Networked Hi-Def Media Player

Robert M Wright · February 16th, 2006, 12:40 AM

That's good to hear Tom.

Does the LinkPlayer2 have the soft image problem, when playing DivX-HD files?

Does it play high definition content encoded with XVID ok?

How well does it handle dual layer media?

Does the JVC version of this player offer any additional benefits?

Will the LinkPlayer2 play WMV-HD files that use Windows Media Audio for the soundtrack? I've heard that the Buffalo PC-P3LWG won't.

Tom Roper · February 16th, 2006, 07:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Robert M Wright

That's good to hear Tom.

Does the LinkPlayer2 have the soft image problem, when playing DivX-HD files?

Does it play high definition content encoded with XVID ok?

How well does it handle dual layer media?

Does the JVC version of this player offer any additional benefits?

Will the LinkPlayer2 play WMV-HD files that use Windows Media Audio for the soundtrack? I've heard that the Buffalo PC-P3LWG won't.

No soft image from DivX-HD. Played Xvid nicely for me.
Not reputed to handle dual layer media well, although I have not tested this.
The JVC version includes DVI and wireless networking.
Does not handle WMA *pro* audio, but does output the regular WMA audio 2 channel via the spdif coax. I think the later firmwares may actually handle the WMA Pro audio downconverted to (2) channel and output from the analog audio outputs although I have not tested this.

Tomas Chinchilla · February 16th, 2006, 10:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tom Roper

No soft image from DivX-HD. Played Xvid nicely for me.
Not reputed to handle dual layer media well, although I have not tested this.
The JVC version includes DVI and wireless networking.
Does not handle WMA *pro* audio, but does output the regular WMA audio 2 channel via the spdif coax. I think the later firmwares may actually handle the WMA Pro audio downconverted to (2) channel and output from the analog audio outputs although I have not tested this.

Mine plays DL discs well.

JVC HAS NO WIRELESS!!!!!!!

Robert M Wright · February 18th, 2006, 01:29 PM

Does the upconversion for standard DVDs work as well as PowerDVD?

Graham Hickling · March 4th, 2006, 06:47 AM

My Linkplayer2 arrived yesterday evening. Plugged it in, turned it on, set the outputs to 1080i component and inserted a DVD-R with a raw 1080i .mt2 file. It played very very nicely - Wow!!

But...where to next? I have a LOT of reading i need to do on the forums about firmware and soldering. For example: does the soldering hack improve mt2 playback or just DVD, WM9, DiVX etc? Enquiring minds remain befuddled.

Also...nervously...the latest 2006 firmware, which CANNOT be rolled back from, is said to disable DVD upconversion through the component outputs. Yikes!

Tom Roper · March 4th, 2006, 08:34 AM

The filter mod offers the most noticeable improvement to the 720p output.

Be careful about going too far forward on the firmware upgrades. Stop upgrading somewhere before the April - Oct 2005 version if possible. The earliest versions would not play native m2t. Some of the later versions enabled m2t only to later break it yet again...(sigh). So be careful at each step and test the playback, for stuttering, and lip sync on WMV and m2t. The most stable firmwares were the one or two right before the major upgrade enabling wmv DRM playback. As far as I know, even the most recent continue to permit DVD upscaling. Go to the AVSFORUM.COM the area for std def DVD players for an encyclopedia of info on it.

Graham Hickling · March 4th, 2006, 01:18 PM

Thanks Tom.

It was in some of the most recent AVSFORUM posts - within the last few days - where iI saw much weeping and wailing about DVD upconversion being disabled by this month's firmware!

I'll watch for further developments....

Mike Sakovski · March 28th, 2007, 03:32 PM

Guys, are you sure that AVL2 plays Dual Layer DVD's? Cuz manual specifically states that it doesnt. Thats why I never even thought of trying DL's on AVL2. Wow, i mean if it does then this player is da bomb.
The only issue i still have with this player is its 4Gb file limitation and its FAT only support (hence 4Gb limit). it would be also nice if it'd play m2ts off DVD-R at 25mbs out, not 19-20Mbs as it does now, the picture is softer than the original, at least in my case.

