XMS-888 - Mpeg4 - Firmware?

[mikef]

Good suggestion, quirks only. Just the things that need addressing

My quirks for the new firmware (that will change my mind and not return this unit back to Strathfield)

-Ability tu turn of the OSD while playing *.avi files
-Zoom in mpeg4 playback by 0.1 increments
-subtitles support (.sub,.srt at least)


Wishlist:

-Long Filenames support
-Mp3 ID Tags support

[andw]

XMS-888 - These are my problems / wish list
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XMS-888 - problems (first)
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AVI (Mpeg 4) files.
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1. Cannot turn off On Screen Display
There is a work around of playing an MPG first, turn off On Screen Display while playing the MPG, and it remains off for the AVI. However, you should be able to turn it off whilst playing the AVI, as otherwise you have to add an MPG file to every disc that contains an AVI file that you want to play.

2. On playback of AVI's, it seems to go to known 'normal' screen sizes e.g. 720x576, 352x288, 480 x 576 etc.
So for example if you play back a file that is say 640x350 (approx 16:9), the player appears to put the screen to 720x576, and then center the 640x350 picture. (resulting in a picture smaller than the screen - black bars top/bottom & left/right)
(Other brands stretch the image to fill the screen.)

3. Zoom only has 2x in this mode (avi playback), which is of no use, a better zoom function would be to make the picture zoom to the edges of the screen at least.
Perhaps the 'view' button could make a 16:9 picture stretch to fill the screen (top to bottom and left to right) for people with Widescreen TV's, thereby filling the screen properly on a widescreen TV,and
acheiving the correct aspect ratio) (stop people looking fat!!).
This would leave the zoom key to function as per normal.
This would also then allow people with 4:3 screens to have the standard black bars top and bottom when viewing a widescreen picture.

4. If playing back an AVI file, and you press 'eject' the unit will...
a) eject the disc,
b) screen goes black
c) player locks up
d) can only recover by switching it off / on with power switch on box.

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MPEG 1/2 Files.
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1. On Screen Display is on by default - should be off.

2. When you turn off the On Screen Display, the display on the player no longer updates. It should continue to update. (this problem then continues into the playback of an AVI file if you have used the above 'work around' to get rid of the On Screen Display for playback of AVI files.)

3. Unit sometimes locks up when you press 'stop' whilst playing back a MPG file. (has to be turned off / on)

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MP3 Files
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1. Could not playback MP3 encoded at 224k/s
2. Playback selections (is mentioned in manual, but does not work)

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WMV Files
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Recognised WMV files (showed on list) but did not play back. (This is the sample file that Microsoft ships with Movie Maker 2)
These are MPEG-4 files I believe.

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WMA Files
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Did not even list WMA files.

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Surround Sound Test Tone
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Plays white noise Front Left - then Front Right - then rear Left (briefly) then nowhere else.
Just keeps playing back on those 3 channels - nowhere else.

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XMS-888 Wants...
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1. Web Site to get updates from!!!

2. 16:9 AVI files to be stretched to "fill the screen" on a 16:9 widescreen TV (perhaps via the 'view" button on the remote) (and "fill the screen" on 4:3 standard TV's but in Letter box format (black bars top & bottom))

3. more zoom levels when playing back AVI's MPG's

4. Longer file name support for JPG's MP3's MPG's AVI's etc etc.

5. When playing back DVD's, perhaps a 1.1X or 1.2X zoom level before the 1.5X zoom level, so that when playing back 2:1 encoded DVD's on a widescreen TV you can get rid of the "black bars" at the top and bottom of the picture.

6. Turn off those 6 red LED's under the disc tray!!!

7. When a disc with JPG files in multiple directories is inserted, a "screen saver" mode whereby it will display the photos either sequentially or randomly (selectable), through all of the directories, and not just the one you are in. (this is annoying, as a.) it doesn't seem to allow you to do them randomly, and

b.) it only displays the pictures in the current folder.)

8. support for .srt / .sub format subtitles in AVI DivX playback (the Lite-On unit is introducing this)

[jokiin]

Thanks for the info, can you use this tool http://www.headbands.com/gspot/ to identify your avi's also

I noticed when I was testing this unit last week that some avi's play perfectly while others cause issues, using this tool to identify the properties of the files that have issues would be a big help. I read elswhere that some avi's don't centre in the screen correctly. I haven't seen this myself bit if anyone can identify the file types responsible it would help also.

Thanks

[andw]

ok, play an AVI file that is say 640x352 1:82:1 Xvid(using GSpot for info), the file does not go to the edges of the screen.
i.e. as though the player has set the resolution to the DVD resolution of 720x576, and then has just centered the 640x352 image onto this.
This reults in black bars not only on top&bottom of image, but also on both sides. (black bars would then be 40 pixels on both sides ((720 - 640) /2).
This is also a problem when playing back MPG files, as my camera does them at 640x480 MPG1, and results in black bars on both sides of the picture.
It does not 'zoom to fit' the image to the screen resolution.

