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Official Ceton Echo Extender Info Thread - Page 165

post #4921 of 7646
1/11/13 at 8:15am
Just updating my situation from a page or two back...

I received my replacement Echo yesterday and hooked it up last night. I now have a functional Echo! I immediately took it upstairs and hooked it up to my 720p 50" TV in my bedroom. I got it extended to my WMC and away I went. Its running 1219 1030 firmware, I figure I'm better off staying with that right now and not the Beta.

Here are my observations:

1. The UI is a bit sluggish, nothing terrible but definitely not as smooth as on my WMC PC.

2. I did notice watching TV I had some audio drop outs when watching TBS about 15 minutes delayed. Couldn't duplicate it but I didn't spend a whole lot of time with it yet.

3. MKV's - It played any MKV I threw at it that didn't have the HD audio stream present. Most of my MKV's are anywhere from 5-13MBps rate. The only one I had an issue with was my rip of The Bucket List. Not sure why but it would
freeze and stutter but then got smoother after 30 seconds, again, I didn't spend a ton of time playing with it. About 50% of my rips have HD audio, any one I tried brought me to a WMC screen that says it doesn't have the
proper software to playback or something to that effect (I was pretty sleepy at that point).

I'll get some more time today hopefully.
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post #4922 of 7646
1/11/13 at 9:11am
Quote:
Originally Posted by th3Pil0t View Post

...still doesn't explain the 'WMC updated' icon that was in the notifications area.
That's a separate issue. When you issue a guide update manualy or automatically, it kicks off a background process to download the update. It takes a while for the update to finish and when it is done, you will see the notification in task bar. Nothing new.

I have my WMC automatic download set up to occur at mid-night so that I don't have to see this kind of useless notification.

You can re-produce this notification by manually start a WMC update/download in settings. And you will see the notification in a few mininutes:

1. Go to WMC Tasks->Setting->General->Automatic download options, click on Download Now button.
2. You will see WMC update icon in notification area and the progress.
Edited by Foxbat121 - 1/11/13 at 9:19am
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post #4923 of 7646
1/11/13 at 9:20am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Foxbat121 View Post

That's a separate issue. When you issue a guide update manualy or automatically, it kicks off a background process to download the update. It takes a while for the update to finish and when it is done, you will see the notification in task bar. Nothing new.

I have my WMC automatic download set up to occur at mid-night so that I don't have to see this kind of useless notification.

You can re-produce this notification by manually start a WMC update/download in settings. And you will see the notification in a few mininutes:

1. Go to WMC Tasks->Setting->General->Automatic download options, click on Download Now button.
2. You will see WMC update icon in notification area and the progress.

Brilliant, explains a lot. Thanks.
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post #4924 of 7646
1/11/13 at 5:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by th3Pil0t View Post

I got a WMC update pushed to my computer yesterday, anyone have an idea of the changelog? One change I noticed - I was prompted and can now list my 'Recorded TV' as list instead of tiles...Pretty nice. It's nice to see MS updating WMC...

I have always used list since building my HTPC. It can be enabled by clicking info on any recording...

Edit: to be clear you would click info on the remote while in your recordings in recorded TV. In other words rather than hit enter after highlighting a recording hit info. You will the be presented with option to view list or Large (if in list mode) on an extender.
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post #4925 of 7646
1/12/13 at 3:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mariob33 View Post

I have always used list since building my HTPC. It can be enabled by clicking info on any recording...

Edit: to be clear you would click info on the remote while in your recordings in recorded TV. In other words rather than hit enter after highlighting a recording hit info. You will the be presented with option to view list or Large (if in list mode) on an extender.

Usually once you reach a certain amount of recordings it will pop up and ask you to switch to list so it is easier to view. I think like more than 10 or 15 recordings.
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post #4926 of 7646
1/12/13 at 3:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by kmeleon View Post

Just updating my situation from a page or two back...

I received my replacement Echo yesterday and hooked it up last night. I now have a functional Echo! I immediately took it upstairs and hooked it up to my 720p 50" TV in my bedroom. I got it extended to my WMC and away I went. Its running 1219 1030 firmware, I figure I'm better off staying with that right now and not the Beta.

Here are my observations:

1. The UI is a bit sluggish, nothing terrible but definitely not as smooth as on my WMC PC.

2. I did notice watching TV I had some audio drop outs when watching TBS about 15 minutes delayed. Couldn't duplicate it but I didn't spend a whole lot of time with it yet.

3. MKV's - It played any MKV I threw at it that didn't have the HD audio stream present. Most of my MKV's are anywhere from 5-13MBps rate. The only one I had an issue with was my rip of The Bucket List. Not sure why but it would
freeze and stutter but then got smoother after 30 seconds, again, I didn't spend a ton of time playing with it. About 50% of my rips have HD audio, any one I tried brought me to a WMC screen that says it doesn't have the
proper software to playback or something to that effect (I was pretty sleepy at that point).

I'll get some more time today hopefully.

