[SOLVED] New firmware

Update page still states planned end of January for the MEP driver updates...  Any Idea if it's coming??? LOL

Maybe pioneer can upload the beta driver....

@Jason.

Do you have a link to the update site?

I belive that it will stil be a couple of weeks before the new update is ready.

Its only been 14 days, since i told/showed Pioneer what causes freezing problem, and what users can do to solve the problem.

Right now they should be working franticly, to make a new software that ignores the problem, that makes the MEP-7000 freeze.

I just tried going to the same page that i have been on pioneers forums for months and it now says page not found... 

I was click here -> first http://forums.pioneerdj.com/entries/20539428-mac-os-x-lion-compatibility and then clicking visit the support site

P.S. this freezing issue happens in both OSX 10.6.8 and 10.7.3...  So I am guessing that pioneer is working on both a Firmware update and Software/driver update??? it would be a miracle if both the freezing issue we are all having as well as the improper song/artists title be showing up on the MEP/SEP display... Instead of serato and pioneer blaming each other for the issues, it would be fantastic if they just worked together and got it fixed once and for all...

But what has the freezing issue to do with the soundcard driver for lion?

I just bought 5 Pioneer MEP 7000's and discovered some huge disappointments after unpacking one of them. I really hope that they will ever come up with new firmware, but i have little hope, because the latest firmware was realeased in March 2009. I strongly consider to return all 5 devices.

First of all, the sound of the master tempo is very, very disappointing. I am stunned that Pioneer never updated the firmware with improvements for mastertempo. 

Second I'm amazed how to handle USB switching between file browsing and search modus. We always used Numark DDS before. File browsing and search are both possible on this device. Looks like a simple update to build to me for Pioneer. It's absolutely impossible to eject the harddrive on the back of the device while live on a show with a build-in unit. I read on another place in this forum that the "solution" is to use two identical harddrive, one with and one without library. With this "solution" we lose the possibilty to use a harddrive for the general music collection and a USB-stick with the latest hits or with requests from a custumor. 

Other than this 2 huge issues for us i have these smaller issues which could be improved.

• The firmware is not supporting NTFS (could be read only)
  
• There is no "search all" mode
  
• BPM info in the tag is not used. BPMs are calculated on the MEP, but this takes minimum of 5 seconds. Instant mixing based on BPM is not possible.
  
• The total of playlists is resticted to 20 (why?)
  
• Search on BPM is missing
  
• Search on year is missing
  
• Sub sorting is handled on a strange way. Why not after search on artist, titles in alphebetic order as second sort priority?

I hope that someone can respond if there is a good chance that (mainly) the first two issues will of will not be taken care of in the nearby future.

So we are all waiting for a OSX lion driver update as well as device firmware update... Now what do we do with Mountain Lion 10.8 coming out?? LOL

Pioneer never replied to my e-mail last week. I have one week to decide to keep the 5 units or ship them back. Hope that someone of Pioneer can respond here to my last post??

The engineers have been made aware of your comments and we hope they will consider releasing another firmware update for the MEP to address some of your concerns however there is no guarantee of an update nor an anticipated release date at this time.  If we receive any other information we will be sure to post it on the forums for all.

@Addie > I'm not sure who you emailed, but we don't get their email and they don't read the forums.

To answer your previous questions:

• There haven't been many complaints about the Master Tempo on the MEP, so it has never been investigated.

• The software of the unit and the physical specifications were designed with an either/or function in mind for the device library.  As you can see with the newer units (CDJ2000, CDJ900, CDJ850, CDJ350), that function is available but I don't believe that they can simply update the software of the MEP to allow for that ability.

• NTFS requires a license from Microsoft and the cost is prohibitive, hence no NTFS support on any of Pioneer's products.

• What is the "all" you're wanting to search?  There is a search within the unit.

• No, the BPM is not used.  A limited library is created.  If you know your track BPM or mix by ear, you can mix relatively quickly.  If it's a concern, you could always retag your tracks with the BPM in one of the name fields.

