JeffLH

Thanks for the info -- I am curious to see what sort of things were uncovered. I'd also be curious to know what sort of experience Pat (psklenar) had when he beta-tested the 1050 two years ago, since the question of the role of beta testing in the design of products like this has been raised.

The Outlaws did mention some extra-careful checking of the early production units in the last newsletter, which would make sense if somebody got a beta unit with reversed video inputs/outputs on the VCR source. It looks like most of the internal connections are on PCB's, but there may still be some individually-made connections and somebody at the factory might have had a dislexic moment when making some of those video connections in Jeff's unit. Did the problem affect composite or S-video (or both)? Dan Hitchman also noticed a possible problem with the rear panel silkscreen ( this thread ) missing labels for in and out on the tape loop. The "5 stereo" mode is sort of odd -- I'd be curious to hear what the Outlaws told you on that one. It could be that the "5 stereo" and "7 stereo" are the same, and that which mode you use is determined by how many speakers you have?

As for the 5 beta testers that became 4, one of the beta testers (don't remember who) indicated that there were to be 5, but one fell through at the last minute. I don't know why Gene was about a week late getting his. The bulk of the testing took place in-house with the alpha units, but there is always value in getting a fresh set of eyes involved and putting a product in a real-world setting. That's a big part of what I think the Outlaws were after with the beta test.



I'm sorry, azryan, was I supposed to post in this topic?

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Gonk