Posts from the ‘Content’ Category
Mar 26
New Version of Miro – Internet TV / Torrent Downloader
Version 1.2 of Miro has just been released. It’s a major update with performance and bug fixes, new download settings, personalized channel recommendations based on your ratings. Miro is simply the easiest way to use bittorrent and the best video rss reader anywhere.
Blu-Ray vs. Apple TV HD vs. HD Cable vs. DVD
Over at iLounge they recently tested the picture quality of Blu-Ray, Apple TV 2.0 against DVD and HD Cable. Although not a scientific test, they paused the pictures and used a Nikon camera to capture the images, it does show the vast differences between the formats and the effects of compression.
Apple recently upgraded my Apple TV to version 2.0 and I rented an HD movie. The startup time was very quick, less than 2 minutes, although you have to navigate a couple of menus while it buffers–very un-Apple like. Once the download buffered sufficiently, playback was smooth. Overall the video quality was excellent, not Blu-ray quality but sufficient to warrant the difference in price for the HD rental–an extra dollar. The movie appeared a bit dark. I immediately thought Apple might be covering some compression artifacts.
Overall, AppleTV is great for the impulse rental satisfying a need that Netflix (via mail) cannot satisfy (Netflix download service doesn’t work with Mac and I don’t want to watch on my computer anyway).
The Most Anti-Tech Organizations in America
History is replete with examples of products, companies, and industries that fail to adapt and adopt to new technology. An article @PCWorld by Mark Sullivan on the 5 most anti-tech organizations in America.
Their names keep coming up over and over again in courtrooms and corridors of power across the country–those groups whose interests always seem to run counter to those of technology companies and consumers. They come in many forms: associations, think tanks, money-raising organizations, PACs, and even other tech-oriented industries like telecommunications.
The tech issues that they’re concerned with are what you might expect: digital rights management and fair use, patent law, broadband speed and reach, wireless spectrum and network neutrality. I talked to a good number of tech and media policy insiders in Washington, D.C.–mostly off the record–to find out who these groups are, how they operate, and who pays their bills. We’ll start with the biggest offenders first and work our way down.
- RIAA
- The Pharmaceutical/Biotech Industry
- Big Telco Companies, Industry Group USTelecom
- Verizon, AT&T, Progress and Freedom Foundation
- Large Wireless Carriers and the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA); TV Broadcasters and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB)
Ok, I buy the RIAA argument. I can even see how one can make an argument about big telcos and their industry organizations are slow to adopt new technologies. But the RIAA’s biggest crime, as it were, was not being anti-tech, but being out of touch with consumers–it’s customers.
Opposition to “net neutrality” is not by definition anti-tech. Case in point broadband. Take the MSOs and the introduction of cable modems. The cable industry moved at “broadband speed” to develop, test and deploy cable modem technology to the market. Why? They understood upcoming technology and bandwidth requirements and they anticipated customers demand. The cable industry took a risk and made investments assuming returns on those investments.
I’m not sure where net neutrality got off track. The initial mantra was equal access to information flowing over the Internet. Sounds great. Unfortunately proponents call for government to enforce equality. If you follow the major tech press you’ve undoubtedly heard the pro net neutrality arguments. For a look at an opposing viewpoint, The Cato Institute has prepared a policy analysis document which can be found athttp://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-507es.html.
Such rhetoric and calls for preemptive regulation are unjustified. There is no evidence that broadband operators are unfairly blocking access to websites or online services today, and there is no reason to expect them to do so in the future. No firm or industry has any sort of “bottleneck control” over or market power in the broadband marketplace; it is very much a competitive free-for-all, and no one has any idea what the future market will look like with so many new technologies and operators entering the picture. In the absence of clear harm, government typically doesn’t regulate in a preemptive, prophylactic fashion as CBUI members are requesting.
Moreover, far from being something regulators should forbid, vertical integration of new features and services by broadband network operators is an essential part of the innovation strategy companies will need to use to compete and offer customers the services they demand. Network operators also have property rights in their systems that need to be acknowledged and honored. Net neutrality mandates would flout those property rights and reject freedom of contract in this marketplace.
