UMC-1 finally back in the system - My thoughts

[indyscammer]

So I had BIG issues trying to update the firmware to 7.14 and ended up having to return it to Emotiva to have it flashed. While gone (approximately 8 days due to Labor Day/Emofest) I returned to my previous set up (video direct to the TV and a B&K Ref 20 processor). I can now contrast better what the UMC-1 has done to me/for me. ;D

AUDIO
Immediately the sound is noticeably "more full" at low volume. With the B&K as the volume goes down I seem to lose bass/mid bass fill.....the sound really goes thin. The UMC just drops the volume. Sound remains consistent....just less loud. A really nice improvement since 75% of my viewing/listening has to be at lower volume levels. This phenomenon holds true as I turn up the juice as well. I get a much smoother sound transition as I crank it up. I can now carry 110dB (ratshack meter) until the Klipsch tweeters start screaming and go harsh. This occurred about 104 dB on the B&K. Don't quite understand the difference but perhaps I get a louder result just do to the more present bass charateristics.

VIDEO
So when I got my DLP I spent several hours trying to adjust color/brightness/contrast/saturation to make the dang display look realistic. It came in HOT and very green. I never really got it great but became used to it. When the UMC-1 showed up beginning of July color presentation improved dramatically. However, I never payed attention.....posted due to other issues with the UMC-1....namely input settings being lost and I knew new firmware was imminent. Well...when I unplugged and went back to the old set up....my color/saturation went to crap. I have had the UMC-1 back into the system now 2 nights and color is really nice and natural again. NO ADJUSTMENTS MADE TO THE DISPLAY AT ALL. I am running HDMI from the UMC-1 to the DLP. Even the BD player image color has improved and it was always connected via HDMI to the display. Kudos for me on the video processing of the UMC-1. The Wii also has improved now that the UMC is upconverting the image!

ISSUES
So far I have experienced NO ISSUES with the UMC-1 since firmware was updated. I realize that it is only 2 days now so the jury is still out. I have seen posted that my #2 issue below has been reported with the new firmware....but I am hopefull.

Issues seen to date BEFORE the update:
1. A few shutdown crashes...nothing consistent.
2. Random and frustrating input set up memory loss. I would turn the UMC-1 on and get no sound or no video or neither....just to find out I had to go into set up and redefine that input. This occurred 6 or 7 times during July and August. Settings were randomly lost also...sometimes the audio input was lost sometimes the video and sometimes EVERYTHING. I also had one instance that it lost the amp trigger setting.

If my input reset issue is resolved now this thing is a BIG KEEPER. I have never experienced audio or video dropouts although I am not a big DVR user AND the DVR is connected via analog component cables....it is not an HDMI box. I will update this thread if new things happen.

[bootman]

Excellent write up.

Good to hear that it is working great for you in your system.

[larryfdx]

Sept 16, 2010 8:52:18 GMT -5 indyscammer said:

So I had BIG issues trying to update the firmware to 7.14 and ended up having to return it to Emotiva to have it flashed. While gone (approximately 8 days due to Labor Day/Emofest) I returned to my previous set up (video direct to the TV and a B&K Ref 20 processor). I can now contrast better what the UMC-1 has done to me/for me. ;D

AUDIO
Immediately the sound is noticeably "more full" at low volume. With the B&K as the volume goes down I seem to lose bass/mid bass fill.....the sound really goes thin. The UMC just drops the volume. Sound remains consistent....just less loud. A really nice improvement since 75% of my viewing/listening has to be at lower volume levels. This phenomenon holds true as I turn up the juice as well. I get a much smoother sound transition as I crank it up. I can now carry 110dB (ratshack meter) until the Klipsch tweeters start screaming and go harsh. This occurred about 104 dB on the B&K. Don't quite understand the difference but perhaps I get a louder result just do to the more present bass charateristics.

VIDEO
So when I got my DLP I spent several hours trying to adjust color/brightness/contrast/saturation to make the dang display look realistic. It came in HOT and very green. I never really got it great but became used to it. When the UMC-1 showed up beginning of July color presentation improved dramatically. However, I never payed attention.....posted due to other issues with the UMC-1....namely input settings being lost and I knew new firmware was imminent. Well...when I unplugged and went back to the old set up....my color/saturation went to crap. I have had the UMC-1 back into the system now 2 nights and color is really nice and natural again. NO ADJUSTMENTS MADE TO THE DISPLAY AT ALL. I am running HDMI from the UMC-1 to the DLP. Even the BD player image color has improved and it was always connected via HDMI to the display. Kudos for me on the video processing of the UMC-1. The Wii also has improved now that the UMC is upconverting the image!

ISSUES
So far I have experienced NO ISSUES with the UMC-1 since firmware was updated. I realize that it is only 2 days now so the jury is still out. I have seen posted that my #2 issue below has been reported with the new firmware....but I am hopefull.

Issues seen to date BEFORE the update:
1. A few shutdown crashes...nothing consistent.
2. Random and frustrating input set up memory loss. I would turn the UMC-1 on and get no sound or no video or neither....just to find out I had to go into set up and redefine that input. This occurred 6 or 7 times during July and August. Settings were randomly lost also...sometimes the audio input was lost sometimes the video and sometimes EVERYTHING. I also had one instance that it lost the amp trigger setting.

If my input reset issue is resolved now this thing is a BIG KEEPER. I have never experienced audio or video dropouts although I am not a big DVR user AND the DVR is connected via analog component cables....it is not an HDMI box. I will update this thread if new things happen.

Congrats to you. I hope to read positive updates from you in the near future.