Graham Hickling · March 28th, 2007, 04:10 PM

If the original drive doesn't play D/L disks (I don't know whether it does, or not) you can easily buy a computer DVD drive that does, and replace the original drive with that. The drive in the Linkplayer is just a standard computer-type drive with a normal IDE connector.

Regarding the "soft"image, if you havent already done so there's a fix that can be done with a little careful soldering to remove the highpass filter on the component outputs. I can send you a 'how to' link if you need one.

Daniel Deck · March 29th, 2007, 04:10 PM

The JVC/IO Data SRDVD-100U does play back M2T @ 25 Mbps on Dual Layer DVD beautifully. The JVC (I believe) is 100% identical to the Linkplayer2, except for the JVC has DVI output, so it too should play dual layer discs. I play (40min max) M2T files on dual layer all the time, or (20min max) on single layer. The only playback issue I have is occasionally the first few seconds of a near full M2T DVD sometimes stutters. There is very poor support for these IOData Media Players, and all of their firmware upgrades do more harm than good. Mine is still on the original firmware and works great.

Steven Gotz · March 29th, 2007, 04:20 PM

I have noticed that it is better to have a little black leader before the video to eliminate initial stuttering.

Tom Roper · March 29th, 2007, 05:27 PM

I think I got the very first customer owned LinkPlayer2 in USA eons ago. The support from I-O Data was up front, honest and friendly. They came out with more firmware upgrades than any product I own. I don't agree that all the firmware upgrades were worse. The first 2 or 3 were the best. The original firmware would not play m2t. After those first few, the next would fix one thing and break something else. Since you could only roll back 1 firmware version, some very keen enthusiasts came up with hacks and saved firmwares so you could have the version that did a better job with the things you wanted to be installed. At some point they issued a major update that revoked somehow that capability to roll back to any version. It added WMV9 DRM. At some version they disabled the std conversion upscaling. I stopped updating firmwares before it was too late, but I'd still like it if I could have rolled back one or two versions. So I still have WMV9 and the std def upscaling to 720p/1080i but some other quirks I'm stuck with. This product could never have WAF, it's always been quirky, you have to be a tweaker/hi-performance tuner-mechanic with it, but on the other hand, nothing else I've ever had to date could do so many things well, so I remain fond and inseparable.

If you want the full measure of picture quality it's capable of, it's essential to do the filter mod that Graham mentioned. You need some basic solder skills, a fine tipped iron, and confidence. If you do, piece of cake. If not, you could risk permanent damage to the motherboard. So I recommend it for the *HUGE* picture quality gain if you have the confident hands. If not get someone else who does. It's a very prominent, noticeable enhancement.

JVC owners didn't get the benefit (or curse) of so many firmware upgrades as the LinkPlayer2 got, but it has the huge advantage of not needing the filter mod to get maximal picture quality from the DVI output.

My LinkPlayer2 picture is very sharp, not soft, and it plays the 25mbps bandwidth of native HDV. I did replace the EVO loader with a Liteon drive. I had to try several brands to find one that would work, but that solved the freezing playback problem.

If you aren't getting the 25mbps bitrate from network playback, the Avelink Server may have a box checked that causes it to transcode everything, with a quality loss if it's doing that to your native HDV. So you would definitely want to look into that.

Steven Gotz · March 29th, 2007, 06:02 PM

I guess I missed the info on the filter. Please post the link, or email me.

Thanks.

Tom Roper · March 29th, 2007, 07:22 PM

I don't have the pictures anymore.

1. Take off the lid.
2. Desolder inductors L65 and capacitor C202, L67, C200, L66, and C201, and replace the inductors with shorts. I just used solder blobs to short across where the inductors were. Don't short across the capacitors.

These items are just under the D4 connector.

Steven Gotz · March 29th, 2007, 07:28 PM

Thanks. I will take a look.

