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2006

In's & Out's of 1080p HDTV

Team Xbox has an excellent story going through the details of 1080p HDTV vs. 720p and 1080i. Easy to read, it goes through all the technical information you need to know about the next generation HDTVs coming to market, and how Blu-Ray and HD-DVD will play with them.

The last two pages go through TV recommendations, and while I disagree with the writer that DLP is the best way to go, it’s an informative read on the best DLP TVs on the market. Like the writer, I’ve heard excellent things about the DLPs from Hewlett-Packard – who would have thought a PC maker could make an excellent HDTV?

The writer takes a shot at Sony’s SXRD towards the end, and seems unaware of Sony’s public announcement that their 2nd generation SXRD coming this fall will be 1080p compatible. The fall timeline gives me heartburn – even with the basement flooding putting my basement behind schedule, the SXRD is what I want, and I’ll be ready in June. Sony’s SXRD is a LCoS technology, which is a step ahead of DLP, with better blacks and a better picture.

I Steal Television Because I Have To

I came across this blog post about stealing TV a few days ago: I Steal Television Because I Have To.

The author is spot on – it’s not about theft, it’s about control. And sometimes recording TV something happens you couldn’t control, and you have no way to get the show you wanted to watch. A week ago Tuesday, my Season Pass on my TiVo for The Unit didn’t work. No idea why – no idea what channel it was trying to record, but it recorded a blank screen for an hour.

So I went and got the torrent.

The TV industry needs to wake up – and some are. ABC’s announcment this week that they’ll be releasing TV shows the day after – with non-skippable commercials – is a step. It will be interesting to see what the future holds, especially with TV-like content developed and delivered over the internet and not over the air.

Hold the government accountable

Wired has an article up discussing AT&T’s attempts to get back 140 pages of documents given to the EFF by a whistleblower.

The EFF is suing AT&T based on AT&T’s efforts to assist the NSA in tapping phone calls.

If half what the whistleblower says is true, the government needs to be held accountable for this gross breach of civil liberties. Wiretapping and providing information to the government for U.S. citizens is expressly forbidden by law – but that doesn’t seem to stop the NSA or the current administration.

HTPC Components Ordered

I ordered all of the parts for my home theater PC over the weekend, as a few things were on sale. Of course, my basement needs to cooperate and stop flooding. I have to get the carpet / pad replaced now. But this gives me two months to get the system built, Ubuntu installed, and MythTV configured.

  • 1 pcHDTV HD3000 PCI card for watching / recording HDTV with.
  • Abit 939 Motherboard (KN8), to go with the x2 4800+ I’ve had for a while.
  • 2 GB of Corsair RAM
  • 1 Silverstone LC16 home theater PC case, with 500w silent power supply, and 2 extra 80mm fans
  • 1 Pioneer DVD-RW drive (black)
  • 3 Seagate 300GB SATAII hard drives (call it 100 hours of HDTV recording)
  • And a Hauppauge PVR-250 for recording standard def TV that I’ve been hanging on to for a while
  • 1 BFG 6600GT PCIe video card – needed a GT to fit in the HTPC case

Almost everything was ordered from Newegg and PC Alchemy.

I need to do some more research if I should be using Ubuntu’s 64 bit version with MythTV, I’ve read mixed things. But the AMD x2 should perform extremely well for a HTPC. It won’t be easy getting everything configured, but god knows I’ve been researching it long enough, and now it’s go time.

Linux Blog – Linux Games & Banshee

I came across a new Linux Blog, Linux Revolution, that has two posts up, near and dear to my heart:

An overview of next-gen Linux games, looking at some of the lesser known games by smaller studios. Some of these I have tried (or installed), including Sauerbraten, and some more I’m definitely going to keep my eye on.

The second article of note is Rhythmbox vs. Banshee. This is an article I’ve been meaning to write myself for some time, but I”m lazy, and haven’t got to it. It’s a good overview of the two music players for GNOME, and like the author, I’m a huge Banshee fan. Banshee’s development has been fast and furious, and every release adds key features. I can’t recommend Banshee enough.

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Viiv won't check for piracy

I’ve been following Intel’s new Viiv platform for a while, and Intel confirmed some details this week at a launch event. Viiv is Intel’s latest platform, specifically to enable Media Center functionality in the desktop and in homes. From transcoding ability built-in, automatic driver updates, and ability to transfer content to other devices, Intel is betting that’s it’s the cornerstone of the future home.

The good news is that the hardware won’t check for DRM and watermarks natively. From the CNet Australia article:

Interestingly, MacDonald also told CNET.com.au that Viiv won’t be testing to see if the content being played is pirated from networks such as BitTorrent. He believes that it’s not Intel’s job to be policing downloads and that it’s wrong to assume that “all consumers are criminals”. As such, Viiv won’t test for “watermarks” or other red flags that reveal pirated content, allowing any type of media to be played.

Ultimately, though, MacDonald is confident that piracy won’t be a significant issue for Viiv, as Intel promises to “make content easier to buy than it is to pirate”.

Alan Moore interview

Mile High Comics has a two-part interview (Part 1, Part 2) with Alan Moore, a giant in the comic book industry. The author of well-known works as League of Extraordinary Gentleman, From Hell, V for Vendetta and Watchmen, a Hugo award winner.

In the interview he talks about his anger for DC Comics for letting his books be turned into poor movies, not owning his own works, and the industry in general. Agree or disagree with his thoughts, you have to respect him as he stands for his convictions.

DRM drains your battery

More reasons why DRM is evil:

Cnet recently conducted a test of MP3 players, and DRM encoded WMA files drained the battery faster than DRM-free MP3s.

When it comes to the Creative Zen Vision:M’s 14-hour claim, CNET got about 16 hours of playback time with MP3s from a full charge, which was a nice surprise. However, when they tried playing WMA 10 DRM crippled subscription tracks on it, they only got just over 12 hours; a loss of almost 4 hours (~25%) of playback time due to the battery-hungry DRM. CNET found similar results with other players with WMA DRM drastically reducing battery life by up to around 20%. Apple’s FairPlay DRM seems to have less of an effect with battery life being reduced by around 8% when compared with MP3 playback.