[mythtv-users] D-Link DSM-510 for $80 - cheap frontend?

[Josh White]

I have a DSM-520, and all I can say is that I regret buying it.  I find
there are several formats it doesn't like, though it also seems to depend on
the server software used.

I started off with Twonkymedia, which worked OK, but was touchy in its own
right.  When that was working well, I generally used handbrake to rip my dvd
collection in .mp4 format.  However, when my 30 day trial ran out on the
Twonky software, I remembered I had an old PVR-250 and I started working on
my MythTV setup, believing I had a decent frontend to work with.  While I
worked on myth, I used uShare, which worked fairly well.  With this server
software, I couldn't view any of my .mp4 files, only listen to them (it
seems ushare assumed .mp4 was an audio only format).  To solve this problem,
I renamed all my .mp4 files .mov and the problem was solved.  A month later,
once I got myth up and running, I realized the only movies that worked any
longer were some old .avi files I had downloaded years before.  My .mov were
suddenly unsupported.  So, it seemed logical that if I renamed them .mp4
(again) it should work.  No such luck.  The only change was switching the
server from uShare to Myth.

After I had my myth system running a while, I began working with transcoding
to save some disk space.  I started transcoding most stuff to 480 x 480, and
this worked well on all of my "frontends" that were actually running
mythfrontend.  My DSM-520 on the other hand, would display the video, but no
audio, and the picture was distorted (I assume the DSM-520 was treating it
as 640 x 480).

Of course, the DSM-520 does not work with commercial skipping, and since it
didn't play nicely with my movie collection, it was basically useless to
me.   Therefore, I replaced it with an eMac (running OS X) which has been
quite satisfactory for me.  The menu's were slow, and it would tend to hang
at least once a week, requiring a restart (I only used this in my bedroom to
watch something to fall asleep to for less than an hour per day, and I
generally turned it off every day).

I also feel I should note that this is actually my second DSM-520.  I bought
it on eBay, and while the auction was underway, I was getting impatient, and
as I thought I was going to lose the auction (I was winning it by $1 for
several days) I decided to just buy a new one at Best Buy.  Of course, after
buying the unit at eBay, I won the auction and decided to keep both.  But,
after having them both for about a month, I decided it was just an inferior
piece of hardware and I decided to return the new on if I could.  Lucky for
me, Best Buy took it back, and I was only stuck with the one I bought on
eBay.  I had the eBay item listed on craigslist for quite a while without a
single inquiry.

If you're still interested, I'll sell you mine for $40 + shipping.

On Wed, Feb 27, 2008 at 1:52 PM, <dvjunk at netscape.net> wrote:

> I just saw that Circuit City has the D-Link DSM-510 HD media player for
> $80.
>
>
> http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/Search.do?c=1&context=outlet&searchType=user&keyword=dsm-510&searchSection=Outlet&go.x=0&go.y=0
>
> Free shipping or free in store pickup.
>
> It sounds like this *might* work as a MythTV frontend. I have seen limited
> postings on using this with Myth, but for $80 it seems like it's worth a try
> for a HD frontend. (Especially with the amount of work it seems to be
> getting a cheap Myth frontend working reliably.)
>
> Some links to using this with Myth:
> http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=754811
> http://www.amazon.com/review/product/B000A4AVQO?pageNumber=7
>
> http://knoppmyth.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=85272&highlight=&sid=dcc22288a2f57f6e6a31ed1d688418b2
>
> DSM-520
>
> http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/UPnP#Compatible_UPnP_AV_MediaServer_ControlPoints_.28UPnP-clients.29
> http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/DLinkDSM520-UPnP
> http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=593973&page=44
>
>
> Any thoughts, suggestions, links, pointers would be greatly appreciated.
> I plan to pick one up at the local CC tonight and give it a try. If it
> doesn't work out I can always return it!
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