Sonicblue files for Chap 11 304
An anonymous reader writes "ReplayTV and Rio maker Sonicblue is a goner, filing for bankruptcy and selling their assets to D&M, the Japanese parent company of Denon and Marantz.
No word what will happen to all those Replay users out there -- that $140 deal on Amazon isn't looking so hot now, is it?"
I guess they had to sell the dept. too (Score:5, Funny)
Pretty sad. Can't even afford their dept. here on Slashdot.
I got one (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I guess they had to sell the dept. too (Score:5, Funny)
Keeping my fingers crossed for Tivo (Score:5, Interesting)
TiVo is becoming a verb (Score:2, Insightful)
TiVo's savior: Sony. (Score:5, Interesting)
That company is Sony Corporation. There are two good reasons for this: 1) Sony already has experience using Linux for consumer products, so developing for TiVo will not require a new learning curve for their engineers, and 2) Sony already is a licensee of TiVo technology.
With the recognition of one of the best-known brands in the world and Sony's powerful marketing muscle, Sony could incorporate TiVo technology into HDTV tuner boxes (cable, over-air, and DBS) and even onto projection TV units. It's even possible that Sony could even merge TiVo technology into products derived from the successor to the PlayStation 2.
Re:TiVo's savior: Sony. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:TiVo's savior: Sony.(pirate killer) (Score:2)
And they'll have to sue themselves for producing a product that is only used by dirty, thieving, pirates.
Re:TiVo's savior: Sony. (Score:2)
Re:TiVo's savior: Sony. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:TiVo's savior: Sony. (Score:4, Insightful)
Sony would replace that little picket security fence that the TiVo developers put up with a big-ass "GET THE FUCK OUT" sign. And the recordings will surely be smothered in DRM.
Re:TiVo's savior: Sony. (Score:2)
My guess is that Sony (and other electronics manufacturers) will end up selling the hardware with TiVo continuing to exist as a service, rather than as a brand of hardware.
TiVo is doing fine... (Score:5, Informative)
Doesn't look to me like TiVo needs a savior.
-B
Re:Keeping my fingers crossed for Tivo (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Keeping my fingers crossed for Tivo (Score:3, Informative)
The roll-your-own crowd seems to think a free replacement for TiVo is as simple as putting together some inexpensive hardware and throwing one's luck to the wind in hopes that guide data can be pulled from the net. However, after usi
PC not in the livingroom yet (Score:4, Insightful)
The PC based solutions are nowhere near that level of functionality yet.
Re:Keeping my fingers crossed for Tivo (Score:2, Interesting)
The hardware for a roll-your-own is still too pricey to make it worthwhile, as this card costs as much as a tivo, but that will no doubt change.
There's no reason you can configure a PC to do one thing and do it well. That's what I did with the media box I put this card in. Well, it does more than one thing, also works as a MAME box. Runs a P3 600, and has no problem recording TV in the background while play
Re:Keeping my fingers crossed for Tivo (Score:3, Insightful)
Mods: -1 Redundant! Thpbpbpbbt.
A bargain opportunity, perhaps? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:A bargain opportunity, perhaps? (Score:2)
It does not bode particularly well for future development of the line, but who knows what D&M will do with it?
Re:A bargain opportunity, perhaps? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:A bargain opportunity, perhaps? (Score:5, Informative)
Also, and this is critical, service connection is required to set the clock.
I have three ReplayTV boxes ("upgraded" 2001, stock 2020, and new 5040), and if the service gets cut, I am screwed.
Too bad. (Score:5, Interesting)
Panasonic could have kept the ReplayTV PVR and Rio players as a viable line of products or at least incorporated its technology into Panasonic products.
This is why I think TiVo will be purchased by Sony fairly soon, given that Sony already is committed to using Linux for consumer product development and also Sony is a TiVo licensee. Given Sony's name recognition, TiVo products could really become popular under Sony's stewardship.
Re:Too bad. (Score:3, Interesting)
I dropped my original Rio on hard tile floor once. The front little controll pad popped off and the battery fell out. It still works to this day.
