There is a manual conversion process available. For more details on this check out this thread where I originally posted the flash demo.

(To download hit up the link in my signature area below.)

Once you've converted and loaded my .pcf file in the TSU3000 editor you'll need to remove all the small X-Files DVD cover images and X-Files Devices. It should then load up in the emulator successfully. To download the .pcf to your TSU3000 you may have to reduce the size of the file even further however, as the TSU3000 only has a 1/4 the memory that the TSU7000 has.

I revamped things a tiny bit with this .pcf file. My device page and nav pages have seen some slight changes. I've added my new Xbox to the mix as well. :-)

-Lowpro

LowPro

Thanks for the quick response. I will see if the method in the link you provided works forme.

Lowpro,
This is quite the amazing thread you have here. I have a couple of questions if you have a minute to share.

I am thinking of purchasing the Sony CX777ES, since the Kenwood 5900M will not play DVD-R's and I have many DVD-R home movies. But my first question is if you know if Sony will be coming out with a new player soon and should we wait at this point.

However my main question focuses on the use of the Fireball DVDM-100 vs the Pronto TSU7000 setup you describe, coupled with issues regarding your use of DVD Profiler. As you are aware, other apps such as DVD Lobby do a similar thing. First could you comment on your use of DVD Profiler compared to DVD Lobby? And, if possible, although expensive the DVDM-100 seems to provide a very attractive solution for on-screen DVD management. Do you think the Pronto solution is as effective?

Thanks ahead for our inputs.

"But my first question is if you know if Sony will be coming out with a new player soon and should we wait at this point."

As far as I know the Sony DVP-CX777ES is not being replaced anytime soon. While it has been available for quite some time now, it has not been out long at all to where we should expect something new on the horizon. The price for these units at most Internet sites and brick and mortar stores has not budged since they first came out. If we were reaching the next stage in DVD mega-changer evolution from Sony, I'm sure these units would have seen a price break or two by now.

"However my main question focuses on the use of the Fireball DVDM-100 vs the Pronto TSU7000 setup you describe, coupled with issues regarding your use of DVD Profiler. As you are aware, other apps such as DVD Lobby do a similar thing. First could you comment on your use of DVD Profiler compared to DVD Lobby?"

First I would differentiate between DVD Profiler and DVD Lobby. DVD Lobby is a solution more in line with the Fireball DVDM-100, where DVD Profiler is simply a DVD database program used to catalogue your DVD collection.

*Updated on 12/14/05*
Below I have noted some things that come to mind regarding all three options, DVD Lobby, Fireball DVDM-100, and the TSU7000. I have not used the Fireball product, but after reading the manual I learned quite a bit.

DVD Lobby:
1. Will import your DVD Profile which is nice, but there is a substantial learning curve to getting everything setup and working properly.
2. Requires a HTPC and enough available com ports. If you are not using a compatible changer with a com port you will have to go with a USB-UIRT solution or slink-e if your changers have s-link capability. That adds an additional expense in addition to the HTPC if you don't already have one.
3. While the interface does allow for submenu pages for DVD titles which contain more than one disc, this is a very laborious process which involves creating a whole new scene for each submenu page or set of submenu pages needed. I'd have to know the product inside and out before even thinking of taking this on.
4. The database used is sluggish at best which I found irritating. After taking DVD Lobby for another spin here recently I still find that the product is simply not suitable for larger collections like mine. It's way too slow. The tests I ran were on a AMD Athlon XP 3000+ with 1.5 GB RAM, and a GeForce 6600GT card running XP Pro SP2.
5. Interface navigation irrespective of the slow speed was obtuse and did not work well in general. Let's take browsing one's DVD collection by letter for example. Say you are at the beginning of your DVD collection on the DVD cover image view. Choosing the letter option one would think you could go directly to that letter, but maintain the DVD cover image view if you wanted. This can not be done. The interface changes to a list view instead. Even worse, once on your selected letter you can't change back to the DVD cover image view and remain on the same page. When changing back to the DVD cover image view you are taken back to the last page you were viewing DVD cover images on. In this case I was taken back to the beginning of my DVD collection. To make matters worse, articles are not moved to the end. As such, when going to the letter "T" all my movies which start with the word "the" were listed there. I even had the DVDLobby plugin configured under MLServer to use the Sort Title field from my DVD Profiler import. Seems to have no impact when viewing your collection by letter.
6. You can not browse your DVD collection while having something else cueue'd up on your main display and sound system, such as DIRECTV, another DVD movie, and so forth.
7. The overall cost and setup involved with implementing this solution seemed a little overboard for what I was looking to do while not even meeting my needs.
8. On a good note, DVD Lobby does allow you to play movies encoded to your hard drive in addition to movies from DVD changers.

