Gateway Connected DVD

Gateway's Connected DVD player looks amazing with an impressive feature list. For $199, you get a progressive-scan DVD player, it plays DVDs, VCDs, and MP3 discs, it's got a card slot that accepts wired or wireless connections to put it on your network, and you can stream music, photos, and video from any PC to your TV.

There are a dozen or two products that let you stream photos and music to a TV, but few stream video. I'm moving to a new DirecTivo system in a few weeks and will lose my Home Media Option, so I'm seriously considering this. About my only worry is the PC software required (I'm assuming it's PC-only), and the speed of my wireless home network being fast enough for DiVX streaming. That said, I'm probably going to pick one of these up and will hopefully post a review in a few weeks.

update: after buying one and using it for a month, I posted a full review.

Comments

[Jaime]

Has anyone seen any screen caps of the interface. Does this type of tech require you to install pc side software to share with the device, or is there an file browser on the player itself?

JM

[Matt Haughey]

I was wondering the same thing Jaime, but unfortunately it seems the Gateway site is undergoing a redesign because every link to more information leads to a dead page.

[Graeme Foster]

Supported audio formats
WMA: >48 Kbps
MP3: >80 Kbps

Supported video and image formats
MPEG1: <3 Mbps
MPEG2: <3 Mbps
JPEG/JPG: >25 Kbps

Doesn't sound as useful as it could be :(

[Steve]

Is the interface for playback of audio and video files robust? I often record off of the radio in several hour blocks and wanted to know if it would be difficult to fast-forward though unwanted segments of the recording (as Windows MEdia Player does).

Any comments / experience would be greatly appreciated.

[Jason]

I've had a wireless Connected DVD since 7/15, and I have to admit it is nice to have. Gateway recently posted an updated server software(PC only) and a firmware update for the dvd player(which took 2 loads to work) and with the upgrade it has become more usefull in that it will disply songs now in the order that they are on a cd. as for video the though-put is limited to the 3Mbps so most streams will not work without a bit of a reduction. but I find that the 3Mbps isn't bad as I record my favorite shows on my pc and stream them at just under 3Mbps and it's just like watching tv. also I have ripped some of my DVD's to mpeg2 and for the most part looks just like the DVD. Now about my only problem is getting some more hard drive space. Hope this helps.

[BNT]

Does any know what Ethernet PCcard is compatible with the Gateway Connected DVD player other than the Gateway brand itself? I changed the server to stream > 3 Mbps but the wireless connection could not keep up. I wanted to try the 100 Mbps Ethernet to see if this will improve the play back quality at > 3 Mbps.

[jason]

the only card that is supported is the linksys ethernet (pcm100) or wlan (wpc11) cards to my knowledge. Mine came with the linksys wpc11 card.

[RonVideo]

I just ordered one of these and I also discovered a secret that may allow Divx, playlists, and other expanded features playing. When I get it and try it out I will post the results.

[Aredubya]

My Gateway wireless DVD player arrived yesterday, and thus far, I'm very impressed with the look and feel, although it's not entirely perfect. There were some quirks to the setup I'll share:

- Wireless setup: Make sure your wireless gateway is set up to broadcast its SSID. Without that enabled, I was not able to see the gateway (although I was able to see my neighbor's gateway, no WEP, SSID of "linksys" - nice and secure :) ). Once I did so though, it showed up as a recognized network. Also, if you're using WEP (and you should be), be prepared to enter the WEP key in 26-digit HEX format.

- File importing - Install the Windows-only server software on your PC (I installed under Win2K without issue). Select media on your PC to play through a simple front end to the server. Assuming you've set up your networking properly, you'll be able to see your PC listed under the list of servers.

Play media - In Windows-esque fashion, it breaks down media into user-friendly folder types, "My Music", "My Videos" & "My Photos". "My Music" further categorizes MP3s by basic ID4 tag input (album, artist, genre and "all" for all recognized MP3s). I ran into a snag here were I found that some of my ripped CDs hadn't been set up with proper ID4 tags. As such, a bunch of my MP3s only showed up under the "all" category. I updated their attributes (and confirmed via Winamp that the ID4 info did get updated), but have yet to figure out how to "refresh" the file info on the DVD player itself. I'll post again if I come up with the fix to this.

- MP3 playback - the file quality of my collection varies widely; from 112 to 320KBps (most at 192KBps). The player streamed all of them flawlessly over regular 802.11b (not a or g). I'm using optical audio output to my Philips receiver, and they sound excellent, no doubt about it.

- MPEG playback - As noted, the player will only play MPEGs at 3MBps or lower quality. Most of my own rips are at 3MBps, and look nearly as good as regular DVDs. Some pixilation is expected with lower-quality rips, and I did see that with some crap I'd downloaded to test against.

- WMA playback - Haven't tested any yet, sorry.

- DVD playback - Haven't tested yet, too busy playing through my MP3s :)

- Remote control quirks - No programmable audio control, kinda cheap-feeling. That's a strict contrast to the unit itself, which is a nice shiny silver that matches well with my Sony Tivo V1 :) Playback can only be scrolled through at 10-second intervals using the "rev" and "fwd" buttons, which is a little lame.

- Bottom line - I bought this unit to act as a wireless gateway between my MP3s on my Win2K box and my good stereo system. It has performed very well thus far. For $199 (and free shipping is easy to get - Google for a coupon code), it's easily worth the purchase. I'd rate it a B+, 8 out of 10, 3 out of 4 stars, thumbs up (choose your preferred rating :) )

[Matt Haughey]

Thanks for all the helpful comments, I've just ordered a Gateway connected DVD player based on feedback here. I'll post a full review on this site as a new post, after I've gotten it up and running.

