INTRODUCTION

These release notes describes the features and limitations for the NTB software Version 4.4.3.

FEATURES

This version is a major update for the NTB11x software. It continues to deliver all the functionality described in the NTB110 Data Sheet, but with support for Digital TV.

We recommend that you read the NTB Users Guide for an introduction to using the NTB.

Note: It is not possible to update an NTB running V3 software to V4 in the field. Contact ONELAN if you wish to update from V3 to V4.

NEW IN 4.4.4

The following improvements have been made:

• Problems fixed:
  • Newsfeed daemon stopped running after rare network timeout.
  • Text scroller did not start a new line when words where longer than the line width.
  • FTP server no longer does a reverse DNS lookup, which slowed down access on some networks.

KNOWN LIMITATIONS

• On the NTB3000 series text scrolling is not as smoothly in portrait display mode as in landscape display mode.
• The NTB3000 series machines will reboot the NTB rather then restart when applying Display Settings or Player Settings.
• Tuning DVB-T on the NTB115 is slow - can take 11 minutes to complete.

DETAILED VERSION IDENTIFICATION

The software release version described herein is comprised of a number of sub-packages. Each sub-package has a build number - in parentheses.

ONELAN-Libs	ONELAN Application Libraries	V4.4.4 (5954)
ONELAN-Libs2	ONELAN Application Libraries 2	V4.4.4 (5954)
ONELAN-NTB	ONELAN NTB core	V4.4.4 (5994)
ONELAN-Signage	ONELAN Signage Applications	V4.4.4 (5967)
ONELAN-WebUI	ONELAN Web UI Applications	V4.4.4 (5994)
ONELAN-X11	ONELAN X11 Windows system	V4.4.3 (5611)

NEW IN 4.4.3

The following improvements have been made:

• Problems fixed:
  • Fixed long delay to start playing Composite and S-Video (Was 8s now .1s).
  • Fixed occassional on screen pause.
  • Names of factory shipped layouts and templates have been changed.
  • Speed up Tuning Digital TV (DVB-T) by approximatly 40%.
  • Changing the role of the NTB to Subscriber now correctly defaults the channel name.
  • A text scroll with a margin of 0 and empty text was failing and creating lots of log file.
  • Fixed Channel Subscription to a FTP server that does not support file transfer restarts.
  • Fixed text scroller problem of transitions from speed > 1 to speed < 1 would cause the speed to change before the second item was displayed.
  • Fixed problem with layout being allowed to have invalid names when copy and pasted.
  • Support page has a new Display command in the NTB Details to show the display modes that the screen connected the NTB supports. This is useful when setting up wide screen displays that have custom settings.
  • Fixed problem with Date and Time page not showing in rare situation.

KNOWN LIMITATIONS

• On the NTB3000 series text scrolling is not as smoothly in portrait display mode as in landscape display mode.
• The NTB3000 series machines will reboot the NTB rather then restart when applying Display Settings or Player Settings.
• Tuning DVB-T on the NTB115 is slow - can take 11 minutes to complete.

DETAILED VERSION IDENTIFICATION

The software release version described herein is comprised of a number of sub-packages. Each sub-package has a build number - in parentheses.

ONELAN-Libs	ONELAN Application Libraries	V4.4.3 (5611)
ONELAN-Libs2	ONELAN Application Libraries 2	V4.4.3 (5611)
ONELAN-NTB	ONELAN NTB core	V4.4.3 (5659)
ONELAN-Signage	ONELAN Signage Applications	V4.4.3 (5634)
ONELAN-WebUI	ONELAN Web UI Applications	V4.4.3 (5652)
ONELAN-X11	ONELAN X11 Windows system	V4.4.3 (5611)

NEW IN 4.4.2

The following improvements have been made:

