Micca EP250 and EP350 - Page 3

Hi,

Can you try a different HDMI input on the TV? And do you happen to have a receiver between the EP250 and the TV?

Windows shares with password protection can be tricky. Can you try setting up a share that doesn't have any password protection and see if those shares can be accessed without issue?

The SDK and toolchain is actually provided by Realtek. But because it contains proprietary code, Realtek does not allow it to be available publicly.

Yeah, it happens with either hdmi input on the tv. One thing I haven't tried yet is to decrease the resolution from 1080p to see if that makes a difference. I'll try that and get back to you if that makes a difference.

I can't even see the shares on the Win7 machine from the ep250. I get the login/password popup as soon as I select the machine name.

Odd that realtek wont let you distribute the toolchain to compile apps for your hardware since other companies seem to have no problems doing so, such as Eminent. Here's an example to compile apps: http://opensource.eminent-online.com...olchain_EM7080
And here's info on how to edit their firmware images: http://opensource.eminent-online.com..._Building_7080

Their toolchain lets you compile apps for mips arch. I guess using the word toolchain was a bad choice on my part. Since compiling the applications for the rtl1073 isn't really the issue. It's just linux/mips. I was looking at it like building a complete new firmware when all that's really needed is a mechanism in the firmware to allow users to be able to run/install 3rd party/self brewed apps from other media instead of only whats already built into the firmware. Obviously, no official support would have to be given to end users. It'd be more of a use at your own risk sort of thing.

What I envision could be some kind of community structure put in place, like a forum and files area, dedicated to creating/sharing application modules. I think having an open community driven software exchange for the EP line would help to sell a lot of units to the DIY/hacker community.

It could even let your in house devs focus on bugs and gui instead of adding more functionality and apps. You could draw on the community's apps and select the ones you think would be most appropriate to include by default. Ideally, I could even see a small "official" repository of some of the best apps that's browseable from the networked player itself and could be downloaded and installed.

Maybe it's just wishful thinking and too much to expect from a sub-$100 device on my part. But I do believe it'd be a win/win for you guys and sales would increase due to the homebrew community support. Maybe it's just something to think about for the next line of players?

Anyway, thanks for reading my ramblings. I think it's really great that someone knowledgable from the company is in direct contact with us on a forum like this. To be honest, this is what pushed me the final inch to buy the ep250 as opposed to another brand. Kudos to you!

Hi,

I actually automatically interpreted your question to mean the source code needed to build the firmware core. The toolchain itself is freely available as they are common Linux tools. What's not freely available is the source code used to build the firmware core, which contains Realtek proprietary code.

With regards to your Win7 folder share issue, sounds like you have a more complex setup than a straight folder share. We generally refer customers to the following tutorial for setting up a share on Win7 so that other non-win7 devices can access the share:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windo...dows-7-and-xp/

Can you try to create a share on the Win XP computer and see if the EP250 can access that?

When I'm watching a video on the EP350 and hit pause, then resume, the subtitles come on. I have to go to the full menu, turn them off, and resume the show. This is independent of the video - very annoying bug. Anyone else encounter this?

Lip11,

There is a new firmware available for download from our website. Please try the new firmware.

Thanks Jack. Will do. Are there release notes? thx.

Hi,

No official release notes yet as this is still "Beta". That's the state it's in until we complete testing and make it official. But in general:

1. General usability and stability improvements - a lot of the minor issues gets bundled in here.
2. Additional settings for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-MA output
3. Wifi connectivity issue with newer USB WiFi dongles
4. Updates to Internet Media Services - mostly updating the set of available content providers and correcting any that might have stopped working.

Those are the major items.

Hi, Id love to buy the Ep350 buy I cant find it anywhere, are there any media players similar to it in features, my main want is playing xvid and h.264, id also like a internal hard drive 3.5" that i can put a 3-4TB drive in to hold my HD movies.

anyhelp?


thanks
GT

Does the firmware update provide Netflix connectivity?

