Zonbu as a multimedia center

by **seanmac** on Fri Dec 07, 2007 7:10 am

Hi,

Just found out about zonbu this morning and I'm really excited

. My first thought was that I could possibly use this as a media center that I attache to my TV. Before I take the plunge could anyone tell me what the pros and cons are for using zonbu like this. I'd be really interested to hear if anyone has implemented zonbu like this.

Thanks,

Johnny

by **Chad** on Fri Dec 07, 2007 8:28 pm

This is not a media center. There are a number of reasons why I say that, and here goes:

There's no optical drive (no DVD, CD, HD-DVD, BluRay, etc.) - not a burner or even a reader.

There's no card reader, except the Compact Flash card that holds the OS, so you can't even use it to display photos

It does not handle large files well. I tried downloading media files that were only about 250 MB, and it downloaded them fine, but accessing them was next to impossible, unless you watch them right after you download them. The reason for that is the online storage. Files don't stay on your local box for long. After a certain amount of time of inactivity, those files are quitely copied to the Zonbu server, and then removed from your local system. This is on purpose, by design, and in most cases a good thing. This is part of the Zonbu experience. Youre files are backed up and accessible anywhere. However, when you want to watch that two hour movie you ripped from your external DVD drive yesterday, you have to wait for it to download. And you can't just walk away from it while it downloads, and come back in a few hours, because if you do that - you run the risk of Zonbu thinking "OK, this doesn't seem to be needed right now, I'll just move it off to the server." And the process begins again. Again, I speak from experience.

You could, possibly use an external hard drive, but my Zonbu is screwed up somehow, and the read/write times on USB drive is impossibly slow (meaning 9 hours to transfer 250 MB). It's a bug that Zonbu says is old, but I'm still suffering, and I can't get any answer about it. Zonbu was very good at helping me at first, but I've been waiting for a response for over a week, and I've got nothing. I've basically given up and switched back to my old computer.

You can't install your own codecs. If you come across a file type that Zonbu doesn't support - the best you can do is file a request and hope they include it at some point. And if for some reason the file type isn't free, then you can't use it. Ever.

You can't install your own software. If you want some sort of full screen media playing software like MythTV or something - too bad. You want a media player other than the one Zonbu gives you - you can't have it.

No Remote Control support.

No TV out.

No HDMI/Component/DVI/Composite/S-video out.

No TV In.

No 5.1 surround sound.

No way to add these things, unless you suse some sort of expensive external USB box, that may or may not work with Linux, much less Zonbu.
Now, if you just wanted to buy the box and install your own OS, you could have some of these things back, (large files via USB drive, DVD-burner, possibly some sort of TV out via USB, etc.) But, you could probably find something better suited for the job elsewhere. You can get a used AppleTV on eBay for less than the cost of the Zonbu device without the 2 year commitment ($299).

Zonbu is good for a general web surfing, word processing, simple media watching, etc. It's a great second computer, or a starter computer for a student or grandparent. It's not a media server. It's not a server at all. It's actually a client.

by **cgn** on Sun Dec 09, 2007 2:20 pm

Hi Chad,

If the USB port works properly and you have a movie on a USB stick you can't really watch it? or I'm missing something i was looking forward to get a Zonbu and i was thinking to use it to watch movies sometimes from a USB stick, which i think is the same with mp3's

Thanks

by **bobphillips** on Mon Dec 10, 2007 4:14 am

This should work without problems - but it's not really a multimedia centre - which, as I understand it is a phrase which means "computer that does the jobs of DVD player-recorder, digital TV decoder, 'PVR' (hard drive 'personal video recorder'), radio, streaming media delivery machine".

I use my Zonbu for just the sort of media stuff you're describing and it's fine.

by **cgn** on Mon Dec 10, 2007 9:12 am

Thanks for your comments....new zonbu on it's way soon

Cheers

by **Chad** on Mon Dec 10, 2007 12:52 pm

cgn wrote:If the USB port works properly and you have a movie on a USB stick you can't really watch it? or I'm missing something i was looking forward to get a Zonbu and i was thinking to use it to watch movies sometimes from a USB stick, which i think is the same with mp3's

I see you already ordered your Zonbu. If your Zonbu's USB drives work properly, then using USB drives pre-loaded with media should be fine. Just remember, you're not going to plug this into your HDTV (except via VGA if you have that) and you've got no stereo surround sound. If you're just talking about playing mp3s in stereo and watching mp4s - then, yeah, Zonbu will work. But it's by no means a media center.

by **whootowl** on Mon Dec 17, 2007 12:50 am

Microsoft talks about "Media Center Extenders" for use in home theaters. I have a Microsoft Media Center 2005 computer that I have used to record shows from TV. The recorded files end up with a "DVR-MS" extension. There are not many devices that will handle this file type except for a true Media Center Extender, such as an xBox. Well, guess what, the Zonbu will play back DVR-MS files! I couldn't believe it when I accessed such a file from across my network and witnessed it playing back on the Zonbu. Unfortunately, all of my DVR-MS recordings were made at the highest bit rate for best image quality. The Zonbu stutters unacceptably trying to play the files. My network is gigabit, but that doesn't rule out the network as a possible problem. I will copy a DVR-MS file to a USB flash drive and see how it plays locally without the network involved. If this doesn't work, I may explore transcoding the file prior to playback using the utility that Zonbu provides.

If your TV does not have a 15-pin analog input (VGA), there are inexpensive devices on the market that can take the VGA output from the Zonbu and provide a video out (S-video or component) to the TV while providing a pass-through VGA output to your computer monitor.

by **whootowl** on Tue Dec 18, 2007 8:37 pm

No, close but no cigar. The DVR-MS file would not play from a USB flash drive. The first 15 seconds would play flawlessly, then mplayer would just freeze with the system stuck at 100% CPU.

Likewise, the Video Converter app did not function. It appeared to accept the file and to begin conversion, but there was zero progress made after an hour.

by **aymeric.augustin** on Thu Dec 20, 2007 6:12 am

whootowl: were you trying to encode a DVR-MS file?

Encoding progress can not be displayed for all media files; the video length must be known before starting, and that depends on the container and muxing method.

Could you give me with a short sample of such a file, for example in your Public Folder?

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