• Player settings page allows the amount of memory used by the HTML player to be increase. This is necessary when running Java or complex Flash files.
• HTML player now supports the Java plugin. The Java plugin requires the HTML player to have atleast 400Mb of memory allocated.
• HTML player has experimental support for the Real Player plugin.
• Support wide-screen display modes and portrait mode on the NTB3000 series.
• Problems fixed:
  • Adding a new zone to a template no long gives an error from the playlist page.
  • Multiple newsfeeds in a zone can now be synchronised.
  • Flash and music files added with older versions of the NTB software are handled correctly.
  • Flash can find the fonts installed on the NTB again.
  • Remove limit on number of characters that the text scroller will show.
  • Channel Manager subscription over FTP has been made more robust to FTP server failures.
  • Allow channel manager to subscribe to URL without a path like "ftp://myftphost".
  • Layout pages will display even if a required template has been deleted.
  • Colours used in Text Scrolls are now using the correct colour values. The colours where faded.
  • Channel manager now correctly publishes folder play of text files.

KNOWN LIMITATIONS

• On the NTB3000 series text scrolling is not as smoothly in portrait display mode as in landscape display mode.
• The NTB3000 series machines will reboot the NTB rather then restart when applying Display Settings or Player Settings.
• Tuning DVB-T on the NTB115 is slow - can take 20 minutes to complete.

DETAILED VERSION IDENTIFICATION

The software release version described herein is comprised of a number of sub-packages. Each sub-package has a build number - in parentheses.

ONELAN-Libs	ONELAN Application Libraries	V4.4.2 (5254)
ONELAN-Libs2	ONELAN Application Libraries 2	V4.4.2 (5292)
ONELAN-NTB	ONELAN NTB core	V4.4.2 (5371)
ONELAN-Signage	ONELAN Signage Applications	V4.4.2 (5355)
ONELAN-WebUI	ONELAN Web UI Applications	V4.4.2 (5367)
ONELAN-X11	ONELAN X11 Windows system	V4.4.2 (5254)

NEW IN 4.4.1

The following improvements have been made:

• Display Settings pages shows more details about connected output devices.
• TV Tuner Settings pages allows previewing of S-Video, Composite and Analogue TV channels.
• DVB-T Tuner Settings page allows previewing of S-Video, Composite and Digital TV channels.
• System tests for TV have been removed for factory installed boxes. Use the TV Tuner Settings page to test the TV setup now.
• Layout pages now warn about zones that have been positioned outside of the usable screen area.
• The NTB11x supports new Screen Resolution 1440x900
• Problems fixed:qqq
  • When the NTB is turned on without a screen connected the VGA output is used.
  • Ad-Hoc TV now includes All TV channels.
  • Fix traceback when editing Text Scroller properties.
  • Display settings are now migrated when updating from V4.2.1 or V4.3.0.
  • Update now installs all NTB fonts.
  • Fix failure to startup when Streaming Video is licensed and the NTB is not connected to an active ethernet.
  • Fix performance of Movie player. It is ~6% faster then V4.3.0.
  • Update will install the NTB User Guide
  • Fix problem with Ad-Hoc-Text forms that cannot be deleted.
  • Fix handling of invalid HTML that may stop the Newsfeed service working

KNOWN LIMITATIONS

• Wide screen 1280x768 is not supported on the NTB3280 in this release.
• Tuning DVB-T on the NTB115 is slow - can take 20 minutes to complete.

DETAILED VERSION IDENTIFICATION

The software release version described herein is comprised of a number of sub-packages. Each sub-package has a build number - in parentheses.