The EP350 is out of stock for the moment. We are getting more in next week and it will be on Amazon.com again. The EP250 is same as the EP350 in terms of functionality, except it's smaller and only has a 2.5" internal drive bay. Between the EP250 and EP350, I would recommend waiting for the EP350 if putting in a large hard drive is important to you.

Hi,

This firmware does not provide Netflix. The only way to access Netflix through the EP350/EP250 is if you have a computer running PlayOn software as an UPnP server to transcode Netflix streaming.

Sadly, the new 4/21/2011 firmware does not fix the "video pause -> subtitles on" bug. This is such a easily reproducible bug I don't see how it doesn't get fixed. It goes without saying that this bug makes video watching too annoying to use.

Hi,

I have a Sony HTDV that is connected to a Sony Home Theater/Blu-ray player system via HDMI (ARC). There are other HDMI inputs going into the TV; but all the audio is sent back to the home theater system via the home theater HDMI ARC connection.

Yesterday I bought the EP250 media player and connected it to my TV via HDMI. As soon as I connect the power to the media player, my TV disables the ARC connection with my home theater and the sound (from all HDMI inputs) playes via the TVs speakers. the only way to restore it is to either unplug the HDMI connection from micca or unplug is unit.

Any suggestions?

thanks much.

Hi,

Is this with internal or external subtitles? Also, try turning the Subtitle Encoding Detection in the MISC settings menu to "Off". We are conducting tests here as well and will fix it in a future firmware update if necessary.

Edit: We tested this with the EP250 and EP350, using MKV files with internal subtitles as well as ones with external subtitles. We could not reproduce the video pause causing subtitle to turn on issue. What we did find is that if we turn off the subtitle, stop playback (not pause, but actually stop), and then start the same or a different video, the subtitle will be turned on again.

We will ask for this to be fixed in a future firmware.

Hi,

Try changing the audio output modes on the EP250 to see if that has any effect. I am not sure how the Sony TV works or decides when to use the ARC functionality. Does all attached devices have to be Sony brand in order for the ARC feature to work? I could not find any detailed user's manuals for Sony TVs that discuss how the ARC function is implemented.

thanks for the response.

The way I understood it, If the TV senses a home theater through its HDMI ARC connection, it disables its internal speaker and channels sound coming from all inputs through that connection. It is not required that all devices have to be Sony Brand. One of the devices attached to the TV through HDMI is a DishNetwork DVR (I have also had gaming systems attached to the TV). I tried switching between the 3 audio modes of the Media player, but none helped. Like I said, even before I power on the Micca player, the TV disables sound through the home theater just by plugging in the power adapter. Someone else has a review posted on the Amazon product site that allude to a similar issue. My TV is the 55HX800 and reciever is BDV-E370.

Will the 250 work with a 3TB drive?

HITACHI Deskstar 0S03230 3TB 5400 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s

Thanks Jack. The "subtitle encoding detection" setting was ON and I turned it OFF and that seemed to fix the "pause -> subtitles on" bug. I say seems because the subtitles did come on again after pause, but then I hit stop, then resume, the pause, and this time the subtitles did not come on. So I can't say why you can't reproduce it the way I do. Bottom line is that I think the setting worked around the bug.

I don't know what internal or external subtitles means. FYI, I was using Avatar to do my testing.

Does the EP250 have any video upconversion capabilities?

Hi,

The EP250 only has a 2.5" drive bay, so it can fit drives up to 1TB in size (12.5mm drives will fit).

If you want to use a 3TB 3.5" drive, the EP350 is a better choice. You will have to format the drive into two separate partitions using MBR and NTFS, however, with a maximum size of 2TB per partition.

