Micca EP950! - Page 23

Jack,
Just heard from Adorama and they have no information from Micca on their shipment of new batch. I cancelled and re-ordered with Amazon.

Thank you

That seems like the way to go at the moment.

I am going to give Adorama one more week and then I guess I will do the same.

Hi,

I just wanted to pop in and say that I know there are questions here waiting for answers. I'll try to get to them some time today or over the weekend.

I've been swamped.

Your collective patience is appreciated.

This is a question to Jack@Micca.

I just got a new EP950 from Amazon (it's batch 2). Put a new Hitachi Deskstar 2 TB drive inside and formatted it using media player's format

utility. Then I transferred some files to EP950 from my computer via USB 2 connection. After that I connected the device to my

wired network and enabled Samba, DLNA and **********, also turned on Samba Security. Then I assigned the fixed IP address to it. I also assigned the fixed IP to my computer and made sure it's in the same subnet as EP950 (if I don't assign the fixed IP to both - the computer doesn't see the EP950 at all).

I can access the device on my computer through the Internet Explorer. I type in admin user name and password and can see HDD link there. If I click on the link though - nothing really happens, it's not displaying me any folders (although I created PHOTOS
folder on the Micca's drive).

If I try to access the device from my Windows Explorer (I have Windows 7 Ultimate): I can get through Start - Run - [Device IP] - and in the end see \\\\hdd. I click on \\\\hdd I get the prompt for user and password. I tried typing in my computer's user and password, also device's admin and 123, but it doesn't let me through. I even created a new Windows user admin with 123 password but still no luck.

What am I doing wrong? I will need to access the file system of EP950 in order to update the files/folders there on a regular basis. I have a special file sync application that allows to compare the contents of 2 drives and sync the data to either one or

both drives. I'm planning to put my photos and movies as I shoot them onto internal computer drive and then sync these at some point to EP950's internal drive over the wired network. I know I can copy the files using EP950 from my computer to the device.

But this is inconvinient because I may be doing this once a month or so and don't really remember at that point which files I added to my computer's drive How would I configure this device in order do what I want? May be I can change my computer
configuration somehow too?

Thank you.

I think this is something we could definitely all use some help with. I was running into very similar problems. I had the hardest time trying to figure out how to get my pc to "see" the Micca, even though the Micca could copy files from the pc. And once I did manage to get my pc to see the Micca (using samba I think?) the speeds were as slow or slower than USB.

I will pass along the request for seamless playback of FLAC/MP3 files. Hopefully this is something that can be implemented.


Thanks for the encouragement!

Jack thanks for addressing this issue, that would be absolutely fantastic if the EP950 could do seamless flac/ape/mp3 playback. I would be using the Micca often for my music and I would very much appreciate that feature.

I also wanted to mention that I have just received the new & improved EP950 from Amazon. I've been very impressed with your continued involvement with us in this thread and it appears to me that Micca is serious about doing their best at making this a top choice media player. It started out rocky but it looks like Micca is doing their best to fix the issues as they are reported, and I think it deserves a second chance. I will definitely continue to read this thread and thanks again for keeping on top of these issues.

Yes a new manual is being written. We expect it will be finished in about 2 weeks. It will be a fairly thorough manual that is much much thicker than the current one. You are right, there is a lot of material to cover in this player since it has so many features.


Here's a copy/paste from the manual we are working on regarding subtitle coverage:

External subtitle support: SRT, SUB, SMI, SSA/ASS, IDX+SUB
Internal subtitle support: DVD, BD(PGS)

SSA/ASS subtitles only supports plain text display. SRT and PGS subtitles will have 3D effect when playing 3D video files.


Yes, this is being tested/implemented. We hope to have this feature added soon.

The album cover icons have to be placed in the same folder as the video files, and with the same name, except for the JPG file extension. The player will use this album cover image when displaying videos in the thumbnail format.

For all who are waiting on Adorama. They are getting their shipment next week. We had to make sure that there was enough to handle the exchanges for the power-on issue.

