[Tilt, TyTN II, MDA Vario III General] TommyCP:
This might get misunderstood, but I'll say it anyway. I have to admit that I am actually starting to have some doubts about this whole issue. To start off, let me first say that I DO believe that people are experiencing problems and that I believe that many of these issues have to be addressed by HTC. Also, I think that an expensive device like the Kaiser should be shipped with drivers which unlock its full potential, rather than with drivers which run everything through the main CPU and hold the device back. Having said that, however, please allow me to explain my concerns.

The impression I got when I first visited the Kaiser forums a few weeks ago was that the Kaiser has major issues with video playback, gaming, onscreen drawing (scrolling, etc.), the camera, etc. and that these problems make the device actually far slower and less usable than earlier products from HTC (like, for example, its predecessor the Hermes). However, since then I've done quite some reading and based on what I've read, I've come to believe that a lot of these problems are not as severe as people make them out to be and, in some cases, are misunderstood. To illustrate this, let me use a few examples:

- This one already got cleared up (and the corresponding YouTube video got removed from the Classaction website), but I'll use it anyway because it is an example: the PIE scrolling bug. People at first stated that this is a clear example of missing video drivers, because of the slow framerate while scrolling. Later, it turned out to be a bug in PIE which could be resolved by using an older PIE DLL file. With this in mind, please consider the following cases.

- The low framerate in TomTom Navigator 6. I guess we all saw this video, as it is also on the HTCClassAction front page, however, after seeing this video (which shows much better performance) I think that the slow framerate in the first video might more have to do with how the user configured his device (e.g., which programs run in the background) than with the video drivers. After all, the Kaisers in these videos have the same driver.

- Screen rotation speed. Some people claim that a screen rotation takes a full three seconds and blame the drivers, while others claim that screen rotation on their device is almost instant. Again, all Kaisers run the same video driver so any lag is probably not (or at least not limited to) a bad video driver. In some cases, my money would be on the items on the today screen.

- Gaming. Some people have pointed out how the lack of good video drivers has impacted gaming performance. Now, I must admit that I'm not an avid PPC gamer, but when I saw this Quake video, I was surprised how well the Kaiser is able to run Quake I. Maybe the Hermes did a slightly better job, but the differences between the two devices aren't too big. The Kaiser however gives a low fps count when running Quake II, but I don't know how well it runs on other devices, so I can't really say if it is supposed to run better than this.

- Poor camera quality. Many users in have pointed out how poorly the camera performs in low lighting, especially when recording videos. But there also have been reports in this topic that state that the camera is pretty usable as long as you use a newer camera app and a few tricks (e.g. disable the shutter sound). The quality isn't great, but it seems better than some people make it out to be.

I already apologize for the length if this post, but please bear with me for a while longer.

So, what is my point? Two things:

First, many people are blaming all kinds of problems on the video driver, yet I'm not sure if it is always the driver that should be blamed. I mean, many of the problems I've seen could just as well be causes by the configuration. I do agree that the Kaiser's performance can suffer from the absence of hardware accelerated video, but if I assess the situation correctly it isn't the root of all evil. This doesn't mean HTC (and/or the carriers) shouldn't be blamed, I mean, I'm sure that camera quality can be increased A LOT with a better camera application (which HTC should supply). My point here merely is that specific issues should be investigated in detail instead of assuming it has to do with the driver.

Then, secondly, I fear that the above (if correct) is damaging to the lawsuit that is considered in this thread. I mean, if you really want to stand a chance in court you have to come up with some well supported facts. Instead of blaming the video driver for everything, each problem should be investigated in detail so we can confirm that HTC is at fault. Otherwise, HTC can blame any bad performance on stuff like user settings or third-party software. The TomTom video for example won't do, as that issue seems not to be driver-related.

Don't get me wrong here, I still think the lawsuit is a good idea. However, in its current form I think it will fail. In my opinion, we should move away from this 'bad video driver' thing and make it more general. Furthermore, we should come up with a list of problems which are reproducable and in which stuff like user settings and third-party software has been ruled out, thus showing exactly where the device is flawed (the touchscreen lag being a good example). Also, maybe it is better that we do not not limit ourselves to just performance problems, but also other types of problems like the Bluetooth issues many people experience. I realize that in court as well as in the media "general problems" is more difficult to spin than the very specific "absence of video drivers", but I think a good lawyer should not have a problem with this. And after all, at the very essence of all of this, we all just want these $700 devices to perform like they should perform for this price.

Just a (rather long) thought. Any feedback is welcome. *puts on flame suite*