Netgear NTV550 Owner's Manual

NTV550 Ultimate HD Media Player

User Manual

350 East Plumeria Drive San Jose, CA 95134 USA

February 2011 202-10589-02 v1.0

NTV550 Ultimate HD Media Player User Manual

into any language in any form or by any means without the written permission of NETGEAR, Inc.

Technical Support

Thank you for choosing NETGEAR. To register your product, get the latest product updates, or get support online, visit us at http://support.netgear.com.

Phone (US & Canada only): 1-888-NETGEAR Phone (Other Countries): See http://support.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/984.

Trademarks

NETGEAR, the NETGEAR logo, ReadyNAS, ProSafe, Smart Wizard, Auto Uplink, X-RAID2, and NeoTV are trademarks or registered trademarks of NETGEAR, Inc. Microsoft, Windows, Windows NT, and Vista are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Other brand and product names are registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective holders.

DTS

Manufactured under license under US Patent numbers: 5,451,942; 5,956,674; 5,974,380; 5,978,762; 6,487,535 and other US and world patents issued and pending. DTS and the Symbol are registered trademarks, and DTS 2.0 + Digital OUT and the DTS logos are trademarks of DTS, Inc. Product includes software. Copyright DTS, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Dolby Digital

Dolby and the double-D symbol are trademarks of Dolby Laboratories. Manufactured under license from Dolby Laboratories.

Copy Protection Technology

This item incorporates copy protection technology that is protected by U.S. patents and other intellectual property rights of Rovi Corporation. Reverse engineering and disassembly are prohibited.

Statement of Conditions

To improve internal design, operational function, and/or reliability, NETGEAR reserves the right to make changes to the products described in this document without notice. NETGEAR does not assume any liability that may occur due to the use, or application of, the product(s) or circuit layout(s) described herein.

2 |

Chapter 1 Getting Started

Chapter 2 Browsing and Organizing Media

Front and Rear View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Cabling the Ultimate HD Media Player. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Tips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Attaching the Stand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Remote Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Navigating with the Remote Control. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

Popup Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

Using the Onscreen Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

Remote Control Buttons and Shortcuts in the Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

Media on Your Portable Media Player (USB Device). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

Protected Media Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

Browsing with Live Folder or the Media Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

Browsing the Media Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

Live Folder Browsing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16

Tips for Browsing and Searching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16

Browse Folders. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

Cover Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18

Finding Media on Your Network. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18

Parental Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

Chapter 3 Playing Media

Watching Videos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20

Popup Menus during Video Playback. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21

Video Media Bar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21

Video Aspect Ratio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22

TV Mode and Display Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22

Subtitles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23

Audio Track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23

Time Seek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24

Resuming Video Playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24

Listening to Music. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24

Music Media Bar and Playlists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25

Gapless Playback. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26

Viewing Photos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27

Adjusting the Photo Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28

Photo and Slideshow Media Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28

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NTV550 Ultimate HD Media Player User Manual

Photo Aspect Ratio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28

Slideshow Options Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28

Playing Internet Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29

Viewing YouTube Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29

RadioTime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30

RadioIO/Shoutcast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31

Internet News Channels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32

Internet Weather. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33

Using More than One Ultimate HD Media Player. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33

Chapter 4 Settings

Settings Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34

Setup Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35

Audio/Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36

Media Locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38

Media Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39

Parental Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39

User Interface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41

Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42

System Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43

Updating the Firmware. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44

Manage Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44

Advanced Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45

System Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46

Chapter 5 Using Your PC with the NTV550

Controlling the Ultimate HD Media Player from a Windows PC. . . . . . . . .47

Installing the Resource CD Software on a Windows PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48

Using the Configuration Wizard to Share Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49

Using the NeoTV Software on Your PC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51

Remote Control Your Ultimate HD Media Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52

EnablingWin7 File Sharing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52

File Sharing with Win7 Password Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52

File Sharing without Win7 Password Protection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54

Chapter 6 Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57

Changing TV Mode, No Picture on the TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58

Power Off and Standby Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58

Firewall Port Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58

Accessing Your Digital Media. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59

Windows System Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59

Macintosh OSX. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59

Linux. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59

Media Does Not Play (Windows XP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60

Video Display is Jittery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60

4 | Contents

NTV550 Ultimate HD Media Player User Manual

Unable to Play Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60

Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61

Network Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62

Ethernet Cabling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62

Troubleshooting a Wireless Network Connection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62

IP Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63

Connecting to a Server. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63

Using Ping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63

Recovering the NTV550 If It Does Not Start. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64

Appendix A Supplementary Information

Supported Digital Media File Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65

Restoring Factory Default Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .66

Technical Specifications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .66

Appendix B Notification of Compliance Index

Contents | 5

1. Getting Started

Bring all your digital media to your TV. Play movies, music, and photo collections from PCs, Macs, and storage devices on your home network. The NTV550 Ultimate HD Media Player also provides easy access to files stored on your USB drives and SD cards.

