Damit man mit dem Receiver auf eine externe Festplatte aufnehmen kann, benötigt man ein Software-Update. Funktioniert total einfach: von der website www.strong.tv herunterladen, auf die externe Festplatte kopieren, diese am Gerät anstecken und wie in der Anleitung beschrieben einspielen. Die Software-Version ist schon ein bisserl betagt (Oktober 2008) und würde durchaus noch ein paar Bugfixes oder Erweiterungen vertragen. Aber Software-Entwicklung ist eben aufwändig (wem sagen Sie das …) und der Preis eines Gerätes wird wohl auch dadurch bestimmt. Für Wenig-Fernsehkonsumenten aber trotzdem ausreichend und im Vordergrund stand immer die Qualität der Aufnahme (eben das Original-Sat-Signal ohne Konvertierungsverluste) und nicht der Bedienungskomfort.

Für die Sofortaufnahme gibt’s den roten Knopf auf der Fernbedienung. Falls man die Aufnahme nicht manuell stoppt, muss man die Dauer der Aufnahme vorher im Menü einstellen (1, 2, 4, 8, 12 oder 24 Stunden) – ist ein wenig umständlich. Beim vorigen Gerät konnte man die Aufnahme-Taste mehrmals drücken um die Aufnahmezeit in Schritten zu erhöhen (auch bei einer bereits laufenden Aufnahme) – war durchaus praktisch, könnte man noch einbauen (als kleiner Hinweis, sollte das der Hersteller lesen und keine Ideen mehr haben, wie man das Gerät noch benutzerfreundlicher machen könnte …). Timeshift hab’ ich deaktiviert: entweder will ich etwas dauerhaft aufnehmen oder nicht; dafür bleibt die Standbildtaste für das Einfrieren des Fernseh-Bildes frei.

Timer-Aufnahmen sind mit EPG an sich total einfach: man navigiert in der Programmvorschau zur Sendung und drückt den Aufnahme-Taste – fertig! Die Sendung erhält einen roten Punkt und wird aufgenommen. Wenn man die Aufnahme jedoch sicherheitshalber um ein paar Minuten verlängern möchte (insbesondere, falls man nach einer Sendung mit Überziehungspotenzial aufnimmt), gibt es zwei Möglichkeiten: entweder im EPG die Aufnahme-Taste drücken und die Timer-Zeiten anschließend über das Menü nachbearbeiten (etwas umständlich, weil man erst den EPG verlassen und dann in das Timer-Menü einsteigen muss). Oder man drückt im EPG die blaue FB-Taste mit der Funktion “Timer”: damit werden die Zeiten in den Timer übernommen und man landet direkt dort zur Nachbearbeitung der Zeiten. Ist praktischer, nur muss man manuell die Aktivität von “Dauer” auf “Aufnahme” umschalten(!), sonst schaltet sich das Gerät bloß automatisch ein und aus (für ein externes Aufnahmegerät) anstatt auf die angeschlossene Festplatte aufzunehmen. Apropos: nach einer Aufnahme von festgelegter Dauer schaltet sich das Gerät nicht automatisch aus – dafür kann (bzw. muss) man einen Ausschalt-Timer programmieren.

Die Wiedergabe-Kontrolle ist recht spartanisch, aber ebenso ausreichend: mit der Wiedergabe-Taste wählt man eine Aufnahme aus (Einzelheiten zur Benennung der Aufnahmen im nächsten Artikel). Schneller Vor- und Rücklauf funktioniert mit maximal 8facher Geschwindigkeit, dafür kann man mit Pfeil rechts und links am Zeitbalken recht schnell (aber grob) innerhalb einer längeren Aufnahme navigieren.

“Spielereien” wie Zeitlupe oder Einzelbild-Weiterschaltung fehlen bei der Wiedergabe ganz, obwohl man diese ohne zusätzliche Tasten auf der Fernbedienung hätte realisieren können (wie beim alten Gerät: mehrfaches Drücken der Pause-Taste für Einzelbilder, schneller Vor-/Rücklauf aus dem Standbild mit Funktion Zeitlupe vor/zurück). Auch die Zoomfunktion fehlt bei der Wiedergabe, obwohl technisch sicher nicht anders als beim direkten Satsignal (wurde wohl vergessen). … Aber dafür kann man die Aufnahmen auf der Festplatte ja später am PC betrachten, wovon der nächste blog-Eintrag handeln wird.

Es gilt der übliche Disclaimer. Besondere Vorsicht: dieser Artikel wurde unter Einfluss von Kaffee und deluxemusic.tv geschrieben. Bleiben Sie uns gewogen!
mpi

Today we are going to receive some feedback about the open contributions from the readers of Eudald Domènech blog regarding the development of the new InOutTV media-center as an evolution of their present PVR device. For those not familiar with this Spanish company I like to say that the product and service they offer is like, but not the same, the one TiVo is offering in the USA market, a dual tuner TV recording system with an enhanced Electronic Programming Guide (EPG) service that enables you to see on TV what you like when you want.

