really a lottery and not really an option. Also, high bitrate (more than 20 mbit per second) 1080 has been problem for DSM-520, despite of wired ethernet.



Now I look something more capable. Most probably I'm going after Popcorn Hour A-110 streamer. Looks like just for me, HDMI 1.3a, supports the latest high bitrate video formats (MPEG2 MP@HL, H.264 HP@L4.1, VC-1 AP@L3 in TS of at least 40Mbps) to give you up to 1080p high-definition videos.

Another option is Buffalo Linktheater HD On the paper its H.264 AVC capable, but MKV container is not clearly notetd on their spec sheet?!

DH Tune measurements

Before, PCI bus RocketRaid 1820a:



After, PCI-E RocjetRaid 2320:

Average IOmeter trasfer speed:

• before 72 MB/s
• after 154 MB/s (increased 100%)

One interesting media streamer

Recently I found unknown for me streamer -- EZ media. What was new for me:

• no HDMI, only DVI (converter DVI to HDMI included)
• plays WMA Pro and MPEG Pro (usually max quality is limited 320 kbs MP3 and WMA)
• plays H.264 AVC MPEG4 part 10 HD video (does it play Matroska containers???)
• UPnP 1,5 and DNLLA 1,5 compliant (most streamers are UPnP 1.0 compliant)

Product line includes SimpleCenter software media server and EZsource NAS (not yet available).

Disk subsystem throughput

As told earlier, I swiched from PCI RAID controller to RocketRaid 2320 PCI-E (x4) RAID controller. Throughput is up significally:

Read speed:

• Before 100 MB/s
• After 520 MB/s (UP 5,2 times)

Write speed (RAID-5)

• Before 54 MB/s
• After 150 MB/s (UP 2,8 times)

Important fact is, that using packets less than 8 MB gave > 1022 MB/s read/write speeds because of new cache employed on the new controller. I's PCI-E x4 physical limit !?

PCI-E RAID controller installed

Due to some compatibility issues I decided to get rid of old-fashined PCI RocketRaid 1820A and replace it with very modern PCI-Express technology RocketRaid 2320 unit. It has PCI-E x4 architecture.

My media server in the nutshell

• Dell PowerEdge SC1430
• Quad core Intel E5335 CPU 2,0 GHz, 1333MHz FSB, 2x4 MB L2 cache
• 2GB Memory
• HDD 80 GB dedicated to OS and programs
• RAID 5 2,25 TB (4x750 GB Hitachi SATA), dedicated to digital media
• RocetRaid 2320 RAID host adapter, PCI-E x4 (300 MB/s each SATA port)
• Broadcom Gigabit NIC

My main objective was to get away from compatibility issue, but once I had to reinstall my RAID, I choce more potent PCI-E model to get rid of all possible bottlenecks in the data path.

System bottleneck speeds:

So, network is the slowest link in the chain.

HD MKV container, D-Link DSM-520 and MediaCoder

If You have media server and D-Link DSM media streamer, You are not able to playback MKV (Matroska) files. PAL resolution files are easy to convert using MKV2VOB converter, but my equipment didn't work with HD format.I tried and failed long time to fing good probram to convert MKV container into suitable format. Finally I found the product, what really works -- MediaCoder, look http://www.mediacoderhq.com/

Few tips:

Video Tab
Mode: Quality-based 100%
Format: MPEG2
Container: MPEG2
Source: Autoselect
Backend: Autoselect
Copy Video: UNSELECTED

Audio Tab
Source: Autoselect
Encoder: Lame MP3
Resample: Original
Channel: Original
Enable Audio: Selected
Copy Audio: UNSELECTED
Gain 0dB
Audio ID: 0

Lame MP3 tab
Rate mode VBR
Channel Auto
Bitrate/Quality: 8
Algorithm Quality: 1

I use currently MediaCoder ver 0,6 and it works just well.

Best HD torrents

Some torrent directories have been moved more quickly seeding HD stuff than other directories. Here is my TOP-5 lists for High Definition material:

Torrent directories 1080+720=total HD

http://www.snarf-it.org/ 500+3800=4300 HD torrents listed;
http://www.thepiratebay.org/ 1000+1000=2000;
http://www.mininova.com/ 500+700=1200;
http://www.isohunt.com/ 700+500=1200;
http://www.bitenova.com/ 100+1000=1100;
http://www.torrentspy.com/ 20+300=320;

There are also some closed-communy torrent directories. Some of these exceeded user limit and they dont take new members.

Indeed, they differ in usability and ease of search. My personal favourite is http://www.mininova.org/