Petition for better firmware

[firefox]

Dear Philips and customers,

We have started a petition for a working firmware. We bought Philips expecting the best quality on the market.
Screen quality wise, Philips is doing an excellent if not brilliant job.
However on the firmware side things could have been way better.

We expect these expensive devices to function properly and as described !

If you support this cause, please sign the petition that you can find under the following link. Let's give Philips a strong signal !

http://www.change.org/petitions/phil...nd-remove-bugs

To all customers: Support it!
To Philips: Respect your customers!

Thank you


Edit: 74 signatures already ! This is becoming a clear signal!
-Philips, how can we communicate our wishes towards you?-

[TechnicsKuzya]

Link are posted on the Russian forum (IXBT): http://forum.ixbt.com/topic.cgi?id=62:19443-149#5545

[ali54]

thanx for that link firefox

[yurasek]

The idea of the petition is good - I gave my vote. But I think it is not enough informative in the sense that do not specify a list of existing bugs in the latest version of the software. It would be nice to list the bugs with an indication of the TV model, firmware version, as well as to check whether the problem is repeated in the other, then you can place the bugs in order of priority.

[firefox]

The idea of the petition is good - I gave my vote. But I think it is not enough informative in the sense that do not specify a list of existing bugs in the latest version of the software. It would be nice to list the bugs with an indication of the TV model, firmware version, as well as to check whether the problem is repeated in the other, then you can place the bugs in order of priority.

yurasek, I agree to your point. However I do not think it is the task of a user. There should be a bug submission tool, allowing for philips to see what to prioritize and what not. The main problem here might be that there isn't a way to send out a "bug report" as we can with Pc's.

@Philips, is there a way to get in "dev" mode to supply you guys with the needed data to solve problems more efficient?

[yurasek]

Philips 52PFL9606K (FW 0.14.93.0)
1. Sometimes the TV switches itself on (rare). TV operates via UPS so that it is not caused by problems with supply.
2. Often disappears image for two seconds (at this time, the screen goes black).
3. Often barely noticeable once the TV is flickering. It takes a matter of seconds, but still noticeable and annoying.
4. Very strange implementation of 3D TV. After switching to 3D mode the TV stretches the image horizontally and at the same time it cuts off the left and right by 16-24 pixels. Why was this done? And of course the terrible ghosting.
5. Constantly straying manually configured time.
6. What a strange implementation of Local dimming: TV tries probably find the black bars top and bottom which often fail darkens these areas.
7. Terrible brakes animation menu.

To be continued ...

It's not even all the bugs that I noticed. I use the TV as a monitor for a HTPC through HDMI and to view analog and digital DVB-C cable television channels.

[firefox]

@yurasek, this might not be the place to post that
Please post it in the forum of the firmware, in this way it's way more useful and centralised for philips.

[yurasek]

firefox
When a new firmware is always closed the old topic. And the new topic will have to write everything in new ways. The petition should be constructive, that is, showing that must be corrected in the new firmware. Philips can release a new firmware, of whom say that it is better, but it does not mean that all bugs will disappear.

[Peter Walker]

I use an excellent feedback service for another product and it is an excellent way of giving feedback to engineers and tracking problems. The product I use it for (as a simple customer) is the Livescribe Echo.

Have a look at their implementation to get an idea what is possible:
http://getsatisfaction.com/livescribe

The great thing is that Philips already has a community on that service so all we have to do is start to use it to report problems.
http://getsatisfaction.com/philips

Regards

Peter

[firefox]

I use an excellent feedback service for another product and it is an excellent way of giving feedback to engineers and tracking problems. The product I use it for (as a simple customer) is the Livescribe Echo.

Have a look at their implementation to get an idea what is possible:
http://getsatisfaction.com/livescribe

The great thing is that Philips already has a community on that service so all we have to do is start to use it to report problems.
http://getsatisfaction.com/philips

Regards

Peter

Excellent platform ! However, it still does not substitute a propper bug reporting platform such as the ones seen in the open source community. Now everyone reports their problems in an unstructered way, making it harder for philips to help us. Philips should help both us and itself in reporting bugs/problems in a structured way on the internet.
Besides, moving the already existing, and seemlingly aware public towards a website out of hands/eyes of philips may be inefficient (only 1 employee is checking out the philips page)

[firefox]

1) I did not create the petition, I am a dsitributor of it.
2) I agree with you on the problems etc, but realise that you only should 'complain' about the bugs that are there with the latest firmware installed. From a philips perspective it has no use following up "old" firmwares. Consider a new firmware version the fix of old problems, and sadly the introduction of others. It is these 'other' problems we should focus on and the proper development of the firmware.
So, again, it has no use posting your problems in this threath. Update the firmware & post your problems in the appropiate threath please, this will help philips the most (they aren't the enemy , they just need to woked up ! )

[ruudvdl]

Some kind of moderated bugtracker may be a good idea. That would prevent a swamp of bug tickets but it would let users get very involved with the products. Users could submit bugs and Philips could accept them, assign priority, allow for comments of others with the same problem.

Companies are however very hesitant about things like this, because it exposes their products' vulnerabilities to the web and to potential new customers who might hesitate to buy products if they read about these bugs.

However I think most (not all) consumers are not stupid, and will realise that every product has bugs, especially products as complex as Philips tv's. Seeing an active online community, to me, is a good thing. It means the manufacturer takes the consumer seriously and admits that mistakes (only human) are made, and puts effort in fixing those mistakes with the help of the consumer.

[Peter Walker]

When I was considering buying a TV, the choice was between LG and Philips, as I wanted a passive 3D-TV. It is well known that such devices can have bugs, in my opinion it was how well such bugs are fixed which is important. I looked at the user posts in the LG and this Philips forum and discovered the following:

In the LG forum, it was full of comments by users complaining about LG not fixing bugs and withholding features like USB recording for Sat-TV. There was a lot of bad feeling there.

In the Philips forum, sure bugs were being discussed, but there was also an impression that Philips were taking the bugs seriously and releasing firmware updates often to fix them. That I found to be very positive and is one of the main reasons I bought a Philips TV even though I originally favoured LG.

The TV I have does still have bugs and I am reporting them here in the hope that Philips engineers are reading these reports and fixing them with time. The more I see Philips responding to and fixing reported bugs, the more I gain trust in the Philips brand. That is why an organised reporting system with feedback from Philips is a good idea. All technical devices can have bugs and that is well known. It improves trust if these bugs are seen to be addressed in a reasonable time.

[firefox]

@Peter Walker, I am glad to hear such a thing ! It is true, Philips does bring out frequent firmware releases, especially considering the complexity of such software. Also I am very aware that this forum in general is being very constructive and helpful, which is an advantage for Philips that might be underestimated.

Maybe we should change the goals/connonation of the petition. Sadly I can not reformulate the one that is posted above since it has been created by an other user.

Thank you for your constructive comment !

[hristoslav2]

Link are posted on the Bulgarian forum (SETCOMBG.COM):
http://forum.setcombg.com/index.php/...6.new.html#new