Tomacro limHD200i HD media player with H.264 [Text View] - Page 12

digitalkid2

10-03-07, 01:36 PM

Hi Jack wrote:
DGKid2, must you not have noticed yet... It's never the player, always the files...
Remux files, Strip files, forked samples, THOR issues etc... The player is decent
with HD file playback but as you said, everything else offers pure immaturity for
a very mature price...
Yes I have noticed that. It is possible that some of the files are messed up but hard to believe they are all messed up. It is also hard not to notice that of the 2,700+ responses in this thread over 1,100+ of them are by oldpainless68. IMO I think oldpainless68 and few others in this thread could get more accomplished if they were more objective and less emotional in regards to the lim.

Progress with the lim has significantly slowed but it is still on my list as a player with potential that is not ready for market, let alone a price tag of $400+. I will continue to track it and maybe in the not too distant future it will mature enough and I will purchase it or feel comfortable enough to point someone in its direction but for now it just has potential. And as far as the claim by oldpainless68 that the lim is the best at HD; IMO that claim is baseless since no objective testing has been done between the lim and rest of the NMPs that play HD, and the list of other players is substantial. If we are looking only at h264 HD or HD wrapped in mkv then the Lim and TVIX are about it for now but the generalized statement that the lim is best HD player is bogus.

A few years back when I got my first NMP I was thrilled and awed and soon came to believe that was the wave of the future but truth be told not much real progress has been made since then...I am not so sure anymore where it will end up. For the general public it will probably be something like Apple TV or the VUDU or a Media TV and for the geeks who wants more flexibility it will be something like the TVIX5500 or whatever.....

pc01

10-03-07, 05:01 PM

OK guys, why do we have to point fingers at each others all the time (this only provokes non-necessary fights)? Did you not notice Kevin has tuned down his voice here lately and starts to "warm-up to Hi-Jack"?) and also does Jackie and other sales persons? Your points have been made and let the readers judge for themselves what LimHD really does.
I have to say, after playing with it for a few weeks, despite the fact that I have a defected USB-PC link and Jackie has promised to exchange it out for me, I am really pleased with its quality and compatability. Yes, the functionalities are lacking, the GUI is not pretty, but, for all the HD (including 24p), DVDs files I have, it handles without a problem. Yes, I have not been like you "professionals" out there testing as many video files, but I think for any players, occassional 1-2 unplayable files should be acceptable, right? Even with commercial DVDs, some just don't play well in certain DVD players, right? Well, this is just my $.02.
What I want to see, is, for Tomacro to not focus on that 1-2% unplayable files and improve upon Lim's functionalities (such as PVR, network capabilities, better slideshows), better looking GUI and more solid built on the Lim (such as hardware parts come together in better quality. Right now, some screws do not fit well into some sockets. Have a hard switch on/off in the back, provide customers an option for 110V vs 220V plugs...). Last, cut the price down further, cause that is still a lot of changes for an average person, like me. Haha.

Thanks for your help and insights. I have been reading these threads daily and learned a lot and my confidence on the player actually is rebuilding everyday and look forward to receive my new Lim unit soon. Can't wait to play with some of your .mkv problems see if I can tweak them to work?

Sincerely,
Perry

av_noob

10-03-07, 06:14 PM

... but I think for any players, occassional 1-2 unplayable files should be acceptable, right?

Nope, not for a player valued over $400US. If the video file has the correct structure I dont see why the lim can't handle it.

Even with commercial DVDs, some just don't play well in certain DVD players, right?

I've never had a problem with any of my 4 DVD players playing movies (unless the disc was damaged of course).

Can't wait to play with some of your .mkv problems see if I can tweak them to work?

This is where you will be displeased; the lim has audio drops with most mkv's I've tried. Best of luck in your work.

pc01

10-03-07, 07:16 PM

I've never had a problem with any of my 4 DVD players playing movies (unless the disc was damaged of course).

I have encountered several of these commercial DVD problems. But I was able to play it with other DVD players, I have 8 various brands and models in my home. Again, this does not happen very often, but sometimes that occurred. The more expensive DVD makers, like Sony, has lower tolerance. This is not my opinion only, but others from various forums.

Perry

gendvd

10-04-07, 12:20 AM

gendvd

10-04-07, 12:32 AM

I have upload 2 new sample, seems to play fine on LIM. I will try full movie later.
If you can upload the original m2ts file to me,I would be glad to transfer them to Tomacro.

Hi-Jack

10-04-07, 01:27 AM

PC01
It's really not that we are saying the Tomacro can do nothing but look at the last few
posts... Two people filter whats in the buglist or not, everything needs to pass Jackie
who has nothing to do with Tomacro, so he claims though he is involved with them)
and I see only 2 guys testing where it should be like 25 to 50 etc

I think a lot of "clashes" would stop if Tomacro would occupy themeselves more with their
customers instead of these two of which Kevin is doing a great job. We all must agree
to that (even if I dissagree on some points). It's not enough!!!

A lot less "we will check" and 'we will send it" and "we will look at it" and "wait a bit more"
coming from Tomacro would be nice. People don't know where they stand, see newer
generation popping up all over the place now (3 so far) and wonder... is Tomacro
going to make it as some say --> unrelated to Tomacro...

Feedback from jackie or Oldpainless is worthless when it comes down if the Company
promised it or not. If Tomacro would say it directly, it has a total different meaning as
then the Company is responsible...

They should open up. That's it. They should offer info, not only take it and as soon that
works both ways... i can see them having a future... Without it, it's gonna be a one day
fly that's gonna dissapear over time leaving an unfinished product on the market and a
lot of unhappy customers having wasted money and the simple reason would be not having
enough customers buying their products because of their lack in resources to make progress,
offer adequate info or inability to inject live into the scene...

We don't ask to be perfect... We ask value for money and that's part of it...
In such a young state of the device, they would seriously benefit from releasing updates
each 14 days with whatever improvements they made. That I would call fight back as certainly
they made a serious bad impression to begin with as it could not do anything following by broken
mkv and iso support to only again release another version that improved both after a month waiting
which breaks HDMI (for some) and still is immature in parts... (especially ISO)

Tehy take what custoners have to give but don't give anything in return.
That's how it is, that's how it looks... It's not too late to turn around... but it soon will be!

Back to silence...

Mophun

10-04-07, 01:58 AM

PC01
It's really not that we are saying the Tomacro can do nothing but look at the last few
posts... Two people filter whats in the buglist or not, everything needs to pass Jackie
who has nothing to do with Tomacro, so he claims though he is involved with them)
and I see only 2 guys testing where it should be like 25 to 50 etc

I think a lot of "clashes" would stop if Tomacro would occupy themeselves more with their
customers instead of these two of which Kevin is doing a great job. We all must agree
to that (even if I dissagree on some points). It's not enough!!!

A lot less "we will check" and 'we will send it" and "we will look at it" and "wait a bit more"
coming from Tomacro would be nice. People don't know where they stand, see newer
generation popping up all over the place now (3 so far) and wonder... is Tomacro
going to make it as some say --> unrelated to Tomacro...

Feedback from jackie or Oldpainless is worthless when it comes down if the Company
promised it or not. If Tomacro would say it directly, it has a total different meaning as
then the Company is responsible...

They should open up. That's it. They should offer info, not only take it and as soon that
works both ways... i can see them having a future... Without it, it's gonna be a one day
fly that's gonna dissapear over time leaving an unfinished product on the market and a
lot of unhappy customers having wasted money and the simple reason would be not having
enough customers buying their products because of their lack in resources to make progress,
offer adequate info or inability to inject live into the scene...

We don't ask to be perfect... We ask value for money and that's part of it...
In such a young state of the device, they would seriously benefit from releasing updates
each 14 days with whatever improvements they made. That I would call fight back as certainly
they made a serious bad impression to begin with as it could not do anything following by broken
mkv and iso support to only again release another version that improved both after a month waiting
which breaks HDMI (for some)...

Tehy take what custoners have to give but don't give anything in return.
That's how it is, that's how it looks... It's not too late to turn around... but it soon will be!

Back to silence...

Hi-Jack,
I agree with you here.
I'd like more info from Tomacro concerning their progress. Phrases like 'Any time now', 'Shouldn't be to long' just don't cut it!
I know your advice concerning Beta testing comes from experience, and Tomacro would be wise to follow it.
If Tomacro wants to be a lasting name in this business, they surely need to focus more on communicating with their customers.

skylla

10-04-07, 04:28 AM

The provided internal HDD contained a lot of movies and trailer (160 GByte), partially with Chinese letters in the file or path name. It is correctly visible on the limHD200i, but not on a USB connected PC! And so it's not possible to rename or delete parts of the demo material. Any idea for cleanup the HDD contents without reformat?

Also it would be necessary to configure a charset in the settings for showing folders and filenames in the HDD, Samba and NFS selection. Some names with special letters (e.g. german in my system) are fragmented or unvisible. From my point of view - it have to be an additional point in the ToDo list.

pierdolis

10-04-07, 07:35 AM

My limHD as arrived!

First impressions..and basicly lets jump to what matters...

I easily installed my 320 GB seagate (IDE) disk...was fast and simple.

Also simple was formating it...At the moment I'm transfering 100 Giga of data to the internal limHD hardrive so I can only post what I have tested so far.

Before anything I connected it..and arrange the setup towards my LCD (1080p) and was easy and very acessible. Next trought my external USB harddrive I was able to watch several video files without any problem. Smooth all of them and now drops of audio and no macroblockings.

Divx's and Xvid's..sure..all sort of them...OK
WMV files (WMV9 and WC1) impecable...OK
MKV..I only tried Prison.Break.3x01.Orientación.720p.HDTV.x264-CTU and worked perfectly and some other samples of films..and worked perfect.
MP4 and quicktimes also.
The 720p Mkv and the wWMVHD is just impressive good the render quality..just impressive.
My only two??? are two files

1. WMV9 cause of the audio..the picture display was amazing. The audio codec is
0x2000 (AC3) 40.000HZ 448kb/s (Total 5 Channels)

2. DivxHD..picture impressive but no audio
0x2001 (DTS)
48.000HZ 754kb/s (5 channels)

The firmaware installed was Version: Build 1.60beta2-070803

I didn't yet upgrade cause of the HDMI instabillity of the new beta...this files that I can't play audio can be working after the new firmware?
And...is any way for me to demux them and put the audio on some other format with recompressing the image??? Maybe Yoda oldpainless as some answer to me???

Keep on Tomacro! I'm happy!

pc01

10-04-07, 07:41 AM

Hi-Jack,
Yes, I hear you. I understand your concern and sure it is mine as well of things you said, if they are true. My thinking is, perhaps Tomacro does have others testing the device, not just Jackie and Kevin? (But we don't know.) You know Chinese market is a black hole sometimes, perhaps they have enough beta testers, not publically announced? I want to hope a high tech company knows a little bit about what they need to survive. Well, enough said, I think we are all passion about having a good quality product and that's why we write so much here. You said, "There are 2 ways to interpret things, to look at it in a positive way or to look at it exactly the way it is!" I prefer the former one if I am not sure about which way for sure, don't you?

Skylla,
The reason perhaps you pc was not able to read the fonts was because the OS is not Chinese or not multilingual? Install something like Chinese Star (Nian Ge Star? My poor Chinese) may help? Or find a friend who has Chinese and rename it with there PC? Best wish.

Perry

LianLi

10-04-07, 10:45 AM

Any update on the new firmware? O.o

clontarf

10-04-07, 11:49 AM

Hi guys

Newbie to both the forum and the LIM. Just trying to set mine up and having a few issues. I tried a search but to no avail.

Basically I have a Panasonic PX60 Plasma. I have run the hdmi from player to TV but every file is playing with a green cast or tinge over it. Have tried different settings but nothing will work. I am upgrading to the latest firmware hoping this will help. Any other ideas, thoughts etc. Sorry to be asking for help on first post but slowly being driven to distraction. Thanks C.

landsat

10-04-07, 11:52 AM

Hi guys

Newbie to both the forum and the LIM. Just trying to set mine up and having a few issues. I tried a search but to no avail.

Basically I have a Panasonic PX60 Plasma. I have run the hdmi from plyer to TV but every file is playing with a green cast or tinge over it. Have tried different settings but nothing wiull work. I am upgrading to the latest firmware hoping this will help. Any other ideas, thoughts etc. Sorry to be asking for help on first post but slowly being driven to distraction. Thanks C.

Hi,
Does the LIM menu is green too ?
Do you have try with another HDMI cable ?

clontarf

10-04-07, 12:01 PM

Hi

There is a marked tinge when i go into the hard-drives actual menu. It wasn't there when the hard-drive was connected to the TVIX I had before. I have tried two hdmi cables. I dont have another type of cable to try and see if it is hdmi only at fault.

