Asus O!Play - €119

da02uk · 26-10-2009, 10:14 PM

Right, I’ve tried the hdmi audio option and that is equally as bad. I may try either sorting the new network card or ditching it out and see if it makes any odds. Tomorrows job tho, so if anyone has any better idea they will be much appreciated.

Thanks, Dan

da02uk · 26-10-2009, 10:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by next010

How are you playing it over the network through SMB/Samba (windows networking) or over DLNA ?

SMB is not well suited to streaming all kinds of HD media depending on your setup it might be worth trying to stream over DLNA and see if the performance improves, if your on a PC I suggest downloading the demo version of DLNA server Twonky and see how things go.

Edit: Just saw your other post its a Ubuntu server so that means SMB most likely and forget about Twonky. There are linux based DLNA servers but I'm not too familiar with them, I know of Fuppes and PMS (but you need to use latest beta version)

This looks like weeks of reading for my mind to take it all in. It is a Samba share. I'll have a look at DLNA, bedtime reading me thinks.

Thanks for your help this evening.

Dan

next010 · 26-10-2009, 10:22 PM

Well if you encode the movie with x264 using Ripbot264 or Handbrake (the video is HD MPEG-2) you should be able to cut it down to size so it streams properly over SMB on your Ubuntu server.

But that will take time and I still think a DLNA server is your best option for streaming raw Blu-ray.

Unless NFS support has been added to the Asus O!Play recently (it sort of does) if it has enable that on your Ubuntu server and that should deliver the network speed to play the file.

da02uk · 26-10-2009, 10:25 PM

One last thing, do you guys get a steady network speed, similar for each video? Or very up and down?

peterk2005 · 26-10-2009, 10:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by da02uk

One last thing, do you guys get a steady network speed, similar for each video? Or very up and down?

I mainly watch mv's of 1080P movies and 720P tv shows, and never experienced any network problem yet. The only video I've seen stuttering is a 35mbit test mkv (a clip of millions of flying birds).

NX3 · 27-10-2009, 7:53 AM

XBMC has a UPNP server built in or I'd recommend Mediatomb from your Ubuntu server. Others on this forum have reported smoother playback over UPNP than from network shares.
MediaTomb - Free UPnP MediaServer

emporer · 27-10-2009, 10:18 AM

I see a new f/w 1.13P is available via the Asus forums, will try this tonight to see if it fixes the HDMI issue with Sony tv's as mine wont go any higher than 480p and with no sound!
It now internally decodes DTS HDMA and can send out via mutli channel LPCM which should please alot of peeps.

da02uk · 27-10-2009, 12:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NX3

XBMC has a UPNP server built in or I'd recommend Mediatomb from your Ubuntu server. Others on this forum have reported smoother playback over UPNP than from network shares.
MediaTomb - Free UPnP MediaServer

I've already had a go at MediaTomb but without success. I'll have another go. Is it worth uninstalling the Samba server first?

da02uk · 27-10-2009, 9:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NX3

XBMC has a UPNP server built in or I'd recommend Mediatomb from your Ubuntu server. Others on this forum have reported smoother playback over UPNP than from network shares.
MediaTomb - Free UPnP MediaServer

Do I have to run the update on the O!Play unit then?

NX3 · 27-10-2009, 10:30 PM

do you mean firmware updates ? if so then yes its a good idea. version 1.11P is the official release and 1.13 is on the ftp so still beta I presume.

dec-pvr · 27-10-2009, 10:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by da02uk

The server is my old machine with Ubuntu running on it, what a learning curve that has been, very very steep!
I've bought a new gigabit network card for it that should allow me to 'wake on lan', but i havent managed to make it work yet. The existing link is via the mainboard, but that is defo gigabit. Maybe i could take the new out all together incase there is some conflict or something?

Cheers, Dan

Are you able to post the specs for your Ubuntu server? The only reason I ask is to be sure it is up to the task (it depends on how old your machine is!).

I wouldn't have thought it would struggle streaming the data, but you shouldn't be having any other issues as you have a hard-wired network connection.

Also in your previous post when you said it was working fine over USB, did you mean the Blu-Ray rip or DVD rips? If it's the Blu-Ray that's fine over USB then I guess the only thing holding you back is either how you stream/serve the video (SMB, NFS, UPNP etc) or the age of your machine.

That way you have eliminated the O!Play as being the culprit.

