Digital media from a Windows point of view

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)

Mike Cullison has been playing with DIRECTV’s New HD DVR. His report is not encouraging: 

The box works, but I’m not sure it’s really ready for prime time. Last night, for instance, I had to do a hard reboot two times because it locked up and would not respond to the remote. It did a terrible job recording Ugly Betty (on ABC) last night. The video was really mangled, almost to the point that it was not watchable.

The recordings also seem to stall during playback, almost like a bad DVD. When it stalls, no amount of button pushing — fast forward, reverse, play — seems to make it go. It just sits there for a while and then starts over again from the beginning of the recording.

Earlier in the week, the box lost its mind somehow, and would no longer receive my local HD channels. Just all of a sudden they weren’t there when it was time to start recording prime time shows. I called on that one and they sent some data to my receiver and then had be reboot and they came back.

Ugh. I’ve been hoping that this new DVR (with an updated antenna dish) would finally replace my slowpoke DirecTiVo and allow me to get local channels in HD. Looks like this one isn’t ready for primetime.

Meanwhile, DirecTV pushed a setup message to me over the weekend informing me that the long-awaited 6.3 software update will arrive “soon.”

And no, I won’t fork over a grand (including the cost of a lifetime subscription) to TiVo for its new Series 3 box. For one thing, that price tag is ridiculous. For another, it would mean switching to Comcast. Shudder.

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Dave Zatz has a picture of what appears to be an upcoming TiVo offer. Apparently you’ll be able to transfer your “product lifetime service” from an old TiVo to a new CableCARD-equipped HD-ready Series 3 for $199.

I had an inkling this was coming, because I currently own lifetime service on a TiVo Series 1 and received a questionnaire from TiVo a few weeks ago that asked a bunch of questions about whether I would be more or less likely to purchase a new TiVo if they would honor that lifetime agreement. (No details on TiVo’s site yet, just a sign-up sheet for e-mail announcements.)

Now, at $800 for the box and $200 for the lifetime service agreement (in lieu of a probable $15 monthly charge, giving it a payback period of  about 14 months) and who-knows-how much for Comcast to rent me a pair of CableCARD devices… Well, let’s just say I’m not feeling a thousand bucks worth of love.

It’ll be interesting to see what the street value of a “product lifetime service” plan on an older TiVo is after this deal becomes official.

Chris Lanier says “Windows Vista will support HD DVD playback on 32-bit machines.”  He is contradicting a whole bunch of people who have been swarming over a controversial story since this afternoon.

Every once in a while I disagree with Chris on some issue. And every single time, I turn out to be wrong.

Y’all in the blogosphere might want to learn from my mistakes.

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.

Greed is good, apparently. That’s the takeaway I get from this story:

Rolling Stones tour with phones

Can’t make it to Europe for the current tour by the Rolling Stones? No problem.

Dial a toll-free number and listen to them perform all down the line in real time for $1.99 per seven minutes.

[…]

According to a statement, U.S. fans can buy in by calling [a toll-free number]from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific time. At the six-minute mark, a voice will warn them that the time is almost up, which makes bootlegging the concerts a challenge.

I’m not sure which is more craptacular: The greed of the companies behind this, or the stupidity of anyone who would actually pay. Who is stupid enough to pay anything, even two bucks, to listen to seven minutes of a live concert over a freakin’ phone? I guess if a bunch of gazillionaires can convince their fans to cough up $100 each for a Platinum fan club membership that gives them the right to compete with other suckers, er, fans to spend $352.50 per ticket (plus convenience charges and handling fees) to see a rock and roll show.

Nice retirement plan you got there, Mick.

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?

Dave Zatz reports: TiVo Confirms Series3 Testing, Hitting Retail “Soon”.

TiVo has notified both the FCC and cable operators that CableCARD compliant HD Series3 units are currently being tested and should be released to retail… soon!

Dave has details from a letter TiVo sent to the FCC. Two tuners, HD capability, no set-top box required? Sounds good. I worry about the price, however. I believe my local cable company wants to charge $5 each for a CableCARD device, and TiVo will want another $13 a month plus the cost of the box. That’s a steep premium over the $10 that the cable company’s PVR costs to rent, and you know their sales staff will try every trick in the book to talk customers out of switching. For digital media fanatics, upgrading to the new TiVo will be a slam-dunk. For anyone else, not so easy.

Meanwhile, I’m still waiting for any word on when we can see and touch and watch recorded TV on CableCARD devices for Windows Vista Media Center computers.