Database Users

[Q] Is there an international model with AT&T LTE?

After searching and running into various answers (and perpetual confusion), I'm confused about which S5 I should purchase. I would much rather buy an international version from a seller on eBay if I can get LTE bands in the states. I've freed myself from carrier devices for almost two years now and the thought of going back is awful (even though I probably will if I have to). Anyway, can someone give me a clear answer. Which variant do I need to buy?

jtc276 said:
After searching and running into various answers (and perpetual confusion), I'm confused about which S5 I should purchase. I would much rather buy an international version from a seller on eBay if I can get LTE bands in the states. I've freed myself from carrier devices for almost two years now and the thought of going back is awful (even though I probably will if I have to). Anyway, can someone give me a clear answer. Which variant do I need to buy?
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Bump

jtc276 said:
After searching and running into various answers (and perpetual confusion), I'm confused about which S5 I should purchase. I would much rather buy an international version from a seller on eBay if I can get LTE bands in the states. I've freed myself from carrier devices for almost two years now and the thought of going back is awful (even though I probably will if I have to). Anyway, can someone give me a clear answer. Which variant do I need to buy?
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Get an accurate answer from Samsung. Or Carrier X, win a prize.
Samsung doesn't want you buying a lower priced phone from another country, it cuts into their quarterly profit results and they actively deter so called grey market sales in a number of ways. Nor will carriers make it easy for you to jump ship. So easily accessible and accurate information is difficult to come by.
As far as I can tell, the S5 hardware is release 10 compliant. Meaning that baring artificial firmware restrictions, the S5 in your hand is capable of working on all of the GSM and LTE frequencies in use or in the process of being deployed, worldwide.
If you are not relying upon a subsidized handset or can find the right deal, I'd suggest purchasing the TMobile variant (SM-G900T) for use on ATT. The TMobile S5 works on ATT LTE, has the substantial advantage of an unlocked bootloader & has more accessible bands, an advantage for roaming on other networks.
AFAIK, the TMobile variant supports all of the ATT bands. You'll find posts agreeing with me and posts disputing this. All I can tell you is that there are a lot of misinformed people and I haven't seen anyone credibly dispute it. The specs say that it should work, there are lots of reports of it working and firsthand I've seen good data speeds; 50+ Mbps speeds in some ATT cities.
If you were looking at some specific Ebay auction and /or specific international model, you didn't spell that out nor give us any specifics so it's impossible to give you useful advice on that point. Many of the international variants have firmware restrictions supporting HSPA+ and not "ATT" LTE.
The best advice of course is always caveat emptor.
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fffft said:
Get an accurate answer from Samsung. Or Carrier X, win a prize.
Samsung doesn't want you buying a lower priced phone from another country, it cuts into their quarterly profit results and they actively deter so called grey market sales in a number of ways. Nor will carriers make it easy for you to jump ship. So easily accessible and accurate information is difficult to come by.
As far as I can tell, the S5 hardware is release 10 compliant. Meaning that baring artificial firmware restrictions, the S5 in your hand is capable of working on all of the GSM and LTE frequencies in use or in the process of being deployed, worldwide.
If you are not relying upon a subsidized handset or can find the right deal, I'd suggest purchasing the TMobile variant (SM-G900T) for use on ATT. The TMobile S5 works on ATT LTE, has the substantial advantage of an unlocked bootloader & has more accessible bands, an advantage for roaming on other networks.
AFAIK, the TMobile variant supports all of the ATT bands. You'll find posts agreeing with me and posts disputing this. All I can tell you is that there are a lot of misinformed people and I haven't seen anyone credibly dispute it. The specs say that it should work, there are lots of reports of it working and firsthand I've seen good data speeds; 50+ Mbps speeds in some ATT cities.
If you were looking at some specific Ebay auction and /or specific international model, you didn't spell that out nor give us any specifics so it's impossible to give you useful advice on that point. Many of the international variants have firmware restrictions supporting HSPA+ and not "ATT" LTE.
The best advice of course is always caveat emptor.
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I just bought the T-Mobile variant (900T) which I'm hoping was the best choice. The international models that I could have bought on eBay (900F,H, I) were missing at least one AT&T LTE band.

