ARCHIVED FORUM -- March 2012 to February 2022READ ONLY FORUM
This is the second Archived Forum which was active between 1st March 2012 and 23rd February 2022
Hi! It has been many years now that I have enjoyed the company of a self built Beomedia 1 that I have builted from a few computer components and a BeoPort Pc 2.
Initially, built it with a 500GB HDD and today it works with a 2TB HDD.
Serving as a music player, internet radio player, web browser, and most importantly a video content player.
At the same time it used as a file server, a video server (to all i-devices), and surveillance device.
It took me quite some time to calibrate but in the end the result is astonishing.
The Beomedia 1 interface is one of the best and most convenient in usage (I am an owner of a BeoMaster 5 as well and can't say the same for accessibility and ease of use).
If anyone is interested can contact me for help or details.
Thank you very much,
George.
Please share I am sure there are a few on here who would love to know how to do this
It's rather easy. You will need a pc2link for ML.
Beomedia software installing and it will work. Only IE 6 or 7 working with web function is a bit more work.
The Beomaster 5 is more complicated. It only works if serialnumbers are present at the hidden place in BIOS, and harddrive. Otherwise updates can't be downloaded.
I’m happy that I see interest for my post.
I have already up and running a configuration of a pc inside a cabinet for the past 4 years, without any box! and it's working seamlessly.
I just have plugged on a motherboard a video card (unnecessary) and a audio card (also unnecessary), initially a 500Gb HDD and upgrade it later to an 2TB HDD.
The configuration is as follows:
Hardware:
ASUS M2N68-AM
AMD Athlon LE-1640 @ 2.6 GHz
2GB of memory DDR2 @ 800 Hz
NVidia GeForce 8600 GT
Creative SB Live!
Western Digital 2TB Caviar
BeoLink PC 2
Software:
Windows XP Service Pack 2
Air Video Server (For sharing video over all iDevice and not only…)
Asus Updater (For updating the M/B bios and replacing the Bios logo with the one of Bang & Olufsen)
Dyn Updater (For constantly and freely updating the local ip address to a no-ip servers so I can remotely access the Beomedia)
GoodSync (File sync and back up software to always keep a back up of my songs, photos and movies on an external drive)
Google Chrome (For some better navigation)
iTunes (Needed installation for some software that depends on it like Air Video etc)
MiPony (Automated file downloader to help with long files downloaded from servers like Turbobit, FilePup, Uploaded etc)
Mp3 Tag (Best mp3 tag editor ever…)
Partition Magic 8.0 (Necessary tool for partitioning space on the HDD)
R-Drive Image (Cloning tool, that also helps as a security back up and an easy way of restoring Beomedia)
RealVNC (Remote access from any pc or iDevice I have)
Rename Wiz (Easiest file renamer ever…)
Resource Hacker (File hacking for some extra tweaking)
Shutdown Scheduler (Nice, easy and very dependable software to put Beomedia to sleep when its not needed)
SopCast (Nice and easy way to view - even in HD - football games for free or other channels)
Tonido (Turn your Beomedia into a cloud server)
U-Serv (Turn your Beomedia into a file server)
Vista Codecs (Very important codecs in order to view and have the best result in both Audio and Video of your Xvid movies)
VLC (In case you wish to watch something in high definition or something you’ve downloaded and you don’t want to convert in Xvid)
Vuze (The best torrent downloader - in my opinion)
and of course the BeoMedia 1 software.
With the addition of a video card and a sound card I have managed to have fast picture rendering and smooth reaction on menus and true surround sound from xvids that support AC3 or other surround codecs.
I don't think that it is as easy as Beobuddy describes.
You need to split your HDD partition in 3 partitions as the original Beomedia 1, just to install the Beomedia software correctly.
The three partitions are: Recovery, System, Data
You can leave Recovery as a very small partition as you don't need it (unless you feel like storing some back up ghost images or back up software just in case...)
When installing Windows XP you have to choose as installation drive, drive D:/System for later use with the Beomedia software.
After the installation you have to tweak the registry to view your files correctly and tweak some more to have some extra features...
You can (as I have) modify the boot sequence in order not to see any of the Windows Xp logo and have an Bang & Olufsen instead.
You can tweak the boot sequence in order to have a back up ghost (image) software to help you flash back the drive in case you did something very bad to your built up Beomedia.
After tweaking registry for Beomedia software to view files correctly you have to complete the registration with a PC or Mac in order to get the N. RADIO function to work otherwise you don't have N. RADIO.
For anyone that might be interested, while building my own Beomedia I thought I'd expand to some extras...
So,
I have managed to operate my own built Beomedia through:
BeoVision 9 (Surround setup with BeoLab 8000 and BeoLab 2) - Operated both with Beo4 and Beo5
BeoSound 4 (Masterlinked)
BeoLab 2000 (Masterlinked in bedroom)
All of the above are patched on a MasterLink Gateway operated via iPhone, iPad and any PC or Mac in the world as it broadcasts its IP on the web (all you need is a browser).
