Macpower & Tytech MovieStar User manual

MovieStar
User Guide & Manual
Version 1.3

September 2004
Congratulations in buying your MovieStar Portable Media Center.
MovieStar is a Portable Digital Multimedia Storage and Player that you can connect to any PC
or Mac via USB 2.0 (plug & play) in order to copy your favorite contents (music, movies,
pictures, and/or data files). Once you have transferred your data to MovieStar, you can
connect it to any TV set to enjoy your movies, music, and photos. You can watch your favorite
films in HDTV quality video and Dolby Digital or DTS quality audio.
MovieStar has a pocket design that lets you take it wherever you go.
This document will provide you with full and comprehensive instructions on how to use your
MovieStar and benefit from its unique features.
Please start reading the “MovieStar Features” chapter in order to have an overview of the
enhanced capabilities of your device. A more technical description of these features is
presented in the “Specifications” chapter.
Before using the MovieStar, be sure that you have received the complete set of accessories by
checking the “Package Contents” section.
To have a detailed description of MovieStar functionality, read the “PC Connection” and “TV
Connection” chapters in order to explore the full set of operations.
In order to maintain your MovieStar device in safe operating conditions and to guarantee life
extension, please read the “Safety Information” section.
MovieStar is not designed or intended to, and may not be used to violate any copyrights
or other IP (Intellectual Property) rights. Each user of MovieStar may only use it in
connection with materials legally owned by or licensed to the user and only extend such
ownership or license rights that will permit such use.
All rights reserved. Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Macintosh, Mac, Mac OS are registered
trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. All rights reserved. DivX®Certified and DivX® Video are registered trademarks of DivXNetworks, Inc. All
rights reserved. Dolby® and Dolby® Digital are registered trademarks of Dolby Laboratories, Inc. All rights reserved. All other trademarks and
registered trademarks are property of their respective owners. All rights reserved.
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Table of Contents
FEATURES OF MOVIESTAR..................................................................................................1
COMPACT DESIGN......................................................................................................................1
PC CONNECTION........................................................................................................................2
TV CONNECTION ........................................................................................................................2
AUDIO FEATURES ....................................................................................................................... 2
VIDEO FEATURES ....................................................................................................................... 2
MULTILINGUAL............................................................................................................................ 2
REMOTE ....................................................................................................................................3
FIRMWARE UPDATE....................................................................................................................3
ENJOY.......................................................................................................................................3
FORMATTING THE HDD.........................................................................................................4
FORMATTING ON A PC (WIN2000/XP)........................................................................................4
FORMATTING ON A MAC (OS X)..................................................................................................4
CREATING THE DIRECTORIES.............................................................................................5
FONT SUPPORT..........................................................................................................................5
TV CONNECTION....................................................................................................................8
ANALOG AUDIO SETUP ..............................................................................................................9
DIGITAL AUDIO SETUP ...............................................................................................................9
THE REMOTE CONTROL.....................................................................................................10
REMOTE CONTROL KEYS.......................................................................................................... 11
MENU FUNCTIONS....................................................................................................................14
MAIN MENU.............................................................................................................................. 14
MOVIES ................................................................................................................................... 14
MUSIC ..................................................................................................................................... 15
PICTURES ................................................................................................................................15
SETTINGS ................................................................................................................................16
BACKGROUND IMAGE CUSTOMIZATION...................................................................................... 18
.ISO COMPATIBILITY ...........................................................................................................20
XVID COMPATIBILITY..........................................................................................................20
DIVX COMPATIBILITY..........................................................................................................21
DIVX® VOD COMPATIBILITY...............................................................................................21
SPECIFICATIONS .................................................................................................................22
PACKAGE CONTENTS.........................................................................................................23
STANDARD PACKAGE...............................................................................................................23
OPTIONAL CABLES AND CONNECTORS.....................................................................................25
SAFETY INFORMATION.......................................................................................................26
POWER ON/OFF PRECAUTIONS..................................................................................................26
LOCATION AND PLACING PRECAUTIONS ....................................................................................26
ELECTRICITY AND POWER PLUG................................................................................................26
CABLES...................................................................................................................................26
DECLARATION OF CONFORMITY ......................................................................................27
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Features of MovieStar
Compact Design
Everything you love about multimedia, movies,
music, and photos is brought to you with
MovieStar.
