Here's a thought. I briefly installed a terrestrial Masterpiece firmware on my 5800, just to see what it looked like. It wasn't bad actually, although I didn't care much for the infobox. In theory it should be possible to do the same with the new 5810 firmware.

The 5815 lets you choose any firmware you want out-the-box.

Are we still doing that......

Glen.

That was my hope, too, although I'm not sure how realistic it is. Many things are possible, I guess, including maybe kludging some graphical bits from one firmware to the other (although the layout changes would be harder...).

Heheh, I'm not that desperate! A quick 5 minute test is about as far as I'd be likely to take things. The interesting thing about the MP is that the front panel is different, yet the firmware still works even though the panel isn't there. I didn't conduct any timer tests though.

I think the opposite is true, too, so if you managed to put the MP Front Panel (VFD) on the TF5800 it would recognise it. (At the very least, there's code in the firmware for the VFD.)

As a brief test, I would not mind it, but to commit all of my future recordings to it is a risk that I would prefer not to take.

Anyone got a broken Masterpiece they'd like to give me?

I think this will very much depend on how much the hardware is similar - remember that on some of the newer HD boxes, for example, though the interface looks much the same, there's a different platform underneath.

I really don't know which path is being taken for the 5810 in this regard.