Announcement XMS888 firmware v1.2

[davidf]

Damn they changed the setup a bit. Before when playing DVD's I could go into setup and change between wide screen and panscan then back to the movie, now the preferences have been locked out while a DVD is playing. When I first got the player I had a code that fixed this lockout( lost the code) and the 2 previous updates didn't effect that setting :(

[mikef]

Yeah finaly firmware v1.2

Yeah it did solve some of my sound problems. 2 movies which havent got any sounds now works just fine.

AVI File Details
========================================
Name.........: Blade II Part I.avi
Filesize.....: 699 MB (or 716,706 KB or 733,906,944 bytes)
Runtime......: 00:55:30 (79,849 fr)
Video Codec..: DivX 3 Low-Motion
Video Bitrate: 1305 kb/s
Audio Codec..: ac3 (0x2000) Dolby Laboratories, Inc
Audio Bitrate: 448 kb/s (5 ch) CBR
Frame Size...: 640x352 (1.82:1) [=20:11]

In this one there is picture but no sound in firmware 1.1 but the picture is nice and smooth

In firmware 1.2 i got sound (yeeahh) but the picture is suddently jerky (stops for a second and then continue)

And now the good part SUBTITLES yeah they do work in 1.2
What u have to do is in Smart navi menu go with cursor on your subtitle file (*.srt,*.sub) and push ANGLE button on your remote. You shoud get message that divx subtitle selected. Then just play a movie and u will get subtiles.
While watching movie if u press subtitle button it will display "Subtitle 1/1" so i reckon if u got more than 2 subtitles selected you can switch between them while movie is playing (im not sure about this, i haven't tried)

Yeah so finaly we got subtitles. Things are looking good. I hope they will fix that zoom think and it will be a nice player :)

One more thing about subtitles they are yellow and bloody small. This is common on all ESS chipsets divx players. I would preffer if they were at least 2x as big and WHITE with blac shadow around them.

[jokiin]

Yeah finaly firmware v1.2

Yeah it did solve some of my sound problems. 2 movies which havent got any sounds now works just fine.

AVI File Details
========================================
Name.........: Blade II Part I.avi
Filesize.....: 699 MB (or 716,706 KB or 733,906,944 bytes)
Runtime......: 00:55:30 (79,849 fr)
Video Codec..: DivX 3 Low-Motion
Video Bitrate: 1305 kb/s
Audio Codec..: ac3 (0x2000) Dolby Laboratories, Inc
Audio Bitrate: 448 kb/s (5 ch) CBR
Frame Size...: 640x352 (1.82:1) [=20:11]

In this one there is picture but no sound in firmware 1.1 but the picture is nice and smooth

In firmware 1.2 i got sound (yeeahh) but the picture is suddently jerky (stops for a second and then continue)

And now the good part SUBTITLES yeah they do work in 1.2
What u have to do is in Smart navi menu go with cursor on your subtitle file (*.srt,*.sub) and push ANGLE button on your remote. You shoud get message that divx subtitle selected. Then just play a movie and u will get subtiles.
While watching movie if u press subtitle button it will display "Subtitle 1/1" so i reckon if u got more than 2 subtitles selected you can switch between them while movie is playing (im not sure about this, i haven't tried)

Yeah so finaly we got subtitles. Things are looking good. I hope they will fix that zoom think and it will be a nice player :)

One more thing about subtitles they are yellow and bloody small. This is common on all ESS chipsets divx players. I would preffer if they were at least 2x as big and WHITE with blac shadow around them.


It could be that the player is still struggling to play that file which is giving you the stutter, I'm not so sure that the divx3 stuff is fully sorted.

Glad to see you worked out the subtitle thing (personally I hate subtitles) but I know quite a few people have been asking about it. I'm sure andw will be pleased that you worked that out, I know he has been keen to get them working. I don't think you will be able to change subtitle tracks during playback, I think that's part of the reason that you need to select them before you commence playback.

Now if we can just get the zoom and some of these odd codecs sorted it should be looking good.

[andw]

Yeah finaly firmware v1.2
...snip...
And now the good part SUBTITLES yeah they do work in 1.2
What u have to do is in Smart navi menu go with cursor on your subtitle file (*.srt,*.sub) and push ANGLE button on your remote. You shoud get message that divx subtitle selected. Then just play a movie and u will get subtiles.
While watching movie if u press subtitle button it will display "Subtitle 1/1" so i reckon if u got more than 2 subtitles selected you can switch between them while movie is playing (im not sure about this, i haven't tried)

Yeah so finaly we got subtitles. Things are looking good. I hope they will fix that zoom think and it will be a nice player :)

One more thing about subtitles they are yellow and bloody small. This is common on all ESS chipsets divx players. I would preffer if they were at least 2x as big and WHITE with blac shadow around them.
Yay, subtitles, now all we need is some way to be able to read them.
Way too small, and very difficult to see with the yellow.
Strange how you have to use the 'angle' key to select them before you play the movie. I think it would have been better to at least use the 'subtitle' button to select them. But it's good they are finally there. (although I don't know how useful going on the color and size)
(davidf, I've added your instructions onto the website under 'Hints, Tips, Work-arounds etc.', and also added your request (and my wish also) for them to be about twice the size, and white with black surround)

[buts]

Yeah finaly firmware v1.2

Yeah it did solve some of my sound problems. 2 movies which havent got any sounds now works just fine.

