Capt. Mouser's Conspiracy Theories Vol1

[Capt. Mouser]

My thinking is that the real reason for the change to the new GUI is that it is going to be needed for OSD2 which will have improved hardware. So basically since OSD1 owners have fixed hardware they will eventually trail off into the sunset. I suspect the new f/w  will test what hardware it is running on, and offer only a basic number of features.

Kind of like Panda Inn/Panda Express where they both have eggrolls, but only one has the Kung Pau Chicken too.

Capt. Mouser
"Fighting For Us"

[MattJ]

I'm not quite sure how you can say this.

I think most people (especially developers) would agree that the current firmware is well, far from excellent (if not visibly, internally), and it was limiting potential innovation, and further development.

Neuros has said that they will continue to support the current hardware. In fact they designed the new firmware in a certain way *specifically* to make it work with the current OSD hardware. True, we need a CF card to take advangate of this, but it was a necessary move, otherwise no firmware at all for us OSD 1.0 users. Besides, last I knew Neuros were offering CF cars free to OSD 1.0 users for this purpose.

You can't expect any company to make one device, and one version of this device, and support it forever. Neuros are doing what they need to do to keep up the pace with the market, while continuing to support previous models. How many of the 'big' companies do this?

One great thing about it being open-source is that if enough people didn't like the new firmware they are free to get together and continue development of the current one. I am sure Neuros would give as much backing to this if they could if people really felt this way. It is my view that they don't.

_{Disclaimer: Besides being an OSD hacker who likes to do great things with open-source, I am not affiliated with Neuros in any way.}

[Capt. Mouser]

I'm not quite sure how you can say this.

I think most people (especially developers) would agree that the current firmware is well, far from excellent (if not visibly, internally), and it was limiting potential innovation, and further development.

It was a poor initial choice made to get something rolling quickly no doubt, and was probably free.

Neuros has said that they will continue to support the current hardware. In fact they designed the new firmware in a certain way *specifically* to make it work with the current OSD hardware. True, we need a CF card to take advangate of this, but it was a necessary move, otherwise no firmware at all for us OSD 1.0 users. Besides, last I knew Neuros were offering CF cars free to OSD 1.0 users for this purpose.

"Make it work" with current hardware is my point as well

You can't expect any company to make one device, and one version of this device, and support it forever. Neuros are doing what they need to do to keep up the pace with the market, while continuing to support previous models. How many of the 'big' companies do this?

Forever? The OSD has never worked as advertised

One great thing about it being open-source is that if enough people didn't like the new firmware they are free to get together and continue development of the current one. I am sure Neuros would give as much backing to this if they could if people really felt this way. It is my view that they don't.

I'm sure a lot of people spent $200+ so they could do it themselves.

_{Disclaimer: Besides being an OSD hacker who likes to do great things with open-source, I am not affiliated with Neuros in any way.}

[MattJ]

Your arguments are very short and very unclear. Unless you can explain exactly what it is you are disagreeing with then I shan't reply again.

It was a poor initial choice made to get something rolling quickly no doubt, and was probably free.

So you disagree with the need for the change in firmware, but you dislike the current one?

"Make it work" with current hardware is my point as well

They *are* making it work, so sorry but I just don't get your point. They could easily abandon OSD 1.0 users, but they aren't. So your point is?

Forever? The OSD has never worked as advertised

That is a bit of a strong accusation... there are developers working constantly fixing reported bugs. The upgrade to new firmware is to help make this process even easier. Do you have a problem with this progress? or you want things to stay the same?

I'm sure a lot of people spent $200+ so they could do it themselves.

No, but they have that choice. If this wasn't Neuros, and we were talking about some other company right now then this discussion would be pointless, and our hardware would be obsolete tomorrow. It isn't going to be.

[Capt. Mouser]

I was like you 6 months ago. But little by little as I drilled down and started actually trying to use the OSD, the lack of depth and number of bugs was alarming. It takes forever just to list my files, it can't record reliably, the mp3 player is a 2-page nightmare, YouTube is constantly cutting them off and when it IS "working" it gives the same few results for different criteria.

And you're saying that hey give 'em a break, they said they're workin on it. But I think they have already effeectively junked the OSD1 model due to lousy hardware as well as f/w, and the Gen1 owners were the most loyal and significant customers that are affected.

And Neuros keeps dancing around and buttering everyone up admiting no fault or error on their part, and that's really arrogant. I think OSD1 owners should get a partial credit on OSD2 and an admission that they were far too shortsighted and it's not the customers fault.

Whoever heard of a network media pllayer with no wifi? That's ludicris. Did they forget that? Like an Oops? Or did the engineer draw in an rs-232 by mistake?

[ChadV]

Mouser, since this is your "Conspiracy Theories" thread, I feel comfortable saying this...

You obviously are no longer happy with either the OSD as it stands nor the direction that Neuros Tech. is taking with it.  Your posts lately have been complaints bordering on flames, with no suggested solutions or queries as to how you could help.

Essentially, it appears that you have decided that there's a problem and you are going to make it your life's work to hang out on the forums and point it out repeatedly.

Otherwise, I'm not sure what kind of action you're expecting Neuros Tech. to take, as you seem bent on not explicitly saying.

[ChadV]

Oh, and if you go back a few products, Neuros DAC I owners got a trade-in/upgrade deal towards the Neuros II, and until the 442v2 was delayed in favor of the Recorder/OSD, there was a trade-in planned for that as well.  I doubt that Neuros wouldn't offer some kind of discount on the OSD2 for OSD1 owners, whether as a discount or trade-up program.

[Capt. Mouser]

Well, let's  wait and see. BTW, that's "CAPTAIN" Mouser.

[ChadV]

Well, I'm not enlisted.   

[JoeBorn]

And you're saying that hey give 'em a break, they said they're workin on it. But I think they have already effeectively junked the OSD1 model due to lousy hardware as well as f/w, and the Gen1 owners were the most loyal and significant customers that are affected.

And Neuros keeps dancing around and buttering everyone up admiting no fault or error on their part, and that's really arrogant. I think OSD1 owners should get a partial credit on OSD2 and an admission that they were far too shortsighted and it's not the customers fault.

Sorry for being away from the forums so long, I'll respond to this part first.  I certainly hope we've been admitting fault.  There's no doubt that we've made lots of mistakes.  Most of all, I hope we've never implied that our customers are at fault!  That's a horrible thing and I desperately hope it's not true.  i apologize that you ever got that impression!

Let me just say that we've certainly not junked the OSD1 at all.  I can see how it might look that way given that visible progress has slowed recently.  However, that's because the whole team was investing months in the AZ firmware (Qt transition).  We decided to make this giant investment because we believe the OSD1 is worth it.  Had we been looking to scrap the OSD, we would have gotten out the duct tape and hammers and just strapped on a few more features and some window dressing.  Very little of that work will be portable to the OSD2, it's almost exclusively an investment in the OSD1 (and also making sure that future investments in the OSDn will be more backward compatible with the OSD1).  In fact, we even scrapped an OSD 1.5 concept primarily because we felt it would divide resources and leave the current OSD1 folks in the lurch.

Neuros puts a huge emphasis on our users base and tries (not always successfully as you can see from this thread) to do right by them.  The AZ transition was entirely an attempt to do that.  Unfortunately, the appearance might be the opposite, it looks like development has dissapeared and abandon the platform.  All I can say is that's absolutely not the case.  Yes, there's some talk of future models, etc, and some hardware progress, but the software resources have been entirely focused on essentially rebuilding the OSD firmware to make it better scalable and have a long life.