This exercise is other example of how the user contribution is appreciated by manufacturers pursuing to bring a better product. Some particularities of these initiative are that the comments (more that 500 up today according Eudald) are hidden to avoid over-inform competition. This is a version of what I call “clospen innovation”, an hybrid approach to open innovation: “The open nature of the process, integrating a big number of actors like, potential customers, suppliers, designers, manufacturers, etc. some of them competitors among them on other projects, some of them with different interest on the project, place the platform in a sensitive situation. Is everybody able to contribute in the same way? Will be everybody granted with access to all the information? Is the platform or the management team able to handle a big number of people and enterprises? There is several questions like this that induces to consider an hybrid approach, open and close at a time, clospen”.

I is not only Eudald at InOutTV supporting this initiative, I think −this is a pure personal opinion− also their partners promote it, for instance David del Val, who recently spoke us about innovation and new innovative practices into the “Debate and Knowledge event” organized by “Fundación Telefónica” few weeks ago, furthermore I am sure he is strongly contributing into the strategic plan of the company regarding new products and services development.

InOutTV is into the radar of key player not only because of his product, his business model but his innovative approach to improve products and services. Congrats!

It’s really annoying recording. So i’m getting a Hauppauge HDPVR. Expect to see more posts in a few weeks or so.

Segue o Link para download do Firmware para Receptor DreamBox 800HD PVR

<DOWNLOAD>

Abaixo o Link para Download de diversos Plugins

<LINK>

I have been gung-ho about the new application areas that the Atom processor managed to penetrate/create – low power, “low cost” and pentium strength processing capability in the embedded domain. Most important was x86 compatibility, which meant I could write code on my regular notebook and instantly deploy it on an Atom device. Smart segmentation of the market by Intel.

Netbooks that are based on the atom processor have undoubtedly been the surprise segment for almost everyone in the industry. Asus needs to be commended for being the first to push this in the market and have been deservedly rewarded. According to Forward Conepts – ” The 3G Netbook category is going to demonstrate 124 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) reaching 34 million units in 2014 and a 45 percent 3G/LTE attachment rate” . There is little doubt (save in Steve Job’s mind) that this is going to be a huge opportunity.

Its not just netbooks but other devices that have begun to use the Atom processor – nettops like the Asus eee box and the Acer Aspire Revo have appeared on the scene. With internet video being the next  frontier there is a glut of devices trying to bring this video from the internet to television. Imagine the speed with which you can now build the app and deploy it on one of these boxes.

ARM devices about a year back were still underpowered and were confined to either smart phones or other embedded tasks. It was not that some of these ARM based SOCs couldn’t decode HD video. In fact many of them could. It was a problem of internet compatibility. The internet has grown on Wintel platforms – websites, browsers and applications were all built to cater to this segment. Adobe’s Flash had also grown to be the platform of choice for graphics and video on the net. When intel launched the atom this was their big differentiator- compatibility with the web. Over 75% of all internet video is built on Flash.

Flash 10 is a MIPS hungry platform and requires OpenGL ES 2.0 and OpenVG 1.1 support. The ARM SOCs were not ready with this support. Intel rode the wave and reaped the benefits of the early mover advantage…with significantly high margins (Intel’s last earnings call pegged margins for 4th quarter this year to be in the high end of the normal range which intel defines as 50-60%). The flip side of this was that Atom based devices were priced much higher than ARM based ones. Many vendors didn’t have a choice and just went with the price or decided to go for sub-optimal implementations based on ARM.

Intel’s honeymoon may soon be over if the ARM based silicon vendors are to be believed. Adobe started the Open Screen Project to work with silicon vendors to port Flash 10 & Adobe’s AIR to their SOCs. This is beginning to come to fruition now with a few players announcing support for Flash.

Marvell, Broadcom, Sigma Designs, Freescale and most recently Qualcomm have announced Flash support. The most significant amongst these announcements seems to be Qualcomm’s see (Qualcomm demos Adobe Flash 10 on ARM-based netbook). Not only do they support full high definition flash but have also upped the processor clock to 1GHz. ARM parts have the big advantage of being very miserly on their power consumption and this can be a significant differentiator in the mobile space. This includes smart phones, netbooks, smart books, tablets and the like.
More importantly companies like Qualcomm have longer standing relationships with operators who are a crucial piece of the value chain when it come to mobile broadband delivery. The fastest way for mobile broadband to grow is to subsidize the device in exchange for guaranteed monthly subscription fees. Qualcomm announced it is sampling its first chipsets for dual-carrier HSPA+ and multi-mode 3G/LTE recently. According to Qualcomm its smarphone chipset dubbed MSM7×30, supports high-definition video recording and playback, has dedicated 2D and 3D graphics cores and is optimized for Web usage. Qualcomm can hence become a formidable rival to Intel in this next generation of devices that go beyond the PC.

