Let
me make one thing perfectly clear. This is not your father’s stereo. In fact,
it’s not his home theater either. Kenwood has come up with a networked home
entertainment system that promises to provide easy access to movies from a DVD
megachanger and music from a variety of sources, including CDs, MP3 music files
stored on a hard-disk drive — even Internet radio stations. While it’s clear
that this system pushes the boundaries of technology, does it set the stage
for a new generation of A/V super systems? Or is it just another clumsy attempt
at “digital convergence”?
To find out, I evaluated a system comprising three components from Kenwood’s flagship Sovereign line: the VR-5900 digital surround receiver (reviewed in September 2001), the DV-5900M 403-disc DVD-Audio/Video changer, and the Entré Entertainment Hub — a hard-disk-based, Internet-capable component Kenwood considers so special it merits both a name and a number (MR-H1). Connect the Entré to the receiver and changer using a couple of RS-232 computer cables, and it becomes the brains of a fully integrated system. (It also works with Kenwood’s DV-5050M megachanger and other Sovereign receivers.)
The VR-5900 is a formidable receiver in its own right. As David Ranada pointed out in his review, it “literally bulges with concealed powers and abilities.” For starters, it sends 130 watts to each of the five main channels, decodes all of the 5.1- and 6.1-channel surround sound formats, and is THX Ultra-certified. It also comes with a nifty radio-frequency (RF) touchscreen remote, the PowerTouch III, which you can use to control the Entré as well — and thus the entire system. And the VR-5900 has a vast array of connectors, including no fewer than seven optical and seven coaxial preassigned digital audio inputs, two component-video inputs, and one component output.
The DV-5900M megachanger is equally impressive. For starters, it holds up to 403 discs and plays both DVD-Video and DVD-Audio recordings. It also plays all kinds of CDs (including CD-Rs and CD-RWs with MP3 files), provides both interlaced and progressive-scan video outputs, and comes with a wireless keyboard for entering disc information. Hey, it can even play both sides of double-sided DVDs automatically! (In case you’re wondering why 403 discs instead of an even 400, three slots have separate play buttons as well as extra finger room so you can easily swap rented or borrowed discs in or out.)
The system’s real centerpiece, though, is the Entré — which is why Kenwood calls it an “entertainment hub.” Anyone with more than a modest home theater system knows how complex such a system can get — and how frustrating it can be to operate it. The Entré attempts to overcome that frustration with system integration and easy-to-use onscreen controls. But at the same time as it simplifies control, the Entré enables the system to do more than conventional A/V components would be capable of, especially through its connection to the Internet.
Press
Entré
The Entré provides an interface that lets you access and organize your DVDs
as well as audio from a number of sources both within the local system and on
the Internet. Far more than a glorified system remote control, it’s also a CD
recorder that can rip music to MP3 and store it on either a CD-R/RW disc or
its own 20-gigabyte (GB) hard-disk drive. Its Net interface not only lets you
download information and cover art for discs stored in the changer or songs
on the hard drive but also lets you stream audio from Internet radio stations.
If you’re searching for music to play, it doesn’t matter if it’s on a CD stored
in the changer, saved in MP3 format on the Entré’s own hard drive, delivered
by AM or FM broadcast, or streamed from a Web server.
What’s more, whenever you add a new source — for example, by putting a new CD in the changer — the Entré automatically adds it to its library listing. It goes online to Gracenote’s CDDB.com database server to find track titles and cover art, then displays them on your TV screen.
It’s the same for DVD movies. A minute after I put in a new disc, the onscreen display showed me the cover art and informed me that I’d loaded Monkeybone — Special Edition, that it was an Adventure PG-13 film released in 2001, that its running time was 100 minutes, and that it was located in Changer 1, Slot 6. (Be warned: When you first connect a fully loaded changer to the Entré, it can take a while to download disc information and cover art — as much as 4 hours with the built-in dial-up modem, much less if you have a high-speed Net connection.)