In this way, I can control all of my Beo products through iPhone, all my downloads via VNC, all of my files via Tonido or U-Serv (music and photos) and share all of my videos (xvid or other) via AirVideo on iPhone & iPad or even a PC (not meant to work in this way...but did it for the heck of it) over internet...
Now, next steps are connecting the lights of the house to a Lutron (probably) and some IP cameras to have some extra security. Shades remain an option as there's not much need for (don't have a projector setup yet) but once I'll get started on Lutron it might as well worth the try...
Gadjetx: You need to split your HDD partition in 3 partitions as the original Beomedia 1, just to install the Beomedia software correctly. The three partitions are: Recovery, System, Data
There are 4 partitions
A hidden partition assigned as dynamic folder. Otherwise recovery will never work. At first sight it looks like it works, but afterwards it isn't done completely.
And to add a minor detail.
A random soundcard will not have the same quality DAC as the Beomedia 1 has. Not by far.
Thanx for the tip with the secret directory. Hadn't explored the recovery feature cause I use the ghost image from an external drive that back up the whole system every 3-6 months and just for the system partition it takes about a minute to clone.
But now that you mentioned I will give it a try. Can you give me more details?
By the way, I have a Nvidia GeForce 8600GT installed and a Creative SoundBlaster Live! for DAC, and I use only the digital output for connecting the BV9. The analog output goes only to the BeoLink PC 2 for using the N.MUSIC and N.RADIO functions through the ML system. Using Vista Codecs you can have spectacular surround sound from DivX and Xvid that utilise AC3.
I also want to thank Beobuddy for sending me this on how to update the IE browser from 6 to 7.
http://archivedforum2.beoworld.org/forums/p/690/5694.aspx#5694
I took the risk to install it without upgrading to SP 3 first and I can tell you that it works just right as it is.
I'll try to upgrade to a later version of IE as well and give you a feedback.
Has anyone managed to tweak N.MUSIC in order to show Album Covers?
Has anyone managed to tweak PHOTO in order to play .mkv or other movie files apart from .avi, and .wmv?
Just wondering...
I have the possibility to get a Beomedia from a friend real cheap. Is it worth getting and try to upgrade ut or is it better to start from scratch?
Would it be possible for anyone to upload a video on Youtube showing your custom builds and interfaces?
BR
Riven
My B&O products: Beosound 9000, Beosound 2300, Beosound Century, Beolab 8000, Beolab 6000, Beolab 4000 x2, Beolab 3500, Beolab 2000, Beolab 10, Beolink Active x2, Beotime, Beo5 x2, Beo4, A9 keyring x2, LC2 dimmer x6 and growing....
It's always easier to get something ready, but upgrading Beomedia 1 in my opinion doesn't worth the result if you mean to watch movies through it and have a really big song collection.
It's better to built your own both because of the challenge and the pleasure that this will give you and of the higher quality in playing movie files and songs in addition that it will be much faster and maybe reliable (depending on you ;))
Now, concerning the costs, I only had to pay for the motherboard, the CPU and the memory (initially) because I had all the rest.
I had a 500gb HDD, a Nvidia card, a Creative Soundblaster, a wifi PCI card, a power unit, etc.
I also had the Beolink PC 2 and I think the total cost of the mb,CPU,memory wasn't more than 85€!!!
Next upgrade was a 2TB HDD and an external 1TB for back up.
So, check your costs and decide. By the way, I also have a Beomedia and a Beolink PC 2 which I'm selling.
I would personally get a SSD as your primary drive will speed things up, allowing quicker streaming and faster boot times.
Quick email to add two old threads from the old archived forum which might share some light on the discussion; the first one is bout the BM5 hardware specs and Beomedia Inside and Out.
I'm still running with the VIA Tech EPIA Mii motherboard as my Sonos audio bridge to my ML-network and the PC itself is only used when I'm playing 24-bit audio.
Biggest issue as I see it is that Win XP now isn't updated anymore from security perpective and I doubt that B&O will do anything about as BeoMedia is a dead platform. Don't know if they plan to move on to Win 8 with something new. Even if the drivers could be isolated and repackaged it would likely not run on Win 8.1 64-bit and doubt that it would even work on 32-bit Windows. Earlier it could be possible to move WinXP application and drivers to Win 7 32-bit which could be an option to rebuild a platform on with the right tweaking which has been mentioned in this thread.
Would be totally cool if reversed enginering could be done one the Win XP drivers to create new drivers for more modern OS. Then again, is it even possible to get motherboards with old legacy PCI-bus which is needed for the MasterLink card which used for the BeoMedia unit?