What's wrong with Diamond MM??? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:What's wrong with Diamond MM??? (Score:3, Interesting)
From what I've heard from a person or two who used to work there, they were very poorly managed--rampant internal problems from massive employee theft to bungled (if not outright fraudulent) accounting.
After the reorganization that led to the creation of Sonicblue (the video card operations were sold off, I think to ATI), they never really got back on their feet. Cool MP3 players are a nice "in addition to" business but not a core business, and once they bought ReplayTV it all but vanished from the market
Re:What's wrong with Diamond MM??? (Score:2)
Diamond video cards worked fine, but they were virtually identical to the S3 and 3DFX reference boards.
Their drivers were known to be buggy and loaded with weird stuff (e.g. the click on the desktop, get the start menu stuff they put in their 95/98 video drivers). So you were better off with the S3 drivers shipped with your OS or the S3 reference drivers.
Their support and commitment to their customers sucked. I had a Diamond ISDN adapter, a couple of months after I bought min
Damn! (Score:4, Interesting)
I guess when the big coporations started selling their mp3 players it was all over. Damn.
Re:Damn! (Score:2, Funny)
TiVO may benefit...or not (Score:5, Informative)
Tivo COULD do well by this, since if support for ReplayTV drops dead, users of ReplayTV will still want SOME kind of PVR (and I'm not talking about those who are willing to waste days and weeks hacking the box, here)...or, could make it harder on them, since the MPAA and their relatives now only have one big company to focus on.
The next business quarter will probably be a turning point for PVR technology. TiVO has a better chance of surviving if those that are orphaned by ReplayTV move over to it. If they don't, TiVO instead will be 'hanging on' for some time, and its fate (and ability to manage lawsuits like the one ReplayTV got, DMCA-wise) will be a lot more uncertain.
Re:TiVO may benefit...or not (Score:3, Interesting)
The TiVO hacking community has been careful about allowing program shari
Re:TiVO may benefit...or not (Score:5, Informative)
Microsoft discontinued their side of the UltimateTV product line and sold the ongoing support to DirecTV.
TiVo is more widely known because they have been friendly to their customers, and have not fought customers that are interested in seeing what more they can do with the TiVo products, so long as theft of service is not an issue.
TiVo has also been reasonably sensible wrt usability and features when it comes to protecting the broadcasters. The 30 second skip is not advertized as a feature, and is not documented in the product literature. It is not a blank seaker, which is more accurately what Replay did, so you do have to fiddle around looking for the end of the commercials, though it is not as bad as watching 20 30 second comercials every 5 min of programming.
Then again, that's my opinion. You have fun with your own.
-Rusty
-Rusty
Re:TiVO may benefit...or not (Score:5, Informative)
TiVo is more widely known because they have been friendly to their customers, and have not fought customers that are interested in seeing what more they can do with the TiVo products, so long as theft of service is not an issue.
Preface: I have Tivo. I love Tivo.
The Series 2 (with 3.2 software) is hardly hackable at all. A boot PROM checks the signatures of the kernel and all startup files and replaces anything which has been changed before booting. No adding anything to rc init files like on the Series 1. A couple hackers at tivocommunity have socketed their PROM chips and flashed new ones which bypass the ROM checks, but they still haven't succeeded in getting MyWorld (the main tivo app) up and running.
Even if they do manage it, which I'm sure they will, socketing your PROM is still way out of the level of expertise of almost all Tivo users. The general consensus is that the chip is not flashable on board either (long debates about this, as some Tivos appear to ship with PROMs that ARE flashable on board, but even on those there's no way to actually run a flashing utility on the machine since there's no way to get a shell prompt once the box boots because you need to disable the PROM... you see where this is going.)
I don't fault Tivo for this - they are certainly showing they work hard to keep people from being able to extract video, which will probably be good for them in the long run. They're still cool about hard drive upgrades, but that's about all the hacking you can do on the newest units.
