THANKS!

2. You cant compare the Nbox to the WD HD TV, the Nbox does not play most of the newer formats like mkv, does not have surround sound capability, does not have a HDMI out put, does not have a digital audio out (toslink). Its ont at all suitable for playing hi def movies on a high def LARGE SIZE tv. At the most, its just ok for average quality playback on a regular non hi def tv/monitor.

Ofcourse, its much cheaper than the WD – which goes for about 100$ but its really not worth buying .

Only advantage of the Nbox over the WD? It looks better!
Cheers
Georgio

1. I dont think the problem is with the WD, I have a 1TB WD external HDD on each of the two usb ports, and never had this problem… check with another drive is all I can suggest.

2. You’re right, it doesnt totally switch off the HDD, but thats because the HDD has its own independant power supply. It dors not really matter because the HDDs are built to remain on continously, in fact the WD web page says that remaining on all the time is less traumatic for the drives internal platters than switching on and off many times a day. However, if you have lots of valuable data on the drive, you should have a back up drive or a mirror drive – WD has some robust well priced mirror models. (Mirror means it has two identical drives, backing up all data onto the second drive)

3. Do you mean converting DVDs of BluRays to file format onto your HDD? If yes, Im not quite sure as I dont do any conversions, I simply download torrents of the movies I want in Hi def. But otherwise MKV files are considered the most appropriate container for large video files. There are lots of greatv free software on the net for conversions, if you look.

4. Good Question… think you should ask WD on there web site, they’ll give you the right answer quickly.
All the best.

I hope I am not asking for a lot :).. but I will appreciate if you can answer the following questions as well.. it wont only help me, but also a lot of my friends that are also having the same problems.

1. I have segate 1.5 TB connected to it, and if leave it on for a little while (15-20 mins), or pause a playing movie and leave it for about 5 mins, I have to restart the hard drive (its gets hang).

2. When I turn the system off, it does not really turn off the hard drive (the way HD would automatically turn off if you turn of a computer attached to the hard drive). With the new firmware, sometimes it does, some times it doesnt.

3. What will happen if I convert a 1080P movie or AVI movie to MKV? In other words, I am making a big media library (2.5 TB in size), and what would be the best format in terms of picture quality, sound, and size to keep videos in?

4. When I reset the device, does it take it back to old firmware, or it still stays with the new firmware?

Really appreciate it :)

So you need a really simple easy to use video option. It needs to look only at certain folders with video files. It needs to just scan for those.

There should be an option to turn on or off each type of video file it’s looking for on the drive. Exclusive files as a setting in the setting folder.

For example MP4’s and M4V’s could be checked. I’ve found some M4v’s have more problems, with fast forward not working so rename them all to MP4’s per instructions.

Most people want:
1. Easy to read large print menus, for a TV way across the room.
2. Play, ff, rewind, pause, stop, chapters or jump ahead feature.
3. A really simple way to select the movies they want or quickly navigate to them.
4. When the device is turned off and turned back on, they want the last movies on the list, that is the last position, to be in the current position.

If you give the above features in an easy to use Kiosk for people, they will be happy 90% of the time.

The other 10% needs by those with more media, is great to have, but it confuses and clutters the interface. There’s no ergonomics in many goofy software interfaces, with small icons that are for the most part unreadable and just a bunch of blocks or worse yet, unreadable text on a $1500 Sony HD TV across the room.

We have $1500 and higher Media TV’s but nothing optimized for easy kiosk viewing. The WD Media player comes close, but it’s not exactly ideal.

DREAMING WISH LIST.
If I could dream and make a kiosk perfect it would have a database or linked files attached to the movies, but be really simple offer easy to read information and perhaps some links for simular movies. For example a large movie art photo with the names of movie stars, type of movie, etc. If my mom wants to look up a certain movie with Doris Day in it, and she remembers an actresses name, well most movie players don’t have good readable posters for the movies, they have little JPEG photos, and they don’t have any kind of linked database with a description of a movie. Think of something that shows you what they would see on a DVD box, with a description perhaps from IMDB or something, and linked jump points, for example she could navigate to an actor or actress, press a button and all the movies they were in that is on the Movie Player Kiosk should show up in a list. Then she selects the next movie. A simple database interface that the person can setup, Maybe XML or some kind of basic format that a person could edit. Drop in each folder and it would pick up and display the information and then do a quick search for tags that relate, building custom display lists, Via actors, even other keywords. Have a way to segment the movies perhaps 100 ways with different keywords. Then a label for a keyword could exist and be a part of the description.

Something like that. Some kind of universal standard even. With a really nice display. I want her to be able to see and browse cover art and descriptions. But nothing exists out there.

