ANY PROGRESS???? This PMP forum seems to be frozen solid.

[dalezer_elpale1]

Haven't heard anything concrete about any plans on any updates/firmware/new features/better support for PMP. Only demands and specualtion. Or has everybody just lost hope in any improvments.

I recently purchased a PMP-120 and love it. But there are some improvments that a new firmware should address.

IMPORTANT IMPROVEMENTS:

Video:
*eliminate slow/studdering frames (no frameskip)
*proper in video mp3 VBR support (major cause of all xvid/divx audio/video sync/framerate problems)
*AC3 support
*better high resolution support
*better MPeG/MPeG-2 support
*higher bitrate support atleast 2.5mbits
*MORE CODECS - open source if possible (drag and drop codec files)

How about releasing the linux OPEN SOURCE files. So that the avid users can work on there own solutions and share them with others. Not just 1 person working/ or not on solutions.

[ShamrockMan]

The source for the PMP has been released, just that all of the people working on a new release have stopped working on it.

[PiMP120]

Such a shame, allowing all the plans to come to a halt instantly, and all our hopes for improvement are now just fantasy. I would do it myself but i am just a 14yo school student if their is anything i can do i will gladly help to all my ability.

[dalezer_elpale1]

Originally Posted by ShamrockMan

The source for the PMP has been released, just that all of the people working on a new release have stopped working on it.

any hope for a revival?

and where can i find the source code? id sure like to look at it.

[EdrickVelLorin]

The GPL source code released is available here:
ftp://ftp.gpl-devices.org/pub/vendors/iRiver/PMP-1xx/
And the source code release was mentioned here before. I found out about it by searching the forum.

[dalezer_elpale1]

wow.. just checked it out.. no clue what to do.. hahaha.. lets get some experts on it..

[PiMP120]

Hmm... but all the experts have given up... and i had the slightest chance of seeing games on this wonderful little player and all the playback and codec issues that may have been fixed, like the problem with WMA's over 128kb/s. Is there anyone out there who could help?

[dalezer_elpale1]

I was sure expecting full/flawless video/audio and so on support (without conversion) when buying the PMP-120. I guess thats not the case. Since ppl don't seem to be doing anything about it, i guess iriverter is the only solution to video issues. I was expecting it to work perfectly like XBOX Media Center (linux based), and to be more openly structed like it (drag and drop codec).

A simple thing like video playback (MP3 VBR) support would solve A LOT if not most video frameskip issues.

[EdrickVelLorin]

The XBox has an Intel x86 type processor. The PMP does not. Anything running on the PMP (programs or codecs) needs to be compiled specifically for it. And I don't believe the PMP uses frameskipping at all. Instead, when the video bandwidth needed is too much, you get A/V sync issues because the video is being rendered slower then the audio. Only time I've had jumpy video is with video files with rather low framerates. (Say 23-25FPS) To solve AV sync problems you could try converting the video to a lower resolution, or lower the audio quality. (Even on my 21 inch TV I didn't see any quality difference between 640x480 and 512x384 in one video that I had problems with, which was converted from a DVD via Iriverter.)

You can use other tools to convert videos for PMP usage, and sometimes you may be able to cut down the time needed by using a different tool. (For example, if audio format/bitrate is the only problem, you could use VirtualDub, set the video to "direct streem copy," and configure the audio properties for PMP compatible audio. That could drastically cut the conversion time. Say, 10-15 minutes total for 13 episodes of about 25 minutes each, just editing the audio.)

[dalezer_elpale1]

Originally Posted by EdrickVelLorin

The XBox has an Intel x86 type processor. The PMP does not. Anything running on the PMP (programs or codecs) needs to be compiled specifically for it. And I don't believe the PMP uses frameskipping at all. Instead, when the video bandwidth needed is too much, you get A/V sync issues because the video is being rendered slower then the audio. Only time I've had jumpy video is with video files with rather low framerates. (Say 23-25FPS) To solve AV sync problems you could try converting the video to a lower resolution, or lower the audio quality. (Even on my 21 inch TV I didn't see any quality difference between 640x480 and 512x384 in one video that I had problems with, which was converted from a DVD via Iriverter.)

You can use other tools to convert videos for PMP usage, and sometimes you may be able to cut down the time needed by using a different tool. (For example, if audio format/bitrate is the only problem, you could use VirtualDub, set the video to "direct streem copy," and configure the audio properties for PMP compatible audio. That could drastically cut the conversion time. Say, 10-15 minutes total for 13 episodes of about 25 minutes each, just editing the audio.)

Im a quite an avid VirtualDub user and I've considered that already. But I still had some actually encoding sync issues on my older desktop. I just use iriverter. I'll try it out with my new laptop. Its way faster than my desktop. But for those who have no clue how to use VirtualDub, iriverter works flawlessly.

But even with VDub.. it can't handle VBR properly either. As you may notice the error message that you recieve when loaded an divx/xvid with MP3 VBR