C200 pre-purchase questions.....

[sachaj]

So my unRAID server build is nearing completion and it's time to start thinking about network media players. Initially my two main contenders were the Dune HD line and the PCH C200 but I'm thinking of dropping the Dune's from the list. They seem to have some issues with playing ISO's across a network and the company itself seems more interested in new models rather than getting the current ones to work properly.

So it's looking like the C200 is top of my list but I still have a few questions.

1) If I have a BluRay ROM fitted, I believe I can make the player region free with a software change for BluRay and firmware change for DVD. Will I have to make the player region free each time there is a firmware upgrade?

2) How does the player handle non region 2 ISO's (DVD or BluRay)? Most of my collection is R2 but I have quite a few R1's. I'm currently ripping my collection straight to ISO with the full contents of the disc using AnyDVD. Will the player be able to play all my rips from different regions? (PS. I've not yet ripped an R1 movie to ISO so not even sure how AnyDVD will handle that, if it even can get past the region lock on my PC ROM)

3) I suppose the main attraction of the C200 is the full BluRay ISO support. I believe the A210 can handle menus to a certain extent, just not as flashy. Tell me, how does the A210 handle TV show BluRay ISO's? I.E. A situation where you have multiple episodes on the one disc. Do you get a menu where you can choose an episode to watch? Granted the other big attraction with the C200 is that you can add a ROM but surely that would never be as good as a stand alone player? And for just over £100, a half decent standalone BluRay player is not that expensive.

4) If I decided to go for the A210, is the ISO picture quality the same as the C200? I know they should be but that doesn't mean it actually is when in action. Are the only differences between the two the optional BluRay ROM and BluRay ISO menu support? There are no uprated components in the C200 or any other reason to go for the more expensive model?

5) My receiver is an Arcam AVR350 which cannot process audio through HDMI. Can the C200 send audio down the coax or optical at the same time as the HDMI? For that matter can it also send the video down the components and stereo outs at the same time as the HDMI and coax/optical? Basically are all outputs live at the same time? I ask as I want to route the HDMI to my projector and the components/stereo to the TV. I'd like not to have to select which outputs are live depending on what display I'm using. (I.E. Another thing to annoy the wife....)

6) Where is the best place to buy the C200 if it comes to it. I don't want to go direct and risk VAT charges etc. Pixmania seem to be the cheapest.

7) With the A210 just released, what are the chances of something like a C210 coming out? I'd hate to spend a small fortune (to me) only for an updated model to come out within a month or two.

8) What is the remote really like? I read that quite a lot are not that happy with it. Is it worth the extra tenner or so to buy the IR one?

Any info would be greatly appreciated. It's a tough business trying to find the most appropriate player!

[dvbuljan]

I must say. I have bougt the C200 after owing Dune BD Prime 3.0 and i'm not nearly impressed with a player performance.
I have own Dune player one short period and never had any problems with it as I can remember. Player performed well and stable. After my home cuircuit brakedown I have to buy a new player and after reading a Hi-Jack recommendations and few posts on this forum I decided to go for C200.
This is a good player don't get me wrong but with a quite few issues.
The player is full of features that Dune don't have in it such as Youtube and Shoutcast internet radio and that's OK. But my main interest are HD movies. C200 performed well in this area either and a popup menu for mkv files is real nice feature and NMJ has potential but... I'm really anoyed with the fact that you can't have one unified film wall regardless from what source you are watching (mounting problem). That was natural thing in Dune with Zappiti or Yadis.
Also with a more features came more hickups and bugs. More than anyone would like. In the end you spend lots of time browsing NMT forum trying to get thins right and in the and you have to restart the player every so often to enable sound etc.
Right now I'd go for the simple but reliable player like Dune because it is a finished product and you know what to expect. C200 is box of chocolate but unfinished box of chocolate! Dune is simple family right in your face player and I like it.

[Hi-Jack]

Not sure I'm willing to agree deeply with your comments there... There are no issues with HD playback and browsing can be done in a similar way as with HDI (list browsing) or by NMJ. Yadis and other software are tools not from HDI but they are good and exist for NMT as well (Yamj and other HTML based solutions)

My biggest issue with your comments is stating HDI are finished products. They are not. They are easy but suffer from their own instabilities, reboots, broken DVD playback and then some at this time.

Admit, they are quite a bit easier to handle than C-200 from PCH at this stage which is one thing we'd like PCH to address in the future and they started off quite well by supporting NTFS read/write as the firast (before others following them) and the NMJ stuff now... It is not fully ready but easily is the most flexible interface at the time and all tools come with practically the same amount of labor prepping them...

[dvbuljan]

I'm not talking about navigating files in player itself cause it is the same in both player. I'm talking about scrapers and indexers. C200 has its own (NMJ) and few from the users (YAMJ...) and user made for the Dune (Yadis, Zappiti). But the fact is that in C200 you have to make separate index for every share. In YAMJ there is a possibility to make one unified index but there is a problem with starting movie from multiple sources of the same type (eg NAS, USB...) and with Dune this not an issue.

[Hi-Jack]

That's true :-) It's one of the shortcomings we tackled in our first hands on and it will becomes possible in V2 to select folder levels and share levels.... Aggregating is one of the shortcomings they must find to address. The reason others can do this is because they store a central repository to read from whereas NMJ stores a DB in the root of the share with the content.

They both ahve benefits. Aggregating could mean if the source is not available a lot of movies are unavailable and still listed whuile browsing. This would not happen by loading content from each share when accessing it... They both have their benefits...

We'll see a lot more progress on these systems in 2011 hopefully...
At least integrating music and TV-Series is a benefit for NMJ also... For a decent tool to work with NMJ, take a look at MyMovies.dk

[dvbuljan]

But I wonder would it be possible to use Yadis or Zappiti on PCH? Both Dune and PCH are Linux based and have same processor? Or...?

[silvom]

Take a look at this one : http://www.networkedmediatank.com/showthread.php?tid=42467&page=1
Very simple and muuuch better then NMJ (at this stage of NMJ)
I am very happy with it - also with excellent support by the author !!!

[dvbuljan]

What is the difference from the regular YAMJ with Aeon skin? Does this jukebox resolve the problem of mounting disks from the same source type?

[silvom]

As far as I know , there is a script available on CSI apps to help with this issue.

[dvbuljan]

And what program is that?

[dvbuljan]

I have used cm0s solution in multple mounting shares thread and it is working. Sad that a user must find his own solution for the feature that had to be there in the first place.

[vedran1980]

I have used cm0s solution in multple mounting shares thread and it is working. Sad that a user must find his own solution for the feature that had to be there in the first place.

Can you please gave the link of that thread? Thanks