The Pros and Cons Of Media Center Vista

January 31st, 2008 Davis

Over the past few months, I’ve finally started to get a feel for Media Center Vista and while I haven’t tried out every feature in the program, I have played around with it long enough to have some initial thoughts. Before I tried the software, I had low expectations, but after actually using the program, I’ve been really impressed with what the Media Center team has put together.

Media Center Vista allows you to perform some pretty advanced tasks without having to be a computer geek in order to figure out how to use it. I initially had some reservations about the user interface, but it only took about a week, before I found it growing on me. There are still improvements that Microsoft needs to make, but they’ve made a giant leap forward, compared to the original XP version.

Pros

-Media Center Vista is wicked fast at finding new programs. In the XP version, the software was painfully slow at trying to search for shows. As soon as I would start typing in the name of a show, XP would freak out from trying to sort through so much information. In Vista, the program still starts searching immediately, but the indexing has been turbocharged. Instead of having to wait for the menu, the results will appear as fast as you can type. This faster indexing shows up in a number of areas. When you are browsing, you can hit page down and scroll through programs as fast as you can read them. If you want to rearrange the priority of your recordings, you can make changes and move onto other areas of the program without having to wait forever while the system checks for conflicts.

-The interface looks fantastic. Microsoft has done a good job of creating a clean and intuitive DVR experience. The program is easy to navigate and has lots of extra features. On the surface the design appears relatively simple, but you can tell that Microsoft has paid a lot of attention to the little details. Whether it’s being able to double click on the picture in picture window, in order to bring up the full screen or being able to see the DVD art for upcoming movies, there are a lot of subtle features that make for a more enjoyable media experience.

-Vista comes with 30 second skip enabled. TiVo fans know that you can hack your remote to add this feature, but the big studios were able to scare TiVo into disabling it for the masses. In the past, I’ve never really used the 30 second skip feature because it meant giving up the skip to the end button on my remote. After spending some time with it on Media Center, I’ve been really surprised at how much I’m enjoying it. Hitting a button six times is a lot easier than trying to guess when the program is about to start again.

-There is minimal interference between you and your recordings. One of my biggest frustrations with the generic DVR was that it required too many unnecessary steps, before I could interact with my content. It felt like I had to hit ten buttons before I could schedule a movie, delete a recording or even watch a show. With Vista Media Center, it’s an entirely different story. The entire experience is built around the content that you are interacting with. You can’t do everything from all levels of the software, but each step is intuitively linked to the task that you are focused on. If you are watching a TV show, then by right clicking you can delete the program or burn it to DVD. If you are playing music it’s one click to pause, skip, repeat, shuffle . . . .

-You can watch TV while surfing the web. Media Center is really designed for the living room, but I’m primarily using it in a desktop setting. I didn’t think that I’d watch a lot of TV at my desk, but I’ve found it to be the perfect compliment to streaming Netflix and YouTube. This isn’t ideal for shows with intense action and complex story lines, but its perfect for tuning into the news when you see a story break online or for listening to late night talk shows, while you’re multitasking on the web. This feature won’t benefit you, if you plan on using Media Center on your TV, but it’s a good reason to add on a TV tuner, the next time you upgrade your PC.

-You can use the XBox360 as an extender. I’ve read a lot about the Xbox extenders, but I had never actually seen one in action. Connecting my Xbox to Media Center took an extra registration step, but it was well worth the time to get it set up. When I first heard about Microsoft’s extender strategy, I was skeptical that it would stream videos without problems or program lock ups. While I didn’t test the connection using WiFi, my experience using the Xbox was almost identical to having the PC directly connected to the TV. No lag, no stuttering, just instant access to my content on my big screen tv.

-You can watch TV while using the menus. TiVo uses picture in picture technology on their Comcast download, but you won’t find it on their stand alone DVRs. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed this until I started using Vista as a DVR. Whether it’s a live show or a recording, Vista will minimize whatever program that’s on, when you want to dig deeper into the menu settings. This isn’t good if you’ve accidentally stumbled onto a football game and are desperately trying to avoid the score, but it is nice for when you’re not exactly sure what you want to watch.

-It will help you find programs that are on right now. Vista Media Center allows you to search for programs in a number of ways, but its their support for upcoming television, that impressed me the most. When it comes to searching for things like TV series, kid shows, etc., it allows you to browse alphabetically or by date. They’ve also built a separate section for movies and for sports where they’ve packed in some extra bonus content. In the TV and movies section, they offer plugins for various movie download services and in the sports section Vista will let you check the box scores or add fantasy players to track.

-You can skip automatically skip commercials. DVRs make it easy to skip commercials, but Vista Media Center takes things one step further by supporting plugins, that can edit out those pesky little ads entirely. It’s not easy to set up and it’s not something that is enabled by default, but it’s still a pretty sweet feature to add.

-You can placeshift your TV. The Slingbox is great if you have a cable DVR or a TiVo, but with Media Center you can download a free plugin that will let you watch your content wherever you can connect to the net. I haven’t actually used the program yet, but it’s still a great feature to have access to.

-You can burn DVDs. Normally, I’m pretty good about watching all of the shows that I record, but when it comes to boxing, I just don’t have time to see every fighter. It’s my favorite sport, but since I record every fight (even the ones on the Spanish channels), there isn’t enough time/hard drive space, to get caught up. Since I’ll never really know which fighters will end up making it big, I’ve decided to use my Media Center to archive all of the fights. By saving them to DVD, I should be able to go back and watch the fights that mattered.

-It supports external storage. Media Center gives you a lot of control over how you want to set up your storage. Since I’m using it as a secondary DVR, I’ve set it up to record a maximum of 100GB on my internal drive. If I need more, I can add an external drive or increase my internal hard drive allocation.

Cons

-You shouldn’t have to reboot your TV. One of the things that I love about my TiVo is that it just works. You don’t have to be a tech geek to figure it out, you plug it into your TV and it records everything. In the entire time that I’ve been a TiVo customer, I can think of very few occasions where TiVo failed to record my programing. When it comes to Media Center, it’s important to remember that it’s a PC first and a DVR second. Over the last few months, I’ve found the program to be mostly reliable, but it hasn’t been smooth sailing either. Whether it’s been dealing with poor DRM design, troubleshooting a bug that refused to let me download the guide data or having my computer crash while recording television, there have been several times where I’ve missed recordings, because of PC related problems. While I can’t blame Microsoft for all of my problems, it’s still frustrating to miss a show because of technical difficulties.

-Internet video support is weak. Media Center includes support for services like Vongo and Showtime on Demand, but it involves registering and downloading a separate program before you can get it working. As a Netflix subscriber, I was looking forward to being able to use Watch Now inside of Media Center, but Microsoft has left it up to the fans to build support for this. Microsoft includes some MSN internet video content, but they make you watch pre-roll ads before knowing whether or not it’s something that you are interested in. The Xbox may unofficially support DivX, but you can’t access it inside of media center. If you prefer to use a media extender instead, it will support your XviD files, but it’s set up to block your DivX content.

-It won’t record radio. XM may have just settled a lawsuit over their radio DVR, but recording radio shouldn’t be any different than television content. Media Center will let you listen to OTA radio, but it doesn’t let you record any of the programs.

-Fast forward is a little too powerful. It may be, that I’m just used to TiVo, but Vista’s fast forward speeds are hard to adjust to. They’ve got slow, almost fast and then it jumps to hyper speed. I can’t tell whether or not they are using a five second skip back, but when I hit play, I’m usually way past the start of the program. If you stick to the 30 second skip it’s not a problem, but it’d be nice if there was some kind of a way to adjust the timing on this.

-You can’t skip to the middle of a program. One of the things that I like about downloaded video is being able to immediately jump to the middle or the end of a program. Since this is a key feature in Window’s media player, I was surprised to see this missing from Media Center. There is also no way to jump 15 minutes ahead. If you happen to fall asleep during the middle of a program, you’re stuck with fast forwarding in order to get back to where you were at.