[dos]

Anyone know if the player is capable of streaming internet radio?

[Kevin]

I am getting an error that no servers can be found. I have successfully installed the server software on two different computers and they are running on my wireless network. The dvd player says that I have connected successfully to my Linksys EFW11S4 wireless network as well. Any thoughts?

[Jonathan]

Just got the wired version w/ the Linksys PCM100 card. My router can see the device, and I can ping it, but no matter what I try I get "no servers found." No firewall, no idea what's stopping me. Had the same experience going through my Linksys router (BEFW11S4) and directly connected (via crossover cable) to a second NIC. Server PC is running Win98SE. Thoughts?

FYI, in the fine print of the help files of the updated server software it lists all the PCMCIA cards that are compatible AND all the routers that are apparently compatibile, the BEFW11S4 router is not listed which is why I tried direct connect.

[Arthur Sharpe]

The following cards are compatible according to the help file with the latest Firmware Update and Software Update.
Card Wireless (802.11b) Wired Ethernet (802.3)
Belkin F506020
D-Link DWL-650 DFE-670TXD
Linksys WPC11 ver.3 PCM 100 ver.2
Microsoft® MN-520
NetGear MA401 FA411
ORiNOCO PC Card for Wireless LAN;
Gold CardPC Card for Wireless LAN;
Silver Card
Z-Com XI-325

Copyright © 2003 Digital 5, Inc., ver 1.0 %date

[Jonathan]

Followup from my 11/10 posting:

Installed the server software on my WinXP box and everything worked seamlessly, via the (not explicitly supported) Linksys BEFW11S4 wireless 4-port router (using wired, not wireless). Lesson: don't try this product with Win98SE.

Also: I downloaded the firmware update from Gateway and installed that, for what it's worth. Worth noting the firmware install process alludes to a "skin update" during the install and the latest firmware changes the Gateway logo background and look of the on-TV UI. Maybe someday there will be a hack to customize the skins and get rid of that Gateway logo background and screensaver...

And speaking of updates, definitely get the latest server software update from Gateway as well, it's significantly different (better) than the version that was packaged with my player. Also, you can download and install it for a test drive if you are considering this player and just want to try out the server-side experience first.

First impressions (install hassles aside): very cool, especially considering the price point [aside: I got the UNbundled player--i.e. w/o the PCMCIA network card--at a Gateway store for $149, then found the supported card (Linksys PCM100 in my case) for $39 locally and came out ahead on the overall advertised bundled price of $199]. MP3s sound great (possibly better than my old Dell Digital Audio Receiver), being able to slideshow my digital pictures is a nice bonus (I was really just looking for MP3 capabilty), and streaming MPEG videos have great quality. Oh, and the fact that I got a DVD player out of it is also quite a bonus--DVD quality seems great so far.

Thumbs up, just don't use Win98.

[Tracy Johnson]

I am interested in this item, but have a couple of questions that are not addressed on Gateway's web site. First, has anyone tried this with MAC OSX? Is it compatible, does it work? Secondly, will it stream your playlists from your music software (Itunes) and play slideshows from albums created in iphoto? I already have a SLIMP3 player, which works GREAT with Mac, but I would love to upgrade.

[Matt Haughey]

It has no mac support whatsoever (as far as I can tell -- I own a powerbook and a gateway DVD player). The lamest part is that I can't even get the Gateway server to see my mac's mapped drive on the PC. It only looks at locally stored media.

[alan]

I purchased the Gateway Connected DVD player w/ethernet adaptor last week. Very impressed.

The expandibility of this unit looks very promising.

I am wondering.....

Obviously it communicates with the server, but what about sending much larger and longer communications... like say a DVD?

I'm sure there are other possibilities for upstreaming...

[Alan]

One thing I forgot to add...

I really don't buy the limitation of the data having to be on a hard drive and not a removable media device or network connection.

Until they modify this, is there a way to spoof a local drive for CD-ROM drives and network shares?

What about tunneled drives via VPN?

[newbie]

just a newbie here and i just bought this dvd player and pcm100. my computer's running windows xp. could you tell me on how to set-up these devices?

[Matt Haughey]

Newbie, you might want to start with the instructions, it covers all the basics pretty well.

I'm working on a full review of it, including links to new drivers and software, and talk about how I installed it.

[weimoxer]

What port does the media server run on?? Going to set up firewall and wanted to allow that ports traffic??

[Matt Haughey]

I can't tell offhand (don't have a port scanner installed locally), but you can download the D5 streaming server software and figure out what ports it is running on (and report back here! :).

[Marty]

Is anyone having trouble with this player keeping setup information? I set up the wireless network and other settings and all works fine. I power off and back on again and I have to reset the network, typing in 26 character WEP key is a pain, and toggle the video out to Progressive Componet. Anyone else having this problem? Am I doing something wrong? Is there a solution? I want a turn on and play situation, not a new setup everytime.

After one evening of playing, this is a pretty cool toy. I am a little disappointed with the quality of the jpg displays. The pictures seem to be grainy and stretched. There needs to be some display options on the player. I have not seen these options on the server either.

Is this the only forum for this player? Is there another user group available?

Thanks.

[VFR]

Does anybody know if Gateway will launch any firmware upgrade to support 802.11g cards? If yes, when?

