CLS Shooting Break

Tested and reviewed Mercedes Benz CLS Shooting Break last weekend in Estonia. This AMG bodykit 350DCI 4Matic is the sexiest, coolest, most desireable wagon on the Planet Earth.

Fujifilm X-E1 review

Got Fujifilm X-E1 in my hands. Compared to Panasonic Lumix GX1.

Fuji need improving in focusing, too slow, too unreliable. But image quality is absolutely top class. New X-Trans APS-C sensor rocks.

 

Popcorn Hour A300 and SHOUTcast Radio

I hope, that You didnt buy A300 only for local streaming. SHOUTcast app opens internet radio world in pretty user-friendly manner. There are huge number of internet stations, usually it makes it hard to handle. Organising, sorting and tagging is essential. A300 masters it all in SHOUTcast app.

A300 Workflow:

1. Click Apps Market in sources

2. Find SHOUTcast Radio from most popular (left menu), install

3. Start SHOUTcast Radio

4. Find few stations You like, press green button to favourite

5. Later choose pre-selected stations from Favourites menu

My FU 29 tube amplifier

This is my tube amp. Powerful, clean-sounding with stereo imaging to die for. Uses soviet military tubes, 110 mm high and 60 mm fat, like small Coke cans.

Tech data:

• Input Power 110V-240V  AVAILABLE
• Output Power 30 W x 2  Class A
• Output Tube FU29 x 2 (double tetrodes)
• Driver Tube 6N2 x 2 , 6N1 x 2
• Signal/Noise Ratio 90dB
• Ohms 4 ohms 8 ohms
• Input Consumption 160w
• Frequency 20Hz-30KHz +/-1 dB
• Distorsion Less than 0.5% at full power

I really can recommend it to any tube amp lover. 

Loseless audio formats at home

First, lets clarify the basics: Lossless data compression is a class of data compression algorithms that allows the exact original data to be reconstructed from the compressed data. The term lossless is in contrast to lossy data compression, which only allows an approximation of the original data to be reconstructed, in exchange for better compression rates.

Lossless compression is used in cases where it is important that the original and the decompressed data be identical, or where deviations from the original data could be deleterious.

• MP3 and AAC (=the fruit company) are lossy compression. 
• FLAC and APE are generally used loseless formats.

Be aware, that some cheapest media players and also mobile phones cant play these formats. APE is supported by only few media players, so be aware!

Usually FLAC-s are ripped from CD-s at 12bit/44kHz resolution. Some FLAC-s are HD audio capable 24bit 48 kHz, 96 kHz or even higher definition. This is also too much for some players.

AIFF is widely used uncompressed high-quality sound format widely used in Apple world, but is not supported in any media player I know and had.

Last, but not least - good (= high bit rate) MP3 is generally more than enough for enthusiastic listening. High bitrate means generally 160, 192 or 320 kbps.

My recommendation: If You are leaning towards to audiophile listening and are enthusiastic to play studio master quality stuff, choose Your media player (or transport / DAC) wisely. It should support APE, FLAC and at least 24/96 D/A conversion.

Todays Piano playlist

1. Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
2. Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major - Johannes Brahms
3. Piano Concerto in A minor - Robert Schumann

Fostex FE206EN back-loaded horn speaker project

My Fostex FE206EN back-loaded horn speaker project. 21mm thick plywood is used for main section and side panels to ensure a strong enclosure.

Seagate tries to enter into media player market with GoFlex

Seagate GoFlex looks nice on the paper, still I don’t really believe in them. Their main objective is to sell HDD-s. True good media player is very much about software and constant development. It's about community and customer feedback. In these areas are guys from Seagate, WD and Dlink not so good. I personally had to thow away one WD Live and one Dlink box, because of their bad UX, incompatibility with some HD MKV-s, poor sound quality and sluggish UI.

But We’ll see….

My hybrid digital + tube audiophile system

Popcorn Hour C-200 transport (internal 1,5 TB storage + wired connection to media server and Internet) in the rack (top left); Pro-Ject DAC box, incorporating Texas Instruments TLV320DAC23. 24Bit/96kHz, 8x oversampling chip (small box, top shelf, right); single ended valve amp (bottom shelf); Fostex speakers, Thomson LED display on top. 

C-200 track info is displayed on 26" Thomson LED display. Note, that FLAC loseless track is playing. Both actual file name and embedded tag data is displayed.

Full-range Fostex speakers with 2.2 m long exponential horn design and 94 dB (1W, 1m) sensitivity!

Exchange 2010 hosting

We started today new service: Exchange hosting
Service bases on Microsoft Exchange 2010, WMware virtualization and HP Proliant and HP Storageworks hardware.

New game

Today I bought very addictive game for my iPhone. Like tetris, but really dynamic:
Wristbreaker Tetris -style game for iPhone

Got rid of my DVD player

Today was kind of historic milestone. I unwired my Onkyo DVD player. Proper DVD player has been almost #1 signal source for my home cinema for decades! First one was bought from Helsinki back in 1991. Second one vas bougth 5 years ago with Onkyo AV system.

Instead of dedicated DVD player I plugged external LG Super Multi DVD player Model GE20LU11 via USB to my Popcorn Hour C200. Cracked player Region Free using MediaCodeSpeedEdit and cracked C200 using Community Software Installer. Instructions are here

Some may wonder, why DVD player, not BluRay. I just have many DVD-s, not yet BluRay disks. All new HD stuff is coming from torrents in H.264 Matroska container format. Just saved few $$$.

