Missing notification/navigation bar & Chrome got stuck

[fload]

Hi,

I received my H8 yesterday and upgraded the latest firmware from the himedia website (HMD-1.0.7 2015-11-10.142431). I have some basic questions about the box:

• I want to use a "normal" Android launcher on my box because I use it for different purposes not only video. In my previous Android box or in general on Android devices you have a notification bar on top (e.g. to show incoming email, the time, spotify play status, tasker tasks...) and a navigation bar on the bottom (back, home and all tabs button). I could not activate this on the H8. Any ideas? Especially the notification bar is very useful. I have tested Nova launcher as an alternative - no luck there either.
• In my first tests yesterday I noticed that tabs in Chrome got stuck quite often. The tab froze for about 10 seconds - e.g. on a simple google search results page. Does anybody experience the same?
• Compared to my old android box the colors look very pale. I still want to run some more tests on my AV receiver and TV and it also might be related to the HDMI cable which was included. Just wanted to check if somebody else has seen something similar.

Thanks a lot for your help!

Cheers,
Flo

[fload]

Hi,

I got an interesting response from the Himedia support team about the notfication/status bar topic:
--
We have later version which support notification bar and notification bar. We are now 1.0.8 version for H8. and the 1.0.9 is on the way. Please check your box version, which you could find under the menu: setting\about\device info. and upgrade if necessary. You could download the latest firmware on our website: http://www.himediatech.com/support.htm
--
When I check their support site, I can only see version 1.0.7. Does anybody know anything about version 1.0.8 or even 1.0.9. Could it be that it is just not translated into EN yet? I will also get in touch with the support team again to get some more details.

Cheers,
Flo

[Kilroy]

In China they have 1.0.8 firmware but hardware are different to the Western World so we are stuck with the 1.0.7 firmware, though it is interesting that they are working with a 1.0.9 firmware.

Futeko said they that a temporary firmware could come in the weekend we just had, but no fix until now, think that a 1.0.9 firmware wont end to the western machines before late febuary (if not later) but hopefully the 1.0.8 will arrive this year (optimist talking) or at least in january (realist talking) only time can tell 

So when contacting Himedia you have to tell if you have a China or a western model. :-)

[fload]

Thanks for your feedback! So fingers crossed to see 1.0.8 for the Western models soon.

[fload]

Short update on this topic after installing the latest firmware 1.0.9:

1. solved - navigation/notification & status bar are available now
2. Chrome did not get stuck again
3. solved - That's an interesting yet simple one. Even in firmware version 1.0.9 the picture looked very pale and colorless on my TV. Due to the fact that there is now a notification bar available in the new firmware the brightness level can be adapted - like you do on a phone or tablet. Now the picture looks way better.