Re: HD on Standard TV

[Ext User(Anthony Horan)]

On Sat, 10 Nov 2007 23:39:59 +1100, Bob Bain wrote:

> On Sat, 10 Nov 2007 19:34:47 +1100, Anthony Horan
> <anthonyhoran@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>>You can stream xvid/divx etc from shared folders on your LAN, just like you
>>can with network media players like the Mediagate. It's like getting a PVR
>>and Mediagate in one.
>
> I have a Mediagate player and also an abigs. I like both and they
> both play the ISO file format for DVDs which makes it convenient to
> store favourite (purchased) films on these or similar players. They
> also play the WMV format which the Beyonwiz doesn't appear to support.

The Beyonwiz indeed does support WMV. In fact it uses a Sigma processor
from the same line as the Mediagate - it's the next model up for the
Mediagate's, supporting H.264 which the Mediagate does not.

> I believe if anyone has a Topfield 7000 ... with the March firmware
> and have problems upgrading the firmware they should attempt to find a
> fast and a FAT based USB flash device. I don't believe the FAT32
> format is recognised by Linux and the Topfield is running Linux.

Linux can read FAT32 just fine. The Beyonwiz runs embedded Linux (on the
Sigma processor) and uses FAT32 as its default file system.

> The Sandisk Cruzer USB drive from Harris Technology which was
> recognised by the unit states that it is formatted FAT and not FAT32.

USB flash drives generally are formatted as FAT. There is no advantage to
formatting them as FAT32.

> I've had a look at the Beyonwiz manual. It appears to be an
> excellent unit, although (like the Topfield HD 7000) appears to have
> attracted some very negative reviews.

Which are... where?

> The Beyonowiz H1 appears to offer similar functionality but uses the
> very limited FAT 32 format - with a file limit of 4 GB which wouldn't
> be enough for much multimedia content.

You're kidding, of course. The FAT32 4GB file size limit isn't going to be
a problem with 99.999999% of content people will be working with.

[Ext User(Bob Bain)]

On Tue, 13 Nov 2007 00:48:58 +1100, Anthony Horan
<anthonyhoran@hotmail.com> wrote:

>> I've had a look at the Beyonwiz manual. It appears to be an
>> excellent unit, although (like the Topfield HD 7000) appears to have
>> attracted some very negative reviews.

>Which are... where?

Topfield TF7000HDPVRt

Review date 26/04/2007

6/10 5.1/10

It's taken a while for Topfield to actually release an HD model of its
popular PVR line. The TF7000HDPVRt is finally here - but the lack of
networking support seriously detracts from what is otherwise an
excellent PVR

http://www.cnet.com.au/dvdpvr/pvr/0,239035858,339272283,00.htm

Beyonwiz DP-P1

Review date 28/8//2007

6.5/10 6.7/10

http://www.cnet.com.au/dvdpvr/pvr/0,239035858,339281401,00.htm

The Beyonwiz DP-P1 is a decent high-definition digital recorder, but
its good looks don't hide its limitations.

After being spoiled with the Apple TV's elegant photo viewer, the
DP-P1 didn't hold up very well. Loading high-resolution photos taken
with a Canon 400D took an excruciating 10 to 20 seconds per photo,
during which you only see a black screen with an hourglass endlessly
spinning. Photos did, however, look magnificent viewed in all their
glory. Our attempts to copy the photos to the HDD for faster reading
were also in vain -- the copy menu option was greyed out for the USB
key. Apple TV leaves the Beyonwiz for dead when it comes to music, the
latter not able to play music while viewing a slideshow and none of
the sync capabilities that Apple iTunes provides.

There's no FTP server or HTTP interface so you're stuck with the
built-in browser for interacting with files. Unfortunately there's no
way to transfer recorded files to a PC with the current firmware.

=================

and it's the ability to transfer files to the PC was the attraction
to myself.

I note there's a (now) sub $1,000 Teac that claims this ability.


http://www.goodgearguide.com.au/index.php/taxid;2136212607;pid;3094;pt;1

Teac HDRM7250

The high definition digital TV receiver in the HDRM7250 is one of the
best we've seen. It picked up 51 channels in under 100 seconds. All
channels were clear and were automatically organised and assigned
"logical" channel numbers (for example: 7, 70, 71, 72, for the Seven
network and its associated channels). The twin tuners add an
impressive amount of extra functionality to the unit and allow users
to watch one channel whilst recording another channel, or even to
record two channels simultaneously.

==============

It appears from a cursory glance at the unit that the hard drive is
sitting right under the cover and is seemingly a SATA device and can
possibly be easily removed and replaced.

According to the manual it can transfer files from the internal hard
drive to a PC using the ethernet connection.

Last seen at JB Hi Fi for $996

Your other points are noted. There were earlier reviews of the
Beyonwiz which complained about the firmware.

