Gateway Connected DVD

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Gateway Connected DVD

Gateway Connected DVD player

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.

by Matt Haughey October 6, 2003 in Products

Comments

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?

Posted by: Jaime at Oct 6, 2003 5:28:52 PM

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.

Posted by: Matt Haughey at Oct 6, 2003 5:37:56 PM

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

Supported video and image formats
MPEG1: 25 Kbps

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

Posted by: Graeme Foster at Oct 7, 2003 6:23:38 AM

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.

Posted by: Steve at Oct 18, 2003 3:07:44 AM

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.

Posted by: Jason at Oct 18, 2003 9:17:07 AM

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.

Posted by: BNT at Oct 21, 2003 4:53:46 PM

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.

Posted by: jason at Oct 22, 2003 8:09:48 AM

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.

Posted by: RonVideo at Oct 23, 2003 4:29:08 PM

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 :) )

Posted by: Aredubya at Oct 25, 2003 12:50:13 PM

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.

Posted by: Matt Haughey at Nov 2, 2003 11:13:35 AM

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

Posted by: dos at Nov 7, 2003 9:37:07 AM

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?

Posted by: Kevin at Nov 8, 2003 8:18:44 AM

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.

Posted by: Jonathan at Nov 10, 2003 8:13:22 AM

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

Posted by: Arthur Sharpe at Nov 11, 2003 5:49:24 AM

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.

Posted by: Jonathan at Nov 11, 2003 8:41:15 AM

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.

Posted by: Tracy Johnson at Nov 17, 2003 9:03:41 AM

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.

Posted by: Matt Haughey at Nov 17, 2003 11:03:03 AM

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...

Posted by: alan at Nov 21, 2003 1:23:48 PM

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?

Posted by: Alan at Nov 21, 2003 1:30:10 PM

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?

Posted by: newbie at Nov 21, 2003 3:32:13 PM

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.

Posted by: Matt Haughey at Nov 21, 2003 3:39:57 PM

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

Posted by: weimoxer at Nov 25, 2003 11:47:04 AM

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! :).

Posted by: Matt Haughey at Nov 25, 2003 11:54:51 AM

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.

Posted by: Marty at Nov 26, 2003 8:36:29 AM

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

Posted by: VFR at Nov 26, 2003 7:59:11 PM

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.

Posted by: adampsyche at Nov 27, 2003 6:18:08 AM

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.]

Posted by: donb at Nov 29, 2003 8:51:06 PM

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.

Posted by: Sass at Nov 30, 2003 2:13:08 AM

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.

Posted by: alan at Dec 1, 2003 10:16:46 AM

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

Posted by: VFR at Dec 1, 2003 2:08:17 PM

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

Posted by: Chris at Dec 2, 2003 4:19:48 AM

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)

Posted by: Jay at Dec 4, 2003 8:01:16 AM

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.

Posted by: RD at Dec 9, 2003 12:36:55 PM

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

Posted by: Richard at Dec 9, 2003 10:24:25 PM

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

Posted by: Juc at Dec 12, 2003 3:30:11 PM

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.

Posted by: jpk at Dec 13, 2003 7:45:12 PM

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

Posted by: al at Dec 15, 2003 6:29:55 AM

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?

Posted by: bsp at Dec 19, 2003 10:59:40 PM

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?

Posted by: dan at Dec 26, 2003 12:09:54 PM

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! :)

Posted by: JRP at Dec 27, 2003 11:21:07 PM

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.

Posted by: Frankie at Dec 30, 2003 4:24:55 PM

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.

Posted by: Todd at Jan 2, 2004 3:52:23 PM

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.

Posted by: DJ at Jan 3, 2004 10:46:18 AM

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.

Posted by: Mookie at Jan 6, 2004 4:36:08 PM

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

Posted by: I like big speakers at Jan 8, 2004 1:09:16 AM

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.

Posted by: RD at Jan 8, 2004 9:46:19 AM

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.

Posted by: David at Jan 8, 2004 1:55:10 PM

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?

Posted by: LP at Jan 9, 2004 7:14:06 AM

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

Posted by: jet at Jan 9, 2004 8:56:06 AM

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 ;)

Posted by: Region Free Fan at Jan 20, 2004 7:55:20 AM

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?

Posted by: kas at Jan 21, 2004 7:04:03 AM

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?

Posted by: Slater at Jan 22, 2004 4:20:05 AM

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.

Posted by: Rick at Jan 24, 2004 9:31:20 AM

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?

Posted by: babyloveunlimited at Jan 26, 2004 2:09:31 AM

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??

Posted by: Gus at Jan 27, 2004 8:30:51 PM

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?

Posted by: tombo at Feb 5, 2004 7:35:04 PM

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.

Posted by: sjsys at Feb 6, 2004 5:09:34 AM

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!

Posted by: alan at Feb 7, 2004 7:54:25 AM

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???

Posted by: John Anderson at Feb 9, 2004 9:43:13 AM

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

Posted by: RD at Feb 9, 2004 9:49:37 AM

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!

Posted by: RxMan at Feb 9, 2004 3:06:23 PM

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.

Posted by: RxMan at Feb 10, 2004 9:41:39 AM

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...

Posted by: Slater at Feb 14, 2004 12:20:28 PM

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.

Posted by: BobbyD at Feb 24, 2004 11:20:52 AM

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.

Posted by: Scott at Feb 29, 2004 1:41:36 AM

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

Posted by: BobbyD at Mar 4, 2004 7:18:13 AM

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.

Posted by: Sean at Mar 15, 2004 6:23:13 PM

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...

Posted by: Jonathan at Mar 16, 2004 2:11:29 PM

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.

Posted by: NinthFreak at Mar 17, 2004 3:20:11 PM

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.

Posted by: Puntrix at Mar 19, 2004 4:05:10 PM

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

Posted by: andy witten at Mar 26, 2004 12:30:05 PM

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...

Posted by: Jonathan at Mar 26, 2004 4:50:13 PM

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?

Posted by: CraigFis at Mar 27, 2004 11:21:11 PM

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

Thanks!

Posted by: Sean at Mar 29, 2004 4:48:17 PM

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.

Posted by: CraigFis at Mar 30, 2004 11:10:56 PM

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!

Posted by: RichW at Apr 2, 2004 1:51:43 PM

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.

Posted by: Darkstar999 at Apr 3, 2004 9:00:01 PM

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!!

Posted by: JoeW at Apr 4, 2004 6:30:58 AM

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?

Posted by: David at Apr 6, 2004 2:09:41 PM

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

Posted by: Miki at Apr 9, 2004 7:25:55 AM

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.

Posted by: Craig at Apr 9, 2004 6:14:46 PM

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.

Posted by: faradhim at Apr 10, 2004 10:22:08 AM

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

Posted by: ottguy at Apr 10, 2004 11:39:49 AM

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

Posted by: Miki at Apr 10, 2004 12:52:42 PM

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.

