Entries Tagged 'Hardware' ↓

Jake Ludington zeroes in on one of my pet peeves in this recent post, where he winds up and lets it fly at the big consumer electronics retail chains for selling overpriced cables to gullible consumers. I ran into this a couple years ago when I was looking for an  digital optical audio cable (TOSLINK) and thought I’d pick one up at my local Best Buy. They had 10 varieties in stock. But the lowest price was nearly $40, and they actually wanted over $100 for a single audio cable. (Their prices are still crazy. See for yourself.)

As Jake notes, this is nonsense: 

Both HDMI and DVI cables deliver a digital signal, similar to the way USB or FireWire cables deliver digital signals. These are signals that can’t be degraded by environmental interference because they are made up of binary data that’s transmitted from the source (PC, PlayStation 3, HD-DVD player, etc) and displayed on the other end (the screen). The only scenario where the cable ceases to work is if it’s damaged in some way.

There’s really no excuse for a basic audio patch cable to cost more than about 10 bucks. Sure, go ahead and pay a premium for a well-made cable with high-quality connecters. That’s the difference between a $3 product and one that costs $5 or maybe just a little more.

I think I wound up buying three cables for $5.99 apiece including shipping. And I don’t even bother going into Best Buy anymore except to see how cheap flat-screen TVs are these days.

Andy has a detailed description of the process he went through in selecting components for his new built-from-scratch MCE PC:

I evangelize MCE to pretty much anyone who will listen.  Once they’re sold on the concept most ask how much it costs, I tell them that the cost of an entry level system is pretty minimal $300-$500 but the sky is the limit depending on what you want to put in it.  Here’s my system and the reasoning behind it.  In most cases the link goes to the manufacture’s page, but in some cases (OEM or I couldn’t find it on their site) I link to where you can buy it.

I could quibble over a few bits (for example, I would recommend the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-500MCE, which is identical to the 150 but has two tuners on board, with a daughterboard that adds S-Video and component connections for the second tuner). Still, excellent advice. I’ll be building a new Media Center PC early next year and this will really help.

Through the years, I have tried just about every imaginable all-in-one remote control. The Logitech Harmony 680 finally won me over last year. Its combination of downloadable codes and an easy-to-customize activity-based interface is a usability winner.

The 680 is specifically designed for use with Windows Media Center, and it’s also perfect for use with an Xbox 360 as an extender. So would I consider trading it in for the new Logitech Harmony 1000 Advanced Universal Remote?

On the plus side, I like the bright, oversized display. One complaint about any handheld all-in-one remote is that the buttons are hard to see, especially in a dimly lit room.

On the downside, I’ve had some bad experiences with touchscreen displays, especially on the Philips Pronto. But I have to believe that Logitech wouldn’t have released this product if the touchscreen wasn’t up their usual stellar level of quality.

Ultimately, it comes down to price. $499 is a lot of money for a remote. If I were a Rockefeller or a Gates, I wouldn’t think twice. But I’m not, so I do. And given all the other things that money can buy, the trusty old Harmony 680 looks like it has several more years of life in it.

(via Digital Trends by way of Digital Media Thoughts)

OK, I have serious gadget lust. As much as I love the interface of the DirecTiVo HD box, it has too many flaws. No local HDTV, horrible lags (sometimes more than minute) when saving changes, no folders or multi-room features like Series 2 TiVos…

So I was thrilled when PVRWire provided a link to Earl Bonovich’s review of the new DirecTV HD DVR at DBSTalk. I first wrote about this last October, when it was just a rumor.  The review format is a strange one, chopped into a series of forum posts with pictures available only via links. But it’s loaded with information from someone who has clearly spent time with this product.

Some details:

Here is a brief summary of the HR20 features

• High Definition TV Output (via HDMI and Component)
• 2 Sets of RCA (Red/White/Yellow Outputs) - 1 S-Video
• 1 Optical Digital Output
• Dual SAT Tuners
• Dual ATSC Tuners (functionality is disabled at this time, see notes later in the review)
• Wired RJ-45 Ethernet Port
• External SATA Connection
• 300gb SATA Internal Hard Drive
• RF Remote Compatible with the Included RC24, and the soon to be released RC32RF

Estimated Recording Space (Not a cumulative value)

• ~ 30 Hours of MPEG-2 (OTA) HD
• ~ 50 Hours of MPEG-4 HD
• ~ 200 Hours of Standard Definition (SD)

Unit was manufactured by PACE

The Official Model Number: HR20-700

I could have used more direct descriptions and comparisons of the interface, which after all is the TiVo’s big strength. But the existence of an external SATA connector is a huge plus.