Fireball DVDM-100:
1. Any music that is playing (mp3's streaming via ethernet to the Fireball) will stop when accessing the DVD navigation part of the interface.
2. Like with DVD Lobby, not only music, but anything else that may be que'd up at the time on your main display and sound system will be interrupted just to access the DVD interface.
3. You can not import a database like the one from DVD Profiler even if you have ensured that each collection ID in your DVD Profile directly corresponds with the DVD slot number that disc is in.

Fireball has to read the discs in each changer slot while connecting to an Internet database via its ethernet port to download each DVD's profile for lack of a better word. If the Internet database Fireball uses can not identify certain discs, you must manually enter that data via the supplied keyboard I am guessing.

Once this intial process is complete the unit will need to refresh its database each time you open and then close a given changer door. It then must check all previously empty slots in that changer for new titles you might have added, in addition to checking the slots which already contained discs for any changes there. The manual did not say, but I'd be very curious as to how long this process takes. The manual did state that for 3 Sony 400 disc changers it should take approximately 2 hours initially to read each disc and download the data to its internal database. You'd most certainly have various titles at that point however, which were not identified properly requiring manual updating.

4. No option for creating submenu pages for DVD titles which contain more than one disc.
5. The Fireball DVDM-100 does not come cheap. For the price I think it falls short. You are also restricted to DVD changers which have com ports. It's a narrow list at that. This rules out using other more inexpensive changers like the Sony DVP-CX985V for instance.
6. Only 4 com ports are available with this unit. There is no room for adding additional devices down the road. While many may not find the need for hooking up more than 4 devices, for the price it should support more in my opinion.

Please keep in mind that I have never used the Fireball DVDM-100, so these are just things I've gathered after reading the manual and various forums. I don't want to give the impression that both the Fireball DVDM-100 and DVD Lobby are not worth your time. Many people may find them to be the perfect solution for DVD automation / navigation. For my tastes they simply don't get the job done. That brings me to the TSU7000. The all-in-one solution for your home theatre and DVD automation needs.

TSU7000:
1. Does not require any additional equipment be integrated into your setup for DVD automation other than the DVD changers themselves of course. You also have the freedom to buy any DVD changers you choose. They do not need to support s-link or com port.
2. Can be purchased for much less than the Fireball or DVDLobby (the software itself and required hardware), yet without all the limitations I've outlined above.
3. While setup is a manual one it takes very little time to add new titles to your configuration file and then download to the remote. This is after your initial configuration file is created.

It does take a basic knowledge of desktop computing and photoshop or similar graphics programs. You will also need to keep track of the exact order you place the discs in your changers. Using a program like DVD Profiler can help make the process much smoother. DVD Profiler can provide other benefits as well. I will often use DVD Profiler to browse my collection first if I want more detail than just the cover images. You can also do searches by any number of criteria as well. I then simply browse to the DVD cover in my remote and cueue it up.

4. Is an all-in-one solution with the ability to control and automate your entire home theatre system and DVD collection.
5. You have the freedom to customize the interface with regards to graphics, layout, and functionality.
6. This being said I quite enjoying being able to just pick the remote up and browse my DVD collection while not having to interrupt what might be cueue'd up with my home theatre system at that moment.
7. Browsing your DVD collection is quite fast as there is no database which needs to be accessed which would slow things down. My current TSU7000 configuration file allows you to browse your collection by 24 seperate genre/categories A-Z. The DVD cover image pages consist of 9 DVD covers per page sized at 72x100 for easy readability on the 240x320 screen. When tapping on a DVD cover image my entire system cueue's everything up very quickly. To date I have had flawless macro execution.
8. The only real downside for people with larger collections right now (over 1,200 discs) is the limited 32 megs of available memory in the remote. I just passed the 1,200 mark recently and while I will have enough room in the remote for another 400 DVD cover images I won't be able to do as much with the remote going forward if I expect my memory to hold out. In fact, I have already started to save on memory where I can by removing some of my more elaborate DVD submenu pages and replacing them with simpler pages. Phillips has released the TSU7500 which sports an additional 16 megs of memory though. That's just what I need.

"Do you think the Pronto solution is as effective?"