[adampsyche]

Gateway seems to be doing some good things lately, but they never seem to hit the nail on the head (rather on the side, bending it up a little). They have this nice connected DVD player, but why not integrate that into the home theater that they are now selling? Also, there is no explicit support on the connected DVD player for DVD+-R/RW, but there is on the home theater.

It's a great idea, don't get me wrong, and since my PC is no longer right next to my TV, I am tempted to get this product, but it's almost unforgivalbe that they wouldn't incorporate support for VCDs and rewritable DVD media as well. I think I'll wait until the second generation of these products come out.

[donb]

On WinXP, using a removable drive is straightforward.

You need to mount the drive under a fixed-drive path. Example below.

Say your removable drive is M:

Create (say) C:\mnt\mdrive as an empty new folder.

Now do Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Storage -> Disk Management(Local)

Right click on the M: rectangle, and select Change Drive Letters and Paths.

Then select Add, browse to C:\mnt\mdrive, click Okay. All done!

The Gateway Media Server should now be happy with browsing down to C:\mnt\mdrive\ and below.

BUT BE VERY CAREFUL with C:\mnt\mdrive since it will behave in all other respects (deletion, recursive traversal) as the same thing as M: .

[You can probably also get the same result with any NT5+ version of NTFS (e.g. under Win2k but not Win98/ME) by using the "mountvol" command (not too hard), but I haven't verified it.]

[Sass]

VFR,

Ive played VCD's, SVCD's, and all types of recordable DVD other than RAM without an issue so far on my Connected DVD Player. VCD and SVCD are listed as supported on the tech specs. Not sure why it doesnt list the DVD media, but you'll be hard pressed to find a modern DVD drive that doesnt support those.

[alan]

I did some snooping around on the server side software. Looks like there is more capability that listed or features that have yet to be addressed.

If you look at the D5StreamingServerDB.mdb file you will see "URL1" and "URL2" entries under the Media table. Interesting...

Under the Server table you will see "HttpAddress" and "RTSPAddress"

Read the RTSP FAQ and this becomes even more interesting.

http://www.rtsp.org/2001/faq.html

This all relates to how the various media handled between the DVD and the server, but I am wondering if the UR1&2 is meant for something beyond the id3 tags.

The jpgs are streamed using http and the mpeg4's are streamed using RTSP.

[VFR]

Does anybody know how to unlock the DVD player from region 1 to a multi-region player (free region)?

[Chris]

Anyone know if this device plays Divx CD-R's/DVD-R's or is the Divx feature streaming only? Thanks.

[Jay]

There is a file in the Program Files\Digital 5 Streaming Media folder called filter.cfg. This defines the limitations of the bitrates. If you want to watch files with greater bitrate than 3Mbps, then just change it here. Note that it will require more network bandwidth; With a 100Mb switched environment, I'm guessing it will be able to go as high as 10Mbps, although I haven't been able to test it yet. However, when Wireless G support comes along, this will allow wireless users to access greater than 3Mbps video, since the wireless B seems to have issues after turning this above 3Mbps. (Note: I just bought the unit, and I never even installed the software that came wiht it, I went straight to the Gateway website and downloaded the newest version of the server software. Most likely this functionality is not in the software shipped. Make sure you get the latest software and firmware for the latest features e.g. AVI support)

[RD]

I have all of my media stored on a FreeBSD box. I built a playlist pointing to all of this using Winamp and imported it to the server. Next, since this thing does RTSP, I intend to stream directly from the FreeBSD box to the player. Someone mentioned streaming DivX. It doesn't do that. DivX is transcoded to MPEG-2 and then streamed to the player.

[Richard]

Anyone know why there would be a minimum bit rate for the mp3 and wma files? It makes no sense to me right now.

Thanks,

- Richard

[Juc]

Hey, I am curious about the 3MB/s limitation. Is there any way to figure out what speed my DivX files are? I have a ton of full movies that I backed up and encoded with Gordian Knot--divX3.11 (I just started using the newer codecs). They are all 700MB is size. I am not sure if they run at 3MB/s or 6.
Thanks

[jpk]

I got this player a couple of months ago and I like it a lot. I've been wondering about if it will suppport 802.11g in the near future. Anyone know anything? A lot of my videos can't play on the slower network. I have it 2 levels below my router. Music and pictures are great.

[al]

Does anyone know whether this player can browse for mp3's via file hierarchy rather than ID3 tags? Specifically, I have each of my albums in individual folders. what i like to be able to do is to navigate to a folder, and then play all the mp3s in that folder in alphabetical order. Possible?
Thanks, Al

[bsp]

In order to use this I had to disable my firewall (netgear). Any ideas of how to configure a firewall (have it enabled) and still have this work?

[dan]

In order to use this I had to disable my firewall (netgear). Any ideas of how to configure a firewall (have it enabled) and still have this work?

[JRP]

I just got this thing, not bad. I really do hate the way it just start going through pictures when I select one. Anyone know a way to stop this? I just want to look at one picture, is that so wrong! :)

[Frankie]

I bought the wired version .I have had no luck with divx and have a strange issue with media server software.I cannot access avi files the tab is grayed out.I can load on win 2k machine and be ablw to see avi's and everything works but on winxp no luck.

[Todd]

If you want to use wireless g, just buy a wireless bridge and stick an ethernet card in the back of the dvd player. Hook them together, and you should have a wireless 54 Mbps connection.

[DJ]

I just installed the connected DVD and have a few questions. Everything appears to be working properly from a DVD player and JPG player perspective, however, I am confused about a couple things...

1. All of my MP3 have album cover art associated with them but that information is not being shown on the TV during playback (salesperson said the player would do this). I can't find any mention of album art in the user guide. Anyone have any suggestions?

