i create the account "Media" with the password "gate" and every thing works fine :eek: :eek: :eek:

found on this page http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=726940

so whos the prick deleteing my post ?

if theres a problem at least pm me

So, did you have slow selection of a share on a machine with alpha8 but the new smbmount fixed it?
Ian

The selection speed is still slow, about 20 secound to find the shares, with either nbtscan run first or letting Dvdplayer.bin run it, and also using the new and old smbmount.

I'll have another play tonight to see if I can get it working faster then post back.

Nick

so whos the prick deleteing my post? :eek: I haven't noticed any of your posts appearing even briefly today. When did this alleged post get posted, and when did you notice it's absense?

i posted #3000

just for the fact it was 3000 and the best dam thread ever

i posted #3000 just for the fact it was 3000 and the best dam thread ever Hmmm. :( I was taking my 2yo to ride on the choo-choo train at that time, so I didn't see your post come or go.

Try posting it again?

Hi guys,

I spent a couple of hours last night going through this thread but couldn't find an answer to my specific question. Please forgive me if this has already been asked and/or addressed. I'm a new mediagate owner (about 4 weeks) and I've downloaded the MG35-1.4.4.4-pre4.zip upgrade and running it at home. It's running great and my wife and I love the new graphics.

My question, specifically relating to the Web Interface:
Is it yet possible to utilise the web interface to control the selection of movies / AVIs etc that the Mediagate will play? ie If I had a PC & the Mediagate on the same LAN, could I fire up the web interface and select which movie I'd like to view?

Basis for the question:
I work on a remote site as a live in employee. We have a great entertainment system with a LAN centralised in the same room as the TV distribution network. One workmate has suggested that it would be great if we could attach a Mediagate (internal HDD) to our TV system, then access it via our LAN and select programs from the rooms, like movies on demand. It's not like the people are lazy, it's just that our camp is somewhat de-centralised and some of the rooms are a considerable distance from the TV equipment room.

Thanks to all the contributors here, you're doing a great job.

John

there are several diff ways of doing this...but the main reason that this will not work in your situation, is that i do not think the hdd in the mg-35 could handle that many multiple streams of data at once. If you were too hook it up this way, the platter arm would be going crazy across the platters in the hdd trying to serve multiple users at once. your best bet would to be to set up a server with multiple hdd's and have other people access it across the LAN with their pc's and a s-vid cable going too their tv, a windows media center pc, an xbox with media center, a mg-35, or any other device that can read the network and translate to the television

Currently using the Firmware Alpha8 With out using Phase 1 or 2.

After setting the SETNAS to point to one of my servers and manually running NTBSCAN to populate the /net dir the browsing is now very quick.

I tried this with 3 of my servers and the same result for eash one.

The browsing is also very quick by just using SETNAS.

I found no need to use the new SMBMOUNT with the bigger stack as I have no problems with the current one.

But I tried it anyway and it runs just the same "very quick" so no noticed improvement.

This alpha release seams to be stabe enough for me. I will have to watch another mpeg2 recording to see if the jerking movie I had is still there after a clean reboot.

Nick

My question, specifically relating to the Web Interface: Is it yet possible to utilise the web interface to control the selection of movies / AVIs etc that the Mediagate will play? The answer is "Not yet!" I think all the pieces are there, though. We know how to turn off the overlay (menu), and the commands to start movies playing.

I will now do some lateral thinking :D and suggest something completely different: a remote extender such as this thing. (http://www.hometech.com/infrared/extenders.html) I would have suggested the type that installs as a AAA battery inside the remote, but the Mediagate uses an LR2032 button battery rather than a more common AA or AAA. :( But, given how feeble it is to begin with, you could replace the remote as well, as part of the conversion to an RF remote control system.

After setting up a few mg35 with the new firmware and filling there harddrive with goodies and these are all older non techy types they all asked the same question can they delete or mark the shows they've seen

it seems to be a common trend for the "old folks" not to know what they have seen or left off from

this would be a nice feature

Hey guys browsed through the threads and after another avsforum user, zhenerale, pointed me towards the 25 I looked at it and discovered the 35 and the 350HD. Considering one of the two.
Seems the 35non HD has a lot more support/users:)

Thinking of going with:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3400620A 400GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA100 Hard Drive 16MB cache for 190$

Was going with Western Digital as I own a lot of them but was having a tough time finding a 400GB

IDE version over at newegg..maybe step it back to 320Gb and go with
Western Digital Caviar SE WD3200JB 320GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA100 Hard Drive 8MB cache for 90.99
Is wd's Re version worth it?

For the actual unit
Pc Micro Store(good reseller ratings) has ther nonHD for around 120.

So total with Seagate 400GB:310 and with 320GB WD:210.

Or I could go the MEDIAGATE MG-350HD route with WD 320 installed for 325$
http://www.pc4usa.com/DetailSales.asp?productID=1113

They also have just the enclosure for:250

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Mediafour/MG35HD250/
Has it for 200 but both these sites aren't haven't been reviewed a lot.

The diffrences are?
The HD has wireless ability, WM9, USB2.0 host and the HD also plays some high def version of files*

The does either the USB host/slve functionality enable offloading from the unit to a external hd or a flash drive?

The HD is the only one that has host capability I.e. being able to pull files from a glash drive/another external hd?




*
35
(Supports MP1/2 MP@ML, MP4 ASP@L5, 4.x and 5.x,

350Hd
Supports MP1/2@HL (720p/1,080i), MP4@L5 (720p) and WMV9 MP@ML (720p)
not really familiar with these.


The primary use is playinging divx/xvid to a a nonhd 31' tv via S-video. Is it easy to load files to

it from a networked PC (I read quite a bit about moving files from a network share but not so much

as it being a network share tec.

I'd go for whatever hard drive is the quietest. There is a good resource for info on quiet stuff for PCs at silentpcreview.com
Transfer rate from a network attached PC is typically a 360 mb file in around 4 mins with the NDAS software.

Actually I would recomend seagate becuase it runs cooler then WD and there is no active cooling on the mg35 and heat build up is a concern

there has been issues in the 500 to 1000 point in this thread on the heat the WD gives off

The silentpcreview website as well as testing for noise also test power use...a very swift glance at the WD 500gb drive test showed it consumed slightly less power than the 500gb Seagate when "seeking". I would be suprised if the power consumption wasn't a good indicator for heat output.
Not that I'm advocating for WD (I've got an old Seagate Barracuda in mine) just that for the purpose the HDD is to be used for, quiet would be top of my list followed by heat output and bottom of the list would be speed.

Hey guys I didn't want to thread jack or go offtopic in this thread so I would be greatful if anyone wanted to weigh in on this thread:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8562947#post8562947

Posting this here as it will get most viewers for MG-35...
For those interested...
Regarding the INFRARED REMOTE CONTROL EXTENDER which plugs into the back jack of the MG-35...
As you know there are almost no accessories available for the MG-35...I decided
to try the REMOTE CONTROL EXTENDER from the MODIX HD-3510/3520 which is available
from http://www.divxtech.com I am happy to report that this infrared extender works fine for the MG-35. It costs $15.00 (Free shipping). It has a very long 16ft. cord. I have just ordered a carrying case from them as well as a small remote control that is very similar to the remote control that comes with the MG-35 (They also sell a larger remote)...I will report back if the remote control for the HD-3510/3520 works for the MG-35.

Posting this here as it will get most viewers for MG-35...
For those interested...
Regarding the INFRARED REMOTE CONTROL EXTENDER which plugs into the back jack of the MG-35...
As you know there are almost no accessories available for the MG-35...I decided
to try the REMOTE CONTROL EXTENDER from the MODIX HD-3510/3520 which is available
from http://www.divxtech.com I am happy to report that this infrared extender works fine for the MG-35. It costs $15.00 (Free shipping). It has a very long 16ft. cord. I have just ordered a carrying case from them as well as a small remote control that is very similar to the remote control that comes with the MG-35 (They also sell a larger remote)...I will report back if the remote control for the HD-3510/3520 works for the MG-35.

@davei1

Great post / info - I tried the Extender that comes with my TV , but would not work..

Look forward to any info on the remote , when you get it...

When I purchased my MG-35 player, it was the display sample at a local shop in London. The retailer had lost the remote control for it, I was a loss, but he told me that the remote for the MG-25 player which I already had would work. You know what, it works perfectly.

Anyhow, I have been following this thread all 101 and it has been great. I think the kernel needs to be redeveloped as Airlinktek is concentrating too much on the MG-350HD.

now i run "Windows XP Profesional" with a coupel of shares bun when i browse the network on the mg-35 is see no share at all ?? the MG-35 find the computer(s) on the network but when i tried to connect to the XP pc it goes wrong. when i connect to a other pc (on the mg-35 ) everything goes fine.

I found this out the hard way. In Windows XP, the "computer browser" service must be running for the MG-35 to be able to see it via the network. This service isn't required for other windows PC's to be able to see your shares, but for some reason, it is required for the MG-35 to see your shares.

For some odd reason, while I discovered this problem, my computer browser service was stopped, and would not start. I digged into the registry and found the .dll related to the browser service (I think it was browser.dll in windows\system32) and it wasn't present, so I copied the file from a friends computer and the next time I went to start the service, it automagically worked. It also solved my MG-35 issues of not being able to see the shares on that particular Windows XP machine.

RaZeR

I just got another promise from someone high up that a real GPL release that matches the MG-35 is in the pipeline. Well... It has been another week and I don't see any annoucements. :mad: Are we going ahead with the referral to gpl-violations.org? You had mentioned somewhere that you were going to give them another week. And what about Freecom? Correct me if I'm wrong, but IIRC they have been even less forthcoming than Al Tech.

I just got my MG-35 yesterday, and immediately noticed audio sync issues when playing AVI's from the HD. I purchased this with the intent of taking American TV shows when I travel. The sync issues occur on more than half of the AVI files that I tried. I plan on flashing to 1.4.5 this evening, but I'm curious if anyone know if this problem has been resolved or even addressed. If not, I will return it and get something else (suggestions welcome)

...great thread btw... amazing what is happening with this device

I just got my MG-35 yesterday, and immediately noticed audio sync issues when playing AVI's from the HD... Recall that an AVI is a container file for an assortment of video and audio codecs. I have not observed any audio sync problems on my AVI's, but mine all contain mpeg4 videos. You might look into the actual codec used on your problem AVI's and report back what it is.

Thanks for the response Krell... The Avi's are for example Mpeg4 Xvid with MP3 audio. What I'm griping about is apparently not new. If you search google for mediagate audio sync you get a slough of hits speaking to the same (or similar) issues. I was simply hoping that someone had a workaround (such as hitting the zero key for a reset) but as of yet, I've had nothing work. I flashed to 1.4.5 and nada... still has the problem. All of the AVI's play without sync issues using various players on a PC. At this point it's looking like a return so I can hit my RMA window. That sucks too, cause I would love this thing if it played the files correctly.

Hi

I suggest you have a look at this post it works a treat for me if I have an AVI that does not play ot does not play correctly
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=6409074&#post6409074

Sorry to hijack but thought all the MG-35 users in this thread might have some ideas on this one... It seems like a simple problem but I'm buggered if I can figure it out... Surely someone else has run into the same issue???

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=731015

Can someone have a quick look to see if it is possible to plug a web address into fileplayer or one of the other bins to see if we can play directly off a webpage.

If you want to add internet access to you box you can always run

busybox route add -net default netmask 0.0.0.0 gw x.x.x.x
busybox route add -net x.x.x.0 netmask x.x.x.x gw x.x.x.x

You can then ping internet web sites.

EDIT: If you want to use dns you have to add a resolv.conf file to the hosts dir, this seams to get deleted when you change from using dhcp to not using it.

Nick

EDIT: If you want to use dns you have to add a resolv.conf file to the hosts dir, this seams to get deleted when you change from using dhcp to not using it.


I guess setup must be completely clearing out /hosts. Yak.

This could be fixed with a postsetup script/whatever but it would need to assume that the server that's set is the DNS server.

Ian

After setting up a few mg35 with the new firmware and filling there harddrive with goodies and these are all older non techy types they all asked the same question can they delete or mark the shows they've seen

it seems to be a common trend for the "old folks" not to know what they have seen or left off from

this would be a nice feature

I think this would be a great feature too - hard to remember where you were in a list of items sometimes.

I think one of the number buttons on the remote changes the font colour/style of the display. Maybe if this could be edited to change the font colour of just the selected file?

Can someone tell me how this calls the setup, My MG35 is in a different room from my pc so doing a
cat /proc/[pid]/cmdline
is a bit hard.

Also I need to know the best shell for us to use for scripting cgi that is included in busybox (hush, msh, ash)
If we can decide then we can start writing scripts for the webserver to use.

I would like to see us by christmas have a semi functional webserer that is able to:

Write setup variables (the same as using the setup button)
Start / stop ftp server (maybe we can have a variable in the NV so it know to start if this is set?)
Hyperlink the files on the hard drive for downloading (everything in the music, video folders)
Run setnas / nbtscan / smbmount
Edit smb.conf / hosts
Maybe something to do with playlists if we can get fileplayer.bin worked out.

I would need some help doing the scripting and someone to write some new C apps.

What are peoples thoughts?

Nick

waz goyn on with this forum,looks like nobody's posting anything did it moved to a different adress?

is it quiet in here or what!!! , is every one on holiday, or emplyed by Altec ....lol

:) maybe

Maybe it is because the " Tacky Roual Blue GUI Theme" is beating the "Sky Blue GUI Theme" 76% to 20% in the Yahoo poll? :-) :-)

waz goyn on with this forum,looks like nobody's posting anything did it moved to a different adress?

I've been very busy on other stuff but really need to create an alpha9. Not that some of the issues in alpha8 have been fixed!

I've also been hoping we might get another pass at the graphics to fix the black volume control. And I also notice that the TIME search box is something like yellow text on white. Hard on the eyes!

I'll nag Al Tech about the GPL again.

Ian

is it quiet in here or what!!! , is every one on holiday, or emplyed by Altec ....lol
I am in Denver (CO) right now working my ass off. I have also been busy with my hobby car lately (finally road legal). I am ready to work on MG-35 GUI actions as soon as there is anything substantial (if not RB beats SB becuase then teddystacker has to take over! :p )...

I've also been hoping we might get another pass at the graphics to fix the black volume control. And I also notice that the TIME search box is something like yellow text on white. Hard on the eyes!
Ian
I'll fix than when I get home from Denver (next weekend, if I'm not too jet lagged). Please make a list of all issues you want fixed if possible...

(if not RB beats SB becuase then teddystacker has to take over! :p )...

He He - Nice one Rob..

I was amazed to see when I checked the poll today, that someone actually voted for the Al Tech GUI !! - I presume the MG-35 graphic designer has finally found the Yahoo group :-) - Can't think of any other logical reason....