It affects ISO, AVI etc.

C

clontarf

10-04-07, 12:23 PM

OK. Upgrade done. No problem switching back to to HDMI. Still green over everything. An example. When the PLAY box pops up on the top right of the screen half the word (horizontally) is green and the bottom half is black. It's like R&B are missing from the RGB. Obviously i will try another cable tomorrow (more money. Damn) but i bought it for HDMI.

Hi-Jack

10-04-07, 12:28 PM

clontarf

10-04-07, 12:28 PM

Frightening. I swapped HDMI cables around. Now it's gone blue. Makes a change.

ed0

10-04-07, 03:16 PM

Frightening. I swapped HDMI cables around. Now it's gone blue. Makes a change.
were you using the HDMI cable that comes with the Lim at the first time (while it was green)?. I'm using it and it's ok in 1080p on a TFT.

clontarf

10-04-07, 04:11 PM

I was. Yes. I'm beginning to think there must be something wrong with the output. I used the Lim cable and a QED. Both had the same result. I use the same QED HDMI cable on my Denon 3910 DVD player with no problems. And I tried it on both the HDMI TV ports too. It's now refusing to pass thru DTS to my Yamaha on an ISO file. 5.1 DD fine though. This is really frustrating.

Worst thing is that even with the crap colours the picture looks like it is - or could be - a big improvement on my old TVIX via component. Well I think it is. It's tough when everythings gone green.

pc01

10-04-07, 06:06 PM

clontarf,
Be patience. You might be like me, I had a defected lim with PC<>USB port. You may have a defected HDMI port? Everything you are saying sounds like a hardware port problem. Have you try playing it thru RCA (yellow) connection? BTW, if your is truly a defected one, the return policy is pretty good if you bought it from GenDVD.

Perry

clontarf

10-04-07, 06:41 PM

I think you might be right. I bought mine thru an eBay seller not GenDVD. I'll have to find out where they got it from and work something out. These are rare in the UK and I would rather get it fixed than lose it. Bit frustrating. I had a x.264 Heroes episode waiting to show the gf. 'See how clever i am'. Was my speech. Now it's.. 'yes dear..no I know it doesn't work dear. No dear, really it wasn't that expensive. Well thats not REALLY expensive in the scheme of things is it my little dragon of disgust? Stop hitting me with the remote control dear...' etc. PS: In British speak 'bit frustrating' means 'I am feeling homicidal and am contemplating getting medieval on someones ass'. Not in a Pulp Fiction sense but in a very fed up sort of way.

pc01

10-04-07, 07:00 PM

clontarf,
I feel your pain. Mine was similiar, except this is a wife (not a girl friend) we are talking about. Can you imagine what I have to go thru when I have to ship thing back to GenDVD? "Yes, my love, it is really not that expensive, see my bonus check SHOULD be coming and that SHOULD cover it... see once we got it, I promise to capture all my 100+ dv tapes and somehow spend 1000+ hours converting it to MEPG2 so that Lim can play and another 100+ hours to copy to the internal HDD... THEN we can view all our precious moments..." (If I gone missing, you know who did it! :))

Perry

gendvd

10-05-07, 03:13 AM

clontarf

10-05-07, 04:11 AM

Hi Jackie

I go into the setup menu. Click on Factory Settings. It pops up a box saying SET. I click. It says SUCCESS. I cannot find the subtitle control?

Also I have switched it on for the first time since yesterday and the input had changed from HDMI to SD. *** It Just changed back after 5 minutes to HDMI again****

Just to confirm I run HDMI successfully from DVD player in to my Panasonic PX60B with no problems. On both HDMI TV slots.

Should I have a different setting than PAL HDMI with 50htz?

I am trying to play NTSC clips, non region iso files and AVI files. The menue screen is also greeny blue so I do not think it is a file problem. I will try and pick up an adaptor and run my component cables and see how that works but I need the HDMI more.

Thanks for your response.

clontarf

10-05-07, 06:07 AM

Jackie

I just checked the Version build number after trying to go back to the factory settings and it is still locked in the latest firmware 1.60-070914. I have repeatedly followed the manual instructions but it refuses to default.

I am now reloading the original firmware instead.

C

clontarf

10-05-07, 06:57 AM

Jackie

Having returned the model to the first firmware update I am sorry to say no change. Colour is still all wrong. I will check the feed via component hopefully laster today.

C

ps2br

10-05-07, 09:50 AM

Hi all , .mkv files have support for External Subtitles ????

Thanks,
Mauricio

russland

10-05-07, 10:07 AM

Hi all , .mkv files have support for External Subtitles ????

Thanks,
Mauricio

TViX 4100/5100 supports external subtitles.

clontarf

10-05-07, 11:02 AM

OK. Managed to get an S-Video cable. Full colour. No problems at all. So its down to the HDMI.

I spoke to my Panny dealer who couldn't figure out why this was happening unless the players HDMI was corrupted. Ditto a computer engineer I know. There was some talk of cinfiguration issues but I really am not that clever. As you will see below...

A couple of questions:

Should the player have an issue playing PAL 50htz on a PAL 100htz TV?

How much would it cost to fit a new HDMI socket if it comes to that? And where could it be done?

C

ChristopheCherel

10-05-07, 11:05 AM

Ok. My lim is finaly updated...
I don't know why it was impossible to update... I tried 20 times maybe...
And today, i downloaded last firm from gendvd and it's ok now!

I'll have good week end :)

ps2br

10-05-07, 08:01 PM

TViX 4100/5100 supports external subtitles.

LimHD200i dont have support for external subtitle just for MKV ?? or for all other files ??

dp70

10-05-07, 10:50 PM

External subtitles work on other files too.

gendvd

10-06-07, 12:21 AM

Jackie

Having returned the model to the first firmware update I am sorry to say no change. Colour is still all wrong. I will check the feed via component hopefully laster today.

C

Hello! remove the drive you installed from your tvix, then boot up the lim and then factory set again without the hard drive in

oldpainless68

10-06-07, 03:45 AM

Hi, Kevin.
Can you try this sample (http://rapidshare.com/files/59886070/EP01_split-005.mkv).
It plays nicely with VLC on my not very powerful PC.

Cheers Russland....I'll check and get back to you....

K

oldpainless68

10-06-07, 03:55 AM

I've been looking into these 8634 chip based media players.....is it me or do none of them mention support for H.264 HP@L5.1?

K

oldpainless68

10-06-07, 04:34 AM

gendvd

10-06-07, 06:39 AM

I'd try the suggestion Jackie made just to rule the Hard drive out...

K

:) Great!You are back again.

clontarf

10-06-07, 07:21 AM

Guys

Tried it with hard drive detached and same issue. In fact when I used the hard drive with s-video yesterday afternoon it worked perfectly so I figure that wouldrule the hard drive out as an issue anyway?

clontarf

10-06-07, 07:22 AM

Is anyone else on the forum running their player through a Panny?

oldpainless68

10-06-07, 07:25 AM

Is anyone else on the forum running their player through a Panny?

If you have the opportunity to try it with another screen through HDMI and you still have the same issue, get whoever sold it to you to replace the unit...

K

clontarf

10-06-07, 08:38 AM

oldpainless68

10-06-07, 08:46 AM

I'm going up to my local dealer on Monday. but looking at worse case scenario...Bad news on replacing is the guy who sold it to me is on eBay. He has great feedback, is totally reputable and it was working for him. We can come to some agreement I'm sure but these are not easy to get hold of here. How much do you think it would cost to get the HDMI output repaired in the UK.

And will the player play mkv and x264 via component?

Don't know about getting it repaired in the UK.....Jackie (China tho) MIGHT be able to help....i'm in the UK too - I ordered mine from Jackie (aka GenDVD).....is the ebayer selling these units?...or was it a one off?.....if it was a one off, and you can't get your money back, you may have to live with Component or VGA (both go upto 1080p....so no great loss)

ALL supported containers/files will play with no issues over component or VGA....

K

clontarf

10-06-07, 08:51 AM

oldpainless68

10-06-07, 09:00 AM

Thanks OP. The guy who sold it to me is a sound bloke. Just depressed it can't do what I need it to do. If it worked for him and not for me than it's a transit damage issue. So we'll hit up UPS first I think.

Thanks for your help. Jackie - you too. And if you or anyone on the forum can advise where to get the output easily replaced I'd be pathetically grateful.

Yeap....1st port of call...UPS claim....then buy from someone who can do a swap out if you have any issues.....

Shame it got damaged in transit...I would not be without mine for all the tea in China (excuse the pun).

Now, just waiting for the next cut of firmware.

K

gendvd

10-06-07, 11:57 AM

pc01

10-06-07, 12:15 PM

If you truly want HDMI, I think you can also buy an DVI-to-HDMI cable like: http://www.svideo.com/dvihdmi2.html ($10 US)

Perry

dp70

10-06-07, 06:35 PM

Hey all, is the limHD supposed to be able to play a file with these specs? When I try it (on 9/14 firmware), I get crappy audio and no picture. (I think the original audio may be poor though. This file came from one of those inexpensive Aiptek Go-HD camcorders and was sent to me by a relative.) I thought it ought to play OK since it is H.264 + AAC.

The original file is here (http://www.divshare.com/download/2246102-ad0); maybe oldpainless or Jackie could 'reflect' it to Tomacro...

General #0
Complete name : F:\Hummingbirds02.MOV
Format : QuickTime
Format/Info : Quictime movie
Format/Family : MPEG-4
File size : 9.06 MiB
PlayTime : 18s 538ms
Bit rate : 4101 Kbps
StreamSize : 24.0 KiB
Encoded date : UTC 2007-08-01 19:58:18
Tagged date : UTC 2007-08-01 19:58:18

Video #0
Codec : H.264
Codec/Info : H.264 (3GPP)
PlayTime : 18s 533ms
Bit rate : 4059 Kbps
Width : 1280 pixels
Height : 720 pixels
Aspect ratio : 16/9
Frame rate : 30.000 fps
StreamSize : 8.97 MiB
Title : Ambarella AVC
Encoded date : UTC 2007-08-01 19:58:18
Tagged date : UTC 2007-08-01 19:58:18

Audio #0
Codec : AAC LC
Codec/Info : AAC Low Complexity
PlayTime : 18s 538ms
Bit rate : 33 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48 KHz
Resolution : 16 bits
StreamSize : 73.7 KiB
Title : Ambarella AAC
Encoded date : UTC 2007-08-01 19:58:18
Tagged date : UTC 2007-08-01 19:58:18

Update: I discovered the audio sounded bad because the limHD lost its volume setting and it was up to the max. That bug needs to be looked at with high priority - both the losing settings aspect and the need for a way to lock the volume at unity setting (100%, i.e. exactly as in the original audio track).

dp70

10-06-07, 09:49 PM

oldpainless68

10-07-07, 03:08 AM

Just noticed that Tomacro has put up an official limHD web forum (http://www.limhd-sky.cn). Here's the translated-by-Google version... (http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&langpair=zh%7Cen&u=http://www.limhd-sky.cn/&prev=/language_tools[/url)

Yeah...I've seen that forum.....looks like this thread gives a bit more detail....

K

PS - Jackie - did you manage to get Mark's file to Tomacro?

oldpainless68

10-07-07, 04:08 AM

Any chance someone could post a 100meg EVO sample (h.264 codec)?

Cheers

K

landsat

10-07-07, 05:54 AM

200mo evo sample = http://tomtom2k5.free.fr/mkv/evo/

will be up in 30mn.

Nom complet : D:\HDTV\m\part0001.evo
Format : MPEG-2 Program
Format/Family : MPEG-2
Taille du fichier : 199 Mio
Durée : 1mn 24s
Débit : 20 Mb/s

Video #0
Codec : VC-1
Durée : 1mn 24s
Largeur : 1920 pixels
Hauteur : 1080 pixels
Format à l'écran : 16/9
PixelAspectRatio : 1.000

Audio #0
Codec : AC3+
Durée : 1mn 24s
Type de débit : CBR
Echantillonnage : 48 KHz
Delai par rapport Vi : -27ms

Audio #1
Codec : AC3+
Durée : 1mn 24s
Débit : 112 Kbps
Type de débit : CBR
Echantillonnage : 48 KHz

Texte #0
Codec : RLE
Durée : 1mn 17s
Delai par rapport Vi : 2s 602ms

Texte #1
Codec : RLE
Durée : 1mn 17s
Delai par rapport Vi : 2s 135ms

oldpainless68

10-07-07, 06:04 AM

landsat

10-07-07, 06:26 AM

oops sorry I read to fast your post ... I have only this sample :(

oldpainless68

10-07-07, 07:21 AM

oops sorry I read to fast your post ... I have only this sample :(

No worries...thanks for offering to help...upload it anyway if you would....hopefully the next cut will resolve some of the ASAP stuff, then we can start on the next lot, so we'll get the wheels in motion on EVO support now by collecting the samples........

