Netgear NeoTV 550 - Page 56

I didn't get that impression at all. He mentions he has an O-Play but It seems everything he writes after that is directed at the NTV 550.
I hope it is not the case that his problems are because he is playing from a USB drive. If it can't play stuff from a USB drive there is little hope that network streaming is going to be better.

I noted a while ago that it was almost certain that the firmware had to be locked several months prior to production so I am not surprised that the units being received now are bug-ridden and not receiving the good reviews the beta testers have been reporting. What I am surprised at is that Netgear doesn't already have a late firmware release up on it's servers so that the first thing the NTV 550 does when powered up is phone home and update. Between that and the limited availability in the US until January, I am led to believe this is not the prime-time release of the unit.

I am thankful to you early adopters who are willing to buy sight-unseen out of the gate. You certainly have more courage than I.

Hi,

I'm the german reviewer. Sorry for the bad google translation
And sorry for the bad english I write here, it's english I learnt at school and that's 25 years ago!

First, for everone who can read german language, my full review can be viewed here:
hifi-forum.de/index.php?action=browseT&forum_id=181&thread=6519&postID=73#73

Mysticc didn't copy the whole post I wrote,
in the introduction I mentioned that I was owning a PCH A110 and I am owning a Asus O!Play. The Reasons I ordered a NTV 550 were:

Video-section:
The Asus plays every file I got on my HD, but cannot do everything:
- He isn't abe to play full BD-Iso
- He can play PGS subs, but cannot not extract only the forced subs
- He can play DVD-Iso, but after start playing you cannot go back to the menu, because there is no menu-button on the remote-control

Audio-section:
- He cannot play gapless
- the searching-function is very bad

Internet-radio:
- doesn't show title and interpret.

That was the reason why I ordered a NeoTV. Because I hoped, that the NeoTV can do this things better.

Everything I wrote from that point you can see in the post of mysticc.

I've been pleased to see that the NeoTV can play Full-BD-ISO, shows forced subs and shows title and interpret on internet-radio. This is a advantage according to the O!Play.

But why doesn't the NeoTV show my MOV-videos from Panasonic TZ7 or many WMV-videos or many DVD-ISOs the O!Play shows without a problem? In my opinion the video-section needs a firmware-update, ASAP!

Other bugs: Why are some MP3 on SPDIF output, others not?
Bug with FF: Press FF, it shows 2x. Press play. Press FF once again, it shows 4x (??). Press play. The next time you press FF it shows 8x and so on.
M2TS according, the device crashes often when using the ff function.

Where can I find the manual? In German language, please!
And what about a consumption of 13W in standby-mode?

@OnlyMe, you mentioned that there is a third power state. Full-off? How can I activate it? I don't know without having a user manual.

I hope Netgear will announce a new firmware very quick. With these bugs I will send the NeoTV back to the seller within the 2 weeks I got in Germany to return and will use my O!Play furthermore.

While streaming a mkv hd file try pushing the tv mode button on the remote.when i did that, the audio when from the movie audio to static/pink noise..same on some happend while streaming some mkv files and pushing info button on the remote.

According to my German colleague, she says the translation of vorspulgeschwindigkeit in this context would be "fast-forward speed"

I don't know if this will help, but I have a HD-TV receiver that goes into "deep standby" by pressing and holding the power button for 3-5 seconds.
Try that.

Correct!

Sorry, but I won't provide this beta software to anyone. I'm under NDA with Netgear and won't violate that.

That may be because half an hour after I made my post, mysticc edited out the first half of the post I was commenting on. I do wish people wouldn't do that.

The function of the power button is configured through the Neo settings menu. It can be set to go into standby or power off completely. Holding for 3-5 seconds will only get your finger tired.

I've done this many time and never experienced the pink noise issue. Nor have I heard anyone in the private beta metion this issue. What audio source are you using?

Just a word of caution, and no disrespect to those who have already purchased a Neo and been reporting on it. What some may report as bugs, may not actually be bugs. It can just be a misunderstanding of how the Neo is to function, or an issue with the posters setup (bad network, bad movie download, etc..). For example, I read where gapless playback was working but had a small gap. I'll bet my next paycheck that if that person were to look at the mp3 wav in a program like Audacity, they would find the silence/gap is in the MP3 itself. That was the case I found with my Bob Sieger Live Bullet. Once I removed those bits of silence in the mp3, it played perfect. And I too initially wanted to blame the Neo originally. Surely my files were not to blame.