...someone actually voted for the Al Tech GUI!! That is rather startling, but think about it for a moment. What would you have voted for, had there not been a tasteful Royal Blue? ;) The Sky Blue looks best to only 6 people, probably all of whom are color blind! :D :D :D Seriously, there is a need for such things. One of my long-time work associates always picked the most ghastly, sickening (to my eye) color schemes for his Windows box. When asked, he admitted he was color blind, and he needed the ghastly color scheme to see any difference at all.

Hi all,

I own an MG-35 and I am very pleased to find that there is community support for it.
Big thanks to every contributor for all the efforts!
I'm a programmer and I'd love to play around and contribute something if I can.

Basically I'd like to see two things added in the custom firmware:
-NTFS Write support
-A substitute of dvdplayer.bin

When I have the time, I'll start with NTFS driver compilations (ntfs-3g & captive).

But it would be great if could get rid of dvdplayer.bin.
Then we could build something with a really functional media player menu.
Media database, Vorbis & ID3 tag support, Cover art display, use of netplayer to play streams, visualizations and many goodies.
There are so many possibilities; I can't understand why AlTech didn't hire some people to do a proper job and lift their hardware.

Do you think that we could fit some Java runtime in the firmware?
I'm a Java developer and I could start building the player in Java.
Is the current GUI based on microwindows? I can deal with C/C++ but I wouldn't like...


I'd also love to be able to play wavpack files. I use wavpack for archiving my cds in lossless format.
Now I'm forced to have copies in ogg format to be able to play them in MG35.
Roku Photobridge community has added support for wavpack in their custom firmware and I'll check it out.

And anybody knows any site in Europe that I could get the required serial cable for debricking?
I think I'll need it if I start to play.

Regards,
Pan

And anybody knows any site in Europe that I could get the required serial cable for debricking?
I think I'll need it if I start to play.

Regards,
Pan

@Pan,

The serial Cable Vendor in Canada,although not very friendly (I tried my best to get us a bulk rate), **IS** VERY Reliable , and your cable should only take a max of two weeks to arrive (sometimes much quicker)..

@Pan,

The serial Cable Vendor in Canada,although not very friendly (I tried my best to get us a bulk rate), **IS** VERY Reliable , and your cable should only take a max of two weeks to arrive (sometimes much quicker)..
Could you provide me a link?

sure...

The board wil not let me post links to the workds largest auction site but search on this number..

150044061355

RS232 to 3.3~5v TTL Converter Cable(Max3232 inside)

http://stores.ebay.ca/CoolMCU/CoolMCU.html

I think these are what I need to download

A version of uClinux with the right kernel version - I got this version number from a KISS list and the age looks about right.
url uClinux-dist-20030909.tar.gz

And here are the ARM ELF tools, version 2.95.3
url arm-elf-tools-20030314.sh

I'm getting a modified Fuse 1.4 from the URL i gave recently.

It's all downloading *really* slowly. :-(

If I get time this weekend (never guaranteed!) I'll try putting your firmware on my MG-35, building the fuse module with 2.95.3 and against the relevant kernel headers, also build the example, and see if it will run on the MG-35.

But it's worth mentioning, that cross compiling kernel modules is always tricky, and it's essential that compiler versions and kernel versions match, so the wheels could fall off rather quickly.

But if it works, I guess some brave soul needs to try building ntfs-3g!!! The biggest problem will be if it uses fork, but I can't really see why it should.

Ian
Hi Ian,

did you have any luck with that?

sure...

The board wil not let me post links to the workds largest auction site but search on this number..

150044061355

RS232 to 3.3~5v TTL Converter Cable(Max3232 inside)


Thanks, I'll order it.

Hi!

Does anybody have the Freecom 1.4.4 firmware? I want to compare the binaries, but on their site there is only version 1.4.5.

And anybody knows any site in Europe that I could get the required serial cable for debricking?
I think I'll need it if I start to play.


You can play around without the serial cable... For regular development, you can use the phase1/phase2 scripts which can "overwrite" any of the built-in binaries. Once you flashed one of our recent firmware versions, the chance to brick your mg is close to nil, since all the changes can be done on the hdd.

You need the serial cable if you want to create cramfs images or to tweak the kernel.

Is the current GUI based on microwindows? I can deal with C/C++ but I wouldn't like...

Yes, it's probably based on microwindows. Altech provided some source code for that, but we don't know if it works.

Can someone tell me how this calls the setup, My MG35 is in a different room from my pc so doing a
cat /proc/[pid]/cmdline
is a bit hard.

Try to build the (trivial) filelog which is in Subversion repository, at https://svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/mg35tools/tools/filelog . Then replace the original setup app with a symlink to filelog, and you will get a logfile (icluding the parameters) in /phase2 directory.

Hi Ian,

did you have any luck with that?

No, feedback from the fuse guys was that building for 2.4.17 would be difficult and we have no way to rebuild our kernel at the moment.

But please feel free to dig and give it a go - I got discouraged before getting stuck in.

Ian

Hi!

Does anybody have the Freecom 1.4.4 firmware? I want to compare the binaries, but on their site there is only version 1.4.5.

I have a 1.4.4 firmware. I don't remember if I got it from Freecom or
the MediaGate site. I can send it to you, if you want.

I have a 1.4.4 firmware. I don't remember if I got it from Freecom or
the MediaGate site. I can send it to you, if you want.

Thanks, I also have the Mediagate 1.4.4. The point was to compare if Mediagate and Freecom have any differences. I expect they should diff at least at the splash screen :)

I didn't think this merits its own thread, but I finally got around to plugging this thing into my HT and I was quite pleased. I haven't even looked at the firmware yet, so don't know what it's running, but my first test was a 1.4gb xvid of MI:III that had the AC3 5.1 still. I didn't even know if VLC would play that file properly without a bunch of hassle, but I USB dragged and dropped it to the harddrive (that's a bit of a challenge for me using a Mac, hardly ideal, but if I just dump files once every 2 weeks or so, or stream 'em over my network) then connected to my receiver via optical and ran component to vga cable to my XGA projector (Optoma EP719, upgrading to HD70 soon). I had to set it to component out (but it had some signal without setting that, which was nice) and chose 480p (because I wasn't thinking and just hurrying) and I found the menus to be adequate, but pretty blurry (but I could see the pixels in the blurry white lettering, so it wasn't the projector being out of focus). Navigated to the first of 2 700mb files, started playing perfectly. Looked pretty good - typically divx on 104" screen leaves a little to be desired but since this was a higher res file it was nice. Receiver received the Dolby Digital 5.1 feed perfectly, although I had gone to the audio setup and set it to pass on digital stream or whatever the bottom setting was that sounded right. When it came time to load the second part of the movie (second 700mb file) I decided to switch to 720p - which made the menus possibly look worse, but the video looked a lot better. I think the file res. was slightly more than 480p, so rather than upscaling to 576p, I downscaled from 720p and that made the image sharper and the colors more vibrant - started to look high-def somehow, although I don't want to take this too far.

Long story short, very happy with the unit so far. Will begin ripping essential DVDs (ie. baby sign language etc) that we watch regularly and periodically dump my new divx downloads. Great stuff. Quite happy with the unit so far. Will dump my entire DIVX library over to it in the next couple weeks. I only have 2x 32gb partitions that my Mac can write to, plus a 300gb-ish partition that the Mac can read from. So I dump to the 2 smaller partitiions, boot to windows now and then to copy the files over to the big partition and we're good to go. The playback software reads all partitions, so it's quite fine. I haven't experimented with the networking aspects at all yet, well at least not successfully, but even if that never works (10mbps is questionable for streaming DVD images anyway) I'm pleased with the unit.

I wonder what the difference is between the MG-25 and -25P? From my reading of release notes, the repeat function on the MG-25 is lame by comparison to the repeat function in the MG-35. According to the release notes for MG-25P firmware version 1.4.7, the MG-25P repeat function is now very similar to that for the MG-35. Hmmm.

Hi,

no luck with the fuse build. It simply needs the proper kernel headers...

On the bright side, I got the WavPack codec working, based on WavPack's Tiny Decoder (wavpack com / downloads).
The executable is small (36KB) and effective. It takes a WavPack file in stdin and outputs a WAVE file in stdout.

But a problem is that fileplayer.bin cannot play from stdin...
I pipe the decoder's output to fileplayer bin, but that only reads the header and few audio samples occasionally, then stops.
I think that we gonna have this problem with any other codec decoder, if we stick with fileplayer.bin

This is how I try to play a WavPack file:
/phase2/wvfilter.bin < /cdrom/test.wv | ./fileplayer.bin WAV /dev/stdin

Btw, this is how I made the /dev/stdin:
ln -fs /proc/self/fd/0 /dev/stdin

I can upload the binary and the source code of the decoder somewhere, perhaps on the yahoo group?

Pan

Got my case and remote today...The case is nice and fits the MG-35 and wires etc. nicely (Says Modix in small letters on it)...

On the remote for the Modix HD-3510/3520....It does work. However most of the buttons that are marked on the Modix remote do completely different things on the MG-35. That said I was able to find whatever I wanted to do operation/menu wise on the MG-35 by trying different buttons on the MODIX remote. The commands are pretty much the same...Just the buttons are different and as marked on the Modix remote they do not apply to the MG-35...It's good as a backup should I break the MG-35 remote years down the road...Still a spare MG-35 remote would have been better but nobody seems to be selling those...


Posting this here as it will get most viewers for MG-35...
For those interested...
Regarding the INFRARED REMOTE CONTROL EXTENDER which plugs into the back jack of the MG-35...
As you know there are almost no accessories available for the MG-35...I decided
to try the REMOTE CONTROL EXTENDER from the MODIX HD-3510/3520 which is available
from http://www.divxtech.com I am happy to report that this infrared extender works fine for the MG-35. It costs $15.00 (Free shipping). It has a very long 16ft. cord. I have just ordered a carrying case from them as well as a small remote control that is very similar to the remote control that comes with the MG-35 (They also sell a larger remote)...I will report back if the remote control for the HD-3510/3520 works for the MG-35.

But a problem is that fileplayer.bin cannot play from stdin...
I pipe the decoder's output to fileplayer bin, but that only reads the header and few audio samples occasionally, then stops.
I think that we gonna have this problem with any other codec decoder, if we stick with fileplayer.bin

This is how I try to play a WavPack file:
/phase2/wvfilter.bin < /cdrom/test.wv | ./fileplayer.bin WAV /dev/stdin

Btw, this is how I made the /dev/stdin:
ln -fs /proc/self/fd/0 /dev/stdin


Does it work if you use a temp file?

/phase2/wvfilter.bin < /cdrom/test.wv >/cdrom/temp.wav; ./fileplayer.bin WAV /cdrom/temp.wav

I can upload the binary and the source code of the decoder somewhere, perhaps on the yahoo group?

You can upload the sources on the sourceforge (https://svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/mg35tools/tools/) project, in the "tools" directory, if you have a SF user account. Just let me know if you want write access. Or you can PM them to me and I will do it for you.

We can also keep the executables there (there is a file area), but I didn't read enough about how to do it :)

Still a spare MG-35 remote would have been better but nobody seems to be selling those...I programmed my Harmony Remote to run the MG-35. There are alternatives. :)

I wonder what the difference is between the MG-25 and -25P? From my reading of release notes, the repeat function on the MG-25 is lame by comparison to the repeat function in the MG-35. According to the release notes for MG-25P firmware version 1.4.7, the repeat function is now very similar to that for the MG-35. Hmmm. The firmware is here. (http://airlinktek.com/english/firmware/MG25_1.4.7_ALTech_English_2006_10_13.upgrade) Has anybody tried cross-flashing an MG-35 with MG-25 firmware? I accidentally attempted to flash my MG-35 with the firmware designed for an MG-25-like TVIX something-or-other, which crashed the Mediagate. Rebooting brought it back to life with no harm done.

Does it work if you use a temp file?

/phase2/wvfilter.bin < /cdrom/test.wv >/cdrom/temp.wav; ./fileplayer.bin WAV /cdrom/temp.wav

This does work because fileplayer.bin will then play a complete wav file.
But it's very inefficient since we'll have to wait for the full decoding before listening to a track. Plus that the wav file can easily be huge and that if there is a local disc it maybe ntfs partitioned, thus read only.



You can upload the sources on the sourceforge (https://svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/mg35tools/tools/) project, in the "tools" directory, if you have a SF user account. Just let me know if you want write access. Or you can PM them to me and I will do it for you.

We can also keep the executables there (there is a file area), but I didn't read enough about how to do it :)
Ok I'll try to upload them there.

This does work because fileplayer.bin will then play a complete wav file.
But it's very inefficient since we'll have to wait for the full decoding before listening to a track. Plus that the wav file can easily be huge and that if there is a local disc it maybe ntfs partitioned, thus read only.

Yes, I know, but it was just a test. I remember having some issues with the the pipes, try using another shell. We have sh, lash and hush there.

Yes, I know, but it was just a test. I remember having some issues with the the pipes, try using another shell. We have sh, lash and hush there.Does the MG-35 support "named pipes"? The mknod command, or its successor, mkfifo is needed to create a "named pipe", but once created it would be available for writing/reading by wvfilter.bin and fileplayer.bin. This would remove any dependence on the shell.

Joe L.

Does the MG-35 support "named pipes"? The mknod command, or its successor, mkfifo is needed to create a "named pipe", but once created it would be available for writing/reading by wvfilter.bin and fileplayer.bin. This would remove any dependence on the shell.

Joe L.
Yes the named pipes work on Mg35:
mknod -m +wr /phase2/np p

But the result is the same, fileplayer reads the first chunk of data, that is the wav header, and then exits with a "data chunk not found" message.

These are the commands I use, the order doesn't affect, still the same result
/phase2/wvfilter.bin < /cdrom/test.wv > /phase2/np
/bin/fileplayer.bin WAV /phase2/np &

I have attached the binary and a test WavPack file, so that you can try.

I'll try to modify the code so that the wav header does not come early, but together with the first data chunk.

Pan

Yes the named pipes work on Mg35:
mknod -m +wr /phase2/np p

But the result is the same, fileplayer reads the first chunk of data, that is the wav header, and then exits with a "data chunk not found" message.

These are the commands I use, the order doesn't affect, still the same result
/phase2/wvfilter.bin < /cdrom/test.wv > /phase2/np
/bin/fileplayer.bin WAV /phase2/np &

I have attached the binary and a test WavPack file, so that you can try.

I'll try to modify the code so that the wav header does not come early, but together with the first data chunk.

Pan
I would think you want the wvfilter to be in the background, and the fileplayer in the foreground.

Did you try it this way?:
/phase2/wvfilter.bin < /cdrom/test.wv > /phase2/np &
/bin/fileplayer.bin WAV /phase2/np

Joe L.

