ETA on ICETV for VISTA

padster2000 · February 25, 2007, 11:40:08 AM

Hi guys,
I assume you're working very hard on a new VISTA compatible release and I hope it comes out soon. Unfortunately I haven't seen any posts in the forums about it's progress for the last week and I must say that I'm pretty disappointed that it has come to the point where your customers have been without the service they are paying for for over a month. Sure, things change with a new OS, but msdn VISTA (both 32 and 64 bit versions) was available to your team for at least a couple of months before it was released to the general public, and, considering this is your flagship product, I find it staggering that you didn't leave every stone unturned to ensure that there was a stable version of ICETV for VISTA available from day 1. Already in the forums there has been talk of people moving to other solutions as a results of their frustration...
I for one will wait a little longer because I have otherwise liked the ease of use of your product and the stability of it, but won't wait indefinitely. I also hope that you are planning to re-compensate your members for this length of time without access to their guide that they have paid for.
Please keep us all updated so that we know you are working hard on it and that we are not waiting around for nothing.
Thanks.

moocow · February 25, 2007, 01:04:49 PM

I'd love to when aswell.

please give us an eta for both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

thanks

Shane · February 25, 2007, 09:40:06 PM

Padster,

I don't work for IceTV, but I've been using their service for a while now.

I can tell you that Ice do have a working service for Vista - I and alot of other people are using it successfully today without issue. If you are talking about a "release" version of the software, this is different, but to be honest the beta software works perfectly well.

Now I am speaking for Vista 32bit - 64bit is a different beast.

I'll put my thoughts forward as to why Ice are still working on a "release" version of their software for Vista:

1. Vista's codebase changed even after the final release candidate, so final testing couldn't be completed until the product showed up in stores.
2. IceTV are a relatively small company making a product that is in essence a "hack" - officially not supported by Microsoft - so very little resources are available for Ice to work this stuff out.
3. Even with final code of Vista on their test machines, Ice's product testers would really have had no idea how well (or not) their software would work on the myriad of different systems that are out there.

In regards to point 2 above, keep in mind nVidia (graphics card company MUCH larger than Ice) still do not have working drivers for many of their graphics cards, even though they have direct Microsoft engineering support and 100's of engineers working for them.

So to finish my post up - if you want a guide service in Vista, I recommend checking out the Vista Media Center section of these forums and follow the steps to install the beta version of IceGuide4MCE and PIMP - once running it will take care of itself. Ice are actually doing great work to make this all easier to install and run - so it will only get better as time goes on.

Regards,
Shane.

peteru · February 25, 2007, 11:48:20 PM

Most vendors of hardware and software do not claim support for Vista. There are many good reasons for that. From a technical point of view, there's very little benefit in going into all the effort of supporting Vista. The situation is similar to expecting Win95 products to be supported on NT4.0.

My advice would be to read "System Requirements" sections on product specifications and to stick with Win XP for as long as possible. It's foolish to adopt Vista at this point in time.

philzgr8 · February 26, 2007, 10:07:17 AM

Quote from: peteru on February 25, 2007, 11:48:20 PM
It's foolish to adopt Vista at this point in time.

That's a fairly harsh and general statement and one which I would have to disagree with. If you have Vista ready hardware for which there are compatible drivers and you are planning on running MCE then you will find Vista is less problematic and more stable than MCE2005 as has been widely reported on the Australian MCE Community forums.

peteru · February 26, 2007, 11:27:48 AM

Are you aware of all the DRM and other content/provider restrictions implemented/mandated by Vista? Are you aware of just how much these Vista "secure media" features will add to the cost of having a HTPC? Are you also aware that these technologies also have negative impact on system level security?

Again, I maintain that it's foolish to go to Vista at this point in time - even more so if you are interested in having unrestricted choice when it comes to your home entertainment.

padster2000 · February 26, 2007, 03:49:03 PM

Shane,

Thanks for the explanations, and if point (2) is correct then it definitely was amiss of Microsoft to significantly change the code base from the one they released to vendors as this makes it almost impossible to get a seamless upgrade as none of the hardware vendors will have drivers ready... and in this case software vendors also. This is something Mac is taking Microsoft to town with and Microsoft really have to smarten up the way they do things and stop rushing things out which aren't 100% ready.

I didn't mean to come down hard, and I understand all of the hurdles that are in the path of icetv which is why I said I will attempt to wait patiently for the latest release (which is what I expect form a service i pay for - not a workaround involving a number of products). While I'm waiting though I would appreciate constant updates from icetv just letting us know that they are getting closer - when I don't hear anything for a week I start wondering if I should start looking elsewhere.

FYI I am running the 64 bit version of Vista, so whenever I try to set up the Guide it just says "No Guide information available for your region" which means that even the workaround is probably not going to work.

Good point regarding Nvidia... I have an ATI X800 which still isn't 100% supported in VISTA despite downloading the latest drivers... at least the card isn't crashing my PC every couple of hours now! :)

Just to ICETV - please keep us informed with the latest developments as I'm sure we all want to stick around, but we just need to know that something is "happening". ;)

ncaross · February 26, 2007, 08:03:32 PM

Padster - I spoke to Microsoft about this - as far as they're concerned there is no EPG available for Australia. They don't care and they have no plans to do anything about it.

If you look through this forum you'll notice that the Ice guys have done their damndest to get an EPG working with no help from MS at all (remember too that MS automatic updates kill unofficial EPGs like Ice).

Try not to slag off the only company that makes Vista Media Center work properly in Australia, eh?

padster2000 · February 26, 2007, 10:02:57 PM

You're right - not trying to (and didn't think I was) slagging ICE off. Just would like to kept up in the loop so to speak! ;)

philzgr8 · February 27, 2007, 11:01:55 AM

Quote from: peteru on February 26, 2007, 11:27:48 AM
Are you aware of all the DRM and other content/provider restrictions implemented/mandated by Vista? Are you aware of just how much these Vista "secure media" features will add to the cost of having a HTPC? Are you also aware that these technologies also have negative impact on system level security?

Again, I maintain that it's foolish to go to Vista at this point in time - even more so if you are interested in having unrestricted choice when it comes to your home entertainment.

Perhaps you didn't read my post. As I said if you have Vista ready hardware then there will be less problems with Vista than MCE2005. FYI as a member of the Aus MCE Community I am very familiar with and have read fairly widely on the implementation of new DRM measures in Vista but that does not change the gist of my post. I may not like it but waiting around will not change it and it has no bearing on the comments in my original post.