The Neo doesn't currently and may not ever, decode MOV files. However, with the Neo showing up in Windows 7 as a psudo extender, you can right click on a MOV file and do a Send To "Neo TV". Audio issues maybe related to the pasthrough settings the user has chosen. Or as we saw, someone having the Neo volume cranked way too high.

I could go on an on but my point is... take the bug reports with a grain of salt. It just might not be an issue the Neo. Incidentally, this talk about the latest beta fixing all the issues... if you look back you will see I've reported the release notes for the last two or three firmwares. See if those reports address any issues you might be seeing.

I did push the tvout button on the remote by accident while watching a movie yersterday...almost jumpd in my chair when it suddenly put out a high pitched pink/static noise.

Those are usually the statments software developers like to use. "Its not a bug, its a feature". "It's the other hardware fault not ours", and so on.
Well it really doesn't matter. Any problem that a user has, is a problem for the user. It's supposed to work with other hardware. It's supposed to play encodes that work on other players. If a release has not been nuked for a couple of weeks its safe to say the encode is fine.
If you release a product that has 2 month old firmware you will hear about alot of problems. I have no insight in when/how/if things will get fixed or if the already have been fixed.
Anyone not reading this board will problably just return it until it gets fixed.
Thats why it's important to get the latest firmware out soon!
If you release a car with no brakes and say it will fixed soon, what do you think will happen? =)

Welcome and thanks for your review of the 550. I hope you will continue to visit this forum, there's a good chance you will find any help or support needed here more than at Netgear's.

shame shame, I know your name.

not a manual and not in german
still might be a help
550 FAQ http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/17180

You totally missed my point. Just because one user experiences an odd issue, does not mean all users will. For example dopus' pink noise. Maybe he has bad hardware. Or maybe there is something his amplifier didn't like. We don't know but as I stated I've had this box for 8 months now and never once have I had a pink noise issue or heard of it reported by any beta tester. So is this a bug in the firmware? I don't think so.

And if you bought my car and then said "hey, it won't do over 200mph" and I said "It wasn't designed to go that fast"... would you call that a bug? No, you'd probably call it a design flaw.

I think too many people call something a bug, just because it doesn't do what they expect it to do, or want it to do. I just think before calling something a bug, people should investigate and see if others are seeing the same issue. I'm not against calling Netgear out on their bugs, but let's just verify them first. Otherwise, just simply report "this happened to me...". The thread was going in a negative direction based on a few reports, which were not typical of what I've or other beta testers have seen over 8 months.

[quote=robkwil61;19576017]Just a word of caution, and no disrespect to those who have already purchased a Neo and been reporting on it. What some may report as bugs, may not actually be bugs. It can just be a misunderstanding of how the Neo is to function, or an issue with the posters setup (bad network, bad movie download, etc..). For example, I read where gapless playback was working but had a small gap. I'll bet my next paycheck that if that person were to look at the mp3 wav in a program like Audacity, they would find the silence/gap is in the MP3 itself. That was the case I found with my Bob Sieger Live Bullet. Once I removed those bits of silence in the mp3, it played perfect. And I too initially wanted to blame the Neo originally. Surely my files were not to blame.

The Neo doesn't currently and may not ever, decode MOV files. However, with the Neo showing up in Windows 7 as a psudo extender, you can right click on a MOV file and do a Send To "Neo TV". Audio issues maybe related to the pasthrough settings the user has chosen. Or as we saw, someone having the Neo volume cranked way too high.

I could go on an on but my point is... take the bug reports with a grain of salt. It just might not be an issue the Neo. Incidentally, this talk about the latest beta fixing all the issues... if you look back you will see I've reported the release notes for the last two or three firmwares. See if those reports address any issues you might be seeing.[/QUOTE

Or we all reading/contributing to this thread/forum must understand/see the difference in reports from US Beta testers and EU actual customers. EU "final" fw seems to be 2 months "older" then latest US beta fw that most contributors inthis thread uses.

For EU: Pressing "subtitle" in a movie either leads to 1. sound lost 2. white noise or 3. box freezes. Only thing not happening is subtitle change or subtitle turned off...switching to a Tvix 6500 or Qnap NMP-1000 and it works perfect so either 550 is very sensitive or there is a "bug"...

