RL Post: I hate being locked into a vendor

Over the past weekend, I upgraded our entire AV cabinet. It started with our 10year old TV degrading - having this big green corner in the screen.

So upgrade to a new HDTV, which meant upgrade Tivo to HD, as well as our cheapo DVD player to Blu-ray.

No problem so far.

But when I started put the Ticvo and Blu-Ray player onto my wireless network... I could not get the %^&%@#&% devices to recognize my USB wireless network card...

After how many reboots, firmware updates... nothing.

I dug into their manuals, read the entire sections on wireless networking, troubleshooting, etc. Could not get it to work.

The Tivo unit say on wireless adapter: "If you prefer wireless networking, the TiVo wireless adapter is all you need for any TiVo DVR."
Mmmm

Put a call to Tivo.. Yep, the Tivo unit is locked down to ONLY recognize the Tivo branded USB network adapter and nothing else.. WTF? Is it seriously that complicated to get a LINUX based dedicated device to be compatible with an open network specification?

The Blu-Ray player was even better: "Wireless Ready ( Wireless Lan Adapter not included)".

Ok... So why is my USB network adapter not being recognized?

Aha! From their How to connect Wirelessly guide: "Samsung Wireless USB Adapter WIS09ABGN.
IMPORTANT: Only the Samsung WIS09ABGN Wireless USB adapter may be used."

WTF people? Its an open network communication protocol. Its like Electricity from the wall adapter!

Why the hell do I need to buy your $15 more expensive, but feature-void product to get your dumb-ass product on my wireless network?

sulk

I get the branded products, but are planning on running a couple of 100' Cat cables through my roof, to connect to the devices.

color my one very unhappy customer.