• The playlist limitation is based on the unit's memory maximum as the playlist is not stored on the device but on the player itself.  If you'd like to use larger playlists, you can actually use a PLS file on your memory stick.

• There is no search on BPM or YEAR as they are not indexed in the library.

• I'm not sure about the search / sort, I haven't used it in a while but I remember there being a couple of options for that.

@Jason > I've reminded the engineers that we're still waiting for a driver for 10.7 for the MEP.

Pulse, thanks for the email. I had a few comments on your specific points (and Addie van den Berg's posting):

1. Master Tempo on the MEP has been mentioned a few times, actually, both in the forums and in the direct communication Pioneer had with a number of active members of the forum. Simply put, Master Tempo warbles and distorts certain songs when the tempo is changed more than about 3-4%. This is not just slow songs. Try it with the Black Eyed Peas "I Gotta Feeling." It is very noticeable, and it sounds pretty bad. That said, for about half of the music we play (or more), it works okay, as long as you don't go beyond about 7-8%. As a previous owner of multiple CMX-3000s, I know that Pioneer can do Master Tempo better than the implementation in the MEP. It's not a show stopper, but it certainly isn't great.

2. The MEP supports plenty of format options, and FAT32 or HFS+ both work fine. I don't see the need to support NTFS, especially when there are other much more pressing concerns.

3. The search functionality is sufficient, in my opinion (and good with a keyboard).

4. We tag all of our songs with their respective BPMs. This ID3 tag for BPM does appear in the display of the MEP, even though you can't sort by it (like Addie would like). Certainly sorting by BPM would be more useful than sorting by "Album" (a useless field in our opinion). We think the MEP does a very good job calculating the BPM, actually (better than other manufacturers). And it's pretty fast, too. If there is a gripe, it's that the BPM doesn't go out to a decimal. The MEP shows "128 BPM" for a song that is 128.1 BPM as well as a song that is 128.9 BPM. These are certainly not mixable, however. We train our DJs to adjust Master Tempo for the playing and cued songs so that the BPM is right at the point where 128 BPM switches to 129 BPM on the display (for example). This actually works well, although it is not elegant. The competition does go out to the tenths decimal place… and Pioneer should consider this.

5. PLS files actually work very well… except they only work with MP3s (as far as I can tell). We have tried this with AIF (uncompressed) files, and they are simply not compatible with the PLS files on the MEP. Bummer.

Addie, I am not convinced that Pioneer will ever release another firmware revision for this unit, which is sad. Even if they couldn't fix some of the issues (the fixed display design and memory limitations can't be solved with firmware), they really could step up to the plate to support their current base of users by fixing some of the other problems. I don't think Pioneer sells enough MEP-7000s to care about this unit anymore, which is a terrible shame. It's such a cool product for mobile implementations. And they would sell more if we in the forums started discussing how a new firmware revision addressed our concerns.

Woodster

Going outside 7-8% on any system is already stretching it and no matter how good, you'll notice the artefacting from the algorythm, even in software.  What I meant was there were fewer complaints about the MEP per units in the wild vs. other products.

Given that the MEP is now 4 years old (which by turntable standards, is young, but by computer software standards is ancient), and Pioneer's first real "media player" (yes, you could argue the CDJ-400 was out a bit before it, but it was a simple USB player), there were plenty of growing pains and learning to be done.  While the "competition" may do things different, they may have added those features after Pioneer's unit was released or they simply don't do it as well (or it won't last as long).

Pioneer does care about the customers and we are pushing them hard to address the concerns that they are able to.

Bonjour

Désole de contredire ce que vous dite mais avant de prendre un MEP 7000 j'ai eu un cortex. Ok qualité inférieur au Pionner mais beaucoup plus développer. Ex on pouvais passer en mode Bibliothèque ou mode recherche s'en éteindre l'appareil. Personnellement je n'ai jamais aucun bug avec que avec le Pionner il m'arrive souvent qu'il plante. Ex encore samedi sur un titre que je joue toutes les semaine donc sa ne viens pas du titre et bien en plein milieux de la chanson E8.... comme d'habitude gros moment de solitude obliger de meubler au micro tous en redémarrant le Pionner. Dernier problème que je constate au bout de 2 ans d'utilisation la molette principale pour le défilement des titres et devenue très aléatoire elle saute défois  de 3 a 4 lignes d'un coup. Et je pense que si Pionner voulait faire des modifications il le pourrai. Mais c'est sur que pour eux le MEP est un entré de gamme sa ne leur rapporte pas assez par rapport au 2000 voila toujours la même histoire le profit et l'argent le client on s'en fou..

