Written by Brandon on Wednesday, October 25, 2006

CorePlayer – Update Release imminent – NOT!


BetaBoy over at the CorePlayer forums has determined that the update was not working as well as they would have liked. So – do what all good companies do when you have hundreds of people drooling on your product and a released date already announced… DELAY!

It appears CoreCodec has taken a page directly from the Microsoft Product Release Manual

 Anyway, no details on how long the delay will be, but naturally some of the folks who feel they’ve forked out a chunk of change for nothing more than a piece of beta code are starting to get a little upset. 

 My personal favorite (and a very matching opinion to mine) is this post by Bratag -

Quote from: bluevolume on October 25, 2006, 01:24:41 AM

Everybody just needs to relax a bit.  I agree it is frustrating that the initial release is lacking in features, and we seem to be back on a "who knows
when" for an update, but try to keep it in perspective.  You will spend more than $19.99 on a bad meal this week — lets not act like we’ve invested a huge amount of money here.

It is not the amount of money, it is the difference between a commercial product – which this is now – and a free one. While the product was free I was at the front of the STFU line to people who complained about TCPMP, you pay nothing you can expect nothing.

Now that we are being charged, no matter what the amount (and I would like to point out that $25 is on the upper end of mobile software prices) we are entitled certain things. Not the least of which is support in a timely fashion and a product that exceeds the free version, otherwise what exactly are we paying for?

Check out companies like SBSH or Lakeridge, both are companies essentially formed from a single or several coders who decided to go commercial with a product. They have extremely active forums and are constantly updating them with both information and beta versions which not only help eliminate bugs BEFORE release date but also stop the community wondering WTF is going on. As a result release dates are almost always met and when they are not the users are informed well in advance and another beta appears to work out the final issues.

What we have right now with CC is a product we are being charged for and yet none of the benefits. Saying that I might waste 19.99 on a bad meal does not change the fact that I have spent money, I dont know about you but I am not in the habit of wasting my cash not matter how much I have.

[tags]CorePlayer, CoreCodec[/tags] 

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PatrickJ
Oct 25, 2006

I think a lot of that is probably too harsh. Release dates slip – I think that’s a reality for most software companies – only real mistake there was putting a date on it, rather than just saying ‘as soon as possible’ from the start. As for the arguments about what can now be expected of a paid for product, everyone will have their own feelings – but I agree with sentiments expressed elsewhere that maybe a little bit of gratitude could be shown now to the developers who brought you an (excellent) free product for years. They have not made the greatest of starts during the changeover to paid-for, but maybe cut them a little slack at the outset …


dgoldring
Oct 25, 2006

IMHO, I have tried out a lot of media players. TCPMP/CorePlayer has consistently been able to play media that others could not even come close to.

Yes, some of teh advanced features were not ready as expected. That is unfortunate, but not the end of the world. It would have been nice if every feature mentioned were included in the initial release. But let’s be honest here…does anyone remember Windows 1.0??

Doug


Brandon (aka Netsyd)
Oct 26, 2006

I recall Windows through XP being a bit of a junkbox =)

Patrick’s definitely right – and I hope CoreCodec has learned a valuable lesson from this… Don’t announce a release date for anything until you’re ready to release.

As for the complaints – While I agree with the standpoint of they gave a free product for years that was excellent and they do deserve some credit for that, they now have a release product and expectations should be the same of any release product – regardless of what they’ve done in the past. They chose to move to a pay-for model instead of a donationware product.

I guess my big thing here is this: If we allow sub-par products to continue to be brought to market, and we accept that we will have to do some “bug-finding” after the release, eventually it will get to the point that software developers will be comfortable releasing what they know to be a buggy piece of code just to start cashing in. I personally don’t mind beta testing (see spb’s developer forum) for a product – but at the same time I don’t think it’s fair to expect me to pay for that software until its ready. Secondly – I don’t like this concept of we will give you a release date … then push it back whenever. Don’t give a release date – Webis and SBSH have been this way forever and it works, as long as you keep the community involved and up to date with what’s going on. I’ve yet to see someone really upset at Webis because they haven’t released a product – because they keep people informed and don’t get specific on dates and times.


dgoldring
Oct 26, 2006

If you have been on CoreCodec’s Forums at all over the past year, you would see that this is a huge problem for them. I agree. It is not a good practice to give a firm date, because they are almost never kept.

But I do think CorePlayer is a great program with a lot of potential. I am anxious to see the 1.5 version when all of the features are activated.

Doug


Brandon (aka Netsyd)
Oct 26, 2006

No aguement about how great TCPMP was… I’m just hoping they can get it all together and make evryone as happy with the pay for product as we all were with the free version. Once I’ve got a device capable of good video again (the 8125 just doesn’t seem like it will work to well) I’ll be on board with them!

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