Media Devices/Egreat EG-M33H-DVBT

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The eGreat EG-M33H-DVBT combines a HDTV tuner with the standard features of a network media device. If a SATA Hard drive is installed internally, PVR functionality is made available. (Note: Only Hard Drives formatted with EXT3 file system will permit 'write' changes. NTFS formatted drive will be read only. HDTV is still available if no HDD is installed)

The device's top level menu offers a choice of Video, Music, Photo, HDTV and Setup.

A blue LCD display is present on the front of the device which displays the current time and what 'mode' the device is currently in. This display can be turned off via the remote if required.

NMT Applications CAN NOT be installed on the device and whilst it has a network interface, it does not seem to offer any network based services.

Clarificaion on above: The network interface can be used to stream media, however the device does not provide any server functionality

Features

Supported Formats

AAC, M4A
MPEG audio (MP1, MP2, MP3, MPA)
WAV
WMA
FLAC (1.0.2.0 firmware and later)

(OGG is listed on the egreat product website as being a supported format but this is not the case as of the 1.0.2.1 firmware)

Supported Video Formats

MPEG1/2/4 Elementary (M1V, M2V, M4V)
MPEG1/2 PS (M2P, MPG)
MPEG2 Transport Stream (TS, TP, TRP, M2T, M2TS, MTS)
VOB
AVI, ASF, WMV
Matroska (MKV)
MOV (H.264), MP4, RMP4

Firmware

As of 28th September 2009, the latest firmware release is 1.0.3.3 and can be downloaded from the eGreat support website.

This release has removed the subtitle track (closed captions) on HDTV from defaulting to on.

Ogg music playback is still missing.

Bugs & Issues

(These issues are present in the 1.0.3.3 firmware)

Ogg music files are not recognised and can not be played.
When setting the devices time zone, 1/2 hour increments are not available which means tv time displays for people in +-*.3 time zones will be out by 1/2 an hour.

Hardware

Chipset

SIGMA DESIGNS SMP8635

Memory

256MB 64bit DDR (HYNIX)
32MB 16bit Flash (SPANSION)

Video outputs

HDMI(V1.3),resolution (480P, 576P, 720I, 720P, 1080I@50Hz, 1080I@60Hz, 1080P@50Hz, 1080P@60Hz, 1080P@30Hz, 1080P@29Hz, 1080P@25Hz, 1080P@24Hz, 1080P@23Hz)
Component(Y/Pb/Pr),resolution: 480P, 576P, 720I, 720P, 1080I@50Hz, 1080I@60Hz, 1080P@50Hz, 1080P@60Hz
Composite: 576I@PAL, 480I@NTSC

Interface

Internal SATA
10-baseT/100-baseT
USB (2 * Type 1, 1 * Type 2)
Optical Audio out
RCA Stereo out
RCA Y/Pb/Pr
HDMI 1.3
RCA Composite

(Note: All interfaces located on the rear of the device)

Network

Ethernet 10/100
Optional support for Wireless (untested)

Power

12V DC, 3A

Dimension

235 * 180 * 70mm

Package Content

Remote control
Power adapter 12V/3A
Power cable
USB 2.0 Cable
USB 2.0 Extension cable
HDMI Cable
Manual/Applications CD
Screw bag
Antenna

How To

Update Firmware

follow these steps:

Download the firmware and extract it (you will need software that handles .rar files)
Copy the firmware file to the root folder of a USB storage device. (the file name should be something like EGR_M31H*.img)
Turn off your 33H device
Plug the USB storage device into your 33H device
Turn on your 33H device
Press the "File" button on your remote
Select your usb device (It will be called something like sda1)
Select/highlight the *.img file and press the enter button on the remote
Select 'Yes' as the answer to the firmware upgrade message box (press the enter button)
Wait for the completed message box
Restart your 33H
Enjoy happy new good firmware for great justice.

Telnet

(unconfirmed) A user on the official forum has reported success in connecting a telnet to the 33H with the 1.0.3.3 firmware applied. Login was achieved with the user name root and no password.

Hacking

WARNING: MUCKING AROUND WITH THE FIRMWARE OF YOUR 33H CAN RESULT IN COMPLETELY STUFFING IT BEYOND REPAIR.

(once again, lifted directly from the user 'curb' from the official forums)

Getting the interesting bits from the 33H OS:

   * telnet to the device
   * plug in usb (with some writable partition - ntfs, fat32, ext2/3)
   * dd if=/dev/mtdblock5 of=/mnt/sda1/copied-mtdblock5
   * (to /dev/mtdblock0 is mapped the whole flash, /dev/mtdblock2 and 4 are mapped to the romfs images, /dev/mtdblock5 is mapped to cramfs - this one is mounted as /tmp/appmnt and contains code I modified, other /dev/mtdblocks are mapped to area on the flash where configuration is stored - ip address, ..., tuned stations, ...)
   * after you mount the cramfs under linux, it's read only. So if you want to modify something, you have to copy the whole directory elsewhere, then modify it
   * use mkfs.cramfs to create new cramfs image from modified directory (don't add too much stuff)

'mavak' (another egreat forum user) has discovered you can mount shares that aren't called share (alas, they do not appear on any of the 33H menu options so the access is via the telnet session only.)

   * telnet in 
   * cd /mnt/hda1
   * mkdir somename
   * mount -t cifs //192.168.0.x/sharename /mnt/hda1/somename -o username=user,password=pass