My player is back from repair, much quicker than I expected. On the RMA form was written "Formatted HDD & tested, works fine."

Well, a hopeful sign. But to make sure that my 64 bits Windows 7 PC which seems to have started my problems wouldn't mess things up for me I decided to start by first attaching my high quality Verbatim external drive directly to the player. Result: de player noticed tha drive and started reading. Up to a certain point and then stopped in the middle of a directory with photographs in it. When instead I put in a USB stick with tv episodes, no problem, it read fine and the files could be played. But that way of transmission surely is not my favourite as it is cumbersome.

However, trying to play the files from the USB stick I find out that the sound is abominable, hardly intelligeable at times. Same bad quality as when I try to use internet applications. Totally useless audio. Does anyone know: Should I go back to an older firmware or is there any other remedy?

Also a major problem is that the new firmware doesn't match the manual. I have been advised to use the manual of a 73700 player but even when I place both manuals side to side I get unexpected problems. The files I want to move from the USB stick to the harddisk are from a long running tv series. So when I have to indicate a destination I'd love to use the option "New Folder". For that I need to push in the button with the letter Q it says.
Yeah, a Q... where is a Q? Not on my remote control. So check the manual of the 73700, not there either, so check the manual of the 73100 - there not either. So try out some buttons, one after the other, no result so far.

But then again, why am I doing this? Even if I could find the way to create a new folder, I'd never want to use a player that destroys the sound of my recordings.... I tried to call A.C.Ryan but ended up in a seemingly endless waiting line so that's no affordable option either. Sad...

PS: it's worse than I expected: he still doesn't give the internal 2TB harddisk as an option to copy the files from the USB stick to. I can either select the USB stick which he calls C: or I can go to the network. NO OTHER DESTINATIONS ARE GIVEN, it's either USB or Network. No internat HD what one would expect. The player still doesn't seem to see it's own harddisk!

Nothing at all seems to have been resolved unless of course I happen to make some dramatic operating error.

Could the Q button be the magnifying glass (zoom) button?

No, I tried both zoom-in and zoom-out. I also tried most other buttons.
But as long as I have an audio that can't be listened to and a harddisk that isn't seen by the player, why even bother?
Just to be sure that i don't make some dumb mistake: when I turn on the player with just the hdmi cable attached to the tv screen, and I see that there is only Network, UPnP and NFS aboard, nothing about harddisk, this seems to be a confirmation that the player doesn't see it's own harddisk, isn't it?

The default audio volume after a firmware installation is low. Turn the volume of the Playon (buttons in the centre of your remote) to maximum and adjust the actual volume with your TV or receiver.

That's one of the first things I did, I first had thought the opposite (deformation due to a too loud volume setting). The factory set volume was around 75%, I went from next to 0% until 100% adjusting the volume of my amplifier accordingly but the distorted audio remained a fact.

Looking at the manual of my 73100 I find the following instruction: (translated from Dutch):
Question: My files and directories have disappeared from my player, what should I do?
Answer: Make sure you use the correct browser mode: Pay attention to the filters on top of the screen: All, Music, Photo and Films.
If you still can't find anything, look into System Info to see if your hard disk is recognized by your player.

Well, perhaps that was possible under the old software, but using the latest one named v7.4.4.r7317 there just isn't any option in the setup that seems to do this. You can scan the storage (auto scan off or on) you can (theoretically anyway) format the HDD and you can scan the HDD for errors.

Noticeably the option scan HDD for errors leads to an immediate response "Scan complete, any errors found had been automatically fixed". This comes as an immedia response within a fraction of a second. Considering that it's a 2TB harddisk it seems impossible that any real check took place. The same response came before I had sent in the player when the HDD contained about 29 GB of avi files that weren't seen by the player.

The error scan checks the file system and as your disk is empty after formatting, there is very little to be checked. The fact that the scanning finishes without error messages, in my opinion shows that the hard disk is recognized by the system.

In the miscellaneous (diversen) section of the settings menu you can view the system and network information, but I do not know if that shows the hard disk.

If you live near Rotterdam, why not make an appointment with AC Ryan and have them demonstrate that the unit is working correctly?

Like I said, the scan also reacted that way when the HDD contained about 500 films that weren't seen anymore after I upgraded the software successfully. And no, I don't live anywhere near Rotterdam.

The fact that the player worked fine under it's original software including normal sound, and now after upgrading has become totally useless seems an indication that it's not me.

But I also think that perhaps this forum isn't the best place to be. With all due respect, just like last time I don't get straight answers about concrete questions like "how do you verify that the player sees the HDD" or "is it normal that in Bestandsbeheer only Network, UPnP and NFS are listed as Apparaten"?

I can't blaim you if you lack the knowledge or experience to answer such questions but please just say that you don't know. Last time it caused me to format my preformatted HDD again without there being any need to do so and now again you seek the fault with me instead of answering the questions I just gave (or acknowledging that you don't know it either).

A forum is a great place to seek help but it does require that at least some specialists are present who are sufficiently qualified to give proper advice. Leaving all concrete questions unanswered and then launching other unbased theories only gets people into deeper troubles. Or should I have tried the Dutch language board perhaps?

Perhaps you should have but you will need to change your attitude to get any assistance.

To be continued in the Dutch forum and locked here because of forum rule 6.