Question for gadget geeks

[H8PVMT]

so I got a blu-ray player that can stream netflix (reason I got it) but when I tried to hook it up it wouldn't detect the internet.....after 30m on the phone with india I decided to just return it but here is the question i had

my isp is through a cable modem with only one ethernet port on the back, am I wrong to think that I can just run that cable directly to the dvd player and it will work? or does it HAVE to be run through a router for it to work properly, cables and internet work fine so that wasn't the problem

tia

doug

 

[ChiXJeff]

You may not be able to simply swap the Ethernet cables. At least with Comcast, you have to restart the modem any time you change the connected device, it ties itself to the MAC address. Me, I'd be running a router/firewall connected to the cable modem with a DHCP service running in the firewall. That should give you more than enough Ethernet ports and addresses, as well as not directly exposing anything in the house to the public Intardnet.

 

[H8PVMT]

I have 4 4way routers that are in ME for some reason (8 hours away) so I'm trying to do this as easily as possible and of course cheap as possible. in theory should it work running the wire from the modem to the DVD player?

heading over to consult with the Creep Squad in a few mins anyways though

 

[Johnnie Walker]

Should work connected directly to BD player. Just get a ps3 and be done (= Amazon has 50$ back on PS3 purchase.

 

[joe_peters]

Did you go into the menu in the Blu-Ray and follow the setup?

Assuming it has a setup for the ethernet.

 

[casm]

At least with Comcast, you have to restart the modem any time you change the connected device, it ties itself to the MAC address.

That seems to be changing - but it depends on which cable modem you've got. The newer Arris models seem to be able to cope with MAC changes much better than the older models did, but they're only giving those out in DOCSIS 3.0 areas. We aren't DOCSIS 3.0 here yet, but for some reason they gave me a NIB Arris the last time the Motorola crapped out. Not complaining; it's actually stable, unlike the Motorola.

Me, I'd be running a router/firewall connected to the cable modem with a DHCP service running in the firewall. That should give you more than enough Ethernet ports and addresses, as well as not directly exposing anything in the house to the public Intardnet.

This. Just have one of the spare routers sent down from Maine instead of buying one and you're set.

 

[rocknxj]

deleted

 

[H8PVMT]

went to bestbuy, big mistake, told the lady what one I wanted, keep in mind the WHOLE conversation revolved around watching netflix, she brought out the box, and my kid crapped herself so I was rushed, get outside and halfway home and guess what....f'n thing isn't netflix compatible, called up the store and "calmly" explained to the manager what happened, going to return it tomorrow and get my $25 gift card for the misunderstanding....then getting the right model for $80 LESS than their price from amazon

but I talked to a few reps and luckily a guy that had one and it should work running straight to the player

 

[RTFM]

Only thing I would also have you try is cables. In the industrial communications world we have "straight through" cables and "Crossover" cables

Straight going from device to a switch/hub/router etc then to the device (in this case the BlueRay player)

A cross over would be what you should have tried directly from the Modem to the Player.

Crossover having the Receive and Transmit wires crossed over - IE The receive information wire on the Modem would crossover to the Transmit information in the BR player and vice verse. With some electronics not being able to auto-negotiate the switch internally you need to use cable made for crossing over......

Just my .02

 

[RichP]

Most cable modems record your first mac address of whatever you put in to it, some also use a cross over cable, just pick up a router and hook it to the cable modem and go from there, I would never hook a PC directly to a cable modem, no security what so ever. I know there are at least 20 in my neighborhood that are hooked up that way.

 

[SleeperXJ]

Only thing I would also have you try is cables. In the industrial communications world we have "straight through" cables and "Crossover" cables

A cross over would be what you should have tried directly from the Modem to the Player.

Crossover having the Receive and Transmit wires crossed over..

This is the cheapest method of doing what you want to do.

 

[kastein]

agreed on the crossover and firewall/router. I would never put anything on the public internet without a decent router box in between, but if neither device supports auto-MDIX then a crossover cable may be necessary. If both devices are gigabit capable, no crossover is required because gigabit ethernet transmits and receives simultaneously on all 4 pairs.

 

[casm]

Most cable modems record your first mac address of whatever you put in to it, some also use a cross over cable, just pick up a router and hook it to the cable modem and go from there, I would never hook a PC directly to a cable modem, no security what so ever. I know there are at least 20 in my neighborhood that are hooked up that way.

You can thank at least Comcast and Charter for that one; I know from experience that both will tell their customers that no router is necessary as long as you use whatever security suite o' the week they happen to be bundling with their service on the machine plugged into the modem.

Of course, those packages get installed on machines that already have issues - so they run like even worse crap, and the user uninstalls it to get around whatever perceived or actual performance hit is taking place. And the machine gets owned eight ways from Sunday, and the problems are multiplied by a factor of about nine billion.

 

[rocknxj]

Be careful about being duped into buying a "Netflix" compatible device. Sure, the technology is cool and will probably take off like MP3 players did a while back, but just realize that the movies offered through Netflix streaming are older flicks and the type that YOU should be paid to watch.

Streaming YouTube vids is cool, but the search tool tends to suck. It is a novel idea, but I'd rather use my lap top to view cats playing the piano than watching that directly on my hi-def 50" plasma after fumbling with the awkward remote control.

I could be totally wrong about this, though. Maybe streaming net devices is the way to go and soon everything will be connected to satisfy our insatiable craving for instant gratification.