Re:TiVO may benefit...or not (Score:2)
Re:TiVO may benefit...or not (Score:2)
ReplayTV gone? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:ReplayTV gone? (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm pretty sure the company that's buying Replay, D&M holdings will use this opportunity to invalidate the lifetime subscriptions for the older players, in an attempt to either force us to buy new units, or cough up subscription fees.
Re:ReplayTV gone? (Score:4, Interesting)
I hope you're wrong, and I think it would be very foolish of D&M to do this. I am one of the early ReplayTV customers. I have a Replay 2020 which I've upgraded, swapping in an 80GB drive for the 20GB. The original cost of the machine to me was $700, and the drive cost about $300 (80GB were just out at the time).
So, with $1000 sunk into my machine, I was hoping to not replace it until I jump to HD, probably next year.
What I would say is that, this may be kind of like the airlines and their frequent fliers. If an airline goes into bankrupcy, the mileage plans are generally safe because the company doesn't want to alienate their best customers.
I think the same may apply here.
However, when I upgrade to an HD unit in the next 18 months, I fully expect to pay a monthly. So, if they're nice to me, they might have a nice little sale there.
Arghh.... (Score:5, Interesting)
I wonder if D&M will try to maintain the unique value that ReplayTV presents. It is a hackers paradise. I also paid my $299 for lifetime activation. I also got an e-mail asking about a future product that was just a ReplayTV player that would stream video from your recorder to the player in another room. I was really excited about that as well...
SonicBlue did such a great job buying up all these cool gadgets, I wonder what really went to their demise?
Re:Arghh.... (Score:2)
It has 256 MB of memory (not quite the 384 MB that your Rio has), and looks to be smaller than the Rio. And it has a much more compact shape and in my judgement, is more pleasing to the eye.
I bought one for my wife and she loves it
Can't say I'm sad (Score:3, Interesting)
Make Replay Open Source! (Score:5, Interesting)
It would be a shame not allow the Open Source developer community complete access to Replay.
Only when we provide a simple way of cracking encrypted PayTV channels can we wrest control away from HBO.
Which is nice.
Re:Make Replay Open Source! (Score:3, Informative)
Even if they don't, as long as their schedule subscription service stays around, it's still a good box for hackers to play with - the 4xxxx and 5xxxx series talk to each other with a kind of XML to send programs back and forth, and they have NICs on board, so as you can imagine, it's not impossible to write software for your computer that emulates the request functions of another ReplayTV and sends the program dire
Re:Not Likely (Score:3, Informative)
they opened up the RioReciever to projects like jreceiver.sourceforge.net.
so they have a history of helping out folks with 'defunct' products on that level.
chapter 11 dosent mean theyre dead (Score:3, Informative)
No Surprise (Score:5, Interesting)
I shipped out my broken ReplayTV 5040 unit, waited about two weeks, and did not hear or receive anything from Sonicblue, and noticed that my credit card was still being charged the monthly service fee. I called Sonicblue back up, and asked what was going on, and they said they were out of ReplayTV 5040s, and asked me to be patient while I wait to get mine. I noticed the last week of February, that I was charged another monthly service fee. I called Sonicblue back up for a third time, and they said they would suspend my account temporarily until I got my new ReplayTV, but they would not refund me the two months of service charges that I got no service for. When I asked what the status was of my new ReplayTV 5040 unit, I was told they still have not received any new units, and asked me to continue being patient and wait.
Well, it's a month later, two months after I sent my broken ReplayTV 5040 unit into Sonicblue, and I still haven't received a new or repaired unit. At this point, I doubt I ever will. Oh well, that was $320 wasted.
From what I hear, TiVo has been having similar trouble. It's a shame, DVR was a fantastic idea, but it doesn't appear to have really caught on with the consumers, and being fought by Hollywood and television executives didn't help any. I guess I should just go back to using a VCR and buy a Super VHS VCR in the meantime, heh.
Re:No Surprise (Score:3, Informative)
Re:No Surprise (Score:4, Funny)
That's a new feature in the latest PVRs. They can detect when you've been laying around in Cheetos-stained underwear watching Star Trek for more then 7 hours. They're doing this to avoid lawsuits [roelands.org] from fat people for ruining their lives.
