One of those ethereal mysteries of software…it might not make sense, but I’m sure there is an explanation. Like my DMP leaving the factory in perfect condition, but when I received it on day 1 it didn’t work. Blamed on corrupt software. How software can get corrupted during transport is beyond my understanding.
And staying silent on a new update 
does not make matters any better 
…and putting out a software that is not ready is definitely less better. Paul has said before that putting dates on software releases is often optimistic. We are almost a year past the first estimate of the update, since been put back a few times by a re-write of the core code.
Actually, it’s been more than a year now. In fact, a “test version” of the promised update was provided to me in mid-December of 2016 as a hoped-for cure for issues that I had had since the get-go with my new unit.
I’m concerned that the Direct Stream Memory Player is not selling as well as they hoped and they are not addressing updates.
ozzy
I really doubt that is it. I think they are dedicated to doing the best that they can with the firmware, and to correct as many problems as they can before they release another firmware. I don’t think they’ll ever turn it into the universal player that they had hoped it would be (i.e. able to navigate discs with video content) but I think they honestly hope to make it “be all it can be” otherwise.
It would be nice if someone from PS would comment on the update status.
ozzy
I do apologize for the time it’s taken and the lack of response from us. It’s been difficult. The programmer responsible for the device unfortunately left it in a worse tangle than we had ever imagined. Matt, our engineering director, at first thought he could fairly quickly patch up what was wrong and bring it up to snuff. That turned out to be more difficult than one might imagine requiring a nearly complete disentangling of spaghetti code. If you’ve ever tried to unravel spaghetti it’s almost impossible to predict how long it will take.
Mat’s on it. He’s gotten mine to work a lot better with interim code and maybe the thing to do is release that for now while he keeps working on getting the rest sorted out.
Personally, as I find it best to buy SD cards from PS Audio for hassle-free updating, I’m all for waiting til the firmware is “all sorted out” than an interim version. . . .
Thanks for the update. I use my DMP with few hassles. . . my biggest wish would be better Blu-ray playback but I don’t believe that’s possible. . . luckily the sound of Blu-ray Audio from my Cambridge Audio CXU through my ZTPRE is pretty darned good for the hi-res music that won’t play in the DMP.
It’s good to get a progress update, even if the progress was not as expected, it always helps to stay informed. Assuming the new firmware is still a little rough, my suggestion would be to pick out those users that have the most problems and let them try it. Personally my issues with the firmware are more of a minor annoyance, so the evaluation may be less helpful? Not that I’m disqualifying myself …
I don’t have a DMP but, based on the number of frustrated posts I’ve read by DMP owners, my suggestion would be to make the interim software available as a beta/work in progress and to make sure people understand how to go back to the last official release if they don’t think the new version is an improvement. If Matt thinks he’s close to having a better version, then it would make sense to wait.
Paul says his is improved by the interim version so my vote would be to get the interim version with a path back to the current version if that is possible.
Its good to know they are still working on the update and have not abandoned it.
I have a Doors DVD-A set that I would like to play on the DS memory player someday. It will only play just the front L & R of the 5.1 surround tracks only, leaving out the vocals. Can’t get it to play the Stereo layer.
ozzy
As a DMP owner who continues to experience issues, I agree with stevem2 and stax.
I’ve been wrestling with what to do about my DMP. I know software is rarely easy and they have decided to rewrite the whole code, etc., etc., but there is a limit. I have finally decided that if a fix doesn’t come, I will swallow the financial loss and look for another player. I hate to give up the DMP’s glorious sound, but neither do I want to live for several years with a player that can’t always display the correct track number that’s playing. (Last time I played a CD it displayed “1” throughout the playback.) I’ll give it maybe six months, certainly not another year.
I hope they can fix that for you, that’s quite annoying, and has never happened to my DMP on Redbook or SACD (on DVD or Blu-ray playback, yes).
magister saidI’ve been wrestling with what to do about my DMP…
I retired my DMP and bought an Esoteric, which works flawlessly.
My DMP started to show wrong track numbers on some Redbook cds. I shut it off with the rear switch and left it unplugged over night. It hasn’t done this again in over a month. I realize that this may not work for every case but it is worth a try.
I’m guessing the update process may not be as straightforward as other devices, otherwise I don’t get why we haven’t gotten an interim version. It IS a total re-write.
As I mentioned here a month or so ago, I was in MR1 in early December with a pile of my own discs (several of which were burned DVD-ROMs), and it seemed to me that Paul’s worked a lot better and faster than mine. Opened, loaded and played all my discs faster, which is my main issue. I would be much happier with one that worked that way. I care comparatively less about the many display issues (not to suggest they aren’t important) - I primarily want something approaching hard-button responsiveness/functionality.
Though if it’s not an easy or flawless upgrade process that doesn’t cause new issues for people who weren’t having many, etc. it could be more problematic than it’s worth.
The DMP is an awesome machine…but for the money invested…we should all expect this player to work flawlessly. I’m hoping for a complete fix, which is the only fair outcome… to anyone who laid down their hard earned money expecting a sota transport.
Mark-d - I agree. I don’t mean to diminish the Fail that the functionality of this unit is. As I think I said during the beta, a $69 player from Best Buy works better. I just ended up caring enough about what it did sonically with my meatspace music library to put up with it.