We are now 1 month later and there is still no working driver for mac os x lion.

 When will this released??

@Rogier > We will post here and on Twitter when it is available.

Hello Pulse,

After the very interesting topic "Freezing problem found" I got my hopes up again for a frimware update of my MEP7000.

Can you confirm that engineers are/will be going to work on implementing a solution/work around based on the information given in that topic?

This topic started halfway last year by asking if there will be an update for the MEP7000.

On the old forum there wehere a lot more questions regarding this topic.

Can you please get us an official statement for us on what will happen?

Even if this means that there will be no update, people (like me) can move on and not keeping our hopes up....

If Pioneed decides not to build an update, that it would only be fair to get some sort of manual how to work around the major freezing problem. (if the work around in the other topic does work).

please Pulse, don't leave is hanging in the dark ....

Not leaving you hanging, the engineers are testing the firmware and we should see an update at some point in the not too distant future!

Pulse, this is hugely fantastic news! We will update our many MEP-7000 units in operation with our company. I am really, really glad to hear this. Due to demand, we are expanding this year, and more MEPs are in our future, too.

Thanks for the update.

Woodster

Salut

En voila une bonne nouvelle.

Reste plus que a esperer que sa sera pas dans trop longtemps !!!!!!

This has just made my day...

Great news pulse !, I also may buy another one too now :)

From an aussie with a limited budget, the news of a firmware ugrade soon is a welcomed result. Pioneer continue to be industry/market leaders and I am sure that they will endeavour to rectify the issues mentioned above. I don't think that anyone expects a model to be continually updated, however when a model such as the MEP7000 is still being advertised, promoted and sold that due diligence to provide what is being paid for is not an unreasonable request.

Finally thank you to all those involved in keeping the pioneer dream alive to make the MEP 7000 a Denon killer

Play fair now

Ever get that moment when you "mindblock" & can not remember which folder that new tune is in & you need to find it asap ?

Yes I can get lazy ... or Sometimes we dont have time or simply forget to update our back up drive & its library or lets call it "usb2 drive" with ...new chart music, new downloads & the remixes(duplicate of main drive"usb1 drive")

Thats where I think having "Artist/track name Search" within Folder search (usb1) as well as its own library search (usb2) would be Handy.

Just so you guys are aware and don't get your balloon burst when the release comes out, this update will be a pure bug-fix; there will not be any new or updated features, it will only address playback-stoppage issues.

The engineers have noted that the firmware and OS X 10.7 drivers will be available at the end of the month.

Thanks again for your patience.

Pulse, I think I speak for most of the MEP-7000 owning forum members in saying that addressing the playback-stoppage issue is THE critical issue. I am, for one, happy that Pioneer is investing some engineering resources to this end.

Woodster

i was advised from rane to purchase sertao 3.0 with and older version of software not happy i will not buy anything else for this unit until there is a solid firmware update i was told this is EOL product from pioneer and rane

I agree with woodster...  the most important issue to fix, is the play/pause button freezing or becoming inop. until the platter is touched or moved...  Though, fixing the improper song titles / artists on display would be a great fix as well!

Hello Pulse,

I don't want to be pushy, but....

Tomorrow it is the last day of the month.

Any word on the update ? 

@jammiejammie > I'm glad your calendar is working.  :D

I have great news - the update was released yesterday but I wasn't able to get online to post it!  Details coming in mere moments!!

In the MEP-7000 & SEP-C1 Firmware & Drivers forum, The link to the new Frimware **2012-03-30, **Links to the old vV2.02.