Technology360

Bob Cringely: When is a TV not a TV? -- also, Neokast

Says Cringely:

When it is an Apple TV - the High Definition DVD-killer ...

... Apple TV will be the spoiler of many a Blu-ray or HD DVD sale because Apple TV is cheaper and easier, has no expensive consumable media, and HD movies will probably cost a little less to buy through iTunes than at Target. ...

But most of this column is about Neokast, a very interesting video distribution technology based on multicasting with which he suggests Apple hook up.  Unlike broadcasting, where multicasting means sending multiple program channels over one broadcast RF channel, the term multicasting here is used in the Internet sense, where it refers to a technology that enable multiple users to access a program without the origination point having to simultaneous send out multiple copies of that program -- one to each user.

Link: PBS.org.  See also Bob's NeoKast QuicKast entered beta this morning.  Link:  Technology Evangelist.  And Paul Kapustka's Neokast, Emerging from the shell.  Link: NewTeeVee.  --Dennis

Converters Signal a New Era for TVs

Jacques Steinberg writes:

... the National Association of Broadcasters, the powerful trade lobby representing the nation’s television networks and stations, lifted the curtain on two prototypes for those basic digital converters — one made by LG, the other by Thomson, which is distributed under the RCA brand — that will start appearing in electronic and department stores in January, at an expected cost of about $50 to $70. ...

Link:  New York Times. 

As if this whole conversion thing wasn't confusing enough to consumers (and to us broadcasters as well), buyers now need to be aware that these basic converter boxes are designed to make your old analog set work with the new digital standard.  It does not convert your old analog set into an HDTV receiver nor does it enable you to receive HD on even an HD monitor.  For that you will need a somewhat more sophisticated box that supports HD.  Another alternative is the emerging category of VCR replacements; that is, DVD recorders that have built-in ATSC tuners.  I saw a Panasonic version the other day at Costco for $300 (includes HDMI interface).  It has 1080i upscaling for DVD playback, but I can't tell from printed specs if the ATSC converter supports HD.  And Wal-Mart is selling two Magnavox units with built-in digital tuners for $190 and $145 (thanks, Ralph Hogan).  That's less than I paid for my stand-alone Samsung ATSC set-top box, but beware, like the new cheap converters, both are Standard Definition only tuners.  Here are some comments about the more expensive Magnavox on the AVS Forum.   --Dennis

The futility of DRM

A code to unlock the HD-DVD DRM was just released into the wild, as Andy Carvin writes:

... The runaway social news site Digg found itself under siege by its own members, as they rose up in revolt against the site owners. A couple of days ago, Kevin Rose and his team had decided to remove a digg story containing the encryption key required to crack HD-DVDs after receiving a take-down notice.  ...

... Faster than you can stand and shout, "I'm Spartacus! I'm Spartacus!," countless digg members were posting stories with the HD-DVD encryption key. Digg simply couldn't keep up with the revolt as it spread like wildfire. Someone even started making the key available on a t-shirt. Eventually, Digg founder Kevin Rose decided to back down in a blog post that actually included the encryption key in its title, despite the potential legal backlash. ...

Link:  Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth.

Of course this provided fodder for countless blog posts this week, including the following from which I borrowed the title for this post.  Bill St. Arnaud writes:

Once again we are seeing an open rebellion against the attempts by the MPAA and RIAA, under the DMCA act, to censor and control the publication of keys for HD-DVD discs. When will these guys ever learn that DRM will never work in a large scale distribution of content. They continue to want to protect a failed business model through flawed DRM technologies, lawyers and take down orders, rather than develop new innovative marketing strategies. ...

Link:  Bill St. Arnaud.  Thanks to Gens Johnson for the tip.  --Dennis

HDTV department of personal experience

A couple of weeks ago, the falling prices for larger HDTV sets got the best of me and Costco made a sale of a 50-inch Maxent plasma monitor.  We already had a 27-inch Maxent LCD monitor and a 32-inch Panasonic CRT behemoth and a Hisense ATSC decoder (USDTV brand, 4th-gen. chip) to go with the latter.  I bought a new Samsung ATSC decoder (5th-gen. chip) to go with the new Maxent and it does a great job, though because its navigation data aren't displayed when using the S-video or composite outputs, don't get this one to receive DTV on your old analog set.  I also bought a Sony DVD player with HDMI and upscaling (to 1080i).

Here's what I learned:

• The two older sets are really too small given our viewing distance for it to matter much what one feeds into it, but the new one makes cruddy old NTSC look even cruddier.  The HD out of the new ATSC decoder looks very nice on the screen, and even at distances greater than the maximum for HD to be fully discernable, it looks better than NTSC using S-video and a lot better than DirecTV's dumbed down NTSC.
• HDMI connections provide a significantly better picture than component connections (Y/Pb/Pr, the three-cable assemblies with red, blue and green color coding).  But be careful where you buy your HDMI cable.  I bought the Samsung ATSC decoder at Circuit City for a decent price, but they were selling Monster cables for obscene prices -- $90 for a 1-meter HDMI cable and $120 (or was it $130) for a 2-meter version.  I went next door to Costco and got a 2-meter cable in a sort of HDTV variety pack of five others for $85.  I later learned that Wal-Mart has them for $30 and that you can buy them online for $5-$10 after rebates.  But do use HDMI to connect your components together.
• The 5th-generation chip in the Samsung set-top box is significantly better than the 4th-generation chip in the Hisense/USDTV box.  I tried them side-by-side with four antennas (a small UHF Terk log-periodic, an amplified Phillips flat-panel antenna, an UHF corner reflector, and a large attic-mounted VHF/UHF log periodic.  The Samsung got more channels and a more stable picture in every case.  If you're not sure it has the LG 5-th gen. chip in it, buy a monitor rather than a receiver and get this Samsung or other set-top box with that decoder.  You'll save money, too.
• The upscaling/HDMI DVD player does an absolutely amazing job fooling the monitor into thinking it's receiving HD.  The video is very satisfying, and it even does a credible, if less satisfactory job providing simulated surround sound.  It's a mystery why anyone would want to plunk down $600 to $1,200 on a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD when you can have this for $129 and have access to hugely more titles.  I've crossed it off my wish list, though it wasn't too high up anyway since the two competing formats have barely begun duking it out.

