[ale] WARNING - beware if you buy a "device" with "software"

[Boris Borisov]

Just my opinion.

When I look around for similar devices ( USB capture cards or TV
tuners) you can easily see on the box what the hardware requirements
are. If you see something like CPU more that 1 GHz there we are
talking about video compression handled by CPU not by the
tuner/capture card itself. The same situation years ago - hardware vs.
software modems. Since USB traffic is handled by CPU as well I really
doubt it how this device would work with desired quality. I've been in
video producing business in 1990-1994 .Back then We had big video
machine something like small size server rack and small capture card
PCI but with Phillips/Zoran video chipset. This card required 200 Mhz
CPU + SCSI HDD to be able to capture full size PAL signal 5 Mbit/s
video rate. That is the reason to doubt today's USB capture cards - go
to have faster bus PCI or PCIe or hardware video chipset.

On Tue, Oct 16, 2012 at 8:16 PM, Ron Frazier (ALE)
<atllinuxenthinfo at techstarship.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Warning, RANT ON
>
> I just had a rather unfun experience at Frys and thought I'd share to possibly save others the trouble.  As I've been discussing in another thread on video conversion, I bought a video digitizer package which is designed to import video from an analog source and produce dvd's.  It includes a digitizer device.  It also includes a device driver, and some rather limited application software.  My needs are modest, so I thought it would work.  Well, it doesn't meet my needs.  The quality of the digitized file is somewhat lower than I wanted and the application software doesn't have the features I need although it does work at a basic level.  You CANNOT tell this by reading the box.  When I tried to return it, they tried to tell me I couldn't do so because I had activated the software key.  I tried to tell the supervisor there that this is a device, that I have to test it to determine if it meets my needs, and that I cannot do that without the software.  I suppose it's possible I !
>  could use the software on another device, but I'm going to delete it.  I virtually had to get into a verbal fight to get my money back.  I eventually got my refund.  They slapped a return to vendor sticker on the product, which I brought back in pristine shape.  I told him just sell the thing again.  He said he couldn't because the software had been activated.  I just said whatever and left.  If they took a loss on the product, I'm truly sorry, and I hope the supervisor doesn't get in trouble for making an exception for me.  But I don't think I should be held responsible because a bunch of other people are software pirates, which I am not.  I have no problem paying for legitimate useful software if I have to.  Developing it can take thousands of man hours.  I do have a problem paying for software that doesn't meet my needs that I don't want to keep and will not use.
>
> RANT OFF
>
> So, the moral of the story is, if you buy a "device" with "software" and you activate a product key, you may own it permanently whether you ultimately want it or not.  In this situation, you pretty much have to install the device driver.  However, do not enter any product keys or break any magic seals.  Try to find another application to test your "device".
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Ron
>
>
> --
>
> Sent from my Android Acer A500 tablet with bluetooth keyboard and K-9 Mail.
> Please excuse my potential brevity.
>
> (To whom it may concern.  My email address has changed.  Replying to former
> messages prior to 03/31/12 with my personal address will go to the wrong
> address.  Please send all personal correspondence to the new address.)
>
> (PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to
> call on the phone.  I get about 300 emails per day from alternate energy
> mailing lists and such.  I don't always see new email messages very quickly.)
>
> Ron Frazier
> 770-205-9422 (O)   Leave a message.
> linuxdude AT techstarship.com
>
>
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