Noob needing help

[Chushajo]

I've bought a second hand A100

Got it all wired up this morning and couldn't wait to get started.

I'm am completely new to this kind of stuff, so please be gentle with me.

The problems I've run into so far are as follows:

No audio on anything expect off a usb stick
Whenever I press the home button it just times out
If I select any of the stuff on my pc to stream it comes up saying request cannot be processed. (I may have set this up wrong. I followed the wiki guide on here as best I could, but like I said I'm a total noob)
I thought that maybe it was a firmware thing so tried updating but it say request cannot be processed
I tried updating the firmware off a usb stick but it says cross customer sharing is not allowed.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

[Pernod]

A little more info required:
1. Is there an internal HDD in the A100?
2. How is the A100 connected to your other devices, ie. router, TV, AV receiver, etc.
3. Does the A100 have an internet connection? Verify by trying Internet Radio from Web Services menu.
4. Where are you trying to stream media from? If PC, which OS? Do you have shares setup correctly?
5. You say you only have audio when playing from USB stick, but you also say you cannot stream from PC which suggests you haven't managed to play anything from anywhere else. Contradiction!
6. Which filetypes are you trying to play? Video avi, mkv, mp4, etc. Audio mp3, flac, m4a, etc.
7. Which firmware do you currently have? See Maintenance page in Setup.

[Chushajo]

1. No, not at the moment, but I have one on the way

2. Ethernet to my router and hdmi to my av amplifier

3. Yes it definitly has a internet connection. All video plays but has no audio, none of the web radio I tried worked at all (appears to be playing but no sound)

4. From my PC, which is connected to the router via ethernet. Running Windows 7 ultimate 32bit. As far as weather I have shares setup correctly, I am completly new to this. I followed the guide in the tutorial section for vista and adapted it to windows 7. The 2 folders I have set up to share show up on the popcorn hour but everytime I try to access them I just get a message saying "request cannot be processed".

5. I can play stuff off a usb stick fine (audio and video work fine). I can play video in the web aplications but get no audio. I haven't managed to stream anything as all I get is a message saying "request cannot be processed" Actually that's not entirly true. I just remebered that when I was setting up the sharing there was already a cypress hill album set up (not sure how this happened, or when it was done) and that seems to work fine on my popcorn hour.

6. Mostly 1080p video in various formats avi, mkv and h.264

7. I'm out of the house at the moment so unable to answer this right now, but I'll update this as soon as I'm able

[Pernod]

Ok, so the main problems are lack of audio, and unable to access your Windows 7 shares.

1. Lack of Audio:
In the Audio/Video section of the Setup ensure that HDMI Audio is On, to send the audio over HDMI to your receiver. Without knowing the model of your receiver I am unable to determine what it is capable of decoding. The audio formats DTS, Dolby Digital, ACC, etc. can be set to either Passthrough or Downmix. Set them them according to what your receiver is able to decode (Passthrough) and what the PCH must decode (Downmix). See wiki for further details.

2. Windows 7 shares:
Did you follow the wiki to setup your PC shares? Are you using the Guest account and shared your folders with Guest? Look at Properties of a shared folder and you should also see Guest listed on the Security tab.
Also be aware that Windows Live Essentials is known to conflict with Samba sharing from Windows PC's to the PCH. If you have this installed then I recommend uninstalling it.

[Chushajo]

1. HDMI audio is set to on, and all types of audio are set to digital (raw). I have an onkyo 875. Just had a quick look at the wiki and will change mine to onkyo 705 as it's the closest to mine, hopefully that will make a difference.

2. Yes, that's the guide I followed, although I have windows 7 and it was slightly different. Just checked and found that guest wasn't on the list. Fiddled around and have managed to do that now (will go try it again in a minute). I've checked on windows live essentials and I don't have it, so all good there.

I'd just like to add that I really appreciate all the help you're giving me, and the speedy replies. Thanks a mill

[Pernod]

(08-03-2011 08:05 PM)Chushajo Wrote:  I'd just like to add that I really appreciate all the help you're giving me, and the speedy replies. Thanks a mill

No probs, clicking the Thankyou under my post is the preferred method of giving thanks.

[Chushajo]

Well, thanks to all your advice I have it partially working.

I have streamed a large array of stuff to check what's working and what's not, and it seems to be rather random. Basically I've tried the following formats: IMG, ISO, MKV, AVI, X264. all the formats work, but only on certain ones, other ones of the same format don't work. It can't be a bad rip as they work fine on my pc.

I still have no audio on the web stuff either which is a little strange.

I've also got the firmware version that you asked about and it's set a few alarm bells ringing (think I may have been had)

Firmware version: 50-17-091022-15-EGR-402-000
Kernal version: 15-EGR

I understood that all popcorn hours had POP in the firmware version. Has someone put different guts in a popcorn hour case?

[Pernod]

Web stuff usually has AAC audio so ensure the audio setting for AAC is set to Downmix.

The firmware is very worrying, it indicates you have an Egreat EG-M31A with the latest firmware that they produced. Does the player look like the PCH A-100 or is it definitely an Egreat?

If a rip plays on a PC it doesn't mean it should play on the PCH, there are limitations. Search the forum for MediaInfo and use it to post details of files that do not play. They are possibly out of spec, though the PCH A-100 did receive fixes for file compatibility that the Egreat didn't.

[Chushajo]

The case is definitely a popcorn hour a100, however on starting the box it says egreat 1080p media player and also came with an egreat remote. I should have realised this earlier, but I only noticed this after I checked the firmware.

Going to email the guy that sold it to me and see if he can explain this strange occurrence to me.

The reason I bought the popcorn hour over anything else was it had the highest compatibly rating in all the reviews that I've read.

[Pernod]

(08-04-2011 12:39 AM)Chushajo Wrote:  The reason I bought the popcorn hour over anything else was it had the highest compatibly rating in all the reviews that I've read.

Yes, because they continue to support and update their older players, unlike Egreat. Good luck with the seller.