Version 2.605

[fairway01]

Hi,

Will Microstudio be updated today with version 2.605 today (7/15/04)? I know there is a message in the news area saying it will but I haven't heard anything lately. I am hoping to be able to work with my Plextor 712 drive.

Thanks

[debvotaw]

I think they are ignoring us, those of us that need ver 2.605

[Flipeoke]

Did you think that perhaps they are not ignoring you, but rather, working on the upgrade so that those of you with the new (yet unsupported) drive will have support for the drive? Not trying to be rude or anything, but have some patience, I'm sure they are working to get this upgrade out as soon as they can. MTU has never let us down before, I have seen no reason to believe they will start now...

[fairway01]

Hi Flipeoke,

Yes I totally agree with you about not getting all crazy about this Microstudio 2.605 update. However, I've seen posts from the MTU admin telling people to check the 'News' section of their site for info on releases. On this 'News' site it has said that version 2.605 would be released on 7-15-04 and in fact it still says that. My point is that MTU as well as other companies need to be accurate with news on their sites (especially when they refer everyone to the 'News' section for info). Not keeping info up to date conveys a sense of non professionalism. I am a software developer myself for a consulting firm. We develop commercial apps and we work hard to maintain deadlines set. Yes, sometimes delays happen as rare as they are, but when they are they are conveyed to the public well in advance not after a deadline has come and gone.

I was and am not trying to blame or upset anyone, especially MTU. I was simply trying to find out when this update would be released since the release date has come and gone.

Based on my experience in the software development world and in consulting, in the end its not what quality products you have done its what quality products you are going to do to best what you have done. You can't sit back and rest on your reputation you need to keep innovating and producing high quality products in the future. You need to be responsive to your customers needs and wants without insulting them (which I have also seen in the forums from the MTU admin). In MTU's case I'm not sure if they have a very small operation or small headcount, but from what I have heard it is very rare that you reach tech support through phone and forum help (which is what MTU recommends). Sometimes it takes days or weeks for a response. This is all fine, but they need to inform their customers of potentially significant lead times in getting answers through their phone and forum communications channels. I personally have read posts from individuals who have phoned and posted to the forums days ago and still have not gotten a response. When you pay good money for software and you can't get it to work you want answers right away. If it takes days to solve a problem, you as a consumer have a right to be upset. I have read post by many saying that MTU products are great but support is horrible; they stay with MTU due to lack of alternatives. If that trend continues sometime down the line another competiter will hit the market with a great product and MTU will suffer. Work hard to please the customer and you will never need to look back. MTU needs to put themselves in their customers shoes. How would they feel if it took days or even weeks to get replies to their help requests. From what I've seen here in these forums many people run their businesses using MTU products. When troubles arise they need prompt professional response from the software developer to get them back on track. Just an observation, thanks for reading.

fairway01

[George]

fairway01 said:

I have read post by many saying that MTU products are great but support is horrible

And if you'd take the time to read the forums objectively, you'd see a far greater number of posts praising MTU's support, so let's not take things out of perspective to serve your own needs.

George

[debvotaw]

George do you work for MTU?, if not, you should get paid.
You have more post than the moderator does. also 8 months less time

You should be paid for answering back to customers who are waiting to get answers from MTU Tech support.
It keeps us entertained while we wait for days..... to hear back from MTU Tech Support

I say! PAY George he keeps watch over the MTU forum 24/7 !!!!