[Q] SM-G900F (belgium) 4G possibility in USA?

Hi guys, i have an S5 bought unlocked in belgium, europe. I had 4G in europe but in the United States it only receives H+. I checked the supported bandwidths with tmobile usa, two of the bands tmobile uses are in fact also supported by my phone (1800 & 1900) yet still it doesnt work. APN setting are already checked and confirmed correct. Sim card is brand new.
Since it still doesn't work, is there a way to flash a USA rom or upgrade something technical so i can get 4G? I would hate to have to buy a new phone again, i just bought this 4weeks ago thinking it would work globally
Thanks again for recommending the best possible option for me at this point...

Most of your questions here were posed and answered in your other thread.
Your 900F model phone is intended for use in a different country. TMobile uses a 900T model. The main difference between the two is that they support a different set of frequency bands. So just like roaming you could use your 900F phone on TMB, but there will be gaps in coverage. You will be subject to more congestion and dropped calls. And in smaller centers where a limited number of frequencies are in use, you may have no coverage at all.
If you never get LTE in a major center on your unlocked 900F, the first thing to check is that you have a LTE capable SIM and that your carrier i.e. TMB has provisioned your account for LTE. And try installing the latest version of firmware for your phone.
No, you cannot simply flash a 900T firmware onto a 900F and have it transform into the other model. By design, Samsung doesn't allow this (to sell more phones and deter carrier churn). There is a hack to add the AWS band to some models. And several threads endeavoring to expand upon that. However they are nascent and would be best described as experimental, dangerous (a good chance of damaging your phone) and with uncertain results as of this date.
Unless you want to put your phone at risk to be a guinea pig, your options are to live with the imperfect coverage or buy a 900T model.
If you want to take a risk, then have a look at this thread. And here. Basically you could use QPST or mzTools 1.21.a to format an edit NV_RF_BC_CONFIG_l to enable additional LTE bands. Enable the parameters with QXDM, then do the actual write with QPST. And /or try writing a raw image of an LTE enabled variant e.g. 900T baseband to your 900F modem partition with the dd utility. This is experimental. It may do what you want or it may brick your phone.
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ignore - double post

4G 900F in USA
Oké so turns out i am getting 4G just not LTE because of the state i am in. Thanks for trying but what i initially said was correct all S5s are global capable of 4G, just state dependant on the LTE band...

fffft said:
There is a hack to add the AWS band to some models. And several threads endeavoring to expand upon that. However they are nascent and would be best described as experimental, dangerous (a good chance of damaging your phone) and with uncertain results as of this date..
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That's not quite true. The chance of damaging the phone is extremely small if you follow the instructions.
The thread to unlock all GSM and LTE bands is here.

..

fffft said:
It is true when I'm not quoted out of context. And especially funny that you link to that particular thread to .. prove me wrong?
You didn't realize that the thread you linked to was also authored by me. Funny stuff.
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How exactly is that out of context? What important piece of information did I leave out to distort your words? Call bs on that. But yeah I didn't notice that it was your thread I linked to , good job on that thread. :good:

Heed help with buying snapdragon s7 edge.

Hi. Im living in Russia and there are only exynos variant available. After using rather bad exynos note 4 (overheat, bad reception, 3g/4g battery drain, poor aosp development) i decided to buy snapdragon variant of s7 edge. I believe samsung is using superior versions of their handsets in key markets such as NA and China. But for my surprise all s7 edge sold in USA are carrier bound. My question are there unlocked s7 edge snapdragon? What carrier should i choose? Will at-t and t-mobile phones work with other gsm carriers around the world. Also i need no carrier bloatware and unlocked bootloader. As for network i need band 20 800Mhz and band 7 2600Mhz.
Thanks in advance.

