Corect me if I am wrong, but I remember that the reason for forcing the player back to the TRACK info mode after rebooting was a legal one. In some Countries there are legal issues with devices supposedly distracting drivers, and empeg, when in visual modes, could fall into this category. So, maybe this has been proposed before, but what about a simple option in emplode that allows the user to switch from the remember-visual/info mode to always-siwtch-to-track-info mode, with a big and clear legal disclaimer that pops up when clicking on the check box? Just an idea...

You do answer a legal disclaimer. Each and every time you swtich to visuals mode in the car, you are answering an implied legal disclaimer by deliberately making the choice to switch to visuals mode.

Personally, I am GLAD that I do not actually have to see the text of a disclaimer. The FAQ even says this. I'm sure that everyone else agrees that a text disclaimer would be a pain in the rear.

I think he's just saying a text disclaimer in emplode, not on the player. And then only once when you check the box that keeps the player from popping back to an Info mode every time.

And then only once when you check the box that keeps the player from popping back to an Info mode every time.

Can't happen because a different person might drive the car than the person who disabled the feature in emplode. The closest you can get to actual user-accepts-responsibility is by doing it at power-on time.

The feature, by the way, is not open to debate, as there were Lawyer Types involved in the decision.

A Hindu, a Muslim, and an attorney are driving through the countryside at night, when the car breaks down.

They walk to a nearby farmhouse, and the farmer offers to let them stay the night until they can call for the local mechanic in the morning. "But I've only got room for two of you in the house," says the farmer. "One of you has to sleep in the barn."

The Hindu is the first to offer: "My religion teaches me to be humble. I shall sleep in the barn." He goes out to the barn, and everyone settles down for the night.

A few minutes later, there's a knock on the door. It's the Hindu. He says, "I'm sorry, but there is a cow in the barn. In my culture, cows are sacred, and I would not feel right sleeping in the barn with the cow."

The Muslim says, "That's OK, my religion also teaches me to be humble. Take my bed, I will go sleep in the barn." Again, everyone settles down for the night.

A few minutes later, there's a knock on the door. It's the Muslim. He says, "I'm sorry, but there is a pig in the barn. I have been taught that pigs are unclean, so I can't sleep with one."

The attorney gets fed up. "What a bunch of whiners. All right, all right. Fine. I'll sleep in the barn." He slams the front door behind him and stomps out to the barn. Everyone settles down for the night.

A few minutes later, there's a knock on the door. It's the pig and the cow.

That's what I meant, definitely. A disclaimer onthe player itself would be even more distracting than the visuals
At that regard, I also agree that switching to the visuals when in car you actually are answering a legal disclaiumer, but this, Tony, is another good reason in favorur of my proposal, I would say. However, I remember there were legal issues involved, so I was exactly wondering if anything has changed so far, maybe even due to the fact that the product has been discontinued (something like what happened with the download feature).

The download feature implementation had nothing to do with the product being discontinued - that's just how long it took the lawyers to decide we could have it!

Rob

Oh, I see. So I guess this also means there's no hope for the visuals issue, am I correct? Well, ok, I thought it would be worthed to ask
Thank you

If anything the law is getting tougher with regard to moving displays in cars. In Germany it will soon be forbidden for a factory head unit to even scroll text.

That's where the EOL comes in handy - this is now a legacy product, no longer in production, no longer available. If US or European law changed significantly then it will be for current and future products - existing owners should not be affected.

Rob

I have a NAV system which insists that upon power on it gives a big diclaimer something like:

Only look at the display when it is safe to do so, do not operate the controls while driving etc.etc.

I asked the manufacturer whether this could be disabled and just go straight to the menu screen but no was the answer.

I may have to connect my RedRat 2 to the empeg's serial port and make it send the IR codes to do what I want.

Wow this is a bit excessive, I think. What's so dangerous about scrolling text? Anyway the wise part of me understands these restrictions (except this one in Germany you just mentioned) . It is the kiddish part of me that is so unhappy about all this visuals legal constraints , but... oh well, who cares, in the end.

I had to refrain myself from saying "dude its just a button."

Err whoops.. I guess it slipped out anyway. Isn't it weird to think out loud on the keyboard?

Use Hijack to restore the visuals. This can be done in two ways. Using Hijack's built-in feature for this purpose, or by using the "initial=" IR translate feature in the config.ini. My favourite mode for the car is Track Info anyway, so I don't bother. I did use the initial setting to overcome the recent b11 restore bug though.

Bruno

Funny, if I turn off the "restore DC visuals" feature of Hijack, a couple of the assumed-to-be-b11-bugs disappear. For instance, the one where it always comes up in Now/Next in the car doesn't happen, it goes back to info:track like it's supposed to. Hmm.

I can confirm your results as well. After my posting about having trouble with the kftpd and khttpd passwords and security settings, I decided to start over from scratch, so I've been using 2.0b11 with no Hijack for the last 3 days/300 miles to get a baseline observation of the car player's behavior. My car player always starts in track mode now, and when I hold down the bottom button, it goes to transient mode, just as I set it earlier.

A few other differences I noticed: When I was using 1.95 & 2.0b11, I would get frequent lockups and control lockouts (controls would stop responding). Also, I used the Hijack KnobLeft and KnobRight settings to force a left turn to change info and a right turn to change visual. It seemed to work great, but I noticed some wierd behavior right after bootup; after I held down the bottom button, the info type would rapidly cycle for 1-2 seconds, before settling on a random setting (as opposed to just going right to visual mode).

The only problem now is that I really like, want, and occasionally need the Hijack features. Perhaps I should have posted this as a separate subject.

I'm guessing Hijack is just having issues with the existing mode restore issues in b11. The AC transient restore problem was reported by people not running Hijack as far as I know. I wasn't running Hijack when I first saw it either.

I can also confirm weird behaviour with the VFD brightness. I'll see if I can add these observations to a bug thread. I thought I remember someone speculating whether Hijack had anything to do with it.

Bruno

Just try, for example, making your default visual mode into something other than "Track Info", and then see what happens..

It ain't Hijack that's fscked up here, guys.

Is there any point in suggesting that the static, non-moving visuals (Blank, Logo), could be exempted from the no-visuals-at-startup rule? Only when Random Visuals is off, of course.

(I'm not sure why I mention this, though, as I don't think I'd actually benefit from it....)