Usability report after the break.

Go To FLAC

Other day I downloaded Michael Jackson's "This Is It" from www.isohunt.com. Got FLAC version and MP3 version. FLAC = Free Lossless Audio Codec, I think it't cleared out now :) For C-200 users I highly recommend FLAC version over compressed formats. Soundstage is magically clear! May be We MP3 and compressed music people forgot how real uncompressed sound feels?

There is considerable size difference:

"This is It" 2 CD collection on HDD:

• FLAC 630 MBytes
• MP3 180 Mbytes (various 270-300 kbps)

So, it's about 3,5 ratio. Worth to listen!

C-200 is cured!

After consulting with Network Media Tank forum http://www.networkedmediatank.com/ and Popcorn Hour support I tested my unit by using external Chieftec 850W (bah...) ATX power supply. C-200 woke up from coma and the problem was located. Popcorn Hour C-200 PSU was simply dead. After few letters back and forth with Popcorn I decided, that best way to get equipment up and running again is to repair it myself and let them ship only PSU. People from http://www.networkedmediatank.com/ told, that RMA is really long process, together with shipping almost 2-3 months in some cases. So, I accepted self repair option.

Got new PSU today, changed it in 7 minutes and C-200 is running better than ever again :) New PSU is a bit differently labelled, but internals seemed quite similar, as much as I disovered under the hood.

I have to say, that Popcorn Hour web-based support in top-notch. Didn't have any problem with delays or other.

Popcorn Hour C-200 is dead

Most probably internal power supply unit failed. No standby light, nothing. RMA case, I believe. I was able to use it under one week.

Got C-200 online and working

After first disappointment I started to find solution, as sending unit back to China wasn't too good idea -- huge freight cost and long waiting time. And my searches were successful.

TWO main issues found:

1. Avoid using "Auto" setting in "Network" setting, use 10/100. For some reason my 15m long Gigabit cable didn't guarantee flawless 1Gb connection and instead of falling back to 100 Mbit, C-200 went crazy;

2. I had to abndon my beloved TwonkyMedia server and move over to Syabas MyiHome 5.2.0 streaming server. It has hugely better compatibility with Network Media Tank system than Twonky.

More notes

1. Chassis of C-200 is sligthly narrower than my std A/V equipment, like Onkyo TX-SR706

PA C-200 425 mm

TX-SR706: 435 mm

So, it's 1 cm narrower. As I don't put anything ontop Onkyo to avoid overheating (this is issue with Onkyo AV equipment!), C-200 has to be below and it doesn't look cool.

2. Installing internal HDD and sharing it to home network is super easy and works well. It's good idea to keep all hot new albums on C-200 HDD to use it autonomically. May-be in the future I will abandon my dedicated streaming server at all?

3. Speed has increased many times due to 2x faster processor and double memory. It really flies now through the menus and media directories.

4. RF remote (its not IR) has pro's and con's. It is really usable, absolutely no need to point it to the device, obstacles are not issue any more. But I can't use now my universal IR remote. Popcorn has solution for that, obtaining IRK-200 kit.

Issues not solved

1. Selecting 1080i resolution from screen settings menu generates bad whistle in left speaker. Have to use 720p, as my 41" plasma is not supporting 1080p.

Received Popcorn Hour C-200, doesn't work

Popcorn Hour A-110 (smaller) and C-200 (larger)

Received Popcorn Hour C-200. I liked the form factor, it fits much better into my home audio system than old undersized A-110 model. I connected it to my home audio-video system, to home server via Ethernet -- and disappointed.

C-200 started up like perfectly normal. Showed media source menu. Recognised my TwonkyMedia UPnP server. First my new C-200 played SD stuff but at very sluggish way. Did't respond to pause, stop and play commands. Actually responded, but with very big delay. 16x fast forward kept going long time after pressing play. C-200 screen showed play command, but nothing really happaned, kept doing fast forward. Didn't respond to STOP command either. Returning to previous menu level was also extra slow. I restarted C-200 many times, didn't help. restarted my streaming server, no effect.

Things went bad to worse, after upgrading firmware from Maintenance menu. Kernel version 19-POP, firmware version 408-000. Firmware upgrade went OK. New firmware downloaded 100%, installed 100% and verified 100%. But new it is not recognizing any media files. Not in streaming mode neither in network browsing mode. Sees all my servers, but no media files.

I have now to wire back my old Popcorn Hour A-110 what pisses me off big time.

Ordered Popcorn Hour C-200 today

I ordered Popcorn Hour C-200 today. I have been happy A-110 owner more than a year. It's very good HD streamer, handled Full HD 1080 .MKV and H.264 better and earlier than others.

So, why did I switch?

1. It has much more powerful Sigma Design SMP8643 processor (previous model had SMP8635). A-110 excels in video decoding, but lags in Fast-Forward, jump to and other UI functions. I really hope, that new processor makes user experience better;

2. It has LCD, enables to play audio w/o switching plasma on;

3. I like new design and form factor.

Now I have to wait some 2-3 weeks....

Your order has been sent to Popcorn Hour. Popcorn Hour is responsible for charging and shipping your order. Have questions? Contact Popcorn Hour.
	Jan 8	Popcorn Hour received your order.
	Jan 8	You placed an order with Popcorn Hour on Jan 8.

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