-You can’t rate your television. As television continues to involve, it’s becoming increasingly personal. Media Center does a good job of recording TV, but it doesn’t do a very good job of getting to know you. You can sort movies by the highest rated, but its using someone else’s criteria. Because you can’t tell Media Center what you do and don’t like, there are no suggested recordings or personalization.

-It doesn’t support auto-recording of wishlists. I’m a big basketball fan, but I’m really only interested in seeing the Laker games. Media Center will let me search for the next time that they are playing, but it won’t automatically record the game. It would be nice to be able to use media center to record programs that are customized to my interests.
Al pointed out in the comments that you can actually uses wishlists, you just need to set it up from the add recording field. Thanks for the help Al. This one definitely should go in the pro category.

-Vista’s DRM doesn’t play nice with HD. I’m still fuming over this one. I knew that recording HDTV on Vista would be a hassle, so I stuck with standard tuners when I customized my computer. After upgrading to an HD monitor, Vista disabled my Netflix Watch Now and put Media Center into lock down. If Apple’s DRM wasn’t just as bad, I would be thinking differently after this experience.

-It takes forever to burn a DVD. I was really jazzed up over being able to archive shows onto DVD, but the sluggishness of the DVD burning capabilities has me rethinking this game plan. It took me 2 and a half hours to burn a one hour program to DVD. It’d be one thing if I was using lousy hardware, but it takes less then 4 minutes for me to burn a 2 hour DivX film. It’s nice to be able to save your TV, but it should never take more time to burn the disc, than it does to watch it.

-Good for early adopters, complicated for everyone else. Vista Media Center offers a lot of unique features, but it takes too much tweaking to set these up. Placeshifting and auto commercial skipping are available, but it’s up the consumer to find and install these programs. Even if you know what you are doing, the setup can still be complicated. Instead of making consumers seek out these programs, Microsoft should be including them as part of the package. It wouldn’t be popular with the media companies, but it’d win the company a lot more fans.

-The recording quality is terrible. It’s probably not fair to compare a cablecard connected TiVo with an analog cable media center set up, but the TiVO SD recordings on my 60″ screen, look way better than the Media Center recordings on my 22″ monitor. This probably has less to do with Media Center and more to do with the tuners that I’m using, but it still takes away from the user experience. Unless you want to spend the big bucks on a cablecard media center, you may end up having to deal with poor resolutions.

-There’s no turning back once you delete - As careful as I am, sometimes my DVR instincts go on auto-pilot and I’ll accidentally delete a show before watching it. With TiVo I can recover that program, but in Media Center it is gone forever. The file isn’t even in the Recycle bin. Media Center will always ask you to confirm before deleting, but this also creates one more button to push when you are done with the shows that you have watched.

So there you have it, the good, the bad and Media Center Vista. There are some rough spots around the edges, but it really is a fantastic program. I’m hoping that we’ll see better support for HDTV and for online video as the program continues to evolve.

Posted in TV, Media, DivX, Slingbox, DRM, Disclosure - I own stock in co. mentioned, Microsoft, TiVo | 5 Comments »

Forget Streaming Video, How Do I Stream My PC Instead?

December 5th, 2007 Davis

Over the last week, I’ve put a lot of thought into how I plan on networking my home entertainment system. After bouncing around for the last few months, I’ve finally found a place to call home (for now), but haven’t figured out my digital strategy yet. 10 years ago, this would have involved hooking up a DVD player and forgetting about it, but today things are far more complicated. While doing an inventory of my entertainment options, I was surprised to realize that I now have eight different devices, that are capable of bringing digital entertainment straight to my television.

Having to allocate electrical outlets is a tough enough problem, but figuring out how to network each device has proved to be even more challenging. Despite having a plethora of choices, I still can’t figure out the best equation, for maximizing my entertainment experience.

My current plan is to set up the Media Center PC in my office and stream the videos to an Xbox360. Because I don’t want to deal with slow WiFi, I plan on drilling holes through the walls (don’t tell my landlord) and running ethernet cable straight into the living room.

My only reservation in using this set up, is that I won’t be able to get the real internet, directly on my television. This is important, because I want to be able watch YouTube, Stage6 and Netflix videos on my big screen TV. In order to solve this problem, I could hook the Media Center PC, directly to the TV, but then I miss out on all of the computing functions, that are more ideal for a desktop environment.

It may seem like I’m asking to have my cake and eat it too, but the experience has made me wonder, if Microsoft has their extender strategy backwards? Instead of being able to stream video files to the living room, why not let me stream the computing functions to an office monitor?

This would unlock the media experience in the living room, while preserving the PC functionality in the home office. Instead of selling media extenders, Microsoft could be offering a networking dongle that connects your monitor, mouse and keyboard to the living room PC. They could even set it up, so that someone could watch the media center, while another person was using the computer. While I know that a lot of consumers don’t want a PC in their living room, a bizarro media extender would be more practical for me.

A few years back, I had a friend who used some kind of networking equipment to cut back on the number of PCs in their office, but this was more expensive and complicated, then what I’m trying to accomplish. I tried to find out more about desktop extenders, but wasn’t familiar with any of the companies I found online. If anyone has ever used a remote computing setup, I would love to find out more about your experience. Is this even possible and is there a solution for the home consumer market? Is this something that would even work or am I better off hooking up an Xbox360 and an old computer to my television instead?

Posted in Media, Technology, TV, VOD, Disclosure - I own stock in co. mentioned, Microsoft, Netflix | 5 Comments »

Is DivX and the Xbox 360 About To Become A Reality?

November 6th, 2007 Davis

DivX followed up last night’s earnings report, with a presentation at the JP Morgan SmMid cap conference. After having just undergone their quarterly confessional, I didn’t expect to hear any new information, but wanted to tune in anyway.

Luckily, I was rewarded when midway through the Q&A session, JP Morgan analyst Paul Coster, coyly probed Kevin Hell about whether or not we were about to see DivX support on the Xbox 360. The question seemed to catch Hell off guard and while his initial reaction was enthusiasm, there was something about his tone, that suggested that Coster might be onto something.

Here is the exchange verbatim, but in order to appreciate the awkwardness of the exchange, you should really listen to the quote at the 24 minute mark of the presentation and make your own decision as to whether or not you hear a sense of urgency in Hell’s response.

Coster - “Just a minor point here, but there was a recent Microsoft conference where I believe their media extender now incorporates the DivX codec on it, is that correct? Can you confirm that and does that mean we’re soon going to see Xboxes with DivX on them?

Hell - “Yes! that, uh, we’re in discussions with Microsoft on that at this point in time, so I can’t go into any great detail on that. Um that is not a certified, that is not a certified or licensed product at this time.”

At that point DivX CFO Dan Halvorson jumped in and quickly changed the subject.

It was only a brief exchange, but after pretty much giving up all hope of seeing DivX on the Xbox, I found the news to be very encouraging. When I originally saw that Microsoft was going to support DivX on their media extenders, but not on the 360, I took this as a sign that negotiations were over and that Microsoft didn’t want to pay for their entire Xbox360 population. In retrospect, Microsoft may have really been engaging in the subtle art of negotiation.

In thinking about some of the leaked XviD/360 rumors over the past summer, I can’t help but wonder if Microsoft could have intended to leak this information, in order to gain leverage in their discussions. An Xbox that supports XviD, but not DivX, is a less then optimal experience for consumers, but the downside would be far worse for DivX then Microsoft. Could Microsoft have been flexing their muscles in an attempt to get a better licensing deal with DivX? I don’t have the answers to these questions, but I do have advice for both companies.

DivX - I know that you have responsibilities to your shareholders, but as a fan, I urge you to engage in some fiscal irresponsibility and give in to whatever Microsoft is demanding. DivX support on the Xbox is one of the top requests from your community and would make a killer extension for your codec. Don’t make us hack into our Xbox to get at the DivX love. The platform would give you instant access to millions of television sets and would energize your entire community.