The regulatory regime envisioned by Net neutrality mandates would also open the door to a great deal of potential “gaming” of the regulatory system and allow firms to use the regulatory system to hobble competitors. Worse yet, it would encourage more FCC regulation of the Internet and broadband markets in general.
Government regulation of the Internet or broadband providers is a proverbial slippery slope–or in this case maybe better described as a slippery water slide.
The rest of the original article can be found at PCWorld
Intel to Unveil Chips for Improving Video Quality on the Web
From the NYT: Intel plans to announce a family of microprocessor chips on Monday that it says will speed the availability of high-definition video via the Internet.
As consumers clamor for more Internet video, a huge computing burden is placed on companies like Google, Microsoft and providers of digital video, who must compress the video files so they can be streamed to desktop and portable computers.
Intel’s new family, made up of 16 processors, would first be used in servers and high-end desktops that compress the video. They are the first chips based on a new manufacturing process that Intel says will give it a significant competitive advantage by increasing computing performance while reducing power consumption.
To get better video compression, Intel has added a set of 46 instructions it calls SSE4 to the new microprocessors.
The leading designer of the new processor, Steve Fischer, said the new instructions would make possible a new generation of servers that enhance the compression of digital video. “Video is becoming ubiquitous on the Web,” he said.
“This is a step in the right direction,” said Richard Doherty, president of Envisioneering, “and it’s probably the best use for this 45-nanometer technology over the next couple of years.”
I Want My iTV
Cliff Sullivan from BusinessWeek writes,
But I won’t be getting it soon. While the technology is mostly in place, the players—from cable companies to film studios—can’t agree on how to make it happen.
I want to listen to music, have a box pop up on my screen telling me who’s phoning my home, or watch a vacation-themed slide show before forwarding it on to bore my friends on Facebook—all while sitting in front of the set in my living room. No one has yet put this wish list together in one nice, easy-to-use package.
They sure haven’t. As the author correctly points out, the reason is not the technology, but protection of existing business models. No one is addressing the gap between online content and the television.
While new technologies like IPTV bring digital content over IP to a STB connected to a TV, they do nothing to bridge the gap between online media and the TV.
So read the article at the BusinessWeek site and weigh in. What do you think? Is anyone addressing this gap? Do you want to watch online media on your TV? What features would you like to see in an iTV offering?
SanDisk’s Video Salvo
If your home is like mine, then you have a multi-megabit broadband connection, one or more HD capable TV sets, a wired or wireless home network and one or more PCs (ok mine aren’t all PCs–6 of them are Macs, and one PC running FreeBSD).
While having 7 computers, takes my home out of the norm (is it the number of computers or the fact that 6 of them are Macs?), my home suffers the same dilemma as the average consumer’s home. There is a gaping digital chasm between the personal computer and the television set.
There are several ways to watch downloaded programs and movies on the living room TV. Methods typically involve the transfer of video files over a home network from a computer to some gadget (I have an Apple TV, does that count as another computer?) connected to the TV. But few of them are easy, trust me I have tried them all.
The maker of the Sansa, a distant No. 2 to the iPod, has a new way to view downloaded content on a TV. It could turn up the heat on Apple.
SanDisk CEO Eli Harari says launching Fanfare has less to do with attacking Apple in a potentially tender spot than about establishing a toehold in an incipient market. “The video market right now is just embryonic,” he says. “Media companies have spent a great deal of money creating their content and they don’t want anyone to tell them how to sell it. And we agree with them.”
For David Poltrack, president of CBS Vision, the TV broadcaster’s research division, it’s a matter of getting the networks’ programming in places that consumers will use it. “When we tested the SanDisk product it clearly resonated with consumers,” Poltrack says. “There are other ways to do this with more sophisticated products, but because of cost and complexity they’re not as attractive. This is going to be selling at Wal-Mart (WMT).”