Anyways...off for Sunday lunch now (slow braised Lamb Shanks with a carrot and swede mash served with a mint & rosemary gravy and a bottle of wine or 2...mmmm...lol)

Cheers

K

madshi

10-07-07, 09:26 AM

Any chance someone could post a 100meg EVO sample (h.264 codec)?
The Departed Trailer from here is h264:

http://samples.mplayerhq.hu/evob/

gendvd

10-07-07, 10:43 AM

gendvd

10-07-07, 10:44 AM

Yeah...I've seen that forum.....looks like this thread gives a bit more detail....

K

PS - Jackie - did you manage to get Mark's file to Tomacro?

I am pleased to do so.

oldpainless68

10-07-07, 12:51 PM

The Departed Trailer from here is h264:

http://samples.mplayerhq.hu/evob/

Thanks Madshi....

K

russland

10-07-07, 07:31 PM

Cheers Russland....I'll check and get back to you....

K

Seems like the new 8634-based devices have some micro-blocking with this clip. I wondered how limHD plays it.

oldpainless68

10-08-07, 02:45 AM

Seems like the new 8634-based devices have some micro-blocking with this clip. I wondered how limHD plays it.

Russland

I can confirm that there is some macroblocks with this clip on the Lim (starts at 10secs and lasts for about 1sec in the bottom right hand corner). It's odd that I have only seen macroblocks in clips...I wonder if that when splitting some MKV's into small clips, that somehow the I and P frames get messed up?

K

oldpainless68

10-08-07, 02:47 AM

Hi, Kevin.
Can you try this sample (http://rapidshare.com/files/59886070/EP01_split-005.mkv).
It plays nicely with VLC on my not very powerful PC.

Jackie

Could you forward this link to Fan please. It's an MKV that I think Tomacro should take a look at...

Cheers

K

oldpainless68

10-08-07, 03:40 AM

Mophun

10-08-07, 04:24 AM

I've got a new problem playing files via NFS.
I never had a problem playing files from a shared directory on my linux-server (ubuntu). But (seemingly) suddenly I can't play the files on the share.
Configuration on the server hasn't changed.
I can browse the directory of the share. I can see and select the files to play, but once selected, the Lim freezes. This happens on all files except one dvd. Permissions on all (sub)dirs are the same.
Via samba everything works ok (the same share).
Any thoughts?

lundman

10-08-07, 06:36 AM

I've been playing around with playing Original DVDs lately, and really the DVD playing support needs to improve. We have already mentioned the max brightness thing, but it does crash a lot, sometimes loses audio changing VOBs and so on. Occasionally you can start playing without video, just audio and nothing brings video back. Ie, no menu either..

But lets look forward to next firmware. This week?

Hi-Jack

10-08-07, 07:34 AM

I doubt ISO will be addressed in the next release. It seems concentrating around
mkv and HDMI issues only from the "minimal" info offered by them thry jackie and
oldpainless... they probably add a message online again a week before releasing
announcing it like last time. So far no message... or info from jackie either...

A lot of one way traffic...

oldpainless68

10-08-07, 09:45 AM

Just for info...

I've downloaded both the H.264 and VC-1 EVO's.

If I rename them .vob, the H.264 plays - but no sound or picture, but no go with the VC-1 EVO. So it sounds as though you are right Madshi.....

Jackie, could you forward this link to Tomacro - looks like EVO support with the H.264 video codec might be an easy implementation (see the other Lim thread for details from Madshi)

The Departed Trailer from here is h264:

http://samples.mplayerhq.hu/evob/

change the file extension from .mp2 to .vob

K

LianLi

10-08-07, 11:04 AM

Any date on the new firmware? We are almost at a month from the last beta release.

av_noob

10-08-07, 11:27 AM

but no go with the VC-1 EVO.

Can we at least get VC-1 support in MKV? 80% of my HD collection is VC-1 and no I dont want to multiplex them into FOURCC compliant avi files.

oldpainless68

10-08-07, 11:50 AM

Can we at least get VC-1 support in MKV? 80% of my HD collection is VC-1 and no I dont want to multiplex them into FOURCC compliant avi files.

VC-1 in an MKV is already on the list (pretty high up). I think Madshi was refering to VOB, rather than MKV's....the Lim currently supports VC-1 in WMV, TS & AVI, so I can't see much of an issue supporting it in an MKV container...

K

oldpainless68

10-08-07, 11:55 AM

Any date on the new firmware? We are almost at a month from the last beta release.

I know it's taking a while (:() but I have been assured it's because they are working on our requirements log (the items I've listed as "in progress"...although there maybe 1 or 2 others too) and trying to iron out as many bugs as possible....apparently, as soon as Tomacro think it's ready, I'll get a copy (I'll turn around the test's in under a couple of hours) and if there are no show stoppers, then we have a new cut....

K

pc01

10-08-07, 12:17 PM

phew

10-08-07, 02:27 PM

oldpainless68

10-08-07, 03:36 PM

Kevin and all,
FYI, I find a way to capture all my DVAVI directly to MPEG2 (DVD format) via StudioDV software via firewire. (Real time encoding with fairly decent quality.) Now, at least I can enjoy my videos with Lim without having to spend hours converting my videos. (IF, only IF, Lim can handle these MPEGs, I hope so.) I can't wait to find out when Jackie ship me the new LimHD. Still waiting...

Perry

Jackie will come good...don't worry.....and I'm still (sorry I have not yet) going to understand this whole DVI thing...once I get it (not tried that hard YET), then maybe we add it to the log (if I can get it...then so can Tomacro...lol)...

Mark....just one favour...run it by me once more...

K

pc01

10-08-07, 07:24 PM

K,
I am not sure what you are trying to say. BTW, I did not say DVI, but DV AVI codec (dvsd and dvc).

Perry

dp70

10-08-07, 08:29 PM

oldpainless68

10-09-07, 02:19 AM

K,
I am not sure what you are trying to say. BTW, I did not say DVI, but DV AVI codec (dvsd and dvc).

Perry

Sorry, it was a mistype....it was late here...DV AVI codec is what I meant..

K

svyatko

10-09-07, 08:08 AM

oldpainless68

10-09-07, 08:14 AM

Guys, has anyone tried adapting a USB WiFi dongle to the device. I havent got one yet, but, theoreticaly it should be possible to make it work???

Anyone?

Also, a silly question, but would anyone have a new advice on where to purchase this beautiful gadget. I am in UK, and the only thing i can find atm is Ripcaster.co.uk, which seems a bit of a rip-off.

Thanks

Don't about wi-fi - not tried. What are ripcaster charging?...I got mine from GenDVD (Jackie)..

K

svyatko

10-09-07, 08:18 AM

Ripcaster are charging £279.99 for a diskless version, and £339.99 for 320gb HDD

Let me check GenDVD...

svyatko

10-09-07, 08:20 AM

Do GenDVD ship to UK, and what did you get, how much was the postage??? Did they charge you import tax after? I had that problem once before, ordering my watercolling bits from States, bugger...

oldpainless68

10-09-07, 09:01 AM

Do GenDVD ship to UK, and what did you get, how much was the postage??? Did they charge you import tax after? I had that problem once before, ordering my watercolling bits from States, bugger...

Jackie ships to the UK....I got a unit with 320gig HD, but shipping will be cheaper without the HD...send Jackie an email...get a quote and mention Customs..;) gendvd2000@yahoo.com

That way you have two prices to compare...

K

kmika

10-09-07, 09:21 AM

pc01

10-09-07, 09:32 AM

I am going to short circuit this whole DV codec mess (AVIs with fourCC "dvsd") and contact Sigma directly about it. I think it would be easy enough for them to add to their microcode and SDK. It is NOT a feature media player companies can add themselves, as they are not involved in writing the microcode for the Sigma processor. There probably aren't too many folks outside of video editing studios who want to burn 13+ GB per hour on SD content, but hard drives are getting ever more spacious...

Mark, thanks. Exert your influence. Like you say, HDD is getting much bigger and cheaper. How many personal video you have that is in MPEG formats? Don't you want a player that plays dvsd? My 2c.

Kevin, don't overburden yourself with this problem, like Mark said, it is in the chip that we or Tomacro can't do a thing about it.

Thanks,
Perry

oldpainless68

10-09-07, 09:43 AM

Hi Guys,

I just received my lim yesterday. I have many questions...here is the first:
Can I set multiple samba shares on my lim ? I have two server in my house with many shares.
I have many 720p HD movies and some of them lagging :(

Performance wise, NFS is best and will cope with most 720p HD content...take look here http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=11099027#post11099027

It walks you through setting it up....

Both SMB and NFS, at this time, are limited to one share each...

K

oldpainless68

10-09-07, 10:27 AM

Mark, thanks. Exert your influence. Like you say, HDD is getting much bigger and cheaper. How many personal video you have that is in MPEG formats? Don't you want a player that plays dvsd? My 2c.

Kevin, don't overburden yourself with this problem, like Mark said, it is in the chip that we or Tomacro can't do a thing about it.

Thanks,
Perry

Ok...I leave that battle for Mark to take on...

K

gendvd

10-09-07, 11:18 AM

Do GenDVD ship to UK, and what did you get, how much was the postage??? Did they charge you import tax after? I had that problem once before, ordering my watercolling bits from States, bugger...

Hello! You can directly go to our website www.gendvd.com to order. There are different prices. The shipping cost will be automatically computed. We will ship it to the UK by TNT. You can track your unit by yourself on TNT website. We can ship you as a present as you suggested.
Jackie

svyatko

10-09-07, 12:35 PM

Hello! You can directly go to our website www.gendvd.com to order. There are different prices. The shipping cost will be automatically computed. We will ship it to the UK by TNT. You can track your unit by yourself on TNT website. We can ship you as a present as you suggested.
Jackie

Thank you very much for a quick reply. Just one more question,- what would an everage shipping time be to London???

Thanks.

RHISC-NL

10-09-07, 02:30 PM

Guys, has anyone tried adapting a USB WiFi dongle to the device. I havent got one yet, but, theoreticaly it should be possible to make it work???

Anyone?

Also, a silly question, but would anyone have a new advice on where to purchase this beautiful gadget. I am in UK, and the only thing i can find atm is Ripcaster.co.uk, which seems a bit of a rip-off.

Thanks

We (RHISC BV) also ship to UK at eur 379.- included VAT 19% (without HDD) Shipment is eur 25.- included VAT 19%.
More details http://www.rhisc.nl/component/option,com_virtuemart/page,shop.browse/category_id,49/Itemid,26/lang,en/

LianLi

10-09-07, 03:48 PM

New firmware ready? Q_Q

gendvd

10-09-07, 09:41 PM

Thank you very much for a quick reply. Just one more question,- what would an everage shipping time be to London???

Thanks.

Generally 5-7days
Jackie

lundman

10-09-07, 09:51 PM

Hmm got Fuse 2.5.3 compiled perfectly with no hackage, or missing functions, but;

uclibc[/tmp]# fusexmp /tmp/test/ -d -s
<4>Scheduling in interrupt
<2>kernel BUG at sched.c:569!
<4>Scheduling in interrupt
<2>kernel BUG at sched.c:569!
Connection closed by foreign host.

bugger... so something run as interrupt code is doing the wrong thing, running a semaphore or similar.

gendvd

10-09-07, 10:32 PM

[QUOTE=svyatko;11855448]Thank you very much for a quick reply. Just one more question,- what would an everage shipping time be to London???

Thanks.[/QUOTE

You can get $50 gift also.:)

Hi-Jack

10-10-07, 01:54 AM

Ok, time for me to get back in this discussion :-)
No firmware update to be spotted yet. This morning no possible release date was known
by Tomacro... Jackie still mainly here for gendvd promotion and sales... oh... nothing
actually changed... (50$ gift my ass... should be 150$ for what the player can do...)

ok, time for me to leave this discussion again... :-(

pc01

10-10-07, 07:06 AM

Jackie, any news on my unit?

Perry

gendvd

10-10-07, 07:29 AM

Jackie, any news on my unit?

Perry

Hello! Perry! The unit now has reached Beijing. I think tomorrow it can reach us.

svyatko

10-10-07, 08:38 AM

[QUOTE=svyatko;11855448]Thank you very much for a quick reply. Just one more question,- what would an everage shipping time be to London???

