Official Ceton Echo Extender Info Thread - Page 177  

Now that is the most ringing endorsement for this that I've heard thus far!

^ Yup!^

So, how did you resume? I don't see an option to resume built into the My Media Center GUI. Only through the WMC GUI...

I don't think the OP was using MyMediaCenter at all as it was not mentioned.

Yeah, Sammy3 is right. I was just responding to what seemed like a general question about resume on the echo that followed your post.

Feature coming soon btw to the apps

I see the 4GB Xbox is $149.99 at Best Buy (after deducting a $50 gift card). Any reason I shouldn't get one of these and shelve the Echo for now?

Every once in a while the audio from my Echo gets messed up. It's hard to explain but it sort of skips every 1/2 second. The audio skipping is very much like the first 30 seconds of this Apocalypse Now clip. I've only noticed it on programs flagged copy once. Sometimes pausing playback for a second clears it up.

Echo settings
Audio Output: HDMI
Dolby Digital Audio Bitstreaming: On
TV Resolution: 720p
FW Version: 2013.116.1545 (installed from beta channel)

I use digital optical from the TV to the AVR with the TV's Bitstreaming option turned on. The audio skipping is the same through the AVR or the TV speakers.

Does anyone else have this problem? Does Ceton already know about it?

That's not audio skipping, that's helicopter blades slicing through the air.

Maybe you should try the 2013.122 f/w. It fixed audio issues I was having in the 2013.116 f/w but it made it so you cannot see the picture when pressing >> or << so skipping commercials on a time-shifted show is difficult but not impossible.

I know it's helicopter blades in the clip. That's what the audio from the Echo sounds like sometimes.

I'd update the firmware but don't want to give up the ff/rw picture. Can you at least see the seek bar thumbnail when you press and hold one of the skip buttons for a second?

Yes, the progress bar shows for >| , |< , >> and << .

I don't just mean the progress bar, I mean the thumbnail above the progress bar.

No. That does not show. Although I've seen that before, for some reason I don't get that balloon on my HTPC or on my echo. Maybe I accidentally disabled it. How is that turned on and off?

EDIT: If I drag it with my mouse it shows but not with the remote?
Edited by Sammy2 - 1/27/13 at 9:24am

I can bring up the thumbnail on the Echo by holding down the skip >>| or the skip |<< button.

I totally just figured this one out. Hold down >>| to make it appear, then let go and click >>| to advance. Yeah, that's there on the echo in current beta. works fine.

OK, thanks. I just wanted to make sure that still worked before I did the firmware update.

Unfortunately, there seems to be no way to customize the skip interval when doing this (always 30s back when I would like it to follow the setting for the normal skip backwards, 7s).

Okay.. I got it now. Thanks. I guess the last time I saw that this is what happened but I didn't know it.. Now I know how to repeat it and that is a good thing.

I updated to 2013.122.1356. I still have the intermittent skipping audio problem.

Edit: Attached is a short MP3 recording of the skipping audio.
echo.zip 232k .zip file
Edited by Ken.F - 1/27/13 at 1:53pm

Does it continue like that?

If you hit pause then play does it go away?

What is your set up? Is there an AVR in the mix? HDMI?

Yes, it continues like that. Sometimes pausing for a second fixes it.

I have the Echo audio set to HDMI with bitstreaming on. The TV is connected to the AVR with optical cable. The skipping happens with the TV speakers and the AVR.

So you have the HDMI out from the echo to the TV and than back feed the audio to the AVR via optical? Can you set the audio to optical in the echo then go HDMI to the TV from the echo and optical to the AVR from the echo? You won't get audio to the TV speakers this way most likely but the audio will go to the AVR which is where you want it to go.

I assume your AVR doesn't support HDMI or HDMI switching. What make/model is it? This is why I dumped my 1997 Sony dts capable AVR in 2007.. That and the fact that the volume control no longer worked with the remote.

It's not an AVR problem. The audio skipping happens on the TV speakers with the AVR shut off. I only use optical from the TV to the AVR because all the HDMI ports on the AVR are in use.

Try a couple things to positively rule the TV out.. connect the echo to the AVR one at at time via HDMI and optical from the echo with the appropriate settings in the echo of course.

Awesome. As always, thanks Motz!

Is it possible to put the HTPC to sleep, but leave the Echo always on?

