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Right, for ANY technology manufacturer that reads this, all I ask is that if you do follow my steps to success, I get five for free, k?
Media Extenders/Network Media players... how come it's so damn hard to make one, huh?
here's my simple requirements...
Make it small - It's media extender, not a full blown PC. If I had the space for a PC, I'd go and stick one there, so keep it small. The idea is that I can stream my media through it not FROM it...
Make it quiet - Yes, I could go an get an Xbox 360 and use that but it's too damn noisy, so just make it quiet.
DON'T stick ANY lights on it - except a really dim red one for when it's on. I don't need a light telling me it's connected to the network, another telling me what type of media I'm streaming or any other useless info. Guess what, if I can see my media, I KNOW it's connected, so you don't need to tell me!
Don't wasted R+D money and time on making it look nice. At most, a plain black box is fine. I don't need a front panel scrolling display of brushed aluminium finish. By all means, offer it as an option but let me buy something utterly nondescript as I'll be tucking it away out of site. And besides, I'm not going to be looking at the damn thing, just the media it is streaming.
Take your crummy embedded software and, frankly, ram it where the sun never shines. The Windows Media Centre software is fine and I know my way around it. So suck it up, pay the licensing fee to MS and properly interface it with my HTPC.
Don't force me to install your crummy software on my HTPC... you rarely get it right and you sod up my HTPC...
Sort your remote out. Want a decent remote? Copy the Microsoft mini-media remote... that's all I need. And this is aimed at IMON specifically: I know you license out left right and centre but seriously, take a look at what you're doing... remotes should be simple and NOT have more buttons and shift modes than an F117A Stealth Fighter... so STOP BLOODY MAKING THESE UNUSABLE PILES OF CRA... rubbish.
Actually, while we're on remotes, makes your EXACTLY compatible with MS Media Remotes, so that the vast majority of multi-device remotes have all the buttons ready programmed... I know you want to lock me into having yet another remote that you've paid IMON the license for, but that's your tough and I'll not bloody do it!
Provide a decent IR receiver extension cable. Again, I'll be tucking your box out of sight, so all that's visible is my TV, so please give me a decent IR receiver cable. Ideally, it should be small and maybe have a small screw clamp on it rather than a cheap bit of sticky plastic that'll fall off after a week.
Finally, feel free to add in the ability to play every file type going, but for the sake of me coming to your office and forcing you to eat your crummy player, make sure it can stream both Vista and Windows 7 recorded TV formats, from multiple machines.
All it takes is come common sense.
Originally Posted by Dareos
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