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Are all HDMI cables the same?

Posted on January 14, 2007 by Jeremy Toeman

You can buy a three foot HDMI cable for $10 or $100. But it’s all digital, right? So does it really make a difference? I did a quick interview with a booth staffer from Ethereal at CES, and while not everything he says is 100% right, it’s still pretty useful.

psst – in case you don’t feel like watching the video, the answer is pretty much “yes”.

Posted in Video/Music/Media | Leave a comment |

A Tale of Two Satellite Press Conferences, part 2

Posted on January 13, 2007 by Jeremy Toeman

Continuing from part 1…

ces directv press conference (0)DirecTV
From walking in it appeared that the DirecTV conference was going to be a bit of a rehash of Echostar, but once the lights dimmed, the difference was substantial.  First of all, the presentation included… video.  Yup, video – from a media company – what a surprise!  I was also impressed that the company brought a team of execs, and a couple of guest stars!

ces directv press conference (2)The presentation from Chase Carey (President/CEO) began with a recap of 2006, then went on to discuss the year ahead.  The focus will be on Sports, HD, and VOD, and will include new content and services to support the vision.  Chase then professed the company’s HDTV leadership position.

IMG_2541 fatal1tySteven Roberts (VP of Games and Strategic Initiatives) came on to present DirecTV’s new Championship Gaming Series, which he described as a “sports league” for gaming.  The league will debut later this year, and includes a draft, commissioner, and salaried players.  They showed a promo video which I felt was a really exciting vision for gaming.  This is definitely something I’d have applied for as a teenager, and I hope “the kids today” take advantage of the opportunity.  Fatal1ty also appeared, as he’s under an exclusive contract with DirecTV.  I also got a brief interview with him which I’ll post later.

Next up, Eric Shanks (EVP for Entertainment) took the stage to discuss a few new technologies and services.  The theme of “being connected” is key, with their Viiv-enabled DVR as their first foray into a connected, digital home.  Eric also showcased the upcoming DirecTV-on-demand (launching in Q1), which allows subscribers to view a whole new lineup of on-demand programming.  Broadcasters will have the ability to create their own styles and themed “pages” for users.

Eric mentioned consumers’ frustrations with receiving announcements (for new channels, programming, features, etc) from DirecTV and how they are addressing it with a new feature called GMessages (the G is for Guide). In the demo, the program guide has new lines with ads announcements from DTV or broadcasters.  These ads announcements can also include interactive features (e.g. “record this” or, more appropriately “buy now”).   I don’t know about how many customers are complaining on this topic, but I’d recommend this article at PVRWire on some quite major complaints.

IMG_2505 rick rosnerNext, Eric introduced TV veteran Rick Rosner as the pioneer/inventor of a new product coming soon from DirecTV called Sat+Go.  Now I have the pleasure of having met Rick while I was working at Sling Media, as he was a big Slingbox owner and helped spread the word to Hollywood.  Rick’s a great guy and a visionary, and while he loves his Slingbox, he really wanted to come up with a way to watch DirecTV without any connection, whether he’s in the middle of the desert or out camping somewhere.  Thus, Sat+Go was born (read more from the NY Times).  Congrats to Rick, couldn’t happen to a nicer guy!

Next up from Eric was a preview of the Nascar Hot Pass, a DirecTV exclusive debuting next month. For each race, the DTV/Nascar team will pick 5 racers and give them dedicated channels during the race.  It adds 30 new cameras and 10 announcers per race! I’m not much of a Nascar fan myself, but it sounds like a great service to Nascar fans.

During Q&A, I decided to pop in a question myself, wanting to find out where DTV sees Internet/user-generated content (read: YouTube) fits in.  DirecTV believes the trend is toward HDTV, and most UGC doesn’t look good (read: it looks very bad) on HD displays.  That said, they acknowledge the growth and are looking into something down the road with “Web players.”  My hunch is they’ve gone into it pretty far, as they even mentioned a possible implementation where Web videos could have a “send to my DVR” button added to the screen.  This was actually my first time hearing a company like this one admit there is a benefit to working with Web services (as opposed to the PR rep at Moxi/Digeo who felt that its not the right target market and a bit too niche).  I’m impressed!

The final interesting comment came as a reporter from a HD publication asked about 1080p support.  DirecTV has not committed to 1080p, and their CTO rose to state that they weren’t making any commitments yet.  As the reporter pushed on the question, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that they weren’t budging yet, and weren’t convinced on the benefits of the format.  This is a sentiment I completely agree with, and will discuss in the future – don’t get me wrong, I’m not anti-1080p, I just think there’s a lot of FUD on the topic.

Powerpoint slides, screenshots, and pictures from the event are below:

ces directv press conference (3)ces directv press conference (4)ces directv press conference (5)ces directv press conference (6)ces directv press conference (7)ces directv press conference (8)ces directv press conference (9)ces directv press conference (10)ces directv press conference (11)ces directv press conference (12)ces directv press conference (13)ces directv press conference (1)ces directv press conference (14)ces directv press conference (15)ces directv press conference (16)IMG_2539 rick rosner sat+go

In Conclusion
I have decided to create an arbitrary scoring system to pronounce one of the two companies the First Ever Winner of the CES 2007 Battle of the Satellite Company Press Conferences…

  • DirecTV takes a gamble on broadcasting quite a few hours of video game competition. 1 point.
  • Both companies declare themselves “HD leaders”.  0 points.
  • DirecTV dedicates 5 new channels for car racing. Net gain of 0 points.
  • Echostar pledges no rate hikes and widens the channel lineups.  3 points.
  • DirecTV throws advertising into the program guide. -1 point.
  • Echostar gives the customer control with USB support. 1 point.
  • DirecTV tries a novel approach of letting someone outside their company propose a product and actually brings it to market. 1 point.
  • Echostar has Sling Media investment (worth 1 point) but no other mention of any Internet-based content or services (minus 2 points).
  • DirecTV addresses the Connected Home as well as Internet content services. 2 out of a 5 total point pool for the topic. 