[Ext User(Netmask)]

"Bob Bain" <++@tpg.com.au> wrote in message
news:gdnij39p2c3ikbf557kgj78g2s74o0tjrv@4ax.com...
> On Tue, 13 Nov 2007 00:48:58 +1100, Anthony Horan
> <anthonyhoran@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>>> I've had a look at the Beyonwiz manual. It appears to be an
>>> excellent unit, although (like the Topfield HD 7000) appears to have
>>> attracted some very negative reviews.
>
>>Which are... where?
>
> Topfield TF7000HDPVRt
>
> Review date 26/04/2007
>
> 6/10 5.1/10
>
> It's taken a while for Topfield to actually release an HD model of its
> popular PVR line. The TF7000HDPVRt is finally here - but the lack of
> networking support seriously detracts from what is otherwise an
> excellent PVR
>
> http://www.cnet.com.au/dvdpvr/pvr/0,239035858,339272283,00.htm
>
> Beyonwiz DP-P1
>
> Review date 28/8//2007
>
> 6.5/10 6.7/10
>
> http://www.cnet.com.au/dvdpvr/pvr/0,239035858,339281401,00.htm
>
> The Beyonwiz DP-P1 is a decent high-definition digital recorder, but
> its good looks don't hide its limitations.
>
> After being spoiled with the Apple TV's elegant photo viewer, the
> DP-P1 didn't hold up very well. Loading high-resolution photos taken
> with a Canon 400D took an excruciating 10 to 20 seconds per photo,
> during which you only see a black screen with an hourglass endlessly
> spinning. Photos did, however, look magnificent viewed in all their
> glory. Our attempts to copy the photos to the HDD for faster reading
> were also in vain -- the copy menu option was greyed out for the USB
> key. Apple TV leaves the Beyonwiz for dead when it comes to music, the
> latter not able to play music while viewing a slideshow and none of
> the sync capabilities that Apple iTunes provides.
>
> There's no FTP server or HTTP interface so you're stuck with the
> built-in browser for interacting with files. Unfortunately there's no
> way to transfer recorded files to a PC with the current firmware.
>
> =================
>
> and it's the ability to transfer files to the PC was the attraction
> to myself.
>
> I note there's a (now) sub $1,000 Teac that claims this ability.
>
>
> http://www.goodgearguide.com.au/index.php/taxid;2136212607;pid;3094;pt;1
>
> Teac HDRM7250
>
> The high definition digital TV receiver in the HDRM7250 is one of the
> best we've seen. It picked up 51 channels in under 100 seconds. All
> channels were clear and were automatically organised and assigned
> "logical" channel numbers (for example: 7, 70, 71, 72, for the Seven
> network and its associated channels). The twin tuners add an
> impressive amount of extra functionality to the unit and allow users
> to watch one channel whilst recording another channel, or even to
> record two channels simultaneously.
>
> ==============
>
> It appears from a cursory glance at the unit that the hard drive is
> sitting right under the cover and is seemingly a SATA device and can
> possibly be easily removed and replaced.
>
> According to the manual it can transfer files from the internal hard
> drive to a PC using the ethernet connection.
>
> Last seen at JB Hi Fi for $996
>
> Your other points are noted. There were earlier reviews of the
> Beyonwiz which complained about the firmware.
>

Re the Beyonwiz - you can transfer files from the Wiz to PC over the network
or to a USB drive. From the PC end you can transfer files off the Wiz using
a program called WizFX. I think you must have been referring to the earlier
firmware. You can also do cropping (top and tailing) cut and save etc. on
the Wiz.

[Ext User(Bob Bain)]

On Wed, 14 Nov 2007 01:21:20 GMT, "Netmask"
<netmask56NOSPAM@gmail.com> wrote:

>> Your other points are noted. There were earlier reviews of the
>> Beyonwiz which complained about the firmware.

>Re the Beyonwiz - you can transfer files from the Wiz to PC over the network
>or to a USB drive. From the PC end you can transfer files off the Wiz using
>a program called WizFX. I think you must have been referring to the earlier
>firmware. You can also do cropping (top and tailing) cut and save etc. on
>the Wiz.

I didn't know much about the Beyonwiz until after I started a
discussion about my purchase of the Topfield TF7000HDPVRt.

It may be worth noting that if (as I am) a person running Linux (and
I am running Ubuntu Linux 7.10) it's not necessary to transfer
anything.

Power down the external drive attached to the Topfield - which will
have formatted in the drive with the EXT2 file system - and plug it
into a free USB port on a computer running (say Ubuntu) Linux and it's
immediately recognised.

In Ubuntu an icon representing the drive appears immediately on
screen.. Open the drive with a left mouse click - select the folder
named "videos" and there are the recordings made on the Topfield.

Move the mouse to the recording you might be interested in viewing,
right click and select "Play with VLC" (which is a included in the
Ubuntu Linux repostitories as an player that can be installed - it's
free - as are most things that come with Ubuntu Linux) and it will
play immediately on the computer.

In the meantime plug some other external drive into the Topfield and
provided you have formatted it you can record to that. With a 500 gig
SATA drive costing say $150 and/or a 400 gig IDE about $110 it's
possible to forget worrying about losing the internal drive or running
out of storage.

I might note in passing that the Topfield wil NOT format a drive that
hasn't been partitioned. I believe on the Beyonwiz H1 you "register"
the external drive before formatting it. There doesn't appear to be
an equivilant on the Topfield so you it is seemingly necessary to
create a partition on a computer if you are using a freshly purchased
and unformatted disk drive - it's also possible to format it in EXT3
in Linux if you wish the drive to be immediately visible to the
Topfield.

I might add that if you copy downloaded firmware to the root
directory and plug it into the Topfield, then when the Topfield is
turned on (assuming it has been upgraded to the July 2007 firmware) on
powering up the Topfield the firmware upgrade on the external drive
updates the device with the upgraded firmware automatically and then
reboots.

This is a far less painful process than the upgrade process prior to
the July 2007 firmware.

As noted the files are large. The program I recorded on Tuesday
(720p format) is about 4 gig for a program which ran for 1 hour and 5
minutes but it's recored in 'high definition' (well 720p) format (as
confirmed with the VLC media player).