I would think you want the wvfilter to be in the background, and the fileplayer in the foreground.

Did you try it this way?:
/phase2/wvfilter.bin < /cdrom/test.wv > /phase2/np &
/bin/fileplayer.bin WAV /phase2/np

Joe L.
Yes, I tried all the combinations, that one first, and that specifically stalls the shell, I don't know why.

Hello all.

Has anyone found serial port connector on MG-350HD? I have 350HD clone which is DC-MC35UL2. I want to install custom firmware. I guess I need to have serial port connection for just in case. The board has only J2 connector.

The Media Cowboy MC35UL2 does not appear to be a clone of the MG-350HD! I don't read Japanese so I can't tell for sure. The case looks exactly like the MG-35. Obviously if the board has no J7, then it's no clone of the MG-35 either. Can you give some details of how this model differs from the MC35UL/N?

Hi everyone. Sorry to butt in on this great technical topic about refining this wonderful little box, but I think you guys are the ones in the know !

I was an original contributor to this topic way way back when it first started. I was always giving out any tips that I thought would help others with their MG-35. Now I have a problem, which I think is related to the original AL Tech firmware... MG35_1.4.5_Eng.upgrade.

I have often upgraded and downgraded many times successfully in the past with no issues. However, I just decided to upgrade to this version, thinking that I would be able to downgrade again if need be. I only use my MG-35 through my Windows Network, having all my movies and photos on separate NAS drives and pcs. (ie. I have NO hard drive in the unit itself).

Anyway, after doing the upgrade and having my MG-35 tell me it was successful, and to reboot... I did. Everything seemed fine, and I checked the version info, which said 1.4.5.

So I tried to play some DivX movies and they played well, "perhaps" smoother than before. I then tried playing some jpeg images (photos) I had... Just random ones, on one of my pcs. The first few played fine, but then one of them looked real weird, possibly because of the weird dimensions of it. Anyway, the MG-35 appeared to lock up while trying to display it. At least I couldn't get it to respond to the remote, nor to pressing buttons on it's front . So I re-booted it, thinking everything would be fine... BUT this time it just kept blinking it's blue light !! Oh no... so I've tried re-booting a number of times, as well as leaving it unplugged from mains power all night with no success.

What I want to know, is how could this be, when the firmware appeared to load correctly, and I have not tinkered with it in any way ? Could some scratchpad memory have been corrupted when it couldn't display the photo, and when it tries to reboot, it gets confused ? Do I now have a useless new doorstop. I'm assuming the firmware is fine.

Please help ??!

If the unit had a hard reset button (which I don't think it does) that would normally fix it. If the firmware, as loaded, is ok... then is there a way to somehow reset the unit's internal config params back to factory default ?

I think we've seen a similar problem fixed by reflashing the firmware using a level-converting serial cable and the instructions on the wiki (http://mediagate.pbwiki.com/Debricking). The blinking blue light is a good sign: it indicates that the flash bootloader is still intact.

Thanks heaps Krell... I'll have a look, but unfortunately my technical knowledge is in no way up there with you guys, so it might not be possible for me to do, but I'll give it a go. The unit is just out of warranty now anyway. Typical. :(


Nah... it's all a bit too hard for me. I think I just have a brick now... and caused by the unit itself... that's what is so frustrating. It seems that the effort involved for me just to get it back to operating condition wouldn't be proportionately worth it. I'll check out some other types of Media boxes. I've got another MG-35, in another room, that I can use... and a couple of MG-25s that I don't use, except as ext. storage drives. I feel it will only happen again... as it occurred so easily, just by viewing a jpeg image ! Unfortunately I think we'll be seeing a lot of bricked MG-35s if anyone uses this v1.4.5 firmware version... so be careful people.

The Media Cowboy MC35UL2 does not appear to be a clone of the MG-350HD!

I'm sure that is the clone of MG-350HD because I can see "AL TECH MG-350HD REV1.9 2006/05/04" on the board.

I'm trying finding signals and it seems that pin1 (which has an triangle mark on it) is TxD from the board and pin 4 is GND. However pin 4 has 0.6V bias when I just connect power cable. Do you see this kind of thing on MG-35?

Just a reminder if your remote does not seem to work very well try a fresh battery.
its a CR-2025 or most likely replaced with a Duracell DL-2025

I'm sure that is the clone of MG-350HD because I can see "AL TECH MG-350HD REV1.9 2006/05/04" on the board. OK I stand corrected. Does your unit have wireless? All the pictures I've seen of the MD-350HD show an antenna, unlike the Digital Cowboy firmware update pages which make the DC-MC35UL2 look like an MG-35 without a remote control. :confused: I also wish Digital Cowboy changed the part number to be in greater consonance with the Al Tech part numbers... I'm trying finding signals and it seems that pin1 (which has an triangle mark on it) is TxD from the board and pin 4 is GND. However pin 4 has 0.6V bias when I just connect power cable. Do you see this kind of thing on MG-35? Check out the wiki (http://mediagate.pbwiki.com/MG35Hardware) for pictures, voltages, and everything for the MG-35.

Pondering your problem further has dredged up a faint memory... I think there is another MG-350HD owner who has already gotten the serial interface to work but Al Tech changed the password! At least I remember him or her asking for the MG-350HD password and nobody responded. :(

Does your unit have wireless?

No, it doesn't.

Pondering your problem further has dredged up a faint memory... I think there is another MG-350HD owner who has already gotten the serial interface to work but Al Tech changed the password! At least I remember him or her asking for the MG-350HD password and nobody responded. :(

I tried receiving boot message yesterday and I was able to get that. However I wasn't brave enough to send something to the board yet. I'm not too sure about password but when I checked boot loader from a upgrade file, I saw "MediaGate.". I hope the password is unchanged.

Hi All,

Please excuse me, if i am not posting to the right forum.

I recently bought (1 week back) a MG-35 unit. Yesterday, without
noticing, i used another external hard disk power supply with 5V
1.5A /12V 2.0A instead of 5V 1.5A /12V 1.5A

After few mintes, there was a burning smell, and the unit does it
turn on now (red LED is on but no blue LED).

I opned the unit and found that the resistor (?) at location U29 is
burned, also there is some smoke appearing near U68 also. All other
loations appear ok. If i take it to a service center ( i live in
India and there is no MG-35 service centre, but there are other
electronics service centres), what should i inform the centrer? What
exacly is there in U29 and U68?

Please help!! I havn't yet usee for a week :(

Thanks in advace,

Regards,
Geo

Geo,

My MG35 is away being repaired so I can't see what U68 is, but U29 is a Texas Instruments SN74LVC1GU04 single-gate unbuffered inverter, code mark CU4_

See this thread. (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=730995)

I suspect the 5V and 12V lines are swapped in the wrong power supply, and the low-voltage chips got a blast of 12V.

I suspect a few more chips will be dead too...

-Another Ian

My MG35 is away being repaired so I can't see what U68 is... Sorry to read that. Does this mean you replaced the Wolfson DAC and still get no audio? Maybe you can talk your compatriot skymatrix out of his doorstop and reflash it. :)

Agree on your assessment of Geo's problem; his alternate power supply should have worked fine for the Mediagate if we can believe the specs.

I was able to give password and that is still "MediaGate.", so I'm lucky.

Excellent. I think you can just type "boot flash" if you don't want to do anything at this point.

I think I just have a brick now... and caused by the unit itself... just by viewing a jpeg image! If you can, please upload the killer jpeg or otherwise tell us it's characteristics. We'll try to get it to Al Tech for resolution ASAP.

Sorry to read that. Does this mean you replaced the Wolfson DAC and still get no audio? Maybe you can talk your compatriot skymatrix out of his doorstop and reflash it. :)

Agree on your assessment of Geo's problem; his alternate power supply should have worked fine for the Mediagate if we can believe the specs.

Thanks Krell. Wasn't going to be an easy thing getting a new DAC so tried this route instead.

-Another Ian

Dear Friend,
Yes exactly, those were swapped, so apparently i used a 12v/5v instead of the supported 5v/12V :(.

I could see that the U29 is totally blown. Also U68 appears to have some smoke on it. is it possible to give a try ? or did that suffer a fatal damage so it cant be repaired? Now only the red LED is on.

Thanks,
Geo

Geo,

My MG35 is away being repaired so I can't see what U68 is, but U29 is a Texas Instruments SN74LVC1GU04 single-gate unbuffered inverter, code mark CU4_

I suspect the 5V and 12V lines are swapped in the wrong power supply, and the low-voltage chips got a blast of 12V.

I suspect a few more chips will be dead too...

-Another Ian

has the developement for the mg-35 met an untimely end? Wheres Gadgetmind?, why have the posts slowed too a crawl? Wheres pbarrette? he should be back by now! I am just wondering if the development dies here, because the only reason that i have not ebay'ed my mg-35, is because of the strides made on this forum.

please let me know, and all the others that are/where following this thread!

I am still here ,reading , watching and waiting :)

I guess the guys concerned are just busy with other "real life projects"


has the developement for the mg-35 met an untimely end? Wheres Gadgetmind?, why have the posts slowed too a crawl? Wheres pbarrette? he should be back by now! I am just wondering if the development dies here, because the only reason that i have not ebay'ed my mg-35, is because of the strides made on this forum.

please let me know, and all the others that are/where following this thread!

Now I'm struggled with mkcramfs on Linux.

I created upgrade firmware image but my MC35UL2 didn't accept it. It kept displaying "checking firmware...".

When I just split and joined the original firmware, MC35UL2 accepted and updated firmware.

However when I did cramfsck and mkcramfs without modifying contents and then joined linux.gz and a new cramfs image, MC35UL2 didn't accept it. So I guess there is trick to create cramfs image. Have you tried creating cramfs on Linux? If so, is there any tips?

However when I did cramfsck and mkcramfs without modifying contents and then joined linux.gz and a new cramfs image, MC35UL2 didn't accept it. So I guess there is trick to create cramfs image. Have you tried creating cramfs on Linux? If so, is there any tips?

If you need the sources for mg35tool, they are here (https://svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/mg35tools/PC_tools/mg35tool/).

If you need the sources for mg35tool, they are here (https://svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/mg35tools/PC_tools/mg35tool/).
Yes, I'm using that although I changed default mode to MG-350. Thank you very much for your great contribution!

Have you tried creating cramfs on Linux?

I think I found the reason. I have to use mkcramfs from uClinux-2.4/scripts/cramfs. Now I got the same md5sum for the original cramfs.img and unpack&repack cramfs image.

I install cramfs tools by apt-get install cramfsprog but this is wrong way for MG-35!

Yes, I'm using that although I changed default mode to MG-350. Thank you very much for your great contribution!

You're welcome, but to be fair it's not my contribution :). I just created the sourceforge project and uploaded the sources there. Again, if somebody needs write access to sourceforge, just let me know.

Dear Friend,
Yes exactly, those were swapped, so apparently i used a 12v/5v instead of the supported 5v/12V :(.

I could see that the U29 is totally blown. Also U68 appears to have some smoke on it. is it possible to give a try ? or did that suffer a fatal damage so it cant be repaired? Now only the red LED is on.

Thanks,
Geo

Geo,
Replacing the single gates (U29 and its neighbour), the TTL gates (next to the HDD cable) is cheap and relatively easy.
The hard part is U68 (I don't know what it is) and who-knows-how-many other ICs damaged by overvoltage.

Might end up being too hard.

-Another Ian.

I just created the sourceforge project and uploaded the sources there. Was there ever a Windows binary available? And how about an MG-25 version? What I would like to do is make versions of the factory firmware (from various places and for various Mediagate models) available without the bootloader section. Then, we could fool around (e.g. cross-flashing) and in case of disaster, all we would have to do is debrick with a serial cable. :D

OK, since nobody answered, I moved various files onto a RHEL3 system at work, compiled mg35tool, and ran the following two commands:

[TheKrell@pack firmware]$ ./mg35tool split -t MG350HD -k clinux.krn -c oldcramfs.img mg350.upgrade

[TheKrell@pack firmware]$ ./mg35tool join -k clinux.krn -c oldcramfs.img mg350hd108-mg35.upgrade
where mg350.upgrade is the latest MG350HD firmware (version 1.0.8) from Al Tech's website, and where mg350hd108-mg35.upgrade is my cross-flashed upgrade file. Note the use of the -t switch on the split command, and the absence of the -t and -b switches on the join command.

So, what do you think my chances of success will be? :eek: I am reluctant to try this without a serial cable...

I have to use mkcramfs from uClinux-2.4/scripts/cramfs.
mkcramfs wasn't the last barrier but it seems that cramfs file size is important.

MC35UL2 doesn't accept cramfs which size is 7286784 but does accept 7184384. So I removed unnecessary files like wireless LAN drivers and the file size became 7090176. At last MC35UL2 accepted my modified firmware. Now I can login in MC-35UL2.

MC35UL2 doesn't accept cramfs which size is 7286784 but does accept 7184384. That being the case, there is probably no hope that the MG-35 would ever accept an MG-350HD upgrade file such as the one I described above. :( It's nearly twice the size of an MG-35 upgrade file.

Edit: Correct, there is no hope. Flash memory in an MG-35 is only 4MB, whereas the update file for an MG-350 is nearly twice that size. :(

Hi All,

Just wanted to let you know that I'm still alive and have moved into my new place in Huntsville, AL. We're going through some major conversions here at work, so I've been extremely swamped.

I also don't know how much more I can contribute at this point. I'm not really a programmer and don't know enough about C, linux and audio/video hardware development to be of much help at this stage.

pb

hey pbarrette welcome back! I was begining to wonder if you where still even alive. Not much development going on anymore, so hopefully you can put a little steam back into the project

Erm... you know that Mediagate have put up 1.4.6

http://www.airlinktek.com/

"[MG-35] v1.4.5 Firmware

The improvement of v.1.4.5 firmware is as follows.

1. Added "Screen Saver" function
2. Improved ".m3u" function"

-Another Ian (who still hasn't got his MG-35 back yet!)

Erm... you know that Mediagate have put up 1.4.6 Aha! Unfortunately, it doesn't fix our problem (no sound on mpeg-2 program streams when it's AC3 or LPCM@48kHz). :mad: At least they're still doing something.

Erm... you know that Mediagate have put up 1.4.6



@supraeon

Many thanks for reporting this - Hopefully this release will "liven things up a bit" on the development side..

Could someone please check:-

1)The Loader is the the Same on this version ,as in previous Versions , the reason I ask this is because,*IF* the loader has been changed , anyone that tries this version and then reverts back to the New GUI version , MAY have problems..

If one of the development guys would like to inject the New GUI schemes into this New release , I know many of us would be VERY grateful indeed.. - Thanks...

