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e-mail
Just Posting
2 Posts |
 Posted - 04/09/2005 : 10:06:52 PM
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Hi all,
I just got my Neuros and I must say it's a mixed bag at best. In the 4 days I had it, the machine locked up, popped-up with various error messages, and/or failed to recognize HD at least half-dozen times, and as a result I had 2 complete reformats of the HD (got 30GB combo). The on button does not always work from the first try etc. etc. etc. I am definitely considering returning the player at this point considering the current streak. Other problems are sync software every so often after sync fails to correspond to mouse-on-click focus events which is also very annoying.
Apart from that here are some sure-fire bugs that are guarranteed to lock-up the device. Hopefully the support team will kick into high gear sometime soon to fix some of these show-stoppers (NB all of the below work flawlessly on the latest firmware -- meaning they always lock-up the machine):
Sure-fire way to lock-up Neuros:
1) Have Neurocast set to "auto detect"
2) play anything using headphones
3) disconnect headphones
4) rewind or fast-forward track in order to enable Neurocast
5) reconnect headphones
6) rewind or fast-forward to disable Neurocast
7) repeat steps 3-6 as necessary (mine works every time from the first try)
8) Enjoy the frozen black plastic brick in your hands (sarcasm intentional :-)
Explanation why OGG playback stutters when Neurocasting:
What I could conclude with my programming/debugging experience that apparently no such thing occurs when playing mp3's as ogg decoding is more cpu intensive and since cpu needs to do disk caching (despite much touted "algorithmic" approach), decoding, and also Neurocasting, every so often it does not meet the deadline (read: does not have enough computing power). So yes, theoretically you can do all this on Neuros at once but the end results will likely be rather mediocre. To test this further, try navigating menus while playing mp3's and compare with comparably encoded ogg and you'll see a noticably more sluggish response during ogg playback (not that this is big deal in comparison with other problems but it certainly proves the point). On one of the boards I saw a post suggesting that the HD caching thread for some reason has higher priority than the thread for audio decoding/playback which seems dubious solution at best (please do not take this as a flame -- but why the heck would I want to have caching as higher priority than streaming audio which is the most critical aspect and function of this device -- for the rationale how enough data could be prefetched in order to avoid buffer starvation please see the following section).
What I also cannot gather is why the darn thing does not cache whole track at once even if this incurrs 2-second space between songs (this is still better than having choppy sound, no?), instead of stupidly caching in the middle of decoding/playback, *especially* considering that device has anywhere between 64 and 256MB or flash RAM.
Please do not take my sarcasm the wrong way, I am posting here in order to hopefully help the devs and support team make this good enough product for me to keep it. After all, I am a firm believer in open source and for that I commend the makers of Neuros. Yet, just because it is open source does not make it somehow less forgiving that it has so many fundamental problems. So, yes, I would love to keep the device in order to support this great effort but I am neither a charitable organization nor do I have deep pockets and I can certainly think of tons of better ways to spend $350.
Finally, as a sane business model I would like to give some suggestions to the makers/hardware developers: you should probably hold-off a bit on the next-gen Neuros as it is likely that the next-gen player will completely drop the backpack idea and therefore create a huge base of disgruntled former followers who will feel abandoned. Rather, I would suggest making sure that the current versions have impecable software stability and furthermore developing smaller "deluxe" (a.k.a. more expensive) versions of the HD/battery sleeves which are thinner and overall smaller, making the device much more attractive to the common consumer. Even though I am one of the geeks that craves multi-functional devices and have bought this device in part due to its pro-audio recording capability, one has to understand that I am but an exception in the media player market. Hence, if you would like to build-up your user-base and secure more profits/funds for the development of the next-gen player, my suggestion would be to cater more to the iPod crowds by scaling down battery/HD packs (which will inadvertently raise the price but heck, I'd surely pay for it if I could then carry the device in my pocket without feeling like I am lugging a brick around). Also, as an added extra, it would be awesome to see some community efforts in designing prettier animations as this always adds to the overall "feel" of the device. Heck, I would volunteer to help out with that but at this point I am not yet sure whether I will keep the device.
Any comments, esp. from the support/devs are highly welcome. Naturally, support is even more welcome.
Best wishes,
Dissapointed Neuros II owner |
Edited by - e-mail on 04/09/2005 10:20:44 PM
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e-mail
Just Posting
2 Posts |
Posted - 04/10/2005 : 1:02:36 PM
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Actually, don't bother helping as at this point I've had at least 3 more errors, apart from lock-ups, failures to boot, left and right and then on button not responding at all etc. I am very severely dissappointed in the Neuros technology and will be promptly returning mine for a full refund.
Still waiting for that perfect portable media player/recorder... |
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Derek
Moderator
472 Posts |
Posted - 04/10/2005 : 10:56:31 PM
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may be a defective unit, and you do need to hold play to turn it on, not just press it...good luck finding a perfect player.
The dissapointment of poor quality lingers long after the thrill of a cheap price... |
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Keeto
Likes to Post
11 Posts |
Posted - 04/14/2005 : 4:26:12 PM
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I really appreciated your post. I recently bought a 30Gig/256 neuros II bundle, and have had the same experience as you. I REALLY wanted to like/love this product. It has such functionality, but it isn't worth a damn if it is buggy, and unreliable, and crashes all the time. As a developer myself, I am pretty astonished that they can't seem to get an "on" button to simply work reliably.
I am on my second unit in 2 weeks. First one crashed, and died. This second unit works fine so far, except for the "on" button not working until you mash it a number of times. I am already looking for something else in anticipation that this thing isn't going to last much longer. But what do you expect for $330, it to actually work for more than a week?
But maybe I will be surprised, maybe my Neuros II will last more than a few weeks. I can only hope...
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kborn(at)neurosaudio.com
Neuros Team
Moderator
1520 Posts |
Posted - 04/14/2005 : 9:44:33 PM
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Dear DN IIO,
Within 3 sentences of your post I could tell you had a defective unit. Let's get you started with customer service and they can do some troubleshooting, just to make sure, and then do a repair/return.
Just write them an email, neurossupport@neurosaudio.com, cut and past your post, and they ususally get back to you in 24 hrs or so.
Kathryn
Neuros Support |
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Zithromax
Posting Mania
342 Posts |
Posted - 04/15/2005 : 06:40:54 AM
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| I sometimes got a high pitch noise and error message when I adjusted the myfi gain near the end of a track on both my old NI and new NII. I wasn't motivated enough to try to get it to happen at will because I just preferred not adjusting the gain. I'm guessing that it's a firmware issue. |
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Guarranteed lock-up bug on latest firmware...