2. When the MP3s were imported many of them were imported twice. I don't have several versions of MP3s on my hard drive. I use Tag & Rename to edit them and there are no duplicates.

[Mookie]

You guys should take this entire conversation over to the Linux-Hacker.net I-Appliance BBS!

The folks over there have been hacking internet appliances and other connected devices for a loooooong time.

A good place to contact lots of knowledgeable people who will be glad to help you out.

[I like big speakers]

just got this DVD players. I have a couple things to add:

1) I tried two G card:s lynksis and SMC, and both of them did not work. There was no firmware upgrade for my specific model. I downloaded that update someone was talking about in the previous post anyway and installed. It did not help. The led lights on the card did not even light up.

2) I had a linksys G usb adapter on my desktop and a G D-link 624 wireless router. I found that a change to a B usb adaptor would intorduce delays into the movies. So try to use G as much as you can. I have tested a few things and G usb adapater and G router worked the best. I have also found that if you up bit rate limits in filters.cfg file even if you are playing video file with a bit rate lower than 3mbps, it still increase file quality even when you pplaying everything on a B network.

3) Video quality is ok. I bought primarily to listen to music and it work fantatically for that.

4) You can also play movies from removable drives. Thanks to the person who pointed it out in the forum. It was tested and it worked good.

My question: Would it be possible to stream video from my dektop? I want to use TV as a second monitor without wires, possible to play games on TV

[RD]

802.11G cards that are CardBus (32-bit, PCI bus) will never work since the HW supports PCCard (16-bit, essentially ISA bus) only. I don't know of any 802.11G cards that are PCCard.

[David]

Just tested the gateway connected DVD to see if it would play video encoded at greater than 3Mbps - such as a vob file. Answer is - it doesnt. Also - it will not play back a dvr-ms file encoded in "best" mode without lots of pixelization - contrary to what they advertise. I suspect the hardware does not have enough buffer memory to support higher bit rate streaming media.

[LP]

Lots of questions and comments...
1) I have the wired network version and I can't get it to connect above 10Mbps on my 100Mbps network. This seems to be the limiting factor for video for me. When using DivX encoded files @ > 4Mbps my 10Mbps connection chokes. Support has told me that the firmware limits the enet connection speed to 10Mbps.
--- Does the 802.11G card deliver > 10Mbps to the device?

--- Does anyone have recommendations about how to encode my video as to get max performance out of the unit?

[jet]

Looking through the .cfg files, looks like you may be able to change the default port number, the config line shows: "HTTPPort=3640".

[Region Free Fan]

For region free, I tried this on my player and it works, but you have to have the latest firmware installed. Leave it at a "splash" screen, not any of the menus, and on the remote type SETRx, where x is the region to set it to, and 9 is region 0. So type in SETR9 and you're golden ;)

[kas]

When I import WMA files that I know have the album, artist, etc on them Media Manager dumps them only in the songs category making it impossible to search. It is also having trouble importing playlists from my players. Anyone else having this problem?

[Slater]

For those whose AVI checkboxes are greyed out, it's because the server software has a setting which requires a minimum of a 1.2ghz PC to enable transcoding. I have found that slower machines transcode just fine, and I have tested it with PCs as slow as a P3-800mhz (on the highest transcoding quality). To lift the 1.2ghz requirement, just edit the NetPlay.cfg and change the "Transcoding CPU Speed=" line to something lower (i.e. 1000 if you have a 1ghz PC, 900 if you have a 900mhz PC, etc).

Also, I have found that in addition to the ORINOCO gold and silver wireless cards working, that rebranded ORINOCO cards work as well (the ORINOCO cards use the HERMES chipset). So the Enterasys Roamabout, Dell TrueMobile 1150, IBM High Rate Wireless LAN Card, Sony PCWA-C100, and a few other rebrands that I cannot remember off the top of my head. I would recommend making sure you are on the latest WSU firmware possible (i.e. 8.10 or 8.72).

Now, I have not tested it, but since any HERMES-based card works, the same should hold true for the Intersil PRISM-2.5 based cards. Every other compatible card listed (Netgear MA401, DLink 650, Belkin F506020, Microsoft MN520, etc) are all PRISM-2.5. There were dozens of cards made using the PRISM-2.5 chipset, and I would bet that any of the 3.3V PCMCIA cards will work (a fairly complete list is available at http://www.personaltelco.net/index.cgi/Prism2Card).

Finally, the people that posted that the transcoding quality values can be tweaked to improve the videos even more, what values did you increment? For example, on the

Transcoding Param Best="-ab 160 -ar 48000 -ac 2 -sameq"

line, what settings would be good to try? I was thinking something like:

Transcoding Param Best="-ab 192 -ar 48000 -ac 2 -sameq"

And when you make changes to the NetPlay.cfg file, should you also increase the values of the BITRATE lines in Filters.cfg slightly?

[Rick]

On Firewalls: The help file file of the D5 Streaming Media Server has a section called "Troubleshooting," with a subsection called "Firewalls," where it gives instruction on how to configure the major commercial options for software firewalls. Gateway's telephone support wouldn't help on firewall configuration--their personnel may be unaware that the information is in the server software. Does anyone know whether enabling the firewall to accomodate the server presents a significant vulnerability for a network with Internet access? I'm also using a router.