Of course Intel is not going to take this challenge lying down. On June 23rd of this year Nokia and Intel announced a deal where Nokia will license 3G and HSPA technology to Intel (see Intel, Nokia exchange wedding vows). And in October this year there was this announcement – AT&T Nokia booklet 3G pricing & release date confirmed. This netbook is powered by an Atom Z530 and has a 3G modem. Its available for $299 if you sign up for a $60 per month data plan or $599 unsubsidized.

The last chapter in this saga is far from over. Exciting times ahead for this space and it can only be good for the consumer.

As always, stay tuned….

So every year I try to come up with some tech project to occupy the dark winter months.  This year I have chosen to build a hidden media center to replace our TivoHD and provide TV and video for family entertainment.

I am making this a hidden media center because my wife does now like having AV components and this is a good followup to some other hidden PC project I have done. In this media center I want to be able to play any well used video format from any media.

The requirements for this project are:

1. Must be completely hidden from sight with the exception of an IR interface, if needed
2. Keep the cost under $200 by reusing existing components if available
3. Must play BluRay and DVD video from disks, ISO, or backup images
4. Must play video over the internet and from other personal computers in the house
5. Must play and record over the air TV (ATSC)

Also, as all the computers in the home are Windows based and because I have an extra Windows 7 license, I will use Windows 7 as the operating platform and not mess around with Linux.  Windows 7 also brings the ability to use Homegroups, which will make sharing video between all the home computers very simple.

Over the next few weeks I’ll chronicle my choices, experiences, and mistakes as I build this new home entertainment system.

Uno de cada tres usuarios de Intenet en UK consume TV online según un estudio de Ofcom (el regulador británico).  Gran parte de este dato es atribuible al iPlayer de BBC que es usado por el 27% de la población internauta de las islas. El DVR está igualmente implantado en este mercado y es cada vez más empleado para ajustar la programación a las necesidades de los usuarios.

La comparación con países con tasas similares de penetración de Internet y de accesos de banda ancha arroja resultados mucho menos positivos para el consumo online de televisión. Esta diferencia parece venir motivada por el éxito de iPlayer de BBC. En aquellos países donde las cadenas de broadcast comerciales no cuentan con plataformas similares el consumo de televisión online es sustancialmente inferior.

Dos preguntas para la reflexión:

1. ¿El servicio de televisión a la carta de RTVE tendrá el mismo impacto en España que el iPlayer en UK?

2. ¿Cuándo veremos informes tan interesantes como el de Ofcom elaborados por la CMT, que aspira igualmente a ser el regulador del sector de medios?

Vía: NewTeeVee

I’ve long been envious of the UK for already having PlayTV on the PS3 system. A PVR device for your Playstation, It has dual HD-tuners, is compatible with the freeview 7 day EPG and can stream wirelessly to your PSP!

The ability to pause, record and save live tv to hard drive is a great thing for those emergency toilet and snack breaks during your favourite show. Although it is recommended if you plan on saving shows to your hard drive you upgrade to at least a 500gb unit. Its going to cost $169 and should be at all good gaming retailers on Nov 26.

Coming with this is an Australian exclusive, access to ABC iView from your playstation. This is a service which allows you to download/stream any show that has already aired.

[from gamespot]

Moving countries throws a lot of habits out of the window. Some I’m more than happy to lose and have replaced them with much healthier ones like walking 4 miles a day (the dogs like it too). My magazine habit is tricky as air freight on some of my favourite titles means that they cost as much as NZ$20 per issue. That sure makes you think, do I really want this? Or, should I subscribe (only one title has made it over that fence so far – Vanity Fair).

As a side issue, international subscription for magazines is a really poor experience. Conde Nast and other really need to examine that experience as it’s far from optimal. The focus is on local subscribers, which while I understand, completely drives me nuts as I’m in New Zealand not New Jersey (thank goodness).

However, what has changed most is my TV viewing habits. In the UK, I used a PVR extensively, so much so that I didn’t know when programmes were originally broadcast. I simply would scan papers, sites etc to find out about new shows, try one, if I liked it then record the series. That way, in typical PVR fashion, I would watch what I wanted when I wanted. Of course, for advertisers I was a nightmare, flicking straight over the ads. Heck, I even learned how to time my fast forward so I could jump from the start of the ad break to the end. Interestingly I would be exposed to the show’s sponsors but would miss all the 30-second slots in-between.

