@Oneill5491 wrote:I discovered that the audio will only play through Optical/Coax or RCA not HDMI for media manager.
That is incorrect. My STB (Home Media DVR) is connected to my receiver via HDMI only and I get both audio and video just fine.
Regarding the new software, don't hold your breaths.
I just got accepted into the beta testing program and the PC software basically gives an new, third, tab for Video Manager. It uses the mkv video player (you have to separately download and install that free video player). It has two modes:
(1) It allows you to locate and add to the library videos resident on your PC (mpg, mpeg, mpv, avi, wmv, I forget what other format files) which you can then access and stream from your STB; and
(2) Internet Video which allows you to search for and stream YouTube videos directly from the internet, with search functions available at your STB.
Function (2) is the only one labelled as "beta", implying that function (1) is "good to go", but I am so far having a GREAT deal of difficulty with the PC video streaming. Some "supported" files cannot be successfully added to the library (but the failures are not consistent- with different results for outwardly similar files), and even is they are added to the library, a good percentage of them fail upon attempted playback via the STB. So I would consider THAT function really "not-ready-for-prime-time" or "beta";
Function (2) seems to work pretty well - for what it is advertised as - you can watch YouTube videos on your TV. I haven't spent much time on this one, but it seems to do what it is supposed to do, and I haven't found any problems with it yet (from very limited testing)
If they make it right, I think it'll be a wonderfull tool, allowing you to play videos from a remote computer, rather than having your Media Center PC colocated with your Home Theater.
Aside from the serious gllitches already mentioned above, I'd say that the quality of teh video passed is not the greatest (but YouTube is not high-res at any rate) so I am still reserving judgment as I get more involved in this beta test.
P.S. and for those who did not realize it, you can install Media Manager on more than one PC on your Home Network and the Home Media DVR should be able to locate all of them and playback photos and audio from each - just remember the name of each PC on your home network so you select the one you want on your STB..
(and I am NOT at liberty to send anybody the beta version of the Home Media PC software, so please don't ask.)
So only youtube for online video, not even hulu or anything?
@CapnTrips wrote:
@Oneill5491 wrote:I discovered that the audio will only play through Optical/Coax or RCA not HDMI for media manager.
That is incorrect. My STB (Home Media DVR) is connected to my receiver via HDMI only and I get both audio and video just fine.
Regarding the new software, don't hold your breaths.
I just got accepted into the beta testing program and the PC software basically gives an new, third, tab for Video Manager. It uses the mkv video player (you have to separately download and install that free video player). It has two modes:
(1) It allows you to locate and add to the library videos resident on your PC (mpg, mpeg, mpv, avi, wmv, I forget what other format files) which you can then access and stream from your STB; and
(2) Internet Video which allows you to search for and stream YouTube videos directly from the internet, with search functions available at your STB.
Function (2) is the only one labelled as "beta", implying that function (1) is "good to go", but I am so far having a GREAT deal of difficulty with the PC video streaming. Some "supported" files cannot be successfully added to the library (but the failures are not consistent- with different results for outwardly similar files), and even is they are added to the library, a good percentage of them fail upon attempted playback via the STB. So I would consider THAT function really "not-ready-for-prime-time" or "beta";
Function (2) seems to work pretty well - for what it is advertised as - you can watch YouTube videos on your TV. I haven't spent much time on this one, but it seems to do what it is supposed to do, and I haven't found any problems with it yet (from very limited testing)
If they make it right, I think it'll be a wonderfull tool, allowing you to play videos from a remote computer, rather than having your Media Center PC colocated with your Home Theater.
Aside from the serious gllitches already mentioned above, I'd say that the quality of teh video passed is not the greatest (but YouTube is not high-res at any rate) so I am still reserving judgment as I get more involved in this beta test.
P.S. and for those who did not realize it, you can install Media Manager on more than one PC on your Home Network and the Home Media DVR should be able to locate all of them and playback photos and audio from each - just remember the name of each PC on your home network so you select the one you want on your STB..
(and I am NOT at liberty to send anybody the beta version of the Home Media PC software, so please don't ask.)
@TimSykes wrote:So only youtube for online video, not even hulu or anything?
To be honest, I don't really know. I have spent most of my time exploring the PC video playback issues (more important to me than Internet streaming is to play back stored videos, home videos, etc.)
I have only marginally touched on the Internet Video function, and noted that YouTube is pre-defined as an option nad that it works. I haven't played around to see if one can personalize that functionality to go explore other sites for videos. I am admitting an embarrassing lack of sophistication by telling you that I have no idea what Hulu is - but I guess I'll go check when I get home - can't stream video at work 😉
hulu.com is a video streaming site that NBC owns. They stream full episodes of shows on there as well as ones from other networks, and even movies. But being that its from NBC its all legal. I would love to see if hulu is supported or even nbc, fox, cw, abc websites. Hell even netflix would me great.
But if its only youtube or break.com type of sites, the internet streaming would be useless for me, but I would still want it for the streaming of my video files from my PC, even thought my xbox, and PS3 does all that already. Can't have to many ways to get my content on my TV.
Thanks for the review, CapnTrips!
I've read someone else's review of the beta MM software (I think on dslreports) and they mentioned something about not being able to do simple navigation on streaming videos. Could you verify on your end if you could in fact, do simple fast forwards, rewinds, etc. Also looking at differing speeds of each?
Thanks!
@JoeK wrote:
Quick Question to anyone who knows. I haven't down loaded MM yet, but I see under 'requirements' that XP is listed but NOT Vista. So Does Media Manager work on Windows Vista?
Yeah I have had it on vista x64
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