Monoprice HTP-1 Home Theater Processor Review

[Dj7675]

Has anyone else's HTP-1 entered a Monolith screen doom loop recently? Mine did a couple days ago. I think what happened (I was not home) was, we had taken a vacation and I had turned the UPS we use for the computers in the audio signal chain (any modern AVR or AVP is basically a computer with fancy sound cards) off while we were away. There was a storm and the power went out while the HTP-1 was powered down in fast start mode. But I'm not sure if I had turned the UPS back on or not.

To make matters worse, this doom loop occurred when I was again out of town for a couple days. Nobody else in the house would know how (or would be inclined to do even if they did know how) the restore procedure, which requires use of a software on a specially formatted microSD card. I had the card prepped because mine this issue in ca. December 2020. I was under the impression that the problem was caused by a bad (maybe beta?) FW and had been fixed.

Also, save your HTP-1 configuration as a .json after doing a new Dirac calibration. I had last saved mine in April but made substantial changes after the DLBC fix was implemented in Dirac Live v 3.1. The Dirac slots were populated by the configurations I had in April. To add insult to injury, all of my "liveproject" saved Dirac files seem to have disappeared. So I guess I'm going to have to waste time this weekend recalibrating. So frustrated.

I have almost purchased an HTP1 2-3 times over the past year. But this issue cemented my decision to not consider it. I understand that issues happen and these are very complex devices, but boot up failure? Not good. And the response hasn’t been good from my reading of the thread on AVS.

 

[Mkaram]

I have almost purchased an HTP1 2-3 times over the past year. But this issue cemented my decision to not consider it. I understand that issues happen and these are very complex devices, but boot up failure? Not good. And the response hasn’t been good from my reading of the thread on AVS.

I think It's a consequence of a reliance on the SoC they're using. Many of them used storage in a way that's vulnerable to unplanned reboots. It should be correctable in firmware but who knows what's the priority? I'd imagine it would be high but...


It reminds me of the problem I have with my UBNT EdgeRouterX. It's a great value on a powerful router but unplanned power outages can totally corrupt it, requiring reflashing. It seems a strange choice for a router to die from power loss but maybe that's the consequence of this price/performance balance?

 

[Dj7675]

I think It's a consequence of a reliance on the SoC they're using. Many of them used storage in a way that's vulnerable to unplanned reboots. It should be correctable in firmware but who knows what's the priority? I'd imagine it would be high but...
It reminds me of the problem I have with my UBNT EdgeRouterX. It's a great value on a powerful router but unplanned power outages can totally corrupt it, requiring reflashing. It seems a strange choice for a router to die from power loss but maybe that's the consequence of this price/performance balance?

Surprising that the response to it has seemed so slow and response from Monoprice not very forthcoming... ie they know what the problem in and expect a fix soon etc... In particicular with this basically bricking units. If it weren’t for AVS many users wouldn’t know how to fix it etc.. I decided to go for StormAudio instead. Hopefully the HTP1 will get a permanent fix soon so users don’t have to deal with this or worry about it.

 

[RichB]

Has anyone else's HTP-1 entered a Monolith screen doom loop recently? Mine did a couple days ago. I think what happened (I was not home) was, we had taken a vacation and I had turned the UPS we use for the computers in the audio signal chain (any modern AVR or AVP is basically a computer with fancy sound cards) off while we were away. There was a storm and the power went out while the HTP-1 was powered down in fast start mode. But I'm not sure if I had turned the UPS back on or not.

To make matters worse, this doom loop occurred when I was again out of town for a couple days. Nobody else in the house would know how (or would be inclined to do even if they did know how) the restore procedure, which requires use of a software on a specially formatted microSD card. I had the card prepped because mine this issue in ca. December 2020. I was under the impression that the problem was caused by a bad (maybe beta?) FW and had been fixed.

Also, save your HTP-1 configuration as a .json after doing a new Dirac calibration. I had last saved mine in April but made substantial changes after the DLBC fix was implemented in Dirac Live v 3.1. The Dirac slots were populated by the configurations I had in April. To add insult to injury, all of my "liveproject" saved Dirac files seem to have disappeared. So I guess I'm going to have to waste time this weekend recalibrating. So frustrated.

