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Time reduction coming for Transcoding

We’ve mentioned before what ATI’s Avivo technology will bring to the table, but ExtremeTech has got an early look at their yet-to-be-released Avivo Transcode application (pictured). When paired with a compatible videocard it cut the time to convert video clips to an amazing 1/5 of the original.

HD Beat

Tasty treat for sure!  Time is the second killer to managing portable video – only second to the complexity of ripping and choosing the right formats.  When you miss after waiting for (sometimes) hours, it really sucks.

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Nikon 18-200mm Vibration Reduction Lens

The VR II feature enables significantly sharper handheld images at slower shutter speeds and in a wider range of lighting conditions than previous models. Equipped with the new lens, users can take pictures at shutter speeds up to four times slower than is possible with a non-VR lens.

PhotographyBLOG –

I’ve been looking around at lenses for my new camera and this looks pretty interesting.  Have to keep browsing for reviews…

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Premium Distributed Content from Apple?

I’ve been thinking about the iPod 5G and the video capability in iTunes and the ITMS and considering the success announced this week believe that it’s quite possible for things to accelerate much more rapidly towards a new network model.

If you think about the manner in which you subscribe to a podcast and apply that to a TV show, you can probably agree that it’s easy to see offering beyond the single pricing for programs.  If you add in the rest of the networks and possibly some cable access (Comedy Central) – even consider shows from premium networks like HBO and you can see a pretty intense disruption to how we collectively understand how TV works.

The current iPod supports a doubling of the current 320×240 resolution, which is great, but not ideal yet for true home watching.  It’s even better for portable viewing, but that’s about it for now.  Perhaps what’s missing is some additional networking capabilities within iTunes… like Bit Torrent.  As you enable a richer level of subscription content, it’s quite likely that the economics of delivering the materials could change considerably.  Let’s not forget that there’s more than just licensing to deal with here and in fact the bandwidth required to deliver high resolution content on a mass level could be quite considerable.  Assume Apple can nail this piece  – if not Bit Torrent for political sensitivities, than perhaps Kontiki or some other more acceptable private version of P2P. I don’t want to understate the shift this would create with how iTunes works, but it could be a very good thing to consider.

If Apple cut deals with quite a few networks for content – even movies, you would not need a cable or satellite box to bring you programming you like.  I’m hopeful that when the day comes, we’ll see something similar to how HBO on-demand works which is that if you choose to watch on the day, you can, but if you want the on-demand option (not recorded from DVR) you have to wait 24 hours.  This is quite reasonable to me and matches how ABC is offering their shows to Apple now.

You would still probably keep traditional viewing going for “appointment TV.”  Things like sports, and special live events are prime candidates, though streaming is an option as well especially as our network access speeds increase…If you still retain the basic options through your cable or satellite provider, you’ll need to pay more just for the right to have that option, unless you switch over to antenna viewing.

At $1.99 per video how much would your subscription run with Apple?  Well, if I look at my own viewing habits…  I watch (or try) to watch about 7-10 shows a week.  It’s pretty hard currently to keep up with my DVR actually and I usually watch a few in succession on Friday or Saturday night.  We record a few more shows for my wife and daughter so if I add it all up we probably consume closer to about 15 shows a week.  That’s about 30 bucks a week to Apple if we could subscribe on a per show basis and 120 bucks a month which is WAY more than I currently pay for cable and for considerably fewr channels. Let’s not forgot as well that this is the current pricing for low res material and that the cost for high res (not even high def) would be more.

Clearly there are some economic issues that quickly add up with per show pricing.  Admittedly I don’t have the solution here…

I do however see a future through iTunes with Front Row and what else might be planned here.  Any subscribed video would be available through Front Row and as we already know this runs on machines beyond the current iMac so a small form factor box like our friend the Mac Mini makes an excellent future candidate for the living room.  I’m sure though this type of machine gets even more capable when the switch to Intel takes place.  Intel already has reference platforms of this size and has shown their Viiv technology running on them. Imagine the enhanced capabilities with a more powerful processor, digital audio and surround capabilities.  Enhanced transcoding capabilities (PDF) will make transfer to portable devices like the iPod or multi-room viewing very attractive and allow for higher resolution content to delivered to a larger screen (whether TV or computer).

As we step beyond single show downloads towards subscription models through syndication and P2P, TV and of course the Long Tail content we already download becomes an extremely viable source of programming through non-traditional sources.  On-demand services are just beginning to deliver and will hopefully continue to grow rapidly to meet the pent up demand.

Update – I was just checking in with Memorandum and see that News.com has a piece on this worth a read.

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Apple sells 1 Million Videos

“Selling 1 million videos in less than 20 days strongly suggests that there is a market for legal video downloads,” Jobs said. “Our next challenge is to broaden our content offerings so that customers can enjoy watching more videos on their computers and new iPods.”