Hi,

The EP250/EP350 up converts all videos to the selected output resolution. So for example if you are playing a 1280x720p video and the EP250 has been set to output 1080p, then the video is up converted to 1920x1080.

hi Jack, nice to see you arround here too.(headfi)

I'm interested in the EP-350 becaus of the HDD bay and aluminum and have some questions:

-does the EP-350 suport hot swaping?

-as I understand from the posts above it will accept HDD's over 2TB as long as they are divided in partitions no longer than 2TB, is there any limitation on the number of partitions it can handle?

-is still in production or is it going to be discontinued or replaced whit a new model? I ask because I only see amazon selling it and not on your site.

-is there any hope to suport premium direct downloads (I don't use torrent) in the future? asuming there is no hardware limitation of course.

-I understood I can use the EP-350 as my media center and stream to other players such as EP-250 and Mplay HD NET, but with a limitation of 720p resolution. is there any player that suports 1080p streaming from the EP-350? this via wired lan of course.

thanks in advance, your support to the user on forums is awesome I wish you the best.

EDIT

do you have any idea if it would be capable of playing 3D content with devises like "3D displayer" or "3D theather" tha don't need 1.4 HDMI or even a 3D display? there's a thread about those products on the 3D section if you are not familiar with them.

Hi Jack, the micca ep3 does support EXT3 filesystem?, i have files with 20, 30, 40 GB.... i am waiting for my micca digital player right now, but i don't know if i can play this files. :S

thanks for your help

Hey,

Sorry for the delayed response. Here are the answers to your questions:

- Hot swapping is supported, but the SATA connector was not designed for frequent plugging/unplugging. So an occasional hot swap is okay.
- The maximum number of partitions supported is 4.
- The EP350 is still in production. 1073 based players in general will stay around for quite a while. Of course we continue to look at new chipset solutions as they mature and later this year a new 1185 based player will be introduced. Some may view this as a replacement for the 1073 players, but it will be a while before 1185 based players can compete with 1073 players in terms of cost. For example, the 1185 based player we are working on will be at the same price range as the EP350 but will not have an internal hard drive. A later model with internal hard drive bay and some other advanced features will cost quite a bit more.
- For premium content access, we recommend using PlayOn.tv software to setup a UPnP transcoding server. You get access to a much wider array of premium content providers and the performance is far more consistent than by-device access.
- The EP350 can serve 1080p videos to other EP250/EP350 players on the same network if you turn on its SAMBA server feature. The MPLAY-HD Net player will not be able to stream from a EP350 since it can only recognize UPnP servers.
- Support for specific technologies like 3D really depends on what's available from the decoder chip and what Realtek provides in terms of SDK access to chip features. This said I don't think 3D support will become a reality for 1073 or 1185 players, because these chips do not support HDMI 1.4. This is the reason why one of the media player brands recently decided to bypass 1185 and go straight to 1186. The price for 1186 is of course higher still, but if 3D is important, then a 1186 based player is what I would keep an eye out for.

Sorry again for the late reply.

great thanks, Can't wait to test it out.

I had all ready ordered one EP-350(couldn't resiste ). I will comment as soon as I test it, can't stand my laptop stutering anymore.

Hi,

NTFS will provide the best cross-platform compatibility and support. It will be able to hold those 40GB files without issue.

I installed the firmware from the website the beta(26) and know when I conect the EP-350 to my pc via USB the internal drive doesn't show up.

Hi,

It showed up properly prior to the firmware update? Does the player otherwise work fine?

yes it worked before the update, the rest of the player functions work fine I don't have any problem with any video I've tested so far, except .iso files (only tried a dvd one) it doesn't even show up on the player.

this is what happend:

I installed a 1TB western digital caviar green drive wiht NTFS file sistem, the drive was full with videos and music. the player showed the drive but it didn't showed the contente in it. I plug it to my laptop and it showed everything fine.

So, I format it whit the player. now it shows the content I put on the HDD but when I connect it to my laptop via USB it goes to the usb hdd mode as it should but it doesn't show up on winsows at all.