The low power consumption of the Echo would seem to make it ideal for an always on device, and the boot up time for the Echo is longer than I (or my wife) like. BUT I would like to save some power by letting the HTPC sleep when no one is watching anything. (our marginal electrical power rate above the absurdly low "baseline usage" here in N. California is over 30 cents/kwh thanks to the state government's love affair with inefficient "green" power that we get to subsidize...)

I've done some searching but have only found statements that if the Echo is on, the HTPC will stay on.

So, anyone have any ideas?

Thanks --leftcoastjayhawk
Edited by leftcoastjayhawk - 1/27/13 at 4:58pm

I can't speak to the Echo specifically, but my understanding is that for any extender to remain on and connected, the HTPC would need to be on. The extender is just a fancy RDP session running on the HTPC, so if you sleep the HTPC, the extender would drop the connection. At least on the 360, the bulk of the time spent going from off to usable is finding/connecting to the HTPC.

Since everyone else seems to be using this thread as a vehicle to share experiences, I'll share mine too.

My 1st Gen 360 just got the Red Ring of Death again (2nd time). Not sure if it's been more or less than 3 years since the last time, but I'm not optimistic that it'll matter. So I'm probably in the market for another extender, and will likely purchase another echo.

Yes, MediaBrowser/MKV support is lacking, but it is on 360 as well. I have MediaBrowser, but don't really use it. This is a low priority to me.

It plays LiveTV and Recordings just fine. I don't play music in the bedroom, so before I buy, I will test that. Otherwise, the only complaints/obstacles to me going with Echo over 360 is:
A) Netflix support (360 does HBO Go as well, but hardly anything else does... I don't expect Ceton to support that (although that would be awesome!), but Netflix, eventually, and sooner rather than later, is a must for me if it is to properly replace 360)
B) The remote is a "value" issue. People have been quick to point out how Xbox Live fees are part of using Netflix on 360, but there's a poor value proposition here as well if you have to drop additional $$$ on a Harmony to get it to work. Now, for my Living Room/Basement applications, this isn't a big deal, as I want (and already own) Harmony's. But I did not want that kind of expense for my bedroom, and am stuck with that now.

Anyone had success using the Ceton app as a remote? With RemotePotato, I don't have much use for remote recordings scheduler, but a $5 echo remote would save me some $$$. Do we still need to install "My Media Center Services" on the HTPC if the only functionality we are looking for is Echo control?

As for Ceton, my experiences with their support staff have been nothing less than A+++. I had a problem with my Comcast CableCard, 100% a Comcast issue, not Ceton, but Ceton took on my problem as if it were there own, worked with Comcast on my behalf, and fixed Comcast's problem for them/me. In the world we live in, support like this is rare, IMO. If Ceton says they're going to address something, personally, I believe them. JMO.
Edited by psuKinger - 1/28/13 at 2:33am

I switched the cabling around last night. I now have HDMI running from the Echo to the AVR and HDMI from AVR to TV. This morning the Echo froze while playing live TV. The Echo wouldn't respond to any remote commands except for the power button. I haven't had the audio glitch return yet but it sometimes goes a few days without any trouble.

So here are my observations thus far....

(122 firmware)

Mediabrowser works great with two minor exceptions... the "preview" window showing live TV isn't cropped/scaled properly when displayed and when the text is scrolling in a movie description it doesn't scroll very smoothly. Other than that I've had no trouble with Mediabrowser.

Ripped movie playback is still dodgy. I'm still having problems with stuttering/freezing with H.264/AC-3 encoded MP4/MKV MT2S files. Lower bitrate encodes seem to play fine if everything is encoded "properly" (no VFR in handbrake and 8 or fewer reference frames) but I'm holding out hope that they'll be able to get things ironed out with the VFR flag. Higher bitrate files typically freeze within a few minutes of starting.

It's still not very stable. I typically go to sleep with the TV on (usually on Live TV) and as often as not when I wake up, I'm back at the WMC home screen as if the unit rebooted sometime during the night. I've actually encountered a reboot while awake on more than one occasion too.

I can't get any of the startup settings in the echo plugin to apply. The Live TV startup option worked on the first revision of the firmware after the plugin was released, but after that I've yet to get either of my echos to go straight to Live TV.

Last time I tried my echo in the den, AC3 bitstreaming was completely broken. My receiver always detected the audio as PCM (whether using optical or HDMI) which just resulted in horrifically loud clicking from my speakers anytime the echo attempted to send AC3 audio.

Despite all of those issues, I've actiaully been fairly pleased with the units so far and I'm still optimistic that the rest of the issues will get fixed.