UMC-1 Concerns

[jmilton]

[aircav]

After reading through the entire set of posts I almost didn't respond to the posts question - but after thinking about it for a while I thought oh well what have I got to lose?

First, when I received my UMC-1 I posted a few times outlining issues I was having and I thought everyone tried to be very helpful. I am sorry that others did not have the same good fortune as I.

My main concern and the reason I sent my UMC-1 back was the HDMI switching. The EMO-Q was a secondary issue to me as I would have manually calibrated the unit if I had kept it.

I also had some concerns with the video processing and I wound up setting it to pass through. Therefore I had a very expensive HDMI switch that did not work well. Since I was leaving on a long business trip out f the country I decided to return mine rather than try to troubleshoot it and work it out over the phone. As a counter point to that there is a Forum member who announced "I am keeping it", so this is all a matter of personal choice.

I found the forum members very helpful, the Emotiva customer service very responsive and overall that part went very well.

BTW I do expect consumer electronics at that price point to work well. Completely bug free? No, not really but my current HDMI switch works very well, no signal lag, etc and since HDMI is such as key part of this I did expect HDMI to work well.

I may still buy another one, it had great promise and the two channel audio was superb. Maybe I got a bad unit but since I am still out of the country I felt it was prudent to return it.

[sounder]

So, to summarize, we have about four posts that address the OP's questions. Then, we have two pages of people attacking each other, just as elee532 predicted.

[bootman]

Mar 8, 2010 17:45:38 GMT -5 sounder said:

So, to summarize, we have about four posts that address the OP's questions. Then, we have two pages of people attacking each other, just as elee532 predicted.

That is why this place is in need of serious moderation.

[hemster]

I agree bootman... and it is happening!

[klinemj]

when a smokin' monkey and a jack nicholson avatar have your back, how could you doubt it? I am glad to see Emotiva added two really great guys to their team!

And...bootman...I continue to enjoy your informative posts - esp. the UMC issues w/DVR's. I don't know what you do for a living, but you seem to have some special knowledge on DVR's and HMDI. Thanks for sharing all that...

[jr1414]

bootman, thanks for the most informed response to date. Considering the HDMI issue may involve standards and compliance, my question I guess should now be is there a positive solution involving the "new" HDMI standards? I find it hard to believe that the issues cannot be resolved because of a standards issue, I believed that all HDMI standards are supposed to be backwards compatible. I understand the copyright protection fairly well, but this should not prevent proper handshaking and/or audio/video dropouts on compliant materials.

My question still remains then, is the issue internal to the HDMI chip? Is it something that is correctable via software update, or could it possibly need a hardware solution. If a hardware solution is necessary, would Emotiva even choose to go this route?

[Bruce]

I just had my UMC-1 calibrated last night by JEFF MEIER of AccuCAL and the unit sounds great.Jeff could NOT calibrate the Subwoofer EQ as it does NOT work the way it should using his rew equiment and does not register any settings. He also tried setting the speaker EQ settings which also did NOT work as he sets all these EQ manualy with his equiment.I guess i can vereify my UMC-1 EQ settings are DEAD.I am impressed with the sound and video i am receiving from the UMC-1.I am using pass through to my Pioneer Plasma and having no problems and also no problems with my Cable box from Comcast with no audio drop outs and a great picture.I am upset with the EQ as it can not be used at this time and all other speaker settings are holding their values.I hope EMOTIVA can fix the EQ problems so we can fine tune our speaker and subwoofer settings as it is a great feature that most processors do not have in their systems.
Jeff Meier was very impressed with the UMC-1 and thought the manual EQ settings were a great option once they work and said the fine tuning would be great.He also was impressed with the sound and picture the unit has and thought the price point for all the manual settings was fantastic once Emotiva has them operating correctly was a great bargain for the pricepoint as we all know.

[bootman]

Thanks guys, being a beta tester for the DVDO edge, gave me some fun insight in testing HDMI problems.
Its not easy and between a SA STB and a DISH STB, samsung bluray, Sony DVD changer, and Xbox 360, let me tell you that it took quite a few firmware updates to get the unit as stable as it is now. (about a year's worth really)

The issue with HDMI is that in the past, manufactures didn't quite follow the rules to the letter.
In the beginning when they did, it simply didn't work! ( very well)
Its a copy protection timing issue most of the time and it really sucks that we as consumers are held hostage to it.
(although I understand that piracy is a big issue)


I'm glad that we now have more active moderators.
I also like to have fun with off topic remarks, but I'm going to try and keep those to the Green room where they really belong.

[bootman]

Mar 9, 2010 5:49:58 GMT -5 Bruce said:

I just had my UMC-1 calibrated last night by JEFF MEIER of AccuCAL and the unit sounds great.Jeff could NOT calibrate the Subwoofer EQ as it does NOT work the way it should using his rew equiment and does not register any settings. He also tried setting the speaker EQ settings which also did NOT work as he sets all these EQ manualy with his equiment.I guess i can vereify my UMC-1 EQ settings are DEAD.I am impressed with the sound and video i am receiving from the UMC-1.I am using pass through to my Pioneer Plasma and having no problems and also no problems with my Cable box from Comcast with no audio drop outs and a great picture.I am upset with the EQ as it can not be used at this time and all other speaker settings are holding their values.I hope EMOTIVA can fix the EQ problems so we can fine tune our speaker and subwoofer settings as it is a great feature that most processors do not have in their systems.
Jeff Meier was very impressed with the UMC-1 and thought the manual EQ settings were a great option once they work and said the fine tuning would be great.He also was impressed with the sound and picture the unit has and thought the price point for all the manual settings was fantastic once Emotiva has them operating correctly was a great bargain for the pricepoint as we all know.

The ray of hope is that EQ is all software. (well 99%)
So this should be fixed via a firmware update.

Have you contacted Emotiva yet for a formal tech report of your issue?

[Bruce]

I am calling Emotiva tech today and hopefully a firmware update is coming.If no update firmware I will send back my unit as I do not use automatic room EQ .