Digitalwerks - Latest Comments

Re: Start-Ups in the Sun

jakesheehan — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 22:41:26 -0000

Loved Radioweave for user-generated content streamed with podcasts, tweets, your music, etc. Heard a blackberry app is in the works. Also liked Wuse. Why didn't these 2 startups get DemoGod awards? Ridiculous.

Re: Start-Ups in the Sun

slightlyoffbeat — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:20:09 -0000

There were so many companies creating applications for the iphone. Some also developed for android and WinMo as well. It almost makes me sad that I decided to go with my palm pre and WebOS.

I also enjoyed seeing Waze and their idea for cheap GPS made possible via crowd-sourcing. It seems a lot of companies wanted to "change the way you look at email" or "change the way you look at surfing the web". Perhaps their method is superior..but I'm just don't see them hitting critical mass or getting mass adoption. Not as many people are focused on finding a public need and addressing it.

my 2c

Re: Is there a future for Home Theater PC’s?

grizzly1 — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 16:38:55 -0000

Integrating all this into the TV itself is a horrible idea! It's the same logic as the old TV VCR combos. The VCR will fail and then you have to throw away your TV too!

I have had my Dell with an over the air tuner in my living room for over a year now and I love it. I have a wireless mouse and keyboard. The only thing I would like is some sort of app that allows me to type on the screen with my mouse if I can't get to the keyboard or if I only have one hand available. This is most useful for web searching.

Re: Is there a future for Home Theater PC’s?

kosmonaut — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 19:18:43 -0000

Thanks for visiting java_jack! You are absolutely right that HTPCs and streaming devices are niche, no doubt. I do think, though, as netbooks, nettops, etc. become more prevalent, and cheaper, and as people begin to amass more and more computers in their homes, then they may be more open to using them in dedicated ways, like an HTPC. A $300 nettop with GPU acceleration might become pretty tempting to people accustomed to getting a lot of content from the Internet.

Re: Is there a future for Home Theater PC’s?

kosmonaut — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 19:14:28 -0000

Those are good points, and I'm not sure I have much to add. I would love to get a sense of where you think IPTV standards might be moving, is there a current project that you think is a good indicator of where things will likely end up?

Re: Is there a future for Home Theater PC’s?

kosmonaut — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 19:12:07 -0000

Well, when it comes to input, let's just say I'm agnostic about sources. ;) Nonetheless, with the Hauppauge capture device, I can get all my cable shows in HD, so a CableCARD right now is not particularly appealing.

Re: Is there a future for Home Theater PC’s?

java_jack — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 15:20:35 -0000

Nice blog. I would agree that the PC platform is the most versitile solution to meet the demands of the consumer. However, it is also the best kept secret of the industry.

I have 2 HTPCs in my home...when friends come over and I demo it to them, they are stunned at everything I can do with it. When I explain that this a PC, they are even more blown away. When I explain that I was able to dump my cable and strictly use my HTPC for all my TV viewing needs, a look of disbelief crosses their faces.

The mainstream audience does not know about it and that is a problem. The HTPC will have a hard time crossing the gap unless a CE vendor picks it up and introduces it to the larger audience.

I am excited about the changes that Win 7 is bringing to the table, but MS needs to do a better job of reaching out to the audience to show them what they are missing.

I see plenty of "I'm a PC" commercials on TV, but where is the commercial that shows off an interface like Media Center?

Currently even the best streaming boxes have a very small audience when compared to the mainstream market.

HTPCs, streaming boxes, etc. are still a niche play. Connected devices like those shown at CEDIA last week will help open the audience up to the online world in the livingroom, but the HTPC has a long way to go to gain mind share.

Now, I have a series of blogs that I have written to try and show consumers why the HTPC makes sense and how they might get into the game, but there is no easy way to reach the large audience.

For those interested in reading the blog series, you can find it at:

http://links.amd.com/Home

We would love to see the HTPC platform grow as that would be good for our business, but there are some challenges to overcome.

Re: Is there a future for Home Theater PC’s?

Joe Wood — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 10:09:43 -0000

Funny that the TV *has* be seen in a browser. That really makes no sense, as the browser is just a UI to discover the video stream. Does it have to be HTML? Does it *have* to be that generic?
IPTV is clearly the future, with targeted commercials and paid content. PCs are an open platform, but too generic to be accepted as a consumer device.
Eventually I think we will end up with an IPTV standard with a number of supporting operation systems with a more controlled extensibility model. Something more like the iPhone than the current PC. This is probably the future of the PC too, with Win32 applications running on some form of VM on top of a managed only application platform.

Re: Is there a future for Home Theater PC’s?

Dave Z — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:04:25 -0000

You gotta tell us what devices you're using for input. :) if this Ceton multi-stream CableCARD tuner comes out soon and without breaking the bank, I'm probably going Windows 7 on at least 1 TV. Could be more if some new extenders come out. (PS Brent just received the new Popcorn Hour - will be interesting to see what he has to say.)

