Am I the only one who thinks this this is lame?
Since when do consumer electronics need firmware updates? Do they expect my mum and dad to download firmware updates? Never mind that it is “easy” the fact is, they just won’t do it. Most people are quite happy using the drivers that came with their computer hardware on the CD, even though there may be much newer and more stable ones available for download – why will this be different? My mum and dad are generally happy “enough” working around buggy hardware, even though new drivers are available which may (or may not...) fix the problem.
Not only that, but I saw on the AVSForum website (is that not the most ugly website you’ve visited, or what?) that it takes ... wait for it ... half an hour to install over a broadband connection! What’s with that?
Now I’ll admit that this is a first generation piece of hardware. But if they’ve built-in firmware updating into the first version, do you think they’ll take it out once they’ve “got it right”? Probably not.
In other news, there’s a 233MB firmware update to the XBOX 360 as well. I suppose gamers are more willing to update the firmware of their hardware (though it doesn’t excuse it in my mind), but even still... 233MB is rather excessive, isn’t it?
Oh well, I suppose as time goes by and hardware gets more and more complicated, then firmware updates may be required. Especially in something like a HD-DVD drive or XBOX, both of which allow arbitrary code to execute (though in the case of HD-DVD, I believe it’s a form of JavascriptEcmascript which runs, but it’s essentially the same thing).