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Post by hsamwel on Dec 21, 2022 19:23:08 GMT -5
Pretty much.. Emotivas track record for putting out firmware that actually improve features or add functions is pretty much non existant. They have just done bug fixing (which have gone so so) and several code changes (rewrites of different parts).. I really hope they will start putting out smaller fixes in shorter times with point fixes to certain issues. But they seem to want to do the oposit.. Big firmwares that supposedly fixes a lot of things in one go. And because they have been working on the gen 4 platform for years now we can all see why there has been little improvements done. I will note that I have no real issues with my RMC-1 but still I would have liked seeing some real improvements over the 3.5 years I have owned it. Regarding the success rate.. No one can really tell for sure.. But my guess is that it’s pretty much accurate out in the wild as well. About 50% use them without big issues, some have issues and do workarounds without complaints and then we have the group that can’t stand having problems no matter how small. Not all are on the forums, obviously. My guess is Emotiva is swamped with calls with users having problems. Speculation. Unless Emotiva actually tells you what their complaint call percentage is, you just don't know. Guessing does no one any good. I agree that those with the RMC-1 who were promised expansion modules that either took a long time to come, or haven't arrived, should be unhappy. I've had good luck with my XMC-1...now XMC-2...and will most likely move on to the G4P when it's time and if it's a good deal. Of course it’s speculation! What is it we actually do here on the forums? For example you guys ”speculate” about most things regarding Emotiva. Even the positive things are mostly speculation because we simply don’t know. We can make educated guesses that comes from past experiences. Still guesses or speculation though. Btw when I bought my RMC-1 there were no RMC-1L or XMC-2 options. In my case it wasn’t the expansion option that made me buy Emotiva. Also what I want of a product I buy is that the manufacturers are proud of their product and care about their customers. This is especially the case when I buy something expensive like this processor. For this price I actually expect progress with both features and functionality. What I mean with proud is that looking at myself I would feel ashamed to release a software that didn’t work as it is supposed to. I would do everything and more to make it work.. ASAP if I made a blooper. Also I would feel bad if it wasn’t as good as it could be. I would try my very best to make the best possible product. Which most of the time doesn’t mean the biggest feature list.. Rather the best user experience. Stable, fast and intuitive. Which Emotiva actually has a hard time doing.. Caring for your customers is not only answering phone calls and helping them do workarounds for issues not working as they should. It is not letting customers wait for bug fixes for several years. It is not telling them ”we are working on that” and still haven’t gone past planning several years later.. Caring is to me is for example.. If I email or call to let them know about an issue I get a swift answer back with a ”Sorry about this, we will look in to it ASAP”. Then getting an email/phone call back a week or so later that they have maybe found a solution, a test firmware/software you can try and install to see if fixes the issue. Making actual fixes and soultions and not workarounds. Sorry, but there are good things with Emotiva but not all things are.. Again, my ”guess” is they are so swamped with issues that they can’t plan ahead and make improvements. It’s simply going from one issue to the next..
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Post by acepaul on Jan 10, 2023 17:37:15 GMT -5
Firmware v3.1 experience on a newer RMC-1 so far:
The clicks. It seems evident to me that this is a physical design issue with the circuitry architecture as the only fix seems to be a muting strategy implemented when the clicks are most likely to occur. I was wondering when I first got the unit if muting would be the “fix” when the new firmware came out so I was not too surprised after I did the update. The end result of this is a somewhat better experience but not perfect. Random clicks still occur on individual speakers when the sound format or bit rate changes. Better than the whole system clicking but still an annoyance. Navigating around the menus of my streaming devices seems to produce the bulk of these clicks.
The muting. With the implementation of muting to hide the clicks that occur during format and bit rate switching, we have traded loud clicks for a couple seconds of silence. This is mostly an issue with streaming devices that understand that impatient people don’t want to wait for buffering of the highest quality stream to start playing content. What this means is that a few seconds into a video (sometimes during some important dialogue) we get a couple seconds of silence as the sound format changes to a higher quality format. I’m again assuming that if there was a true firmware fix to this issue it would have been implemented by now. Is that a correct assumption? Do I need to wait for the Gen 4 units to come out next year and do a trade in to truly get this issue fixed so I can experience seamless and undetectable audio switching?
