Work related stuff
I saw a request (but cannot find the e-mail anymore) from someone asking if it could be possible to separate the power ON and power OFF for the CFULLHDMA
Unfortunately, the Power ON/OFF is not only controlled by Firmware. the IR codes are, next to firmware, also controlled by another micro processor (a very small IC on the PCB) so therefor it’s not supported. I’ll keep it in mind.
If you want to have the IR codes: find them here
Due to some issues found during playback of the 1.10.02 firmware I have decided to withdraw it as beta testers would have much more issues causing a crash of the device rather than it is working stable
More info will follow when available
Based on a new Linux kernel I am releasing a new beta firmware version with following fixes/changes:
v01.10.02
Known issues:
there are more issues not written in this list but you can find them here
The new firmware is only available for beta testers.
As it was the purpose to have the 1.04RC3 being released officially I’ve decided not to release it through the official channel. I have just received an important bugfix which was finished earlier than expected. So probably early next week this version will be released.
In this release only the following has been fixed:
This means that in certain conditions you could see time differences when uploading / copying files to the CH3SNAS. Download the 1.04RC4 here
Note: the PS3 issue is still under debugging. Playing a 7GB .ts media file can show the correct size, but it can only be played for 2 hours.
For beta testers released today:
Release notes:
After listening to users of CH3SNAS I finally present you the 1.04RC3 which will be released on the official webpage soon as 1.04-0627 version
Release notes:
In this release we have fixed a number of issues needed to be fixed for an official release:
(this release is about to be released through the official channel as wel as official supported download)
Please reset your device to factory defaults after upgrading to have certain scripts work properly. Without resetting to factory defaults I cannot guarantee any option to work properly.
Download the 1.04RC3 file here.
It could be possible that you encounter an issue with a certain multimediafile (music / video / photo) during playback on the CFULLHDMA.
To analyze your issue it is important to have exactly the same content you are using. A lot of people do not have the ability to provide the content themselves, but are able to upload.
If you have issues and want to share them with me: upload your content to my FTP server. Create a folder and put there the file including a text file with the issue (English language please)
ftp://ftp.aroundmyroom.com – Username: conceptronic – Password: cfullhdma
You can upload, resume etc.. but you cannot download .. so do not bother trying (but you will) … If this FTP ability is successful I will keep using it, otherwise I will close the FTP again.
For freaks: I use a little updated version of these PROFTPD settings to prevent downloading and some other things ..
Announcement:
v1.09.14
only available for beta testers (Check your mail. gmail accounts: it can be in your spam mailbox, Hotmail accounts are totally unknown if they get it .. Unreliable email host.
This image from MediaInfo is showing the information of a MKV file which is causing artefacts on a SD 8635 based mediaplayer (like the Conceptronic CFULLHDMA).
I write this entry to have myself informed better about video encoding and get knowlegde about possiblities to find solutions getting things to work if hardware is not capable of doing due to limitations.
One of the major reasons of getting the artefacts are the amount of reference frames used in: I frame, P frame and B frame.
When we check WikiPedia for information about why we should use L4.1 or L5.1 than we can read that L5.1 should be used for high bitrates only. Even HDDVD and Blueray are encoded on L4.1 level
Although L5.1 is supported by the 8635 up to a certain extend, there will still be some clips with artefacts when playing the L5.1 profile.
Sigma Designs does not support L5.1 for their chipset. If they would say so, than they have to ensure 100% compatibility, including the ‘very’ high bitrates. The higher the bitrate, the more memory/processor power (and more) is needed to decode it. And even if we could extend memory still we would see clips with artefacts (if the bitrate would be high up to a certain level.
So if you want to ensure yourself with correct playable media you have to use these max. number of frames:
1280×720@68.3 (9), 1920×1088@30.1 (4), 2048×1024@30.0 (4) L4.1 (Source: Wikipedia)
You will not get better quality when using more stored frames when the resolution, bitrates and framerates are within the level 4.1. Even it is not understandable why some encoders / people within the ‘scene’ are using L5.1 encoding when video bitrates are <25 Mb/s. What for use has it? Even if the original source is L4.1 it has no use to bring it to Level 5.1 and I’ve barely seen people using high bitrated uncompressed masters for encoding.
A valid question could be: how to play the L5.1 encoded clip without artefacts.
My answer: the easiest way is to remux the file to a TS or a M2TS stream.
Another simple tool for users like me could be: RIPBOT264. This tool was working fine when remuxing a 150MB MKV L5.1 clip I used for testing.
more info about ripbot264 can be found here.
This tool can remux the L5.1 file to L4.1 with correct reference frames, keep the audio as it is and put it all back in the MKV… (no idea about subtitles though).
A simple guide for ripbot can be found here
if you want to remux your clip to MP4 than I advise you to use Gotsent, This program can be found here
More all-in-one tools I did not find yet. Other tools do need a bunch of other programs to accomplish the same.
So sometimes it seems that a ‘scene’ release is awesome encoded, but the performance is poor as hardware is not capable of decode it without artefacts or other issues
update: with the beta release of 1.09.11 firmware we were able to have L5.1 supported. Although not 100% of all files can be played without artefacts (there are some reasons why it can’t be all) but I think 95% of the content we can .. And that is a huge huge improvement compared to other Sigma Designs 8634/8635 players.
Release Candiate 2 1.04 firmware CH3SNAS
if this version is suitable enough it will be released on the Conceptronic website as 1.04 relaease.
In this firmware release:
UPnP Server instant update bug.
For freaks: the /usr/bin/inotify_upnp script was only be executed or running when the server was enabled and folder is ROOT, when enabling another folder, only prescan was executed. (Thanks Matthijs for doing some testings with me and having patience ;-) ).
Support for IFO, M2TS, TS, MKV etc. was added. Note: it’s extremely important that your media device is capable of working with UPnP AV with these extensions (especially on IFO and ISO part cause it can cause some issues when reading this data (unexpected UPnP AV feature).
A second remark is that you have to disable the UPnP server totally and reboot, so that the database will be updated removed and updated totally. Cause it’s possible that certain files are not being indexed or seen after disable / reboot / enable.
We also added a new feature in this 1.04RC2 release:
It is possible that a RAID1 enters a ‘DEGRADED’ status. Normally, after a reboot, the device will ‘RESYNC’ the HDD contents automatically. But in certain conditions the status will not change from ‘DEGRADED’ into RESYNC’ and you can only fix that when forcing the HDD to be member of the array again (fun_plug needed). The feature will only be seen when using your Harddisk in RAID1 mode.
A reboot is required for a forced resync.
Feedback is appreciated
