Kevin's evaluation is now a gating factor on firmware releases?

Well anyway, I found a new problem with MPEG-2 playback. If the .mpg file is interlaced and encoded LOWER field first, playback works but looks really awful with nasty combing artifacts and jittery playback. I tried a variety of output modes and resolutions... 480i, 480p, 1080i. In interlaced output modes, it looks like the fields are simply output in the wrong order. In progressive output modes, it looks like the fields are combined to a progressive frame without motion-adaptive deinterlacing which is then output as-is or scaled to a final output resolution.

pc01, this finding should interest you since these are exactly the kind of MPEG-2 files you get when you properly transcode DV to MPEG (DV is lower fields first too). I used the freeware tool ffmpeg to transcode SD DV streams to 9000 Kbps interlaced MPEG-2 with 256 Kbps AC3 audio.

Most MPEG-2 on commercial movie DVDs is UPPER field first (plus the field order doesn't matter much since the source frames are progressive). I guess since the limHD200i was designed to play DVDs and such and not home videos, Tomacro and Sigma haven't spent time checking that interlaced content plays properly. Let's get this on the feature request list. 1080p is great and all but it's mostly useful for movies and many of us have lots of older content we need to play too.

FYI, I think this is a Sigma problem because it also affects the NMT players. See my post and samples on their forum:

(http://www.networkedmediatank.com/viewtopic.php?t=390

I'm curious if the Lim also has the framedrop issues as well. Can you check this post to verify:

http://www.networkedmediatank.com/viewtopic.php?t=470

Thanks.

TOMACRO released new firmware:

http://www.tomacro.com/english/Download.htm

Version: Release 1.60-071206-8

Release Notes:

New features added and bugs fixed on the basis of last official Release Version: Release 1.60-071026:

1). Optimized upgrade;

2). Optimized switching audio tracks;　

3). Optimized subtitle synchronization;

4). Optimized Fast Forward (FF);

5). Added selectable 24/16 dots subtitle fonts;
　
6). Modified the bug of HDMI;

7). Modified the bug of NFS;

8). Modified the problem of switching to 4:3 aspect ratio when playing DVD IFO/ISO;

9). Modified the bug of French subtitle display;

10). Raised the stability of system.


Upgrading notes:

1). During the process of upgrading, please do not update BOOT, upgrade BAK firstly, then upgrade APP;

2). After this update, the subsequent firmware update only need 10 minutes.

I successfully updated to this 1.60-071206-8 version this evening, upgrading BAK and then APP as advised.

Playback of VOB/IFO and ISOs is correctly using the global aspect ratio setting.
Also haven't seen any loss of settings yet, nor any crashes.
Finally, some visible improvements over the 10/26 version!

FF and RW of MPEG-2 seems to be working pretty well, at least for VOB/IFO and ISOs.
FF and RW of XviD works poorly or not at all. (Thought it used to work...?)
DVD menu loading seems kind of slow.
Also, I saw an incident or two of doing a lot of FW and RW causing the onboard player volume setting to jump to max.

Didn't have time to test much else yet (like NFS...)

By the way, if you try to update from USB and clicking on the update choices just results in a brief flash and no update occurring, go back out and navigate into the USB drive first. It seems that the update routines don't bother to try and mount the USB drive before searching for files there, so you have to mount the drive yourself by going in as if you're going to play something. Then go back out into Setup and do the update.

Hello! Everyone! New test firmare is out Please download on：http://www.gendvd.com/update1206-08.rar
The following problems are amended :
1. Some film sources’s subtitles is not synchronous.
2. Lim crash when you withdraw after browsing pictures. Note: If progressive scan , the screen still turns black , and there’s no more other problem. Actually, Progressive scan also can not work on the South Korea machines, and as soon as you get to browse, the machine will restart.
3. Better Stability .
Note: Since yesterday evening, the lim have been playing the middle-bit-rate film for the whole night and did not crash. This morning on this basis,we broadcast DVD.ISO file ( neither break off the power nor restart during this process), it still operated normally, and then we withdraw to play higher—bit-rate film " the Fifth Element” it broadcasted normally to the end, and during this " the Fifth Element” broadcasting process, we also withdrawed for one time to play DVD.ISO, and it played normally.
If you have updated the BAK and APP of 1130 last time, this time you only need to upgrade APP within 10 minutes.

