Why Can’t I Update The Firmware? Why? Why? Why? I Have Tried EVERYTHING!

That’s exactly how you sounded in your email.

To make the software update process as easy as possible, we make the “online automatic update” option available to our users. However, there are times when you 1) have a product that can’t be connected to the internet; 2) want to try the unofficial “beta” firmware, and 3) want to go back to the previous version because that version suits your needs better.

This is when you need to try the “USB update”. I know it’s frustrating when nothing happens to your unit and you’re staring at the blank screen, wondering if this is the so-called “blue screen of death”. It is even more so when instructions are nowhere to be found on our website, and it takes hours to get a response from service5@zinnetusa.com.

This piece is dedicated to you, the pioneers and the explorers in the technology wonderland without the need for directions or a GPS.

IMPORTANT RULES:

If you do not follow these rules, you will brick your box. Yes you will.

• Detach the Ethernet cable or Wireless LAN adapter from your media player (if applicable).
• Do NOT power off in the middle of the process.
• Do NOT power off AFTER the process. There will be about 60 seconds of time after the firmware is downloaded when you see nothing on the screen. Do not panic. Just give the media player some time to absorb every bit of the firmware so it can settle properly.

Perform the following steps:

1. Go to http://www.brite-view.com/support.php and find the firmware you need; usually under the name of the product that you purchased. (We’ll include the firmware in the forum, too. Coming soon!)
2. There are two files for download: install.img and install.img-sig. Right click on the files to download them.   
3. UPDATE for PC users: please RIGHT CLICK and then SAVE AS TYPE = ALL, do NOT save as WinRAR
4. If you got “install.TAR” instead (note the file extension), you need to “untar” it by simply changing the file name from “install.tar” to “install.img”.

(Mac users – you can just click on the file and start the downloading process. After the download of the install.img-sig is over, open the file and resave it, NOT as a .txt file)

1. Save both “install.img” and “install.img-sig” to the root menu of your USB storage device. They need to be two naked files not in any sort of folder.
2. Turn on your CinemaCube, CinemaTube or HDPrimo, and from the home menu –> Setup –> Software Update –> USB Update
3. Now plug in the USB drive to your machine and let the update start!

Still doesn’t work? Don’t give up. Try this instead.

1. Same as the step 1 above; find the desired firmware first.
2. Power off the unit (Yes, it’s ok, for now.); unplug your media player.
3. Hold the power button.
4. Plug the AC adapter back (without letting go of the power button for around 10 seconds)
5. You’ll enter “USB Update”. Please plug in the USB drive with the firmware and the update will begin.

Now you got directions on the firmware update process. Good luck exploring the potential of your brite-View media player!

How Do I Use the “File Copy” Feature? (NEW AND UPDATED!)

If you have tried the latest firmware (IPB1009C241; now labeled as “beta”), you might have noticed a dramatically changed GUI, and new features added like this one: “File Copy”. You can find it on the Home Menu.

What does it do?

It allows you to transfer files over the network, from one hard drive to another.

For example, if you have some files on your computer that you want to drag over to the hard drive attached to the CinemaTube first and then have the CinemaTube play the same file off the attached drive (CinemaTube performs best this way), what do you do?

1. Find CinemaTube IP address by navigating to Setup –> Network; next to “Wired LAN Setup” you should see a string of numbers. That’s your CinemaTube’s IP address.
2. Fire up your browser (Internet Explorer only). At the address bar, type in “\\<<<CinemaTube IP address here>>> (no, you don’t need to include “<<<” and “>>>”. For example: \\192.168.X.X ); press Enter.
3. You can then see the hard drive attached to the CinemaTube from your computer. Click on it and open up that window and drag the videos you want over to desired folder/destination, and then let the network do its job.

Now you can manage the files and folders on the hard drive attached to the CinemaTube from your computer.

UPDATE: For Mac Users:

Finder –> connect to Server (command+K) –> Server Address smb://<<< CinemaTube IP address>>>

And then you can directly add files to the hard drive attached to the CinemaTube from your Mac.

(Please make sure the File Sharing feature is turned on on your computer.)

Now, from CinemaTube, you can do something similar as well.

