Any good as the next MVP??

[mvallevand]

by the way Martin, did you ever make any progress on that Samsung SmartHub app you were pondering?

No I stopped after I installed the Plex app for the Samsung, and was satisfied with how it worked for .ts file playback of recordings. I like the Plex look and feel better, than NextPVR's. If the experimental Web UI goes anywhere it might work with the Samsung browser but right now the Web UI is far too finicky and frustrating for me to bother with.

Martin

[cncb]

I finally got a response and the answer is no for both: it doesn't support dvd rip playback with menus and doesn't support HD audio passthrough via HDMI. Oh well...

[mvallevand]

Yes disappointing, but that is what I suspected. Basically the PCH A110 is the same hardware as HD200 with more licenses and can play more and the MVP-HD is the HD300 with far fewer licenses and it plays less. This a dilemma for sure.

Martin

[cncb]

Does the A110 decode DTS for analog output (as I recall one of the deficiencies of HD200)? I'm trying to decide whether just to get a few second-hand A110s or wait for the Ceton Echo which might have some internet services built in (although I have Blu-ray player for that).

[mvallevand]

Does the A110 decode DTS for analog output (as I recall one of the deficiencies of HD200)? I'm trying to decide whether just to get a few second-hand A110s or wait for the Ceton Echo which might have some internet services built in (although I have Blu-ray player for that).

Yes the A110 (but NOT the A100) does DTS 2.0 downmix. We can't get CableCard in Canada so the Q/Echo isn't very useful, but still it does create CES buzz. I don't think Ceton will be able to compete at the mass market level with TiVo, 7MC/XBox 360, and the coming whole house cable and satellite STB solutions. The Echo is nice but it uses the Windows Embedded and the same embedded ATOM CE4100 that the current Boxee Box and Logitech Revue usess and it is far from a perfect platform going forward. Other big companies have failed building media centre extenders. and whether Ceton has that ability to create great extender firmware and provide Internet content remains to be seen.

I also would have liked to see a Windows on ARM solution, Win8 will likely be out before the Cetons, and I think WOA will be more future proof.

Martin

[cncb]

Since you said that you have to "launch" the A-110 built-in player/interface for videos other than recordings, are you able to save and restore resume points for movies, etc.?

It's too bad that there is not something currently available like the Popbox v8 that can use your previous work for the older PCH devices because it is undesirable having to try to buy these on Ebay with all the "fun" that comes with that...

[cncb]

Well, just as I said that about Ebay I was able to snag 3 A-110s for a good deal. I look forward to essentially returning to a solid Sage-like setup that I had before I cashed out my HD300s.

[Jaggy]

Since you said that you have to "launch" the A-110 built-in player/interface for videos other than recordings, are you able to save and restore resume points for movies, etc.?

Just to be clear it only launches the NMT's built in player for non .ts/.mpg videos..... from Videos it will use the NextPVR player for both recordings & other videos as long as they are .ts/.mpg files....... I can't remember about resume on other formats as I don't have many of them any more as I convert most into .mpgs for convenience.

[mvallevand]

There is a bookmark/resume function on the PCH, and it saves the stop position of the last 10 videos that the native player played (NextPVR handles mpg/ts) that exit with Stop. Of course this is not multi-room. I did develop the functions to read/write this information so that I could interact better with GB-PVR (at the time) but sub didn't want to implement it and since this is (I think) the first mention of it in years, you can't fault sub for not wanting to do it.

As for the Popbox v8, I bought flash and learned a bit of flash programming specifically to support it, I thought it would be an ideal NextPVR client. Unfortunately the 24 second delay for live tv and the zero support from Syabas basically turned that into a waste of dollars and time.

I expect the A110 will be solid and almost as good as the HD300 but certainly not better, there is a reason the HD300's go for $400. used on ebay However I still am open to improving the firmware should you encounter specific problems, something you won't get from Sage.

Martin

[Jaggy]

How's it going with this, Martin? I am watching your work as well as the Ceton and Sage/Google news very closely...

I get it to connect but I need to rebuild my cross-compiler to go further, I am doing that this weekend. 2.3.6 and the YouTube plugin got in the way a bit, am I am also toying around with my CuBox extender design. It's a bit hard to get motivated for the MVP when it does offer me anything more than the challenge of doing it, its more work than fun. Sounds like you might wait anyway, and I sense that SageTV users are generally waiting, which doesn't help get me motivated knowing that there may not be many new adopters of a new platform. I wish that the MVP-HD supported DVD ISO. Martin

I assume this project has been shelved now?? The reason I ask is I almost persuaded a couple of people to try out NextPVR after seeing my setup but with no available extender for them to buy (secondhand A1xx M34a's are like hens teeth down this neck of the woods, but new mvp-hd's are going for NZ$60) they just lost interest & it just fell flat.