1. An elderly person often doesn’t understand menus and multiple levels, many arrows to navigate. It would be really nice to be able to temporarily turn OFF with a setup utility all the extra features you DON’T want that will confuse them. Maybe leaving two menu items, only SETUP to reenable and whatever simple video menu item you leave checked as an option. For example I only want VIDEO menu on the menu, no audio, no other features. I don’t even want video folders. I don’t want her to have to navigate through “burned” VIDEO_TS unprotected DVD’s, because the menu layer setup loses all relationship to real meaningful names.

2. I can remove all the VIDEO_TS and DVD items from the drive. And remove all the audio files from the drive. All home video clips from the drive, and so forth. But that means I need a dedicated media drive, which I gladly purchased. But I should be able to LOCK UP or protect directories and hide them away, so I can have an external drive with a ton of stuff on it, that the WD Media player will ignore. Just give me some kind of root folder name where I can squirrel away all the extra stuff, I might want to store for my laptop or other use from time to time, but the WD Media controller will ignore. Give me an IGNORE root folder or something.

I can use “Trash” as that folder, but if I ever empty it by mistake I’d lose those other files.

3. The other thing is the menus, that is the “names” list version, which should be sufficient, but the Sony HD XBR that I’m using is setup for full HD and that works well and the Media controller works well. But different movies are setup for different resolutions, which is a function of the ripping settings and original movie settings released or recorded into a computer. For example I have wide screen and normal screen Laserdisks that I’ve recorded and also there is 16*9 content.

The end result is “normal” setting being used a lot on the bit Sony 32 or 36? inch screen I have for her. That screen although big doesn’t show the titles quite big enough for her to easily read and navigate. The movie names should be even bigger. Maybe 6 movies per screen very large and a nice large zoom for the one selected. Make the movie names about twice as big as they are now for full “Normal” HD screens and it will help a lot with the elderly in setting up a simple kiosk system.

4. More of a wish list item. Maybe a few simple buttons on the box in the future if you ever build another box. Just a power, play and advance button or something for really basic playing of movies. This might take 6 or 7 buttons, but work in a pinch if the remote is temporarily lost. I’m tempted to buy a second one, just to have a spare remote.

5. I know this is probably not possible, but it would be nice if the chapters in MP4 files that are ripped as MP4 files and normally are something like default 5 minutes or something were readable. But I almost don’t care if the chapters work or not in a movie, because we can use the chapter button as a “next movie” button.

The basic goal I’ve had was to create a kiosk for an elderly person that was very simple to use and offered some kind of integrated movie and MP4, etc paying ability. I have about 700 movies on DVD or burned from Laserdisk for her, and going through a physical library and finding them is a pain. Plus my elderly father completely throws them back into stacks all over the room and they become unsorted quickly, leaving any search for an obscure movie an hour long exercise.

The best options I’ve had for a while, but none are perfect have been:
1. 400 DVD changer. But the controls were to difficult for her to understand so we took it back.
2. Earlier Kiosk design using Microsoft Office products and linked script buttons underneath, but Applescript is no longer an option. I had a PowerPoint interface that was sweet on older apples and older operating systems, but now that’s not an option apparently.
3. Using FrontRow for MP4s. This is a good option but everything needs to be ripped to MP4 and it won’t play DVD Video_TS ripped files. Also Front Row is also to layered and not customizable for a default easy movie in one or a few folders setup. She doesn’t like or understand arrow navigation through submenus, is not computer savey.
4. Using a media player from a controlling Iphone software company. I forgot the name of it. That and FrontRow can each show half the movie library (until I rip all the DVD’s to MP4).
5. This WD Player.
6. I can use the macintosh with LogmeIn Ignition to control the Mac over the internet as well, but that requires no dropping of the Mac off the internet. Sometimes my wifi router will drop off and remote control is not always available with Logmein ignition. It’s a great product, but there’s some problems, and I’m not always available for her requests and troubleshooting.

So the WD Player is basically the winner, but it does require the ripping of all my movies to MP4. And since the chapters are usually lost for a direct rip to MP4, I’d have to rip to MKV files first to keep the chapters. Handbrake will rip an average movie in 20 minutes to MP4 with a 2 gig Dual core mac, but MKV files take 2 hours per movie (real time) and with 700 movies, you can see we aren’t going to be getting chapters for her any time soon.

With that in mind it might be nice to have an auto advance (fake chapter) random setting. If that’s possible, a fake chapter skip feature, that would use the chapter button to advance the movie 5 minutes for each push, instead of relying on 16x as being the fastest skipping time. Seniors like to skip over parts of some movies, if they are really picky. So a software fake chapter option would be a nice feature to be able to turn on for all movies.