BeoSound 5 Forum

Re: Beosound 5 alternative: LaCinema Black

Electrified — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 11:55:57 GMT

Matt35:

The Beomaster5 was also constructed to be built into a television as the Vision9 e.g., therefore the heat generation had also be focused on by the B&O engineers. Video playback is very processor intensive and would generate to much heat.

Matt

I think that could be a valid concern. However, my Thinkpad X200s plays video just fine, and doesn't become too hot.

I think the size-concern is a valid one. It definately could have been smaller, and the idea that it is big because they want to build it into a telly, doesn't excuse the size. On the contrary, I would think that it would be better for such a purpose if it was smaller. Especially considering that many people request thin tellies these days.

With that said, I do realise that plugs and connectors take up a fair bit of space, but it's not like it has connections ad libitum. To me, it seems like a concept-thing, before they got to work and starting looking for better space management and smaller components. Only they skipped that part and shipped it directly.

In any case, I'm personally not too much concerned with the size. It's the three cables to the BS5 I find a tad excessive. All in all, it _could_ have been done a little bit more elegant(ly), if they had had the time and the money and weren't screwed financially, IMHO.

Re: Beosound 5 alternative: LaCinema Black

Matt35 — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 08:57:59 GMT

The Beomaster5 was also constructed to be built into a television as the Vision9 e.g., therefore the heat generation had also be focused on by the B&O engineers. Video playback is very processor intensive and would generate to much heat.

Matt

Re: Beosound 5 alternative: LaCinema Black

Evan — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:16:34 GMT

I do agree with you concerning the smudgy screen issue, unbeatable. However there is a solution to your concern, a mouse and keyboard for extended/frequent use. I picture the massive touchscreen feature most useful during parties for minimal intermittent use and adjustment.

Re: Beosound 5 alternative: LaCinema Black

erg4000 — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:52:26 GMT

evman140:

I know this is a tad late for this reply, but the thread has lingered in the back of my mind for a while. If you are looking for a media player, how about the hp touchsmart computer, you all may not agree but to me it seems like a perfect candidate. Its elegant, has 1TB hard drive, plays cds dvds and all digital formats and on and on. The idea that really got me going is the fact that one could download music right to what would be your all-media player. This computer is not on the same level as the BS5, but should be considered for an all-media player.

Hi evman140,

You'll get a painful shoulder impingement by working with this touch screen. Believe me - I'm an Orthopedic Surgeon. Not to mention the smudgy screen. The design of the Beosound 5 seems to be unbeatable. But, it's functionality outperformed by many simple HD media players.

Re: Beosound 5 alternative: LaCinema Black

Evan — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 20:55:31 GMT

I know this is a tad late for this reply, but the thread has lingered in the back of my mind for a while. If you are looking for a media player, how about the hp touchsmart computer, you all may not agree but to me it seems like a perfect candidate. Its elegant, has 1TB hard drive, plays cds dvds and all digital formats and on and on. The idea that really got me going is the fact that one could download music right to what would be your all-media player. This computer is not on the same level as the BS5, but should be considered for an all-media player.

Re: Beosound 5 alternative: LaCinema Black

erg4000 — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 01:59:31 GMT

beojeff:

Music that is ripped from a CD requires quite a bit of tag editing. Even the online tagging services that we have make quite a lot of mistakes that must be cleaned up. Also, the current tagging services do not fit the need of providing high resolution cover art for the vast majority of a music collection. Before I owned a BS5, I never noticed the errors and shortcoming in my music tagging.

I agree on that. I regularly check the tagging of ripped CD's in iTunes and there is a software called TuneUp which optimizes the quality of metadata. That's why I wouldn't want to miss the computer.

My point about the additional CD slot for the BeoSound 5 was that this would make it a complete integrated system. There already are some disc players with integrated audio ripping and tagging. Now, this concept would have been realizable by an integration of Beomedia 5 and Beocenter 2, using the nice design of BeoSound 5. Technically there is no limit for the Beomaster 5 to allow plugging in external harddrives and CD/DVD/BD drives.

Re: Beosound 5 alternative: LaCinema Black

beojeff — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 16:12:29 GMT

Once you own and use a BeoSound 5, you'll understand why an actual computer is essential. Music that is ripped from a CD requires quite a bit of tag editing. Even the online tagging services that we have make quite a lot of mistakes that must be cleaned up. Also, the current tagging services do not fit the need of providing high resolution cover art for the vast majority of a music collection. Before I owned a BS5, I never noticed the errors and shortcoming in my music tagging. With the BS5, those errors and low-res cover art look horrible. Sure, we could use the BS5 in "service mode" as a windows computer to do this editing and organizing, but that's just not practical to do that standing up in a living room as opposed to sitting at a desk with your computer in your den.

Re: Beosound 5 alternative: LaCinema Black

erg4000 — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:19:54 GMT

Stan:

You don't have a computer?

Why would you think that ?

B&O could have adressed two different types of customers:

- Solution for computer enthusiasts: Easy synchronisation like Apple TV or full access with all media formats, open interfaces

- Solution for non-technical customers: Integrated CD slot that digitizes audio files automatically to WMA

Both solutions are not realized forceful in the Beomaster / Beosound 5 concept.