1. From Home Menu, please go to “File Copy”.
2. On the left hand side, you see “Source” and on the right hand side, you see “Destination”.
3. Simply select the desired file from the appropriate folder by clicking “A” button (the red one); press “ > ” to go over to the “Destination”. Press “ > “ again to copy it over. For example, choose a file from your computer on the same network and copy it to the hard drive attached to the CinemaTube. It works the other way, too, if the security level is set up correctly (both “Read” and “Write” must be checked).

Of course, it might take a larger file longer to be transferred.

Let us know if you have other questions about this feature. Thanks!

What’s with the New Firmware, Yo?

Our customers have mixed feelings about the latest firmware we originally released on January 5^th, 2010.

From one customer:

“Wow! What a huge difference! MUCH better. I can’t wait to play with the new features. Love the NAS feature and the improvement in the UI when browsing movies with the preview turned on. No more pausing. The copy feature is neat too. Well done. It’s like I bought a new unit!”

There is also another kind of voice, though:

“It may just be me but after updating to the new interface every video I try from PlayOn plays for about 5 sec and then freezes with the word buffering on the screen. The videos from my attached hard drive and computer play fine.”

So the issue was that the new firmware looks nice, has new features, makes faster navigation, but… it broke the UPnP experience. (!)

An AVSer pointed out,

“Apparently we have two types of users using the CT

1) Those who connect via network and stream their files

2) Those who connect a USB drive to the unit directly.”

The first  kind of users would not like the new firmware (IPB1009C241), so we recommend that you downgrade the firmware to the previous version.

The second kind of users would prefer the new firmware, so if you do not need the UPnP streaming capability at the moment, we suggest that you keep it.

BUT our server did something stupid. After we learned about the UPnP issue, we pulled the new firmware (IPB1009C241) from the server. However the older firmware then popped up, prompting for another “firmware update”.

Some people were shocked to see the “reverse” after the 2nd “update”.

We received messages like this one:

“Hi, I downloaded the update from last week and got the new UI with that update. Now, my CT prompted me that there’s an new firmware update, knowing that I already downloaded the one with the new UI, I thought I’d give this new firmware a try since I thought that the new UI with come with this new update. After the update is done, I’m surprised to get the old UI back. What gives?”

We admit that we did not do a good job communicating what is coming and what is to be expected, and we have learned a lesson the hard way.

We have made the new firmware (IPB1009C241) available on our website on the “Support” page and under “CinemaTube”, but now marked as “beta”.

We are now working with the chip manufacturer to work out a solution. The original code that we used to create the new firmware broke the UPnP communication, so we have to work with them to solve the problem. We promise to get this worked out ASAP.

Doing Our Part in Creating Jobs

Get Paid to Play with Gadgets!

(Ok, only one job and it’ll be part-time based, at least for now.)

You can see how far we’ve come in 2009, and we’ve been trying to keep up with the demand for our products. And because the number of our customers has been rapidly growing, we’re so past due for a user forum.

Our user forum is under construction already, but we also need someone to “take ownership”.

We are therefore announcing: we’re hiring a forum moderator! (Or an E-Service Manager/“King of the Hill” if you prefer.)

It’s totally awesome, because:

1. You get paid to play with our toys and get insider news (we got many products lined-up for next year, jut FYI)
2. Yes, you’ll probably get free products before anyone else has even heard of the technology
3. You’re helping great products to become even better
4. You have access to first-hand market knowledge
5. It’s a part-time job, so it’s great if you just want to make pocket money/extra income or have it on the side as your hobby.

If you are someone who:

1. Is an “advanced” and “techy” gadget lover
2. Has some network engineering experience or a good understanding of IP products (a plus)
3. Has strong internet knowledge and is familiar with social networking services (especially online reputation monitoring)
4. Has the ability to build consensus, establish trust, communicate effectively

… then we would really LOVE to hear from you!

Please contact us at service5@zinnetusa.com or leave a comment here and we’ll be sure to get in touch with you in individually for more details.

What’s Under Your Christmas Tree?

Many thanks to TrulyObscure from San Francisco for including us as one of the most recommended Christmas gadgets in a recent post.

