[Wilson-Flyer]

Sorry. I have posted this in the UltimateTV section of the forum but felt a need to post it here too since it has the potential to impact a LOT of people in THIS forum TOO. I apologizee to those of you that read all forums...



Well... It was a fun trip for three days but it's back to the store with my UTV.


Don't get me wrong. I LOVE it but I can't use it. Let me explain...


Some brilliant engineer at RCA (kudos to RCA... AGAIN!) decided that the IR set used for the UTV unit would be fine to be the EXACT SAME IR set used with the RCA DTC-100 HD IRD(and ALL other RCA DTV IRDs that do not have an alternate IR set of codes). Absolutely BRILLIANT. Talk about out-thinking yourself!


I actually had a support person at RCA just now stand me down that he could not understand why I would WANT a DTC-100 AND a UTV BOTH on my Mits 65" HDTV. WHAT AN IDIOT!!!!!!!!! He really didn't understand what the big deal was!


My bet is that they'll lose at LEAST 1000+ sales for UTV on this forum ALONE because of this. I'm going to try my best to see to it.


I'm returning my UTV today. My ReplayTVs work just fine thank you and they don't conflict with ANYTHING else.


What a bunch of morons at RCA. Once again, just like when they released the DTC with Plus DTV features that did NOT work for 6 months after it shipped; RCA has absolutely outDUMBED themselves. What a SHAME!


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Where are we going and why am I in this handbasket!


[This message has been edited by LearningMan (edited 03-28-2001).]

 

[Wilson-Flyer]

I just got off the line with a product manager (a REAL one! LOL) at RCA who has been a confidant to me and he is looking into the situation and has promised to return a call to me and tell us where we go from here. He was professional and understanding and I always appreciate that especially from someone that I probably shouldn't even be talking to as an end-consumer.


He was a little dumbfounded and caught off-guard too from what I could tell, that this had even happened (gotten through engineering).


I have hopes that this problem can be resolved after talking to him if not in the short-run at least with an upgrade or something in the mid to long-term. This was a major faux-pau and while he obviously couldn't professionally acknowledge it as such; he did appreciate the urgentness of resolving it off the record.


At least there is still hope.


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Where are we going and why am I in this handbasket!

 

[j3f]

Man, getting through to a real person who knows something at a major manufacturer... you deserve an award of some kind!


You are right though, RCA has proven once again just how stupid (callous?) they can be regarding their customers. Another "clueless" company... see www.cluetrain.com if this kind of thing bothers you.


I love my UTV and fortunately, I don't have the remote issue, b/c I use an RTI T2 remote with an RF-IR blaster thing, which is not a solution for most people. But, if it didn't take me beyond the 30 day return period, I would be getting the Sony UTV instead which is due out sometime between now and whenever.

 

[Wilson-Flyer]

wezar:


While I agree with you 100% and would have never purchased another Tivo/ReplayTV type product without HD support either; this product offered enough features unique to it (full digital retention and dual tuner record for example) that I was willing to give into this final one as "one last stepping stone" to get where I ultimately want to go: exactly the same place you want to go. http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/wink.gif


You're right about another thing too though; that is a thread in and of itself and should probably be addressed in its own thread. It'll probably run 50 deep once it gets started.


I'd like to try to keep this one more or less on-topic. I know you understand. Once tangents start around here, they seem to snowball and the whole original purpose of the thread seems to get lost in the translation (not unlike most other forums of this nature BTW! LOL).


Thanks for your feedback. I totally agree.


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Where are we going and why am I in this handbasket!

 

[DinoT]

I too ran into this problem a few weeks ago. I posted about it in some other forums. Supposedly the fix is to used a dishplayer remote. I can't confirm this as I didn't try it. I have a Pronto and I was going to download the remote codes for the dishplayer but I changed my mind because I was pretty ticked off at Thompson. Prior to buying the UTV I called Thompson to specifically ask if the DTC-100 and UTV share the same codes. I was told no. They said that the UTV uses the WebTV remote codes. After I got the UTV I found out otherwise. I called Thompson back to ask how to change the remote codes on either the DTC-100 or the UTV. The guy on the phone, who was being a jerk by the way, said that it can't be done. He was dumbfounded as to why on earth anyone with a DTC-100 would want a UTV. I tried to explain to the idiot that they were completely different items but I could not get through to him. I was going to download the remote codes for the dishplayer but the guy had ticked me off so much that I just returned it and bought a DirecTiVo.


One other interesting item of note.....I have an older RCA DSS receiver which had the option to be set to DSS2. I had to do this in order to also be able to use the DTC-100 in the same room. Well the UTV not only shared the codes with the DTC-100, it also controlled my other DSS receiver which was set to DSS2. So Thompson wanted to make sure that they didn't leave out any DSS receivers when they came up with the remote codes for the UTV.


Dino

 

[wezar]

Sorry if am changing the direction of this thread a bit but since you are mentioning shortfalls of ultimate TV I thought I would kick in my two bits.


I was part of a focus group on hi tech electronics a while back. Turned out that they were using us to figure out the market for ultimate TV. Most of the people in the group loved the idea. I told them I liked the concept and I really wanted to get one except that in its current configuration it was sub-ultimate TV since it had no HDTV support. I also told them I would never buy another piece of hardware which did not support the digital conversion. It was very ironic considering I was the most vocal advocate for technology and a avid early adopter. Lets hope they develop HW that is compatible with HDTV.


Rick


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RJW

 

[Wilson-Flyer]

Dino:


Sounds like almost EXACTLY the same situation I had VERBATUM! LOL Can you believe that the $50 Wally-World unit has DSS2 codes and these high-dollar units don't! LOL That's a hoot all by itself.


Sometimes engineers outsmart themselves and sometimes they outdumb themselves. I leave that choice to the reader here...


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Where are we going and why am I in this handbasket!