Input switching. It seems to take so long. I get that the HDMI handshake is not instantaneous but it seems a bit slower than my old Denon. The other thing that I’m hoping can be fixed in the next firmware is that the unit will go through this slow switching process even when it does not need to. For example, I am already on input 1 and I press the input 1 button on the remote. For some reason (is this really by design?) the RMC-1 does not realize it is already on input 1 and goes through the whole slow process (with several seconds of black screen) of going back to where it already was. Now, one might tell me to not be a dummy by pressing the remote button for input 1 again. But that is really not the issue. When putting together a home theater with components at this price point, many of us enthusiasts naturally implement automation into our systems. Commands via LAN and all that. What this means is that an automation that, for instance, tells my Apple TV to open the Netflix app will also include a command to the processor to make sure it is on the correct input for the Apple TV. Now an agreeable RMC-1 would receive that command and think, yes yes, I’m already on input 1 so I’m going to just ignore that command to switch to input 1. My disagreeable RMC-1 however decides it needs to let go of the input it already has and reestablish the handshake. Black screen of annoyance. ~sigh~
Other random glitches. I have had to restart the unit (back switch) a few times to resolve some random issues. One was the failure of the unit to show the availability of Dirac Live even though it is always on the network and had successfully been used several times. Another was no sound coming out which has happened a handful of times. Sometimes sluggish response while navigating the menu system.
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Post by fabhund on Jan 11, 2023 11:11:52 GMT -5
Firmware v3.1 experience on a newer RMC-1 so far: The clicks. It seems evident to me that this is a physical design issue with the circuitry architecture as the only fix seems to be a muting strategy implemented when the clicks are most likely to occur. I was wondering when I first got the unit if muting would be the “fix” when the new firmware came out so I was not too surprised after I did the update. The end result of this is a somewhat better experience but not perfect. Random clicks still occur on individual speakers when the sound format or bit rate changes. Better than the whole system clicking but still an annoyance. Navigating around the menus of my streaming devices seems to produce the bulk of these clicks. The muting. With the implementation of muting to hide the clicks that occur during format and bit rate switching, we have traded loud clicks for a couple seconds of silence. This is mostly an issue with streaming devices that understand that impatient people don’t want to wait for buffering of the highest quality stream to start playing content. What this means is that a few seconds into a video (sometimes during some important dialogue) we get a couple seconds of silence as the sound format changes to a higher quality format. I’m again assuming that if there was a true firmware fix to this issue it would have been implemented by now. Is that a correct assumption? Do I need to wait for the Gen 4 units to come out next year and do a trade in to truly get this issue fixed so I can experience seamless and undetectable audio switching? Input switching. It seems to take so long. I get that the HDMI handshake is not instantaneous but it seems a bit slower than my old Denon. The other thing that I’m hoping can be fixed in the next firmware is that the unit will go through this slow switching process even when it does not need to. For example, I am already on input 1 and I press the input 1 button on the remote. For some reason (is this really by design?) the RMC-1 does not realize it is already on input 1 and goes through the whole slow process (with several seconds of black screen) of going back to where it already was. Now, one might tell me to not be a dummy by pressing the remote button for input 1 again. But that is really not the issue. When putting together a home theater with components at this price point, many of us enthusiasts naturally implement automation into our systems. Commands via LAN and all that. What this means is that an automation that, for instance, tells my Apple TV to open the Netflix app will also include a command to the processor to make sure it is on the correct input for the Apple TV. Now an agreeable RMC-1 would receive that command and think, yes yes, I’m already on input 1 so I’m going to just ignore that command to switch to input 1. My disagreeable RMC-1 however decides it needs to let go of the input it already has and reestablish the handshake. Black screen of annoyance. ~sigh~ Other random glitches. I have had to restart the unit (back switch) a few times to resolve some random issues. One was the failure of the unit to show the availability of Dirac Live even though it is always on the network and had successfully been used several times. Another was no sound coming out which has happened a handful of times. Sometimes sluggish response while navigating the menu system. acepaul, thanks for sharing your findings/experiences in great details. This made me decide to stay on current release on my RMC-1. Would love the features and fixes, but not if the end result, can end up as described above.
