Haig (or Olliver) please gime me an answer...

[Haig]

Well said Ray.

Coolfish, the history is that tech supp in the past, gave out tentative release dates on this forum. Many times, if not most, the date was never met. Then the predictable happened in such that people got upset on this forum and I was on the receiving end. This happened a few times. The last time this happened, people decided to clog up our phones and emails into technical support complaining that "Haig said the drivers would be out today and they aren't....".

That's when I decided that there will be no more talk about driver release dates at all no matter what the situation is.

"It's pissing off the end-users, and is very frustrating."

Agreed. Complaining to tech supp is not the answer and it never will be. Some of you do this because tech supp are the only ones on this forum and you feel that we can be your link into the other dept's. Not the case. We won't play middlemen and messengers but yet, alot of folks expect us to.

We ONLY deal with fixing problems. Dealing with all other issues INCLUDING when will a bug be fixed is not a tech supp issue.

Phoning and emailing tech supp about an issue such as this will get you an acknowledgement of the bug and we'll also tell you that it has been entered into our bug database.

"Olliver.....maybe you could pass me on to someone who IS responsible for this mess?"

Sorry but he can't do that.

Haig

[coolfish]

Pertti, Look whose name calling.

I realize this forum is for video editing and not about bitching about drivers, but look at all the people having the same problems. I figured this would be the best place to get something done.

So Haig, if bitching and whining at Matrox tech support isn't going to do anything, what CAN we do? I'm looking for answers aside from "sit on thumbs, wait." It's obvious though that Matrox hasn't made it a priority to fix this problem (3 months to fix a little bug? gimme a break), so how can we change this?

not-getting-rid-of-his-matrox-products-yet,

coolfish.

[Haig]

Hi Coolfish,

thinking that a capture driver can be fixed in a few weeks is a typical attitude from people who don't know about what it takes to develope a driver (not an insult) unless it's a very simple bug to fix.

It does take time and yes, it will take months to get it done right. This is mainly due to the fact that we do our best to support every single motherboard/soundcard combo, and all flavours of win9x. Then, we have to test these with the Marvel, G400/RRG, and G400max/RRG all with Avid and Ulead. After that, we have to make sure that the ICD and TGL won't affect the new VT build and also make sure that Ravisent is working properly. Then we have to make sure that PAL AND NTSC are working fine. We do this in all supported resolutions. The list goes on but you get the idea.

All complaints about any issues should always be directed towards webmaster@matrox.com.

If you do so, make sure that you keep your message simple. State what the situtation is and keep it polite. Do not bombard them with any technical information because they won't be interested. They are just interested in the complaints.

If you or anyone has complaints about tech supp, then that is to me.

Haig

[T-rex]

Thanks , Haig but...

Have Matrox identified a combination of components(boards, power supply etc.) that causes the problem?
If i can solve the problem replacing something in my computer I will do that.
If we can help Matrox doing some tests, we will do that. It's better then stay here only waiting and complaining.

My first video Card was a Millennium, my 2nd a Marvel G200, my 3rd a Marvel G400. Do you want to know what will be the next one?
It will be a Matrox Card. You want to know why? It's this site, this forum, and especially because here I Find people like Haig, Olliver (i've never seen other companies to discuss in a public forum),
or like This_Idiot and Ant that spend a big part of their time trying to help us.

To Ant:
Is it possible to open another forum in which all the people can discuss, of driver bugs, incompatibility etc. ?

Thanks, and again sorry for my english.

[CMB]

I would jsut like to add, that i have always had a matrox card in my system, and been delieriously happy. There support is amazing, and thanks to people like haig, eta ll it always will be :O)

Ray- Thanks friend. Its looking good then
ill tell him today

[Questor]

This is the email I sent to webmaster@matrox.com

I am a valued customer that while trying to use this combination of hardware to import and edit video I get the following error. (GPF in the RRICMEXT.DLL). I called and reported this issue with tech support many times and referred to my case number 48291. Since my first call on this case was back in Nov 99, please try and expedite this issue so that I can successfully use my RR-G for the first time with the matrox Video Tools drivers.

[This_Idiot]

Coolfish,

You need to take a couple of deep breaths and calm down. "We" have been through this loop many times at the site, I'm (usually) past getting upset when shit starts flying. Believe me when I tell you that the site has always been at the forefront of complaining to Matrox and trying to get a fair deal. If you don't believe this, then all you have to do is take a few hours to read back through the site news. And I've learned through experience that there are ways of getting things done. The site has actually managed to change Matrox perception on some things, and has frequently managed to broker satisfactory results for individual users.

So "Why would you forward my complaints to the marketing dept ?" - Because when matters step outside of routine Tech Support issues, it becomes Marketing's baby since they need to optimise sales. Therefore they will talk with the Product Manager, Tech Support and anyone else they feel to be involved in order to get a situation resolved.

[Bugblatter]

Possible solution at the end of this post, but first my two pence.

I'm a software developer and I'm familiar with what Haig's saying about development taking a while. Even if it's a simple fix, it can take ten times as long to reproduce the error and test the fix as it takes to fix the problem.

Oh, and we operate on a 9 month development cycle, be thankful Matrox doesn't do the same

Having said that, two or three months seems a long time to wait for a patch (unless the latest beta drivers fix this problem). Patches, especially if they're betas, don't have to undergo the same rigorous testing as full releases (we typically get pre-releases of simple fixes to clients within a week of the problem being raised, that's how we can get away with only releasing a new version every nine months).

I accept that the TS guys can't give estimated release dates, I even accept they can't give details of the progress of a fix. However, considering the seriousness of the problem, somebody at Matrox should be able to give this information, if not on this forum then direct to those who have reported the problem.

If we treated our customers like this we wouldn't have any! Admittedly we have around 40 big badass customers rather than thousands of little ones.

Constant moaning won't get things done any quicker. When we get people like that we're less likely to pull all the stops out because you know they won't appreciate it, and when you solve their problem they'll just find something else to moan about. Keep a positive attitude and people will want to help you.

I've had this exact problem with my RRG, so I can certainly sympathise with those who are upset. The bug turns the RRG into a very expensive TV tuner, it's useless for capturing video (unless you're happy with 5 minute clips).

Reducing my resolution to 800x600 and not having the capture window seems to solve the problem, at least for me. Give it a try, it can't hurt.

[Boul]

I can understand coolfish is upset. I have the g400/RR-G combo on a BP6 board. Not working. My Aopen 300W PS suplies only 0.3A at -5V instead of the "mandatory" 0.5A. Guess it'll make a nice paper weight...
(BTW, I was ready to throw the rock at Aopen for making a crappy PS, But intel ATX 2.01 explicitly says the -5V and -12V are nolonger used. Hmmm)

Anyway I ordered a "matrox approved" Antec 300W PS. If I can't detect my RR-G with the new PS, I'll be mighty pissed also.

Now it seems I will have the green flashes to contend with, if I can detect the card that is.

Slow driver developpment has plagued matrox for as long as I can remember. I know alot of g200 owners who will never buy matrox again, because when the open gl driver came out, their card was too outdated for them to care. I've heard the R&D department is great at matrox. Looks like its time to give the software department a boost. One guy working at the drivers on his lunch break just isn't cutting it...