Whilst people like Renura and HyperReality are important to DTV takeup, there is obviously a conflict of interest there when they post new info on their products ("Firmware Upgrade") or assistance otherwise. People portal into their sites, and I am sure that solely by the participation in these forums, the pair of them have received commercial advantages from their participation.

I am sure that you are correct, and I am also reasonably sure that both myself, HypeReality and others (not necessarily as clearly identified) benefit from participation in the forum or bring commercial benefits to associates/mates or whatever. The simple fact that they may have links in their signature or the names of a product, etc can do that.

As also mentioned by HyperReality, in a previous post in this thread, I also believe, that the quid pro quo is the contribution that we make to the forum, which benefits everyone, not just people who buy from DN or HR.

With all due respect, HR and DN represent only a small minority of the thousands of retailers/system builder/integrators/wholesalers/distributors or what-have-you that frequent this forum. Anything HR or I say is read by everyone and everyone benefits, whether they actually have ever added any value to the discussion or DBA or not is another matter.

If, let's say, I or HR promote/support/encourage the use of a DVICO, Nebula, Opentel or whatever product, everyone who sells that product benefits, whether that is Harvey Norman, EYO, DigitalNow or HypeReality so infact we are helping other retailers at the same time, not just ourselves. This also applies to users of other brands of products that neither HR or DN are involved with, because some of the answers/support provided is generic and may apply to any similar product.

Now you say, yes but you have a link in your signature that might lead the reader to your website in the first instance - yes that is true, but I believe a lot of people get all the info from here and our websites and then buy wherever suits them, be it the local PC fair or the local PC shop, DSE, HN, Harris or whatever.

I know this for a fact, because more than half our sales are to other retailers/resellers and small system builders. Unlike what used to be when we first started more than three years ago.

I also know that for example, DN only sells ~10% of the total sales of DVICo in Australia, the rest are sold by just about everyon else. And guess whose customers need more help?

So yes, I believe we are doing a lot more for the others than for ourselves.

Rinse and repeat for any of the other retailers lurking on the forums.

Just hope that you're aware that I'm in no way affiliated with DigitalNow. Or ATi or nVidia for that matter. I do post regularly about new products coming from ATi or nVidia, but posts about upcoming DigitalNow products always seem to get deleted, like the aforementioned sale, which included their new "lite" product at the time, which is why I rarely post about them these days.

I do recall many forum members were in agreement that such a post wasn't necessarily a bad thing, as it was all about helping increasing the takeup for Digital TV. Regarding the fairness of the whole matter, well if another retailer such as HyperReality had such a sale going on, I wouldn't resist posting about that either, as in the end, it's all about DTV takeup. And as we all know, THAT seriously needs to get a kick up the rear end. Isn't it something like 15.5% of the population at the moment?

Did you know that less than 3% of the population have truly seen or know of the difference between SD and HD? It's not enough that they have a box and display, the majority of all digital displays being sold are only providing half of the vertical resolution of 1080i due to crude de-interlacing methods. It doesn't help that in most areas, the Channel 7 "HD" loop is being used to showcase these so-called HD displays.

Totally against forum advertising but mentioning the RRP on a product IMHO is perfectly ok - example

DATVMAN Technologies has got there new 7 tuner PVR ready for release and its $400 RRP. Will have to see what retailers are stocking this gem