Thanks.[/QUOTE

You can get $50 gift also.:)

Hi Jackie, I found your auction on ebay last night, so i bought it through there.

Thanks alot.

LianLi

10-10-07, 11:15 AM

Can we get a time frame on when the new firmware is coming? This is getting old.

Thanks,
Enrique

Mophun

10-10-07, 01:39 PM

I also mailed Tomacro about new firmware.
No response.:(

oldpainless68

10-10-07, 04:01 PM

Guys....I know we all want the next cut (I do..trust me!)...but they are hard at work....you don't want a cut with a load of bugs do you (I hope that doesn't come back and bite me..lol)

K

Hi-Jack

10-11-07, 12:21 AM

madshi

10-11-07, 04:32 AM

lundman

10-11-07, 05:50 AM

gendvd

10-11-07, 06:12 AM

I also mailed Tomacro about new firmware.
No response.:(

The new firmware has been developed out, perfectly support MKV from 720p to 1080p,and have solved problems for playing pictures and sound simultaneously, but at present due to sigma company 8624 based libraries and Tomacro is also actively solving these bug along with sigma company. So we do not want to release the new firmware prematurely. We think it is not ripe now.Thank you very much for your patient waiting. If you have some questions, welcome to email to me gendvd2000@yahoo.com. That equals to email Tomacro.And you can get the answer much quicker.
:D
Jackie

Hi-Jack

10-11-07, 06:42 AM

That's funny. Last time Tomacro released betas for open testing, you criticized them big time because there were some bugs in them. It seems there's no (realistic) way for Tomacro to make you happy.

read again...
I critisized them for releasing it with specs that did not even work half way
good (mkv and DVD ISO) and having such limited QA test before launching.
That's something different than what you make of it and the beta was released in public without proper testing. Fact is, more people should test
and can download beta (different from public release site) to filter out bugs
before public post is made so these mistakes don't damage their name as it
did now...

Please don't twist my words every time you guiys see a chance at it.
I'm not playing the pro and con game anymore with ya'll... Tomacro
is doing very bad in my opninion right now and it will cost them only
more revenue over time with players becoming available. It's time for
them to work with the scene and not use it at their own convenience
only or for commercial stuff...

In the end all the positive stuff posted in "hear say"and all the negativeness
is actual true experience... You can't go on by their words and as jackie
posted above, the FW does not seem to become reality in the coming
weeks either if more SDK fixes need to be implemented... Last week it
was a short patiencem, now it sounds like at least another 2-4 weeks
so people should simply also wait to buy that junk for that time...

You'll see how fast it will come then if they have to work to get the money
instead of getting the money to work with... It will be a world of difference...

Anyway... no use for discussion...

madshi

10-11-07, 07:21 AM

pc01

10-11-07, 08:08 AM

You already have the new cut for testing for sure so that's easy talking. I think most people would be happy helping test the beta and "see" the progress. Not the same as
a stable public release or so but at least offers some activity besides "talking only"...

I have no clue why Tomacro has such a hard time setting this up. There's enough
people asking for it... (Usual excuses don't apply like people might break their player etc
balblabla... They should have a recovery option like most players. In fact, do they have
a recovery method from bad flash as you might add that to your list?)

Perhaps Tomacro does not want the "competitor" to know the secret? Perhaps someone might get the beta and pass the codes onto unknown parties and they release their firmware before Tomacro does? How would we feel about that? (Please don't take me wrong here, I am pointing fingures, but sometimes this is the ugly reality.)

Perry

Hi-Jack

10-11-07, 09:12 AM

Do you think it helpful to call a device "junk" in the very thread about that device in an open forum? I think you need to learn some diplomatics, even if that's your honest opinion.

Honestly, I'm feeling a bit like feeding the troll. I already knew beforehand that you'd misuse my post as a chance to bash Tomacro and limHD for the 100th time this week.

Have a better way to wake up Tomacro?
they, Jackie and some of you act as if it is world wonder 3 while it is "...."
and many keep talking about a firmware that does not seem to come for
quite some time while the previous two brought not much good after all...

What you expect us to say? Wonderfull... be understanding if they not even
have the decency to talk to their clients themeselves but us some agent and
a community tester? It's just painfull... I'd love to see the Tomacro succeed
just as much as anyone else, believe it or not but they just not use the
chances they get to become more than "something what people talk about"
and give some action to people that gave them their money.

PC01
If that would be the game played, it would be so for everyone. I'm sure
Tomacro does some reverse engineering themselves. Most of the code inside
tomacro is from Sigma and commonly shared with other parties (VC-1 and so
is the microblock free 1080p playback). There's not much code from Tomacro
in the LimHD200i beside the limitations implied over SMB and such (SMB is
open source used, they only created the shell around it) and more of these
limited things... I don't feel Tomacro has more than 1 developer working on
the LimHD200i... (at least feels that way)

Sorry if that offends you. It's the truth for me just like you all believe in your truth...
I return the question to you...

Do you think it's helpfull constantly stating how good it is and finding excuses and reasons why the Lim is so limited? Then tell me what good it has brought consumers doing so in the last weeks where no info is given (no real info anyways)? Do you feel people constantly reporting issues and bugs should not get the respect returned of Tomacro they get some info in return instead of via some overgrown reseller thinking he's the man?

It's just a huge list of little things that make Tomacro one big problem in
my eyes. They do the best they can... yep.... But so is everyone and
sometimes that's just not enough if the only outcome is poor results over
the whole line. Happy to eat my words when the FW is here showing me it
can do a better job than it does today... until then, it remains a peace
of "..." i can't use in any way because of the issues and I see as advantage
for shutting up critics only one thing, getting more units sold in it's immature
state as your comments reander many people to make the steps while common
sense would be to wait until Tomacro actually delivers what jackie says it will
as a reseller... Do you expect him to say anything else?

Anyway... i'm out again...
Post all positive mumbo jambo stories you'd like... It doesn't bother me in direct.
Just plain useless talking to yourself in here... (as Tomacro is not here...just mr jackie)

Snowskip

10-11-07, 09:49 AM

Miss Jackie actually ^^

Hi-Jack

10-11-07, 10:19 AM

No, Mr Jackie...
According to Fan (Tomacro) Jackie is a man. I suspected Jackie and Fan to be the same
person playing a game on the forums acting different. Dunno what is happenning, but
someone is still playing...

Oldpainless said it's "she", Tomacro says it's "he"...
I think i'm still right, saying Fan and Jackie is one and the same person or maybe sisters
or something :-) Something is not right with both of them playing games like that and
no one clarifying any questions on that subject... It's called Jackie is just a reseller /
agent... (yeah yeah) Maybe it's even her husband or something, no idea (yet) :-)

Quote FAN: "Jackie is a man and I am not. Clear your sex sense please."

I don't even care who's lying. Only prooves once more, something fishy going on here...

oldpainless68

10-11-07, 10:48 AM

Hi-Jack

I suspected Jackie and Fan to be the same
person playing a game on the forums acting different

[QUOTE=HRTraveler]The following was posted on July 9th. I sent an e-mail as suggested. I still have not received a response.

This is really disappointing.

------------------------------------------------------------
Please leave your message to another emailbox on the contact page info001, I will quickly send you a reply to your any product-related questions.

Terrible sorry for our carelessness!

MMmmm....so Jackie (an Agent) who is pretending to be Fan, would talk about contacting her (Fan) via the email address as given on the Tomacro website....interesting.....MEDIC!!!

:)

K

Hi-Jack

10-11-07, 11:51 AM

Oldpainless, don't be such an angel... You know more than you tell about their
relationship. I said suspected in the beginning. There is something, we just don't know
what and we are obviously not allowed to know. How many medics do you need for
stating Jackie is a " she" while Tomacro said it's a "he"... Unless He/She is transvestite,
I don't understand this confusion... Why not respond to that instead the above?

Do any of you actually know Jackie? How much % do you earn on his sales? I don't think
you do all this for nothing. My best bet is you get some % on untis sold by this forum
thread (affiliate stuff)... and don't even bother saying you don't... Somehow you are
getting something...

So, to be constructive for a change, I taped my HDMI issues.
The following is what I do and what happens:

HDMI Selection issue
Video: http://www.mpcclub.com/tomacro_hdmi.avi

01 - When connected Composite / S-Video the player constantly looses signal while in main interface. It stops having this issue (blinking) when reaching the Setup menus so it's an isue with the signal... I start the video in Setup mode, no flickering. I return to main menu... flickering starts (Image - Black - Image - black)

02 - I enter the setup for setting Video Output and select HDMI. It almost needs 3-6 attempts before I get the confirmation box to accept HDMI while still being in SD mode. My TV never receives a HDMI signal, even after applying HDMI.

03 - I leave the player set to whatever resolution is set (it's no different changing to EDID or 720p or anything) and press the exit button. I return to the main menu. Only few seconds aftr, the flickering begins again and player resets to SD again as shown in the video.

- When rebooting while haviung the settings still active, the player starts in 720p (never sends signal to TV though) and as soon as started resets to SD again.
I tried rebooting, changing over and over again and the most confusing of it all is when using the older firmware, i have no issues with flickering over S-Video or Composite, nor do I have issues with the HDMI selection.

This is one totally weird problem which I can only explain as being a software problem... I previously also tried reloading the update over and over again using different methods but never, do I have the same option to set HDMI so it stays, like in th eolder FW version...

Any tips are welcome but I doubt there' sany resolving this one.
Sent the movie with explanation to Tomacro so let's see if they can come up with something... So far their technicians have not found anything wrong
which matches not many people reporting the same problems so supsicious
about maybe using the wrong method of updating somehow could cause this?
Differences in hardware revisions?

pc01

10-11-07, 11:55 AM

PC01
If that would be the game played, it would be so for everyone. I'm sure
Tomacro does some reverse engineering themselves. Most of the code inside
tomacro is from Sigma and commonly shared with other parties (VC-1 and so
is the microblock free 1080p playback). There's not much code from Tomacro
in the LimHD200i beside the limitations implied over SMB and such (SMB is
open source used, they only created the shell around it) and more of these
limited things... I don't feel Tomacro has more than 1 developer working on
the LimHD200i... (at least feels that way)

Hi-Jack,
This is a public forum, my experience has been in other forums, it is not a place to provide private betas. I don't expect a reputable company to give an average joe (I don't mean you certainly) to be their beta tester. If they screw up the firmware and got stuck, who is going to provide the technical support to them? Who is responsible for the international calls? You know what I mean? Yes, there are people in with the beta testings in a public forum, of course, however, they don't necessary need to "brag" about it, they actually should be very quite and not provide much detail "promises".

Jack, I am not offended in anyway, I am just trying to help you see there are better battles to pick than this one. If your posts, or anyone else's, are worthy of Tomacro or other moles (sorry Jackie) from Tomacro's attention, they may privately contact you to get you involved. But, from your posts here, would you include yourself in the beta group, not knowing how you will react to their endeavor? I hope you understand.

Best wish,
Perry

oldpainless68

10-11-07, 12:04 PM

How many medics do you need for
stating Jackie is a " she" while Tomacro said it's a "he"... Unless He/She is transvestite

Now...that is a good question...:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:: lol

My best bet is you get some % on untis sold by this forum thread (affiliate stuff)... and don't even bother saying you don't... Somehow you are getting something

Yeap....that's why I'm now oh so rich!....oh dear...I have not laughed so much in ages.....Hi-Jack, it's simple - I do what I do because I want to.....not that I need to say this...but heck, why not - I do not get anything, zip, not a bean, nadda, swat etc, for the help that I provide (I get paid enough in my job thanks!)

So come on, play nice - you do what you do because you care/like the scene and the technology, I'm no different....one thing I will agree on though is that the new firmware is taking some time (and you know that I'm pushing behind the scenes)

K

oldpainless68

10-11-07, 12:16 PM

Hi-Jack

10-11-07, 12:20 PM

oldpainless68

10-11-07, 12:37 PM

Ok, friends again then...
PC01, got your point but hundreds are asking, I can only ee 2 actually being involved...
Hence why i said disconnected from the public releases. They released the previous two
in public with serious errors and those could be avoided. If more people than Jackie
would be telling us stuff we would have more to work with and even he claims "it's as
good as having direct contact with Tomacro" which is not the case unless he works for
Tomacro... anyway... I want to be less critic but I can't help myself... :-)

Another movie?
http://www.mpcclub.com/Tomacro_boot.avi

Following the previous post a few posts back. Even though the Tomacro keeps saying in
setup it is SD, during boot I get 720p as selected and in fact see a few seconds of
HDMI signal on my TV. unfortunately it does not stay and returns to SD... Not happens
with older firmware (2 version back. Last beta (public) abd update beta (stolen? :-)) is
giving me this exact same issue...