Posted by: Jonathan at Apr 15, 2004 1:01:21 PM

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

Posted by: Black Diamond at Apr 15, 2004 6:25:40 PM

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.

Posted by: azhar at Apr 16, 2004 7:42:06 PM

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?

Thanks.

Posted by: azhar at Apr 16, 2004 7:42:21 PM

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?

Thanks.

Posted by: azhar at Apr 16, 2004 7:42:43 PM

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

Posted by: Me at Apr 18, 2004 6:18:24 AM

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

Posted by: David at Apr 19, 2004 3:46:08 PM

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

Posted by: ottguy at Apr 21, 2004 9:09:13 PM

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.

Posted by: Azhar at Apr 25, 2004 6:19:41 AM

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

Posted by: VFR at May 8, 2004 6:23:45 PM

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.

Posted by: tbd at May 13, 2004 11:02:42 PM

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

Posted by: wayne at May 15, 2004 12:11:07 AM

Hi,

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

thanks

farookh

Posted by: farookh at May 17, 2004 12:30:42 AM

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

Posted by: bc at May 19, 2004 6:23:39 PM

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

Posted by: Jim at May 22, 2004 6:28:05 PM

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

Posted by: Paul at May 30, 2004 5:28:58 PM

Anyone else find that the Media Server software (the PC software component) is a memory hog? I've had my server running for a while, and Task Manager tells me that it's using 281 MB (!) of memory. If I open the server's window then close it again, it drops back down to around 1.6 MB - it just seems like strange behaviour, just wondering if others are seeing it too.

Thanks,
-OG

Posted by: ottguy at Jun 5, 2004 9:49:22 AM

Hey all - need some help. Have had this since last Christmas or so - been running fine (relatively) for the first 6 months or so then hit problems. Audio still streams fine. Video is ok as long as they're cartoons (i've taped a bunch for my son...) regular tv shows though (ironically same mpg recording format as the animated shows) skip and jump and are jarbled. These same shows previously played fine on Gateway dvd... and still play fine if played direct on pc. 6 hours of Gateway support was useless - tried to give me every excuse they could that it could be anything BUT the player, i.e. WEP must have been hacked on home network, etc. Originally the server box had 128mb of ram - since then doubled it but still having the same problem.

Posted by: Nuromancer at Jun 14, 2004 2:33:23 PM

Need a little help. I've read all the posts about getting thre Media software to recognize AVI files but with everything I have done, the AVI box on the options tab is still shaded out.

I'm running this on a P3 1.0 GHZ, 384 RAM machine

1) I'm on the most recent firmware/software
2) In the 'filters.cfg' file, I've change the line BITRATE-WIRELESS > 8388608 to BITRATE-WIRELESS < 9000000
3) In the 'netplay.cfg' file, I keep changing the Transcoding CPU Speed=1200 to Transcoding CPU Speed=800 but everytime I open the Media Server it rewrites that file and changes it back to 1200 which I assume is the problem.

Can anyone give me a little help with fixing this issue...I'm sure its a simple thing

Posted by: David at Jun 16, 2004 8:31:15 PM

Purchased three Connected DVD units. Experienced constant sporadic disconnects with no pattern. Contacted Gateway tech support many times. Spent 30+ hours trying to fix. Tried everything tech support could think of. Firmware upgrades, reaplying firmware, different vendor routers, special configurations on the routers, etc.. Nothing worked. Irony is I have a ADC-220 and don't have any issues with it on the same network with the same server. Eventually tech support admited that they are getting bombarded with disconnect issues. I was told that even after servicing the units they still don't work. In trying to return the units I've spent close to two hours with customer service and am still not able to because I was beyond the 15 day return period. Considering the issues with the unit, tech support, and customer service I wouldn't consider Gateway for anything going forward.

Posted by: Jorge Angel at Jun 24, 2004 6:44:05 PM

Has anyone been able to figure out how to get the playlists to play randomly? I set them to "randomize" in the D5 software. Yet they still show up in alpha order by artist.

Posted by: Jeff at Jun 25, 2004 8:16:20 AM

My query might be a little basic. I want to store and organize my cd library on my hard drive for access through the gateway player. I want to put the hard copies away, never (rarely) to look at them again.

I have about 400 cds. I want to organize all of them alpha by artist and album. Is this a good idea, or should I consider buying a 400 cd jukebox (Sony?) instead?

Posted by: Craig at Jun 28, 2004 9:02:40 AM

David,
I upgraded the server software on my AMD Athlon 1200 Mhz and started experiencing massive disconnects. I now suspect that the CPU and more DRAM are too slow for video preprocessing. Try downgrading the server software version.

Posted by: Steve at Jul 13, 2004 5:07:30 PM

Hi,

I've just got hold of a 2nd user ADC-220 and intend to upgrade firware to the newest ADC-320 standard ASAP.

My machine doesn't come with a WIFI card and I was wondering if someone had a list of compatible 802.11g cards (OTHER THAN THOSE SUPPLIED BY GATEWAY) that have been PROVEN to work?

Many thanks in advance...

Andio

Posted by: Andio at Jul 14, 2004 6:24:36 PM

Andio,

The only 802.11g cards for gateway is the gateway 16bit card listed on their website ($50). Almost all 802.11g cards are cardbus style (32bit) and the gateway player only takes 16 bit cards. I saw an active discussion on the same subject at www.media-servers.com in the d5 forum. I can't remeber the exacts but I think the card is made by a company called gemtek(sp?)

Posted by: faradhim at Jul 15, 2004 6:29:30 AM

Hi,

I'm looking for someone to convince me to buy the Gateway product for my wireless 802.11g net.
My primary use will be streaming MP3's and internet radio. Help!!

Posted by: Dan Young at Jul 15, 2004 11:35:56 AM

VFR,
Any luck with simple metadata server for linux? I got my player yesterday and have been using the Hex hack to connect to network drives. It plays fine over my wired network. I also noticed that at least version 2.1.0.7 uses ffmpeg for the transcoding so i changed my netplay.cfg to this
Transcoding Param Best="-ab 256 -ar 48000 -ac 2 -b 6000 -cropleft 5"
That makes it look alot better and got rid of the black line i had on one side for most videos. Im not much of a programer but i may have to learn. It would be great to be able to watch my Mythtv shows on this thing.

Posted by: edoom at Jul 15, 2004 8:04:11 PM

Thanks Dan!

I would get one of those cards direct from Gateway but I live in the UK and they won't sell outside of the US or Canada.

If anyone has a second hand one to sell I'd be prepared to pay the new price of $50 (and obviously post, packing and insurance)through an ebay pre-approved auction.

Regards...

Andio

Posted by: Andio at Jul 16, 2004 5:54:51 AM

I just purchased the ADC-320 and I am having problems getting my 802.11G card to work.

The card sees my access point and I can enter WEP information fine. The problem is, it will not receive DHCP. Even if I set a static IP, it still cannot get to the server.

I have disabled firewalls as recommended and I have tried this on 2 seperate PCs.