Re: Beosound 5 alternative: LaCinema Black

Stan — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 22:21:53 GMT

erg4000:

What I'm missing on the Beosound 5 is a connectable disc player for converting my audiophile CD's into WMA directly.

You don't have a computer?

Re: Beosound 5 alternative: LaCinema Black

erg4000 — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 18:05:24 GMT

stefan:

erg4000:

Stefan,

what made you choose the Tvix 6500 in place of the Mac Mini ?

E.

E.,

...

The mac mini is back in my home office connected to a Mermaid monitor and does a nice job as a computer and music player with Beoplayer - using it to rip CDs and transfer music to BS5 and movies to the Tvix.

Stefan

I went to my local dealer yesterday to get the newest information on BS5. Currently they are waiting for a software update that will enable the BeoMaster 5 to be controlled by the Beo4. They want to sell the Beomaster 5 as an add-on for the Beovision 9. I was really looking for some reasons to buy a Beosound 5, but the dealer couldn't give them to me. Their MacMini integration was more convincing than their Beosound 5 installation, but I agree on the problems with VLC.

What I'm missing on the Beosound 5 is a connectable disc player for converting my audiophile CD's into WMA directly. This would attract many B&O customers who don't want to deal with PC's. Maybe a Beosound 5 with an integrated slot drive for DVD/CD would have been the best solution.

Re: Beosound 5 alternative: LaCinema Black

erg4000 — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 17:51:04 GMT

beojeff:

B&O is planning on having a video access similar to tivx installed on future B&O tvs. Until then, B&O is having dealers recommend that clients set up a wired network and use the tivx 6500 for video media. This could explain why B&O didn't focus on the Beomaster 5 for video media. Still, I don't see why it couldn't accomplish this in the future.

I'm looking forward to see B&O adding video access.

beojeff:

Another reason why B&O may have held off on using the Beomaster 5 for video media (at the moment at any rate) could be that there is not yet the capability to add an external network drive. Customers could start complaining that the 500 GB internal drive gets filled very quickly when adding video media. B&O IS adding the capability to add an external network drive in a software update in the near future. We should watch to see what happens.

Why wouldn't they just enable the connection of external drives from the start ?

Re: Beosound 5 alternative: LaCinema Black

erg4000 — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 17:46:14 GMT

jk1002:

WMA beeing the only choice for gapless playing is just one example. Just doesn't fly when you are on a Mac.

AFAIK gapless playing is possible in iTunes too. Apple lossless plays on Windows Media Player as well. I don't see a reason to exclude Apple Lossless in the BS 5.

Re: Beosound 5 alternative: LaCinema Black

stefan — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 15:22:11 GMT

erg4000:

Stefan,

what made you choose the Tvix 6500 in place of the Mac Mini ?

E.

E.,

like a lot of people here I wanted the mac mini as a media center. But the mac is too much computer and not so much media player. I planned to use Front Row for music, movies and web. Front Row uses Quicktime player for video, but QT doesn`t play mkv HD movies ...(!) VLC can do it, but not properly. Second thing was remote control. The Beo PUC does a fine job to translate the apple remote, but this six button remote can be a pain in...for navgation. So I tried the Tvix. Great interface, easy to configure, automatic standby, plays everything I want, a really great PUC for the Tvix remote with direct access to audio, subtitle, main menu. It even plays two different HD movies at the same time. First via HDMI on my BV7, 2nd via network (wireless!) on my macbook. Tvix is able to output digital and analogue audio simultanously - important for linkroom use.

The mac mini is back in my home office connected to a Mermaid monitor and does a nice job as a computer and music player with Beoplayer - using it to rip CDs and transfer music to BS5 and movies to the Tvix.

Stefan

Re: Beosound 5 alternative: LaCinema Black

beojeff — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 06:47:03 GMT

B&O is planning on having a video access similar to tivx installed on future B&O tvs. Until then, B&O is having dealers recommend that clients set up a wired network and use the tivx 6500 for video media. This could explain why B&O didn't focus on the Beomaster 5 for video media. Still, I don't see why it couldn't accomplish this in the future. I'm actually glad to see B&O focussing on ironing out the bugs for audio first before tackling video. I see the Beomaster 5/BeoSound 5 as an evolving product with a lot of future potential.

Another reason why B&O may have held off on using the Beomaster 5 for video media (at the moment at any rate) could be that there is not yet the capability to add an external network drive. Customers could start complaining that the 500 GB internal drive gets filled very quickly when adding video media. B&O IS adding the capability to add an external network drive in a software update in the near future. We should watch to see what happens.

IF B&O is planning on making the Beomaster 5 an access point for network video distribution in the future, this could explain the omission of wifi in the Beomaster 5. B&O is encouraging a wired ethernet network for video distribution with the tivx 6500. For anyone who has used Boxee with an Apple TV for streaming high def video, this makes a lot of sense. When we start distributing high def video, the quality is just much more consistent and stable with a wired network. Sure, we can use a wifi network if we so choose, but B&O certainly wouldn't want to be blamed for the loss in quality.

Re: Beosound 5 alternative: LaCinema Black

jk1002 — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 21:53:45 GMT

>>BTW why are video functions disabled?>>

It seems simple to do but if we look carefully what all is missing to make it a decent music player and how complicated that seems to be it might have been a good idea.

WMA beeing the only choice for gapless playing is just one example. Just doesn't fly when you are on a Mac.