Feature Requests

[The Dude]

There are a couple of things I have been looking for in the new firmware that I can't seem to find. I'd like to add them to the queue for feature requests.

The first is a way to turn off previews during browsing. For me personally, this is not a particularly useful feature, and seems to sometimes slow down browsing in the software at times. A simple way to shut it off would be nice.

The second is a way to prevent videos from endlessly looping. When a video has ended, it would be nice if there were options to play the next video or to simply exit to the browsing menu.

I know you guys are hard at work on new firmware, and this may not be immediately addressed, but if it can be added to a checklist for future revisions it would be appreciated. Thanks

[funkybudda]

There are a couple of things I have been looking for in the new firmware that I can't seem to find. I'd like to add them to the queue for feature requests.

The first is a way to turn off previews during browsing. For me personally, this is not a particularly useful feature, and seems to sometimes slow down browsing in the software at times. A simple way to shut it off would be nice.


The second is a way to prevent videos from endlessly looping. When a video has ended, it would be nice if there were options to play the next video or to simply exit to the browsing menu.

I know you guys are hard at work on new firmware, and this may not be immediately addressed, but if it can be added to a checklist for future revisions it would be appreciated. Thanks

hi,

I agree with the previews during browsing issue, it would be nice to able to turn that off, or have a different view that I am able to see more of the file names that I am browsing.

It seems this forum is kind of dead, not many posts, hopefully this will be read...

[phoenix2000]

I have an XBOX Classic w XBMC, WD HD Media player, Zotac zbox w win7/XBMC, Patriot PBO and just purchased a Patriot Alpine. Was a little leery to get the Alpine after saw a few bad reviews, but I loved the PBO, so I did. Great player. I immediately updated the firmware to Matrix rev2, cause I like the look. I have played AVIs, MKVs and MP4s across windows network (wired) share with no issues, even 1080p DTS 5.1 with no jitter at all. Overall very impressed with this little box. This would be a perfect media player if it supported DTS HD MA 7.1 and True HD 7.1, but I know that will not happen. So failing that I will reiterate the only issue I had with the PBO. It would be nice if we had the option to remove the preview and replace with thumbnail lists, based on folder.jpg, similar to the XBMC. Oh wait and one more thing, the ability to merge the lists of multiple hard drives. So if I had movies on 4 hard drives, I could list them all at once...in thumbnail view.

[phoenix2000]

I've now had a little time to play with the PBO Alpine. The good news is I have experienced flawless playback of all files I have thrown at it, even 1080p. Network connect setup was automatic. My issue with the Alpine is presentation. For starters when I add a network share to the shortcuts (for lack of a better term), turn the box off and on, the shares disappear. This wouldn't be an issue if it didn't force me to add a share before I could navigate to the drive to view something. Secondly, in the video file preview screen, file name space is very short, does not scroll and there is no way to turn off the preview to provide more space. So for TV shows where you title them series name - S00E00, the series and episode number is usually cut off. Furthermore, still no thumbnail view.

I have said it once, twice, three times or more on several device boards. You want to make a good media player...get as close as you can to XBMC. It doesn't matter if you add bells and whistles like Picaso, Netflix, Youtube...a shitty media player interface is still a shitty media player interface and is a painful experience.

All things being even, the PBO Alpine has potential of being great, being Android, but at the moment I would stick with the CORE as it starts faster, its interface is faster and easier to navigate. Hopefully in the future the Alpine will exploit it's full potential.

[Don]

I really miss not being able to see how far in and/or how much time is left in a video show. Fast forwarding to where I left off on a video is a bother, but would at least be cleaner if it showed current time as fast forwarding too.

[lordmayo]

I really miss not being able to see how far in and/or how much time is left in a video show. Fast forwarding to where I left off on a video is a bother, but would at least be cleaner if it showed current time as fast forwarding too.

On the big remote there's a "display" button, and on the small remote there's a "info" button. Both serve the "far in" function. If you exit a video without pressing stop, the next time you engage the video it resumes from the point where you left off. (That has always been my experience).

I'm running Matrix Alpha.

[Don]

The Alpine firmware MB86M10.MpFirmware.2012-05-30.fw doesn't give info with any button. Info button goes to "Please select a media source", Menu does nothing.
I thought the continue option was inconsistent but it might have been because I would sometimes hit the stop button.