Microsoft - Have you looked at how much cash you have in your bank account? Why are you even playing this game of chicken? We should have had DivX support years ago. Offering XviD, but not DivX would be a huge hassle for your customers and isn’t worth the money you would save on royalties. The publicity from adopting an open strategy would more then pay for your investment. Your strategy to treat media extenders differently from the 360 is an obstacle to mainstream adoption and one that should be abandoned. You should listen to consumers, even if it means overpaying DivX for their certification. With a consistent extender strategy and DivX support on the Xbox 360, you could crush the PS3 and create a more compelling reason for people to adopt your Media Center technology.

It’s hard to say how negotiations will turn out, but I have a feeling that it won’t take long to find out. The “fall” update is rumored to be taking place sometime in December and if it doesn’t include DivX support, it will likely mean that these discussions broke down. If it does include DivX support, it will be a huge win for DivX, for Microsoft and most important, for their customers.

Posted in Technology, DivX, Video Games, TV, VOD, Microsoft | 2 Comments »

Dude, I’m Getting A Media Center

October 17th, 2007 Davis

I don’t like to think about it, but the death of my PC, could have ended much more tragically. When I first woke up and thought that I had lost all of my data, I went through all 5 stages of grief. At first, I tried to deny that there was a problem, then I got angry at myself for not listening to Thomas Hawk’s advice, this was followed by plenty of promises to be more diligent, if I could only figure out how to fix it and when I ultimately realized it was toast, depression set in over the loss. When I finally realized that my problems had nothing to do with my data, acceptance was easy because it meant that I was going to be able to transfer my digital life into an entirely new media experience.

Three years ago, I made the mistake of buying a computer from my work. They had extra ones lying around and I liked the idea of having access to Windows Office. The computer was old, but still an upgrade from my Windows 98 PC. At first I thought that this was a good solution, but what I didn’t realize, was that my work had stripped out all of the media related functionality. It ran on just a half a gig of ram, had no CD or DVD burner, the video card couldn’t support higher resolutions and somehow they managed to disable the microphone

As a media nut, this was a brutal mistake to make for a home PC, so when it came time to get a new one, I wanted to make sure that I had access to everything. Whether it’s being able to handle PC gaming or being able to stream digital video straight off the web, I wanted to make sure that I had as many options as possible.

Here are the specs for the gadget fans.

DI-700-XFIRE: Intel 700-class Crossfire workstation
Case: Cooler Master Centurion 5 Mid-tower
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 3GHz Dual Core 1333MHz FSB 4MB cache
Motherboard: ASUS P5W DH Deluxe (Intel 975X)
DDR2 Memory: 4GB Dual-channel: 4 x 1024MB DDR2 667 MHz PC5300
Hard Drive with Serial ATA 2 interface: 320GB 16MB cache 7200RPM SATA2 Best value
Hard Drive #2 with Serial ATA interface: 320GB 16MB cache 7200RPM SATA2 Best value
Serial ATA RAID: RAID Level 1 (mirroring)
Optical Drive : 18x SATA Dual-Layer DVD±RW w/ Software
Crossfire Video Card: Two X1650 Pro 256MB for Crossfire mode
Removable Storage Device(s): Internal 8-in-1 Card Reader
Sound Card: On-board high-definition sound system
Network Card: Integrated LAN with 10/100/1000 Fast Ethernet Controller
Input/Output capabilities: Refer to the motherboard chosen.
TV Tuner: Dual-channel TV-Tuner with PVR software
Additional Case Fan: Extra case fan
Power Supply: 500 Watt Crossfire/SLI ATX power supply with 120mm fan
CPU Cooling: Manufacturer’s CPU Fan
Operating Systems (OS): Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Edition

I’m looking forward to the extra horsepower, but the dual tuners excite me the most. Even with two tuners in my TiVo 3, I still run into recording conflicts. I don’t know why certain nights are so popular, but I don’t like having to make choices because of bogus :03 start times.

Media Center will be a change of pace over TiVo, but I’m looking forwarding to seeing the progress they’ve made with the Vista platform. Initially, I plan on using my Xbox 360 as an extender, but care far too much about having access to the internet, to stick with that for too long. Microsoft’s WebTV may have never taken off, but for me, open access is the killer app.

I’m also excited to finally be able to start exploring some of the other DVR solutions out there. Over the years, I’ve read an awful lot about SageTV, BeyondTV, and MythTV, but have never been able to fully evaluate the differences in their approach to the DVR. I feel like I made the right choices on the components that I selected, but won’t know for sure until, it finally arrives and I get a chance to test it under real world conditions

Posted in Media, Technology, TV, VOD, Disclosure - I own stock in co. mentioned, Microsoft, TiVo | 10 Comments »

Software You’ll Need When Your PC Hits The Big Start Over Button In The Sky

October 9th, 2007 Davis

Recently, I suffered a computer meltdown and the good news is that I still have my data, but the bad news is that it’s cheaper to replace the PC, then it is to fix it. Since I was already in the market for a laptop, I decided to purchase one, while I took the time to figure out my home PC strategy.

It’s been a long time since I’ve had a new computer, so I was a little surprised at how long it took me to recreate my unique PC experience. Getting the right mix of bookmarks and software is key to taking full advantage of the horsepower that your computer has. At first, I thought that setting up my new laptop would be quick and painless, but I misjudged the sheer number of programs that I would need and forgot about the pesky bloatware to deal with.

Even after an aggressive campaign, I am still finding things that I need to uninstall. I did manage to get rid of the McAfee pop up that warned of my computer being comprised because I wasn’t paying them money but I’m still trying to remove the Vongo free trial offer that shows up in what seems like every menu.

Since I know that I’m not the only one to experience some frustration in setting up a new PC, I decided to keep a list of all the programs that are helpful, when you are doing a fresh install.

Web Browsing

Firefox - I’ve tried the new internet explorer browser, but it still can’t beat this open source underdog. Step #1 - fire up IE, so you can download Firefox, then delete all IE shortcuts, so you never accidentally launch the software again.

IE Firefox Plugin - As much as I try to avoid IE, sometimes there are services that are only supported by Microsoft’s browser. In order to avoid having to fire up IE, I install a firefox plugin, that allows me to use IE, in my preferred browser.

Email

Thunderbird - I normally use web based email, but still like having Thunderbird, in case I need to archive my emails. I actually prefer Microsoft’s Outlook, but am not willing to spend the money when there is such a great open source product available.

Communication

Skype - I don’t use Skype as much as I should, but think that it’s a great alternative to cable telephone or Vonage. I’m still looking for a good program that can record my Skype calls, but this is still a pretty robust service.

Trillian - Thomas Hawk turned me onto this one. Why run separate Yahoo!, MSN and AOL instant messaging software, when one program can handle all three? Instead of being forced to choose your friends, you can show up on all three major networks easily.

System Resources

AdAware - This one isn’t fun to play with, but it’s important to have on your system. It can’t stop a full blown virus from invading, but it can help you find programs that are trying to sneak their way on board.

Spy-bot Search & Destroy - Spy-bot is a lot like AdAware, but I like to keep both programs available. One time I came across a download that blocked AdAware from starting, but was no match for Spy-bot. These services can’t replace the paid ones, but they go a long way towards helping to improve the security on your computer.

Google Desktop - I’ve had mixed feelings about Google Desktop from the get go, but still continue to use it. On one hand, it’s really helpful to be able to search my hard drive easily, but on the other hand, I also feel a little weird about Google desktop tracking me. I figure that the functionality is worth it, as long as I make sure that I’ve got a strong password for my login.

Java - I’m not even sure that I can tell you what Java does, but I do know that it is at the heart of some pretty cool applications. I’ve used the technology to play games, watch videos and watch live streaming content online and I don’t think that I’ve even scratched the surface of what it’s capable of.

Greasemonkey - GreaseMonkey allows you to mash up different parts of the web inside of your browser. It’s a very powerful plugin and is worth downloading, even if you’re not sure how you’ll end up using it. My favorite GreaseMonkey script is a plugin that allows you to see which movies in your Netflix queue, will be airing on TiVo soon.

Social Web

Commentful - This software will change the way you interact online. It allows you to leave comments on web entries and then notifies you when someone has added something to the conversation. In the past, I would comment, but would never follow up to see if there is a response, now I use Commentful to help me continue dialogues that would have normally fizzled out.

