SiliconDust Prime 6 Status Update

And the good news is?
HDHomeRun PRIME 6 status thread

My first thought is they didn't get CableLabs cert so you can use it but not for DRM?
I dunno. If not CableLabs certified, can you still use it with a CableCard (if you can get one)?
Will be interesting to hear the official news.

I'm not getting my hopes up for this product. They really dropped the ball on this one.

My thought is that there will be no Prime 6 but they will roll out another Premium TV offering.

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I also thought maybe they would declare cable dead and offer the PRIME 6 kickstarter backers a HDHR5-4K Quatro, but then I realized that would be bait and switch.
And who dares to ask them what "very soon" means?
This week/month/year/century

I do not remember a KICKSTARTER for the Prime 6 ?

They really dropped the ball on this one.

I don't think it's fair to put this on SD. If CableLabs wasn't part of the equation I'm sure the Prime 6 would have shipped long ago. (That being said I dumped CableCard awhile back as it's clearly /not/ wanted by the industry and I refuse to play along)

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Yes and no. They posted back in July that they still had yet to submit anything to CableLabs for certification. So, the Prime 6 was announced something like 3 years ago as "Coming Soon", but as recently as 3 months ago it still had yet to be sent in for the months–long certification process.

Not only that, the long–promised DRM recording announced with their original DVR Kickstarter—over 5 years ago—was originally stated to be tied to the release of the Prime 6. It was only as recently as a year ago that they finally publicly stated that DRM recording was not tied to the retail release of the Prime 6. But nearly 2 years ago SD employees stated on their forums that they had DRM recording working as a proof-of-concept internally. So, where is it now? …

SiliconDust's OTA hardware is pretty good. The original Prime had some major problems for a few: faulty ethernet firmware. Their software is abysmal and looks like it was designed by a 12 year old, and can't function without internet access.

I'm frightened to see what the "good news" portion of this good news/bad news announcement is …

Fair enough, though I feel like SD may have been dragging their feet due to the painful nature of the submission process, and perhaps maybe the gut feeling that the entire foundation of the product is having the rug pulled out from under it. I realize that's not really an excuse, but still... thanks CableLabs. :slight_smile:

My first Prime was one of the ones with faulty ethernet. To their credit they replaced it without hesitation.
I backed the DVR Kickstarter and waited forever like everyone else (has it only been 5 years? feels like longer, but might just be the 2020 effect). I love their hardware, but man the software has been a monumental letdown. Channels to the rescue!

The problem was a firmware/software issue. I had 3 Primes that suffered from the issue, where the DHCP client would refuse to renew its lease after 24 hours and drop off the network. (To work around the issue you either had to force the devices into 100Mbps mode with modified cables or separate switches, or otherwise operate them with self-assigned APIPA addresses; I ended up using both.)

Not only that, their customer support is half-assed at best. I had repeated support emails/threads go radio-silent; after repeated requests for updates on a support ticket, I was told that their system removed my tickets, and had to start from scratch. It almost makes you long for the days of Ceton.

I'm glad you got good service, but I'm not sure if you were the majority, or the exception …

I didn't participate in the KICKSTARTER.
Was it for a DRM DVR and nothing to do with the Prime 6?

Yes ... us kickstarters have gotten free DVR since it started so they have been more than generous.

people still toss around talk of this never existed product?
its been years since the debute of the 6 tuner HDHR was supposed to happen.
and it never did. was told it was canceled indefinitely. due to unable to get certification, along within a manufacture issue they had.
either way, never made sense. u can buy 2 Primes used for less than the cost of the 6 tuner one, but, u had to rent 2 cable cards though. but with cable cards now going out, and becoming harder to get....i see no incentive for SD to actuly make this product.

According to Ned over at SiliconDust, the Prime 6 is dead.

In other news, they discovered a small cache of the discontinued chips used in the original Prime. So, they have decided to manufacture a small run of the already-certified Prime with 3 tuners and sell those. (Most likely with their gigabit Ethernet adapters, too.)

So indeed a good news/bad news.

Good news: they can make some more 3 tuner Primes to sell.

Bad news: the Prime 6 is dead.

(After reading his post again, it looks like the "small run" might be closer 1000–1500 units.)

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Would like to hear ...and now the real story...
Funny how they misplaced and mis-paired their soc's (thinking socks)

ha. yea. like i said, Prime 6 was never gonna happen.

They're a dishonest company. People cut them a break because they have delivered some good products, but that doesn't absolve them from their appalling conduct and dishonesty.

And the even bigger take away here is that they're leaving the cable card business behind. They've almost immediately bailed on the Prime6 they promised years ago. The Prime3 news is just a diversion meant to soften that blow.

And then there's this little nugget Ned slid in:

"And we're still going to release DRM recording support. At first it will come out for the SCRIBE/SERVIO DVRs, because we were able to built those with special considerations for DRM ahead of time, but Nick thinks he can get things to work on the other software platforms."

Nick "thinks" he can get the thing to work that they sold their entire Kickstarter on over 5 and half years ago. :rofl:

Sure, they just decided to sunset that entire platform, but by God they're going to keep working hard on something they haven't been able to pull off in 5 years. :rofl:

Even at the end, they can't be 100% truthful and honest with their users. They've known for years that DRM is unlikely, but rather than be straight forward they keep feeding us BS.

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Also wonder why the 4 letter word was always redacted on the site, but no longer?
T_v_, _i_o, T_i_V_o.
That always struck me as childish.
Besides it's now RiVo.

I do like their hardware, not so much their software or support.

Locast is also censored on their forum. I think Ceton, or other competitor equipment is, too.

They also aggressively cull and delete old messages. They say it is to ensure that info is always fresh; but it's probably to make sure that bad comments are removed after time.

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Exactly, because "it's a support site", sheesh.
Went looking for old postings many times, like the old Prime network stack issue, dropping channels on a Prime background scan, etc.
They just get deleted.
I started capturing them by copy/paste in text files when I realized that.

I will stand behind them on their hardware, great stuff.
They just need to lighten up on the support and software (even though I don't use it) side, you get what you pay for.