ONELAN-Libs	ONELAN Application Libraries	V4.4.1 (4977)
ONELAN-Libs2	ONELAN Application Libraries 2	V4.4.1 (5062)
ONELAN-NTB	ONELAN NTB core	V4.4.1 (5063)
ONELAN-Signage	ONELAN Signage Applications	V4.4.1 (5063)
ONELAN-WebUI	ONELAN Web UI Applications	V4.4.1 (5063)
ONELAN-X11	ONELAN X11 Windows system	V4.4.1 (5060)

NEW IN 4.4.0

The following improvements have been made:

• Support the new NTB3280 product, a 2.8GHz Pentium 4 based system.
• Support the new NTB115 product that has Freeview (DVB-T), Analogue TV, S-Video and Composite.
• Folder synchronisation feature allows the playing of media in one folder to be synchronised to the media in another folder.
  For example: this allows a set of images in one folder to be captioned from text files in a second folder.
• Image player can preserve the aspect ratio of images.
• Text Scroller improvements:
  • Text files can now be played just like other media types.
  • Support control over white space display of text. The white space can be shown as entered or collapsed to single spacing.
  • Static text with transparent foreground or background supported over any zone (not just movie zones).
  • Slower scrolling speeds added from 1/2 speed down to 1/5 speed.
• HTML proxy now allows configuration of IP addresses that should not go through the proxy.
• The NTB User Guide is included on the NTB itself.
• Add support for analogue TV in Norway.
• Add support for analogue TV in Ireland.
• New Advanced Ad-hoc features (requires Advanced Ad-hoc license):
  • Ad-hoc Layouts can be used in the Layout Manager Diary to allow an ad-hoc user to change the default Layout and Layout for a diary entry.
  • Ad-hoc Advance-To allows an Ad-hoc user to cause the NTB to advance to a Rendezvous-point in a playlist.
• Newsfeeds that have never succeeded in fetching news will show the last error message on the NTB screen.
• Web User interface changes:
  • Templates allow each player type in a zone to have its own settings.
    For example the duration of images can be set to 5 seconds and movies can be set to play until done.
  • Always allow all Scroller properties to be edited.
  • Folder play allows each player type in a zone to have its own settings edited.
  • Rendezvous points and Advance-To commands can now be added to a play list.
  • The position and size of each item in a play list can override the zone default position and size.
  • New Options page allows:
    • Setting a title for the NTB Web pages. For example: name the NTB after the place it is installed.
    • Control the user interface policy to show web pages that match a user's needs.
  • Display settings page has been improved:
    • Allow easier selection of display mode.
    • Shows more status information including which output is active, VGA, S-Video or Composite.
    • Changes no longer require a reboot.
• Problems fixed:
  • Ad-Hoc TV now includes Streaming TV channels.
  • 1280x768 display mode improved to allow compatibility with more displays.
  • Text scroller now allows up to 10 text items to be shown in a zone at the same time. This fixes the problem of large gaps between short text items.
  • Movie player can show Streaming video from the VideoLAN Client (VLC) player.
  • Fix Colours Editor page that did not display on Mac OS X Safari.

KNOWN LIMITATIONS

• Wide screen 1280x768 is not supported on the NTB3280 in this release.
• Tuning DVB-T on the NTB115 is slow - can take 20 minutes to complete.
• When the NTB is turned on without a screen connected to it the software will fail to start.
• Update does not migrate the screen resolution. The Screen resolution is set to 1024x768.
• Some fonts are missing after an update, for exmaple Nimbus.
• Movie player is ~5% slower then V4.3.0.

DETAILED VERSION IDENTIFICATION

The software release version described herein is comprised of a number of sub-packages. Each sub-package has a build number - in parentheses.

ONELAN-Libs	ONELAN Application Libraries	V4.4.0 (4977)
ONELAN-Libs2	ONELAN Application Libraries 2	V4.4.0 (4930)
ONELAN-NTB	ONELAN NTB core	V4.4.0 (4982)
ONELAN-Signage	ONELAN Signage Applications	V4.4.0 (4981)
ONELAN-WebUI	ONELAN Web UI Applications	V4.4.0 (4982)
ONELAN-X11	ONELAN X11 Windows system	V4.4.0 (4966)

NEW IN 4.3.0

The following improvements have been made:

• Plasma burn mitigation: Layouts can be set to change zone positions automatically to mitigate against plasma burn.
• Play Video Streams sent over IP networks. This feature requires an additional license. We have tested against the Exterity DVB-IP gateway products.
• RS232 messages can be sent from the NTB to control external devices. This feature requires an additional license.
• Text Scroller uses anti-aliased fonts that improve the appearance of Text Scrolls.
• Newsfeeds now support the older RDF format in addition to RSS format.
• Flash player updated to latest release for Linux 7.0.61.0.
• Web User interface changes:
  • Special Items section of the Play List editing page has been reorganised to make it easier to use.
• Problems fixed:
  • Proxy not working for Basic Authentication in Newsfeeds and Channel Manager.
  • Text Scrolls that were higher then they were wide would be painted black in the bottom of the zone.
  • FTP server not running when DNS/DHCP information about the NTB's IP address is inconsistent.
  • Audio files could not be folder played.
  • Ad Hoc folders with spaces in their names did not work.
  • Some HTML/Flash contents may causes instability in the NTB. NTB now gracefully recovers.
  • Day Light Saving offset not taken into account by XML message used by the Net-Top-Box Status monitor (NSM).

Note: NTSC users will need to update their TV Tuner Settings.

DETAILED VERSION IDENTIFICATION

The software release version described herein is comprised of a number of sub-packages. Each sub-package has a build number - in parentheses.

ONELAN-Libs	ONELAN Application Libraries	V4.3.0 (4542)
ONELAN-Libs2	ONELAN Application Libraries 2	V4.2.0 (4534)
ONELAN-NTB	ONELAN NTB core	V4.3.0 (4550)
ONELAN-Signage	ONELAN Signage Applications	V4.3.0 (4551)
ONELAN-WebUI	ONELAN Web UI Applications	V4.3.0 (4550)
ONELAN-X11	ONELAN X11 Windows system	V4.3.0 (4370)
ONELAN-X11-Config	ONELAN X11 Configuration	V4.3.0 (4373)

NEW IN 4.2.1

The following improvements have been made:

• Ad-hoc text now has a default value.
• Feedback messages are now shown during initialisation of the NTB when the screen would otherwise be blank. This allays concerns that the NTB may not be working.
• News Feeds can now be accessed from a wider range of sites, for example Google.
• Web User interface changes:
  • Update page will now show the log messages from the last update. This gives easy access to check that an update applied without problem or to see any error messages.
  • Attention feedback (the pink messages) are now displayed in an alert dialog to make it harder to miss important feedback.
  • News Feed Manager will now test the RSS Newsfeed URL when you Update or Add a newsfeed.
  • External Web Pages can now refer to HTTPS and FTP as well as HTTP sites.
• Problems fixed:
  • Text Scroller is now a lot smoother, the scroller movement is synchronised to the displays refrash rate.
  • File uploading is now faster. This fixes a bug introduced in V4.2.0 that slowed down uploads.
  • News Feeds with embedded character escapes now display them correctly instead of showing text like '.
  • HTML clock now abbreviates Thursday to Thu. Edit any HTML clocks and Apply settings to update your existing clocks.

DETAILED VERSION IDENTIFICATION

The software release version described herein is comprised of a number of sub-packages. Each sub-package has a build number - in parentheses.

ONELAN-Libs	ONELAN Application Libraries	V4.1.1 (3717)
ONELAN-Libs2	ONELAN Application Libraries 2	V4.2.0 (3895)
ONELAN-NTB	ONELAN NTB core	V4.2.1 (4341)
ONELAN-Signage	ONELAN Signage Applications	V4.2.1 (4341)
ONELAN-WebUI	ONELAN Web UI Applications	V4.2.1 (4341)
ONELAN-X11	ONELAN X11 Windows system	V4.1.0 (3431)
ONELAN-X11-Config	ONELAN X11 Configuration	V4.2.1 (3967)

NEW IN 4.2.0

The following improvements have been made:

• Licensing. The NTB now has a licensing system used to control access to new features that add value beyond the NTB standard features.
• New Ad-Hoc features allow designers to give an ad-hoc users control over more features of the NTB. This is especially useful when publishing a channel to a community of subscribers that wish to customise the operation of the NTB at the subscribers site. These features require an additional license.
  • Ad-Hoc TV allows the ad-hoc user to pick the TV channel being shown
  • Ad-Hoc News Feed allows the ad-hoc user to pick the News being shown
  • Ad-Hoc Diary allows the ad-hoc user to change when key events happen like mute/unmute of audio, display on/off and when layouts are shown. For example each subscriber to a channel could set their only lunch time.
  • Ad-Hoc Folder allows the ad-hoc user to easily add media to a Folder Play folder via the Web Interface or FTP.
• HTML Clock editor allows easy setup of HTML clocks. Choose the "HTML Clock" from the Special Items to add a clock and Edit the item to customise the clocks appearance.
• HTTP Proxy changes:
  • HTTP Proxy details have been moved from the News Feed Settings and Channel Settings pages to the HTTP Proxy Settings page.
  • HTTP Proxy settings can be shared between the HTML Player, News Feeds and Channel Subscriber.
• Channel Manager changes:
  • Channel Manager pages improved to make them clearer and easier to use.
  • Channels published with version V4.2.0 will work on older NTB provided the new Ad-Hoc features have not been used.
  • Support for read-only FTP access to NTB locally published channel.
    1. On the User Account Settings page add a new user ("channel" for example) with "FTP Read Only Access" and an "FTP Home Folder" of "channel".
    2. On the subscribers configure them to use the new user ("channel" on NTB 192.168.1.87 in this example) with a URL of "ftp://192.168.1.87" (you do not need to add any folder name).
• Web User Interface changes:
  • Usability of the Web User Interface has been improved based on feedback from customers
  • Icons have been added to make the index pages easier to use
  • New Licensing Settings - allows entry of licenses
  • New Licensing Status - shows the features enabled by the installed licenses
  • New News Feed Manager page added to the HOME page
  • News Feed Settings page removed - use the new News Feed Manager page
  • New Ad-Hoc Forms index page has an the Ad-Hoc Form designer pages
  • Player Status page shows only the status of the player (the extra information that used to be shown has been moved to new pages).
  • New Diary Status page shows the status of the diary
  • New News Feed Status page shows the status of the news feeds
  • New Screen Snap Shot shows a snap shot of what is showing on the NTB display
  • New CPU Load added to HOME page to give easy access to this useful tool
  • User Account Settings page allows users HOME folder to be set. This enables Ad-Hoc folder feature for Ad-Hoc users.
  • DVB-T Tuner Settings page now allows the TV Channels to be previewed
• Problems fixed:
  • HTML Player supports HTTPS pages now
  • Digest authentication is supported in News Feeds, Channel subscribing and the HTML Player now

DETAILED VERSION IDENTIFICATION

The software release version described herein is comprised of a number of sub-packages. Each sub-package has a build number - in parentheses.

ONELAN-Libs	ONELAN Application Libraries	V4.1.1 (3717)
ONELAN-Libs2	ONELAN Application Libraries 2	V4.2.0 (3895)
ONELAN-NTB	ONELAN NTB core	V4.2.0 (4213)
ONELAN-Signage	ONELAN Signage Applications	V4.2.0 (4206)
ONELAN-WebUI	ONELAN Web UI Applications	V4.2.0 (4207)
ONELAN-X11	ONELAN X11 Windows system	V4.1.0 (3431)
ONELAN-X11-Config	ONELAN X11 Configuration	V4.2.0 (3967)

NEW IN 4.1.1

The following improvements have been made:

• Web User Interface changes:
  • The speed has been dramatically increased making the NTB Web Interface far more responsive.
  • Layouts and Templates that are in use cannot be deleted any longer.
  • Template design defaults to pixel dimensions instead of percentage dimensions.
  • Adder more font point sizes, 28pt and 32pt
  • Duration field presentation and setting has been improved to remove the confusion over the special case meaning of 0.
  • Layouts have web links to their templates and templates have web links to all the layout that use them.
  • Prevent the logged in user from deleting themselves on the User Settings page.
• HTML player now supports XML files as well as HTML files.
• HTML player now blocks popups.
• The limit of one movie player zone in a layout is now enforced.
• Fixed problem with slow Change layout transitions
• Fixed problem with TV Overscan not working in 4.1.0. TV Overscan is support in 1024x768 and 800x600 display modes.
• Fixed publishing of Folder Play HTML files missing associated files from the _files folder.

NEW IN 4.1.0

The following improvements have been made:

• High Security bundle provides a set of integral Firewall features aimed primarily at security conscious corporate customers.
  • New Security Settings and Security Status pages.
  • Turn on the firewall to lock down access to the NTB from specific IP address.
  • Web interface via HTTPS secure access can be enabled.
  • FTP can be disabled.
  • NTB Master password can be changed.
• Factory reset feature. Using a keyboard it is now possible to reset passwords, security and network settings to factory defaults.
• Web User Interface now warns when any changes require a reboot or activation of layout changes.
• User installed fonts can be used in HTML player zones.
• Screen colour under user control. The yellow screen seen when changing layouts can be changed to any user defined colour. See the Player Settings page.
• Ad Hoc Text editor allows for per user access control.
• All Previous Hot Fixes are included in this release.

NEW IN 4.0.5

The following improvements have been made:

• Over heating protection. When the temperature of the NTB disk rises about 50°C the NTB will shutdown after displaying a warning in red on the NTB display.
• Support for using an HTTP proxy with the HTML player. See the new HTTP Proxy Settings and Player Settings pages.
• Support for the full range of characters user in Eurpean languages. Text entered via the Web User Interface will be correctly drawn by the NTB so long as a suitable font is available.
• Improved font installation. Installing fonts has been stream-lined:
  1. Copy True Type Font into the NTB's /fonts folder.
  2. Reboot the NTB
  3. New fonts automatically show up in the Layaout Manager font menus.
• Web User Interface: New Player Settings page allows:
  • A HTTP proxy to be configured for the HTML player.
  • Deinterlacing can be turned on or off. When turned on the picture quality is improved at the cost of ~10% extra CPU load.
  • The TV standard used by the Movie player can now be set.
• Web User Interface: Environment page has been changed to show the disk temperature history for the last 24 hour and the last 30 days.
• Web User Interface: Home page has been changed:
  • Frequently used links are on the home page, other have been moved to a second Installation and Maintenance page.
  • The currently playing layout is show as a ICON on the HOME page, clicking on the icon give fast access to Zone Editing for the current layout.
  • Status of Audio, Display and Channel manager is shown on the HOME page.
• Layout Manager: Clicking on zones in layout icons always opens the Zone's Play list editor page.
• Layout Manager: Missing Media for a Play List is now highlighted as an error.
• Support: Support Snap shots are now ZIP files to allow users to more easily work with them on Windows.

The following problems have been fixed:

• Font: Font installation was not working. Fixed and improved, see above.
• File Manager: The File Manager no long break (page shows debug info) when files with names that the NTB cannot handle are present. The File Manager reports the presence of the file with a bad name and then ignores it.

NEW IN V4.0.3

This is the first release of the version 4 software.

Features:

• Support NTB113 Freeview Digital TV (DVB-T) Tuner
• Auto tune of Freeview TV stations
• Uses familiar user interface from V3.0.2
• Layouts and Templates can be shared between V3 and V4 NTBs

© Copyright 2008, ONELAN Limited.

Email: support@onelan.co.uk

Tel: +44 (0)1491 845286