Notice the display starting at 720p and a few seconds after shows 480i...
Tried different HDMI cables which now also makes me comment on the cable included with
the Tomacro being useless for my TV. The head is so "thick" that I can't fit it in the back
of my TV...

See this images for example...
It's all in the details... Bet some people have to get out and buy a new cable...
http://www.mpcclub.com/temp/hdmi_1.jpg (HDMI cable comparisson)
http://www.mpcclub.com/temp/hdmi_2.jpg (HDMI connection TV)

The plastic is too big around the connector to be fitted.

Hi-Jack...I've watched both your movies...yeap...something is forked...just out of interest, have you tried the Lim with a different display?...might be the auto-ed kicking on the the new cut and having issues with the HDMI handshake on your monitor...

I've got a Samsung 720p LCD panel and an Hitachi 720p projector.....the only thing I get now and again is after the Lim has been shut off, when i switch on the VFD shows 480i, but TV and the pro still pick up the signal (HDMI) and I just go into the setup menu and change back to HDMI (was showing SD) and then it changes back to 720p over HDMI....

Just a thought.....worth trying a different display (and no, It does not change that fact there is an issue there)

K

Hi-Jack

10-11-07, 02:29 PM

Yip, have 2 TV's tested (LG and Samsung). Get same thing on both TV's.
Could indeed be an issue with Auto EDID kicking in but it should not be if i
selected 720p... Only then would it explain this so possibly Tomacro ignores
the setting in setup and uses auto edid anyway?

For sure we know it's something that changed with the firmware between the
versions 070803 (works ok) and 070914 (HDMI isues) and also the latest beta
070921 still has the same issue so my hopes go out to the next cut... (it adds
up to my frustration of slow progress :-) )

(So far Tomacro said "there are no HDMI issues found"... and that was only a few hours ago)

clontarf

10-11-07, 03:03 PM

dave843

10-11-07, 06:43 PM

ok, moving my things off the internal HDD to format ext2, but man it is slow. What sort of speeds do you guys see over USB? I'd run dd on it to test, but it'll be three days for it to finish :)

dave843: how did you finish that test? Did you try replacing the "ntfs" match in curcao with "ext2" ?

No. I just tried formatting the Hard drive as ext2, and then seeing if the system would mount it and use it.

How are you changing the ntfs match in curacao? Do you have the source code for curacao? I made a couple of minor edits to the curacao.xml file that defines the GUI, but that's it (like enabling the reboot option - it's too bad the reboot command doesn't work).

digitalkid2

10-11-07, 07:11 PM

I'm not sure I have been on this site long enough to say this but over the past year I have been visiting here I have found it to be an unbiased and usually balanced forum on AV matters. In the same time I have also visited Hi-Jacks website. I found it to be idiosyncratic, rather subjective (which I find uncomfortable in what is supposed to be unbiased journalism) and sometimes very, very helpful. Today I deleted his website from my favourites. Why? Because the level of venom I read from him on this forum regarding this product is just too much. It's totally subjective. He may reply that his is a totally objective viewpoint but I find it to be a bitter, insulting and aggressive rant. Sorry. But Thats how I feel. I'm sure he won't be bothered. But I am by him.
IMO Hi-Jack is providing valuable feed back in regards to the Lim and for the most part is far more objective than most of the posts. He is keeping a balance so to speak....oldpainless68 is too subjective and emotionally biased in the other direction. Criticism is not necessarily bad provided it is constructive and IMO Hi-Jack's is for the most part.

As far as this site being unbiased....I just do not see how you can say that. Of late it has become more unbiased and open to constructive criticism and negative feedback but for a long while it was most certainly biased especially when you take into account that this thread is filled with agents, agent wanna be's, re-sellers, vendors and people who are only in this thread for financial gain. This particular thread is one of the worst that I come across in that regard.

lundman

10-11-07, 08:36 PM

No. I just tried formatting the Hard drive as ext2, and then seeing if the system would mount it and use it.

How are you changing the ntfs match in curacao? Do you have the source code for curacao? I made a couple of minor edits to the curacao.xml file that defines the GUI, but that's it (like enabling the reboot option - it's too bad the reboot command doesn't work).

The reboot thing is annoying, not even "kill init" will reboot it, real shame, cos everytime I try fuse it needs to be rebooted, which is hard to do when I'm not at home.

Regarding 'curacao', there is a place in the binary that lists the filesystems it recognises, and the mount path it uses. It checks for "vfat" and "ntfs" around the "/dev/ide/...." string, whereas, all the other filesystems are around "/dev/scsi/..." (thats, USB).

I intend on changing that "ntfs" and surrounding mount options, observe:

xseg000:002C1004 aDevIdeHost0Bus DCB "/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part%d",0 a
xseg000:002C102C aMntHdD DCB "/mnt/HD%d/",0
xseg000:002C1038 aVfat DCB "vfat",0
xseg000:002C1040 aIocharsetUtf8 DCB "iocharset=utf8",0
xseg000:002C1050 aSD DCB "%s%d",0
xseg000:002C1058 aNtfs DCB "ntfs",0
xseg000:002C1060 aNlsUtf8 DCB "nls=utf8",0
xseg000:002C106C aHdsIsD DCB 0xA
xseg000:002C106C DCB "HDs is %d",0xA,0
xseg000:002C1078 aNfs DCB "nfs ",0xA,0

You need "vfat" for the kernel boot, but I would try replacing ntfs with ext2. I do not know if the mount options "nls=utf8, iocharset=utf8" would cause an error with ext2, or if they would be ignore.

I would NOT try this on a firmware, but rather, boot a normal firmware, login, kill curacao, then run the new patched curacao.

Tomacro should throw in "ext2" in that list for automatic mounting too, its a 2 second fix :(

Hi-Jack

10-12-07, 01:22 AM

I'm not sure I have been on this site long enough to say this but over the past year I have been visiting here I have found it to be an unbiased and usually balanced forum on AV matters. In the same time I have also visited Hi-Jacks website. I found it to be idiosyncratic, rather subjective (which I find uncomfortable in what is supposed to be unbiased journalism) and sometimes very, very helpful. Today I deleted his website from my favourites. Why? Because the level of venom I read from him on this forum regarding this product is just too much. It's totally subjective. He may reply that his is a totally objective viewpoint but I find it to be a bitter, insulting and aggressive rant. Sorry. But Thats how I feel. I'm sure he won't be bothered. But I am by him.

hell yeah, i'm bothered if people leave but one can't please them all...
MPC is the "tabloid" of media players and storage... We speak our mind by not
drawning in journalism courtesy unlike most... That's what makes us what we
are... Don't mistake me for a journalist, I'm a user, like anyone else.

We have the guts to say stuff (and don't mind the consequences) others
balance in nice words. Some are too positive, maybe I am too negative. In
the end, I need reason to be happy and I ain't got any and i'm not faking it
either or believing in the future where many have failed with dreams and ideas
they can't put into reality... I made many mistakes to get at this level of knowing
one can only take for granted what is there, not what is promised... (KiSS and Linksys,
Buffalo, Momitsu, Trans-Gear, Snazio...) Quite some big names to fail on delivery for
different reasons and quite bigger than Tomacro...

Sure you can say we haven't seen what will come. Agree to that. Have you or anyone else?
This thread has come a few levels down the ladder because of me and it is where it should
be now... in exploring mode... not in "praise the player" mode...

Anyway, let's quit this kind of discussion and concentrate on Tomacro...

Enjoy

pc01

10-12-07, 09:23 AM

oldpainless68

10-12-07, 10:13 AM

OK, Jackie, any news on my unit now? I have waited... so long... Kevin, I really believe what you said, "you will get it before you know it." (Or something to that matter.) I have been in the cold!! Perry

Have you been tracking it?...I would assume by now Jackie will have your unit, and should be shipping a new one to you...(Jackie?)

K

pc01

10-12-07, 12:33 PM

LianLi

10-12-07, 04:13 PM

Any news on the updated firmware? I just want my MKV's fixed. Everything else I could careless about. I can't really tell people to buy one of these since it doesn't even work right with MKV's. :(

russland

10-12-07, 04:23 PM

Any news on the updated firmware? I just want my MKV's fixed. Everything else I could careless about. I can't really tell people to buy one of these since it doesn't even work right with MKV's. :(

What do you mean? I thought limHD supports MKVs, doesn't it?

oldpainless68

10-12-07, 04:39 PM

What do you mean? I thought limHD supports MKVs, doesn't it?

Russland......muppet....he's talking about the Ac3 audio drop on MKV's....lol

K

Hi-Jack

10-13-07, 01:42 AM

Kevin,
I just now got an email from Jackie and he said TNT in Beijing should be getting it today or tomorrow. Till then, he will not send me an unit as a replacement. Can you recall how long I have waited! I am somewhat disappointed. I would think as soon as I shipped on my end, Jackie would have shipped me another one so that I don't have to wait 2-3 weeks. Well, I was asked to be patience...

Perry

Could have ben that way. Even if not, DHL shipping is 2-3 days to get there
so max 1.5 weeks for the swap should be enough... Online tracking would
show if arrived or not. Would be dumb of Jackie sending out new unit before
he can check what has been sent to him. could be two bricks you know...
(some people would do such things, so usually resellers wait for package to
arrive to be swapped)

Hope you get it soon.

In the mean time, I verified the issue with HDMI i experience is due Auto
Sensing... Booting player without HDMI attached keeps the unit in 720p
mode. As soon as I connect the HDMI, back to SD so Tomacro should fix
this as the more people getting it, the more will turn out having problems
like this...

Enjoy

Hi-Jack

10-13-07, 01:43 AM

What do you mean? I thought limHD supports MKVs, doesn't it?

It does support it but doesn't work flawless as it should for a HD only player...

russland

10-13-07, 09:06 AM

weltic

10-13-07, 12:43 PM

Well, I would say it is the other way around. The limHD plays _some_ mkvs but unfortunately most mkv with AC3 sound have audio drops which are VERY annoying. If they can get that fixed, that's already a big step forward.
However, we have been waiting far too long now for a fix for this!
And at the point that I bought the device, it was said it would play mkv... :)
I guess we will just have to wait for the next firmware, but until that comes and fixes the mkv issues, I wouldn't recommend the lim to anyone, as most high-def movies that are "released" right now are in mkv format with AC3 and won't play correctly on the lim.

Chris

Well, as far as I understood, limHD plays most MKV files. There are some exceptions. Don't forget that Tomacro didn't promise MKVs playback at all. You can find it in the specifications. So, LianLi can easily recommend this player because it provides the functionality it was supposed to give plus it plays most of MKVs as an additional bonus. Plus you'll get a 50 bucks worth present if you buy from Jackie.

digitalkid2

10-13-07, 09:47 PM

Well, as far as I understood, limHD plays most MKV files. There are some exceptions. Don't forget that Tomacro didn't promise MKVs playback at all. You can find it in the specifications. So, LianLi can easily recommend this player because it provides the functionality it was supposed to give plus it plays most of MKVs as an additional bonus. Plus you'll get a 50 bucks worth present if you buy from Jackie.
A $50 present...I am not sure what you mean by 'present' but I am sure it is no present and it is not worth $50....Just think about it....if Jackie wanted to truly give you $50 bucks then why not just reduce the price by $50!

russland

10-13-07, 10:36 PM

A $50 present...I am not sure what you mean by 'present' but I am sure it is no present and it is not worth $50....Just think about it....if Jackie wanted to truly give you $50 bucks then why not just reduce the price by $50!

Oh, this crazy English :)
Of course I meant 'gift'.
Well, I agree that $50 cashback is better than a gift.
However, isn't it great to get something extra when you already paid for a player? I remember HJack was happy discovering a bag with Tomacro emblem when he got his limHD.

LianLi

10-14-07, 03:04 AM

Want to sell LimHD200i..:( Firmware taking too long! :(

cHarOn99

10-14-07, 03:18 AM

ebay is your friend ;-)

oldpainless68

10-14-07, 03:50 AM

Want to sell LimHD200i..:( Firmware taking too long! :(

Hold off for 1 more week...;)

K

Hi-Jack

10-14-07, 04:48 AM

I'm I getting crazy? All Tomacro is yelling about and all excuses I hear for
Tomacro not being able to do the most standard things is exactly because
they claim only to concentrate on "HD and H.264"... It's their only field of
concentration along with ISO playback due to popular demand which equally
fails to convince.

Sure it plays music and pictures and SD but with playback everything is said...
Feature wise and convenience wise, nothing is under the hood and that is
mandatory for the majority of "normal" users not concentrating on HD alone
like Tomacro...