Moving to New Zealand stripped me of that equipment – it’s available but I’m still sorting out other ’stuff’. So, I was back in the analogue world of scheduling etc. Choices of programmes and channels aside, I tried, really tried to get back to the ‘old’ way of watching a programme when a channel had decided to schedule it but after only 8 weeks it’s all broken down and I’ve given up on TV and stick to web (and not TVNZ’s on demand service – it’s impossible to use) and DVDs.

I simply can’t go back (bit like flying business class on a plane). I’ll get TiVO or (spits on ground) Sky and go back to PVR viewing. That freedom of choice and timing is too damn good to give up, and it’s not to skip ads. I perfectly understand their purpose but as mentioned it seems pointless when you don’t have to so that model will have to change to capture my eyeballs.

That said, there will always be those scheduled events – sports and other live events – that will draw me back to analog TV but those are few and far between. Especially in New Zealand, where Sky’s locked them down even more tightly than in the UK. Way to go sports bodies – figured out why participation and attendances are dropping yet?

And those ‘watercooler’ moments aren’t gone but now tend to be focused on what I called passion points where you are really excited about something televisual but they tend to be more about series as a whole rather than the latest micro event in Coronation Street et all.

Is this a common thing, of course not yet. Adoption of these technologies is growing but by no means universal but that simply frees up conversation time for more meaningful things for now

Mark Cuban has covered the business side of things for PVRs vs Internet video on his blog and good reading it makes too.

After sorting the case, next on my list was a motherboard. I say “list”, but I’m using the word loosely. I’m not the best at organising myself, so the “list” is purely mental and not in any particular order.

Anyway, it seemed a bit pointless to have a box with nothing inside, so I went shopping for a motherboard, and soon realised what a bewildering array of them there are. It was time for another list!!

• It must be a MicroATX to fit the case
• Cheap, preferably!
• It must work with Linux
• Ideally support up to Quad Core processor
• Have SATA and ATA interfaces
• Have a PCI-Express slot

That didn’t reduce the list much! In the end, I spoke to some friends and colleagues and settled on Asus as the brand. I do want HDMI out, and some Asus motherboards do come with that feature; however I think I’d prefer it to be on a separate PCI-e card, so decided that the extra cost wasn’t worth it. Eventually, I managed to find a brand new Asus P5KPL-AM for €20, which seemed to tick all the right boxes.

It’s a nice, compact board with reasonable features. 1333/1066/800 MHz FSB – 1600 if overclocked, PCI Express x 16 slot, SATA and ATA interfaces, and up to Quad Core support. Everything was included in the box and it slotted into the Antec case beautifully.

Asus P5KPL-AM

Now I just need to control myself and not buy a Quad Core processor!

As an early adopter of the Pace Twin I’ve been using a Freeview PVR for as long as they’ve existed, and as I posted before, mine was pimped a little (with a 60GB drive) to improve on the stock spec. Sadly the recent Freeview channel shuffle seems to have brought it to the end of its useful life. Perhaps it’s just the poor signal quality from my communal aerial feed (though my other Freeview TV and boxes seem to cope), or maybe it’s just not up to snuff any more? Regardless of the cause, viewing and recording of many channels had become too much of a hit and miss affair. Time for a change, and some new gear.

I didn’t do my usual extensive research, just a quick dive into some end user reviews on a few online shopping sites. The Sagem seemed to come out less badly than some of the others, and was in stock for £129.99 at my local Argos (along with a £10 voucher offer) so I ventured out into the rain and bought one.

The big shock is that it has no UHF output. Perhaps this shouldn’t be a surprise, as analogue TV is being progressively decommissioned, but one of the nice things about the Twin was being able to watch it on any TV in the house. I briefly considered buying a UHF modulator from Maplin to fix this omission, but in the end plumped for a jury rig arrangement with my ancient VCR (Scart in -> UHF out).

There are however some good things about the new box:

• It can record on both tuners at once
  • and you can watch another recording at the same time
• Series linking seems to work, even for those Saturday evening shows that jump around the schedule every week
• The 320GB (~160hrs) drive is much bigger than the 60GB (~30hrs) that I had in the Twin, so I can leave the kids stuff on there
  • and it allows me to put stuff into sub-folders so there’s not too much clutter in the programme list
• It has an ‘exportation’ feature that allows programmes to be copied onto FAT32 USB devices
  • and the exported files seem to be bog standard MPEG2 .ts files, no nasty encryption or silly file formats

There are also a few areas where I can see a need for improvement:

• It can play mp3s off USB media (FAT32 only, though it seems to work but whine with regular old FAT), which is cool but:
  • You need to switch mode from media list to player if you want it to actually play successive tracks
  • It is supposed to be able to copy stuff from USB to the local HDD for more convenient access, but this is a totally unreliable process. I have given up on trying to copy my music library (16GB) onto it. It seems to struggle with a single album’s worth of files, never mind a few hundred.
• The favourites lists are not all that easy to edit, and the split between TV and Radio can also be confusing (it seemed to me initially that I had to choose TV or Radio, but in fact you can have both in a favourites list).
• The UI/remote control combination can seem a little sluggish at times.
• The skip forward function (achieved by pressing >|) skips 5mins. UK ad breaks tend to be 4mins, so the function becomes pretty useless, as you either have to miss or rewind a minute. The 1min skip on the Twin was fine, and the 30s skip on my Panasonic box is OK (though 8 button presses per ad break is a bore). C’mon guys, either make this configurable, or make the default fit for purpose.

