RE: [ukha_d] £99 HDMI HD Media Player Bargain!?

["Kenneth Watt" <kwatt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

You miss the point.

=20

These sorts of boxes are produced to meet a price point in a retailer, they
are what I refer to as =93cost engineered=94 and built to a price, not a
specification. Believe me, I've seen it happen and seen how it=92s done,
especially from Far Eastern companies but the Europeans and Yanks play the
same game. So if the producer thinks that they can get away without a
widge=
t
that costs $0.05 they will do so. You also have to remember that, as a
roug=
h
guide, the cost on the production line will add approximately three to four
times that at point of sale as everything is generally calculated in
percentages on top of gate price.

=20

Quite often with these low cost items what you get is a cheap DVD player or
whatever knocked out at $20 landed, then sold in stores for $50 for a set
period. Then the excess stock is sold off at a stupidly low price just to
shift them. Even with a high failure rate on the initial ones of 30% or
mor=
e
there=92s still room to simply swap them out or repair them, customer
satisfaction is just not on the agenda with these sorts of products, it=92s
all about margin and volume.

=20

It=92s the old story, you get what you pay for and if you buy cheap all too
often that=92s just what you get.

=20

Consumerism, gotta love it.

=20

K.

=20

From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx [mailto:ukha_d@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Mal Lansell
Sent: 09 May 2007 06:57
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ukha_d] =A399 HDMI HD Media Player Bargain!?

=20

Well it's only =A399 at Amazon - twice as much elsewhere. The shortfalls=20
I mention are frustrating because they could be addressed without the=20
device costing very much more. The ifo/iso one in particular is just a=20
software issue, and judging by the forums Netgear realise they have=20
messed up, and are working towards new firmware (how long it will be is=20
anyone's guess, though).

As for HD playback, if you're going to the trouble of making a box that=20
can output at 1080p, it would seem sensible to make sure it can handle=20
the bitrate. The extra horsepower would put the price up of course, but=20
it would still be very reasonably priced.

Mal

Kenneth Watt wrote:

> > I've done a bit more reading around, and unfortunately it looks
like
> > this device has too many shortcomings to be useful.
>
> For =A399 did you really expect much else?
>
> K.
>
>
>=20

=20



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