The HDMI and sound issues are crucial to fix...

Thx to Rhisc, who sent me a VGA to Component adapter, I was finally able
conducting proper tests over the weekend and yes, I see issues but the
majority of files played very well. Most use AC3 howevr which makes the
sound issues even more important to fix as it's the only thing the Tomacro
is and should be bought for.

It has potential but it's potential is almost killed by Tomacro themselves...
(Slow progres, closed approach with Jackie only, one way traffix completely)

Hope they will open up as with new options pounding the doors, Tomacro will
loose more and more interest. (So will others unless they can tune stability
and playback to be stable in the coming weeks).

oldpainless68

10-14-07, 05:29 AM

I agree with most of what you've said - I'm as frustrated at the length of time the new cut is taking (Jackie is too)....But I do know Tomacro know what the stakes are, and are trying very hard to iron out as many bugs/fixes as possible for the next cut.....about another week...

So, till then...

K

Mophun

10-14-07, 06:43 AM

.....about another week...

K

Sure.....:o

oldpainless68

10-14-07, 06:58 AM

Sure.....:o

I don't write the code...lol...

To be fair, when they sent me the last non-public beta...I did go back with a very long list for them to review....all signs are that they are following this and our Users Requirements Log...

K

Hi-Jack

10-14-07, 07:06 AM

So was ISO and mkv and look where that lead us too (works but with enough failures).
I don't feel like repeating it over and over though so let's see what comes up with the
continued closed approach and limited testing with the scene...

No one blames you oldP...
You done good for them given the circumstances...

oldpainless68

10-15-07, 12:06 PM

No one blames you oldP...
You done good for them given the circumstances...

Cheers...well, not too much longer to wait...

K

lundman

10-16-07, 04:27 AM

# insmod /mnt/smbfs1/fuse.o
Using /mnt/smbfs1/fuse.o
<4>fuse init (API version 7.5)
<4>fuse distribution version: 2.5.3
<4>In fuse_dev_init
<4>out fuse_dev_init
# hello /tmp/test
unique: 1, opcode: INIT (26), nodeid: 0, insize: 48
INIT: 7.5
INIT: 7.5
unique: 1, error: 0 (Success), outsize: 40
# ls -l /tmp/test/
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 13 Dec 31 17:00 hello
# cat /tmp/test/hello
Hello World!
# fusermount -u /tmp/test
# rmmod fuse
<7>fuse exit

oldpainless68

10-16-07, 04:29 AM

sansp00

10-16-07, 08:57 AM

I guess it means he was able to compile and run the infamous hello world app on the lim ... IE, got a toolchain running to build apps on the device.

Good job !
Patrick S.

oldpainless68

10-16-07, 08:59 AM

I guess it means he was able to compile and run the infamous hello world app on the lim ... IE, got a toolchain running to build apps on the device.

Good job !
Patrick S.

Cool....

K

cHarOn99

10-16-07, 10:19 AM

brings not that many because the main works in curacao ;-) which is closed source i made that with the iamm ntd36hd that i can add ftp, http, telnet and some other things but then ext3 must be supported ;-). So only many work for little features on the damn 862x platform.

cHarOn

lundman

10-16-07, 07:21 PM

It's "fuse" working. This means I can get dvdread-fs, and ntfs-3g compiled. One for playing original dvds, the other for read/write ntfs.

Although I have already gone ext2 on my HDD.

"hello world" sheesh.

oldpainless68

10-17-07, 02:49 AM

dp70

10-17-07, 02:51 AM

Sheesh indeed. :) Great work lundman!

cHarOn99

10-17-07, 02:57 AM

hehe lundman you will see when you have ntfs3g included on the slow 8623 and you use it for write read operations you cant view any hd movies anymore so forget it, dvdread-fs also no function because everything is handled over curacao where you cant make any changes, but hey have fun with it but soon you will see what i mean ;-)

cHarOn

lundman

10-17-07, 03:30 AM

Already changed curacao to make it mount ext2 HDD, although still need to stop it from passing "readonly" mount options. That you can't do network traffic while watching is acceptable to me, but plugging in USB cable to move data is not.

FTP works, but I would rather have NFSd so working on that.

No need to be negative :)

cHarOn99

10-17-07, 04:01 AM

then you have developer tools from sigma which is illegal!!! if you can recompile the binary curacao!!!!

cHarOn99

10-17-07, 04:04 AM

or did you only change the fstab because that has nothing todo with curacao

lundman

10-17-07, 04:45 AM

heh, because someone has developer tools, doesn't make that person illegal! As it happens, I do not. I just did some creative hex edit in the binary, changing ntfs to ext2. Since it is for my own use, and to enable it to play from my preferred format, it would go under fair use.

I would love to have sources for curacao, since I could fix a lot of things, and quite motivated to do so, whereas, Tomacro are taking their sweet time, even on trivial things like supporting ext2.

Don't worry, I wont share anything with you, since you seem upset about it. Others might see it adds more features, and will sell more units. Of course, Tomacro should have just supported directly.

cHarOn99

10-17-07, 05:09 AM

ah ok over hex sorry for telling you it is illegal i was thinking that you have developer tools ;-). You dont need to share something with me lol i already done that stuff ;-) and find out that it is really frustrating when you dont have access to the curacao ;-) but heh you will find out.
So go on with your hacking because it is fun and nice to see people hacking around ;-)
and i dont think that after that thread many people will buy this device but if it will then it is good for tomacro.

good luck

cHarOn

lundman

10-17-07, 06:14 AM

if you have done things, why don't you share your knowledge anyway?

anyhoo, libdvdcss doesn't want to authenticate my drive, even though the csstest program does. Peculiar.

oldpainless68

10-17-07, 07:32 AM

lundman

Sounds great...keep us upto date as to what you managed to do...

K

cHarOn99

10-17-07, 07:55 AM

??? i shared all my stuff in the iamm ntd36hd thread i dont made it on the tommacro device only tried to hack the firmware which was not an problem. I only talked about that the firmware modification is really limited because of damn closed source by sigma at the curacao where everything is handled. About CSS at the IAMM it is also included into the curracao but the IAMM has an licence thats why i dont have to do things on that (lucky). I can only say after 5 months hacking around on the firmware and then see so many limitations about damn uclinux (god thx 8634/35 are real Linux) have to try many different ftp servers befor it run perfect and some other points.
I wish you that you get more support from tomacro if they want.
So still good luck on hacking the damn uclinux.
We asked severel times sigma about to give some more infos on toolchain and other stuff and there cames no answer!!! at the end we where able to buy an licence but no response. So really frustrating, but it was fun all the time, i think that is on every person the same something to bring on also if there are only little things you can make.
But enough about talking if you need infos or have problems on some things no problem you can ask me if i know something i will help you when i can.

regards cHarOn

Mophun

10-17-07, 10:34 AM

oldpainless68

10-17-07, 11:12 AM

Great work Lundman!

If it's ready, please share your custom firmware with the rest of us.
Next to me, a lot of people would appreciate it.
:cool:

Might not be a bad idea to wait to fully implement lundman's new features in the new cut....

K

LianLi

10-17-07, 12:21 PM

Firmware yet? O_O

Mophun

10-17-07, 12:22 PM

Might not be a bad idea to wait to fully implement lundman's new features in the new cut....

K

I hate waiting.
Been waiting for two months since the last beta from Tomacro.
:mad:

Hi-Jack

10-17-07, 12:33 PM

Wow... Never thought I had to defend Tomacro for a change but the fw
dates 1 month back and no 2 :-) (unless you not use the beta update which
i'm sure you do off course for the H.264 mkv support).

Firmware should come before the end of this month.
Hopefully OldP is more accurate than me, as he said "wait on more week 4
days ago) :-)

Mophun

10-17-07, 02:01 PM

kmika

10-17-07, 02:38 PM

hi,

I have problems with .mkv files. I cant rewind them, some times the lim just freeze in the middle of the movie, some movies got lag. My question, can I get better compatibility if I copy the .mkv movies to the internal harddrive? I used only samba shares until now.

mike

Hi-Jack

10-17-07, 03:13 PM

For sure internal playback will be better but even there you can see issues with trick
play which is slow and buggy. It doesn't hurt trying to find the best working method for
you by copying content locally... It would be the first thing to try. (external USB would
also be better than smb or you could try NFS as well instead of SMB...)

lundman

10-17-07, 06:42 PM

cHarOn99:

Which FTPD did you go with? Thought about using my own, since I know it best, but I fork-pipe for the dirlist util, which would take a little more code. Of the FTPDs I played with, the one that seemed the better was stupid-ftpd.

It would be a hell of a lot easier to supply new features if they released curacao, and it would be to their advantage (sorry, but nothing in there is "new" design, in fact, very lacking, and we could add to it) but anyway.

Writable fs, with networking is what I have, thats fine. Just need to solve the dvdcss issue, and why it do not authenticate.

oldpainless68

10-18-07, 02:33 AM

You're right.
It only seems like two months, with all the talking 'bout it and forecasts of delivery.
OldP probably means '1 week before I get my hands on it' . Or was he talking about available for the general public?

I know everyone is chomping on the bit for the next cut....so I will do my best to help as much as I can..I said about a week....I should get a cut at the weekend to put through it's paces for Tomacro...at the mo I don't have a crystal ball, but assuming no show stoppers, I would have thought it will be out just after that...

K

oldpainless68

10-18-07, 02:34 AM

lundman

10-18-07, 04:22 AM

chip in on what exactly? I would LOVE to help code on curacao, but that would never happen. I have signed countless NDAs before too, but doubt Sigma would be interested.

oldpainless68

10-18-07, 04:44 AM

chip in on what exactly? I would LOVE to help code on curacao, but that would never happen. I have signed countless NDAs before too, but doubt Sigma would be interested.

Not sure yet....I guess I was thinking outloud...leave it with me...

K

oldpainless68

10-18-07, 12:13 PM

So...here's to waiting just a few more days...I wonder what goodies it will bring...lol

K

Hi-Jack

10-18-07, 12:50 PM

Cheers to waiting and bringing the thread back on top :-)
(i can read minds)

lol

oldpainless68

10-18-07, 04:52 PM

[QUOTE=Hi-Jack;11944442]Cheers to waiting and bringing the thread back on top :-)
(i can read minds)

:D

lundman

10-18-07, 11:46 PM

Ok, I patched curacao now to handle both ntfs and ext2, and ext2 is mounted read-write. I compiled fdisk, e2fsck and mke2fs tools as well. Now my curacao mounts both my ntfs partition, and my ext2 partition:

/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1 39.1G 4.3G 34.8G 11% /mnt/HD1
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part2 111.8G 18.0M 106.1G 0% /mnt/HD2

FTP works, still on the plate;

finish ntfs-3g compile
finish FTPD util compile (mountd, exportfs, rpc)

Stats for those that care:

read kernel ntfs: 655360000 bytes 1m 11.43s
read kernel ext2: 655360000 bytes 0m 50.97s
write kernel ext2: 655360000 bytes 2m 4.13s

Hi-Jack

10-18-07, 11:48 PM

Me is very curious now after I read Tomacro has a surprise or two. If these will be not
like previous surprises, we might actually be surprised in a positive way. Surely they not
rushed it, even under pressuring circumstances which is already good (and even better
if they offered in between updates and test beta's internal).

Early next week is targeted date...
Tic Tac...

Hi-Jack

10-18-07, 11:51 PM

gendvd

10-19-07, 12:44 AM

Hello! Everybody!
Now there is a new test version. It adds French support and shorten the time to look for high bit-rate film track, solve the problem of track loss when it switch high bitrate files. Who is interested to test it can email us. gendvd2000yahoo.com
Properly the newest version we are waiting can be out next weeek.Thank you for your patience.
Jackie

lundman

10-19-07, 04:52 AM

NFSD: yeah uh, not sure, linux is messy, and has two implementations. For kernel I think I need mountd, exportfs and rpc.something. exportfs compiled on, but mountd is not wanting to.

smbd: compiled, runs, but flips out when I try to connect to it.. needs more thought.

ftpd: no problems

Mophun

10-19-07, 07:28 AM

Lundman, you're surely making progress.
I've got confidence in your skills and efforts in making the Lim accessable via network.
You are making progress and don't forget to communicate it. That's a lot better than Tomacro is doing.
Keep it up!

Hi-Jack

10-19-07, 11:26 AM

LianLi

10-19-07, 02:51 PM

Just release it!

oldpainless68

10-19-07, 04:27 PM

Is this an early test version or also includes ISO and HDMI fixes, H.264 sound issues? if so, drop me a link...

