The IKS in the factory menu is the big issue with the box for me as well and that alone is enough for me to want to replace it. As FTA fans we do need to stand together and decide what we want, that's very true. But we also need more than just talk to jump fully on one side of the fence or the other. If someone comes to your house and tells you that your car is stolen, what is the first thing you're going to say? Prove it.
I don't know Joe, or Brian either, really, although I do believe all of what Brian says, and what Scott says. From reading posts on here for quite a while now, I have formed the opinion that Brian and Scott are very trustworthy people. But that's just me, others may just see all the bickering back and forth on this issue and form different opinions, especially new people here. We all could argue over this until the end of time and accomplish nothing.
I do work for a company that reproduces original vintage Ford parts, legally. They bought the original Ford tooling to do it, pay the royalties to Ford to do it, the hole nine yards. It's very expensive. Other companies make knock-offs that look exactly the same, only they don't have the Ford logo on them, they're a lot cheaper and illegal. When someone asks them how they know the other companies products are bogus, they give them a phone number to call at Ford, or a link, they don't just say, 'oh, it's illegal'.
This is a point that I'd tried to make earlier, that just saying to people that something is illegal without backing it up is not a good way to convince people of it and to "stand together" we really need to be informed, not just be told that this is so. If there's some legitimate reason why no one can offer proof, which there very well could be, then we should do as someone else suggested and ban discussions on the X2 and it's ilk completely.
I've owned an X2 since last summer, and I've never seen this "IKS" menu everybody keeps talking about. It's not been in my menus, I haven't seen it in any of the few different firmwares I've flashed to, it's never appeared for a second, or while rebooting, etc. It has been just as dependable as my MicroHD, in fact more so because it keeps time dead on the money. Neither of my MicroHD's keep time because they drift off a bit every single day while GMT is turned off. They are kept up and running, recording every single day and never allowed to go to sleep. Still won't keep time locked solid and I have to resync them at least every week and 1/2 minimum after they drift too far.
The MicroHD does have a superior picture, and I like the 30 second "skip" feature on the dvr'd recordings, so that is my main receiver, and probably will be until something better comes along.