I am running a dlink router. ON the router, I can see my wirelesss card connected.

Does anyone have addition troubleshooting steps for this problem?

Posted by: Richard at Jul 16, 2004 9:20:48 PM

Richard,

Try connecting first without any WEP settings. Mine, oddly enough, would only connect with 26 ascii digits (I think 10 is the other option, but that didn't fly).

Jonathan.

Posted by: Jonathan at Jul 19, 2004 1:05:20 PM

I'm using a GoVideo 2730 with latest server and firmware from Gateway. The Gateway G card freezes when in G mode but works fine in B mode. An All-For-One 8910 remote works perfectly after being set up over the phone with the 1073, 1077, 1158, 1194 codes.

Any ideas on getting the Gateway G network card to work in G mode?

How about an update on latest working Media server hacks from someone?

Thanks.

Posted by: Ron at Jul 25, 2004 6:32:07 AM

Sporadic disconnects issue:

I noticed that when my connection would either hang or the playlist replay would stop the connection stream would be an HTTP stream (shown on the System->Status dialog for the D5 Streaming Media Server).

I never had problems if the Stream type was RTSP, but couldn't seem to control the type of connection I would get.

Finally, after playing around for a few hours I found that certain DVD IP address seemed to give me consistent RTSP Stream connection. I finally settled on 192.168.0.233 for my DVD player and haven't had any problems since. I’m under the impression that lower IP Address resulted in HTTP streams and higher IP resulted in RTSP streams. But, I became frustrated trying to prove my theory and just selected an IP that seemed to work.

Posted by: Dennis at Jul 26, 2004 5:02:30 PM

Connecting Wireless DVD to Wireless Router problem:

I initially had a problem when I enabled WEP because I didn't notice that the DVD WEP Keys ranged 0-3 and my wireless router WEP Keys ranged 1-4. Once I got my key indexes lined up correctly things worked fine.

Posted by: Dennis at Jul 26, 2004 8:08:48 PM

Getting Randomized Playlist to work:

I just selected the randomize option for the playlist in the D5 Streaming Media Server application. The randomization occurs when you select the playlist on the DVD player.

Posted by: Dennis at Jul 26, 2004 8:17:36 PM

No luck on the metadata server -- too busy. There is so much overhead on this machine to get a server built up to do simple access its crazy. Although, I tried using CyberMediaLink for Java (http://www.cybergarage.org/net/cmgate/java/index.html) which is a UPnP based server. Using the latest GoVideo firmware, it idenitifies itself properly but cannot stream audio,video,or pictures. Using the latest Gateway it identifies itself improperly (servername is just a hexstring on the player) but it hangs trying to access it. This would be really cool if it works, since it also interfaces with a MythTV backend.

I tried the later Gateway-supplied software under wine, but that wouldn't work. I've moved on for the most part to getting a spare laptop setup as a myth box. I've used the TwonkyVision server to serve mp3 streams though from linux time-to-time, that works pretty well (though I'd like source really).

Posted by: tbd at Jul 28, 2004 7:28:33 PM

How can I burn divx onto a dvd and have the go video play it? or is that just impossible?

Posted by: peter at Jul 28, 2004 8:22:18 PM

Posted by: tbd at July 28, 2004 07:28 PM

How can I burn divx onto a dvd and have the go video play it? or is that just impossible?

It's impossible (maybe).

Posted by: PaulDriver at Jul 30, 2004 8:11:19 AM

Tired of seeing the COW box on your Player's screen?

Edit the gateway.thumb file in the player's upgrade files, it's really a .bmp bitmap.

Posted by: PaulDriver at Jul 30, 2004 8:21:57 AM

Interesting stuff @

http://www.media-servers.com/viewtopic.php?t=86

Stuff about what's inside your D5 player, tools for looking at the data streams (from Intel) and a cute hack on fixing the GoVideo remote so that it works better

Posted by: Oujdeivß at Jul 31, 2004 5:54:05 PM

GoVideo player running flawlessly for 24 hours. Look at http://www.media-servers.com in the D5 discussion forum for answers.

Thanks to all here for providing some answers.

DO NOT FORGET that these systems work!! and the only people who posts are the ones with problems.

Posted by: Kevin at Aug 1, 2004 5:04:17 AM

I have also found that every movie I capture (from the tapes and DVDs I own) whether direct digital capture via DVD shrink or via a generic capture card, has problems with the resulting *.mpg file. The only solution I have found is Tmpgenc Express with the AC3 audio plugin. Use that application and go to the MPG tools section to REMUX any and all of your *.mpg files and they will begin to play correct.

Posted by: Kevin at Aug 2, 2004 4:13:02 AM

Correction: Just found www.videoredo.com which seems to be a great swiss army knife of an application for fixing *.mpg file problems. I am really shocked that anyone can get this technology to work (Gateway DVD networked player). This device IS NOT an applience. It works with lots of help, but you better be able to put some time into it!!

Posted by: Kevin at Aug 2, 2004 6:31:13 AM

Okay,is anyone playing an MPEG2 video stream, with an embedded AC3 audio stream? I know i can get an MP3 audio stream to work fine, but will AC3 work at all?

Posted by: Kevin at Aug 3, 2004 3:29:42 AM

Got it working. DVDs have multiple AC3 streams, and I needed to pick the correct one.

Posted by: Kevin at Aug 3, 2004 4:15:59 AM

Re: your post below.
Thanks for the tip to fix my frequent disconnectivity problem. A static IP address fixed it.
===========================================
Posted by: Ron at July 25, 2004 06:32 AM

Sporadic disconnects issue:

I never had problems if the Stream type was RTSP, but couldn't seem to control the type of connection I would get.

Posted by: Cecil at Aug 13, 2004 4:12:00 PM

Does anybody have trouble with fast forwarding or rewinding recorded tv with the gateway connected dvd player??
After the latest
firmware upgrade, I can no longer scan recorded tv.
It's very frustrating!!!
I am using the wired connection.

Posted by: phil snyder at Sep 5, 2004 2:02:03 PM

Quick note to folx interested in the linux metadata server: I stuck the rudiments of one together in about 5 hours this saturday. It's not releasable yet since I cut-and-pasted a bunch of stuff from the ethereal captures, but I'll get that sorted out some day soon.

So far what I know from work on the amoi player:
1. player makes a HTTPish request broadcast over UDP port 1900 among others.
2. server responds with a HTTP response, headers include a uuid for XML that may or may not matter, the short hostname that the player displays, and the URL to look at for more info.
3. player then makes a request for , which should be an xml file (I forget what) which gives the server version and a URL to look at for the catalog. I haven't investigated extensively, but I think the only thing the player cares about may be the URL.
4. Finally, the player posts an XML to the catalog URL, which gives the index number of the object it wishes to view, the index of the first entry in that object to see, and how many entries it wishes to see, along with a filter of what properties of those entries it is interested in.

