Re: Pinnacle ShowCenter

["Simon Daykin" <simons.lists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Tony,

Thanks for the info.  I have been looking at openshowcenter.sourceforge.net
which was really getting me quite excited.  I like the idea of being able
to
control the service at a very low level....  Have to do a bit more
investigation.  Hopefully what I want from the front end is relatively
simple,  just to play back audio/video the video.  I hope to do all the
catalog stuff in modified PHP scripts.

Many thanks,

Simon
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tony Butler" <lists@xxxxxxx>
To: <ukha_d@xxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, March 21, 2004 5:39 PM
Subject: RE: [ukha_d] Pinnacle ShowCenter


> I bought one a couple of months ago, but have only now added it to
node0.
> Lack of time/laziness aside, it hasn't really been up to the rigours
of
> SWMBO testing till now - and even now, is still not there yet.
>
> The latest 1.4 beta of the showcenter software makes it more usable
and a
> bit faster - you should browse around the SC forums for an idea of the
sort
> of problems people have been having - video stuttering, pictures not
showing
> etc, as well as the lack of features you expect to be present, eg:
> - down mixing of 5.1 sound to stereo out - they are working on this at
the
> moment, but don't have a release date.
>   This means I have to encode two audio tracks - the
"proper" one for when
> *I* am watching something, routing through an AV amp,
>   and a stereo audio one   for when SWMBO is watching thru the TV
alone.
> This in itself presents problems (space aside) where
>   switching tracks can cause it to freeze.
> - The blurb tells you it will play back DVD VOB files.  Those not 100%
> au-fait with the terminology might think this means it
>   can play a DVD, menus and all.  It can't.  It can play the raw video
files
> extracted from a DVD, but no menus, no way to
>   choose a track order, nada.
> - Organisation of files is very shallow - eg for video, it's
Genre\Title
and
> that's it - no sub-genres, no multiple genres etc.
>
> I know pinnacle are working on some of these, but it's taking time -
and
> there are other devices like the neuston that have some of these
features,
> or indeed open versions of the ShowCentre software offering them
and/or
> other stuff like streaming internet radio, web browsing etc.
>
> For the money, it could be worth looking at a kiss dvd player maybe -
some
> of these do similar things AND play actual DVD's too!
> Hell, look at a chipped xbox too - it's cheaper and a lot more
versatile.
> I have one but it's not "fully functional" due to
aforementioned time
> constraints etc - hence I bought the SC as an off-the-shelf solution.
>
> I'm sure given another 6 months, the SC will be about right -and 6
months
> after that, V2 will be released and will address various hardware
> limitations of the current one, but until then I think for your 200
quid,
> you might be a little disappointed.
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Tony
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Simon Daykin [mailto:simons.lists@xxxxxxx]
> > Sent: 21 March 2004 12:23
> > To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
> > Subject: [ukha_d] Pinnacle ShowCenter
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > Has anyone had much experience of the Pinnacle ShowCenter?  I
> > am a big user of J-River Media Center and am looking for ways
> > of interfacing it to my AV system.  This seems quite
> > interesting,  got good Video playback capabilities?  Anyone
> > used it?  Any comments?  Any serious competitors, especially
> > in the Video Arena?
> >
> > Specially, I am looking for something that can play back
> > large (e.g. ~2G) DivX encoded video files over the network.
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > Simon
> >
> >
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