• Play your digital movies in full high-definition 1080p and stunning Dolby Digital, or DTS

surround sound.

• The NTV550 Ultimate HD Media Player automatically scans your networked and local

devices, and organizes your movies, music, and photos.

• Or you can use live browsing for easy and fast access to your media collection.

• The NTV550 Ultimate HD Media Player is compatible with a wide range of media file

formats.

• The remote control has shortcuts for quick selection and ease of use. For instance, you

can directly access your networked and local devices, use on-the-fly language selection, and display and customize subtitles.

For more information on the topics covered in this manual, visit the Support website at

http://support.netgear.com.

Chapter 1. Getting Started | 6

NTV550 Ultimate HD Media Player User Manual

Front and Rear View

The Ultimate HD Media Player works with most televisions and a wide variety of audio equipment. Not all compatible cables are included in the package. The following figure shows front and rear views of the Ultimate HD Media Player:

On/Off switch

USB

Component AV/Out HDMI S/PDIF Ethernet Reset

Figure 1. Front View and Rear View

SD Card

Power

eSATA

The following list describes the items shown in the previous figure.

• USB (2). Access your media from USB mass storage devices such as hard drives, media

players (including Windows- or Mac-formatted Apple iPods), and flash memory devices.

• SD Card slot. Insert your SD card to access media stored on it.

• On/Off button. Turn the Ultimate HD Media Player on and off.

• Component video. (Cable not included.) These ports support a component video

connection to a television.

• A/V Out. A/V cable, also called composite cable, is included. This is compatible with most

televisions in the United States.

• HDMI. (Cable not included.) If your television has a High-Definition Multimedia Interface

(HDMI) connector, you can use an HDMI cable for both the audio and video signal.

• S/PDIF optical. (Cable not included.)

• eSATA. Connect an external SATA device.

• Ethernet. Use this port to cable the Ultimate HD Media Player to your home router to

access the Internet and media stored on computers on your network. An Ethernet cable is included.

• Reset. Reset the Ultimate HD Media Player to its factory settings. To reset, press and

hold the button down while the unit is powering up.

• Power. Use only the power cord in the package.

Chapter 1. Getting Started | 7

NTV550 Ultimate HD Media Player User Manual

Cabling the Ultimate HD Media Player

The installation guide that came in the package explains how to install your product. Cabling for a typical installation with an Ethernet network connection is shown in the following figure.

AV output

HDMI cable (not included)

NTV550

Ethernet cable

Figure 2. Ethernet connection

To connect wirelessly to your home router, you need the NETGEAR Universal Wi-Fi Internet adapter WNCE2001 (sold separately). If you want to use a Powerline connection, you can use the NETGEAR Home Theater Internet Connection Kit XAVB1004 (sold separately).

Router

Tips

• The quality of the picture display is related to the video format you use. If your television

supports multiple formats, choose the format that provides the best picture quality. HDMI offers the best picture quality video. Component video provides the next best quality, followed by composite video.

• Optimize the television display as necessary.

- If the display is not sharp, or you do not see a picture, aim the NETGEAR remote

control at the Ultimate HD Media Player, and press the TV Mode button. Then cycle through the TV modes to get the best display.

- It can take 5 to 10 seconds for each TV mode change. In some modes you might not

see a picture on the TV. If you do not see a picture after four mode changes, check the cable connections, and verify that the TV is on and set to the correct input.

- You might be able to enhance the picture quality by selecting from additional

high-definition video modes in the advanced settings.

- Use the TV Mode button to cycle between PAL (50 Hz, European) and NTSC (60 Hz,

United States) display modes.

8 | Chapter 1. Getting Started

NTV550 Ultimate HD Media Player User Manual

Attaching the Stand

If you want to place the HD media player in a vertical position, use the stand included in the package.

