Hi!
It's been since I received my PlayOn!HD that I've been trying to download files using the embedded BT client without success. Apparently, it can't keep running for more than a few minutes in a row before stopping, not to mention the fact that when I restart it, whatever data may have been downloaded disappears, and the downloads start again from 0%.
I've searched this forum, and this is clearly being an issue for many users.
Does anyone have any suggestion about how to keep it running and make it do its job properly?
Is ACRyan working on it, to make it stable enough? And... is it worth making a big marketing point of a feature that doesn't work at all?

Now... in just a couple of days of use I have discovered more than 20 defects.
What sort of quality control is in place at ACRyan to allow such a defective product to reach the market? These are not even system test problems... these are functional test issues, and many of them would be discoverable if any test engineer spent at least a couple of minutes verifying each feature.
Again, I have searched the forums and I have seen that the defect tracking on each firmware release is done on the 2nd post of each topic... Well, I hope the defect tracking procedures at ACRyan involve more than a post on a forum. Is ACRyan able to keep their defect numbers under control? What is the proper way of reporting a defect, other than posting on a forum and hoping that somebody reads what you wrote? And is ACRyan committing to fix all those defects, or will they just dump their users, leaving with a partially working unit? I would like to see an answer to these questions, to be able to decide whether I need to return the unit and get a refund.

Thank you!


ccristal

Hello,

Yes the BitTorrent does need improvement for sure. I will address this once I have seen how it works on our new SDK 4.0. Every SDK change usually have big changes and we don't get all the details exactly what has been worked on until we actually receive and test it ourselves. This is a few weeks/month away. Until then I can't give you a good answer, more than we are aware of it and hopefully we can sort it out!

Br,

Hello Mikael

Do i understand correctly that there is no fix/solution in progress, You wait and hope that SDK 4 will fix BT...and if not, then maybe SDK 5...and so on???

I believe BT functionality is important to large group of POHD users/owners and You do advertise that it is an feature of the box, so why this issue is neglected for so long?

There was even some backend fix found by user, with reducing peers etc. (does not work with latest firmware though), why atleast these options were not added to firmware? I think there has been 3-4 firmware releases since the fix was found

So please let us know if BT is the considered as a low priority feature, then at least we expect less and have options to go other ways. Just waiting and hoping is really irritating

PS. one more question: does activity in forums have effect on the fix order?

With regards,
Erki

Mikael,
there's a slight problem with this approach. Let me try and explain it...
I'm happy to wait until the first SDK4 firmware release to have BT fixed. However, what happens if it doesn't get fixed? In that case, I will have to conclude that the unit does not do what it's advertised on the box, so I'm going to ask for a full refund. However, the dealer may not be willing to refund me after such a long time of use. In that case, who should I ask for my money back? ACRyan directly?
Please reply with a clear statement from ACRyan. We have paid money to be used as beta testers, and this is not correct, whichever way you look at it. At least ACRyan should give us a way out...

ccristal

I bought PlayOn HD! 3 days ago having in mind to use it as a NAS with full functioning BT client and mediaplayer. My previous mediaplayer Popcorn Hour 110 did work very well with BT and the function was essential for me, but with PlayOn HD it hangs every time i inititiate BT download and i need to restart the unit by plugging of the power.

If the management at AC Ryan does not prioritize to fix the BT I will return my PlayON HD unit.
Please let me know within one week, because my purchase is possible to cancel within 2 weeks of purchase in Sweden.

I'm totally agree with ccristal
It looks that ACRyan is far away from software development cycle - there is no another reason to explain such behavior. Solid vendor could not allow such approach. It must fix such critical bug or disable feature. Users shouldn't be permanent beta-testers.

I just got the PlayonHD about a week ago, and noticed this same exact thing. The btpd process would stop and disappear from the running process list repeatedly.

I am just wondering if we can install a different bt daemon and run that instead?

Simpel said: If the box/wrapper/feature list states it has NAS en Bittorrent functionality, then the POHD should have this features working properly. And not half/buggy.

I also bought the POHD for NAS/BT/Stream/Player functionality. And it seems like i'm getting disappointed.

Hi Mikael,

I have had my PlayonDVRHD (PV76120) for about 2 months. Bit torrent client had been running well but last week, it started to act up. Within 5 or 15mins, btpd would crash for unknown reasons. Because of the problem, the BT feature is basically useless!

Spent a bit of time investgating the problem yesterday. Checked the forum, changed the BT port to something other then the default (6881), limited the no. of peers to 48, tried with different torrents etc, but to no avail. Each time, btpd would crash within 15mins.

Next, I run btpd in the foreground (for troubleshooting purpose), it started fine, but crashed after a short while. Error message says "Segmentation fault, core dump". a file called "core" appeared under /tmp/hdd/volumes/HDD1, size about 1-2MB. Repeated the steps couple of times, same observation made.

Let me know if the "core" file would be helpful to you for isolating the root cause. Otherwise, I am willing to do any further experiment or data collection, just give me the detailed instructions.

By now, you should have noticed from the forum, BT is a key feature and reason that many of us have bought the player. Let's work together to get it fixed, so that you will have many more satisfied customers and can sell a lot more players.

Thanks

Hello everyone,

I have taken your queries very seriously, and I have forwarded this to everyone that needs to be involved to get straight answers since I also hope that this feature will be looked into more than it has to solve the current issues. When I get any news about this I will let you know here.

Until then, if you want to fiddle I know this guide will improve the current BT and perhaps worth a try? -> http://www.shadowandy.net/2009/09/bitto ... ayonhd.htm

Br,