Tinwable wrote:Yep, pretty disappointing, the reason that I participated in the beta testing is to try and get some of the issues resolved that have been unresolved. I also, hoped that there might have been a way to convince the developers to open the firmware back up.
But to my disappointment, not even one developer thought it was important enough to participate in the beta forum.
That's one reason I'm moving over to WD, I know that the FW that they put out isn't perfect & they have problems too, but at least they seem to listen to their customers & they haven't locked their FW from being modded.
I really hate it too, because the FAT+ has so much potential to be a lot better than it is. If Seagate would follow the path of WD they might have the same following as WD. Unfortunately, with the decisions that they have made I don't see them being the the media player arena for very long. They apparently don't understand that the FAT+ is a geek toy, (most normal people will just keep buying DVD & BD players) & geeks want to be able to make their toys better. It's sort of like selling a guy a car & then telling him that you can't put new rims on it or do anything to make it look better. Doesn't make a lot of sense.
VERY disappointing indeed. Thank you all for answering my question. I do not use Netflix. But I use slideshow quite a bit (I heard that 2.20 hangs while playing slideshow).
Should I upgrade to 2.20?
Is it 100% confirmed that 2.20 (US version) always hangs in slideshow?
Even w/ 1.55 this THING hangs once in a while anyway. This has got some issues w/ playing mkv files (no, not header compressed) w/ integrated idx/sub format subtitle track. Integrated subtitle is very finicky even w/ SRT track. The idx/sub track never plays. Using external idx/sub causes it to reboot - pretty annoying.
I hope they open the FW again soon enough. But it looks like there are some obstinate elements in Seagate's decision makers 
BTW, I own a couple of Dockstar and after playing w/ their lousy FW for a while, I hacked and started using debian (thanks Jeff for doing all the hard work) and debian is rock solid and extremely flexible on their HW platform. Just a note to the Seagate decision makers, the openness causes extra sales not the other way around.
nivekau wrote:I can't understand why people are so upset with Seagate and the FAT+. I have two FAT+ and am very happy with them and my family think they are brilliant.
If you want to experience real frustration, buy a Logitec Squeezebox Duet! (I have one of them too)
Obviously you got at least some of us wrong. If I were so loathe to Seagate I would not buy 5 Seagate items (1 FAT+, 2 Dockstar, and 2 1.5TB Drives) within last couple of months.
Personally I am 'in love' with my hacked Dockstars. The FAT+ is an amazing device compared to WDTV and others (like you said).
Here we are just talking about less than expected improvements (aka bug fixes) in FW 2.20. Also introducing the Slideshow bug in 2.20 and decision to 'close' the FW since 1.55 adds a little bit of frustration. I guess we get frustrated easily with the ones we love/like 
prairiedog wrote:...
Yes, I am disappointed it is buggy. However, for everything I want it works perfectly and for $60 each, my three allow my home to be media networked for the first time ever - and even my wife can use it (which is a HUGE win).
Anyway, I just wanted new people to this device to know that while it's not what it was, it's not a brick. It does work great for specific things and beats other devices, such as the Roku, hands down IMO.
I agree with most of what you've said, especially about pre-1.55 FW. It was the best media player in its class, with the MOD firmware. It does what it does very well for most people. That's why we are still using it because you can't find a media player out there this good for what it costs.
The thing that got people upset (myself included) was Seagate decision to close the FW without providing the capabilities that the MOD firmware does. For example, full network access for the USB HDD attached to the FAT+. This is provided by the new WD TV Hub device without modding.
Also note that the WD TV Hub supports Netflix, with open FW. So the only rationale that Seagate had for closing the FW is now proven to be just corporate BS
If Western Digital can do that, why can't Seagate?
