Greetings,

Sorry to address you so directly in a public forum. I have a question that
you can answer. I purchased the LinkTheater and after 4 1/2 hours finally
got it to work on my network. Turns out, I had to broadcast SSID while
setting up and then turn-off broadcasting if I don't want it after the
LinkStation is setup, but it won't set up if initially SSID is not
broadcasting. Dumb. As far as I can tell it is no different than the
DSM-320, hardly, anyway. They both won't play the same WMV files between
themselves, both won't play H264, although the LinkStation doesn't append
the annoying file extensions and seems to have a clearer display quality
about it and sports a DVD player, otherwise, they both seem to play or not
play the same files between themselves (of the ones I throw at it).

Anyway, how do you archive your DVDs and get decent quality? I tried using
CloneDVD, it gives me roughly 60% of the original size at a "good-enough"
quality but it splits the files into 1GB partitiions and the LinkTheater and
DSM-320 both want me to select each file to play, won't just play through.
So I use Nero Recode2 (with my Ultra Edition purchase) and if I use the
"Standard" profile and accept the default 50% compression, it has good
quality but start skipping frames. To be honest, whether I encode it at 10%
or 90% it skips frames. Could be my network but doubt it. Perhaps its just
Nero.

Anyway, what do you do for good quality? Considering I likely will never
re-burn it to DVD again, I'm not concerned about perfection. I'll only ever
preview it on my TV set privately in the future.

Thanks,
Shawn

Actually, I rather like the quality if the CloneDVD rip. I don't like that
I have to have multiple VOB files, though. One thing I just tested and
learned about the LinkTheater, is that I can store the multie-file VOBs in a
folder somewhere, and create a shortcut link in Windows pointing to the
first one. From the LinkTheater on the Television, I can see the link and
when I press play it'll start playing them. The DSM-320 doesn't recongnize
the link. So the LinkTheater wins in this case.


Thanks,
Shawn

"Shawn B." <leabre@html.com> wrote in message
news:MN9Qf.55389$Jd.14612@newssvr25.news.prodigy.n et...
As I mentioned I don't use the Wireless aspects of the
LinkTheater, I built a wired LAN.( A Gigabit LAN actually)
It has a 100T connection for the LinkTheater. I don't recall
any problems adding it to my wired LAN.

As I explained before, the Sigma Designs EM8620L chip
does not do AVC/H264. Unless Buffalo has started shipping
LinkTheaters with one of the newer chipsets it will never do
H264. I play most WMV and even HD WMV on mine, but
again that is over a wired setup. Which ones are giving you
problems?

Most of the material I have archived are TV Series that I
capture with a PCI capture card off my DirecTiVo DVR.
The few full Movies that I put on the TeraStation, like
"Serenity" to go with my Firefly archive, I just use
DVDShrink (without compression) to get unencrypted .vob
files that I run through www.VideoReDo.com 's joiner to
create one big file. ( Serenity is 5,261,107 KB for instance)
VideoReDo should provide some help cleaning up those
dropped frames. You should be able to join the .vob
files CloneDVD created.

My TV series captures are Half D1 MPEG with a VBR
setting that has most frames averaging ~ 2000Kbps with
a max of 8000Kbps. I have a very clean signal source,
the DirecTiVo DVR, and my card uses the Philips SAA
7114H Decoder-A/D chip to feed a Kfir-II (Broadcom
BCM7040) MPEG Encoder chip. [ The same chip that
Tivo uses in their Series 2 boxes.]

For most Movies, Xvid (without GMC) works well on the
LinkTheater. (Global Motion Compression is one of the
things that AVC and Xvid/DivX can have in common, AVC
uses it all the time, the others have it as an option. If you are
making video to play with the EM8620L chip, don't use
GMC) AutoGK is an easy way to do a DVD conversion.

Luck;
Ken

"Shawn B." <leabre@html.com> wrote in message
news:szaQf.55394$Jd.50090@newssvr25.news.prodigy.n et...
Be sure you have updated to the most current
firmware (using the update option of the settings)
and the latest PC "LinkTheater" server software.

Run the PC "LinkTheater" app and set the
preferences under the "Edit" tab. You can add
"Watch Folders" easily if you do it this way.

You can also add URLs to your login page,
but you do it with the remote so it is a pain.

Luck;
Ken

You got me started. You must be mistaken, according to this link...
http://www.sigmadesigns.com/products/em8620Lseries.htm

.... it does support H264. ??


Thanks,
Shawn

"Shawn B." <leabre@html.com> wrote in message
news:yatQf.36002$_S7.6430@newssvr14.news.prodigy.c om...
Look a little closer, the EM8622L does but the EM8620L
does not. If you look at the PDFs, the ones for the EM8622L
list the H264 in the Video Decode section but not so for the
EM8620L. This is common practice for chip manufacturers,
they announce/headline the capabilities of the best chip when
they write about a chip series. ( Note that they make no
mention of the other chip in the 862xL series, the 8624L;
the reason for this is that it's not pin and software compatible
with the other two. The chip offerings are sorted for the
connivance of the chip buyer, not us.)

