Calling all NMT users!!

[SLR_65]

Hi Guys,

My A-100 refurb showed up today! It looks fine, though there are some slight scratches on the front of it - nothing you would notice from a short distance away, really just visible if you are looking for them and have the light just right (it was a new toy so I was looking for them!).

I hooked it up and was greated with a no network found message. Huh? My son's Egreat found the network no problem on the first boot. It was even more interesting because the net was there - we could go to You Tube, etc.. The Maintenance option, Network Share, etc. didn't work either, just said it couldn't process the request. I put an avi on a thumb drive and it played just fine. I noticed there was a piece of paper than came with it that said you may need to update the firmware and since I couldn't get to the Maintenance screen to download it from the NMT I just downloaded it on my computer and put it on a thumb drive. It wouldn't update! GRRRR! It said the image size was wrong! I re-downloaded the update just to make sure I didn't have a corrupted download (though I would think the zip would've complained during extraction if it was) but it didn't work either. I wondered if the firmware built on the previous firmware and if I needed to just load the firmware updates one by one. As I looked over the previous firmware updates a note for version 01-17-080612-15-POP-402 release 18 June 2008 caught my eye . . . it says: Note : This is a stepstone firmware, older firmware need to step through this, before able to update to future firmware. I loaded that firmware and then I tried the most recent firmware update again and now it works perfect!

Soooo, if you order one of these refurbs be prepared to update the firmware immediately and remember you may have to load the stepstone firmware first before it will load the most current firmware.

Now off to read up on how to make GBPVR work with it, or do I want to install a hard drive first . . .

/Steve

[zed]

I'm glad you managed to get it going but wouldn't you think that part of the refurb process would be to update to the latest firmware? ISTR a statement on their site that the refurbs would come with the latest but I had to update mine too. Same thing when I returned my other unit for warranty repair (replace the mainboard)...the replacement had an ancient version of the firmware. Not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things, I guess, but still...

[soccerdad]

I ordered an A-100 last week and now am ever impatiently awaiting the ship date and arrival. I am not sure how long it will take. I am really spoiled with NewEgg 3 day delivery and free shipping! Thanks for the great posts. I am sure they will save me time and get me going until I find my own unique way of screwing it up

With Sub's new release coming out soon, along with a new PCH, it seems like Christmas! (but it just won't come fast enough....)

[SLR_65]

I have a main GBPVR HTPC downstairs in the family room and a client HTPC upstairs in the living room. I'm amazed at how tiny the NMT is but it works just GREAT! For the cost of creating a client - case, power supply, motherboard, cpu, memory, hard drive, operating system, yadda, yadda, yadda to think this tiny little thing replaces all that and does it well is amazing!

We watched the NMT tonight and it played flawless. The only issue is x264 files made with FairUse Wizard. They play fine on the HTPC and Client but lose audio synch badly on the NMT. The NMT plays some other videos I downloaded that are made with x264 flawlessly though, so FairUse must be doing something a bit out of spec. I would like to get that sorted out.

I also don't like the remote, but that's just me . . . the older I get the more I go ugh, change bad! Besides, I'm pretty sure where I saw somewhere around here that Martin had the regular MCE remotes working with these.

We played with the NMT tonight, I'm going to play with installing a hard drive and making it run GBPVR the next few evenings.

This came at just the right time as the power supply in my client is going out.

If this thing runs GBPVR well I'm thinking I may spend another another hundred bucks and replace the client with an NMT and gain a computer back!

TTYL,

Steve

[SLR_65]

I'm glad you managed to get it going but wouldn't you think that part of the refurb process would be to update to the latest firmware? ISTR a statement on their site that the refurbs would come with the latest but I had to update mine too. Same thing when I returned my other unit for warranty repair (replace the mainboard)...the replacement had an ancient version of the firmware. Not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things, I guess, but still...

Yes, it did say it was supposed to come with the latest firmware but I assure you it didn't!

I'm thinking they don't mess around with these. They may give 'em a test run and if it appears to be OK reship it, but if it's got a problem I don't think they troubleshoot the board, I think they just grab a new motheroard and toss it in and the motherboards were all probably made in one large production run so the replacement boards just have the firmware they were manufactured with and no one takes the time to update them. Annoying, especially since you can't just download the latest and install it but with a little effort it can be solved pretty fast - especially if people post when they run into the problem so new owners know what to expect and how to fix it before they even receive theirs.

Again, I'm amazed at how well it works and how tiny it is!

TTYL,

Steve

[SLR_65]

It seems it is a little pickier on what was used to encode . . . I have several videos I made with WinFF. WinFF is simple to use and actually made the best avis for me - I record from my tuners at medium quality and using Handbrake, etc. encodes were a little jumpy, but they were very nice with WinFF. Unfortunately the NMT doesn't have any audio at all on those files! GRRR! I guess I'm going to have to use trial and error to find an x264 and xvid encoder that works well, is easy to use, and is NMT compatible.

/Steve

[mvallevand]

slr_65 this isn't really the NMT support forum and based on your issues with AVI files, I focus on mpeg for GBPVR users you should post on the NMT forums where there are a lot more people to help. It's not what is being used for encoding but the profiles you are selecting. They are very willing to help, yesterday I mentioned your issue with the firmware and they already have updated the wiki with clearer instructions. My instinct says you should be making mkv files with h264 instead of avi, it is a better container.

Martin

[SLR_65]

I've posted a few things to the NMT forums, I guess the reason I was commenting here was in case anyone like me was looking at picking one up they know what to expect when they get it.

I do plan on digging into what the issue is with the encodes and hopefully I can figure a way to salvage the ones I have as they aren't commonly available (I like strange stuff like History Detectives from PBS, History's Lost and Found from History Channel, etc. and you just don't see those anywhere so I have to record and encode them myself).

Thanks for the always prompt response and nudge in the right direction!

It's evening so it's NMT play time again! Just installed a hard drive. It went well but I could only get one of the hard drive screw holes to line up, I think I need to loosen up the pch motherboard but for now one screw will hold it. I got the applications installed and all seems OK. It's a Western Digital drive but so far no remote issues with it.

Now off to figure out how to talk to it's hard drive via the network . . . I know, I'm headed over to the nmt forums right now!

Steve

[mvallevand]

If you have an avi that doesn't play with sound use mkvmerge to create an mkv file and it will likely work. Of course for the best experience with GBPVR leave them as mpeg.

Martin

[SLR_65]

Wow! Mapping the pch's internal hard drive to the network was easy! Of course there's no real reason to as it will usually pull files off the network. I'm thinking I may loan it out occasionally to my Mom/Inlaws though so being able to load shows on to the internal hard drive easily will be a plus.

So far I'm quite satisfied - if anyone is sitting on the fence I'd say just get one!