2013.211.1642 Beta

[haydongreenbutton]

Had no issues with this firmware this weekend. Had a visitor who likes keeping the TV on 24x7 and there was never a hiccup. Was using audio over HDMI, not SPDIF and video size 'native'.

It's usable now and with future improvements will be just the ticket.

[Dean L. Surkin]

Anybody else notice huge increase in stuttering with this firmware?

No. What content are you playing when experiencing this stutter?

I did do a cold reboot. I am playing back recorded TV, variously 1080i and 720p as broadcast (i.e., I have the Echo set for Native). Both my TVs are fairly old, being 26" flat panels, 720p (WAF dictates that I keep a TV for a decade before replacing it, and time's up next year). I saw problems on both setups, the den through my Denon AVR and the bedroom through my Yamaha YSP-2200. The bedroom set showed breakups, and the den showed picture frozen while audio continued, and the picture caught up after about a minute.

Network shows no problems--all wired GB speed, CAT6 cable throughout.

[Crash2009]

Anybody else notice huge increase in stuttering with this firmware?

No. What content are you playing when experiencing this stutter?

I did do a cold reboot. I am playing back recorded TV, variously 1080i and 720p as broadcast (i.e., I have the Echo set for Native). Both my TVs are fairly old, being 26" flat panels, 720p (WAF dictates that I keep a TV for a decade before replacing it, and time's up next year). I saw problems on both setups, the den through my Denon AVR and the bedroom through my Yamaha YSP-2200. The bedroom set showed breakups, and the den showed picture frozen while audio continued, and the picture caught up after about a minute.

Network shows no problems--all wired GB speed, CAT6 cable throughout.

Actually Dean, mine ran a little rough for a couple or few days, then all of a sudden I have no complaints again. Don't know why for sure. I took the HTPC to the lake one weekend, so it got a couple real good cold boots. Completely disconnected for a couple hours, (twice) Echo's were disconnected all weekend. I didn't do anything to the switch or router. When I got back from the lake and hooked everything back up, everything was perfect again. I didn't do anything. Maybe these little Echo's just need some time to adjust to their new firmware.

[Dean L. Surkin]

Actually Dean, mine ran a little rough for a couple or few days, then all of a sudden I have no complaints again. Don't know why for sure. I took the HTPC to the lake one weekend, so it got a couple real good cold boots. Completely disconnected for a couple hours, (twice) Echo's were disconnected all weekend. I didn't do anything to the switch or router. When I got back from the lake and hooked everything back up, everything was perfect again. I didn't do anything. Maybe these little Echo's just need some time to adjust to their new firmware.

Interesting point. I'll try disconnecting the power for a longer period of time tonight.
WAF has been steadily declining due to video breakups and stuttering. The only thing saving the Echos right now is the fact that the SciAtl 8300HD boxes used to routinely lose their connection to the external hard drive, and that had sent WAF down to negative territory. Also, she's so far been trusting me that the Echos are still being improved, and we're on the cutting edge in this area. I haven't yet told her about what will happen when MS stops supporting guide data for Windows 7, but maybe by then Ceton will have moved to an alternate platform.

[foxwood]

I haven't yet told her about what will happen when MS stops supporting guide data for Windows 7, but maybe by then Ceton will have moved to an alternate platform.

Why? Getting 3rd party guide data into WMC isn't a terribly difficult process, people in markets where the guide data isn't great have been doing it for years. If/when MS stops paying for you to get free guide data in WMC, it won't be very difficult to find alternative sources - you may have to pay a few bucks, but it won't be a particularly difficult process to set up.

[Dean L. Surkin]

I haven't yet told her about what will happen when MS stops supporting guide data for Windows 7, but maybe by then Ceton will have moved to an alternate platform.

Why? Getting 3rd party guide data into WMC isn't a terribly difficult process, people in markets where the guide data isn't great have been doing it for years. If/when MS stops paying for you to get free guide data in WMC, it won't be very difficult to find alternative sources - you may have to pay a few bucks, but it won't be a particularly difficult process to set up.

Thanks, foxwood. I hadn't considered that.

[Crash2009]

The only thing saving the Echos right now is the fact that the SciAtl 8300HD boxes used to routinely lose their connection to the external hard drive

Is the external hard drive part of the mix now? If so, How is it connected? Is the Echo playing video from an external hard drive connected to your HTPC?

[TeddyR]

Is the external hard drive part of the mix now? If so, How is it connected? Is the Echo playing video from an external hard drive connected to your HTPC?

I think he meant that the DVR Box provided by the cable co being a Scientific Atlanta 8300HD was causing negative WAF because of one of its features.... The ability to add an external esata drive for additional storage... fails to recognise that storage routinely, causing it to not correctly record shows..

Interestingly enough, that was one of the items that also led me to first look into building an HTPC (storage space without tampering with/voiding the warranty on the cablebox and the 2 tuner limit)...

[Dean L. Surkin]

Is the external hard drive part of the mix now? If so, How is it connected? Is the Echo playing video from an external hard drive connected to your HTPC?

I think he meant that the DVR Box provided by the cable co being a Scientific Atlanta 8300HD was causing negative WAF because of one of its features.... The ability to add an external esata drive for additional storage... fails to recognise that storage routinely, causing it to not correctly record shows..

Interestingly enough, that was one of the items that also led me to first look into building an HTPC (storage space without tampering with/voiding the warranty on the cablebox and the 2 tuner limit)...

