Digital Media Bytes

A periodic roundup of relevant news… from our other blogs:

SageTV HD200 HD Theater GeekTonic Review
After putting the HD200 through the paces for about a month at the GeekTonic House, it’s finally time to share how the new SageTV HD200 performs compared to the earlier SageTV HD100 and how it stacks up as a HTPC extender and Stand-Alone Media Player.

NCTA President McSlarrow on the Broadband Stimulus
McSlarrow focuses on four core broadband issues: affordability, adoption, deployment, and next-generation architecture. In the first three categories he sees a potential role for government: extend a lifeline so that low-income households can afford broadband, help subsidize low-end notebooks/netbooks to increase adoption, and put money toward getting broadband deployed in unserved neighborhoods.

Recession? People Still Pay for TV
While the two largest cable companies in the US won’t report numbers until February, the two largest telcos have stated their quarterly earnings, and the news for pay TV is decidedly positive.

The Economics of Internet Video
As an analyst points out in his coverage of Netflix, “the more customers stream, the more Netflix (and other streamers) will have to pay studios for the content.” And that equation doesn’t even include the cost of maintaining a broadband infrastructure that can handle mass volumes of content. Ergo, free streaming isn’t a forever deal.

Comcast Targets Innocent Customer In P2P Dragnet
John Aprigliano received a letter from Comcast asking him to take down a torrent that he was allegedly seeding. As if hitting him with a bogus DMCA takedown request wasn’t bad enough, Comcast had to insult his taste in movies by accusing him of sharing Cadillac Records. When he called Comcast to figure it out, he got the usual run around.

A few weeks with an Android
I’m definitely a convert and am excited to see how the Android platform develops in the future. And it will develop, as the openness at the heart of Android is precisely the approach more consumer electronics will have to take in the future.