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?
- Find “PC Media” and then choose “My Shortcuts”.
- Press the red “A” key on the remote control to add a shortcut.
- Type in Login ID and Password (if any), and/or specific file server IP. Press OK to save network settings.
- Alternatively, if you want to search for the computer by its net ID, please click on “Detail”.
- Type in the computer’s net ID and password to search for the remote computer you wish to connect to.
- 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:
- Lost of Shortcut: under DHCP environment, if the destination IP address changes to somewhere different from the original shortcut setup, you “lose” 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.
- 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
- 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)
- Type “ipconfig”
- 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? 