Excellent! And thanks for the subtitle info.

Jack, can you tell me which firmware version I should have now on the new unit? Will it have the latest firmware installed or is there a newer version online?

Good new! Thanks for the info. I am purchasing through them because I can pay with PayPal's Bill me Later.

Err...so I just powered up my new EP950 and went through setup. I then turned the unit back off with the remote.

As soon as I turned the unit back on, the unit froze at the boot screen. At first there was a bit of garbled junk and flickering and then the unit just locked at boot. The screen just freezes on "Micca' and the front display says "boot". I cannot get it to get past the boot screen now, after several attempts. Turning on from the front panel makes no difference.

Not good, not good.

EDIT: After pulling the plug, waiting a minute, and restarting, it acted funny for a moment and then booted up ok. When the Micca boot logo first came up though it was acting all weird and flickering. Now, each time I boot up the same thing happens - the unit turns on, stutters on the boot screen, and then after about 20-30 seconds the main menu comes up. It seems to have a lot of trouble at the boot screen.

In fact, as I'm writing this, it just acted weird again - this time, after about 30 seconds on the boot screen, it went to the green Micca logo screen before the main menu comes up, and it just stayed on that screen for another 30+ seconds. I thought it was frozen again but it actually came up finally. This unit is definitely having issues with startup. It's not booting consistently. In fact, it hasn't booted up the same way twice yet after 10+ tries. One thing that is consistent is it goes nuts every time the boot screen comes up. The white Micca logo goes nuts and jumps up and down, then a white line appears at the top of the screen and starts flickering, then the Micca logo appears centered again, then the screen flashes green for a second until it goes to the "Micca digital media" screen with the film ribbons, just before it goes to the main menu. That film ribbons screen is where it sometimes stays a while.

Firmware says 1.0.3.9, out of the box.

I'm comparing this to the WDTV Live (newest 3rd generation) which I picked up the other day before deciding to give the Micca another try. I was hoping I would be returning the WDTV Live, figuring the Micca offers many feature the WDTV doesn't, and their unit is also full of bugs according to their support forum. But just comparing their boot times, the WDTV boots literally in 2-3 seconds, with the main menu ready to go within that time. It's ridiculously fast. The Micca acts like it's struggling to even boot up. It sure doesn't look very slick at bootup, and I have no idea if this is normal behavior or if the unit is bad.

What to do...

What you are seeing is normal. It takes a while for the player to boot up. The WDTV series do not use the Realtek platform so their behavior is better in this regard.

I believe the flickering at the startup is caused by the player outputting some intermittent display modes rather than consistently staying on the same mode. This has already been reflected to the firmware team who is going to investigate and see if the mode changes can be eliminated.

Ah, I see. Now that you described that, it does seem that it's trying to cycle through different modes as it starts up, instead of just staying at the last output used (1080p@60, etc.).

Well I'm glad to hear that my unit isn't bad. I do wonder why it appeared to freeze on the boot screen the second time I started up. Maybe it was just taking longer that time to cycle through its modes?

Eliminating the mode changes would go a long way I suspect in making the unit boot smoother and faster. As it is now, I can imagine lots of people being worried after seeing that behavior.

As always thank for the reply.

Just wondering if anybody knew or has had a chance to try it? Can the unit play an actual blu-ray disc that has been put in a pc's optical drive? I assume if it could play that it could play a mounted iso.

Thank you

@jack micca

i just join to say i order a EP950 from adorama.com
since I'm in europe does the the device support both pal and ntsc ?

i don't ask to much, just want to play iso blu ray (50gb) connect to my av receiver+ speakers for the best sound and image quality possible.

also implementing xbmc on this little one, would be crazy

keep improving the software micca, i have faith in you guys.

Jack, thanks for your response regarding using cover icons. Your instructions worked.
I have another issue and a question. When I try to play Blu-Ray iso 3d disks using BD 1.0 I get the message that the system does not recognize 3d or the settings on the BD player are incorrect. Using BD Lite or Direct Play the movie will play in 3d. Is this a firmware issue or am I doing something wrong?
I am also interested if it is possible to go directly to the disk menu without having to go through all the options when I press menu. Is there any way to do this with one button as there is with a Blu-Ray disk player.