1. Orient your HD media player vertically.

2. Insert the tabs of the stand into the slots on the bottom of your H

D media player as shown.

3. Place your HD media player in a suitable area for installation (near an AC power outlet and

accessible to the Ethernet cables for your wired computers).

4. To remove the stand, grasp it firmly and disconnect it from the H

D media player.

Chapter 1. Getting Started | 9

NTV550 Ultimate HD Media Player User Manual

Remote Control

Use the remote control to operate your NTV550 Ultimate HD Media Player.

Figure 3. Remote control

10 | Chapter 1. Getting Started

NTV550 Ultimate HD Media Player User Manual

Table 1. Remote Control Buttons

Button Description Button Description

Power. Turn the device on and off. Popup menu. Display popup menus for media.

Show or hide the menu bar. Toggle between list browsing and cover browsing.

0–9 Caps Clear

Eject. Stops media playback and ejects the

media if played from an external attached drive.

TV Mode. From the main menu, go to the TV mode screen. While playing a video, use the TV Mode popup to temporarily change the mode.

Video. Display the Video menu. Mute. Mute the sound.

Music. Display the Music menu. Page up and down. This button can also scroll

Photo. Display the Photo menu. Reverse. Rewind to the start of the media that is

Web. Display the Internet media menu. Play/Pause. Play or pause media, or resume

Use 0–9 for alpha-numeric entry, searching, or to skip in a video (0% to 90%). Caps toggles Caps Lock or numbers on or off. Press Clear to to clear text from a text entry field.

Audio. When playing music, show/hide the music media bar. When playing videos, display the Audio options to select the audio track.

Volume. Increase or decrease volume.

Information. Display media information.

and zoom videos and photos.

playing. If playing music, enter fast seek mode.

normal play from fast forward. In a menu, play the selected item and queue the rest of the items in the order shown on the screen.

Fast-forward. Fast-forward the media that is playing. When playing music, enter fast seek mode.

Previous. Go back to the previous item playing. Within a menu, go to the first item in the list.

Subtitle. When playing a video, display Subtitle options. When browsing media, toggle the sort order.

Angle. Change the camera angle (if the media supports this feature).

Aspect. Change the aspect ratio on the TV. Repeat. Repeat a track or media selection.

Home. Display the main menu. Rotate. Rotate a photo.

Menu. Toggle full screen during video or photo

playback. During video playback, show options.

• OK. Select a menu item, song, or video.

• Arrows. Navigate, or enter fast seek mode

when watching a video.

Go back to the previous screen.

Stop. Stop the media that is currently playing.

Next. Skip to the next item on the playlist.

Within a menu, go to the last item in the list.

Time Seek. When playing a video, skip ahead by a set amount of time or to a chapter.

Source. Controls secondary audio/video (PIP commentary).

Chapter 1. Getting Started | 11

NTV550 Ultimate HD Media Player User Manual

Navigating with the Remote Control

To go to the main menu, press Home on the remote control. The following screen displays:

The main menu offers these selections:

• Video. Watch videos.

• Music. Listen to music.

• Photos. View photos.

• Browse folders. Look through your folders to locate the media that you want to view or

listen to.

• Internet media. Watch YouTube, listen to Internet Radio, view Flickr photos, watch RSS

videos, and access local weather and news.

• Streaming TV and Movies. This feature is coming soon.

• Settings. View or work with system functions.

These menu selections are described in the following chapters of this book.

Popup Menus

Popup displays are available only during media play.

• When playing videos you can use these features:

- Video Media bar. View elapsed time or a playlist.

- Time Seek. Go to a specific time or scene within a video.

- Audio. Select an audio track.

- Aspect. Change the aspect ratio only while watching the current video.

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NTV550 Ultimate HD Media Player User Manual

- TV Mode. Temporarily change the display mode while a video is playing. Use the

Appearance tab to change display appearance such as brightness.

- Subtitle. Select subtitle tracks and adjust the color, size, positioning, and timing of

subtitles.

• When listening to music you can display the Music media bar. You can use the media bar

to scroll down through queued-up tracks. You can jump to another track.

• When viewing photos, you can use the Photo media bar and Slideshow options to adjust

the display.

