2015-08-25, 13:20
(This post was last modified: 2015-08-25, 13:31 by Paul_V.)
Dear All,
In cases like this we as a company ignore it, since whatever we say will always annoy someone, and haters will always hate, that’s a fact. And another fact is, that facts usually doesn’t matter at all on the internet. Most of the time the majority of people think once it is written on the internet it is real. That all stuff on Wikipedia is 100% accurate. So, I am posting this in a personal capacity because I am too an media enthusiast. It is not my intention to irritate, challenge in a bad way nor provoke. Also, to avoid becoming a discussion where we reach a point the discussion has turned into a catfight, or even worse, plain “going for the jugular” I will not respond on this treat, and this is my first and final posting.
First of all, to my opinion fora are good to express yourself, write down your frustration even thought that effort in most cases will only result in your feeling better by getting stuff of your chest while in fact no one reads it, or when they do read it they don’t care what you write. Also it helps you are feeling save behind your computer, some feeling of anonymity will result in speaking openly, were in the real world you would weight your words more carefully when spoken to someone in his/her face. In most cases what is written is not based on actual facts, mostly “hear say so” and gives motive for others to do the same. I know this as a fact, since I also am/were active on totally other fora so just looking into the mirror now. But the negative side of fora is that sometimes this results in the birth of trolls, but that also gives moderators some legitimacy and drives the attention away from their somewhat tyrannical behavior, and in most cases narcissistic traits. Before you start feeling angry, please read back a few lines. This can also apply to my post. So relax… just me being a guy behind my computer.
But, back to the topic before I will be kicked, banned and them some, because going to much “off topic”. Here are my 2 cents, and these are actually based on facts, and the fact checking can be done easily. Of course only if you are really interested in the facts. And remember, you do not have to agree with me, nor I want to convince you at any cause.
The Cood-E TV is a low cost device, targeted on the average consumer that maybe have heard of XBMC/Kodi, but never have experienced it. In order to target such public, you need to my opinion: A) A relatively low priced, good quality and nicely packed hardware. B) A company that has knowledge in these kinds of hardware, and has the power to distribute through channels that are not only focused on internet sales (Retail stores) and C) A good service and support system in place, to help and assist consumers that need help after purchase, and are not like the people on this forum that will find out by themselves by strolling the internet.
Technically, I would personally not chose Kodi as platform for a pure media player. There are to my opinion (at this point) better real media player platforms available, but the market as usual can move in a direction that for people that have real knowledge of thing might not seem logic. That brings me to the following. People buy stuff, and companies make stuff. In order to be successful as company that doesn’t always mean you come with the best technical solution. No, you come what the majority seems to think what they want and even better, what they think they need. So, in my native language you have a good word for that,“marktwerking” that doesn’t really translate itself into English in one word. What perhaps comes the closest is: “The equilibrium price, based on supply and demand” We as a company have brought for many years all kind of media players were we have paid enormous amounts of import duties, licenses and royalties for. This made us 30-40% more expensive than other brands that didn’t pay it, and either filled their pockets and filed for bankruptcy or big companies like the ones with the “fruit thingy” that falls from a tree or the big Hard Disk manufacture that needed some cases that can play media in order to sell more hard disks that just ignore import duties and open a can of lawyers if needed to fight customs. But we still manage to stay in business and In fact, we still pay the needed licenses for the Coode-TV, keep the price low and give good support to our customers and end users.
