Index

Freecom Media Player 350 - Installation

Intro

I've had a Freecom Media Player MG3.5 for some time. I've written a review of it here. I've also recently added a page regarding the use of Mediagate firmware in the Player 35 model here I will develop the MG3.5 pages at some time. Meantime, I've just taken delivery of the Player 350 Drive-in Kit, which this page focuses on. There's an excellent review available here, for which I'm grateful to Freecom Forum user "Flash" who has given his/her kind permission to add this link. And there's an outstanding review of the Mediagate350HD (which is identical to the Freecom 350HD) available here - I agree with everything the reviewer says - except his final conclusions - he does not recommend buying one - I do (albeit with some reservations).

The plan is to document the installation process, then add bits about making maximum use of what seems to be a very capable bit of kit, and to accumulate useful bits of info (mainly from users of the Freecom Forum) which will help others with problems they might have. Rather than try to do all that at once which would clearly be daft (good Scots word meaning "not very sensible"!) I shall publish stuff on this site as things develop. So, this page is "work in progress"! I will add further info as I gather it, so check again later if you don't find what you are looking for! And - as always -if there's something you see with which you disagree, or it didn't work for you, or whatever, please let me know via the Freecom Forum - any post with "Techie" in the title will get to me!

The Freecom Network Media Player 350 Drive-in Kit

My Player came supplied with:

o Freecom MediaPlayer
o Wireless Antenna
o Footstand
o Remote controller, battery
o AV cable (composite + stereo cable)
o USB cable (for connecting to PC)
o Power adapter
o Manual & Application CD with user and safety manual

I had already checked the "Minimum Requirements" stated in the Freecom blurb and satisfied myself that I met the minimum:

o Pentium III 500MHz or faster
o At least 128 MB RAM
o Available USB 2.0, 1.1 Port (USB 2.0 recommended)*
o Available 10/100 Ethernet LAN Port, RJ-45 (100Mbps recommended) or WLAN
o LAN Cable (cross-wired or standard - see "2.1 Connect LAN Cable")
o A CD-ROM drive for installation
o For playback on TV, a TV with PAL or NTSC system is required.
o Support HDD: Compatible with a standard 3.5" IDE/PATA Hard Drive
o Operating system: Windows 2000, XP, Linux 2.4.x or higher

Installation

1) Step 1 - I READ THE MANUAL!! Yeah, I know it's dead boring…..but if you start there and follow the guidance, you may find you have no problems…..

2) There are various approaches which I could have taken - I could have simply set the Player up to stream files over my LAN (Local Area Network) without installing a hard drive. Or I could have added it as a USB Player, again streaming PC-based files to a TV connection. Instead, I opted for first installing a new HDD in USB mode. Here's the process but, to be honest, you'd be best READING THE MANUAL! But the following does cover some things not covered in the manual.

3) You can install a new drive or an old one. Only stipulation is it must be an IDE (PATA) type - if you are in doubt, ask at your friendly local computer shop - they'll keep you right (usually). Freecom recommends it be larger than 6GB. I used a Seagate Barracuda 500GB, 7200rpm, 16mb cache, and I've heard of others who have used a 750GB drive. When choosing a drive, don't settle for less than 7200rpm - faster (eg 10,000rpm) is not entirely necessary (although I have not yet got to High Definition content so I'll reserve judgement until then). The 16mb cache is better than normal and should be an advantage when it comes to streaming media content from the Player across my LAN. For formatting/partitioning, see below.

4) Before you install, set the drive jumper - Freecom recommends trying the "Master" setting but suggests trying "Single Drive" setting if Master does not work. [I will eventually put a diagram here, or maybe a link to a good web page which details hard drive installation processes. Meantime - if you're stuck, google for it). Setting the drive jumper is best done with a pair of thin-nosed pliers. Do NOT bend the pins! Check the label on the drive which, if it's modern, will show the various positions of the jumper.

5) With jumper set, open the case (4 screws and slide out the cover, just as the Manual says); attach the power plug (the rectangular white one - it will only fit one way) then attach the ide cable (grey cable with a long thin "plug" on it). Most modern drives will only allow the ide cable to be inserted one way. Replace the cover (slide it on, engaging the "lugs" on the underside of the cover with the corresponding lugs on the case).

6) Connect the USB cable to the Player (but not to the PC) (Note - use the correct USB port (a sort of quadlilateral shape) NOT the flat USB port (which is for connecting another storage device to the Player - check the Manual which has a good diagram showing the difference).

7) Connect the mains adapter to the Player, then connect to the mains

8) Connect the USB cable to the PC - the Player may immediately start (or you may need to switch it on using the Power on/Off button). The Windows system should indicate "New Device found" and install it.

9) You may now need to partition and format the drive (essential if you are fitting a brand new drive; possibly not required if you are using an old drive). Follow the section in the manual on partitioning and formatting. [I shall add a page on this site to explain the difference between NTFS and FAT32 but, for the moment, if your PC is Windows 2000 or newer, use one NTFS primary partition].

10) OK - if you are lucky, once you have partitioned and formatted the drive, your Windows system will complete the installation of the driver and you can proceed to item (12) below. But, if, like me, you encounter problems, read on…..

11) My installation did not work! First, the USB connection seemed to be "flakey" - I could tell that by the USB connection audible warning [a sort of bing-bong noise) constantly sounding. So, when I got the length of Disk Manager, the connection with the Disk seemed to be being lost, then regained, then lost again, and so on. I intended creating 2 partitions - one NTFS and one small FAT32 partition. At first, the partitioning seemed to go ok. When I started the formatting of the NTFS partition (430GB) the programme gave the impression that the formatting had been completed more or less instantly. However, my experience told me that it had not (formatting that size of a partition can take quite a long time - certainly more than 15 minutes). I then tried formatting the FAT32 partition. That seemed to run more as expected, with a progress bar indicating formatting was taking place. But the process completed with an error message advising the formatting operation had not been successful. I checked in Windows Explorer, which showed the 2 partitions had been created but these vanished when clicked on, reappeared shortly after, then vanished again. I checked Windows Task manager to identify whether some programme was hogging resources, closed down anything active, and tried the Disk Manager formatting again, with the same results as before. I reconnected the Player to a different USB port, which this time seemed more stable. I then tried formatting both partitions with Partition Manager (a separate utility programme) which required a reboot to carry out the formatting. After reboot, Partition Manager indicated it could not complete the operation because the boot process had not connected the Player (I should have expected that!). However, when I had logged on, both partitions appeared in Explorer and a right click allowed me to format both partitions successfully (Note - the larger partition - 430GB - was taking so long that I gave up, left it overnight and found it successfully completed the following morning). The smaller (26GB) partition took only 10 minutes to format.

12) I then copied a test file to each partition (using Drag and Drop in Explorer), and played these to ensure the files had properly transferred. First stage of installation complete!

Summary

OK - I know I said "Read the Manual"….but in this case, although my intention was to do a perfect textbook installation, my PC had other ideas. I'm now pretty sure that my problem was because (a) the USB port I initially used is "flakey" - probably the contacts are worn with years of use and (b) it was a USB 1 port - I later connected to a USB 2 port and have had no problems since.

But, my difficulties aside, installation should really be straightforward. Good luck!

Coming Soon

Next stage will be networking the Player, first on my cabled ethernet LAN, then exploring the WiFi facility.

The Techie from Sneckie