Wordpress - There are lots of blogging packages out there, but I use Wordpress. I like it because it has great fan support and offers a lot of functionality, that I can’t find in other blog packages. My favorite part is having the ability to completely change the appearance of the site, with a simple click of a button. With plenty of Wordpress widgets, it’s easy to customize templates, to fit any personality.

Del.icio.us - There are many different bookmarking sites, but I primarily use Del.icio.us. By downloading their firefox plugin, all you have to do is right click and you can clip articles. This is a great resource for archiving things that you want to view later.

Google RSS - A good RSS reader can help you keep track of your favorite sites. Without it, I wouldn’t see a tenth of the content that I track. In the past I’ve used Bloglines, but when Google introduced RSS search capabilities, they won me over. This feature alone, allows me to track 1,000 times more content, then what I could handle in a more basic RSS program.

Photography

Picasa - Photoshop is great, but there are still free alternatives, if you don’t want to spend the cash. Picassa not only has a decent photo editing feature, but also allows you to post your photos online.

Zooomr - I visit Zooomr several times a day, in order to check my Zipline. I also use Zooomr to host my photos for this blog and play web games in their forums. There isn’t any software to download, but if you drag and click on the Zooomr link, you can add a bookmark to your toolbar.

Flickr - Flickr is another great photo sharing site. They are one of the largest photo sharing sites, so they have an even better selection of images. There isn’t anything to download, but they do have a bulk uploader, if you plan on hosting a lot of images.

Remote Computing

Orb - You need a TV tuner and media center software for this one, but if you have these components, then Orb is a no brainer to install. It allows you to placeshift your content, anywhere you can get a broadband connection.

UltraVNC - Even though, I upload a lot of things online, there are still times where I need access to my home computer. UltraVNC allows you to log into your system remotely, so that you can access your files, even if you happen to be on the go.

Digital Video

Adobe Flash - YouTube is one of my favorite sites and in order to see their videos, you’ll need the flash codec. Because of the sheer amount of content encoded in flash, this one of the most essential downloads on the list.

DivX - Flash is great because it has broad support, but I prefer DivX because it offers a high quality experience that you can take with you. You can download support for just the codec, but I prefer to download the DivX web player, so that I can watch Stage6 content as well.

Quicktime - I’ve never spent a lot of time using iTunes, but I do come across a lot of Quicktime movies on the net. If you already have iTunes, you won’t need this one, but if not, then this is a helpful plugin.

Real Player - I’ve had so many problems with Real Player, that I almost hate to download it, but there are too many interesting things in Real format, to completely ignore this format.

Music

Pandora - This is one of my favorite places to find new music. Over time, Pandora will start to figure out your interests and will suggest a lot of things that you don’t hear on commercial radio.

Foxy Tunes - This is a great program for finding and sharing music on the web. It not only allows you to search for cool music, but you can also insert FoxyTunes links into emails that you send to friends

Last FM - I prefer Pandora, but use Last FM because it is supported on my TiVo. I’m not sure how to describe a technology whose roots are based in scrobbling, but once you get the hang of it, you can start to find some really cool music.

Word Processing

OpenOffice - This open source software package contains all the features that you would expect to find in a high priced business software package. It works transparently with Microsoft files and is a great alternative for those on a budget.

Google Docs - I don’t think that it can replace Microsoft in the business world, but Google docs is a free alternative for home users. It allows you to create and share documents, spreadsheets and presentations.

Foxit Reader - Most people use the Adobe reader, but I only turn to it as a last resort. Adobe’s reader is an important program to have too, but it always takes too long to load and asks me if I want to update way too often. Instead I stick to Foxit and no longer have to wonder if my system will crash when I’m closing a .pdf file.

Calendar

Yahoo! Calendar - When choosing a calendar system it’s important to choose carefully, because the more time that goes by, the more you will be locked into that system. At this point, I have most of my important dates scheduled on Yahoo!, but still yearn for a better solution that offers me true data portability.

30 Boxes - If you love Ajax, you’ll be a fan of 30 boxes. The site allows you to open up your calendar to the social web. This is helpful for planning and sharing events. It’s an interesting concept, even if I’m still not ready to turn over my schedule to bill collectors and ex-girlfriends.

Games

TripleA - I highly recommend downloading this one, but don’t blame me if you drop out of society from playing it. TripleA is an Axis & Allies emulator that replicates the original game to perfection. It’s entirely fan built and is a great resource for playing out your own World War II fantasies.

FreeCiv - Sid Meier’s Civilization game had a huge impact on video gaming and this program validates it’s place in the pantheon of PC based programs. The program is a Civilization emulator where you can raise and develop your own society. I always try to be nice, but invariably, I end up attacking my neighbors.

ZSNES - This is a great open source emulator for replicating old arcade games. It won’t come in handy, if you want the modern day gaming experience, but it is useful if you ever wish that you could go back and play games from your childhood. Finding the games can be a little tough, but reuniting with an old friend, can make the journey worth it.

Peer 2 Peer

Limewire - If you don’t want to spring for the pro version, Limewire can be a little spammy, but it’s still a good resource, for those interesting in taking a bite of the forbidden fruit.

Emule - Another powerful P2P client. It doesn’t have access to the largest number of files, but it does offer a clean interface and is a good resource for when you can’t find things on the other P2P networks.

Bit Torrent - It’s one of the most popular programs on Download.com for a reason. This robust p2p system allows you to download and share tiny bits of content from multiple users at once. This helps to speed up the download times and helps to get around some of the uploading restrictions.

Fox Torrent - Fox Torrent isn’t as fast as the original Bit Torrent software, but it’s easy to use and makes downloading a breeze, when you don’t mind waiting for the content. The software integrates nicely into the Firefox browser and adds bit torrent capabilities to an already powerful internet browser.

Entertainment

Stumble Upon - I’m not a huge fan of the toolbar plugins, but I make an exception for this one. You can find some amazing stuff on StumbleUpon. It’s a great time killer, if you are ever bored and still have access to the internet.

Search

Wikipedia Firefox Plugin - I like to use the search bar that is built directly into the Firefox browser. The default supports Google, but there are a lot of other sites that will let you install plugins on your browser. It’s probably a good idea to double check the facts that you find on Wikipedia, but this plugin, makes easy to search the site, without having to go directly to their home page.

Stage6 Search - DivX Labs has built a plugin for Firefox and IE browsers, that allows you to search the Stage6 website, directly from your browser. I’ve found that this plugin comes is especially helpful, when I know that I’m looking for video content.

Del.icio.us - Most of the time, I prefer to use Google, but Del.icio.us can help you find articles that wouldn’t show up in simple keyword searches. I never know quite what to expect, but Del.icio.us search results tend to focus less on style and more on function.

Technorati - I love Technorati, even though the site only seems to work part of the time. I’d like to find another blog search plugin, but this is the only one that I know about.

MusicPortl - This search plugin allows you to enter the name of just about any artist and you can instantly find a wealth of information on your favorite band. MusicPortl aggregates their information so that you can see the latest YouTube clips, blog entries and Wikipedia information. This is a must, if you enjoy researching music.

Spout - If you love movies, you’ll love Spout. The site is a great resource for finding out information about your favorite films and for connecting with other film fans. This firefox plugin makes it remarkably easy to focus exclusively on movies, with your search results.

There are a lot of programs on this list, but I’m sure that I’m still missing some of the most important ones. f you know of any other services that should be included on this list, feel free to contact me or leave a comment and I’ll keep this post updated with other helpful programs that people suggest.

Posted in Video Games, TV, Media, Technology, DivX, VOD, Web 2.0, TiVo, Disclosure - I own stock in co. mentioned, Microsoft, Slingbox, Netflix | 5 Comments »

DivX To The Left Of Me, Windows To The Right, Here I Am Stuck In The Mpeg With You

August 28th, 2007 Davis

One could argue that there has never been a better time to be a digital media enthusiast. As the digital revolution continues to unfold, consumers are finding an increasing number of choices in how they want to consume their media. Getting VOD to the television set has taken a lot longer than I expected, but over the last few years, we’ve seen a lot of progress towards digitization. While we still don’t have the holy grail of entertainment (everything on demand), we are getting closer to an on demand environment.

