[861's] were never SOFWARE Upgradeable
To be fair, Meridian never claimed that they were upgrageable by SOFTWARE only. Sure, some Firmware Updates did result in a performance or feature benefit, but Meridian only claimed that they could be Upgraded. The "How" was never really mentioned
Try Upgrading your 8 year old Car, Computer, Phone, Server, or ANY other AV Component using SOFTWARE only (I.e. No hardware change) and see how far you get
There are many here frustrated with Meridian's slow pace but expecting to upgrade by software alone is complete pie in the sky