I am glad that the new one is all up and running now smile.gif
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post #4927 of 7646
1/12/13 at 6:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by kevthurm View Post

Hello all...I received my echo Monday and installed it and it updated to the stable firmware release ending in 1030...pleased with the sound and picture but one annoyance is that whenever I turn off the Echo and turn back on later it will not pair with the WMC on the downstair's HTPC ...I have to enter the 8 digit code every time on the HTPC when the Echo is turned back on ...any ideas?

The Echo is plugged into wall mount running Cat5 down directly to the router so nothing's in the way that I can tell that would be impeding the connection between the two...



I'm beginning to suspect that the echo cannot be connected to a switch before the router....instead requiring a direct connect to the router...any opinions?
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post #4928 of 7646
1/12/13 at 6:11pm
I have mine connected to a switch which is connected to my router and my htpc is connected to the same switch. I think as long as your htpc and echo are both plugged into the same thing (switch or router) you shouldn't have any problems.
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post #4929 of 7646
1/12/13 at 6:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by hub1 View Post

I have mine connected to a switch which is connected to my router and my htpc is connected to the same switch. I think as long as your htpc and echo are both plugged into the same thing (switch or router) you shouldn't have any problems.


Both the HTPC and the Echo are on the same switch before the router....this switch is several years old and may not be a gigabit switch...if that matters. Next I will switch out couple of connections to the router and try a direct connection and see what that does...
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post #4930 of 7646
1/12/13 at 6:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by kevthurm View Post

I'm beginning to suspect that the echo cannot be connected to a switch before the router....instead requiring a direct connect to the router...any opinions?

Any home "router" is actually two devices in one - a router and a switch. The routing portion connects two networks - the Internet and your home network. The switch connects the devices to the home network. Adding another switch is just an extension of that.
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post #4931 of 7646
1/12/13 at 7:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mcturkey View Post

Any home "router" is actually two devices in one - a router and a switch. The routing portion connects two networks - the Internet and your home network. The switch connects the devices to the home network. Adding another switch is just an extension of that.

Correct but wondering if this switch is one of the "obstructions" they refer to when troubleshooting connection issues with the Echo...the support ticket I have established with them was answered yesterday and the tech did mention that router/switch issues could be present...
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post #4932 of 7646
1/12/13 at 9:38pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by kevthurm View Post

Correct but wondering if this switch is one of the "obstructions" they refer to when troubleshooting connection issues with the Echo...the support ticket I have established with them was answered yesterday and the tech did mention that router/switch issues could be present...
Of course router/switch issues could be present as it's typically pretty easy to configure things so they don't work properly. Every time you add another device (such as another switch) to the configuration the chances of configuring something incorrectly go up. Part of the troubleshooting process is always to simplify things to narrow down the root cause of the problem, so one of the obvious things is to eliminate as many "extra" devices in the chain as possible. But unless they completely screwed up networking on the Echo there's absolutely no reason it shouldn't work when connected to a second switch on a properly configured network.
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post #4933 of 7646
1/12/13 at 11:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by kevthurm View Post

Both the HTPC and the Echo are on the same switch before the router....this switch is several years old and may not be a gigabit switch...if that matters. Next I will switch out couple of connections to the router and try a direct connection and see what that does...

Nope. Mine is connected to a switch and not a router. I have no issues at all with network connections.
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post #4934 of 7646
1/13/13 at 6:19am
Been over 3 weeks since the last beta.

Still a lot of issues with the Echo. Mine rebooted several times the other night. I still notice interlacing artifacts. I've had the occasional freeze requiring a power off/on cycle.

Much as I hate the Xbox360 as an extender, it just works better. It also has a future in Microsoft's MC plans.
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post #4935 of 7646
1/13/13 at 7:37am
I had a weird issue last night as well, just after I took my Comcast box back yesterday. Lol. Audio kept creeping out of sync. Had to stop playback and than resume and it would fix it for about 10 mins, then repeat. Very annoying. It was a WMC HD recording as well, not an import. Running video at 720 with bitstreaming disabled has been performing best for me.

Very hopeful the next firmware release is out this coming week with a good array of fixes. I don''t mind dealing with these bugs, as long as we (the early adopters 'team' and Ceton) keep making forward progress...
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post #4936 of 7646
1/13/13 at 9:19am
I'm not sure if this is impactful to the Echo but ... would the optional update shown below (and awaiting action in my update list) break compatibility with the Echo?

It's my understanding that the Echo and other older extenders (except for the XBox) can't access WMC in Win8 due to the new RDP format. Does this update just allow Win7 to access RDP sessions on Win8 and Server 2012 boxes OR does this bring the full new protocol to Win7 and potentially break compatibility with extenders? I suspect not but I'm hesitant to let Windows apply the update.

...

Update for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems (KB2592687)

Download size: 2.0 MB - 8.7 MB

You may need to restart your computer for this update to take effect.

Update type: Optional

The Remote Desktop Protocol 8.0 update enables you to use the new Remote Desktop Services features. These features are introduced in Windows 8 and in Windows Server 2012 and are available for computers that are running Windows 7 Service Pack 1 or Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.

More information:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2592687
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post #4937 of 7646
1/13/13 at 4:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by BillBragg View Post

I'm not sure if this is impactful to the Echo but ... would the optional update shown below (and awaiting action in my update list) break compatibility with the Echo?