Moderator

Registered: Oct 2000
Location: Raleigh, NC, USA
Posts: 2777

George
Often Here Member

Registered: Jun 2001
Location:
Posts: 2859

[George]

I must say however that the post numbers on the open forums also include Beta activity, and that's where slews of posts take place, especially when testing the entire line for a couple of years or so. I wish somehow that those numbers were not included. Then a more realistic picture would be presented.

take care,

George

[fairway01]

Hey There George,

In my lenghtly post earlier I certainly wasn't trying to offend anyone. My line about horrible support may have been a bit too harsh, but I have seen posts in this forum where it takes way too long for support to get in touch with users and in some instances not at all. To me this is unacceptable especially if these people use the products for their livelyhood and especially given the fact that we all pay for this product. Timely support when needed should come with that product. To clarify, I have been visiting these forums extensively to find out about MTU products so yes I do know of many posts where people praise the MTU support. Maybe I should have made note of that in my earlier post, sorry if I didn't. MTU deserves props for the products it develops, but in 'some' not all cases it needs to do a better job in being responsive. This all started when I asked when the update to 2.605 was coming out. Still haven't heard a thing and the news page still says yesterday. Whenever people ask that question they refer them to the news page, well if the news page is wrong what else do people have to go on for good information?

Thanks,
fairway01

[George]

I agree with you to the extent that I wish they would quit posting "EXPECTED" release dates, as that's all they are, considering all the variables that can interfere, but some readers take them as committments, not expectations, irregardless of the fact that they are presented as "EXPECTED".


Take Care,
George

[debvotaw]

FAIRWAY01 , I DON'T THINK YOU OR ANY OF US SHOULD BE SORRY FOR BEING HARSH, WE SIT OUT HERE IN THE DARK WAITING FOR THEM TO GIVE US A CRUMB!!!!! WE ARE AT THEIR MERCY!
BELOW IS THE ANSWER I RECEIVED FROM TECH SUPPORT WHEN I WAS VENTING ABOUT THE RELEASE BEING DELAYED.

AS I FAR AS I CAN TELL THIS WAS THE LAST TIME TECH SUPPORT ANSWERED ANYTHING ABOUT THE 2.605 RELEASE
AND PLS TAKE CLOSE LOOK AT THE LAST PARAGRAPH!!! WHAT A JOKE!
I THINK WE ARE STILL WAITING ON THAT GUIDANCE!!!

P.S. I STILL THINK THEY ARE PEAVED CAUSE WE DIDN'T BY THEIR OLDER PLEXTOR STOCK THAT THEY ARE STILL SELLING WHICH IS OLDER AND SLOWER BURNER THAN OUR NEW 712A'S
IT HOPES IT MIGHT FORCE PEOPLE TO BUY FROM THEM, HUH?
SORRY BUT I SPENT 25 YEARS IN MARKETING, I THIS IS THE WAY I SEE IT.
I BET, THEY DAY THEY START SELLING THE NEW PLEXTOR 712A AND THE FIRST ONE IS DELIVERED WILL BE THE DAY WE GET OUR 2.605 UPGRADE! ANY TAKERS????

ANSWER FROM TECH SUPPORT JULY 11, 2004
------------------------------------------------------------
It is always safer to ask us
When you (or anyone reading this) decides to buy the LATEST drive available, it is wise to contact us, or post in this forum BEFORE you buy.

To come back now and say you are really chapped... gee whizz, is that MTU's fault?

We can't spend our time posting all over the web site what we HAVEN'T done that someone might want us to do.

However, we willingly answer any questions.

What the heck! I'll just have us do a release with the new Plextor drivers early this week for 2.605 and ignore all the other things we were going to add. That way, you and a few others can get on with using your new, unsupported drive, and we can say we are supporting it.

Yep! That's what I'll do. It just doesn't make sense to sit and take it on the chin when we are not at fault, but could meet your desires anyway. We'll do that. I hope you appreciate it.

And... next time, ask before you buy. Everyone here will be more than willing to give you guidance... so you won't get chapped at us.


__________________
Making Karaoke the best it can be!
http://mtu.com/

P.S FAIRWAY01, HOW BOUT TRYING TO DEVELOP SOME NEW KARAOKE SOFTWARE!!!!