Like stored music, radio stations are treated equally regardless of their source. On request, the Entré displays a list of the available radio stations, both AM/FM broadcasters and Internet stations. When you click on a station name, Entré either streams it from its own Internet connection or instructs the receiver to tune it in. (The system supports only Internet radio stations that use the Windows Media Audio, or WMA, format.) Stations can be categorized in various ways, then browsed till you find what you want.
How does the Entré know which broadcast stations are available in your area? Easy. It asks for your Zip code as part of the setup and lists all stations in a 75-mile radius — very clever. In addition, it downloads information about each station from another online database.
The great challenge, of course, is to balance decreased operational complexity with increased flexibility and capability. One way Kenwood hopes to achieve this is by making the Entré a “dynamic” component: Its big hard-disk drive doesn’t merely store music, disc information, and cover art but also its operating system. As new features become available, that system can be updated via downloads or CD-ROM. Clearly, this is a very modern child of high-tech convergence.
Enter
the Hub
Behind the disc drawer on the Entré’s svelte, black brushed-aluminum front
panel is a drive that can read CD-ROMs at 24x speed and write to CD-R and CD-RW
discs at 10x and 4x speeds, respectively. The open/close and transport buttons
are all standard issue. The Record button comes with CDR and HDD indicators
to tell you whether the Entré is storing data on a CD-R/RW disc or on its hard
drive. There are Radio and Music indicators plus four cursor buttons to navigate
the onscreen display. A front-panel USB port, hidden under a rubber flap, suggests
even more esoteric connections are possible.
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Sovereign
Entré
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| Key Features
Inputs/Outputs Dimensions Weight Price Manufacturer |
The rear panel has a wide range of traditional analog and digital A/V inputs and outputs plus the two RS-232 ports to connect the hub to the receiver and changer. There are two phone jacks, labeled Wall and Phone. Either of them can be used for HomePNA networking (which uses existing phone lines to interconnect digital devices) or to connect to a dial-up ISP with the built-in modem. Finally, there are two coaxial connectors (labeled “for future use”) and two more USB ports. As an alternative Internet connection, any of the USB ports can be connected to an optional Ethernet adapter.
Connecting the plethora of audio/video cabling required by the receiver, the changer, and the Entré is at least a six-pack job (this is one area the convergence guys still need to work on) — for instance, the Entré needs a separate connection to your TV and can’t go through the receiver. But connecting the two supplied RS-232 cables that allow the components to perform their cutting-edge tricks takes less time than a single sip.
The Entré’s remote looks fairly typical, though along with the usual A/V keys it sports buttons labeled Music, Movies, Radio, OpenGlobe, Email, and Web that hint at nontraditional functions. However, as noted, you can opt instead to control the system with the VR-5900’s much cooler-looking LCD-based PowerTouch III remote (shown below); first-generation PowerTouch remotes will need a software upgrade to work with the Entré.
The Entré is compatible with several USB keyboards, including Compaq’s, but not with the wireless infrared keyboard supplied with some Kenwood Sovereign DVD and CD changers — including the DV-5900M! One more note on compatibility: Since the day has not yet arrived when you can use RS-232 or USB cables to connect a bunch of components from different manufacturers and have them all get along, the Entré can only control other Kenwood components.
When you power up the Entré for the first time, it spends a few minutes booting its hard drive and then takes you through an initializing onscreen setup menu. The first step is getting you online, since so much of what makes the Entré special revolves around its Internet connectivity.
All of the Entré’s Internet features depend on OpenGlobe.net, a commercial online service specializing in music recognition, music distribution or “content delivery,” and database management customized for different platforms such as the Kenwood Entré and the Compaq iPAQ. Some of these services were “live” at the time of my tests, some came online in subsequent weeks, and some were still bannered as “Coming Soon” at our press time.
