HTPC Archives - Page 25 of 30

Dave Wants His Vista

The question is: How come I’m not running Vista? As an early adopter, I’m a little embarrassed and a lot frustrated in not having a shipping copy of Vista. I did get on board early with beta testing — I distinctly recall loading up a laptop with a TechNet-issued copy of Vista for the August, 2005 Engadget meetup in DC.

I thought I had a good plan in place for acquiring Vista, but I’m somewhat impatient. When we decided to visit a great uncle in upstate NY for Thanksgiving, it seemed like a good time to replace his aging PC with my aging PC. Of course that decision was made the same week it was announced that all XP machine purchases would be eligible for a copy of Vista. Imagine the coincidence! ;) So I bought myself a powerful, though inexpensive, HP running XP MCE in October with expectations of receiving Vista in February.

With all the bitching and moaning going on about Vista and DRM, it’s nice to see that Lifehacker has some good news for us. The updated version of Windows Movie Maker has the ability to edit video files that Vista’s Media Center components record… you know, without DRM. True, you’re probably not going to get at CableCARD content — But this new functionality actually makes at least a portion of Vista less restrictive than XP. So strip out your commercials, put some pretty menus and transitions in, then burn DVDs ’til the cows (or Leopards) come home.

In case you hadn’t heard (yeah, right), Windows Vista is now shipping. One of the more interesting features is Windows Media Player’s ability to stream media, not only to Xbox 360s and Media Extenders, but to other LAN PCs running Vista. Though WMP 11 has been available on XP for some time, this particular feature is not supported. Yes, I know, iTunes enables library sharing as well.

Microsoft writes:

You can share nearly any digital media file in your Player library, including protected Windows Media files that you have downloaded from online stores. To share a file in your library, the original file must be stored in one of your monitored folders.

Yahoo Demos “My Channel” @ CES (Go TV MIA)

Yahoo was doing more than handing out Cold Stone ice cream (yummy, but huh?) in their CES tent… they also had some technology on display. The big news was the beta release of Yahoo Go 2.0 for many Java-capable cell phones (Windows Mobile not included) and providing free push email for Apple’s iPhone (announced over at Macworld).

But what caught my eye were the flat panel televisions over in the corner. The Yahoo football widget was on display on one TV. It’s extremely slick, allowing you to check out all sorts of scores, your fantasy stats, and live video PIP through the 10′ interface. Too bad they’re only offering it through Intel Viiv (a marketing term, not a technology) this season and excluding most PC owners. Hook me up next year, Yahoo?

I assumed the other flat panel would have Go TV — You know, the PC DVR software based on Yahoo’s acquisition of Meedio. Instead, they were demoing “My Channel” which they call a prototype at this point. While My Channel does include DVR functionality (guide, recording, live tv), the emphasis is on community and personalization (think Flickr, friend invites). Like Go TV, the software is PC-based and can be controlled via remote.

CableCARD on PC

I got to touch this ATI box which provides add-on CableCARD functionality, presumably for Vista PCs. Unfortunately, there was no one around to speak with about it… Which is probably OK, since the majority of folks I’ve had questions for have been unable to address the more technical stuff. (Frustrating!) The device is about the … Read more

The Xbox 360, CinemaNow, & Sleeper Cell Experiment

When CinemaNow announced the addition of Showtime and A&E into their stable of network TV partners, I decided to give the service a spin with a free episode of Sleeper Cell. While iTunes does carry Showtime programming, they don’t currently offer the second Sleeper Cell mini-series… And when downloading shows via iTunes, I have to hook my laptop up to a TV via SVideo (thanks, Work) and an audio cable — Watching without the use of a remote control. Knowing that CinemaNow has a Windows Media Center Edition (MCE) widget, I hoped I might be able to stream the show from computer to television by way of my new Xbox 360.

I started by downloading the 58 minute show (@ 670MB) via Internet Explorer (no love for Firefox). On The 360, I fired up media extender functionality and entered Cinema Now’s app. After logging in and futzing around for several minutes, I realized this version only supports movie rentals and doesn’t tie into movie or television purchases. Next, I tried looking in the My Videos section of the Xbox’s extender. No movie there. And why would it be? I saved it to the Desktop folder. So my next step was to move it (on the PC of course) to the My Documents/My Videos folder. Still no love via the 360 media extender. Back to the PC, I went… moving the video to the shared My Documents/My Videos folder. Success, the Xbox sees it. I hit play and get a security error. But I’m stubborn, so I hit play again.. and it works!

Sleeper Cell streamed no prob over my WiFi network. But boy was the video quality iffy. I spent the first five minutes or so complaining about the dark, grainy picture and tweaking the brightness and contrast on the 30″ HDTV. There’s no way I would recommend watching this on anything larger. (In the past I’ve watched iTunes shows and MovieLink movies via the 32″ bedroom SDTV, so the lower quality downloads weren’t a visible issue.) Once I got into the show (content is king) I did find it enjoyable. I was pleasantly surprised they provided it in 16:9 — a nice perk, well maybe once they bump the resolution.

So, what did I learn? Non-geeks won’t bother and high-def aficionados shouldn’t. Having said that, there’s a fairly high probability I will go this route (CinemaNow -> PC -> Xbox 360 -> TV) to watch the remaining Sleeper Cell episodes — but folks like me make up a tiny niche within the content-download niche, and we surely cannot sustain this business model. Which goes to show that Apple could own this market with iTV if they execute on the usability end. Given their past successes, it could be a safe bet. Of course, Microsoft would help itself by adding more content to the Xbox 360 so we can bypass these third party hacks.

Deal Of The Deal: $99 Wireless Media Extender

Chris Lanier turned me on to Woot’s daily deal of a refurb Linksys WMCE54AG MCE extender for a low $99. The device is wireless — supporting both A and G networks, though it doesn’t look like it offers WPA. It only connects to Windows Media Center 2005 and, given the lack of firmware updates, I … Read more

Digital Media Bytes

A periodic roundup of relevant news… Philips cranks out Windows Vista Media Center remotes: Chris Lanier BBC to offer free show downloads for the US: BBC Hands on with Akimbo’s new RCA box: GigaOM Walmart bundles adult content with Zune: Fox Chicago Arrington dumps Netflix for Blockbuster: TechCrunch Purchase a TiVo Series3 for as low … Read more