TANKRED_ENDURES said:
Hi. Im living in Russia and there are only exynos variant available. After using rather bad exynos note 4 (overheat, bad reception, 3g/4g battery drain, poor aosp development) i decided to buy snapdragon variant of s7 edge. I believe samsung is using superior versions of their handsets in key markets such as NA and China. But for my surprise all s7 edge sold in USA are carrier bound. My question are there unlocked s7 edge snapdragon? What carrier should i choose? Will at-t and t-mobile phones work with other gsm carriers around the world. Also i need no carrier bloatware and unlocked bootloader. As for network i need band 20 800Mhz and band 7 2600Mhz.
Thanks in advance.
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None of the U.S. devices cover band 7 nor 20 i guess, those bands aren't used over there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LTE_networks_in_Europe
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LTE_networks
Also, normally carrier locked devices won't work for other carriers unless you hack (was not possible at recent devices afaik) it or pay for unlocking it. But you could be lucky there at the s7 with it locking just at first boot. It could be, that it'll lock to your carrier instead of the one you bought it from, but you'll have to verify that it works before, also it'll only work, if it never has been booted by any employ at the carrier you bought it to ship it locked already.

Tectas said:
None of the U.S. devices cover band 7 nor 20 i guess, those bands aren't used over there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LTE_networks_in_Europe
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LTE_networks
Also, normally carrier locked devices won't work for other carriers unless you hack (was not possible at recent devices afaik) it or pay for unlocking it. But you could be lucky there at the s7 with it locking just at first boot. It could be, that it'll lock to your carrier instead of the one you bought it from, but you'll have to verify that it works before, also it'll only work, if it never has been booted by any employ at the carrier you bought it to ship it locked already.
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I saw people importing note 4 sm-910c to USA because its compatible with US lte frequences Same model sold in Russia. I think device itself can support this frequnces though they are not used there.

I'd wait before presuming the Snapdragon model will be superior to the Exynos, especially in terms of things like overheat and reception. It's certainly possible it will be the better option, but there is no guarantee yet. And especially with the debacle on the 810, Snapdragon haven't exactly covered themselves in glory recently.
Hardly anyone has the Exynos model yet, whilst there are a lot of T-Mobile customers in the US who have the Snapdragon, some of who are reporting being unable to use the VR headset for more than 30 minutes without the phone complaining of overheat. Wait until next week and there will be proper comparison reviews that go beyond Snapdragon having a few extra meaningless numbers on some benchmark. That's when an informed decision can be made as to whether it's worth going through the bother of buying your device out of territory and forsaking the manufacturer guarantee.

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Beefheart said:
I'd wait before presuming the Snapdragon model will be superior to the Exynos, especially in terms of things like overheat and reception. It's certainly possible it will be the better option, but there is no guarantee yet. And especially with the debacle on the 810, Snapdragon haven't exactly covered themselves in glory recently.
Hardly anyone has the Exynos model yet, whilst there are a lot of T-Mobile customers in the US who have the Snapdragon, some of who are reporting being unable to use the VR headset for more than 30 minutes without the phone complaining of overheat. Wait until next week and there will be proper comparison reviews that go beyond Snapdragon having a few extra meaningless numbers on some benchmark. That's when an informed decision can be made as to whether it's worth going through the bother of buying your device out of territory and forsaking the manufacturer guarantee.
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Good point. I bother buying snapdragon mostly because of lower TDP and better 4g reception in past models. If exynos become equal in this areas i see no point in importing. And i dont wanna wait long cause if i preorder before 18 march i will get free gear vr though i dont need it xD

Tectas said:
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Note 4 have both sd and exynos variants. Its note 5 only nave exynos.