It's my understanding that the Echo and other older extenders (except for the XBox) can't access WMC in Win8 due to the new RDP format. Does this update just allow Win7 to access RDP sessions on Win8 and Server 2012 boxes OR does this bring the full new protocol to Win7 and potentially break compatibility with extenders? I suspect not but I'm hesitant to let Windows apply the update.

Update for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems (KB2592687)

I've had that update installed since 11/19/2012 and haven't had any issues. I don't think having updates awaiting installation would break anything.
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post #4938 of 7646
1/13/13 at 4:48pm
Is there any way to get the Echo to show the Guide color codes for programming? I like the colored boxes indicating Sports, Movie, etc. I thought it would by default.
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post #4939 of 7646
1/13/13 at 4:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by BenJF3 View Post

Is there any way to get the Echo to show the Guide color codes for programming? I like the colored boxes indicating Sports, Movie, etc. I thought it would by default.

I asked the same question a little while back. Thanks to hub1 for providing the answer: "The grid colors have to be turned on under settings/tv/guide/guide page options on the echo."
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post #4940 of 7646
1/13/13 at 4:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken.F View Post

I've had that update installed since 11/19/2012 and haven't had any issues. I don't think having updates awaiting installation would break anything.

This KB will break using WMC over an RDP session in Windows 7. For me, it was also the source of ehrecevr crashing due to a MsDri.dll failure.
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post #4941 of 7646
1/13/13 at 6:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken.F View Post

I asked the same question a little while back. Thanks to hub1 for providing the answer: "The grid colors have to be turned on under settings/tv/guide/guide page options on the echo."

Thanks. A sticky with FAQs might help as this thread expands rapidly. So, far the Echo does what I need. My issue is missing a few channels or getting weak signal messages at the host PC which is not Echo related.
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post #4942 of 7646
1/14/13 at 3:01am
Quote:
Originally Posted by shortcut3d View Post

This KB will break using WMC over an RDP session in Windows 7. For me, it was also the source of ehrecevr crashing due to a MsDri.dll failure.

Since I have KB2592687 installed, shouldn't I be having problems with my Echo?
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post #4943 of 7646
1/14/13 at 4:18am
Still problems here with the HDMI handshake on 720p with both of my Pioneer panels. 1080p is good but 720p reverts them back to a 4 x 3 screen...

Hoping for a firmware update soon that will correct this so I can go "native". Cannot do that at this time.

I have a ticket open with Ceton about this but have not heard anything back from them for about 3 weeks now...
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post #4944 of 7646
1/14/13 at 9:18am
The Aptly Named Echo

as in


ECHO.........Echo.........echo

Sure got quiet in here. Did everyone return theirs?
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post #4945 of 7646
1/14/13 at 9:46am
Quote:
Originally Posted by flipper59 View Post

The Aptly Named Echo

as in


ECHO.........Echo.........echo

Sure got quiet in here. Did everyone return theirs?

For me, set to native it is working well as an extender. Waiting to see what happens with DTS and MKV.

As it happens, my XBOX360 slim has migrated from the room my HTPC is in to the room I am using the Echo in (probably something to do with my new Epson 3010 projector and 120" screen) - but if those issues don't get cleaned up I will probably just use the XBOX for TV and get some sort of XBMC capable box for local media. Only about 10% of my viewing is Live or protected content...

xnappo
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post #4946 of 7646
1/14/13 at 9:58am
Quote:
set to native it is working well as an extender.

I have mine set to native as well. Except, it's not sending native to the TV. It de-interlaces 1080i and sends 1080p to the TV. It also screws up at times and you see artifacts from the process.

Hard to say for sure, but I also see some jumpiness, like frames/fields are being dropped.

Has anyone hacked up a 360 to make it an Extender Only device (as much as possible), with quieter cooling?
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post #4947 of 7646
1/14/13 at 11:51am
The extended 3-month return period probably won't do us much good if they only put out 1 new firmware per month...
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post #4948 of 7646
1/14/13 at 12:25pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by flipper59 View Post

I have mine set to native as well. Except, it's not sending native to the TV. It de-interlaces 1080i and sends 1080p to the TV. It also screws up at times and you see artifacts from the process.

Hard to say for sure, but I also see some jumpiness, like frames/fields are being dropped.

Has anyone hacked up a 360 to make it an Extender Only device (as much as possible), with quieter cooling?

Most of the Xbox 360S's released in 2012 or later have the new " Corona" motherboard. The new consoles with these motherboards are said to have dropped another 20 watts and are noticeably more quite than the original Slim. I have been really tempted to go this route myself since the Echo STILL has so many issues.
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post #4949 of 7646
1/14/13 at 12:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by crbaldwin View Post

The extended 3-month return period probably won't do us much good if they only put out 1 new firmware per month...

I expect they will be rolling more quickly now that the ceton developers are back from CES.
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post #4950 of 7646
1/14/13 at 12:56pm
Quote:
now that the ceton developers are back from CES.

Did Ceton have a booth at CES?
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