*IF* the loader has been changed , anyone that tries this version and then reverts back to the New GUI version , MAY have problems... I just ran the mg35tool to split out the bootloader, kernel, and cramfs parts of the Al Tech 1.4.4 and 1.4.6 firmware releases. Running diff is useless since it doesn't say how much they are different. But it does report them different. The new one is 208 bytes bigger than the old one.

This may not cause a problem, though. I already threw caution to the winds and upgraded from the Freecom 1.4.5 to Al Tech's 1.4.6 and the upgrade went fine. I didn't check anything (including the new screen saver), and I haven't yet tried to flash it back.

Edit: I just flashed back to Al Tech 1.4.4 and forward again to 1.4.6 with no problem.

Edit: I just flashed back to Al Tech 1.4.4 and forward again to 1.4.6 with no problem.

When you say 1.4.4 , do you mean the new GUI version of 1.4.4? , as they have the bootloader missing - using official versions will always be ok , as the upgrade is "complete".As I see it, there might be a problem going from Official 1.4.6 back to "New Gui 1.4.4" , as you would then be using the 1.4.6 loader on a 1.4.4 firmware.. - This is of cource if the Boot loader are diferent in a way that would make a difference...

just a thought...

When you say 1.4.4 , do you mean the new GUI version of 1.4.4? No, I tested with the Al Tech version w/bootloader still there.
using official versions will always be ok , as the upgrade is "complete". Well, then, I didn't prove anything. I thought you were worried about the factory version. :confused:
As I see it, there might be a problem going from Official 1.4.6 back to "New Gui 1.4.4" , as you would then be using the 1.4.6 loader on a 1.4.4 firmware OK, well, we can always go back to factory 1.4.4 as an intermediate step. I have gone directly from factory 1.4.5 to 1.4.4Alpha8 without any noticeable problem (other than Alpha8 likes to freeze on me). But... I didn't do a "diff" on 1.4.5 compared to 1.4.4, so perhaps they're identical.

I played around with this a bit more this evening. You have a new icon in the Setup menu to turn on the screen saver while playing music. You can set it to come on after 30 seconds, or several other longer intervals. The screen saver itself is rudimentary; it shows the filename in white on black, and moves the title around periodically. What no color-organ? :rolleyes:

Recall that the background music feature while playing photos was broken in 1.4.5 in that it would just quit after playing a few (or even one) song. Well, now it plays music indefinitely. But after a playing for awhile, louder passages stutter horribly. Frankly I prefer the abrupt silence of 1.4.5. :(

I did not try the m3u capability.

My biggest gripe with all MG-35 firmware is that it will not play Dolby Digital sound tracks in mpeg-2 program streams. This still has not been addressed in 1.4.6. :mad: At least Al Tech is listening to those that demanded a screen saver and m3u capability.

I didn't do a "diff" on 1.4.5 compared to 1.4.4, so perhaps they're identical. No, they're not! I have subsequently downloaded and split 1.4.5 to compare it's bootloader to that of 1.4.4 and 1.4.6. They're all different. The bootloader for 1.4.4 is 66592 bytes; for 1.4.5 it is 32 bytes bigger; for 1.4.6 it is 176 bytes bigger still.

I have loaded 1.4.6 over one of the latest firmware from this group. Upgrade was fine. Except for my missing the nice GUI, the latest upgrade is pretty good.

The screen-saver is fine, and the m3u playlists are pretty good. When you select Playlist from the main menu, files with extension m3u are visible. Music files have to be in correct format for unix, that is, case sensitive and no backslashes for directories. Also any reference to drive letters, like D: must be removed from the playlist. Once you have the playlist files properly done, the files in the playlist are added to the MG-35 Playlist, they just don't start playing until you go to the List menu and play them.

I haven't tested beyond this, but this release appears to be pretty good.

Al

I haven't tested beyond this, but this release appears to be pretty good.

Al

@aljimenez

Thanks for your testing , I think that being as Krell found the loaders are different , there may be problems if you now go back to one of the "new GUI" firmwares , as then you will be using the 1.4.6 loader on a firmware that should have a different one..

Then I fear,if the machine is trashed and Al Tech have changed the bootlaoder password , you may not be able to recover using a serial lead , I guess we will not know for sure until someone like Ian or PB takes a look at the loaders..

@aljimenez

Thanks for your testing , I think that being as Krell found the loaders are different , there may be problems if you now go back to one of the "new GUI" firmwares , as then you will be using the 1.4.6 loader on a firmware that should have a different one..

Then I fear,if the machine is trashed and Al Tech have changed the bootlaoder password , you may not be able to recover using a serial lead , I guess we will not know for sure until someone like Ian or PB takes a look at the loaders..
Thanks for the concern and warning. How about if someone wants to go back to one of the GUI versions to do the following: First, go back to an official Al Tech release, say 1.4.4; then go to the new GUI. This would insure that the old boot loader will be re-installed and thus be the same loader as the new GUI's are using.

As you say, this may be unnecessary, but worth being safe. By the way, I am quite sure I lodaded 1.4.5 and one of the new GUI versions from that. From reports, this boot loader is different than the 1.4.4 loader used by the new GUI releases, isn't it?
Al

I have loaded 1.4.6 over one of the latest firmware from this group. Upgrade was fine. Except for my missing the nice GUI, the latest upgrade is pretty good.

The screen-saver is fine, and the m3u playlists are pretty good. When you select Playlist from the main menu, files with extension m3u are visible. Music files have to be in correct format for unix, that is, case sensitive and no backslashes for directories. Also any reference to drive letters, like D: must be removed from the playlist. Once you have the playlist files properly done, the files in the playlist are added to the MG-35 Playlist, they just don't start playing until you go to the List menu and play them.

I haven't tested beyond this, but this release appears to be pretty good.

Al
Does the screen saver kick in when in modes other than "music??"

I would love it to also take effect if sitting at the main Local/Network screen for any length of time.

Joe L.

Does the screen saver kick in when in modes other than "music??"

I would love it to also take effect if sitting at the main Local/Network screen for any length of time.

Joe L.
The screen saver kicked in when left in menu mode. I don't know if it kicks in while playing a movie and then pressing pause and leaving it there... Al

Then I fear,if the machine is trashed and Al Tech have changed the bootlaoder password , you may not be able to recover using a serial lead , I guess we will not know for sure until someone like Ian or PB takes a look at the loaders..


You can compare them yourself, using VisualBinDiff (http://home.comcast.net/~chris-madsen/vbindiff/)

You can compare them yourself, using VisualBinDiff (http://home.comcast.net/~chris-madsen/vbindiff/)

I actually meant to compare them to see if the different sizes (already confirmed my Krell) would effect cross-flashing with loader-less firmware , not just file sizes,I like many others, have no programming skills , so looking at lines of code would sadly, mean nothing to me..

I actually meant to compare them to see if the different sizes (already confirmed my Krell) would effect cross-flashing with loader-less firmware , not just file sizes,I like many others, have no programming skills , so looking at lines of code would sadly, mean nothing to me..


Don't be afraid, you will not see lines of code :) but some hex codes.

But if it's easier for you, you can just run "strings bootloader1" on any Linux machine, and try to find the user and password. Then try the same with the second bootloader. Or, if it's easier for you, just upload here the bootloaders and I'll compare them for you.

skymatrix -
Good news, your MG35 is operational.
It was actually choking on a bad MAC.
Went to boot console, did this:
boot> config net
Protocol : (0) None (1) Static IP (2) BOOTP (3) DHCP : (1)
MAC Address : (ef:fe:ff:ff:ff:ff) 00:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx [entered proper MAC here]
IP Address : (192.168.1.2)
Netmask : (255.255.255.0)
Gateway : (0.0.0.0)
DNS : (0.0.0.0)
Server : (192.168.0.4)
Writing : 0x00020430
.

...and its away.
Will ship it back to you tomorrow.

-Another Ian
[Edit: removed poorly memorized bad MAC]

skymatrix -
Good news, your MG35 is operational.
It was actually choking on a bad MAC.
Went to boot console, did this:
boot> config net
Protocol : (0) None (1) Static IP (2) BOOTP (3) DHCP : (1)
MAC Address : (ef:fe:ff:ff:ff:ff) 00:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx [entered proper MAC here]
IP Address : (192.168.1.2)
Netmask : (255.255.255.0)
Gateway : (0.0.0.0)
DNS : (0.0.0.0)
Server : (192.168.0.4)
Writing : 0x00020430
.

...and its away.
Will ship it back to you tomorrow.

-Another Ian
[Edit: removed poorly memorized bad MAC]


Thankyou.... Thankyou... Thankyou Ian... You are fantastic... Very clever, and a true Gentleman. I am so happy now. :) *doing a jig*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHnDJiGhjZc :D

Or, if it's easier for you, just upload here the bootloaders and I'll compare them for you. OK, here you go:

Interesting that Ewaggle (Retail arm of Anywhereus) are now selling official IR receivers for the MG-35 - Bit expensive for what they are..

Details here:

Ebay auction no. 190046556730

(Board wont let me post the full Auction URL)

And Also a VERY nice Carry bag for the MG-35 - again nice , but VERY expensive..

I did a quick check of the boot loaders by extracting the printable strings from each and then doing a "diff" command.

The diff between 1.4.4 and 1.4.5 showed this in the output...
One of the differences is the compile date/time, the other might be a version or checksum of some type.


# diff MG35boot-1.4.4.strings MG35boot-1.4.5.strings
1,2c1,2
< FINE0@-
< CONF
---
> FINEp@-
> CONF0
21c21
< Jasper Bootloader v1.0.0 (Feb 10 2006 15:34:08)
---
> Jasper Bootloader v1.0.0 (Aug 3 2006 12:16:41)

Doing the same diff between 1.4.5 and 1.4.6 shows they added two new printable messages.


# diff MG35-1.4.5.strings MG35-1.4.6.strings
1,2c1,2
< FINEp@-
< CONF0
---
> FINE0@-
> CONF
6c6
< BOOT
---
> BOOT<
21c21
< Jasper Bootloader v1.0.0 (Aug 3 2006 12:16:41)
---
> Jasper Bootloader v1.0.0 (Oct 25 2006 14:09:11)
156a157
> Image size too big, ram : 0x%08x, flash : 0x%08x
236a238
> erase failed at address 0x%08x


It is good they are using version control and now the new bootloader is version 1.0.0 :confused:

Attached is a zip file containing the entire set of printable stings in each of the three bootloader versions 1.4.4, 1.4.5, and 1.4.6. By reading through them, I can see the bootloader is coded to do far more than we have used thus far. I particularly like the strings "KABOOOOM!!" and "KABOOOM again." They are apparently involved with the inflation of poorly formed compressed images.

Also interesting are a series of messages seemingly affiliated with an IDE interface...
atapi_io: default
atapi_wait timeout
IDENTIFY FAILED
IdeReadSense TIMEOUT
IdeWaitReady .....
SK :
- ASC :
- ASQ:
IdeWaitReady TIMEOUT
IdeWaitReady OK
IdeReadSectors TIMEOUT
: read sectors status
IdeEject TIMEOUT
IdeStop TIMEOUT


Joe L.

Board wont let me post the full Auction URL How about a direct link to ewaggle? (http://www.ewaggle.com/category_s/125.htm)
again nice , but VERY expensive.. Are we keeping some sort of secret here? ;) They want $29. :eek:

Image size too big, ram : 0x%08x, flash : 0x%08x 236a238 Well, I like that check... But erase failed at address 0x%08x What the h***? Are these error messages related? If so, it appears there is potential for a detection of a severe error conditon followed by bricking your MG-35 anyway! :eek:

Well, I like that check... But What the h***? Are these error messages related? If so, it appears there is potential for a detection of a severe error conditon followed by bricking your MG-35 anyway! :eek:It could be an error message added during the development of the bootloader for the MG-350... or... they ran into some flash memory that wouold not erase and never had an error message if a failure occurred...

As a developer, I know I have added additional error messages when debugging and left them in place to save from pulling out my hair a second time. I'm guessing this is one of those cases.

Joe L.

Joe,

So from what you have found so far , do you think the loaders are (functionwise) the same? , or is that not possible to tell?

Also ,could you please have a look and see if the password appears to be the same - my fear was that if someone bricked their machine with the 1.4.6 loader on it,they would not be able todo a serial recovery if Al tech had changed the password..

I am getting a good few emails on it, and being as we don't have access to the developement machine at (as Ian is not around) there is no real way to test , other than one of us risking trashing our machines by going back from 1.4.6 to any of the loaderless versions..

Joe,

So from what you have found so far , do you think the loaders are (functionwise) the same? , or is that not possible to tell?

Also ,could you please have a look and see if the password appears to be the same - my fear was that if someone bricked their machine with the 1.4.6 loader on it,they would not be able todo a serial recovery if Al tech had changed the password..

I am getting a good few emails on it, and being as we don't have access to the developement machine at (as Ian is not around) there is no real way to test , other than one of us risking trashing our machines by going back from 1.4.6 to any of the loaderless versions..The string "MediaGate." is still present in the 1.4.6 bootloader followed in the string list by "Welcome to JASPER boot loader" I don't think the password changed... :D

My educated guess is that the two are functionally identical with the newer version having a few new error messages added.

I did look at the binaries, they are different, but most of the differences seem to be addresses that changed to make room for the added code. Basically, all the jump instructions to a given address, or calls to subroutines at a given address, or references to a string at a given address shifted to point to the new addresses once the new error tests were added. Functionally, I think all is basically as it was ,since they would have had to have added functions without any input/output strings.

I did look at the binaries, they are different, but most of the differences seem to be addresses that changed to make room for the added code. Hmmm. That gives me pause as well. Can you tell if the new bootloader still inflates the compressed kernel from flash (0x00040004 ) to RAM at 0x01008000? I suppose there is no reason to change the RAM address, but the start of the compressed kernel in flash memory is right after the bootloader. That's if I understand what I read on the wiki.

Hi All,
Newbie here. I downlaoded Battlestar galactica in x264 and its .avi but my mediagate 35 will not play it. It plays alright on my computer...Anyone?? Help?
Thanks

Time to join in.

Interesting that Ewaggle (Retail arm of Anywhereus) are now selling official IR receivers for the MG-35 - Bit expensive for what they are..

Details here:

Ebay auction no. 190046556730

(Board wont let me post the full Auction URL)



This costs 29USD + shipping (+ import duties) to the UK – not sure if they offer this option. Before you rush out and buy one I have just made my own for about £1.80 (3.50 USD). You need an IR receiver photodiode (Sharp GP1UX511QS, Farnell order code 1243868) and a 3.5mm stereo jack and lead (I cannibalized a 5m 3.5mm to phono lead, Farnell order code AV02584). The IR receiver is about 6mm square with 3 wires; orientate this with the bulge to the front and the wires pointing down. Left is “signal”, middle “ground” and right is “5v supply”. Solder the leads from the plug so that the front contact of the plug is wired to the signal, the middle contact to the 5v supply and the rear contact to the ground. Tape up any exposed contacts to avoid shorts and you are done. The manufacture’s technical notes suggest you need a capacitor placed across 5v supply and ground to stabilize the supply. As yet mine works without this. Plugging in the remote IR does not disable the onboard receiver but they appear to work fine in tandem. The finished device lacks the IR housing of the commercial device but it is light and tiny so can be taped anywhere convenient as long as you have line of sight to the remote. I think this will be risk free even if you get the wiring wrong, but no guarantees.

