philmckrackon, you can also try Jackie's recommendation per post #1825 (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=11586851&postcount=1825)

Honestly this never worked for me or maybe it did and I just couldnt tell the difference.That is what I meant by a firmware restore. I have followed that sequence a few times. The VFD lights up completely (after holding the OK button) and about 30 min. later the VFD turns off. I then cycle the power button but never get a video signal.

Crap!

Understood, can't even put the LIM into 'sleep' mode now. I'll try another firmware recover per the manual. I don't think I have anything to loose...

All this time, and two folks has issues!....hope it's not, but if you've tried all the suggestions, sounds like it's bricked.....if you got it from Jackie, jackie will replace it pretty quick....

For anyone else....just update the app...not the boot...

K

I updated to this yesterday, and to my surprise the Lim had held onto my network settings too, -and all is well so far-.

Yeah...mine did too....

K

philmckrackon, you can also try Jackie's recommendation per post #1825 (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=11586851&postcount=1825)

Honestly this never worked for me or maybe it did and I just couldnt tell the difference.Per 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.

This has not worked for me. I hope it is not completely dead...

Per the manual...



This has not worked for me. I hope it is not completely dead...

And you've checked remote batteries, cycled through the video mode on the remote?...

K

All this time, and two folks has issues!....hope it's not, but if you've tried all the suggestions, sounds like it's bricked.....if you got it from Jackie, jackie will replace it pretty quick....

I have emailed her already, we will see what she can do for me...

And you've checked remote batteries, cycled through the video mode on the remote?...

KChanged batteries and tried different video modes. Can't even access the LIM HD anymore with my laptop over USB.

av_noob - sorry for your woes.....looks like a bummer....I have also emailed Jackie asking her to help you asap...

K

Thank you.

Per the manual...

This has not worked for me. I hope it is not completely dead...

When I tried to do the firmware recovery using steps similar to this:

1) Power on limHD200i by pressing the OK button (on the top of limHD200i) until all VFD lights are bright;

2) Release the OK button, limHD200i upgrade firmware automatically;

After about 35 minutes, all VFD lights black out, the upgrade procedure is complete;

3) Reboot limHD200i, you can use limHD200i as usual.

When I get to step 2 and release the power button the unit reboots within seconds (never 35 minutes). I wonder if the instructions are correct or some checksum takes place after releasing the power button where x=x then no need to flashback.

Does your unit go through the normal 35 minutes for recovery?

Just tried my first mkv file, which didnt work. Geez all I wanted was a pick-me up too. :(

MediaInfo reports:

General #0
Complete name : I:\Happy.Gilmore.mkv
Format : Matroska
File size : 12.0 GiB
PlayTime : 1h 31mn
Bit rate : 19 Mbps
Encoded date : UTC 2007-09-15 16:05:29
Writing application : gdsmux
Writing library : Haali DirectShow Matroska Muxer 1.7.189.11

Video #0
Codec : V_MS/VFW/FOURCC
Width : 1920 pixels
Height : 1080 pixels
Aspect ratio : 16/9
Title : PID 597

Audio #0
Codec : AC3
Codec/Info : Dolby AC3
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Sampling rate : 48 KHz
Language : English

Thank you.



When I tried to do the firmware recovery using steps similar to this:

1) Power on limHD200i by pressing the OK button (on the top of limHD200i) until all VFD lights are bright;

2) Release the OK button, limHD200i upgrade firmware automatically;

After about 35 minutes, all VFD lights black out, the upgrade procedure is complete;

3) Reboot limHD200i, you can use limHD200i as usual.

When I get to step 2 and release the power button the unit reboots within seconds (never 35 minutes). I wonder if the instructions are correct or some checksum takes place after releasing the power button where x=x then no need to flashback.

Does your unit go through the normal 35 minutes for recovery?

Are you confusing the OK and the POWER button?

I cannot ever get the LIM to power up with just the OK button, I have tried powering up by holding the power and the OK button (then all VFD lights turn on), after about 30 min the VFD goes balnk and the LIM turns off. I have also tried by powering on the LIM and then holding the OK button until the VFD lights up (all segments) and then about 30 min later it turns off by it self.

I think step one is not supposed to be 'Power on the LIM with the OK button' but hold the OK button after powering on the LIM. Then the VFD will completely light up and cycle after about 30 min.

I'm doing another restore at this time.

Are you confusing the OK and the POWER button?

I cannot ever get the LIM to power up with just the OK button, I have tried powering up by holding the power and the OK button (then all VFD lights turn on), after about 30 min the VFD goes balnk and the LIM turns off. I have also tried by powering on the LIM and then holding the OK button until the VFD lights up (all segments) and then about 30 min later it turns off by it self.

I think step one is not supposed to be 'Power on the LIM with the OK button' but hold the OK button after powering on the LIM. Then the VFD will completely light up and cycle after about 30 min.

I'm doing another restore at this time.

Doh! Let me go try another restore (this is why they call me av_noob) Thanks. Will post back the results shortly, maybe this will fix my network too? ::crossing fingers::

The good news: My limHD updated OK.

The bad news: All the settings reverted to defaults, the HD files on the local disk that weren't playing smoothly in the previous rev are much choppier than before, and the unit has crashed a few times already in the first ten minutes of using it, usually with a garbled screen like the attached picture (garbage near the top, damaged fonts, etc.)

I'll take a look at DVD playback and report back later.

Doh! Let me go try another restore (this is why they call me av_noob) Thanks. Will post back the results shortly, maybe this will fix my network too? ::crossing fingers::

The restore did not fix my network issues. :mad: Back to the drawing board.

The good news: My limHD updated OK.

The bad news: All the settings reverted to defaults, the HD files on the local disk that weren't playing smoothly in the previous rev are much choppier than before, and the unit has crashed a few times already in the first ten minutes of using it, usually with a garbled screen like the attached picture (garbage near the top, damaged fonts, etc.)

I'll take a look at DVD playback and report back later.

If you have the patience, try the firmware upgrade one more time --the screen dump you attached looks like some sort of data corruption.

Just tried my first mkv file, which didnt work. Geez all I wanted was a pick-me up too. :(

MediaInfo reports:

General #0
Complete name : I:\Happy.Gilmore.mkv
Format : Matroska
File size : 12.0 GiB
PlayTime : 1h 31mn
Bit rate : 19 Mbps
Encoded date : UTC 2007-09-15 16:05:29
Writing application : gdsmux
Writing library : Haali DirectShow Matroska Muxer 1.7.189.11

Video #0
Codec : V_MS/VFW/FOURCC
Width : 1920 pixels
Height : 1080 pixels
Aspect ratio : 16/9
Title : PID 597

Audio #0
Codec : AC3
Codec/Info : Dolby AC3
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Sampling rate : 48 KHz
Language : English

That looks like a really odd one...could you cut a sample?......

K

I don't understand this one....so far all the MKV's (H.264 etc) have played fine....no issues with updating the FW..(I never update boot, just the app)

K

Initial look at DVD playback:

Zoom problem seems to be fixed
ISO playback seems to work fine so far
ISO or IFO playback always starts off assuming my display is 4:3 even if set up as 16:9 in the global configuration... can be fixed with the Image button on the remote
Motion-adaptive deinterlacing is definitely not enabled yet
A new disc icon appears on folder names that contain DVD files sometimes (but not always)
Seems slightly more stable than before, but I still have to reboot every 4-5 times I stop playback

(I never update boot, just the app)

K

Do you also skip the "Software\Bak App" step?

Thanks,
Dave

Ok....now had a chance to take a look at the new cut...

Wishlist for next cut.....

WMV-HD WMA audio when digital encoded selected added back in
HDMI selection fixed
24hz option added
Multiple NFS mounts
NAS support
FTP support (copy, paste & delete)
FLAC support as an audio format and support for an audio track in MKV's
Ability to build MP3 playlists and save them on the hard drive
Deinterlace option for SD material

Add these and the Lim will be perfect....well, I did say it was a wishlist...lol

K

PS - Mark....looks like the deinterlacing on SD material has not been implemented yet....can you confirm?

Also need to add support for sending HD Audio over HDMI.

That looks like a really odd one...could you cut a sample?......

K

If anybody needs:
small MKV samples can be made with mkvmerge + mkvmergeGUI.

Also need to add support for sending HD Audio over HDMI.

Sorry, I missed that one...and yes, should be on the wish list...

K

That looks like a really odd one...could you cut a sample?......

K

Yep. Here is the details:

General #0
Complete name : I:\Happy.Gilmore_SAMPLE-001.mkv
Format : Matroska
File size : 20.9 MiB
PlayTime : 11s 40ms
Bit rate : 16 Mbps
Encoded date : UTC 2007-09-15 22:50:24
Writing application : mkvmerge v2.1.0 ('Another Place To Fall') built on Aug 19 2007 13:40:07
Writing library : libebml v0.7.7 + libmatroska v0.8.1

Video #0
Codec : V_MS/VFW/FOURCC
Width : 1920 pixels
Height : 1080 pixels
Aspect ratio : 16/9
Title : PID 597
Language : English

Audio #0
Codec : AC3
Codec/Info : Dolby AC3
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Sampling rate : 48 KHz
Language : English


file can be downloaded from here (http://www.filefactory.com/file/aaa9be/).

I don't understand this one....so far all the MKV's (H.264 etc) have played fine....no issues with updating the FW..(I never update boot, just the app)

K

Strange too. the video source was a VC-1 not sure why it converted to FOURCC but I think gdsmux does some interesting things.

If anybody needs:
small MKV samples can be made with mkvmerge + mkvmergeGUI.

Thanks for the tip; I used your method to splice up the sample.

Tried enough times now to het HDMI working, no solution.
Only once after a reboot I could see HDMI was still set but when selecting 720p
afterwards and reboot it came up with SD again. Instead of people figthing this battle,
we'll leave it to Tomacro to bring a fix "soon" for this error. Actually, they now can show
how fast they can react and fix "important" issues for the customers...

I'll wait for the next cut.
(I believe the problem is related to whatever your setting was before the update. By making screenshots I use
Composite / S-Video connecte to PC-Card. It will default to the setting you had before the update every time again
maybe?)

Tomacro? When can you fix this?

Blog Style comments:
I'm hungry for testing playbac of Tomacro and launch a revised opinion but somehow Tomacro managed to kill my envie spending time on the latest release as some issues being resolved seem to have been replaced with others that should have nevr passed QA. My user experience so far is not positive though I believe playback has improved a big deal, but... it takes 45 minutes to download the update file at 1.75KB/Sec as the web doesn't perform any better from Tomacro. Updating the player takes between 15 and 25 minutes (did not time but it was very looooong) and edded up with having no ability to select HDMI (read above). To test my theory, i now download the old fw again at the same wonderful 1.75KB/s (meaning about 45 minutes) to install it on the LimHD200i and set it to HDMI. After that, I would update the LimHD200i to the latest version hoping the HDMI will still be in place (conflicting messages posted where some say custom settings data is lost and others say it's kept). If I would fail in this attempt, I would have lost about 1/2 day trying to get HDMI working and I would strongly consider the Update to be a downgrade in
convenience and wonder where Tomacro support is with their comments on cause and info on fixing this...

Hope in 3 hours I got my HDMI back as otherwise my opinion based on the old firmware remains the same until
a "working" firmware is released...

Yep. Here is the details:

General #0
Complete name : I:\Happy.Gilmore_SAMPLE-001.mkv
Format : Matroska
File size : 20.9 MiB
PlayTime : 11s 40ms
Bit rate : 16 Mbps
Encoded date : UTC 2007-09-15 22:50:24
Writing application : mkvmerge v2.1.0 ('Another Place To Fall') built on Aug 19 2007 13:40:07
Writing library : libebml v0.7.7 + libmatroska v0.8.1

Video #0
Codec : V_MS/VFW/FOURCC
Width : 1920 pixels
Height : 1080 pixels
Aspect ratio : 16/9
Title : PID 597
Language : English

Audio #0
Codec : AC3
Codec/Info : Dolby AC3
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Sampling rate : 48 KHz
Language : English


file can be downloaded from here (http://www.filefactory.com/file/aaa9be/).



Strange too. the video source was a VC-1 not sure why it converted to FOURCC but I think gdsmux does some interesting things.



Thanks for the tip; I used your method to splice up the sample.

Have d/l and looked at it....the VC-1 codec is not supported in an MKV container yet.....H.264 (the most common) and Mpeg2 are..

K

Do you also skip the "Software\Bak App" step?

Thanks,
Dave

Ever since firmware 0707, I also skip this too...I just update the app...

K

Ok, now i'm less positive again.
The HDMI settings (unlike some reports in here) are NOT KEPT. I just spent
3 hours downloading the old FW again (slow web site Tomacro) and downgrading the
player to the old 0707 release. I made all the changes fine to HDMI. Then updated to
the latest beta again to find it did not resolve the HDMI issue and returned to it's forced
SD. (could use component but no VGA to Component cable available which is also stupid
instead of just using normal component)

There is NO POP up screen when selecting HDMI to use the LEFT and OK button unlike
on old FW releases, it jumps directly (0.5 seconds) to the main menu again so you have
no time to press even if it would work. For the sake of good communication let's file a
conclusion that no one of you can argue with leading to this problem in a constructive
way...

- TV Mode button only switches Resolutions and not outputs (limitation)
- Tomacro has no Auto Sense HDMI (Limitation)
- Tomacro QA failed on this release (90% use HDMI and it is broken!!)
- Testers confirm the old settings are kept (Bogus Information as they don't)
- No official reaction from Tomacro neither info on possible quick fix release (Customer care?)
- Update painfully slow
- Web Site Tomacro not only constantly outdated but also terribly slow (5MB takes 1 hour download)

Maybe playback is better, but the overall appreciation of the unit and Tomacro doesn't
move an inch thus far in my book... Hopefully the next release will resolve this issue
where would be be willing to spend time on testing... This release so far has taken up
enough of my time... It ain't ready (it is beta) but mistakes could have been avoided.

Enjoy
Hi-Jack

Ok, now i'm less positive again.
The HDMI settings (unlike some reports in here) are NOT KEPT. I just spent
3 hours downloading the old FW again (slow web site Tomacro) and downgrading the
player to the old 0707 release. I made all the changes fine to HDMI. Then updated to
the latest beta again to find it did not resolve the HDMI issue and returned to it's forced
SD. (could use component but no VGA to Component cable available which is also stupid
instead of just using normal component)

There is NO POP up screen when selecting HDMI to use the LEFT and OK button unlike
on old FW releases, it jumps directly (0.5 seconds) to the main menu again so you have
no time to press even if it would work. For the sake of good communication let's file a
conclusion that no one of you can argue with leading to this problem in a constructive
way...

- TV Mode button only switches Resolutions and not outputs (limitation)
- Tomacro has no Auto Sense HDMI (Limitation)
- Tomacro QA failed on this release (90% use HDMI and it is broken!!)
- Testers confirm the old settings are kept (Bogus Information as they don't)
- No official reaction from Tomacro neither info on possible quick fix release (Customer care?)
- Update painfully slow
- Web Site Tomacro not only constantly outdated but also terribly slow (5MB takes 1 hour download)

Maybe playback is better, but the overall appreciation of the unit and Tomacro doesn't
move an inch thus far in my book... Hopefully the next release will resolve this issue
where would be be willing to spend time on testing... This release so far has taken up
enough of my time... It ain't ready (it is beta) but mistakes could have been avoided.

Enjoy
Hi-Jack

Hi-Jack, Sorry for your woes....

