Ceton extender beta shipping in Sept

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Skybolt

I'm not throwing in the towel just yet, if you massage those specs a little you can turn them into MKV and VOB support. The problem is what version of h.264 is really supported, meaning the bit rate of the stream.

Like cncb said, you can't massage DTS in there, or VC-1. Now I'm not throwing in the towel yet. It could be that the listed codecs are the ones it decodes, and that it can pass other formats (DTS, DTS-HD, TrueHD) and that WMV9 means VC-1. But I would think after all the talk and questioning they could have got that right in their release/email.

I for one don't want to use an xbox in my HT, anymore then I want to use my PS3 for 3D BD. Even though it is an awesome BD player. I keep the xbox and the PS3 behind a closed door (recently) to shield the noise and looks.

Originally Posted by Skybolt

You won't be saying that when your cable co changes thier flags and everything but locals go CopyOnce. As mine did afer more then a year of wide open. I'm more or less stuck with WMC, despite how much I love sage and as you said on AVS, Sage just looks more awesome everyday for most anyway.

Yeah, well my cableco is a small local one and they advertise their HD as free and clear, and there's only one encrypted channel I'm even moderately interested in (well there's BBCA too, but that's not HD from them so I just get Doctor Who and Top Gear from Amazon).

And if they do start encrypting and flagging everything, I'll probably just eat the ETF on the TV drop it (keep the fiber internet) and sign up for Dish with a Hopper or DTV with an HR34 and drop this whole PC DVR shemozzle.

Well, I may switch to WMC if that happens, and if so an Echo would work, but I'd still be getting a Dune or the like at that point for my movies. That or break down and just spring for a Kaleidescape, or resign myself to putting discs in the player.

On a tangent, I've perused TGB.tv and I find it interesting that there's basically no negative comments about the released specs on the Echo, everyone there who's posted just seems thrilled with it. Maybe that explains why WMC sucks, WMC users are happy with crap?

[Skybolt]

Originally Posted by cncb

You can't massage DTS support in there...

Well you kind of can. "Dolby Digital AC-3" but you can't massage "TrueHD" sadly enough ...

[stanger89]

I'm not sure how, AC3 is Dolby Digital, DTS is DCA, DCA != AC3. That and VC-1 is not necessarily WMV9.

[panteragstk]

Reading the specs, it seems like these are just as limited as the old WMC extenders that came out years ago. You'd think technology would progress in that many years, not stay exactly the same.

[drewg]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

Reading the specs, it seems like these are just as limited as the old WMC extenders that came out years ago. You'd think technology would progress in that many years, not stay exactly the same.

It tends to point to a lack of support in the media center client/server protocol for handling anything but a limited set of codecs and containers. As suggested earlier, maybe they can get around this with some kind of side-car mechanism.

Drew

[Skybolt]

Originally Posted by stanger89

I'm not sure how, AC3 is Dolby Digital, DTS is DCA, DCA != AC3. That and VC-1 is not necessarily WMV9.

Yeah, that is a direct quote from thier spec sheet. I wasn't trying to suggest that they were the same, just that is seemed wierd that thier spec is written that way. Leads one to interpret a lot.

[Skybolt]

Originally Posted by stanger89

... On a tangent, I've perused TGB.tv and I find it interesting that there's basically no negative comments about the released specs on the Echo, everyone there who's posted just seems thrilled with it. Maybe that explains why WMC sucks, WMC users are happy with crap?

You left out the MS sites as well, everyone thinks WMC is "all that".

We have gotten spoiled with Sage over the years, it seems. While the rest of the world still marvels at TiVo ...

[Skirge01]

Originally Posted by Skybolt

You left out the MS sites as well, everyone thinks WMC is "all that".

We have gotten spoiled with Sage over the years, it seems. While the rest of the world still marvels at TiVo ...

This commercial could easily be reworked for SageTV versus WMC.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by Skybolt

While the rest of the world still marvels at TiVo ...

You mean that new fangled tapless VCR?

[reggie14]

I was planning on buying 3 of them, but now I'm thinking I won't buy any. Maybe I'll wait and see what the TiVo IP set top box does. I might switch to that along with some media streamers.

[Skybolt]

Originally Posted by Skirge01

This commercial could easily be reworked for SageTV versus WMC.

As long as you pick the S III, then I agree. The S III blows the 5 away IMHO, with about the same difference as WMC and Sage, you're so right!

[Skybolt]

Originally Posted by reggie14

I was planning on buying 3 of them, but now I'm thinking I won't buy any. Maybe I'll wait and see what the TiVo IP set top box does. I might switch to that along with some media streamers.

Yep, was hoping for a few myself. Looks like I will be getting one to test and see how it goes, can't be much worse then the xbox - I hope.

[cncb]

Originally Posted by Skybolt

We have gotten spoiled with Sage over the years, it seems.

It is amazing and sad that nobody can seem to develop an "extender" device with the same capabilities that the small Sage company was able to. I would like to again extend my most sarcastic thanks (and perhaps a specific finger) to Google for ruining this for us.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by cncb

It is amazing and sad that nobody can seem to develop an "extender" device with the same capabilities that the small Sage company was able to. I would like to again extend my most sarcastic thanks (and perhaps a specific finger) to Google for ruining this for us.

I was thinking the same. Maybe there is some limitation in WMC that we don't know about? It really doesn't make sense that this isn't a simpler thing to accomplish. Plex is free and they managed to make a client/server model with an app that can install on a number of devices. I just don't get it.

[Skybolt]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

I was thinking the same. Maybe there is some limitation in WMC that we don't know about? It really doesn't make sense that this isn't a simpler thing to accomplish. Plex is free and they managed to make a client/server model with an app that can install on a number of devices. I just don't get it.

Yeah, and get into a few TV sets as well. In another year I am thinking Plex will be offerd in almost every IP device going. Which I don't really get, Plex isn't that great IMO.

[Biggen]

Well unless there are more specs to be released, the Echo will be a complete dud as far as I'm concerned. I don't need a crippled HD-300 that can't read .MKV's or handle TrueHD/DTS-MA (although if it can pass it through that *should* be ok).

I haven't gotten my invoice yet so I still have time to decide but Ceton is going to have to jump into the AVS thread and give us "something" to work with to make me buy this thing. Not sure why they haven't posted in there today. Especially with us locals getting restless.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by Skybolt

Yeah, and get into a few TV sets as well. In another year I am thinking Plex will be offerd in almost every IP device going. Which I don't really get, Plex isn't that great IMO.

Plex is a good idea, but it's far from a complete solution.

[Skybolt]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

Plex is a good idea, but it's far from a complete solution.

Yeah, I tried to make it work for with a Roku, but there isn't much there in terms of file support, and I could get the fanart working that good either.Yet everyone seems to love it.

[IVB]

man i hate plex, doesn't want to stay running on my W7 box, always crashing. Plus I don't think it'll stream DVDs to my roku.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by IVB

man i hate plex, doesn't want to stay running on my W7 box, always crashing. Plus I don't think it'll stream DVDs to my roku.

Nothing will stream dvd's that are in vob format. I can get it to run, but there seems to be a NAT issue because it won't present itself anywhere outside the network. I don't use it much, so it doesn't matter, but still.