Recent Articles

How To Record HDTV Programs
-Syndicated from TechLore.comHDTV Is Spectacular - If You're Home To See It. One of the fundamental issues surrounding the adoption of HD is the busy life of the average person. If you've owned a TiVo, ReplayTV, or any other kind of DVR, you obviously know... more
How To Encode Video for your AV300
Archos JBM20 / AV100 / AV300 VirtualDub TutorialJBM20 / AV100 / AV300 Video Basics Getting Installed Setting Up for Converting aFile with VirtualDub Files Using 2pass Encoding JBM20 / AV100 / AV300 Video Basics VirtualDub is a program for convering AVIs and... more
DirecTV TiVo Life Extension
Well folks, the WAR IS ON and after months of waiting and wondering, DirecTV TiVo customers are finally beginning to understand just how DirecTV's long term decision to migrate AWAY from TiVo, in favor or their own proprietary DVR technology, would mean to... more
PTVnet General Support Information (pre-configured kits and DIY CD)
This general support information applies to all PTVnet DIY hard drive kits, as well as replacement drives created with our DIY PTVnet software CD. In addition to the information below, we've created a special section of our forum area for PTVnet technical... more
InstantCake Instructions and Release Notes
Page 1 | Page 2 Introduction InstantCake is a custom DIY software tool designed to quickly and easily create a basic replacement drive kit from a standard off-the-shelf PC hard drive. InstantCake comes as a single CD (or as a downloadable ISO which can be... more
Archos AV300 - AVCam300 Review
In Short: The idea of a camera with a hard-drive was one of the things that attracted me to the JBM20 in the first place. However, the 1.2mpix JBM20 Camera's quality was very poor. Now, in December 2003, about a year later, Archos has come out with a 3.3mpix... more
Archos AV300 Battery Life FAQ
Originally created 11/19/2004My AV300 Battery Life Sucks. What can I do? Below I have tests that tell you what you should expect from your battery life. If you are getting only 50% to 80% of those numbers and have had your unit for a long time, you may need a... more
Archos AV400 & GMini400 Detailed Review
Originally created 11/12/2004, last updated 12/9/04AV400 Out of the Box When I first got my AV400 out of the box I was impressed with how it felt. It is solid, ergonomic, and well put together. The buttons feel the best of any Archos unit I've tried (AV300,... more
Archos AV300 Video Resolution FAQ
placeholderOriginally created 7/3/2003What settings should I use with DivX5.x to encode video for the AV300? If you are going for Maximum quality for TV-Out: Use the highest resolution the AV300 supports (see the offical and unoffical max resolutions in this... more
AV300 High Quality Video Test
To really test hi-res, hi-quality video on the AV320, I pulled out my old DVD ripping software (haven't done that in a while) and ripped my SuperBit version of the Fifth Element (movie). I encoded it with DivX 5.05, two pass, with 1200kbps average bitrate.... more
ARCHOS AV300 - NewMP3Technology Replacement Battery Review
Intro Archos, as well as Apple, claims their batteries last "the lifetime of the product", but we all know this isn't true. So, when your AV300 just doesn't seem to hold a charge like it used to, what are you to do? Well, NewMP3Technology has the solution:... more

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Latest Blog Entries

Channel Master Introduces $10 Antenna with Free Shipping
DVRplayground Team

FLATennaPHOENIX, AZ – August 20, 2014 – Channel Master, the nation’s leading manufacturer of broadcast reception products since... more
Channel Master Serves Up New DVR+ Model with 1TB Internal Hard Drive
DVRplayground Team

PR release PHOENIX, AZ – July 9, 2014

Furthering its TV Freedom™ initiative for consumers, Channel Master announced today the launch of a new DVR+ model that includes a 1TB... more
Installing the Squeezebox Server on the MediaSmart Server
Lou Jacob

I recently decided to give the Squeezebox Server on my MediaSmart EX495.  If you are not familiar with any of the Squeezebox products, they are worth looking at if you'd like to have a device that can connect to your stereo and your network, and play your audio files from a centralized file repository.  Squeeze products... more
Adding Storage for Capacity and Redundancy
Lou Jacob

So, today I decided it was time to add a few drives to my EX495, just to see how it easy it was, expand the capacity, and more importantly, ensure that I had some redundancy in the case of a drive failure.  

After doing a bit or reading, I came to the realization that the MediaSmart Server does not use... more
Remote Access to My MediaSmart Server
Lou Jacob

As I mentioned in my 2nd article (Part 2 of Setting IUp my MediaSmart EX495), one other aspect of getting rid of the "network critical" warning on my Home Server Console dashboard was to enable remote access.  As I said before,

Enabling the Web Services was easy enough.  It was a bit of a magical experience,... more

Setting up my MediaSmart EX495 (part 1 of 2)

Submitted by Lou Jacob on Thu, 11/04/2010 - 16:09

I was nervous about setting up my EX495.  I've built a lot of computers and even deployed some servers without keyboards and monitors, but I've never actually worked with a Windows box designed to function without a monitor and keyboard.  I was certain it would all work, and I'm no stranger to accessing systems over a network, but it still wasn't clear to me how it would all work.  I guess it was time to simply suspend disbelief and follow the instructions.

I unpacked my MediaSmart EX495 carefully and just took it all in.  My first realization was that the system was much smaller than I thought it would be.  From the photos, it just looks like a standard tower PC, and it is... but it is a mini-tower and quite small.  At about 5 1/2 inches wide, 9 inches high, and 8 inches deep, I knew it would fit comfortably on a shelf in my office, and would look great, too.

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