The latest cut is not perfect (still lots more to do and fix), but I'm not having your issues (only the ones I've covered).........

You do make one point though.....were is Jackie and Fan????????

K

As a straw poll.....

How many of you updated the boot & the app?....what issues?

How many of you updated JUST the app?...what issues...

Me...I updated just the app....when I rebooted, all my network settings and res were saved.....eg I didn't need to re-enter them...

K

I updated boot & app.
Networksettings were kept.
No problems changing resolution at hdmi.
I do got some inconsistent lack of sound, but that could be network related (wireless).

After some weeks of waiting patiently, I finally received an e-mail from Tomacro. Despite the latest woes listed in this thread I think I'm going to buy the limHD200i in the hopes that their engineers know what they're doing (unlike Pixel Magic Systems, for example).

Having said that, reading Hi-Jack's latest posts made me chuckle, because what he said sounded very familiar. I have two Pixel Magic Systems' HD Mediaboxes and their firmware updates are simply hopeless: every new release fixes a bug or two, but introduces a bunch of new ones, breaking previous functionality. I hope Tomacro doesn't make the same mistake of stumbling blindly into new features before making sure the older ones work properly.

I updated boot & app.
Networksettings were kept.
No problems changing resolution at hdmi.
I do got some inconsistent lack of sound, but that could be network related (wireless).

Great, many thanks for the info.....for a moment I thought may have been an issue with the boot...

Just for completness, what firmeware did you update from? re sound....what formats/bitrates is this happening on?...have you tried testing a problem file from a local disk to elimnate networks from the problem?...

K

I updated boot & app.
Networksettings were kept.
No problems changing resolution at hdmi.
I do got some inconsistent lack of sound, but that could be network related (wireless).

Makes me even more sceptic...
Different reactions on equal players...
Tried both "only app" and "app and boot" updates to no avail.

Has anyone tested an MKV file with a USB DVD drive?....I assume it works the same as played from a hard drive?

K

I updated boot & app.
Networksettings were kept.
No problems changing resolution at hdmi.
I do got some inconsistent lack of sound, but that could be network related (wireless).

It's not a problem with changing resolutions once HDMI is set.
It's a preoblem setting to SD and then return to HDMI which the player won't
accept...

It's not a problem with changing resolutions once HDMI is set.
It's a preoblem setting to SD and then return to HDMI which the player won't
accept...


Just out of interest, what firmeware V did you upgrade from?

Not clear on what you mean....have you got HDMI to work for you?

K

Nope, HDMI still does not work.
I upgraded from the 0707 and Version: Build 1.60beta2-070803 (tsted both)
On the old FW i could change no problem...

My player, when using the latest release always has SD as setting when upgrading the
APP. When switching to HDMI all it does is return to the main menu and reset to SD so I
not even get as far as selecting resolution.

I downgraded to both 0707 and the previous beta to try while setting the HDMI on the
old firmware and see if it keeps the settings as I update to the latest beta (NO, it
doesn't).

Basically, everything works (component, s-video, composite) but no ability to select HDMI. Tried both app and app/boot options to no avail.

To return to my comments, a lot of issues and inconveinience could be avoided if the
TV moe would work as it should including both resolutions and output selections. now
that it only does resolutions, I have no option to set to HDMI in that way either...

Nope, HDMI still does not work.
I upgraded from the 0707 and Version: Build 1.60beta2-070803 (tsted both)
On the old FW i could change no problem...

My player, when using the latest release always has SD as setting when upgrading the
APP. When switching to HDMI all it does is return to the main menu and reset to SD so I
not even get as far as selecting resolution.

I downgraded to both 0707 and the previous beta to try while setting the HDMI on the
old firmware and see if it keeps the settings as I update to the latest beta (NO, it
doesn't).

Basically, everything works (component, s-video, composite) but no ability to select HDMI. Tried both app and app/boot options to no avail.

To return to my comments, a lot of issues and inconveinience could be avoided if the
TV moe would work as it should including both resolutions and output selections. now
that it only does resolutions, I have no option to set to HDMI in that way either...


Ok thanks...but I really don't understand though....yes, there is a bug when selecting HDMI and changing the res, but as I described, there is a work around, and no one eles has this issue.....wish I could help further.

K

Unfortunately it doesn't work here. (not even seeing the screen pop up after slecting HDMI, tried the left and ok press option etc... I'm doing this now since last night... If I go thru the efforts of downgrading to an older version and set HDMI correct (which reports say are being kept) and it still returns to the SD mode after upgrading again, one cannot argue it's the player or me...

Procedure:
- Dowbgraded to previous beta
- Set HDMI and 720p resolution, PAL, 16:9
- Reboot LimHD200i (cold reboot not just remote)
- Check settings, HDMI and 720p still set ok.
- reboot and verify again, still OK. Perform update latest beta
- Reboot: Settings are SD, NTSC, 4:3

Can you set your player to SD, then reboot and switch to HDMI?
Have you tried it on your unit?

Unfortunately it doesn't work here. (not even seeing the screen pop up after slecting HDMI, tried the left and ok press option etc... I'm doing this now since last night...

Can you set your player to SD, then reboot and switch to HDMI?
Have you tried it on your unit?

Humor me once more....

Select HDMI...screen goes blank...WAIT 2 seconds, then press left, wait 2 seconds, then press OK.......do the same when changing res....

It's the only other thing I can think of...

Fingers crossed for you....

K

Well folks, I have come to the conclusion my LIM is dead. I exchanged email with Jackie last night for a while. I had tried all the things she told me to try to fix my LIM before but I did all of them again.

I have a LIM that none of the video out (HDMI, analog, S-Video) or audio out jacks work (analog, optical, coax, HDMI). It won't respond to any remote button presses (VFD on / off, VIDEO or power), the VFD indicators for POWER and REPEAT are always on and I can no longer connect my laptop to the LIM via USB either.

Dead...

I just sent Jackie an email asking what I have to do to exchange this thing.

I used upgrade/ boot then upgrade / app. After that it erased and wrote the eeprom, upon restart it never came back.

I'm a little frustrated right now. Oh well...

Well folks, I have come to the conclusion my LIM is dead. I exchanged email with Jackie last night for a while. I had tried all the things she told me to try to fix my LIM before but I did all of them again.

I have a LIM that none of the video out (HDMI, analog, S-Video) or audio out jacks work (analog, optical, coax, HDMI). It won't respond to any remote button presses (VFD on / off, VIDEO or power), the VFD indicators for POWER and REPEAT are always on and I can no longer connect my laptop to the LIM via USB either.

Dead...

I just sent Jackie an email asking what I have to do to exchange this thing.

I used upgrade/ boot then upgrade / app. After that it erased and wrote the eeprom, upon restart it never came back.

I'm a little frustrated right now. Oh well...

Sorry for your woes...as they say "shxx happens" when updating firmware. Jackie is pretty good, she'll change it asap I'm sure....

K

Humored you now again, no solution (tried at least 10 times).
HDMI is not kept even after reboot and the player returns so fast back to main that the
left and OK press is already browsing folders on the HDD instead of the pop up screen
that you think is hidden (not shown).

The fact that also downgrade and setting HDMI does not resolve the issue after I
upgrade again to me is clear that the fw has a slightly bigger issue than just simple
selection with a workaround as it does not keep the settings either... (in old FW
everything works ok).

Now humor me and try it on your player or is that where the 2 seconds now came from? :-)

Enjoy
Hi-Jack

Great, many thanks for the info.....for a moment I thought may have been an issue with the boot...

Just for completness, what firmeware did you update from? re sound....what formats/bitrates is this happening on?...have you tried testing a problem file from a local disk to elimnate networks from the problem?...

K

I updated from the latest Beta.
I'm trying to pin the sound problems down.
I'll get back to you.

Humored you now again, no solution (tried at least 10 times).
HDMI is not kept even after reboot and the player returns so fast back to main that the
left and OK press is already browsing folders on the HDD instead of the pop up screen
that you think is hidden (not shown).

The fact that also downgrade and setting HDMI does not resolve the issue after I
upgrade again to me is clear that the fw has a slightly bigger issue than just simple
selection with a workaround as it does not keep the settings either... (in old FW
everything works ok).

Now humor me and try it on your player or is that where the 2 seconds now came from? :-)

Enjoy
Hi-Jack


Hi-Jack....you ought to know me by now....do I fence...yes...lie, no....I will test....will be later though....time to spend time with the kids, have Sunday lunch (roast pork...mmmmm) and a few beers......later peeps

K

I updated from the latest Beta.
I'm trying to pin the sound problems down.
I'll get back to you.


Ok...great...if we find an issue we need to report it asap....

K

wow, i wasn't saying youa r elying friend anywhere...
I just wondered how the 2 seconds came up.

As far as I can analyse the issue is that with HDMI the confirmation box (yes/no)
doesn't come up unlike with the other options or is hidden. The button presses seems
to have no effect on the selection. Excatly after 10 seconds the player main screen
appears again in SD mode and with or without delay, the button presses seem not to
be accepted by the Limhd200i...

All I said is that the issue is a little bigger then just some trouble selecting HDMI and a
workaround (at least as far as I can confirm with my unit). It doesn't mean you are
lying, it means there's a conflict in messages... Even if I would be stupid, there is no
mistake to make when downgrading and upgrading and expecting your settings are
restored...

It just does not want to accept the button presses at all...
There is the problem, if it would accept them (left and OK) the issue would be ok with
the workaround.

Before updating to the Version: Build 1.60-070914 I had Version: Build 1.60Beta3-070906 installed.

Going from 070906->070914 held onto my settings.

Previously when I went from 070803->070906 it did lose the settings though.

So it seems that everything is dependant on what version you are updating from?

Like Kevin I have only updated the App.

Maybe the testers who had the "in between releases" beta have their
settings restored as the 070906 has never been available for download
publicly... I can imaging that it keeps settings if a certain file is not being
updated with a partial update yet for most customers the update is full,
loosing settings, making the limHD200i return to default settings and failing
to set HDMI...

That is a plausible explanation for the different reports...
Issue could have been not in the previous intermediate release and are now kept with the new update.
Still wait for oldpainless to check what happens if he changes to SD, reboots
and then tries to get HDMI loaded again.

Well folks, I have come to the conclusion my LIM is dead. I exchanged email with Jackie last night for a while. I had tried all the things she told me to try to fix my LIM before but I did all of them again.

I have a LIM that none of the video out (HDMI, analog, S-Video) or audio out jacks work (analog, optical, coax, HDMI). It won't respond to any remote button presses (VFD on / off, VIDEO or power), the VFD indicators for POWER and REPEAT are always on and I can no longer connect my laptop to the LIM via USB either.

Dead...

I just sent Jackie an email asking what I have to do to exchange this thing.

I used upgrade/ boot then upgrade / app. After that it erased and wrote the eeprom, upon restart it never came back.

I'm a little frustrated right now. Oh well...

Take it easy! Scott! We hope you can send us some information which can prove you bought this Lim from us, then we will exchange it for a new one.
Jackie

Firstly we want to show my sincere thanks to Kevin, Since he always helps us to solve many customers' questions on the Forum and gives us lots of valuable suggestions.Then we should say sorry that sometimes we do not give you the immediate answer for everyone's questions sometimes because of our different time zone. Anyhow,we will try our best to do better in the following days.And if you have problems and
questions , welcome to send emails to us.We are very glad to help you. Your suggestions and advice are always welcome. thank you for all your support and understanding.
Best Regards to everyone
Yours,sincerely Jackie

Yep, agree with you Jackie. Kevin is doing a much better job than Tomacro. He should get paid doing the job for them. Only wish he could develop the fw too, would look better in my opinion. Now how abouta quick fix for the HDMI issues?

Take it easy! Scott! We hope you can send us some information which can prove you bought this Lim from us, then we will exchange it for a new one.
Jackie

Hey Jackie, no problems on my end. I understand this happens. I am not upset. Frustrated a little but I understand.

I forwarded you my paypal receipt.

A word of advice to Tomacro: since your customers are talking about slow download speeds when downloading firmware updates, please look into opening a free account in a sharing service such as Box.net (www.box.net). It's an online file storage service where you set up shared folders/files; password protection is also available.

oops, double post.

Haven't seen any speed issues accessing Tomacro's web site... I consistently get about 80 KB/sec and can download the firmware update in about 90 seconds. Hi-Jack, you don't have bt running at the same time, right? :)

After some weeks of waiting patiently, I finally received an e-mail from Tomacro. Despite the latest woes listed in this thread I think I'm going to buy the limHD200i in the hopes that their engineers know what they're doing (unlike Pixel Magic Systems, for example).

Having said that, reading Hi-Jack's latest posts made me chuckle, because what he said sounded very familiar. I have two Pixel Magic Systems' HD Mediaboxes and their firmware updates are simply hopeless: every new release fixes a bug or two, but introduces a bunch of new ones, breaking previous functionality. I hope Tomacro doesn't make the same mistake of stumbling blindly into new features before making sure the older ones work properly.
Patients is a virtue and you may consider waiting a bit longer....unless you are trying for a perfect 3 for 3 on media players.

Sadly no... Probably the US rate is that high, from Eu it's a lot slower...
Not such a big deal as it ain't on my big problems list. The HDMI is a pain though... :-)

Patients is a virtue
Especially if you're an MD! :D

and you may consider waiting a bit longer....unless you are trying for a perfect 3 for 3 on media players.
I just might be ;)

- Testers confirm the old settings are kept (Bogus Information as they don't)


I seriously doubt people would lie about thier overall experience. The settings that stayed were network related and not video related.

As a straw poll.....
How many of you updated the boot & the app?....what issues?


Updated each one (boot, app, bak) per my cheat sheet (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=11630023&postcount=1965) and per the TOMACRO website too. No issues I didn't already have, expect that selecting different video options returns to you the main menu. I mentioned this already in a previous post.


Having said that, reading Hi-Jack's latest posts made me chuckle, because what he said sounded very familiar. I have two Pixel Magic Systems' HD Mediaboxes and their firmware updates are simply hopeless: every new release fixes a bug or two, but introduces a bunch of new ones, breaking previous functionality. I hope Tomacro doesn't make the same mistake of stumbling blindly into new features before making sure the older ones work properly.

These compaines are in it for the money. Both TOMACRO and DiVCo are racing to get new customers and dollars. New features at the cost of bugs is the price some must pay for the ultimate grande product, at least until the next HOT product comes along (SMP8630 series?).


Well folks, I have come to the conclusion my LIM is dead. I exchanged email with Jackie last night for a while. I had tried all the things she told me to try to fix my LIM before but I did all of them again.

I have a LIM that none of the video out (HDMI, analog, S-Video) or audio out jacks work (analog, optical, coax, HDMI). It won't respond to any remote button presses (VFD on / off, VIDEO or power), the VFD indicators for POWER and REPEAT are always on and I can no longer connect my laptop to the LIM via USB either.

Dead...


I wonder, since people are having different experiences, if the lim units have different hardware here and there? That would be a question for the Tomacro engineers though. QQ, did you try your unit without the HDD? Also, for kicks did you connect it to a VGA display device? I hope you get the problem worked out one way or another.

Have d/l and looked at it....the VC-1 codec is not supported in an MKV container yet.....H.264 (the most common) and Mpeg2 are..

K

I think this is the most important one of them all. VC-1's are most difficult to mux into other containers (except mkv). Can we add this to the future list of requests?

wow, i wasn't saying youa r elying friend anywhere...
I just wondered how the 2 seconds came up.