Quote from ‘The Mole with Excellent Vision, and a Valuable Cinema Companion’: “The kicker for us though was the pretty decent BitTorrent client, allowing us to download our, er, perfectly legal media quickly and quietly, though with an annoying limit of three at a time. The GUI and onscreen interface aren’t worth writing home about but they get the job done. And the price is certainly right- at around $100, you’ll still have some money left over to either get some extra USB storage or to spend on your (soon to be obsolete) physical media collection.”

Well, what’s better than staying in the warmth and comfort of your home and watching movies with family and friends in the holiday season?

Baby It’s Cold Outside, It’s Bad Out There … Been Hoping You’d Stay in With Me. Enjoy CinemaTube... with Loved Ones.

ANOTHER CinemaTube Giveaway from Laughing Lindsay

Who says opportunity doesn’t knock twice?

In addition to the one from TheDirtyShirt, there is another CinemaTube review and giveaway from Laughing Lindsay!

Lindsay said, “I am happy with my CinemaTube, it’s really cool. I just plug it into the tv and into whatever format I wish to watch and it shows on my tv! It’s way better than trying to watch videos on a small computer screen.”

(Thank you, Lindsay!)

Well, whatcha waiting for? Now you can win one, too (or maybe two!?). See details here.

Good luck, everyone!



CinemaTube $94.99 Shipped from Amazon + CinemaTube Giveaway on TheDirtyShirt.com!

If you haven’t made up your mind about the CinemaTube, here’s a little push: the CINEMAFB coupon ends today at 5pm PST. That means, if you grab one today, it’s only $94.99 shipped from Amazon.

The tricky part is that you have to buy it from us, instead of Amazon. It’s actually not so tricky, after all. Just visit here and choose “brite-View” as the seller, and when you check out, simply apply the CINEMAFB coupon code then.

No matter you buy from Amazon (although it shows “out of stock” and there is no coupon code for that) or us today, your order will be shipped between Dec 7-11, 2009.

There is also a CinemaTube giveaway on TheDirtyShirt.com. (Thanks for featuring the CinemaTube on your Holiday Gift Guide, Jennifer!) Don’t forget to sign up for Jennifer’s CinemaTube giveaway!

That’s all for today – happy Cyber Monday! Gonna take it slow today as I am still yet to recover from the food coma that came from all the Thanksgiving feasts I had.

New CinemaTube Review on Jeff-Sawyer.com

Another great review for the CinemaTube!

Jeff’s Conclusion:

“Overall, I really love this device. It’s tough to say it’s a necessary addition to all the other tech under your HDTV, but it’s also not nearly as expensive as some of the other options available. It would have been nice for the package to include wireless build in and to come with an HDMI cable, but it’s not something I really expected at this price either. At the time of writing this, the device was on sale for $104.99 at http://www.brite-view.com/cinematube.php. I’m thrilled it has HDMI, Composite, Component, S/PDIF, LAN, and 2 USB Ports. There’s a lot of competition for devices like this, but I felt that this product works amazingly well and I’d definitely recommend picking one up. One hundred bucks will let you be a couch potato even more efficiently.”

Read the full details here.

Thanks Jeff!

P.S., if you don’t already know, there is a $5 off coupon code for your CinemaTube Amazon purchase. The coupon code is “CINEMAGO” – that makes this unit $99.99 only!

Find CinemaTube on Amazon here.

 

 

CinemaTube Shortcut Feature Explained

Finally! This is a feature a lot of you have been asking about. Sorry it took forever – I have been traveling and then as soon as I came back, we’re moving to a new office location with more room.

Anyways, please see below for the “shortcut” feature explained:

Why Take the Shortcut?

• To establish a bridge for inter-subnet traffic: the desired IP address only needs to be input once. After the IP address is saved, the CinemaTube will remember it for later use. As long as it is an IP address that can be reached by your computer, the CinemaTube can reach it, too, even if the IP address is not on the same network (useful for file-sharing on the internet).
• To “see” the shared folder/files on the same network immediately: sometimes you cannot find a remote computer even though it is located on the same network. The network is designed so to avoid broadcast storms. The best way to locate that remote computer is to “search” for it.  The “shortcut” feature on the CinemaTube acts as the medium for such searching purposes.
• To skip multi-level directory navigation: if there are many remote computers or many shared folders on the network, finding the desired file could be a pain in the neck. The “shortcut” feature helps easing the pain by always displaying the desired file on top of the preview window.
• To easily log on to a remote computer/shared folder protected by password:  as long as the user ID and password you input to set up the shortcut is correct at the first try, CinemaTube can remember the account information and save you the trouble of having to repeat the process next time.

