Firmware 2.0.0 Next Week!

[reallynotnick]

Well I bet the extended game time came from the faster boot up ;P

Really I want the screen interlace fixed and .mp4 support. This "2.0" does not really feel like 2 to me.

 

[Epicenter]

These are all very welcome improvements, and sound like the sort of things all of us expected from the machine from day one.

Better means of copying files in the machine is a godsend-- I test my programs so many times in such a short period of time swapping cards and worrying if they unmounted correctly is very aggravating. USB support for Gamepads is excellent; the game engine I'm writing will work enormously better with a D-Pad on a gamepad than the stick, so that's an excellent solution until I install D-Pad of my own (or Radek's kit, whichever.)

I do hope overclocking the machine is not a pain in the ass, though. I'm not 100% clear how one overclocks the system to run programs on Firmware v1.4, but I know it involves scripts and looks like it requires support in the program itself. How inconvenient.

Well I bet the extended game time came from the faster boot up ;P

Really I want the screen interlace fixed and .mp4 support. This "2.0" does not really feel like 2 to me.

Those are some pretty insignificant changes. Why would adding Mp4 support make it worthy of the title 'v2.0'? Having a whole different company develop it and make major strides to improve it is a much better reason. And for the love of god, Interlacing is not a FLAW or a BUG, it is a hardware attribute. 'Interlaced' seems to be synonomous with 'broken' among far too many people on this forum-- interlaced displays are not a bad thing. Hell, your TV is interlaced, your DVDs are interlaced .. when their output to the display is handled properly they look great and benefit from it by appearing to be higher-framerate than they actually are. It's beneficial-- allowing 30 FPS output to look like 60 FPS to the human eye! The only issue is the timings are a bit awkward at times on the '2x's existing firmware and software resulting in poor screen handling and the appearance of scanlines. Personally, it's not a problem to me in the slightest, and very rarely even becomes noticable to me. I can see it on my laptop, GBA, and the same on my 2 PocketPCs and my Nintendo DS when I owned them.

 

[jansport]

USB support for Gamepads is excellent; the game engine I'm writing will work enormously better with a D-Pad on a gamepad than the stick, so that's an excellent solution until I install D-Pad of my own (or Radek's kit, whichever.)

Just to make things a bit more clearer for me and if you don't mind answering this, but will the USB Gamepad be powered by the GP2x or will I need one of those yokes that power the USB device?

 

[Shikaku]

USB support for Gamepads is excellent; the game engine I'm writing will work enormously better with a D-Pad on a gamepad than the stick, so that's an excellent solution until I install D-Pad of my own (or Radek's kit, whichever.)

Just to make things a bit more clearer for me and if you don't mind answering this, but will the USB Gamepad be powered by the GP2x or will I need one of those yokes that power the USB device?

Most USB joysticks/controllers/keyboards/mice/flash drives do not need extra power. The main thing that would need extra power is something like external hard drives that do not have their own power.

 

[reallynotnick]

Epicenter, by no means did I mean those 2 features would make it 2.0 worthy, they are just the most important to me.
I am aware of interlacing on my tv and I happily have my tv reasemble the picture in progressive scan and same goes for my dvd player.

I don't know of many lcds that are interlaced, well none, so I still think it is not a hardware problem.

 

[Crazy Goat]

I do not find this 2.0 worthy as of now - I believe the 1.5.0 would have been more appropriate.

 

[Hobohack]

Hopefully out in 24hours

 

[FluffyPanda]

I do not find this 2.0 worthy as of now - I believe the 1.5.0 would have been more appropriate.

1.x.x -> 2.x.x indicates a major version revision, which is what this is. From the sound of it a lot has been changed and it's even being maintained by a different company. Besides, it's just a number.

Of course, I still don't have a flash-capable card so I'm screwed anyway.

Ho hum.

 

[White Demon]

Which would get us in the same situation as with the BLU/BLU+, but the other way around this time, the old flickery units not being taken care of anymore.... :unsure:

Many "key", as they say, developers have old flickery units... So no worries.

I wouldn't count on it like that. Just because so many people have got a certain version, doesn't mean they will still be catered for, I've seen it happen time and again in the past. How can you gaurantee will this be different?
(not saying that it will happen, we probably will be safe, but it could happen)

Oh, and to the best of my knowledge, wasn't the last firmware supposed to fix the diagonal wavy lines? I still get 'em. I can only really see them on black/dark screens, but they're still there. When's that gonna be fixed? edit: I can see the wavy lines on the front-end menu sometimes too, and that's a light coloured screen.

 

[Squidge]

Craigix already has a gp2x with the new display running fw2.0, so either the firmware supports both displays, or there's no actual difference in how to talk to the displays.

So I don't think we'll be having a BLU/BLU+ situation any time soon.

 

[skeezix]

"2.0" has two meanings really.. theres the techy meaning of going form 1.x to 2.x which means "big changes under the hood and/or visibly", and then theres the marketing term which means "we want you all to download this."

I have found you could make a 2.0 relese and call it 1.1 and no one will use it, but if you make a small change and call it 2.0 everyone will use it.

So this should likely be 2.0 if they wish everyone to standardize on it.

jeff

 

[NoidZ]

From what I heard the new LCD won't flicker but the screen will be dim and washed out like the BLU+. I will take the slight interlace. My Razr phone has the exact type of interlace flicker that the GP2X has so that is not uncommon.
[/quote]

Yeah, my razr has the exact same problem

 

[nickspoon]

There are some major revisions. Even the fact that GPH are now using someone else for their coding requirements constitutes a major revision no. change, I think.

 

[Squidge]

Yup, it's been said that some parts of the gp2x "package" have been rewriten/reported by people who are competent, and that usb supposedly now works

I'd say the fact they've upgraded the staff is the biggest upgrade

 

[Phil]

So.....It's not released? damn.

 

[Tobriand]

It's actually announced on gp2x.com as being scheduled for "around 27th/28th April". So don't be surprised if it's not out until tomorrow, and I personally won't be too shocked if it hasn't turned up til, say, the 30th.

 

[Shikaku]

*twiddles thumbs*

If it comes out on or before May 1st I don't really care... I'll wait.

 

[DaveC]

From what I heard the new LCD won't flicker but the screen will be dim and washed out like the BLU+. I will

Well, Craigix has been sent a sample it seems, and from his description, I certainly wouldn't say the new display was "dim". I'm not going to say exactly what he thought of it yet though as I don't know if his sample is final or not.

Well you could always state the initial impressions with the disclaimer that "this may not be the final version".

The thing I am concerned about most is the black level and color saturation. Those things were rather poor on the BLU+ as compared to the GP2X.

 

[Squidge]

Well you could always state the initial impressions with the disclaimer that "this may not be the final version".

I'm thinking more along the lines of "If Craigix wants the information public, he'll be happy to post it himself", as he's the only one that will know whether the current design will be final, subject to change, or whatever.

 

[Drag]

If it has to reflash the nand, update the uboot, and reflash the firmware, how long would all of that take?