For me the Pronto solution is the most effective among the three choices hands down, the other two being DVD Lobby and the Fireball DVDM-100. I was drawn myself to the attractive clean looking interfaces found with DVD Lobby and the Fireball. When it came down to it however, I did not want to use my primary display screen to browse my DVD collection. I also did not want to invest in a monitor accessory or tablet pc just to get around this. In addition, I wanted control over the functionlity of the interface, design, layout, graphics used and so forth. While the TSU7000 does not offer a large surface area, I found it is not really needed to do what I want. All this and the remote does double duty controlling the rest of my home theatre system as well. It does not get any simpler than that. The most important thing is that is works and works flawlessly. They way I see it, if you are going to spend a good chunk of change on a remote like the TSU7000, you might as well put the thing to work. I most definately think I have accomplished that. :-)

-Lowpro

Lowpro,
This is quite the post! Very informative.

I also downloaded your .pcf, which is also very interesting.

I can see why do would not need the more expensive options. I think I will try your solution.

One moe question: Why do you use so many B&W pages for your deck and alphabet pages? I would think color pages would be more appropriate on the TSU7000? Is it the 32 MB issue?

I also like your solution to the multiple disc problem, i.e. 2 disc sets need to entryies in DVD Profile. I am not that impressed with the browser window of DVD Profile, and that you are unable to upload a particular skin, but that is merely cosmetic. I do not think they plan an alternative in the upcoming release.

Thank you again for your guidance, it was most helpful.
Ti

You are welcome Ti. :-)

"One moe question: Why do you use so many B&W pages for your deck and alphabet pages? I would think color pages would be more appropriate on the TSU7000? Is it the 32 MB issue?"

The main reason I have not used color in my navigation pages up to this point is to save on memory. Once the full 32 megs is available I will be able to go with a full color .pcf if I so choose. I must say though, I am very attached to Daniel Tonks graphics and layout design. I was able to easily custom tailor it to my own needs and the color that is in my .pcf file jumps out in a way I think with the whole .pcf not being in color. For now I am just going to save what little memory I have left for DVD pic related items. I want to create themed submenu pages as well for all the DVD titles in my collection which contain more than one disc. That 32 megs will be just what the doctor ordered. :-)

DVD Profiler could be better I some ways Ti, I agree, but I have been happy with what it can do for the most part. I only need the details for any given title with the first collection ID. With the actual program at home here those redundant entires do have the DVD cover images as well. I copy and paste them within the interface. The actual program is much better than the web view, but they host your DVD Profile to be viewed by anyone on the web for free. You can't complain there. I have had my DVD Profiler since it first came out. There were no other programs such as this at the time, at least that I knew of. For $20 it was a no brainer. My DVD Profile on the web does have the collection ID's reordered by title. I did this so that people do not have to reorder my profile when it comes up to view things in order by title. The collection ID's in my DVD Profiler application are in the actual order they are loaded in my changers.

My updating process for new titles is below if you were curious. I don't remember whether I've described the process in this thread or not, so here goes.

I buy a new DVD title, add it to my DVD Profile, copy the front DVD cover image from the DVD Profiler interface and paste it into Photoshop as a new file, save the image without reducing its size named by collection ID to a "Master DVD Cover Images" folder, reduce it to the size needed for import into PPENG, and then save to my "PPENG DVD Cover Images" folder. I have an action setup for this in Photoshop, so all I have to do is hit this play button and the image is resized, and saved as a .bmp to the directory I need it to go into for later import. At this point my .pcf has already loaded in PPENG. Using my "DVD Cover Moves Background" image available in my .pcf, I am able to quickly jog the appropriate DVD cover images down keeping accurate placement in order to make room for the new DVD cover image. I add a button to that page, link it to the proper macro, import the DVD cover image, align the button placement, delete the temporary background image, save the file, and download to the remote. Of course the DVD disc itself goes into the changer in the next available slot. Additional tid bit here ... all 1200 macros for loading the slots in all 3 changers are already in my .pcf file. Each macro not only loads the DVD from the proper changer slot, but also cues up the rest of my home theatre system, and lastly jumps to the transport control page for the proper DVD changer.

It sounds like a lot of steps, but takes no time at all. I will open my .pcf file and walk away till it finally loads, then sit down and go through this process described above which takes only a couple of minutes. It's really a cakewalk.

-Lowpro

This message was edited by Lowpro on 09/09/04 22:46 ET.

It seems that reorganization of the ordering of the DVDs is a problem. When you get a DVD and you wish to place it in a specific spot, you have to unload all of the DVDs, put the new one in, reorder the collection ID in DVD Profile, and start dealing with PPENG. Open the application, and move all of the DVD icons around manually.

Unless you put your new ones at the end.

