Topic: Meda Bravo media server -=Pics Added=-

[larrysellers]

Anybody have the lowdown on these? I just got a screaming deal on a 160gb version and it really looks like a great player. I believe retail was around $5,000. Best of all, it plays flac!!!!!!! From what I understand, most use a pda with IR as a remote. Does anyone have experience using a PDA as a remote?

[Eigenklang]

yep, it sucks. Of course, the "remote" is free configurable, but I just hate the time-wasting handling of PDAs. ("wait, the remote has to boot... not to forget to switch on the IR port before getting the machine started"  ).

If that is no problem for you, just go and get a remote program for your PDA. It will do its job well.

[cheshirecat]

ATA hard drives???  that's pretty soft, but an otherwise cool product.

[pjdavep]

This was in the house a whole ten minutes before I cracked the case on it. It has a 3.5" 160gb Seagate which uses a modified version of XP to run their software. Even with the top off this thing is whisper quiet. It doesn't like 24bit flacs (yet) but it is a pci sound card, so I am going to try sticking an audiophile 24/96 in there. It has analog inputs in the back and they can be used to record pmc wav files. Other hard drives can be added (up to 4 more on 3 channels). This thing is pretty cool.

I wouldn't touch that soundcard - it looks like an ESI (aka Ego Systems) Juli@ or Maya44 and I'd say that's a better card than an audiophile 24/96.   
http://www.floridamusicco.com/proddetail~prod~juli.htm
http://www.floridamusicco.com/proddetail~prod~maya44.htm

If you can't play 24 bit FLACs, my guess is that it's a software problem.

Later,
  pjdavep

[larrysellers]

Thanks for the info. It looks just like the ones you liked but it has rca ins/outs on the exterior of the card and 1/4" on the inside. I am thinking a dvd drive can be put into the 5.25" bay and then my flac backups can be played right from there. The ata drives didn't really surprise me, being that this was manufactured 3 years ago and it makes upgrades cheap/easy. The unit itself was $54 but the shipping was like $40, so it was a great deal right out of the box. I will be upgrading the HD this weekend. I am just going to clone it using ghost and copy the partition over to the new drive. I also need to run some cat5 cable so I can get this networked.

This was in the house a whole ten minutes before I cracked the case on it. It has a 3.5" 160gb Seagate which uses a modified version of XP to run their software. Even with the top off this thing is whisper quiet. It doesn't like 24bit flacs (yet) but it is a pci sound card, so I am going to try sticking an audiophile 24/96 in there. It has analog inputs in the back and they can be used to record pmc wav files. Other hard drives can be added (up to 4 more on 3 channels). This thing is pretty cool.

I wouldn't touch that soundcard - it looks like an ESI (aka Ego Systems) Juli@ or Maya44 and I'd say that's a better card than an audiophile 24/96.   
http://www.floridamusicco.com/proddetail~prod~juli.htm
http://www.floridamusicco.com/proddetail~prod~maya44.htm

If you can't play 24 bit FLACs, my guess is that it's a software problem.

Later,
  pjdavep