Floppyhead – Digital Media and Streaming

One thing about open source software: you never know how people will improve it. Take Media Portal for instance. I have tried it but ultimately went with BeyondTV to watch TV on my computer. That, however, might change though with the release of Xface Skin Version 1.0.

Xface is a new skin for Media Portal that rivals anything Apple or Microsoft has come up with for media centers (albeit it does borrow heavily from Apple’s Cover flow). The interface looks slick and appears to support widescreen televisions. Xface is still a work in progress but it is a great start. Check out the pictures below. Media Portal should make Xface the default skin.

Via  Missing Remote

Getting television recordings onto a portable device has always been easier said then done. Snapstream is looking to make that process easier with its updates to BeyondTV, their digital video recorder software for the PC.

From Snapstream’s announcement:

This is an innovative feature that uses the H.264 format to re-compress your Beyond TV recordings and sync them to your iPod, iPhone, or Apple TV. Using an iTunes podcast rss feed you can now automatically sync your television recordings to your iPod or iPhone. With the recent split between NBC and iTunes this feature will serve as a new outlet to get your recordings on to your iPhone or iPod without a hitch.

Snapstream also offers a step-by-step walkthrough on getting video to your iPhone or iPod. I use BeyondTV to watch HD shows over the air but I do not own a iPhone or iPod Touch to make this worthwhile. Has anyone tried this out?

Several companies announced this week upcoming releases of the second generation of media center Extenders. For $300, you can get an Extender that has a wireless Internet card and can play Divx files from your computer. While expensive, it is cheaper than an Xbox 360, especially if you need the wireless network connection.

Extenders make sense if you have a media center with four Digital Cable Tuners, which have also been recently announced but are only available through the custom install market. Currently, I pay $12.99 a month for my DVR receiver and DVR service through Cox cable. If I had two TVs with DVR receivers, I would pay almost $26 a month. Two Extenders would offer me the same functionality for only the rental price of 4 CableCards, which would cost just under $13 a month. I could save $12 a month by using Extenders or $144 a year. In two years, I pay for one Extender with that savings. Not too bad. The savings are even better if you have 2 Tivos and their monthly fees.

The real roadblock to Extenders is the cost of Media Centers with Digital Cable Tuners. To me, I am not interested in using Extenders unless I could watch HDTV through them. The custom install market looks to be the main consumer of these new Extenders, relegating this new hardware to the niche market. Hopefully that will change as media center computers fall in price.

Belkin has begun shipping a networked USB hub ($130), that lets you connect any USB peripheral to your network like a USB hard drive or printer. From Belkin’s website:

• Share up to 5 devices: multi-function printers, media readers, digital cameras and scanner on your network
• Back up and access data from networked attached storage (NAS) devices
• Play music from an MP3 player connected to a USB dock (using USB speakers)

This USB hub could be a great way to share printers and hard drives with a media center in your living room. If you are going to buy a print server for a USB printer, you might as well get this device. This also seems like a great way to make a Drobo storage robot into a NAS.

Before you start loading up on external hard drives to record HD content, Belkin has the following ominous caveat on their site:

Data transfer rates do not support some high-speed/high-bandwidth USB devices such as HD streaming web cams or other video transfer applications.

Via Electronichouse.com

The next generation of Extenders should be available before the end of the year. Extenders are any device that let you stream content from a Vista Media Center computer. If done right, Extenders could make a whole home system much easier.

With the impending release of the second generation fo Extenders, Microsoft has released an update for Vista Media Center. According to Microsoft:

Install this update to enable new types of Windows Media Center Extenders, such as digital televisions and networked DVD players, to connect to the Windows Media Center PC.

Via Chris Lanier’s Blog.

The television networks are finally beginning to harvest the power of the Internet. Networks are realizing that the Internet can provide free advertising and word of mouth for shows. Here are some examples.

• ABC has reached an agreement with AOL to deliver full-length, ad supported episodes of a slew of its prime-time shows starting on Sept. 25.
• NBC said it plans to launch a new desktop application that will provide PC-users with the ability to download full-length, ad supported episodes of its prime-time and late-night shows for one week following their initial broadcast.
• The season premieres of seven Fox Broadcasting shows will be offered on Apple Inc.’s iTunes store for free.