TeddyR is correct. When I built the HTPC, I installed a Micron M4 SSD as my program drive and a Samsung EcoGreen F4 2TB as my storage drive. I do use a Ubuntu server to store photos, but that is unrelated to the TV issues (no problems accessing photos through WMC and the Echo).

And just like for TeddyR, the unreliability of the Scientific Atlanta 8300HD, combined with the promise of viewing shows on either TV in the house, led me to build the HTPC and buy two Echos.

[Crash2009]

And just like for TeddyR, the unreliability of the Scientific Atlanta 8300HD, combined with the promise of viewing shows on either TV in the house, led me to build the HTPC and buy two Echos.

Yeah, I kinda figured that suggestion of mine was going to be a long shot.

Here's another one

Have you ever tried running your Echo's in simple mode? In other words, completely eliminate the AVR's all together. Network wire in and HDMI out to TV. I seem to remember reading one of your previous posts where you had a warranty problem with one of your AVR's. Maybe one or more, of the HDMI cables got fried at the same time.

[Dean L. Surkin]

Actually Dean, mine ran a little rough for a couple or few days, then all of a sudden I have no complaints again. Don't know why for sure. I took the HTPC to the lake one weekend, so it got a couple real good cold boots. Completely disconnected for a couple hours, (twice) Echo's were disconnected all weekend. I didn't do anything to the switch or router. When I got back from the lake and hooked everything back up, everything was perfect again. I didn't do anything. Maybe these little Echo's just need some time to adjust to their new firmware.

Interesting point. I'll try disconnecting the power for a longer period of time tonight.
[snip].

Sorry for the cross-post on this. I tried disconnected the Echo for an hour, plugged it back in, and was able to play back recorded TV without any glitches. I'm cautiously predicting success on this. Thanks, Crash2009.

[Crash2009]

Actually Dean, mine ran a little rough for a couple or few days, then all of a sudden I have no complaints again. Don't know why for sure. I took the HTPC to the lake one weekend, so it got a couple real good cold boots. Completely disconnected for a couple hours, (twice) Echo's were disconnected all weekend. I didn't do anything to the switch or router. When I got back from the lake and hooked everything back up, everything was perfect again. I didn't do anything. Maybe these little Echo's just need some time to adjust to their new firmware.

Interesting point. I'll try disconnecting the power for a longer period of time tonight.
[snip].

Sorry for the cross-post on this. I tried disconnected the Echo for an hour, plugged it back in, and was able to play back recorded TV without any glitches. I'm cautiously predicting success on this. Thanks, Crash2009.

Thanks for verifying. Throw enough crap at the wall, and eventually some of it will stick.

[Dean L. Surkin]

Sorry for the cross-post on this. I tried disconnected the Echo for an hour, plugged it back in, and was able to play back recorded TV without any glitches. I'm cautiously predicting success on this. Thanks, Crash2009.

Thanks for verifying. Throw enough crap at the wall, and eventually some of it will stick.

Okay, so the Echo in the bedroom worked greta last night. The Echo in the den had some glitches at the start of a movie (recorded from TV) and then settled in. There's improvement, but I hope there'll be more.

[Crash2009]

Sorry for the cross-post on this. I tried disconnected the Echo for an hour, plugged it back in, and was able to play back recorded TV without any glitches. I'm cautiously predicting success on this. Thanks, Crash2009.

Thanks for verifying. Throw enough crap at the wall, and eventually some of it will stick.

Okay, so the Echo in the bedroom worked great last night. The Echo in the den had some glitches at the start of a movie (recorded from TV) and then settled in. There's improvement, but I hope there'll be more.

I'm glad you see some improvements. Maybe there's something to this cold boot thing when the firmware has not been declared "stable". I forget the firmware number, but it came out toward the end of January, the minute I installed it, I said "Yup, I think I'm going to like this one!" That one went stable the next day. cold boot was not necessary for me. I am kind of fortunate, in the sense, that my Echo's are still on the test bench-not in the living room. Yeah, 3 TV's in the man-cave! Maybe the best advice would be set the living room and bedroom to "Stable only" and get a 3rd to play with "beta". I would expect "rough seas ahead" when Android get's here.

[barnabas1969]

I'm glad you see some improvements. Maybe there's something to this cold boot thing when the firmware has not been declared "stable". I forget the firmware number, but it came out toward the end of January, the minute I installed it, I said "Yup, I think I'm going to like this one!" That one went stable the next day. cold boot was not necessary for me. I am kind of fortunate, in the sense, that my Echo's are still on the test bench-not in the living room. Yeah, 3 TV's in the man-cave! Maybe the best advice would be set the living room and bedroom to "Stable only" and get a 3rd to play with "beta". I would expect "rough seas ahead" when Android get's here.

I've seen this problem with some of the older firmware versions, and unplugging the power from the Echo and then plugging it back in 5 seconds later solved the problems. I don't think you need to unplug it for an hour.

[grinchy]

I had the same issue with the last firmware - one of the issues that was supposed to be fixed didn't take effect until I cold booted... I didn't unplug anything, but just did a complete shutdown. (i.e. the normal restart after the FW update didn't do it).

[warpster]

I tend to agree with the need for a cold reboot after an update. Two nights ago after getting the update I had nothing but problems all night. Late that night I ended up unplugging the Echo. I don't think I've had a restart since...at least last night I had no issues at all.