I used to be fairly decent at soldering, but it has been over 20 years. So I geuss I will take it in to a local electronics shop to get the work done if it looks tough. Although unsoldering is a lot easier than soldering if you have the right tools.

March 29th, 2007, 04:20 PM	#26
Steven Gotz Trustee Join Date: May 2002 Location: Clermont, FL Posts: 1,520	I have noticed that it is better to have a little black leader before the video to eliminate initial stuttering. __________________ Steven Gotz http://www.stevengotz.com

March 29th, 2007, 06:02 PM	#28
Steven Gotz Trustee Join Date: May 2002 Location: Clermont, FL Posts: 1,520	I guess I missed the info on the filter. Please post the link, or email me. Thanks. __________________ Steven Gotz http://www.stevengotz.com

March 29th, 2007, 07:28 PM	#30
Steven Gotz Trustee Join Date: May 2002 Location: Clermont, FL Posts: 1,520	Thanks. I will take a look. I used to be fairly decent at soldering, but it has been over 20 years. So I geuss I will take it in to a local electronics shop to get the work done if it looks tough. Although unsoldering is a lot easier than soldering if you have the right tools. __________________ Steven Gotz http://www.stevengotz.com

February 16th, 2006, 12:40 AM	#16
Robert M Wright Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Minnesota (USA) Posts: 2,171	That's good to hear Tom. Does the LinkPlayer2 have the soft image problem, when playing DivX-HD files? Does it play high definition content encoded with XVID ok? How well does it handle dual layer media? Does the JVC version of this player offer any additional benefits? Will the LinkPlayer2 play WMV-HD files that use Windows Media Audio for the soundtrack? I've heard that the Buffalo PC-P3LWG won't.

February 18th, 2006, 01:29 PM	#19
Robert M Wright Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Minnesota (USA) Posts: 2,171	Does the upconversion for standard DVDs work as well as PowerDVD?

March 4th, 2006, 06:47 AM	#20
Graham Hickling Trustee Join Date: May 2004 Location: Knoxville, Tennessee Posts: 1,669	My Linkplayer2 arrived yesterday evening. Plugged it in, turned it on, set the outputs to 1080i component and inserted a DVD-R with a raw 1080i .mt2 file. It played very very nicely - Wow!! But...where to next? I have a LOT of reading i need to do on the forums about firmware and soldering. For example: does the soldering hack improve mt2 playback or just DVD, WM9, DiVX etc? Enquiring minds remain befuddled. Also...nervously...the latest 2006 firmware, which CANNOT be rolled back from, is said to disable DVD upconversion through the component outputs. Yikes!

March 4th, 2006, 08:34 AM	#21
Tom Roper Trustee Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Denver, Colorado Posts: 1,891	The filter mod offers the most noticeable improvement to the 720p output. Be careful about going too far forward on the firmware upgrades. Stop upgrading somewhere before the April - Oct 2005 version if possible. The earliest versions would not play native m2t. Some of the later versions enabled m2t only to later break it yet again...(sigh). So be careful at each step and test the playback, for stuttering, and lip sync on WMV and m2t. The most stable firmwares were the one or two right before the major upgrade enabling wmv DRM playback. As far as I know, even the most recent continue to permit DVD upscaling. Go to the AVSFORUM.COM the area for std def DVD players for an encyclopedia of info on it.

March 4th, 2006, 01:18 PM	#22
Graham Hickling Trustee Join Date: May 2004 Location: Knoxville, Tennessee Posts: 1,669	Thanks Tom. It was in some of the most recent AVSFORUM posts - within the last few days - where iI saw much weeping and wailing about DVD upconversion being disabled by this month's firmware! I'll watch for further developments....

March 28th, 2007, 03:32 PM	#23
Mike Sakovski Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: nj, usa Posts: 65	Guys, are you sure that AVL2 plays Dual Layer DVD's? Cuz manual specifically states that it doesnt. Thats why I never even thought of trying DL's on AVL2. Wow, i mean if it does then this player is da bomb. The only issue i still have with this player is its 4Gb file limitation and its FAT only support (hence 4Gb limit). it would be also nice if it'd play m2ts off DVD-R at 25mbs out, not 19-20Mbs as it does now, the picture is softer than the original, at least in my case.

