Problems with Blade 7000s

[wayre13]

Hi everybody, I'm new to this forum and was just wondering if anyone else has this problem with their Blade BM7000s. I cant seem to play MP4 files (1080p, x264) off my USB drive (FAT32). It says "buffering" when I select the file then straight away goes back to the file list.

Also I can stream the MP4 files to my Blade box from my PC using Blade Stream but then after 20 minutes the sound goes off! I'd really appreciate it if anyone can help me with this, I spent ?150 on this box and I can't even get it to play MP4 files!

[digicon]

Might be of a little help if you could tell us the current firmware your box is running, I am sure one of the regulars who has owned had one such as ramjet or Happy Highlander will be able to give you some advice

[ramjet]

frankly it makes no difference if you spent ?5 on it or ?5000 on it as its a satellite box and not a media player

these sat boxes tend to have some media player functionality but its usually down to the container used and the type of files within it, which is why on a pc or laptop you have to update codecs (coder/decoder) in order to play the various files. even within each file group the internal files can be different structures within the container and so the box may only manage to play certain types, not necessarily the types you have downloaded or converted

so on a pc type of box like a vu the plugins can be installed or updated and so stand a better chance of playing the files presented to them, like mediaplayer on a vu. some boxes like the dreambox will play some file types and not others, the spiderbox can play a certain type of divx container but there are others it wont play

as for the blade, I used to use one and found it was more forgiving than a spider in what it played, especially divx container files

looking in the blade manual no mention is made anywhere of its video file playback capabilities, only mp3 and jpegs

looking on their BLADEMEDIA site it doesnt even mention mp4, just xvid and mkv

How do I play MKV & Xvid files ?

Press the F1 Key or the PLAY key on the remote control. This will bring up the list of all the playable files on your storage device. Then simply select the file by highlighing it and pressing OK to start the video.

so a media player it is not, its not a media player with added satellite facilities, its a satellite box with some media playback capabilities, it should not be bought on media playback requirements alone, no satellite box should be bought on that basis either, their primary function is for satellite, anything else is a bonus

what needs to be done here is try various types of mp4 containers, find any that work and then find out what types of video and audio are contained within it, then make sure all your others match the same things, this is what must be done with spiderbox files so I see no difference with using a blade

[tony_i]

As a media player, the Blade's more trouble than it's worth. It's pretty useless.
You might want to consider investing in a wdtv live or something similar.

[ramjet]

just tested a blade BM7000s with the latest Jan 14 2013 firmware and mp4 worked ok for me

also tested flv - mkv - xvid - mpg - mp4 ---- all played ok

[happy_highlander]

I have to agree with ramjet that to buy a closed source satellite receiver to use as a media player is always going to cause trouble. I would also hazard a guess that you will be driving the processor in the box fairly hard for quite a while at a time if it is trying to transcode video and audio. I personally gave up with the tm5402 as a media player. You can pick up a 1080p media player for less than 20 quid nowadays so why drive your much more expensive satellite receiver into the ground.

[Marmite123]

I too have been having trouble playing MP4's like you say the sound stops after 20 mins, however it will play AVI's MKV's and DIVX files all the way through. All the MP4's have now been converted to MKV files and they all play fine. If you are going to convert MP4's it is a pretty lengthy process, it might be easier to re download the files instead of converting them.

But overall i'm pretty happy with the Blade and the infrequent use it gets as a media player in my house.

Hope the info helps ?

[Marmite123]

This may also help ? pay attention to page 13,

http://bladesupport.webs.com/Documents/Blade%207000%20The%20Essential%20Guide_P1_03Mar_2011_no9991.pdf

[wayre13]

just tested a blade BM7000s with the latest Jan 14 2013 firmware and mp4 worked ok for me

also tested flv - mkv - xvid - mpg - mp4 ---- all played ok

Just out of curiosity, did you play these files off a USB or stream them off Blade Stream?

[wayre13]

Thanks for all the replies and the help, I found it really useful! I bought the Blade for my dad and was hoping it would do satellite AND play most movie formats so he could have everything on one box. At the moment we use the PS3 and swap back and forth to watch movies and TV so figured it may be nice for him to have everything on one box. Its a shame it doesn't play the MP4s as I've encoded 50+ movies to watch on my PS3. I suppose the fact that it plays MKVs is better though as I don't have to convert to MP4 anymore. As a satellite box its great, I got it as the EPG looked better than the other boxes and it was a lot cheaper than the Vu/Dreambox. The box is on the Jan 04 2013 firmware but still no luck with the MP4s. Its odd that it works when streaming (but only for 20 minutes) and not from my USB. I wonder if my external hard drive is a bit slow for streaming HD films onto the Blade.

Also I emailed the Blade customer support and they mentioned the dreaded Cinavia (which is another reason why I don't wanna use my PS3 anymore). That must be why it cuts the audio off at 20 minutes whilst streaming from my PC.

[ramjet]

Just out of curiosity, did you play these files off a USB or stream them off Blade Stream?

off a usb stick, and I didnt test for 20 minutes or more either

if you check the documentations they do not even list mp4 as a transport medium , but I know it plays short mp4 music files fine

maybe you should have bought a vu box as they tend to play anything, but all I can recommend is you use divx or mkv instead