Now (or at some point, at least) It's Gonna Get Serious

... of course it will be in a fun & geeked out way. We now have two multimedia powerhouses connected to our "Home Theater," in the TiVo HD and XBOX 360, with the capability to add back the HTPC at some point as well. Both devices can stream audio and video from the our network and the internet. I'm determined to find some cool stuff to do with them.

I've been watching NAS (Network Attached Storage) trends for a long time, and there are some very compelling devices out there that are friendly to both the XBOX and TiVo, which can feed them with pictures, audio, and video. We've got lots of pictures and music already, and could conceivably be downloading TV content (instead of paying the cable company so we can record it on the TiVo) from the web.

As home networking options gain new features and speed, we'll be looking for the proper direction to go to replace our router and add a NAS box of some sort. Our current router, as steadfast and trusty as it may be, can be overwhelmed at times by the number of bandwidth hogs currently connected to it. We will need to step up to Gigabit speeds to make it through all the cross-streaming mess, and a finalized high-speed wireless standard would be nice as well. Using a stand-alone NAS should bring power savings over simply running an HTPC all the time, and keep the overall packaging smaller and easier to handle.

After reading an article on CNET about a family who dropped their satellite TV to save money, we're going to be examining some similar options. Most of the TV we watch that isn't broadcast over the airwaves is available for download or streaming. The first trick is determining what we can receive with a terrestrial antenna. If we can kick Comcast cable TV to the curb, we'll be golden!

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E-Tools that don't Cinco el Buque

(I've been trying for so hard to find the name for part 5. Please forgive my lingual mutilation)

This time I'm going to discuss some specifics in using Twitter and Remember The Milk. They seem to be the services that my friends and family have the most problems with. I'm going to start with Remember The Milk, as it is more immediately useful to those who might feel a little daunted by the two at first glance. I seem to be most successful when I can demonstrate the cool stuff first, then encourage the newbs to try it out for themselves.

Remember The Milk is all about lists and how to access and add to them. Checking off items can be useful as well, depending on what you are using the lists for. Lists, or any items within them, can be made public or shared with people that have been added to your RTM Contacts (they have to be RTM users as well. I keep finding new things to make lists of, things that are genuinely useful! The kicker here is that you can access your lists via SMS (with the help of Twitter), mobile web browser, your desktop computer's browser, and even news feeds.

My big thrill for friends and family is Birthday Lists. Everybody is trying to figure out at the last minute what to get somebody for their birthday. We can near-completely solve this by simply populating a list and publishing it. Any lists you have published can be seen by anyone on the web, and has it's own news feed as well. I have shared such a list here. You can see that it is pretty sparse right now, but hopefully you get the point. Now you know what I want for my Birthday!!

An example of using news feeds can be seen in the sidebar. Look for "kEnny's Tasks - Blogs To Be" on the right. This is my list of reminders for things I want to write about. The list is hosted by RTM, but now you can see it from my blog.

How about your favorite books, or books you want to read? Make a new list for the ones you haven't read yet, populate the list with books you want to read, then check them off as you finish them. You have just made a new list of recently read books, that can be added to your blog. it gets updated automatically as you add them and mark others complete. You can move the best ones to a "Favorite Books" list and add that to your blog as well!

I love movies, and I love seeing them in well equipped, modern theaters. Ever since the early nineties, I have avidly watched previews to find the next movie I need to see, then kept the lists to remind me of what I wanted to see later on. I first used PDAs of various sorts for this. I stopped being quite so much of a geek (I mean by whipping out a PDA and typing or writing on it during movie previews, the rest is kinda hard to wash off) when I found a companion to enjoy movies with. Now that I have RTM and Twitter, I am doing it again with my cell phone, which isn't nearly so out of place. At home, I can go through the list of movies and use IMDB to add opening dates, websites, and any other details. Weeks later, RTM sends me a reminder for the movies opening that day. It shows up on my cell phone as an SMS message, courtesy of Twitter, and my email inbox. If I miss a movie and it isn't in the theaters any more, I move it to my movies-to-see-at-home list, and the due date is removed. Now I can watch for it to be available on TV or DVD. I would like to eventually connect that one to a TiVo Wishlist or Netflix Queue. That would be sweet! WAIT! I'm going to add that to my to-do list right now!

I also love music. I've spent a lot of money on music over the course of my years as a bachelor, but in acquiring extra mouths in my household I have come to realize that the same money is better spent elsewhere. I'm very lucky that the popularity of MP3s popped in not long before my first household companion showed up. The good part about having other ears in the house is that I get exposure to music I might not otherwise ever come across. The bad part is that I don't have anywhere near as much spare time for uninterrupted tune-browsing as I used to. Now I can make a note right away for music I need to look for. At my computer is where I can sort the list contents. In my spare time I can see where those songs or artists lead me. Music ID services and HD radio data are also very informative sources for artist and song information, and I'm looking forward to using those to automatically populate my music list in the future.

I'm moving next month, so I started a list of all the big stuff we have to ensure we have the proper facilities to transfer them to the new house. I shared the list with Allison so we both know what we have in front of us.