AVI File Details
========================================
Name.........: Blade II Part I.avi
Filesize.....: 699 MB (or 716,706 KB or 733,906,944 bytes)
Runtime......: 00:55:30 (79,849 fr)
Video Codec..: DivX 3 Low-Motion
Video Bitrate: 1305 kb/s
Audio Codec..: ac3 (0x2000) Dolby Laboratories, Inc
Audio Bitrate: 448 kb/s (5 ch) CBR
Frame Size...: 640x352 (1.82:1) [=20:11]

In this one there is picture but no sound in firmware 1.1 but the picture is nice and smooth

In firmware 1.2 i got sound (yeeahh) but the picture is suddently jerky (stops for a second and then continue).

Yeah, I've got exactly the same problem. I have (Gspot 2.21 info):
Name: The Mummy Returns PartI.avi
Filesize.....: 634 MB
Runtime......: 01:05:95 (97617 fr)
Video Codec..: DivX 4 OpenDivX
Video Bitrate: 1233 kb/s
Audio Codec..: 0x0055(MP3) ID'd as MPEG-1 Layer 3
Audio Bitrate: 128 kb/s (64/ch, stereo) CBR 48000Hz
Frame Size...: 720x320 (2.25:1) [=9:4]
A/V Interleave: None or Not Determined Split: Yes

There was no audio on the player with f/w 1.1. Now it is ok but video stops for 1-2 secs regularly. It results in a strong A/V desynchronization. Please note it is 128kb/s , 48000 Khz, i.e. the audio format which should play with no problems. So I believe that it is an absence of A/V interleave to blame.
I don't have files with AC3 so the question: are they A/V interleaved ?
It seems that the player badly handles files with non-recognized A/V interleaving (I am sure there was some during encoding, just maybe some earlier version).

Ye, I tried to switch on subtitles before with "angle" trick, it didn't work
with fw 1.1. It is a common trick about ESS based players, I read about it on discussion forum devoted to ESS-based XORO-400.

[andw]

2 x bigger might be too big, but maybe 1.5x - still white with black surround but.

[jokiin]

2 x bigger might be too big, but maybe 1.5x - still white with black surround but.

I read on another forum about the same issue with the subtitles and they had the firmware modded with the text in white on a black surround and then the resulting box ended up being huge and blocking too much of the screen. I did read about these only recognising certain font types, is there any relationship to the size of the text to the font size in the file perhaps, has anyone seen any variation in the text size in the subs at all? I know that we haven't had subtitles for that long, but perhaps if anyone notices any variations they could post the results.

[andw]

The .srt file is a straight text file, no font formating or anything like that.

[Tal Shiar]

I would just like to say that I am so happy with this player... bargain!

Another, be it small, improvement with the new 1.2 is that the screensaver now comes on when you pause avi files. It didn't before!

And a massive thanks to Jok11n, for whom without we would be left with a not-so-bright future in the world of XMS-888! Cheers! :dD

[mikef]

I read on another forum about the same issue with the subtitles and they had the firmware modded with the text in white on a black surround and then the resulting box ended up being huge and blocking too much of the screen. I did read about these only recognising certain font types, is there any relationship to the size of the text to the font size in the file perhaps, has anyone seen any variation in the text size in the subs at all? I know that we haven't had subtitles for that long, but perhaps if anyone notices any variations they could post the results.

Hmm well i meant white text with black shadow around the letters (so it wont make a box, this is actualy the way i used to wach my divx movies over the PC trought tv out, and those subtitles were very nice readable)

On the other hand it will be probably hard to make them with black shadow so maybe they can try make them at leas White and at least 1.5x bigger (if not 2x hehe)

[antec]

Just flashed and tested...

- The low frequency problem with my divx file is still existent (the base distorts). (Let me know if you want a copy)

- The SLOW button works now, but after cycling the SLOW speeds and returning to normal speed, there is a video/audio time mismatch. This continues out of sync for about 5 minutes afterwards. Then there is a glitch in the audio playback and it resyncs. Really, this should happen when exiting from the SLOW mode and not afterwards. Keyframes seem to have no effect on syncing (as one would expect).

- After flashing, the unit goes to standby (I can only assume as the screen is black) and one of the drive motors starts to buzz. The buzz frequency changes slightly (up and down repeatedly) and it donesnt go away until the unit is powered off and on again. I hope this didnt cause any damage to the player, as I was unsure if it was doing anything or still flashing?? Flash took though (with DL0002A?? in the menu).