As far as I can analyse the issue is that with HDMI the confirmation box (yes/no)
doesn't come up unlike with the other options or is hidden. The button presses seems
to have no effect on the selection. Excatly after 10 seconds the player main screen
appears again in SD mode and with or without delay, the button presses seem not to
be accepted by the Limhd200i...

All I said is that the issue is a little bigger then just some trouble selecting HDMI and a
workaround (at least as far as I can confirm with my unit). It doesn't mean you are
lying, it means there's a conflict in messages... Even if I would be stupid, there is no
mistake to make when downgrading and upgrading and expecting your settings are
restored...

It just does not want to accept the button presses at all...
There is the problem, if it would accept them (left and OK) the issue would be ok with
the workaround.

Had my Lunch etc and had a chance to test. Changed to SD, then back to HDMI with no too many problems..

K

I think this is the most important one of them all. VC-1's are most difficult to mux into other containers (except mkv). Can we add this to the future list of requests?


Agreed, it should be on the list and indeed it was mentioned to Tomacro a while back, but I guess they have been working to get MKV as a playable container....

So, the wishlist (user dev log?) now stands at:


HDMI selection fixed
WMV-HD with WMA 5.1 as 5.1 audio when digital encoded selected added back in
Multiple NFS mounts
FTP support (copy, paste & delete)
24hz option added
Deinterlace option for SD material
NAS support
Add VC-1 as a supported codec in an MKV container
Ability to build MP3 playlists and save them on the hard drive
FLAC support as an audio format and support for an audio track in MKV's
HD audio passthrough

Ok....I know this is going to open a can of worms....but is there any sort of agreement on a rank order of the above? Based on comments made/common sense, I have tried to make an educated guess.....any comments?

K

I still have some audio drops on 720p MKV files. I also have some on 1080p as well.

I still have some audio drops on 720p MKV files. I also have some on 1080p as well.

Could you post a 20meg sample...and we can get it to Tomacro...(or you can PM me)

K

Agreed, it should be on the list and indeed it was mentioned to Tomacro a while back, but I guess they have been working to get MKV as a playable container....

So, the wishlist (user dev log?) now stands at:


HDMI selection fixed
WMV-HD with WMA 5.1 as 5.1 audio when digital encoded selected added back in
Multiple NFS mounts
FTP support (copy, paste & delete)
24hz option added
Deinterlace option for SD material
NAS support
Add VC-1 as a supported codec in an MKV container
Ability to build MP3 playlists and save them on the hard drive
FLAC support as an audio format and support for an audio track in MKV's
HD audio passthrough

Ok....I know this is going to open a can of worms....but is there any sort of agreement on a rank order of the above? Based on comments made/common sense, I have tried to make an educated guess.....any comments?

K

My only comment is to move VC-1 closer to the top (at least before the network work gets attention). I'd rather see Tomacro focus on video, audio, and then other stuff. Rough cut would be something like this:

Video
* HDMI selection fixed
* WMV-HD with WMA 5.1 as 5.1 audio when digital encoded selected added back in
* Add VC-1 as a supported codec in an MKV container
* Deinterlace option for SD material

Audio
* HD audio passthrough
* FLAC support as an audio format and support for an audio track in MKV's
* 24hz option added

Other
* Ability to build MP3 playlists and save them on the hard drive
* Multiple NFS mounts
* FTP support (copy, paste & delete)
* NAS support


My 2 cents anyway.

Prioritize:


1. Play stuff:
1.1 Add VC-1 as a supported codec in an MKV container

2. Output fixes
2.1. HDMI selection fixed
2.2. 24hz option added
2.3. Deinterlace option for SD material


3. Network
3.1. NAS support
3.2. FTP support (copy, paste & delete)
3.3. Multiple NFS mounts

4. Audio
4.1. WMV-HD with WMA 5.1 as 5.1 audio when digital encoded selected added back in
4.2 HD audio passthrough
4.3 FLAC support as an audio format and support for an audio track in MKV's
4.4. Ability to build MP3 playlists and save them on the hard drive

5. All else


Again: If the player fails:

- detection
- opening
- decoding
- playing back faultlessly

... of video and audio,

then no amount of NAS/NFS/FTP/FLAC/MP3/de-interlace support can fix that, and the player remains a broken dud, which nobody will recommend.

Fix playback first, everything else second.

Dual Audio track in .AVI. It is far too basic a problem to be ignored.

I'd like to have HDD be writable, and then to be able to save bookmarks of videos. Ie, if you pause it, then stop, it saves this position for restart later.

Oh yeah, speaking about slow Internet, it is most likely due to your links to Asia. From Japan I did not have to wait particularly long.

But then, this morning they are having problems.

Host Loss% Snt Last Avg Best Wrst StDev
6. p16-0.chinanet.tokyjp01.jp.ra.gi 0.0% 32 37.7 37.7 37.6 38.3 0.1
7. 202.97.33.177 9.4% 32 326.3 337.9 326.0 444.4 28.0
8. 202.97.33.65 31.2% 32 327.5 329.3 326.1 369.9 9.1
9. 202.97.36.78 0.0% 32 96.3 98.6 92.0 181.9 15.3

After some weeks of waiting patiently, I finally received an e-mail from Tomacro. Despite the latest woes listed in this thread I think I'm going to buy the limHD200i in the hopes that their engineers know what they're doing (unlike Pixel Magic Systems, for example).

Having said that, reading Hi-Jack's latest posts made me chuckle, because what he said sounded very familiar. I have two Pixel Magic Systems' HD Mediaboxes and their firmware updates are simply hopeless: every new release fixes a bug or two, but introduces a bunch of new ones, breaking previous functionality. I hope Tomacro doesn't make the same mistake of stumbling blindly into new features before making sure the older ones work properly.

Hello! Tomacro are very responsible for the new release. They always make every efforts to perfect the functions until the official release of the new version.also if you have questions or suggestions, you can directly email to us,then we can help you you to reflect to Tomacro.
We are very glad to help you.

gendvd, you are hillarious...

Being responsible would mean:
- It would not be released as the issue would be found in QA, release would
come a day or 2 later but at least it would work if they had done their "high
quality" QA on their "high quality" product. (That is what you are refering to
on your site, that you only sell High Quality products which limHD200i is not)
- Tomacro would issue a message about the problem and it's plans for fixing this in very short term as information so their consumers can look forward to having a decent working player again.

Can you point me to the place where they done any of this?

We discussed in detail issues about HDMI with Kevin and myself in here. We found a lot
of possibilities that could help but it didn't. What deffinately did not help or could be
matched to the truth is what Tomacro has to say about the issue fromt heir web site
and their absence in the story to find a solutions:

Tomacro Web Site:
Will return to main menu while setting HDMI output, but the selection be valid. Can also
use the VIDEO MODE button on remote controller to set the video output.

Tomacro TV Mode button changes resolution and not outputs. Setting HDMI does not keep
the setting, it returns to the menu but also to SD. Whatever product they looked at to say
this I don't know but it wasn't LimHD200i.

They probably tested on another intermediate release people never seen to come to
that conclusion. So how about helping Tomacro getting better instead of helping them
to get more customers with your promotional stuff on Tomacro all the time? At least
then you would do something useful in long terms and consumers would come by itself...

Ok....morning folks.....

I had a chance to test alot more of MKV's....and yes, there are still audio drops on some...not very many....but enough to annoy (I'd say about 8% of mine)......

So, Jackie.....I think from reading through everyone's comments...here are the LimHD Users requirements list (this will also make the LimHD one very sweet package)

In order of priority...

1 HDMI selection fixed - ASAP
2 720p/1080p MKV occasional sound drop fixed (I'm still sure this is due to the reading of the A/V timecode tables)
3 WMV-HD with WMA 5.1 as 5.1 audio when digital encoded selected - added back in
3.1 Select Multiple audio tracks in an AVI container
4 Add VC-1 as a supported codec in an MKV container
5 Deinterlace option for SD material
6 24hz option added (video mode for Hi-Def material)
7 FTP support (copy, paste & delete)
8 Multiple NFS mounts
9 NAS support
10 Ability to build MP3 playlists and save them on the hard drive
11 HD audio passthrough
12 FLAC support as an audio format and support for an audio track in MKV's
13 Video save points/resume

There maybe something on the DVD-ISO side, but I think we are still waiting for feedback...

I think going forward, we should use the above as a measure of progress...

K

7. Multiple audio tracks in .AVI too...

> 7 FTP support (copy, paste & delete)
> 8 Multiple NFS mounts
> 9 NAS support
> 10 Ability to build MP3 playlists and save them on the hard drive

All need writable NTFS alas :)

Also
13 Save-points of videos. Some players do (pause->stop to save position. Just stop clears previous and stops)

7. Multiple audio tracks in .AVI too...

> 7 FTP support (copy, paste & delete)
> 8 Multiple NFS mounts
> 9 NAS support
> 10 Ability to build MP3 playlists and save them on the hard drive

All need writable NTFS alas :)

Also
13 Save-points of videos. Some players do (pause->stop to save position. Just stop clears previous and stops)


Sorry Lundman....I've updated the list. Just a question - what could writable NTFS do?

K

We discussed in detail issues about HDMI with Kevin and myself in here. We found a lot
of possibilities that could help but it didn't. What deffinately did not help or could be
matched to the truth is what Tomacro has to say about the issue fromt heir web site
and their absence in the story to find a solutions:

Tomacro Web Site:
Will return to main menu while setting HDMI output, but the selection be valid. Can also
use the VIDEO MODE button on remote controller to set the video output.

Tomacro TV Mode button changes resolution and not outputs. Setting HDMI does not keep
the setting, it returns to the menu but also to SD. Whatever product they looked at to say
this I don't know but it wasn't LimHD200i.

They probably tested on another intermediate release people never seen to come to
that conclusion. So how about helping Tomacro getting better instead of helping them
to get more customers with your promotional stuff on Tomacro all the time? At least
then you would do something useful in long terms and consumers would come by itself...
Hello! Hi-jack,Thank you for attention and suggestions.In the near future all of problems will be solved gradually. The engineers of Tomacro has realized allthe above and are trying to solve them.

Ok....morning folks.....

I had a chance to test alot more of MKV's....and yes, there are still audio drops on some...not very many....but enough to annoy (I'd say about 8% of mine)......

So, Jackie.....I think from reading through everyone's comments...here are the LimHD Users requirements list (this will also make the LimHD one very sweet package)

In order of priority...

1 HDMI selection fixed - ASAP
2 720p/1080p MKV occasional sound drop fixed (I'm still sure this is due to the reading of the A/V timecode tables)
3 WMV-HD with WMA 5.1 as 5.1 audio when digital encoded selected - added back in
3.1 Select Multiple audio tracks in an AVI container
4 Add VC-1 as a supported codec in an MKV container
5 Deinterlace option for SD material
6 24hz option added (video mode for Hi-Def material)
7 FTP support (copy, paste & delete)
8 Multiple NFS mounts
9 NAS support
10 Ability to build MP3 playlists and save them on the hard drive
11 HD audio passthrough
12 FLAC support as an audio format and support for an audio track in MKV's
13 Video save points/resume

There maybe something on the DVD-ISO side, but I think we are still waiting for feedback...

I think going forward, we should use the above as a measure of progress...

K

Thank you very much for all the above list. I will reflect to Tomacro.I am sure they will deal with them.

Thank you very much for all the above list. I will reflect to Tomacro.I am sure they will deal with them.

Thanks Jackie...In my view, this will turn the LimHD into a world class player. Tomacro has a good opportunity here to use this forum to share ideas etc...all of which will benefit Tomacro and it's customers...

As I said, the list is in order of prioity.......It's important for everyone to understand that this is a living list, and priorties may change after a new firmware cut, based on feedback from users........this is called beta feedback which will be very valuable to Tomacro....

K

Oh well, back to watching the other 92% of my 720p/1080p MKV's until the next cut....hope it's soon: Should not be a major job to sort the HDMI and MKV audio drop on some MKV's out.....

Kevin, have you prepared an MKV sample with audio dropouts for Tomacro to test?
Can you share it here?

Kevin, have you prepared an MKV sample with audio dropouts for Tomacro to test?
Can you share it here?

I'll post a sample

K

Russland...you have a PM...

I have AVI samples if needed.

Also the remounting bug will need attention sooner than I thought.

One evening of moving around and watching tv:

//192.168.11.10/Downloads 148.7G 66.8G 82.0G 45% /mnt/smbfs1
//192.168.11.10/Downloads 148.7G 66.8G 82.0G 45% /mnt/smbfs1
//192.168.11.10/Downloads 148.7G 66.8G 82.0G 45% /mnt/smbfs1
//192.168.11.10/Downloads 148.7G 66.8G 82.0G 45% /mnt/smbfs1
//192.168.11.10/Downloads 148.7G 66.8G 82.0G 45% /mnt/smbfs1

I believe 2.4 kernel has max mounts at 16, so after that it wont mount anything new. (So, samba would work, but if you plugged in a USB, it would not mount - need reboot. Not the end of the world, and less so if you could reboot from remote)

Hi-Jack wrote:
gendvd, you are hillarious...

Being responsible would mean:
- It would not be released as the issue would be found in QA, release would
come a day or 2 later but at least it would work if they had done their "high
quality" QA on their "high quality" product. (That is what you are refering to
on your site, that you only sell High Quality products which limHD200i is not)
- Tomacro would issue a message about the problem and it's plans for fixing this in very short term as information so their consumers can look forward to having a decent working player again.

Can you point me to the place where they done any of this?
Spot on!

and....
They probably tested on another intermediate release people never seen to come to
that conclusion. So how about helping Tomacro getting better instead of helping them
to get more customers with your promotional stuff on Tomacro all the time? At least
then you would do something useful in long terms and consumers would come by itself...
They have OldPainless(Kevin) so they can sell their unit regardless of how many things are wrong with it.

and GenDVD wrote:
Hello! Hi-jack,Thank you for attention and suggestions.In the near future all of problems will be solved gradually. The engineers of Tomacro has realized allthe above and are trying to solve them.
Why not post this on the GenDVD and Tomarco sites, it would be a lot more truthfull. How about something like 'Thank you for your attention and suggestions but please stop sending us your money until we fix the lim'

I interpreted lundmans post as: once you have jumped between browsing your network share and your internal HDD or a USB 16 times, then you must reboot the player...

Rather different interpretation :)

I interpreted lundmans post as: once you have jumped between browsing your network share and your internal HDD or a USB 16 times, then you must reboot the player...

Rather different interpretation :)

See.....told you I know jack about networks....lol...so I've deleted my post.....:o

K

Ok folks, here's an MKV sample....

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=94JW3RP0

Jackie, could you forward this link to Tomacro. It's an MKV that has an audio drop now and again. I'm still pretty sure it's caused by the incorrect reading of the a/v timecode table for a Variable Framerate (VFR) encode.......a quick way of fixing it would be to snap the seperate audio and video timecodes together...however, this would result in A/V sync issues...........I'm sure they'll sort it! Let me know how they get on.......

Any other's care to test this on their LimHD's?....most MKV's are CFR (contant framerate rate)....but there are VFR's (x.264 unoffical codec) out there, so this does need covering off.

K

Having said that, reading Hi-Jack's latest posts made me chuckle, because what he said sounded very familiar. I have two Pixel Magic Systems' HD Mediaboxes and their firmware updates are simply hopeless: every new release fixes a bug or two, but introduces a bunch of new ones, breaking previous functionality.