When I've got a bill or other important matter to attend to in the near future, I send it to RTM, so I don't forget. It only takes a minute to make the note, and I don't ever have to worry about misplacing it.

Does it get better? Yes. Using tags and locations (RTM integrates Google Maps), you can connect items from multiple lists. There's a multitude of ways to manipulate data in RTM. Sign up now, then go here for help setting it up. You won't regret it.

Next?

This is where Twitter comes in. At its core, Twitter is known as a micro-blog. You can send short messages to update your status, and you can "follow" your friends' updates at the same time. Many services (like RTM, duh!) use Twitter as the glue between you and their operations. This population is what gets me excited about using it, because Twitter is so connectible to begin with. You can send and receive updates (and therefore message to the other services) from the mobile devices via text message, email, IM, and their web page, to name only the direct methods. There are scores of other desktop gadgets and programs that can do it as well. My favorite-est browser, , has Twitter functionality built into the sidebar. Between my phone and Flock, I get all the Twitter love I need.

Twitter is smart, too! If you set it up for multiple interfaces (IM, SMS, and Web), it can figure out the best place to contact you. When you have a message coming in, and you aren't logged into your IM service, it can go to your phone. If you designate hours when you don't want Twitter sending Tweets to your phone, it only leaves them in your log on the web for you to check on later. You can also selectively enable alerts from certain folks and services so that you are not totally inundated with incoming Tweets all the time. That was the part that took me a while to catch on to. Every time I added a new entity to follow, I also had to enable their alerts to come to my phone. After that it all works great!

I'm only following one actual person on Twitter: one of my sisters, whom I have suckered into trying it out. I follow 2 services: RTM and Xpen$er (which I haven't done a whole lot with yet). I have also set up two accounts to post to, using Twittermail, that I follow. Twittermail allows you to send an email to post to your Twitter account, and is great for coordinating activities for large groups of people. Anyone who knows the correct address can post comments or directions to everyone following that account. One recent example of such coordination was protesters trying to get face-time with the Olympic torch. I have set one up for use during a week-long family reunion this summer, and another to help coordinate resources at work. You can follow updates from your favorite political candidate, and many other entertaining and informative people.

That's what I've got for now. Tune in later to see what title I come up with for the next installment.

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Comcast DVR Kicked to the Curb. TiVo HD has arrived!!

It was inevitable, really. We were trying to hold out as long as possible, but our Comcast supplied DVR finally had to go. It had been generally misbehaving on a regular basis for a long time, taking way too long to respond to commands from the remote control. After blatantly missing an American Idol episode, we knew it's time was up. I called Comcast and the person I spoke to was very sympathetic and suggested I take the DVR directly to the local office to get the trade-in faster. After hanging up the phone (how much longer will that phrase be used?), it was decided that we would replace the malfunctioning box in two days.

On that day, I had an idea. There had been some sales on TiVo HDs of late at our local mini-sized Best Buys. Why not pick up a CableCARD or two instead of a replacement DVR (which still won't be able to keep from recording the same episodes of A Daily Show with John Stewart and The Colbert Report 4 times a day!!) and buy a TiVo to solve our DVR problems?

So we got our second Tivo.

And we love it, just like we did our first one before we lost reception on our DirecTiVo.

We are still breaking ourselves in, trying to get the accustomed to the new features, but it really is nice. Thanks, TiVo. It's good to be home!

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O where, o where's my Tivo?!

How long can we last? We don’t know. The Series 3 Tivo is out, and I’m leaving it for the early adopters for the time being. Why?

To put it bluntly, I’m cheap.

It took a large leap for us to justify making the previous home theater purchases, but the only big purchase was the TV, which we all love. None of the other components went beyond $250, and most were well below that. I don’t want to pay $800 + monthly fees for a new DVR unless it can do a whole heck of a lot more. The new Tivo has lots of great features, for which not a day goes by without my longing for each one of them. I want to have a DVR that responds quickly to commands. I want to have more space to store HD recordings longer than 4 days. I want to be able to set up recordings from my PC, so I don’t have to interrupt the show being watched. I want! I Want!

But, not so much that I would spend that kind of money on it. I guess we’ll be waiting a little longer for more HD trickle-down.

When I get over my current case of “poutrage”, I’ll post a few handy links I’ve found for HD and home theater information.

Settling in for the show

The ongoing adventure to find the home theater products most suitable for my home & family has come to a happy ending. There will be a few updates on this topic in the future, but the supporting cast has been set in stone for the most part, and will hopefully provide many years of happy viewing. The future of this blog lies will most likely lie in the path of discussion of replacements for our DVD player and DVR.

We are waiting for any definitive information on the forthcoming Series 3 Tivo units. I don’t want to have to pay for it, but it seems to be the best option available if we want to be able to keep up with the next seasons of our favorite shows. I hope it arrives soon, and that somebody comes up with a way for it, via firewire interface, to control my favorite DVD device: the Sony VGP-XL1B2. He have no plans currently to do anything about HD DVD or Blu-Ray discs, as there is still no unified solution and none of the current options offer enough of an appreciable improvement over our cheap upconverting DVD player.

Tune in every month or half-year for updates! ;^)

TV and Stand Day Approacheth!

