I for one, welcome Kevin Buchanan. He represents one of the few suppliers of the Ceton InfiniTV4, so I am interested in his company's history.

This is not a playground for advertising.  If you want to learn about Fluid Digital, then do it outside the forum.

 Whether or not this is the appropriate venue for a post from a supplier, I appreciate the post.  I pre-ordered from Fluid Digital.  There's no need to be insulting.

 

Kevin, thanks for the info.

richard1980

This is not a playground for advertising.  If you want to learn about Fluid Digital, then do it outside the forum.

 

This is a forum for all things Media Center, the post may have been placed better but I would rather welcome than discourage anybody from keeing us in the know.  If Ceton followed that advice then we wouldn't know thing one about it yet.

richard1980

This is not a playground for advertising.  If you want to learn about Fluid Digital, then do it outside the forum.

I don't think that fluid was advertising. They were merely introducing the company. By your standard, what Ceton (and SD fans) are doing is advertising too. But in reality it is not. They are simply sharing information about this new and groundbreaking product. So please, chill a little and don't be hostile to people who are carrying this awesome product.

Great...so since Best Buy sells computers, they should advertise in here?  What about Wal-Mart? Target? NewEgg?  I could go on for eternity.  Basically, what you are saying is it's acceptable to advertise in these forums.  I don't know about you, but I'd rather have real people coming in here and talking about real things.  I don't want to come in here in a few years and find TGB has been overrun by advertisers simply because they sold products connected to WMC.  Now if Fluid Digital itself had a product for WMC, that would be different...but their just a retailer.  That's it.  Nothing more.

Also, take into account that's the only post that person made.  The one and only contribution to this site was an advertisement.

Making fun of him was a cheap shot.

richard1980

This is not a playground for advertising.  If you want to learn about Fluid Digital, then do it outside the forum.

 

Richard,

If this is a problem for the forum, we have moderators that will handle it. It is not for individual members to pass judgement..

John

From what I can tell Kevin was simply answering the implied question people IN THIS THREAD were asking about who Fluid Digital is. There were some comments about their credibility since they are not generally known in the online area and Kevin did a great job of answering.

I don't know about you, but if I was unaware of Best Buy or Wal-mart and I posted about who they are I would certainly appreciate a representative from that organization to post and explain who they are so I have a better understanding, especially if I am considering making a purchase with them.

I am with Richard on this one. . . not as far as Kevin's post being innappropriate; I do not think it was.  But I do like to take cheap shots at folks who use the forum for advertisement :)

jeremyh

From what I can tell Kevin was simply answering the implied question people IN THIS THREAD were asking about who Fluid Digital is. There were some comments about their credibility since they are not generally known in the online area and Kevin did a great job of answering.

I don't know about you, but if I was unaware of Best Buy or Wal-mart and I posted about who they are I would certainly appreciate a representative from that organization to post and explain who they are so I have a better understanding, especially if I am considering making a purchase with them.

 

 Thanks Jeremy.

He's right. I am not a "forum" guy. The only reason I even have a user name here is I was part of the original Media Center Integrator Alliance that was rolled into a hidden forum here at TGB. This is where those us that are on the leading edge of the Media Center trade ideas to help further the technology.

When I was allowed to help with Ceton preorders, I was told by some of the Ceton team that I may want to post to TGB since the members here like to hear from those of us that run these companies. For over two months I avoided it as I am not a "forum" guy, and have little experience participating in this realm because of my limited personal time (two companies to run and three kids to raise).

We have sold some Ceton devices to some of the members here and they know I send a personal thank you to every buyer and accept phone calls from anyone with questions. So I thought because of the recent news regarding the delay, and the fact that some of my Ceton customers are here, I would do a post to see if anyone had any questions. So I logged on to do my first post, and I searched for the phrase "Fluid Digital" so I could say SOMETHING relevant. I found FIVE pages of FD related threads that covered everything from mundane Press Releases to the Ceton card sales counts. But the MOST common statements associated with MY company were "I have never heard of them", "Who are they?",  and "..they are part of CannonPC". So I clicked on the last reference regarding that topic and sent a reply (not noticing it was a month old post, and YES I should have realized to have changed the topic ). When I saw the negative responses from a few members I was TOTALLY shocked. So lets set the record straight as to what actually happened and why.

First, I have already explained WHY the post was listed, and WHY it was where it was. But the most important thing is it was NEVER intended as advertisement. And for those of you who interpreted my post as an advertsiment, I apologize for my naivety.

But please realize that I believe that advertising here for Fluid Digital would be ineffective since we don't normally target the EA (Early Adopter) channel. 99% of our products are designed for, and sold, to high-end AV integrators for resale. This channel is critical to Media Center because our customers are "Ma and Pa Kettle". Some of these people don't even realize they have been sold a PC! It is up to the us to find ways to minimize the negatives of this sometimes "finicky" technology (and Windows 7 was a God send). But it has been a struggle over the last two years to try to make it as reliable as other AV components. If Media Center is going to "make it" in the main stream, it will have to be adopted by the A/V community and sold effectively in that channel. Initially, it will have to be sold by the "high end" integrators that can "manage" its inclusion with other technologies, but it will eventually trickle down to the less skilled. But that's the whole reason I was chosen by MS as a OEM partner in the first place. To help make that happen. Which brings me to my next point:

The reason I was chosen as one of the original MS OEM partners for CableCARD is because of my background and relationships. If you want to read a detail of my bio you can go to either of my websites (HEI or FD) and read them but here is a synopsis:

• Published twice in Audio Video Interiors magazine (1990 Cover story & 2002 Feature story)
• Cover of Texas Magazine (1993)
  
• Over the last 12 years I have served on the Dealer Product Design Council for the following manufacturers (Denon, Niles, SonyES, McIntosh, FROX.) The latter was the FIRST hard drive based Media Controller ever developed and released in the late 1980's and predates Media Center by almost 12 years.
• Awarded Top 40 Integrator Status by CEPro magazine for 2006 & 2007.
• Guest Speaker at EHX at the Media Center Bootcamp (2006).
  
• Currently serve on two boards of the Consumer Electronics Association (TechHome & PARA my tenure expires Jan. 2011)
  

The point is I consider my self more that "just a retailer". But EVEN IF I was "just a retailer, and nothing more" I would be proud of what I do because in the final analysis, it will be the retailers that determine whether or not this technology called Media Center even survives (remember what happened to Betamax and it worked GREAT!).

For those of you here on TGB that replied to my first post with open arms, I thank you, and apologize for creating any problems in your realm.

For the others I can only quote Lincoln:

"You can please some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time" AND YOU CAN NEVER PLEASE ANYONE WHO SIMPLY CHOOSES TO BE UNHAPPY WITH EVERYTHING.

 

 

 

 

 Kevin - Forget the naysayers. Your comments are very welcome.

Some people just have a big bug up their a** and take it out on others when ever they can.

I wish you good luck. 

David

 Well, I'm still debating of whether or not to make the $400 investment... but if/when I do, I'm buying it through Fluid. Not because of the "advertisement" post, but I'd like to support a company that is well aware of the complainers that are never happy.

Purchasing from anybody who is willing to talk to us on TGB makes good sense.

I stand by my comment on changing the subject line - All other users could see for each post was "Ceton Quad new date May 31st" - that was confusing...