Skippa Pre-Order

[IanL-S]

Dave said "No. The SKIPPA's remote can only operate the SKIPPA.".
This is a deal-breaker for me, silly as it sounds, as I don't want to have to use 2 remotes, one for the Skippa and one for the TV. I'd like to keep it simple. Nor do I want to have another remote such as the Harmony to combine the functions. The Tivo remote does both, and I assume, most other modern PVR remotes (open to comment on that).

Some Topfield PVRs have Universal RCU; the TP501 (shipped with older TRF-2400/2460/2470) and the TP850 ships with later TRF-2400/2460 and possibly the TF-T6000. The more recent Universal RCU only control TV and the Toppy (but will also control DVD integrated in the TV); the TP501 controls DVD player as well. Usually only premium models ship with Universal RCU. However the PVR Ready TFB-200HD ships with a TP850. There is also the TP602 which shipped with some TF-T6000 (similar to the TP850).

Ian

[Rat]

I just re-read what the email on the 19th of June says.............makes me wonder if they are assembling them by hand themselves in someone's shed in Sydney thus cutting out the shipping times from China. Although that would employ more people in OZ which would be great I seriously doubt that is going to happen, and even if it was their dates are not feasible. Quoted from email in Italics and Bold.

Here is a brief update on what's happening with SKIPPA:
SKIPPA HAS BEEN EXTENSIVELY TESTED
User requirements, software programming and testing were conducted concurrently in an agile approach. This enabled us to work with well-tested software at every stage, with just a short pre-manufacturing test at the end.

Yeah ok sounds good.

MANUFACTURING IS STARTING
Next week, we'll manufacture our first batch of SKIPPAs in a pre-production run. This gives our employees' families a month to experience SKIPPA and suggest any changes. When customers set up their SKIPPA for the first time, it will automatically check for software upgrades via the internet.
SHIP DATE IS JULY


Here is my take on that second paragraph, happy to be told I am wrong, I actually hope I am, but so far my predictions have been correct.

So this email was sent on Friday 19th of June stating that next week they will start to manufacture their FIRST pre-production run, so from this I gather sometime this week the factory puts a short run of Skippa's online for testing. This will be a test run for the manufacturing line but lets be positive and say all goes well and they get a batch of them done in just a couple of days (is that  possible?) and have them boxed up ready to ship by Friday. Then it's the weekend so they wait until Monday 29th and send them express airmail from China because IceTV have a deadline to meet. Maybe the Skippa families will have them in their homes and set up ready to test by about the end of the first week of July?

Then they will start their "month of testing" I'm sure the Skippa families are very familiar with PVR's but I do hope they have been put through a quick course on stress testing beta software and bug reporting. So that brings us into the first week of August.
Sometime during this month of testing the decision would be made to go into full production to supply our pre-orders. Maybe they will make that decision quickly and start full production after only having the test boxes for two weeks, meaning the factory would START a full run of them in the third or fourth week of July. These would need to shipped and not airfreighted, how does a week of manufacture to get the 1000 (plus a few to cover duds) produced and ready to ship and then add two weeks shipping time? That puts them at the Skippa warehouse towards the end of August, then a few days to get them ready for dispatch from the Sydney warehouse and delivery to our homes can commence in the first week of September, if everything goes well. 


Mass manufacturing takes place in early July. We will dispatch your SKIPPA from our Sydney warehouse in the last week of July.

Really?


I notice that there is now no mention of delivery date on their website at all that I could find, July has been deleted and not updated. Those who are buying this second lot of pre-orders do not have any release date to go by, just buy one and pay now and assume you will get it sometime. I wonder how popular that is ?

[EdQld]

I also thought their schedule was overly optimistic, given the pre-production units had not been manufactured yet!

Like you Rat, I thinks we are probably more than a couple of months away from seeing our Skippas  :(

We can live in hope and they may prove us wrong  ;)

[IanL-S]

Hm, where to start.

They said the first batch (the 1000 pre-orders) will be sent by air freight.

To date they have probably only had 'engineering samples', and they are doing a batch in pre-production run for the employees' families, who will have  a month to experience SKIPPA and suggest any changes.