TANKRED_ENDURES said:
Note 4 have both sd and exynos variants. Its note 5 only nave exynos.
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Yes, that's why I've removed the post, mixed the numbering, sorry.
But if you take a look, at least here aren't any of those bands supported at the U.S. variants.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/s7-edge/how-to/detailed-sm-g935-s7-info-t3326180

But what about carrier software? I heard some carriers replace stock samsung apps like browser. Also is it true what at-t and tmobile phones recieve updates later than their unlocked counterparts?

TANKRED_ENDURES said:
But what about carrier software? I heard some carriers replace stock samsung apps like browser. Also is it true what at-t and tmobile phones recieve updates later than their unlocked counterparts?
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Would be the first time I hear something like the browser replaced by a carrier, but maybe possible, in common they just add stuff though and make small changes (modem, bootscreen,...). And yes, carrier devices in common get updates later, because the carriers have to incorporate their changes (which can be a few days to months, depends on the carrier), but at the european variants we're lucky with stock roms at least (or at least have been). In most cases you simply can flash a unbranded rom there through odin without second thought.

Is the G935FD fully compatible with AT&T in the States?

Apologies if this has been covered, or if this is the wrong place to post--I've searched and have been unsuccessful in finding an answer so I figured I'd ask myself.
Is the G935FD (Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Duo dual sim) variant fully compatible with AT&T? That is, will it work with enough LTE bands such that I should expect fast enough data throughput? I know that it wont be able to access all AT&T LTE bands, but for practical purposes, will this phone work? It seems to be selling relatively cheaply on eBay, so before pulling the trigger I figured I would just double check that it will work. I don't care so much about having multiple sim cards, I mostly just want a cheap(er) phone.
I'm fairly convinced that the G935F will work based on a few other threads I came across on XDA and Reddit. Just looking for confirmation that the G935FD works and works well. Anyone have experience to share here?
Cheers and thanks in advance.

I have two international G935F's, one G935FD and one G935F, both on AT&T. Also an AT&T S6. I haven't had any issue with LTE. All give comparable speedtest results and all are using LTE Band 2 in my area (SF Bay area). I think they may be missing Band 30 but I don't know where that is used. The app LTE Discovery will show what band you are using. Things that don't work on the international phones for me are AT&T HDVoice (VoLTE) and AT&T Video calling. I also believe that if AT&T ever offers Voice over WiFi, that won't work either. These weren't issues for me. I was not expecting Samsung Pay to work but was surprised that it worked on the G935FD. Further investigation revealed that it was the CSC and image. I was able to download different images and got it working on the G935F as well. There's a thread on Samsung Pay on Int'l phones that discusses this if it matters to you. I think when you buy an international phone (G935F/FD) you don't know what CSC you'll get. I don't think the seller can tell without going thru setup and running a utility (I used Phone Info) to reveal the CSC/image. Everything else seems to work the same as the AT&T-branded versions.

definitive FACTS on all s8 variants

I bought a Verizon SM-G950UZKAVZW direct from Samsung. I thought that I was buying a phone that I could take to any carrier. I'm hearing that might not be true. Does anyone have definitive, confirmed specs ie supported radio bands on all of the carrier variants as well as the upcoming intl version? Also I heard other reports that the hardware is identical and it's firmware that is limiting the phones. Not sure if that is true either. Samsung was absolutely not helpful.
Bottom line I need to know:
1 if I keep the SM-G950UZKAVZW, will I be able to use it with other carrier networks?
2 if I can use the SM-G950UZKAVZW with other carriers, what actions (if any) would I need to take to do that? (Other than swapping a sim card)
3 would the phone I currently possess be limited in any way if I were to use it with other carriers? (Limited is defined here as "performing differently in contrast to that carriers native S8 model variant") if so, specifically how would it be limited?
4 if I were to purchase an unlocked international model once it becomes available, would that phone be limited in any way when used on any US carrier? (Limited is again defined here as "performing differently in contrast to that carriers native S8 model variant") if so, specifically how?
If you aren't sure, please don't reply. There's plenty of people documenting their best guess already. I'm looking for the straight story.
Thanks for reading!