Re: Contact

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Re: Technology and the Future of the Comic Boook

davisfreeberg — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 10:58:54 -0000

I think that the exclusivity business model of the comic book world always kept me from getting too involved. Unless you were really dedicated, it was impossible to read the beginning stories or stay caught up on a series. Just like Netflix lets you go back and see every Batman movie from the beginning, you should be able to read an entire series online. If the big two would put their archives online, it'd probably upset a lot of the collectors, but I'd be willing to pay $10 a month to be able to read episode of Flash Gordon. Once they get past the scarcity issue, I think that they would attract a much wider audience.

Re: Video getting better on the Android with new apps

Dave Z — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 07:50:19 -0000

Yeah, I'm also considering Android. The Magic/G2 looks pretty good. Wish you'd post some pics with your posts - show me some app interfaces or icons at least. :)

Re: Video getting better on the Android with new apps

kosmonaut — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 19:00:10 -0000

I say go for it! ;) It's a fun phone and has a ton of options for tweaking it to your heart's content. Also, the apps are really coming along nicely. Not as many as iPhone of course, but still, quite a few, most of which are completely free.

Re: Video getting better on the Android with new apps

Davis Freeberg — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:47:11 -0000

I want to buy an Android but keep putting it off. I wish that the platform was a little bit more developed. I also wish that there was a way to get data services without having to give up my prepaid plan or enter into some length contract. Nonetheless, tools like this make me want to forget about my fear of commitment.

Re: Video recording on G1 (Cupcake update)

Michelle Osorio — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 05:05:42 -0000

Ha! I found this article linked from this article
http://newteevee.com/2009/0...

I didn't even know you had written about it. I just uploaded my first g1 footage myself.
http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Re: divx, h264, and (maybe) mkv on Windows 7?

Christopher — Sun, 31 May 2009 18:58:44 -0000

I'm just hoping that they include a tool to choose your 'preferred decoder' in Windows 7.... I'd really like to change my preferred decoders easily to see which one is 'lightest' on CPU resources.

Re: Video recording on G1 (Cupcake update)

Structured Cabling — Sat, 30 May 2009 02:18:42 -0000

I am pretty excited, I am getting this phone next month. Currently I have a pearl 8100, its ok but I want something a little better with the internet, and I think the G1 has what I am looking for and what I want. Someone told me that there is a trial period on it and if you dont like it you can return it, hear anything about that?

Re: Video recording on G1 (Cupcake update)

Steve O'Hear — Fri, 29 May 2009 10:21:45 -0000

The camera on the G1 is pretty awful so I'm not surprised video isn't all that great. But as you say at least it should pave the way for Qik support and better cameras on Google phones in the future.

Re: Video on the Android G1

Daymeon — Thu, 21 May 2009 15:47:00 -0000

I want MeGui program on my phone, I'm about to get rid of this phone because I'm paying $145 a month and can't watch the videos on my phone? I'm paying that much, I should be able to do everything! Please help. 077inglewood@gmail.com

Re: Video on the Android G1

Daymeon — Thu, 21 May 2009 15:43:39 -0000

I understand what you're talking about but I don't know how to do any of it myself, who do I contact to have such services peroformed for me. Or is there an advanced application I could download with the services alreday provided because I'm so upset that I have all of these videos on my phone and I can't watch any of them, and I'm paying $145 a month? Please contact me at 077inglewood@gmail.com.

Re: Video on the Android G1

Joe — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:51:43 -0000

*sigh*

If only this post were written in English. ;)

Re: divx, h264, and (maybe) mkv on Windows 7?

peskypescado — Thu, 14 May 2009 13:16:09 -0000

Since the RC 7100 build doesn't include MKV support it is pretty clear that Microsoft won't be delivering their own solution. We have released a Media Foundation MKV solution that enables Windows 7 to playback MKV files using the built-in system codecs. It also enables streaming of MKV files to PS3 (with transcoding unfortunately) and the Xbox 360 (in HD via Media Center Extender).

Check it out here: http://labs.divx.com/mkvwin...

-- peskypescado, DivX Inc.

Re: MKV’s on Blu-Ray Players

Luigi Guarnieri — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 08:07:41 -0000

Hi, regarding your note "There is no way that a CE device could possibly cover all the things I want to do..." I may be wrong but, sooner or later some solution wil pop-up, and it will be doing the job. I'm thinking about solutions like popcorn with NMT and the lastest, BLOBbox by TVBLOB. This one seems able to do the things I would expect from a media center, like streaming, pocast and torrent, so I'll maybe give a try. It only has a 160GB hd, but I was considering a NAS disk, too...

Re: Video on the Android G1

kosmonaut — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 11:59:40 -0000

Well, yes, that would work as well. ;)

However, MeGUI is a great program if you really want to get into the nitty-gritty of compression, something that I would recommend for anybody who is doing a lot of it.

Re: Video on the Android G1

Joe Mama — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 09:14:46 -0000

or just compress it on a mac very simply.