Cool. No the uptime is the kernel uptime I think (I presume its some form of embedded linux?).Originally Posted by Bob Crabtree
I can see the resets regularly. Turn iplayer on from standy, go to Diagnostics, select a few options. Get the guide up, dismiss it, do a few things. Then put it in standby again. About 5 minutes later it'll reboot!
Eeek!
Oh and can confirm that the iplayer must have rebooted at least once since my last posting, cos the uptime shown now is 7h 44m and I absolutely, definitely and positively have not turned off the iplayer from its on/off switch since my last posting.
After a member posted the real specs for this unit earlier, revealing that this player uses the absolute latest Sigma design chips, capable of Blu-ray and HD-DVD decoding... then to combine this capability with the inferior HDMI 1.1(1.2) specification (HDMI 1.3 being required for Blu-ray and 1080p output) means I will be steering well clear of this hardware after first being almost too eager to purchase an H.264 compatible media streamer.
This player really had potential to be a HTPC (Home Theatre PC) makers' dream, being able to decode the very latest video codecs. However they chose almost insanely to combine it with inferior output connections making it as useless as all the current implementations.
For those who don't understand how important 1080p is, any new mid/high-range panel will no doubt be 1080p compatible/capable, PS3 is 1080p compatible/capable, Microsoft made their x360 to be 1080p compatible/capable with a firmware update, the entire Sony X-range is 1080p compatible/capable and the new Samsung F71 range is 1080p compatible/capable, as well as it being the poster-child resolution for Blu-ray specification.
To leave this out of the players capability while using one of the most advanced chipsets available, being able to decode two of these HD-streams (1080p), to me is commercial suicide as the people who would readily pay £300 for a cutting edge machine would do so for the fact that it supports these latest resolutions on output for playback.
Last edited by WannabeKnoItAll; 11-01-2007 at 12:39 AM. Reason: Grammar/spelling although many mistakes remain, I'm sure.
Could the iplayer translate 1080p to 1080i or will it simply not play 1080p content? If it simply won't play it, then I agree its an oversight. I'm not sure, for me, that that alone would stop me buying an iplayer.
Last edited by damianw; 11-01-2007 at 12:24 PM. Reason: Added quote since I went to another page!
Well, it certainly plays footage that I've downloaded from Microsoft's site that is described on the site as being 1080p.
The footage has come from the WMV HD Content Showcase and the stuff I've downloaded and been able to play on the iplayer (from an attached USB hard disk) includes the Alexander 1080p clip, the Amazon 1080p clip, the Robotica 1080p clip and a few others besides.
The register has posted a review of the iplayer:
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/01..._media_centre/
They have criticised the small hard drive, and single tuner, but have been positive in general.
It would be rather ungracious of me to say very much about that short review.
That, of course, won't stop me from saying something, though!
I do genuinely believe that anyone who's been following this thread - and a huge number of people have (hi, there all you lurkers!) - will quickly be able to spot the many things that Nigel hasn't tested for The Reg's review.
They will also, I think, already have a better feel for the product than that review imparts.
But, of course, I would say that, wouldn't I?
To be fair I discovered something from The Register review that I hadn't found out from this thread (doesn't mean it hasn't been mentioned!). That is that the Mediacentre will stream over SMB shares if you set it up through Export. I set up the iplayer to export to a Samba share on my linux server, and hey presto I can now stream videos from my linux box. Fabulous!
That is worth knowing. I had assumed that the iPlayer would only communicate with windows media connect. Being able to communicate with my Linux server would make a big difference. Having said that, they would still have to take £100 off the price, and stop it crashing every day or so for me to consider it.
Hi very informative thread started here makes good reading.
I bought one of these on a whim and overall it is not a bad piece of kit.Just a couple of questions if anyone can answer.
When you import a recording from the iplayer the extension says mp2 i can watch this through VLC media player but not through windows media player 11 thus the file is not able to stream back to the iplayer.
It is hard to find a program that will convert this mp2 file to avi or a mpeg file recognized by windows media player.
Can anyone point me in the right direction with this problem?
Secondly how do you get HD Transport streams to play with the iplayer?
I have merged them into one file, they will play in power dvd fine but will not play in windows media player so i cannot stream these either.
Seems to me bad support especially in the transported recordings that you cannot stream them back to the iplayer to watch at a later date.
