Quote:
Originally Posted by Vitruvius
...Wouldn't you think Fortec would test the software updates before posting?
|
Actually Fortec is quite a good company. They always reply to my emails quickly. Also they are working on the problem which is good.
I have another brand of receiver from a different company which never responded to my emails and they never fixed problems the receiver had.
I've also sent emails to other manufacturers asking questions and have received no reply. Many of these companies are in non-English speaking countries which may be part of the problem.
So bottom line, Fortec is good because at least we can communicate with them (they speak English) and they do fix problems.
So far as testing software, I have been involved with this in the past (different product). When we were doing testing, we could not possibly test everything due to the complexity of the software and that was years ago. So we had "beta" software testers which were customers who tried out the new software and reported bugs.
These days the software for various products is many times more complex. I can't imagine trying to test every single feature on the
Mercury II. I've had mine for several months and am just now starting to notice a few glitches here and there. I don't think with a limited market product like this that they could afford to hire the number of people needed to test everything for each new software release.
Actually programmers tend to not understand hardware very well. Things like LNB's, positioners, diseqc switches, etc. And those who understand the hardware tend to not understand the software very well. So even if they had the money to hire as many software testers as they wanted, I doubt they could find many people who would understand everything and recognize certain problems when they saw it.
There are many different hardware/LNB/positioner set-ups that the Mercury II can be used with. Some problems may only occur with my particular set-up. So I think the thing to do is what I do. When I notice a major problem, I email Fortec and report it. Then the problems I notice get fixed.
BUT, when I report a software problem, I make darn sure I can re-create the problem. I do certain things and the problem happens again and again. Then I describe in detail the software version I am using, exactly what to click on to get to the particular screen I am having the problem with, and I tell them what add-on hardware I am using if appropriate Like
VBox II or whatever.
When I report the software version, I give them the complete file name. For example: 20070604_MERCURY2_V0151.bin
And I limit my emails. If they are getting a lot of emails, they will spend their time reading email instead of fixing problems!