Video at Home and fun with technology.
As I have mentioned before I purchased a pair of DSM-320 "media lounge" devices that Dlink made that were a great idea but a complete flop. Typically due to their horrible windows Upnp media server and their failure to publish accuarate specifications to the people buying it. They promised Xvid and AVI compatability on the box and do not deliver because there are very specific format and encoding specifications that need to be met to play back such content correctly. so most people buying it download Xvid and Divx xontent off the net and get upset because it will not play it. Also several smaller features plain do not work or are very flakey. it was rushed to market.
I found a working solution and it's not pretty for the non-techie. First you need to kick the Dlink server out of the house. Download and install Twonkyvision ($21.95 US from a german company as of today's exchange rates) This solved the media server problems and allows you to run a linux server as well (yay for me). Now this will play mpeg's perfectly but a DVD is around 4gig when you compress it a bit for computer use so a Divx is desired.... enter Nero Recode. This app for some wierd reason has all the perfect settings already set up for the DSM-320. simply rip that dvd to a nerorecode mp4 format ( a normal divx with wierd audio settings by nero to try and make it incompatable) and it plays perfectly!
well somewhat. widescreen content will be all squished on screen because the player does not know how to handle it. If you have your component out plugged into a HDTV or a widescreen EDTV it will look perfect to you.
I now compress DVD movies to 1.5gig and they look fantastic on a big TV! now I can have hundreds of DVD's at my beck and call in the living room or bedroom at any time as well as all the content saved by my DVarchive software that pulls content off of the replay TV.
This is the ONLY combination I can find that works with the DSM-320. I would like to play with a DSM-520 to see if they fixed all the problems with the device but I highly doubt it. these companies are trying to fasttrack this stuff out and discontinue it before users find out how 1/2 finished the hardware really is.
I found a working solution and it's not pretty for the non-techie. First you need to kick the Dlink server out of the house. Download and install Twonkyvision ($21.95 US from a german company as of today's exchange rates) This solved the media server problems and allows you to run a linux server as well (yay for me). Now this will play mpeg's perfectly but a DVD is around 4gig when you compress it a bit for computer use so a Divx is desired.... enter Nero Recode. This app for some wierd reason has all the perfect settings already set up for the DSM-320. simply rip that dvd to a nerorecode mp4 format ( a normal divx with wierd audio settings by nero to try and make it incompatable) and it plays perfectly!
well somewhat. widescreen content will be all squished on screen because the player does not know how to handle it. If you have your component out plugged into a HDTV or a widescreen EDTV it will look perfect to you.
I now compress DVD movies to 1.5gig and they look fantastic on a big TV! now I can have hundreds of DVD's at my beck and call in the living room or bedroom at any time as well as all the content saved by my DVarchive software that pulls content off of the replay TV.
This is the ONLY combination I can find that works with the DSM-320. I would like to play with a DSM-520 to see if they fixed all the problems with the device but I highly doubt it. these companies are trying to fasttrack this stuff out and discontinue it before users find out how 1/2 finished the hardware really is.
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