It will use the first jpg (alphabetically) in the movie folder is my experience, which is why all my art is the back cover art. MyMovies uses something like front and back prefixes on the jpg files names for the title artwork (not near my computer right now), so b is first. If I copy ad paste the
Front cover artwork into the back cover artwork slot in MyMovies and save it, I see the correct cover in the ep950

A

lets skip the 3D for a moment..
Anyone can give a feedback/test to this unit (EP950) playing ISO 2D blu ray movie connect to a AV receiver?

EP950>hdmi 1.4> av receiver > hdmi 1.4> tv led

playing from usb 3.0
playing from usb 2.0
playing from internal hd
playing from NAS
subtitles
playing in 23,976

how´s the image quality compared to a medium blu ray player ?
how´s the sound.. bitstreaming correctly to the av receiver ?

youtube vid pls..

thanks..

Jack, I'm having what appears to be a serious issue with this new Ep950.

Just as I mentioned on Friday, it freezes on the boot screen. I have used it a few times, trying to throw all types of files at it to put it through its paces. Each time it has started up, with the sloppy start that I mentioned on Friday (which you mentioned was due to the mode changes at startup).

Today, I sat down with my girlfriend to try out some more files, and just like on Friday, it froze at the boot screen. The white "Micca" logo came up, and the front panel read "boot". It never left that screen. I left it on for over 5 minutes, and it never left the boot screen. I turned it off, waited a minute, and turned it back on, and then it went into its normal startup routine. There is no way it is normal for the unit to freeze for over 5 minutes on the boot screen.

At this point, I'm very concerned and wondering if this just isn't going to work out. Clearly, there is still an issue with this player. Do I have a bad unit, or are they all having this problem? Do I really have such bad luck that I happened to get a bad player, again?

Please advise because at this point I'm pretty frustrated to be honest. I really want to like this player. I've said that before. But what will it take at this point to get one that works correctly? I would have thought after the first ones were recalled that Micca would have made absolutely sure that these new batches would not have any problems, especially with startup. Yet obviously something is wrong with this player. Why is it getting frozen at the boot screen?

I'd also like to mention that I was watching a 1-hour 23.976 mkv last night with DTS sound, in 1080p@60 Hz mode, and twice it hiccuped and dropped the audio to my receiver. I watched that same file on the WDTV and it played without a single hiccup or audio dropout. It also dropped audio for a second on another file I tried, but I can't remember what file type it was.

After trying out both players, and throwing all the files I could think of at both of them, I gotta say, I was leaning strongly towards the Micca. I liked the interface better overall, it played some files the WDTV wouldn't play, and of course the internal HD support, external sata, 3D support, and BD-ISO all make this my preferred player. But I cannot keep this unit if it is going to be freezing up at the boot screen regularly, or dropping audio to my receiver.

Please give me some good news. I want an EP950. But it seems like MIcca is making it very difficult for it to work out that way for me.

Unbelievable.

So I finished my above post, then went back to the player to turn it on again and see if I could try some more files on it.

I then noticed that the power indicator on the front was illuminated white, not red, indicating that the power was still on. But nothing was on the screen. It appears it didn't turn off properly when I turned it off before coming to post here a few minutes ago. I tried the power button on the remote, and nothing happened on the player. Nothing. I tried this several times. Nothing. The power indicator was still white.

I then tried the power button directly on the front panel, and all the other buttons lit up for a moment, but then turned off again, leaving just the power light still lit white. Nothing ever came up on screen. I tried this several more times, with the same results - hit the power button on the front panel, the buttons all light up for about 5 seconds, then they all turn back off except the power light which stays white. All the while nothing comes up on screen. I finally unplugged the power to turn it off, and it is now sitting unplugged on my stand.

