Firmware Release Imminent?

[edmc]

According to this post, the latest release has hit a snag trying to support the SMB/NFS client functionality w/ no HD installed - blocking this release.

Let me kindly request the following priorities:

Correctness

Functionality

Performance

...in that order. Some of us have a completely unusable A100 and must wait for this release to get any use out of the device. Having to do w/out certain features is certainly ok compared to an unusable device.

While I'm sure we can all pummel PopcornHour with myriad feature requests, let us not lose sight of the need for Correctness - first.

That being said, can PopcornHour shed any light on the arrival of this most needed update - sans this particular release blocking feature?

[Lorien]

Why is the A100 unusable for u ?

[edmc]

Lorien Wrote:Why is the A100 unusable for u ?

Frequent Freezes of the display. I can continue to FTP to the A100
just fine, so I take the explanation of this being an HDMI switching
issue to be a reasonable cause of the problems I am seeing.

Examples:

1 - Power cycle the A100 and it's hit-or-miss whether or not the
splash screen image appears (just after the "loading..." screen
which always appears).

2 - View a picture and try to exit/go-back to the menu.

3 - Watch a DVD .ISO file and then try to go back to the menu.

I've learned that hitting the power button and waiting for the HD
to spin down increases my odds of getting the display back.

Unfortunately, often times the Power button doesn't end up
shutting down the A100 (particularly after the hang in #2).

PopcornHour support has responded that these are very known
problems and that they've already got a fix for them due out in
the next release (which I, obviously, am eagerly awaiting).

I have no idea how widespread these issues are, however, since
few actually have tried out the device. And even fewer seem to
have bothered to install an HD in the device preferring to "stream"
their content. PopcornHour, and others, have also speculated that
the variations in HDMI implementations among the various displays
(mine is a Sharp 45" LCD with 1080i/720p capable HDMI 1.1 before
Sharp started supporting 1080p HDMI inputs).

Whatever - these make the device completely unreliable for me.

Your question doesn't indicate whether:

A - You don't have the device and are curious what folks who have it are seeing, or

B - You have the device and (gladly) are not seeing the same difficulties as I am.

Such is the nature of posters on this forum - it is often hard to tell. What I'm mostly concerned about is those in camp A who, despite these problems, continue to absolutely pummel PopcornHour with "nice to have" feature requests while the quality of the A100 is simply not up to snuff yet. And, unfortunately for me, it appears that one of these "nice-to-have" features (i.e. SMB/NFS Client in Firmware) is holding up my very needed bug fixes. This when there is a very reasonable "work-around" of just installing any cheap PATA drive you can find into the A100 to get the SMB/NFS Client functionality.

Oh, well... I guess folks' exuberance over the A100 is a good thing and they just want to help in the way they think makes the A100 the "do-it-all" device it may one day become. It's just that, in the meantime, PopcornHour simply needs to get the bugs out of the current (and sufficient for most) functionality.

Correctness... then Functionality... then Performance... That's all I ask/suggest.

[Lorien]

Sadly i do not have the device yet. thats why i asked.

[werner]

there will be fixes in to your problems but please understand that you have to wait maybe today :-) or this week but the firmware must pass QA befor it can go to the customers. But i can tell you that the new release will have good changes and you will see less bugs then so give them some time please.

Werner

[pwvliet]

edmc Wrote:What I'm mostly concerned about is those in camp A who, despite these problems, continue to absolutely pummel PopcornHour with "nice to have" feature requests while the quality of the A100 is simply not up to snuff yet. And, unfortunately for me, it appears that one of these "nice-to-have" features (i.e. SMB/NFS Client in Firmware) is holding up my very needed bug fixes. This when there is a very reasonable "work-around" of just installing any cheap PATA drive you can find into the A100 to get the SMB/NFS Client functionality.

I also don't have one yet, but wanted to comment on this. I know it sucks that your device isn't working for you at all, but having SMB/NFS in firmware is not nice to have, but essential. What use is a streaming media player if you need a harddisk anyway? I don't want to go to the store and get a hdd just to be able to stream video.
Nice to have for me is: rar-functionality, newsgroup support, heck even youtube support is nice to have, but in no way essential to the main purpose of the machine.
As always, I guess different users consider different things "nice to have" and "necessary".

As an aside, do these problems occur when connected via Component? Might be a good alternative (if not already taken up on the tv).

Hope you get your issues sorted out sooner than later though (as we all profit from new firmware).

[werner]

with next release many bugs gets fixed like dvd playback improvement, smb - nfs client to firmware (no hdd needed anymore) and many other things!!
So please wait for next firmware and many bugs will be away.

Werner

[tuxedomask29]

I agree that the must haves are dependent on each user. Yes, it sucks that your player won't work as expected right now, but from the sounds of your description it's an HDMI issue... So, until the firmware is released hook it up a different way. I agree that if you're looking for a player to stream and not need a hard drive, then that is a must have because you bought it for that function and not to have to buy a hard drive. For me, yes it's important to have play movies but the selling point for me for this unit is to play youtube videos, I live on there (LOL). If it didn't have this functionality for me, I'd probably look else where. So, each person will see a different must have feature. Remember, all good things come to those who wait... ;-)

[pardizzone]

I too am in the A group and I agree that advertised features should be first and foremost. I have a box from another vendor and they went the other way with adding new features first and not addressing advertised features that didn't work out of the box (and there were a lot!). The box has been on the market for roughly 10 months and it still has issues with advertised features but yet they are still working on the new features instead. By the time they get everything working it will be too late as there will be newer boxes (like the PH) that do more for less $$.

As long as PH addresses the problems with any advertised features that don't work, they will be ahead of every other vendor.

[edmc]

All good comments - let's hope they are helpful to PopcornHour.

Me, I guess I do have the "Component" workaround although the transition thru Analog back to Digital is quite a waste.

I don't want to see PopcornHour fall into the camp of devices chasing the never ending trail of feature creep and not get around to solidifying their base functionality. That'd be a track somebody like Microsoft may be able to get away with - after banking billions - but not something a company the size of PopcornHour can afford I'd guess.

But I return to my request. As I understand it by the referenced post (see Post #1 in this thread for a link), the bugs I am currently blocked on have been resolved. I'd just like to see PopcornHour go ahead and release the fixes soon rather than waiting until they get this "no HD req'd to stream from SMB/NFS" feature completed.

[werner]

"no HD req'd to stream from SMB/NFS"

this is already working and no problems on my side the qa will test around tommorow or maybe wednesday also and when everything is ok so mean not many bugs in :-) then you will see an really polished fixed new firmware and then you will understand what syabas is making in 3 weeks!!!!!

Werner