Don't know what pink noise is, but seen a pink screen at one time before i removed the power adapter to reboot it. My reciever outputs a blue screen when contact is not established.
Still it doesn't matter if he has so called bad hardware. There are alot of products that has handshake problems and so on. It's usually a way to fix that with the software instead of buying a new reciever.

Hi,

@robwil61, you are right, there is a setting for full-power-off. My fault, I didn`t analyze the system menu exhaustive enough. I have to apologize for this.

You say "The Neo doesn't currently and may not ever, decode MOV files.".
I'm sad to hear this... I don't want to use a PC for streaming MOVs.

According to the audio problems you say "Audio issues maybe related to the pasthrough settings the user has chosen."
MP3-related there's no option in the audio settings that solves my problem... about 20% of my MP3 seem not to work with SPDIF. And I cannot see a difference between the working and the not-working files. The volume output is set to 0 db.
So by now you are forced to install both a optical SPDIF cable and a analog audio cable.

Maybe you are right in your opinion, that this bug and the others - I think of problems with playing DVD-ISO, WMV and the crashing when using fast forward - are solved by a comming, new firmware. I hope so.

But please press them to announce it soon - I have to make up my mind if I will keep holding the NeoTV or send it back within 1 1/2 week.

well managed to get a newer firmware from the web....tadaaaa no more pink noise, tried with the same mkv file and same buttons...now problem free.

Going from movie with dolby true hd to avi file with mpeg audio, the amp does not hang on the hd audi....it switches to the mpeg audio in the avi...just like it should.

Still problems with birdxx.mkv files...but i dont care.

Still problem with the statrek bd (folder) menues..but the simple solution is just to navigate to the m2ts file and start it manually.....works with no problem.

Gladiator menues still sluggish...but as with last firmware...they work.

See the NeoTV Review here. 2nd screenshot.

You need to select the "Remote Power Key" option to "Power Off" for it to consume a neglible amount of power. It does mean however, that the Neo has to "boot from cold" each time which does take a while but if power savings are important to you then that's the option you need

@ Onlyme,
thank you, I already know

@ dopus,
would you please be so kind to give us a link to the new FW?

Yeah, sorry, I answered your post before I'd read the rest of them

Hi NeoTV-Tester,

Just a thought: Could those 20% be at a 192kHz sample rate? SPDIF tops-out at 96kHz (although the smart thing would be for the Neo to down-sample).

And another thing to double-check is the settings in the audio menus. Might be that the sound for them is going to your TV and not the amp?

Im running last weeks fw now.
streaming services are gone from main menu (guessing we wont get any in EU)
Still can't use A-Z in dropdownboxes.
Radiotime does not hang, but I still can't play most of the local radio stations. One channel started and then screen went black. Had to pull plug.
Network test shows ~10mbit/s higher speed than 234
Cant use next button in youtube playlist
1 click overscan still

Greace sample has no artifacts now!
Juno-clip still has no DTS-sound.
9 still hangs video/system in same spot. need to pul plug if i want to play anything after this happens.
Fill screen works now.
gui stil shows 7.1 when it is infact 5.1 dtshdma

from candre23's sample pack
DTS-HD MA still show DTS-HD HR
TrueHD still not activated if you have played any other format before.
10mbps-1080i-60fps-L5.1-8ref-HDTV.mkv - Basketball clip still stutters
4377kbps-1080p-24fps-L5.0-9ref-AAC.mp4 - don't even get picture with this one now
L4.1-8ref-6ch-FLAC-SSAsubs.mkv - manga now works, but no sound
15mbps-1080p-L4.0-4ref-dualAC3.trp - still flicker and lines


Not that impressed.

Got my UPS tracking number few hours ago

Had express delivery, so should get it tomorrow...


Batnun

.

I hope the beta testers (at least some of them) were trying to play back scene releases while attempting to give feedback.

Like it or not, scene release downloaders would make up 90% of the NTV 550's prospective consumers, and if the product hasn't been tested for them, it is quite difficult.

I feel it is quite important to cater to that segment before working on things like better UI or gapless audio or other such features (a reason why Dune players are held in very high regard by lots of people despite lack of good UI)