Different questions before I buy a PBO

[MikeTNT]

My brother needs a media player and I own two WD players. So I thought I could sell him one of these devices and I buy a PBO.
The reason for this is that my WDs are nearly perfect modded now, so I need new hardware I can tinker with.

Before I will buy the PBO (second hand), please let me know the following information:
1. Is there an issue regarding HDMI output and Sony Bravia TVs? Or is it fixed/fixable?
2. If I should get an PBO with old bootloader, is it possible to update the bootloader? (= all PBOs have the same hardware?). And yes, I read already that a speacial cable is needed and yes, I don't have fear to brick the device.
3. My external harddrives use the filesystem EXT2. I read that EXT3 is supported. I'm right that than also EXT2 can be used?
4. Video output: Is there a function like "autoresolution" available or do I always have to choose the correct video output manually if I want to watch different resolutions/refresh rates
5. Audio output: It is possible to have HDMI-audio output (stereo downmix) and optical audio output (multichannel) at the same time? Or HDMI-audio output (multichannel) and optical audio output (multichannel) at the same time?
6. Is there furthermore support for new PBO firmware? So far I read there is an Android device available soon...
7. How powerful is the cpu (Mhz)? Size of internal memory (flash/SDRAM)?
9. Are USB-hubs supported? I read that only the first partition of harddrives would be detected, so I fear that USB-hubs could be a problem (I have 4 x HDD with 1 - 2TB).
8. Are there any other things that I should know/or take care before I buy the PBO?

Thanks in advance for your support.

[snappy46]

Let's see if I can answer some of them for you.

1. Don't know
2. I think you answered that question yourself but to clarify the answer is yes you can update the bootloader provided that you have a serial to TTL converter (cable) available.
3. Hmmm!!! I'll have to doulble check that one but if memory serves I think that Ext2 did not work the PBO; I believe when doing some experiment I formated my USB stick as Ext2 and it did not work I had to force a Ext3 formatting for the PBO to recognized it. That was a long time ago however and there have been many changes to the firmware since so I could be mistaking. I'll check again and let you know.
4. I not 100% sure what you are asking here but the PBO video is manually setup to your TV and need to be manually change if you want to change the resolution. Here's an example of what I am talking about: Assuming that you have a NTSC video that uses 4:3 ratio it will play fine even if you have a ratio of 6:9 selected but you have black lines on either side of the picture. If you want to fill your widescreen TV you will need to manually set a ratio of 4:3; you tv should then take care to fill the screen assuming again that your TV is set to do so. I hope all this make sense.
5. This again is firmware related I believe some firmware will allow that while others might not.
6. D'ont know but considering that the PBO is now almost 3 years old I doubt it; but you never know.
7. CPU = 400 Mhz, Flash = 256M, SDRAM ??? Can not remember for sure but I think that it's 256 M. I will have to double check.
8. USB-hubs works fine with the PBO and the PBO will work drive that are 2TB or less.

All that being said like anything else that can connect to various hardware; there's always some hardware that play nicer with the PBO than some others. Therefore there are no fast rule that can determine if the hardware you have will or will not work.

IMHO considering the price; even for a new one; this little box is pretty amazing.

Cheers !!!

[MikeTNT]

Thank you very much.

As point 3 is very important for me, I hope someone else can confirm that EXT2 is not supported. (I can't believe that because linux based systems normally should support ext2. Perhaps there is a ext2-lib or something like this available to add this feature)

Regarding point 4: I wanted to know if the player is able to auto detect the right refresh rate (e.g. 50Hz/60Hz/24p) as wrong refresh rates can cause video stutter effects. A lot of people are not able to remark such stutter effects, but I do.
As you sometimes don't know the refresh rates in advance, a auto feature would be nice. Regarding the resolution detection: Sometimes it can cause bad movie pictures if you let upscale a media player.

So far I understood, the PBO needs manual settings for every movie (certainly only if the refresh rate/resolution is different). So it is a negativ point for me, as it is time consuming.

I hope you understand now what I wanted to know.

Greetings from Germany

Mike

[snappy46]

Thank you very much.

As point 3 is very important for me, I hope someone else can confirm that EXT2 is not supported. (I can't believe that because linux based systems normally should support ext2. Perhaps there is a ext2-lib or something like this available to add this feature)

Regarding point 4: I wanted to know if the player is able to auto detect the right refresh rate (e.g. 50Hz/60Hz/24p) as wrong refresh rates can cause video stutter effects. A lot of people are not able to remark such stutter effects, but I do.
As you sometimes don't know the refresh rates in advance, a auto feature would be nice. Regarding the resolution detection: Sometimes it can cause bad movie pictures if you let upscale a media player.

So far I understood, the PBO needs manual settings for every movie (certainly only if the refresh rate/resolution is different). So it is a negativ point for me, as it is time consuming.

I hope you understand now what I wanted to know.

Greetings from Germany

Mike

Ok I miss understood you point number 4; the PBO is actually set to your TV resolution and ratio; for example my widescreen TV is 1080p with a ratio of 6x9. I do not need to adjust that once setup to play my video's the PBO will automatically take care of producing the right output for my TV regardless of the resolution or scan rate of the movie.

Also I just formatted one of my USB stick to ext2 and I can confirm that it was not recognized by the PBO .... well it did not auto mounted like ext3, fat32 or NTFS. I did not had time to look more into this issue.

Greetings from Canada.

Snappy