It is difficult to know what is meant by 'production'. There are 4 main components, the main board, the HDD, the case and the RCU. The main board has one key competent, the Broadcom SoC. If the OEM has a supply of the SoC then the process of manufacturing the main board is straight forward. Thing become more complex if the OEM has subcontracted the manufacture of the main board. It is possible that the main boards have already been manufactured for the first 1000 pre-order.

The case may be the main issue as it probably requires some custom moulding and finishing; the mould is probably already in place.

Ah humbug, enough of the useless speculation

Ian

[injidup]

Dave said "No. The SKIPPA's remote can only operate the SKIPPA.".
This is a deal-breaker for me, silly as it sounds, as I don't want to have to use 2 remotes, one for the Skippa and one for the TV. I'd like to keep it simple. Nor do I want to have another remote such as the Harmony to combine the functions. The Tivo remote does both, and I assume, most other modern PVR remotes (open to comment on that).

:'(

[IanL-S]

Dave said "No. The SKIPPA's remote can only operate the SKIPPA.".
This is a deal-breaker for me, silly as it sounds, as I don't want to have to use 2 remotes, one for the Skippa and one for the TV. I'd like to keep it simple. Nor do I want to have another remote such as the Harmony to combine the functions. The Tivo remote does both, and I assume, most other modern PVR remotes (open to comment on that).

:'(

Of the PVRs I have used only the TFR-2400, 2460, 2470 and the TF-T6000 come with 'universal remote'; the TRF-2100, TF71000HDPVRt, TF7100HDPVRtPlus, TRF-7160, 7260, 7170 and TF-T6211 do not. It is a feature limited to 'premium' PVRs ... but is that not what the Skippa is?

Ian

PS I am not fussed by this - I have a Harmony RCU.

[prl]

All the Beyonwiz PVRs have remotes that can control TVs, even the bottom-of-the-line DP-H1 (single tuner external recording drive only).

But I always found it clunky. Like IanL-S, we use a Harmony 785 to control everything in the A/V cabinet.

[FMB]

I'm in the Harmony remote camp. Everything goes through my AVR, so having to use multiple remotes for the TV, PVR and AVR would drive me nuts. I certainly wouldn't ever dream of using my TV's built-in speakers to watch TV *shudder*.

[Dave at IceTV]

I also thought their schedule was overly optimistic, given the pre-production units had not been manufactured yet!

Not sure why you would think IceTV has not manufactured and extensively tested pre-production units yet.

[Rat]

Probably because you consistently said you could not answer any questions about what the finished product would be like and then we were told that the test units would go into production about a week ago to be tested by family members when they arrive, yeah I think that would be it.

[EdQld]

"Not sure why you would think IceTV has not manufactured and extensively tested pre-production units yet."


From IceTV email of the 19/06/15:
   "Next week, we'll manufacture our first batch of SKIPPAs in a pre-production run."

[Rat]

Beat ya :)

[EdQld]

Beat ya :)

LOL, Yes you did  ;D

[Dave at IceTV]

"Not sure why you would think IceTV has not manufactured and extensively tested pre-production units yet."


From IceTV email of the 19/06/15:
   "Next week, we'll manufacture our first batch of SKIPPAs in a pre-production run."

That was a poor choice of words from us, that some of you are misinterpreting.

In the SKIPPA context, 'pre-production run' does NOT mean we are going to cobble together some alpha or beta test boxes to see if they work.

It means we'll pull the first 10 or so off the mass production line and test that first handful of final production SKIPPAs in the field to ensure that they meet our required standard... before giving the green light to turn the production line on again and start producing thousands of SKIPPAs. It's standard manufacturing practice to quality assurance test 100% of the first x amount of product off a production line. Then, as the rest get produced, every 10th or 100th item gets pulled aside for quality assurance testing to ensure it is identical to the first 10.

The hardware spec and design has been thoroughly tested and locked in for many months. It's just the final software version that is being fine tuned and probably will continue to be improved from our in-field feedback.

[EdQld]

"That was a poor choice of words from us"

Thanks Dave for the clarification, yes, not clearly communicated in the email but your clarification is more encouraging and hopefully the stated delivery time-line will be met  8)