It sounds familiar because that is what Dvico is doing with the 4100 firmware: breaking more stuff than they are fixing, as they desperately try to catch up with Tomacro. I laugh when Hi-Jack complains about Tomacro not fixing stuff fast enough when the 4100 has had basic functionality broken since the beginning. Want to rewind a mpeg2 ts or vob on the 4100? You'll get a nice message telling you it's "Unsupported":D Want to play a PCM DVD ISO like a concert? Be prepared to have the 4100 lockup and you will have to reboot it. The 4100 is no more stable than the Tomacro.

Ok folks, here's an MKV sample....

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=94JW3RP0

Jackie, could you forward this link to Tomacro. It's an MKV that has an audio drop now and again. I'm still pretty sure it's caused by the incorrect reading of the a/v timecode table for a Variable Framerate (VFR) encode.......a quick way of fixing it would be to snap the seperate audio and video timecodes together...however, this would result in A/V sync issues...........I'm sure they'll sort it! Let me know how they get on.......

Any other's care to test this on their LimHD's?....most MKV's are CFR (contant framerate rate)....but there are VFR's (x.264 unoffical codec) out there, so this does need covering off.

K


I don't have the Lim( but find the progress very awesome), but tested the file on my Tvix, and all works great, no drop outs..

This being said, it should be a small fix to correct this on the Lim I would think..:)

Thanks Jackie...In my view, this will turn the LimHD into a world class player. Tomacro has a good opportunity here to use this forum to share ideas etc...all of which will benefit Tomacro and it's customers...

As I said, the list is in order of prioity.......It's important for everyone to understand that this is a living list, and priorties may change after a new firmware cut, based on feedback from users........this is called beta feedback which will be very valuable to Tomacro....

K

Next priority to be definetly the best player of the world : 24p and evo support. ;)

It sounds familiar because that is what Dvico is doing with the 4100 firmware: breaking more stuff than they are fixing, as they desperately try to catch up with Tomacro. I laugh when Hi-Jack complains about Tomacro not fixing stuff fast enough when the 4100 has had basic functionality broken since the beginning. Want to rewind a mpeg2 ts or vob on the 4100? You'll get a nice message telling you it's "Unsupported":D Want to play a PCM DVD ISO like a concert? Be prepared to have the 4100 lockup and you will have to reboot it. The 4100 is no more stable than the Tomacro.

That's kinda what I thought, but not my place to say it (thanks for having the balls). There are one or two who visit this thread that are trying their best to discredit Tomacro (although Hi-Jack is comming around)....

At the end of the day...we can all vote with our wallet....Tomacro and Divco know that.....so, let's see who produces the best Hi-Def media media (I know who I'm backing)...we, the consumer can only benefit....and the prize for the company who wins...$$$$$$$$$$$$.

K

Next priority to be definetly the best player of the world : 24p and evo support. ;)

Bugger...knew I forgot something....User requirments list updated:

1 HDMI selection fixed - ASAP
2 720p/1080p MKV occasional sound drop fixed (I'm still sure this is due to the reading of the A/V timecode tables)
3 WMV-HD with WMA 5.1 as 5.1 audio when digital encoded selected - added back in
3.1 Select Multiple audio tracks in an AVI container
4 Add VC-1 as a supported codec in an MKV container
5 Deinterlace option for SD material
6 24hz option added (video mode for Hi-Def material)
7 FTP support (copy, paste & delete)
8 Multiple NFS mounts
9 NAS support
10 Evo container support
11 Ability to build MP3 playlists and save them on the hard drive
12 HD audio passthrough
13 FLAC support as an audio format and support for an audio track in MKV's
14 Video save points/resume


Remember, this is a living log (evo add further down the list - I think the others 1st before a new container is added)

K

I have AVI samples if needed.

Also the remounting bug will need attention sooner than I thought.

One evening of moving around and watching tv:

//192.168.11.10/Downloads 148.7G 66.8G 82.0G 45% /mnt/smbfs1
//192.168.11.10/Downloads 148.7G 66.8G 82.0G 45% /mnt/smbfs1
//192.168.11.10/Downloads 148.7G 66.8G 82.0G 45% /mnt/smbfs1
//192.168.11.10/Downloads 148.7G 66.8G 82.0G 45% /mnt/smbfs1
//192.168.11.10/Downloads 148.7G 66.8G 82.0G 45% /mnt/smbfs1

I believe 2.4 kernel has max mounts at 16, so after that it wont mount anything new. (So, samba would work, but if you plugged in a USB, it would not mount - need reboot. Not the end of the world, and less so if you could reboot from remote)

Could you post a dual audio track AVI sample....cheers

K

Bugger...knew I forgot something....User requirments list updated:

1 HDMI selection fixed - ASAP
2 720p/1080p MKV occasional sound drop fixed (I'm still sure this is due to the reading of the A/V timecode tables)
3 WMV-HD with WMA 5.1 as 5.1 audio when digital encoded selected - added back in
3.1 Select Multiple audio tracks in an AVI container
4 Add VC-1 as a supported codec in an MKV container
5 Deinterlace option for SD material
6 24hz option added (video mode for Hi-Def material)
7 FTP support (copy, paste & delete)
8 Multiple NFS mounts
9 NAS support
10 Evo container support
11 Ability to build MP3 playlists and save them on the hard drive
12 HD audio passthrough
13 FLAC support as an audio format and support for an audio track in MKV's
14 Video save points/resume


Remember, this is a living log (evo add further down the list - I think the others 1st before a new container is added)

K

Good List! I was trying to get some audio drop samples but it happens at strange times and I checked the file on my PC to make sure it wasn't the actual file. So do you just want a sample of the file even if it doesn't drop audio during the actual sample?

Thanks,
Enrique

Good List! I was trying to get some audio drop samples but it happens at strange times and I checked the file on my PC to make sure it wasn't the actual file. So do you just want a sample of the file even if it doesn't drop audio during the actual sample?

Thanks,
Enrique

Any sample that drops audio when playing on the LimHD (not on a PC) would be really welcome......I know it takes a while to isolate the segment....but I guess us LimHD owners are on a mission!...lol

Cheers

K

...as they desperately try to catch up with Tomacro. I laugh when Hi-Jack complains about Tomacro not fixing stuff fast enough when the 4100 has had basic functionality broken since the beginning. Want to rewind a mpeg2 ts or vob on the 4100? You'll get a nice message telling you it's "Unsupported":D Want to play a PCM DVD ISO like a concert? Be prepared to have the 4100 lockup and you will have to reboot it. The 4100 is no more stable than the Tomacro.

Well, I like the two manufacturers competition because it helps Dvico to implement new functions. They would never look into MKV support until Tomacro said that it could be done. As a TViX4100 owner I push this thread because I know that it will make my device support better. Now I can watch 720 MKV clips and expect 1080 in the future.

Regarding TS rewind - it was never implemented, no new FW broke it (you can easily use 15 seconds rev skip or GoTo function btw).

Anyway it comes to marketing philosophy. If Tomacro or Dvico can lure more people with MKV support then this feature will be implemented. If, on the other hand, more people need smooth TS rewind then this will be added in the future FW. More interested people means more buyers means greater profit for a manufacturer which results in more beer packs for developers.

If anybody wants some feature to be added or fixed I would suggest to create multiple users on such forums and scream about it. Then media player manufacturers would listen.

It sounds familiar because that is what Dvico is doing with the 4100 firmware: breaking more stuff than they are fixing, as they desperately try to catch up with Tomacro. I laugh when Hi-Jack complains about Tomacro not fixing stuff fast enough when the 4100 has had basic functionality broken since the beginning. Want to rewind a mpeg2 ts or vob on the 4100? You'll get a nice message telling you it's "Unsupported":D Want to play a PCM DVD ISO like a concert? Be prepared to have the 4100 lockup and you will have to reboot it. The 4100 is no more stable than the Tomacro.

Well Johny , you disappoint me. I'm not discrediting Tomacro as they do a hell of a job on that themselves. No one can argue with the commercial tinted thread this is or where Tomacro now released twice an update with a "serious issue" and hardly responds to that unless by gendvd.

I don't even see where the comments of Johny boy are valid as DvICo released updates each 2 days with decent progress and i don't even want to explain again that the Tomacro VC-1 playback is equal for all players (Sigma done this, not Tomacro) and the performance difference is clearly in the functionality of the players...

I guess some are die hard believers that Tomacro will come true while we wait until they do to recommend the product. Only the list of "next items to fix" speaks for itself, doesn't it?

How's this for a reason... Tomacro concentrates on HD only while DViCo addes the support as extra "gift" to their consumers beside the rest the player can do. The latest beta is equal performing to Tomacro yet the read/write causes internal HDD still to be less performant and if Tomacro wants to add those, it will have the same results...
It doesn't take any guts to come forward telling me I’m trying to discredit Tomacro, in a thread where 100 resellers gather promoting the player and ignoring the underlying issues with Tomacro as a Company (small, unresponsive). It takes a lot more guts to go against them and tell the truth... I don't care what happens in the US with LimHD200i but I’ll be damned if I open the ports for Tomacro in Europe in its current state.

And oldpainless, I’m not coming around. I have expectations for the new FW to change my general view on the LimHD200i if only I could use the new FW. (I’m not going analogue) I expect the player to be much better than when we first tested it and hope somehow the next progress is not over one month for now as I still think in such case the EM8634 is a far better option to go for than both TViX and Tomacro.

That'll be all there is to it...
You should both read my signature very carefully...

Enjoy
hi-Jack

Well Johny and oldpainless, you both dissapoint me. I'm not dicrediting
Tomacro as they do a hell of a job on that themselves. No one can argue
with the commercial tinted thread this is or where Tomacro now released
twice an update with a "serious issue" and hardly responds to that unless by
gendvd.

I don't even see where the comments of Johny boy are valid as DVICo
released updates each 2 days with decent progress and i don't even want to
explain again that the Tomacro VC-1 playback is equal for all players (Sigma
done this, not Tomacro) and the performance difference is clearly in the
functionality of the players...

I guess some are die hard believers that Tomacro will come true while we
wait until they do to recommend the product. Only the list of "next items to
fix" speaks for itself, doesn't it?


How's this for a reason...
Tomacro concentrates on HD only while DViCo addes the support as
extra "gift" to their consumers beside the rest the player can do. The latest
beta is equal performing to Tomacro yet the read/write causes internal HDD
still to be less performant and if Tomacro wants to add those, it will have the
same results...

It doesn't take any guts to come forward telling me i'm trying to discredit
Tomacro,in a thread where 100 tresellers gather. It talkes a lot more guts to
go against them and teel the truth... I don't care what happens in the US
with LinHD200i but i'll be damned if I open the ports fror Tomacro in Europe in
it's current state.

That'll be all there is to it...
You should both read my signature very carefully...

Enjoy
hi-Jack

Hi-Jack....my comments were not for you (see my "bone" comment...trace it back...)....I know you want the best for the consumer...although at times you do "seem" to lean towards Divco..

Euro-zone?.....I'm UK based (lol).....

In that case I apologise to you humble master :-)
I'm off course leaning towards DVICo as I believe it's a better player with proper features as media center and the Company shows more mature inetraction, progress etc... I'm not recommending the TvIX for HD playback either...
I see it as an add on on a generic player that is an all round good performer without saying it does not have issues.

To basically explain my opinion today is that none of the EM8622 will be mature HD player over time if they want to
combine it with the general features people need day to day. Tomacro can be what it is by not offering these, and
DvICo cannot beat Tomacro in HD performance because it does. The EM8634 will be capable of doing both at the
same time and by the time they come available at this pace of progress, Tomacro won't be ready so the calculus of it all is "wait for the EM8634 if you want pure HD performance".

Enjoy

Well, I like the two manufacturers competition because it helps Dvico to implement new functions. They would never look into MKV support until Tomacro said that it could be done. As a TViX4100 owner I push this thread because I know that it will make my device support better. Now I can watch 720 MKV clips and expect 1080 in the future.

Regarding TS rewind - it was never implemented, no new FW broke it (you can easily use 15 seconds rev skip or GoTo function btw).

Anyway it comes to marketing philosophy. If Tomacro or Dvico can lure more people with MKV support then this feature will be implemented. If, on the other hand, more people need smooth TS rewind then this will be added in the future FW. More interested people means more buyers means greater profit for a manufacturer which results in more beer packs for developers.

If anybody wants some feature to be added or fixed I would suggest to create multiple users on such forums and scream about it. Then media player manufacturers would listen.

And that's it should be about....we are on the starting line (and no...I'm not talking about a general hard disk media player)......first company who has the stamina and the commitment to reach the finish line....gets the bucks.....I'm sure you would have noticed the number of new views on this thread....the word is out on the MKV community.....and there is a lot of them....some say it is, or will become what Divx should have been...compare a GOOD Divx enocode with an MPEG2 DVD....1/3 of the size and looks as good....think about it...

K

That's kinda what I thought, but not my place to say it (thanks for having the balls). There are one or two who visit this thread that are trying their best to discredit Tomacro (although Hi-Jack is comming around)....

At the end of the day...we can all vote with our wallet....Tomacro and Divco know that.....so, let's see who produces the best Hi-Def media media (I know who I'm backing)...we, the consumer can only benefit....and the prize for the company who wins...$$$$$$$$$$$$.

K
I for one am not trying to discredit Tomarco....as I said in an earlier post I want Tomarco to succeed with the Lim in its entirety. To suceed they not only need to be able to do MKV, h264 and VC-1 but they need to have a unit that is robust(does not lock up or freeze or require frequent rebooting), reasonably good GUI, easy to setup, ALL of the advertised features work, low defect rate and on going responsive customer service. Your (Kevin) sweet syruppy approach will only get part of the job done. If you are not a plant from Tomarco then stop glossing over what is wrong with the unit, push hard to have that fixed as well as having MKV, h264 VC-1. At this point only time will tell if Tomarco will succeed and to say anything else would be pure speculation.

Why do I want Tomarco to succeed? because so far none of the media player vendors really have and that includes DVICO.

None of them can as they run into limits of the hardware design. The first players that
actually truly will deliver is EM8634 based with more power and memory. We given
enough examples to state that message is true. If some want to keep on believing
in either LimHD200i or TVIX becoming mature all round performers, be my guest.

The only thing these players can do for you is close the gap until they are here...
I agree all players dissapoint for stability and interface, there is still this thing where
some dissapoint less than others... :-)

None of them can as they run into limits of the hardware design. The first players that
actually truly will deliver is EM8634 based with more power and memory. We given
enough examples to state that message is true. If some want to keep on believing
in either LimHD200i or TVIX becoming mature all round performers, be my guest.

The only thing these players can do for you is close the gap until they are here...
I agree all players dissapoint for stability and interface, there is still this thing where
some dissapoint less than others... :-)
This is absolutely the case, that the current sigma chip is like trying to run a bus up a hill with a lawnmower engine. Which is why I think Tomarco and DVICO should stop trying to add features that require the next generation chip and focus on making a great networked media player with features well within its capabilities. This player will not appeal to most of the geeks in these threads but it will to the general public and that is where the real money is.

None of them can as they run into limits of the hardware design. The first players that actually truly will deliver is EM8634 based with more power and memory. We given enough examples to state that message is true.
I find it "interesting" that you believe to know better than the LimHD developers what the Sigma Designs chip is capable or not capable of doing. Mind you, I've not bought the LimHD yet and I'll not buy it until it does all that I need (if it ever does that). So I'm careful, too. But at least I'm not going around stating my guesses as fact, like you do. It would do you good to add some "IMO"s to some of your posts.