[andw]

Oh, as a test I encoded a MPG1 at 240 x 128. (ugly I know but I wanted to know whether it would try to put this as a tiny image on a 720x576 resolution)
Anyway, it seemed to center the image on the screen in most probably 352x288 format, with a LOT of black bar around it.)
This means it was happy to change resolutions (good), just not zoom-to-fit the picture(bad).

[Pythonisman]

thanks center link, that works great.

I bought one of these players yesterday, and apart from the Timer issue (oh and not playing Dr.DivX Files ;) ) I'm happy with it. Those LEDs... if you could turn them off would be nice, but isn't the end of the world.

I'd like to see a nice firmware flash to at least fix the timer issue :)

Tyson.

[nsu]

If we can get the info altogether in one post and placed at the top of the thread as a sticky (might need a mod to assist with this) keep it concise and easy to understand as to what the issue is (remember this is going to China and some things don't translate well) if collectively this can by brought together, perhaps by pm ing a mod to collate the info then it will get resolved fairly quickly.


I will be more than happy to put an informative thread to Sticky status. Just PM me when ready.

[andw]

Jok11n, are you the same Jok11n on Swiftel forum as well. (is that you Camille?)

[jokiin]

I use the same name on all forums, I'm not Camille though.

[dastasha]

I got my surround sound working, turned the pro-logic to 'off', thank you. It seems to depend on whether the DVD you are playing is using all the channels ie. rear speakers come into play to provide the effect when neccesary.

You may want to add the issue of the equalizer to the list of quirks. I cant seem to adjust it either.

Now am I to believe that a firmware upgrade would come in the form of a downloadable file (bank30), when it becomes available? I could burn this file to a CDR or RW then load this into the XMS-888 which it would find while looking for mp3 files, and read it and reprogram itself. Is this correct?

[jokiin]

The file will be a bin file that you burn to disc in iso9660 format, put it in and the player will do the rest. I'll post exact details once it becomes available.

For those that are interested the factory in China has this info on the firmware issues and are looking at it now.

[andw]

For those that are interested the factory in China has this info on the firmware issues and are looking at it now.
Good to see fast service happening.

[jokiin]

Thank yourself for that, you supplied the bulk of the info that was used. It was happening anyway, but your contribution made a lot of difference in speeding things up.

[mikef]

I was just wonderning if there is a way how to check current firmware version.

I have noticed that in menu to make your xms88 multiregion there is a "ver" item but i doesnt display anything.

And jok11n, do u know how long it will take to get a new firmware upgrade ?

One more thing, I still kind of can't beleive that XMS as a brand doesnt have any official web page. If u look into Strathfiled they sell a lot of stuff from them (TV,DVD.SPEAKERS,RADIOS,RECIVERS etc).

Dont they have any info about thier products on the net ? (not even in chinese ??)

thanx

[rimmeroz]

lets not start a thread on when we will get it.....We will get it as sonn as they send it to us.

[jokiin]

At the moment there's no need to worry about what firmware you have as they are all the same, no idea when the firmware will be done, once it is though I will post here.

As to the website, XMS is a brand name owned by Strathfield, not all of the products are sourced from the same supplier so while the manufacturers might have their own websites most are chinese only and don't give any more info than what is in the manual, most don't supply firmwares or the like either.

[andw]

Thank yourself for that, you supplied the bulk of the info that was used. It was happening anyway, but your contribution made a lot of difference in speeding things up.

No worries... If you need anything else tested, just send it on over... Digital Set top box, Surround sound system...
:dD

[jokiin]

There's never a shortage of volunteers when stuff gets handed out for testing, no surprises there.

[davidf]

Seems that these units have different problems for different people so maybe there is already version issues between batches.

From the blurb on the Vibratto II chip that controls everything the player should have a lot more facilities than are offered.

This is a list of my problems

Non standard dimensions for divx/xvid files not recognised

1/4 pel not recognised (chip supports 1/4 pel)

partial recognition of GMC encoded files ( depends on dimensions)

Chapter files for MPEG4 not recognised (chipset supports this)

Locks up if eject pressed while playing MPEG4

Player resets file if fast forward pressed

Player had preference menu option disabled ( fixed with remote key codes for sampo dvd player ev611)

I can not get rid of the OSD in MPEG4 playback even using methods from this forum

Files that work on a DVD+RW disc won't work on a DVDR disc

XVID (beta 12/03) more finicky than divx 5.1.1 even when using similar settings

Remote control seems to have very limited operational range. I need to be virtually in a straight line to the unit in order for the remote to work (yes I changed the batteries)

And the unfixable problem- Dumb design of the DVD drive which only gives 60% access to the disc tray.

[malcez]

In addition to what has been said above I would add ONE more bug to the list:

=> Cannot playback .avi encoded with low-quality high-compression audio streams (for example #TMD-movies). You can still see the video, just no audio.

Many of the little glitches I can live with, but this no-audio problem is a take-back-to-strathfield issue. It should be easily fixable with firmware upgrade.

I would like to hear from others if they had the same issue.