MovieStar features an elegant, light, and high
quality case to protect your device. The
dimensions of MovieStar, as depicted in the
adjacent figure, make this device a true
portable multimedia center.
With a compact and smart interface design,
MovieStar requires only three (3) external
ports to provide all its features. In the rear
panel there are the following interfaces:
•SPDIF: Digital audio output with either
copper coaxial or optical cable
•TV: Multi-Connector for Analog
Audio/Video. This multi-pin connector
provides all the video and analog audio
signals for your TV set.
•USB-2: This port has two functions
depending on the operation mode of
MovieStar. When connected to a PC or
Mac, it is the USB-2 port providing power
and data transfer. When operating as a
media player connected to a TV, it is the
power supply input connected to the
electric outlet through the power adaptor.
The front panel of MovieStar is transparent,
allowing the user to see the infrared receiver
and two indicative LEDs:
•PC mode LED: green when power-on and
green-yellow during disk activity
•TV mode LED: green when power-on and
yellow when in stand-by mode. It “blinks”
(yellow intervals) to confirm a command,
whenever a button on the remote control is
pressed.
14 cm
SPDIF USB-2
8.8 cm
2.7
cm
TV Multi-connector
TV
LED
PC
LED
IR
Receiver
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PC connection
MovieStar can be connected to any PC or Mac via USB interface supporting all file formats:
FAT32, NTFS, HFS+ (Mac OS extended). With up to 480 Mbps transfer rate (in USB 2.0
connections), you can quickly move large multimedia files from your computer to MovieStar.
Please note that you do not need an external power adaptor, because MovieStar is powered
through USB bus power.
TV connection
MovieStar provides the optimum multimedia quality in both audio and video outputs when
connected to your TV set and audio system.
Audio features
•Audio file formats supported: WMA, WAV, MP3, MPEG-4 (AAC), AC3 (Dolby Digital).
•Audio Output Formats: Dual Stereo analog audio, Coaxial SPDIF digital Audio (supports
compressed Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS pass through).
Video features
•Video file formats supported: MPEG-1, MPEG-2 (AVI, VOB, ISO),
MPEG-4(AVI, DivX, XviD).
•Video Output Formats: NTSC/PAL composite and S-video, Analog YPbPr video
(progressive or interlaced) scalable up to 1920x1080i or 1280x720p. RGB via SCART.
VGA scalable up to 1024x768.
DivX compatibility
Supports DivX 3.11, 4.x, 5.x
Supports external text subtitles (.srt, .sub)
Supports any language text subtitles
Please refer to the “DivX Compatibility” chapter for more details.
XviD compatibility
Please refer to the “XviD Compatibility” chapter for more details.
DVD (.ISO) compatibility
ISO=One Image file backup of the complete DVD.
MovieStar will play the ISO file exactly the same as if it was running from the original DVD.
Supports .ISO of any size (FAT32/up to 4GB, NTFS/unlimited, HFS+/unlimited).
Supports external text subtitles (.srt, .sub).
Supports any language text subtitles.
Only with MovieStar can you create your own Virtual DVD Library by storing your private
collection of DVDs (.ISO format) and watch them as if they were running from the original
DVDs. Please refer to the “.ISO Compatibility” chapter for more details.
Multilingual
MovieStar has been designed to meet everyone’s expectations. With sophisticated Unicode
character handling, it supports most of the major languages used in the menu selection and
the subtitle feature. Refer to “Font Support” for further details.
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Remote
MovieStar is equipped with an elegant infrared remote control, providing standard DVD
functionality buttons. Please refer to the chapter “TV Connection” for a detailed description of
the remote control.