My family would be closing in with pitchforks. You are more patient than I.
Does this happen if the HTP-1 is left in slow start mode?

- Rich

 

[jhaider]

My family would be closing in with pitchforks. You are more patient than I.

I don't know about more patient. I may parry pitchfork tines better.
It's an understatement to say my wife was livid. I wanted to stick a pitchfork in the damn thing myself.

Does this happen if the HTP-1 is left in slow start mode?

I honestly don't know. I've never tried that, and I'm not in a mood to experiment until/unless I get a patch firmware and verify that it resolves the issue.

Given the sudden outbreak of doom loops described on the AVS thread, I have to think something odd went wrong and they're in full tilt root cause analysis mode before saying anything in public or on background. (They = Monoprice/ATI/MDS.) But we'll see.

 

[TimoJ]

Does this happen if the HTP-1 is left in slow start mode?

It has also happened in slow start mode i.e. you power on and get the boot problem right away. And some units have rebooted during usage and started looping. My unit is running fine, no random reboots (ever) or boot loops.

 

[Mkaram]

My family would be closing in with pitchforks. You are more patient than I.
Does this happen if the HTP-1 is left in slow start mode?

- Rich

I am fairly certain (but unwilling to test ) that it's related to storage corruption, commonly caused by power interruption or issues.
However, we know these devices have non-volatile storage. I suspect it loads critical parts of the system, including their mutations, into volatile storage during startup.

 

[RichB]

I am fairly certain (but unwilling to test ) that it's related to storage corruption, commonly caused by power interruption or issues.
However, we know these devices have non-volatile storage. I suspect it loads critical parts of the system, including their mutations, into volatile storage during startup.

Seems reasonable, but you would think an in memory working copy should have no issues.
There must be some kind of continuous writing, possibly logging that is causing file system corruption.,

It would not be the first time that diagnostic gathering caused issues.
Oppo had remote code sequence to log in memory, then dump.
Seems like a better choice, if this is, indeed, what is occurring.

- Rich

 

[Mkaram]

Seems reasonable, but you would think an in memory working copy should have no issues.
There must be some kind of continuous writing, possibly logging that is causing file system corruption.,

It would not be the first time that diagnostic gathering caused issues.
Oppo had remote code sequence to log in memory, then dump.
Seems like a better choice, if this is, indeed, what is occurring.

- Rich

Yes. Constant writing is common in Linux systems in SoC's. Perhaps it tries to reconstruct recent logs on startup and if there was a logging problem in the past (due to power or something) then a single log file is corrupted and the reconstruction fails.
In many systems, failed log functions are considered unacceptable security issues and the system will fence.

But these are all just guesses for htp-1

 

[Bartl007]

My family would be closing in with pitchforks. You are more patient than I.
Does this happen if the HTP-1 is left in slow start mode?

- Rich

Yes, I had mine set to fast start: off , and still am in the middle of trying to reflash mine and bring it back to life

 

[TimoJ]

Firmware with fix for the "Boot Loop of Death", and also a new recovery image that doesn't require network connection, will be released in few days.
edit: both just released

 

[Dherrmann717]

And it works perfectly. The root cause was well documented over at AVS if you're interested (post 14,578).

@Dj7675 - I think you'd be interested too, based on your post above. To be honest, Monolith has continued to impress me with their customer service. I installed the software that corrected the defect that led to the problem and it works great. Note too, that I never had a problem.

(I've never had an AVR or processor that sounded as good as the HTP-1)

 

[beren777]

I've been looking at this unit for awhile now as I would like a one box AVR solution which includes Dirac and doesn't break things in the process. (One box for me doesn't necessarily include amps, I'm okay with external amps as I would use them for L/C/R anyway. I recognize I'd need to add another 5 channel amp for surround and atmos speakers with this unit.)

