Understood, thanks for sharing!
I know others have voiced similar feelings in this regard (Premiere support), and given the cost of these products, especially for those that "joined the club" back in the day at significant cost, it can be frustrating.
A few months back I gave some thought to the anger and frustration I was seeing and hearing from some Premiere owners. I found their comments a little "over the top" considering we were talking about a piece of electronic gear, so I spent some time considering why we allow ourselves to get to that level of frustration. Like most folks that hang around the AV world regularly, I'd seen all kinds of high-end products come and go, some with long lives, some with very short lived. I'd owned many of these, and certainly lost my share of value as companies withdrew from the market, or changed products so drastically that what I'd just bought 18 months earlier was now obsolete, or worse yet, closed the company. I was always "bothered" by these changes, but never felt compelled to voice that to anyone. I just looked at it as a combination of changing business interests, or the natural advancement we see in technology just about every year. In other words, I was bothered, but quickly moved on to the next new thing.
So why does it feel different with Kaleidescape? I think it's because of the following (just my opinion).
1. We pay a lot for these systems.
2. Unlike most AV products, Kaleidescape systems are very interactive.
3. We tend to identify more with interactive things because of our direct involvement in the process. (All of my other AV gear is "setup and forget," i.e. Projectors, screens, audio processors, video processors, speakers, etc.,)
4. The "collecting" aspect. We collect movies, that's what we're really doing when we own these systems. Collectors don't want anyone, or anything, interfering in their collections. For many of us, we've put YEARS into building our libraries, and the thought that something could come along and end that ability, or worse yet, not support our continuing access to these libraries, is not acceptable.
5. Others with a interest. For many of us, our families are just as involved with K as we are, they've got their own content in those libraries, and guess who gets the heat when the system is down.
For these, and other reasons, Kaleidescape has a different level of involvement in our lives, and it's very noticeable when something is wrong in the system. So now we face the certainty (yes, it will happen) that someday discs will be gone, and at some point, like it or not, our Premiere systems will be outdated. K obviously knows this, and with limited resources the strategic plan was modified to account for this transition. Unfortunately, that means as priorities shifted, some items are still sitting on the table, waiting to be resolved.
Jim