Tech News on ZDNet

Not quite the 4 days it took for music sales to reach 1 Million, but still quite impressive.  I’d say there is a legitimate desire for video and that people are definitely comfortable on the small screen.

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MCE vs. TiVo??

Thomas Hawk pointed me to an interesting piece written by Alex Raiano at the TiVo Blog comparing MCE to TiVo.

First, thanks for blogging on TiVo (Alex specifically), but what the hell are you thinking with this?  MCE certainly has a DVR (at least in systems that ship with TV tuners), but it’s about much more.  You only do one thing!  While it can be argued you do it very well, the MCE value proposition is clearly about more than just the recording of TV. 

Perhaps the MS marketing department needs to be reminded that while TV is easy to grok, there are also Photos, Music, Videos (your own) and the Online Spotlight which can deliver quite a bit of additional content.  Only the MS bloggers seem to actively promote this.  I think actually even with 2 tuners inside MCE loses the battle on a purely DVR front since it really just comes down to money.

A $1,200 DVR is out of the question for most people.  I completely agree.  In fact while I could probably swing a $1000 DVR, I find it’s ridiculous to even consider when I can get a dual-tuner HDTV capable recorder for 10 bucks a month from my cable company. MCE does not even record HDTV.  OTA HDTV is not good enough… I need to record premium stations like HBO, not just NBC.

Thomas immediately brings up many of the advanced features power users enjoy from a richer platform like MCE which Tivo does not even try to deal with from a feature perspective.  Sure you can network your Tivo, and add additional features to it, but this is beyond the main base purpose and I believe well beyond the capabilities of most owners. 

MCE gets weaker as you expand out since while it is a jack of all trades, it really (and unfortunately) is a master of none.  While a fully functioning PC underneath the MCE interface is attractive
to some people, this hurts you.  A PC has issues like malware, viruses
and of course device drivers and conflicts. 

Tivo is probably best as an ingredient within another platform at this point – Apple Front Row perhaps? 

In the end other than the DVR, which is the purpose of TiVo and a single feature of MCE, is the only comparable detail.  If you look purely at that TiVo clearly wins on price and picture quality, but MCE has two tuners or more in some addvanced systems.

MCE actually makes the market more complex since while a DVR is in there, it’s about selling PCs.  Speaking of which, when you get to the bunddling issue as Alex addresses … many people are starting to buy MCE devices because the software is in there, though I also wonder how much use they get from the full set of capabilities.

I started this with a point, which I think I’ve lost… Comparing the two things is a slippery slope for both sides.  If I worked for MS on MCE, I would work pretty damn hard to simplify the experience so that there was a more mass appeal.  Telegraph the benefits on a higher level and let the advanced users (your existing market) take care of sharing the benefits with each other – which happens today through community sites and enthusiastic bloggers.  Tivo – get cracking on some bundling and adding multiple HD tuners… next year is getting closer, but how much will that cable-card capable box really cost?  If around 1000 bucks, MCE creeps into mind pretty significantly.

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Mobile Bloglines Enhancements

Do you often find yourself reading Bloglines on your mobile phone with too many feeds and too little time? Well, we’ve got great news. No, we’re not selling you gecko lizard insurance. But we have made it easy for you to create an abbreviated mobile version of your feed list so you don’t have to scroll past dozens of feeds to get to those you have time to read.

To create your mobile feed list, click the Edit link while in the web version, check which subscriptions you want or don’t want displayed in your mobile view and then select your option in the dropdown menu. You can also change this setting by clicking on the Edit Subscription link while viewing any of your feeds.

Another useful option for dealing with a lot of subscriptions is to have Bloglines only display subscriptions that have unread articles. Click on your Account link and look under Feed Options for the setting to show only updated feeds. This applies to both web and mobile versions.

Bloglines | News

All good stuff…  works great on the blackberry in transit.

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Nano returns!

My Nano returned today from Apple which is most excellent as I was seriously missing my commuting partner.  Apple replaced my previous model with a brand new replacement — certainly the right move in my book.  I was actually suprised by the DHL delivery which just arrived as I was not expecting things until Monday at the earliest.  I guess Apple allowed for Saturday delivery, which also is great in my book!