Oh, and I think you don't need to update your O!Play (I think emporer was just saying that in regards to issues he's been having with HDMI & his TV), just try installing Mediatomb on your Ubuntu box and see if that improves playback.

NX3 · 28-10-2009, 7:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dec-pvr

Oh, and I think you don't need to update your O!Play

Firmware updates add new features and includes various bug fixes. So while you don't have to update it's probably a useful thing to do for most people. I would recommend waiting for the official releases rather than the beta on the ftp unless you have a specific problem that needs an urgent fix.

From another forum with regards to firmware 1.13

New features & fixes:
- HDMI LPCM MULTI CH - multi channel for PCM output. Internally decodes DTS-HD MA.

- Turning on the 1080P 24Hz option no longer results in *.flv displaying a blank screen.

- Faster navigation(response time) in between folders.

- ID3 tag for FLAC files are fixed

New/remaining bugs:
- HDMI RAW still does not pass through DTS-HD MA into my receiver! Using HDMI RAW option will result in extraction of the DTS core instead (aka down-sampled).

- HDMI LPCM MULTI CH option will result in FLAC files with DTS track not played at all. Had to use the HDMI RAW and let my receiver decode the DTS tracks.

- Audio & video not synchronized for certain *.flv files, need to stop and resume playback to get it right again.

dec-pvr · 28-10-2009, 11:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NX3

Firmware updates add new features and includes various bug fixes. So while you don't have to update it's probably a useful thing to do for most people. I would recommend waiting for the official releases rather than the beta on the ftp unless you have a specific problem that needs an urgent fix.

Oh I agree - I was still writing my post when yours came up! I just meant that da02uk didn't have to upgrade the firmware to use Mediatomb.

da02uk · 28-10-2009, 12:39 PM

I think i will try the unit again this evening as is for now.

Last night i managed to install mediatomb properly.
I thought i would remove Samba, in doing so lost my TightVNC viewer and putty links. Which was not nice. I managed to get on the server pc but only via its ipaddress rather than my server name - which was very strange. I reloaded Samba but cannot log in using the server name anymore. I'll get there eventually with a bit of luck.
I've only just started using Ubuntu, having no linux experiance whatsoever, just felt like a challenge, and what a challenge it is.

I thought that the upnp stuff was only available on the 1.11 update (which i havent got yet)? I'll O!Play things by ear and just try to get them talking, if not will go for the 1.11 update and see how things progress.

Cheers for your help, its much appreciated.

NX3 · 28-10-2009, 4:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by da02uk

I thought that the upnp stuff was only available on the 1.11 update (which i havent got yet)?

Correct, you'll need to update to 1.11 or higher.

NX3 · 28-10-2009, 6:19 PM

Updated to 1.13P with no issues. Stuff I've noticed...

1, Browsing is so much faster over network (not UPNP)
2, ID3 tags are working more often than not though quite often I get random chinese characters which various players on Vista don't show me, its all English.
3, Shared folders for "guest" now under Vista now work! I guess Windows 7 also.
4, Logging in to Vista even with the correct details doesn't work, this was the work around for sharing not working so not a big deal now.
5, MOV files that are MP4 now work (from my camera, don't think they worked before)
6, You can view photos under movie option, saves switching modes.
7, Photo has 'Ken Burns effect' Ken Burns Effect - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Odd things....
mpeg1 and 2 don't play from my NAS over the network but using a UPNP server e.g PMS, with no transcoding just file streaming they play fine.

Some of these might have been in update 1.11 bar the top 3.

da02uk · 28-10-2009, 6:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NX3

Correct, you'll need to update to 1.11 or higher.

Well I've got MediaTomb working, I can even see the web GUI on my laptop and access the files from there. The O!Play wont see it at all, i'm a little bit lost now? Could any of the other services running on the server be interfering?

Would it be worth installing the PMS instead of MediaTomb?

da02uk · 28-10-2009, 7:11 PM

In fact, all it does when selecting UPnP is reboot. I've scoured the Asus forums and it seems other have experianced this but i cant see a positive fix? NX3 are you a psoter on the ASUS forum? Do you use PMS from your (linux) NAS?

NX3 · 28-10-2009, 7:41 PM

I run PMS from Vista, yes I'm Asus forums. Which version of the firmware are you running ? 1.11 or 1.13 ?

Try using a UPNP client on your laptop rather than the Web GUI to test it is working ok at the source end.

dec-pvr · 28-10-2009, 10:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NX3

Correct, you'll need to update to 1.11 or higher.

