Brent Evans YouTube has updated their standard web player from the 4:3 aspect ratio to a widescreen format. (All 4:3 videos display vertical black bars on the sides.) YouTube moving this direction is notable since it is the best known and most popular of the online video sites. And along with YouTube’s move towards full-length films (so … Read more
Curious about those DirecTV tuners coming for Windows 7 Media Center? You know, the ones everyone was told would arrive for Vista eventually… Well, Ben Drawbaugh of EngadgetHD is in Seattle visiting with the Microsoft eHome offices and got a bunch of photos of those DirecTV HDPC-20’s in action. For those of you interested (this … Read more
The Financial Times reports that Hulu.com, the upstart video streaming and sharing site founded by NBC and backed by News Corp, is projected to equal or possibly even surpass YouTube in U.S. advertising revenue next year. This doesn’t remotely surprise me despite the fact that Google has been trying to monetize since acquiring YouTube two … Read more
Microsoft is polling members of the Green Button community to find potential beta testers for Windows 7 Media Center. You can learn something from a poll like this and as I read through the questions, I noticed an emphasis on satellite TV – which further confirms the DirecTV support coming in Windows 7. Here are … Read more
After years of stringing Microsoft’s Media Center users along from XP Media Center to Vista Media Center to the much-less-then-expected Fiji, we’ve been promised a CableCARD-like DirecTV tuner. Fast forward to Ed Bott’s DirecTV HDPC-20 USB tuner driver discovery within a pre-release of Windows 7. This doesn’t necessarily mean there’s a HDPC20 device at the … Read more
If you delve very far into the world of home theater PCs (HTPCs), one of the first things you’ll want to tackle is freeing yourself from the keyboard and mouse. To really transform your HTPC into more of a set-top box and less of a computer, you’ll obviously want to control it with a remote … Read more
If you’ve wanted the Netflix Watch Instantly service on your Mac, there’s now a way to opt-in. But, be warned, this is a all-in no-turning-back procedure. Some caveats: Once you switch to the new, Silverlight version of the Netflix player, you won’t be able to access the older, IE version. You Netflix account will use … Read more
The Microsoft Professional Developer Conference has been covering new features planned for Windows 7 and attendees have received an early version of the software for testing and feedback – so news and tidbits are leaking out onto the web. Last week many screen-shots were available to look at, but there wasn’t much in the way … Read more