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On Aperture

I mostly run it on my 15-inch PowerBook. That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy the refreshing wind-blowing-through-my-hair feeling when I sit down in front of a G5 running Aperture. But a PowerBook is fine for what a lot of photographers do in the field with their laptops: browse images quickly and step through the thumbnails. Maybe tag the images they like, maybe zoom in closely on one. The photo edit stage. For that, a PowerBook does take a speed hit, but it’s totally usable.This is where our scheme of loading a proxy image comes in — the 1024 proxy is often all I need to see at this stage. Depending on how many megabytes each image is, Aperture on a G5 can load the full Raw image in less than a second. On my PowerBook, that same image may take three to four seconds to load fully.

creativepro.com – Stripping Raw Naked

I am so pumped to give this application a try and now that it should run reasonably well on my powerbook I am even more excited.  From what I can tell, Aperture will be my ideal application for photo management and editing.  I don’t have too many needs on the compositing side of life and Aperture seems to leave that work for Photoshop.

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Riya – Facial Recognition

Riya looks like it will be a killer, killer application for digital image management.  What is it?  A facial recognition system for your pictures that lets you tag things (people, place etc) and it seems to learn based on what you input so you can get a very serious read on who and what is in your pics.

Since I was not exactly diligent in tagging my roughly 6000 (and growing) photos since purchasing my first digital camera pre-2000, I’ve got quite a bit of work to do if I want to find anything that’s lurking within.  Riya looks like it could be the answer. 

What I really like (having yet to test it) is that it looks like you can import photos and info from MANY sources so you can maximize the tag value.  I’ve already emailed and gotten a reply (nice!) that iPhoto support is on the list…

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Treo Mass Storage Synchronizer aka Treo ROKR

If the Treo is your preferred device for all occassions this certainly seems like a great add. PocketTunes is a killer app for the device and iTunes integration is just solid.

The newly released version 1.3 of Mass Storage Synchronizer, a free iTunes add-on by Tea Vui Huang, lets you sync iTunes to your Treo 600 or 650. Just use either RealPlayer for Palm or Pocket Tunes to play the synced music.

GearBits: iTunes On Your Treo? No Problem.

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Is it really the picture?

While Thomas thinks it’s all about the picture, that unfortunately is just a detail.  There are plenty of other details that need attention as well… music library management is certainly a key piece — but I think it’s really much more about the whole package. MCE is too complicated, period.  

Picture quality is so super important. I would agree with the observation that the television picture quality on a Media Center PC has never approached that of even an entry level non HD TiVo. This is the single biggest obstacle in the way of Media Center acceptance. We must get a better picture — preferably CableCARD or Satellite or IPTV HDTV. I’m hoping we see this improve in Vista.

Thomas Hawk’s Digital Connection: Media Center Gets Slashdotted

Don’t get me wrong, I want solid crystal clear images from my DVR and don’t think that’s too much to ask. I believe though, that until the computer part of the system is masked (no virus pop-ups, device drivers etc) this thing is in trouble from a mass adoption perspective. The idea of a 10′ UI is a good thing, it just needs some serious refinement.  When I recently attended the Digital Life show in NYC, I stopped by the Microsoft booth and played with an MCE device, presumedly the latest.  Switching between screens / modes required far too much wait time, with loading icons…  I can’t possibly bring something like that into my living room without expecting a family conflict about how much more complex and annoying I’ve made things.

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MCE — I’m with Stupid

I just caught this hilarious post on BYOPVR courtesy of Channel9.  This piece chronicles the adventure of a seemingly highly techncal geek setting up their own MCE box from scratch. The main way MCE gets sold is through packaged boxes which have addressed (in theory) some technical issues, but it’s still quite amazing to read of the troubles… and of the amount of work to get things configured in the HDTV world in which we live…

What Media Center does really well is show many ways there are to mess with an HDTV monitor that it doesn’t like, and allow you to practice starting in “safe mode”.

What is does really poorly is most of everything else. I retired from battle with a strategic retreat: moving the whole shebang to the bedroom, cohabitating with me, spouse, two medium dogs, and a vanilla 27” CRT.

DVR – Sort of

As a DVR, one tuner was just OK, with a second tuner working, it was still OK, provided you weren’t too picky about mouths moving at the same time words came out. Out with the snazzy Realtek integrated sound on the ASUS-A8V motherboard. In with an Audigy 2ZS to lessen the load on the AMD 64 3000+ processor. More gadgets. That cured the synch. The picture still was no where close to a vintage Tivo. [Build Your Own PVR]

I would certainly recommend the read to anyone interested in the category.  The final point pretty much sums up what I know I’ve said, experienced and certainly read from others…

The Netopian dream of the refrigerator that orders more milk when you run low remains elusive. But in the 21st century, with Media Center, your VCR can now offer to sell you Viagra. And it has a social disease.

That is the final curse of Media Center. Even if it worked, it would still be Windows .

While the Apple Front Row solution is similar in that it’s an application / UI running on top of an existing OS, the underlying system is easier to manage, and generally speaking free from hassle. It’s quite unlikely that you will see a Virus warning pop-up at any time while running a Mac.