Using the Onscreen Keyboard

The onscreen keyboard is displayed when there is a field where you can type in information. You can change the keyboard language by using the available languages.

The onscreen keyboard includes all alphabetic and most punctuation and other symbols that are found on a regular keyboard. While the onscreen keyboard is visible you can use the following buttons on the remote control:

button to cycle through the

• Caps. Toggle between upper-case letters, lower-case letters, and symbols.

•

Menu. close the onscreen keyboard.

• 0–9. Enter letters and numbers. Press 2 to cycle between A, B, C, 2, and so on.

•

Back. Erase the last character entered.

• Clear. Erase all characters entered.

•

Next. Move the selector three keys to the right. Previous. Move the selector three keys to the left. Fast Forward. Move the selector to the rightmost key. Rewind. Move the selector to the leftmost key.

Remote Control Buttons and Shortcuts in the Menus

• Next. Within a menu list, go to the end of the list.

•

• Page Up and Page Down. Page up or down within a list of items.

•

• 0 - 9. Narrow selections in media browsing. For instance, press 2 to cycle through A, B,

•

Previous. Within a menu list, go to the beginning of the list.

Source. Navigate to Main Menu > Browse folders.

C, and 2 to narrow the selection. Repeat to further narrow the selection.

Information. Access Now Playing (from the main menu only). From Now Playing, press the left or right arrow key to view now playing information from other NTV550 or Digital Entertainer devices on the network. Press Popup Menu to access more options, including Follow Me, allowing media playback to be moved or copied to another NeoTV device.

Aspect. Start the screen saver manually.

Chapter 1. Getting Started | 13

2. Browsing and Organizing Media

The Ultimate HD Media Player can access media from CIFS (Windows file shares), Samba, NFS, and DLNA/UPNP. NFS (available on most NAS type devices) typically offers the best performance, followed by CIFS/SMB. Note that to access DVD media, or to play media with associated external subtitles, use NFS/CIFS/Samba, not DLNA/UPNP.

For information about supported media file formats, see Supported Digital Media File

Formats on page 65.

CAUTION:

Displaying static images can cause burn-in on certain displays. Do not display static images (such as menus, photos, or paused videos) onscreen for long periods of time.

Media on Your Portable Media Player (USB Device)

You can connect up to two USB flash drives or a media player such as an iPod to a USB port on the front or rear panel of the Ultimate HD Media Player. The Ultimate HD Media Player plays files stored in Windows (FAT, FAT32, NTFS), Macintosh, or Linux disk formats. It does not matter if you set up the media player on a PC or a Mac.

Note: Be sure to use USB 2.0 devices with your Ultimate HD Media

Player. The limited bandwidth of the older USB1.0 devices might interfere with the performance of your playback.

To play media:

1. Connect your USB product to the USB port on the front or rear of the Ultimate HD

Media Player. The Ultimate HD Media Player scans the media, and then the media files are available

for you to play.

2. Press Video, Music, or Photos on the remote control, and then select and play the media.

Chapter 2. Browsing and Organizing Media | 14

NTV550 Ultimate HD Media Player User Manual

Protected Media Files

You can play most media files that are protected by digital rights management (DRM) on an Ultimate HD Media Player by selecting the Enable UPnP media sharing check box in the Configuration Wizard.

Browsing with Live Folder or the Media Library

The Ultimate HD Media Player has two main ways of browsing media:

• Browse the NTV550 media library by category.

• Browse by folder.

Browsing the Media Library

For fastest browsing, add shared media on your network to the NTV550 media library. You can use the Configuration Wizard to do this, or select Settings > Media Locations > Scan. The Ultimate HD Media Player scans these locations for media files from sources on your network, whether they are on NAS devices, PCs, or attached storage, and aggregates the files into a library. Then you can browse by name, genre, artist, date, cover art, and so on.

To browse the NTV550 media library, use the Video, Music, and Photos menu selections to browse by categories. You do not need to think about where the media is actually located.

If you add new shared media on computers on your network, you can quickly add it to the NTV550 media library by selecting Settings > Media Locations > Scan. The Ultimate HD Media Player scans your selected media locations and updates the library. The library is also updated to reflect media that has been removed. You can continue to browse the media library and play media while scanning is ongoing.