FWIW, the Divco people have always said that the h264 support of the 862x is not powerful enough for high bitrate movies. But Tomacro has proved them wrong. That did take me by surprise. So I'd recommend you to be a bit more careful with your predictions.

And when you talk about those updates with major bugs in them, you might want to add the little "beta" word before the "update" word, just to make sure that nobody is mislead by your posts.

(For the record, I'm neither a distributor nor an owner of the LimHD.)

I read that it plays WMV9.
Can it play WMV v8 files?
Thx

Ok, we can close the thread now :-) People have been educated :-)
Just kidding.

I believe the current players can be developed into allround players within
their limits and add some playback for the more advanced files requiring more
performant systems. Hence, Tomacro prooven it's possible and so did DvICo.
Either way you twist or turn the facts, you will come to the same conclusion
that either it means limited features or less performance...

Amen.

Either way you twist or turn the facts, you will come to the same conclusion that either it means limited features or less performance...
No, actually I don't come to any hard conclusions yet. And I don't need to today. I don't know why you keep on insisting to guess the future right now. Personally, I consider your predictions useless. I'll just sit it out until there's a media player that does all that I need. Will the Tomacro do that with the 862x? Maybe not. If not, I'll not buy it. If yes, I'll consider a purchase. Simple as that.

I read that it plays WMV9.
Can it play WMV v8 files?
Thx

I'm afraid not any stand alone player supports that. think it has to do with
high licensing costs or Microsoft not offering licenses at all. Dunno if that's
the reason though for no one supporting it... could be something else...

evo add further down the list - I think the others 1st before a new container is added
Just for your information: EVO is basically the same container as VOB. "EVO" stands for "extended VOB", I guess. At least it's the same container as VOB, just with some very minor extensions. Just try renaming some HD DVD trailers/extras to VOB. Most of them should work just fine with the LimHD. At least everything that is MPEG2 and AC3 should.

No, actually I don't come to any hard conclusions yet. And I don't need to today. I don't know why you keep on insisting to guess the future right now. Personally, I consider your predictions useless. I'll just sit it out until there's a media player that does all that I need. Will the Tomacro do that with the 862x? Maybe not. If not, I'll not buy it. If yes, I'll consider a purchase. Simple as that.

That's you and you are entitled of your own opinion like anyone else. Other
people read this thread and think it's a piece from heaven falling down and
they would buy on the wrong or incomplete picture. I don't predict the
future. I'm running EM8634 since 4 months and I know my comments are
based on facts where I say it will outperform both and be the first mature
player that handles both features and performance in a healthy balance.
(Not to say they can evolve greatly as well over time like anyone else)

Like buying a car and asking "is this the fastest car in the world?" where the
reseller says "yes, it is, it's lightning fast. Along the way we can update the car's chip to run even faster and more smoothly". So you buy and find out it does indeed run faster as anyone else and it's fun at the start but you do get used to it very fast and then find it sad it does not have heating, radio, air conditioning, ESP, airbags, GPS etc...

Now it can be fitted sir but then it would no longer be the fastest car...
I'd pick the less faster car to have the general options fitted anytime or wait
for the new model to come that combines all the options with the speed all
together...

Like buying a car and asking "is this the fastest car in the world?" where the reseller says "yes, it is, it's lightning fast. Along the way we can update the car's chip to run even faster and more smoothly". So you buy and find out it does indeed run faster as anyone else and it's fun at the start but you do get used to it very fast and then find it sad it does not have heating, radio, air conditioning, ESP, airbags, GPS etc...

Now it can be fitted sir but then it would no longer be the fastest car...
I'd pick the less faster car to have the general options fitted anytime or wait
for the new model to come that combines all the options with the speed all
together...
There is a little problem with your comparison:

You don't know for sure what the 862x can do and what it cannot do. You are just guessing. And the evidence in this very thread proves that you have guessed very wrong before. Here's the proof:

The NMT has EM8634 chip and has already been tested with mkv by us. The reason why EM8623 is not enough for mkv is purely based on tests i have seen from brands trying to get it done (with 128mb memory) and the chip. Nothing but blocking all the time and skipping frames, out of sync etc...

Beside that, we have already 8 brands stating it can't be done and 2 willing to try to make the best of it. DViCo (TViX) and Tomacro (limHD200i). If it can be done, hence show it but why hasn't it been done than before as H.264 main need is mkv...

And here's a challenge for yah... to dissagree with (and take the blame afterwards :-) )

I strongly believe even if mkv can be supported, there won't be enough flavors supported so the best choice, even if EM8622/23 will be able to handle mkv in some limited form, would it not still be best waiting out a few months until the "real"mature players come with EM8634 which will "really" support mkv?

The TviX and Tomacro are/will be great players, just not for mkv and neather for mature H.264. Who wants to spend 400$ for a "maybe" is free to take the risk? Just my 2cents. I see these players still as HD players with some extra's in H.264 while EM8634 based players will be mainly H.264 capable.
(emphasis mine)

Today we have 1080p MKV support in the LimHD which seems to play even high bitrate Blu-Ray movies just fine. Sure, it's only beta yet and there are other problems which still need to be solved. But that doesn't change the fact that 1080p MKV support with high bitrate h264 content seems to work just fine on the LimHD. So how did your challenge play out? You lost. Are you man enough to take the blame? And even more importantly: Are you learning your lessons from the lost challenge?

Just for your information: EVO is basically the same container as VOB. "EVO" stands for "extended VOB", I guess. At least it's the same container as VOB, just with some very minor extensions. Just try renaming some HD DVD trailers/extras to VOB. Most of them should work just fine with the LimHD. At least everything that is MPEG2 and AC3 should.

Madshi.....as usual....I now know something new....cheers...

K

There is a little problem with your comparison:

You don't know for sure what the 862x can do and what it cannot do. You are just guessing. And the evidence in this very thread proves that you have guessed very wrong before. Here's the proof:


(emphasis mine)

Today we have 1080p MKV support in the LimHD which seems to play even high bitrate Blu-Ray movies just fine. Sure, it's only beta yet and there are other problems which still need to be solved. But that doesn't change the fact that 1080p MKV support with high bitrate h264 content seems to work just fine on the LimHD. So how did your challenge play out? You lost. Are you man enough to take the blame? And even more importantly: Are you learning your lessons from the lost challenge?
I think you have jumped the gun a bit.....as you said it is a beta and the proof will come when all is working and has been for months. IMO Tomarco may be a bit more clever than the other NMP vendors but only time will tell whether they did it at the expense of other basic functions.

I also think that the specifications for the sigma design chips is public knowledge and pretty much speaks for itself.

There is a little problem with your comparison:

You don't know for sure what the 862x can do and what it cannot do. You are just guessing. And the evidence in this very thread proves that you have guessed very wrong before. Here's the proof:


(emphasis mine)

Today we have 1080p MKV support in the LimHD which seems to play even high bitrate Blu-Ray movies just fine. Sure, it's only beta yet and there are other problems which still need to be solved. But that doesn't change the fact that 1080p MKV support with high bitrate h264 content seems to work just fine on the LimHD. So how did your challenge play out? You lost. Are you man enough to take the blame? And even more importantly: Are you learning your lessons from the lost challenge?

Madshi....you have always been a calm, educated person....remember my response to someone a few pages ago..it involved a saying from Father, a dog, and a bone.

With some, the more you respond, plays right into their hands.

So, back to what this thread is about....helping Tomacro, owners feedback, helping to make a world class player........success is not the only payback...sometimes just taking part in creating something has it's rewards....

So, Hi-Jack, digitalkid2....thank you for your input....kind regards to the Tvix thread....

So....down to real business.....anyone else have any suggestions for the Lim users log?

And please.....Lim owners should be beyond any dumping in the Tvix thread - we've never gone that low, and never should.....and please, don't hand out any more bones to those stray dogs....

In the morning peeps....:)

K

Madshi....you have always been a calm, educated person....
Thanks, I normally am. Hi-Jack's continued negative guesses on what the 862x can not do just got on my nerves.

I think you have jumped the gun a bit...
Maybe I have. But all signs indicate that MKVs will play just as fine as TSs. Which totally goes against what Hi-Jack predicted.

Madshi....you have always been a calm, educated person....remember my response to someone a few pages ago..it involved a saying from Father, a dog, and a bone.

With some, the more you respond, plays right into their hands.

So, back to what this thread is about....helping Tomacro, owners feedback, helping to make a world class player........success is not the only payback...sometimes just taking part in creating something has it's rewards....

So, Hi-Jack, digitalkid2....thank you for your input....kind regards to the Tvix thread....

So....down to real business.....anyone else have any suggestions for the Lim users log?

And please.....Lim owners should be beyond any dumping in the Tvix thread - we've never gone that low, and never should.....and please, don't hand out any more bones to those stray dogs....

In the morning peeps....:)

K
Kevin you just can not seem to get it right.....I have nothing to do with the TVIX thread and I am all about the real business of making the lim a successful player.

Are you a plant...yes or no?

Are you being paid by Tomarco or GenDVD?

Was your lim given to you by Tomarco or GenDVD?

Why do you spend so much time and effort smoothing out constructive but negative inputs?

How old are you guys seriously? It's only a $500 dollar unit. You guys need to find your relax hats and put them on.

THANKS!

How old are you guys seriously? It's only a $500 dollar unit.

31.
Spent 319$ + SH + taxes.

31.
Spent 319$ + SH + taxes.
How did you accomplish that?

Oops, sorry.
I should have said that I own cheap TViX 4100 SH.
Not limHD or 5100SH that have aluminum casing.

How old are you guys seriously? It's only a $500 dollar unit. You guys need to find your relax hats and put them on.

THANKS!
I am relaxed....and in my world $500 is a lot of money.

Another way to look at this is that you have paid Tomarco $500 for the privilege of helping them debug their imature (this is not a cut, it is a statement of fact) product.

MKV fever....is there an antidote? I guess for some it is the lim or the 4100SH and they are willing to pay anything and accept anything in order to get their fix.:p

To basically explain my opinion today is that none of the EM8622 will be mature HD player over time if they want to
combine it with the general features people need day to day. Tomacro can be what it is by not offering these, and
DvICo cannot beat Tomacro in HD performance because it does. The EM8634 will be capable of doing both at the
same time and by the time they come available at this pace of progress, Tomacro won't be ready so the calculus of it all is "wait for the EM8634 if you want pure HD performance".

Or wait until they hack on some media center to the PS3/XBOX360

This is absolutely the case, that the current sigma chip is like trying to run a bus up a hill with a lawnmower engine. Which is why I think Tomarco and DVICO should stop trying to add features that require the next generation chip and focus on making a great networked media player with features well within its capabilities. This player will not appeal to most of the geeks in these threads but it will to the general public and that is where the real money is.

The general public has no idea were here, reading and writing this stuff. :D

Like buying a car and asking "is this the fastest car in the world?" where the
reseller says "yes, it is, it's lightning fast. Along the way we can update the car's chip to run even faster and more smoothly". So you buy and find out it does indeed run faster as anyone else and it's fun at the start but you do get used to it very fast and then find it sad it does not have heating, radio, air conditioning, ESP, airbags, GPS etc...


But ... your research should have already taught you the ins/outs before purchase, didn't it? Expecting a GPS after the fact is just silly.

How old are you guys seriously? It's only a $500 dollar unit. You guys need to find your relax hats and put them on.

I've misplaced my relax hat and instead am wearing my fo shizzle my nizzle (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fo'%20shizzle%20my%20nizzle) hat.

There is a little problem with your comparison:

You don't know for sure what the 862x can do and what it cannot do. You are just guessing. And the evidence in this very thread proves that you have guessed very wrong before. Here's the proof:


Well I do and we are a developer that has tried it all and I fully concur with Hi Jack on what he has said. Also remembering the fact that the 8634 has an MMU makes a world of difference. Without an MMU you are truly limited in what you can do and its always an uphill struggle due to limited memory and not knowing where the lockup is coming from.

To me I would compare the 862X to a Celeron and an 8634 to a Quad Core where all the multi tasking that the quad core can handle with ease whereas the Celeron brings it to its knees. And the 8634 will be able to handle a lot of features with ease without struggling for memory plus the 8634 memory is upgradable unlike the 862X.

I think what Hi Jack is trying to say is when LIM start adding more features to the units, thats where it is going to struggle with memory and it starts slowing down which is why LIM probably took the approach of just making High Def work well and I think from these posts they have accomplished that..

Maybe I have. But all signs indicate that MKVs will play just as fine as TSs. Which totally goes against what Hi-Jack predicted.
Instead of speculating and telling people they are wrong why don't you google the sigma design chip and see for yourself. You can probably move a bus with a lawn mower engine but only under certain conditions....I suspect that to be the case with the lim.

Mashi,

you are heading down the road where I want people to know where the road will lead too. I'm not a normal user like most, i seen dev for years and i work on just about all brands releasing players and we know very well where the limitations of the chips are...

At the time it was stated that EM8622 could not handle H.264 it was true, only Sigmma SDK had been updated to allow it. Combine that with the functions a player has and you bump into limitations. Actually my statements are even prooven true by both DviCo and Tomacro where either features are versatile and H.264 is limited (performance wise) or the player can't deliver versatility and handles H.264 better (Tomacro)... You can't argue, these are facts I not make... they are right in front of you and you choose to ignore them is fine, i don't. In a way that statement is still true.

So it is at the cost of other features that the playback is achieved with Tomacro. Sure they can tweak it and loose as less possible features to maintain better H.264 playback but it still does not change that there's a need for more memory and power to combine both into 1 product.

I try not to be negative but it's the only way to make things clear in a thread where people are way too positive and possible interested consumers after reading this thread (not naymore now) think they buy the best it in the world...

Sorry, it is not my intention to break Tomacro. I have the intention to show
people their options, the advantages and the limitations which are kept out
of the communications in this thread except by very few people that equally
know what they are talking about...

I wish Tomacro as much a success as anyone else (competition is always better in the end for consumers) but it needs to be done in a way you depict the product and company entirely and not just parts. It's the most interesting part of tomacro for the way they handle these formats, it's not the only deciding factor though for most people to purchase one...

enjoy
Hi-Jack

Jackie...

Did you manage to send Tomacro the MKV sample?

Cheers

K

PS - Lundman - any joy with the dual audio AVI?

Should not be too long for the fix...;)

K

Well I do and we are a developer that has tried it all and I fully concur with Hi Jack on what he has said. Also remembering the fact that the 8634 has an MMU makes a world of difference. Without an MMU you are truly limited in what you can do and its always an uphill struggle due to limited memory and not knowing where the lockup is coming from.

To me I would compare the 862X to a Celeron and an 8634 to a Quad Core where all the multi tasking that the quad core can handle with ease whereas the Celeron brings it to its knees. And the 8634 will be able to handle a lot of features with ease without struggling for memory plus the 8634 memory is upgradable unlike the 862X.

I think what Hi Jack is trying to say is when LIM start adding more features to the units, thats where it is going to struggle with memory and it starts slowing down which is why LIM probably took the approach of just making High Def work well and I think from these posts they have accomplished that..

Chuna,

Many thanks for the input as a developer. I have no doubt the the 8634 is a better chip, that can do many more things with ease (after all, you would not make a replacment that could do less). However, the Lim is here now.

Re High Def, you are right. Tomacro has done a grand job, and as you can see from the User requirments log, it starts with tweaks for existing functionality, then, in order of priority moves on....if any of these items are too much for the hardware, or puts at risk the existing functions - they will not get added.

Right now, I have no idea how far Tomacro can push this hardware, but based on what they have managed to do so far (albeit with some bugs to iron out still), I remain optimistic.

