Friday 2/22 = RMA day

[jjhtpc]

I was involved in the BETA of the echo, and toward the end of the BETA I made it abundantly clear that as a consumer I did not feel that ceton should be taking the echo to release. I have worked as a software and application developer for close to 10 years, and my advice was based on that experience.

With that being said I think that as consumers it is time to stand up a united front. With the return policy deadline drawing near I think that Ceton would best get the message by having an RMA day.

Currently the Echo does not extend the functionality of the wmc.

There has been a large amount of work around live and recorded television, and for the most part they have gotten that right.
Unfortunately we purchased this device to do all of the functionalities that we have grown to love out of the other devices that are available out there (DMAs, XBOX 360 and HP extenders).
These functionalities such as playing music, playing video properly and playing movies have been neglected.
These are necessities from this type of device.
While I love the idea of the low wattage extender, the ceton has yet to deliver and because of this it is time to make a united front as purchasers.

With that said, I will be RMAing my echo this Friday. Feel free to join me in this front and let ceton know that we are not happy with the current state of the product.

[xnappo]

I had really, really hoped it would not come to this, but I agree and am in.

I will say that if they extend the return window I will hold off and see what they come up with.

xnappo

[SilverRubicon]

The Ceton Echo does everything an extender should do. It extends Windows Media Center. It plays music, television and native Windows video formats. If you expected more from it than that, you had your priorities in the wrong order. It doesn't work with Windows 8 and probably never will. It doesn't work well with 3rd party video codecs but that's not not a problem with the ecosystem. It has had issues with frame rate and interlacing, both valid concerns.

RMA your devices if you so choose, but do it for valid reasons. But to expect an extender to do something it wasn't designed to do is not a valid reason..

[tad]

Count me out.

While I've been disappointed with the speed of recent developments/improvements/bug fixes/feature additions, I am still generally satisfied with the Echo (knowing what is still to come). It plays back live and recorded TV OK and is better than any of the alternatives for me right now. Music playback is still a bit wonky (I get intermittent skipping), but I haven't determined whether that is a problem with the Echo or my D-A converter.

I fully expect Ceton to continue improving the Echo and adding the features that we were originally promised. I also respect Ceton for having the guts to bring a product like this for the Media Center community to market... so I have every intention of keeping mine and hoping they age like a fine wine (only faster)

[Sammy2]

The beta invitation email stated that the echo would do what it's specs said it would do which it does do. That is all that I ever expected it to do but I am confident that it will do more than that in the not so distant future. I will not be joining you in your "send a message" RMA day.

[cncb]

I technically have a month left to return them but I will probably be joining you. I have lost all the excitement and optimism I had when I bought them due to Ceton's complete silence for the last 2 months.

RMA your devices if you so choose, but do it for valid reasons. But to expect an extender to do something it wasn't designed to do is not a valid reason..

Ceton has suggested all along these would be more than simple Xbox extender replacements (Android and DTS announcements for example) so don't act like they haven't been leading us on.

[optikhog]

My Echo works fine for me. Not sure what your problem is, but methinks you expect too much.

[hack-o-holic]

I feel the same and it is too bad because I had high hopes for this device and was really excited to be included in the Beta. I also thought it deserved a second chance when I heard we might get Android as an early Christmas Present (not a word about this and it is late Feb!).

I've tried twice in the last week to initiate my RMA but am getting no responses. Who/how are you guys contacting and are you getting a proper response and RMA number?
Chris

[Embiggens]

As much as I would love to stick it to those fat cats at Ceton, I'm happy with mine so I'm keeping it.

[xnappo]

I am actually happy to hear people are going to stick with it. Again if they extend the return window more I will too.

But I expected it to work at least as well as my XBOX and it does not.

xnappo

[KFish]

I will also keep my Echo as I have faith that Ceton will continue to improve it. It performs the tasks that I want it to and my wife is happy with it (another reason to keep it). I admit that launch was a little rough, and the expectation of android around Christmas was made, but I never expected Android when I purchased it. So if Ceton implements it, that will be a bonus. I have to give them credit for entering this consumer market with an extender when others have bailed and I'm not giving up on them.

[VikingCrown]

Keeping mine as well. I feel it performs nearly as well as the XBOX and considering the maturity of the XBOX platform I am sure this fledgling product will exceed the XBOX in the near future. For me right now it performs its primary function (playing recorded tv) just fine for me. I am also having good experiences with movies in both wtv format (from video-redo) and in MKV format for the most part. I am confident that they will find ways to make this product even better.

[lithium630]

With that being said I think that as consumers it is time to stand up a united front. With the return policy deadline drawing near I think that Ceton would best get the message by having an RMA day.

