Who cares ??

You pay for firmware, not 100% original, handwritten firmware ... what if they cooperate with other companies ??

It could be that the internationalisation of the interface is done in cooperation with other manufacturers of Realtek based mediaplayers. Or Mede8er is under the obligation to open source that part of their GUI and ACRyan is making use of this.

As it only appears in a very specific scenario, probably somebody forgot to update a language string. I don't think it's stealing as one of the primary original features created by ACRyan is the appearance of the GUI. The structure of the firmwares (movie, music, picture categories, settings menu and a file browser) is largely the same on Mede8er, Xtreamer, ACRyan, etc.

I'm asking because I'm so INCREDIBLY curious as to why:

The Mede8er MED400 can store network share shortcuts while the Mini can't

So if indeed they have a shared "basic" firmware source (explains the branding glitch), then there is EVEN LESS reason for AC Ryan to not implement the same feature for the Mini.

so, if the Acryan and the Mede8er are allmost identical by hardware en firmware, is it possible to flash the ACRyan with the Mede8er firmware?

Shortcuts to any location on the harddrive or network is very high on my must-have features list as well! I don't think there's any technical reason why shortcuts couldn't be implemented. They underlying OS (Busybox) is Linux, so it's technically possible. Whether Realtek allows it, is another matter, though it seems Mede8er founds the solution.

It might be possible. But the manufacturer of the firmware could have placed additional checks to ensure the firmware being installed isn't from a competitor. I tried a version of the Xtreamer firmware on my POHD and it didn't boot afterwards and I had to safe flash to the official firmware, so be careful.

The Mini can not do that ? I have a POHD myself, but I thought the Mini also had a My_Shortcuts in the menu ?

Like on page 24 & 25 :
http://www.acryan.com/downloads/manuals ... Manual.pdf

To kill all the rumours

Realtek releases a Sdk for mede8or Ac ryan and other clones.

These messages are build in standard for all companys wich use the sdk and boards from realtek

Probaly realtek messed up a id for that message thats showing mede8or instead of ac ryan.

Also mede8or and Ac ryan and x-treamer etc use encrypted stuff on there firmware to prevent using it on other untis.

Also even if ac ryan would use it they will have a problem copyrights etc etc etc

And i think when you you do the same on the mede8or you probably get a message acryan instead of mede8or because they mixed up the id's

But to be clear nothing is stolen.

own applications and servcies m8 by mede8or or Acryan is not used visa versa
The shared applications and services and codes by realtek is used by all customers.

So plzz back on topic now and dicuss the options bugs and other stuff about this firmware.

I bought my Mini in late November. I have been quiet for some time now, but how this develops is actually quite funny. It´s obvious that something fishy is going on. Legally or not I am concerned because it seems that I am with my ACR Mini getting a product from the ACR team that is far from what their competitor can do with the same hardware. It is stated that the GUI 2 is a beta version and not complete. However, it seems that so many problems are still there and not solved from the SDK 3. As someone mentioned, when do we get a stable fw for SDK 3? Unfortunately, it seems as ACR are chasing to next product, to next SDK, to next ..... and never get a closure. Normally, when you are working with hardware and corresponding operating system, fw, you say that for this hardware this is the "maximum" fw. Next fw demands next generation hardware. However, that implies a final stable fw release. If you don´t have this policy you end up this ongoing problem.
Regards,
Henrik

Doesnt seem exactly 'fishy' to me. If you develop an application in some sort of coding language - say a MS development tool and an oracle database, you will get updates/new releases of both the development tools and database. You can either stick to the old tools (complete with bugs to work around and functionality that is still work in progress) or try and keep up with the later versions. Everytime one of those underlying products changes that will cause probable issues with the coded product - that can cause what was stable code to fail of course - you are right about that. If Realtek keep releasing newer versions of the SDK it probably implies that they have had quite a few bugs/features to fix.

There are of course pros and cons with either sticking with what you have got or updating.

For me - the only issues I have with the Playon Mini is that:
1) I want to see a larger list of files when browsing
2) The shortcuts should be at the top of the list and go straight to the folder on the network that I have specified.

I am still using a beta from about May 2010 and am overall pretty happy with what my mini will play - nearly everything. As for the interface - well its not so pretty.

I am still keen to try the latest firmware - but it does sound very slow - so am avoiding the current version until that gets addressed.

It would almost seem prudent for ACR to withdraw the beta for now and just concentrate on the reported bugs so far. I think leaving it for more users to download/install and grump about it is causing no end of unhappiness. Perhaps the release is a bit closer to an Alpha rather than Beta release. Still nice to see some progress.

It can store a shortcut to a network storage but it doesn't let me save directly to the share.
(for example NAS/volume_2/media/movies)