Chapter 2. Browsing and Organizing Media | 15

NTV550 Ultimate HD Media Player User Manual

Live Folder Browsing

Live Folder Browsing is like using Windows File Manager to browse your network to find a file. When you browse by folder, you see new media on your network immediately. However, you cannot use categories. Instead of using categories, you locate the media by navigating the folders where it resides. Only the media locations that are also in your NTV550 media library are listed.

The main reason to use Live Folder Browsing is if you added a new media files to shared folders and don't want to take the time to do a scan before playing it (to add it to the media library). You can use Live Folder Browsing to go directly to the file and play it.

To use Live Folder Browsing:

1. Select Browse Folders from the main menu, or from the Video, Music, and Photos

menus.

2. To see all network folders, press the Popup Menu button, or edit your media locations to

view more network folders.

3. To edit media locations, go to Settings > Media locations > Select media locations.

4. Press Play on a folder to play all the media in the folder.

For example, pressing Play on a folder containing .jpg files starts a slideshow from the photos in the folder. If the folder contains one or more DVD files, then Play shows a menu listing the available files. From the folder, press OK to choose which DVD to play.

Tips for Browsing and Searching

You can browse by the type of media that you want (such as videos), or you can browse by folder. Here are some tips to help you quickly locate media files.

• You can combine categories to narrow your search. For example, you can browse by

genre and then by rating to get to R-rated action movies.

• Some audio or video files might be stored without information in some fields, such as

album or genre. If this is the case, these tracks are listed in a category called Unknown.

• You can enter letters contained in a title to quickly find a media file by name when

browsing. For example, enter EYE to find both Goldeneye and For your Eyes Only.

• When browsing on an iPod, note that iTunes uses an unusual file-naming convention to

store music files on the iPod. The Ultimate HD Media Player can display only the folder names as they are saved on the iPod. To find the files, use other criteria such as artist or genre.

• To enter letters, tap the number button to get the letters that you want. For example, tap 6

twice to change from M to N.

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NTV550 Ultimate HD Media Player User Manual

Browse Folders

Press Home and select Browse Folders, and the following screen displays:

Use this feature to locate media by location. You will see all kinds of media located within each folder. For instance, you can see your music files, and your videos.

Table 1. Remote Control Buttons While Browsing Media

Button Description

Toggle between list view and cover view.

Within cover view, toggle between a single row of covers (“gallery view”) and a 10x3 screen of covers (“poster view”).

0–9

Narrow the selected media (for example, press 2 to cycle A, B, C, 2). In cover view, what you type is visible in the Search box at the upper right. In list view, what you type is visible above the list of media.

Toggle between sorting alphabetically and by most recently accessed.

Show full screen details on the selected media, including metadata and MediaInfo details for video and music, and EXIF details for photos.

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NTV550 Ultimate HD Media Player User Manual

Cover Art

The Ultimate HD Media Player can associate cover art, descriptions, and other media metadata with videos. Spending a few minutes to tag your media results in a richer browsing experience. You can tag media using the NETGEAR Tag Tool, or you can use other software such as MyMovies. In general, tagging media means creating a .tag file with the same name as the media, and that contains the media metadata and cover art. If you want only cover art, you can add .jpg format covers to your videos by placing a .jpg file in the same folder as the video, and giving it the same name as the video. If you have multiple videos in a folder and you want them to use the same cover, add a file called folder.jpg in the folder.

When you browse media on the Ultimate HD Media Player, you can browse in list form or as cover art.

Note: For the best cover art browsing results, make sure the image cache

is set to a fixed, fast location (either on an attached USB / eSATA drive or SD card), or a fast network share. Set the Image Cache location in Settings > Audio/Video > Playback Options.

When browsing video in cover view, only videos that have cover art are shown with covers. Other videos are represented within the folders that contain them. You can add cover art at any time as described earlier. Highlight the video that you have added the cover to, and the new cover is loaded and cached.

When you are browsing music in cover view, one cover is shown for every album.

Finding Media on Your Network

If your media is on a Windows PC, it is sometimes not sufficient to simply share the folder containing the media. For best results or if you are having difficulty seeing your media from the Ultimate HD Media Player, you should run the NeoTV Configuration Wizard for Windows/Mac, which will locate your media on your PC and share the media folders so they are accessible by the Ultimate HD Media Player.