Firmware update
You will be able to upgrade your device with new features and capabilities by following the
firmware1upgrade procedure:
•Get the latest update from your vendor’s web site.
•Connect MovieStar to your computer and copy the firmware file to the “firmware” folder.
•Connect MovieStar to the TV and choose “Firmware Update” from Settings.
•Wait a few minutes for the new firmware to be updated.
•Never disconnect or turn off your unit before the firmware has been completely
updated!!
•Turn off MovieStar by disconnecting the power supply, wait a few seconds, and then
connect the power supply again. Wait a few seconds and your MovieStar will appear.
•Done!
Powerful Media Processor
The heart of your MovieStar device is a powerful media processor supporting the demanding
MPEG-1, MPEG-2 (AVI, VOB, ISO) and MPEG-4(AVI, DivX, XviD) decoding.
Enjoy
MovieStar is the ultimate Portable Digital Multimedia Storage and Player that can be
addressed to a wide variety of users:
•Home users who want to build a state-of-the-art, versatile home theatre.
•Stores, Agencies, Exhibitors, and Companies that want audio/visual promotion of their
products (indoor advertising).
•Car Holiday travelers with kids (the “keep’em-quiet kit”).
•Business people on the road who want some entertainment.
•Parents who want to back-up and replay their family videos.
•Movie and music lovers who want to enjoy their favorites at all times.
•People downloading large number of movies and music from the internet.
•Everyone who normally takes a stack of CDs & DVDs with him wherever he goes.
•Parents who want to create a “DVD/CD-safe” environment.
•DivX enthusiasts that want to enjoy their DivX/MPEG4 videos with exceptional Dolby
Digital (AC3) sound.
•Every computer fan owning a TV, home theatre, or other A/V equipment.
1Firmware is the software stored in MovieStar Flash memory that contains the programs running in your
device. These programs remain stored even when the system is switched off.
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Formatting the HDD
Formatting on a
PC (Win2000/XP)
Use the Disk Management
Utility
•Right click on “My
Computer” and choose
“Manage”
•Select “Disk Management”
•Choose the drive you want
to format and right click on
the Disk or drive field for
further commands
•Create a primary partition
and format it
•Follow the Wizard
instructions
You can also format MovieStar using FAT32 but this will have the limitation of max disk being
32GB and max file size being 4GB. Note: To be able to use the MovieStar on all Operating
Systems, you will need to use FAT32. To create one single disk over 32GB use the DOS
command prompt and the “fdisk” command on Win98/SE or WinME.
Formatting on a Mac (OS X)
Mac OS9.2 and earlier, do not
support creation of partitions
on an external drive. To do
that, you will need to
purchase additional 3rd party
software, connect the drive to
the internal IDE bus, or
upgrade to OS X. Initializing
the drive can be done on all
Operating Systems.
For Mac OS X, use the Disk
Utility to format and create
partitions on your external
disk.
•Select “Disk Utility” in the
utilities folder
•Choose your external drive and format it according to your requirement. For Mac only,
choose “Mac OS Extended”
NOTE: To be able to use the MovieStar on all Operating Systems, you will need to use
FAT32 (max file size limited to 4GB!). To create one single disk over 32GB, use the DOS
command prompt and the “fdisk” command on Win98/SE or WinME.
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Creating the Directories
For MovieStar to be able to find the files on the hard drive, four (4) folders with the exact name
shown below must be created first! ALL the prerequisite folders should have the READ
ONLY attribute and should never be deleted or renamed, because your MovieStar uses
these exact names as a reference to locate the respective files. Under these directories
you can have any directory structure that is convenient to you. Create the folders as shown
below, now.
“Firmware”: this folder
contains the MovieStar
firmware files. Inside this
folder there are two (2)
subfolders:
•“Font,” for
Europe and US,
this is an empty
directory.
•“Settings”
contains the
“Settings.txt” file.
This file is a
Unicode text file
with two strings.