All of Verizon phones are Sim card unlocked and since there is really only 1 version of the S8/S8+ in the US (with different model #'s corresponding to the different carriers) using the phone on another carriers network is not going to be an issue. All you need to do is insert the sim card in.
http://www.gottabemobile.com/how-to-unlock-the-galaxy-s8/
As a quick note, if you have a Verizon Galaxy S8 congratulations. Your phone is already unlocked. Verizon Wireless no longer locks phones, regardless of what you might hear from friends or family. Simply drop a T-Mobile or AT&T SIM card in a Verizon model and it works. It may require manually configuring the APN settings though, so keep that in mind.
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The ONLY exception that might be would be Sprint since they are CDMA as well, but who really wants to go from Verizon to Sprint?????
All 4 Major US(and subsequent sub carriers) are receiving the same version of the phone(meaning same internals). From my understanding, inserting the carriers Sim card into the verizon phone just means you start going at that point and have access to all the carriers bands
If you got an international version, it most likely would be powered by an Exynos CPU vs the Snapdragon 835 so there would be some performance differences (typically Exynos models perform marginally better based on previous history)
If you're looking for a US unlocked model - wait until next month
http://www.theverge.com/circuitbrea...-unlocked-galaxy-s8-plus-pricing-release-date

I appreciate your clear response! Would it be accurate to say that I will have just as much freedom to hop from one carrier to another using the phone I have, as opposed to purchasing the upcoming US unlocked variant?
Also, I have heard the same thing about the hardware, that all of the carrier variants are the same physical model. But some folks, including the Samsung tech support rep I spoke to (unfortunately that probably doesn't mean a whole lot) seem to think that the carrier firmware is limiting the radio bands. Do you know this to be false?

I have the Verizon version and works fine on Tmo out of the box. Have to use Verizon update software through Windows though. OTA's will never come through.

I am using Verizon GS8 on att, it works but I only get HSPA mostly. No LTE, so band is definitely capped by firmware.
I didn't have any issue receiving ota with att sim in vzw gs8

I saw a review that said the s8 gets locked to the first carrier sim it accepts. Can someone confirm swapping sims of different carriers works?

Whanksta said:
I am using Verizon GS8 on att, it works but I only get HSPA mostly. No LTE, so band is definitely capped by firmware.
I didn't have any issue receiving ota with att sim in vzw gs8
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Have you tried going into the network band menu and locking it to one of the AT&T LTE bands?
This still works on the S8 (found this on the S7 and used it to lock my S7 to band 4 for Tmobile)
https://forum.xda-developers.com/tm...ng-network-t3331555/post65722081#post65722081

ElBeaner said:
Have you tried going into the network band menu and locking it to one of the AT&T LTE bands?
This still works on the S8 (found this on the S7 and used it to lock my S7 to band 4 for Tmobile)
https://forum.xda-developers.com/tm...ng-network-t3331555/post65722081#post65722081
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I am unable to access the service menu via the S7 method

Whanksta said:
I am unable to access the service menu via the S7 method
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Ok forgot you were Verizon - you have to edit a setting because they block you from that access
Try this if you're daring enough
https://forum.xda-developers.com/verizon-galaxy-s6/general/enabling-using-servicemode-t3109579
EDIT Damn, looks like you have to be rooted first
---------- Post added at 12:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:18 AM ----------
Whanksta said:
I am unable to access the service menu via the S7 method
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You'll need to wait unti the official AT&T rom is available from Smasung and then you should be able to flash it via ODIN onto the phone and get all the AT&T carrier bands