The more transparent the system – from setup to playback – the better the whole HTPC category will do. While TiVO can be a challenge to setup and configure to the average consumer, HTPC devices which seek to do far more than handle “simple” DVR functions will blow the minds of most — if not the just the early adopters who crave the technology, but can’t stand the issues. This stuff is getting close, but is still not where it needs to be for a consumer technology to be accepted on a mass level. Regardless of how many boxes MS says they’ll ship in the next year courtesy of bundling…

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Front Row running on MY Mac mini!

So as soon as I read the info and watched the video in my last post I could not help but think how I could get it going myself… well – it took all of 5 minutes to find the link and begin my download adventure.

Flickr Photo

Front Row kicks ass!  Even in the limited hack version that’s out, it is a far superior way to travel through content than in my experience with MCE.  Seriously.  Things move quickly and it really is quite simple.  I know you don’t have TV and quite a few other features, but who cares.  I can get where I want without any fuss and it works (or will if we had the release version rather than a hack).

Flickr Photo

In the few minutes I’ve played with this, I’ve noticed one interesting thing.  The iApps need to be running.  Mine were not initially and it took a bit for my initial load to happen in iPhoto (5868 photos) and iTunes (21,501 tracks).  At first I thought it was a large library issue, but when I dropped back to the desktop I noticed both apps were running when they had not been previously.

Flickr Photo

I would gladly pay money for this application today.  There’s no reason why it can’t be sold as a package with either a USB IR Remote or with a Bluetooth remote for those with capable machines.

What a cool start… this could (and I am sure will) get very interesting in the near future.  The mini is a nice platform, but it’s actually quite a bit underpowered compared to what Intel will be able to deliver in a similar form factor for Apple in 2006. 

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Mac Mini running Front Row!

From TUAW, I see that Zeno (of the MacMiniCenter Wiki) has Front Row running on a Mini, which just totally rocks!  This is the vision many of us had when the mini was released and it’s one step closer today.  The implementation is still in hack mode, but certainly a great indication of what lies ahead… 

Well Done Zeno!!

There are some good pics on Flickr of another implementation as well…

I can’t wait to get my hands on this to play. 

The addition of an EyeTV or certainly DVR via Azureus would be a relatively simple way to maintain a regular flow of new video content.

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Extending iTunes to all your Apple Machines

I’d certainly be open to making this work on PCs as well since I use wone at work and it counts against my 5 macs. We have 4 Macs at home and my work PC pushes me right to the limit as it is. When some new Intel Macs arrive, I’m sure there will be something in our home’s technology future…

Instead of allowing three machines or five machines to unlock a iTunes song DRM, make it n+1 where n equals the number of Macs you have purchased and registered. It does two things for you that are both good for Apple and good for customers. One, it lets people know their iTunes music has a future.

How Apple can appease the fanboys FOREVAH | A Whole Lotta Nothing

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Apple lobs grenade into Microsoft media center camp

APC Magazine’s Dan Warne reckons Apple is about to deftly round-house kick Microsoft’s media center strategy for six. First Apple leaves a mysterious header on the Mac Mini motherboard for a non-existent iPod dock connector. Then it brings out media center software and a video iPod at the same time. Then it recruits the head of TV recording company ElGato. When you put the pieces together, it ain’t pretty for Microsoft.  [apcmag.com]

All the stuff I love thinking about. The mini as a trojan horse, and the iPod 5G as the stealth bomber that flys directly towards Redmond.

Apple has collected the pieces, maintains software and marketing superiority … we just need the public plan of action and like lemmings we’ll flock.

Seriously though Apple will likely nail it, if they decide to roll FrontRow, plus TV beyond the dorm room through the new iMac.

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Aperture: Real workflow for professional photographers

I cannot say this enough: Aperture is the application for the photographic creative process. It is not an image manipulation tool like Photoshop, and it is not a toy like iPhoto. Aperture is a professional application from top to bottom that works with the photographer’s process. This program puts the technology where it belong — out of the way in the background — and allowing the creative process to take precedence.  [Macworld]

The more I’ve been using my new Nikon D70s, the more I want Aperture. I am getting used to RAW and completely see the value in what can be done before any interpretation has been made on the image. I’m just hoping the machine requirements are not so severe that my PowerBook can’t keep up. Apple says you can use a G4, but we’ll have to get some real reports when it ships.

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Busted Nano

Flickr Photo

I discovered my Nano had a broken screen while commuting home last night.  I was just sitting on the train listening to a podcast and went to choose something else when it ended and found this.

I can assure you that no extreme activities had been taking place.  This is just crap.  Now I will have to deal with Apple to see if I can get anything going for a replacement. aigh…

Service Request Submitted…

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