I wasn't talking about "complexity", which doesn't frighten me in the slightest, but rather sheer mass of programming effort. And on that front, the Visuals are the biggest job: tons of excellent hand-written ARM assembly code, and very well done.

Rob, I have only praise for the product and the team behind it. But the company behind them is unlikely to be around for more than another year or two, and I really really like my Empeg player.

However, when investors finally pull out the rug, a lot of IP such as the player software will be lost to the community, possibly forever. When that happens, I may just re-implement the player software, so that we have something the community can share and improve in the future.

Sure, seamless playback is complex and difficult to achieve, especially if one is recent to real-time embedded stuff, and if the hardware is being co-developed, and the O/S is new and unstable. But second time around, a lot of that becomes easier.

Sure, it would take longer than my part-time Hijack enhancements took, but it wouldn't be the biggest job I've ever tackled, and I already have more than enough of the Linux depth and breadth required, and a 20 year background in real-time embedded design. I would not be starting as close to scratch as your team did a few years back.

But in the meanwhile, Empeg/SB's years of effort and devotion are not in question here, and I really don't mean to belittle any of the past efforts embodied in the player software. It truly is an amazing product, and around it here it speaks clearly for itself (there are FOUR (4) of them on the desk in front of me).

Cheers

-ml