1. FEATURE AZBox ME Receiver Software
Revealing
the
Secrets
of
the
AZBox ME
Super Box
• easy integration in media network
at home
Part 2:
• receiver shows films, plays music
and displays images
• subtitles can be inserted for
Multimedia
movies
• playlists can be set up for music
84 TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine — 06-07-08/2012 — www.TELE-satellite.com www.TELE-satellite.com — 06-07-08/2012 — TELE-satellite International — 全球发行量最大的数字电视杂志 85

2. FEATURE AZBox ME Receiver Software
1 5
Multimedia with permission to access certain
directories and files on the
server.
only permits network access
through password-protected
accounts.
the AZBox ME
As you will see from our ex- Finally, the selected direc-
ample, the AZBox ME should tory (which in our case is the
be granted access to a certain directory with the name ‘Mul-
directory on our Windows7 timedia’) has to be flagged
Vitor Martins Augusto computer. We named that as a network share directory.
specific directory ‘Multime- Simply mark the directory
dia’ and created three subdi- and call up the context menu
rectories within the ‘Multime- with a right mouse click. Se-
We already found out that 2 dia’ directory, namely: 6
the AZBox ME thrills feed • ‘Video’ for video files
hunters and DXers thanks to • ‘Audio’ for audio files
its outstanding reception ca- • ‘Images’ for pictures
pabilities. Now we look at an- It is best to set up Win-
other aspect and explain how dows7 in a way that allows
this receiver pleases mul- manual configuration of net-
timedia enthusiasts just as work shares. This is the only
well. No matter what popular way to quickly determine
file format you throw at it, whether read, write and read/
the AZBox ME will happily ac- write permissions are to be
cept films, music and photos. granted for files within a net-
The easiest way to enjoy work share. We recommend
multimedia is to copy files to read-only permission for all
the internal hard disk of the types of media clients – this
AZBox ME using an FTP cli- way you can happily give the
ent. Nothing wrong with that, remote to your kids or techni-
but these days there’s often cally challenged members of
more than one TV in an av- your family without having to
erage home and wouldn’t fear your precious files might
it be nice to have access to inadvertently get deleted by
multimedia content from the your multimedia content. Any 3 the end of the day. lect the ‘Network share’ op- 7
living room, study, bedroom Windows or Linux PC may be Next, a user account has tion and specify a name such
or any other place you use used as server, or you can opt to be created for network as ‘multimedia’ for the share.
for watching TV? In addition, for a ready-made Network access. Depending on your If you have created more
it doesn’t always make sense Area Storage (NAS) product, personal requirements or than one account you can
to copy huge file loads to the preferably with Samba and preferences you may choose also define which accounts
internal disk of the receiver. NFS compatibility. to create either one general should be given access per-
There’s a convenient way No matter which option account for all media clients, mission to this specific net-
out: You can decide not to you prefer, both feature or an individual account for work share.
store multimedia files locally the Microsoft Windows Net- each specific client. Both op- Now it’s time to focus on
in the receiver or media play- work protocol that is recom- tions come with certain ad- the AZBox ME and set it up as
er itself, but rather create a mended for our setup. In vantages and drawbacks: a media client with access to
central server which hosts case Server Message Block • One account for all me- the network share. If all goes
(SMB) or Common Internet dia clients: You might like the according to plan the directo-
File System (CIFS) ring a bell 4 fact that you’re ready to go in ry of the Windows7 computer 8
with you, these are the two a flash since only one account will appear as a separate en-
more commonly used names has to be set up. Please note, try in the AZBox ME’s own file
for the Microsoft Windows however, that this means all system.
Network protocol. The Open clients have permission to Go to the ‘Setup’ menu
Source community has emu- access the same directories (image 1) and select the
lated this protocol and dis- and files. ‘System’ option, followed by
tributes it under the name • An individual account for the ‘Network’ option (image
Samba. For average users at each media client: This in- 2). In the network configu-
home this means that SMB, volves a little more work in ration menu choose ‘Mount-
CIFS and Samba are basi- the beginning, but you are Manager’ (image 3) in order
cally the same protocol and then able to make sure your to access the ‘Auto Mount
kids can only watch and lis- Manager’ (image 4). You
ten to content that is located need to create a new net- 1-8. Installation
will be supported by Windows access a central server and in a specific directory, for ex- work connection and to this
XP, Windows Vista and Win- obtain files for playback from ample. end you have to use the first as required (image 5): file system. You may want to
dows7. there. For that to work, how- No matter how you man- option which is called ‘Add • Local share name: Spec- use ‘mediaserver’ or ‘com-
Since the AZBox ME sup- ever, it is necessary to create age access to content, you new network mount point’. ify a name for the network puter’, for example.
ports this protocol as well it a network share on the serv- need to specify a password in Take your time now to en- directory – this is how it will • Mount Type: If the SMB/
can be used to conveniently er so that clients are given any case because Windows7 ter all information precisely appear in the media player’s CIFS/Samba protocol is used
86 TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine — 06-07-08/2012 — www.TELE-satellite.com www.TELE-satellite.com — 06-07-08/2012 — TELE-satellite International — 全球发行量最大的数字电视杂志 87