There is no reorganization of the DVD discs themselves. Once you initially load your changers, from that point forward you just stick each new DVD in the next available changer slot. You add that DVD title to your DVD profile. The collection ID DVD profiler gives that new title corresponds with the changer slot you just placed the DVD in. Yes, in PPENG you have to jog a letter's worth of DVD covers down to make room for a new one, but then you add the new cover, link it to the macro for the changer slot you stuck the DVD in, save, download to remote, and you're done. You are not reordering the DVD's in your changers.

I will upload my DVD profile with the collection ID's showing in the order I have my changers loaded. As you will see, starting at collection ID 886 I have just been putting the new DVD's I buy in the next available changer slot. The system works very well. Link to my DVD Profile is below. Check it out.

LP's DVD Profile:
[Link: invelos.com]

-Lowpro

I ordered my CX777ES today.

Its to bad you can't set up a relational database in PPENG for the 7000 for the DVD image icons. You have them sorted by alphabet, roughly. Within each letter is there additional sorting? Probably not after your initial collection ID. Unless you specifically jog first in DVD Profiler and reorder accordingly within each letter. You are right that you only have to organize a particular letter's worth of icons.

It would be nice to be able to sort by other parameters, like Rating, DVD date, and others.

I downloaded a demo copy of DVD Lobby 3.0 with Main Lobby and it does have a relational database built in, but it doesn't work very well. I am not that impressed with it. The sorting doesn't really work that well, at least the GUI doesn't seem to perform correctly. For example you have to scroll up and down to get the sorted version. So this solution is not that appealing anyway, agreeing with your previous post regarding DVD Lobby.

It seems that the 7000 should have more intelligence like this. Perhaps just dreaming. But it does have a processor internally and this could be implemented.

Well I use the DVD Profiler database application to view my collection by any number of criteria. That takes care of that front. As long as I can access the DVD covers in my TSU7000 by letter that is all I need. My temporary background image does make it easy enough to jog DVD covers down accurately to make room in the right place for a new DVD cover. I enjoy updating my .pcf file, so I don't mind that there is not an automated way to do this. The nice thing I like about using the TSU7000 is that I have total control. It will only get better when I have that 16 additional megs of memory. I enjoy working with and creating graphic elements, so I can't wait to have more memory available.

-Lowpro

I was in the mood to add another set of DVD submenus to my .pcf file this evening. These are of the 16:9 variety like my X-Files submenus. They are just screen captures of the main menu for each disc, but they turned out nice. If you have BOB on DVD these might come in handy with your Pronto. Help youself. :-)

Band of Brothers PPENG Screenshot:


-Lowpro

Lowpro,
I am getting low on memory, down to 30% and running low fast. (used up 20% today for 4 megachanger submenus, and I need 50 - 8 DVDs per page). Any word on the upgrade by Phillips to 32 MB, anyone???
Phillips could you please let us know when?????
Thanks,
Ti

Phillips is supposed to make some Pronto related announcements this week at CEDIA. Perhaps we will know something this week.

*Update on 09/09 :-)*
I spent a couple hours over the past two days and optimized the file sizes of the .bmp's I use in my .pcf file. I was able to reduce my current .pcf file down from 17.5 megs to 9.48 megs. Now I don't have to hack it down to download it to the remote. I even added a dozen or so additional DVD submenu pics not already part of my .pcf file and still have 5% of the memory left. I went ahead and updated all the download links for my .pcf file in this thread if anyone was interested in a fresh copy.

(To download hit up the link in my signature area below.)

-Lowpro

Lowpro,

great information that you have provided through this thread. Thanks

For Sony Changer, I was hesitating between the DVDM-100, DVDLobby and Pronto, and thanks to your information, I am sure I can rely on the Pronto.

For all your setting, do you use SuperNudeList, and oif not, what would this software provide compared to your settings?

thanks
Qx

"For all your setting, do you use SuperNudeList, and oif not, what would this software provide compared to your settings?"

I do not use SuperNudeList. I only wanted to be able to browse and que up my DVD collection by DVD cover image. This simply requires one to keep an accurate inventory of their DVD collection which I have with DVD Profiler, load the changers accordingly, and work up the .pcf file with the editor. No additional software is needed. While setup is a manual process, once the initial work is done, updating things as you buy new DVD titles is a breeze. As far as I know, SuperNudeList does not provide for DVD selection by DVD cover image. It is a text based selection type interface. I was not interested in this. If I am wrong about this I am sure people will jump right into the mix and correct me. :-) Hopefully I got that right.

-Lowpro