Hi Everyone,

The last few months we have been working on a new firmware for Playon!HD and Playon!HD Mini with the new GUI2.0 implemented.

More information about GUI2.0:
viewtopic.php?f=152&t=10077

You can download the firmwares from the links below. Later in this post we have written down important information about this beta version that we recommend you read and understand before installing this firmware. This is the first release version for the Playon!HD with the new SDK and our GUI implementations. It will therefore still hold some problems we are aware of. We would like to inform you about them before installing.

Playon!HD - European Edition:
https://mega.co.nz/#!DJMxGQRA!CoTR3QoGu ... rutaOuM0ew

Playon!HD - Asian Edition:
https://mega.co.nz/#!PE0iiS5Z!ZvaMGUFfk ... nUbeBQLYXw



How to Update:
Two methods to flash the firmware to your Playon!HD

Safe-mode flashing procedure (Recommended):

1. Copy install.img to the root directory of a USB flash drive and connect it to any USB host port of the Playon!HD.
2. Switch off the main power to the unit.
3. Press and hold on to the power button on the front panel of the unit.
4. Switch on the main power.
5. Release the power button when the firmware update starts flashing on your display in a moment and
   will automatically reboot when update is completed.

**Do not power off the unit during the flashing process!**

Normal flashing procedure:

1. Copy install.img to the root directory of a USB flash drive and connect it to any USB host port of the unit.
2. Enter the Setup menu, System, USB Upgrade and Enter to confirm.
3. The firmware update will start flashing on your display in a moment and will automatically reboot when update is completed

**Do not power off the unit during the flashing process!**


What you should know before installation:

First we would like to explain why it has taken us so long to get this firmware ready and apologize for the unexpected delay we had with this release. The main delay is caused because of the difference in chipset used in the different players we produce. As the original GUI is developed for Realtek’s 1055 chipset we had to make huge adjustments for our Realtek 1073 platform, the base for our Playon!HD and Playon!HD Mini. The speed of the chipset and the amount of memory in the older platform is less than the newer players. There are therefore less resources available to run the firmware. You will therefore still experience the GUI still to be slightly sluggish. This is because of the compression rate of the images. For 1055 platform we used a high compression rate as the NAND flash to hold the firmware is a lot smaller. For 1073 we used the same compression rate while this is, with the amount of NAND flash available on the players, not needed. As the high compression rate demands a lot of resources it will take a bit more processing time than normal. We are already working on improvements and we expect to present you all with a faster working GUI in a short while. We did however, not want to hold back a first glimps of this firmware from you.

We are glad to let you know that almost all audio and HD audio formats have been tested working successfully in HDMI and SPDIF. There are unfortunately still some small problems with Dolby Digital Plus in pass-through and FLAC (some files give random stuttering). We have however, already found the problem of Dolby Digital Plus which requires changes in the core coding. We therefore expect to have this fixed in a upcoming firmware.

Within Internet Media we have included new Internet Feeds from Yahoo Finance, different Video Podcasts, and BuddyLink (which allows you to use Google Talk on your TV). Also Youtube is back in this firmware version. However, due to the GUI compression some of these features will respond a little bit slower than it should be. We are aware of this and hope to present you with a solution for this soon. You will experience the same within the SHOUTcast Radio Feature.

Yet Another Movie Jukebox has been updated with the new GUI. We released a new YAMJ GUI version already before which matches with the new GUI of the firmware. You can download this YAMJ version on our support pages (v1.0.3):

http://www.playonhd.com/en/?upn=support
(available in 32 and 64bit version)

Network speeds atm have been tested as a little bit slower than previous firmware version. We are looking into the matter and hope to present a solution in the next firmware.

Things that still need implementation in this firmware are: DVD/BD folder playback popup. When you open a DVD or BD folder with DVD or BD folder structure it will not present you with a popup if you want to playback the folder or browse it. However, when you know this is a DVD or BD folder, you can press play on the remote control to start the DVD/BD without going into the folder structure. The blue key skipping / fast forward is not yet implemented. This will however follow soon. You can still skip frames with the navigation buttons but it will function as an instant skip instead of a frame/time search bar.

Other questions you might have:

Why is the firmware number lower than the previous one?
The firmware numbers behind the r are linked to the SDK version. The SDK version is represented by the second number in the firmware version. You will see that this has changed from 3 to 4.

Why a beta?
A beta for AC Ryan is a firmware that is considered a candidate for public release. Before this release it has been tested internally by our technical staff and the beta testing group. A beta can become an official release when there are no critical or major bugs detected. An official release is always included in new players as out-of-the-box firmware. Officials are therefore more carefully selected. A beta however is considered more than safe to install on your own player. And remember, when you do not like a firmware upgrade, you can always downgrade back to previous versions.

We hope you enjoy the new GUI and feedback is more than welcome for further firmware development.

first

Second ... Great work guys!! Finally it's here... Thkx!

BR,
Ray

Third!

Downloading right away!!

first impression: looks great, seems to have a problem with my files though, gonna let it check again to see if things pick up the way they should.
Noticed a little problem with my programmable remote, seems the timing of ir codes has changed wich results in double commando's with a single press.

At this moment the slughisness is not as bad as I thought but there's room for improvement.

Gonna test on my PoHD mini tomorow, let you know what the results are.

thanks guys, great work!

edit: after a reboot files are picking up, gonna let it run overnight as I have a lot of mp3's on the internal hdd.

there's a little error on the homescreen: dutch translation for new added music spells out: nieuw toegevoegde muzie (the letter k is missing)

new update:

Files have picked up correctly, but it seems a lot of my ID3 tags are wrong hahaha so I revert back to browser mode.
When playing music the screensaver doesn't show info anymore, just a too fast jumping around icon...

Tested usb keyboard support: keyboard is detected, arrow keys, enter, esc and a bunch of other keys are working but text input doesn't work on the screens where the on screen keyboard is present.

Overall it works but there are some little nasties to iron out I guess. Oh and please use a little larger font. It's nice to see the menu is HD but now I have to walk to my tv (42") to see the help text for example...
(although it looks great on my beamer )

Tried flashing 3 times and said I have an incompatible boot loader.

Hi,

I am currently using firmware v7.0.6 r4107, got the following questions.

Do i have to perform any intermediate upgrade of firmwares before i proceed with this new beta release?

Will any upgrade cause a format or erasure of data on my hdd?

Downloading it now !!! If time allows I will give it a proper test run tomorrow.

I have to say one thing guys; fantastic support to the crowd owning the POHD first generation!

It makes me proud to be Dutch the way you are in contact with your customers. Keep up the good work.

Will post my findings as soon as I have tested the beta

For now . Good night to you all!

Flashed the firmware, but I got some strange problems.
1. HDD search for files was set to off in the setup, but after reboot new search started?
2. Tried to play a file over the network rebooted the POHD. (I will try the same file with old firmware).

To be continued...

Just found out that both USB ports on my playonhd are dead. It doesn't even supply power to the player. Is there any ways for me to update the firmware via the hdd?