GoVideo D 2730 Networked Progressive-Scan DVD Player

Comment: First of all, I'm a computer/media geek, so I'm not new to making things work. Frankly, the Go Video D2730 is of extremely poor quality. Of the three (new) units I received from Go Video (based on my returns), none of them could successfully play a DVD. They all experienced various issues from the DVD "locking up" while playing, to not even recognizing the DVD, to constant spinning of the DVD drive. My last unit came the closest to working..it actually worked up until I flashed it w/the v3.0 client software (yes, it did successfully flash..check sum was verified). After that, every DVD played would eventually lock up. The entire player would freeze, forcing me to power off the unit.

So besides not being able to play DVDs, the actual networking features did work, albeit the interface is clunky. Having well over 7 thousand photos and 10 thousands sounds, finding a song via the UI was painful w/o having to go hog wild and create mutliple playlists (there is no searching via title).

So if you're thinking about buying this unit..don't. I'm into it 3 new units, ~10hrs of configuring/setup and I've given up. I'm going to build out an XP Media Center PC and be done with it.

Comment: After reading all of the reviews for this product I was a little trepid about buying it. I decided that the bulk of the problems users have is due to lack of computer experience. To test this theory I tried to examine the product thoroughly before coming to any conclusion.

I wanted to test the product out of the box and then upgrade to the latest software versions and test it again... here is what I found...

Out of the box the product set itself up very well. It found the network and the server (my PC). It could play most of the files that I tried but had trouble with a few. The main interface was a little cumbersome and the program had an overall buggy and unintuitive feel. I would have rated the product a three at this point. In fact I would have agreed with most of the negative reviews written here.

Now... here is where the fun started.

Upgrading the product was soooooo easy that my pet monkey (If I had one) could have pulled it off flawlessly. It was as easy as going to Govideo's site and downloading two files. One of the files is an ISO image (burnable to cd) and one is a zip file containing the new software for your server (PC).

Once I downloaded the ISO it burned to a cd in about 38 seconds (at 48x). I placed the cd into the DVD drive and it immediately came up with a menu prompting me to confirm that I would like to upgrade. It finished upgrading in about a minute and prompted me to restart the system.

The upgrade for my PC was rather large (68MB or so). This took me about 15 minutes to download. I recommend downloading it in advance if you buy this product, especially if you have a slow connection. Though the file is large it is critical that you download it. Setting it up was as easy as clicking next, next, next and finish.

The software is very, very easy to use. On the PC you simply click the folders you would like to share and click scan. The program will find all of the Video, audio and image files in these folders. You can set it up to scan on a timer as well. I have a large collection of MP3's and all-in-all it took about 10 minutes to scan my entire collection. Once you finish scanning the PC can be left alone (especially if you set a timed scan). One final thing on the software is the ability to create play lists. Very easy to do and minimal on time. Software is perfect for the device.

Overall setup was easy even for basic computer users. The updates come in ISO's that are ready to be burned to cd instantly. all you have to do is pop the new CD in and hit enter... Setup (minus downloading) took less than 15 minutes. That included the time it took to figure out how to share files without the manual. If you do not install the updates this product will not function properly, period.


The DVD player is very, very easy to use. It separates your video files into categories for easy searching. It is basically the same thing as the file system in your shared folder with a different skin. Very easy to search, organize and play all of your files. I was extremely satisfied with the diversity of files played. In fact I have files on my PC that I have been unable to find a good codec for that play flawlessly on this DVD player. I cannot say enough about the simplicity and quality of this player. The diversity of files played is shocking and flawless.

One thing that you need to make sure of is this... the player only takes certain wireless cards. If you open the product manual (above) on page 13 you will find a list of acceptable cards. It is probably best to order the card at the same time as the player... otherwise you may end up with a fancy DVD only player for a while... I was under the impression that it had built in wireless. It does however come with a Ethernet PC card that works great.

For a first Generation product that is breaking new ground you cannot beat this player. I cannot see myself replacing it until the format of media on the internet changes. If you cant afford to build a PC for the media room... or simply want something perfectly capable of filling that role you cannot go wrong with this product. It has my stamp of approval!