K

Just noticed and downloaded the latest firmware release dated 9-15-07 on/from the tomacro website.

Jackie...

Did you manage to send Tomacro the MKV sample?

Cheers

K

PS - Lundman - any joy with the dual audio AVI?

It's there waiting for you? I thought you grabbed it already...

Just noticed and downloaded the latest firmware release dated 9-15-07 on/from the tomacro website.

Yeap, thats Version: Build 1.60beta3-070914...add's 720p/1080p MKV (92% plays fine, 8% have slight audio drops...Tomacro are on the case)...and adds DVD ISO support...

K

It's there waiting for you? I thought you grabbed it already...

Do'h.....I'll go get it...cheers..

K

It's there waiting for you? I thought you grabbed it already...

Test1 & test2 are reported as broken by WMP....can you play them ok?

K

Test1 & test2 are reported as broken by WMP....can you play them ok?

K

They are binary cut, so technically invalid .avis (You have to rebuild the index). They will not play in WMP. They will play in VLC, mplayer, LimHD, LinkTheater etc

They are binary cut, so technically invalid .avis (You have to rebuild the index). They will not play in WMP. They will play in VLC, mplayer, LimHD, LinkTheater etc

Yeah...I tested in VCL to rebuild the index....I'll send them off..

Cheers

K

Yeah I have yet to find avi tools for OsX. like VirtualDub, that can do pass-through copy on both video and audio etc.

Although if you amanged to fix the avi in VLC then that will do, I will have to check.

Ok folks, here's an MKV sample....

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=94JW3RP0

Jackie, could you forward this link to Tomacro. It's an MKV that has an audio drop now and again. I'm still pretty sure it's caused by the incorrect reading of the a/v timecode table for a Variable Framerate (VFR) encode.......a quick way of fixing it would be to snap the seperate audio and video timecodes together...however, this would result in A/V sync issues...........I'm sure they'll sort it! Let me know how they get on.......

Any other's care to test this on their LimHD's?....most MKV's are CFR (contant framerate rate)....but there are VFR's (x.264 unoffical codec) out there, so this does need covering off.

K


Hello! Kevin!I have send it to Tomacro.Thank you! Jackie:)

Jackie: When will you do Japanese (or let me add Japanese) so I can sell these units in Japan?:)

Hello! Kevin!I have send it to Tomacro.Thank you! Jackie:)

Jackie....Let me know how they get on. Like i said, the bug seems to effect about 8% of 720p/1080p MKV's.

Just for info, I encountered the audio drop issue on WMV-HD's a while back when I was testing one of the private beta's...(if it would help I'll check my records as to which version it was)....so I know they'll have no problems fixing it.......

During the fixing and QA process, might also be worth checking that the fix has not caused any sync issues on MKV 720p/1080p playback....let me know if you need further samples....

K

Well I do and we are a developer that has tried it all and I fully concur with Hi Jack on what he has said. Also remembering the fact that the 8634 has an MMU makes a world of difference. Without an MMU you are truly limited in what you can do and its always an uphill struggle due to limited memory and not knowing where the lockup is coming from.

To me I would compare the 862X to a Celeron and an 8634 to a Quad Core where all the multi tasking that the quad core can handle with ease whereas the Celeron brings it to its knees. And the 8634 will be able to handle a lot of features with ease without struggling for memory plus the 8634 memory is upgradable unlike the 862X.

I think what Hi Jack is trying to say is when LIM start adding more features to the units, thats where it is going to struggle with memory and it starts slowing down which is why LIM probably took the approach of just making High Def work well and I think from these posts they have accomplished that..
Thanks for your input. May I ask: Have you personally been surprised that the Tomacro guys can seemingly manage to play high bitrate h264 MKV movies with the 862x? In your opinion is there a hard limit what the 862x can do and what it cannot do? Or is it just more difficult to realize things with the 862x?

At the time it was stated that EM8622 could not handle H.264 it was true, only Sigmma SDK had been updated to allow it. Combine that with the functions a player has and you bump into limitations. Actually my statements are even prooven true by both DviCo and Tomacro where either features are versatile and H.264 is limited (performance wise) or the player can't deliver versatility and handles H.264 better (Tomacro)... You can't argue, these are facts I not make... they are right in front of you and you choose to ignore them is fine, i don't.
I don't really know why you keep on implying that I would ignore the facts. E.g. where did I ever say that the LimHD in the future will manage to match the Tvix in general purpose playback features? Where did I say that the 862x is unlimited and can do everything we'll ever need? I never did say anything of that sort. Unlike you I never predicted anything. I'm just sitting it out. Is being open to be surprised a synonym for "ignoring the facts" for you?

Actually my statements are even prooven true by both DviCo and Tomacro
How about your challenge that the LimHD would never play 1080p h264 MKV content properly? Do you admit or do you not admit that you lost that challenge?

Just one last thing from me on the 8364 chip (and it will be). In France they have the Freebox, which is a subscription based media box/package with the 8364 chip....following the French forums on this, they do stuggle with H.264 720p high level 5.1 in a TS container....and they connot get 1080p H.264 high level 5.1 in a TS container to run without macroblocks and the system freezing...let alone MKV support.

Now I'm sure that's down to the firmware etc....but it does go to show that just because you have a 8364 chip, it will not support the formats out of the box.

However, they do say the GUI looks nice....

Just my 2 final cents on that..

K

Mark

Any feedback on the DVD ISO (or any others) side of things?

K

I don't really know why you keep on implying that I would ignore the facts. E.g. where did I ever say that the LimHD in the future will manage to match the Tvix in general purpose playback features? Where did I say that the 862x is unlimited and can do everything we'll ever need? I never did say anything of that sort. Unlike you I never predicted anything. I'm just sitting it out. Is being open to be surprised a synonym for "ignoring the facts" for you?


How about your challenge that the LimHD would never play 1080p h264 MKV content properly? Do you admit or do you not admit that you lost that challenge?

I admit i'd never thought they'd be so immature enough to leave out all features
people have been requesting over the years like FTP, delete options, music
browsing during playback, picture slideshows and rotations etc... (It's what causes them to
sell less and therefore get less money for continued development which is part of the problem)

My comments are about full players, not half baked iron curtains...
In such, I was wrong. The day they become a player (as I was refering to players) they
won't be able to achieve what they have today by leaving all else out. Does that answer
your question?

QAnd again, they done mkv playback, but VC-1 and other stuff is pure Signma SDK supported.
They had nothing to do with that...

Yeah I have yet to find avi tools for OsX. like VirtualDub, that can do pass-through copy on both video and audio etc.

Although if you amanged to fix the avi in VLC then that will do, I will have to check.
FFmpegX will do passtrough of audio and video just fine...

http://www.ffmpegx.com/

;)

I admit i'd never thought they'd be so immature enough to leave out all features people have been requesting over the years like FTP, delete options, music browsing during playback, picture slideshows and rotations etc... (It's what causes them to sell less and therefore get less money for continued development which is part of the problem)

My comments are about full players, not half baked iron curtains... In such, I was wrong. The day they become a player (as I was refering to players) they won't be able to achieve what they have today by leaving all else out. Does that answer your question?
I think I'll stop here. It's no use discussing with a guy who cannot even admit that he lost a challenge.

Well folks...news is that the Tomacro guys are beavering away...

K

Do these lim's have any sort of warranty? The warranty card is in Chinese and I’m not sure exactly what it says. My network is still broke on the lim and all emails to Tomacro have gone ignored. Can someone please translate the card? Jackie, if your out there did you get my last reply?

Well folks...news is that the Tomacro guys are beavering away...

K

Have you watched all your movies all the way through? It seems on a ton the of the mkv's I have tested. It starts out good then boom AUDIO DROP. Just really random.

Enrique

Have you watched all your movies all the way through?

I suppose it will take him about 2 weeks of uninterrupted movie watching :D

Is anyone else having issues playing DVD ISOs across the network? If I play them from the internal hard drive, it works just fine. But when trying to play from NFS, I get a message at the top of the screen saying "Loading:" and the name of the file. But it never actually plays the movie. I can play a .ifo from the same NFS share.

Thanks for your input. May I ask: Have you personally been surprised that the Tomacro guys can seemingly manage to play high bitrate h264 MKV movies with the 862x? In your opinion is there a hard limit what the 862x can do and what it cannot do? Or is it just more difficult to realize things with the 862x?

Yes to be honest I was surprised and really good on them to achieve what they have achieved so far. Having said that it all comes at a cost and the cost being they will not be able to keep adding new features cause at some stage something has to give and I am sure they wouldn't want to sacrifice what they have achieved for the sake of new features that majority may not want.

I do think every developer has a niche to do some functions really well. Each have their own good points and bad points cause developers can never achieve that dream machine that satisfies 100% of users out there.

And yes it makes life so difficult to realize things without an MMU as some problems are like finding a needle in a haystack. It all boils down to the limited memory. There is just not enough memory left and lockups etc are caused by not enough memory. Developers are constantly having to look at where memory leaks are coming from.

I think I'll stop here. It's no use discussing with a guy who cannot even admit that he lost a challenge.

Both Tomacro and DViCo prooved me wrong no one would touch mkv on this
platform. They done well both considering the circumstances and I have no
issue admitting that it goes against my expectations or forecast. It does not
change in part i'm still right saying the balance cannot be positive when
combining both abilities and HD playback on EM8622 due to the HW
limitations.

I might not always be right, but i'm never that far wrong either.

Do these lim's have any sort of warranty? The warranty card is in Chinese and I’m not sure exactly what it says. My network is still broke on the lim and all emails to Tomacro have gone ignored. Can someone please translate the card? Jackie, if your out there did you get my last reply?

Hello! I have read your letter, if you buy from us, we can satisfy your demands.Please send email to us gendvd2000@yahoo.com

Jackie: When will you do Japanese (or let me add Japanese) so I can sell these units in Japan?:)

Hello! Now you can be our agent in Japan. Welcome to email us to have detailed discussion. gendvd2000@yahoo.com

Jackie....Let me know how they get on. Like i said, the bug seems to effect about 8% of 720p/1080p MKV's.

Just for info, I encountered the audio drop issue on WMV-HD's a while back when I was testing one of the private beta's...(if it would help I'll check my records as to which version it was)....so I know they'll have no problems fixing it.......

During the fixing and QA process, might also be worth checking that the fix has not caused any sync issues on MKV 720p/1080p playback....let me know if you need further samples....

K

Hello! Kevin! Just now I asked Tomacro,they told me there are some problems with your files which are not complete files after downloading them. So they can not test them .

Hello! Kevin! Just now I asked Tomacro,they told me there are some problems with your files which are not complete files after downloading them. So they can not test them .

I am downloading the file from the link to test the upload.....can anyone else test this on their Lim too?...

I'll report back

K

Is anyone else having issues playing DVD ISOs across the network? If I play them from the internal hard drive, it works just fine. But when trying to play from NFS, I get a message at the top of the screen saying "Loading:" and the name of the file. But it never actually plays the movie. I can play a .ifo from the same NFS share.

To be be honest, I've only tested 2 ISO files, and they seem to play ok over my NFS connection?...is your's hardwired?...or are you using lan over powerline?

K

Have you watched all your movies all the way through? It seems on a ton the of the mkv's I have tested. It starts out good then boom AUDIO DROP. Just really random.

Enrique

Russland is right....that would take a loooooong time...lol...

However, it seems that depending where you got the MKV from has an impact on if it's a VFR or a CFR......but the more I test, the percentage of MKV's with audio drop is rising.....at about 12% now....

So, Jackie, the MKV audio drop and HDMI seem to be the major fixes required asap...

K

Hello! Kevin! Just now I asked Tomacro,they told me there are some problems with your files which are not complete files after downloading them. So they can not test them .

Jackie, I have downloaded and tested myself and it works fine on both WMP and the Lim.....so I suggest they download again...

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=94JW3RP0

K

Yes to be honest I was surprised and really good on them to achieve what they have achieved so far. Having said that it all comes at a cost and the cost being they will not be able to keep adding new features cause at some stage something has to give and I am sure they wouldn't want to sacrifice what they have achieved for the sake of new features that majority may not want.
Thanks for your comment. Sounds quite reasonable to me. The big question is what features Tomacro will be able to add until they hit the wall and if the end result will be good enough for their targetted market. We'll have to wait and see.

One question: The memory limit we're talking about - it's the limited RAM, right? I mean, the limit is in the number of features that can be executed at the same time, right? Can the 862x load and unload code from flash (or whereever the firmware is stored) on demand? So that always only the code of those features is in RAM which is currently needed? If that was possible, Tomacro could add all the features in the world (as long as their firmware flash is big enough), they could just not run them all at the same time. E.g. if a FLAC audio track is played they could load the FLAC decoding routine from the firmware flash and unload it afterwards again. What do you think? Is that technically possible?

Both Tomacro and DViCo prooved me wrong no one would touch mkv on this platform. They done well both considering the circumstances and I have no issue admitting that it goes against my expectations or forecast.
Thanks, that sounds better to me... :)

It does not change in part i'm still right saying the balance cannot be positive when combining both abilities and HD playback on EM8622 due to the HW limitations.
But I think it's important to note that:

(1) Many people (Divco was of them) claimed that the 862x would never be able to play high bitrate h264 content properly. Turns out it's possible after all. Maybe on the cost of limited feature set, but jury is still out on that.

(2) Many people said the 862x would never be able to do proper MKV playback. Now both Tvix and LimHD are getting quite reasonable MKV support.

So many of us (me included) were surprised by what the 862x can do. The big question is whether the surprises end here, or whether Tomacro will be able to add the most important missing features without breaking anything. Considering we have been surprised *twice* already about 862x it seems wise to me to just wait and see if there are any further surprises in store. Now claiming that Tomacro will run against a wall before they have implemented all of the important features might come back to haunt you. Or maybe not. But considering the past surprises I don't think all the negative predictions about 862x can be blindly trusted, anymore.

Thanks for your comment. Sounds quite reasonable to me. The big question is what features Tomacro will be able to add until they hit the wall and if the end result will be good enough for their targetted market. We'll have to wait and see.

One question: The memory limit we're talking about - it's the limited RAM, right? I mean, the limit is in the number of features that can be executed at the same time, right? Can the 862x load and unload code from flash (or whereever the firmware is stored) on demand? So that always only the code of those features is in RAM which is currently needed? If that was possible, Tomacro could add all the features in the world (as long as their firmware flash is big enough), they could just not run them all at the same time. E.g. if a FLAC audio track is played they could load the FLAC decoding routine from the firmware flash and unload it afterwards again. What do you think? Is that technically possible?

Well its not that easy. By the time all the drivers are loaded and the thing boots up there is very little memory to do a lot of things. We are not talking flash memory here, we are talking main memory, in the 8623 case the 128MB. Flash memory is used for things like GUI etc, not for playback. Unfortunately even a mature player have memory leaks. I am yet to see a single Media player NOT lock up. We can get any machine to lock up within minutes. Such is the nature of non MMU units.

Its not what is technically possible or whats not, The fact remains the 862X is indeed very limited when it comes down to it and the reason being a lack of MMU.

THis is also the reason you will find many media players either include SMB OR UPnP but not both. Try adding both and it becomes really difficult and a big challenge.

THis is also the reason you will find many media players either include SMB OR UPnP but not both. Try adding both and it becomes really difficult and a big challenge.
Pixel Magic Systems is attempting to include both in their HDMB. The firmware with both SMB and UPnP has been in beta for months and months.

funny syabas also have SMB and UPnP included without Problems.

