Ziova CS505 and TwonkyMedia 4.3 in a Qnap TS-101
Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2007 3:25 pm
It's been a long road but now I am in media server and player bliss!
OK, quite possibly the vast majority of my problems were with the first media player I bought, the D-Link DSM320. What a hunk of junk! With it's regular crashes it makes Windows 3.1 look like a stable product! I wanted to blame TwonkyVision but only because there was no one else to blame - D-Link has stopped supporting the DSM320. I have many great D-Link products but the DSM320 is an embarrassment. I wasn't holding much hope for the TM 4.4 upgrade in my TS-101 either as DSM320 issues in these forums seemed to increase.
So I gave away the DSM320 ($130 down the drain) and took a chance with the Ziova CS505. Sweet! So this is how a DLNA uPNP server should act with a working media player! Everything is wired because wireless is, well, bad for too many reasons (I'm not going to list them all, figure it out). I can now slideshow through pictures and hear a Shoutcast radio station at the same time. I can go forward or reverse at high speed through a video and not have it work or worse, crash. I can see more characters in the titles of any media file listing. Simply put, they work together logically.
No, not everything is perfect. The CS505 has a very noticeable audio hum which is removed by eliminating it's ground loop issue. I have had a dozen CS505 crashes in about 100 hours of use. A couple of movies that play in Windows Media Player and Crystal Player cannot play on the CS505 but I think that's the file's fault (need to reconvert them). A couple of times out of a hundred CS505 boot-ups it doesn't sense the TM server but always on the next reboot it does.
No, not everything is perfect but in comparison to my experience with the DSM320 it is. As for the TM server, it just works. Thanks for the great product.
OK, quite possibly the vast majority of my problems were with the first media player I bought, the D-Link DSM320. What a hunk of junk! With it's regular crashes it makes Windows 3.1 look like a stable product! I wanted to blame TwonkyVision but only because there was no one else to blame - D-Link has stopped supporting the DSM320. I have many great D-Link products but the DSM320 is an embarrassment. I wasn't holding much hope for the TM 4.4 upgrade in my TS-101 either as DSM320 issues in these forums seemed to increase.
So I gave away the DSM320 ($130 down the drain) and took a chance with the Ziova CS505. Sweet! So this is how a DLNA uPNP server should act with a working media player! Everything is wired because wireless is, well, bad for too many reasons (I'm not going to list them all, figure it out). I can now slideshow through pictures and hear a Shoutcast radio station at the same time. I can go forward or reverse at high speed through a video and not have it work or worse, crash. I can see more characters in the titles of any media file listing. Simply put, they work together logically.
No, not everything is perfect. The CS505 has a very noticeable audio hum which is removed by eliminating it's ground loop issue. I have had a dozen CS505 crashes in about 100 hours of use. A couple of movies that play in Windows Media Player and Crystal Player cannot play on the CS505 but I think that's the file's fault (need to reconvert them). A couple of times out of a hundred CS505 boot-ups it doesn't sense the TM server but always on the next reboot it does.
No, not everything is perfect but in comparison to my experience with the DSM320 it is. As for the TM server, it just works. Thanks for the great product.