Still some problems with the firmware:
- Lim locks up on some DVD / ISO's
- High brightness bug is back

Crud... I'll play with this version more and see if I run into these problems too.

Mophun, I updated tonight and things went much better than last time. How to duplicate the brightness bug? I am not seeing it right now.

Perry

Mophun, I updated tonight and things went much better than last time. How to duplicate the brightness bug? I am not seeing it right now.

Perry

- start play of nonplayable dvd
- Lim locks up
- wait until blacks out and brightness goes up
- Lim is now unresponsive
- restart and brightness is still way up

Hi Jackie
I have upgraded my lim to the last firmware.
It globally works better than the last firmware I had, where a few MKVs were very blocky and unwatchable.
I have, however, a few comments, critics and suggestions, which I would be grateful if you could forward them to Tomacro.

VIDEO MODES
HDMI Auto EDID has disappeared, why ? It was quite useful.
edit: After trying first on my small LCD, I tried on the old (but large) plasma: half of the HDMI modes that used to work now no longer do. Disappointed.
The options of the video modes which are not selected are greyed out and impossible to change. They should be changeable so that the desired resolution is selected directly when the modes are switched.

Brightness bug: it sometimes automatically sets to a very high value.

<< and >> did not really work, this can be improved.

SUBTITLES:
-Font style markers like <i>...</i> are displayed instead of interpreted. An <i> would mean italic text, for instance.
-Displaying the subtitles with a dark contour would improve their readability when they're displayed over a very bright image. (Just like most DVD subtitles)
-It could be interesting to manually load a subtitle file (from the hard disk) when playing a video.

AUDIO
After upgrade, options AAC Out and WMA out had no choice displayed (interface bug?)

GENERAL
-French language is poorly translated (I went back to English) and the words don't fit the frames where they're supposed to show.
-When switching languages & rebooting, I had no display on ANY video out (DVI, VGA, YPbPr, Svideo) and pressing "VIDEO MODE" on the remote had no effect. The workaround was to put in standby with the remote and turn it back on the wame way.
-I know it's not an Apple TV, but an effort could be made on the user interface.
The quality of the interface on a high def screen could be improved.
-If it runs on uCLinux which is GPL I think, there should be a source release somehow.

Mophun, yes, I see the brightness bug now. Jackie, why fix one thing and break the others?

Perry

there is still some sound drop with DTS :(

Ugh, the "losing the settings" bug ISN'T fixed and is in fact worse than before. I still haven't turned my family loose on this player since very often after it's been powered off, I'll go back in to find the image settings all messed up. Now with this latest firmware, after power-cycling the unit via the button on top, my unit lost all image and output mode settings. Brightness went to full, saturation and contrast went to very low values, and the output mode reverted to SD. What's more, when I select HD Y/Pb/Pr as the output mode from the onscreen menus, the mode does not change and the setting doesn't stick. I effectively can't get out of SD mode now through any normal usage of the setup menu or physical buttons. Restoring factory default settings doesn't fix it. I'm going to try some things like re-installing the 071206-8 firmware or finding a way to install MY preferred settings in that userpref.bin file (so that my preferences become the factory default), but it's pretty clear this is a losing battle. Tomacro should change the limHD tagline to The world's worst 1080p H.264 High-Definition HDD Media Player. I mean, c'mon, competing players have fairly primitive UIs as well, but they can at least remember their settings!