[babyloveunlimited]

I picked one up on Saturday evening at my local Gateway store and had it up and running faster than the salesman could figure out what it was and take my money for it. Seems they are not so familiar with the unit as it took the combined power of 4 salespeople to figure out what to pull out of the back room for me. The finally decided on the player and a seperate Linksys 10/100 adapter. The instore price was $199 for the wired version, but I had carried in a print out from the website showing the price as $189, so they honored that price. I only carried the product page print out so that I wouldn't have to describe the item to them, not for any type of pricing issues - I'm now glad I did bring it.
So far the box has played all of my downloaded mpeg movies with no problems. I downloaded the server software form the Gateway FTP site - version 2.1 B07 08. It is set up for wired network Streaming MPEG <5000 by default. Now, my problem is:
How can we get this box to stream internet radio? I have been trying it by saving a WinAmp playlist containing only radio stations, but the software won't insert the playlist into the library.
Importing WinAmp playlists containing mp3's works fine, so it is definitely having trouble importing only the radio playlist.
Any thoughts?

[Gus]

OK, I have the "sister" product of the gateway, Oritron OnMedia player. My question is, has anyone figured out any way to get the unit to see a "real" file structure? this is just not feasible to have thousands of MP3's, and see them all ina list... I have every Stones album plus another couple hundred of "other" songs from them alone! I NEED STRUCTURE! :^)
also, I did a port scan on the network side to see if I could hack in that way (all ports closed up to 65000), does anyone know of another way in??

[tombo]

Under the firmware directory, boxedcow.thumb is actually in JPEG format with dimension 192x128 pixels. Maybe it's possible to replace the default background drop.

After came across this forum, I rushed to a local store and bought the Lynksys Wireless-G Notebook Adaptor (Model No.: WPC54G v: 1.2). It does not work. My gateway dvd player has part ID: 7004881. It didn't need the firmware update, but I did it anyway (just trying to replace the boxedcow) This card still does not work. :<

Also, was anyone able to get a VCD switch left and right channels?

[sjsys]

anyone able to get the DVR-MS file format working? recorded at even the lowest setting, this format will play on the connected DVD player in a very pixelated form and with sound out of sync.

[alan]

Does anyone know about configuring wmv or asf files to play on the Gateway?

I have a rather pesky file that will not convert. (its an asf) All converters flip out. EoVideo will convert, but without sound.

da*n your microsoft and your wmv format!

[John Anderson]

I have had Gateway Connected DVD player for several months now and
everything is fine, except for one annoying problem...
I just got an Adaptec VideOH converter for my PC to convert TV and
analog video to MPEG. I can play the MPEG files through the
Gateway Connected DVD, but get video only, no audio. Have tried
the analog outputs on back of unit as well as decoding with my
home theater system. Still no sound.
Anyone had similar problems???

[RD]

The Adaptec VideOh records the audio in LPCM format. The CDVD cannot decode this.

[RxMan]

I want to rip DVDs to my hard drive and then play them on my Gateway. What would be the steps to get something that it will play?

THANKS!

[RxMan]

I guess I should add that I have tried various methods, but, I end up with something that has too high of a bitrate. I have changed the settings in filter.cfg. The problem I have is pixelation.

[Slater]

A guy at work was talking to me about my Gateway DVD player, and I was telling him all about its features, how it works, etc. He was going to get one, then the next day comes in and has me check this thing out:

http://www.leadman.com/playattv/product/nmp4000/index.htm

It's the same price, and has no DVD functions but man does it look nice! It may be a great alternative for anyone considering the Gateway player. I read a few reviews on it too, and read no bad things. It has many strong points over the Gateway player, the main one being the Media Organizer (I personally hate how media epecially MP3s are organized on my Gateway player). It also has an internal buffer (8M RAM I think) that prefetches the media you are streaming, and plays from that. So it never gets jerky or wigs out like the Gateway player likes to do on some high bitrate videos.

Anyways, just thought I would pass it along...

[BobbyD]

Above, Gus wrote "Under the firmware directory, boxedcow.thumb is actually in JPEG format with dimension 192x128 pixels. Maybe it's possible to replace the default background drop."

I have a dumb question. Gus, how are you browsing the directory structure of the DVD player? I haven't been able to get into mine at all. Are you seeing this through TFTP or FTP or HTTP or NetBIOS? If so, please let me know the protocol and port number.

Thanks!

I don't have the gateway version. I'm using the Oritron OnMedia device, but it seems very similar.

[Scott]

I am trying to play a high qulaity Xvid movie on my player. I have all the proper codecs including the AC3 audio codec. The Movie plays fine on my PC, but when transcoded the video runs faster than the audio causing the movie to start playing a couple seconds ahead of the video. after a minute or two the video is WAY ahead of the audio. I hope it is because I am running it off an AMD Duron 750 (I have a P4 2.8HT system on the way). Any advise will be appreciated, Thanx.

[BobbyD]

To Scott - Mine does that also, and I'm running a very high-end media server (P4 3.0 Ghz 1.5 Gigs of RAM on Windows 2003 Server). I haven't found anything to fix the problem, though closing and reopening the media server software seems to lessen the symptoms.

-Bob

[Sean]

For all of you having "Structure" issues try this: http://download.com.com/3000-2141-10256446.html?tag=lst-0-4

App Name is: Tag&Rename 3.0.1

I downloaded the program from download.com....it's has helped me a ton!!! Once you get all of your tags squared away, browsing for music is much easier and intuitive.