The first line
string is the
default TV mode
(PAL or NTSC) in
which MovieStar
should start before the user applies his settings. The second line string is the string
used from the MovieStar screen saver. This string is user editable and should not be
more than 16 characters. Create this file if required, otherwise leave the folder empty.
“Movies”: This folder contains your movie files.
“Music”: This folder contains your music files.
“Pictures”: This folder contains your image files.
If you need a directory to transfer your files from one computer to another, you may certainly
create more directories and name it whatever you like. These folders won’t affect MovieStar
but will NOT show up on your TV screen!
Font Support
For additional font support other then English, we recommend copying the ‘Arial Unicode MS’
font to the “Font” folder located in the “Firmware” directory. On a PC, you can find this font by
going to Control Panel and then selecting Fonts. After copying the font to MovieStar, rename
the file to “font.ttf”. Example: If original is “arialuni.ttf,” rename to “font.ttf”.
You may use any other Unicode true type font (TTF) you have or which is available on the
internet, but remember to rename the file to “font.ttf’ after copying it to MovieStar.
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5

PC/Mac Connection
MovieStar automatically operates as an external USB
2.0 hard disk when connected to a PC or Macintosh.
Use the included USB 2.0 cable to connect your
device to the computer system. Your system will
automatically recognize MovieStar as an external hard
disk in which you can copy any file(s) you want
(music, movie, picture, and/or data). It is strongly
recommended to empty the “Recycle Bin” after
your file(s) deletions to free the HDD space.
MovieStar supports all file formats: FAT32 (Windows
98SE, Windows ME, Mac) NTFS (Windows 2000,
Windows XP), HFS+ (Mac) with up to 480 Mbps
transfer rate (in USB 2.0 connection). If your computer system does not have a USB 2.0
interface, but only USB 1.1, you will receive a warning. You can still use the device with USB
1.1, but with a slower performance level.
MovieStar
PC or Mac
USB
Cable
MovieStar is an external USB 2.0 hard disk device that can be connected to a variety of
Operating Systems supporting the USB interface:
•Win98/SE (Install driver from CD first)
•Windows Me/2000/XP
•Mac OS9, OSX
NOTE: You do not need the external power adaptor
when connected to the computer. MovieStar is
powered through USB bus power. If bus power is
insufficient, use the USB power adaptor! Connect the
power adaptor to the mini 5-pin USB port on the USB
power adaptor and connect the MovieStar to the 4-pin
USB connector.
“Firmware”: this is the folder in which you copy the latest MovieStar firmware files found at
your vendor’s web site. Inside this folder, you may have or create two (2) subfolders:
•“Font” for your external Unicode true type font.
•“Settings” for the “Settings.txt” file, which includes your initial standard setting.
“Movies”: You will copy your favorite movie files to this folder.
“Music”: You will copy your favorite music files to this folder.
“Pictures”: You will copy your favorite image files to this folder.
NOTE: ALL the prerequisite folders listed above have the READ ONLY attribute and
should never be deleted or renamed because your MovieStar uses these exact names
as a reference to locate the respective files. Under these directories you can have any
directory structure that is convenient to you.
If you need a directory to transfer your files from one computer to another, you may certainly
create more directories and name it whatever you like. These folders won’t affect MovieStar
but will NOT show up on your TV screen!
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6

In order to safely remove your MovieStar from your
system, please follow the same procedures as for
any Plug & Play external USB device. Specifically:
Double click on the taskbar icon to “Unplug or Eject
hardware”. The adjacent dialogue box will appear,
displaying the Plug & Play external devices. In the
current example, you can see MovieStar as a USB
Mass Storage Device.
In order to remove it, click the device in the list and
then click Stop.
Click OK on the next dialogue box. The operating
system will automatically stop the device and inform
you for its safe removal. If you are using MovieStar
(e.g. you are working on a Word document or a
picture located in its disk), the operating system will
notify you that it is unable to remove the device. In
this case, close all the applications affecting or
accessing MovieStar and try again.
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