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Post by millst on Jan 11, 2023 16:21:56 GMT -5
The tradeoff between muting too much and pops/clicks is nothing new. It's inherent in all Emo's pre-pros. Other companies do it better. Anyone who thinks they'll get it right in the next gen is foolish IMO. There are plenty of threads discussing it so no need for a rehash.
I'm pretty sure that the resync when pressing the input button for the currently selected input is an intentional design decision. It has been suggested for troubleshooting handshake issues (faster than switching to a different input and back again since you only have to go through the process once). Whether it behaved like that in every iteration of the firmware, I'm not sure.
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Post by Gary Cook on Jan 11, 2023 19:58:49 GMT -5
Firmware v3.1 experience on a newer RMC-1 so far: The clicks. It seems evident to me that this is a physical design issue with the circuitry architecture as the only fix seems to be a muting strategy implemented when the clicks are most likely to occur. I was wondering when I first got the unit if muting would be the “fix” when the new firmware came out so I was not too surprised after I did the update. The end result of this is a somewhat better experience but not perfect. Random clicks still occur on individual speakers when the sound format or bit rate changes. Better than the whole system clicking but still an annoyance. Navigating around the menus of my streaming devices seems to produce the bulk of these clicks. The muting. With the implementation of muting to hide the clicks that occur during format and bit rate switching, we have traded loud clicks for a couple seconds of silence. This is mostly an issue with streaming devices that understand that impatient people don’t want to wait for buffering of the highest quality stream to start playing content. What this means is that a few seconds into a video (sometimes during some important dialogue) we get a couple seconds of silence as the sound format changes to a higher quality format. I’m again assuming that if there was a true firmware fix to this issue it would have been implemented by now. Is that a correct assumption? Do I need to wait for the Gen 4 units to come out next year and do a trade in to truly get this issue fixed so I can experience seamless and undetectable audio switching? Input switching. It seems to take so long. I get that the HDMI handshake is not instantaneous but it seems a bit slower than my old Denon. The other thing that I’m hoping can be fixed in the next firmware is that the unit will go through this slow switching process even when it does not need to. For example, I am already on input 1 and I press the input 1 button on the remote. For some reason (is this really by design?) the RMC-1 does not realize it is already on input 1 and goes through the whole slow process (with several seconds of black screen) of going back to where it already was. Now, one might tell me to not be a dummy by pressing the remote button for input 1 again. But that is really not the issue. When putting together a home theater with components at this price point, many of us enthusiasts naturally implement automation into our systems. Commands via LAN and all that. What this means is that an automation that, for instance, tells my Apple TV to open the Netflix app will also include a command to the processor to make sure it is on the correct input for the Apple TV. Now an agreeable RMC-1 would receive that command and think, yes yes, I’m already on input 1 so I’m going to just ignore that command to switch to input 1. My disagreeable RMC-1 however decides it needs to let go of the input it already has and reestablish the handshake. Black screen of annoyance. ~sigh~ Other random glitches. I have had to restart the unit (back switch) a few times to resolve some random issues. One was the failure of the unit to show the availability of Dirac Live even though it is always on the network and had successfully been used several times. Another was no sound coming out which has happened a handful of times. Sometimes sluggish response while navigating the menu system. I do get several "clicks" while the DCP handshaking is going on, but once that is completed between the devices I have never experienced a single "click". Not once, ever, when either of my 2 streaming sources (Apple TV & Foxtel) are changing format. Cheers Gary
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Post by krobar on Jan 12, 2023 6:13:25 GMT -5
I think his assumption is only 45 voted…….seriously. This is my assumption too. Can't assume too much. Just like you can't assume 2/3 think it's better. Of those taking the time to vote, 2/3 find it better. Satisfied people don't post much. Mostly the squeaky wheels. But seriously, if you read his post you'd have seen: " Out of 2000 happy customers only 45 voted……. seriously." I agree; this is actually a pretty positive result for the V3 firmware IMHO, happy users are less likely to use the forums or vote.