[Jonathan]

I read about this here and elsewhere and when I saw the 802.11g version I opted to get it. I called my local store - San Jose - and they said it was in. I drove down (30mins) and just got home. B4 setting up I did some more reading, and they sold me the 220 with a wireless card. So now I have to go through all the hassle of the upgrade procedure :( This is my first gateway purchase, it is not out of the box yet, and I'm really dissapointed. I asked and asked whether this was the one I showed them on the web page, and they were the usual dumb shop assistant type and couldn't help. I guess I'll try and get a refund. I won't unpack. Any thoughts? Anyways, I hope people take warning from this...

[NinthFreak]

Jonathan,
The only difference between a ADC-220 unit and a ADC-320 unit is that a 220 was made before G support came out and needs the new firmware loaded on it for G support. Loading the firmware involves putting the CD into the drive, restarting the player, and waiting a couple minutes. The nework cards have always come in a separate box from the main unit.
I work at a Gateway Country store, I bought the Connected DVD player soon after it first came out and i recently purchased the G card which came with the upgrade CD. Now what i have is exactly the same as the "new" ADC-320. If you aren't conviced that the new model number is the same, ccompare the tech specs at Gateway.com under the support section. Please post if you have any more questions.

[Puntrix]

Tried a Linksys G card after the firmware update and no luck, but I did notice a little thing about the update it said choose skin or firmware
file. Then it gave a preview of the Gateway skin. My question is does anyone know of a utility to extract the .img firmware file contents. Yes I have tried all of the ISO busters and extractors, Winrar, Winzip and Winace with no luck. If I can get into the file I believe it will be possible to change the skin to whatever you want and not have to look at the lovely cow box anymore during playback.

[andy witten]

I have had the player and have constantly had problems with keeping the thing online. It seems that it loses its connection and freezes up. I then have to power off and back on. Can someone list there wireless router settings they are using successfully to run the connected dvd player.

thanks
a

[Jonathan]

NinthFreak, thanks for the input. Clearly you know more than my local gateway shop. So i tried it out, and without success, although the upgrade was a breeze. Panicked by the thought that my 15days return policy was running out, I bought a belkin F506020 card pcmcia ethernet that was listed as supported on these pages to test the networking. As although my player said it could connect to my network wirelessly, it didn't really. It's ip address was out of bounds, and I could not ping it. Well, the belkin card was not recognized, so I then tried connecting without WEP. This worked!
I then re-read these pages and saw the only mention to a successful WEP connection was using 32 bit encoding. So I tried that, and success!
But, I get the same problems as andy when streaming video. all okay, then it locks and I must power down. So I am still dissapointed with the product. And the documentation, and support. And sales people were terrible. It's really close to a good product, but still way short.
Thanks though to the contributors to this forum for being way more help than gateway. Reading back now I see people with the same problems as mine...

[CraigFis]

I have the Amoisonic version of this player. I was trying to find an update to the software for it and luckily found this page. Went and downloaded the update from Gateway and it fixed one problem I'd had with the server software. Haven't updated the firmware though as I don't really want to see the Gateway logo on my TV screen.

I've just hit another problem though - I've been ripping CDs lately using WMA lossless format, but these all get filtered out by the scanner. Has anyone found a way to get it to play WMA lossless?

[Sean]

Does any one know if this particular dvd player support full versions of DivX 3.11, DivX 4, and DivX 5.05?

Thanks!

[CraigFis]

Re getting this working with a firewall...

The docs say (referring to use with the Windows XP firewall) to enable the following ports: 1028, 1360, 1900, 3640, 3641, 4000, 7001, 49200, and 49202. (Why so many ports!?)

Before I enabled those I could see my songs listed but nothing could play. When I enabled those for TCP as indicated I could start playing songs but they'd stop after 19 seconds. Checking my firewall log I saw that it was trapping UDP packets to port 7001, so I enabled that. Seems to be working OK now.

[RichW]

I keep having problems with this error when importing .AVI files:

- Unsupported AVI file variant. Playback disabled.

Anyone know how I can fix this? The AVI's all play great on my PC, they just won't import to the media server program.

Thanks!

[Darkstar999]

I fixed the "Unsupported AVI file varient. Playback disabled." problem by rolling back to the previous version of PC Server software version 2.1 B07-08. You can get it from GW's website. You may have to look at the ADC-220 (B-version). I didn't really see anything in the new version that looked like it was worth losing Divx playback for.

Hope this helps.

[JoeW]

OK I tried changing the boxedcow.thumb file with another 192x128 pixels jpeg before burning my firmware upgrade disk. No go, perhaps it's because I couldn't match the file size.

Better news, with the new firmware D3.10.11B8.8.0 I found that while listening to MP3's you can start up a slide show from your JPEGs. No watching the cow box anymore!!

[David]

Does anybody know if you can use the Gateway firmware to update the Oritron. I realize the media server works with both?

If not, does anybody know where I can get a Oritron firmware update?

[Miki]

Hi,

I'm a user of the GoVideo twin of the Gateway Connected DVD player; it's running "version 2" of the server software and GoVideo's "version 2" firmware.

Two questions:

1) Has anybody had luck streaming an MPEG2 file with AC3 audio to the player? 2-channel MPEGs work fine; DivX works fine; can't get any multi-channel streams to pass through to the digital out on the player. Playing a DVD directly on the box successfully sends out the AC3 stream and is decoded by my Pioneer receiver. I'm trying to do away with DVDs and just stream everything from a large disk farm, but want to get AC3 audio...

2) I actually have two Connected DVD players, and can simultaneous connect to the server with no problem. However, if both players try to view a DivX video (which transcodes on the PC and streams to the player), only one player is serviced and the other player times out (server command timeout). Playing a non-transcoded format (such as MPEG2 or MP3) works fine. Does anybody know how to coax the server to allow multiple transcode streams without requiring multiple physical servers? I've got plenty of horsepower to spare (3 GHz P4, 800 MHz front-side bus, dual-channel DDR400 memory).