March 28th, 2007, 04:10 PM	#24
Graham Hickling Trustee Join Date: May 2004 Location: Knoxville, Tennessee Posts: 1,669	If the original drive doesn't play D/L disks (I don't know whether it does, or not) you can easily buy a computer DVD drive that does, and replace the original drive with that. The drive in the Linkplayer is just a standard computer-type drive with a normal IDE connector. Regarding the "soft"image, if you havent already done so there's a fix that can be done with a little careful soldering to remove the highpass filter on the component outputs. I can send you a 'how to' link if you need one.

March 29th, 2007, 04:10 PM	#25
Daniel Deck New Boot Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Delray Beach, Florida - USA Posts: 10	The JVC/IO Data SRDVD-100U does play back M2T @ 25 Mbps on Dual Layer DVD beautifully. The JVC (I believe) is 100% identical to the Linkplayer2, except for the JVC has DVI output, so it too should play dual layer discs. I play (40min max) M2T files on dual layer all the time, or (20min max) on single layer. The only playback issue I have is occasionally the first few seconds of a near full M2T DVD sometimes stutters. There is very poor support for these IOData Media Players, and all of their firmware upgrades do more harm than good. Mine is still on the original firmware and works great.

March 29th, 2007, 05:27 PM	#27
Tom Roper Trustee Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Denver, Colorado Posts: 1,891	I think I got the very first customer owned LinkPlayer2 in USA eons ago. The support from I-O Data was up front, honest and friendly. They came out with more firmware upgrades than any product I own. I don't agree that all the firmware upgrades were worse. The first 2 or 3 were the best. The original firmware would not play m2t. After those first few, the next would fix one thing and break something else. Since you could only roll back 1 firmware version, some very keen enthusiasts came up with hacks and saved firmwares so you could have the version that did a better job with the things you wanted to be installed. At some point they issued a major update that revoked somehow that capability to roll back to any version. It added WMV9 DRM. At some version they disabled the std conversion upscaling. I stopped updating firmwares before it was too late, but I'd still like it if I could have rolled back one or two versions. So I still have WMV9 and the std def upscaling to 720p/1080i but some other quirks I'm stuck with. This product could never have WAF, it's always been quirky, you have to be a tweaker/hi-performance tuner-mechanic with it, but on the other hand, nothing else I've ever had to date could do so many things well, so I remain fond and inseparable. If you want the full measure of picture quality it's capable of, it's essential to do the filter mod that Graham mentioned. You need some basic solder skills, a fine tipped iron, and confidence. If you do, piece of cake. If not, you could risk permanent damage to the motherboard. So I recommend it for the HUGE picture quality gain if you have the confident hands. If not get someone else who does. It's a very prominent, noticeable enhancement. JVC owners didn't get the benefit (or curse) of so many firmware upgrades as the LinkPlayer2 got, but it has the huge advantage of not needing the filter mod to get maximal picture quality from the DVI output. My LinkPlayer2 picture is very sharp, not soft, and it plays the 25mbps bandwidth of native HDV. I did replace the EVO loader with a Liteon drive. I had to try several brands to find one that would work, but that solved the freezing playback problem. If you aren't getting the 25mbps bitrate from network playback, the Avelink Server may have a box checked that causes it to transcode everything, with a quality loss if it's doing that to your native HDV. So you would definitely want to look into that.

March 29th, 2007, 07:22 PM	#29
Tom Roper Trustee Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Denver, Colorado Posts: 1,891	I don't have the pictures anymore. 1. Take off the lid. 2. Desolder inductors L65 and capacitor C202, L67, C200, L66, and C201, and replace the inductors with shorts. I just used solder blobs to short across where the inductors were. Don't short across the capacitors. These items are just under the D4 connector.