Now I will go into some of your comments. The statement “modified” KODI is done after the request of a member of the XBMC organization to write it like this. We approvingly complied to that. Did we named Cood-E because in some languages it phonetically sounds like Kodi? Could be, but wouldn’t you agree the name XBMC has benefited hugely and lifted mostly on the Microsoft XBOX name? So let us all be honest. The reason why XBMC and now KODI is famous among especially this section of the electronic world is not because it is such a good media player (yet). You can talk all you want about contributing to the community, GPL etc but fact is Kodi is being used by the majority to stream (illegal) content. And I trust some are now anxious to write about “it is not illegal to steam, etc etc” Yes, I know. whatever makes you sleep better (no offence). I want to enlighten you now with a Dutch Phrase “boter op je hoofd hebben” which literal translates as “having butter on your head” In English this really sounds plain stupid, but the meaning is quite simple and explains the best as: “You can say all you want about others behavior or intent, but when taken a close look into the mirror you will see you yourself as no saint but even you know this, you still reproach others with neglecting your own intent”. And let us be honest, the community is not that big (don’t get me wrong, it is big in its own way and more important it is sustainable), and mostly consist of enthusiasts in a few markets, like the United States, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal (sorry if I forgot to mention other big markets) were in percentage perhaps looking to the inhabitants the Netherlands is by far the biggest market. The consumer market that is interested in Media playback is much, much bigger. And that is exactly where Kodi wants and needs to be (right?). The mass market. You all are early adopters, in front of the market. Kodi has the potential to become widely accepted. So, do we benefit of Kodi? I think we do, but I also think Kodi benefits from us. We even limit the hardware by only offering Kodi, while many would love to see they can install Android apps.
You can say we are doing “Tivoization” and link to (100% true of course…) Wikipedia, but with a company that TiVo Inc is, that has in 2014 over 400 million revenue, you really think they care what a group of internet enthusiast think about them? Obviously not, and if they did, they sure like the extra attention it has brought them, and as result more money in their pockets. However I hope you can see I do take the effort to give some more information were hopefully people will base their opinion on more facts, without having the illusion that everybody will now love us/me. This is not my goal, nor will ever be to be liked by everyone. Do we block the option to install your own version of Kodi? Yes we do. We merely want to protect the integrity of our hardware. We, as mentioned now many times, target regular users were we try to avoid people bricking their unit, flashing their unit resulting in unneeded RMA and wrongfully feelings and opinions about our brand and eventualy about Kodi too. We do not actively counteract people like you, we have not the intention to do so. We just made decisions were we stand for, and hopefully some of you will now have a somewhat moderate opinion about our integrity.
But now coming to the point of not contributing. We (Yes, no I go to the WE form since I am not the only one that was part of the following) have been in contact with the official XBMC Organization via a member that to our greatest appreciation has taken the effort to visited us at our office after a rough start were first misinterpretation, wrong forum postings not done by us, and some miscommunication resulted in a bad start. This “noise” was from both sides, just so you know and the communication was started prior to having an actual product. In this enlightening visit, we both have found, maybe in different ways, that somehow we have the same goal. Without making a big secret out if it, yes… I am no philanthropist, I also want to make money, we all need to eat. We are a company and need to do turnover, but that doesn’t automatically mean we need to make (big) profit of the Cood-E TV. Cood-TV is not the only thing we do. It is clear for me that with the name changing from XBMC to Kodi, and the view on the future they (XBMC Foundation) would really like to become a platform for a bigger audience and hopefully get the Kodi platform which now practically stands synonymous with “illegal streaming” for the current majority better known as “the best media player platform” and finally get rid of the “illegal” sense it brings now. In this meeting we also offered some sponsorship as a gesture of the good work they all do, but it was clear to me (yes, ME form now) that this was not really needed and in fact, sponsorships can also bring an unintentional image that the sponsor and the one being sponsored have the same intention. I even want to make it more clear, there was no sense that the issue is money, the issue is become a legit platform and my respect for the XBMC guys only became bigger. So, you can do some “Preliminary findings” but I hope with the above information things not always are what they might look like.
You all are obviously not our targeted audience, that is a clear fact. So, please buy the MINIX players since it seems this suits your purpose. I cannot imagine why you guys would even would consider to buy the Cood-E TV at all since it clearly isn’t suitable for tweakers like you. But, if you want one and put your own software on it we might be able to have a clean model without software so you can use this as a “hobby box” But I think this was not the issue when this treat was started at all.
Best regards,
Paul
