VanityPRO new firmware available

Hi all,
We have just released a new firmware for the VanityPRO. Please find the firmware loader tool with the firmware itself and release notes in this location: https://audiopraise.com/projects/internal/vanitypro/resources/
Comments are welcome here!

Best Regards,
Pavel



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/22/2022 02:18PM by AP.

Ok. Firmware successfully updated!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/12/2022 04:56AM by Karl W..

Thanks Karl!
Please feel free to share the details of the issue you had for others in case they experience the same issue.
Best Regards,
Pavel

So easy anyone can do it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/19/2022 11:08PM by Karl W..

Hi all VanityPRO users,

we have recently released the latest HDMI SW version 35. This version is addressed to all the devices which have current HDMI SW version 32. We strongly recommend to you all who have HDMI SW version 32 to make this update. The HDMI V35 software is available here. Please check the readme file for more information about the update process itself.

Regards,
Milan



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/2022 03:51PM by Milan.

Hi all,

today we have released the new FW version V4. It is available on the usual web location. The biggest update is the extended downmix functionality. ARC volume possibilty out of your TV is something that some of you have also been missing. Any your feedback is welcome, e.g. here in this thread.

Regards,
Milan

Hi all,

after almost two months collecting your feedbacks and recommendations for features implementation, we have released the new FW version V5 for you. It is available on the usual web location (link) with the quite varied list of all the changes and new implementations. Please be noted, that the prior HDMI update to version 35A is now a must. Any your feedback is welcome.

Regards,
Milan



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/27/2023 08:07AM by Milan.

When I try upgrading the app says please reboot the unit in upgrade mode. The unit however clearly states: USB upgrade \n state: idle... I tried 2 different computers, 2 different cables and did various restarts. Bug maybe? Or is there an extra action I have to perform on the unit?

Edit: And I also tried the procdure in the manual, with same result. No driver issues reported by windows and msvc red installed.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/24/2023 11:31AM by jvdh1978.

It started upgrading. I had to hold the key longer. I upgraded firsat hdmi then the audio. Unfortunately the box does nothing now. HDMI board states:

Status: NOK
SW version: -
DFU version: -

The software upgrade tool reported succes...

Hello Jan,

From the provided information, you started with HDMI FW upgrade first and I assume, you have the HDMI Power disconnected. For this first stage, when the HDMI FW is upgrading, you have to have both the powering active (AUDIO, HDMI), do you? Once this first stage is succesfull, you should receive the status information with SW version 35A. Then, you can continue with the main upgrade of VanityPRO V5 FW.

BTW. to step into the upgrade mode, you have to un-power AUDIO POWER, push and hold the knob, then power the AUDIO POWER, in Audiopraise Firmware Loader you should get Audiopraise VanityPRO device available. Then you can release the know and continue with the further upgrading steps.

Regards,
Milan

Seems to have been the power supply that was failing and replacement eventually recovered it. Thank you for the support over email so fast!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/24/2023 10:41PM by jvdh1978.

Hi Jan,
Thanks for the update. We are always happy to help.
Best Regards,
Pavel

Thanks jvdh1978, it was the Windows 11 and you helped me debug it.
Flashes fine on Windows 10, all good now.

Any chance of having a firmware tool for Mac OS or Linux?

My Windows 10 on VirtualBox refuses to start the firmware tool and exits with an error even after having tried various Visual Studio redistributable packages.

Hi bas303,
Thank you for your question. Other users have raised the same question before. We are working on porting the firmware loader onto other platforms already. I cannot give you ETA right now, but it is an active project and I will give progress update in a couple weeks time.
Best Regards,
Pavel

jvdh1978 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I upgraded first hdmi then the audio.
> Unfortunately the box does nothing now. HDMI board
> states:
>
> Status: NOK
> SW version: -
> DFU version: -
>
> The software upgrade tool reported success...

The same thing just happened to me after I upgraded to HDMI V35A. Since I couldn't do anything with the above error, I then tried upgrading to VanityPro V5.1 firmware, but it then said:

DEVICE STATUS
HDMI: ERROR
FPGA: OK
DISPLAY: OK
MEMORY: OK
!!RE-POWER THE DEVICE!!

But every time I repower the device I get the same error. Should I (can I) I go back to the old firmware version?

Hi Falcon91Wolvrn03,
It looks like you haven't been able to load the HDMI firmware correctly. That is why you are getting the HDMI error when you try to load the main firmware. Can you please share more information about your computer/windows version? Does the main firmware load correctly? You can always try to load the HDMI firmware again, in case it failed the first time.
Best Regards,
Pavel

Hello Falcon,

just to keep the others informed, as a result of our joint analysis, the issue was caused by using a PC with Windows11 for which the APloader application doesnt work very stable in terms od data consistency during the transfer. So please you all who have a similar issue, try to avoid to use PC with Windows 11. We are working on the solution also for the ther OS platforms so we will keep you informed.

Regards,
Milan

Thank you Milan! Windows 10 worked perfectly. :-)

Hi all,

before the Christmas we have finally finished another FW update marked as V5.2. Most of the changes are your feedbacks you share to us either as a bug or improving recommendation. FW is available on the usual web location (link). Please be noted, prior HDMI update to version 35A1 is crucial. Again, any your feedback is welcome.

Regards,
Milan

Hello everyone who have updated the V5.2 already,

after the FW release we have noticed some bugs in EDID and Audio buffer control sections, so we came up with hotfix FW V5.2.1 (link). Please update your units with this version we released today.

Our apologies for the inconvenience.

