Printers...Hard to find sometimes, yes, especially since the major computer stores do not carry them. I've been to those myself, all they have are printer/scanner/copiers and sometimes even fax machines. Those come with one or two CD's with the "instructions" the computer needs to deal with them (called drivers), and a lot of additional software required to operate them, meaning that you have to install some huge piece of software made by HP to control the printing options, then another one for controling the scanning process, and then another one to rule them all, called HP Director I thik. Believe me, I have one of those, from the day I installed all that stuff, my regular PC has been much slower to load and to work, those programs are very resource-hungry and they pretty big. Now, from the official site of the MSNTV2, this device has 128 Mb of RAM and 64 Mb of flash memory (used for storing photos, cookies, favorites, some settings, etc), in those 128 Mb, the operating system (which also has the drivers for devices) and the browser (at least those two) are loaded and run, then you have some space left probably, but certainly not enough to fit not even a 10th of a CD. Then you would need a CD drive on the unit itself, which would be a big source of problems, both hardware and software. Besides you're not supposed to be able to install/remove stuff form the software inside, it's the number 1 cause of any corruption of the system. The MSNTV2's primary goal is to be as simple as possible, and it is complex enough as it is for a lot of costumers. Now, to achieve that simplicity, you ned to give something away, in this case, the ability to do whatever you want with it and the ability to upgrade it yourself. Can you imagine if we provided support to help you open up your box and install some device, or insert some mysterious CD into it to install some software that nobody knew where it came from or what it does? Besides, each device supported by the MSNTV2 is tested carefully before we say it is compatible, and even though we do that, costumers still report some minor bugs, like printing backwards in some cases with specific models and stuff like that. Also, with devices other than printers, like memory card readers and especially with USB wireless adapters, manufacturers release them to the market, their customers report bugs and the manufacturer upgrades the settings inside those, creating what are called "revisions", A1, A2, B1, B2, and they usually recall the ones in stores, upgrade them and put them back in. Since the MSNTV2 is only compatible with some of those revisions (usually not the latest one), after a while all of the compatible ones are turned into incompatible ones, making it really hard to find them. Now, how to get those printers after they are swept from the shelves of BestBuy or Circuit City, I've heard the best option is usually get them online form Amazon or from other online retailer, sometimes even from the Best Buy website they are available. Another possibility is to get them from the manufacturer directly, or from a local retailer with a lower profile than those huge stores. The other option is to wait until we make one of those major updates, which usually also carry new drivers for some new printers, still regular printers, nothing complicated, just the basic HPs or Epsons. I know it can be a pain in the neck to be forced to a specific set of printers, but I guess it was the ony way that the MSNTV2 can actually print, and besides, lately printers do not last too long on the shelves either, they always get new versions out, but the fact that a couple of major computer stores do not carry them doesn't mean that several other retailers are not stuck with a lot of those to sell at a low price. Actually after the last major upgrade was made, a lot of people were able to get those printers right from the big stores, at that time they had them on display, and it has only been a few months (it was around late august) since that day, now you go there and they laugh at you and say that they are out of date and try to make you buy one of the multi-printers. I think someone should do some research on where to get them and post it somewhere, maybe there's some small company out there willing to supply them. Actually the same is done on WebTV, for individual parts we have the number for a small company that has them, and they sell them over the phone, even though the WebTV has not been manufactured for years now. i hope the programmers at Microsoft can find a way to put the latest drivers inside the box in a simple way, maybe through a tiny downloaded update every once in a while. Maybe it can be done and all we have to do is give them some time, maybe it's technically impossible given the hardware in the box, again, I have no idea of the true internals of the box, that's only for programmers at Microsoft.
So, that's what I have to say about printers for MSNTV2, it doesn't really help getting the actual printers, but it helps understanding what is going on, and that is one of the problems we canot really fix unless someone at a higher level comes up with an official solution for it, or until some CSR finds a way and it becomes widespread among other CSRs and customers.
