Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I pre-ordered and received yesterday. I anxiously tried it out, hoping to be able to stand closer to the kinect. Alas, looks like the product is fundamentally flawed. The Infrared picture is totally dark start with, and the kinect tries to increase the contrast. Was able to see me OK, but the hand tracking was EXTREMELY erratic to the point of being UNUSABLE. Painfully went through the Calibration process a few times. Sometimes, the Kinect would complain that it could not see the floor. Sometimes, it could see it OK, and calibrated fine using the card. However, when I try to play any game, just getting it started is a chore, since the hand movements are barely successfully tracked. I thought this was because the room was not too well lit (I have two lamps in front, none in the back), so I tried it again this morning. Same results. Calibrated OK, but could not even get a game going. Looks like the IR light is severely attenuated by the lens, so the kinect can only barely see me in IR. I will be trying some more tests when I get back home tonight, but so far, the verdict is that this is a total NO GO for me. If it is like this again tonight, I will be returning the unit to Amazon. UPDATE AFTER FURTHER EXPERIMENTATION: I think I figured out why the reviews are so bipolar. I have my Kinect mounted ABOVE the TV, because that is what works best in a limited space. However, the Zoom seems to work best when the sensor is BELOW the TV. I unmounted mine and placed it below, and went through the whole calibration routine again. Now, I was actually able play some GAMES! How about that. Played with Kinect Sports (Soccer, Ping Pong), Kinect Adventure (Reflex Ridge) and some Dance Central (just the basic Poker Face). It all played OK, with me standing about 3-4 feet from the sensor. HERE is an additional catch: when the sensor shows if you are in the "good" or "best" position in the game, try to stand back as far as the room allows so it thinks you are farther behind. Then, when the game starts go ahead and move up front. It seems to work best this way. Perhaps the initial distance determination is by some kind of an ultrasound range finder, and that can't be fooled by a lens, but the subsequent computations are based upon the IR field, which IS influenced by the lens. Also, the IR reflection is stronger the closer you are to the device, so it works better. Anyway, I am revising my stars to 2 because I could actually enjoy some game play with this thing. However, Nikko should have warned about the fact that this ONLY works for sensors mounted below the TV, and that too only in a limited fashion. I still have trouble getting it to recognize a hand wave even in the lower position. Takes me a while, but once it does, it seems to go better from that point. ALL REVIEWERS: Please state where your Kinect is mounted along with your review, thanks! FINAL UPDATE: I tried various games last night. Even in the lower position, hand tracking is very erratic. On some games it is totally unacceptable. For example, in Child of Eden, the hand tracking is critically important, and with this thing, you keep shooting at the wrong time, totally spoiling the fun of the game. At this point, I have given it the largest measure of the "benefit of doubt" and am giving up. I just filed for an RMA. Oh well, it was such a nice idea. I believe the only way this will work is if MS creates a supported update firmware that recomputes the geometry based on this new optics, or comes out with a version of their own (Kinect 2?).