No Imageon Hardware drivers in upgrade

[Will7272]

Taken from Dailytech:

Many HTC owners have been upset at the poor performance of some HTC devices when it comes to video playback. DailyTech reported in January that some HTC owners had banded together and were threatening a class action law suit if the poor video performance issue wasn’t addressed.

One stated goal of the HTC owners was to get a driver from HTC for the ATI Imageon video acceleration hardware present in certain HTC handsets that was not being utilized. HTC spokesman Eric Lin told DailyTech that HTC is releasing a fix that will dramatically improve the video performance on the Touch family of devices and the TYTN II/Tilt, Mogul/XV6900 devices.

This fix will be in the form of software update rather than a new ROM image. HTC is very specific in pointing out that this fix is not a driver for the Imageon hardware locked away inside the Qualcomm chipset in the devices in question. For a reason why HTC won’t release a driver for the Imageon hardware, Lin provided DailyTech with this official statement:

"HTC DOES plan to offer software upgrades that will increase feature functionality, over the air wireless speeds and other enhancements for some of the phones being criticized, but we do not anticipate including any additional support for the video acceleration issues cited in customer complaints. It is important for customers to understand that bringing this functionality to market is not a trivial driver update and requires extensive software development and time.

HTC will utilize hardware video acceleration like the ATI Imageon in many upcoming products. Our users have made it clear that they expect our products to offer an improved visual experience, and we have included this feedback into planning and development of future products.

To address lingering questions about HTC's current MSM 7xxx devices, it is important to establish that a chipset like an MSM7xxx is a platform with a vast multitude of features that enable a wide range of devices with varied functionality. It is common that devices built on platforms like Qualcomm's will not enable every feature or function.

In addition to making sure the required hardware is present, unlocking extended capabilities of chipsets like the MSM 7xxx requires in-depth and time consuming software development, complicated licensing negotiations, potential intellectual property negotiations, added licensing fees, and in the case of devices that are sold through operators, the desire of the operator to include the additional functionality. To make an informed decision about which handset suits them best, consumers should look at the product specification itself instead of using the underlying chipset specifications to define what the product could potentially become."

The Imageon video acceleration hardware is present in the devices in question, however, it appears that the reason no drivers were provided has to do with licensing issues.

[bimmerd00d]

Wow. I have no complaints for the current speed. I suppose if it's faster, awesome!

[pflatlyne]

Wow. I have no complaints for the current speed. I suppose if it's faster, awesome!

I see what they are saying. It may well come down to licensing. If the licensing fee has not been paid for your device,then they CANT update you. If your carrier does not want to buy a device that includes the cost of the licensing fee,then they wont include the driver. Thats how I read it at least.

A class action lawsuit seems rather pointless. HTC has no responsibility to provide any particular functionality in their drivers beyond what is advertised by your carrier. There are many pieces of consumer electronics gear that provide additional functionality with different drivers. Our phones have evdo rev A and GPS as well. They DO have to provide rev A,because they said they would and sold it as Rev A upgradable. We could sue for that if they didnt. GPS however is a bonus.
Take a look at certain linksys routers that have different feature sets with different firmware. Older GeForce cards have advanced features that were locked out in the driver,and only available on Quadro series workstation cards. Many CPUs have features locked out either in the bios or by cutting traces on the actual CPU. Its suspected that some blu-ray readers are actually the writers with a different firmware. (which will be hacked in due time for those lucky bastards if its true =) ) Sound cards,hard drives,modems,stand alone dvd players,televisions video cards,and mp3 players have all been found to have additional functionality either disabled or addable with only firmware changes. None of these manufacturers have any responsibility to provide these updates.

[bakntyme]

I see what they are saying. It may well come down to licensing. If the licensing fee has not been paid for your device,then they CANT update you. If your carrier does not want to buy a device that includes the cost of the licensing fee,then they wont include the driver. Thats how I read it at least.

A class action lawsuit seems rather pointless. HTC has no responsibility to provide any particular functionality in their drivers beyond what is advertised by your carrier. There are many pieces of consumer electronics gear that provide additional functionality with different drivers. Our phones have evdo rev A and GPS as well. They DO have to provide rev A,because they said they would and sold it as Rev A upgradable. We could sue for that if they didnt. GPS however is a bonus.
Take a look at certain linksys routers that have different feature sets with different firmware. Older GeForce cards have advanced features that were locked out in the driver,and only available on Quadro series workstation cards. Many CPUs have features locked out either in the bios or by cutting traces on the actual CPU. Its suspected that some blu-ray readers are actually the writers with a different firmware. (which will be hacked in due time for those lucky bastards if its true =) ) Sound cards,hard drives,modems,stand alone dvd players,televisions video cards,and mp3 players have all been found to have additional functionality either disabled or addable with only firmware changes. None of these manufacturers have any responsibility to provide these updates.

I agree with you except for two small issues. First, HTC's responsibility to provide functionality is controlled by what HTC agreed to provide in the contract between the carrier and HTC, not by the carrier's advertising. If a carrier were to advertise a functionality for which they did not contract with HTC, then that is the carrier's liability, not HTC's.

Second, advertising a device as rev A upgradeable does not necessarily create a commitment to actually upgrade the device, or even the communications system, to rev A. "Rev A upgradeable" arguably means simply "If we decide at some unspecified time in the future to actually upgrade our system to rev A, this device has the technical capability to also be upgraded to rev A, if we actually so decide at some possibly later time in the future". I do not believe that is a definite promise that a carrier can be held to in a normal lawsuit. In the typical scam class action, the carrier would probably settle the case and give you a coupon. It is obviously not something that binds HTC, as HTC has no control over whether or when a carrier upgrades all or parts of their system to rev A, or whether the carrier approves a software upgrade to a particular model device in order to use rev A.