[indyscammer]

An interesting thing happened to me Friday night. We experienced a fairly violent brown out. Power to the house was cut just long enough to kill everything and then a loud bang and everything came back. Ouch.....lost the power converter on the Wii (I was playing in the theater at the time) but the UMC-1 survived. Happy to report NO ill effects. Still no loss of input set up settings....I know one of the speculations was that power anomalies could create this....seems stable to me. Good news so far.

[indyscammer]

UPDATE
I have now had the UMC-1 in my system for 3 complete weekends (when it gets the heaviest workout). So far I have had not a single instance of the input settings being lost. I cannot recall a 3 week period before where this did not occur!!!

I had 1 instance Saturday night that the UMC did not shutoff properly. However, all I had to do was hit the power button, let it boot, and then turn it off again. If this is the only issue I have I will be a happy owner from here.

Next weekend I may get adventurous and try and deploy EmoQ to see what happens.

[HDSapper]

Good to hear everything is working for you now. I've had mine since EmoFest and have had no problems. I'm using EmoQ and it is actually pretty decent. The problems everyone had with it before may truly have been a case of bad quality control on the microphones. My old subwoofer is better integrated into my system than it has ever been.

[indyscammer]

Ran EmoQ last night.....I am agnostic. It seems to have tamed some high end...I'm thinking I was getting some reflections or reinforcement (same thing?). EmoQ really tamed and cleaned up my high frequency....I like what it did. It says my right surround is reverse phase...although it sounds normal and I cannot find a wrong connection.

Distances are mostly close....the EQ was interesting...although matches what I have thought about my speakers. It has tried to add mid range and attenuate the trebble. Intuitively what I would expect from a Klipsch 2-way design.

It tried to boost sub frequency in the 100-150 range......wierd. Although I can hear no real difference.

QUESTION:
Do any of the speaker presets stay active with EmoQ? I had boosted the rears when I manually leveled the speaker volumes...EmoQ did not do much there....does it leave presets active?

Differences in my room were subtle...but better high end control now.

[jdh]

I've owned my new UMC-1 since March 2012, it came with the latest firmware but I'm having Random loss of setting as described by the original post. Do I have a defective unit or is this a known issue with the UMC-1 and if so is a fix being worked on?

JDH

Sept 16, 2010 8:52:18 GMT -5 indyscammer said:

So I had BIG issues trying to update the firmware to 7.14 and ended up having to return it to Emotiva to have it flashed. While gone (approximately 8 days due to Labor Day/Emofest) I returned to my previous set up (video direct to the TV and a B&K Ref 20 processor). I can now contrast better what the UMC-1 has done to me/for me. ;D

AUDIO
Immediately the sound is noticeably "more full" at low volume. With the B&K as the volume goes down I seem to lose bass/mid bass fill.....the sound really goes thin. The UMC just drops the volume. Sound remains consistent....just less loud. A really nice improvement since 75% of my viewing/listening has to be at lower volume levels. This phenomenon holds true as I turn up the juice as well. I get a much smoother sound transition as I crank it up. I can now carry 110dB (ratshack meter) until the Klipsch tweeters start screaming and go harsh. This occurred about 104 dB on the B&K. Don't quite understand the difference but perhaps I get a louder result just do to the more present bass charateristics.

VIDEO
So when I got my DLP I spent several hours trying to adjust color/brightness/contrast/saturation to make the dang display look realistic. It came in HOT and very green. I never really got it great but became used to it. When the UMC-1 showed up beginning of July color presentation improved dramatically. However, I never payed attention.....posted due to other issues with the UMC-1....namely input settings being lost and I knew new firmware was imminent. Well...when I unplugged and went back to the old set up....my color/saturation went to crap. I have had the UMC-1 back into the system now 2 nights and color is really nice and natural again. NO ADJUSTMENTS MADE TO THE DISPLAY AT ALL. I am running HDMI from the UMC-1 to the DLP. Even the BD player image color has improved and it was always connected via HDMI to the display. Kudos for me on the video processing of the UMC-1. The Wii also has improved now that the UMC is upconverting the image!

ISSUES
So far I have experienced NO ISSUES with the UMC-1 since firmware was updated. I realize that it is only 2 days now so the jury is still out. I have seen posted that my #2 issue below has been reported with the new firmware....but I am hopefull.

Issues seen to date BEFORE the update:
1. A few shutdown crashes...nothing consistent.
2. Random and frustrating input set up memory loss. I would turn the UMC-1 on and get no sound or no video or neither....just to find out I had to go into set up and redefine that input. This occurred 6 or 7 times during July and August. Settings were randomly lost also...sometimes the audio input was lost sometimes the video and sometimes EVERYTHING. I also had one instance that it lost the amp trigger setting.

If my input reset issue is resolved now this thing is a BIG KEEPER. I have never experienced audio or video dropouts although I am not a big DVR user AND the DVR is connected via analog component cables....it is not an HDMI box. I will update this thread if new things happen.

[indyscammer]

Not normal behavior. I have not had this problem one time since the original post.

Contact Emotiva and discuss it with them.

[wizardofoz]

I have had 3 UMC-1's over the course of the last couple of years...none have lost settings that I recal unless I have done a load defaults...many times even a software reload hasnt wiped out my settings, but even then a load defaults is recommended. The 2 units I have now still work well and for the lack of the XMC being available will remain with me or in the circle of family I have.

[jdh]

Ok, I've fired off an email to emotiva support.

JDH

[indyscammer]

I have had more timely answers by calling them. Sometimes it can take several days to get a response via email.

Just saying.....good luck resolving your issue. I am obviously very aware of the inconvenience of this particulr one!