Sony Standalone Changer $799
Sony has just released their standalone 1394 (iLink) DVD changer for $799, Sony® VAIO® VGP-XL1B2 Media changerVGP-XL1B2 that works with Windows Media Center Edition 2005 (Update Rollup2).
It’s also available on Amazon for $699 (with a mail in rebate) (thanks ChrisL).
Finally a stand-alone version at a fair price.
I have ordered one to hopefully support it in “My Movies”.
Regards,
Brian
Is Niveus the only provider of software that lets multiple Media Center PC’s “share” a DVD changer?
If there is software available that allows multiple Media Center PC’s to access this device, that is awesome!
Now we just need for an XBox 360 Extender to be able to see it…
Craig, Niveus is the only provider and I don’t believe their software has launched yet.
Hey Matt,
Is this truly a “stand alone” or just a stand alone for Vaio Systems only?
BTW, like the Blog alot
I totally agree with Craig. I spent a few thousand on a Dell Media center PC, I have 3 Xbox extenders (1×360/2xOld) and after having my house wired last weekend I plan to buy 2 more 360’s as Extenders as soon as they are in stock.
I really need the DVD changer to play through the Extenders!!! Do you see anytime in the future Matt where DVD playback will work from a changer to an extender (even if it has to be a 360)?
I don’t know if there is a restriction that they only work with VAIO’s…
Graham, two things could happen. We could enable DVD remoting from changers to XBox’s, or we could develop DVD managed copy where you ‘rip’ your DVDs to your hardware and stream them to your XBox. …We haven’t announced plans for either of those scenarios.
DwightSnead, I downloaded the users manual from Sony and it states the only requirement is a PC running MCE 2005 w/rollup 2 and .NET framework 1.1 service pack 1.
I also says five units can be daisy-chained together for a 1,000 disc capacity.
Thanks for the repsonse Matt. If/when you announce plans for either scenario I will jump on it.
I have many DVD’s in their boxes and all this technology (100% Microsoft - I’ve made the committtment!) sat around the house wired via 100mg ethernet and it seems crazy that I have to walk the DVD’s around the house to watch them. My other problem is that my Media Center PC is in my home office so it doesn’t help me having the DVD changer in there.
Thanks again and I’ll keep looking for any announcements on this. As soon as I see one I’m buying a DVD changer the same day.
I can’t speak for Microsoft, however there is little reason why they can’t support streaming from DVD Changers to Extenders.
More on Streaming DVD’s To Extenders
http://msmvps.com/blogs/chrisl/archive/2006/03/24/87622.aspx
Chris Lanier
Hey Chris (7:14 am) that’s great news. I’m gonna get two then!
Just a FYI, I can’t say what Microsoft will do. So, if you do purchase a changer and they don’t end up having the feature then enjoy just watching them on your PC (and not Extender)
I know a subset of you are really excited about changers, extenders, streaming, ripping, etc. I would caution you that when we make decisions about features we’re going to do we consider how many users will use the feature (simple cost/benefit analysis). Right now the number of changer users plus potential changer users is very small compared to our overall user base.
Matt,
As a system builder, I can tell you that one of the most frequently asked questions is “how can I play movies around the house?” Maybe most of the 10 million MCE users don’t even think about the potential capabilities of this system. You can’t just think in terms of how many users there are for this. You need to think about the whole ecosystem. There’s custom installers, hardware OEMs, etc etc. I can assure you that if streaming of DVDs via extenders was implemented, all customer installers, system builders and OEMs who implemented MCE based enetertainment solutions would be ALL over this. Look at Kaleidoscope. They have a $20K solution that we could now all implement for $3000. If they think there’s a market for their product, I guarantee there’s a market for this. MS wouldn’t have to push this product, the system buidlers, OEMs and customer installers would do it for you!
Paul
Matt,
I completely agree with Paul here. As an installer / integrator and IT person the best option for us to stream movies, HD content, music, etc… to places around the house is via a computer.
With the changes in DRM and adoption of HDCP we are at a loss of how to accomplish this. It used to be as simple as installing a large component video matrix switch in the basement of the house and you were set, but with HD content protection it is is alot different.
I am putting a lott of faith in Microsoft offerings in the very near future. I continue to tell my clients that Media Center PCs are going to be the thing of the future for everything type of content.
Summary, DVD (even HD-DVD / Blueray) streaming capability would solve a lot of issues. You mentioned Media Center PC sales have reached a new high; that’s great. But what about the extenders or XBOX 360 as the extender. Image if people knew they could stream their DVD changes to an extender? Now we would be talking about whole house media. Saying that right now is not entirely true.
On another note, I am a Niveus dealer and showcase the Denali and IceVault in our showroom. People LOVE it, but it would be nice to have the XBOX 360 in the other room of the showroom play a DVD from the collection. :)
-H
I would caution buysers too, however I know that it’s not hard to take what’s output from Firewire and wrap it in WMRM to ten be sent out. If this isn’t a feature that will appear, Microsoft has just lost the sale of a few DVD Changers to me. :(
Chris
Chris, actually it’s Sony who has lost the sales not Microsoft :P.
(It’s also more complicated than just wrapping in WMDRM).
True, however Microsoft might lose people as MCE users if it can’t provide basic features using hardware already being sold. For DVD Changers being such a “big” feature in RU2, only having them in a single room will vastly limit adoption (eg. If i can’t have it stream , I personally never going to purchase one).
While I’m sure there are several other factors, Microsoft has the technology to do it, I say, DO IT. =) Give the users what they are looking for (and that’s not a single room solution). Managed Copy will be great, I know it will. However, I (and every other MCE user) have a much larger percent of DVD’s then we have HD DVD’s, and this trend will continue over the next 3 years.
Chris Lanier
On a somewhat related note, ripping the DVDs to the hard drive would work. But what I can’t seem to find an answer to is whether the 360 attached to a 16×9 monitor would display the movie in anamorphic widescreen.
I surely like the option of being able to just use the changer, but I already have a bunch of movies ripped - so purchasing a 360 for use in the bedroom would work for now, if it can display the movies correctly.
Custom MCE Install Using XL1B2 Standalone DVD Changer
First
Install! Sony Vaio XL1B2 DVD Changer with 3rd-Party MCE | CE Pro has
published a piece Home…
I purchased one of these and have been fairly happy with it, but the software provided with it is pretty limiting. I have been writing a Delphi program to control the changer and most of it works except for one detail. I was wondering if there was any information out there about the details of the SPTI calls for updating the primary and alternate volume tags within the device. I want to run this non-MCE and the MCE based software does nothing for me at that point since it initializes the tags when it scans. Since you had a discussion earlier about the MCE object I wondered if you could help me with this.
Re: MCE Home Server Manager Update…
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