Update EG-M34A with PCH A110 firmware?

[pz1]

I recently got this Egreat M34A, which I presently use in my summer cottage to play my GBPVR recordings. Unfortunately I can't play some (maybe all) XviD converted recordings. Unfortunately there are no firmware upgrades after the one that was installed on de device.
In my search I came across the following suggestion to upgrade with PCH-A110 firmware: http://egreat-popcorn-media-player-m34a-to-a110/
I have a few questions
1) Is this a sensible thing to do
2) Is it legal
3) What do I loose what do I gain
4) Have others done this successfully in connection with NPVR (I may replace my GBPVR-MVP combo some time)
Pieter

[mvallevand]

Cross-flashing and overclocking firmware has existed on many devices since I can remember. Setting a drive to be region-free or installing driver on your PC to modify the functionality of your cone video/sound card or using the "OEM" MCE PVR150 with another application are all pretty much the same legal and moral question. Not being an IP lawyer I am not qualified to answer, but certainly all have the same risk, they won't be supported by the original manufacturer or the new one.

The ability to play AVI files is tough, because AVI is a container so no doubt the NMT's understands the container format. They might not be able what is inside the container. One of the biggest challenges is footage video recorders that might use mmjpeg or avchd because these formats aren't supported even on many newer devices. Also files that you might get via the Internet might not work because of things like too many warp points (hard to fix must rencode), bad indexing (easier use avimux), or incompatible formats (remux to mkv) One of the biggest current problems with avi on the NMT is discussed briefly here http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php...avi-on-nmt If you are building your own xvid files, you need to be aware of the limitations of most embedded players when choosing your formats. As for using it at the cottage, the EGreat might not be new, but many still write that the first gen. NMT's playsmore avi and mkv varieties then the most current A300 and Poxboxex.

You really should try with NPVR, with the native players' UI and speed you will be left underwhelmed.

Martin

[pz1]

Thanks for the helpful suggestions. I was able to fix my XviD avi-file with avidemux as described in the links from the previous post. I did make the original file in the last release of GBPVR with the following parameters:

Code:

<CustomFFmpegConversions>
    <Conversion name="XviD" cmd="-y -i {SOURCE_FILE} -f avi -ab 224 -ac 2 -acodec mp3 -deinterlace -vcodec xvid -qscale 5 -vtag XVID {DEST_FILE}" targetExtension=".avi" />

MediaInfo:

Code:

General
Complete name                    : \\NAS\video\YYYY\xxxx.avi
Format                           : AVI
Format/Info                      : Audio Video Interleave
File size                        : 999 MiB
Duration                         : 1h 14mn
Overall bit rate                 : 1 885 Kbps
Writing application              : Lavf51.6.0

Video
ID                               : 0
Format                           : MPEG-4 Visual
Format profile                   : Simple@L3
Format settings, BVOP            : No
Format settings, QPel            : No
Format settings, GMC             : No warppoints
Format settings, Matrix          : Default (H.263)
Codec ID                         : XVID
Codec ID/Hint                    : XviD
Duration                         : 1h 14mn
Bit rate                         : 1 648 Kbps
Width                            : 720 pixels
Height                           : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio             : 5:4
Frame rate                       : 25.000 fps
Standard                         : PAL
Color space                      : YUV
Chroma subsampling               : 4:2:0
Bit depth                        : 8 bits
Scan type                        : Progressive
Compression mode                 : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)               : 0.159
Stream size                      : 873 MiB (87%)
Writing library                  : XviD 1.2.0.dev47 (UTC 2006-11-01)

Audio
ID                               : 1
Format                           : MPEG Audio
Format version                   : Version 1
Format profile                   : Layer 3
Mode                             : Joint stereo
Mode extension                   : MS Stereo
Codec ID                         : 55
Codec ID/Hint                    : MP3
Duration                         : 1h 14mn
Bit rate mode                    : Constant
Bit rate                         : 224 Kbps
Channel(s)                       : 2 channels
Sampling rate                    : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode                 : Lossy
Stream size                      : 119 MiB (12%)
Alignment                        : Aligned on interleaves
Interleave, duration             : 24 ms (0.60 video frame)

Is there anything wrong with my conversion parameters that may have caused my problem?
Pieter

[mvallevand]

The problem is likely your choice of tool, mencoder makes better avi standard files than ffmpeg.

mencoder infile -ovc xvid -oac mp3lame -xvidencopts fixed_quant=4:aspect=16.0/9.0 -o outfile

Martin