Each object (directory / image / movie / music) appears to be assigned a unique ID number by the server, beginning with 1 for the root level (3,4 and 5 are My Pics, Movies and Music I believe), which the player caches for at least a while. I don't know what the maximum ID number is, but it's less than 10 digits (I wanted to use the time of the unix time of the first request as my unique identifier, and that overflowed). My guess then is that it is a signed or unsigned 16 bit value. This is also why you have to create the catalog of files on the server, instead of browsing arbitrary directories.

I'm hoping to set up the ffmpeg (the D5 kit appears to use ffmpeg for transcoding anyway) rtsp streaming server to work with my metadata kit, and then start working on figuring out what tags are important on the Amoisonic player, so that I can have something releasable on freshmeat in a couple of weeks.

Posted by: Jamesie at Sep 7, 2004 10:58:24 AM

Sounds great Jamesis! Please keep us all posted... Cheers.

Posted by: Jonathan at Sep 7, 2004 12:23:39 PM

I have a question about support types of AVI. I have the latest firmware that is said to support AVI, but when I take AVI video off my camcorder and try and scan it into the Media Server Database it gets rejected as an unsupported type of AVI?

What type of AVI do I need? ANy ideas how to fix?

Thanks
Mike

Posted by: Mike at Sep 12, 2004 5:53:39 PM

Craigfisher wrote a review 6 mths ago on the Amoisonic Net DVD Player NDP9200 and the similarity to the Getway DVD player. He did mentioned that he downloaded the D5 media server software from Getway support and it works fine with the Amoisonic, I wonder has he try whether the firmware works as well.

Does anyone have any experience to share on that?

Posted by: Joe at Sep 13, 2004 10:50:02 PM

To Craigfisher,

What is your Amoisonic model and how is it getting on so far? Can the Getway latest firmware be use on your Amoisonic? Really need your feedback as Getway products are not available in my country and abit fearful on Amoisonic as they basically has no technical support at all.

Posted by: Joe at Sep 14, 2004 10:30:33 PM

Hi,
Just wondering, has anyone had problems after installing Windoze SP2? thanks,

Jonathan.

Posted by: Jonathan at Sep 15, 2004 1:09:06 PM

Yo Jonathan,

Here is the Getway link for the SP2 issue http://support.gateway.com/s/issues/2-1734298301.shtml

Posted by: Joe at Sep 15, 2004 11:28:49 PM

Hello Craigfisher and everyone,

I had confirmed with a local Amoisonic Technician in my country that their new players will normally launch by Getway first in USA and follow by themselves upon market demand. He told me that both brands of player are the same but he did not actually verify that Getway's firmware can be use on Amoisonic, so anyone can try at their own risk.

Anyway, I was told that I can bring their player back for firmware upgrade to 11g FOC as they do not want end user to screw up the player, so that is why no online downloads available.

Posted by: Joe at Sep 17, 2004 1:04:15 AM

OK, I bit the bullet last night and tried installing the Gateway firmware on my Amoisonic (NDP9200) player. Actually I wanted to use the GoVideo update as it looks newer but they only provide it as ISO images and when I downloaded them they seemed to be corrupt - burning them to CD resulted in an empty CD and opening them in an ISO extractor indicated they contained bad files.
Anyway I burnt a CD with the Gateway firmware update and put it in the player. Up came the upgrade screen OK. I hesitated and then thought what the heck and pushed the confirm button. It did its stuff for a while and then told me to cycle the power.
I turned the machine off and then on and up it comes now looking like a Gateway player (ick). It finds my media server, but then I'm stuck. It doesn't respond to my remote control anymore. I didn't think of that before but I guess each brand has its own set of remote control codes. So, now my player is effectively unusable (well I can play DVD's with it using the front panel buttons I guess) - at least until I can find an Amoisonic firmware image or program a universal remote with the Gateway player codes.

Geez, the things I do for you guys... :-)

Posted by: CraigFis at Sep 18, 2004 8:56:00 AM

Oh No! Sorry CraigFisher that the Getway Firmware didn't work. Is there any Amoisonic technical center near you? you might want to sent the NDP9200 in.

Anyway, if you managed to get out on this or getting the Amoisonic firmware, share with me your experience please.

Posted by: Joe at Sep 19, 2004 11:36:46 AM

Can someone advise me how can I buy a Gateway Conected DVD Player and get it deliver to Singapore? I've been writing to Gateway's International Sales but no reply so far.

Posted by: Joe at Sep 20, 2004 8:21:51 AM

The D5 software can't stream "pure" DV .avi files. You'll need to convert the files to a DivX or XviD format first (which have an .avi extension). The other alternative is to convert to mpeg and stream the mpeg file.

Posted by: AJRitz at Sep 20, 2004 12:01:54 PM

Re screwing up my Amoisonic player by installing the Gateway firmware...
I managed to get the Gateway player IR codes for my Radio Shack Kameleon remote control (by calling their cust support # and asking for them to download them to me). So I'm back in business with a player that thinks its a Gateway machine.
Overall I think the new firmware is an improvement. I can now have it play music while showing photos, which is cool. On the downside though I find when I use the pause button now it plays noise (the last .1 of a second of the track repeated) rather than being mute.

Posted by: CraigFis at Sep 20, 2004 9:41:40 PM

Hello CraigFis,

Glad that you got your Amoisonic Player working so quickly and is your Kameleon remote control some kind of universal remote? I tried getting a friend in California to help in buying the Gateway Player but I was told that there is this Gateway clause that they are not suppose to bring the product out of USA. I guess I will either have to work on the Amoisonic Player or maybe the Xbox Media Player, what do you think?

Can you enlighten me how was the procedure to configure the universal remote control? My email is onestoptakeaway AT yahoo DOT com

Posted by: Joe at Sep 22, 2004 8:11:22 AM

Thanks Joe! Okay, I'll upgrade to windoze's SP 2 now... :)

Posted by: Jonathan at Sep 23, 2004 11:25:04 PM

Yo CraigFis,

There is this US Amoisonic download link http://www.amoisonic-usa.com/download.htm#driver for 9200 DVD Player. I tried but seems to have some script error stuff..... Maybe you would like to check it out if it is a firmware upgrade.

Posted by: Joe at Sep 24, 2004 12:50:13 AM

Posted by: Joe at September 20, 2004 08:21 AM

I converted an .avi file that was not recognized by the D5 software, to DivX using VirtualDub, with an .avi extension, and it still is not recognized by the software. Any suggestions?

Posted by: Don at Sep 24, 2004 12:45:27 PM

I have an SMC 2642CF CompactFlash card that also works with the player. I just use a PC Card adapter from my old iPAQ, slide in the CF card and configure. CF cards are 16-bit, a requirement for the player, so the new Linksys CF 802.11G card should work http://www.linksys.com/splash/wcf54g_splash.asp, of course they've had this page up FOREVER! It looks like it will retail for around $80 street, so I just went ahead and broke down and bought the wgm-240 card from gateway.

