Pre-loaded vs upgraded firmware

[debk]

Are all these reported issues with the new firmware only in units that have been user upgraded? Has anyone received a UMC-1 with the new firmware preloaded? If so are these units working as advertised, or have the same issues?

Debra

[akbungle]

Hey Deb I'm not sure if anyone has a pre-loaded one yet but when I first did my update it was with a XP laptop and I had many new audio issues and drop outs with my DVR so I called in and spoke with Vincent yesterday and he told me that he has had the best luck with Windows 7 so I unplugged everything and dragged my UMC-1 up to my PC that has Windows 7 and re applied the firmware. Then finally about an hour ago I was able to hook it back up and test it for about 40 minutes and really worked my DVR forward and back many times while watching a show and not one time did I have a audio drop out. ;D
Just to give more detail with revision 5 using the DVR on a one hour show I would get maybe one to two drop outs then the first time I updated to revision 6(using the xp laptop) I was getting more like nine to eleven drop outs. And again finally with the proper firmware loaded zero drop outs.

Now I have only watched the 40 minutes so far but I think it's solid. Will report more later.

[brettjb]

Not sure when they started shipping again, so it may be a few days more before anyone receives one that was upgraded by Emotiva.

With that said, I suspect they upgrade them in the same fashion that we do - take them out of the box, plug them in, hook up to a computer, and run the same firmware update software.

I may be wrong (wouldn't be the first time, according to my wife! ;D ), and they may have a more "industrial" means of updating them, but I doubt it. I would also wager that they do a quick QC after the firmware upload, to ensure they didn't get a corrupted upload (e.g. the no audio output issue seen by some). Beyond that, I doubt there's any difference between what you's get from Emo and doing it yourself (assuming you don't run into the communications issues that some folks are encountering)

[BillBauman]

Apr 15, 2010 15:43:55 GMT -5 akbungle said:

Hey Deb I'm not sure if anyone has a pre-loaded one yet but when I first did my update it was with a XP laptop and I had many new audio issues and drop outs with my DVR so I called in and spoke with Vincent yesterday and he told me that he has had the best luck with Windows 7 so I unplugged everything and dragged my UMC-1 up to my PC that has Windows 7 and re applied the firmware. Then finally about an hour ago I was able to hook it back up and test it for about 40 minutes and really worked my DVR forward and back many times while watching a show and not one time did I have a audio drop out. ;D
Just to give more detail with revision 5 using the DVR on a one hour show I would get maybe one to two drop outs then the first time I updated to revision 6(using the xp laptop) I was getting more like nine to eleven drop outs. And again finally with the proper firmware loaded zero drop outs.

Now I have only watched the 40 minutes so far but I think it's solid. Will report more later.

Your experience has me the most curious at this point. Can you tell me if you used the 3.2.2 USBXpress driver on either or both of the computers to do the upgrade? Did you use the same cable? Could you (if you're up to it) run the MD5 checksum against the files on the first (XP) computer to see if the files were intact prior to update?

Thanks for any information you can provide.

[tb123]

Apr 15, 2010 15:43:55 GMT -5 akbungle said:

Hey Deb I'm not sure if anyone has a pre-loaded one yet but when I first did my update it was with a XP laptop and I had many new audio issues and drop outs with my DVR so I called in and spoke with Vincent yesterday and he told me that he has had the best luck with Windows 7 so I unplugged everything and dragged my UMC-1 up to my PC that has Windows 7 and re applied the firmware. Then finally about an hour ago I was able to hook it back up and test it for about 40 minutes and really worked my DVR forward and back many times while watching a show and not one time did I have a audio drop out. ;D
Just to give more detail with revision 5 using the DVR on a one hour show I would get maybe one to two drop outs then the first time I updated to revision 6(using the xp laptop) I was getting more like nine to eleven drop outs. And again finally with the proper firmware loaded zero drop outs.

Now I have only watched the 40 minutes so far but I think it's solid. Will report more later.

It may be the operating system that is giving a better upgrade, however I have read a few people saying that after they had performed the upgrade twice (on any OS) that the product was more stable than the first time they did it.

[BillBauman]

Apr 15, 2010 17:20:19 GMT -5 tb123 said:

Apr 15, 2010 15:43:55 GMT -5 akbungle said:

Hey Deb I'm not sure if anyone has a pre-loaded one yet but when I first did my update it was with a XP laptop and I had many new audio issues and drop outs with my DVR so I called in and spoke with Vincent yesterday and he told me that he has had the best luck with Windows 7 so I unplugged everything and dragged my UMC-1 up to my PC that has Windows 7 and re applied the firmware. Then finally about an hour ago I was able to hook it back up and test it for about 40 minutes and really worked my DVR forward and back many times while watching a show and not one time did I have a audio drop out. ;D
Just to give more detail with revision 5 using the DVR on a one hour show I would get maybe one to two drop outs then the first time I updated to revision 6(using the xp laptop) I was getting more like nine to eleven drop outs. And again finally with the proper firmware loaded zero drop outs.

Now I have only watched the 40 minutes so far but I think it's solid. Will report more later.

It may be the operating system that is giving a better upgrade, however I have read a few people saying that after they had performed the upgrade twice (on any OS) that the product was more stable than the first time they did it.

This would make more sense to me... it has my gears spinning. Watch out, smoke comes next.

I have a theory. I think it's possible that (successful) run 1 reorganizes the memory structure of the firmware. It may or may not properly get all the bits in place, as it's not just updating bits, but changing how they are organized. (Successful) run 2 is simply (re)applying the new bits, as the reallocation of where they sit has already been done on (successful) run 1. So, even if your update was successful, it is possible it wasn't.

This is all theory, again, I cannot confirm exactly how this firmware is organized in memory.

[ggallaway]

This is interesting, I don't have a UMC-1 but have been following these threads closely as I am hoping to move to separates. is it possible that on the first round of updates only some of the 3 different firmwares is actually recieving the update (causing significant issues, as one might expect) and when the updates are applied for the second time that is getting fixed?

is there a way to verify the firmware versions installed?

G

[gkarracer]

I can't attest to V6, but mine came shipped with V5 and I get the occasional audio drop out via DVR. So far I haven't had any drop outs via Blu-Ray or any other input. There is one exception to that in that sometimes if I turn on the Blu-Ray player with the input already selected, then the UMC will not lock on to the audio. Switching inputs once fixes it with no drop outs during normal playback.

There is no question that its HDMI audio synchronization is suspect. The good news is that it seems to lock on to video just fine.

[annjones13]

My UMC-1 just arrived! It should have V6 loaded. I will not even be able take it out of the box until Sunday.....

Ann

[soccertoad]

Mine came yesterday. Unfortunately, I will not be back hoome until later in the weekend. I'll inspect and let yall know software version is loaded.

[regulator]

I should get mine preloaded with the latest in a couple days. Keeping my fingers crossed that all works well.