Not another one! (Score:3, Interesting)
Even the company that makes Chia pets recently filed for bankruptcy. Apparently there was too much money being spent on "Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia" ads and not enough on quality control. Rumor has it that over 50% of the Chia pets that made it to store shelves were cracked or broken. Of the remaining good ones, 4% had missing seed packets (!) and 8% had dud seeds. Depressing.
Re:Not another one! (Score:2)
I'm sorry you've had bad experiences though, I hope mine doesn't suffer a similar fate.
Re:Not another one! (Score:2, Insightful)
On the hype side, they couldn't hype this thing enough. I bought one of the first generation units, and was hooked. I can't watch TV without it anymore. I no longer have to schedule anything around TV shows. Everyone I know who h
FYI, chap 11 vs 7 (Score:5, Informative)
In the good ole US of A, chapter 11 is reorganization. This gives a the company protection from creditors to get its house in order. Companies often come out of chapter 11.
Chapter 7 is liquidation. This company, as they say, is no more. This is for companies that are looking for an organized sell-off of assets.
More info at 411bankruptcy.com [411bankruptcy.com].
So SonicBlue is not necessarily gone for good. However, if they are selling off their major product lines, I wonder how they plan to achieve profitability.
Re:FYI, chap 11 vs 7 (Score:3, Informative)
Re:FYI, chap 11 vs 7 (Score:3, Interesting)
However, if they are selling off their major product lines, I wonder how they plan to achieve profitability.
My bet is that they don't plan to--they plan to take the money from the asset sales and "wind down operations," as the euphemism goes. While the usual IANAL disclaimer applies, I think the reason for Chapter 11 in this case may simply be that the Chapter 7 liquidation proceedings give less control over what's left of your company's assets, and the sale thereof, than Chapter 11 proceedings do.
NOOOOOOO (Score:2)
I really like the replay, but after seeing MythTV I may just use that, it really looks like a nice solution, but I really wanted that channel skipping.
NOOOOOOO....
sales had to be affected by rumors (Score:5, Insightful)
Disappointed TiVo owner (Score:5, Interesting)
Now, there's no competition and anyone who is addicted to PVR functionality is basically stuck with TiVo. (MythTV [mythtv.org] not withstanding.) And TiVo now has little reason to fear the loss of customers, so they have less reason to actually improve the product.
I love my TiVo, but this I think this is a bad thing.
No Competition? (Score:2)
Denon & Merantz is HIGHLY respected (Score:5, Interesting)
I personally think this is a *GOOD* thing as i can't wait to see what comes up and out of this!!
LA Times analysis of DVR market (Score:5, Interesting)
Read it here (free registration required, yadda, yadda):
Mass Rollout of DVR Technology Stuck on 'Pause' [latimes.com]
Why no subscription free PVR (Score:5, Insightful)
Ideally the box would compress MPEG-2 or 4, and allow you to interface it to a PC for archiving of old shows onto a SVCD or VCD format / MPEG-2 / DivX.
Wait... what am I saying? Why not just buy a PC with an ATI All-in-wonder card?
PVR will only work if there's enough take up. Sky, in the UK, as well as Canal+ in France, are setting up their next generation to go PVR, as *part* of the regular satellite subscription service. This will work. Sadly, the cable companies were not in on the deal with SonicBlue. If they had been, and could have charged $10 extra per month for it or something, and made a deal on hardware, then it would be workable. You cannot beat the giants, they will be right behind with their products.
Re:Why no subscription free PVR (Score:2)
-dameron
Re:Why no subscription free PVR (Score:3, Informative)
Sure. Are you willing to pay $500 for it? That's how much the hardware costs. Ooops... forgot. You're not spreading the software development costs out over a monthly subscription... up that to $750 then.
and allow you to interface it to a PC for archiving of old shows
Oh... up it to $1000. We're gonna get our pants sued off.
