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JSorrentino · 2008-09-30, 16:44

Thanks for all the comments.. I installed MP on my laptop last night and got it up and running, hitch free, daemon tools working perfectly.

I did not, however, rip or test any BRD Movies; i still need to get a BRD drive to rip them, but not a big deal.

Using PowerDVD is fine, as long as it gives the feel of an actual DVD player, without all the added-in bulls*it that I've known PowerDVD to have. Has anyone tested PowerDVD for the sole purpose of adding BlueRay Disc support?

One thing I saw when testing this last night is that the Movie library will point to one directory, as opposed to being able to select multiple directories and actually have MP "library" the files in the directories (ie: such as iTunes would do).

I played a movie last night on my plasma (video only) and did a comparison between the DVD (actual) player and my laptop (HDMI output) and could not notice a difference in quality, just some minor tweaking that needs to be done. Such as the resolution on the plasma is lower than 1440x900 i believe 1365x768 (or somewhere close - i forget not at home to check right now) and thats no issue because i had it running as duplicated display on the laptop lcd and plasma, so if i were to strictly hook-up the plasma, i presume the native resolution would be output only and solve the issue.

I have not tested sound as of yet, which i plan to do tonight after i get out of work.

My worries - at the time - are BlueRay and sound. Other than that, I'll be jumping in to make the hardware purchases soon, I'm looking through the forum no to find the IDEAL hardware for the Video Card / Motherboard (need digital sound, fiber is what i run now, if it's onboard such as the ASUS board i have in my other workstation has - if not ill just go with a sound card).

Like I said, I can care less about anything else at this point in time. I'm sure ill add in more options later, such as pictures, audio, etc. - but this is my sole purpose ATM.

I need to also research a remote, I use the Logitech Harmony 890 currently, so as long as the functionality is there, ill just keep using that with whatever IR remote i find for my media box.

OH, forgot to mention that i did see (after install and test) that this will be the actual extender and that I can just NAS the storage space for the images. I plan to just do dual Gig-E (bridged for 2Gig) to get the data from the NAS to the extender (MP) and not need to really worry about bandwidth issues. I'll also dedicate this to my media only, keeping it off my intr-house LAN (due to the fact that I can use the full 1g of my lan at given times and dont want video stuttering).

Is MP2 worth looking into, or are there still features that I would need missing? Any reason to even consider using it over MP1 at the moment, I know its currently in DEV, but figure i'd ask.

Thanks to all who posted, much obliged!

JS

2008-09-30, 16:44	#4 (permalink)
JSorrentino Portal Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 66 Thanks: 8 Thanked 3 Times in 2 Posts Country:	Thanks for all the comments.. I installed MP on my laptop last night and got it up and running, hitch free, daemon tools working perfectly. I did not, however, rip or test any BRD Movies; i still need to get a BRD drive to rip them, but not a big deal. Using PowerDVD is fine, as long as it gives the feel of an actual DVD player, without all the added-in bulls*it that I've known PowerDVD to have. Has anyone tested PowerDVD for the sole purpose of adding BlueRay Disc support? One thing I saw when testing this last night is that the Movie library will point to one directory, as opposed to being able to select multiple directories and actually have MP "library" the files in the directories (ie: such as iTunes would do). I played a movie last night on my plasma (video only) and did a comparison between the DVD (actual) player and my laptop (HDMI output) and could not notice a difference in quality, just some minor tweaking that needs to be done. Such as the resolution on the plasma is lower than 1440x900 i believe 1365x768 (or somewhere close - i forget not at home to check right now) and thats no issue because i had it running as duplicated display on the laptop lcd and plasma, so if i were to strictly hook-up the plasma, i presume the native resolution would be output only and solve the issue. I have not tested sound as of yet, which i plan to do tonight after i get out of work. My worries - at the time - are BlueRay and sound. Other than that, I'll be jumping in to make the hardware purchases soon, I'm looking through the forum no to find the IDEAL hardware for the Video Card / Motherboard (need digital sound, fiber is what i run now, if it's onboard such as the ASUS board i have in my other workstation has - if not ill just go with a sound card). Like I said, I can care less about anything else at this point in time. I'm sure ill add in more options later, such as pictures, audio, etc. - but this is my sole purpose ATM. I need to also research a remote, I use the Logitech Harmony 890 currently, so as long as the functionality is there, ill just keep using that with whatever IR remote i find for my media box. OH, forgot to mention that i did see (after install and test) that this will be the actual extender and that I can just NAS the storage space for the images. I plan to just do dual Gig-E (bridged for 2Gig) to get the data from the NAS to the extender (MP) and not need to really worry about bandwidth issues. I'll also dedicate this to my media only, keeping it off my intr-house LAN (due to the fact that I can use the full 1g of my lan at given times and dont want video stuttering). Is MP2 worth looking into, or are there still features that I would need missing? Any reason to even consider using it over MP1 at the moment, I know its currently in DEV, but figure i'd ask. Thanks to all who posted, much obliged! JS