With these choices also comes restrictions. If I buy a song on iTunes, I can’t play it on my Windows “Smart” phone. If I want streaming movies on Netflix, I have to use Microsoft’s browser. While a lot of these obstacles are easy to overcome, this lack of connectivity does frustrate consumers and slows mainstream adoption.

In thinking about my own digital entertainment setup, I’ve set two primary goals for my media library. I want to my video files in DivX or XviD, so that I can use DivX certified devices and I want my media to be in .wmv, so that I can also stream my content to my Xbox or play it on my cellphone.

Currently, I’ve got three or four different digital file types on my computer, but most of the content is in the Mpeg format. I’ve used digital conversion tools in the past, but I’ve never tried to convert all of my media at once, so I wanted to try some of the different conversion software packages, in order to see which ones might be the best at least halfway decent.

When I first went to look for solutions, the sheer number of choices was pretty intimidating. In total, I tried out 7 different pieces of software, but two of them wouldn’t even install. At the end of the day, I was hoping to be able to recommend a solution to my readers, but none of them offered me exactly what I was looking for.

DivX Converter 6.5

Since the immediate goal of my exercise was to get my Mpeg files transferred over to DivX, I figured I would start with the company’s own software before trying anything else. In order to get the converter software, I had to download and install the program from DivX’s website. The install ran pretty clean and other than an optional Google toolbar plugin, there isn’t much in the way of ads. DivX gives you full access to the software for 15 days and after that you have to pony up $19.99, if you want to keep using it.

Of all the conversion software that I tested, DivX was definitely the easiest. Once I installed the program, all I had to do was drag and drop my files and then hit convert. The software was very intuitive. Running on just a half a gig of ram, a 200MB conversion took about 25 minutes to complete. Not as fast as I would have liked, but DivX does offer you a way to queue up your files, so that your computer can do the heavy lifting when you’re not using it.

Had DivX’s software been a little bit more robust, I would have spent the money to go pro, but unfortunately the software has one major weakness. While DivX is more than happy to help their customers convert just about any format into the DivX format, they aren’t as eager to help you get it into .wmv or other third party codecs. I can’t really blame DivX for creating a one way conversion tool, but since it still didn’t help me get my movies to my Xbox, I kept looking.

Windows Media Encoder 9

Because DivX’s converter wouldn’t allow me to convert my files into .wmv, my next stop was to check out Microsoft’s solution for converting into Window’s format. One of the nice things about their encoder software was that it was the only one that was actually free* (Windows software and additional plugins may be required)

The download for the software didn’t contain any ads, but Softie does make you download some bullshit “authentication” plugin before you can actually use the product. The software is designed to help cut down on piracy, but the real end result is that customers are inconvenienced unnecessarily. After trying to verify my own copy of Windows, I continued to get error messages, but was finally able to get my secret code by running their plugin as a standalone app.

One of the things that I really liked about the Windows encoder was that it gave you the option to customize the end product based upon how you intended to use the media. I could encode directly to .wmv, but they also gave me the option of making a smaller file for my cellphone or a larger HDTV file for the living room. Since my goal is to get the videos to my living room using WiFi, I selected the SD version and started the conversion.

One of the things that I noticed when I started to use the program is that once you start the encoding process, it’s a resource hog. This could just be because my PC is already a dinosaur, but from the minute I hit convert, my computer was pretty much worthless. This isn’t a big deal if you are converting files overnight, but if you’re trying to multi-task, it can be frustrating to deal with lagging speeds, while you are waiting for your file to complete.

The software was relatively easy to use, but when it came to it’s UI design, you could just tell that it was created by Microsoft. The whole thing is built to be useful not look good. For my needs, the UI isn’t all that important, but if Microsoft really wants to make this easy for consumers, they should rethink the layout of their software.

Another drawback to the WMEncoder was that just like DivX’s software, Microsoft is a one way street when it comes to the conversions. If all you care about is Windows, this works, but ideally I was hoping to find something that supported multiple file types. I was also a little annoyed to discover that while Microsoft will let you convert almost any codec into .wmv for free, if you actually want to transcode Mpeg files, they make you buy a $15 plugin.

Cinema Forge

Since DivX and Window’s own solutions were less than robust in letting me work with different codecs, I decided to check out a couple of other third party solutions. The first on my list was Cinema Forge. Their software has received good reviews on Download.com and since they allow you to encode up to 10 minutes of video before having to pay the $24.95 to upgrade, it is easy to test the software out.

Cinema Forge supports a number of different files structures and allows you to convert to MP4 (iPod), Flash, .Wmv, Mpeg, .AVI, Real Video and Quicktime. I didn’t have any problems converting into the .Wmv format, but I did find that when I tried to convert my Mpegs into their .AVI wrapper, that it was stripping out the audio and jarbling it on me. I’m not sure, if there was a setting that I had wrong, but after my third corrupted file, I gave up on the software and moved onto other solutions. I also noticed that my .wmv files wouldn’t allow me to fast forward or rewind the content. I’m not sure if this was because I was using the trial version, but I know that I’m not looking for a conversion solution, that locks down my content.

Jet Audio

When I started this project I wasn’t really looking for a media player, but when I saw that the Jet Audio media player also supported file conversions, I remembered the old adage that there may be more than one way to skin a cat. Of all the software conversion tools that I tried, Jet Audio was by far the best. I don’t know that I’d actually spend money on the software, but if I had to pick one, they seemed to offer the most choices and functionality.

One downside for the Apple fans is that their software doesn’t support Quicktime conversions, but since it lets me convert to .wmv, XviD and DivX, I was willing to check it out. In addition, they also throw CD ripping and burning functionality into the software. The trial version only lets you convert 30 seconds worth of a clip, but it was enough for me to at least test out the quality and I didn’t run into any problems.

Two things that I didn’t particularly like about the software were that they included ads for their own PMP devices inside the program and that the software felt really cluttered. While it was an undeniably powerful piece of code, its UI design is more than a little chaotic. In addition to the conversion and burning tools, they also throw in an entire media player. It’s hard to ding them for offering too much, but there is something to be said for simplicity.

Movavi -

Movavi actually had two different software tools that I tested. They have an online version and a downloadable solution. The online version is really good, if you only need to convert small files. There were no programs to download, no accounts to sign up for and no aggressive ads popping up on my browser.

All I really needed to do was go to their website, upload the file I wanted converted, (or give them the web address of where the file is located) and then sit back and wait for an email telling me that it’s ready to be downloaded. It was quick, easy and painless and would have been my final stop, had there not been the 100 MB restrictions on the online version.

Even without the restrictions though, I’m not surer that you’d want to upload files much bigger than 100 MB. I uploaded a 64MB over a fiber connection and it still took 7 minutes to upload, 5 minutes to process, and about 10 seconds to download. This really isn’t a deal breaker for me, but it’s less than ideal, if you are looking to convert full movies. The online version also does not let you convert into .wmv.

Once I downloaded the software version of Movavi, it did add a bit to the functionality. The issue of uploading and downloading your files goes away, as does the 100 MB restriction. The full software also adds support for .wmv conversions including WMV HD. The pro version costs $29.99, but since the free version allows you to convert 30% to a file, I was hoping to test out the quality anyway. Unfortunately, I tried to convert several different file formats over, but no matter what I tried, I couldn’t get Movavi’s software to recognize my media.

Ideally, I was hoping to find an open source free solution, but couldn’t find anything that looked safe enough to download. If someone knows of a good conversion solution, feel free to leave me a comment and I’ll check it out.

Posted in Media, Movies, Technology, DivX, TV, VOD, Disclosure - I own stock in co. mentioned, Microsoft, DRM, Netflix | 10 Comments »

Stage6 Traffic Explodes: Every Dream Has A Price

August 10th, 2007 Davis

DivX reported their second quarter earnings yesterday and from a financial perspective, there really weren’t too many surprises. The core business remains strong, but Stage6’s growth is certainly starting to impact earnings. The company ended up beating Non-GAAP expectations by a penny, while revenue came in slightly above the $18 million, that the analysts had anticipated. The company guided toward higher revenue expectations for the 3rd quarter, but reined in analyst expectations for the fourth.

