Xtreamer home theater media center review

Sun, 04 Apr 2010 19:47:00 GMT

What’s this?

I do not know why this class of devices appeared only recently, and why big electronics vendors do not follow this market niche. An idea of the device is very obvious – providing a device capable to deliver video and audio content in consumer home theater from different sources as network, hard drive, USB, CD/DVD/BD, and Internet. A heart of this device is mini motherboard with specialized OS (usually Linux based) and graphical shell allowing switching different sources and stream data to TV and receiver. A key functionality is a capability to decode different video, audio, and still picture formats. Generally such devices eliminate all other components of home theater keeping only TV (monitor) and audio receiver. Of course some old analog devices as VHS, tape or vinyl player can be still here, however they considered as not frequently used and analog content should be eventually converted in digital form. Xtreamer is a nice small device which supposes revolutionary change your home theater.

Packaging

Xtreamer is packaged I a small nice looking white box. USB WiFi adapter is packaged separately in matching to Xtreamer width dimension. Layout of device in the box very standard, device itself is placed in center with two accessories boxes asides. Xtreamer doesn’t come with HDMI cable, for some reason it is supplied with video composite and stereo RCA cables. I think it is mistake point, since price of HDMI cable is comparable and providing it also means saving environment, since the cable won’t be thrown away as it happens with analog cables.

Connecting to home theater

HDMI out tremendously reduces number of wires in home theater. So you need just connect HDMI to home theater receiver and connect power supply. Since I have old receiver, I have to connect optical digital audio cable in addition. Xtreamer has also composite video and stereo RCA connectors for very old home theater components. I can’t imagine that somebody will use it, unless to connect to VCR for copying something for grandparents. You can install an optional 2.5 SATA” HD in Xtreamer. I had old laptop 60Gb SATA disk, so I have installed it. Instructions tell that you need secure disk at cover first and then insert in the device. Such order didn’t work for me. I guess some minor misadjustment. So I inserted disk first and then secure it with cover. This order makes removing disk back tricky, however I wasn’t going to change the disk frequently anyway. Xtreamer provides several ways to network connection, it is 10/100 MBp Ethernet or/and wireless USB adapter. Optionally supplied adapter supports 802.11 N. You can order one with Xtreamer, so you need just plug it in USB slot. Xtreamer has 3 USB slots, two of them are regular USB hosts and one is USB salve. Considering that you more likely will connect external BD USB disk, and usage of slave connection is really rare, number of USB is insufficient. For example you need USB flash drive for update firmware, and if you have all above devices already connected, you can’t achieve updating firmware without temporary disconnection of some device. Another disadvantage is that all USB connectors are on back side of device, so if you plan provide frequent feed from USB flash drive (quite frequent situation when you expect guest who can bring something to watch) , then you need to obtain USB hub. I also needed HDMI switch (still has BD player and my receiver doesn’t support HDMI switching). So you may start thinking about upgrading older receiver after purchasing Xtreamer. Good news, that I was able to purchase a really cheap and good HDMI switch, it doesn’t require external power and can switch automatically based on presence of HDMI signal on inputs. Xtreamer has also a neat feature allowing dropping HDMI signal for a moment to switch to other source without turning off it. As a backup the switch can be controled from remote.

First turning on

A red LED lights on at front when you connect power to Xtreamer. It doesn’t have any switches, so you can operate it from remote control only. Red LED color was changed to flashed orange while devices was booted and then came green. During a boot process, the device shortly shows splash screen. Boot time is about 25 seconds including initializing wireless network. Shutdown time is about 10 seconds. After booting you can see main or home level menu with following top level items

Favorites
Media library
Internet
Internet Radio
File Manager
Settings

The menu is varying from firmware version, so I recommend upgrading your firmware to the latest one upon first usage of the device. Firmware coming out of the box was quite buggy and I had several crashes which gone after upgrading. All the following my writing related to firmware version 2.3.1

Settings

It is first menu you need to visit after first turn on. You can setup as parameters of your TV system, setup network, upgrade firmware and so on. First I did setup of TV system, since screen was hardly readable with default non HDTV setting. You can setup top quality movie setting as 1080px24. I also changed SPDF mode, since default was downmix to stereo. Wireless setup was my next step. It was also easy, you can use WEP protected connection. I only noticed that device saw just two networks when my laptop could see 5 of them. Later I figure out that wireless adapter isn’t strong enough and it seems not replaceable by a better one. After doing these two basic settings I tried to use the device, however observed several crashes and some instability, so I decided to upgrade firmware. I expected it can do upgrade firmware directly from network, however you need to download firmware separately, then copy on flash drive and then you can do upgrade. It isn’t big deal though, since upgrading firmware isn’t so frequent operation. But you need to have a USB flash drive, I know not every person carry one, so make sure you have one. After upgrading my firmware I lost all my setting, so I have to do them again. I have noticed that new firmware had less messy, more clear setting with some advanced features. It’s worth to admit that the device supports over 1o languages, so more likely you can manage the device in your language.

Real usage

It took few steps to give public access to shareable folder of Vista based PC. Later I realized that Xtreamer can manage password protected shareable folders, however for first try I gave completely uncontrollable access. So finally I could see content of my shared folder. Xtreamer does a good work on recognizing different network devices and it seems capable to use network disks as well. For example my wireless router has a feature of network USB drive, however I do not have a such drive yet, so couldn’t test. My first disappointment was that although I saw files I couldn’t play them. Neither video, nor audio. All internet functions also behaved funny. I was about to give up on the device, when I started realizing that WiFi adapter could be not good. I tried pinging Xtreamer and 75% of packages got lost. I started changing place for Xtreamer and found some spot with better reception. Some files started playing however still with interruptions. So after figuring out that problem is in WiFi adapter, I tried another one. However Xtreamer seems capable to recognize only own adapter. I could think that my home theater location in some kind of still wave area. However my laptop and phone WiFi worked fine in the area. Anyway I can’t be 100% certain about bad reception problem since Xtreamer requires top speed of connection for playback. Rememebr I could do basic connection and navigation functions. I resolved connection speed problem only attaching WiFi adapter to an extension cord and placing it out of the home theater niche.