mredamon said:
I bought a Verizon SM-G950UZKAVZW direct from Samsung. I thought that I was buying a phone that I could take to any carrier. I'm hearing that might not be true. Does anyone have definitive, confirmed specs ie supported radio bands on all of the carrier variants as well as the upcoming intl version? Also I heard other reports that the hardware is identical and it's firmware that is limiting the phones. Not sure if that is true either. Samsung was absolutely not helpful.
Bottom line I need to know:
4 if I were to purchase an unlocked international model once it becomes available, would that phone be limited in any way when used on any US carrier? (Limited is again defined here as "performing differently in contrast to that carriers native S8 model variant") if so, specifically how?
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Once it becomes available? You can buy Exynos right now from other countries. Clove in UK will region unlock the phone before shipping to you in the U.S. What needs to become available?
Don't confuse the "unlocked" S8 Samsung will sell here in the U.S. in a month or so with the Exynos international variant. The "unlocked" S8 coming to the U.S. is still the bootloader locked Snapdragon version, just without carrier branding. It will be carrier unlocked but not bootloader unlocked. If you care about rooting, TWRP, ROMs, etc Exynos is what you want.
would that (Exynos international variant) phone be limited in any way when used on any US carrier?
(Limited is again defined here as "performing differently in contrast to that carriers native S8 model variant") if so, specifically how?
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NO, except if you are on CDMA-handicapped Sprint or Verizon. If you use Sprint or Verizon be aware Exynos doesn't have 3G CDMA bands to fall back on if you can't get LTE. For AT&T or T-Mobile, YES it has all the LTE/HSPA/GSM bands.
The "international" Exynos variant can be bootloader unlocked, rooted, etc. so tons of advantages. While it has Verizon LTE bands, there's no CDMA. This means you really need Verizon VoLTE to work and I don't have the answer to that. And if you can't get LTE signal on mobile network, you won't have any signal due to no CDMA fallback. Again, only an issue because of CDMA if you stay on Verizon instead of using AT&T or T-mobile (or their network affiliates). You seem like you want to switch to another carrier? So, go ahead and do so!
EXYNOS VARIANTS LTE BANDS:
LTE Bands: FDD: B1(2100), B2(1900), B3(1800), B4(AWS), B5(850), B7(2600), B8(900), B12(700), B13(700), B17(700), B18(800), B19(800), B20(800), B25(1900), B26(800), B28(700), B32(1500), B66(AWS- 3) | TDD: B38(2600), B39(1900), B40(2300), B41(2500)
GSM/GPRS
850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz
3G/HSPA
850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 MHz

ChazzMatt said:
Once it becomes available? You can buy Exynos right now from other countries. Clove in UK will region unlock the phone before shipping to you in the U.S. What needs to become available?
Don't confuse the "unlocked" S8 Samsung will sell here in the U.S. in a month or so with the Exynos international variant. The "unlocked" S8 coming to the U.S. is still the bootloader locked Snapdragon version, just without carrier branding. It will be carrier unlocked but not bootloader unlocked. If you care about rooting, TWRP, ROMs, etc Exynos is what you want. /QUOTE]
Yeah I screwed up. I did confuse them.
I'm not interested in all that rooting stuff I just want a phone that pretty much works anywhere I want to take it and if it's slower on one network than another I wanna know what I'm getting myself into.
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Whanksta said:
I am using Verizon GS8 on att, it works but I only get HSPA mostly. No LTE, so band is definitely capped by firmware.
I didn't have any issue receiving ota with att sim in vzw gs8
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Hey guys
I'm from Brazil and I wanna buy the Verizon's S8 but I'm afraid about the 4G.
I saw that this model has the Brazil LTE frequencies, but I read here that Verizon capped the band from the firmware.
Somebody knows if I could flash via ODIN the unlocked rom that will come with the unlocked version in USA and so get the LTE free to use in any place?
I don't want to assume the risk to have a top mobile phone but don't be able to use 4G.
Thank you very much guys

Hey mredamon. Did you ever get a clear response here or somewhere else about this?