Please fix this product!

[macmpi]

New Forum, new hope...probably the last one

Former Streamium forum is full of desperate customers looking for their product be, at last, fixed.

The very few firmware updates (latest being 1.18.1115, not 1.18.1117) have not brought this product to decent quality level, on basic features.
Trying to summarize some outstanding issues:

1- Turning ON device, 99% times brings-up setup wizard, even if setup was done previously and working.
2- Curiously if you decline and press Home (after a few mandatory steps like language, location), eventually, it will just re-use existing setup -- well some only (SSID & key); for the rest (like network time) you are screwed.
3- Network time does not catch-up after restart (time is wrong): therefore radio-clock is NOT RELIABLE!
4- Radio-clock sound level can not be set at a minimal value: wakes you up very loud -- leave aside any hope for smooth & progressive level increase...
5- Clock can NOT use CD, USB, Web-Radio, DLNA files as sound input!
6- Frequent crashes: device stays ON, no way to turn it OFF, either by power-button or remote!
7- Web-radio cache buffering is ill-functioning (BBC radios failing for instance)


This product has been in the market for more than 1 year, and still does not perform as expected from day one.
Worse, Philips customer support does not show any sign that these issues are being worked-out: no more acknowledgment, no issues investigations, no feedback, etc...

Please let us know if some work is still being carried-out on this product, and if some firmware update is in the plan (with some target estimation).

There's nothing as bad for Brand Equity, as letting customers loose trust and confidence.

Thanks.


PS: I did not touch feature addition of course. The most obvious one, reading former Streamium Forum, is ability to efficiently search tracks on (populated) DLNA servers.

[trebor_uk]

Yes, please Philips do something about this product.

I have an older MC-i250 that I purchased back in 2004. It is great, although the styling, audio quality do show its age.
I purchased the MCI730 as a living room replacement just over a year ago and was immediately disappointed with the lack of being able to search when in Media Library. Even a "jump to letter" would be useful. On the MC-i250 if you list artists and press the number keys you can jump through the list to a starting letter of choice. The lack of this facility makes the device almost unusable for me as my media library has some 500+ artists and scrolling through to find a specific artist can take 10 mins or more.
This is my main issue, and one that I have reported several times over the past 12 months.

The other major issue is the the device locks up all the time and has to have the power cord pulled to reset it to turn it back on. This and the cd-rom drive just stops responding to eject after the device has been on for a day or so and needs the same power cycle to fix. These are annoying but coupled with the lack of the search/jump facility above all in all it makes for a very poor user experience.

My experience with customer care to date has been "your points have been noted" to recently (now that the 12 month warranty has just expired) they want the unit in for inspection/repair at my cost.

It could be a very decent product, just a little care and attention to fix these serious omissions/faults and it would get the thumbs up from me as is actually sounds quite decent when it is working. Sadly my current opinion is that it has been a waste of money and it is not fit for purpose.

Please put some serious effort into making this device deliver on it's promised capability.

[Philips - Gary]

Hi macmpi,

I'm sorry to hear about the issues regarding loss of settings, unfortunately we are still awaiting on the archive from the Streamium Cafe as to what has been done to date on such open issues but we will certainly look into the matter for you.

I shall post updates to this thread.

@trebor_uk: Thank you for your feedback regarding search functionality. This feedback is valued by us and I shall be sure to pass this on to our development team however I cannot confirm if this will be introduced.

Kind regards,

Gary

[macmpi]

Dear Gary,

Thank you for your prompt feedback and consideration.
I welcome any update on this topic, I will check regularly.
Best,

[trebor_uk]

Lastnight I performed a reset to factory on my 730.
Since running back through the wifi setup etc it seems slightly more stable. Over 24 hrs and the cd drive still opens on command, which it more that it has done for months.

I shall persevere for a little longer, although the search facility really is an essential if I am to own/use this device in the long-term.

Anyway, thanks for the reply Gary - at least we know that the company is looking on here.

[bonevg]

Hi there,

where can I get the newest firmware? I have some issues with my network so I can't let the automatic update run. Is there a hope to get over the permanent crash downs? It blocks completely every 10-15 min.! I boght the MCI 730 just several days ago. Would it be adviseble just to get it back to the dealer?

