new April UMC-1 Beta software

[dkjohn]

Apr 25, 2010 19:27:27 GMT -5 Lonnie said:

Apr 25, 2010 17:51:34 GMT -5 dkjohn said:

Humm !! mine says PLIIx after beta upgrade just checked.

If you have a 5.1 setup, then it will only show PLII, but if you have a 7.1, then you get PLIIx.

Hope this helps.

Ok I have 7.1 that explains it.

[jmilton]

Audio connection seems lickety-split. No drops. But I have had twice some minor vol. boosts when going from DD 5.1 to DD 2.0 when changing TV channels...not dangerously loud boosts and not always. I have mine set up to go Neo:6 when a DD 2.0 comes on, so maybe its a Neo:6 thing. Very stable and livable right now. Will play with EmoQ later, but since none of my setting changed from before the Beta, I am very pleased with the SQ/PQ.

Two weeks ago I was ready to admit that the audio issues were most likely NEVER going to be resolved (5 revisions already) and was resigned to that fact...but now it looks like the UMC-1 is really going to live up to its potential. Its not 100% still...but boy, its in the 90s right now! Thanks Emotiva for working hard to resolve the issues. I'd recommend this product to my friends at this point....not so, a few weeks ago.

[jklow888]

Running the beta for 2 days now. Did a hard reset on the unit and on the first night we had three audio drop outs, one with a cyclic white noise (like a running motor). Had to switch inputs to recover. After a 2nd hard reset, we've watched about 6 hours via DVR (Tivo) with plenty of FF//REW and no drop outs. Audio lock-on is fast - so here's hoping there are no more issues.

Side note: noticed the Dolby Volume option has gone but hope this will be coming back once the side effects are corrected.

[BillBauman]

Apr 26, 2010 6:13:22 GMT -5 jmilton said:

Audio connection seems lickety-split. No drops. But I have had twice some minor vol. boosts when going from DD 5.1 to DD 2.0 when changing TV channels...not dangerously loud boosts and not always. I have mine set up to go Neo:6 when a DD 2.0 comes on, so maybe its a Neo:6 thing. Very stable and livable right now. Will play with EmoQ later, but since none of my setting changed from before the Beta, I am very pleased with the SQ/PQ.

When going from DD 5.1 to Neo:6 there is definitely an increase in volume, the algorithm has more emphasis on the center channel with Neo:6 on the UMC-1. So, it's not a spike, just a different representation of the encoding.

[ghstudio]

Apr 26, 2010 7:11:12 GMT -5 jklow888 said:

Side note: noticed the Dolby Volume option has gone but hope this will be coming back once the side effects are corrected.

WHAT? Has dolby volume control been removed or rendered unavailable/unusable in the latest version of the software???

[wizardofoz]

scroll down ... there is no indication of the menu being longer than what is displayed.

oops i could stand corrected as I just realised this was beta related and mine is not loaded with beta yet

[jmilton]

Apr 26, 2010 7:27:16 GMT -5 BillBauman said:

Apr 26, 2010 6:13:22 GMT -5 jmilton said:

Audio connection seems lickety-split. No drops. But I have had twice some minor vol. boosts when going from DD 5.1 to DD 2.0 when changing TV channels...not dangerously loud boosts and not always. I have mine set up to go Neo:6 when a DD 2.0 comes on, so maybe its a Neo:6 thing. Very stable and livable right now. Will play with EmoQ later, but since none of my setting changed from before the Beta, I am very pleased with the SQ/PQ.

When going from DD 5.1 to Neo:6 there is definitely an increase in volume, the algorithm has more emphasis on the center channel with Neo:6 on the UMC-1. So, it's not a spike, just a different representation of the encoding.

Perhaps...but when I switch to another channel and then back right away, the volume "normalizes" and is no longer louder, so I still think it is a glitch.

[ratmice]

Apr 26, 2010 8:34:12 GMT -5 jmilton said:

Apr 26, 2010 7:27:16 GMT -5 BillBauman said:

When going from DD 5.1 to Neo:6 there is definitely an increase in volume, the algorithm has more emphasis on the center channel with Neo:6 on the UMC-1. So, it's not a spike, just a different representation of the encoding.

Perhaps...but when I switch to another channel and then back right away, the volume "normalizes" and is no longer louder, so I still think it is a glitch.

I agree. I've had this happen a couple of times, not nearly as loud as the previous volume outbursts and very infrequently. This FW is a HUGE step in the right direction.

[BillBauman]

Apr 26, 2010 8:49:49 GMT -5 ratmice said:

Apr 26, 2010 8:34:12 GMT -5 jmilton said:

Perhaps...but when I switch to another channel and then back right away, the volume "normalizes" and is no longer louder, so I still think it is a glitch.

