[Tom Robertson]

Earl, Directv,

First off, Earl, you are extremely helpful and I'm grateful for your participation!

Would it be possible for Directv to have a limited use account for posting purposes (ie one where we can't bombard them with PMs)? (I presume this is trivial.)

Directv, could you occasionally give an official status on the well-known (and commented upon) defects? Rather than leaking nebulous info: "they are looking at that", "they know about it, but can't reproduce it", etc.

What I would love to see would be a short status about each major issue:

Nickname
Description
Status: (rumored, reproduced, identified, dispatched?, testing, etc.)
Very course, high level estimated fix timeframe
​

I am not asking Directv to commit to fix dates, I know how very hard that can be. I am also not asking Directv to identify bugs that they know about but don't seem to be showing up in the wild...yet. And lastly, I don't necessarily need to be given a status about little tiny defects like weird colors or typos. Just the major issues we're having.

Just knowing that Directv has enumerated each of the known defects in a status report is very comforting. I know they are reading these forums, but a centralized and formalized list of the defects goes a long way to dispel wild speculations and should cut down on the "I've looked at 10,000 posts and can't find my particular version of this bug" posts.

Directv, the posters here are your best friends--they adopt your equipment very early, they are quite literate technically, and spend $$. We want to help for the most part, and don't want to waste each others cycles. So please give serious thought to a more official, formal means to give us updates. In this way, you can better control the speculation and information flow.

Thank you for listening.

Cheers,
Tom

 

[jbstix]

One of the most useful and practical ideas I've seen on these forums!
Great idea Tom...
D* has nothing to lose, and it would really cut down on alot of repeat posts.

 

[g4jedi]

Here Here!

 

[jkc120]

I think this is a great idea, but I doubt it'll happen. Just acknowledging the bugs publicly and on record will put more heat on them. As long as they can hide behind the fact that many people do not report these sorts of things, or aren't aware of web forums like this, it buys them time to fix things on their terms.

I'm all for it, though. I hope they consider it, but somehow I doubt we'll see it happen.

 

[Xaa]

What color is the sky in your world? Not a chance ever.

 

[hasan]

We are VERY fortunate to have Earl and perhaps one other insider posting here, carrying our water and bringing back a few cups. I don't think we are going to get any "Official" publications...

As long as we continue to get good info here and know that our info is getting to them via these forums, we have it pretty well covered.

It may be a good idea from our point of view, but I doubt it is from theirs.

 

[jaywdetroit]

i could go for that.

 

[sigma1914]

Here's what their "official responses" would say:

~Reset your unit.
~Check all connections.
~Swap your inputs.
~It's a known issue, we're working on it.
~Reset one more time.
~Order a replacement...or have a tech out.

 

[glennb]

Here's what the messages sent to DIRECTV would be:

~HEROS didn't record last night, this box is a POS !!!
~It locked up again !!, this box is a POS !!!
~I hate the remote, this box is a POS !!!
~When is OTA going to be enabled ?, this box is a POS !!!

 

[nFavor]

Considering all the mis-posts in the official thread each time a new version is repleased, I'd highly recommend D* not join the forum. If people can't even follow Earl's bold/specific posting rules, D* threads would be a nightmare.

I think it's more reasonable to ask for D* to post press releases on specific issues and that's about it. Even then, they'd likely get flamed for not posting enough.

It's a complete no win situation and the best position is not to post (officially) at all. This way D* doesn't get misquoted/etc.

 

[belogical]

Earl does a perfect job. Quick, timely response, with a real world perspective. That's more than official to me.

 

[btmoore]

It has been a few years since I have been over there, but I thought TiVo did a nice job by providing a few people to support the TiVo Community Forum (which is part of the AVS Forum family). I think it did a lot to develop goodwill with customers. IMO D* could learn a lot from that experience.

 

[Stuart Sweet]

I've suggested similar things several times (most recently yesterday) and the answers trickle back from unofficial sources: It's too risky for them, people here are too fickle, etc. I think that it's true, we'd never be satisfied with whatever the response would be. Doesn't mean they couldn't try.

 

[Earl Bonovich]

It has been a few years since I have been over there, but I thought TiVo did a nice job by providing a few people to support the TiVo Community Forum (which is part of the AVS Forum family). I think it did a lot to develop goodwill with customers. IMO D* could learn a lot from that experience.

But, over the years...they have taken less and less of a public role there.

 

[C6Silver]

Lest you forget what a tiny tiny fraction of the buying population we are. That automatically would make this a very low priority even if it actually did reach someone's radar.

 

[btmoore]

But, over the years...they have taken less and less of a public role there.

That is too bad. I thought is was a fantastic way to build goodwill and credibility. It really demonstrated a respect for the customer, it showed that they understood that it was their customers that would make or break them.

 

[nFavor]

But, over the years...they have taken less and less of a public role there.

That's what I've seen in many other examples too. In the examples I've seen, it typically feed the flames rather than foster good will.

 

[jkc120]

But, over the years...they have taken less and less of a public role there.

That could be mostly due to the relative stability of the Tivo software, though. Although I do remember quite a bit of traffic about the Tivo2Go stuff, and the newer receivers being "slow" or "laggy" due to a slower microprocessor in the new ones.

 

[flipper2006]

But, over the years...they have taken less and less of a public role there.

I think Earl's answer and responses are more then official. Just one point to make. Everyone get's thier HR20 and tries the eSATA and it doesnt work. How would you know to try it again (that the feature is enabled now). There is no official message from D* on this. I'm so happy to found this forum and have some of you guys that have helped many of people on here. We are getting "inside" information which is more valuable then 'official' info.

 

[cbearnm]

While it is a good idea, putting it into practice is impractical.
Some other forums have had helpful folks pop up (in both official and informal forms) and they tend to get tired of being chewed up. It all starts with good intentions, but heaven forbid, that person say something speculative that doesn't come to be and the flaming starts up.
I am impressed by Earl's thick skin and patience.
I think I prefer D*'s policy of announcing things (mostly) after they are released. They catch enough crap for things that we fantasize on this and other boards, to the point that people think the info comes from D*.
Not withstanding, the HR20 issues have been numerous, but their response has been acceptable, for the most part.
But I can be safe in saying that these forums are important for D* to gather info about the issues and how seriously we take them. I would rather have them read them silently than not at all.