First impressions.

peteru · Post by **peteru** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 21:33

I don't have much time, so here's a quick dump of my thoughts/impressions for those of you who have been asking...

Impressed by the hardware, packaging and bundled accessories. Just enough to get you going in a few minutes. I liked the reasonable length of the included cables - just long enough to fit neatly into an existing system without having to find room to hide excess cable at the back of my setup.
There is still a very bright blue light on the front - seems to be the Beyonwiz thing to do. In this case it's only the size of a pinhead and can easily be covered by a tiny sticker, if it bothers you.
Only one button on the whole case - a concealed emergency reset button in the bottom of the case.
Included printed manual is very basic. If you are new to Android, like me, it may take a little while to figure things out.
The remote is very responsive and a huge step up from the previous remotes supplied by Beyonwiz, but the pointing device (finger simulator) doesn't quite work for your typical Android UI. A touch sensitive pad would have been a much better choice.
Making it wireless (by plugging in an 802.11n USB dongle) was simple and worked well enough for me.
I'm told that it should be possible to plug in alternative HID controllers in the USB port. I tried my Logitech wireless mouse+keyboard combo, but it did not seem to work.
You don't have to have a SATA drive installed. Plugging in an 8GB USB flash drive works just fine.
Once I plugged in the USB storage, I could then install apps and perform firmware upgrades - neither of these are possible without a storage device.
First boot is a bit slow as the device configures itself - there probably should be a leaflet in the box that says be patient. I can see how some impatient users will assume that it's not working. Subsequent boots are much quicker, but by no means instant-ON.
The firmware still needs work, especially the media player part. I suspect that it will take a few more updates to get it polished. The good news is that updates are coming - I installed two in the last week.
It looks like the firmware can read and write to FAT32, NTFS and Linux EXT3 formatted disks, so moving data about should be a breeze.
Works well enough with my NFS server to access media on the network, although I have not quite figured out the security model there.
It can also connect to CIFS (Windows/Samba) shares. I've done close to no testing of that, since NFS is my preferred choice for sharing files.
Current firmware does not play back Beyonwiz PVR recordings in their native format, but it will do TS files. It also doesn't have a WizPnP client, so you can't stream from a Beyonwiz PVR. These things may come with future firmware upgrades or may even be possible to implement by third party developers.
I am setting up an Android development system and will see what it takes to develop software for WizOTT.
Yes! I have taken it apart and checked out the hardware. Seems hackable enough. I think I've already figured out at least two possible hardware mods for it.

mishmash · Post by **mishmash** » Fri Apr 22, 2011 09:56

Nice wrap, Peter. Thanks.

I was particularly interested to see if it could play native Wiz files...and given the open nature of Android I suspect that it wont be long before Wiz or one of our more adept members (such as yourself) produces an app to do it.

The problem I have now (and maybe others do too) is do I get one of these to bolster the multimedia deficiencies in the Wiz, or wait until Wiz finally fess-up and announce the new models which will give us the whole lot in one unit.

mishmash · Post by **mishmash** » Fri Apr 22, 2011 10:08

...and this is possibly a really stupid question born of ignorance....but if/when we do get Hulu, will the WizOTT be able to record and thus become another PVR of sorts?
Tell me I'm dreaming!

diesel · Post by **diesel** » Sun May 22, 2011 09:16

I'm still waiting for their new PVR models to be announced. I want to upgrade to a more capable unit, not substitute it with something else ATM...

C'mon beyonwiz, let's get the new hardware announced

barrel · Post by **barrel** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 10:14

Was just about to get teh credit card out and buy one until I read that it can't steam from another Beyonwiz device. What makes this any different to to say a WD Live. If they sort this out then I'll have one tomorrow.

Do you know if I was to install a hard disk into the device and store video on it, can other computers on the network read the hard drive as a network location? In other words, would my DP-S1 be able to play the files in the same way it plays files from my laptop? If it can do this then perhaps it still has some value to me.

peteru · Post by **peteru** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 10:28

As far as I can tell, WizOTT with the factory supplied software will not provide NAS functionality and export the HDD. You would need something like Samba installed on it.

barrel · Post by **barrel** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 11:50

peteru wrote: You would need something like Samba installed on it.

Have you tried this? Can it be done easily? I'm a bit of a novice when it comes to this kind of thing. If I can find a website and press install, then I'm good to go, but if I need to code anything then I'm lost.

peteru · Post by **peteru** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 12:00

barrel wrote:
peteru wrote: You would need something like Samba installed on it.
Have you tried this?

No.

Can it be done easily?

I don't think so.

If I can find a website and press install, then I'm good to go, but if I need to code anything then I'm lost.

I think you'd be out of luck.

It would be nice if Beyonwiz pre-installed either a WizPnP server or a Samba server, but given that they don't even have a WizPnP client, I would not hold my breath for the feature to arrive any time soon.

barrel · Post by **barrel** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 12:32

Grumble Grumble.

Luke · Post by **Luke** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 13:47

Disclaimer: No, I haven't done this and have no idea if it's easy or not...
https://market.android.com/details?id=c ... resh.samba
http://www.xda-developers.com/android/s ... r-android/

peteru · Post by **peteru** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 13:58

WizOTT can't use the Android Market. I'm not sure if it is a bug or if the device does not comply with Google's set of requirements, but either way, Android Market is not an option. Even if it was, there are many apps that use native code and those would not work, because WizOTT is MIPS based, unlike most other Android devices (and existing Beyonwiz PVRs) that run ARM.

Luke · Post by **Luke** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 14:35

Ahhh, good to know, thanks.

j s · Post by **j s** » Wed Jun 15, 2011 16:31

peteru wrote: [*]Current firmware does not play back Beyonwiz PVR recordings in their native format, but it will do TS files. It also doesn't have a WizPnP client, so you can't stream from a Beyonwiz PVR. These things may come with future firmware upgrades or may even be possible to implement by third party developers.

[*]I am setting up an Android development system and will see what it takes to develop software for WizOTT. [/list]

Looking forward to seeing a wizPnP client in the App Market. I have an Android Froyo) IPTV device (from Kogan) and also a Samsung Tab (Honeycomb) and HTC phone (Gingerbread) that would make good use of such an App.