Why I unplugged my A-300 and plugged my C-200 back in

[robertwallace]

Main reason: I want to watch movies.

I don't want to spent my time finding new bugs on the A-300. I certainly don't want to spend my time finding the same bugs that they've already fixed on the C-200.

I've been struggling with the new NMJ, the new Navigation paradigm, the audio and video playback problems... tonight I just gave up: I was trying to watch a BD movie that repeatedly locked up the A-300 while trying to play a simple menu. I turned off Full Navigation so it skipped past the menus and started the movie, which skipped, hiccuped, and dropped the audio over and over. When I plugged my C-200 back in, the movie played flawlessly, menu and all.

I feel the A-300 was released at least 6 months too early. I didn't think so when I first plugged it in. It looked nice and the new NMJ was real sparkly. But the GUI has turned out to be frustratingly unpolished and strangely inconsistent. And buggy.

I truly hope Syabas can bring the A-300 up to speed over the next several months with the inevitable firmware releases. They deserve to have the best player on the market. But we deserve better for our money than being beta testers. I know the early-adopter argument; I even believe it. But I've been through all that with my A-100 and my C-200 and I'm tired.

I just want to watch my movies.

Robert

[iamloco724@aol.com]

im waiting it out for now i have quite a few frustrations with certain bugs and issues right now as well and im coming from a-110 and i might go back to that while this becomes more stable supposedly theres an update coming next week im goign to try to hold out for that see what that does if it doesnt come next week i might hook up my a-110 for now

for me its either actual bugs like ones ive posted in the bug section about my hard drive setup and remote stops responding or its stupid things like settings not being saved like wanting everything to show date and size or sort order

[chris57]

I've put my A300 through quite a few video test files now.

The video playback surpasses the 200 series in testing clips like the Panasonic one with the yellow/red cars that stutter badly on the 200. On the 300 it plays far better.
The 200 series starts stuttering at 70Mb/s when sharing/streaming via SMB, on the 300 series I have yet to find a file with a bitrate that it cannot play without stuttering. The bird90.MKV plays fine.
My NMJv2 scan went great. It has recognised all of my movies and TV series.

Things I dont like are no to do with video playback:-
1. No zoom of the UI available.
2. No cue file support, either in filemode or NMJ
3. No ext sub/idx support

I have yet to experience a lockup or the remote not responding. In fact I find the remote far more responsive than the 200. It's quicker and the UI is also quicker to do things like 'delete' files, now its simply right click selected 'bin' icon and delete, it asks for confirmation which is a security that some wanted.

I'm a video watcher primarily. Not using it much for music, I watch a good few hours every day from both internal SSD and network shares.

The 300 series IS the most polished NMT upon release. There again it should be as they have used the Popbox v8 for a lot of it and that has been out for sometime and Syabas used ALL of their firmware resource on it, leaving 200 users v.frustrated.

I will say again though there is no reason to upgrade from a 200 to a 300. If you dont have a 200 then you should be very satisfied with it as you can finally say goodbye to any worries about streaming and bitrates, see your transfer rates jump from 4MB/s to 17MB/s, and 1080p causing lockup etc.

[Burnerbum]

I am leaning on the side of robertwallace.
For one, some of my BR ISO files stutter from the same server that C-200 plays them fine. I have tried the network setting both ways.

The NMJ didn't find half of the movies on the database that the C-200 did. When I try to manually download them it starts and then states "2 of the 3 files failed to download". I'm not sure why they aren't download.

The GUI in the beginning is ok, but I would prefer for it to return to the last used when turned on like the C-200 does. On the C-200, if I was playing from the server last that's where it starts up again. The C-200 was just much more user friendly when selecting Network browser, etc. Less buttons and screens to go through.

The GUI is really dull looking, especially in file browser. The Gray on Gray is very blah and much harder to read in my opinion. I hope they can dress that up some.

Getting around the menus is definitely a learning experience. Very different from the C-200. It would have been nice to have a basic manual included with the PCH, just like every other item you buy.

I really don't see a big difference in speed in loading files at all.

This being said, while I still prefer the C-200 over the A-300 I will continue to play with it but I really expected more.

[tyrindor]

(11-06-2011 10:49 AM)chris57 Wrote:  The 300 series IS the most polished NMT upon release.

Thats what it comes down too. Anyone buying a A300 at launch and expecting it to be as stable as the 200 series just set themselves up for disappointment. It's never happened with any PCH, they are always buggy at launch.