Any input much appreciated.
Last edited by Bob Crabtree; 15-01-2007 at 03:01 AM. Reason: Add paragraphs for easier reading
Good to know!
Are there any particular tricks to doing this - I've got a machine set up running Linspire and would like to try this out.
Something very wrong with your set up, I think - though, here, Windows Media Player 11 is not a favourite!
I have Windows Media Player 11 set up under Vista (the final RC beta) - where it is installed by default - and under XP Pro.
Under XP Pro, I am able to play the standard-def recordings (with .mp2 tails) that I make on iplayer, though the control of them is dire - I can't just grab the play head and move to where ever I want, so Windows Media Player 11 is pretty useless for playing these recordings.
This same problem is NOT seen in Media Player 10 running under XP Pro.
Under the Vista Beta, I can play these files, too, but, again, I can't move around the recording and, worse, I can't stop it playing.
Also, once a recording is loaded into Windows Media Player 11 in the Vista beta, the program can only be shut down via Task Manager.
Under what OS are you using Media Player 11?
As you can see from my comments above, the problem you have is not one that I would expect - though, as I said, MP11 is not in my view suitable for use with these iplayer-generated recordings.
If you want to try converting - I'd suggest trying VideoReDo Plus; and also mpeg2schnitt
Can you give us more detail of what these files are and where they come from?
Yes, I forgot to mention it too. Often the SMB shares don't appear in the MediaCentre list. To correct that, go to Preferences/Recordings Export and select Test to reawaken it to the fact that a useable SMB share is out there. Note: this is assuming you have Recordings Export setup to point to an SMB share already, which I know you don't currently (usb).
As for setting up Samba on Linux, you're on your own. I've long since forgotten the arcane incantations required to get that flaming thing working!
Last edited by Bob Crabtree; 15-01-2007 at 02:59 AM. Reason: Change - USB to usb in "which I know you don't currently (usb)"
Hi Bob thanks for your reply i am running XP Home with media player 11.I have used VideoReDo and that has done the trick i can now watch them through media player.The HD Transport streams i was refering to are from HD Satelite my friend has the ability to rip them to his pc using a tv card with the right spec and a piece of software called TS Reader.They are large uncompressed files 5.14 GB for about 50 minutes tv.I have now fixed this problem by using HDTV to MPEG2 v107.I just convert to MPEG 2 with this software with no noticable reduction in quality and 5.1 surround sound.I am able to stream these HD programs to my tv through Media player although if you pause or stop you have to go back to the beginning and watch again.Thanks for your input much appreciated.
Great stuff!
Thanks for the tip about HDTVtoMPEG2 - the home page of which is here.
However, although I was impressed with how speedily this program reworked files, it seemed to kill the sound completely on all the files I converted with it.
I can't see anything here but is there some setting or tweak that you made that prevented this happening to the sound on your files?
The sound was also killed when I took some video (shot on a first-gen Sony HDV camcorder) and carrying .m2t file-tails, renamed them .ts and ran them through HDTVtoMPEG2.
I should also point out that I've just realised that I am able to play a number of .ts and .m2t files on the iplayer without reworking them at all!
This is not playing back over the network but from my big ext2-formatted USB drive connected directly to the iplayer.
I think that some - though not all - of the issues you were seeing originally were because of problems with Windows Media Connect's inability to recognise .ts as being a valid file tail.
Worth noting, too, that those recordings made on a Sony first-gen HDV camcorder and saved to PC with the file-tail .m2t are also playable from the USB hard disk when they are not playable over the network.
And they are playable without me needing to change the file tail to something that Windows recognises (such as .mpg).
Making that change alone to some files does let me play them over the network but the response is far worse than when I play them from the USB drive.
When I access my PC from iplayer via Windows Media Connect, I am not shown any files with .ts or .m2t file tails!
Just in case that's not crystal clear - iplayer itself is able to recognise and play some file types from a directly-connected USB drive that Windows Media Connect does not recognise as being valid (in this case, files with .ts or .m2t file tails) and, thus, doesn't even show to iplayer over the network.
I do have shared file access from my XP machines to my Linspire Linux machine but can't access the folder from the iplayer.
Any tips from anyone much appreciated.
There are currently 3 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 3 guests)
Posting Permissions
LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Reply With Quote