feedback on v4.0.4 final release

[maco]

Hi all,

I Liked my new Mede8er 400x a lot, with old the fw v3.
But with fw v4.0.4 I lost audio through hdmi (connected to LCD TV), audio > receiver through RCA is ok.
Did all the tricks mentioned above and in the other topics, tried hdaudio en non hdaudio.
Can somebody help me with this problem?

Hardware: Med400X
Software: V4.0.4
Bootloader: 0000.0202.1026
Board: 1073DD C+

Maco

[Maasbommel]

I suggest to give some more details about your setup, see the Technical Support Guidelines:
http://www.mede8erforum.com/index.php/topic,14.0.html

For example at least:
What brand/type TV you are using?.
What audio receiver amp.?
How are things connected.?
What audio and video HDMI setting are you using in mede8er setup?

[shishikyuu]

do we have something like a known issues list for v4.0.4?
I personally have some issues with dropped/double lines from internal subs, very funky rewind performance and some minor unreliability of the "seen" function.

are the developers working on any new beta versions?

[Lupissimo]

  Probably we have to interpret "4.04 final" as FINAL= THAT'S IT; NO MORE WORK ON Med500X, since no official answer have been given to numerous requests for bug corrections and feature requests for this product.

[jer1956]

Probably we have to interpret "4.04 final" as FINAL= THAT'S IT; NO MORE WORK ON Med500X, since no official answer have been given to numerous requests for bug corrections and feature requests for this product.

Sanji are small company and it's taken a lot of effort to produce the new firmware for the X2, which is still being added to now.
Bigger electronic companies may have more staff, but they also use that staff to produce new models every year. The idea of getting last years Sony budget bluray player to work like this years equivalent model though firmware would never be expected by users. You want this years player, you have to buy it. In the end economics has to play it's part. 

[Archer]

Sanji are small company and it's taken a lot of effort to produce the new firmware for the X2, which is still being added to now.
Bigger electronic companies may have more staff, but they also use that staff to produce new models every year. The idea of getting last years Sony budget bluray player to work like this years equivalent model though firmware would never be expected by users. You want this years player, you have to buy it. In the end economics has to play it's part. 

That would be a good example if the Mede8er wasn't buggy as hell. If I buy a bluray player from Sony, it will work as advertised, and any 'glitches' will be addressed. The new version might have more features, but both versions will work.

Every release of firmware for the Mede8er fixes some things and breaks others.

If we were simply talking features I wouldn't really care, but I'm talking functionality. Maybe a FINAL release shouldn't be buggy as hell. My damn Mede8er can't handle most subtitles now, and reboots itself multiple times daily - and that's the tip of the iceberg!

My wife HATES it, and if I had the spare cash right now I'd dump it and replace it in a second.

I had high hopes for the company and the device, and was an early adopter, but if this piece of crap firmware is actually the final release for the 500X I will be spamming the internet with reviews of my opinion.

[Maasbommel]

Mede8er cannot fix any issues on the MED500X that are SDK related as it seems that Realtek has stopped supporting/fixing SDK issues on the 1073 family. Mede8er is now focussing on the new X2, and after that they will see what still are the possibilities with the MED500X regarding bugfixing that are not SDK related. Also expect that there are currently no plans to add new features on the 1073 series, but rather on the X2.

[3kb6vs9b1]

What are quarantees that new X2 SDK has less bugs

[jer1956]

What are quarantees that new X2 SDK has less bugs

None really. But the issue is realtek have to fix the 1185 SDK bugs since it's the chip they want to sell against the current sigma competition. You also  have the rolled up hardware fix's in the 1185 hardware that no 1073 SDK change could ever solve with the 1073 hardware. The 1185 is a better chip. The audio and video improvements are on a par with what you would expect in the budget bluray market over a two year period. That's how old the 1073  is.

The same thing happens in the graphics chip market. But they have the advantage of focussing on the improvments in performance with each new generation, not the fixs to problems which couldn't be fixed with the firmware and drivers for the older chips. They can say Crysis3 now runs twice at fast. No one wants 50hz video to run twice as fast!

  

[shishikyuu]

it's starting to look like I should've invested in an extra long dvi cable or something.
hell, I could get a 2nd hand laptop at the same price and it'd probably do what this specialized device is supposed to be doing with a hell of a lot less hassle and a ton more reliability.

I don't care about more features, I don't even use 20% of the ones present. I do expect the firmware to be bugfree and have the codecs updated at least. even more so at this price level; we're not talking about 30$ gadgets here.

[jer1956]

it's starting to look like I should've invested in an extra long dvi cable or something.
hell, I could get a 2nd hand laptop at the same price and it'd probably do what this specialized device is supposed to be doing with a hell of a lot less hassle and a ton more reliability.