To connect to the Net, you must have a third-party Internet Service Provider (ISP). Unfortunately, you can’t use AOL, CompuServe, and free ISPs like NetZero because they don’t open their networks to outside users. Thus, many folks will have to spring for a new ISP in addition to their regular one.
I avoided the dial-up modem and Home PNA connection choices, using my existing Ethernet connection to get on the Net by plugging a USB-to-Ethernet adapter (not included) into the Entré’s front-panel USB port. I entered the requested information, and in minutes the Entré had connected to its server, verified my access to the OpenGlobe site, and automatically installed a small library of Internet radio stations. My system listed several dozen stations, some of them available at multiple bit rates. (Kenwood projects that some 3,000-plus Internet radio stations will be accessible in the future.)
You can also use the setup menus to configure the system to your liking. For example, you can choose bit-rate defaults of 96, 128, 160, 192, or 320 kilobits per second (kbps) for MP3 ripping, identify the source components connected to the Entré’s analog and digital audio inputs, and select security passwords and parental lockouts.
Entré
to Music
Once up and running — and without even connecting to anything but the Internet
— the Entré’s possibilities are impressive. I cruised through some of the MP3
files that come preinstalled on the hard drive and also ripped some of my own
music, popping CDs in the Entré and recording them to the hard disk. For example,
I ripped Lionel Hampton’s Swingsation from CD to MP3 in only 8 minutes.
I also moved MP3 data in the other direction, from the hard drive to CD-R/RW.
The sound quality of the discs depended entirely on the bit rate selected for ripping. In particular, the Entre’s MP3 encoder provided good sound quality at 128 kbps and essentially transparent reproduction (compared with the original CD) at 192 kbps. For example, Swingsation’s ultra-cool vibraphone lacked some transient crispness at 128 kbps but was nice and bouncy at 192 kbps. Similarly, the fabulous trumpet section sounded a tad brittle at 128 kbps but was properly mellow at the 192-kbps rate.
You could use the Entré’s hard drive as a serious MP3 library. Its 20 gigabytes can hold about 400 CDs in MP3 format at the default bit rate of 128 kbps. Of course, the Entré also functions as a standalone CD player — and a darn good one at that. Discs like Swingsation sounded terrific played through its digital-to-analog converters.
The Duplicate function let me copy a CD to the system’s hard drive as a temporary, otherwise inaccessible file, then burn a bit-accurate copy onto a CD-R/RW. It took about 37 minutes to copy the Wild Colonials’ Fruit of Life, a 56-minute CD. The Entré read the disc in about 7 minutes but took another 30 minutes to write the copy. And I couldn’t use the Entré for anything else during the write operation — that’s a drag. MP3 ripping, on the other hand, is done in the background so you can perform other tasks.
You can only use blank “music” discs when recording CD-format tracks, but you can use the cheaper “data” blanks when recording MP3 files. Besides CDs, you can record music from external analog sources and store it on the hard disk or a CD-R or CD-RW in either MP3 or CD format. There’s even an onscreen bar-graph level meter and up/down buttons to adjust analog-input recording levels. You can easily create compilation discs of CD or MP3 tracks from a variety of sources.
You can even use the Entré’s USB ports to move MP3 files from the hard drive to a compatible portable player, such as the Compaq PA-1, Compaq PA-2, or Rio 600. Want to transfer MP3 files from a PC to the Entré? You can do that, too, but only if the computer and the Entré are connected via a Home PNA network. Log onto Kenwood’s Web site and download the Entré desktop media manager.
With Internet radio stations, in most cases it took the Entré less than a minute to locate the server, buffer the data, and start playing. Some stations, however, although listed, could never be located. The sound quality depended, of course, on the bit rate of the streaming audio. Programs at 10 and 28 kbps were pretty raunchy, 56 kbps was listenable, and 96 kbps was pretty decent. The streaming was reliable through my Ethernet connection, but any Internet connection is prone to disruptions due to traffic at any particular time, and dial-up connections will suffer dropouts when either your network or the streaming server is overtaxed or congested.