From a strategy perspective, things were much more interesting. Lots of exciting news to digest. On the call, DivX addressed their opportunity to gain market share in their core licensing business, the future of DivX connected and how other emerging technologies could fit into that, and perhaps most importantly, the reasoning behind their plans to separate Stage6 from the larger company.

Of all the strategies discussed, there was one that surprised me the most though, DivX has made the decision to try and bury their hatchet with Hollywood, in an attempt to get DivX DRM blessed by the studios. I’m less than optimistic on management’s chances, but if they could pull it off, it would make DivX Connected a pretty compelling solution.

Trapped Between DVD and VOD

The DVD player market continues to account for the majority of DivX’s core licensing revenue. At the end of March, DivX had 32% global penetration of the DVD player market. This was up from 21% from a year earlier. During this quarter, $14.2 million of their revenue represented royalties from their OEM partners. Sony actually accounted for over 10% of their licensing revenue and I still can’t find Sony DivX DVD players in the US.

At this point, DivX has achieved 90% penetration levels in France, Spain and Russia. In the US, the percentage of DVD players that included DivX doubled over a year ago and is now at 28%. In Japan, they still only have an 11% penetration level, but this is up from 5% a year ago. Over the last year, they’ve been able to successfully renew their contracts with their top OEMs and have been able to maintain pricing levels.

By growing their market share for the DVD player market, it has allowed DivX to continue to post impressive year over year growth, even though it’s clear that the DVD has peaked. Right now is an awkward time for DivX because there are so many uncertainties as to how the VOD market will end up shaking out. There are many pundits who are worried that DivX won’t be able to replace their DVD revenue as it tapers off.

To me, this seems a little foolish and is a bit like being afraid of the boogie man. The DVD market will not disappear overnight, it will live longer than the VCR survived. As people migrate to digital TV, DivX is in an excellent position to benefit from that. If their OEM partners see that there is no more demand for DVD players, it will make DivX certification an even greater necessity for them.

The transition to VOD will eventually happen on a mass scale, but it will still take years before the next generation of TV gadgets hits the mainstream.

When Greenhall was asked about how long he thought it would be, before the public started to move from DVD players to connected devices, he told analysts that because DivX’s ecosystem was so dependent on their OEM partners, that it was hard to forecast the transition, but that when it happens, the revenue will come quickly because their partners produce goods for the mass markets.

Emerging Technologies Will Open New Doors

Part of what makes DivX such a question mark, is the sheer size of their addressable market. They’ve established a nice business in the DVD market, but now want to expand DivX to a whole host of devices. During the earnings presentation, Hell listed the following technologies as a few of the markets that are on their hit list; Mobile devices, set top boxes, digital still cameras, game consoles, portable media players and digital televisions.

Of these potential markets, the cell phones have the most potential. Over this quarter, Samsung announced their second DivX enabled phone and will be selling the phone in the Chinese market. Since their first Samsung phone announcement, DivX has seen a lot of interest in working with other cell phone manufacturers.

Their OEM partners are excited about the technology and are coming to them for access. There will be more models announced in the future and while they didn’t give a time line, management seemed optimistic that the announcements would come soon.

On the set top front, during the quarter Divx announed that both St Microelectronics and NXP were both developing chips for a DivX set top box solution.

The box will allow you to plug in an external hard and play DivX files directly on your TV. This helps to solve the problem of getting DivX content to the living room, but still doesn’t help to add to the DivX content eco-sphere. You can’t take the TV off the box, but at least you can bring DivX to it. Hell also said that there was one more set top chip deal that hasn’t been announced.

Hell also included DivX HD as part of the emerging category. HDTV has been one of the hottest growth areas in consumer electronics. Users are starting to revolt. People love the DivX HD teasers on the stage6 website and from (cough) “others sources” on the innerwebs, but they can’t get it to the TV without some kind of a media center.

DivX wants to license their HD technology on top of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray players, but I think that they’d have a much better shot at convincing their OEM partners to sell a low priced DVD player with “DivX HD.” included. With as much as the studios are charging for the next gen players, a box with DivX HD certification and a dirt cheap price point, would appeal to consumers who know better than to try and pick a side in a Hollywood format war.

DivX Connected: Bringing Partners Into The DivX Community

DivX has talked quite a bit about their Connected initiative, but they’ve always left things a little sketchy on the details. Is it a box, is it not a box? Who could really tell, but after launching a prototype of their connected solution for beta testing, the company is now starting to open up on the details. DivX Connected can be a lot of things, but they see it being a similar experience to Apple TV, except minus the high cost and the restrictions on content.

The whole concept is really a lot larger than the prototype box. It’s about bringing a diverse set of partners together, in order to create a seamless experience for consumers. Hell describe their efforts on the program during the call. “We are engaged in a large cross section of partners to implement DivX connected on existing devices. From connected DVD players and digital televisions, essentially any devices that has connectivity and DivX playback ability.”

This philosophy of openness extends even beyond the hardware devices and includes the companies that are trying to sell internet video, as well as the content producers themselves.

“going forward we will focus on a broad range of content solutions through a powered by DivX model, working with a variety of partners to deliver content. In this model Stage6 becomes one of many partners using our technology. To make this happen we are doing two things, First we are increasing our focus on premium content and re-engaging in discussions with major content providers who want to take advantage of our significant footprint. Secondly, we’re building out our existing video on demand product platform so that we can offer out of the box scalable solutions to any distributor of digital content from online retailers to network operators.”

This is a big shift for DivX and one that could have important ramifications. From early on, DivX has bumped heads with the studio fat cats. In the past, DivX has relied on their users to distribute their codec through the P2P networks, but now that the studios are beginning to warm to internet delivery, DivX is seizing on this opportunity, in an attempt to beef up the content that they can offer their own consumers.

Right now, businesses don’t pick their codecs based on quality, they use the ones that the studios tell them they are allowed to use. People like to complain about internet video services not supporting Apple, but that is because Apple refuses to license their codec to anyone. DivX wants to go the other route to try and work with everyone, but until DivX DRM can get Hollywood’s blessing, they’ll be frozen out of the mainstream market.

I’m skeptical that the studios will be particularly eager to work with DivX, but if they could pull it off, it would open plenty of doors for them and would certainly be a game changer for the company. On the call, Hell said that they are trying to go after this opportunity in two ways.

“First we’re going to be focusing on the studios themselves and other providers of premium content to get adoption and format approval from them. In addition, we’ll also be working with other content distributors, folks like Amazon, Netflix, Movielink, etc. so that we can enable their platforms and again we’re moving into a role here where we don’t want to be a storefront, in terms of the DivX Corp business. We’re looking to power other people’s platform.”

It’d be easy for DivX to try and sell content themselves (in fact that’s part of what Stage6 is about), but this is a low margin business and DivX is better off letting others fight over the content. By charging for access, it leaves room for much healthier profit margins. It also gives them a greater exposure to consumers, than anything that they could accomplish independently.

Right now, Apple wants to lock everyone else out of the market, but this is why AppleTV is such a weak platform. Not only do you pay for it, but then you have to buy only their content. DivX wants to see a world where they can bring Blockbuster and Netflix together and let consumers decide which service they want to use. By maintaining their commitment to keeping their platform open, it improves their competitive position over Apple and Microsoft, but none of that matters, until Hollywood agrees to let companies distribute video content in DivX’s format.

A Start-Up Trapped Beneath The Microscope Of Public Scrutiny

Since the launch of Stage6, it’s been an unbelievable hit. The growth has shown no signs of slowing. Since it’s launch, it’s help to push 35 million DivX web player downloads, but hasn’t generated much in the way of direct revenues. For now Greenhall wants to build up the community, before trying to figure out how to make money off of it.