Thanks!

- Miki

[Craig]

Gateway Country Stores are all going out of business! I got the last one at my local store for $150 -15%, and went ahead and got the G wireless for $50 -15%. I had to update the firmware for the card to work.

It works fine with 128 bit WEP with my Netgear router/access point. I had to enable SSID broadcast to set it up, but it seems to work fine with it disabled once configured.

[faradhim]

Miki,
The help file comes with the gateway version of streaming software says the software can't serve two transcoding at the same time. I think your software is doing what is suppose to do.

On the other note, if anyone figures out exactly how audio stream is send over to DVD player would be helpful. From what I can tell AC3 audio stream isn't pass through to the player at all. In fact I can't even get Prologic to work using only 2 channels. Do you guys think the streaming sofeware is using its own codec for AC3 decoding or use the codec already installed on the system. If it is using the codec already on the system, can you modify how the stream is handled?I have AC3 Filter installed but the streaming software ignores any change I make to it.

[ottguy]

OK, I've been messing around with one of these things for about a month now (wireless version with a 802.11g card, running through a Linksys access point). I've converted all of my CDs (750+) to MP3 format, and I'm a digicam user so I have a bunch of pics on my HD as well. I'm not overjoyed with the latest version of the PC server software (v3+), though - when I have a bunch of long playlists, the PC software seems to 'lock up' for a while when switching between tabs in the GUI. Also, the newer version had problems when scanning a few JPGs that I had rotated (the old version had no issues). It was along process to determine that it was this handful of JPGs that was causing the media scan to crash.

That being said, I like the unit a lot. I have over 700 albums and 1100+ artists in my library so I'd like to see a better way of navigating through the library via the remote, but for the time being I've created a 3000+ file 'randomized' playlist that has the music that I listen to most often - I usually just power up the unit and start that playlist. Even being able to play all of the files under one artist or genre in a 'random' playlist would be great.

A few new features in the new server software - the 'smart playlists' are a step in the right direction, but I couldn't find a way to make them random (they pick the same music each time). You're now able to set up slideshows with a specific MP3 playing in the background (see the help file for more info). I'm looking forward to new firmware & software upgrades in the future to see what gets added/refined in the time to come.

-OG

[Miki]

Thanks for the feedback.

A little progress... I have played around with both DivX and MPEG2 transcode, and am comfortable with moving away from DivX. I chose DivX originally so I could shrink movies down to ~2GB apiece. Instead, I'm now using DVD Shrink -- and it's a heck of a lot faster, to boot. Simply DVD Shrink'ing a movie (and choosing only the main title, plus the main audio and subpicture channels) generates an approximate 50% size reduction versus the original. It takes only about 15 minutes, and the quality is quite good (same or better than a 2.5MBit DivX encode). Also, the subtitles come through perfectly if the appropriate subpicture is selected (unfortunately, it doesn't appear that you can turn them on/off at the remote).

BUT... No AC3. As far as I know, only DivX and other AVI formats are transcoded at the PC, so nothing should be manipulated on the bitstream from the PC to the player. Maybe it a player/firmware oversight? Hopefully this can get corrected, because everything else is working very well.

Finally, does anybody have the Gateway's remote control learned by either a Pronto or ProntoNeo? I "upgraded" the firmware in one of my GoVideo-branded units with Gateway v3.x firmware, but my fatal oversight was that the remote control layout/keycodes are completely different. I can't downrev back to GoVideo code because I don't have a "Down Arrow"! If anybody has the files they could email me for either Pronto, I'd be very grateful!

Thanks.

- Miki

[Jonathan]

Hi,

Has anyone managed to steam anything from remotely mapped hard-drives? There's an example above of doing this using an external hard-drive, but that allows a fixed-drive mount.
My linux box has most of my MP3s, so I mount the drive with Samba but cannot get them to stream to my connected DVD player.

thanks!

Jonathan.

[Black Diamond]

Hey,

Any one know how to make the files list in alphabetical order on the screen? The only way I can get it to list that way is to drop and drag each file to the location I want it to be at in the Streaming Media Server software.

Not a big deal, just a pain.

Change the "1" to "one" in the email addy to send me email.

Thanx

[azhar]

Appreciate some guidence on a couple of issues that are affecting my ADC-220 (with Gateway 11g)..

1) The server software keeps crashing during scans.. particulyay when it's dealing with graphics. Any tips on how to identify the pics and get around the issue?

2) I'm having problems getting a DHCP IP address to register with the player. I'm using a 802.11g 3COM Wireless router. Even though the DHCP client list on the router shows the media player assigned with the correct IP, the player still displays the default 163. IP number. Giving the media player the correct static IP does not make the connection. My PCMCIA card in my laptop in the same room works fine. Is this interference related?
The player is around 40 feet away from the wireless router at the other end of the hallway, they almost have line of sight.
THe player is using the PCMCIA card supplied by Gateway for the ADC-220. Appreciate any tips to fix this problem..

Thanks.

[azhar]

Appreciate some guidence on a couple of issues that are affecting my ADC-220 (with Gateway 11g)..

1) The server software keeps crashing during scans.. particulyay when it's dealing with graphics. Any tips on how to identify the pics and get around the issue?