Comment: ... this is certainly a great product and at a very good price. I bought this for $130 in Feb 2004. I needed a new DVD player that can do progressive scan but finally got this with more features for little more money.
Setup is not straight-forward as mentioned in previous reviews, but learning to manage the setup issues is not necessarily a bad experience.
I'm giving 4 stars because the D2730 didn't support the wireless card (Belkin) that the manual specifies as being supported. But I got it to work with netgear wireless card (recommended by the customer support).
Finally, for me this is not a high-tech junk. (For some reason, the picture quality seems better when I view from the PC (using D2730 client-server setup) rather than burning the pictures in CD and viewing the CD from any DVD player, including D2730)).

Comment: I bought this the minute I saw it, thinking $110 was not much to lose. It took me over a week to get it fully working, but even so, I'm giving it 4 stars (if you're a computer geek). One star if you don't know what a router is (too hard for non geeks to get working).

While I have read about the many problems people have had with the wireless adapters, I am using this in wired mode.

The unit has two pieces of software:
1) The Client software is what is programmed into the unit itself. It is burned onto a flash memory inside the box. GoVideo has released three versions (mine came with version 1). You can upgrade or downgrade the Client by creating a CD-ROM (the online tech support walks you through it - very simple).
2) The Server software is what you put on your computer. It is the interface that locates and marks all of your video/MP3 files to be shared on the player. The Server itself is not a media player. There are two versions of Server.

So, the first thing I recommend is that you go to the website (even before your unit arrives) and make a V2 and V3 CD-ROM. I don't think V1 is even available over the net anymore, nor does it come on a CD-ROM when you get the device, so once you upgrade to V2, you can NOT downgrade to V1 again. This shouldn't be a problem, since V1 is really quite bad.

Even with a wired connection, I had A LOT of trouble getting the player to connect to my PC when Client V1 was installed. I had to force a fixed IP address, because the unit just couldn't figure out mine.

WORD OF WARNING: For some reason, GoVideo requires you to initially connect this device to a TV via a Coax cable. If you initially connect it to a S-Video or component video, the screen will simply not work. The menu is technically still there, but you can't see to navigate it. You need to connect via Coax to select the output mode you want. Of course, once you do, the screen goes blank until you connect to the TV differently. This operation alone demonstrates why the average person will hate this product. BTW - once you upgrade to V2, there is a button on the remote that cycles through the different output selects. Infinitely better, but hardly intuitive.

Once you have Client V3 and Server V2 installed, the box should be able to easily connect to the network.

Mine auto-connected at this point, but , the problems began here...

I have a Router between me and the Internet, and a hub connected to that. My PCs and the DVD Player were all connected to the Hub.

In this configuration, my videos were ALL playing very poorly (pixelated, no sound sync, skipping). I called tech support at least 6 times. They have very flexible hours, and each person I spoke to was different (but all in the USA). Unfortunately, no one was able to even come close to diagnosing my problem.

They were more than willing to send me a new unit, but I had a feeling it was something in my network itself. Well, someone at my work got the problem right away. It was my Hub. Even though it was a 10/100 hub, it was operating at half-duplex, so all of my media was getting killed.

The instant I removed the hub from my system, and replaced it with a switch, my video worked GREAT. BTW, this explains why you can't even BUY a hub at Best Buy these days. Switches are all full duplex, and cost under $10 per port.

So, if you're looking to buy one of these, here is what I learned:
1) Upgrade to the latest Client and Server
2) If you change the Server version, or the method the player uses to connect (auto IP, fixed IP, etc), cycle power on your PC and the DVD player.
3) DON'T connect to a hub - use a switch
4) If you're still having problems, Google on "D2730 forum" and you'll get much more useful information than tech support has.

Comment: I initally tried to get it to work with my wireless lan (802.11b). Everything played, but the video was a little "blocky". I didn't have the funds to buy a new 802.11g router, so instead I hardwired the dvd player on a 100 mbit network. Everything now plays flawlessly, including mpeg1, mpeg2, and mpeg4/divx.

Its able to play Shoutcast radio streams using software called "twonkyvision" (search for it on google). That was a big plus for me.

As for the dvd functions, its a great dvd player for the price. Its got progressive scan and all of the outputs you would need.

Oh yeah, someone else mentioned this, but make sure you update the firmware on both the client and server or else things won't work right. That firmware can be downloaded from govideo's website.

I'm very satisfied with my purchase.