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baku
Minor Hero
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Post by baku on Mar 8, 2023 7:34:09 GMT -5
Other random glitches. I have had to restart the unit (back switch) a few times to resolve some random issues. One was the failure of the unit to show the availability of Dirac Live even though it is always on the network and had successfully been used several times. Another was no sound coming out which has happened a handful of times. Sometimes sluggish response while navigating the menu system. Jumped the train yesterday updated my XMC-2 2.3 to 3.1. Besides the longer boot time now with updating fonts, the navigating experience is a bit sluggish now including the responce time of gain change from the unit orbthe remote. I have only one HDMI (PC with RTX3080) connected with usb and balance in occupied. Have experienced a full mute several times and had ro restart the unit. It happened with HDMI input usage probably due to sound rate/ PCM speakers config switching. Simply for no obvious reason there is no more sound output. Once it happens - no more sound with any other input until restart... Not checked dirac yet.
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cawgijoe
Emo VIPs
"When you come to a fork in the road, take it." - Yogi Berra
Posts: 5,035
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Post by cawgijoe on Mar 8, 2023 7:45:00 GMT -5
Other random glitches. I have had to restart the unit (back switch) a few times to resolve some random issues. One was the failure of the unit to show the availability of Dirac Live even though it is always on the network and had successfully been used several times. Another was no sound coming out which has happened a handful of times. Sometimes sluggish response while navigating the menu system. Jumped the train yesterday updated my XMC-2 2.3 to 3.1. Besides the longer boot time now with updating fonts, the navigating experience is a bit sluggish now including the responce time of gain change from the unit orbthe remote. I have only one HDMI (PC with RTX3080) connected with usb and balance in occupied. Have experienced a full mute several times and had ro restart the unit. It happened with HDMI input usage probably due to sound rate/ PCM speakers config switching. Simply for no obvious reason there is no more sound output. Once it happens - no more sound with any other input until restart... Not checked dirac yet. Ask Emotiva for the latest beta to get rid of the "updating fonts" message. Not sure if the beta will help with your other issues, but you can at least get rid of that annoyance.
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Post by hsamwel on Mar 9, 2023 13:19:25 GMT -5
Jumped the train yesterday updated my XMC-2 2.3 to 3.1. Besides the longer boot time now with updating fonts, the navigating experience is a bit sluggish now including the responce time of gain change from the unit orbthe remote. I have only one HDMI (PC with RTX3080) connected with usb and balance in occupied. Have experienced a full mute several times and had ro restart the unit. It happened with HDMI input usage probably due to sound rate/ PCM speakers config switching. Simply for no obvious reason there is no more sound output. Once it happens - no more sound with any other input until restart... Not checked dirac yet. Ask Emotiva for the latest beta to get rid of the "updating fonts" message. Not sure if the beta will help with your other issues, but you can at least get rid of that annoyance. But it’s actually ridiculous that they can’t release a firmware that isn’t beta for those that don’t want to use betas. My prediction for no new firmware before june is soon becoming reality.
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cawgijoe
Emo VIPs
"When you come to a fork in the road, take it." - Yogi Berra
Posts: 5,035
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Post by cawgijoe on Mar 9, 2023 13:34:15 GMT -5
Ask Emotiva for the latest beta to get rid of the "updating fonts" message. Not sure if the beta will help with your other issues, but you can at least get rid of that annoyance. But it’s actually ridiculous that they can’t release a firmware that isn’t beta for those that don’t want to use betas. My prediction for no new firmware before june is soon becoming reality. At least this solves an annoying issue. As you well know, complaining here doesn't do any good.
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Post by hsamwel on Mar 9, 2023 15:53:47 GMT -5
But it’s actually ridiculous that they can’t release a firmware that isn’t beta for those that don’t want to use betas. My prediction for no new firmware before june is soon becoming reality. At least this solves an annoying issue. As you well know, complaining here doesn't do any good. Where do you suggest then? To Emotiva support? As that would speed things up.. Yes, it solves some issues. But, it still is beta! Why not release it as a 3.2 as is? It can’t be less stable than any other firmware released? Why the need to fix 1000 other small things before? Doing this makes the beta testing so much harder.
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cawgijoe
Emo VIPs
"When you come to a fork in the road, take it." - Yogi Berra
Posts: 5,035
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Post by cawgijoe on Mar 9, 2023 23:10:10 GMT -5
At least this solves an annoying issue. As you well know, complaining here doesn't do any good. Where do you suggest then? To Emotiva support? As that would speed things up.. Yes, it solves some issues. But, it still is beta! Why not release it as a 3.2 as is? It can’t be less stable than any other firmware released? Why the need to fix 1000 other small things before? Doing this makes the beta testing so much harder. Asking for my suggestion does no good. Asking me why, doesn’t get you or anyone else answers. I know Keith has tried to answer as to why they don’t fix and release one or two issues at a time…I believe they prefer to have fewer releases but fix more issues. My suggestion would be to reach out to Keith for any news on the status of the next firmware release.
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Post by modicen on Mar 10, 2023 7:06:12 GMT -5
Where do you suggest then? To Emotiva support? As that would speed things up.. Yes, it solves some issues. But, it still is beta! Why not release it as a 3.2 as is? It can’t be less stable than any other firmware released? Why the need to fix 1000 other small things before? Doing this makes the beta testing so much harder. Asking for my suggestion does no good. Asking me why, doesn’t get you or anyone else answers. I know Keith has tried to answer as to why they don’t fix and release one or two issues at a time…I believe they prefer to have fewer releases but fix more issues. My suggestion would be to reach out to Keith for any news on the status of the next firmware release. But meanwhile let folks suffer through annoying problems with their expensive equipment for months (sometimes almost a year) on end instead of coming out with smaller fixes in a timely manner. I don’t get Emotiva ‘s thought process on that.
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Post by JNieves on Mar 10, 2023 10:26:48 GMT -5
Where do you suggest then? To Emotiva support? As that would speed things up.. Yes, it solves some issues. But, it still is beta! Why not release it as a 3.2 as is? It can’t be less stable than any other firmware released? Why the need to fix 1000 other small things before? Doing this makes the beta testing so much harder. What's the difference between a somewhat buggy beta version and a somewhat buggy release version? Especially if they release it "as is" - which would involve just slapping a "release" label on what they have right now? If released "as is" the only difference between what you can get right now and what you say you want want is the file name... The fix for your problem is just an email away... to Emotiva support.
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Post by marcl on Mar 10, 2023 10:47:13 GMT -5
Different companies handle Beta testing various ways.
For example, I have been a Beta tester for a photography software application for many years. Each year I sign an NDA, and I get versions of the software 6 or 8 months before the planned release. When we get each Beta, they tell us what's new, what's working, what isn't working yet, what's planned, etc. With each Beta release - which could be every month or so until general release - they add functionality and often ask for feedback on a feature working one way or another. They often change a feature based on feedback, or even drop it from the release if it isn't working well enough yet. The major functional releases are always on time, and they drop public updates several times during the following year with minor enhancements and bug fixes. And, I don't know how many Beta testers they have ... but it's certainly dozens.
Emotiva doesn't seem to work this way, which is fine. But this case of 3.1.2 is a little unusual in that it's relatively freely available for the asking.
p.s. back in the 90's when I worked on software for power plant control systems we used to joke ... Alpha Release - nobody tested it; Beta Release - somebody tested it and some stuff doesn't work and other stuff probably works; Production Release - somebody tested it and it seems to work, but something probably doesn't work and we don't know what it is. And off to the customer controlling 2000 degree steam, spinning turbines and coal-crushing pulverizers!
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KeithL
Administrator
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Post by KeithL on Mar 10, 2023 12:22:07 GMT -5
Lucky for them that most software only has to work on a limited number or combinations of platforms... The main problem we have is that HDMI devices are so "aggressively interactive" - they "insist" on interacting quite heavily with each other. And, of course, what's actually "going on inside" with HDMI is absurdly complicated. And, to make matters worse, the standards themselves are extremely complex, and include many areas with a lot of "wiggle room". Together this means that even devices that individually appear to comply perfectly with the standards may refuse to work properly together... And you often discover unexpected issues when you try specific combinations of sources, displays, processing circuitry, and code. So, even if our processor follows the standard, it may still not work properly with some other devices, or with specific combinations of other devices. The problem is that there are an almost infinite number of possible combinations of HDMI sources and displays... And, of course, for many of them, there are a large number of internal variations and firmware revisions too... (Just start counting how many models, internal chip sets, and firmware versions, you can have with "a simple little AppleTV box".) So, no matter how many people we have beta testing, we can only test a tiny percentage of the total possible combinations of other gear with our processors... (And we're not in a situation where it's practical to have, and keep track of, even a few thousand beta testers.) I'll also take the opportunity to say that expectations have changed. I can still recall the days when computers were "new, expensive, and complex technology"... When you bought a server-grade SCSI drive both the drive and the controller card that went with it complied with the standard... (This is back when a server-rated SCSI hard drive cost $3000 and a high-end SCSI controller card was $800... which together was about the price of a new car.) Yet, even though both the drive and the controller complied with a standard, each manufacturer included a list of compatible devices... And it was... strongly recommended... by both manufacturers that you "stick to products that were on their list". (Imagine if every TV came with a list of sources it would work with and every Blu-Ray player came with a list of compatible TV sets.) Things have gotten a lot better... but modern products and standards have also gotten far more complicated... And, back in the 90's, power plants were a lot simpler too... And, back then, you didn't have to worry about things like StuxNet (at least not much)... Different companies handle Beta testing various ways. For example, I have been a Beta tester for a photography software application for many years. Each year I sign an NDA, and I get versions of the software 6 or 8 months before the planned release. When we get each Beta, they tell us what's new, what's working, what isn't working yet, what's planned, etc. With each Beta release - which could be every month or so until general release - they add functionality and often ask for feedback on a feature working one way or another. They often change a feature based on feedback, or even drop it from the release if it isn't working well enough yet. The major functional releases are always on time, and they drop public updates several times during the following year with minor enhancements and bug fixes. And, I don't know how many Beta testers they have ... but it's certainly dozens. Emotiva doesn't seem to work this way, which is fine. But this case of 3.1.2 is a little unusual in that it's relatively freely available for the asking. p.s. back in the 90's when I worked on software for power plant control systems we used to joke ... Alpha Release - nobody tested it; Beta Release - somebody tested it and some stuff doesn't work and other stuff probably works; Production Release - somebody tested it and it seems to work, but something probably doesn't work and we don't know what it is. And off to the customer controlling 2000 degree steam, spinning turbines and coal-crushing pulverizers!
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Post by marcl on Mar 10, 2023 12:45:20 GMT -5
Lucky for them that most software only has to work on a limited number or combinations of platforms... The main problem we have is that HDMI devices are so "aggressively interactive" - they "insist" on interacting quite heavily with each other. And, of course, what's actually "going on inside" with HDMI is absurdly complicated. And, to make matters worse, the standards themselves are extremely complex, and include many areas with a lot of "wiggle room". Together this means that even devices that individually appear to comply perfectly with the standards may refuse to work properly together... And you often discover unexpected issues when you try specific combinations of sources, displays, processing circuitry, and code. So, even if our processor follows the standard, it may still not work properly with some other devices, or with specific combinations of other devices. The problem is that there are an almost infinite number of possible combinations of HDMI sources and displays... And, of course, for many of them, there are a large number of internal variations and firmware revisions too... (Just start counting how many models, internal chip sets, and firmware versions, you can have with "a simple little AppleTV box".) So, no matter how many people we have beta testing, we can only test a tiny percentage of the total possible combinations of other gear with our processors... (And we're not in a situation where it's practical to have, and keep track of, even a few thousand beta testers.) I'll also take the opportunity to say that expectations have changed. I can still recall the days when computers were "new, expensive, and complex technology"... When you bought a server-grade SCSI drive both the drive and the controller card that went with it complied with the standard... (This is back when a server-rated SCSI hard drive cost $3000 and a high-end SCSI controller card was $800... which together was about the price of a new