Luck;
Ken

"Ken Maltby" <kmaltby@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:MaidnelhCeFH9Y_ZnZ2dneKdnZydnZ2d@giganews.com ...
it out there and includes the whole EM862x Series. Note
that there is no tic for H264 in the EM8620L column. There
is one in both the EM8622L and EM8624L columns. It
also shows the EM8622L as pin compatible with the
EM8620L. Now, if I could just get one of those EM8622L
chips and someone that can do solder flow chip replacement.

I was beginning to get suspicious. I mean, can't you tell I was grasping at
straws for a while? When the chipmaker said one thing but yet a single
product that uses the chip fails to mention the features, I figured they
Network-DVD makers aren't holding back, they would be advertising the hell
out of it if they could. That said, I'll keep the LinkTheater. y wife
wants me to get the TerraServer 1.6 TB to store her DVD's. That's fine.
I'll keep an eye out over the next year or two and see what improvements are
made. I really would have liked to use the H264 to get my DVD images small,
I'm not happy with 1GB/45 minutes for any decent quality, considering I have
to front the bill to keep adding storage devices but... the convenience of
not having to replace my DVD's constantly (ever have kids in the house?)
will be worth it.


Thanks,
Shawn

Most hardware makers don't deal with us "smalltimer" one-off folks. But it
might be worth a try to contact sales and purchase one, if they'll sell it
that way. I suspect, however, that they prefer to form a "relationship"
with someone and then maufacture chips on a predictable as-needed basis, as
opposed to stocking some of one-time purchasers. It may not be that easy,
however. If there's firmware involved... the chips may be pin compatible
but they may not be completely compatible. That said, the EMxxxx series
seem to be using ARM cpus at the core, then a custom EEPROM or whatever to
store the software decoder, then the network-dvd maker "integrates" it in.
Would be an interesting experiment if you had a LinkTheater to burn (if it
came to that).


Thanks,
Shawn

I decided to use CloneDVD and archive me disks using 40% quality for about
1GB per hour. I purchase a 4-disk SATA removable RAID drive bay today and
put 4 500GB disks in it for the one server, each disk running independantly,
rather than striping or mirroring. I'll add another to my network if/when
needed. I don't think I have 850-1000 hours of DVD in my possession, so I
should be fine with that.


Thanks,
Shawn

Of course, none of this is remotely legal. The MPAA is going after, quite
steadily, all networked home-based distribution systems.

"Shawn B." <leabre@html.com> wrote in message
news:kENQf.38025$_S7.34135@newssvr14.news.prodigy. com...
I haven't used CloneDVD, but 1GB/Hour should work out
well. 2 TeraBytes should hold quite a bit.

I have modified an external IDE drive box; adding a rack for
a Hard drive carrier that plugs in. I have added racks to my
main PC and a HTPC I'm putting together, also.

The USB2 external rack plugs into my Buffalo NAS and is
automatically available to be served to my LinkTheater (even
if no PCs are on). This gives me an unlimited amount of
media storage. Right now I only have five carriers, but they
only cost ~$10 each anyway. I only have one 250GB drive
on a carrier, but so far my TeraStation still has some room.

Eventually, I hope to have drives sorted by TV Series and
movie types, SciFi, Comedy, Action, Documentaries, ect...
and be able to plug a drive in to play or add more material of
that type. Of course a SATA interface would be ideal and I
might try to setup a NAS with a eSATA interface instead of
the USB2.

When the drives are plugged into a PC, it's much faster to
transfer the large files involved and It should be much easier
to do a transition to new compression schemes like H264
using the PC interface.

Luck;
Ken

Yeah, I wanted to get a NAS. I actually stood in Fry's for quite some time
debating the LinkStation 1GB. I couldn't determine whether any of the 4 HDs
(250GB) internally could be replaced or swapped out for others at a later
time. I didn't think so. I would like to put a NAS on my network.

Unlike you, I aim to avoid swapping hard disks for my movies, but your idea
of partitioning the drives has merit regarding damage-control if a drive
goes dead. None of the NAS devices that support USB seems to support USB
hubs, at least, most of them state that. If they did, I'd probly do that.
I have a question.

I almost purchased a $499 Sony DVD jukebox (400 DVD's) but I figured using
the LinkTheater is a better choice, since I can keep expanding it if I ever
feel like purchasing that many DVD's. I keep buying season DVD sets so
eventually I would out grow 400.