Anyway, should you choose to use this card, and you want to use WEP (I know it slows down, but if you don't have an AP that restricts by MAC, then it's the next best thing :/) then you have to enter the key in hex and not in ascii, i.e., for 128-bit encryption, you need 26 characters not the 13 character one!.

Posted by: Mig at Sep 25, 2004 5:22:30 PM

D5 Streaming Media Server ver 2.1 User Manual! Enjoy! http://lib1.store.vip.sc5.yahoo.com/lib/acekaraoke/d5mediamanual.pdf

"This user manual provides information about using the D5 Streaming Media
Server software for the PC. Before you can use D5 Streaming Media, install the
system according to the instructions provided in the D5 Streaming Media
Installation Guide. For information about how to use the D5 Streaming Media
Client (DVD player), please refer to the D5 Streaming Media Client User
Manual."

This is a generic manual for D5. It should provide some of you the info you've been looking for about its inner-workings ;)

Posted by: Mig at Sep 25, 2004 5:34:51 PM

Okay, I found this other blog that has even more info on the netplay.cfg files from Dustin Mihalik's site: http://dmihalik.com/PermaLink.aspx?guid=a9e3a034-d26b-45bf-814d-9bcc967e9bf6.

"...So you want to mess with how your D5MediaServer.exe transcodes your movies? Open up NetPlay.cfg with notepad or something. Scroll down to the bottom of the file. You'll see something that looks like this (I'm not positive these are the original values):

Transcoding Param Best="-ab 256 -ar 48000 -ac 2 -sameq"

Transcoding Param Better="-ab 256 -ar 48000 -ac 2 -b 1000 -bt 100"

Transcoding Param Fair="-ab 64 -ar 48000 -ac 2 -b 250 -bt 20"

Transcoding Param Good="-ab 96 -ar 48000 -ac 2 -b 500 -bt 60"

That may just look like a bunch of ransom numbers and letters, but it's not. The media server uses ffmpeg to transcode the file into mpeg so the DVD player can understand it. These are the options that are passed to ffmpeg. A quick look at the ffmpeg site shows what all these do.

http://ffmpeg.sourceforge.net/ffmpeg-doc.html#SEC5

-ab audio bitrate (kbits/s)

-ar sampling frequency

-ac audio channels

-b video bitrate (kbits/s)

-bt max video bitrate tolerance (kbits/s)

-sameq use same quality (or VBR)

You can edit these values to get the exact maximum that your CPU and network connection can support. You could also make a config that has better sound quality and poor picture quality.

Unfortunately, I've been unable to add new parameters. I'd really like to add -padbottom so I can read subtitles on some of my movies and edit a few other settings that are not included."

Posted by: Mig at Sep 25, 2004 5:42:27 PM

anyone tried using the WG511T in the player? will this work? that would bump bandwith up to 108 and maybe take some of the restrictions on video bandwith? couldn't find anything online

Posted by: Jim at Sep 27, 2004 11:06:36 AM

I have a connected DVD player and I'm running the latest firmware release from Gateway. Recently purchased the Star Wars Trilogy on DVD and I'm having problems launching some content from the Title menu of the disks. For example, on the bonus disk, if I try to select Preview for the III movie, it just hangs on track 4 forever. Anyone seen this before? The DVD works great on other players, so it isn't a defect there.

Help!

Posted by: Seth at Sep 27, 2004 7:21:32 PM

Has anyone gotten Rhapsody or streaming internet content to play on this DVD?
I used the GoVideo and it worked but the remote and front panel buttons are hosed.

Posted by: Bill at Oct 1, 2004 5:07:14 PM

I have the same problem, not with that particular DVD, but with other new DVDs that will play fine on my PC but not on the Player. I think that there is a problem with the Player. I am going to try a DVD lens cleaner to see if it helps.

Posted by: Miguel Rivera at Oct 1, 2004 5:41:46 PM

Thanks Joe. Looks like the download page on the Amoisonic USA page is new. Shame it doesn't work though.

BTW, the link to "Internal Downloads" is supposedly password protected, but not very cleverly - the pw is 5isungale. Not that there's anything useful there either!

Posted by: Craigfis at Oct 2, 2004 11:33:04 PM

Hey Craigfis, May I know whether is your NDP9200 region free or do you need to hack it inorder to play DVDs of other region?

Posted by: Joe at Oct 16, 2004 7:49:21 AM

Hey Joe,
Yeah, the Kameleon is a universal remote control that can receive new codes via phone by calling the manufacturer's support #.
So that's working OK, although I don't have all the buttons that the DVD player remote had.
Also, the buttons on the front of the player are still non-functional as the firmware affects those also.

And yes, my NDP9200 is region free - at least I've been able to play discs from two different regions on it.

But yeah, I'd go for the XBox media center extender now if that's an option for you.

Posted by: Craigfis at Oct 19, 2004 3:43:37 PM

I just got a 320 connected DVD player with a Gateway wireless 802.11G card. I am having a devil of a time setting this up. The player recognizes my wireless access point (Netgear WGR614V4) but will not connect to it. I've tried DHCP and fixed ip. I'll try disabling MAC address filtering and WEP encryption next.

On the server side, the latest Gateway D5 Streaming Media Server Software (from 7514322.exe dated 03/25/2004) getshung up... application not responding. I backed off to Version 2.1 and that runs without a problem but I still cannot the player to my network.

Is there some obvious or known problems with the wireless connection?

Posted by: Jack in Upstate NY at Oct 22, 2004 7:17:38 AM

Jamesie, would you be willing to share what you've got so far for the Linux server hack. I'm planning on attempting the same thing so that I can serve up all the media stored on my Linux box. Thanks.

Posted by: Tom at Oct 22, 2004 11:54:05 AM

Yo Craigfis, Thanks for your info and suggestion but after reading up for the past few days, I realised that the Xbox Media Center Extender requires a "Media Center PC" to connect to unless someone got a hack on that so that poor guy like me will not have to buy a new PC.

Posted by: Joe at Oct 23, 2004 12:32:02 AM

Connection problem solved... One must have the wireless card in the player while upgrading the firmware. Now I am able to connect WITH WEP and MAC address filtering. However, as others have found out, the player does not maintain the connection and must be made to reconnect at each power on.

Posted by: Jack in Upstate NY at Oct 23, 2004 8:09:01 AM

I just got a 320 connected DVD player with a Gateway wireless 802.11G card. I have only tried one movie and it worked so so...
What should everyhing be encoded at to play smoothly? What should I re-encoded everything too? Any programs that you recommend?

Thanks

Posted by: Josh at Nov 1, 2004 3:16:15 PM

Where can i purchase a gateway connected dvd player? been looking everywhere.

Posted by: zoom at Nov 4, 2004 12:10:17 PM

Zoom, I just bought mine last night here:

http://www.gateway.com/reman/hm_CE_1532959_14_Gateway_Reman_Gateway__Connected_DVD_Player.shtml

Already got an email today from Gateway, saying I should have it by 11/12.