The next phase is on the way! We ordered the JVC HD-61FH96 TV, along with an interesting TV Stand from South Shore Furniture. Before these arrive I will need to figure out how I will be attaching the front speakers to the wall, so that I won’t need to worry about it once the TV finds its final resting place.

All we need after this will be a Series 3 Tivo! While we wait for that, I will be trying to find out if Comcast has a DVR with more hard disk space that I can swap for. I’d like to be able to start recording our favorite shows in HD, and then enjoy the high resolution goodness on the new TV. Right now I have a hard time justifying that as we can only record about 12 hours of HD material, and we usually have the hard disk about 60% full. That leaves us somewhere around 4.5 hours of room for HD shows. We come close to recording that much at least 3 nights a week, and usually don’t watch it all until a few days later. Definitely need more room.

The Fog Gently Cloudifies

Indecisions, indecisions! The fun bit about not having taken the big bite and actually bought the “dream TV”, is that I don’t have to regret any glaring weaknesses for that particular product… On the other hand, I also don’t get to enjoy the glaring glory of my “dream TV” either!

My latest reason not to get the big rear projection flat screen: processing delay. Many DVR victims are familiar with those instances when the sound and picture don’t sync up and while you can’t always tell which of the two is lagging the other, you can tell that something just isn’t right. This problem can be turned into a constant time warp by new HDTVs by way of too much video processing taking too long to put the finished pictures on the screen, thus the processing delay. Most decent Audio/Video Receivers perform some amount of processing and also incorporate delays to account for different speaker distances. Audio processing is pretty much cake compared to some video processing at this point. With the newest TVs displaying images at 1920x1080 (progressive “scan”) and most programming being presented in (some number)x480 (interlaced), there are a lot of picture to be pulled out of nowhere so it can look it’s best on the big screen. It’s no wonder the TV picture lags a little. There’s so many techniques involved, and many of them done on top of each other, that I am left rather amazed at what we are asking these magical machines to do. Some folks use a device which delays the audio before it gets to the receiver. I don't want to add this complication, or spend extra money to fix a "feature" of the TV I already spent so much on. Here's the one my wife won't like: it'll make video games suck.

My solution? Find the TVs that don’t have too many people complaining about sync problems, then feed it only 1080i signals so that the biggest job, short of minor picture tweaks, is to de-interlace the signal. This will require source devices that can supply video signals that are pre-scaled to 1080i. I’ve got the temporary measures in place. Our DVD player is a Samsung HD850, which is MUCH better than the 1st generation JVC player we had previously. It has what I’ve heard is an acceptable HDMI output, which is the key to making current DVD’s sing visually. The other temporary measure is the Comcast provided Motorola 6412 DVR. This one has a DVI output, and I have cables for each one to connect to the two HDMI inputs on whichever TV we get.

In near future, these boxes will be replaced by more capable hardware. The ideal machine would be a series 3 Tivo, and some sort of universal Blue-Ray/HD-DVD transport/changer. Even better: Have the Tivo control the disc player. There is a Sony media PC that comes with a similar 200 DVD transport/changer, which is connected via Fire wire to the PC. Can someone say Linux drivers? That shouldn’t be too hard right? I know. I shouldn’t be dreaming so much when I can’t even pick out the right TV.

Long story shortened, I am thinking about the one of the JVC models at this point now. DLP has too many moving parts and seems expensive to keep up (replacement lamps), so LCOS looks really good, but Sony has too much processing delay for its wonderful picture. JVC looks good, has cheap lamps, and doesn’t seem to induce too much processing delay.

Of course you know, the 2006 models are just around the corner. I’ll keep wiping the drool off my chin and tell you when I need another towel.

Home Theater Shopping...

Ever since my wonderful, movie-fanatic, lovely, electronics-friendly, awesome wife told me she thought we should get a nice HDTV and new home theater components, I've been running around like crazy trying to find out how to get the most bang for my buck. What the heck is happening here?

We are pretty much replacing everything. About the only thing that might be reused is my old 8" powered sub which resides in the back of our current A/V nook under the stairs. I don't remember the brand. I got it for $40 from Onsale.com about 7 years ago, to complement my soon to be replaced equipment. It has all aged well, with the possible exception of our DVD player that we had to get when my wife-to-be tried to give me some line about how she thought it would be easier to watch DVDs by using a DVD player rather than my highly customized, but not easy to use computer. We got a JVC DVD player, and it has had little hiccups every once in a while, but not bad until we got our latest DVD, Madagascar. That moved up the replacement date for the DVD player as well.

So as of now, we are watching the new DVD player (Samsung DVD-HD850), and we have ordered the receiver (Pioneer VSX-815S), a set of speakers home theater speakers (KLH MP06HT), and a wireless rear speaker contraption (Pioneer XW-HT1) so we don't have to run wires too far, because I am rather lazy like that.

All we have to worry about in a few months will be the TV and stand. I'm looking at any 1080p RPTV and an appropriately nice stand to hold four components. Within a year, I hope to be rid of the "Evil Comcast STB" and back in the welcoming arms of a cable card ready TIVO, or some other PC-based HD PVR.