Enjoy

H.264 (TS/AVI) no problems even with current f/w....only sounds drops in an MKV container with an AC3 track....

K

russland

10-19-07, 04:47 PM

Kevin if you get the new FW over this weekend then please my L5.1 file, please.
Any feedback would be welcome.

Hi-Jack

10-20-07, 01:24 AM

Alright, the il i received from Jackie (thx) is old, dated 21-09 and it's the version i previously already downloaded... Dunno why now it made available in this way now and not a month ago but it does not resolve my hdmi issues anyway.

Now there is a new test version. It adds French support and
shorten the time to look for high bit-rate film track, solve the problem of
track loss when it switch high bitrate files

Thx anyway. It's an old new vrsion though :-)
Let's wait and see if Tomacro can launch it this weekend...

oldpainless68

10-20-07, 03:39 AM

Kevin if you get the new FW over this weekend then please my L5.1 file, please.
Any feedback would be welcome.

Ok

K

videohot

10-20-07, 04:12 AM

Trying too find a player that will play h264 files recorded from satellite such as dish. I will be getting a nextcomwireless modified dish receiver that records dish. Some files are mpeg2 and some are mpeg4. The tvix 4100 seems to play some but not all of these files. Anyone using it for playback of these files yet? If not, nextcom has some sample sd files to test on their website...

http://www.nextcomwireless.com/r5000/samples.htm#MPEG-4%20Comparison

I don't have a link to any 1080i or 720p hd mpeg4 samples from dish but I bet we can find some...

Darin

Any progress on playing these files with this unit? I need it to play H264 Hi-Def files off dishnetwork.

Larry

oldpainless68

10-20-07, 04:22 AM

Any progress on playing these files with this unit? I need it to play H264 Hi-Def files off dishnetwork.

Larry

I'm downloading the two HD samples now and will test them for you...

K

videohot

10-20-07, 04:40 AM

Thanks, they will play utilizing one of my systems but I refuse to rework another computer to play them.

Larry

oldpainless68

10-20-07, 05:42 AM

Thanks, they will play utilizing one of my systems but I refuse to rework another computer to play them.

Larry

Both the HD samples play perfect.....

K

Kei Clark

10-20-07, 01:47 PM

Any progress on playing these files with this unit? I need it to play H264 Hi-Def files off dishnetwork.

Larry

Hey Larry,

I'm using couple of R5000, the newest VIP211 to record HD from Cinemax, Starz, and other 1080i h.264 channels. I've had no problems playing those files, but others have reported problems with 720p stations like ESPN and the locals on Dish which I have not tried as I record all my locals with MyHD in .tp format, which I believe looks much better than the h.264 broadcasts.

I had one lock up on V for Vendetta, but it played all the way through on the second attempt, otherwise it has worked flawlessly since.

Edit. Ooops, sorry I didn't mean to post at this thread about the Lim, I was talking about the TVIX M4100SH.

philmckrackon

10-21-07, 10:44 AM

I would like to give an update on the status of my LIM that I sent back to GenDVD that became unresponsive after a firmware upgrade. The LIM would not bootup properly, would not allow me to access the hard drive via USB nor would it allow me to restore the old firmware. The LIM was picked up from my work on 10-4 and I received an email saying they received it on 10-15. Why it took 11 days to get to GenDVD and it only took 5 when they shipped it to me is beyond me. I do know that the tracking of the package shows

"07 Oct 2007 00:18 Los Angeles Shipped From Originating Depot
10 Oct 2007 18:30 Hong Kong Delivered" though.

After inspection and testing of the unit, they put in a hard drive (I was told to remove the one that was in the unit to decrease the shipping weight) and were able to suscessfully restore the old firmware. Being alerted to this I asked exactly what steps they used to do this - not a cut and paste from the manual but in their own words. I have put the LIM manual steps and the steps that were mailed to me below.

----------------
From the manual:
Safe Recoverary (base on Version: Build 070707 or later firmware): In the future upgrade process, if you fail to escalate due to power fault and other unexpected factors, you can recover your limHD200i by the following step:
Power on limHD200i by pressing the OK button (on the top of limHD200i) until all VFD lights are bright; Release the OK button, limHD200i upgrade firmware automatically; After about 35 minutes, all VFD lights black out, the upgrade procedure is complete; Reboot limHD200i, you can use limHD200i as usual.

From GenDVD:
The documents used to restore must be downloaded from our website firmware documents, after extracted the document then copy to the built-in hard disk. The name of the document should be "update" (spelled in lowercase), not uppercase. The concrete restore steps should be: press and hold the OK button and do not loosen , then turn the power on, loosened OK button after all the VFD lights turn bright, then wait for 20-30 minutes, after all VFD lights extinguished, turn off the power. And restart the machine,and it will be normal. Note: you must have the documents to restore the firmware (625 later version)within built-in hard drive, and you need confirm that firmware document include: bak.bin, update.bin, boot.bin, userpref.bin four documents, the name of the document is update (which is spelled in lowercase).

------------------

As you can see the manual does not accurately explain what the procedure for restoring the LIM is. Not only does it list the power on sequence incorrectly but it says nothing about the old firmware needing to reside in the update folder on the LIM before trying the restore. I believed that the LIM was restoring from a backup in memory. I had another problem also, after the initial firmware upgrade the LIM would not connect to my PC or my Laptop via USB. So, make sure that if you do a firmware upgrade make sure that have the OLD version of the firmware in the 'update' folder as well as the new version.

Because of this fiasco with the manual not being correct and not listing what needs to actually happen to restore a unit I now have to fork over another eighty bucks to send the LIM back to me.

Also note that due to this being BETA software they pointed out that they were helping me out even though they were under no obligation to do so. The unit shipped to me with Beta software! Why is the LIM shipping with Beta if the firmware is so unstable? While I do appreciate the help I will never buy or own a Tomacro product again. Since the unit shipped to me with BETA software I figured that I was OK to load the new firmware. I have now learned my lesson.

If there was support in the States I might have a different stance on this but having to fork over eighty buck for one way shipping if something goes wrong is a nightmare. All of you using this beta firmware be warned - if you have a problem there is no recourse. Not only that but after countless emails describing my problems I still get asked the same questions over and over. I was actually asked if I had the jumpers on the hard drive correctly when I bought the unit with the hard drive already installed! I realize that the language barrier is a problem but I have had it with the Lim.

I will definitely be selling this thing as soon as I get it back.

lundman

10-21-07, 09:20 PM

Manual seemed correct to me, if you are used to reading asian documentation translated with an automatic tool :)

Hi-Jack

10-22-07, 01:25 AM

I will definitely be selling this thing as soon as I get it back.

If you analyse the issue, neather support or the manual pointed you to the
correct solution or procedure of your problem. Thereforem, it is within your
rights from the reseller or company to ask for them to cover the shipping as
they made the initial mistake in the manual and being incomplete, resulting in
the need of returning the device...

Jackie or Tomacro should be client minded and learn a lesson from this to be
more accurate, it's not your lesson to learn. They should cover the price of
the shipping and in the future surely will not forget to adapt the manual or
during support mails include the proper procedure when recommending a
recovery...

Maybe they are willing to cover that as a token of apology...
It's too easy charging customers for everything that moves...

Lundman, manual is not wrong, just incomplete... (no mention of storing the files).
I would also fall over the next sentence:

The documents used to restore must be downloaded from our website firmware documents,
after extracted the document then copy to the built-in hard disk. The name of the document
should be "update" (spelled in lowercase), not uppercase.

The documents should be in a FOLDER named update. One can never be clear enough.
Sure there could be more research done by the user but if he reaches out to Tech support
(either gendvd or Tomacro) I would expect them to lead this user to a proper recovery by
including all steps and not just the second half...

Anyway, i'd see it as meeting the end user half way as i don't see big mistakes made. only
expensive ones and avoiding it in the future would be the best solution.

Enjoy

oldpainless68

10-22-07, 04:00 AM

Update on the new firmware....it's going to take a little longer....

K

philmckrackon

10-22-07, 04:06 AM

Thanks for the feedback. I had figured out the correct power on using the OK button restore procedure before I sent the LIM back. What I did not know about was having the OLD FIRMWARE on the hard drive before a restore would work. Of course that point was mute because the LIM wouldn't connect via USB after the failed firmware upgrade. I couldn't access the hard drive once the LIM locked up on me.

As for the shipping costs of the LIM. They did pay to have it shipped to them in China and it does say that if a problem happens while loading BETA firmware that it is not covered under warranty. I wrongly assumed that it was OK because the LIM shipped with BETA firmware anyway.

Again - this is just a warning to all if you mess up your LIM you are responsible.

Take care,

Snowskip

10-22-07, 04:39 AM

Update on the new firmware....it's going to take a little longer....

K

Still no release date?

oldpainless68

10-22-07, 04:59 AM

Still no release date?

Jackie (GenDVD) will be able to answer that one....

K

Mophun

10-22-07, 05:31 AM

Update on the new firmware....it's going to take a little longer....

K

Surprise, surprise......:D
Any reasons for that?

oldpainless68

10-22-07, 05:36 AM

Surprise, surprise......:D
Any reasons for that?

It needs more work....

K

Snowskip

10-22-07, 05:48 AM

It needs more work....

K

Did you have the opportunity to test it?

oldpainless68

10-22-07, 05:49 AM

Did you have the opportunity to test it?

Yes.....lets discuss this topic in the lim f/w thread...

K

Hi-Jack

10-22-07, 01:49 PM

oldpainless68

10-22-07, 03:19 PM

This was probably the first surprise... Next surprise is still coming...
Can't they at meast offer an ETA of the delay instead of "needs osme more work"...
For God's sake man, this is getting realy dull...

Hi-Jack....I'm just as frustrated as you...and every Lim owner right now....if Tomacro want to release the latest cut...then they should.

When I was testing over the weekend...there were one or two words that digitalkid2 was right about....I do push my own agenda....but....it's cus I think I may know what Lim owners want...I have spent a while collecting that info....

In my humble view, the new firmware needs a little more time to be worked on....so I would ask Lim owners to be wait a little longer....

However, like I said, if you want it, you know who to ask....

K

Snowskip

10-22-07, 04:55 PM

So did you get the real new firm finally?

lundman

10-23-07, 03:29 AM

Oh man, that was a challenge:

# ntfs-3g /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1 /tmp/test
Sorry, no daemon function
Failed to daemonize.
# df -h
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1 39.1G 4.3G 34.8G 11% /tmp/test
# ls -l /tmp/test/
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Oct 18 2007 System Volume Information
-rwxrwxrwx 2 root root 4511754240 Jul 25 2007 Zathura-trailer.xvid.dd51.avi
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Oct 18 2007 update
# mkdir test-directory
# ls -l
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Jan 4 13:18 test-directory
# fusermount -u /tmp/test

svyatko

10-23-07, 09:21 AM

Guys, a bit out of topic, but has anyone heard from Jackie recently??

I bought Lim of ebay on the 10th of october, and believe it or not, i am still waiting, not knowing when to expect it. First i was told they will be in stock after 2 days of my purchase, then it was "probably" going to be in stock on the 20th of october, and 2 days ago i asked what's going on, with still no answer...

Is this the usual thing for GenDVD, coz i am getting well nervous, and very impatient. I buy alot from ebay, and that is not the way to do business. If i knew the item is not in stock, and will not be for the next two weeks, i would deffinitely reconsider:mad:...........

what was your experience with Gendvd ????

Hi-Jack

10-23-07, 10:41 AM

Bad experience for you while most have rather positive comments on gendvd (except me but not for his store, more of a personal dislike of the character itself who we not know for sure is a girl or boy (or both).

Have you tried mailing him? How many times?
eBay is protected, if you paid by payPal, file a claim (refund) if he/she/heshe doesn't
answer.

Enjoy

oldpainless68

10-23-07, 11:40 AM

dp70

10-23-07, 12:27 PM

Maybe the MPAA finally tracked him down.

svyatko

10-23-07, 01:38 PM

It's all seems to be ok. I got a reply from Jackie. And there seem to be shortage from tomacro side, so nothing i or he/she can do about it. Jackie asked me to wait till friday, and so i will have to do. If not, well, i will want my refund ASAP..
and then we'll see, maybe I will try another time, or maybe i will go for Popcorn thingy.

Cheers...

LianLi

10-23-07, 04:54 PM

Is the FIRMWARE out yet? O_O

gendvd

10-24-07, 06:33 AM

Hello! We are awfully sorry for the delay for the shipping some customers units.We can understand your anxiety. But we beg your understanding
We are also very anxious, but Tomacro manufacturers is really shortage of goods during this period of time, we have no alternative, therefore, we request your pardon.As soon as the units reach,we will ship to our customers.
Jackie

clontarf

10-24-07, 10:39 AM

Ok. Finally got my LinHD setup and first thoughts...