2) I'm having problems getting a DHCP IP address to register with the player. I'm using a 802.11g 3COM Wireless router. Even though the DHCP client list on the router shows the media player assigned with the correct IP, the player still displays the default 163. IP number. Giving the media player the correct static IP does not make the connection. My PCMCIA card in my laptop in the same room works fine. Is this interference related?
The player is around 40 feet away from the wireless router at the other end of the hallway, they almost have line of sight.
THe player is using the PCMCIA card supplied by Gateway for the ADC-220. Appreciate any tips to fix this problem..

Thanks.

[azhar]

Appreciate some guidence on a couple of issues that are affecting my ADC-220 (with Gateway 11g)..

1) The server software keeps crashing during scans.. particulyay when it's dealing with graphics. Any tips on how to identify the pics and get around the issue?

2) I'm having problems getting a DHCP IP address to register with the player. I'm using a 802.11g 3COM Wireless router. Even though the DHCP client list on the router shows the media player assigned with the correct IP, the player still displays the default 163. IP number. Giving the media player the correct static IP does not make the connection. My PCMCIA card in my laptop in the same room works fine. Is this interference related?
The player is around 40 feet away from the wireless router at the other end of the hallway, they almost have line of sight.
THe player is using the PCMCIA card supplied by Gateway for the ADC-220. Appreciate any tips to fix this problem..

Thanks.

[Me]

Does the unit support DVD+R OR DVD R/W?

[David]

What is the best way to randomize a playlist. I try the randomize option, but everything is still organized by artist in alphabetical order.

Thanks

[ottguy]

To Azhar - I noticed that the new software had problems with a handful of JPGs that I had rotated using 'lossless rotation' - trouble is, I can't recall which program I used to do the rotation (mine were digital camera shots that were probably rotated with either Irfanview or Canon's Zoombrowser). So, I'd suggest looking for shots that have been rotated to be in a 'portrait' orientation as opposed to the usual 'landscape' format. Hope this helps...

If anyone is savvy with JPG variants, I still have a handful of shots that will crash the latest server software - if anyone can identify what exactly it's choking on, I could provide a sample.

-OG

[Azhar]

Thanks Ottguy. but am now putting my gateway on Ebay now. I cant get a stable 11g signal in the part of the house where I want to put the player anyway.

That explains my IP number issue. When I move it elsewhere it works fine.

If anyone wants a new one especially if they are in the UK where its not avaliable then I have spanking new one to shift. You can contact me on

"a z h a r h"@"y a h o o . c o m"

u need to remove the spaces and speech marks when using it.

[VFR]

Does anybody knows how to play divx files and also _subtitles_ with adc-220?

[tbd]

Well, I broke out ethereal on my recent acquisition. Looks like the D5 server (for video at least) is a RTP/RTSP server on port 3641 (with a SOAP/XML frontend at 49200)

The DVD player requests over UPnP/SSDP/UDP port 1630 & 1900 for all available servers. The D5 server replies back, sets up a server on port 49200 for metadata access, and waits for requests. Finally the player issues an RTSP request on ports 4000-1 (client) and 7000-1 (server).

I want to get a minimal server set up on linux since all my movies and music are there, and network mounts don't quite work with the current server and probably won't: the overhead of double-shuffling data is probably too much bandwidth, especially in 11mps wireless. I'm running wired, but still cannot reliably stream over netmounted drives using the hacks described above. The server appears to be pretty standard and open (well, not encrypted at least)

Next project: building a simple metadata server and tie to to an rtsp/rtp server using LIVE.COM and vobStreamer for DVD streaming.

[wayne]

Hi - can anybody tell me the best way to load my dvd's onto my computer to allow the dvd player to access them and play them. Disk storage is not an issue so I want to retain the quality of the dvd as much as possible.

What software would I need to use or do you recommend to rip the dvd's and what is the highest format I can use that the player will accept. I have the 802.11g version with the most recent firmware updated. Not much of a media buff - I just know I want all my dvd's stored on my computer and access them from the dvd player, I also want to remove any regional coding since moving over to the USA I have not been able to play all my favourite UK region dvd's. Your help is most welcome. Wayne

[farookh]

Hi,

Could someone tell me if a D-link DFE-650 or DFE-660 wired card will work with the ADC-220

thanks

farookh

[bc]

Hi
I just bought a ADC 220 from ebay. It came with a gateway wireless card. I bought a linksys PCM100 because I do not have a wireless network. If I insert the wireless card the setup screen lists the appropriate choices. When I insert the linksys card it just says no network card. I tried the linksys card in my laptop and it automatically found the device. It seems to indicate that the card is okay. I then went to the store and bought a linksys PCM200. (Apparently the PCM100 is an old model). It still doesn't recognize that a card is inserted. I don't know what else to try.

Any suggestions.
Brent

[Jim]

Plays Divx and Mpeg like a champ all day long. Problem is with .mp3's.

If the player doesn't lose connection, fail to reconnect and then lock up on the first song or two, it will play an album of mp3's until exactly 19 minutes and 54 seconds, whereupon the TV set goes blank, the player locks up, and the only thing to do is reboot it.

I'm running the latest firmware and server software. Am I the only one seeing this problem?

Thanks,
Jim

[Paul]

I just purchased a wireless G player. I would appreciate help with a few questions:

1) I read several posts in this thread that state the initial firmware limited the speed on wired connections to 10 prior to the firmware upgrade. When they upgraded the firmware to allow wireless g, was the speed for wired connections increased to 100? Basically, which is faster connection on this player, wired or wireless g?

2) If I do hook it up wired, can I use the wireless card in my laptop? Where could I download drivers? Who makes the card for gateway?

Thanks in advance
Paul