I don't care about more features, I don't even use 20% of the ones present. I do expect the firmware to be bugfree and have the codecs updated at least. even more so at this price level; we're not talking about 30$ gadgets here.

Bluray players come at various prices from £120 to over a £1000. All main stream mediaplyers have to be compared with budget bluray players becuase they use the same chips.  Bluray players have a big advantage - they limit what you can try to play and you control it with a very basic GUI. Mediaplyer makers are pushing these chips to the limit, and sometimes beyond.

[Lupissimo]

So finally here is the truth:

Mede8er cannot fix any issues on the MED500X that are SDK related as it seems that Realtek has stopped supporting/fixing SDK issues on the 1073 family. Mede8er is now focussing on the new X2, and after that they will see what still are the possibilities with the MED500X regarding bugfixing that are not SDK related. Also expect that there are currently no plans to add new features on the 1073 series, but rather on the X2.

Looks like they made a bad contract with Realtek. In any established company this would be called: Poor management!
Leaving the customer with a device which does not fullfill the guaranteed specification.

Leading to the question: Will the same happen to X2 after they have sold enough units???

[Maasbommel]

It is just a normal thing you see in regarding chip manufacturers, they have to make money by producing chips and the products that are built on them.
There comes a moment when their chips become outdated and they need to move on, and that is what you see happening right now.

As jer1956 also said, it is just a common pattern and the 1073 is already out there for 2 years now and have got regular SDK updates from Realtek. If you compare it with the other big chipmaker Sigma that is in the media player market, then Realtek did not a bad job as Sigma normally moves on every 6 months with new chips and Realtek had a much longer period supported their chipset.

It is not a formal statement that Realtek stopped with their SDK bugfixing, but that is what we see happening at the moment -> much more focus on the new 1185 chip because they must stay in business as there is their business is built on.... Selling chips and not keep working on already sold chips as that does not bring any income but only costs... On all things comes and end and you cannot keep pushing the limits.

[Insomniac]

One really needs to bear in mind that the 1073 MED500X(1) is currently a mature unit with almost 2 years of SDK and interface improvement behind it. Over this time the Mede8er developers have worked closely with Realtek to fix hundreds of SDK-related issues - the release notes of the various firmware versions bear direct testimony to this.
Over this period Mede8er have included SDK updates faster than other media player brands; they have also endured the new issues that have arisen as a result of these same SDK updates - consider that Mede8er code and user interface then has to be wrapped around the raw SDK and debugged, and this only begins to relate the full story of what happens behind the scenes - many of these compilations are never seen by end users...

Many other media player brands have also benefited directly from these same improvements and bug-fixes that the Mede8er developers have demanded of Realtek over this time. In fact, even users of other media player brands now use 'hacked' versions of this same Mede8er firmware; this scenario would have any sensible individual reconsidering where to focus their resources - fact: media player manufacturers make money on hardware sales, not on software development.

There comes a point where decisions need to be made to move on to a better hardware platform, where the development and performance possibilities outweigh the option to try to squeeze more out of an ageing chipset.
I doubt that anyone can refute the fact that Mede8er have delivered on their commitments and then some - owners have received much more functionality than they had initially purchased.
The fact of the matter is that the market is moving on. Chipset manufacturers, other media player brands and consumers alike, but this is not to say that Mede8er have dropped support for the X1 - Mede8er only has limited resources and at this point the focus is on launching a superb new flagship media player in the X2 with considerably more capability than the predecessor from a hardware perspective.

We need to understand and respect this decision.

I leave you with this:
If Henry Ford had asked his market what they wanted they would probably have answered 'faster horses'; instead he developed the 'horseless carriage' - sometimes a manufacturer needs to stand up to the consumer and make a decision in the name of true progress...

[extrapilot]

Media player manufacturers make money on system sales, not on hardware sales. That is the problem here- the ‘system’ that was sold has some core functionality which remains buggy.

Frankly, no one cares about the internal strife involved with embedded systems development. This is the business they have chosen. Defining the worth of the product or team based on how many bugs it is resolved is absurd. Either it was their own bugs, which reflects poorly on the coders, or it was the tools/silicon provider, which reflects badly on the selection process.

Talk all you want about SDKs. Add to the conversation- there are bugs in the compiler, and bugs in the silicon. Embedded systems people deal with this reality every day, and yet, our microwaves stop cooking when the timer reads 0, and our cars start on cold days…. Amazing as it may seem- SDKs are just libraries, and you can actually develop functionality on your own (gasp!). If the silicon is broken, explain why, knowing that the silicon is defective and beyond a workaround, the hardware continu(ed/es?) to be offered for sale…

I don’t think anyone would gripe about a solid system being obsoleted 2 years after introduction. The concern is that we are left with a box with core features that never worked properly, and (apparently) never will. That does not make for a compelling sales/update pitch…