To test the speed of your network connection from the Ultimate HD Media Player to your media servers, use the Network Test option available in Settings > Network. Network Test shows the average throughput for each network share that you have selected in Media Locations. The most demanding media streams typically require at least 50 Mbps of network throughput.

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Parental Controls

The Ultimate HD Media Player supports a variety of parental controls. To activate parental controls, select Settings > Parental controls, and set the supervisor PIN. (For set up information, see

Once the PIN is set, the parental controls you can configure on this screen are active. Note that the PIN is also required for accessing the settings.

• You can restrict access to media in the NTV550 library by MPAA rating (G, PG, PG-13,

and so on). You can use the Tag Tool to set the rating. Set the age rating permission in Settings > Parental controls. Media that is disallowed by the age rating setting is not shown when you are browsing. Note that media that is not tagged carries the rating NR (not rated), which is the equivalent of the most restricted.

• You can restrict access to specific media share locations.

• You can restrict access to online media content.

When you are browsing media, if some media has been excluded due to parental controls, you will see a message Press <Eject> to browse all media. This allows you to enter the parental control PIN to access the media.

Parental Controls on page 39.)

Once the PIN has been entered, it unlocks restricted media for 1 hour.

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3. Playing Media

CAUTION:

Displaying static images can cause burn-in on certain displays. Do not display static images (such as menus, photos, or paused videos) onscreen for long periods of time.

Watching Videos

The Ultimate HD Media Player finds the video files on your computer’s hard disk, on other computers, on external hard drives, or on other storage devices on the network. Downloaded content from noncommercial sources might be of varying quality, and might not play back correctly.

To watch a video:

1. Aim the remote control at the HD media player, and either press

Home, and select Video. The following screen displays:

Chapter 3. Playing Media | 20

Video, or press

NTV550 Ultimate HD Media Player User Manual

2. Browse videos based on your preference.

• Recently added. View the most recently added videos and select the one you want.

• Recently watched. View recently watched videos and select the one you want.

• Folders. Browse folders to locate the video you want to watch.

• Categories. View videos by categories.

• All video(s). View a list of all videos.

3. Select the video that you want to watch.

• OK plays the selected video.

• Play plays the selected video, and then plays the rest of the videos in the order

shown on the screen.

4. When the video is playing you can use the remote control buttons to customize viewing:

• The Page Up and Page Down buttons zoom the video in or out. Press

twice to restore the original size.

• Press 0–9 to skip to 10% - 90% of the video by elapsed time. Pressing 0 restarts the

video from the beginning.

• To display information about the video, press the i button on the remote control.

• Popup menus are described in the following section.

Home

5. If you want to add videos to a playlist, press the

Angle button.

Popup Menus during Video Playback

While a video is playing you can use the remote control buttons to open popup menus.

Video Media Bar

You can use the media bar for fast seek within a video or to access a playlist. To display the media bar, press the media bar.

The media bar has two views, elapsed time and playlist. On the remote control, use the up and down arrows by the OK button to change between the elapsed time and playlist view.

• Elapsed time. When you press Popup Menu on the remote control, the elapsed

time view displays.

For fast seek mode, use the left and right arrows. The video is paused and you can move the cursor to the place you want to resume watching. Press the left or right arrow button again to go faster. Press

Popup Menu while you are watching a video. Press again to exit

Play to resume the video.

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• Playlist. You can use the media bar to navigate the play list. Press the down arrow by the

OK button to display the playlist. When the media bar is in playlist view, navigate between files in the playlist (the currently playing file is shown with a speaker icon). Press OK to resume playback at the selected item.

Video Aspect Ratio

To change the aspect ratio only while watching the current video, press Aspect. The Aspect Ratio popup menu displays:

TV Mode and Display Settings

You can use the TV Mode button to display the TV Mode popup menu:

Use care when changing the TV mode.

CAUTION:

Selecting the wrong TV mode can cause a loss of picture.

For you to go to the TV Mode popup, a video has to be playing in full screen mode (not picture-in-picture). You can change the TV mode setting or the appearance.

• TV Mode Setting. This advanced feature is especially useful for changing to a 50Hz

mode for smoothest playback of 25 fps (frames per second) video, to a 60 Hz mode for 30 fps video, or to 1080P24 mode for 24 fps video.

• Appearance. Change the display settings for brightness, contrast, hue, and saturation.

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