Regards,
Milan

I'm having the same problem. I'm stuck at:

> Status: NOK
> SW version: -
> DFU version: -

I've tried a Windows 11 PC first, then a Windows 10 laptop. The HDMI side appears to have power (i can see a green light inside). I've installed all the USB drivers and everything appears to be working fine but after repeated attempts I can't get the HDMI flashed to a point where the Firmware will install. Would appreciate some help!

Have tried 3 different computers (one Windows 11, and two Windows 10) and two different usb cables. I also swapped the PSUs between HDMI and Audio sides. No success. I've attached pictures. Is there a way to recover back to an earlier version so i can get things working again? I tried using HDMIV35 (instead of V35A), but had the same result of "NOK" even though the computers report success each time.

Hi Jimrod,
Sorry to hear about your troubles updating the VanityPRO. I believe my colleague Milan is talking to you via PM to help you with the issue. Once resolved, we will share the conclusion here.

As a general observation, if the HDMI update process has not finished successfully, you should be able to load the previous version of the firmware 5.1 from the firmware archive you can find on the bottom of the Resources page. We have seen this HDMI update issue happening a few times on Windows11 only and we are testing a few things to identify what variables could affect the process, such as different version of the Visual C++ libraries. We are also working on a new version of the Loader tool which should work flawlessly across all platforms.

Best Regards,
Pavel

Thanks, Pavel. Milan has been very responsive so i certainly appreciate the great customer support. And I've had success! At Milan's prompting, I double checked i had installed Visual Studio 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2022, and I had because it offered only to "repair" the install (it seems to do that when detected as already installed). I proceeded with that "repair" and it then prompted me to reboot. That may have been the critical step - rebooting after the Visual Studio install, although I do seem to remember rebooting when i initially installed it the first time. The only other potential variable was that i used a different USB cable (I'd tried two other USB cables earlier that I know are reliable in other applications). Those are the only potential changes i can pinpoint from all the earlier attempts, but it suddenly worked so i'm happily up and running again! Many thanks.

Hi Jimrod,
That is great news! I am glad you managed to get it working with Milan's assistance. The Visual C++ libraries may be sometimes non-trivial to manage. Anyway, thanks for the positive feedback!
Best Regards,
Pavel

I started getting regular audio dropouts so I looked up and saw new firmware might be able to solve this. It was not a DAC locking to my knowledge as Vanity showed regular loss of connection.

Oh boy, I'm in a mess of trouble.All my PCs have been updated to Win 11, so I do not have a win 10 computer available. I actually didn't read the part of this thread showing that there are problems with 11, so I just played and played and things just got worse and worse.

Device manager shows Vanity USB properly as a DFU device.

I (apparently) already had Visual C++ installed on this laptop.

I ran the firmware updater with version 35 (the hdmi updater) three times, and each time Vanity shows NOK in red letters. But I was daring and tried version 5.1. This was successful in the firmware update but Vanity shows an HDMI error so obviously the problem is v35 never updated. Next thing I tried was to uninstall and reinstall Visual Studio. Things only got worse there, as the firmware updater reports that MFC140.dll is missing. But I know we have it as I can find it in \system32. Hope this is enough information to help me get out of this mess. Thanks. Please email bobkatz@digido.com in case I miss the response. So sad, I've lost my Vanity Pro :-(

Some good news (I think). I was able to update the firmware, both v 35 (HDMI) and v5.1 with my iMac running Parallels, which has Windows 10. After I did that I still got those audio dropouts, so now I'm changing some cables, we shall see. I'm feeding the Vanity with an 18 Gbps Matrix switch and some of the cables were regular HDMI. I doubt that an 18 Gbps cable is needed but we shall see. The droppouts show up as a loss in the HDMI input panel when they occur, so it's not the DAC.

Hi Bob,
What an adventure! I am glad to hear that you eventually managed to get the unit updated. It is quite interesting you started getting HDMI input dropouts. Did they start suddenly out of blue or could you relate them to some change in the HDMI setup? I guess it could be EDID or HDMI link re-init if there is an intermittent HDMI device before or after the VanityPRO. Or does it happen only with 4k video, which could point at the cables quality?

In the latest firmware we have added EDID options to enable or disable bitstream support and also stereo and multichannel capabilities. That is version 5.2.1. maybe you could try and see if you can simplify the HDMI chain a little. Anyway, please keep us posted.

Best Regards,
Pavel

Hi, Pavel. Changing to the very best HDMI (18 Gbps or higher) cables at every juncture seems to have cleaned up the dropouts! I've actually bypassed all the EDID issues by using a Simplified Manufacturing RM42C matrix switch, which can feed a consistent (even custom) EDID back to my sources: The Apple TV, a Mac computer, and two Blu Ray players. One output of the matrix switch feeds the video monitor and the other output feeds the Vanity. So the HDMI output of the Vanity goes nowhere. That has proved to be the best solution to the EDID problem for me and I recommend it to everyone. It's best not to rely on the EDID of the Vanity unless you can find a way to load a custom one.

For example, to create a custom ID, I used an EDID reader app called "MonInfo" on my PC to extract the EDID of my video monitor to the computer. I then used a free EDID editor from "Analog Way" to remove all references to Atmos, AC3, DTS from the audio data block. I left just one audio data block, for 8 channels at 44.1 kHz through 192 kHz. Saved that as a custom EDID and saved that into the matrix switch. Now all my sources think that the receiving video monitor wants 8 channel linear PCM!

Thus, Apple TV uses its internal DTS or Dolby or whatever converter to output linear PCM. Same for all the other sources. Works great, and it's very stable.