It would of course be killer if:

• I could use it to replace my streaming media player (a Kiss DP-600), which would involve:
  • Having an Ethernet port and UPNP support
    • Better still if you could do ‘exportation’ over the LAN
  • The ability to play DivX (HD)
• If the media player stuff actually worked then a directory sync tool would be handy for managing large libraries.

Overall though I’m finding it hard to complain given the price, and the fact that it hasn’t failed in any meaningful way (yet – fingers crossed). Even if it does end up missing a recording, then that doesn’t seem too much of a big deal these days. I wonder how much longer it will be before the whole concept of a PVR becomes redundant, and we just have a local cache of the media library in the sky (for those times when it just doesn’t make sense to drag those bits across the internet)?

Der erste Eindruck (schon im Geschäft): das Design ist OK, schaut nicht auf den ersten Blick nach Billiggerät aus – kann sich durchaus neben einem Marken-TV-Gerät sehen lassen. Erst zuhause beim Auspacken beachtet: die Fernbedienung ist dafür total klobig und erfolgreich auf Billig-Look hingetrimmt – wenn Besuch kommt, am besten gut verstecken.

Erste Inbetriebnahme: angenehm leise – Filme aufnehmen und schauen ohne Lüfterrauschen! Das Gerät ist lüfterlos (warum damit keine Werbung betrieben wird ist mir schleierhaft, weder die Herstellerseite noch der Verkäufer machten dazu Aussagen) – im Gegensatz zum alten HDD-/DVD-Recorder, der einen doch recht unangenehm brummenden Lüfter hatte.

Dann die obligate Setup-Prozedur. Seitenformat, Senderliste, Favoriten usw. Das Menü ist nicht besonders intuitiv, aber man kommt damit zurecht. Nach ein paar Stunden hatte sich das Gerät nach Tests mit HDMI-Format-Umstellungen das erste Mal aufgehängt, d.h. eigentlich nicht ganz aufgehängt, sondern den Empfang von HD-Sendern aufgegeben (“kein Signal”) und bei SD-Signalen hübsche grün blinkende Blöcke schachbrettartig ins Bild gemischt. Gerät ausgeschaltet, Essen gegangen, dann wieder eingeschaltet – und es hat wieder funktioniert.

Generell ist anscheinend die DHCP-Verschlüsselung ein Kandidat für Abstürze – ein anderes Mal hat sich das Gerät (der Receiver) beim Umschalten (am TV-Gerät) von Scart (nützlich für komfortableren Teletext am TV-Gerät) auf HDMI aufgehängt. Nicht nur das: ist der PVR vom Netz getrennt, lässt sich manchmal das TV-Gerät nicht einschalten(!) – inzwischen funktioniert’s aber meistens, wenn man nach dem Ausschalten des TV-Geräts ein paar Sekunden wartet, bevor man am den PVR-Netzschalter ausschaltet). Warum die Übertragung zwischen PVR und TV über HDMI verschlüsselt erfolgen muss, wo ich doch das Signal unverschlüsselt auf die Festplatte aufnehmen kann, ist mir sowieso ein Rätsel, aber die Film-Industrie will es halt so.

Die gute Erreichbarkeit des Netzschalters spricht für ein Belassen des Geräts am Ablagebrett oberhalb des TV-Gerätes (wo zuvor der alte Sat-Empfänger stand), obwohl der frei gewordene Platz des alten Recorders im Fach unterhalb des TV-Gerätes leicht ausgereicht hätte. Der Netzschalter ist nicht nur für die “Fehler-Behebung” bei Abstürzen des Gerätes erforderlich, sondern auch aus Energiespargründen: der Standby-Verbrauchswert ist mit 11 Watt erschreckend hoch, aber gottseidank gehen mit dem Ausschalten keine Einstellungen verloren (zuerst auf Standby schalten und erst nach ein paar Sekunden den Netzschalter drücken).

Daneben spricht auch die Wärmeentwicklung des Gerätes (weil lüfterlos, und das ist, wie schon gesagt, gut so) für eine möglichst freie Aufstellung als (wörtlich) “Settop-Box”.