Wait... what am I saying? Why not just
It's a damn shame, but I can't say I'm surprised (Score:3, Informative)
Oh well, others are making good competitive products, so I guess there's no reason really to be sad to see them go.
Yeah, I have an S35S also (Score:2)
Can't upload from the unit. Must be an anti-sharing 'feature'. Deters illegal file sharing, but impinges on fair/legal use as well.
The non-standard USB cable and proprietary software are an inconvenience. If I'm on the road and want to download some mp3's from a friends collection,
Re:Yeah, I have an S35S also (Score:2)
I thought the same about the hold function, but I just found a hold function in the menu. Not sure if this was added in the 1.80 firmware or not. It's a little awkward to activate (Menu, scroll-scroll-scroll, enter, etc.)
Office is the Bermuda Triangle of Santa Clara (Score:3, Funny)
Damn... (Score:2)
The problem with Replay (Score:3, Insightful)
The problem with both of them for me is that they are bundled with a service that you are charged monthly for. I'll admit the service is a good one, but I think people for the most part don't like the idea of paying each month for something they can do manually with a VCR. Tivo and Replay have some nice features, but after all, recording a show is still the primary function and most people don't want to pay for that.
If Tivo and Replay would operate just like a VCR and allow you to use their service if you want to, or just use the system as a regular VCR if you didn't want to pay the monthly fees, then I think both systems would probably catch on a lot more than they have.
Re:The problem with Replay (Score:2)
I thought that the idea of a PVR was that you didn't need to do something manually.
If Tivo and Replay would operate just like a VCR and allow you to use their service if you want to, or just use the system as a regular VCR if you didn't want to pay the monthly fees
If someone wants a VCR, why wouldn't they by a VCR? It astounds me that someon
Re: Why would you want a PVR without service (Score:3, Informative)
I can answer that, as I've wanted one, but have no interest in the "we'll find what you like" service.
1) Pause live TV.
By the time we get our daugher to bed, it is almost always 8:15 - 8:20. If I tape the show, I then do something else for 40 minutes, as I don't want to watch the end of the show without seeing the beginning. With a PVR, I could start it at 8:20 and be
Re:The problem with Replay (Score:4, Informative)
Certainly Tivo already does this - don't know about Replay as I've never seen or used one. Tivo will allow you to manually set time and channel and record however.
The thing is, there's no value in that to me. The whole value of Tivo is in the data it provides, not the hardware and not even the software (although I like the interface). Without the data, nicely categorised with descriptions etc., the Tivo isn't much better than a VCR to me. With the data however, it has proved a god-send.
That's the real service - the provision of accurate and categorised data. That's why you pay your subscription.
Cheers,
Ian
Re:The problem with Replay (Score:2)
Is it really worth it though? I pay £5/year for my digiguide subscription, which gives me program listings for all the channels I have 2 weeks in advance and detailed descriptions of them. I'm happy paying £5/year for this data, I would not be happy to pay £120/year for exactly the same data on a TiVo. Now if I could get a £200 machine that would record MPEG-2 or MPEG-
Re:The problem with Replay (Score:2, Interesting)
It was easily as awful as watching TV at Tivo-less friend's house.
What will happen to ReplayTV service? (Score:4, Interesting)
Uh Oh (Score:3, Funny)
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
Manual recording (Score:2, Informative)
You can use the Replay, at least the 4000 series, as an advanced VCR. You can manually tell your Replay to record channel 5 at 12pm everyday or just on Thursdays. It's slightly kludgy to name the recordings, but not difficult.
Bummer (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh well, being an early adopter sucks sometimes.
Now, will someone finally go and buy up Kozmo's IP and get that idea going again? I need a DVD, some bagels and a bottle of milk. Thanks.
this is so sad. (Score:2)
Say it ain't so!!!
remembering S3... (Score:2, Insightful)
Over the next few months i started looking around for tweaks that i could perform on the card. I ended up using one program (whose name escapes my memory) that allows you set normally hidden values in the registry to change the Savage3D's core and memory
Rio500 (Score:4, Informative)
Also, there was always a hassle getting the Rio Audio Manager (the _worst_ designed user-interface for managing large collections of MP3s I have ever seen) to reenable the MP3-ripping functionality I should have had. In the end, I went out and bought a copy of another piece of software to rip MP3s and to transfer to the Rio (I forget its name at the moment, it's the popular Windows one).