3. 9
(as in our case), select ‘CIFS low connections using 128bit
share’. encryption by default and
• Server IP: Enter the cor- this (as well as most other
rect IP address of the server issues) has to be addressed
here. You can find that ad- in Windows System Control.
dress in the server’s network We set up network shares for
configuration. A word of cau- our AZBox ME on a number of
tion: In case your server ob- different computers with var-
tains its IP address from the ying degrees of success. On
router via DHCP you should some machines everything
make sure the server is al- worked brilliantly right away,
10 ways assigned the same IP while on others we had to dig
address! into the network options.
• Server share: Enter the If you’re more of an in-
name of the network share, stant gratification type we
in our example it is ‘multime- recommend you use a PC
dia’. with Windows XP. This op-
• Use as HDD replacement: erating system comes with
If your AZBox ME is equipped much fewer security restric-
with an internal hard disk it tions and you’ll be able to set
is best to select ‘no’. If you it up as a content server for
choose ‘yes’ you may use the AZBox ME almost in an
your network connection as instant. Don’t blame Micro-
a kind of virtual hard disk for soft for increased protection
recordings. of its more recent operating
11 • Mount options: We have systems, though: It merely
already defined read/write reflects today’s demands in
permission when setting up terms of access protection
the network share on the and data security.
server, so it is best to leave As soon as you can see a
this option as ‘rw’. clear hard disk symbol on
• Username: Enter the your screen (image 9) you
name of the account that you know your network configu-
have set up on the server. ration has been successful
• Password: Enter the and your AZBox ME can be
password for the correspond- used as a media client.
ing account. From now on the AZBox ME
If you are then asked media center will automati-
whether or not to save that cally show a new directory
12 configuration you should of whose content is actually on
course confirm with ‘yes’, un- the server. Everything you
less you want to discard all move or copy into this direc-
settings you just made (im- tory – no matter whether it’s
age 6). files or new subdirectories
After a screen asking you with films, music or photos –
to wait for a few seconds (im- will be available on the AZBox
age 7) you should see a re- ME and can be played back
freshed list with all network on the TV.
directories. Please make sure You might ask yourself at
the hard disk icon to the left this stage where legal con-
does not have a red cross tent comes from? Quite sim-
(image 8), since this would ply, from www.archive.org.
indicate a problem with the On this portal you can find
13 network share. If you’re faced 100% legal content such
with such a situation we rec- as movies, music and even
ommend a thorough Google books whose copyright pro-
search for ‘windows7 samba tection has expired. Newer
problem’ which should pro- content is available as well,
vide valuable assistance. Un- provided free of charge from
fortunately, there are numer- some authors.
ous different causes for failed We use the portal on a
network access – in many regular basis to download
cases Windows7 will only al- all sorts of films and videos
that are compressed with dif-
9-10. Installation ferent codecs so that we can
11-13. Video find out in our test center
88 TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine — 06-07-08/2012 — www.TELE-satellite.com

4. 14 19 24
how receivers we review deal Let’s turn to audio now.
with different material. You can either choose to play
Our first task for the AZBox all audio files in the direc-
ME media player was the in- tory or create a playlist and
famous movie ‘Planet 9 from compile individual songs from
Outer Space’. Directed by the directory. In general, we
Edward Wood this film is re- always prefer a directory-
garded by many as the worst based mp3 organisation be-
of its kind ever. Interestingly cause this does not restrict
enough, it is that bad reputa- you to proprietary media
tion that has helped it gain so software. To put it short: No
much dubious fame. Our ver- complaints as far as audio is
15 sion was an mp4 file made up concerned. 20 25
of H264 – MPEG4 AVC video One piece of advice for us-
with a resolution of 640 x 480 ers: You should make a point
pixels and MPEG AAC audio of using the optical audio
with 48kHz stereo. output for maximum listen-
The AZBox ME seemed ing pleasure. After all, that’s
to be perfectly happy with exactly what it’s here for.
those technical specs and so And finally, one request to
we decided to while away for the manufacturer: It would
an hour or two and ‘enjoy’ be nice if playlists could be
what is judged the worst film saved and loaded again at a
in motion picture history. In later time.
case you care about our final To finish things off we
verdict: We’ve already seen looked at how images and
16 worse than that… photos that are stored on the 21 26
Next up was ‘Captain Kidd’ server can be shown with the
from the year 1954. The ver- AZBox ME media player. We
sion we downloaded came in expected a standard slide-
an AVI container consisting show but soon became all
of MPEG4 (XVID) video and the wiser: It’s possible to
MPEG3 audio. Once again, we create thumbnails of all pic-
could watch the film without tures which are freely scal-
any flaws or glitches. able in size, the background
We even discovered and colour can be changed and
downloaded a subtitle file file details can be displayed if
for ‘Captain Kidd’, which only desired. Thanks to the HDMI
needed to be saved with the output the sharpness of the
same file name as the movie pictures on screen is noth-
17 plus *.srt extension. When ing short of impressive and if 22 27
you watch the film the SUBT the AZBox ME is matched to
button on the remote will call a 1080i/p panel the outcome
up and/or cancel the subti- is high-definition in the most
tles on screen. We loved that literal sense.
size, appearance, positioning To sum up, the AZBox ME’s
and even colour of the sub- multimedia capabilities leave
titles can be customised ac- nothing to be desired and
cording to your preferences. even surpassed our high ex-
In case audio and subtitles pectations. Once again, we
are not in sync it is possible want to stress that this re-
to increase or decrease the view specifically focuses on
delay factor. the media player of the re-
It is unbelievably conveni- ceiver and how it can be set
18 ent to (legally) download a up to access files that are lo- 23 28
film to the PC, copy it into a cated on a server. All of the
directory and have it availa- above will of course work just
ble for all media clients within as nicely with content stored
the network. That’s exactly on an internal or external
how a media player should hard disk or an attached USB
work and it’s how the AZBox storage medium.
ME actually does work. Mis- As far as we are concerned,
sion completed. Period. we’ll quickly wrap up this re-
port and then head home
14-21. Video to set up our own media
22-24. Music network with an AZBox ME
25-28. Images hooked to every TV…
90 TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine — 06-07-08/2012 — www.TELE-satellite.com www.TELE-satellite.com — 06-07-08/2012 — TELE-satellite International — 全球发行量最大的数字电视杂志 91