Zur Qualität: HD ist es wirklich Wert – wenn man das Bild aus direkter Nähe anschaut: keine Komprimiertungs-Wölkchen oder -Blöcke erkennbar, hohe Detailschärfe, hier trumpft die Qualität des h.264-Codecs. Voll zur Geltung kommt sie natürlich nur, wenn auch das Filmmaterial bereits die entsprechende Qualität hatte (ja, bitte, mehr davon), doch auch “hochgerechnete” Normal-Bilder profitieren von der größeren und gut ausgenutzten Bandbreite. Bei Betrachtung aus “normaler” Entfernung auf der Wohnzimmercouch ist der Unterschied nur mehr gering (insbesondere bei Personen, die nicht über eine von der Natur gegebene volle Sehkraft verfügen und daher eine Brille tragen). Die von vielen Usern gepriesene Qualtitäts-Verbesserung bei SD-Sendungen kann eigentlich nur am Kabel liegen (HDMI statt Scart), denn ob der Sat-Reciever oder das TV-Gerät von der PAL-Auflösung hochskalieren kann nüchtern betrachtet keinen Unterschied machen. Im Gegenteil: eigentlich kann das TV-Gerät in einem Schritt auf seine angezeigte Auflösung skalieren, während der Sat-Receiver noch auf 1080 extrapoliert, bevor es das TV-Gerät wieder herunterrechnet. Erst bei einem Full-HD-TV-Gerät fällt dieses Argument weg, dennoch wird der Bildinhalt nicht mehr, sondern nur größer. Dafür kann der Receiver auch mit etwas schwächeren Signalstärken gut umgehen: bei manchen Kanälen (z.B. goTV oder Timm) gab es früher immer wieder Bild-Aussetzer, die jetzt der Vergangenheit angehören, was die Programmvielfalt erhöht.

Empfang: das Cryptoworks-Modul (CI-Slot) samt ORF-Karte vom alten Receiver hat auf Anhieb funktioniert (nachdem ich es beim alten Sat-Receiver aufgrund von häufigen Ausfällen schon zweimal umtauschen ließ, aber das ist eine andere Geschichte) – auch für ORF 1 HD – dafür gab’s dort gleich zur Begrüßung ein Laufband mit dem Hinweis auf eine Frequenzumstellung. Schnell notiert (gibt’s natürlich auch auf der ORF-Website) gleich den Sendersuchlauf gestartet und – oops mit der nächstliegenden Frequenz einmal nichts gefunden. Bereit für jede Menge Spaß die Bedienungsanleitung zur Hand genommen (welch Schmach für einen Techniker…): über die Funktion “Satellit bearbeiten” (sic!) kann man tatsächlich eine neue Frequenz eingeben, die man dann im anschließenden Sendersuchlauf auswählen kann – allerdings nicht zahlenmäßig eingeordnet sondern am Ende der Liste. Geschafft, dem TV-Konsum steht nichts im Wege. Berichte zur Aufnahme und Verarbeitung folgen nächstes Mal.

Es gilt der übliche Disclaimer. Bleiben Sie uns gewogen!
mpi

So, warum also wieder ein bisschen neue Experimtente mit Video-Konvertierung? Und warum überhaupt dieser Blog?

Inzwischen ist der alte Festplatten-Recorder schon ein wenig in die Jahre gekommen (fast 4 Jahre, Hilfe, schon wieder die Zahl 4…) und von der Qualität nicht so optimal: er codiert das Signal neu, das vom Satelliten ohnehin schon digital hereinkommt (die Anschaffung erfolgte seinerzeit vor jener des digitalen Sat-Empfängers). Anfang des Jahres ging dann auch noch der gute, alte Röhrenfernseher kaputt (hat immer gute Dienste geleistet!) und der neue Flachbild-TV brachte die mangelhafte Qualität der Aufnahmen ans Tageslicht (bzw. ins gedimmte Glühlampenlicht des Wohnzimmers).

Es wurde also Zeit für die Empfangsmöglichkeit von HD-Sendungen und eine digitale, verlustfreie Aufnahme des Sat-Signals (sowohl MPG2 als auch MPG4/h.264). Während der letzten Jahre sind die derartigen Geräte auch deutlich billiger geworden (vor ein paar Jahren noch Richtpreis um die 400 Euro), insbesondere jene, die die Harddisk nicht eingebaut haben, sondern mittels USB den Anschluss einer eigenen Festplatte ermöglichen.

Ursprünglich hatte ich ein Gerät von Tri*x-Hirschm*nn ins Auge gefasst, das beim Geiz-ist-Geil-Händler des Vertrauens unter 200 Euro erhältlich war. Dieses war dann aber bereits ausverkauft und als Entscheidungshilfe diente einerseits die kompetente Fachberatung des Verkäufers (“das Gerät ist auch nicht besser als das von Str*ng, besser wäre jedoch eines von K*threin), aber auch das Preisargument und die Tatsache, dass eigentlich alle derartige Geräte aufgrund ihrer doch recht komplizierten Technik über gewisse kleine Macken verfügen und man bei einem billigem Gerät noch am ehesten darüber hinwegsehen kann.