Well its not that easy. By the time all the drivers are loaded and the thing boots up there is very little memory to do a lot of things. We are not talking flash memory here, we are talking main memory, in the 8623 case the 128MB. Flash memory is used for things like GUI etc, not for playback. Unfortunately even a mature player have memory leaks. I am yet to see a single Media player NOT lock up. We can get any machine to lock up within minutes. Such is the nature of non MMU units.

Its not what is technically possible or whats not, The fact remains the 862X is indeed very limited when it comes down to it and the reason being a lack of MMU.

THis is also the reason you will find many media players either include SMB OR UPnP but not both. Try adding both and it becomes really difficult and a big challenge.
Thanks again for your comments. Can you please comment on whether it's possible to load/unload decoder code to/from RAM? E.g. is it technically possible with a 8623 to load a FLAC decoder into RAM only when it's needed and to unload it again later? Thanks!

Jackie: it would be tempting to try to sell these units here in Japan, but that would not work at all without Japanese. I could translate, but I see no locale files in the firmware, seems compiled in, so then it would be up to Tomacro to add Japanese.

Pixel Magic Systems is attempting to include both in their HDMB. The firmware with both SMB and UPnP has been in beta for months and months.

I don't know if you ever been to their board or own one of the box, but it behaves very poorly and is one of the buggiest streamer out there ... So they could include all the features they want, but if they don't work, it's not much use.

Patrick S.

funny syabas also have SMB and UPnP included without Problems.

AFAIK, Syabas provides does not do streamer, only provides firmware and parts of the hardware. So they *could* implement many features, but running them side by side may not be possible. If you have limited about of memory, you may not be able to load all the required drivers/apis to use the features at the same time.

Patrick S.

All,
I am posting my issues here with my Lim Player and was wondering if some of you may be able to help me soon. I just got my LimPlayer yesterday, and ran into several problems. The main one right now, is the player was not recognized by my system (see below). I exchanged 1 email with Jackie, but, I know the time zone difference he probably won't be able to response to me for another 24hours? So, I am asking you experts to help a new beginner. Thanks in advance.

Jackie: First the need to examine whether the USB cable,

>>> I have tried 2-3 different cables, including the one that you provided. The player shows USB>>PC lights on but the computer does not recognize it.

Jackie: the second to confirm your computer operating system will support your current hard drive capacity.

>>> WinXP Pro Sp2 Latest drivers and everything. Latest Bios for ASUS A8V Motherboard. I also tried this with my friend's computer as well as my laptop (He has XP Pro SP2 and laptop is XP Home.)

Jackie: Because we have encountered some brands of hard drives built into lim after the computer can not identify, so we suggest that you first replace a smaller capacity drives worrying (such as 320gb) to test, we found in previous testing lim player right Seagate drive compatibility is very good, right TOSHIBA, Horie and drive compatibility is not satisfactory.

>>> Mine is a segate barracudos 500G IDE HDD 7200rpm. I have also tried a Western Digital 40G HDD with same results. Jumpers set to Cable Select or Master or even Slave to no difference.

Jackie: Another point to note is make sure your hard disk has no built-players before your computer can be identified.

>>> No. I don't have one, because it is a brand new formated HDD NTFS. I only dumped some video files on it.

P.S.: Would BIOS have anything to do with this? Jackie gave me the latest beta Bios, I think. Should I go back to the older version? If so, how?

Thanks for your help.

Perry

funny syabas also have SMB and UPnP included without Problems.

Syabas only has uPnP on their EM86xx chip based units. The EM8634 will get both uPnP and SMB features...

Ziova done it as well to include uPnP and SMB at the same time. It's not
impossible but a difficult task (one that linksys and previously Suavas did not
engage to) Hence the reason why Ziova is the most recommended EM8620
based player...

All,
I am posting my issues here with my Lim Player and was wondering if some of you may be able to help me soon. I just got my LimPlayer yesterday, and ran into several problems. The main one right now, is the player was not recognized by my system (see below). I exchanged 1 email with Jackie, but, I know the time zone difference he probably won't be able to response to me for another 24hours? So, I am asking you experts to help a new beginner. Thanks in advance.

Jackie: First the need to examine whether the USB cable,

>>> I have tried 2-3 different cables, including the one that you provided. The player shows USB>>PC lights on but the computer does not recognize it.

Jackie: the second to confirm your computer operating system will support your current hard drive capacity.

>>> WinXP Pro Sp2 Latest drivers and everything. Latest Bios for ASUS A8V Motherboard. I also tried this with my friend's computer as well as my laptop (He has XP Pro SP2 and laptop is XP Home.)

Jackie: Because we have encountered some brands of hard drives built into lim after the computer can not identify, so we suggest that you first replace a smaller capacity drives worrying (such as 320gb) to test, we found in previous testing lim player right Seagate drive compatibility is very good, right TOSHIBA, Horie and drive compatibility is not satisfactory.

>>> Mine is a segate barracudos 500G IDE HDD 7200rpm. I have also tried a Western Digital 40G HDD with same results. Jumpers set to Cable Select or Master or even Slave to no difference.

Jackie: Another point to note is make sure your hard disk has no built-players before your computer can be identified.

>>> No. I don't have one, because it is a brand new formated HDD NTFS. I only dumped some video files on it.

P.S.: Would BIOS have anything to do with this? Jackie gave me the latest beta Bios, I think. Should I go back to the older version? If so, how?

Thanks for your help.

Perry


Ok..process of elimination...start with the easy ones...On the Lim, have you tried the top USB port (small squareish socket) for a PC, or the bottom two USB ports (by the power inlet)?

K

The top USB>PC port. I also tried to connect an external USB HDD to the bottom port hoping to be able to copy files or play files with it, but no, when I press the USB button, it just bring me right back to the main menu.

Thanks.
Perry

The top USB>PC port. I also tried to connect an external USB HDD to the bottom port hoping to be able to copy files or play files with it, but no, when I press the USB button, it just bring me right back to the main menu.

Thanks.
Perry

Goto the setup page, and what version does it say at the bottom of the screen?

K

I will get back with you at the end of today (I am in the US - EST) after work to tell you that. I think Jackie gave me the latest Beta. I remembered the date of the firmware being sometime in Aug 2007.

I have that same HD pc01 and mine works fine.

Talked to FAN this morning and did not get the impression Tomacro is releasing a quick
fix for the HDMI issues. Well, what's another month or two to wait... I still wonder why
no one does have the same issue getting the player to accept HDMI (with or without
the left/ok press).

Anyway, must go on with other devices until then...
Cya

LianLi, what firmware version do you have? Perry

AFAIK, Syabas provides does not do streamer, only provides firmware and parts of the hardware. So they *could* implement many features, but running them side by side may not be possible. If you have limited about of memory, you may not be able to load all the required drivers/apis to use the features at the same time.

Patrick S.

thats correct syabas only brings up the software but i have an device with the syabas software on it and other devices (8634) have the same Software on and i can tell you because i have it, i can tell you that it works together so please if you dont know what you are talking about then please dont talk about it :D

cHarOn

Syabas only has uPnP on their EM86xx chip based units. The EM8634 will get both uPnP and SMB features...

Ziova done it as well to include uPnP and SMB at the same time. It's not
impossible but a difficult task (one that linksys and previously Suavas did not
engage to) Hence the reason why Ziova is the most recommended EM8620
based player...

then you didnt see the last firmware!! there is now upnp and an samba client also works without problems!! i mean only 8634 sorry i think i have to say it lol my mistake ;-)

Oldpainless68 (Kevin?) Firmware: 1.60Beta3 - 070830

Perry

OK, if I want to upgrade, according to the instruction in the manual, it says, save the files in a "Upgrade" folder, does this folder resides in the External USB Thumb Drive Root? Or? I tried but nothing is happening. UpgradeDowngrade does not start.

Perry

I figured it out how to upgrade. I will report back the outcomes if any. Perry

Firmware upgrade to 091407 was successful. Pretty easy, I think. But still no USB recognition from my computers. However, I think the other 2 USB ports now functions as I am able to read another External HDD. Anyone else have any idea? Thanks in advance. Perry

Have you formatted it NTFS in advance? The limHD only uses internal HDD in read-only mode, and when you plug it into Windows, its a RAW USB device.

I just noticed that some of the times/dates/sizes of the recent FW are subtly different!

update MKV_DVD_Trial 070803

04/07/2007 20:28 861,184 bak.bin
03/07/2007 10:18 58,128 boot.bin
28/06/2007 10:28 65,536 userpref.bin

update 070914, latest FW

22/06/2007 20:23 861,184 bak.bin
03/07/2007 17:23 58,176 boot.bin
28/06/2007 10:28 65,536 userpref.bin

What I have in the 'update' folder of the Lim.

04/07/2007 20:28 861,184 bak.bin
03/07/2007 10:18 58,128 boot.bin
15/09/2007 20:55 13,163,520 update.bin
28/06/2007 10:28 65,536 userpref.bin


Although the .bak files have differing dates, they are the same file byte for byte.
I don't know if this will help others, but thought it better to point it out.

Lundman, Are you saying when it hook up to the computer, it does not act like an external HDD? How do people save files to the Internal HDD then? Would you explain what do you mean by "The limHD only uses internal HDD in read-only mode" ? Yes, the HDD is formated to NTFS prior to plugging into Lim Player and it has tons of video files on it that I saved. No other programs.

Perry

Lundman, Are you saying when it hook up to the computer, it does not act like an external HDD? How do people save files to the Internal HDD then? Would you explain what do you mean by "The limHD only uses internal HDD in read-only mode" ? Yes, the HDD is formated to NTFS prior to plugging into Lim Player and it has tons of video files on it that I saved. No other programs.

Perry

It does act as an external HDD (storage device). So, if you connect your limHD to PC then you'll be able to transfer files. However, as a standalone device, limHD cannot write anything into NTFS partition, it can only read from it which is enough to play movies. Also, read-only mode means that you cannot save files to networked limHD through FTP for example.

Yeah I was merely making sure that it wasn't an entirely blank HDD, that had not been partitioned, nor formatted. But if you already have done so, and it even contains files, then plugging it into USB should just come up as a genscsi-bulk device. In theory.

Of course, if it contains files/directories you should be able to see them on LimHD. If you can not, that would imply the IDE part of the setup is somehow wrong. (and naturally USB part will not work either).

I just noticed that some of the times/dates/sizes of the recent FW are subtly different!

update MKV_DVD_Trial 070803

04/07/2007 20:28 861,184 bak.bin
03/07/2007 10:18 58,128 boot.bin
28/06/2007 10:28 65,536 userpref.bin

update 070914, latest FW

22/06/2007 20:23 861,184 bak.bin
03/07/2007 17:23 58,176 boot.bin
28/06/2007 10:28 65,536 userpref.bin

What I have in the 'update' folder of the Lim.

04/07/2007 20:28 861,184 bak.bin
03/07/2007 10:18 58,128 boot.bin
15/09/2007 20:55 13,163,520 update.bin
28/06/2007 10:28 65,536 userpref.bin


Although the .bak files have differing dates, they are the same file byte for byte.
I don't know if this will help others, but thought it better to point it out.

Looks like boot.bin has been modified according to the data. The md5sum of my /update files are:

b22b9f4384cde94884e01759d2e9bf1a *bak.bin
0d4bd9140ed5479494a211d20d77522e *boot.bin
9ebb8e8aa4f43b605ba700631751ce2b *update.bin
733398d82f8370ff7a8eb7ac7a7851d3 *userpref.bin

-rw-r--r-- 1 root None 861184 Jun 22 20:23 bak.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root None 58176 Jul 3 17:23 boot.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root None 13163520 Sep 15 20:55 update.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root None 65536 Jun 28 10:28 userpref.bin

Looks like boot.bin has been modified according to the data. The md5sum of my /update files are:

b22b9f4384cde94884e01759d2e9bf1a *bak.bin
0d4bd9140ed5479494a211d20d77522e *boot.bin
9ebb8e8aa4f43b605ba700631751ce2b *update.bin
733398d82f8370ff7a8eb7ac7a7851d3 *userpref.bin

-rw-r--r-- 1 root None 861184 Jun 22 20:23 bak.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root None 58176 Jul 3 17:23 boot.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root None 13163520 Sep 15 20:55 update.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root None 65536 Jun 28 10:28 userpref.bin

Sherlock Holmes :) :D :)

Firmware upgrade to 091407 was successful. Pretty easy, I think. But still no USB recognition from my computers. However, I think the other 2 USB ports now functions as I am able to read another External HDD. Anyone else have any idea? Thanks in advance. Perry

1. Goto My Computer > Management > Disk Management
2. See if your Player's HDD is placed in not active state, if it's not in active state, activate it.

pc01...

Did conker's suggestion shed any light?

Kevin

I don't know if you ever been to their board or own one of the box, but it behaves very poorly and is one of the buggiest streamer out there ... So they could include all the features they want, but if they don't work, it's not much use.
I know, it's a total piece of s***. I own two of them :(

I know, it's a total piece of s***. I own two of them :(


:eek:Wow...you bought 2...what was the name of the streamer again?....I'll be sure to keep an eye out :)

K

Hi all!
What is resolutions for VGA mode? 1280x720 ok?
Tnx!

Hi all!
What is resolutions for VGA mode? 1280x720 ok?
Tnx!

Yes....I think that will give you 720p....what's your display?

K

Firmware upgrade to 091407 was successful. Pretty easy, I think. But still no USB recognition from my computers. However, I think the other 2 USB ports now functions as I am able to read another External HDD. Anyone else have any idea? Thanks in advance. Perry

Hello!Perry! now still USB recognition? If so we can exchange a new one for you at once.

Thank you for all people's suggestion for Perry. You all help us a lot.

Hello! Perry! we will let the local TNT to fetch the Lim. Can we still connect with you with the former address and phone number you gave us?If not, Please mail us your address and phone number .Thank you!

Although I have mentioned before on the forum, I want to have your attention again. If there are some problems with your Lim Please contact with us beforehand, do not email it by yourself .If we will exchange one for you. We will let your local TNT to fetch the Lim from your address, or you should be responsible for the high tax, Thank you for your understanding.

Jackie, I have downloaded and tested myself and it works fine on both WMP and the Lim.....so I suggest they download again...

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=94JW3RP0

K

Hello! Kevin! I have told Tomacro, Thank you!

Hello! Kevin! I have told Tomacro, Thank you!

Your welcome...don't forget, if you need more samples, please let me know - there are a lot of folks waiting for the next cut with the HMDI and audio drop on some MKV's fixed....:)

K

Jackie: it would be tempting to try to sell these units here in Japan, but that would not work at all without Japanese. I could translate, but I see no locale files in the firmware, seems compiled in, so then it would be up to Tomacro to add Japanese.

Hello! Lundman! If surely you can be our agent, we will try to ask Tomacro to supply the Japanese version. If not Iam afraid it is a little difficult to satisfy your demands. Thank you for youe understanding.
Jackie

Hello! Everydody! thank you for your attention! for the customers to exchange the Lim, You must email us your detailed address and phone number, then TnT can contact you.
Also you should ship the Warranty cards to us . If the warranty card has not been filled please fill it by yourself. Because the customes house will check it.
Thank you very much!

Your welcome...don't forget, if you need more samples, please let me know - there are a lot of folks waiting for the next cut with the HMDI and audio drop on some MKV's fixed....:)

K

ok!:)

WOW, this boosted my confidence in the services GenDVD commits. I am very impressed.