Playing media

If you look in the device specification then you will find that number of supported formats is impressive. Most important in covers most of popular format from low grade as uTube to high grade as compressed HD formats. Very important that the device support popular audio lossless format, that makes is also a good replacement for CD player. Besides of single file formats it support structural formats as ISO or folder based DVD images. So considering that high capacity HD is affordable, you can completely eliminate dealing with single DVD disks. Everything can be stored on media server and then played back. Very useful feature is remembering of last position played single file formats. It can remember last viewed point more than one file. If you don’t want spend time on storing your DVD collection on hard disk, then you can play DVD from external USB DVD drive. I am about to obtaining an external USB BD drive to check if Blu Ray disks can be playable as well. Although it is claimed that this device can play ISO BD images, I am a bit skeptical if you can play them over WiFi connection. So far I figured out that DVD disks playback is very sensitive to WiFi speed, And if a single file compressed video format can be played good, then DVD can issue a lot of skipping and sound problem. I spent some time to find a good position for antenna to catch signal with minimal retransmission rates.

Remote control

Remote control is a small and very functional. It uses standard IR codes, so you can easily reprogram your universal remote control to manage Xtreamer. It has certain benefits, since Xtreamer remote has weak signal, and zone of control is limited. I wish that Xtreamer could be connected to remote keyboard.

Video and audio quality

I didn’t worry much about audio quality, since I use digital connection without downmixing, so DAC of my receiver is responsible for the quality. However for video, the device should do as up converting as 24 f/s 1080 progressive rendering. I didn’t accumulate sufficient data yet, so far I can claim that quality is comparable with what I am getting from a regular upconverting DVD player. Say more, I did comparing with a reasonable good player as OPPO and can conclude that Xtreamer provides slightly better job.

Navigation within content

Xtreamer supports fast forwarding and back warding in range x2-x32. You can also directly specify time of searched fragment. I noticed that fast operation doesn’t work well over network. However I consider the feature acceptable anyway. Interesting that you can do slowmotion playback using x0.8 speed rate.

National languages support

Xtreamer does a great job in supporting as national languages and encodings. Unfortunately encoding selection can be done only in Setting menu. My problem that ID3 of music may be encoded in Unicode/UTF8 or using some national encoding as KOI-8. So there is no hot key of switching between encoding or define some preferred alternative encoding.

Play lists

This feature is quite disappointing. It seems you can build only static playlist against local HD content. I expected something like current playlist when I browse different sources of video and audio and add items in the list. Xtreamer can play externally created playlists; even they suggest some Movies Jukebox. But approach of using the utility isn’t really user friendly. From other side playlist makes sense mostly for audio content. Ideal solution can be something similar to iTunesDB. And I could implement it for Xtreamer naming as XtreamerDB.

Managing huge collection

Xtreamer is lacking here. You can scroll only item by item or page by page. No fast reaching beginning or end of list. Or jumping out of a folder. Again reconsidering a new concept of managing all your collection of music or movies which can include thousands item, only database solution with querying may help. There is no needs to invent bicycle, iPod iTunesDB concept will work perfectly here. Xtreamer manages to create a community around of the project, so certainly I expect contribution from some member here.

Internet radio

There is some list of Internet radio; however I didn’t find how to add more stations. You can’t build certain schedule of switching between stations. It could be nice integrate radio with alarm clock. Why it isn’t here?

Video content on demand for your neighborhood

Devices as Xtreamer give unique opportunity to stream video audio content to any client on network. Considering that Xtreamer has embedded UPnP server allowing to be discovered form any computer on Internet. A friend of mine work on a small project feeding 8 Tb server with different content streaming out using Xtreamer devices for neighborhood.

Short summary of the review:

Pros:

One small device which suppose to replace all other digital video and audio sources of home theater
Can decode all popular media formats with a good quality
User interface is simple and intuitive
Great community around and frequent firmware updates
Remembering last watching position

Cons:

Weak playlist support
Doesn't play BD disks from external BD drive
No categorization and search capabilities
No option of wireless keyboard
Web control of the device very limited
No support of popular Internet video and audio sources for US
Closed platform, open API , no way of customization
No web browser
Weak WiFi antenna
No gapless playback

What’s next?

Visit http://www.xtreamer.net/

Microsoft’s marketing loses

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 03:18:00 GMT

I was surprised to see how Microsoft’s marketing played so bad. There were two HD formats offered on market choice HD from Toshiba and Blu-Ray from Sony. Toshiba is an old hardware partner of Microsoft. Many electronics offered by Microsoft are actually designed and manufactured by Toshiba. So it was no surprise that Microsoft offered HD format for xbox game console. However Microsoft’s market did nothing to secure the deal. In opposite, Sony marketing got support from big studios and got over Netflix promising a big discount on Sony production titles. Now HD format became hanging without any support from moviemakers and distribution companies. As result, PS3 got better popularity and Microsoft loses money on xbox. Microsoft’s marketing had all chances to get over Blu-Ray promising benefits to studios and distributors for supporting HD. Anyway, the lesson is taken and we should expect some changes in marketing division of Microsoft.

Zune review

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 21:55:00 GMT

It is a really nice attempt of Microsoft to penetrate DAP market, but did they find or create own niche here?

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