Combining the TakeTV device with the Fanfare service creates the means of tracking ads, he says. “When you plug in that device to the computer and sign in to the service it knows who you are,” he says. “Having people say these are the categories of ads they’re interested in—that opens up a lot of ways for advertisers to use this medium creatively.”
Taking a low-tech approach on PC-to-TV transfers could make a big difference to consumers weary of technical complexity, says Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg. “We know consumers want to watch downloaded video on their TVs. But the biggest weakness is the complexity of the home network,” he says. “This takes the maddening complexity of the home network out of the equation.”
Sounds like a a lot of walking back and forth between PC & TV to me and completely misses the impulsive nature of TV consumption.
Oct 22
Imagine the Sony PS3 as a digital media center
As Brier Dudley from the Seattle Times points out in his latest article,
A lot of people who bought fancy TVs over the past year or two have been looking for ways to get more digital content on their screens. They’ve been waiting for high-def player prices to fall, and for a resolution to the format war between the Sony-backed Blu-ray and the Microsoft-backed HD-DVD.
I have been thinking about this a lot lately. My repsonse: You bet they do, but not just from Blu-ray or HD-DVD discs, more and more they want to get content online. Blu-ray is great and I enjoy watching HD movies on my PS3. But more and more, I would really like to be able to access online content.
Dudley continues,
That’s where Sony is releasing an add-on TV tuner that turns the PS3 into a TiVo-like video recorder. It’s also where Sony is talking up plans for an online video and music store, similar to the ones operated here by Microsoft and Amazon.
Cool, I can watch and record TV and even download videos and music directly from Sony. Sounds great, doesn’t it? What about my iTunes library, YouTube, Flickr and all the other content available online? Will I be able listen/view that content? What about online content like Hulu? Will Sony make all that available and stream it to my PS3? Well, it’s too early to say for sure, to my knowledge Sony hasn’t been specific about online content for its PS3 platform, but based on the past behavior let’s say–I doubt it.
Dudley asks the pivotal question,
Will we keep using PCs to download and store this stuff, or will some computerish consumer-electronics gadget emerge as the new home-entertainment hub?
With game consoles in over 40% of US households and with most of the consoles in broadband connected households, the PS3, XBox 360 and Nintendo Wii, could play a pivotal roles as an entertainment hubs. The problem is each of these companies has a vested interest in building an ecosystem around their platform and only their platform. Call it an “insular ecosystem”. So when Sony builds their online content service, it will serve PS3s and only PS3s. Microsoft will counter with an expanded 360 content platform serving only 360s. And lest one forget, the PS3 (and the 360) as game platforms first and foremost.
While both Sony and Microsoft have become more comfortable with the “give away the razor, sell the blades” economics of game consoles (I am sure they would both vehemently state their hardware businesses are profitable–sure they are, because they can dump much of the costs into another category on the P&L), content and services will be rolled almost exclusively as a platform differentiator. In other words, they will view online content and services as a marketing expense to sell more hardware to sell more games.
As long as Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo create insular ecosystems, the game console as a digital hub will never take off.
For now, it is great to see the online connectivity options enhanced on the PS3. I am certain there will be more to this story.
An Open Letter to NBC re: Leaving Apple’s iTunes Store
Two years ago, the idea of paying $2 per episode for a TV show seemed almost crazy, thanks mostly to DVRs, VCRs and file-sharing networks. But the iTunes Store has changed that, and helped to popularize TV shows such as The Office, Battlestar Galactica, and Heroes in the process. Now NBC is threatening to pull out of iTunes. Sound off inside.
Aug 31
Apple responds: NBC wanted $4.99 per TV show episode!
Apple has responded to news that NBC will not renew its iTunes contract. In a shocker, NBC wanted an eye popping $4.99 per episode, which is up from the $1.99 price that over 50 cable networks have agreed to this fall. As a result, the iTunes Store will not offer any episodes from the upcoming seasons of NBC TV shows.
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