One of the Entré’s most intriguing features is its ability to play music files from an online server — “intriguing” because I couldn’t try it out. This OpenGlobe service wasn’t operational while I had the Entré for test. OpenGlobe says that you’ll (eventually) be able to browse albums online and preview tracks before purchasing for mail-order delivery or download. The Entré’s e-mail and Web-browsing features weren’t available yet either.
Getting to the Source
With MP3 files on hard disk, Internet radio streams, and local DVDs and
CDs as sources, finding a particular music or video selection might seem an
imposing task. Fortunately, the Entré’s onscreen guide lets you organize albums
in different categories such as Pop, Rock, Alternate, and Classical, or any
name you might choose, and you can categorize your DVD movies as, say, Horror,
Romance, Action, and Comedy. You can list different formats separately — for
example, all the MP3 files or all CDs — or mix them in the same lists.
You can create playlists of up to 200 MP3 files and CD tracks, then look for songs based on genre, recording format, or playlist. Menu selection moved quickly, and switching from one screen to another was fast, too. In addition, the menus were cleanly designed and easy to navigate. In short, it’s probably much easier to find “Stairway to Heaven” on your Entré than on your media rack.
You can also use the Entré to check out the status of the changer. For example, you can see how many of its slots are occupied and how many loaded discs have cover art on hand.
As a network hub, the Entré also provides multiroom capability, allowing up to four simultaneous independent audio streams (of Internet radio and compressed audio files stored on the hard drive) to be distributed via HomePNA. Each remote portal simply picks off the MP3 or WMA data packets that are addressed to it and plays them. However, this feature requires a Kenwood Axcess portal for each remote zone.
Connectivity is terrific, but what about signal quality? In a word, the Entré seemed transparent. It sounded as wonderful or wretched as the source connected to it. The Entré doesn’t sacrifice signal quality for the sake of features or networking capabilities. That’s saying a lot considering other “digital convergence” products in the past couple of years that have been packed with bells and whistles at the expense of good sound.
My sample of the Entré came with Version 0.9.0.4 software installed, but Kenwood sent me a disc that upgraded it to Version 0.9.1.0, so I used that for my review. Not surprising with any complex system running prerelease software, mine crashed several times — like when I was scrolling quickly through radio-station menus. Sometimes the downloaded track titles had garbled characters. Some buttons didn’t seem to function as they should, and I had to switch to another menu to “reset” operation. My Entré would duplicate entire CDs, but when I tried to copy individual tracks in CD format I got an “Unknown Error” message. When I tried to
play a DVD-Video movie, the Entré sometimes locked up and had to be rebooted. Kenwood assures us that these bugs will be fixed in future software upgrades.
Can You Live Without It?
After several outright misses and some near misses by other companies, the
Entré shows that networked home entertainment has a very bright future. The
Entré is not unique — it has a lot of the same capabilities as the Compaq iPAQ
that I reviewed in December 2001. Like the iPAQ, it provides such nifty features
as Net radio streaming and downloadable CD/DVD information and cover art. Also
like the iPAQ, in the future it will add additional OpenGlobe services. But
the Entré system proves that a traditional audio/video company can play in the
convergence arena. More important, it proves that traditional A/V components
such as receivers and changers can be integrated with new computer-based components
to create a system greater than the sum of its parts.
Joined with a compatible Kenwood receiver and DVD changer, and a high-speed Net connection, the Entré is a tremendously flexible music-management device. It accomplishes all of its tasks with an easy-to-use interface, and its superb audio signal quality places it far above other devices that merely move data around. Sure, there’s still room for improvement, but when you consider all the failed products littering the convergence landscape, you can’t help but admire Kenwood for what it’s accomplished here. I expect it won’t be too long before we’ll all wonder how we ever lived without an “entertainment hub” in our homes.