You can see the slightly different strategies for each Network. NBC, while offering shows through Amazon for free, is attempting to bypass the third-party video “store” like iTunes. Fox and ABC are just trying to increase their shows profile on the Internet.

I am curious to see how these strategies work out and whether they are successful. I still think they need to release shows in high definition. BitTorrent is the real competition, not iTunes.

Wavexpress has released an update to TvTonic, which integrates better into Vista’s Media Center, specifically adding Quicktime support.

TvTonic can manage a viewer’s RSS Video subscriptions much like a digital video recorder (DVR) for the Internet. Viewers select the channels (or video podcast) they want to record and TVTonic caches the shows on the hard-drive. The program allows you to download anything that has an RSS feed associated with it (RSS feeds are more common than you think).

The upgrade to TvTonic will provide Windows Vista Media Center users access to nearly 300 channels of QuickTime video. Once TVTonic is installed, just select it from the Program Library in Vista Media Center or More Programs within XP Media Center.

Vista’ Media Center keeps getting more and more ways to watch content. Love it.
(Via TVSquad)

Maybe I missed this earlier, but I thought people might be interested in knowing that the Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive is now available for $179 at Buy.com (with free shipping too). The drive also comes with 5 free HD-DVD movies from a limited selection.

The Xbox 360 HD-DVD is a cheap way to watch HD-DVD drives on your computer. You actually do not need the Xbox 360. The drive itself is a USB drive and software drivers are available on the Internet. This drive is an easy way to take the HD plunge without having to spend a lot of money and is a great option if you have a media center connected to an HDTV. Combine this drive with a Netflix account and you can watch HD-DVD movies for cheap.

With the HD format war, the less you spend the better. That way, jumping to another format is not that painful.

Spiralfrog, the ad-based music download service, has finally opened its doors for business. The music industry has been trying different ways to increase revenues, especially online.

Spiralfrog boasts over 800,000 tracks and 3,500 music videos available at launch. Although 800,000 sounds impressive, it has a long way to go to catch up to iTunes and even Emusic.

SpiralFrog is able to offer songs for free by requiring the user to view ads in order to download the music, and has a revenue-sharing deal with the labels. The music catalog right now revolves around Universal Music Group. EMI also is offering songs with SpiralFrog, as are a number of independent artists and music labels. Big name artists like Gwen Stefani and Fergie are available for download so that is a good sign.

I tried out the service to see how it performs. Overall, I think it works fairly well. Spiralfrog does make you download their own “download” software, which is kind of annoying but I guess pretty standard. You need to use Windows Media Player 10 or higher. Mac users need not apply.

The service requires the user to log in and view ads at least once every 30 days. On the front page, there is a counter that tells you how many days you have left before you have to “renew” for free. You also cannot burn the songs to CD or transfer it to an iPod.

Sprialfrog has two things not working in its favor right now: 1) a limited catalog of songs and 2) no iPod compatibility. New songs apparently are right around the corner but the iPod issue might be a deal breaker for the college crowd.

Ace Computers’ new LHD Viva is an all-in-one Media Center PC/LCD TV, similar to many Soney and HP offerings. It is an iMac competitor with features the iMac cannpt touch right now, namely Digital Cable Tuners.

The unit, which costs less than $2,000 is a HD Media Center with a built-in 22-inch TV. It has two built-in ASTC TV tuners with an option for external CableCard tuners. It is unclear whether the external tuners are part of that $2,000 figure. This seems like another option for the “Media Center computer as a second TV” market.

As always, CEPro is the first to break the news of this product release. Here are some features, as outlined by CEPro:

• Intel VIIV and LIFE|WARE Ready
• Up to 2 Tuners Plus Support for External CableCard Tuners
• Available with 19” or 22” Wide Screen LCD Displays
• Support for Gigabit Lan, wireless and Bluetooth
• Built-In Subwoofer and Speakers plus external speakers available
• Support 7.1 High Definition Audio-24 Bit/192KHz/ 8 HD Channels
• Up to 2TB Onboard Storage plus eSATA and Firewire Ports
• Choice of 3 Video Cards and more coming
• Anti-Vibration and Acoustically Dampened – Ultra Quiet system
• NO DIRECT SALES-100% of sales are through partners
• Nationwide On-Site Support Available
• Microsoft WHQL Certified and VISTA Ready