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Hello did a search on this forum and there is something from 2012 that talks about Beomaster 5 as a video server but it doesn't really answer the question I had in mind.
I am currently wanting to replace my mac mini based iTunes music with a Beosound 5 (probably an encore). It may sound starge but it is all about usability. the current setup drops out regularly and my wife just wants a system she can walk up to a select an album easily so the Beosound 5 encore seems to suit our needs. The problem I have is that while she listens to albums I have about 250GB of music video. It is stored as MPEG-4 with AAC audio.
Does anybody know if the Beosound 5 (particularly the encore) will see these MPEG-4 videos and play the AAC audio content. I don't really care that much about the video but if there was someway for the video to be send to my TV say through the video out on a Beomaster 5 that would be ideal. I don't really mind spending the extra on a Beosound 5 / Beomaster 5 system but I would hate to do this only to find it didn't do what I would like.
Cheers
Hi there Slash!
There's no way that it'll send a video output even if your MP4 video files are DRM free. The BS5/Encore is very very very old technology and not even good technology sadly. Your Mac Mini is in another world in terms of modernity in this respect.
You can I guess make MP4 video files into MP4 audio files.
Remember a BS5 is based on old Windows technology, as in a 2005 Windows thing. In 2016?
So the newer BS5 encore is still a windows based system...is that correct? I thought it might be a bit of an ask to be able to see the audio content of a video files but I had high hopes. Maybe I just need to see this system as a music system than instead of a all encompassing answer.
Paul W is back
actually Paul W-indows is still around........
And yes the technology of the used version is at the end of its life cycle. But only just recently.
And no the Encore is a Linux machine
No the BM5 can't play video's. But with some knowledge you can actually run f.e. XBMC (now Kodi) on it. But it isn't practical and for most users a no go aeria
Thanks for that but I am trying to simplify the way the systems works so I want to try an out of the box solution even if I need to keep my existing surround sound system just for videos.
Can anyone tell me if the SPDIF on a BM5 is an input or an output. For example an I play my music videos on my Mac mini and send the audio (via digital audio out on the Mac Mini to the SPDIF on the BM5. In this case does it come through AuX or the like
Also I assume since the BS5 is windows and the encore is linux then if there was ever a possibility of playing the audio component of a video file it would be best to go with the encore (I assume there are still firmware updates coming out).
Hi,
no chance of playing just the audio of a video file on both. Even if you go the "external" way via feeding the audio into AUX you will experience problems.On both systems there is a noticeable delay when using the AUX source. So audio and video won't be lip-sync. Also remember that the BS5/BM5 combo comes without an AUX input. You have to connect a special USB "soundcard" for achieving that.
From the engineering point of view the Encore is clearly the better device. But when is comes to software support you are lost. There wasn't an update for at least 4 years and there won't ever come one in future. Also the processor is a little slow and a little old (400MHz - 1 core - PPC) which might be the reason they dropped the support that early.
The BS5/BM5 combo is a tinkering solution in my eyes but at least it was updated frequently. Don't expect that there will be any updates in future as it is end-of-life, too. The S/PDIF is an output only. There are no audio inputs on the BM5 except the solution with the USB adapter which has a delay and a soundquality problem.
BR,BeoMotion.
Use for video playback a mediaplayer.
I have a hdi dune H1 and a BV10-40 and it works perfect!
Forgive my ignorance koning but can you explain this a little more. Is this used as a stand alone media player or as a server for the BS5.
I didn't explain myself well in the op. I have a mac mini that has all my music on it (about 700 albums and about 250GB of music video (H.264 MPEG-4 AAC audio). Typically I use the apple remote app on my iPad to control the music and send it through to my less than adequate stereo system (via digital optical out). So it plays music (from my albums) and music from my music videos if I have my TV off, and video if I want to put my TV on. Recently I lost my digital audio out from the mac mini so I am now using my apple TV to pull from iTunes on my mac mini to the stereo and TV. Also to make matters worse the iPad sometime will not connect to my iTunes library (and this seems to be getting worse). My wife has a terrible time navigating to the apple TV and then selecting the music on the mac mini under the apple TV guise and just wants to go to something and pick an album to listen to. So the AV gods seem to be telling me it's time to do something new. I have always liked the look of the Beosound 5 and I know I will be happy with the sound from any B&O speakers. I understand that I will be spending a decent amount of money (for me) on a system that I know will be great at digital music but what holds me back at the moment is the thought of having to give up my music videos. So this is my dilemma. I would love the BE5 to play anything on my music server but I think from this forum it may be beyond my grasp. If you have a way of getting your streaming media box to talk to the BE5 I would love to know how this works. Really the minimum solution is for it just to play my albums (which I know it will) but my minimum that would make me happy was just if it could direct the audio from my Apple TV to the BE5 so that I got the benefit of the better sound from the B&O speakers rather than my existing ones. Although not at the expense of a delayed response like BeoMotion was talking about
No,it's a stand alone mediaplayer and in combination with a b&o tv it works perfect
All my music,films are on the nasserver.
OK i'm going to go on a limb here and I may be speaking out of my proverbial, but Beomotion if the Beosound 5 is windows XP & the Encore linux as Carolpa suggests than I would think the encore would be a better option for future tinkering.
Here what I am thinking Linux is open source and there are some pretty smart Linux tinkeerrs out there.
Surely as the BS5 has a fairly good 1024 x 768 screen it should be possible for a programmer to modify the linux system to read different files formats. Let say in this instance MPEG-4 files. Sure there is no output but why not be able to put the video on the display the video on the BS5 screen instead of the album artwork and send the the audio to the speakers......
Yes, your core idea is correct.The problem is that the Encore is based on a MPC5121 SoC. There aren't any widely spread tinkering boards out there using this chip.This makes it hard to modify anything without wasting much time. A possible Encore tinkerer would have to either hack that thing to get root access or flash a generic board-support-package (BSP) for that SoC and risking a bricked device or missing input and audio drivers afterwards. I've got an Encore myself and I'm quite experienced with linux and embedded hardware but really wouldn't want to put that much time into this machine. Also remember that the Encore wasn't sold that much so chances are even lower that somebody will come up with modifications.
If you want to tinker the BS5/BM5 combo would be better. The BS5 has HDMI input + USB output and could be used as a very nice display with any other computer. E.g. connect a Raspberry Pi to it and write some SW for grabbing the button, lever and volume wheel data from USB.You could also put a new HDD into the BeoMaster5 and install linux as it is a x86 machine and I think there are also linux drivers available for that board.Even with the original XP system you can do some hacks. You can easily expand it with AirPlay capability or Spotify Connect (just as long as they support XP but currently it still works on existing installations).