Posted by: bigboy at Nov 6, 2004 11:38:58 AM

Hello everyone,

Could someone explain further on the streaming of 3Mbps? So what is the max quality can I for DivX and Mpegs? Can I playback DivX with AC3?

Posted by: Joe at Nov 7, 2004 6:57:09 AM

Jack, are you still running D5 v 2.1 or were you able to upgrade. I'm having the hanging problem that you described.

Posted by: Mark at Nov 10, 2004 5:08:41 PM

Well, got my player and my network card... updated the firmware to 3.x (Gateway). I am running the OnVideo latest D5 server.

All my music is .WMA... the player would NOT play WMA with 3.x firmware. But I reverted back to original firmware - and it plays... go figure?

I learned of this problem here:
http://www.media-servers.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=116

Posted by: bigboy at Nov 11, 2004 10:00:56 PM

Yo bigboy,

In conclusion, you are using Gateway's 1.22a firmware with D5 server version 3.x and everything playback fine right? By the way, the disadvantage of the old firmware 1.22a is that it only support 11b card and whether or not playing back certain video format like DivX or Xvid is mainly due to D5 server software right?

Posted by: Joe at Nov 13, 2004 7:56:48 AM

Joe,

You are correct - it all plays fine... (did not try DivX yet though but I think it would work) seems like the new firmware has a little bit smoother user interface and few more features (like autoconnect, DTS setting etc). But - I guess I don't care that much as I use the player with wired network (Netgear NIC) anyway...

Posted by: bigboy at Nov 13, 2004 2:40:06 PM

to all the referb buyers,
what has been your experience buying a referbed Gateway connedted DVD unit? warranty? wireless card included? condition?

Posted by: Zoom1973 at Nov 15, 2004 3:54:31 PM

My unit came with a Gateway wireless 802.11G card that I don't need. Anyone want to make me an offer for it?

Posted by: Carl at Nov 16, 2004 10:27:12 PM

I ordered a reman unit direct from gateway and it didn't ship with a wireless or wired card! I will see if gateway customer service will be send me out a card or send back the unit.

BTW does anyone know of a comatible wired ethernet card list?

Posted by: datek2001 at Nov 17, 2004 4:01:38 PM

datek2001, the reman unit is a unit alone, not a "bundle" like they used to be sold. I bought the same.

Newest D5 supports the following WIRED cards:

D-link DFE-670TXD
Linksys PCM 100 ver.2
Netgear FA411

I personally picked up a refurb Netgear for $19 shipped on Ebay, plugged it in and it works great.

Posted by: bigboy at Nov 18, 2004 8:28:36 PM

which is better, the Gateway Connected DVD player or the GoVideo 2730? please help me decide.

Posted by: zoom1973 at Nov 23, 2004 2:15:59 PM

Running all the latest firmware and D5 Gateway software (v3). My unit is unpredictable. The server will display the music lists but not play.

One day it will work -- a few days later nothing.

I've setup the XP SP2 ports.

Any other suggestions?

(I tried the GO+Video D5 software and it connected and played -- no problem. However, it was skipping and truncating songs every once and again!)

Posted by: JG at Nov 24, 2004 9:18:14 PM

JG, if you are trying to play WMA, there is a known problem with it if you upgraded to new firmware. I have a Gateway engineer that is working on it. MP3s play always for me though. Could also be your network?

Posted by: bigboy at Nov 25, 2004 10:54:39 AM

I have the Gateway Connected DVD player (220). I'd like to use Rhapsody with it but have been unable to get it to work. It sees the network and all files but will not play them. Will the firmware for GoVideo work on the Gateway player, or is there a version of Gateway's firmware that will allow UPNP to work? And does GoVideo's firmware work with Rhapsody? Also, any help on finding the remote codes that would be changed would be appreciated. Great forum. Thanks in advance...DB

Posted by: Dave Buck at Nov 28, 2004 1:45:14 AM

Zoom1973, I will buy. x v v e c t o r v x "@" y a h o o . c o m.

Posted by: XvVectorvX at Dec 5, 2004 9:12:21 PM

Yes, the GoVideo Media Sever will work with the Gateway Player. Has anyone got streaming audio to work with the server? Thanks!

Posted by: Shane at Dec 6, 2004 3:52:19 PM

"...or is there a version of Gateway's firmware that will allow UPNP to work?"

Dave Buck - I got it to work, but not with Rhapsody. I used the Twonky Music Server (free software) and used it to stream both music and internet radio to my Gateway player who then pumps it into my Amp. You can read more on this stuff here:

http://www.media-servers.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=7

Posted by: bigboy at Dec 6, 2004 5:53:19 PM

Oh yeah - forgot to say - I use ADC-220 with latest 3x version of firmware from Gateway's site.

Posted by: bigboy at Dec 6, 2004 5:54:30 PM

which unit is the best, the GOvideo 2730 os the Gateway connected DVD?

Posted by: zoom1973 at Dec 21, 2004 7:43:40 AM

i have some of your products here and they have been here going on 4 months, i asked people in your company to send me return labels, guess no one there cares or that the task to get off there butt and send me 3 return shippping labels, and i was promised a pad for the comp. phone # n 802-885-5859

Posted by: kerry matuszewski at Jan 3, 2005 1:29:37 AM

If anyone is having problems with XviD AVIs on a D5 based player, where the video races ahead of the audio, then look at this forum post from www.Media-Servers.com

http://www.media-servers.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1977#1977

They discuss a solution to the problem

Posted by: Oujdeivß at Jan 5, 2005 11:50:29 AM

Hello, WinXP has a new media patch for streaming media files from PC to any media streaming player, has anyone tried that on the Gateway Connected DVD Player? Any feedbacks as compared to the D5?

Posted by: Joe at Jan 5, 2005 6:20:01 PM

Carl,
I bought a refurb too. Mine as well did not come with a card. I called a manager and demanded 50 off and they sent me a check. With the check I bought a linksys 16bit wired card. Works like a champ.

Posted by: Stu at Jan 9, 2005 3:05:15 PM

Please help me I have ADC-220 and want to get a wired pc card. Please let me know which ones work.

Posted by: Mike at Jan 14, 2005 3:43:37 PM

Does anyone know what company actually *manufactured* this player? I lost my remote control, and Gateway has completely discontinued it - they don't have parts, they won't be offering updated firmware or server software, and they don't have any more remotes. I'd like to contact the actual manufacturer to see if I can get a new remote, and maybe newer software. Or is there anyplace I can get the remote control IR codes so I coudl program a universal remote? Any tips would be appreciated!

Posted by: Doug at Jan 20, 2005 9:58:17 AM

To Mike: I just bought a refurb Netgear FA411 wired card to use with mine. There are plenty avail on e-bay for cheap. Works great.