Ugh, the "losing the settings" bug ISN'T fixed and is in fact worse than before. I still haven't turned my family loose on this player since very often after it's been powered off, I'll go back in to find the image settings all messed up. Now with this latest firmware, after power-cycling the unit via the button on top, my unit lost all image and output mode settings. Brightness went to full, saturation and contrast went to very low values, and the output mode reverted to SD. What's more, when I select HD Y/Pb/Pr as the output mode from the onscreen menus, the mode does not change and the setting doesn't stick. I effectively can't get out of SD mode now through any normal usage of the setup menu or physical buttons. Restoring factory default settings doesn't fix it. I'm going to try some things like re-installing the 071206-8 firmware or finding a way to install MY preferred settings in that userpref.bin file (so that my preferences become the factory default), but it's pretty clear this is a losing battle. Tomacro should change the limHD tagline to The world's worst 1080p H.264 High-Definition HDD Media Player. I mean, c'mon, competing players have fairly primitive UIs as well, but they can at least remember their settings!

Indeed. Compared to the Popcorn Hour, the quality and frequency of the firmware updates is awfull

I concur...

"Well, when looking at some other product's FW updates, I am disappointed about the little progress Tomacro has made from last FW. It fix one thing (resolution settings) and broke another (brightness bug). Take a look at Popcorn hour FW update:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=958467

WOW! Yes, it is a new product, a lot of broken pieces, but, look, feel like they have 50 software engineers working on making that a great product, compare with 5 items changes with the Lim. I am considering selling Lim and buy PH and perhaps still have money left over? Come on, can we get more improvements quicker? I really hope the photo browsing or browsing in between videos and loading time for some .m2t are a little faster.

Perry"

My post from the other thread.

Perry

Hi-Jack's site says he's getting a Dune HD unit to review this Monday, but the same thread there mentions that the Dune units will cost 4x the price of the Popcorn Hour, probably $699 list. Probably the best strategy is to wait and see what shakes out among PH, Dune and Tvix 6500...

Ugh, the "losing the settings" bug ISN'T fixed and is in fact worse than before. I still haven't turned my family loose on this player since very often after it's been powered off, I'll go back in to find the image settings all messed up. Now with this latest firmware, after power-cycling the unit via the button on top, my unit lost all image and output mode settings. Brightness went to full, saturation and contrast went to very low values, and the output mode reverted to SD. What's more, when I select HD Y/Pb/Pr as the output mode from the onscreen menus, the mode does not change and the setting doesn't stick. I effectively can't get out of SD mode now through any normal usage of the setup menu or physical buttons. Restoring factory default settings doesn't fix it. I'm going to try some things like re-installing the 071206-8 firmware or finding a way to install MY preferred settings in that userpref.bin file (so that my preferences become the factory default), but it's pretty clear this is a losing battle. Tomacro should change the limHD tagline to The world's worst 1080p H.264 High-Definition HDD Media Player. I mean, c'mon, competing players have fairly primitive UIs as well, but they can at least remember their settings!

Mark, odd - I have put my Lim through it's paces and have not seen any of these issues at all. The new firmware seems rock solid to me. Although, I don't play DVD iso's etc....could that be the issue?

K

Kevin, do you leave your limHD on all the time or do you ever turn it off (not just standby)? The settings loss seems related to powering off the unit, either normally or to reset it after a crash.

Kevin, do you leave your limHD on all the time or do you ever turn it off (not just standby)? The settings loss seems related to powering off the unit, either normally or to reset it after a crash.


Nope...I hard power down (top of the Lim)...so I'm lost on this one....I've no issues at all (apart from the DTS MKV sound drop issue)

K

Kevin,
If one turn the unit off, hook up to different TV sources (e.g. regular TV vs HDTV), the resolution settings are lost. Then, the brightness/contrast/saturation settings and even the volume settings are jumped so high or low that it is not watchable.

Perry

Kevin,
If one turn the unit off, hook up to different TV sources (e.g. regular TV vs HDTV), the resolution settings are lost. Then, the brightness/contrast/saturation settings and even the volume settings are jumped so high or low that it is not watchable.