 

[casm]

Be careful about being duped into buying a "Netflix" compatible device. Sure, the technology is cool and will probably take off like MP3 players did a while back, but just realize that the movies offered through Netflix streaming are older flicks and the type that YOU should be paid to watch.

Thing is, as someone who is a TCM junkie, I'm pretty much OK with that. Most recent-release stuff does very little for me.

Streaming YouTube vids is cool, but the search tool tends to suck. It is a novel idea, but I'd rather use my lap top to view cats playing the piano than watching that directly on my hi-def 50" plasma after fumbling with the awkward remote control.

I could be totally wrong about this, though. Maybe streaming net devices is the way to go and soon everything will be connected to satisfy our insatiable craving for instant gratification.

The real problem is that all of the streaming devices out there are first-generation products, warts and all. I've got a PS3 and WD TV Live, and while both are competent at what they do and have their relative strengths and weaknesses, neither one is particularly good at it. And, having spent some time doing hands-on comparisons with a good chunk of other similar devices on the market now, I have to say that this applies to pretty much all of them right now.

Here's what I'd expect to see happen over the next few (meaning 2-5) years: more and more devices (mainly TVs and Blu-Ray players) will come with this functionality built-in. Set-top boxes dedicated to handling the task will be out there, but only for as long as it takes for the market to shift away from them as dedicated players. Game consoles will keep the functionality as a selling point, but it'll become less relevant.

The real killer is going to be figuring out the interface on these things; right now, none of them are particularly good in the UI area. One of the nice things about an iPod is that you can hand one to someone who has never touched one before and inside of two minutes they'll be completely familiar with operating it: media streamers need to get to that point in order to get mass acceptance in the marketplace.

Oh, and keep an eye on Google. It looks like they're licensing Android to be built into TVs and other devices, so that may end up being the embedded platform of choice for this sort of thing.

 

[RichP]

Thing is, as someone who is a TCM junkie, I'm pretty much OK with that. Most recent-release stuff does very little for me.



The real problem is that all of the streaming devices out there are first-generation products, warts and all. I've got a PS3 and WD TV Live, and while both are competent at what they do and have their relative strengths and weaknesses, neither one is particularly good at it. And, having spent some time doing hands-on comparisons with a good chunk of other similar devices on the market now, I have to say that this applies to pretty much all of them right now.

Here's what I'd expect to see happen over the next few (meaning 2-5) years: more and more devices (mainly TVs and Blu-Ray players) will come with this functionality built-in. Set-top boxes dedicated to handling the task will be out there, but only for as long as it takes for the market to shift away from them as dedicated players. Game consoles will keep the functionality as a selling point, but it'll become less relevant.

The real killer is going to be figuring out the interface on these things; right now, none of them are particularly good in the UI area. One of the nice things about an iPod is that you can hand one to someone who has never touched one before and inside of two minutes they'll be completely familiar with operating it: media streamers need to get to that point in order to get mass acceptance in the marketplace.

Oh, and keep an eye on Google. It looks like they're licensing Android to be built into TVs and other devices, so that may end up being the embedded platform of choice for this sort of thing.

boxee....

 

[casm]

boxee....

You mean Buggee?

I like the Boxee Box in theory, but given the sheer number of issues the early adopters seem to be having with it, I'll pass until they've got better firmware out for it. Having said that, my interest in running a UPnP server off of one of the desktops or even the fileserver is nil - any STB-type of device needs to be able to mount my media from the fileserver directly, either by SMB or NFS.

My DVDs are backed up as ISOs, and no DVD menu support via UPnP is a showstopper - hence SMB or NFS.

 

[RichP]

You mean Buggee?

I like the Boxee Box in theory, but given the sheer number of issues the early adopters seem to be having with it, I'll pass until they've got better firmware out for it. Having said that, my interest in running a UPnP server off of one of the desktops or even the fileserver is nil - any STB-type of device needs to be able to mount my media from the fileserver directly, either by SMB or NFS.

My DVDs are backed up as ISOs, and no DVD menu support via UPnP is a showstopper - hence SMB or NFS.

Actually a new lenovo laptop has HDMI out so I been playing with that, hate the restrictions on the blueray player, non of these manufacturers will put a real browser on their stuff while someone will pay then to put their app on it, pisses me off no end.

 

[casm]

hate the restrictions on the blueray player

This is a big part of why I've got all the discs backed up to the fileserver - a good chunk of my DVDs are Region 2. Playback restrictions on them were bad enough in the pre-Blu-Ray days, but I figure if I'm going to be stuck with a separate box to handle them it may as well be a media streamer that doesn't care rather than a region-free DVD player that can only be that one thing.

non of these manufacturers will put a real browser on their stuff while someone will pay then to put their app on it, pisses me off no end.

Yep. I wouldn't even mind so much if the basic streamer functionality was halfway decent, but when a company (finger pointed straight at WD on this one) adds Facebook connectivity ahead of dealing with known core playback issues, it makes me want to find a way of mailing the damn thing back to them while it's on fire.

 

[H8PVMT]

Be careful about being duped into buying a "Netflix" compatible device. Sure, the technology is cool and will probably take off like MP3 players did a while back, but just realize that the movies offered through Netflix streaming are older flicks and the type that YOU should be paid to watch.

the only reason for getting the device is for the netflix option, I don't have cable tv or sattelite or any interest in blue-ray dvds so using netflix I can watch all the shows from cable through it, albeit a few seasons late but I work with all guatemalans so it's not like I over hear what happened on the shows I haven't seen yet :thumbup: