After listening to users of CH3SNAS I finally present you the 1.04RC3 which will be released on the official webpage soon as 1.04-0627 version

Release notes:

In this release we have fixed a number of issues needed to be fixed for an official release:

(this release is about to be released through the official channel as wel as official supported download)

1. http://ch3snas/server.pem & http://ch3snas/etc/shadow can reveal information: fixed
2. Certain UPnP Devices (Like PlayStation 3) could only browse but not play content: fixed
3. Files > 2GB could not be played entirely: should be fixed
4. Issue with mt-daapd when using bonjour tool: Partly fix: we only support to see the status. New features needed can be proposed and if useful, we can try to add.

Please reset your device to factory defaults after upgrading to have certain scripts work properly. Without resetting to factory defaults I cannot guarantee any option to work properly.

Download the 1.04RC3 file here.

Posted in Generic, Work 18 Comments »

It could be possible that you encounter an issue with a certain multimediafile (music / video / photo) during playback on the CFULLHDMA.

To analyze your issue it is important to have exactly the same content you are using. A lot of people do not have the ability to provide the content themselves, but are able to upload.

If you have issues and want to share them with me: upload your content to my FTP server. Create a folder and put there the file including a text file with the issue (English language please)

ftp://ftp.aroundmyroom.com - Username: conceptronic - Password: cfullhdma

You can upload, resume etc.. but you cannot download .. so do not bother trying (but you will) … If this FTP ability is successful I will keep using it, otherwise I will close the FTP again.

For freaks: I use a little updated version of these PROFTPD settings to prevent downloading and some other things ..

Posted in Work 3 Comments »

Announcement:

v1.09.14

• 1. Solving the artefact issue on MKV files caused some issues at the On Screen Display: fixed.
• 2. CFULLHDMA could not work with Twonky Media Server on Music Level due to usage of M3U by Twonky. CFULLHDMA used it as PlayList, Twonky has other purpose for it, so things got messed up: fixed.
• 3. Issues with playing DVD’s and subtitles. It could not switched correctly (manually) and when selected it did not start at the beginning of the video. Fixed.
• 4. IMedia entries (like NFS) could not be edited after saving it. Fixed.
• 5. In the background errors on NFS could be created. An error causes the device to crash: fixed.
• 6. Files with for instance dvsd codec type crashed the codec engine: dvsd is not supported, crash fixed.
• 7. Certain movie files could not played properly (freezing video): fixed.

only available for beta testers (Check your mail. gmail accounts: it can be in your spam mailbox, Hotmail accounts are totally unknown if they get it .. Unreliable email host.

Posted in Generic, Work 37 Comments »

This image from MediaInfo is showing the information of a MKV file which is causing artefacts on a SD 8635 based mediaplayer (like the Conceptronic CFULLHDMA).

I write this entry to have myself informed better about video encoding and get knowlegde about possiblities to find solutions getting things to work if hardware is not capable of doing due to limitations.

One of the major reasons of getting the artefacts are the amount of reference frames used in: I frame, P frame and B frame.

When we check WikiPedia for information about why we should use L4.1 or L5.1 than we can read that L5.1 should be used for high bitrates only. Even HDDVD and Blueray are encoded on L4.1 level

Although L5.1 is supported by the 8635 up to a certain extend, there will still be some clips with artefacts when playing the L5.1 profile.

Sigma Designs does not support L5.1 for their chipset. If they would say so, than they have to ensure 100% compatibility, including the ‘very’ high bitrates. The higher the bitrate, the more memory/processor power (and more) is needed to decode it. And even if we could extend memory still we would see clips with artefacts (if the bitrate would be high up to a certain level.

So if you want to ensure yourself with correct playable media you have to use these max. number of frames:

1280×720@68.3 (9), 1920×1088@30.1 (4), 2048×1024@30.0 (4) L4.1 (Source: Wikipedia)

You will not get better quality when using more stored frames when the resolution, bitrates and framerates are within the level 4.1. Even it is not understandable why some encoders / people within the ’scene’ are using L5.1 encoding when video bitrates are <25 Mb/s. What for use has it? Even if the original source is L4.1 it has no use to bring it to Level 5.1 and I’ve barely seen people using high bitrated uncompressed masters for encoding.

A valid question could be: how to play the L5.1 encoded clip without artefacts.

My answer: the easiest way is to remux the file to a TS or a M2TS stream.

Another simple tool for users like me could be: RIPBOT264. This tool was working fine when remuxing a 150MB MKV L5.1 clip I used for testing.

more info about ripbot264 can be found here.

This tool can remux the L5.1 file to L4.1 with correct reference frames, keep the audio as it is and put it all back in the MKV… (no idea about subtitles though).

A simple guide for ripbot can be found here

if you want to remux your clip to MP4 than I advise you to use Gotsent, This program can be found here

More all-in-one tools I did not find yet. Other tools do need a bunch of other programs to accomplish the same.

So sometimes it seems that a ’scene’ release is awesome encoded, but the performance is poor as hardware is not capable of decode it without artefacts or other issues

update: with the beta release of 1.09.11 firmware we were able to have L5.1 supported. Although not 100% of all files  can be played without artefacts (there are some reasons why it can’t be all) but I think 95% of the content we can .. And that is a huge huge improvement compared to other Sigma Designs 8634/8635 players. 

Posted in Work 4 Comments »

Release Candiate 2 1.04 firmware CH3SNAS

if this version is suitable enough it will be released on the Conceptronic website as 1.04 relaease.

In this firmware release:

UPnP Server instant update bug.

For freaks: the /usr/bin/inotify_upnp script was only be executed or running when the server was enabled and folder is ROOT, when enabling another folder, only prescan was executed. (Thanks Matthijs for doing some testings with me and having patience ;-) ).

Support for IFO, M2TS, TS, MKV etc. was added. Note: it’s extremely important that your media device is capable of working with UPnP AV with these extensions (especially on IFO and ISO part cause it can cause some issues when reading this data (unexpected UPnP AV feature).

A second remark is that you have to disable the UPnP server totally and reboot, so that the database will be updated removed and updated totally. Cause it’s possible that certain files are not being indexed or seen after disable / reboot / enable.

We also added a new feature in this 1.04RC2 release:

It is possible that a RAID1 enters a ‘DEGRADED’ status. Normally, after a reboot, the device will ‘RESYNC’ the HDD contents automatically. But in certain conditions the status will not change from ‘DEGRADED’ into RESYNC’ and you can only fix that when forcing the HDD to be member of the array again (fun_plug needed). The feature will only be seen when using your Harddisk in RAID1 mode.

A reboot is required for a forced resync.

Feedback is appreciated

Posted in Work 35 Comments »

Morgen mijn ‘air-miles’ weer aanvullen.. ‘even’ voor een meeting naar Barcelona ..

je moet er wat voor over hebben om mooie produktjes op de markt te kunnen zetten .. Zo heb je net 1 project afgesloten en begleid je de introductie zijn er alweer 3 of 4 nieuwe projecten aan de gang ..

Never a dull moment kun je wel zeggen …

Ben je net zoals ik een freak? We zoeken nog aardige, leuke, goed geschoolde collega’s, die het leuk vinden om van een muisje en een mediaspeler iets moois te maken ..  ;-)

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Junkies always like to see the inside of a device. Today I made some images for you

Enjoy!

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v01.09.04 [beta testers version]
this version is only interesting for those who want to play with NFS …

1. support NFS (experimental)

Support for NFS shares is added through the iMEDIA menu button
Add a new station: give it a name and enter for the address
nfs://ip-address:/path
for example when using CH3SNAS with NFS you can enter nfs://192.168.1.20:/mnt/HD_a2
when pressing ok you will notice that the ICON is still a blue circle, go out of this menu and go to the main menu or ie. setup menu. Re-enter the iMedia folder and the blue circle is changed into a folder. When entering this folder the actually mount of the NFS share is being executed
and you can access the NFS shares you have created in your exports file.

sidenote: if the icon has changed in a folder through the BGM button you can only edit the title, if you need to change the path, you have to enter a new station. If the icon is still the blue circle you can edit all through the BGM button

this feature is experimental and we are checking how to make it more userfriendly. But hey .. NFS itself is not really userfriendly ;-) its for linux geeks only, no linux box/nas no NFS

2. remove PowerOff warning/error message
3. fix small avi ( ~10M ) segmenataion fault issue from NAS

People who want to beta test can apply with a valid e-mail address in the comments.

Posted in Life, Work 12 Comments »

Available in the market is the Conceptronic CFULLHDMA, a FULL HD able player based on a Sigma Designs Chipset. The device is about to play almost anything and users are encouraged to give as much feedback as possible so that the device is meeting your needs as HD junkie

The released / shipping firmware is 1.08.04 but development did not stop. Through the Internet Upgrade users can already upgrade the device to 1.08.09 1.09.10

Firmware release notes for people who like to read them: (for newer version, please find it here under the CFULLHDMA tag ..

(more…)

Posted in Work 49 Comments »

Just released for those who like to test:

1.04RC1, if we get positive comments it will be released

Release notes:

We added/modified support for users and groups. The following does apply:

• A user can be a member of more than one group
  There are, however, some restrictions:

under samba, user can see “ALL” folders which he has the right to access.
under ftp, user only can see “the last mentioned” folder which he has the right to access.

• Workgroup can support any characters following the MS rule
• The UPnP Server is supporting new additional formats like: FLAC, IFO, ISO, MKV, M2TS, VC1, DIVX, AAC, M4A, SUB, APE, FLV, DV.

Please test and send me updates about the instant update of the UPnP Database, there is no refresh or crontab anymore as content is instantly updated. But I need feedback if this is working properly.

• Email alerts are now sent with valid hostname. Some SMTP servers did not accept the e-mails as a not valid hostname was sent.
• Add support for RFC3834; the e-mail New mail header “Auto-Submitted: auto-generated” is added to the message header.
• Add new function : clear printf queue, available at the menu optin Status -> Print Info
• Fixing DNS name of NTP server like: 1.conceptronic.pool.ntp.org” it was wrongly treated as IP string

Posted in Work 23 Comments »