Perry

Ok...mine is always hooked up to my projector. If the above is happening, I bet it's issues with the auto detect code.

K

Yes, that's has to be it. K. You may say, resolution may change, why brightness, contrasts, sat & volume??

Perry

I tried to updated to this 1.60-071206-8 version this evening, upgrading BAK and then APP as advised, but now someting is terrible wrong...white the Lim.

HDMI did'nt work any more,and i can't reache the internal hdd anymore...
I have tried the Safe Recovery, but no succes....

Please, have any one a solution to this problem?


Sorry for my bad English....

Leo

Papaleo,
This is what we experiences from time to time with limHD, you basically have to hold your breath and pray it works. Well, how did you do your safe recovery? You have to hold down the OK button while turning the machine on until all the lights come on, then, you let go of the OK button. Just let the lim sits there for 15min or so, (all lights go off), then, hopefully, it will upgrade itself. If that fails, then, you have to strip the internal HDD out, hook up to your pc, replace the files in the update directory with the previous working FW files, then do the "Safe Recovery" process like I described. Good luck.

Perry

Perry,

I tried serval times....:(
And i prayd....

Ok,i think that i must do what you told me in your feedback; strip-out the internal hdd...:(

Thx,

Leo

Hello there,
I got a LIM for Christmas (I LOVE IT!) and I see that my firmware is 071026. It does everything I want - for now - except I have no sound with DTS. Would a firmware upgrade solve this?

Vanguard, make sure you've connected the digital audio outputs to a receiver that decodes dts. The limHD has no onboard dts decoder.

Thanks Mark - didn't get that far yet.

How does one get the VirtualCD goin? Can't seem to figure it out (feelin kinda dumb ATM).
thanks

In the 1.60-071206-8 firmware, when playing a VOB/IFO set by starting VIDEO_TS.IFO, there seems to be a hiccup every time the limHD transitions from one VOB file to the next. When it hits the end of a VOB, playback will freeze for 10+ seconds and then play at an accelerated rate with no sound for several seconds as if it is catching up (looks similar to fast forwarding). After that, playback continues normally. I noticed this problem earlier but thought it was my external USB drive spinning down or something. After watching a few more movies, I noticed the hiccups are indeed occurring at transitions between VOB files. I did not notice this problem in earlier firmware versions.

Also in this firmware, very frequently when playback reaches the end of a VOB/IFO set, the limHD will return to the file section screen and hang with STOP displayed in the upper right. It will not respond to the remote or button presses on the unit itself and must be power cycled. I thought maybe manually stopping playback prior to hitting the end might prevent the crash, but if I do that, I usually see the same behavior. It's like something is getting corrupted during playback and the limHD is just hanging on by a thread as long as playback continues...

Finally, the "losing settings" problem does indeed seem related to playing DVD files. I've seen it happen after playing ISOs and VOB/IFO sets. It doesn't take too many tries to get it to happen - seems to happen close to 50% of the time.

Jackie, please have Tomacro's engineer look into these problems.

I've noticed that when I play an MKV file, the audio goes out of sync after 50 minutes or so and gradually gets worse (plays fine on PC). Just wondering if anyone else experienced this?

Jackie,
Do you know on which bugs, fixes or features Tomacro is working on?
I'd like to know what I can expect with a new firmware release.

M.

What are the chances of getting RANDOM PLAY with MP3 files?

I've noticed that when I play an MKV file, the audio goes out of sync after 50 minutes or so and gradually gets worse (plays fine on PC). Just wondering if anyone else experienced this?


Not here...what f/w are u running and could u post a sample?

K

What are the chances of getting RANDOM PLAY with MP3 files?

Ramdom play from within a folder?.....could be a good idea (jackie?)

K

RE: random play
From within a single folder would be good but what I was thinking (and hoping w/fingers crossed) that one could have random play from multiple folders. Ex - I'm a Judas Priest fan and have all the CDs and would LOVE to be able to select some folders (ex ALL my Priest CDs) and hit random play and sit back.