Kurz und gut, es wurde der Str*ng SRT 7335 CI. Hat Mitte September 159 Euro gekostet, einen Monat später war’s in einem Aktionsblatt desselben Händlers sogar um 129 Euro drinnen (grmpf!). Dazu noch ein HDMI-Kabel um läppische 19,99 (ein Schnäppchen im Vergleich zum Markenprodukt um 35,-; mit den dem Gerät beiliegenden Cinch-Kabeln hätte man wohl doch geringe Qualitätseinbußen in Kauf genommen und dazu eine externe 2,5″-Festplatte Western Digital, 320 GB um 67,20 von P*luga. Gesamtpreis also rund 216 Euro.

Es gilt der übliche Disclaimer. Bleiben Sie uns gewogen!
mpi

It was Thursday morning when it finally happened. We all knew it might – that it must – but none of us ever admitted it; not to ourselves and certainly not to other. But here it was. It was real and we had to find some way of dealing with it.

The early signs of ill health had perhaps been showing for a while – there was occasional freezing and the odd bout of forgetfulness – but nothing that gave us serious cause for concern. After all at nearly three years old it was no spring chicken and these things were only to be expected, weren’t they?

Still, nothing prepared us for Thursday, when the lights eventually dimmed, flickered briefly, then died out, leaving nothing but a shell, a physical reminder of what used to be. An emergency operation was carried out, but the odds were stacked against us. It was too far gone, too late. Our faithful companion, ready and willing to serve night or day, was no more.

So, as a final, fond farewell I say “Goodbye, our trusted and dearly beloved digital video recorder; we will never forget you. At least until we buy a shiny replacement. May you rest in pieces.”

Being and IT professional, one thing that comes default is SUCKING!!

Team members get sucked by managers or vice versa, but in each project you’ll find atleast one guy who is being SUCKED !! When do you feel its sucking?

• Money Matters : When your bread and butter for IT I would be say your movies and shopping is not what you thought of. If you are unable to view film at PVR/INOX or buy LCD because of budget constraint, fasten your seat belt. Your project/company is sucking you.
• View : If early morning you get up and you feel like wearing just anything and if it becomes a routine , you need to think again. If you neighbourhood(I mean your desk/cubicle) dosent has a single beauty/handsome looking hunk its useless to go and work for such a project/company. Man you should switch!!!
• Eating Habits : If your canteen/food court/cafetaria dosent offer a wide range of eatables, trust me you are working at wrong place. Do you remember, empty stomach even you cant sit and say SAI NAAM…then how the hell could you even think of working man.
• Managers : Yes, those are someone “reduntant for IT” but still they exist I wonder HOW?? But if your manager is working and working and not delegating… boss you are caught at wrong place. Login into naukri.com and monsterindia.com and search two jobs one for you and another for your manager
• No Parties : Yes, parties are our BIRTHRIGHT. For every small sucess you have the full right to get TREATED by you managers. If no party he is sucking you !!

What else do you think of?

The Search For a Case

The first step in building the media centre was, for me, to find a suitable case. And by suitable, I meant that it satisfied the following criteria:

• Be pleasant to look at
• Fit into my existing TV unit
• Have room for expansion
• Provide sufficient cooling

Let’s face it – most of the time, computers are not the most attractive of objects – especially PCs. The average desktop PC is an ugly, functional slab of plastic. I know the Mac evangelists will point towards the iMac, which, for sure, is a nice looking piece of kit, but it’s way above my budget.  The result was that I felt like I had a challenge on my hands to find a case that met all of my requirements.

After doing quite a bit of research online, I was drawn towards the Antec enclosures. They’re not bad to look at, and seem to tick all the boxes. The main problem I’d encountered with Antec in the past was that their non-standard power supplies were notoriously unreliable, and then impossible to source a replacement for. This meant that I had a new requirement to add to my list: the power supply must be more dependable than a paper hat in a thunderstorm – or a standard, replaceable part.

Eventually the search turned up the Antec NSK2480. Strange, perhaps, when you consider what I just wrote above; however, it’s a nice box, and looks more like a piece of high-end stereo equipment than a computer. Even better, the power supply is standard and so when (not “if”) this PSU becomes kaput, I can replace it with a standard ATX supply.