I agree. I've had this happen a couple of times, not nearly as loud as the previous volume outbursts and very infrequently. This FW is a HUGE step in the right direction.

Well, I can't argue. What I experienced was without switching channels, but rather watching recorded shows as AVI's via HDMI from an LG BD390. I also noticed at one point that I was "losing volume"... I started at something like 35, but after every audio drop, I had to keep turning things up, until I reached like 46. Then, when that show ended, and I went to the next file, my volume was referentially louder and I had to dial it back below 40. Really strange.

[markus]

Apr 26, 2010 7:11:12 GMT -5 jklow888 said:

noticed the Dolby Volume option has gone but hope this will be coming back once the side effects are corrected.

It's still there on page 2 of the parameter menu. Just scroll down or up. Unfortunately the OSD's user interface doesn't indicate on what page you are.

[barrynj]

Nice to finally see so many good reports...

Now to wait for the web site to allow orders.

[jklow888]

Apr 26, 2010 10:21:25 GMT -5 @markus said:

Apr 26, 2010 7:11:12 GMT -5 jklow888 said:

noticed the Dolby Volume option has gone but hope this will be coming back once the side effects are corrected.

It's still there on page 2 of the parameter menu. Just scroll down or up. Unfortunately the OSD's user interface doesn't indicate on what page you are.

My bad - I'm sure I went through all the options. Will try again when I get home tonight.

[Chris]

I just had a volume "explosion" while watching 24 on Fox and it went to commercial and DD 2/0 from DD 3/2+LFE. Didn't blow any speakers but quite jarring! This has thankfully been pretty rare with the beta update of V6 but it has occurred a handful of times.

Hope Lonnie can eliminate this particular nasty bug ASAP!

-CB

[Nemesis.ie]

I had one last night, ended one movie and then played another with a different config and it was much louder (DV enabled which generally seems to be working well for me).

As an aside, I'm also not seeing PLIIx applied to 2-channel. Only mode options available are stereo and direct.

I must do a mini-review and put some bugs up in the tracker, but jet-lag is preventing that just now.

[diskman]

I had this explosion volume and very easy to reproduce in DTS, switch by the menu the mode between Direct, DTS and PLIIx and somtimes the sound increase sighificatively. It is the only one problem I noticed with the Poposd lost one time...Need to put of and on again to have it again......

Go Lonnie Go...Very good job like our Canadien

[jimsfield]

On Sunday I upgraded from V5 to V6. I did this on a laptop running XP in Safe Mode with networking. I took the UMC out of the rack and had my son, a LAN administrator, supervise to ensure I did it correctly and installed V6. I then installed the V6 Beta by going through the process again, i.e., I reinstalled the first file, then the Beta, then the third file. I put the UMC back in the rack and no sound at all.

I called Emo yesterday and the tech suggested I try the Tuner input to see if I had any sound. I tried it last night. No sound, even from the Tuner. I reinstalled V6, all three files, without removing the UMC from rack. The sound returned somewhere in the reinstallation process. Can’t remember at which step. Then I reinstalled just the Beta file. After that I had only LFE. I powered off using the switch on the back of the UMC and when I powered it back on the sound came back.

This is a cautionary tale. There is no way to determine if the upgrade is completed correctly. I have been a loyal supporter of Emotive and have not said anything negative about this whole process. I really like the UMC and have no intention of returning it but the firmware upgrade process is not robust. I hope Emo will address this issue and provide either an easier method for upgrading and/or a way to check that the upgrade has installed completely.

Respectfully

Jim

[ratmice]

It appears, from your description, that if you had followed Lonnies' instruction to install the beta only, and then did a reset, you would have been fine from the beginning.

Or maybe the magic bullet is doing a reset after upgrading, which you did not report doing the first time.

p.s. I installed the beta only, on XP (via bootcamp on a Mac), not in safe mode (I know you're supposed to), then did a reset (power button on the back) and it worked fine.

[carlp336]

jim from what ive gathered if you did v6 in the 3 step fashion and then the beta as one step.
my umc came from EMO with v6 and i only used the Beta file to update not the others.

[wizardofoz]

Ratmice... have you tried with the MAC using something like VMWare or Parallels or virtual box? I have VMware, but am away so I cant try the beta upgrade for a couple of weeks. I can I guess run Bootcamp but would have to repartition the system and restore a copy from a backup.

[ICBM99]

As others have said v6beta seems to be much much better than the released v6. I'm not getting any loss of audio anymore from my dish box over optical on DD sources. I have a meeting will post more impressions later.