“Like many sites in a similar stage of their life cycle, we’re not actively trying to monetize this user base, yet. We believe that building a community first will enable us to explore a number of different revenue models in the future, but building the community absolutely comes first.”

Since the the site’s launch, the community has responded enthusiastically to the video sharing portal and what started out as a reasonable $1 million marketing expense during the 1st quarter, has now swelled to a $2.4 million bill for this quarter (of which 70% is bandwidth.) Next quarter DivX estimates that they’ll need to spend $4.5 million and another $5.4 million in the fourth quarter. Stage 6 has about 20 -30 DivX employees that work on the site.

With the traffic and the costs starting to add up, it’s no wonder that the company wants to raise outside funds and operate Stage6 as a separate entity. During the call, their CFO, Dan Halvorson gave the reasoning behind the plan,

“Most businesses, at the same point in their life cycle as Stage6, simply wouldn’t be public or part of a public entity. They need to make investments that don’t have immediate tangible ROI or have too strong an impact on a company’s balance sheet to justify. We believe strongly that Stage6 has built a foundation that not merely be sustained, but rather amplified. As such, our board and management, thought it would be best to value our alternatives and one viable option is that Stage6 would be separated out and run as a private company.”

DivX said tat they’d like to finish the break up as close to the end of the year as possible. I’m not sure if this is for tax reasons or strategic purposes, but in the meantime, they are estimating that they’ll need to put another $10 million into the site. Greenhall wasn’t sure, on how they’d end up valuing Stage6, but was open to possibilities and wanted to do what’s best for DivX shareholders.

They may look for a private equity deal or an institutional investment, but they want to keep their options open. After announcing their intent to separate the the two companies, they’ve already received inquiries from financial and “strategic partners” on making an investment.

Overall, DivX didn’t blow anyone’s socks off this quarter, but they did continue to show that their business is healthy and that their business model is valid. They also continued to demonstrate their commitment toward investing in their growth. The extra R&D may end up bothering some shareholders in the short run, but once they break the two companies apart, they’ll have two businesses exposed to the white hot internet video sector, instead of a house divided.

Disclosure: I own stock in Netflix

Posted in Media, TV, Movies, Technology, DivX, HDTV DVDs, VOD, Microsoft, Disclosure - I own stock in co. mentioned, DRM, Web 2.0, DVDs, Netflix | 2 Comments »

Sony Has Already Lost The Console Wars

July 25th, 2007 Davis

There is no doubt that Sony dominated the second generation of the console wars. Their PS2 platform had an early jump on the Xbox and Sony never looked back. Since it’s launch, the console has sold over 105 million units and has made Sony a video game powerhouse.

Given their footprint, Sony should have had an easy time convincing their customer base to upgrade, but as the latest generation of consoles have launched, Sony has lost their control over the market, after trying to force users to buy a Blu-Ray drive, along with the console. The inclusion of the drive has resulted in high prices, product delays, and limited supply during the launch. Even after Sony has agreed to sell the console at a loss, they still have not been able to get the device down to an acceptable price level for consumers.

As the latest generation of consoles have been hitting the market, Sony’s PS3 sales reflect some pretty troubling numbers. They may have recently celebrated their 1 millionth sale in Japan, but overall they’ve actually performed pretty miserably. According to the latest data from the NPD group, Sony sold a pitiful 98,500 PS3 consoles for the month of June.

Sony is quick to point out that these figures represent a 21% increase over their May sales, but even with the gain, if they continue at this pace, it will take them 83 years to hit 100 million console sales. If Sony was hoping to sell 100 million consoles over the next 5 and a half years, they would need to increase their sales from 98,000 units a month to 1.625 million.

Now to be fair, Sony’s latest price cut on the PS3, has improved sales. The company reports that they’ve seen a jump of 135% since lowering the price by $100. The problem is though, that the price cut is really only temporary and perhaps even worse, it may have prompted Microsoft to consider slashing $50 off of the price of their own consoles.

With the Wii taking half of the market and Sony and Microsoft fighting for the rest, Nintendo has put themselves in an enviable position in the console wars. They’ve not only been able to draw in non-core gamers without sacrificing profits, but they’ve also been able to convince consumers that the Wii can compliment an existing console system. With their innovative game play and their low price margins, they’ve been able to turn single platform households into dual console living rooms.

The addition of the Wii as a 2nd option creates big problems for Microsoft and Sony, because it eats into the profit centers of the video game industry. Because so much of the money on gaming is made on the software, having another competitor in the living room, can have a significant impact on the profit margins for that customer. Nintendo’s ability to not only capture market share, but to also siphon off video game sales from the incumbents, will change the dynamics of the third stage in this battle.

Given Sony’s prices, it’s a lot harder for them to convince a Wii family to compliment their console by adding on a PS3 system. While the graphics are much nicer than what the Wii offers, the extra entertainment benefit isn’t worth the additional cost attached to their super computer.

When Sony could control the video game market, they were able to negotiate gaming exclusives, but now it’s Nintendo that has the pipeline of exclusive titles. There will be those who argue that less price sensitive customers would buy a PS3 over a Wii in a heartbeat, but if you look at the most recent Nielsen’s survey, high end households are actually more likely to choose Nintendo over the PS3.

If Sony is failing to sell their Blu-Ray infested video game console to the least price sensitive customers, it doesn’t make me very optimistic that price cuts will be a very good long term solution for competing against the Wii and the Xbox. While there is still plenty of time for Sony to retake their lead in this latest incarnation of the console wars, I believe that their missteps at the starting blocks have all but assured, that they’ll never be able to outsell their PS2 console.

Posted in Technology, Video Games, HDTV DVDs, Microsoft | 6 Comments »

This Post Is Trademarked For Your Protection

July 6th, 2007 Davis

I’ll never be enough of a legal expert, to be able to tell the exact differences between copyrights, trademarks and patents, but I do know enough about each, to know that each level, involves a different amount of paperwork, as well as different legal protections.

While, I may not be able to fully appreciate all of the subtle differences between the three, what I do know about trademarks and patents, is that in order to get one, you have to make them available to the general public. This makes the US Patent and Trademark site, a gold mine for trying to find information on companies.

A trademark application won’t always tell you what’s going on at a company, but every now and then, there are morsels of information that leak out. You can also learn a lot about a company’s past, by looking at trademarks that they used to hold, but have let lapsed.

Recently, I was doing some research at the USPTO website and while I was there, I decided to put in the names of a few of the companies that I follow. I wasn’t sure what I expected to find, but knew that there would be at least a few interesting trademarks out there. While I didn’t discover any earth shattering revelations, I did find a few highlights, buried in all of the paperwork.

Netflix

Not a lot of surprises, when I ran Netflix’s name through the database. They own the trademark for their domain of course, as well as a trademark on their Friend’s feature. They also used to own a trademark for the terms, Mr. DVD and Cinematch (although these trademarks are currently listed as having been abandoned.)

I know that Netflix has named their movie recommendation system Cinematch, so that makes sense, but from reading the trademark filings, it sounds like Mr. DVD may have also been considered as the name of their recommendation engine, at one point.

DivX

DivX has several trademarks including OpenDivx, Stage6, and most recently DivXConnected. On the trademark website, they also include several of the logos, that they will use for DivX Connected, including the one that they blurred out when they announced the launch of their private beta for the connected program.

Under their dead trademark listings, the USPTO lists the terms, Dr. DivX, Mastermind and Carpe Visum, as abandoned trademarks. Even though these terms are listed as dead, I wasn’t entirely clear on what this meant, because I know that Dr. DivX is still in use. It could be that it’s just a logo that is expired or it may be that like, ProjectMayo, DivX is migrating away from the Dr. DivX trademark.

Movie Gallery

If Movie Gallery can’t figure a way out of their most recent situation, their trademarks may soon belong to their bond holders instead of the stock holders, but I did find it interesting to see that, Movie Gallery recently trademarked the term True Choice. True Choice is supposed to be their new program, that may or may not include MovieBeam, online dvd rentals and/or in-store rentals.