Oldpainless - as far as the OOS goes - I'll have to get back to you. Haven't played anything on the LIM lately. Hopin it was "just a thing" FW=071026.

RE: random play
From within a single folder would be good but what I was thinking (and hoping w/fingers crossed) that one could have random play from multiple folders. Ex - I'm a Judas Priest fan and have all the CDs and would LOVE to be able to select some folders (ex ALL my Priest CDs) and hit random play and sit back.

Oldpainless - as far as the OOS goes - I'll have to get back to you. Haven't played anything on the LIM lately. Hopin it was "just a thing" FW=071026.


Ok...let us know if you get any other issues with MKV's...

K

Hi Everyone!

I just joined the AVS Forum. I purchased the LIM in December from a supplier (onlybestrated) in Canada. It worked when I first got it then the second time I tried I could not get a picture on the hdmi. I sent it back to CN where he told me to cycle through the video mode and the buttons on top did not work so he replaced them.

I have a laptop hooked up to my lcd tv which plays my 720p movies. I use the LIM for the 1080 mkv movies - so these are large files. I find that some play back and some don't. The ones that do may stutter thru the movie at some point. I tried playing Pan's Labyrinth which has about 14 gb and I got sound but no picture. Same thing happened with Invasion which was 12 gb. Both of them were for video H.264 (MPEG-4 AVC). I don't know if there is a way to change the refresh rate.

My other problem is networking. I tried the SAMBA and put in the IP address of my primary pc but the drive did not appear. This is a shared drive. I don't know what to do.

I just want to play large mkv files from my shared drives. These files are too large to play for my existing computers and I kind of did not want to spend a few grand building a HTPC that will play these files. I too feel like a beta tester. I've already invested the cost of the drive plus $80USD in postage.

Could someone please help me?

Thanks!!

Julie:)

Hi Everyone!

I just joined the AVS Forum. I purchased the LIM in December from a supplier (onlybestrated) in Canada. It worked when I first got it then the second time I tried I could not get a picture on the hdmi. I sent it back to CN where he told me to cycle through the video mode and the buttons on top did not work so he replaced them.

I have a laptop hooked up to my lcd tv which plays my 720p movies. I use the LIM for the 1080 mkv movies - so these are large files. I find that some play back and some don't. The ones that do may stutter thru the movie at some point. I tried playing Pan's Labyrinth which has about 14 gb and I got sound but no picture. Same thing happened with Invasion which was 12 gb. Both of them were for video H.264 (MPEG-4 AVC). I don't know if there is a way to change the refresh rate.

My other problem is networking. I tried the SAMBA and put in the IP address of my primary pc but the drive did not appear. This is a shared drive. I don't know what to do.

I just want to play large mkv files from my shared drives. These files are too large to play for my existing computers and I kind of did not want to spend a few grand building a HTPC that will play these files. I too feel like a beta tester. I've already invested the cost of the drive plus $80USD in postage.

Could someone please help me?

Thanks!!

Julie:)

Hi, large mkv files with high bitrate is plays best from the internal hard drive on Lim. from network or external hdd large files can studder..
remember also Dts sound who moust mkv have dont support sound via hdmi use optical..

T

Hi,

I am playing them internally from the LIM hard drive. I'm using coax digital out for sound and hdmi for video. I have the hdmi set at 1080p. I tried the 1080p25 and still had no luck. Has anyone else has this problem?

I also tried to network with the nfs server program but it did not work. I have one primary pc but 5 drives that have media on them. I tried using an export file that listed each drive then used the main pc ip for the client but still no luck. I set them for read only.

Thanks!
Julie

Hi,

I am playing them internally from the LIM hard drive. I'm using coax digital out for sound and hdmi for video. I have the hdmi set at 1080p. I tried the 1080p25 and still had no luck. Has anyone else has this problem?

