NMT - not ready for primetime

[darincm]

The NMT is a great little unit, but there are way to many issues that prevent it from being used on a regular basis and if I can’t use it regularly & expect reliably, it is almost useless.

My NMT has a hard drive installed, with the latest firmware.
I really want to love my NMT, but until these issues are fixed, it is just a toy to play with.

And to be clear; having to install 3rd party apps, install scripts & such is not an acceptable workaround. I expect the unit to function at its most basic level flawlessly.

Hardware Issues:

Freezes:
The A110 will occasionally (at least once a day) freeze on either online video or local. The only way to recover is to restart

Lost settings:
After freezing i have 50/50 chance that all my setting will be gone. This means entering all my network settings & and any customizations.

Online Video
Crapshoot: sometimes works fine, but most of the time video either lags during playback or doesn’t play at all.

Some streams (e.g. Cranky Geeks) don’t work at all

Generally laggy online video; not a network issues, as all other devices in my house play fine

MSP Community:
Hasn’t loaded in weeks – have no idea why. Used to work perfectly

UI Issues:

Music:
No jukebox – have to browse through folders. No search
Video:
Same as music
Online Radio
No search. This means you have to go through every channel to find what you want. Once you do find a channel, you have a 50/50 chance that the station even works.
Youtube:
No way to login to my youtube account. No ability to select HQ feeds

Other
There are other issues (unit is too hot, better MKV support, Fast forward/rewind music, VIDEO_TS playback problems, Ability to navigate the UI while playing audio, etc.)

[Gibbo]

Sorry to hear you are having a bad time with the device.

(07-16-2009 01:48 PM)darincm Wrote:  Music:
No jukebox – have to browse through folders. No search
Video:
Same as music

to me this isn't a bad point it's a bonus, the GUI isn't great, but personally I only ever use it for copying files, otherwise I use YAMJ.

The fact that the NMT doesn't have a built in jukebox (like the xtreamer) means that you have the option of YAMJ, MLMJ, Movieflow, UMC etc, each with a number of different skins too numerous to count, far better than one built in jukebox.

The same goes for music as well as film.

[Suge_K]

Your experience whilst not uncommon is not typical....my unit has performed better than a pornstar on commission....

I play roughly one dvd iso file a night from my collection of around 600 and then several vob files - tv episodes (couldnt be bothered to iso them all up )

it has never frozen on me....only problem ive had is that for 2 iso files it doesnt play and ive had to change the resolution to view them....other than that no probs...

Loving mine

S

[Specter]

I don't think the unit is the problem, i think you expect to kill a Rhino with a pellet gun.

Theres a section on the forum for Jukeboxes.
theres sections with suggestions and help on how to prevent the unit from freezing up, i just think that you never bothers to search and troubleshoot your problems.


As for my units, they perform above and beyond the $179 i paid for them. I dare you to go out there and try to find different hardware that can do what a NMT can do for under $300. Ill wait.

[darincm]

(07-16-2009 02:04 PM)Suge_K Wrote:  ....my unit has performed better than a pornstar on commission....

S

best quote of the the year

I really want to love the device, but just can't.

For the record: for $179 i expect at a minimum the unit will work consistently; no freezing, no lag, etc.

[lordy]

(07-16-2009 01:48 PM)darincm Wrote:  Freezes:
The A110 will occasionally (at least once a day) freeze on either online video or local. The only way to recover is to restart

You either have a firmware , hardware or heating issue with your NMT.
Sort it or return it

[excal]

I must say i agree with lordy here, i might contact customer service if i were you. I've had my PCH since june of 2008, i've never turned it off (except for a hard restart)....and i've NEVER had it freeze on me. Well i shouldn't say never, its frozen on me when i fubar'd a script or code i was working on. But that was my fault. But its never once frozen on me durring normal use in the 13 months of running it (straight)

[cheaper_popcorn]

I don't really use the online services much, except for beta testing purposes.

In my experience they mostly work well, but that being said, the only complete freeze-ups I have had, have been when trying to access and/or stream online content - YouTube, SayaTV etc.

This box is a true jack of all trades, which I feel is both its strong and its weak point.

It tries to do so much that the different features risk interfering with each other, it's a bit like the butterfly effect - fix something about HDMI output, and it may affect DVD playback, do something to the BT client and it may affect yet something else... etc.

[excal]

i should give a disclaimer in that case, that i don't use the online services all that much. Other then some of the msp plugins allanmc and others created specificly for the nmt.

[Modeller]

True,

freezing is really annoying!!! I can hardly watch one full video without freezing and dropout from playback

[spawn]

Like others I have had my A-100 since sept 2007, never turn it off, I have watched hundreds, perhaps even thousands of files and clips, streaming from network, playing from usb or internal harddrive, and never once had a single one freezing. I dont use the internet options, thus cant say much about stability of that, but the box itself when playing compatible files from a properly configured environment are very stable and I simply cannot reckognize problems of freezing.

So if you can hardly watch one full video without freezing something is definately wrong in your setup, your files or your hardware - if you provide us with more details we will certainly try to help

[Modeller]

well, so it usually happens when I play file from my NAS. Specifically NAS works perfect, I never turned it off and never had problem with connection to it.

So NAS is connected to the Wi-Fi router, then Wi-Fi bridge and with ethernet to the Tank. All my network devices are Linksys and I suppose are working normally, at least I had no problems when connected to my Sony Bravia TV and to an old PC.

I have rechecked all settings and tested the speed and it looks fine.

I have also made sure I am using last firmware.

The think that is happening looks next. I am playing a video (does not depend what kind, previously played it from PC - the video file is ok) then suddenly video freezes, later appeares exclamation mark in triangle and it says 'could not play'. And playback drops out. Any other attempts to play any other media file bring to only one: appears the last picture of that file and with transparent 'popcorn hour, buffering...', then again 'could not play'. This continues until total reboot.

[spawn]

Try running an ethernet cable from the tank to the router, your problems sounds very much like "wifi issues"
Im quite certain all problems will dissapear that way.

[Modeller]

(07-20-2009 10:58 PM)spawn Wrote:  Try running an ethernet cable from the tank to the router, your problems sounds very much like "wifi issues"
Im quite certain all problems will dissapear that way.

Very true.

It is ok with direct wired connection.

Bad luck

Anyway thanks a lot! Though interesting why my laptop at the same place can play same movies via wifi connection with no problems...?

[Specter]

So that 1 problem solved by simply running a cable from the unit to the file locations.

Your Laptop can play the files without no problem because the WIFI used in the USB dongle connected to the NMT is not full WIFI its more like 50% WIFI but they don't tell you that

You Laptop might also have more processing power and video acceleration, caching and other things that use raw power to get things done.



Now if the topic creator can chime in with their setup im sure their problem can be solved in due time.