I think you are being a little dramatic. I agree the Echo was pushed out before it was ready. I also understand that another delay would have caused big headaches for Ceton as well. It was a no win situation. There were no bad intentions, it's just taking longer then we hoped. Let's not drive out the only company left putting any effort into Media Center.

[warpster]

I will not be keeping mine unless they extend the return window. Mine works OK but too many issues with lockups, restarts, etc....it is still a work in process. For the cost it is not worth it...if it was $99.99 then I would keep it but for the price it doesn't make sense...unless they do add more functionality, I'm just loosing patience. We keep getting led on and then let down. In the beginning it was touted as the next great extender....then reality set in and we (shortly after beta release) found out it would just be another extender like the others that have been around for years but it would cost more. They have teased along the way but none of those fantasies ever materialize. It is still merely an extender, nothing special nothing ground breaking...and it may never get there. I will return mine and wait for them to finish what they started before I spend the money on one again.

[Heghmoh Qib]

Can't say I'm ready to jump on the RMA bandwagon but I totally agree that little attention has been put into anything but live TV. TV works fine. Nothing else works. I can only play a handful of movies & songs in my collection. And they are the crappy quality ones. The minimum I wanted out of this thing was to do everything the Xbox 360 extender could do but handle higher bit rates (figured replacing the Xbox's 100Mb connection with a 1Gb connection would fix that). Ideally, it would have added native functionality Microsoft refuses to add. I can't believe this thing was released to the public in such a poor condition. Seems like this thing was built to accommodation a very narrow span of needs/wants. Like they didn't really take into account what the public would realistically expect/want. Would prefer not to have to sound so critical but honesty will help this product/company more than pretending all is well.

[Cryofax]

It does what I bought it for, that is replaces my cable boxes with a better, all-house DVR system and saves me $30 a month (thus paying for themselves in about one year). It is weak on video playback in any format outside .wtv (which you can convert to if you're so inclined). If they finally finish android support it should fix that issue as well as making it work with Netflix/Hulu etc. I admit it was released a little early, but it's doing the job at this point for me.

[mldenison]

I'm keeping my two (one beta and one retail). The beta unit replaced my HP extender. It's been working fine on the kitchen TV for both recorded and live TV. The other is in the bedroom, using it in the same way. We don't stream music or watch any videos on either. Any video watching is done on my HTPC in the den. For my purposes, it works way better than the HP.

[barnabas1969]

I just started the RMA process today. The Echo does not perform as well as my Linksys and HP extenders do. Ceton promised that it would be "the best extender ever made" (those words were posted by a Ceton employee right here on this website). It is not the best extender ever made. Not even close. Ceton also alluded to the fact that it would do most of what the XBox does... MKV and H.264 anyone?

Heck, it doesn't even respond to IR commands properly yet. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, and sometimes it does the IR command twice. It's the most finicky IR device I've ever owned. And yes, I removed the plastic film from the front of it on day 1 when I received it as part of the beta.

My wife watched two hours of recorded TV on it the other night, after installing the latest 0206 firmware, and it locked up THREE TIMES in two hours. How do you think THAT affects the WAF? My Linksys and HP extenders can run for days without fail.

The startup time is too long, and there's no "standby" mode to improve the startup time. This was a feature that was requested during the beta, and we were told that it would happen.

It doesn't do anything for me that the Linksys and HP extenders didn't already do. Ceton promised that it would do much more than the Linksys and HP extenders. I didn't need another extender with exactly the same functionality as the four I already owned before buying the Echo... and I especially didn't need one with so many bugs as to make it a frustrating experience to use it. I installed the Echo in my own bedroom where I could use it myself to evaluate it before buying more of them for my kids' bedrooms. The first few months, it was so frustrating to use, I barely even turned it on. Each time there was a new firmware, I installed it and tried it out. I'm still not impressed.

I dug out the original box this morning, and opened a ticket with Ceton to return it.

[warpster]

I'm sure we have to pay for return shipping but are they going to refund the whole $159 price? Or are they going to try to hold out some money for the cost to originally ship it to us?

[grinchy]

I'm sure we have to pay for return shipping but are they going to refund the whole $159 price? Or are they going to try to hold out some money for the cost to originally ship it to us?

Has *any* company done something like that? I guess they could file it as some sort of re-stocking fee, but that would be stretching it based on Ceton's rep, IMO.

FWIW, I'll be keeping mine... unfortunately it's not *at least* like the Xbox, but I'm relatively pleased for basic bedroom use. I'd still like to replace my Xbox with the Echo once it's more stable and feature rich.