Back to my problem, I have private emailed to Jackie re: the exchange. However, conker's suggestions does not work, but it is never even once recognize and fail. It is no where in the Device manager.

Thank you all again and again, you are really great.

Sincerely,
Perry

WOW, this boosted my confidence in the services GenDVD commits. I am very impressed.

Back to my problem, I have private emailed to Jackie re: the exchange. However, conker's suggestions does not work, but it is never even once recognize and fail. It is no where in the Device manager.

Thank you all again and again, you are really great.

Sincerely,
Perry

You'll have your replacement unit before you know it......shame you got a duff one through...it happens....

K

thats correct syabas only brings up the software but i have an device with the syabas software on it and other devices (8634) have the same Software on and i can tell you because i have it, i can tell you that it works together so please if you dont know what you are talking about then please dont talk about it :D

cHarOn

Thats kinda harsh :eek:, but if you read properly what I said you see that I did not say it was impossible ( I said MAY not be possible ). You have finite amount of space to do put all the drivers, loaders and so on, so you have to sacrifice some feature somewhere because of this ...
I do development (personal) for the Roku HD1000 box, so I DO know what Im talking about (it's not a Sigma chip or Syabas firmware, but an ATI one, thank god !). Before making such statement, read properly :D ...
Patrick S.

Yes....I think that will give you 720p....what's your display?

K

Projector Sony HS-50.
VGA is the best entry because there is no scaling (pixel to pixel).
Somebody can confirme 720p via VGA please?

Projector Sony HS-50.
VGA is the best entry because there is no scaling (pixel to pixel).
Somebody can confirme 720p via VGA please?

Does the projector have DVI, HDMI or Component? (some VGA connections can look a little washed out for film content (reference levels))

K

Does the projector have DVI, HDMI or Component? (some VGA connections can look a little washed out for film content (reference levels))

K

of course but there is scaling. it not exacly perfect like VGA input.

Does the projector have DVI, HDMI or Component? (some VGA connections can look a little washed out for film content (reference levels))

K

With PC card, it is exactly like you say. it will be the same with the Tomacro?

With PC card, it is exactly like you say. it will be the same with the Tomacro?

With PS3 it is very nice in HDMI but PC is bit sharp.
This is why i want to try Tomacro in VGA.

With PC card, it is exactly like you say. it will be the same with the Tomacro?

If its the SONY VPL-HS50, your best connection will be HDMI and set the Lim to 720p, but if your hell bent on VGA, then set the Lim to 1280x720 :)

K

PS - nice projector by the way (short throw lens with a screen upto 200")....I use the Hitachi pjxt200 720p over HDMI....

OK, let me ask another question... which is more technical, I have encoded a few H.264 from Adobe PPro CS3 files and they are not playable in Lim but is playable with KMPlayer w/ CoreAVC codec smoothly in my computer. Any idea what format of H.264 Lim accepts?


Perry

OK, let me ask another question... which is more technical, I have encoded a few H.264 from Adobe PPro CS3 files and they are not playable in Lim but is playable with KMPlayer w/ CoreAVC codec smoothly in my computer. Any idea what format of H.264 Lim accepts?


Perry


Could you post the media info on the encode....never heard of PPro CS3 encoded H.264......look around for some avc or MKV samples...

K

Alternatively, you could upload a small sample of your video somewhere.
It may be helpful for Tomacro to implement its playback if possible at all.

Alternatively, you could upload a small sample of your video somewhere.
It may be helpful for Tomacro to implement its playback if possible at all.

D'oh....good point....but just never seen one of em before...

K

Thats kinda harsh :eek:, but if you read properly what I said you see that I did not say it was impossible ( I said MAY not be possible ). You have finite amount of space to do put all the drivers, loaders and so on, so you have to sacrifice some feature somewhere because of this ...
I do development (personal) for the Roku HD1000 box, so I DO know what Im talking about (it's not a Sigma chip or Syabas firmware, but an ATI one, thank god !). Before making such statement, read properly :D ...
Patrick S.

i made an smile so it wasnt that hard meaning on my side, i wrote it with an smile in my face so sorry if you missunderstand it and god you have luck no sigma hehehe sigma developement sux but ok they are cheap.

cHarOn

Folks....re the MKV audio drop issue...

I've been playing around, and found that if you select DCPM (of whatever it is) rather than digital encode...DTS MKV's don't have any audio drop....AC3 MKV's have a slight crackale now and again, but no audio drop....odd..

So, I think it's a mixture of the Lim not reading the Audio and Video timecodes correctly and possibley the the Lim ac3 encoder?

K

Mark- Any feedback on the DVD ISO (or any others) side of things?

DVD playback has definitely improved a bit in the 9/14 firmware. The biggest annoyance at the moment is the bug I mentioned where the limHD reverts to assuming I have a 4x3 display every time DVD playback begins (both ISO and VOB/IFO). I'd expect the limHD to instead use the global display type setting (4x3 vs. 16x9) from the Setup menu.

Fan and Jackie, please try to ensure this easy fix makes it into the next release.

All,
PPro CS3 is Adobe Premiere Pro CS3, sorry. It encodes to H.264 formats, but not playable somehow in Lim. I will try to post a link somehow. Do you know where I can do that, because the file is relatively large (only 1min long).

P.S.: BTW, how do you have the lim to play all files in a folder? Because I use DVDSplit to capture the HDV and it is chopped up due to scene detections.

Thanks,
Perry

DVD playback has definitely improved a bit in the 9/14 firmware. The biggest annoyance at the moment is the bug I mentioned where the limHD reverts to assuming I have a 4x3 display every time DVD playback begins (both ISO and VOB/IFO). I'd expect the limHD to instead use the global display type setting (4x3 vs. 16x9) from the Setup menu.

Fan and Jackie, please try to ensure this easy fix makes it into the next release.

Good feedback.....so, that's one for the next cut.

Also, on the MKV audio drop issue....tested even more (means LOT's)...DTS Audio= no audio drop....AC3 seems very prone to audio drop. I have also found 2 MKV's in my collection that has a/v sync issue - they play fine in WMP, so I assume it must be the the reading the audio and video timecodes....and MAYBE the the LIM AC3 encoder...(Jackie, if you need samples of the MKV's with sync issues, let me know)

K

All,
PPro CS3 is Adobe Premiere Pro CS3, sorry. It encodes to H.264 formats, but not playable somehow in Lim. I will try to post a link somehow. Do you know where I can do that, because the file is relatively large (only 1min long).

P.S.: BTW, how do you have the lim to play all files in a folder? Because I use DVDSplit to capture the HDV and it is chopped up due to scene detections.

Thanks,
Perry

I've never played an H.264 encode (either TS/AVI or MKV) in segments...only as a single file.......so I kinda guess your talking about file linking and playing one after the other?

K

K,
What I am saying is 2 different questions.

1. Adobe PPro encoded H.264 (MP4) files are not playable in the Lim. What are the Lim's requirements in H.264 file format?

2. I have bunch of .m2t (MPEG2 HD files) that are splitted by the capturing program based on scene detections. How to force the Lim to play them one after the other? Instead of choosing one by one?

Thanks,
Perry

K,
What I am saying is 2 different questions.

1. Adobe PPro encoded H.264 (MP4) files are not playable in the Lim. What are the Lim's requirements in H.264 file format?

2. I have bunch of .m2t (MPEG2 HD files) that are splitted by the capturing program based on scene detections. How to force the Lim to play them one after the other? Instead of choosing one by one?

Thanks,
Perry

Sorry, but I can't answer either of those.........maybe someone who is more technicaly minded can help............but H.264 is pretty general....I've not had one yet that will not play...

K

2. I have bunch of .m2t (MPEG2 HD files) that are splitted by the capturing program based on scene detections. How to force the Lim to play them one after the other? Instead of choosing one by one?

I thought that limHD will go to the next file in the same folder automatically. Isn't it the case? So, if you put 10 .m2t files into one folder then limHD will play all of them.

Again, may be because mine is a defected one, it does not play all 10 .m2t's! It quits one and than I have to manually choose the 2nd to play.

Perry

I thought that limHD will go to the next file in the same folder automatically. Isn't it the case? So, if you put 10 .m2t files into one folder then limHD will play all of them.

Russland.....at the moment it
does not play indvidual files in sequence....

K

Well, then I would add it to your wish list.
It should be fairly easy to implement.

Well, then I would add it to your wish list.
It should be fairly easy to implement.

Good point....again....D'oh...

K

Ok....thanks to Russland....update (Jackie/Fan) on the User dev log....

1 HDMI selection fixed - ASAP
2 720p/1080p MKV occasional sound drop fixed (I'm still sure this is due to the reading of the A/V timecode tables)
3 WMV-HD with WMA 5.1 as 5.1 audio when digital encoded selected - added back in
3.1 Select Multiple audio tracks in an AVI container
3.2 Select folder and chose ALL to play (VOB/m2ts etc, in fact if it's in a folder, maybe press the function button at root level and select play all?)
4 Add VC-1 as a supported codec in an MKV container
5 Deinterlace option for SD material
6 24hz option added (video mode for Hi-Def material)
7 FTP support (copy, paste & delete)
8 Multiple NFS mounts
9 NAS support
10 Evo container support
11 Ability to build MP3 playlists and save them on the hard drive
12 HD audio passthrough
13 FLAC support as an audio format and support for an audio track in MKV's
14 Video save points/resume

K

Btw, you could try some kind of voting on your list of wishful features/bug-fixes when it is complete.

Let them do it wel...

Press OK/Enter to play all in dir
Press play to play selected one...

(Otherwise it will always start the next file if more movies are in a folder which would be
a pain too)

Btw, you could try some kind of voting on your list of wishful features/bug-fixes when it is complete.

Hey, you know me...I'm all for a fair vote....I have asked folks to come forward to add/delete/change order etc....

K

Let them do it wel...

Press OK/Enter to play all in dir
Press play to play selected one...

(Otherwise it will always start the next file if more movies are in a folder which would be
a pain too)

That may work, apart from you need to press OK/enter to get into the folder to start with.....so maybe another button (such as function) when you are at folder level, would enable you to play in sequence everything in that folder...

just an idea...

K

Looks like boot.bin has been modified according to the data. The md5sum of my /update files are:

b22b9f4384cde94884e01759d2e9bf1a *bak.bin
0d4bd9140ed5479494a211d20d77522e *boot.bin
9ebb8e8aa4f43b605ba700631751ce2b *update.bin
733398d82f8370ff7a8eb7ac7a7851d3 *userpref.bin

-rw-r--r-- 1 root None 861184 Jun 22 20:23 bak.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root None 58176 Jul 3 17:23 boot.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root None 13163520 Sep 15 20:55 update.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root None 65536 Jun 28 10:28 userpref.bin

Sherlock Holmes :) :D :)

There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.
- Sherlock Holmes in the The Boscombe Valley Mystery (http://yoak.com/sherlock/stories/adventures/boscombe.txt)

:D

If the warranty card has not been filled please fill it by yourself. Because the customes house will check it.


Kindly translate the card from here (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=11659314&postcount=2147) so we can fill it out.

K,
2. I have bunch of .m2t (MPEG2 HD files) that are splitted by the capturing program based on scene detections. How to force the Lim to play them one after the other? Instead of choosing one by one?


I use TSSplitter (http://www.ffprojects.net/tssplitter/tssplitter.htm) to join the files into one large one. Nothing more annoying than a film that has a break in it.

Again, may be because mine is a defected one, it does not play all 10 .m2t's! It quits one and than I have to manually choose the 2nd to play.

Perry

When playing the 1st, Press "REPEAT" button 2 times (1=REPEAT the playing clip, 2=REPEAT all clips in the folder in sequence, 3=REPEAT clear, ... and so on), it's even more easy/convenient than making a playlist for an each movie (my feeling).

When playing the 1st, Press "REPEAT" button 2 times (1=REPEAT the playing clip, 2=REPEAT all clips in the folder, 3=REPEAT clear, ... and so on), it's even more easy/convenient than making a list (my feeling).

Hi:
I have not purchased any of these units i.e Tvix or Lim. I will be buying some very soon for multiple setup. I have a Pioneer CD mega changer F-1007 and a sony CDP CX225 or so, these are mega changers that have the ability to play single song, repeat, repeat off, group play, group de-select, random, go to next cd to play etc.
It should not be too difficult to implement for audio and movies alike either on HD or on media ... Mega Changers such as Sony 777 ES, or CDP 995, can not remember the exact model name.
Thanks.
gto

When playing the 1st, Press "REPEAT" button 2 times (1=REPEAT the playing clip, 2=REPEAT all clips in the folder in sequence, 3=REPEAT clear, ... and so on), it's even more easy/convenient than making a playlist for an each movie (my feeling).

Neat trick, thanks.

Conker,
I figured that out too, but in the "func" menu itself. However, a playlist will be nice if you want it to play in various orders.

P.S.: Is there a slide show function for pictures? i.e. random zoom and pan with random transitions? It may nice to add to the wish list in the future.


Perry

Conker,
I figured that out too, but in the "func" menu itself. However, a playlist will be nice if you want it to play in various orders.

P.S.: Is there a slide show function for pictures? i.e. random zoom and pan with random transitions? It may nice to add to the wish list in the future.


Perry

I agree with you for music playback, but for movie playback, I think that making playlist is more inconvenient, using REPEAT button is more easy -
PLAY(or OK)+2*REPEAT = ok.

Yes, you are right, I actually am thinking about also slide shows picture sequences. Perry

Yes, you are right, I actually am thinking about also slide shows picture sequences. Perry

While browsing pictures, can set slideshow in the FUNC menu in my impression, I'll take a shot after go home and turn head a report.

As the more I play with the lim, I am hoping all the problems I am encountering is due to a faulty hardware. I tried to play some DV AVI (microsoft codec) 720x480 standard DV capture from DV tape, when I play it thru HDMI, it shows sounds for ~10s and no video, then, it went black. The video counter continues, but no sound no video. Does lim handle DV AVI? Or just MPEG? Then, when I stop the blank video, the player went dead, can't play any video afterward, it says disc error! I have to hard shut down before it will play other files again. Am I missing something? I will try to play it to standard TV and see what happpen. (I thought I played that before and it works with SD) signal.

Any insight?

Some re-encoded avi works. But not those direct capture from tape.


Perry

As the more I play with the lim, I am hoping all the problems I am encountering is due to a faulty hardware. I tried to play some DV AVI (microsoft codec) 720x480 standard DV capture from DV tape, when I play it thru HDMI, it shows sounds for ~10s and no video, then, it went black. The video counter continues, but no sound no video. Does lim handle DV AVI? Or just MPEG? Then, when I stop the blank video, the player went dead, can't play any video afterward, it says disc error! I have to hard shut down before it will play other files again. Am I missing something? I will try to play it to standard TV and see what happpen. (I thought I played that before and it works with SD) signal.

Any insight?

Some re-encoded avi works. But not those direct capture from tape.


Perry

which encoder are your DV AVIs used? WMV7(or lower)? WMV9(or higher)?
LimHD or other players with EM8623 inside can only support WMV9 or higher decoding.

To be be honest, I've only tested 2 ISO files, and they seem to play ok over my NFS connection?...is your's hardwired?...or are you using lan over powerline?

K

My lim is connected to my network by regular cat 5 cable. It's connecting to the nfs server without going through any gigabit devices.

But actually, I figured out the problem. The nfs must be exported (shared) as read-write. I had exported it as read-only since the lim can't write to any filesystems.

It can write to both NFS and SMB :) Oh and /tmp. Just not NTFS, at the moment.