--Dennis

The Death of the Disc: Why HD-DVD and Blu-Ray Are Dead on Arrival

Sean Cooper thinks HD discs are DOA because of the Internet, cable on-demand, pricey hardware, and the rise of the hard drive.  He's premature in drawing that conclusion, though he could have added that many people won't get true HD resolution because of where they sit in relation to their screen size (generally, too far away), leading them to wonder why they invested in something that doesn't look a whole heckuva lot better than their old DVD player.  Link:  Slate.  --Dennis

Mark Schubin digital television memo, 21 Nov 2006

Mark Schubin has issued his first "Monday Memo" since mid-September, having been busy with "an explosion of media" at the Metropolitan Opera under its new general manager.  Nice to have him back.

One particularly interesting tidbit is that by 1/2008 we should see a $60 DTV set-top box from LG (their 5th generation chip is the closest thing we now have to a reliable ATSC decoder).  And, of course, there's much more to read.  Link:  OpenDTV at FreeLists.  --Dennis

Negroponte in 1994

I was researching Nicholas Negroponte's "tell me more" idea for the Skip Pizzi post immediately below this one and came across a 1994 interview that Dale Cripps of the HDTV Newsletter made with Nicholas Negroponte at the dawn of the Internet age (and DTV age, for that matter).  Very interesting reading.  Negroponte gives this as part of his response to Cripps' request to "paint a vision of the world in ten years."

... The FCC is reviewing 20 Mb/s solutions right now. Let's say they select one and give you as a broadcaster a 20 Mb/s license. What are you going to do with that license? You are not going to broadcast HDTV. You are going to broadcast 3 or 4 channels of NTSC. Then if you are clever you are going to broadcast 3 channels of NTSC, one radio program, two pagers, digital newspaper and some other unknown data broadcast service. Then all of a sudden on a Saturday afternoon in your local area there is an important college football game you might devote 8 Mb/s to the football game, discontinue one of your NTSC channels (may be not run the newspaper). Then in the middle of the night you might be broadcasting 6 or 7 newspapers. In other words all of a sudden you with your 20 Mb/s space be your own micro FCC allocating your spectrum as you see fit. From the broadcaster's point of view that is really very, very interesting business opportunities. ...

Link:  HDTV Magazine.  NB: Negroponte's name is misspelled in the article.  --Dennis

High-definition DVD market facing static

Sue Zeidler writes:

... The competing formats, Sony Corp.-backed Blu-ray and Toshiba Corp.-championed HD-DVD, aim to provide better picture quality and interactive features, but some early viewers have been underwhelmed.  ¶  "Neither format is selling well or at the level I had expected. I had expected early adopters to step up and other retailers have had the same experience," said Bjorn Dybdahl, president of San Antonio, Texas-based specialty store Bjorn's. ...

Link:  Reuters.

Gee, do you suppose it's because the experience of going from regular to DVD to high definition DVD might be visibly less compelling for most than the earlier experience they all had of going from cruddy old analog TV to a digital monitor -- especially to a regular DVD on a digital monitor?  A regular DVD on a digital monitor will give you ED quality.  A regular DVD on an HD monitor will give you ED quality.  And a high definition DVD viewed on an HD monitor will also be perceived as ED quality when viewed at a non-optimal distance from the screen.  I'd bet that most real world viewing of HD monitors in the living room or den is done at a distance beyond that for which the acuity of the human eye can perceive the difference between ED and HD.  --Dennis

Consumer electronics fidelity and consumer behavior

Kevin Maney has an insightful and lengthy article on this topic in USA Today.  He writes:

... “Consumers began to vote in favor of increased control over and customization of media, and have consistently proven they're willing to sacrifice fidelity to get it,” says Trip Hawkins, who founded mobile-game maker Digital Chocolate based on that premise. The company makes low-fidelity games that take advantage of cellphones' strengths.  ¶  Cost is part of convenience. The lower the cost, the more people consider something convenient. A home theater system for $10,000 isn't a mass-market threat to movie theaters. A $1,000 home system is.  ¶  The two concepts together — fidelity in smaller packages and consumers seeking convenience — become a powerful force. ...

Link:  USA Today.

Mark Ramsey had two related posts, also insightful in the radio context, one before and one after Maney's article.  So be sure to also read "Good enough" is the new "Best" (link:  hear 2.0) and "Fidelity" and the future of radio (link:  hear 2.0).  And thanks to Ramsey for the link to Maney's article.  --Dennis

Mark Schubin's DTV memo for 9/1/2006

Mark Schubin has posted his latest news memo on digital television to the OpenDTV list.  --Dennis