AmazonUK are currently offering a OneForAll Kameleon 6 way universal remote for £28.99 including shipping. OneForAll technical support say there is a setup code for the “Freecom mediaplayer”. I’ve ordered one and will let you know how it works.

Thanks for the concern and warning. How about if someone wants to go back to one of the GUI versions to do the following: First, go back to an official Al Tech release, say 1.4.4; then go to the new GUI. This would insure that the old boot loader will be re-installed and thus be the same loader as the new GUI's are using.

As you say, this may be unnecessary, but worth being safe. By the way, I am quite sure I lodaded 1.4.5 and one of the new GUI versions from that. From reports, this boot loader is different than the 1.4.4 loader used by the new GUI releases, isn't it?
Al

I’ve been using MG35-1.4.4.4-pre4 Royal blue and, as suggested here, have just flashed back to Mediagate 1.4.4 and up to 1.4.6 with no problems.

Does the screen saver kick in when in modes other than "music??"

I would love it to also take effect if sitting at the main Local/Network screen for any length of time.

Joe L.

The screensaver does work when the video playback is paused which is good. I’m blown away by the sophistication of the screensaver graphic. They must have spent minutes developing the graphic – perhaps I need an HDTV to appreciate it in full!

Great work, everyone, on the firmware. Look forward to someone combining the new graphics with the official 1.4.6 release…

Great work, everyone, on the firmware. Look forward to someone combining the new graphics with the official 1.4.6 release…

Yes indeed , Ian,PB,Rob and the others have really been missed here the last few weeks

The New GUI makes using the MG-35 so much more fun - hopefully someone wil be kind enough to sort it out soon..

This costs 29USD + shipping (+ import duties) to the UK – not sure if they offer this option. Before you rush out and buy one I have just made my own for about £1.80 (3.50 USD). You need an IR receiver photodiode (Sharp GP1UX511QS, Farnell order code 1243868) and a 3.5mm stereo jack and lead (I cannibalized a 5m 3.5mm to phono lead, Farnell order code AV02584). The IR receiver is about 6mm square with 3 wires; orientate this with the bulge to the front and the wires pointing down. Left is “signal”, middle “ground” and right is “5v supply”. Solder the leads from the plug so that the front contact of the plug is wired to the signal, the middle contact to the 5v supply and the rear contact to the ground. Tape up any exposed contacts to avoid shorts and you are done. The manufacture’s technical notes suggest you need a capacitor placed across 5v supply and ground to stabilize the supply. As yet mine works without this. Plugging in the remote IR does not disable the onboard receiver but they appear to work fine in tandem. The finished device lacks the IR housing of the commercial device but it is light and tiny so can be taped anywhere convenient as long as you have line of sight to the remote. I think this will be risk free even if you get the wiring wrong, but no guarantees.


Hi!

I added your info to the wiki. Is it possible to take some pics of the IR sensor and 3.5mm jack, and edit them with a photo editor to be really clear what are the connections? If you do, I will add them to the wiki, too.

Just a reminder that there is a IR Remote Control Extender available from www.divxtech.com that works perfectly with the MG-35...Comes with a sixteen foot cord and costs $15.00 with free shipping to the U.S.

Posting this here as it will get most viewers for MG-35...
For those interested...
Regarding the INFRARED REMOTE CONTROL EXTENDER which plugs into the back jack of the MG-35...
As you know there are almost no accessories available for the MG-35...I decided
to try the REMOTE CONTROL EXTENDER from the MODIX HD-3510/3520 which is available
from http://www.divxtech.com I am happy to report that this infrared extender works fine for the MG-35. It costs $15.00 (Free shipping). It has a very long 16ft. cord. I have just ordered a carrying case from them as well as a small remote control that is very similar to the remote control that comes with the MG-35 (They also sell a larger remote)...I will report back if the remote control for the HD-3510/3520 works for the MG-35.

Just wanted to let you know that I'm still alive and have moved into my new place in Huntsville, AL. We're going through some major conversions here at work, so I've been extremely swamped.


Welcome back. I'm also alive and well, but now have my first weekend in the house for ages, and a job list around the house that covers two sides of A4.

I really will try and get some time with the MG-35 tomorrow.

Ian

Howdy all,

What should the next firmware be based on?

1.4.4?
1.4.5?
1.4.6?

Is there any reason to make any further releases in the 1.4.4.4 or 1.4.4.5 branches I was producing?

And is there any point in anyone changing bootloader? I'd expect a 1.4.6 based firmware to work just fine with the existing bootloader.

I guess this is the first thing to try. And then I can start re-organising the 1.4.6 firmware to add the new features.

Has 1.4.6 got any regressions compared to 1.4.4?

Ian

Hi All,
Newbie here. I downlaoded Battlestar galactica in x264 and its .avi but my mediagate 35 will not play it. It plays alright on my computer...Anyone?? Help?
Thanks

That's just the way it is. The hardware in the MG-35 can't handle h.264 and it never will be able to.

Sorry!

But I downloaded an avi on the latest BG last night and it plays just fine on the MG-35 - just make sure you get a divx or xvid rather than a h.264

Ian

Hi!

I added your info to the wiki. Is it possible to take some pics of the IR sensor and 3.5mm jack, and edit them with a photo editor to be really clear what are the connections? If you do, I will add them to the wiki, too.

Hope attached pic makes it clear.

Howdy all,

What should the next firmware be based on?

1.4.4?
1.4.5?
1.4.6?


Ian


Hi Ian,

So good to see you back here - Think all of us have sorely missed your input and whit here..

Ok my views on your questions.....

Well,looks like 1.4.6 DOES indeed address some of the outstanding issues (but not all) , but just the addition of a screen saver and better MU3 suoport really merits that all future builds be based on this..
I have had a good few emails from people requesting this..

Ref the bootloader,well not sure, I guess we will go with your best Judgement here as long as they have not changed the serial recovery password etc (Joe seems to think they have not).

One thing I thought of , is that Al Tech have added a New Icon for the screen saver,so if Rob is around and has the time , he may have to create a new Icon to go with the two colour schemes..

So far we have not found and minus points of 1.4.6 (compared with 1.4.4 - well I mean I have not seen any reported yet..

Again,welcome back mate...

Howdy all,

What should the next firmware be based on?

1.4.4?
1.4.5?
1.4.6?

Is there any reason to make any further releases in the 1.4.4.4 or 1.4.4.5 branches I was producing?

And is there any point in anyone changing bootloader? I'd expect a 1.4.6 based firmware to work just fine with the existing bootloader.

I guess this is the first thing to try. And then I can start re-organising the 1.4.6 firmware to add the new features.

Has 1.4.6 got any regressions compared to 1.4.4?

Ian
Unless we hear of issues with 1.4.6, my vote would be to build using it as a base.
Apparently AlTech fixed an issue that caused background music playing when viewing photos, and that may have uncovered a different issue after extended playing of background music. (It stutters on loud passages)

I don't use my MG35 for viewing photos, so I would prefer the new screensaver function to be in the new build. I'm sure others would like the playlist feature... (probably part of dvdplayer, as it seems to simply be a part of the file browser)

Might be able to pick and choose, since I'm guessing the screensaver is also in dvdplayer.

Oh yes... Royal Blue.... :) and welcome back...

Joe L.

Apparently AlTech fixed an issue that caused background music [to stop] playing when viewing photos, and that may have uncovered a different issue after extended playing of background music. (It stutters on loud passages) That stuttering comes and goes. And I once had it crash and reboot. :confused: Edit: Twice it crashed on me. And it would appear that the DVD Wizard doesn't know you're playing video and lets the screen saver blank the screen! :eek: This doesn't happen with mpeg program streams.

Had the same thing happen to me. Playing a DVD, 5 minutes in - the screen saver comes on. Luckily my set doesn't need it anyway so I just turned it off.

Hope attached pic makes it clear.
Thanks, it's on the wiki now.

I did look at the binaries, they are different, but most of the differences seem to be addresses that changed to make room for the added code. Basically, all the jump instructions to a given address, or calls to subroutines at a given address, or references to a string at a given address shifted to point to the new addresses once the new error tests were added. Functionally, I think all is basically as it was ,since they would have had to have added functions without any input/output strings. I had apparently confused some readers of this statement when I said there were many differences between the versions of the boot loader when I compared 1.4.4 and 1.4.6.

Below is a screen capture of my editor highlighting the differences between a small section of the assembly code from the 1.4.4 and 1.4.6 boot loaders. The highlighted lines have differences, the sections of the line in RED are the differences within the line. (1.4.4 bootloader is on the left, 1.4.6 bootloader is on the right)

To get this screen capture I had used the arm2html.exe disassembler to disassemble the two versions of the bootloader, and then used my editor to remove the addresses at the fronts of each line. The editor has a "diff" function that then lined them up, side-by-side, for comparison and color coded the lines with differences.

Each of the lines below represent a "branch" or "jump" to a new address as a result of some conditional test. In all cases in this section of code, the address jumped to is at a new address in the 1.4.6 version of the bootloader than it was in the 1.4.4 version of the bootloader even though the functional code is identical.

If you were to examine the addresses in the lines that have changed you will see they are all jumping to addresses that at this spot near the end of the bootloader are offset by 208 (hex D0) in the newer version. (in the first line hex 484 vs. hex 3b4)

This type of address change is throughout the code of the newer bootloader. Almost everything is now offset some from where it was in the earlier bootloader, but functionally identical.

http://i11.tinypic.com/2rc9ai8.jpg

More interesting are where the old and new disassembly have tiny differences in function, not just in their address. In the following screen capture it is also easy to see an additional "compare and branch" was added to the newer bootloader at this spot in the code. The dashed lines in light blue on the left represent where lines of code exist on the right (1.4.6) , but not the left (1.4.4) version of the bootloader. This code is closer to the middle of the bootloader, and the address offset here is hex 16 (22 decimal).

You can see that the new section of 1.4.6 code uses "register 7" , the old 1.4.4 version did not, and that the original value in R7 is saved (on the stack?) in the first highlighted diff line, it is then zeroed with the added "mov" line, and R7 is used in the added line on the right doing a compare, and finally the old contents restored (from where it was stored on the stack?) in the two places in the disassembler annotated by the disassembler with the "; return" comment.

Without a lot of work I would have no idea what this minor change affects, or what portion of the bootloader is involved. The only way to figure that out is to study, follow, and annotate each section of the code once its purpose is understood. (A huge effort, since I don't know ARM assembly language syntax)

If somebody is interested in viewing the entire disassembly like this, attached is a zip file with the raw disassembled bootloader code for the 1.4.4 and 1.4.6 versions, and the same files with the address columns removed so a "diff" can be performed. (If I did not remove the address columns, almost every line would be different) I used "gvim" (from vim.org) and its built in visual diff command to produce images shown in these screen-captures. "gvim" is an editor that has many commands based on the "vi" unix editor.

Joe L.

http://i11.tinypic.com/2q3ao0y.jpg

TheKrell and anyone else, this might be of interest.

MPEG PS Utils application provides the user with a visual representation of the multiplexed stream structure of MPEG-2 Program Streams (ISO/IEC 13818-1).

http://tsviatko.jongov.com/index_prj_mpegpsutils.htm

Another Ian

wow.. If only I had found this place sooner.

Great to see a community in action. Excellent wiki also.

One could only wish that the MG-35 had its own forum to make reading this topic a little easier (subtopics, moderator(s) etc).

1) I broke a contact in the USB (A?) socket on my MG35, are simple solder job with a new socket will be fine, right ?

2) NDAS functionality - would be very useful due to the above issue but as noted in the (excellent) wiki some devices were shipped without. As would be my luck, and being down in little old New Zealand does not help support matters - I've resigned myself to swapping between 2 HDS. Off to the local importer I go. However I purchased the unit 2nd hand (~US$120 with a 40gb) so don't know how much luck I'll have

3) 1.4.5 firmware caused my MG35 to crash frequently - anyone else get this ? Flashed back to 1.4.4 and all good. Looking forward to playing with the nifty user-modified firms tomorrow, respect to all those involved.

thanks

One could only wish that the MG-35 had its own forum to make reading this topic a little easier (subtopics, moderator(s) etc). You are welcome to browse the Mediagate-specific forum (http://mediagateusa.s10.forumsplace.com/index.php) put up by the N. America distributor. The only problem with it is that the distributor/moderator rarely shows up to answer questions. Or you can join the Mediagate firmware mods (http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/mg-35_firmware_mods/) Yahoo group as well.
I broke a contact in the USB (A?) socket on my MG35, are simple solder job with a new socket will be fine, right ? I would guess "Yes."

NDAS functionality - would be very useful due to the above issue but as noted in the (excellent) wiki some devices were shipped without. I believe some distributors still sell NDAS keys for $20US... You could also format the drive FAT32 and use the modified firmware and transfer files via ftp. Warning: this is even slower than NDAS!

1.4.5 firmware caused my MG35 to crash frequently - anyone else get this ? No, I have never seen this from any firmware version (other than 1.4.4 Alpha8) when playing video files from the HDD. I have occasionally seen anomalies while playing files off the network, where the playback gets garbled (DCT block artifacts, stuttering sound, freezes). I believe this is caused by some network problem such as data coming down late or out of order or something. Usually a Stop or Pause followed by Play will fix it, though.

Edit: Remembered something. I have seen 1.4.6 (http://airlinktek.com/english/firmware/MG35_eng_1.4.6.upgrade) crash and reboot on two occasions. Both times I was playing a slide show with background music. (The background music occasionally stuttered, too.)

Got a bad one out of the box

Anyone Near St.Louis, MO . . US?

I need help serial flashing my box

just obtained mine from ewaggle .. first thing i did was crack the case and add a simple 15cfm fan to the inside of it for precaution heat measure with a hard drive .... and only after i turn it on with a preformatted 500gig drive in it do i find out the unit will not play a single video file i have.. usually encoded simple constant bitrate divx or show any photos .. and only 2 out of 10 mp3's play at all and all of them are standardized at 192kbps constant bitrate for use in my mp3 player .... or that it will not update the Firmware from the onboard version 1.4.4 through the GUI from the hard drive not network mind you.. from what i understand from the wiki site, i need to reflash the unit through serial for most optimum results . . . and i was wondering if i could procure anyone's services to better achieve this end and whatit might cost if anything beyond shipping ... or if anyone could point me in the right direction for some physical help . i am quite sure i am not up to the challenge of attempting this myself.. I live Near St. Louis, MO and you can contact me directly at rhyonnhan (at) aol (dot) com if you wish ..