[George]

debvotaw said:

I STILL THINK THEY ARE PEAVED CAUSE WE DIDN'T BY THEIR OLDER PLEXTOR STOCK THAT THEY ARE STILL SELLING WHICH IS OLDER AND SLOWER BURNER THAN OUR NEW 712A'S

Really getting to me sitting here looking at my old Plextor 52x24x52 purchased through MTU, wondering why I didn't wait for a 712 A so's I could have 48x24x48 capability

George

[Flipeoke]

George,
But they can burn DVD's... which is very useful for karaoke right now...

Originally posted by debvotaw
I BET, THEY DAY THEY START SELLING THE NEW PLEXTOR 712A AND THE FIRST ONE IS DELIVERED WILL BE THE DAY WE GET OUR 2.605 UPGRADE! ANY TAKERS????

The way I look at it, most likely they will start selling the 712A when their software supports it... maybe that's why they haven't offered the 712A on their site yet... I suppose it's all how you look at it...

Loving my Plextor Premium 52X drive right now...and yes, I did have to wait a little to buy it before MTU supported it...(but I knew that before I made the purchase)

As always,
Flip

[George]

Hi Flip,

I undersdtand about the DVD situation, but it is a trade off to a slower CDR burner. I was addressing the one issue regarding our
"slower" 52X24x52's, which by the way are still being marketed by Plextor..

I don't know for certain if Plextor even makes the 712series. Historically whenever they have changed their model numbering system that particular model has been jobbed out to another manufacturer. Don't know for certain in this case, but that has been true in the past.

If memory serves me correctly, the last time that happened MTU had to sit on their thumbs waiting for the drivers to even become available before they could support that burner.

Take care,

George

[MTUSUPPORT]

I am sorry but the News Page has not yet been updated by Admin. The software has not yet been released into Beta Testing. We have been waiting on having a few things fixed by one of the Engineers, but he has not yet finished fixing the bugs, that we were awaiting to be fixed.

The drive does work, we have one that we just got in house last week, but I have not fully tested the drive yet.

[George]

Since the crux of the complaints on this thread center on a Software company missing an expected release date, can't help post that there is an article in the paper this morning about Microsoft not releasing an XP Service Pack#2 that was scheduled for June, and the article gives no new expected date.

Need I say any more?..Hope this is entertaining as well as informative.

take care,

George

[jaddams]

Originally Posted by George

Since the crux of the complaints on this thread center on a Software company missing an expected release date, can't help post that there is an article in the paper this morning about Microsoft not releasing an XP Service Pack#2 that was scheduled for June, and the article gives no new expected date.

Need I say any more?..Hope this is entertaining as well as informative.

take care,

George

It's very entrtaining George. Let's not forget that Microsoft has missed each new Windows version by at least one year going back to 1987!

Perhaps Gates and company waited until they sold the last piece of DOS.

Regards,

Jon

[mlepine]

Folks,

Admin gave us the real reason on a previous post:

The next Microstudio biggie is replacing how we interface to the CDR/DVDR drives. Mlepine, thanks to your heads-up warning we are preparing for this! Staying in business 35 years has given us lots of insight how to survive. If Plextor (the only new drive available today) drops CDG read/write prgrammatic control support... we have a "killer" problem that establishes what MTU MUST DO NOW! We have no choice.

Once they find a way to replace the existing interface to the CDR/DVDR drives it should be much faster to update to the latest models. They now have to depend on a third party for the drivers!!

With that new interface more drives will be able to read the graphic, maybe not as good as Plextor but some are pretty close.

I think the energy should be spend towards the new interface?

Regards

[admin]

I am sorry that we are late on releasing 2.605. The code was ready a week ago to build for final beta release, but we ran into a snag in the Installation program. It has taken longer than expected to solve the problem, along with other tasks we had to service.

We are expecting to get 2.605 out for testing today.

Mlepine, due to the pressures to release support for the 712 drive, our key programmer being out of the country for 2 weeks, and other delays, we don't have the newer drive interface code done yet. However, it will be underway next month.