[Milkman]

Albeit a little off topic, but:

Who is the real Earl Bonovich.

You seem to know a lot Earl, and this website has been instrumental as far as informing me about DTV hardware.

I guess this thread is looking for an "E! True Hollywood Story" on Earl Bonovich and your relationship with DirecTV. Do you work for DTV Earl? Are you friends with one or more people in DTV? Are you the reason that DTV actually reads this site, etc., etc.

Thanks again for the work, and looking forward to reading the responses.

 

[Earl Bonovich]

I guess it has been a while since I answerd the question...

So here it goes.

- I do not work for DirecTV... Never have, and probably never will.
- I do live in a suburb of Chicago... I am a software developer. For the last year, with a family owned Jewlery buisness... for the 10 years prior for a consulting firm.

- I started in this "forum" land, about 7 years ago when I got my first SA TiVo at TCF...
- I did my first review of a product, the R10... About 2.5 years ago, at TCF
- Then a year later, my second with the R15..

The R15 discussion was deemed not "correct" for TiVoCommunity, and it was moved here to DBSTalk.
A few months later... the I was asked to be a moderator of the DirecTV forums......

Shortly after doing my R15 review, DirecTV caught notice of "me". From that, a relationship started to build. And it has grown over the last 18ish months or so.
There are a "few" contacts now... not just one, or just one avenue.
There are a few others here on the forum that have legit contacts.

The TechKnow forum at forums.directv.com has grown a bit with some of our users participating over there.



This site was no "secret" to DirecTV... They knew about it before, as well as the other forum boards out there.

Do they read here because of "Me"... probably not, as they have my home phone number so if they wanted just my opinion they could call me at home.

They monitor this site (and others), because frankly... the users base in these forums push these units harders then the average consumer. "We" try things that most people don't try. And for the most part... "We" try to find patterns and help solve the problem.

 

[Earl Bonovich]

Other things to know about me...
I just love this technology stuff... I am computer guy... I have all sorts of gadgets and stuff... but not as much as I liked to.

My little 5 yr old takes enough time and money to curb that.
My wife is also very "forgiving" of the time I spend here and at home tinkering with this stuff.

I am 32yr Aquarious... Bears and White Sox Fan...

 

[Milkman]

Thanks for taking the time to answer Earl. So I guess your relationship was built simply on them finding your reviews and sorta adding you to a Beta tester list? I assume the stuff that you tell us in the forums is based on the 'relationship' you built with DTV, and people you met, etc? I wouldn't mind being on that beta test list as well, but then again, I guess most people on this forum wouldn't mind either.

I do have one comment based on your response:

They monitor this site (and others), because frankly... the users base in these forums push these units harders then the average consumer. "We" try things that most people don't try. And for the most part... "We" try to find patterns and help solve the problem.

I agree that we in here are hard core users, and use our systems to death! But in the past I have also thought of that to be a bad thing. I always thought that DTV would look at the problems that we experience and say, "well no one would do that, he/she must have done something extreme. The average user wouldn't have that problem". I always thought companies like DTV kinda didn't really like the tekkies, but I suppose I could be wrong .

 

[Earl Bonovich]

Actually... DirecTV doesn't have an external "Beta" program... at least not yet (Hopefully the "santa" releases, will lead to such a program).

I have actually never "met" any of my contacts face to face... All voice and email.

A fair amount is directly from the contacts... but a lot of is connecting the dots, and things I have learned over the last 6 years.... plus a little of my "interpretations" on how things go.

And you are exactly right.
They do look at some of the things "we" come up... and evaluate them accordingly.

 

[Milkman]

Other things to know about me...
I just love this technology stuff... I am computer guy... I have all sorts of gadgets and stuff... but not as much as I liked to.

My little 5 yr old takes enough time and money to curb that.
My wife is also very "forgiving" of the time I spend here and at home tinkering with this stuff.

I am 32yr Aquarious... Bears and White Sox Fan...

Well we share a lot in common then Earl.

I am known by my friends and family as a gadget guy as well. I simply cannot have enough Gadgets and 'toys'.

I am an almost 30yr old Aquarius, and my wife is also quite forgiving on the time I spend with my gadgets.

I am a Gator/Bucs fan (but quite honestly, a HUGE Gator fan).

 

[Earl Bonovich]

I am a Gator/Bucs fan (but quite honestly, a HUGE Gator fan).

Sorry about that... I went to Illinois... so as much as I hate Ohio State...
I still have to go for the Big Ten.. (that did me no good in the Rose Bowl, so I may have to re-think that theory)....

 

[Milkman]

I just noticed that I didn't have my normal Avatar or signature line that I use in all forums.

I have updated, and say poo on you for Monday.

GO GATORS...

Thanks for this off-topic chat

 

[BudShark]

Well we share a lot in common then Earl.

I am known by my friends and family as a gadget guy as well. I simply cannot have enough Gadgets and 'toys'.

I am an almost 30yr old Aquarius, and my wife is also quite forgiving on the time I spend with my gadgets.

I am a Gator/Bucs fan (but quite honestly, a HUGE Gator fan).

GO GATORS!!!! Wife is a '94 alum (yes she is older than me).

32 yr old Pices with a 3.5 yr old (didn't want to be left out!)

 

[Milkman]

And you are exactly right.
They do look at some of the things "we" come up... and evaluate them accordingly.

While this may be true on stuff that has been out forever (like DTivo for example), I hope that they don't consider the bugs that we report on the HR-20 to be power user bugs. There are very few (if any) bugs that I have seen reported that the average Joe wouldn't run into eventually.

 

[Earl Bonovich]

And that wraps up the Bio on Earl...
For this month..

 

[Earl Bonovich]

While this may be true on stuff that has been out forever (like DTivo for example), I hope that they don't consider the bugs that we report on the HR-20 to be power user bugs. There are very few (if any) bugs that I have seen reported that the average Joe wouldn't run into eventually.

They don't... very few things have been "reported" that they have just "written" off that the average guy/gal wouldn't do.