Can I use any kind of external harddrive on the system?

[Futureline]

Hi, new member on the forum here.
I have bought the Philips MCI900 and will recieve it tomorrow,- but have one question regarding the harddrive:

If I understand this correctly, the harddrive comes with a set of programs installed (or for installation on pc/mac), and I wondered if it is possible to use any kind of portable harddrive or even a SSD-drive instead of the one that comes with the system?
I was thinking of making a mirrorimage of the drive and transfer it to another bigger one, so the question is,- is this possible?

I'm really looking forward to recieve this one, got it at a bargain for 300£ here in Norway,- where the normal price is about 900£.

Thanks.

[Nettle]

Good point.

Let's wait for the Philips reply.

Regards

[Futureline]

Yeah, I checked it out a bit more and it says in small prints in the manual that the max size you can use on this system is 160gb,- in other words the only thing that could make the system better/faster is to use a portable SSD-disk with about 128gb,- so that still needs answered.

I would wish for an update though, that pushes the limititation for the harddrives.

As they now have launched the firmware for Spotify, I hope they can upgrade it to accept WIMP someday too, allthough it's quite big in the nordic countries (norway, sweden and denmark and portugal under another brand-name), they expect it to launch
in Germany Ireland, Belgium, Netherlands and luxemburg in the near future.

[Tias]

Hi !

The restriction is actually (I'm quoting from the manual here) : "The Hard disk drive (HDD) can have a maximum capacity of 160 GB, or up to 40,000 media files".

I am running my MCi900 with a 500GB Seagate (ST9500325AS) disk without any problems.

So as long as you don't hit to 40k track limit, stay with one partition and don't need excessive power (then you may need an external power supply for your HDD) you'll be just fine.

Note: You do not have to copy the software that comes pre-installed on the HDD that comes with the MCi900 to another USB HDD to make it work with the MCi90.

Cheers !

[Futureline]

That's great,- thanks for the reply.

I have a spare ssd-drive here, so I guess I'll try it out quite quickly, I'll post back on how it works.

I recieved the system late last night, so I have been fiddeling around with it now for a few hours, and am very pleased with it so far, but ofcourse questions pop ut (that I really can't figure out), and one thing is that I have it hooked up to my tv,- but so far I'm not networking it with my pc,- so I wonder if its possible to "see" the songs and menu when you play songs from the harddrive?

You can see the tracks on the screen when you play a cd, but I can''t get it to work so it shows the info on my tv (wich is connected via HDMI) when I play from the harddrive,- that is really something I would like to be able to do.

[Tias]

Hi !

Your SSD should work just fine :-)

Unfortunately, there is really no connection between the DVD- and Music unit (except for basic stuff like power, buttons and remote control commands).
I would also like to have the functionality you mention plus the revers: It would be grate to preview a DVD on the small LCD screen of the MCi900 and set it up (select language, subtitles, chapter, skip the Pirate Copy warnings) before bringing it up to the HDMI-connected TV.
perhaps it will be possible in a future MCi-model... Or not (the MCi8080 works the same way as the MCi900).

Cheers !

[Futureline]

Hi again.
Sounds good that the SSD should work,- it's the small picky details that makes the difference, and I can easaly hear the harddrive when the system is turned off,- so I belive the ssd would eliminate that.

As far as I've seen thru the updates to this system, they have both modified and upgraded the functionality of the system, so we can just throw out our wish-lists, and hope they agree that it is at nice thing to add to the system.

Apart from my few questions, I feel quite satisfied with the system itself, there's only one thing that doesn't add up with it for my part, and that is the Twonky media-player/manager, it's slow (I'm running a six-core system with 16gb Ram, so it's not my system), and feels a little heavy to use...I won't use twonky that much I think, and even less pay for the upgrade to version 2.

Have a nice day. :-)

[Tias]

Hi again.
Sounds good that the SSD should work,- it's the small picky details that makes the difference, and I can easaly hear the harddrive when the system is turned off,- so I belive the ssd would eliminate that.

An SSD should be more quite, yes

As far as I've seen thru the updates to this system, they have both modified and upgraded the functionality of the system, so we can just throw out our wish-lists, and hope they agree that it is at nice thing to add to the system.

Yes, it has been improved over time so far, so I also hope it will still continue

Apart from my few questions, I feel quite satisfied with the system itself, there's only one thing that doesn't add up with it for my part, and that is the Twonky media-player/manager, it's slow (I'm running a six-core system with 16gb Ram, so it's not my system), and feels a little heavy to use...I won't use twonky that much I think, and even less pay for the upgrade to version 2.

Really ? I'm running Twonky on my 4-core system and I don't think it's slow at all. If it's lagging sometime sit is purely due to network communication issues. Have you tried the MyRemote for Android/iPhone ? For me, MyRemote is extremely laggy, but Twonky runs relatively fine.

Have a nice day. :-)

Likewise !
/T

[Futureline]

An SSD should be more quite, yes


Yes, it has been improved over time so far, so I also hope it will still continue


Really ? I'm running Twonky on my 4-core system and I don't think it's slow at all. If it's lagging sometime sit is purely due to network communication issues. Have you tried the MyRemote for Android/iPhone ? For me, MyRemote is extremely laggy, but Twonky runs relatively fine.


Likewise !
/T

No, I don't have any of those,- but I'll check it out a bit more, do a reinstall or something,

Thanks for responding.

[Futureline]

Ps,- you really got this model in Chile?
Wow, I've been looking for this kind of system in Mexico, but haven't seen it yet.

[Rollouk63]

Hi !

The restriction is actually (I'm quoting from the manual here) : "The Hard disk drive (HDD) can have a maximum capacity of 160 GB, or up to 40,000 media files".

I am running my MCi900 with a 500GB Seagate (ST9500325AS) disk without any problems.

So as long as you don't hit to 40k track limit, stay with one partition and don't need excessive power (then you may need an external power supply for your HDD) you'll be just fine.

Note: You do not have to copy the software that comes pre-installed on the HDD that comes with the MCi900 to another USB HDD to make it work with the MCi90.

Cheers !

Hi Tias
I have formatted a seagate free agent 500gb hard drive to Fat 32 and put my music on it only to get file type not supported message, I tried NTFS and exfat first to no avail, Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

Is there a format facility on the MCi900 itself that I'm missing?

Thanks

[Tias]

Hi !

No, the MCi900 can't format the USB HDD.
Your problem seems to be that the track(s) you're testing with is/are using an unsupported format.
Send me a PM if you want to mail me one or two tracks that I can verify if they are supported or not.

Cheers !