there are much more improvements i would say

i wonder can the remote control lag be rectify by software update?

and seriously, i htink sigma chipset produce better images

already with new firmware? how to update? pm me plz.

i feel the same way...
in reality, i am very satisfied, the firmware updates are very good.
yeah, it hangs sometimes if you press the remote too fast but haven't encountered anything really bad.
read somehwere the essential remote is not as good...

think some problems caused by wrong settings, maybe faulty ext hardware, some firmware...

and perhaps like toyota or shell or nestle, even #1 brands get a fair share of complaints!

mentioned a couple of times already - go to setup, turn off scanning, turn on clear history.
with that, u will use only files manager which is more or less the same as the old "browser".

acryan does not offer that many advantages over the cheaper ones except:
- plays all common formats; a few others don't
- has regular firmware upgrades that you dwnld and diy; others may be same or slower or nothing - this is impt to keep playing latest formats
- good reliability , at least in my experience, never ran into problems with both units
- pohd has digital rca audio output - necessary for older avr/amps w/o hdmi input

if you're a light user, might feel it's not worth it. for mid-heavy users like me, i dun want a cheap unit that breaks down or keep getting bugged.
of course, there are costlier ones that are superior, i'm sure. since media players are still evolving, paying too much is not a great idea as well, imo.

Impartially speaking, I say the latest F/W update its actually OK..unless your high expectation is like "responsive at lightning speed". Its useable and not all that disappointing is all I can say. The 1st new SDK firmware was a huge disappointment as many found out. They improved it later.
I think people complained everyday at their forum because they think they should have got much better performance (with f/w) considering the retail value for the player and investment in a brand player thats supported by a western world company.
Yes, I tend to agree that I should have got more value and exceptional performance for the money invested in Malaysian Ringgit (could be someone's half to one month's salary).
For the above reasons and all that have happened its ended up a product that doesn't live to high expectations. I could wish this player have a socketed CPU for future upgrade or swap, but I think no-one is interested in manufacturing players like PC architecture, just doesn't happen. Multimedia cpu is also speed and performance limited, therefore firmware improvements for features will also be limited. Just have to buy new model when the time comes. Thats how things work.

Thats why I implied earlier, different peoples perception and expectation of different GUI responsiveness and "lag".
For example, I find browsing through the menu system of my LG LCD TV much slower than the other older Panasonic TV (obviously with less frills or less fancy graphical interface and more to the objective and purpose). I think I recall reading the 1st version of GUI 2.0 used high bit graphics and the speed suffered. The then scaled down the graphics to improve things. Menu system of ACRyan with more menu features and fancy graphics surely slow down response speed. The CPU was made with limitations of the day. More things to compute, it just slows down more...need I say more?