Is there any news when a version with HDMI 2.1 will be released or if this one is upgradeable? I don't do a lot of gaming on the home theater system these days but would like to retain future compatibility.

 

[Zooqu1ko]

[...]Is there any news when a version with HDMI 2.1 will be released or if this one is upgradeable? I don't do a lot of gaming on the home theater system these days but would like to retain future compatibility.

Monoprice have promised an HDMI 2.1 upgrade. However, since there's no HDMI 2.1 4:1 (or more) switch chipset on the market that supports full bandwidth and all HDMI 2.1 features, no date has been announce. I don't even think that Momentum Data Systems has announced the next generation of the HDMI boards yet.

 

[tifune]

Just curious, for people who do own this unit how has your support experience been? I bought one used, updated to 1.9.1, and now no sound out of any input even after rolling back. Support rep asked for log bundle and then disappeared - no response after 2 followups. I knew the risk buying used, and if I have to pay a little to fix it that's fine, but I can't even find someone to tell me if that's an option?

 

[Bartl007]

Just curious, for people who do own this unit how has your support experience been? I bought one used, updated to 1.9.1, and now no sound out of any input even after rolling back. Support rep asked for log bundle and then disappeared - no response after 2 followups. I knew the risk buying used, and if I have to pay a little to fix it that's fine, but I can't even find someone to tell me if that's an option?

I had boot loop issues recently and after I was stable and functional on 1.8.8 after factory reflash procedure, upgraded to 1.9.1 to get the VU meter feature set in the pinksoda interface...

Bad idea, ended up having more boot loop issues, but fortunately, was able to restore the unit using the 1.8g reflash procedure found in post#3 on the AVS forum thread.

I would suggest doing the factory reflash procedure and I'm confident that will get you up and going swiftly. Just make sure to unplug every cable from the htp-1 prior to reflashing. You'll need a micro-sd card as well. Full instructions in the file download on AVS

I never have contacted monoprice support. If you want something done right, do it yourself!

 

[Bartl007]

To be honest, if I have to factory restore my unit once a year, its still totally worth the headache for the performance of this processor... It's that good

Still Loving my htp-1

 

[tifune]

I had boot loop issues recently and after I was stable and functional on 1.8.8 after factory reflash procedure, upgraded to 1.9.1 to get the VU meter feature set in the pinksoda interface...

Bad idea, ended up having more boot loop issues, but fortunately, was able to restore the unit using the 1.8g reflash procedure found in post#3 on the AVS forum thread.

I would suggest doing the factory reflash procedure and I'm confident that will get you up and going swiftly. Just make sure to unplug every cable from the htp-1 prior to reflashing. You'll need a micro-sd card as well. Full instructions in the file download on AVS

I never have contacted monoprice support. If you want something done right, do it yourself!

Thanks for the suggestion; I wasn't aware of this option. Unfortunately I gave it a go but no change - seems like possibly a hardware failure that was triggered or simply coincided with my upgrade. Still hoping Monoprice gets back to me...

 

[Bartl007]

Thanks for the suggestion; I wasn't aware of this option. Unfortunately I gave it a go but no change - seems like possibly a hardware failure that was triggered or simply coincided with my upgrade. Still hoping Monoprice gets back to me...

Thanks for the suggestion; I wasn't aware of this option. Unfortunately I gave it a go but no change - seems like possibly a hardware failure that was triggered or simply coincided with my upgrade. Still hoping Monoprice gets back to me...

I did have your particular issue a month or so ago (no sound from any channel after booting up to the typical home screen). Mine resolved itself after turning it off and back on again.

If you've successfully reflashed the 1.8g firmware via the micro SD card on the back of the unit and still not getting anything you very well may have a hardware issue (assuming all your amps are turned on)

If you have a multimeter you could check and see if there is any voltage across the XLR output, but beyond that you may have to return or exchange the unit with monoprice

 

[Dherrmann717]

@tifune - you might get more assistance over at AVS for your particular problem. https://www.avsforum.com/threads/th...-owners-thread.3112176/page-777#post-60982915

There are Monolith employees over there.