Doug: You might try loading the GoVideo firmware and getting one of their remotes or a universal remote that supports the GoVideo player. The codes are different than GW's. I loaded the GoVideo firmware on my ADC-220 and the remote buttons got remapped, so I loaded the GW firmware back on. I've read (here or elseware) that the GoVideo remote codes work on the ADC-220 when it is loaded with the GoVideo firmware.

Posted by: Jerry at Jan 26, 2005 4:54:18 PM

Anyone have a Gateway Connected ADC-320 remote I can borrow? I will pay for shipping. I upgraded the firmware on my GoVideo D2730 for one reason and now I want to put the original firmware back on. The problem is the player buttons and remote are not mapped correctly now. The player needs a Gateway remote (or a universal remote that has the Gateway codes). I tried a One For All remote with the codes someone posted in this blog, but it didn't work. I have read that Gateway has dicontinued this model also, so I can't but it either. I saw a whole Gateway set with remote on Amazon and Ebay both for around $60. Too much to risk and not be able to return it just to fix my D2730.

Please, I don't want to by another player. If someone can contact me at jenktj27@hotmail.com to setup something, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks.

Posted by: jenktj27 at Jan 30, 2005 5:43:07 PM

Similarly to jenktj27, I "upgraded" the firmware on my Amoisonic player to the latest Gateway version, rendering my player well, hard to use without a Gateway remote control.
Anyway...anybody want to buy this off me? Make an offer - bzc at hotmail.com.

Posted by: Craig at Feb 5, 2005 11:51:24 AM

Well, I too installed the GO Video firmware upgrade on the Gateway and found out that it worked, but the remote and front panel buttons were scrambled. I was able to figure out how to get it back to the Gateway firmware version and everything is working now.

Can anyone out there tell me if the GOVIDEO firmware will support the variable bitrate (loss less) WMA files? That's my whole goal here!

BTW - if anyone wants to sell their Go-video or Gateway connected I'll take it off your hands. Email me at paul-henke@charter.net

Posted by: Paul at Feb 6, 2005 7:37:55 PM

Hey guys, CHUCK the gateway D5 software and replace it with this. Make sure you use the add/uninstall utility in your control panel section to get rid of the GATEWAY SHIT first. REstart then down load this http://www.govideo.com/Index.asp?GV=D2730V3#8
make sure and get the SP2 patch right below it. IT works a hell of a lot better. In fact I couldn't even use the Gateway server software because it would just freeze and say NOT RESPONDING. This on e kicks ass!

Posted by: Bosstone74 at Feb 12, 2005 8:15:07 PM

Hi all, Does anyone know whether the Gateway Wireless 802.11g adapter (WGC-220) is supposed to work in the ADC-220? I can't seem to find anything to indicate as such and currently I can't get my ADC-220 to recognize that it's inserted! Ugh. Apparently, the card isn't long enough to make a connection with the DVD player's card slot (or so I'm guessing based on how far my 802.11b card inserts in the player). Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks,
Doug

Posted by: Tsugazi at Mar 13, 2005 8:00:56 PM

If you are using the Gateway D5 Media Server, I highly recommend you ditch it and load the GoVideo version as Paul mentions above. MUCH better (smoother, quicker, lighter on the system etc...)

Posted by: Ricky at Mar 23, 2005 8:39:35 PM

If I chuck the Gateway D5 Server and use the GoVideo version as suggested is there going to be a problem with the remote control not working? If so how can I overcome the problem?

Posted by: RockinRik at Apr 2, 2005 11:56:25 PM

the Go Video Firmware works great on the Gateway. After the first couple of attempts not working because of the key maping issue. I gave up for months. Then I went to radio shack for a USB A-A cable (which they don't have by the way). And saw the 15-2133 remote. Not only is it a cool looking remote, you call a number put the phone upto the remote and they will download the Go Video D2730 codes. Of course you have to tell them you have the Go Video and not the Gateway. After the upgrade got everything setup and running. The only thing that I had to do was program the 'OPEN' from the gateway remote to the new one and it does work to open the drawer. Other than that I got the thing to work with the D5 server, the Rhapsody service, and Twonky Vision Music server at the same time! Completey satisfied with this thing finally. Now all I have to do is convince my wife that it's worth it to not be able to use the original remote or the buttons on the front of the player.

Posted by: Jason at Apr 22, 2005 10:15:37 AM

Hi all, I've been using Gateway D5 media server since it first came out and have never had real big issues until lately. When I try and play back mpeg files they start playing back fine for about 5 sec then they start stuttering.... The video and audio both continue playback but it's like they're in slow motion. I've tried so many things I don't even know where to begin again. Any thoughts as to why it starts play back fine and then goes to slow motion after about 5 seconds???? Thanks in advance!

Posted by: Mluters at May 28, 2005 9:07:52 AM

Hi all - I just bought an ADC-220. The network playing works great - but I think there is a problem with the DVD function. Is it normal for DVDs to 60-90 seconds to get past the LOAD blink before they start playing? (Some never get past the LOAD.) The unit is at the most current version of the firmware, these are new-condition retail US DVDs. I was hoping to eliminate my DVD player from the HT with the Gateway, so I'm a little bummed.

Posted by: JohnnyArcade at Jun 4, 2005 5:58:02 AM

Overall I am pretty happy with this player but the D5 streaming Server only accept Mpeg1 of VCD standard settings and Mpeg2 of SVCD standard settings. I tried to scan for Mpeg2 of DVD settings of 720 x 756 Bitrate 6000 kbs 25 fps, the D5 media Server will not accept video giving the reason of High bitrate.

Can anyone advise me how to solve this problem or recommend another better Media Server software? Am I right to say that my problem was due the restriction of the D5 Steaming Media Server? I tried the GoVideo, Amoisonic and Gateway versions but no improvement at all.

Posted by: Joe Ng at Jul 7, 2005 10:43:07 AM

Posted by: Joe Ng at Jul 7, 2005 10:44:12 AM

Posted by: Joe Ng at Jul 7, 2005 10:46:52 AM

Posted by: Joe Ng at Jul 7, 2005 10:53:17 AM

Hi everyone. Just thought I would share that I decided to try the Netgear Server Software used for the Netgear MP115 and it works GREAT. Much better than the Gateway version (which of course is not longer being updated by Gateway).

http://kbserver.netgear.com/products/MP115.asp

Posted by: Jay at Jul 9, 2005 9:15:25 AM

Yo Jay, Thanks for your recommendation and I've downloaded the Netgear Server Software already but has yet to try it. By the way, I would really appreciate if you could advise whether does the Netgear Software able to accept and stream Mpeg2 with DVD settings?

Posted by: Joe Ng at Jul 12, 2005 8:42:33 AM

Hi Jay, I installed the Netgear MP115 Server without installing the radio part and indeed it looks better and is able to scan Mpeg2 files in DVD settings.

I can see the Netgear Server from my DVD player but unable to connect to it and worst of all my DVD player hangs after that. I run the GoVideo Server on a seperate PC and having no problem connecting to it. I briefly check through the Netgear Server settings and there seems to be a registration key column which is empty and I am wondering do I need to fill that up inorder to get it working?