Rhyonnhan

Excuse me, TheKrell, but could you try this (haven't got my MG35 back yet :( ) -
Get latest or recent version of VideoRedo 2 Plus.
In Tools->Options->Stream Parameters:
untick 'Output PTS with every frame'
untick 'Output PS Pack Header with all packets'
- and try to output an AC3 MPEG.

Reasoning:
Looking at assorted MPEG headers, I notice that the first Private1 pack from VideoRedo has an extension (quite valid and correct), but I suspect the MG35 doesn't look too close and expects an audio type where the extension is.
Turning the above options off results in no extension, and the audio marker is where the MG35 expects it.

The file might not play properly (internal structure is different), but I want to know if AC3 is detected properly.

-Another Ian

The file might not play properly (internal structure is different), but I want to know if AC3 is detected properly. Using VideoReDo Plus Build 2-5-3-500, it took 10 minutes to process a measly 30 minute video, so I think it was doing something. Media Info still shows audio as AC3, but the Mediagate (running 1.4.6) still shows Audio Quality as "none", rather than AC3. It still doesn't play the sound, although it does play the video despite the above change. That's if VideoReDo did in fact change something. :confused:

Thanks for that, TheKrell.

VideoRedo definitely does make changes defined by those options (academic unfortunately).

I'm still looking through the code on this subject.

On a side note, do you know if the MG350 suffers from this 'oversight'?
I might have the option to upgrade...

-Another Ian

On a side note, do you know if the MG350 suffers from this 'oversight'? I might have the option to upgrade... I haven't gotten any owners to say one way or another. But the 1.0.8 firmware release notes have this provocative comment:

- Audio problem in mpeg+ac3 files ==> Solved.

So, I am hopeful. ;)

AmazonUK are currently offering a OneForAll Kameleon 6 way universal remote for £28.99 including shipping. OneForAll technical support say there is a setup code for the “Freecom mediaplayer”. I’ve ordered one and will let you know how it works.



Got it (OneForAll Kameleon URC8206) but didn't like it. Yes there is a set up code that you have to download via the telephone using the built in modem. But some of the functions map onto a "shift" key setting - most notably the North/South/East/West arrows and the central 'enter' key. So that, rather inconveniently, requires 2 key presses to use each of these functions. Not user friendly especially for the family. I also didn't like the "feel" of the touch pad controls. Fortunatley, there was a loose component rattling inside mine and so I returned it for a refund.

Replaced it with a different model (OneforAll URC7780), a 12 way remote from Pixmania for £38 incl postage. A much nicer device. Downloaded code in the same way but the keys are not mapped onto a shifted function so all is well. It works as I hoped. It is easy to set up + can learn some missing functions from the Freecom (Mediagate) remote. This has now replaced 6 different remotes including a remote control for an AV switch. A Happy Bunny. BTW OneForAll customer service is very helpful + patient - the manual gives a 50p/min support number but they emailed me a freephone number.

PS the home made IR extender still works!

TTFN

@TheKrell,
here's a more educated attempt:
If you are comfortable with splitting the firmware down to its components, making a change to mpegplayer.bin, reconstituting and flashing-
Split 1.4.5, open mpegplayer.bin in a hex editor and modify 0000A3F8 from 44 00 00 0A to 00 00 00 00.
Rebuild, flash, and try an AC3 MPEG2 file.
Reasoning: When the parser finds a Private1 block it reads the PTS (time stamps) and then checks a particular entry in the table it's building. But from what I can see, the entry isn't set before this check, so the parser skips the code that identifies the content of the Private1 block.
The modification converts the branch to a NOP, so Private1 data will be checked.

If you're not able to, let me know and I'll build it for you.

Good luck,
-Another Ian, whose MG35 will be replaced when there's stock.

Spectacular sleuthing. :D I can split/rebuild the update file just fine, but I haven't yet decompressed a cramfs file nor do I have any facility with a hex editor. :eek: If you have it already done, can you just email it to me? Check your PM for my real email.

Regarding your Mediagate upgrade idea: null_pointer reports that his MG350HD on 1.0.8 cannot play AC3 sound in transport streams, contrary to the release notes. :mad: So I imagine it won't play AC3 in program streams either. Bother.

HI GUys

Just bought an MG-35 3 days ago here in NZ -- but having issues since the latest firmware 1.4.6 was loaded.
I was vewing a JPG file, and then suddenly the picure went funny and I got a black screen. I turned off the unit, turned it back on and now find that no menu shows up. I can also not turn off the unit -- it keeps blinking blue, power light red, hard drive spins but nothing on screen.

If I connect to the unit via USB cable, I can see the hard drive and all files no probs.

I think I have bought a new dodgy unit -- any ideas anyone?

Thanks -- look forward to anyone who can help

HI GUys

Just bought an MG-35 3 days ago here in NZ -- but having issues since the latest firmware 1.4.6 was loaded.
I was vewing a JPG file, and then suddenly the picure went funny and I got a black screen. I turned off the unit, turned it back on and now find that no menu shows up. I can also not turn off the unit -- it keeps blinking blue, power light red, hard drive spins but nothing on screen.

If I connect to the unit via USB cable, I can see the hard drive and all files no probs.

I think I have bought a new dodgy unit -- any ideas anyone?

Thanks -- look forward to anyone who can help

I was going to explain how to debrick it, but as it's only 3 days old get it exchanged.

Seems you're not the only one - I think viewing dodgy images trashes the MAC address - the MG35 doesn't seem to like that.

-Another Ian

1) Split 1.4.5,
2) open mpegplayer.bin in a hex editor and modify 0000A3F8 from 44 00 00 0A to 00 00 00 00.
3) Rebuild, flash, and try an AC3 MPEG2 file.

...The modification converts the branch to a NOP, so Private1 data will be checked. Unfortunately, this did not work. Mpeg-2 program streams with Mpeg sound still play as usual, but AC3 files play silently and the audio quality shows "none".

Seems you're not the only one - I think viewing dodgy images trashes the MAC address - the MG35 doesn't seem to like that. And this story gets worse. Bashnz bricked his Mediagate on 1.4.6, while IIRC the last guy who bricked his Mediagate via killer jpeg was running 1.4.5.

Bashnz, can you tell us the characteristics of the killer jpeg? This info really needs to get back to Al Tech ASAP.

Hi BashNZ, did you try pushing the video button on the remote to cycle through the different connection modes?

And this story gets worse. Bashnz bricked his Mediagate on 1.4.6, while IIRC the last guy who bricked his Mediagate via killer jpeg was running 1.4.5.

Bashnz, can you tell us the characteristics of the killer jpeg? This info really needs to get back to Al Tech ASAP.Just so we're clear. Are you saying with the stock software that you can totally kill the unit with no means of recovery by displaying a specific JPG file? That seems pretty unlikely, just want to be sure that's what we're talking about.

Are you saying with the stock software that you can totally kill the unit with no means of recovery by displaying a specific JPG file? It didn't happen to me personally, but the bottom line is "Yes!" See bashnz's post (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8937159&&#post8937159) re 1.4.6 and skymatrix's post (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8712287&&#post8712287) re 1.4.5. Supraeon knows what of he speaks because he was able to debrick (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8798540&&#post8798540) skymatrix's MG-35.

Hmmm. Notice where those guys live? Maybe this only happens to people when the earth's coriolis forces are opposite from what they are at the manufacturer's. :D :D :D

Some of you might like to checkout this thread over at the Medigate forums , it details how Dustins has fitted a small internal fan to his MG-35 (Would also work on the 350) - The Fans are only $3.99 each - so well work looking at it..

http://mediagateusa.s10.forumsplace.com/viewtopic.php?p=577#577



PS Ian , PB ,Rob and Andy Etc - Come back soon guys , we really us miss your input and hard work.. - Getting so many emails a day From all parts of the Globe Requesting The New GUI be added to 1.4.6..

Hi all,

New here.... bought my MG-35 two days ago and have small question.
I'm working on macintosh so I need to format it in FAT32. Is this correct? If I do it in NTFS, I wont be able to use it with mac (read, but not write). And if I format if HFS (for mac) the MG-35 wont be able to read it?

Also, now I have formatted it in FAT32, but I can see all the hidden files as well on my tv. They show up with a dot in front... Which is quite annoying if you have 300 files in one folder.... ;-(
Is there a way to turn of the visibillity of hidden files?

Thanks in advance,

.tias.

hey i bought my mediagate mg 35 today. i put a seagate 40g hdd in it and everything was working fine for about an hour or so except that it wouldnt pick up the hdd (no biggy as i realised it wasnt formated). so i turned it off to remove the hdd and when i tried to turn it back on nothing...... no power at all. the hdd light is displayed and same with the power pack but no blue light of glory

any help would be much appreciated.

Mea Culpa. It looks like it is working, but *blush* I accidentally sent the wrong (unmodified) file.
I've now sent the real file to TheKrell for confirmation.

Just in time for my replaced MG35!

-Another Happy Ian.

Unfortunately, this did not work. Mpeg-2 program streams with Mpeg sound still play as usual, but AC3 files play silently and the audio quality shows "none".

The effect is that the MAC address stored in flash memory gets 'damaged' by displaying the file (somehow). Fixing it involves putting the proper MAC address back in.
To do that you need serial access to the console...

It didn't happen to me personally, but the bottom line is "Yes!" See bashnz's post (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8937159&&#post8937159) re 1.4.6 and skymatrix's post (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8712287&&#post8712287) re 1.4.5. Supraeon knows what of he speaks because he was able to debrick (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8798540&&#post8798540) skymatrix's MG-35.

Hmmm. Notice where those guys live? Maybe this only happens to people when the earth's coriolis forces are opposite from what they are at the manufacturer's. :D :D :D

I've now sent the real file to TheKrell for confirmation. Hurray! :D :D :D AC3 sound in mpeg program streams now play on this version. :cool:

I guess I have to figure out how to connect serial capability to my MG-35, just in case. :)

sorry to be a pain but anyone have any idea on how to fix my problem coz i really really wanna get this up and running

sorry to be a pain but anyone have any idea on how to fix my problem coz i really really wanna get this up and running

Ok , hope this might help

1)Have you set the Hard disk to MASTER?

2)Presume all connections are really secure? ie sure its just not your video output thats the problem?

3)what happens when you connect via USB only? If it works ok , format the hard disk while connected this way , try NTFS single partition..

4)try removing the hard disk totally , the MG works without a hard disk installed , see if you can get it to boot that way..

Regards

Teddy

yea tried all of that. :( it wouldnt power up at all with/without hard drive all connections were secure, even plugged it into a telly just in case but nothing. it doesnt even show the blue light behind the circle d pad thing, no whirring sound nothin.... i think shes a brick.

OK, the AC3 firmware (based on MG35-1.4.4.5-Alpha5) is uploaded to:
Yahoo site (http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/mg-35_firmware_mods/files/MG-35%20Beta%20Firmware/Developer%20Releases/MG35-1.4.4.5-Alpha5%20with%20AC3/)

Note: this also enables PCM and DTS in MPEG files as well as AC3.

-Another Ian

yea tried all of that. :( it wouldnt power up at all with/without hard drive all connections were secure, even plugged it into a telly just in case but nothing. it doesnt even show the blue light behind the circle d pad thing, no whirring sound nothin.... i think shes a brick.If it does not show a flashing blue light when plugged in as a USB drive, and does not show a flashing light when you attempt to use it as a media player you might have the same problem I discovered with one of my units.

The pins in the power connector on the power supply were inset over 3/8ths of an inch in the barrel of the connector... just enough to keep them from making contact with the socket on the MG-35. The pins should be slightly inset (less than 1/8th inch)

I tried pulling gently on the pins with a pair of long-nosed pliers, but they did not budge. I ended up cutting off the connector plastic shroud, positining the pins where they should have been, and fixing the barrel portion with heat-shrink tubing.

Check out the power cord. If you did not know otherwise, it might look perfect, but still not make contact.

If it works as a USB drive, but not as a media player, then you have a different issue... the power supply is probably not the issue as it was in my case.

Joe L.

OK, the AC3 firmware (based on MG35-1.4.4.5-Alpha5) is uploaded to:
Yahoo site (http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/mg-35_firmware_mods/files/MG-35%20Beta%20Firmware/Developer%20Releases/MG35-1.4.4.5-Alpha5%20with%20AC3/)

Note: this also enables PCM and DTS in MPEG files as well as AC3.

-Another Ian

@supraeon

Great work here , to stop the flood of emails can you let us know if this file has the Royal Blue or Sky Blue Gui?

Thanks again..

Teddy

yea tried all of that. :( it wouldnt power up at all with/without hard drive all connections were secure, even plugged it into a telly just in case but nothing. it doesnt even show the blue light behind the circle d pad thing, no whirring sound nothin.... i think shes a brick.

1)Is the green light on the PSU on?

2)Is the psu connector pushed right home into the 35? - sorry to keep asking but its sorta spring loaded and sometimes you really have to push it hard home..

3)Does the red light come on one the front of the MG-35?

Great work here , to stop the flood of emails can you let us know if this file has the Royal Blue or Sky Blue Gui? Royal Blue. :)

Royal Blue. :)

Heaven :-)

yea i pushed it in real hard... still no go :(

- the only lights showing is the HDD and the NET lights no power :mad:
so in theory the lights wouldnt show up if the power pack wasnt plugged in properly

- the power pack displays the green light on it

btw thanx for the help

yea i pushed it in real hard... still no go :(

- the only lights showing is the HDD and the NET lights no power :mad:
so in theory the lights wouldnt show up if the power pack wasnt plugged in properly

- the power pack displays the green light on it

btw thanx for the helpThe power supply sources both +12 volts and +5 volts to the MG-35. I've got no idea what would happen if one were present, but the other was missing. (clearly, the unit would not function, but it might show some lights on the front panel as you are seeing)

Did you peek at the plug from the power supply. Are the pins just slightly recessed from the end of the barrel? As I said earlier, on one of my units, the pins were so far in that they barely made contact and finally did not.

Joe L.

