Re: Tip - How to run MAC HFS+ on MED500X2 internal Hard Drive (max 2TB)

[Rico]

Hi,

I'm thinking of buying a med500x2 or the med450x2. The only difference I found so far, is the size of the Hard Drive, the 450 has 1 TB max, the med500x2 can have a 2 TB hard drive. I think I prefer the 450x2 because of the size of the player.

My question related to this topic: I will use my mac (OSX Lion) to download movies and stream them to the mede8er via wifi (or USB) to the hard drive. Will this trick also work for the 450x2?

[Maasbommel]

Streaming from a Mac should be no issue to a Med when you have setup networking properly.
As samba file sharing can be an issue on a Mac, most Mac users use Nfs for streaming.

[jer1956]

Google smb on lion.   lion will only network with smb2 samba devices, like itself. Linux is still smb1. Windows 7 is both out of the box.

[Rico]

Thank you. Follow up question: Will it still be possible for a Windows computer (vista/7) to stream from the mede8er when the disk is formatted to HFS+, so that my family (with a windows pc) can get the movies/pictures from the mede8er to their computer?

[jer1956]

You need a common smb protocol....and a common file system.  So you  would need "HFS+ for Windows".  Apple and Microsft don't mix well.  

The origonal tip is really for those who want to add an X2 to an Apple only network.  It's just daft to have both linux and OSX running NTFS emulators in that situation.

[Rico]

Was afraid of that, unfortunately...

Last question: Am I right that the only difference between the 450 and 500 is the size of the optional HD? (450 1 TB, the 500 2 TB) And of course the difference you see on the outside...But other than the size of the optional HD there is no difference between them on the "inside"?

[jer1956]

An 1185 board is small. So it hides in one corner of a 500x2 case..and takes up all  the space in a 450x2.  It uses the same firmware..becuase it's the same board.

The lower size limit is purely down to the max size of laptop drives.


You should download  the manuals for both the 450x2..and the pci-e..becuase you may prefer buying a bundle (450x2-drive-pci.e)  once you see how fiddly things get with a 450x2.

If you have no intention of using wi-fi...pci-e has issues..you can't turn it off!   

[jer1956]

I had a thought..you should be able to get at hfs+ hosted files via upnp..even on a PC.

[Rico]

You should download  the manuals for both the 450x2..and the pci-e..becuase you may prefer buying a bundle (450x2-drive-pci.e)  once you see how fiddly things get with a 450x2.

If you have no intention of using wi-fi...pci-e has issues..you can't turn it off!  

I was planning on buying the Wifi Dongle. Saw that installing pci-e was a bit hard. I know the speed will be lower, however I mostly download xvid movies (around 1/2 GB per movie). I figured/hope that the dongle will be fast enough for me to transfer my movies. I also will place the player in a closet (?) under the TV (I'm Dutch, don't know the good word for such a piece of furniture...), so i'm not sure if an antenna will work inside it.

I had a thought..you should be able to get at hfs+ hosted files via upnp..even on a PC.

After I get my mede8er tomorrow (probably) I'm going to figure out how this works

First i still need to decide if i'm going for the 500 or the 450  

Update: Going for the 450X2. Figured that 1 TB is enough for me, so then I rather have a smaller one as the specs are the same between the 450 and the 500

[Rico]

Just got my 450X2 this morning. To my surprise pci-e wifi was already build in (the store didn't mentioned this). So first big suprise. After installing new firmware and formatting the HD I connected to my router. It worked immediately.

Then the second suprise: I tried if I could see the mede8er on my mac in the network. I did (not even changed a setting). Then I tried to move a movie to the HD from my mac. It also worked! Then I tried with a different pc (windows 7) to get the movie from the mede8er to the PC. it also worked without problems.

So without changing any setting I can stream movies to the mede8er from my mac. And i can even stream the movies to a windows pc from the mede8er without problems!

Didn't know this was so simple (and even possible to use the HD with a mac and a windows pc). Great player!

[Maasbommel]

Good to see you are happy!

[jer1956]

Like all forums..it those with problems who tend to use them , and they are small compared to the number of users who find it works as simply as you have.  So it's good to  come to  forums  before you buy..but you have to always take that into consideration.  

We have had people who are frustrated and move to other products..and in the last case of that I checked the other make..and they had had 75 new problems posts on that day  alone.

So the grass isn't always greener....

 

[Rico]

Thank you for the answers   Although the installation was easier than I had expected, the answers yesterday were a great help in choosing this media player. I was certain that even if it wasn't this easy, this forum would help me out!

A product is more than the product, the support is also very important

[jer1956]

After your success..I went and googled the old lion SMB1 problem.  Origonally Lion used a licence free version of Microsft SMB2 alone..and lost SMB1 support. That has been replaced with new code produced from scratch called SMBX..which does support SMB1 as well, and so  will work with an X2.