Posted by: Joe Ng at Jul 12, 2005 5:42:18 PM

Why the hell is www.media-servers.com always down???

If they need hosting, I might be able to help with that.

Anyways, I've had my ADC-320 for about 3 months now. Im using the gateway wireless B card in it. It worked PERFECTLY for the first month. Now it has trouble with the stream dropping out. It usually skips/garbles during a song a few times, sometimes for half the song, sometimes it will lose the connection entirely. I've made sure there's a strong signal. I've swapped my router with another. I replaced the NIC with a new one. Ive used the latest version of both Gateway and Netgear's D5 Server. I've used Twonky (less likely to skip, more likely to entirely lose the connection). I've run the server from 3 different computers. I've double-checked all my router settings. I'm going to update the firmware in a few minutes, although I doubt that will do it. If this doesn't work, I'll try a wired NIC, but I don't understand why it worked flawlessly, then, without any changes being made to any part of the whole setup, it just falls to shiat like that.

If anyone has any good suggestions, please let me know, I've been beating my head against a wall over this.

Get me online
AIM - RandyBThatIsMe
ICQ - 3122285
email - geniusiknowit@yahoo.com

Posted by: Pissed at Jul 12, 2005 7:20:52 PM

The firmware update did not fix the problem.

Maybe my ADC-320 is defective. Sucks, because I can't really get another. The company I work for buys and sells a lot of liquidated gateway products. This is the only one of these we've received so far, although we have a few ADC-220s. What bugs me is that it worked perfectly for a month. Normally if we get an item and it's defective, the problem is immediately apparent. I'm so frustrated. It was working so nicely, I loved it. The interface wasn't perfect, but it was good enough, no need to keep trotting over to my computer to hear a different song. ARGH!

Posted by: Pissed at Jul 12, 2005 9:39:18 PM

Yo Guys,

I tried several media server software like : Windows Media Connect, Prismiq Media Server, Dlink DSM-320 media server but none is able to work with my Wireless DVD Player. Nero Media Home seems alright but only work on LAN and Unreal Media Server too. Sign...... still searching for new Media Server software to test.

Posted by: Joe Ng at Jul 13, 2005 9:50:39 AM

Gee,

Both Netgear and GoVideo media server is not able to scan DivX Pro 6 codec files, looks like just have to wait for new updates again. Sign.....

Posted by: Joe Ng at Jul 14, 2005 8:23:41 AM

well here's my problem, i've tried the different media server programs like netgears and i have the same issue. the sound is not in sync with the video..in fact the video is too fast and is ahead of the sound reguardless of program used. now i watch it on my pc..perfect sync..stream it to my gateway connected player..outa sync..and not just a bit outa sync..but alot. any thoughts?

Posted by: sirk at Jul 15, 2005 12:41:28 PM

Sirk -

It's a problem with the file you're using. It's probably an XVID, like the 1.0RC version or something. A lot of people encoded videos using it. You need to get a program that should be able to fix the problem for you. This issue is well-documented on media-servers.com, but unfortunately, that site is DOWN. Sorry I can't be more helpful.

Posted by: Pissed at Jul 15, 2005 4:42:00 PM

Hello,

Can someone post the solution of Xvid out of sync here.... the media-servers.com is always down HELP! All my recent downloaded movies are in Xvid format and all of them are out of sync when I stream to DVD Player.

Posted by: Joe Ng at Jul 16, 2005 2:08:45 AM

Hello,

Looks like www.media-servers.com will be dead for a while. Anyway, I found a solution to work on the Xvid video/audio sync problem.

I found a tool that lets you remove the packed bitstream from videos downloaded from the net. It takes literally like 10-20 seconds!!

1) Make sure you have Microsoft .NET v1.1
2) Go to http://www.moitah.net and download MPEG4 Modifier
3) Load the Xvid file you're having problems with and click on Unpack and then save to a different filename or location.
4) It'll take 20 seconds or so but I have tested it with 2 shows I was having the out of sync problem (where the video was much faster than the audio) and it works FULLY!!!

Posted by: Joe Ng at Jul 17, 2005 7:14:36 PM

Yo guys,

Just wanna ask if anyone got a crack for the D5 Stream Server to recognise DivX Pro 6 codec. Apparently my new movies that were converted by DivX Pro Converter which is using Pro 6 codec don't seems to be recognise by the D5 Stream Server at all.

Posted by: Joe Ng at Jul 18, 2005 9:22:37 PM

joe thanks that works great..finally the solution i needed

Posted by: sirk at Jul 19, 2005 1:22:00 PM

Hello,

I learned from some DivX forum guys that all I have to do is to rename the .divx file to an .avi in command prompt. I tried it and it works.

Posted by: Joe Ng at Jul 23, 2005 6:10:24 PM

Hello,

I am downloading movies online and sometimes have to get it from different people but it will continue and still join up as one movie. My problem that I am facing is the D5 Media Server rejects such movies with reason as "truncated movie" although they playback OK on my PC.

May I know is there anything that I can do to solve the problem or do I always have to encode the movie again using Dr DivX?

Posted by: Joe Ng at Jul 30, 2005 5:22:02 AM

To Joe Ng:
Joe, I downloaded and installed the Netgear Server software for use with my Gateway ADC-320, but it will not connect to the player. You apparently got it to work with the Gateway player,What did you do?!? I'm running the latest firmware available for the player which works fine with the Gateway D5 server software. I wanted the Netgear version so I could stream internet radio, but it's a no-go so far. Can you help?
Thanks,
Don

Posted by: dhf at Aug 18, 2005 10:00:44 AM

Just installed the netgear server software for my adc-220 that I jsut bought for $18 off of ubid.com and it works like a charm. The D5 software would not play at all.

Posted by: jedda at Aug 19, 2005 10:11:23 AM

The netgear server software does play the divx 6.0 files by the way. You can download it at ftp://downloads.netgear.com/files/MP115_S3_3_44_C4_1_20.zip

Posted by: jedda at Aug 19, 2005 10:14:38 AM

The streaming radio works too! Cool, I wasn't expecting that.

Posted by: jedda at Aug 19, 2005 11:38:25 AM

Streaming radio is why I wanted it in the first place since my Gateway D5 server software works OK.
I still can't get the Netgear server, either s3_3_36us or the s3_3_44_c1_20 to recognize my player which is the 320 not the 220 you have. That may be the difference but I thought the only difference was the 320 came with and was compatible with 80211g whereas your 220 is only 'b'.
I guess I'll just have to use the Gateway server for pictures and video and the Twonky Musicserver for streaming internet radio. It's a bit cumbersome, but it works. I'd still love to know why Netgear doesn't see my player, but I may never find out!

Posted by: dhf at Aug 19, 2005 4:18:24 PM

I have installed the netgear media server and my dvd player (220) can see it but not connect. It just sits there saying "connecting