The Good:

Amazing quality picture. Watched x.264 downloads of Heroes and Moonlight last night and the picture was truly stunning. Quite amazing difference to anythinbg I'd seen before.

5.1 worked fine too.

This was through component.

The Bad: (I know some of these have been mentioned but...)

Having to reboot each time I cut and paste using the USB2
The setting reverting to HDMI everytime I use the Video Mode button. DO NOT TOUCH THIS BUTTON. It is crap.
The Bright / Contrast & Colour reverting to almost white out on a reboot. Boring and time consuming.
And of course the drops on audio on AC3 which is truly irritating.

The Ugly:

this machine feels like a work in progress rather than a finished product. Hopefully the firmware updates will address it.

Conclusion:

Worth it for the HDTV alone. Great ISO/VOB pictures too. if they can get the AC3 and the menu problems fixed it will be a killer. Would I buy one now I know this?

Maybe. But just maybe. But that picture is stunning!!!!!

Hi-Jack

10-24-07, 10:40 AM

OldP,

Seems Tomacro is still unaware of the HDMI issues and think i'm the sole one having
issues with resets to 480i. I tried explaining with firmware before 1409 beta no issues
with HDMI and after that nothing but trouble. Installing the old versions will give me
proper HDMI signal and sticks to it too while later firmware versions cause issues...

Tried loads of times to install the old firmware. Something is wrong with something they
chaénged in the 1409 beta and stick to it in later versions. The amount of trouble can
only increase with more buyers...

I'm close to giving up thinking this be fixed at any moment soon. (given the progress in
the 1910 release after 6 weeks is minimal I don't see a "good" release being made
anytime soon in the coming 4-8 weeks to address the jey issues at this pace, if any of
them will be fixed in the first place)

pfffff....
PS: The stunning picture is the same for all players running sigma chips...
Why you use component and not HDMI? Any issues (like me?) using HDMI,

pierdolis

10-24-07, 08:34 PM

oldpainless68

10-25-07, 02:56 AM

oldpainless68

10-25-07, 02:58 AM

My player behaves perfectly...and even with the latest beta..I didn't had problems with the HDMI...just one thing...I still can't play DTS files...I'm only connect trought HDMI to TV. So sound and image on the same cable. Is there somebody how could help me on resolving this issue of playing WMV or MKV with DTS sound?\

THANKS!

The Lim will downmix AC3 to 2 channel...but not DTS...for DTS you need to connect to an AV AC3/DTS amp via optical......once you do...you'll never go back to 2.0 sound...

I even got some MKV's with a DTS-ES (6.1) track.....stunning!

K

iwanrs

10-25-07, 03:08 AM

oldpainless68

10-25-07, 03:20 AM

Just hesitate after so many posting here and there:
If you will do it all over again, what will you pick between:

This Tomacro limHD200i and Dvico M-5100SH.

Please be fair, I know I am in Tomacro forum.

Honestly?....Dvico seem at the moment to be ahead on the firmware side...better trick play I suspect etc....but for me, mainly I use hidef material, so I'd still go for the Lim if I had to do it over again.....

Now, If I could just get Tomacro to move the pace up a gear on the firmware...:)

K

clontarf

10-25-07, 04:29 AM

Using component as the HDMI socket was damaged in transit from the eBay seller I bought it from. It looks as good as the HDMI image from my DVD. Well good enough to my unttrained eyes anyway. I was running the original TVIX and there is a huge picture improvement on DVD backups, avi files etc.

clontarf

10-25-07, 04:31 AM

Old P - running most recent posted not the one being tested at the moment - Version: Build 1.60beta3-070914

oldpainless68

10-25-07, 05:39 AM

Old P - running most recent posted not the one being tested at the moment - Version: Build 1.60beta3-070914

Ok...I'm pushing hard for the next cut....so hopfully some of the bugs will be addressed...

K

Hi-Jack

10-25-07, 06:04 AM

Honestly?....Dvico seem at the moment to be ahead on the firmware side...better trick play I suspect etc....but for me, mainly I use hidef material, so I'd still go for the Lim if I had to do it over again.....

Now, If I could just get Tomacro to move the pace up a gear on the firmware...:)

K

Also has no issues with HDMI, no issues with sound drops (ac3) in mkv files
but as said, Tomacro should step up with new FW. Given the fact however of
the last version tested dated from a few days ago no main fixes are to be
found for the most important fixes, i remain sceptic and expect the release to
be pushed back at least several weeks... (think only 1 person is busy with
this... Maybe jackie is the developer too busy with the shop instead of the
firmware :-))

clontarf

10-25-07, 07:18 AM

I've spent effectively a £100 to upgrade from my TVIX to this player. Get the AC3 and setup issue sorted and it's money well spent. And I will hail it from the rooftops. It looks good, it does the basic stuff (avi, vob, etc) very well indeed and the ability to play x.264 files with 5.1 sound on my favourite TV programmes in excellent picture quality makes me happy I went with it. But get the aforementioned points fixed and they will be laughing. As will I. And after another morning playing with it... yes I would buy it all over again. This is new technology. I'll accept the odd issue with it as it develops. thats sometimes the price you pay for early adoption. That and the product being out of date in six months. It's that or sit back and wait for the high street version. Who wants to wait that long?

Hi-Jack

10-25-07, 07:36 AM

I don't see any reason why this would be an update as both players are nearly capable
of the same where Dvico has a better way in doing it (options and convenience,
smaller unit (50% the size of the Tomacro) and less issues in general since the 1.2.23
update and an upcoming fix to restore the old glory for other file types. TVIX is
currently ahead of Tomacro but it can change with the new FW...

Justa pain for the slow progress and as I said, 6 weeks to reveal an update that hardly
changed the issues and promises a few surprises... Very unreal but hey... they do the
best they can like anyone else... It's still attractive but far from the attraction it could
have...

lundman

10-25-07, 08:25 AM

Dvico is a non-option, the firmware is locked/encrypted. It's my device, if I want to fiddle with it, or break it, I must be able to do so. What it can or can't do beyond that is irrelevant.

But I don't know if I would recommend Lim. Of the 20 odd things that must be fixed, I could fix half of them in one day. Then even if you took a week to test it before releasing (as beta even) that doesn't explain the 5 other weeks. Now, I could not fix the play back problems, this is true. But a weekly firmware with _some_ progress is enough to keep me appeased.

But maybe they only have one guy doing the code.

clontarf

10-25-07, 03:46 PM

Hey H-J, I think it's an upgrade on my old TVIX M3000U? And big means heavy in this case which means I don't worry about pulling it off the rack when I trip over the USB cable as has happened in the past.

And it looks rather attractive next to the rest of the silver and black. But frankly thats all subjectivity and personal aesthetics at the end of the day.

Hi-Jack

10-25-07, 04:03 PM

Ah, thet 3000 uni. In that case, absolutely :-)
Wasn't clear in your previous post to me :-)

Lundman, beside the basic stuff you can do on other devices, there's not
much to enhance. The SDK won't be issued publicly so it remains mainly
based on Open Source. DvICo does indeed have not options to enhance
which is a shortcoming if you look at it like that but I would not consider
the other players at all "giving you the freedom" to do with it what you
want...

I wish the SDK was open to public...
It would kill "all brands" given what we could do then... :-)

pierdolis

10-25-07, 05:50 PM

The Lim will downmix AC3 to 2 channel...but not DTS...for DTS you need to connect to an AV AC3/DTS amp via optical......once you do...you'll never go back to 2.0 sound...

I even got some MKV's with a DTS-ES (6.1) track.....stunning!

K

Yupp, follow your advice and bought a AV AC3/DTS amp via optical. The DTS works fine :)

Thanks again Kevin, for your help and advice.

pierdolis

10-25-07, 06:00 PM

lundman

10-26-07, 02:01 AM

Lundman, beside the basic stuff you can do on other devices, there's not
much to enhance. The SDK won't be issued publicly so it remains mainly
based on Open Source.

I disagree. If it is closed, you will only get whatever the company can be bothered to make.

If it is really open, you can get xbmc style, which really is close to the best system existing, with endless neat features. I dislike xbox, etc, but look at that software, that had hundreds of people adding features, making a near perfect media center, with browser config, imdb lookup, apple trailers, and lets not forget, played nearly all things. But was left behind due to hardware.

You could have all this in Lim / Dvico.

But the companies wont make it, too expensive to develop (in-house).

So, we wont get that.

But, here is where it differs. Dvico is a dead-end, I can do nothing with it.

Lim is a little bit open, at home, I now have ext2 writable, I have FTP running, rsync (server mode) and should have NFSD in a bit. I can play Original bought DVDs using libdvdcss filesystem in fuse.

That's just from one person. Imagine if they opened the player software? Well, won't happen, but if so wanted, I could add a fuse-fs for apple trailers. (you see them as files in a dir, just click to view). I can add internet radio stations (again, filesystem). Hmm these are good ideas, I should write them down.

Where was I? Anyway, I would not suggest to anyone else to buy either of these devices. To me, there was only one option. It is a dead-end to buy a closed system, and that person did ask why I chose it. My selection won't apply to anyone else :)

I do not understand how you can NOT want to tinker with something you buy!

oldpainless68

10-26-07, 02:18 AM

Oldpainless...one funny detail that I notice with the amp... The AC3 drops are much more obvious on the amplifier that when I ear trought the TV with the HDMI embbed audio. The Av receiver that I bought is quite reseanble I think ONKYO TX-SR504E..so must be something inside the lim...Trought the av I really ear the cuts of the audio..on the HDMI TV it's very smooth..so..Playing the AC3 files I ear trought the TV sound also not bad...a Aquos sharp with Dolby and Surround and the DTS trought the AV Receiver... Let's wait for the FW that will resolve all this issues:)

Yeap....I test all files via my AV amp...that's why I've been having a fit about the sound drops on MKV's......but like you said, over hdmi there are not really noticeable.......but it only seems to effect MKV's

I have made it very clear to Jackie and Tomacro that the audio drop on MKV's is a MUST fix...not nearly fixed - but fixed!...

K

PS - most ONKYO amps are gems...

dp70

10-26-07, 01:32 PM

lundman, after some poking with the Sigma SDK and such, how big of a job would it be, in the absence of the curacao sources, to write your own wholesale replacement for curacao that performs the same functions and more?

lundman

10-26-07, 07:18 PM

The examples are quite complete admittedly, but I know little of the microcode. But assuming you can take the latest microcode from the real firmware you could quite easily replace curacao. There is little in there, beyond navigation and start to play.

Hi-Jack

10-27-07, 01:26 AM

I disagree. If it is closed, you will only get whatever the company can be bothered to make.

If it is really open, you can get xbmc style, which really is close to the best system existing, with endless neat features. I dislike xbox, etc, but look at that software, that had hundreds of people adding features, making a near perfect media center, with browser config, imdb lookup, apple trailers, and lets not forget, played nearly all things. But was left behind due to hardware.

You could have all this in Lim / Dvico.

But the companies wont make it, too expensive to develop (in-house).

So, we wont get that.

But, here is where it differs. Dvico is a dead-end, I can do nothing with it.

Lim is a little bit open, at home, I now have ext2 writable, I have FTP running, rsync (server mode) and should have NFSD in a bit. I can play Original bought DVDs using libdvdcss filesystem in fuse.

That's just from one person. Imagine if they opened the player software? Well, won't happen, but if so wanted, I could add a fuse-fs for apple trailers. (you see them as files in a dir, just click to view). I can add internet radio stations (again, filesystem). Hmm these are good ideas, I should write them down.

Where was I? Anyway, I would not suggest to anyone else to buy either of these devices. To me, there was only one option. It is a dead-end to buy a closed system, and that person did ask why I chose it. My selection won't apply to anyone else :)

I do not understand how you can NOT want to tinker with something you buy!

I would love to play with stuff i buy but not really on the design side. It
would only eat more memory and slow down as the players, closed or not,
remain being "not a PC or Xbox" and changes are limited due to options that
can't be rearranged, filters can't be addedn, additional functions can't be provided to handle files etc...

As for adding features like you do... hell yeah... love it :-)
We done so with many players before even though your skils are way higher
than mine, but we do have community developers that are very good at it
and enhance just about every single player out there...

I maybe said it wrong as I do agree with you completely...
I mend more to say that 80% remains locked without access to SDK...
(and never will it become even close to Xbox style mods without that)

That goes without saying your work isn't valuable. It's bloody terrific :-)