I also found it interesting that they own a trademark on a logo that reads “NC-55 No Children Under 55.”, as well as the term Gameapalooza. I’m not sure how Perry Farrell would feel about them using the lollapalooza name, but at least Movie Gallery has something for the whole family, in their trademark filings.

Some of Movie Gallery’s dead trademarks included VideoGallery+ and TradeZone. I’m pretty sure that VideoGallery+ was a company the Movie Gallery acquired a long time ago and that TradeZone is the name of a service where you can buy and sell pre-owned DVDs.

Sling Media

Sling didn’t have any dead trademarks, but they’ve already managed to rack up a few live ones. Two weeks ago, the trademark Slingstream and SlingPlayer were opened up for opposition and last January, they filed for a trademark application for the phrase Sling Clip, Sling Catcher and Sling Projector. These are all new technologies that they’ve announced.

Sling also owns a trademark on the phrase, “Where do you want to watch your TV?” I’m not sure if they are still using this phase in their advertisements, but pretty soon, they’ll also be able to ask, where do you want to watch your internet?

TiVo

TiVo has a couple of interesting trademarks, including one for the term Mevo (or MiVo), as well as a dead trademark on the ominous sounding, Viewergraphic Profiling System.

Some of my favorite ones were for the term TiVoMatic, the expression “Primetime Anytime” and an abandoned claim on “You’ve Got TiVo.” While TiVo wasn’t fast enough to get the trademark on the iPhone (like Cisco did $$$), they did manage to secure a trademark for the less lucrative term iPreview. While normally something like this would get me all fired up for another Apple + TiVo post, unfortunately this trademark was filed in 1999, so if it did signal that any hanky panky was going on, it’s safe to say that the relationship has cooled since then.

Blockbuster Video

A search for trademarks on Blockbuster brings up 341 search results. A lot of them are past marketing campaigns or are from companies that they acquired. There were a few trademarks though, that hinted at how Blockbuster might end up marketing their digital strategy.

Over the last year, they’ve been award three trademarks for the the phrase “rated D for _______ (download, digital or deliver).” Interestingly enough, I also found a trademark for the term “Circus Fresh”. I had thought that Blockbuster only sold pre-packaged candy, but the trademark suggests that Blockbuster might be selling their own brand of cotton candy in their stores.

Among some of Blockbuster’s abandoned terms were the name Clockbusters, Kidmongous & Blockbuster on Demand. I can see why they gave up Clockbusters, but I think they should have stuck with Kidmongous. It’s a great description for all of the energy that kids seem to have.

iRobot

Most of iRobot’s trademark terms were very familiar to me. There was the Scooba, the PackBot and of course the Roomba, but they also had one trademark that I had never heard of before.

It was for the unusual term LOOJ and was filed last March. I’m not sure how they plan on marketing a name that I’m not sure how to pronounce, but the trademark describes the LOOJ as “remotely controlled cleaning devices”. I’m not exactly sure how to interpret this, but it would be really cool, if I could use a wireless remote to tell my Scooba where it needs to be cleaning. This would make it more like a traditional vacuum than a robot, but there are times where it would be nice to be able to direct iRobot’s cleaning missions.

Apple

A search for Apple trademarks, yields over 1900 different results. Unfortunately, the search includes any company with Apple in their name, so it’s not an accurate count of how many they actual have. Apple has a trademark for just about anything you can think of. They have things like iPod of course, but I had never heard of the Storpod? They have even trademarked the use of the word Keynote at conferences.

Microsoft

Microsoft came back with a little over 1,800 trademark results. I guess when you’ve got as many lawyers as they do, they hand out trademarks like candy. As a digital TV enthusiast, I couldn’t help, but notice that their Microsoft TV trademark came back as abandoned. I doubt that this signals that Microsoft is giving up on the living room though, because they had a number of active “media room” trademarks.

Some of the more creative trademarks that I saw were for a mobile phone service that they are testing right now, called Deepfish. There was also one for some kind of a strange board game named Carbonated Games. I’m not sure how you play, but I suspect that the game may have played a large role in the initial creation of Microsoft’s source code.

Microsoft also recently submitted a trademark for the term Spynet. I’m sure that this is just some kind of anti-spyware technology, but it’s name sounds even more disturbing than TiVo’s Viewergraphic monitoring system.

It’d be a lot easier to monitor these things, if the USPTO offered RSS feeds, but I don’t mind checking back once in a while for an update. While, my post only covered a few of the trademarks on companies, I follow, I would be interested in knowing what else is buried in that massive database. With so many companies and so many catch phrases, I could probably spend all day at the site, and would still be able to find out about programs or marketing campaigns that I had never heard of.

Disclosure - I own stock in TiVo and Netflix

Posted in Technology, DivX, Slingbox, Microsoft, TiVo, Disclosure - I own stock in co. mentioned, Netflix | No Comments »

Watch Netflix Movies In Your Firefox Browser

February 27th, 2007 Davis

Normally, I’m a pretty big fan of Microsoft. Sure the company takes a lot of heat for being such a massive software behemoth, but despite all the complaints about their operating system, I’ve had remarkably few problems with Windows.

I won’t always choose Microsoft over another company, but for the most part, I tend to gravitate towards their products because I know that they’ll work with my existing consumer electronic universe and because it’s more likely that a vendor will support Microsoft than other solutions.

The one exception to this though, is when it comes to their Internet Explorer browser. I’m not exactly sure how Microsoft lost their edge on the browser market, but at this point IE has failed pretty miserably and I expect that they’ll continue to lose market share to Firefox until they can improve the experience associated with using their browser. Not only does the IE browser open up your computer to security exploits, but even after their upgrade, it’s user interface is still bulky and cumbersome.

If it was up to me, I’d uninstall the browser from my computer and ban it permanentely, but there are still too many sites out there that exclusively support IE, for me to be able to get rid of it entirely.

Yesterday, I needed to upgrade my browser to IE7, in order to get a piece of software to work. I didn’t think it’d be a big deal, but after the upgrade it reminded me why I hate this browser as much as I do.

Before allowing me to upgrade, Microsoft required that I first prove that I owned the license to my operating system. While I understand Microsoft’s goal of trying to reduce piracy, as a consumer, it still doesn’t sit well with me that I have to prove I’m not a criminal before being allowed to use a piece of software that is free to begin with.

The entire upgrade took me almost 30 minutes to complete. After downloading and installing the new browser, Microsoft then made me sit through two computer restarts, several hard sell attempts at getting me to change my default search engine to MSN search (not going to happen) and to add icing on the cake, after completing the upgrade I had to screw around for another 20 minutes trying to uninstall an internet STD, that decided that IE7 was a good place to install a smiley face toolbar.

While normally, using IE isn’t as painful as upgrading it, I still hate having to switch back and forth between browsers. Most of the sites I use tend to let me use Firefox anyway, but ever since Netflix launched their WatchNow feature, I’ve found myself needing to use IE more and more. It’s not a huge deal, but it is pretty annoying having to remember to log into Netflix using IE whenever I visit the site.

Fortunately, Smashed Life has come up with a pretty good solution for how to use the Firefox browser to play WatchNow movies. It involves installing the IE tab for Firefox and then setting up Netflix’s site, so that it always opens in an IE tab instead.

This isn’t an “official” solution by Netflix, but I tested it last night and can confirm that it works pretty cleanly on my system. I had trouble getting Netflix to automatically load in the IE tab at first, but after fooling around with the Firefox plugin a bit, I was able to figure it out. When all was said and done, it probably took me less than five minutes (and no computer restarts) to set up the plugin, compared to the 30 minutes I spent messing around trying to do a complete IE upgrade.

Most people probably won’t care enough to download a plugin, just so that they can avoid using IE in a separate browser, but I’ve found this to be a pretty neat solution. By customizing the plugin, I now no longer have to worry about remembering to open a new browser when using Netflix’s Watch Now feature. Hopefully, we’ll still see Netflix come out with an official Firefox support for WatchNow in the future, but at least in the near term, this is a good fix for those who’d rather forget about IE, even if you still need to use it sometimes.

Posted in Technology, Movies, DRM, Microsoft, Disclosure - I own stock in co. mentioned | 4 Comments »