car.) Yet, even though both the drive and the controller complied with a standard, each manufacturer included a list of compatible devices... And it was... strongly recommended... by both manufacturers that you "stick to products that were on their list". (Imagine if every TV came with a list of sources it would work with and every Blu-Ray player came with a list of compatible TV sets.) Things have gotten a lot better... but modern products and standards have also gotten far more complicated... And, back in the 90's, power plants were a lot simpler too... And, back then, you didn't have to worry about things like StuxNet (at least not much)... Different companies handle Beta testing various ways. For example, I have been a Beta tester for a photography software application for many years. Each year I sign an NDA, and I get versions of the software 6 or 8 months before the planned release. When we get each Beta, they tell us what's new, what's working, what isn't working yet, what's planned, etc. With each Beta release - which could be every month or so until general release - they add functionality and often ask for feedback on a feature working one way or another. They often change a feature based on feedback, or even drop it from the release if it isn't working well enough yet. The major functional releases are always on time, and they drop public updates several times during the following year with minor enhancements and bug fixes. And, I don't know how many Beta testers they have ... but it's certainly dozens. Emotiva doesn't seem to work this way, which is fine. But this case of 3.1.2 is a little unusual in that it's relatively freely available for the asking. p.s. back in the 90's when I worked on software for power plant control systems we used to joke ... Alpha Release - nobody tested it; Beta Release - somebody tested it and some stuff doesn't work and other stuff probably works; Production Release - somebody tested it and it seems to work, but something probably doesn't work and we don't know what it is. And off to the customer controlling 2000 degree steam, spinning turbines and coal-crushing pulverizers! More beta testers might not help things. Maybe you could have people apply, and choose based on hardware configurations to cast a broader net over the HDMI beast. But we do get very hung up on HDMI being the huge variable that it is. There are also non-video sources and the behavior of non-HDMI-related functions ... like Bass Management, PEQ, Dirac, Loudness, Audio Modes, speaker configurations .... lots of variables but nowhere near as daunting as HDMI ... and I believe all of which have had issues of one sort or another in the past. Yeah the photo software just has to deal with a few Operating System versions, Processor and GPU combinations ... and quite a few proprietary RAW files to decode. The power plants ... well back then we were sometimes upgrading 1st gen digital, but often analog and even pneumatic systems. Windows 3.1 and then 95 and NT ... and woohoo the first Pentium processors! The Beta was the first customer ... that was it.
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Post by skippyturtle on Mar 10, 2023 16:05:34 GMT -5
I wish they could get a Linux guru in house to just fix these issues and clean up the GUI. The menu I find to be very slow. This is my first pre/pro from them and it may be my last. Just to many bugs, and slow software bug fixes. But that may just be me.
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Post by hsamwel on Mar 10, 2023 16:17:54 GMT -5
Where do you suggest then? To Emotiva support? As that would speed things up.. Yes, it solves some issues. But, it still is beta! Why not release it as a 3.2 as is? It can’t be less stable than any other firmware released? Why the need to fix 1000 other small things before? Doing this makes the beta testing so much harder. What's the difference between a somewhat buggy beta version and a somewhat buggy release version? Especially if they release it "as is" - which would involve just slapping a "release" label on what they have right now? If released "as is" the only difference between what you can get right now and what you say you want want is the file name... The fix for your problem is just an email away... to Emotiva support. No difference at all regarding Emotiva IMO. Their ”stable” releases haven’t been more stable than the betas.. Actually the opposit! The reason for releasing the 3.1.2 as a ”stable” release is that some don’t want to install betas. The 3.1 release version is a lot worse than the beta in many ways, not only the fonts issue. I have the beta installed and it’s working fine as most firmwares has been for me. Many do rate a product from the current stable software release. It does not do Emotiva any favours having 3.1 as the current stable firmware.
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Post by hsamwel on Mar 10, 2023 16:48:09 GMT -5
I wish they could get a Linux guru in house to just fix these issues and clean up the GUI. The menu I find to be very slow. This is my first pre/pro from them and it may be my last. Just to many bugs, and slow software bug fixes. But that may just be me. They have told us for years that this is not possible. They have a live updated menu system. I guess every time you move inside it it checks for changes and updates. Even in places where it doesn’t need live updates. It’s extremely annoying. I have actually not seen such a slow interface since the early ’90s.. But I think this isn’t the biggest issue. The GUI overlay system that let’s you have live video seen through it is the biggest CPU hogger. The processors doesn’t seem to have a GPU that can handle this in hardware so when the CPU have to handle it it becomes really slow just like it did in the past with Windows (3.1 and 95/98) when the CPUs handled video overlay. To me it feels like they have this really fast multi core CPU but only drive it with a single core. Everything just feels so slow compared to what’s actually shown on screen. Simple text based, MSDOS like system. Still takes 2-3 seconds to do a screen redraw. If you turn off the TV/projector and move around in the setup you’ll notice the difference when watching the front display of the processors.
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