My apologies, I didn't realise that da02uk wasn't already on v1.11!

Lockhart99 · 29-10-2009, 11:29 AM

Can you use a USB wireless adapter with the box? How do you think it compares to the new WDTV live unit? I have seen the trusted reviews review and a terrible one on Asus O!Play HDP-R1 review from TechRadar UK's expert reviews of Media streaming devices

Reading through this thread seems like most issues have been sorted. Connecting to windows networks is a biggy for me as have a lot of media stored on mine as well as NAS unit.

I saw a mention of Iplayer use, is this via a PC, as no web facility on this box, or am I misreading something?

Thanks in advance :-)

NX3 · 29-10-2009, 11:51 AM

USB, not yet but I got a router with DD-WRT and used it as bridge and it worked fine.

Connecting to Windows shares is all working fine from 1.13 firmware.

"I saw a mention of Iplayer use, is this via a PC, as no web facility on this box, or am I misreading something?"
Correct to access iPlayer you need to run a UPNP server with trancoding ability like PlayOn or TVersity. The O!play current has no web access facility built in.

da02uk · 29-10-2009, 7:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NX3

I run PMS from Vista, yes I'm Asus forums. Which version of the firmware are you running ? 1.11 or 1.13 ?

Try using a UPNP client on your laptop rather than the Web GUI to test it is working ok at the source end.

Right then, the UPnP client is working just fine on the laptop. Does this mean i've goosed the O!Play? It still works exactly as before on the network connection, over the samba share. I have the 1.07P firmware downloaded and available. I'm now running the 1.11P and can get the 1.13P firmwares.
Is it possible to go down the firmwares, thought i'd read somewhere that it couldn't (may even have been an ASUS document). Should i reset to defaults and try 1.13P? What have i got to lose?

da02uk · 29-10-2009, 11:30 PM

Final update, hopefully, it works!
I did the 1.13 firmware upgrade, but first reset to defaults, and now UPnP works flawlessly. I'm so pleased, it was only last night I was thinking of dumping ubuntu and putting xp on.
Thanks for all your help and patience, dan

NX3 · 30-10-2009, 7:38 AM

hehe glad your sorted

da02uk · 31-10-2009, 8:28 PM

Is it possible to edit MKV files?
With films that are spread over two discs, can i MakeMKV and then join them with a bit chopped of the end of disk1 and the beginning of disk2?
Anything recommended?

Cheers

NX3 · 31-10-2009, 8:53 PM

Handbrake can remux.

next010 · 01-11-2009, 10:09 AM

avidemux is an easy to use editor with the ability to cut off and join video streams however it has limited mkv support, still worth a try. I think virtualdub is the usual method of editing.

When you open a file in Avidemux, go to file append to open the next one so it treats it as a single movie. Select A/B as you cut points, select format MKV and then select file-save as to save changes

energy80s · 01-11-2009, 7:40 PM

Well, finally got my O!Play on Friday after a lot of messing about from Amazon. Ended up using CCL and got it for £83 delivered. So far I'm very impressed with it. It has played every file I've thrown at it - including raw MPEG files from BBC Redux and some camcorder 720p .mov files - and the DVD menus are a Godsend after being used to the WDTV just refusing to play them.

The interface is very rough and ready - like going back to DOS - but at least it works and works quickly. Hopefully there will be some improvements there in the future.

Photo playback is excellent, unlike the WDTV and quick navigation is possible between shots as required, with about a second of a delay between each photo (and that is with 9mp images).

Audio playback is very poor (although it can play plenty of formats) with just the most basic screen available - in fact it's more like a file preview than an actual playback screen. More work needed there.

Overall I am very impressed and happier than I was with the WDTV. As both media players cost about the same, I would recommend the Asus over the WDTV.

NeilF · 01-11-2009, 9:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by energy80s

Photo playback is excellent, unlike the WDTV and quick navigation is possible between shots as required, with about a second of a delay between each photo (and that is with 9mp images).

There a issue/bug with the XTreamer. When viewing a picture (fullscreen), the slideshow starts. You press Stop to stop the slideshow. If you then move to the next/prev image (full screen) the slideshow starts again... So you're battling with the slideshow which is trying to start up over and over...

Out of interest, does the Asus behave this way?

Here's a video of the XTreamer moving through 3-5mb images. How would you say the Asus compares speed wise?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFXaK3xJ1GE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzCZHagVn1g

Same images resized down to 1080p (100-300K), via a batch script.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1x0-x6jQRM