I installed Matrix 2012-05-25_rev and the info button works.
It installed properly this time - no "force close" on everything and no mp4 stutter.
So feature found, and works well.

Thanks for info.

[snappy46]

The Alpine firmware MB86M10.MpFirmware.2012-05-30.fw doesn't give info with any button. Info button goes to "Please select a media source", Menu does nothing.
I thought the continue option was inconsistent but it might have been because I would sometimes hit the stop button.

I installed Matrix 2012-05-25_rev and the info button works.
It installed properly this time - no "force close" on everything and no mp4 stutter.
So feature found, and works well.

Thanks for info.

To get this information using the stock firmware you need the PBO Core remote control (Large remote) or a keyboard connected. With the PBO Core remote you can press the red slow button to display the info; I can not remember which key you need to press with keyboard connected.

Cheers !!!

EDIT: It's actually kind of nice to connect a keyboard to the PBO Alpine and press all the various keys to see the full functionality of the PBO Alpine video player (mplayer) that has yet to be programmed/mapped into the remote control.

[lordmayo]

To get this information using the stock firmware you need the PBO Core remote control (Large remote) or a keyboard connected. With the PBO Core remote you can press the red slow button to display the info; I can not remember which key you need to press with keyboard connected.

Cheers !!!

EDIT: It's actually kind of nice to connect a keyboard to the PBO Alpine and press all the various keys to see the full functionality of the PBO Alpine video player (mplayer) that has yet to be programmed/mapped into the remote control.

What kinds of features are we talking about here - where can we see a list?

[snappy46]

What kinds of features are we talking about here - where can we see a list?

Well here's the output of the mplayer application and some of the basic programmed keys that can be sent while mplayer is active:

# ./mplayer
main thread started, tid 1255
Cannot find HOME directory.
MPlayer SVN-r30856-snapshot-skyviia 2199 (C) 2000-2010 MPlayer Team
Usage:   mplayer [options] [url|path/]filename

Basic options: (complete list in the man page)
 -vo <drv>        select video output driver ('-vo help' for a list)
 -ao <drv>        select audio output driver ('-ao help' for a list)
 dvd://<titleno>  play DVD title from device instead of plain file
 -alang/-slang    select DVD audio/subtitle language (by 2-char country code)
 -ss <position>   seek to given (seconds or hh:mm:ss) position
 -nosound         do not play sound
 -fs              fullscreen playback (or -vm, -zoom, details in the man page)
 -x <x> -y <y>    set display resolution (for use with -vm or -zoom)
 -sub <file>      specify subtitle file to use (also see -subfps, -subdelay)
 -playlist <file> specify playlist file
 -vid x -aid y    select video (x) and audio (y) stream to play
 -fps x -srate y  change video (x fps) and audio (y Hz) rate
 -pp <quality>    enable postprocessing filter (details in the man page)
 -framedrop       enable frame dropping (for slow machines)

Basic keys: (complete list in the man page, also check input.conf)
 <-  or  ->       seek backward/forward 10 seconds
 down or up       seek backward/forward  1 minute
 pgdown or pgup   seek backward/forward 10 minutes
 < or >           step backward/forward in playlist
 p or SPACE       pause movie (press any key to continue)
 q or ESC         stop playing and quit program
 + or -           adjust audio delay by +/- 0.1 second
 o                cycle OSD mode:  none / seekbar / seekbar + timer
 * or /           increase or decrease PCM volume
 x or z           adjust subtitle delay by +/- 0.1 second
 r or t           adjust subtitle position up/down, also see -vf expand

 * * * SEE THE MAN PAGE FOR DETAILS, FURTHER (ADVANCED) OPTIONS AND KEYS * * *

#

Unforutnately the input.conf file is nowhere to be found so it's kind of hard to tell what keys does what; you pretty much have to connect a keyboard and go crazy. By the way this version of mplayer has obviously been customized by Skyviia to support their Integrated circuit (chip); mplayer is an open source project and use intensively on many linux based distribution and firmware.

Cheers!!!

EDIT: Just for completion here's a link with the standard command: http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/man/en/mplayer.1.html