Simply put, the unit was frozen in limbo - it wouldn't turn off and it wouldn't turn on. I had to pull the plug to turn it off. I will mention that I have no HDD installed right now in the unit, only a USB memory stick plugged in.

At this point, clearly this unit is defective, and it will be packaged back up and sent back to Amazon. The only question left is, what is Micca willing to do to keep me as a customer? I have been very patient, and I have spent lots of my time in here trying to offer help any way I can to get this thing working properly. After this new failure, I am really tempted to give my business to another company, and post my review accordingly on Amazon.

I would like to know if this is what I can expect from all the new units? If it wasn't for this problem (and the audio dropouts are a concern also), I would have kept this player, as I was very excited to have a "new and improved" unit. Instead, there's just more problems.

Again, I will ask if you can offer any good news, or any incentive at all at this point for me to try Micca one last time? I can understand a new product having growing pains, but after this new batch, I find this rather unacceptable.

eagle_2,

I am not sure what's going on with the unit you received. This second batch of players are just getting out to users so I am anxious to see the feedback from others as well.

Try reapplying the latest firmware 1.0.3.9 using recovery mode. If this does not fix the issues you've been having, then I recommend returning the player.

You are certainly welcome to try another unit, and Amazon will of course make sure this costs you nothing. But I understand that you've been really frustrated with the device, on multiple occasions, for multiple reasons. So it's ultimately up to you. We will certainly keep trying to improve the product based on the feedback we receive.

my 2nd rev player has been working fine with both network and local drive playback. I've run 15-20+ 3DB BD's through it and a number of 2D BD's as well.

The only time I can trip it up is playing back a 3D BD ISO in 2D mode (selecting 2D from the 950's menu), it will skip sometimes during network playback.

After playing with the unit a bit more, I've decided to abandon hope for this player.

- I tried playing some ape.audio files - it played for a few minutes then introduced some loud noise like static, then went back to playing again. It then dropped the audio a few times throughout the track.

- I noticed lots of "flicker" while using the unit. Just watching images on the slideshow resulted in several green flashes that lasted a fraction of a second - the same type of green flashes that I see when first powering up the unit, and it cycles through its different modes. Those same flashes also happen when I back out from one place to another, like if I stop a slideshow, it flashes green for a split second before exiting out. Same if I back out of the thumbnail vew. And I also get other random "flickers" when viewing photos, or menus. The screen just randomly "flickers" like the image becomes unstable for just a fraction of a second. Very distracting.

There are numerous other small annoyances as well that both I and my girlfriend noticed when using this today. Some of them I would be willing to ignore, and some I was considering mentioning in here, hoping for improvements, mostly related to the interface and selection screens. But in the end, we've decided it's just not worth the aggravation.

This player seemed to have great potential, but like many companies, this product has been rushed to market without proper firmware development, and this is the result. It may look like a great player, and it may seem to support tons of file formats, but in the end, what good is it if is plagued by problems?

This unit will be going back tomorrow, and unfortunately we will not be giving Micca a third chance. There are other media players on the market. I understand that they will all have their own set of issues. But this player has too many problems to be worth considering. A serious power issue persists, perhaps new to this new batch, I don't know, plus many video glitches and audio dropouts, which all added up, makes for a very unreliable media player.

I wish others luck who take their chances with this unit. And thank you, Jack, for trying to offer your assistance. You've certainly got your work cut out for you. Unfortunately, I will not be considering Micca (or HiMedia) again. Life is too short to troubleshoot defective products for free.

Sorry to hear things didnt work out with the micca also.I just loaded the micca firmware on the himedia--cant say I see much difference.
I hope you will let us know on the forums if you find a great working media player.
I love my dune and awaiting a new updated one from them and prepared to wait.
I trust in your judgement in what you see in a player and will keep watching for any developments to a great all round player.
I hope you dont get too much more aggravation in your media player search

Did you try to use the direct 1.0 menu for 3d? I get a message that the Blu-Ray player does not support 3D when I use this menu and I can get past this point. I can use the Lite and direct menu to play 3D. I have tried this with several 3D films.