Month: October 2004

I was reading Jim Louderback’s review of the Hughes DirecTV DVR on Extremetech and got to thinking…

You’ve got to be crazy to spend upwards of $1000 for a DVR. I know the Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8000HD system I have is far from perfect, but

• It’s integrated with my cable service and
• the box is free!

I know I’ve ranted previously about the marketing mistakes made my TiVO, but now it’s really coming to a rapid end. TiVO2Go is coming sure and will let you watch via key system on your PC, but the damn things are limited in what they can really do for all that cash. Even if you have a DVD based system, it seems you can only playback on the same system – ouch. Soon enough TiVO will automatically upgrade your box so that you can only save an on-demand program for a limited time. This is actually better than the cable system which completely prevents recording of this same programming, but the effect is the same in the end. You have no control over your video content from TV, and with HD just like DVD it gets even tougher to move around.

It won’t matter that you’ve paid for the box, or that I did not. Neither of us will be able to digitally archive in full resolution without a crack and some legal scrapes. It’s unfortunate that for now the way it works on the Sat side is that you have to buy a bunch of stuff – seems the best deal and most channels for HD are on Voom. On my cable system I get quite a few HD channels (HBO, SHO, CBS, TNTHD, NBC, FOX, ABC, PBS and DiscoveryHD Theater). HBO, SHO, TNTHD, PBS and Discovery are all HD all the time. The networks play an interesting shell game with what programs are actually HD vs simply an enhanced SD signal.

As Jim noted in his review of the Hughes box, it’s been crippled on a few fronts. The video outs are limited to a single source at a time and the HDMI connect blocks access to component connections when active. This last bit is not surprising given that my SA box does not support simultaneous use of the video outs either… I won’t be able to test when the DVI gets activated as I don’t have a capable HD set. The closest anyone will get to sharing on a home network will be with the Explorer 8300 series and these will allow (in theory as they are being tested now in some markets) watching and continuing in a another room. Your video content will continue to be locked down as it is now and only capable of being extracted by first passing through an A-D and back again process.

You see we are all apparently thieves…

There’s no way to archive on a network today to clear space on a DVR drive for more current programming. While the box is on the network, it’s not accessible to any of us. The new HD DVR box no longer even has the FireWire port which would have had to have been turned on per the FCC mandate as of April 1, 2004. Removing the FW port was a not so subtle move around compliance and stunts consumer access because without it, there’s no reason for people to call to gain access to their content.

Back to the main reason I started writing this… Why the hell would I pay money to knowingly get blocked? Once the broadcast flag gets activated, we will lose what limited access to video material we have today outside of public airwave material, though if it’s in HD there won’t be any easy way to store it for any great length of time (I have no way or desire to use a terrestrial antenna). The HD TiVOs will all comply as they have already begun to do. This will make promoting TiVO as a premium service even more difficult as these changes come into effect. Scientific Atlanta’s business is booming right now thanks to the marketing efforts of cable companies like Comcast and Time Warner. The more aware consumers become of the opportunity for advanced (yes though limited even if they don’t care or know) TiVO will struggle.

Don’t get me wrong, I actually like TiVO. Seriously… I do. I purchased a Series 1 box a few years back but left it to gather dust for integrated 2 tuner cable guide service and now HD. It’s just way to difficult to justify the cost and potential service on a box when I just swap out the one I have now if and when something better comes along or if something goes wrong.

Michael Gartenberg at Jupiter Research posts on what he views as the real reason for the lack of a video iPod and it’s actually quite simple – legal.

While there are plenty of ways to convert or simply play video content from a DVD on your home network none are actually legal even though you can do the same thing with music. Ah lobbies…

I saw some interesting theories why three’s no video iPod. I won’t get into the argument about whether consumers want mobile video. There’s clearly a segment that does and I won’t debate that side of the argument. The argument I read today goes since Steve Jobs owns Pixar he doesn’t want illegal movies ripped. Perhaps. But that’s not the reason. It’s because unlike music, it’s illegal to rip a DVD to your hard drive, Pixar or otherwise. Simple. No same company wants to get into that legal issue with the studios and provide those tools. Not Apple. Not Microsoft. In fact, the reason MediaCenter Extenders won’t stream DVDs from your MCE to the device is that in order to do so they need to be decrypted to send the stream. That’s illegal too. Should it be? Of course not, but at the moment, it is. The only other source of legal video content is recorded TV and Apple at the moment has no interest in playing in that market. Should they? Perhaps, but that’s another story. Now there’s always personal created video but the market for that is tiny… really, really tiny. Call me and I’ll show you how small those numbers are. There’s a reason we call them consumers, as they consume content and not create it. There’s no market for the video iPod for Apple’s customers at the moment. No evil schemes. No Machiavellian thoughts behind it. It’s just not a good move for Apple without the sources of content they need. They will be there and we will get a video iPod one day. Just not this one. [Michael Gartenberg: ]

I caught a tip via Palm Addicts which led me over to Expansys… Looks like the Treo 650 will be available in January…

Finally live on the PalmOne site

A link from Treonauts led me to a pending product page from Palm. The Treo 650 is one of the worst kept secrets in gadget-land and will be officially announced tomorrow.

The main disappointment to me is the low internal memory. I’d been hoping for more to allow for both more apps installed as well as just more storage for more email on the go. If you use IMAP, you’ll find yourself limiting the number of days back you sync as it tends to add up pretty quickly.

MyC3 is a very cool car-puter designed to play your MP3s and will soon support an rsync nightly to maintain a fully up to date collection in both car and home.