Still, I suppose I still use my Rio500. I use it to listen to audible.com [audible.com] audio content and it does a great job of that. For my MP3s, though, I have since upgraded to the Creative Nomad Jukebox 3. I cannot get it to hook up to Linux yet but apart from that, it is great.
I guess I'm not really surprised. (Score:4, Insightful)
The product cost too much, wasn't easily upgradable, and required a service contract (built into the price) to get the guide even if you didn't want the guide.
Offer me a freakin' digital recorder without a guide, don't push me to buy a service, and don't charge me an arm and a leg, and I'd jump at it.
That's the problem with tivo too. You don't *have* to get the service, but it keeps prompting you to. Even more annoying, you have to buy the service for EACH UNIT. If you have two or more units in your house, they can't share one guide. Yes, you get a discount on service for additional units, but you're already paying for it on the first unit. In fact, I think the discount only applies if you get the dish units anyway.
True, each unit requires a phone call. But the units could be networked to share the one guide. Since tivo stopped offering toll free calls for the guide, it's even worse.
I don't want to have to keep buying blades after I've bought the razor, to steal a phrase. That's why I bought an electric razor.
Greg Ballard of 3dfx and Sonic Blue is to blame... (Score:2)
TimeWarners going to kill Tivo and Replay too (Score:5, Informative)
There is no way that Tivo can compete with that. Even though it has a better product the cable company just has it beat here from a price and marketing perspective. It's almost sad...
Just like 3dfx (Score:5, Interesting)
This was a failure from the very start. its very reminiscent of the 3dfx take over. For me, this was CEOs of a dying company buying another company so they could live another day. The company that bought diamond was already failing and they bought themselves probably 4-5 years with the purchase. Im sure it was devastating to share holders. Diamond was a SOLID company before the purchase.
Diamond was the #1 seller of video cards and they did not make their own chips. Sad.
Just like 3dfx was bought out by CEOs who also sought to extend their CEO life at the expence of the end users and shareholders.
Just plain ugly.
No problem... (Score:3, Informative)
I own a RioVolt
It's actually not that bad in my case, because iRiver also makes the firmware (Sonicblue is real slow even though all they have to do is change the device ID)
So, I still get new features on my RioVolt
Long Time Coming (Score:5, Insightful)
Working in the Rio / Comm Division QA labs, I saw that the place to be taking these products was to converge the digital media devices you make with home networking solutions that you also make. There were a few products that made it out the doors that did this (the Dell Digital Audio Receiver and Rio Receiver), and they worked quite well; but soon after, the communications division was to be shut.
In that reorganization, I saw some incredibly talented engineers (who had been around since before Diamond had bought Supra, and were responsible for the incredible SupraFAXModem and SupraSonic lines) laid off and get instantly hired by other companies in the SW Washington / NW Oregon area, such as Sharp Labs, Logitech, and Intel. These people still work there, creating great products.
Now that the age of wireless-in-the-home and broadband networking are upon us, SonicBlue has to buy home networking equipment that they once engineered to incorporate into devices that they once had on the engineering roadmap. Due to incredible mismanagement, along with exorborant costs of moving offices, and newfound competition from the digital audio core market (thanks, Apple!) the strain was too much to bear.
Now I will finally get some form of profit from the Employee Stock Purchase Program, in the form of a failed-investment tax writeoff...
Re:Class Action Lawsuit? (Score:2, Interesting)
More people in the US have outhouses than PVRs. I think that was in Newsweek or something. You may love your ReplayTV, but those poor people in the Blue Ridge Mountains don't even have indoor plumbing. Just for some perspective, I know you love your PVR as I do mine.
You could sue, I suppose, but there would be no point in suing a company with no money!
