BluRay Drives/Burners

Malcolm · Post by **Malcolm** » Sat Jun 13, 2009 11:11 pm

TPRJones wrote:He looks and sounds very very familiar for some reason. I swear I know that person. Or his doppelganger.

Shit, I think that dozens of times everyday. Then again, I'm convinced that there's a finite number of ways the human brain configures itself.

Post by **TPRJones** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 9:06 pm

Does anyone have a UPnP controller? I think it may be possible to set up my iStar so that anyone with a UPnP controller (including - but not limited to - another UPnP enabled NMT) could access it across the internet. That might be fun.

Post by **GORDON** » Wed Jun 17, 2009 11:59 pm

Yeah, OK, an 8GB .mkv file will stream over my network and play on my PC on Windows Media Center (with a downloaded codec patch, that is...).

Question: 1080P is the same video quality whether from a BluRay disk, or a ripped .mkv file, right? On the disk the video of the movie is greater than 8GB, and this .mkv file is 8GB video AND audio. So what's been lost?

Edited By GORDON on 1245297669

Post by **TheCatt** » Thu Jun 18, 2009 12:16 am

The MKV is compressed, so while it's still 1080p, lots of pixel information is left out.

Like a 3 minute song is still 3 minutes when it's an mp3.

Post by **GORDON** » Thu Jun 18, 2009 1:58 am

Yes, and I can tell the difference between a 128mhz mp3, and a 256mhz mp3, usually.

Post by **GORDON** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 2:05 pm

Coincidentally, PC Gamer this month has a review of Western Digital's (HP's? Forgetting at the moment) media center. They like it, but.... I'd really go with the NMT community's opinions over PC Gamer's. But I still respect PC Gamer's opinion. They just specialize in games/gaming hardware.

Post by **TPRJones** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 3:46 pm

So far I love my NMT.

When you get right down to it it's just a Media PC on specialized hardware with a particular interface. You could shove the same software onto a home-built box. Or use different software. Whatever.

I like the NMT, though, because it's fast-booting and it does everything without having to fight it to get it to work right.

Post by **GORDON** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 4:51 pm

How fast does yours power-on to where you can do anything with it?

Post by **TPRJones** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 7:12 pm

I just timed it: 40 seconds from power on to ready to go.

Keep in mind that it's really meant to be an always-on device. I'm turning it off with an X-10 controller during the day because ... well, I don't know. Habit, I guess. I like things to really be off if they have nothing to do for an extended period of time.

As I load more media into it and start to really use it as a media server, I'll probably stop turning it off at all.

Post by **GORDON** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 7:51 pm

I'm with you on the "I like things powered down when unused for long periods of time." PC's get shut off at night, etc. Especially when it is 90 degrees out and I am paying to cool the inside air... I don't like having 5 little electronic space heaters working against me.

Post by **TPRJones** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 8:15 pm

I leave things on overnight (I use my computer as my alarm clock), but when I'm off to work my AC backs off to 80, so things get shut down that might not like heat.

Post by **TPRJones** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 4:45 pm

New NMT wrinkle: It can run an attached USB DVD player, but it can't handle CSS encryption. Which is on nearly ever commercial DVD. This doesn't effect my playing DVDs I own (because I'm pirating copies of everything I own so I have it digitally in my library). But I still have to have a regular DVD player for stuff from Netflix.

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Post by **GORDON** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 5:04 pm

Lovely. No firmware updates to take care of that?

Also, is this a big issue? Just run the DVD player separately?

Post by **TPRJones** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 9:29 pm

Not an issue for me, as physical DVDs are not a format I use much outside of the occasional Netflix rental. Mostly I'm watching digital downloads these days.

I wasn't able to find any information about plans to make it doable in the future. I suspect there's something about the intersection of DRM and NMTs that is still on the edge of legality so that they may not want to risk doing it. An NMT is basically a torrent device, after all.

If having your main digital delivery device do DVDs is important to you, avoid an NMT and go for a media center PC.

Post by **GORDON** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 11:06 pm

It wouldn't really bug me because my receiver has 3 HDMI-in ports and a couple of everything else. The tank would be on my one remaining HDMI. I just need to hit a button on my remote to change the source when I need to watch the physical media.

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Post by **TPRJones** » Thu Mar 25, 2010 5:30 pm

Update: The NMT has been okay, but I'm dumping it. As I get older, though, I like things to be better designed, slicker, and easier to use. I want Boxee. So I bought an Apple TV - which came in today - and will be installing Boxee on it later tonight. This'll be fun!

Post by **GORDON** » Thu Mar 25, 2010 6:03 pm

PS3 has been my media tank. Pretty interface, too. We change the colors to match the next holiday.

Fun playing music from the server and watching the visualization on the 61" TV.

Also good for "slide shows" of showing the family the pics from the last vacation.