Royal Blue. :)

What he said.
Wasn't worried about the colour of the GUI :o

-Another Ian

I think Crift has taken reasonable steps to ensure it's not his fault - time to get it exchanged!

yea i pushed it in real hard... still no go :(

- the only lights showing is the HDD and the NET lights no power :mad:
so in theory the lights wouldnt show up if the power pack wasnt plugged in properly

- the power pack displays the green light on it

btw thanx for the help

I have just upgraded to the 1.4.6 firmware. I now find that certain avi files (xvid codec) "stutter". This is very much the same effect that yo get if you play a file with packed bit stream on some stand alone players. In this case I know the bit streams are unpacked, I've done it with mpeg4 modifier. is anyone else having this trouble? Any advise would be welcomed.

yea i pushed it in real hard... still no go :(

- the only lights showing is the HDD and the NET lights no power :mad:
so in theory the lights wouldnt show up if the power pack wasnt plugged in properly

- the power pack displays the green light on it

btw thanx for the help

Also presume you have hit the "Video" button on the Remote a few times? , to cycle thru all the output modes (if its has somehow reset the video modes , you may not be seeing the output , as the video output mode on the TV may not match that which the Mg is outputting)...

above is a long shot , but has happened to people in the past..

hey guys good work on 144.5 new firmware i have some files on ac3 at 48000 kbps,mpeg4(divx) still not hearing any audio any ideea why?

thx

Conversion of my mpeg-2 program streams (with AC3) into mpeg-4 (with AC3) was one of my workarounds! I used Dr DivX 2.0. Are you absolutely certain these aren't playing? Were they playing fine before (as they were for me)?

ok first id like to say thanx for all the help you guys have put into this little beauty :)

secondly i took it back today and got my money back for it as it was gunna take another 2 weeks for them to get another :eek: ( in that time i could get one of the net for cheaper!!!)

so in summary im gunna ask one really big question (i could die for askin this) but is the mg35 really worth all this fussin about as i hear alot on this forum about problems with the player and its lack of firmware and that alot of ppl are making their own hybrid firmware to compensate for altechs....... incompetence. :D

Hi teddystacker and TheKrell.

I haven't noticed messages from you for a while, sorry about that.

J2 connector is serial port for MG-350HD and you can find the connector just beside hard drive cable like this
http://www22.atwiki.jp/mc35ul2/?plugin=ref&page=%E3%82%B7%E3%83%AA%E3%82%A2%E3%83%AB%E3%83%9D%E3%83%BC% E3%83%88&file=j2.JPG
You can see the triangle mark on PCB. Let's call this is pin 1 and give following assignment for each pin.

10 9
8 7
6 5
4 3
2 1 <|

1 signal from MG-350
3 3.3V
5 signal to MG-350
7 GND

Flash image through serial seems to be same as MG-35 but it must be encoded by uuencode. There are 2 screen shots for this.
http://www22.atwiki.jp/mc35ul2/?cmd=upload&act=open&page=%E3%82%B7%E3%83%AA%E3%82%A2%E3%83%AB%E3%83%9D%E3%83%BC% E3%83%88&file=download.JPG
http://www22.atwiki.jp/mc35ul2/?cmd=upload&act=open&page=%E3%82%B7%E3%83%AA%E3%82%A2%E3%83%AB%E3%83%9D%E3%83%BC% E3%83%88&file=flash.JPG

Hi teddystacker and TheKrell.

IYou can see the triangle mark on PCB. Let's call this is pin 1 and give following assignment for each pin.

10 9
8 7
6 5
4 3
2 1 <|

1 signal from MG-350
3 3.3V
5 signal to MG-350
7 GND



@furaisanjin

Many thanks for the info...

So if I understand this correctly , the Serial Pin Config for the Mg-350HD is *EXACTLY* the same as that of the Mg-35?

Here is a pic that Ian took of the MG-35's Serial interface with a Commerical serial lead connected - can you confirm this is how it would lok if this was a pic of the MG-350's serial connections?
If so , I can then upload the picture and a short read_me to the MG-350HD Yahoo group..

Thanks in advance..

So if I understand this correctly , the Serial Pin Config for the Mg-350HD is *EXACTLY* the same as that of the Mg-35?

Yes, I think so.

yeah this forum is dead, or close to, did they all went somewhere else ?

yeah this forum is dead, or close to, did they all went somewhere else ?

Not as far as we know..

All we can hope is at least some of tye guys come back at some point and add the new GUI to the v 1.4.6 firmware , but as the weeks go by this is seeming less and less likely - i guess we have to understand and respect that we all have "real lives" outside the MG-35...

All we can hope is at least some of tye guys come back at some point and add the new GUI to the v 1.4.6 firmware... Or we can get off our collective posteriors and learn some uClinux ourselves!

BTW - Don't you have significant resources left in the development fund? Perhaps we could bribe somebody with a shiny/new player... As I recall somebody was suggesting some Russian programmers awhile back.

Just upgraded firmware to 1.4.6 in the hope to get a player that is a little smarter in playing all the thousands of mp3 files I have (organized in folders). Till now could not get on M3U playlist file to work.... the player keeps telling me something is wrong with the path.

is there anyone that can give me some basic tips ?

Just sending TheKrell and Ian (or another Ian) a big thank you for the recent effort on the AC3 issue

Now I can watch beer league and beer fest with much joy :)

Much appreciated.

@Everyone

Just read a post by Ian (Gadgetmind) over at the Yahoo group - seems he has Broken a arm and cracked some ribs..

I know that everyone at this forum wishes Ian a speedy recovery , and hope he feels much better soon...

Or we can get off our collective posteriors and learn some uClinux ourselves!

BTW - Don't you have significant resources left in the development fund? Perhaps we could bribe somebody with a shiny/new player... As I recall somebody was suggesting some Russian programmers awhile back.

Yes , we have enough to buy another development machine , but at this stage we dont seem to have anyone that needs it...

Just sending TheKrell and Ian (or another Ian) a big thank you for the recent effort on the AC3 issue. Indeed the accolades all go to Ian (supraeon), since all I did was bitch/moan to Al Tech and test. :) Well, I did send Al Tech a sample of the mpeg files that come off my JVC camera and play silently on all versions of their firmware; a lot of good that did us!

As I understand it, Ian decompiled mpegplayer and pored over the code until he spotted something fishy. I am just short of stupefied :eek: that anybody can debug complicated programs in that way, but it would appear that he did.

Big thank you, Ian!

A broken arm and cracked ribed for a comp geek with a new house
seems like hes tring to fix something or his new neighbours do not like Neo living so close to them

or the dirty dog want to make his wife unpack for the new house ;P brilliant

this is not working for me via network share (slower on this release btw)
still no sound for ac3

i will transfer them local to see if that makes a diff

this is not working for me via network share... still no sound for ac3 Are you sure about those files? Ian's patched 1.4.4 works for me on all AC3 audio mpeg-2 program streams regardless of their location.

pukka and axxo release for beer league and beer fest both ac3 coded and checked with gspot

but only tested over the network
now tested with local drive still no sound


using this file
Files > MG-35 Beta Firmware > Developer Releases > MG35-1.4.4.5-Alpha5 with AC3 - Royal Blue

now tested with local drive still no sound I'm grasping at straws here. :confused: My AC3 videos are really simple 2-channel sound tracks. Maybe your latest rips are surround-sound? You downloaded the correct version of the firmware, but I wonder if it's really the right one? Ian accidentally sent me an unmodified 1.4.4 at first (which obviously didn't do anything differently), but the 2nd one most definitely fixed my 2-channel AC3 files.

PM your email address and I'll send you the one that works for me.

this is not working for me via network share (slower on this release btw)
still no sound for ac3

i will transfer them local to see if that makes a diff

This was a very specific fix - mpegplayer.bin modified so that audio streams stored in Private1 packs (specifically programs downloaded from DVB [digital TV]) are recognized.

Are you talking MPEG2 files? Is AC3 stored correctly? In GSpot V2.52Beta1 in the audio section it should be Codec: AC3, Info: 0xbd(0x80).

Anything else hasn't been touched.

-Another Annoyed Ian because now USB isn't working (can upload via NDAS luckily).

P.S. Thanks for the thanks!

@furaisanjin

Many thanks for the info...

So if I understand this correctly , the Serial Pin Config for the Mg-350HD is *EXACTLY* the same as that of the Mg-35?

Here is a pic that Ian took of the MG-35's Serial interface with a Commerical serial lead connected - can you confirm this is how it would lok if this was a pic of the MG-350's serial connections?
If so , I can then upload the picture and a short read_me to the MG-350HD Yahoo group..

Thanks in advance..

I uploaded some close up photo's to the MG-350HD Yahoo Group the other day, with all of the pin outs and placed a RED mark on it to assist, but I am yet to confirm the pin config listed by furaisanjin.
10 9
8 7
6 5
4 3
2 1 <|

1 signal from MG-350 (TX)
3 3.3V
5 signal to MG-350 (RX)
7 GND

The above is different to the MG35, the RX and TX are reversed. I tried the above but had problems with it causing major lag on the host PC, twas very strange.
Will try again tonight with the RX and TX reversed.

It is hard to keep track of everything with so many different formum and areas in use...

Sorry for the delay
building a bathroom for many years now

codec
0x2000 (Dolby AC3) AC3

info
48000Hz 384 kb/s tot , 6 chnls (3/2 .1)

should this play in mg35 ?

pukka and axxo release for beer league and beer fest both ac3 coded and checked with gspot

but only tested over the network
now tested with local drive still no sound


using this file
Files > MG-35 Beta Firmware > Developer Releases > MG35-1.4.4.5-Alpha5 with AC3 - Royal Blue
All the aXXo releases that I have with AC3 play just fine in my MG-35 with 1.4.6 and from the new GUI releases... Al

That's strange. I avoid Tx and Rx because it's not clear where you stand, either PC side or MG-350. That's why I'm using wording "signal to/from". If you swap signals, just try receiving something from MD-350 and make sure that your adaptor between PC and MG-350 (whatever it is, just RS-232 cable, USB or etc) can accept 3.3V signal in and out.

All the aXXo releases that I have with AC3 play just fine in my MG-35 with 1.4.6 and from the new GUI releases... Al

so they should play
what cable output are you using ?
any audio setting in the menu i need to look at

Iv never had this many movies not play :(

Hi!

While using alpha5 firmware, I noticed that the outline for Divx subtitles is light-blue. Combined with the white of the subtitle fill, it makes reading subtitles a non-trivial task :). I presume Divx outline color index is different than the DVD outline (which is black, as documented in the wiki). Can anybody confirm this behaviour?

Thanks!

so which is the best firmware for ac3 playback rite now?........i've been swithin between couple of them :) none of them work with ac3 thx.......

This is a known issue with all official versions of the MG-35 firmware. But as you can see above, Ian (supraeon) has a hacked version of the "developer" release of 1.4.4.5 which works for me (but not for geos). It's available on the MG-35 firmware mods group (http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/mg-35_firmware_mods/) on Yahoo.

:D tryed that version it doesn't see ac3 at least with my movies divx ac3 format.....thx i hope this get's solved .........

Very strange. I had no problem playing divx files (made with Dr DivX 2.0 and renamed to avi) with AC3 sound in them using the official firmware! :confused:

here's some specs........maybe anebodee has an ideea why it doesn't work
movie1....Video: XVID 656x272 23.98fps [Stream 00]
Audio: Dolby AC3 48000Hz stereo 192Kbps [Stream 01]

movie2....Video: XVID 656x272 23.98fps [Stream 00]
Audio: Dolby AC3 48000Hz 5ch 384Kbps [Stream 01] :)

thx

here's some specs of my movies.....one of them....Video: XVID 656x272 23.98fps [Stream 00]
Audio: Dolby AC3 48000Hz 5ch 384Kbps [Stream 01]

so they should play
what cable output are you using ?
any audio setting in the menu i need to look at

Iv never had this many movies not play :(
I use the coax digital output. I have a SONY that has a blue light in front when it detects digital input and this blue light turns on... Al

This is a known issue with all official versions of the MG-35 firmware. But as you can see above, Ian (supraeon) has a hacked version of the "developer" release of 1.4.4.5 which works for me (but not for geos). It's available on the MG-35 firmware mods group (http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/mg-35_firmware_mods/) on Yahoo.
The latest official release works for me... Al

The latest official release works for me... Al What I meant by my comment was the analog stereo output jacks work for me in Ian's patched 1.4.4.5. The official firmware does not decompress and (if necessary) downmix AC3 audio in mpg files, because the detection of sound type is buggered.

I think you must be listening via the digital output and an external decoder...

What I meant by my comment was the analog stereo output jacks work for me in Ian's patched 1.4.4.5. The official firmware does not decompress and (if necessary) downmix AC3 audio in mpg files, because the detection of sound type is buggered.

I think you must be listening via the digital output and an external decoder...

and i think thats my problem
my fiber in on my amp seems to be buggered so im using rca(red/white)

well stupid me
my audio setting was on encoded digital this does not output ac3 to the the rca jacks

when set to analog ac3 will play on the rca jacks

always something simple

What I meant by my comment was the analog stereo output jacks work for me in Ian's patched 1.4.4.5. The official firmware does not decompress and (if necessary) downmix AC3 audio in mpg files, because the detection of sound type is buggered.

I think you must be listening via the digital output and an external decoder...
Yes you are correct, I use an external decoder for AC3 audio

I got my MG-35 up and running last night and was watching movies 5 minutes after getting it out of the box.

While I have not taken it for a complete test spin, I am pretty happy with its performance.

My Linktheater Mini goes on Ebay tomorrow!

I have a (stupid) question that I wonder if anyone here could help me with....

How do you decrease the delay (pause) time between tracks when playing MP3's?

I ask because I have an extensive live audio collection broken into individual tracks. When I play them on my portable MP3 players (Archos Jukebox and Ipod) the delay is minimal and doesn't disrupt the flow of the live recording. The MG-35 has a 2 or 3 second pause between tracks and causes the live show to become disjointed as a result of the intermittent silence.

Any help would be appreciated.

How do you decrease the delay (pause) time between tracks when playing MP3's? There is no configurable parameter to control the pause between tracks. However, I notice that when you play a series of VOB files (using the Play button), there is an annoying pause between files, (and a really annoying sticking point between chapters). You can get rid of the pause between VOB files if you use the DVD Wizard instead. (You do that by Selecting the video_ts.ifo file in a ripped-DVD folder.)

So, that being the case for VOB files, maybe something similar would happen if you play mp3's via m3u playlist. I have no idea if this will reduce the pause or make it worse! But it's worth a try.

I have been trying to get this info reading this very long thread:

Can I use the optical or coaxial output of the MG35 to connect to an external DAC when I play music?

Thanks.

What's wrong with alhimenez's post 3 messages up from yours?

Hi,
thanks to the excellent work concerning the AC3 supporting firmware. :)
I've tested this one and it worked fine for me.

The only think i missed is when I played some mpegs videos with just an AC3 Audio Stream (5.1) in it I hear just the Stereo Downmix over my optical out.
Unfortunately I've got many of this kind of videos.
The same video with AC3 AND mp2 in it plays fine when I changed the audio Stream during playing.I can hear the Dolby Digital 5.1 signal and not just the downmix.

