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Once again, I am going to quote Chainfire from HTCClassAction.org who got the scoop on the HTC Response to their Driver issue from DailyTech.com. Chainfire does an excellent job breaking down what this means and providing some commentary to the HTC Release.  If you haven’t already, please visit HTCClassAction.org and get educated on this issue. There is no reason we should have to suffer their lack of providing us a proper video driver when the Hardware to make use of it is already on the device and NOT BEING USED! Here is the Release:

“Official” response, January 22, 2008

An “official” response from HTC has been posted in DailyTech’s coverage of these issues.

First off, note that this statement has not appeared on the official HTC Press Release page. Either way, here’s a copy from what is stated in DailyTech’s article.

In response to recent customer complaints about poor video performance on HTC devices based on the latest Qualcomm MSM7xxx chipsets, HTC is providing the following statement.

HTC is committed to delivering a portfolio of devices that offer a wide variety of communication, connectivity and entertainment functionality. HTC does not offer dedicated or optimized multimedia devices and can confirm that its Qualcomm MSM7xxx-based devices do not use ATI’s Imageon video acceleration hardware.

HTC believes the overall value of its devices based on their combination of functionality and connectivity exceeds their ability to play or render high-resolution video. These devices do still provide a rich multimedia experience comparable to that of most smart phones and enable a variety of audio and video file formats.

HTC values its customers and the overall online community of mobile device enthusiasts and fans. HTC plans to include video acceleration hardware in future video-centric devices that will enable high-resolution video support.

Click after the break to continue reading HTCClassAction.org’s breakdown of the HTC Driver Response.

Again, total thanks to HTCClassAction.org!

This is actually a very smart and well thought-out response by HTC. In fact, they actually confirm what we have been saying the whole time:

[HTC's] Qualcomm MSM7xxx-based devices do not use ATI’s Imageon video acceleration hardware

They don’t actually state that it doesn’t have it, that those parts of the hardware are disabled, or any of those things. They merely state that they are not using it. We already knew this, that is what this site is about, after all. At least we have official confirmation of that now.

Now look at this part:

HTC believes the overall value of its devices based on their combination of functionality and connectivity exceeds their ability to play or render high-resolution video.

HTC may well believe that, we obviously don’t. There are other devices to be had with those combinations of connectivity and functionality, at far lower prices.

These devices do still provide a rich multimedia experience comparable to that of most smart phones and enable a variety of audio and video file formats.

While this statement in itself might be true, it becomes false when you add “in the same price range” to the above. Even previous HTC models as much as two years old outperform this generation of devices in this area. Also, a “rich multimedia experience” depends a lot on what you consider “rich“. Obviously what HTC considers “rich” is more in the area of what we consider to be “very poor“.

Did we already mention that this issue is not at all limited to video playback, but concerns all display related functionality? Obviously they did not get that part of the message, which is sad, as the slowness and graphics lag in normal operation is even more frustrating than the video playback issue is – and that affects everybody, not only those wanting to play high resolution video.

HTC values its customers and the overall online community of mobile device enthusiasts and fans.

We would like to point out that giving your “customers and the overall online community of mobile device enthusiasts and fans” the proverbial finger, is not a very effective way to show you value them.

Now let’s go into some of the other things the DailyTech article states, just for good measure.

The reason there is no driver for the Imageon video hardware on phones equipped with the MSM7xxx chipsets is that HTC opted to include the chipsets from Qualcomm minus that feature. The confusion for HTC device owners comes from the fact that Qualcomm lists the MSM7500 and MSM7200 chipsets as including the ATI Imageon video acceleration hardware.

However, a quick perusal at HTC of some of the devices listed at HTCClassAction.org reveals that Imageon Video acceleration was never one of the promised features on the devices. HTC simply lists the chipsets that it uses in the phones. However, HTC doesn’t specifically say that it does not include a known feature of the chipsets produced by Qualcomm either.

We would like to ask where they see HTC state that the hardware acceleration features are not physically in the devices. HTC doesn’t say that anywhere in their statement, just that they aren’t using it – and if the spokesperson did say that, we would like to see it quoted.

Furthermore, it is very unlikely that this feature is not actually in the chip, as generally speaking it would be much cheaper for the manufacturer to just make the same chip in large quantities than making the chips in several batches but slightly different. Another good pointer in that direction is that some of these devices do not have WiFi and/or GPS, but somehow some hackers can turn them on anyway. Ofcourse this doesn’t work well because the necessary antennas and the likes are missing, but the part of the hardware inside the chipset is definitely there.

To go even further, for the device to have any display abilities at all while not using the ATi Imageon based hardware, would most likely require additional hardware. That’s hardly a cost-effective solution, which makes it even more unlikely that this is the case. So now we are talking about physically disabling a specific part of a specific part of a chipset…

Note that we have already contacted Qualcomm to verify this for the ATi Imageon based hardware, but have not yet received an official reply.

As for HTC not promising hardware accelerated graphics anywhere, we would like to point out once more that this ATi Imageon based hardware is an integral part of the chipset used, so we believe it is a fair assumption to make that this feature would be available, as it isn’t stated anywhere it isn’t. For a mandatory bad car analogy: if someone sold you a car and states this car has a V8 engine, would you not assume the engine comes with eight cylinders and the necessary pistons?

The long and short of the matter for owners of HTC devices using these chipsets is that there will be no fix because HTC chose not to provide Imageon hardware in its devices.

Again, the hardware not being present is neither stated nor likely. Furthermore, HTC support as well as a certain VP of a well known provider have stated repeatedly that a fix is being worked on. I wonder how they plan to fix it if the relevant hardware is not present.

Our verdict of this response: words of mass distraction!

Doug Smith (301 Posts) - Website | Twitter | Facebook