Other nice features – it has dual, controllable, ultra-silent fans. These can be controlled with the integrated switch, or attached to a fan controller. The hard disks sit on little silicone grommets to reduce vibration, and the 5.25″ expansion bays lift out easily. The finish on the case is very good too, it doesn’t have any nasty sharp edges, so I shouldn’t have to count my fingers after fitting the motherboard. Access is via a single screw on the upper rear of the case, and the screw has a thumb-grip for easy removal. Inside, it has a triple-chamber design, which helps with noise and vibration reduction and also aids airflow.

So far, so good. Now all I need is something to put in it, but it is October now, so I can start shopping for a motherboard!

[Aaron] tipped us off about a project over at mobilehackerz. They built something of a PVR for 1seg broadcast stations (Google translation). The 1seg broadcast standard is aimed at mobile video service and available in countries like Japan and Brazil. Their terrestrial TV signals (ISDB-T) are divided into 13 segments per channel but the HD broadcasts only use 12 of those segments. This allows the 1seg data to be broadcast in the 13th segment.

mobilehackerz wanted to record each station’s complete daily broadcast. So they picked up a bunch of USB tuner fobs and chained them together with two powered USB hubs. The video is delivered in a type of MPEG2 format so once pulled out of the air the stream can be dumped directly onto disk. It seems they’ve got some code available for this system but even with the translated page we can’t really figure out what it does. If you’re Japanese skills are strong, fill us in with a comment.

At 3000 yen (about $34) per tuner this is not the most economical PVR capture system we’ve seen. Add to that the 15 fps broadcast and we’re not sure this is of all that much use. But then again, if you have to ask “what is it for?” you’re missing the essence of the hack.

I was looking at some old posts as I tidied up this site earlier today and nearly a year ago I was very pleased about getting 12 Mbps internet. Du has continued to work on its network and as the result of the their investment into their backbone they are now offering improved services.

The first thing I got excited about was an upgrade (at no extra cost) from 12 Mbps to 24 Mbps. Despite it being expensive ($204 a month) at least I have the option to choose this service. Below is a chart of the different offerings:

Having had this speed for a couple of months I am overall really pleased with the service. Typical web browsing is a good experience and HD streaming sites like Revision 3 are now a joy to visit. I have benchmarked the speed and I can easily achieve full line speed late in the evenings. I think there is some traffic shaping but I rarely see anything less that 16Mbps at peak times. The best bit – there are no bandwidth caps. I didn’t realise just how good this was till I was in the UK recently and realised that you pay dearly for having a true unlimited download package from an ISP. Now if only I could get a service with really low latency – I would be ecstatic.

The more recent service that I am happy to see is the introduction of a High Definition (HD) TV service. When I left the UK mid 2006 HD was something that had yet to be launched to the general public and in the interim three years has become defacto with most of my friends (even my Mum has HD TV now!)

The DU HD TV service involves getting new decoders and an engineer to come and install them. After a four week wait I got them installed last weekend. The set top box appears to be a Tatung model with the added bonus of acting as a PVR allowing the recording of TV shows for viewing later (I didn’t realise how much I had missed simple VCR functionality). It looks quite slick:

The good thing is that the new HD box has HDMI output for easy hook up into the rest of my home cinema gear. The options for HD display are 720p and 1080i and with the right HD content the output is really quite decent. Below is a photo (excuse the light reflection) of “Chuck and Larry” from the Showtime HD channel and it is on a par with DVD quality.

If I look at the three key areas for HD TV I rate the picture to be a really good improvement, the sound to be an excellent improvement and the EPG (Electronic Program Guide) to be a huge step forward. Now with picture in picture channel surfing and easy to set-up recording of shows it is very friendly in use. The downside of all the promise of HD TV is that there is still a lot of content in regular standard definition which now looks even worse in direct comparison.

It is great to see the service provides Du and Etisalat now bringing these offerings to consumers in Dubai and pulling home entertainment onto a par with other parts of the world. I am interested to see what else is in the pipeline maybe 50Mbps home internet or a wider variety of HD content – either way it is all upside for the regular Joe.

My PVR (Personal Video Recorder). Can’t. Live. Without. It.

It’s kind of like a TiVo where it allows me to tape all my shows and watch them later while also giving me the ability to fast forward through the commercials. I can also pause and rewind live TV. Now that I’m pretty much home all day every day and awake during some pretty ungodly hours at night, I’ve been able to pretty much tape everything I want so that I always have something interesting to watch no matter the time of day or week.

Soaps (Y&R), sitcoms (Two and a Half Men) Dramas, (Greys Anatomy) and Sci-Fi (Star Trek of all kinds), these are just a few of the 2 dozen or so shows that I now have at my fingertips because seriously, breast feeding can get pretty boring at times. It was fun to watch him nurse for the first month or so, but now, while he’s eating, I’m watching Mythbusters.

I’d also like to throw a shout-out to my giant HDTV and my PS3 which has given me many hours of HD and Blu-Ray viewing pleasure.