Re:Class Action Lawsuit? (Score:3, Informative)
Yes, you can sue. You can always sue. You will not win, because bankruptcy stays suits against the debtor. I see no reason a court would lift the automatic stay under these circumstances.
Essentially, y
Re:Class Action Lawsuit? (Score:2)
I told you so!
I refuse to buy Tivo, ReplayTV, or other service-based products. I'd rather throw my money at something that doesn't continually drain my checkbook. I don't own a car, either.
You'd be amazed how cheap my living expenses are, especially considering that almost all my electronic devices have power-saving modes.
Re:Well, scratch that idea (Score:2)
Re:Well, scratch that idea (Score:2)
What you are looking for is a built-in Digital Encoder, as the signal from your sat receiver will be analog.
The integrated pvr/sat receiver system uses a digital receiver (actually two) that processes the digital stream, and stores it decoded-re-encoded on the hard drive, then uses a single decoder to display the stream to your TV.
There are also HDTV capable receivers, which will use a system similar to the sat receiver systems to store the digital stream from your lo
Re:Poor Sonic :-( (Score:5, Insightful)
I bought the Rio 600 when it first came out and it's a piece of junk. On the hardware side, the device stopped working after about a week and I had to return it. Also, the batteries constantly discharge even if you don't have the device turned on so after a week of sitting in my workout bag, I still have to recharge the darn thing. The little cassette adapter they sell that you plug into your car stereo has also quit working. On the software side, you're forced to use this horrible, non-intuitive download app to load MP3 files. Luckily, I found the Linux variant and I use that now.
After a few months, I realized 32 MB was nowhere near what I needed so I broke down and ordered the PROPRIETARY memory expansion module - no CompactFlash memory slots here. SonicBlue's online web site ordering mechanism failed to inform me that they were out of stock when I placed my order. Two weeks later I decide to call and only then did they tell me that the device was out of stock. So I canceled my order, or so I thought. I found another web site and ordered the expansion and forgot about SonicBlue for awhile, that is, until four months later when I received a memory expansion box from SonicBlue and my credit card was debited $80 or so.
So I call up Sonic again - believe me you don't want to sit on hold with this company - and finally got the charge reversed and returned the item. And thankfully, that has been the last dealing I've had with SonicBlue.
If Sonic's Replay service was anything like their web ordering and MP3 player divisions, I think it's safe to assume that this company needed to go.
On the lessons learned side of things, always research your tech and open standards can mean the difference between paying $40 for an generic add-on and $80 for the proprietary version.
X
The latest Archos products require no drivers (Score:2, Interesting)
Even the older jukebox will work under Linux, you just have to add a readily available driver.
The nice thing about having a USB storage compliant device is when you plug it in, it just becomes a drive on your system. You can copy anything to or from it as if it was a local HD (it's just alot slower). Nice not having to use any proprietary soft
Re:Poor Sonic :-( (Score:3, Informative)
Their CD-based players (the Rio Volt series) support WMA...not that I've ever needed that capability, as I've always ripped to MP3, but the capability is there.
(On my last long drive, though, I left the SP90 and home and ran AeroPlayer on a Palm Tungsten T. 256 megs is enough for 4-5 hours, and it supports both MP3 and Ogg Vorbis. I brought along a CD with more music
OT: A Moderation Lesson (Score:2, Offtopic)
Prime example: "First Post" posts are, by your terms, redundant, but that's poor moderation; "First Post" posts are offtopic, not red
Re:OT: A Moderation Lesson (Score:2)
For example, if someone had posted a reply to this story saying simply "wow, what do you know, sonicblue is going out of business" that could justifiably labelled redundant.
Personally I think people take the moderation system way too seriously. There should be 3 moderations in my opinion; interesting, funny, and troll. Don't really need anything else.
Re:OT: A Moderation Lesson (Score:2)
Re:Oh no! (Score:3, Insightful)
TiVo is not preventing anyone from selling a PVR device. Too bad that there was such a high saturation in the nitch market of PVRs that SonicBlue couldn't stay profitable.