I also tried to network with the nfs server program but it did not work. I have one primary pc but 5 drives that have media on them. I tried using an export file that listed each drive then used the main pc ip for the client but still no luck. I set them for read only.

Thanks!
Julie

Ok. i tried today. with two mkv movies, 12gb and 10gb. first from the ext hdd for fun.
both studderd and to the internal hdd only one of them studder but not as much as on the external. time to time.only when the stream rate got high.
i have no problem with playing ave. 6gb mkv from ext and int hdd.(720p)
but full hd with no reencode i dont use mkv. the movies are 20-40 gig but splitted to .ts files usal. MPEG2. 4.5 gb..

ill look on the brigth side.it got my needs and i DONT have sound drop as many else have.

T

Hi,

got my lim200i some days ago and fooled around with it and start to regret that i havent found this community earlier ....

bug or feature (i personally tend to name that ones bugs)

1. *.ts 1080p files playback from internal hdd - no ffwind or frwind - trying it the video stuck on a still picture , audio remains functional.
2. *.mkv 1080i and 720p files behave exactly the same.
3. no automatic down mix of DTS sound to the analog stereo connectors - ah yes for some reasons i still use component video Yp....

now my wishlist for the next lim200x (some are allready realized in the s model) :

1. Gigabit Ethernet 10/100/1000 - i wonder if you are as bored as i am when transferring some 30+ GB files or dirs via usb.
2. find some samba servers on the lan - a config list for lets say 6-10 samba ips, Usernames and pwds - show all shares on the server or allow virual links in the shared folders - window shortcuts pointing to the directories where movies, audio, pix are stored.
3. FLAC and other lossless audio format support
4. make the internal hdd and all attached storage devices accessible via ethernet
5. SATA II (300) hdd in a tray / 5.25inch sata bay for PC's
6. eSata connector on the device itself.
7. Picture Slidedshows with transitions, background music, randomizing a.s.o.
8. Music Playlists, randomizing a.s.o.

cheers - ahab666

Hi,

got my lim200i some days ago and fooled around with it and start to regret that i havent found this community earlier ....

bug or feature (i personally tend to name that ones bugs)

1. *.ts 1080p files playback from internal hdd - no ffwind or frwind - trying it the video stuck on a still picture , audio remains functional.
2. *.mkv 1080i and 720p files behave exactly the same.
3. no automatic down mix of DTS sound to the analog stereo connectors - ah yes for some reasons i still use component video Yp....

now my wishlist for the next lim200x (some are allready realized in the s model) :

1. Gigabit Ethernet 10/100/1000 - i wonder if you are as bored as i am when transferring some 30+ GB files or dirs via usb.
2. find some samba servers on the lan - a config list for lets say 6-10 samba ips, Usernames and pwds - show all shares on the server or allow virual links in the shared folders - window shortcuts pointing to the directories where movies, audio, pix are stored.
3. FLAC and other lossless audio format support
4. make the internal hdd and all attached storage devices accessible via ethernet
5. SATA II (300) hdd in a tray / 5.25inch sata bay for PC's
6. eSata connector on the device itself.
7. Picture Slidedshows with transitions, background music, randomizing a.s.o.
8. Music Playlists, randomizing a.s.o.

cheers - ahab666

Take a look a the popcornhour. It grants several of your wishes.
From the moment I installed my PCH, my LimHd200i only serves as a paperweight.

Jackie,
Do you know on which bugs, fixes or features Tomacro is working on?
I'd like to know what I can expect with a new firmware release.

M.

Hello we know these bugs in firmware1006-08 and transferred to Tomacro engineers. Hope all problems will be resolved in the next firmware. Thxs:)

RE VirtualCD

I managed to get this goin the other day. Seems you need to have a folder "VirtualCD" on the HD - I couldn't find this info anywhere in the manual. Anyway I really think this is a useless feature. Once you select 'Music' and have a folder with MP3s - what's the point of another folder for this VirtualCD?