Thank you,

George

[misoot]

This is what I encounter everyday when using this product.

1) Incredibly slow software, I feel like in times of using Windows 95. Response time of several seconds after every push of the button is just 'normal.' In today's iPhone times, this is just unbelievable. It makes me furious when using the system.

2) The buffering issue when trying to listen to internet stations is the same story. It takes tool long and the radios are often very unstable.

3) There is no possibility to search songs on usb disk. Incredible. I have disk full of mp3s and i need to dig laboriously through all the artists and albums every time I want to play some specific song.

4) When I listen to internet radio, there is no information about the artist and song that is played at the moment. This I do not understand as when i play internet radios on my computer using Winamp or any other player I can always see the song and artist info.

5) internet radio stream once in a while transforms into a death-metal-like slow-mo song, very interesting listening experience indeed. Restart of the unit is needed.

Please do something with this as there seem to be too many users upset by this product.

[Philips - Gary]

Turning ON device, 99% times brings-up setup wizard, even if setup was done previously and working.

Hi macmpi,

Having looked into the issue for you it appears that this is a minor bug which occurs when a break in the network connection is detected.

We will look into the possibility of a fix for this issue however I cannot confirm when a firmware release may be made available.

In the mean time, as you have already pointed out, if you cancel the dialogue then the settings should still be in place and the product will continue to be usable.

Kind regards,

Gary

@bonevg: Unfortunately the firmware is only available via the automatic update, we do not have it available for download.

[macmpi]

Dear Gary,

Thank you for the follow-up: highly appreciated.
Just to clarify, this very annoying start-up bug (which requires permanent en lengthy user interaction at each restart), is one of several in the list (items 1-2).
Are other issues been looked at simultaneously? (items 3, 4, 6, 7). item 5 is very highly desirable too.

Thanks for your support.
Best.

[Philips - Gary]

Hi macmpi,

Yes, details of all issues have been fed back to our development teams to look into.

I won't be able to provide details of what can be done to address these concerns, however we shall do what we can.

Kind regards,

Gary

[lucas1970]

Whcih radio stations are the ones gving problem. In the past on the old forum they were added to a list and most of them got fixed. This looks still related to the old switch over from the past..

Empty favorite lists look to me more related to the issues on club Philips then a problem of the device since I see this also on my devices.

Also what I see is that some things are more wishes and other bugs.....Would be good to get a buglist and not a wishlist so Philips can focuss more on that. At the end of the day the new FW release shows that they are still looking at these devices....would be nice though to see the rlease notes as Macmpi said

@warmduscher, for me your device has a defect and you should go back to the dealer/service

[urosko]

I buy Philips MCi730 and i"m very unsatisfied becouse radio not play radio stations witch are .wmx I buy it thta will play my favorite stations but almost all are wmx format. or and MCI730 can not play them. Please fix that this stations can be played also becouse you have many on market. This HIFI cost 350 eur and i was expect that is perfect but i see is not!!!!
Example one of radio that i can hear:
http://www.gfm.com.br/ link of radio: http://00090-2.cdn.upx.net.br/listen.wmx

Please for fix this problem ASAP. Please for answer on my mail.

[andylillo]

The new FW does not solve the serious problem, when I add manually radios "my media" does not play AAC format. Only works well with. Mpeg

A pity most of the radios work with AAC

[benoitb]

Hello,
I bought a MCI730 one year ago, and it's really unstable :-/
My problem is that autoupdate finds new firmware, starts downloading, but it has never been successful... always stuck before the end. So I'm still using a very old firmware.
I believe we can update it from a file, where can we find the firmware update? I did not find it in the download zone.
Many thanks for your feedback.
Regards,
Benoit

[macmpi]

Dear Philips Support Mods, would you have any progress update on those issues please?
Any work being done on issues reported on this thread?
Are bugs being investigated, identified, replicated?
Do you Philips devs need more detailed information?

No progress report increases frustration and bad feelings.
Thanks.