How Do I Set up the Shortcut?

1. Find “PC Media” and then choose “My Shortcuts”.
2. Press the red “A” key on the remote control to add a shortcut.
3. Type in Login ID and Password (if any), and/or specific file server IP. Press OK to save network settings.
4. Alternatively, if you want to search for the computer by its net ID, please click on “Detail”.
5. Type in the computer’s net ID and password to search for the remote computer you wish to connect to.
6. Press “OK & Save to My ShortCuts” to log on.

(“Label” is where you get to be creative – name this shortcut as “My Honey”, “My Baby” or ”Sexy Mama” if you like.)

Shortcut Feature Limitation:

The file-sharing through CinemaTube follows SMB/CIFS protocol – most of the time. The limitations are listed in the following:

• Loss of Shortcut: In a DHCP environment, if the destination IP address changes to a different IP address from the original shortcut setup, you “lose” the functionality of the shortcut. You can try using WINS (Windows Internet Name Service) to convert Windows computer names to IP addresses, or try using DNS (Domain Name System) service to translate domains/hostnames to IP addresses. As an alternative you may also setup a static IP Address for the computer to ensure that the shortcut will work properly.
• No “virtual disk” support:  you will not be able to set shortcuts to “D:” or “E:”.

Therefore, if the IP address of the destination PC changes very often, or if the destination PC is on the same network, you don’t necessarily have to create a shortcut for it. If the PC is on a different network, then you’ll have to create a shortcut for that PC in order for the CinemaTube to retrieve media files from it. Otherwise, that PC will not show up on the menu under “PC Media”.

Locating the IP Address of the Destination PC

1. Display command window by going to Start –> Run –> cmd

(under Vista, go to Start and then type in “cmd” in the bar along the bottom)

1. Type “ipconfig”
2. The IP address should be displayed then. It’s sometimes showned as IPv4 Address in the DOS window.

Before using the CinemaTube to connect to that IP address, please try using the CinemaTube to connect to a remote PC on the same network in order to make sure the network connection has been properly established.

Whew! That was very “easy” wasn’t it?

Having Issues Getting CinemaTube and Windows 7 to Work? Try This!

This was actually provided by Doctor Media on AVS Forum and is “safer” – thanks for the tip, Doctor! We tested it and it works great. Now we’re posting the steps below:

(1) Run “Local Security Policy” applet under “Administrative Tools”. If you don’t see administrative tools, enable it under the properties of the “Start” menu

(2) Under local policies –> User Rights Assignment

When you see “Deny access to the computer from the network”, REMOVE user “guest”.

(3) Under “Local Policies” –> User Rights Assignment, find “Access this computer from the network” –> add ‘EVERYONE’ and ‘ANONYMOUS LOGON’

(4) Under local policies –> Security Options –> find “Accounts: Limit local account use of blank passwords”. Change the setting to “disabled”.

(5) Under local policies –> Security Options –> Network Access: Shares that can be accessed anonymously –> type in the name of your shares

(6) Enable the guest account; set the guest password to blank

(7) Check the share permissions on your share and make sure it has EVERYONE “read”

(8) Check the file permissions on the files in your share and make sure it has EVERYONE “read”

That’s it! Let us know if this works, and these steps should apply to both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 7.

P.S. After all this is done, reboot Windows 7 and then CinemaTube (in the exact order); otherwise the cache would delay the file sharing up to 10-20 minutes.

P.P.S. In addition to playing media streamed from other shared media libraries within Windows Media Player, Windows 7 can now send media to be played on other Windows 7 PCs and DLNA-certified digital media renderers (including CinemaTube!). Microsoft have greatly improved the media sharing capability of Windows 7 especially through UPnP. Give it a try I’d say.