Will continue to test...

[bwg]

Hmm well i meant white text with black shadow around the letters (so it wont make a box, this is actualy the way i used to wach my divx movies over the PC trought tv out, and those subtitles were very nice readable)

On the other hand it will be probably hard to make them with black shadow so maybe they can try make them at leas White and at least 1.5x bigger (if not 2x hehe)
Why not have 2 / 3 diferent font sizes, eg. small (current size), med (1.5x), large (2x) that can be selected in the setup menu, maybe underneath all the languages in the subtitle sub-menu under the preferences menu (can they add extra options in the menu with firmware, or is it limited by the ess chipset?).
An afterthought, why aren't the subtitles displayed when viewing avi's the same format as the subtitles displayed when viewing dvd's? The latter are white and big enough (for me, anyway :) ). Are DVD subtitles read differently?

[V205]

1.2 Firmware solved the equalizer-on AC-3 screeching in one of my movies.

Awesome.

[pepito]

Loaded 1.2 last night.

Not the dramatic improvements I expected but still a few worthwhile ones like:

Faster navigating between files on disk
OSD now defaults to off.
Remote control seems more responsive.

I now read that sub-title support has been added so thats something I'd like to try.

[mikef]

Why not have 2 / 3 diferent font sizes, eg. small (current size), med (1.5x), large (2x) that can be selected in the setup menu, maybe underneath all the languages in the subtitle sub-menu under the preferences menu (can they add extra options in the menu with firmware, or is it limited by the ess chipset?).
An afterthought, why aren't the subtitles displayed when viewing avi's the same format as the subtitles displayed when viewing dvd's? The latter are white and big enough (for me, anyway :) ). Are DVD subtitles read differently?
Yeah those different sizes/colours will be nice.

DVD subtitles are completly different to divx. Divx subtitles are storer in the text file, while DVD ones are stored like a pictures. Therefore on each movie u can have different font/size/colour of them.

[andw]

Start an avi file with subtitles, then press the 'goto' button on the remote.
It should come up with the usual __:__;__ for you to type the time in.
Watch while the subtitles change a couple of times, or even just start typing in a time, like 00 06 00, sometimes, before you get to the end of typing in the time, a lot of weird symbols come up across the top of the screen.
Little TV type pictures, sort of icon sized, and all sorts. Then it will go away again. (like it has timed out or something)
One time, it displayed these pictures, and then came up on the screen with 'OK?', so I thought 'what the heck', and pressed 'enter' on the remote, and it went back to the start of the movie.
Perhaps they need to stop displaying the subtitles when it is waiting for the time to be typed in after 'goto' has been pressed, as it is sure causing it problems.

[bwg]

DVD subtitles are completly different to divx. Divx subtitles are storer in the text file, while DVD ones are stored like a pictures. Therefore on each movie u can have different font/size/colour of them.
Ahhhh, thanks for explaining that about DVD subtitles. Shows how new I am to all this :rolling:

[andw]

These are the file extensions that I have located in the latest firmware...
MP3 MMP AC3 DTS DMC ABS MPA WMA ASF WMV M4V AVI DIV SMI SRT SUB TXT VBS MPV DAT VOB MPG JPG JPE WAV MPEG ESS
followed by
DIV AVI SMI SRT SUB (perhaps the associated files for subtitle support?)
I've probably missed one somewhere. (I can't see m2v, but 'robbiee' posted in another thread that it worked on the old firmware, and I don't think it was listed in the old firmware either, so maybe there is another list somewhere in the code)
Also, just because the extension is listed, doesn't mean that the codec for it is in the firmware.

[andw]

Start an avi file with subtitles, then press the 'goto' button on the remote.
It should come up with the usual __:__;__ for you to type the time in.
Watch while the subtitles change a couple of times, or even just start typing in a time, like 00 06 00, sometimes, before you get to the end of typing in the time, a lot of weird symbols come up across the top of the screen.
Little TV type pictures, sort of icon sized, and all sorts. Then it will go away again. (like it has timed out or something)
One time, it displayed these pictures, and then came up on the screen with 'OK?', so I thought 'what the heck', and pressed 'enter' on the remote, and it went back to the start of the movie.
Perhaps they need to stop displaying the subtitles when it is waiting for the time to be typed in after 'goto' has been pressed, as it is sure causing it problems.
regarding the above, this is an interesting thread on the Yamada DivX player, bugs on their latest (December 2003) firmware...
http://www.digitalathome.com/cgi-bin/viewthread.php?tid=681
particularly the 5th post down by 'Xoem', same problem on ours with 'goto' while displaying subtitles on avi files.

[pepito]

Could this be added as a WANT for a future firmware.

- Ability to "bookmark" a location while watching a divx/xvid file to let you go right back to that spot later.

Good if you're interrupted while viewing a movie.

I guess what I'm looking for is something similar to the "RESUME" feature of
some DVD players like Pioneer.