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Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/4320/updates-on-the-netgear-ntv-550
Updates on the Netgear NTV 550
by Ganesh T S on May 7, 2011 6:14 AM EST- Posted in
- Home Theater
- Media Streamer
- NetGear
As followers of the media streamer reviews on AnandTech already know, I have been in possession of a review unit of the Netgear NTV 550 since CES. It was a CES Innovation award winner, and the specifications and price point convinced me that this was one of the media players with immense potential.
More than 6 months after the unit appeared in the market, the firmware is still not stable enough to warrant a review. In addition to this, news came out recently that Netgear had decided to drop pursuit of Netflix certification for the NTV550. I reached out to get some official statements regarding the current status of the NTV550 in Netgear's product development roadmap. First, let us take a look at why the plans to support Netflix on the NTV 550 was scrapped.
Netgear demonstrated Netflix on the NTV 550 during CES with the v2.0 Netflix UI (not the updated UI which is being seen in recent CE products). The only hold-up was the final certification process. It was supposed to get cleared in 3 - 4 weeks, but that never happened. What happened behind the scenes?
The precursor to Netflix certification for any CE device is the certification of the SoC platform (along with a core SDK version). The NTV 550 was the first CE device using the Sigma Designs 864x platform to pursue Netflix certification. Since Netflix hadn't certified the 8642 before, its comprehensive testing revealed some issues with the SDK. After updates from Sigma, Netgear sent the NTV 550 again to Netflix. Unfortunately, it came back with some issues the second time around too.
Around this time, Netflix decided to devote more resources to CE platforms with v3.x UI. Sigma Designs had to spend more time getting its SDK up to speed. In the meanwhile, Netgear decided it wouldn't be worth it to risk getting rejected again. After all, Netflix's resources were being utilized every time the NTV 550 was sent for certification. Netflix certification pursuit for the NTV 550 was stopped In order to ensure continued cordial relations between Netflix and Netgear.
My takeaway from the whole discussion was that Netgear took a risk in bringing up Netflix support for the NTV 550 despite being in the know about the SMP 8642 not being Netflix certified. Even more surprising was the fact that Sigma Designs never undertook Netflix certification for 8642. Considering the fact that most, if not all, Blu-Ray players come with Netflix access, it is surprising that their flagship Blu-Ray SoC was not sent for Netflix approval. In the future, CE manufacturers should probably ensure the usage of a Netflix certified SoC platform before advertising Netflix availability on their DMA product.
It was always the NTV 550's local media playback specifications that had everyone enthused. Netflix or no Netflix, if the NTV 550 managed to playback the users' local media files and Blu-Ray ISOs with full menu support, I am quite sure a majority of the users would have been quite happy. Prior to talking with Netgear today morning, I put the 325NA firmware version through our full test suite. Though playback capability had improved compared to previous firmware versions, it was clear that the product was still far away from being ready for prime time. I filed a list of bugs and linked Netgear to the sample streams for the bugs. A summary of the reported issues is reproduced below. In case you are planning to purchase a NTV 550 in the next few weeks and have media streams fitting the following criteria, do not be surprised if they fail to play back in a satisfactory manner.
- WMA / WMAPro decode (when set to PCM in the Audio menu) is not multi-channel. The AV receiver sees only 2 channel PCM.
- When the 'Aspect Ratio' is set to 'Auto' in the setup menu, the output doesn't obey the aspect ratio information in the container. However, this is not a serious issue, since it is always possible to change the aspect ratio with a few key presses when the video is being played.
- Some TrueHD soundtracks in M2TS containers sends static to the AV receiver
- Many test streams with AAC audio play back blank or corrupted video. Multi-channel AAC decoding to multi-channel LPCM appears broken in some test streams.
- There is no support for Vorbis / ADPCM audio tracks.
- SRT subtitles with foreign languages (such as Arabic, Thai, Hindi etc.) don't display properly. Experimenting with various settings for subtitle encoding didn't seem to help much.
- TrueHD audio track in some MKVs hang playback
- The M2TS splitter in the NTV 550 seems to be based on ffmpeg and has an issue affecting some other Sigma Designs SoC based streamers such as the WDTV series also. More details are available in this link. I haven't seen this issue in any Realtek streamer so far.
- Playback of MKVs with VC1 video tracks is not reliable. Some stutter (reproducible consistently), while others hang after playing back a few frames.
- Forced PGS subtitles in MKV are not forced. The user has to manually open up the Subtitle track selector popup and choose the 'Forced' track. It is only logical that forced subtitles be on by default.
- Some streams exhibit pinkish / discoloured video on playback, but these are not consistently reproducible.
- Dolby Digital Plus bitstreaming is bitstreamed as Dolby Digital with dropouts in some cases, even though the information about the clip in the NTV 550 interface indicates it to be DD+.
- TRP and WTV extensions are not recognized. MOV compatibility is a bit flaky. FLVs with H264 streams are also not recognized.
- Some 3D Blu-Ray ISOs created with AnyDVD HD hang after playing the first title. Only recourse to get the player back in business was to eject the ISO.
The above issues are relevant to streams which I expected the NTV 550 to play back. There are other Real Media streams, MPEG 4 streams with multiple warp points etc. which are not supported by the Sigma SoC and hence don't play back. I don't consider these as negative aspects of the firmware. I have also not touched upon UI quirks, networking performance and other such aspects in this section. They will be covered in the final review.
Netgear already has a list of bugs to be fixed from user submissions on their forum. They indicated that they are prioritizing the issues to be fixed in future firmware versions. As for the firmware release schedule, the next firmware version is supposed to come out in late June, followed by another in September. The June release is supposed to take care of bug fixes, while the September release would add more features (though what these feature would be were not indicated to me).
Netgear has also starter a uservoice site for the NeoTV 550. This tool is supposed to help them manage the suggestions, get meaningful feedback in a shorter amount of time, and streamline/ prioritize future bug fixes and improvements.
I was quite interested in finding out how the NTV 550 was faring in the market. Netgear indicated that the response in the EU and Australian markets was very good and surpassed the US sales by a large margin. This is indicative of the fact that the US market (unfortunately, if you ask me) is moving to more OTT based media streamers.
Personally, I feel that Netflix, Vudu and other VOD providers are good for casual users, and physical media backups are the only way to enjoy full HD content in the way it was intended. The NTV 550 was supposed to enable users in this area at a sweet price point (it is much cheaper than the Dune series which is comparable feature wise), but its potential remains unfulfilled. Whether future firmware releases will help in this regard remains to be seen.
It has to be noted that the Dune series (which has been praised in many other review sites) didn't turn into a great media player overnight. It is only logical that Netgear be given a few more months to iron out the issues in the NTV 550. Till then, potential buyers should wait and watch how the June firmware fares in our final review before pulling the trigger.