If I have a PC acting as the UPnP Media server and the data is on a NAS
drive, do I consume double bandwidth: some to stream to my PC and some to
stream to the LinkTheater? I presume that's what the LinkStation takes care
of, it allows to be streamed directly?

Do you live anywhere near Orange County Calif., ?? You mentioned Frys. I
dount they are indigenous to California but hey, worth asking.


Thanks,
Shawn

"Shawn B." <leabre@html.com> wrote in message
news:vgRQf.46079$F_3.27897@newssvr29.news.prodigy. net...
I guess you meant 1TB, not 1GB. I would hope the new
versions would allow you to replace a bad drive. The one I have
has a section in the manual with pictures and everything. The
replacement drive needs to be compatible with the others but
that's all.

a limited firmware server built into them. It's called PCast. The new
models may use another UPnP compatible server. As long as the
TeraStation is powered on and plugged into the LAN, It will appear
on the LinkTheater Login list ( more accurately the Media Share of
the TeraStation) There is no need to have a PC even turned on,
much less accessing the media, to have it play on the LinkTheater.

The impact of streaming a file, on available bandwidth, is much
less than that of copying the same file to another drive. Next time
you play a file off your DVD Drive, watch the indicator light on
the drive. Then copy the file to your hard drive and watch the
light. When copying the light should flicker, when playing the file
the light should be going off for a period of time. Playing is
streaming. You are using more total bandwidth, in the scenario
you described but it would not be in a manner that should effect
playback.


I live in the center of Texas, San Antonio. Fry's is/was listed as
a retailer on the www.buffalotech.com web site.

Luck;
Ken

Maybe its just me, but this seems to be more complicated than it needs to
be. I started using AutoGK and for a while it seemed great... Nero Recode
requires 866+ MB for decent quality when recoding a DVD (45 minutes worth),
AutoGK needed 320MB for the same file and looked flawless (and the volume 5x
louder)... but as I started watching my movies encoded from AutoGK, I see
that about every 5-8 seconds frame skip, its almost as if its trying to keep
up. I doubt it is stressing the LinkTheater as it has no problems stream
raw 7GB DVD @ 9.5 Mbps and this isn't even 1/10th of that... when I view it
in media player and nero showtime I can't recognize the same anomalies.
This is an AMD-64 1GB Ram, the CPU isn't even at 2% when playing back the
video it created.

Anyway, when you use AutoGK, do you notice the same anomalies? I try using
videoredo, which is good for joining, but doesn't sync frames on AVI and MP4
files. I google for another that does and don't see anything obvious.

I wouldn't mind just using larger files since it is so painless but for
widescreen, I lose the 16:9 ratio and it becomes 4:3 which is painful on the
eyes and the LinkTheater, when in Full Screen or Actual Size, doesn't
display it correctly unless I recode it into AVI or MP4 but then I get the
skipping.

Maybe its just me and I should give up.

Thanks,
Shawn

Fry's started in Sunnyvale. I believe that they have an Anaheim
location.

Cheers...

"Mark Burns" <marcus520520@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1142336800.813426.50230@i40g2000cwc.googlegro ups.com...

Several in Arizona (Mesa) etc since the family also owned a grocery store
chain (now taken over by Krogers).

In LA alone, there are many locations (Woodland Hills, Burbank, Hawthorne to
name a few).

That's interesting. I live near the Anaheim location (and Fountain Valley,
each are about 15 minutes drive from me - I'm in the middle). I always
wondered if the grocery store chain I see in Arizona was the same company,
same name and the logo looks similar.


Thanks,
Shawn

On 3/15/2006, Shawn B. managed to type:
The grocery store chain was started in the SF Bay Area a long time ago,
but Randy Fry, a son of the founder, decided to branch out, and opened
an electronics store in Sunnyvale instead of a grocery store. Around
the mid to late 70s, IIRC. I assume the grocery store origin has a lot
to do with the Cokes, aspirins, candy, and other non-electronic stuff.

The original store has moved twice as it grew, and of course the chain
has grown, first around the Bay Area, then to other parts of the state
and to other states.

Randy Fry contributes to such things as San Jose's ballet company as
well.

The above details are subject to inaccuracies, of course. Like is Randy
Fry a son or a grandson of the founder? How about any siblings? Are
there any Fry's groceries left?

I also shopped at Radio Shack when there was only one Radio Shack
store. I still remember a bin labeled "Geranium Diodes" :-) That in
spite of the fact that it was more or less across the street from
Boston University, IIRC.

Gino

--
Gene E. Bloch (Gino)
letters617blochg3251
(replace the numbers by "at" and "dotcom")

"Gene E. Bloch" <spamfree@nobody.invalid> wrote in message
news:mn.8b227d63b6ce9327.1980@nobody.invalid...
Giving your age away there, Gene. Both with the one RS and
the flowery diodes.

Luck;
Ken