Can somebody approve this behaviour and can I do something about it?

Grettings

Time to move on to a mythbox... so I'm selling my mg-35 away

w/ j9 cable and 40 gig HD

http://*******/tug8

Hi all!

I just got a MediaGate MG-35 and put a 500 G hard drive in it. My mac doesnt' recognize the hard drive, and seems to freeze the Hard Disk Utility. Anyone using this product successfully with a Mac?

Thanks in advance!

Rob

Hi all!

I just got a MediaGate MG-35 and put a 500 G hard drive in it. My mac doesnt' recognize the hard drive, and seems to freeze the Hard Disk Utility. Anyone using this product successfully with a Mac?



i use it with a Mac (10.4) all the time, although max 300G
Tried several disks, the Mac recognize the disks and I can choose to
format FAT filesystem for the MG-35 to use.

TTFN, thanks for the heads up on the IR extender.. had tried a couple I had lying around without success, but got a receiver from an old TV card working now with a simple rewire.

I'm unable to see a part number on the photodiode, but my receiver does have the capacitor fitted as suggested, however it also has a small 10 ohm resistor on the 5V line. Of course, no idea what voltage the TV card was putting out, nevertheless it is working fine as is.

Good thing that when the IR extender is connected, the inbuilt receiver still functions also, twice the chance of hitting the target.. :)

There seems to be a limit on the size of an .M3U playlist that can be accepted in 1.4.6 without giving errors and failing. I only have made a few, but 25 kB seems to work (not fast, though!) and 159 kB does not (REALLY slow in failure, too!). Anyone know the exact max size?

Hi all:
I have been desperately trying to assimilate the tremendous store of information contained within these pages. Like so many others, I am in awe of the 'founding fathers' who have been able to take the capability of the MG35 to the next level.

I have plenty Java experience (and some rusty C/C++ that I can freshen). I am very excited about this project and I am keen contribute to the web/CGI capability of this firmware.

I am about to download the 1.4.4.4.5-Alpha5 developer-edition firmware on top of my 1.4.4.4-pre4-LC-Royal_Blue firmware. Any hints or comments from the real pros on the board?
--Lyndell

Hello All:
I just fired up my mediagate mg-35 to find that for some reason it is not working. The hard drive led will light up but not the blue lights. I can connect it by usb and it still shows on my computer as a external hard drive. My son said he had it on last night and he was scrolling through the movie menu and the screen went blank. I believe he may have hit the enter key on the update file and turn the unit off before it finished. Is there any way to flash the unit now or is it a brick.

Thanks

P.S. I have already bought a new one but would still like to know if this one can be repaired.

If the blue light is not flashing, then I believe you have a brick. The flashing blue light indicates the presence of an intact bootloader. Without the bootloader, somebody somewhere would have to find or tell us about the JTAG port, if it even exists on these units.

Another possibility, given the symptoms, is that the 5V power supply crumped. Since you have another MG-35, a quick check of this is to swap power supplies and see if that fixes it.

If the dead one is still under warranty, I would have it replaced.

Just got the MG-35, and have 2 quick qeustions:

1) will FAT32 or NTFS be a better format? FAT32 will limit file size to 2GB? If so, then I guess NTFS is a no-brainer

2) overall, what's the best non-developmnet firmware? the new release from al-tech suppordely has m3u playlist support but I hear a lot of other liitations. 1.4.4.4-pre4-LC-Royal_Blue firmware sounds like it fixed a lot of the crappiness of the original mfg's firmware. if i get the user-supported firmware, I'll definitely paypal some $$ their way to support "the cause".

Any comments?

Thanks for your help.

Just got the MG-35, and have 2 quick qeustions:

1) will FAT32 or NTFS be a better format? FAT32 will limit file size to 2GB? If so, then I guess NTFS is a no-brainer



4GB limit with FAT32...Your choice..

will FAT32 or NTFS be a better format? If you go with the development firmware, there is an ftp server and the phase1/phase2 script support to remount the internal drive RW. Thereafter, you can ftp and write to your internal drive from anywhere, provided it's FAT32. The NTFS driver in the Mediagate firmware is READ ONLY.

Help needed.
I have successfully installed the 1.4.4.4.5-Alpha5 upgrade.

However, I appear to have difficulty getting the phase2 script to execute.
I can not get my HDD mounted in RW mode, and my web server does not start :-(

I have extended my PATH to include a folder on my HDD that contains some shell scripts "zz_devel/bin". Any chance one of you have a copy of busybox/bigbox that is "fully loaded"?
I could do with some more precompiled utilities while I try to figure this out.

Has anyone used the MediaGate 35 for music?
I have a large digital music library and am seeking ways to gain more access to it. I am hoping to find a device that will house a hard drive of music and make it available, even without a PC. Is this capable or am I seeking something different?

Has anyone used the MediaGate 35 for music? I have a large digital music library and am seeking ways to gain more access to it. I am hoping to find a device that will house a hard drive of music and make it available, even without a PC. I have used the Mediagate for music, but I bought it mostly for video playback. You can certainly store large numbers of mp3/wav/wma/ogg files on a Mediagate with an internal drive, but you will have difficulty reaching these files from anything other than a single PC, due to the limitation of the NDAS disk-sharing software key. Simply playing the music (sans PC) is possible and potentially high-fi with the onboard 192kHz/24bit DAC or via external decoder. But those using m3u playlists have complained, and those with enormous numbers of files have complained, and I've complained about needing to lower the volume to avoid distortion. :rolleyes:

Thanks for the input.
Perhaps I shoud start a new thread because what I am basically looking for is a "Home" iPod type device that I can plug into my powered speakers or my DAC, something with a huge 3.5" PATA or SATA hard drive, oh perhaps 500 or 750 gb :)

Hello All:
I just fired up my mediagate mg-35 to find that for some reason it is not working. The hard drive led will light up but not the blue lights. I can connect it by usb and it still shows on my computer as a external hard drive. My son said he had it on last night and he was scrolling through the movie menu and the screen went blank. I believe he may have hit the enter key on the update file and turn the unit off before it finished. Is there any way to flash the unit now or is it a brick.

Thanks

P.S. I have already bought a new one but would still like to know if this one can be repaired.

Did you try pushing the AV button on the remote? ;)

My unit has displayed similarly but its just that it seems to switch back to a non connected video source of its own accord, for some reason, on occasion.

Wow, this thread is very informative but VERY long. :P

I just got the new MG350HD unit, and I've been poking around in it. The firmware's boot monitor is different and the memory is very different.

Maybe we should create a new thread specifically for the MG350HD and it's technical issues.

I've also updated jcurless's mg35tool (newly named mg350tool) to work with the MG350HD upgrade files. I'll post a link to my update after I've made my token 5 posts. :D

Bit.
Update - Here's the link to the mg350tool: MG350TOOL (http://bitbasher.net/mg350hd/mg350tool_v0.2.rar)
Props to :cool: Jeff Curless :cool: for writing the original mg35tool!

Bit, whats your initial impressions on the MG350HD then? Have you upgraded from the MG-35?

I think starting a unique MG-350 thread is a very good idea. It's going to get very confusing having inner-twined conversations about multiple products in one thread.

I've also updated jcurless's mg35tool (newly named mg350tool) to work with the MG350HD upgrade files. I'll post a link to my update after I've made my token 5 posts. :D


Hi!

Can you confirm that it is still compatible with MG35? If so, I will update it in the sourceforge repository.

I've also updated jcurless's mg35tool (newly named mg350tool) to work with the MG350HD upgrade files... Huh? The version I got from here (http://mg35tools.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/mg35tools/PC_tools/mg35tool/) already has this capability. Did you get your old version from here? (http://mediagate.pbwiki.com/MG35Tool) :eek: If so, obviously we need to update the wiki.

As long as you have figured this out, could you add the capability to split and join MG-25 update files? :cool: That is still missing from the sourceforge.net version.

Bit, whats your initial impressions on the MG350HD then? Have you upgraded from the MG-35?

So far, I'm happy. It does have a few bugs, and the firmware has LOTS of room for improvements. It's playing 95% of the video files I care about. I had one WMV9 file it didn't play, but I think because the file used a wierd sub-audio codec that was mono-voice (not very common).

I didn't have the MG35, but my friend does, and he suggested the MG350HD because of the WMV support (which I like). I might use the wireless, but my WAP is using WPA (not WEP) and so far, the MG350HD's concept of security is pretty shortsighted - I'm not a big fan of using my guest account for PC shares. I've been looking into the firmware and if I can change the CRAMFS on the unit, I think I can change the user account and password the MG350HD uses to help with security.


Can you confirm that it is still compatible with MG35? If so, I will update it in the sourceforge repository.

See my response, below. I based my update on the older mg35tool from the wiki. I didn't know there was a newer version. I haven't run the newer sourceforge version yet, but from a brief look at the source code, it appears it will work flawlessly with both the MG35 and the MG350HD.


Huh? The version I got from here (http://mg35tools.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/mg35tools/PC_tools/mg35tool/) already has this capability. Did you get your old version from here? (http://mediagate.pbwiki.com/MG35Tool) :eek: If so, obviously we need to update the wiki.

As long as you have figured this out, could you add the capability to split and join MG-25 update files? :cool: That is still missing from the sourceforge.net version.
Yes, I think I did get my version from the wiki. The version on sourceforge does appear to have a -t option which selects the type (MG35 or MG350HD).

I didn't know this newer version existed :confused:, so I guess my changes are un-necessary if one uses the newer version. I haven't checked, but since the newer version supports the MG350HD it probably uses the correct FLASH addresses.

I'll see if I can add MG25 support. I'll have to find an MG25 upgrade file to look at.
Bit.

I'll see if I can add MG25 support. I'll have to find an MG25 upgrade file to look at. Fantastic. The MG25 firmware usually runs one rev number ahead of the MG-35 and perhaps 3 months earlier. So I was considering cross-flashing my MG-35 to see if any bugs (critical to me) were fixed. Obviously I would lose the network stuff missing on an MG-25. And given Al Tech has not responded to my question regarding cross-flashing, we need to split and join an MG-25 firmware version such as 1.4.7 here (http://airlinktek.com/english/atboard_view.php?param=e_sw&page=1&kind=&uid=70&keyfield=&key=) without the bootloader. That would allow us to recover via serial if cross-flashing bricks the MG-35. Note that cross-flashing an MG-35 with MG-350HD firmware is not possible because it's nearly twice as big as MG-35 firmware and the MG-35 doesn't have enough memory. :(

Many other versions of firmware for MG25/35/350HD are on http://www.airlinktek.com under the Support tab.

So I was considering cross-flashing my MG-35 to see if any bugs (critical to me) were fixed. Obviously I would lose the network stuff missing on an MG-25.

Hi! Just for my curiosity, did you ever tried cross-flashing a MG25 image into MG35? Did it work?

If someone can help:

#1 Please be language friendly I am a Linux noob, just installed it for the first time.

I have MediaGate MG350 HD players:

I want to make it play my network shared files. What I did so far was right click on the folder and share it using SMB - Read Only mode (I also tried none read only mode)

I can see the folders that I have shared on my mediagate player but I cannot access them.

What happens on my other windows computers when I try to access the folders - it asks me for the password and I have no idea what it is, my root password is not the correct one.

I have Ubuntu 6.10

Please help.

Does the MG-35 have a built-in web server?

I want to add a content streamer to my audio rack and I need something that reponds to web commands.

I have a couple of old Audio Trons, but they are hopelessly outdated.

Does the MG-35 have a built-in web server?

I want to add a content streamer to my audio rack and I need something that reponds to web commands.

I have a couple of old Audio Trons, but they are hopelessly outdated.The user-modified firmware for the MG-35 does have a web-server, but currently it does not do much. (The stock firmware does not have a web-server, or a telnet server, or an FTP server. The modified firmware has all these and a far better color scheme too :D )

Enough has been figured out to remotely invoke an audio file if you read through this thread, but nobody has put together a web-based file browser and launcher.
If you are up to the task of creating the CGI for the web it would be great. All the infrastructure is there to add CGI scripts.

The current MG-35 web page looks like this:
http://i13.tinypic.com/2cfux6q.jpg

The Yahoo group for MODS and user-modified firmware is here http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/mg-35_firmware_mods/

The WIKI with tech info is here
http://mediagate.pbwiki.com/

Joe L.

Hi! Just for my curiosity, did you ever tried cross-flashing a MG25 image into MG35? Did it work? No I did not! I am waiting for a mod to Jeff's mg35tool that can split/combine an MG-25 update file w/o the bootloader. My claim is that I could totally brick my MG035 but still recover via serial if the bootloader is still intact.

So far, I'm happy. It does have a few bugs, and the firmware has LOTS of room for improvements. It's playing 95% of the video files I care about. I had one WMV9 file it didn't play, but I think because the file used a wierd sub-audio codec that was mono-voice (not very common).

I didn't have the MG35, but my friend does, and he suggested the MG350HD because of the WMV support (which I like). I might use the wireless, but my WAP is using WPA (not WEP) and so far, the MG350HD's concept of security is pretty shortsighted - I'm not a big fan of using my guest account for PC shares. I've been looking into the firmware and if I can change the CRAMFS on the unit, I think I can change the user account and password the MG350HD uses to help with security.

Thanks.. Yeh, i don't really have wireless in mind for playback, but not supporting WPA is surprising. If I recall correctly, someone mentioned something about the MG-35 also accessing shares with username and password of Mediagate (although maybe that was just a username and no pass). I would assume they carried this across to the MG350HD. So while not the best solution, you can at least disable guest accounts.

Enough has been figured out to remotely invoke an audio file if you read through this thread, but nobody has put together a web-based file browser and launcher.
If you are up to the task of creating the CGI for the web it would be great. All the infrastructure is there to add CGI scripts.

The main problem with our current implementation is that we don't have any shells to run proper CGI scripts, all I have been able to do is run commands like cat, mgnv etc to produce the results on the web page. We need someone to have a serious look at getting hush to work on the mg35, mg350 HD. If this can be achieved then a web-based file browser should be possible.
At the moment everything needs to be hard coded into the web page. I've created some pages that pull all the useful data I can out of the nvram but that is as far as I have got. I was hoping that Ian would have been able to include the latest web page in the Alpha 9 build but he only go up to Alpha 8 before getting busy with his life and his bike.

I have a feeling that what we are going to ask the mg35 to do may be a bit of a big task for the little (and now getting on 6 yeas old?) processor. As soon as you start playing movies (especially in HD format, since it does software encoding) and trying to use a ftp server or file transfers the machine will just give up and run like a 1 legged dog. It is starting to chug now with the web server CGI scripts and playing movies at the same time.

Personally I just want to be able to put a mythtv frontend on it. (Instead of trying to decipher the way mythtv names files) but it seams the only device that has support for this is the MVP.