Seriously... if you are a hobbyist, why would you pay $909 for a scope that is similar to the DS1054Z? Except for higher sample memory, is there any new feature on the MSO5000 that a hobbyist can take advantage of vs the 1054Z?
Bigger screen, per-channel controls, touch screen, HDMI output, web interface, better FFT?
OTOH the $909 model only has two channels and no serial decoding, so...
The success/fail of this will depend
entirely on the hacking, IMHO. I don't see why anybody would buy the $909 model instead of the much cheaper 2-channel Siglent (is a fancy screen and separate controls worth $400 plus loss of bandwidth and serial decoders? I don't think so)
No hacks=no sales. Rigol must know that. I can't believe they'll throw away all the R&D effort for their new chipset by trying to sell it at the official prices, it would be suicide.
They have the option of offering "free" options, sure, it wouldn't surprise me if you get free serial decoders this Xmas, but they'll probably make far more money in the long term by just letting people hack it.
Hacking this would completely kill their DS2000X range though and I bet there's an idiot boss at Rigol who's worried about that.
I'm sure the hack will happen, the only question is whether you need JTAG or just a keygen.
There's higher sampling rate, too.
Not in the $909 model.