Jakar wrote:If the forum isn't for support and help from other users... then remove it from the support page.
It is for that too. There's a wealth of information in the forums. And it also helps to gauge problems with the "me too" posts.
Except there is no guarantee that anyone can or will help you in the forums. Opening a support ticket will get the manufacturer involved to try and fix it. I would hold better hope for the manufacturer to fix an issue than a user in a forum. That's not to say that a user won't have a fix, it's just that the manufacturer would be the one I would rely on.
Which brings us back to the fact that HB isnt getting the support, opening tickets doesnt get you too far in HB rapidly.
If it were TV or essentials you would ask the question in the forum and get an answer.
Asking a Q in HB gets u nowhere fast (i asked this original question 2nd of Sept, first reply (not from meedio) was 12th Oct. I rest my case), opening a ticket isnt rapid either.
For me its most one Q: is there a future in HB and will i still spend time on this?
Meedio claim lack of recourses. Easy to solve.
If the problem is financial, find a way to finance it. With all the time i spend in HB and doing workarounds i would pay for an upgrade or a subscription fee... (compare to all the HW and all the time i spend on this i still think the SW is cheap...)
give us information, if meedio do not plan to ditch HB, let us know the roadmap before we leave for some thing else.
Now its too less communication and development. The software is not possible to put in a "production case" yet.
however i see great potential in HB and "back then" we got alot of response on enhancement requests. now its stalling...
make a decision and communicate it honestly, for the honour of the brand Meedio.
That's the fundamental question, what is the future for HouseBot?
I want to migrate to HB becuase of some features it does currently have (software remote), but dont want to spend money, time, and effort to fit my needs if the application is going to die. Right now, it looks that way. Perhaps some think I need to turn on a light or two, well any application can do that. I have scripts to more over and work to integrate the Software Remote and Essentials Connector, none of which will happen in a day.
To give them credit, they were forthcoming in stating that a resource issue does exist. To your point, solutions do exist to resolve the problem. Its a matter of priority. Apparently, HB is at the bottom of the list.
I do belive Meedio will make progress in HB, but that will be "at some point"
Maybe we will be waiting a long time like when MTV was being worked on.
If they were finished with HB and were letting it die i do believe Pablo would have told us straight away.
I just expect they are putting all their resources into the products that 90% of people are chasing ie TV and Essentials, the people that us HB ( say 10% of us maybe) are at the bottom of that big pile of, requests.
The future is bright for HB, it just needs some one to turn that light on lol.
Hmm, having been an HB user since V1, I can honestly say that it's looking grim. I recently had a HD failure (after only 4 years running continuously, no less) and while searching for my backups of the themes and device definitions, I've started soul searching long and hard. Since Meedio bought HB, there's been little if any effort whatsoever. I have personally helped at least a dozen people with their HB installs, and I'm sure they've told dozens each. At this point, I'm just going to use remotes, as best I can, and research the alternatives.
Please view the following as constructive critcism... I have both products, and I can say I spend most of the time using HB because it has incredible utility. It is truly a phoenoninal product. It's probably a little hard for average person (as opposed to us geeks) to actually grasp how good it really is or how it is really used. One thing that will always suck people in to a software product is the availability of really nice looking skins/themes. That, for the most part, does not exist in HB. The skin/themes that come with Meedio, and other available in forums are OK but really lack that polished professional look that is going to grab people's interest in a product. Themes are what originally grabbed my interest in Meedio Essentials. I, too, think Meedio is making a mistake not investing more effort into this product. Meedio TV is great, but the fact of the matter is that I still find myself using my Replay TV to record and watch shows. Cable and Satellite companies already offer integrated DVR with multiple tuners in them. It is pretty obvious to everyone in this thread that this one little ME enhancement is sucking all the life out of HB. Meedio has a diamond in the rough with HB, but they don't yet realize it. It's probably a little ahead of its time. PPC's and Wi-Fi are slowly changing that landscape. I think HB is one of the only truly useful applications for the PPC. In fact, it is the only application to date that has convinced me into buying a PPC. That's a hard sell. Obviously, someone thought HB had potential, because they bought it. Maybe someone can get Steve Jobs to take a look at it. He seems to have an acute eye for seeing unrecognized potential in things. The Home Automation arena has been looking for the killer app for over 15 years to garner interest in it. I don't know about anyone else, but I'm really tired of looking at all of the lame front-end/web-based home control garbage out there. This stuff is suppose to be for your home, not for that vintage VT 100 terminal in your garage. I'm exaggerating a little, but that's literally what some of this stuff looks like. Let's face it, eye candy is critical element of almost any software product designed for the home. Could this be that killer app? With some work I think it has all the makings. Want some really good advice? Stop losing ground with it.
Last edited by incoronado on Tue Nov 08, 2005 11:41 am, edited 2 times in total.
I have Meedio Essentials and TV working, I am now starting to look at what Housebot can do for me, looking at this thread it's clear it needs some work to bring it up to speed, so come on Meedio guys you need to start giving it some attention.
I agree with most said here that HB needs to be tightly integrated into Meedio Essentials. The reason I bought both was because I had hope that this integration would have happened already..
Sh!t or get off the pot! CQC is rapidly growing it's momentum and I feel that Dean FULLY supports his product unlike what we have here.
incoronado wrote: This stuff is suppose to be for your home, not for that vintage VT 100 terminal in your garage. I'm exaggerating a little, but that's literally what some of this stuff looks like. Let's face it, eye candy is critical element of almost any software product designed for the home.
If you want to see a prime example of a UI gone to pot look no further than Homeseer 2.0. If you are working on a setting near the bottom of the page and save it the page refreshes and bumps you to the top of the page. So you are constantly scrolling around trying to get back to where you were working. Absolute Web garbage. I don't understand why people put up with these silly interfaces.
I'm just getting into Home control/House bot...just getting together all my control equipment, touch screen etc and was going to use Meedios software.
Not had much time to look through the forums yet to see how all this stuff is put together but after trying the trial versions out(without any hardware connected yet) it looked like nice easy to use software.
The thing is if you guys(experienced in this stuff) are not happy with Housebot then I'm now seriously considering not buying it. All I want is control of lighting, security(movement detectors), heating control and home entertainment. As Housebot stands at the moment can you tell me if it can do what I want? I know Meedio essentials is fine for the entertainment side of things.
It all depends on if HouseBot currently supports the hardware you have. If it does, then you just need to set it up. If it does not, then you have three choices.
1) Ask Meedio to add support for it and then wait.
Thanks M8. I don't have any hardware yet...doing plenty of research first. I live in the uk so I will be going for the UK versions of X10 hardware. I will be controlling with PC and remotes and will be feeding the pc software side of it to a small 8" to 12" touch panel.
I'll want to control lighting inside and outside and connect some sort of security with motion sensors to protect the garage. Playing around with Mainlobby just now but really like Housebot.