On that note, I've had no major issues with my A300. It has played every single file i've put through it, and everything is just much faster. I don't use the stock NMJ v2 because frankly I feel it's terrible when compared to YAMJ/Eversion.

I feel 200 -> 300 series is a worthy upgrade if the money isn't going to set you back for over a month. I love mine, it's all around better than my A200.

(11-07-2011 09:50 PM)Burnerbum Wrote:  For one, some of my BR ISO files stutter from the same server that C-200 plays them fine. I have tried the network setting both ways.

The NMJ didn't find half of the movies on the database that the C-200 did. When I try to manually download them it starts and then states "2 of the 3 files failed to download". I'm not sure why they aren't download.

I really don't see a big difference in speed in loading files at all.

I have over 800 BD ISOs that are playing fine on my A300, or at least I haven't found one that hasn't. Menus and extras are removed but it's still the same format/codec/resolution/bitrate. I'm also playing off a server.

Seems like many of the complaints are related to NMJ. I personally don't see why people use it, there are better solutions...

My ISOs load nearly twice as fast, Infact.. half the time I don't even see a loading screen now, it just goes black for 1 second then it plays.

Some of the complaints I see about the A300 make me wonder if people are using the same device as me, did you update firmware? *shrugs*.

[jtswift]

I've never owned another PCH before the A-300 so I can't compare. I know 1 other guy that has a C-200 and he loves it and recommended me one about 1, 2 years ago.

Pros:
Fantastic piece of media kit for Movies/Music and Pictures.
Usability over Network functionality
Boots fast
Apps
Tidy, small unit
No overheating issues as of yet and I've been hounding the drive for the past 4 days
Gigabit operation and fast transfer, even using Powerline adapters

Cons:
Not picking up Artwork on Movies
GUI is a little outdated or scattered, for use of a better word
Issue with lockout on view pictures from share

Look, I'm sure there's more Pros and Cons but I look at it this way - nothing a Firmware upgrade can't sort. I too was a bit pissed with it over the past day or so but it's new to a lot of us and seemingly even those who have owned previous models.

I'm gonna hold out and wait for new Firmware/Workarounds - I really do think it's worth it. Once CSI is operable, auto download of Torrents etc, Movie scans sorted and a few other issues with the shortcuts on the Remote, Pictures etc. it has the makings of a very powerful Media Center.

[trinidesignz]

(11-06-2011 03:17 AM)robertwallace Wrote:  Main reason: I want to watch movies.

I don't want to spent my time finding new bugs on the A-300. I certainly don't want to spend my time finding the same bugs that they've already fixed on the C-200.

I've been struggling with the new NMJ, the new Navigation paradigm, the audio and video playback problems... tonight I just gave up: I was trying to watch a BD movie that repeatedly locked up the A-300 while trying to play a simple menu. I turned off Full Navigation so it skipped past the menus and started the movie, which skipped, hiccuped, and dropped the audio over and over. When I plugged my C-200 back in, the movie played flawlessly, menu and all.

I feel the A-300 was released at least 6 months too early. I didn't think so when I first plugged it in. It looked nice and the new NMJ was real sparkly. But the GUI has turned out to be frustratingly unpolished and strangely inconsistent. And buggy.

I truly hope Syabas can bring the A-300 up to speed over the next several months with the inevitable firmware releases. They deserve to have the best player on the market. But we deserve better for our money than being beta testers. I know the early-adopter argument; I even believe it. But I've been through all that with my A-100 and my C-200 and I'm tired.

I just want to watch my movies.

Robert

I'm having this same problem, I have tried numerous Movies : BD ISOs, MKV's, Mpeg, Avi I can never get to finish watching an entire one yet without the A300 rebooting at some point of the movie and then freezing at the "Loading..." screen.
I think I'll have to do like robertwallace and plug in my A110.

[werner]

what source are you playing from? i never had a reboot at all on playback

[Kir]

My experience is quite the opposite - my C200 hasn't been turned on for awhile now.
Same as Chris, I was pleasantly surprised that bird90.mkv played flawlessly - something I could never get from C200.

Again, no lockups and much faster BD menu loading.

[Rosche22]

I plugged my c200 back in as well, because I can't get nmj to properly use my nfos and downloaded artwork. So of course it doesn't see all my movies correctly and I had spent a lot of time on my 900 movies finding the DVD cover art. Also I try to manually change movies and there is usually a download error. I'm gonna wait till there is a fix or a yamj to nmj converter that works with the new a300

[speedownsie]

This thread made me laugh.
Oh and that 55" Samsung is beautiful.
I am WELL jealous.
Just have to convince myself i need one.