If you’re looking for a DirecTiVo HR10-250 recorder, something tells me I’ll have one for sale real soon.

My ZDNet colleague George Ou asks an interesting question: Why does that new widescreen HDTV look so weird?

It’s a good summary of the issues that come up when you try to watch a standard 4:3 picture on a wide (16:9) display, or vice versa. And he has lots of good screen shots to illustrate the pros, cons, and tradeoffs of each option. Basically, with a standard picture on a full-screen display, you can choose between a distorted full image, an undistorted image that’s had the top and bottom cropped off, or a picture that uses only the center of the display and leaves bars (usually gray or balck) on either side.

If you use Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 with Update Rollup 2, there’s an additional “smart stretch” option, which stretches the edges of the current picture but leaves the center undistorted. I’ve found it to be an excellent compromise, if your hardware can handle it. I covered this topic last fall in a post that’s worth revisiting if this topic interests you.

The (unofficial) TiVoBlog has a snippet from an e-mail exchange between a Time Warner cable customer and a cable rep. Here’s what the rep said (emphasis added)

Time Warner Cable of Raleigh does not provide support for or allow TIVO devices on our cable network. Time Warner Cable provides DVR service and equipment for customers that would like to record programs and watch them later. Cable Cards will only be installed on Cable ready, Cable Card slot available television sets. This policy is subject to change at the discretion of Time Warner Cable of Raleigh.

I’ve been predicting this for a while. The cable companies have a powerful incentive to delay and obstruct any alternatives to their set-top boxes. If they can do thi with a TiVo Series 3, what’s to stop them from blocking a CableCARD-enabled Media Center PC when those are available next year?

Interesting article in the New York Times over the holiday, arguing that CableCard Hasn’t Been Able to Kill the Set-Top Box. One analyst even says, “The CableCard is essentially dead.”

I’ve argued before that cable operators have a powerful incentive to delay and stall and put up technological roadblocks to make CableCard technology much less attractive than the “simple” option of just getting the set-top box. Looks like that playbook has worked perfectly.

PC-based CableCard devices are due to appear next year; we’ll see if they can buck this trend.

Rumor has it that Comcast is about to begin beta-testing its HD TiVo. If anyone from Comcast or TiVo is reading this, I’m interested.

Engadget has word of new Blu-ray drives from Iodata and Panasonic. Small problem: They’re $850 to $1000 each. No word on how much the media will cost, but I’d expect it to be a small fortune, too.

And what can you play on these drives? For $28.99, each, you can take your pick of The Last Samurai, Million Dollar Baby, or Phantom of the Opera. Another dozen or so titles are due in the next six weeks.

This is one time when I really can’t see any good reason to be an early adopter.

Update: In the comments, Chris Lanier points out that the titles I linked above are HD-DVD, not Blu-ray. Thanks, Chris! According to one report, the first Blu-ray releases won’t be available until the end of May. Some of the scintillating titles in that first wave include 50 First Dates, The Fifth Element, Hitch, House of Flying Daggers, A Knight’s Tale, The Last Waltz, Resident Evil Apocalypse, For a Few Dollars More, and XXX. Man, that’s a sorry list.

Update 2: The PC Doctor says blank media will be more expensive than pre-recorded disks: “Around $20 - $25 for a single 25GB disc (depending on whether the discs are BD-R or BD-RE format). There are also going to be 50GB discs that are going to cost around $50 a disc.” You do not want to burn a coaster at those prices.

Barb Bowman has step-by-step details on how she installed Windows Media Center Edition 2005 on a Mac.

She added an external USB tuner and a DVD decoder. It’ll be interesting to see how well this solution works over time. Sure seems like a great use for a dual-core Mac Mini, doesn’t it?

(thanks to Scott Kingery for the tip)

Update: Pictures of live TV running via MCE on a MacBook Pro Intel here.