Initial score: Echostar 3, DirecTV 3.  Holy cow, a tie.  Hmm.. I need a tiebreaker.   OK, how about:

  • DirecTV wins it by showing more than 0 seconds of video during their presentation.
Posted in Video/Music/Media | Leave a comment |

A Tale of Two Satellite Press Conferences, part 1

Posted on January 12, 2007 by Jeremy Toeman

While Sunday was the official Press Day at CES, Monday (and beyond) still offered a few press conferences.  I decided to go to both the EchoStar (DISH Network) and DirecTV ones, which were conveniently back-to-back and in neighboring rooms.  It was quite interesting to see the complete contrast in styles between both presentations.

ces echostar press conference (0)Echostar/DISH Network
Echostar’s conference started with some corporate background and statistics (more than 13 million subscribers!), then moved on to discuss the focus for 2007.  The motto was “it’s about time” and some of the key points included: a focus on DVR, no change to consumer pricing, and their HDTV leadership position.

Mark Jackson (president, Echostar technologies corporation – not the NBA player)  took the podium to go into some details about new products, services, and technologies.  New receivers are coming for 2007, many of which have the 2-room functionality.  Mark stressed the importance of this both to consumers as well as to the installation costs. 

ces echostar press conference (16)The flagship new unit is the VIP622 HD receiver, coming to market in Q2, 2007.  The unit sports:

  • 500GB hard drive (roughly 500 hours of standard def recording, and somewhere between 40-65 hours of HDTV recording)
  • Support for VC-1 (Windows Media Video HD)
  • External USB HDD support!  This was my favorite thing to hear, as it shows the embracement of empowering the consumer to make some of their own decisions.  They’ve tested the system with most major USB drives, and it is their stated goal to support as many as possible.  The sole limitation of the system is that content recorded on a given receiver can only be played back on the same receiver, so if you have another room or a vacation home, you can’t move the hard drive around.

ces echostar press conference (22) - charlie ergenMark also mentioned a few strategic relationships, including AT&T Homezone (which they’d apparently like to replace), Sling Media (they are an investor), and Archos (whom they basically own).  Afterwards, Charlie Ergen joined to answer Q&A.

Overall it was a fairly dry conference, without too much novelty or technology.  Perfect for the financial community, but a little on the dull side for the rest of us.  All their slides are belong to us below:

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Part 2 is here.

Posted in Video/Music/Media | 1 Comment |

Netgear knocks it out of the park at CES

Posted on January 7, 2007 by Jeremy Toeman

Opening disclosure: I am working on a consulting project with Netgear, but that work is unrelated to my blogging about them.  I was invited to their press conference and chose to attend and got to see three new products that I was previously unaware of.  This blog post is because I am genuinely amazed with a product of theirs.

IMG_2328 2006 v 2007Now, onto the story.  Netgear had a press conference this morning and unveiled three new products which I will list and describe in ascending order of excitement and interestingness.  Before the demos, Debbie Williams (Netgear’s Chief Marketing Officer) gave a brief “state of the union” for the company.  Basically: 10 years old, market cap of $883M, products sold in >16K retailers, and they introduced 50 new products in 2006 (methinks about 42 of them were routers, but I guess it counts anyway, right?).  She then went on to discuss how 2006 was the year of building the home network for the digital lifestyle (love that term, but I think I may have heard it before), and 2007 is the year of delivering the experience. She then introduced Vivek Pathela, Netgear’s VP of Product Marketing to do the demos (again, listed here in my order, not theirs):

  1. IMG_2342 storage central turboStorage Central Turbo.  This updates 2005’s Storage Central device by adding the capacity to expand to multiple terabytes of data as well as gigabit Ethernet.  If you aren’t paying attention to the bits and bytes, it means it can store and stream HD movies around your house.  This is a fairly evolutionary/logical enhancement to the product line.  The MSRP is $249 (with no included hard drives, which makes sense since it’s so much cheaper for you to buy your own anyway) and the product should ship “early” this year.  More pics:
    IMG_2343 storage central turboIMG_2341 storage central turbo
  2. IMG_2348 dualmode cordless phone with skype GUIDual-Mode Cordless Phone with Skype. Now we’re seeing some interesting convergence happen.  Quite a few companies introduced Skype or VoIP phones in 2006, some worked well, some didn’t.  Netgear seems to have added a clever twist by incorporating a standard telephone in the same handset (aka Plain Old Telephone Service, or POTS).  This is a very smart combination, as it lets a consumer have just a single home phone that can work with both Skype and POTS systems.  Also, you can get multiple handsets all working with the same base station (although an audience member asked a great question: can more than one handset make a simultaneous POTS call? which stumped the Netgear team – I sure hope it’s a yes).  The demo went great as Vivek called Patrick Lo, Netgear’s CEO, and had a quick live call with near-excellent audio quality.  MSRP $199, available now (on Amazon)!
    IMG_2345 dualmode cordless phone with skypeIMG_2346 dualmode cordless phone with skypeIMG_2350 dualmode cordless phone with skypeIMG_2351 dualmode cordless phone with skype - patrick lo
  3. IMG_2333 digital entertainer HD GUIEVA8000 Digital Entertainer HD.  Oh my is this one interesting.  It’s a, well, “box” that hooks up to your TV and your home network connection.  It then streams your music, photos, and videos from any PC or networked storage device (NAS) to your TV.  It also streams from YouTube (they demoed a classic Diet Coke/Mentos video, which about 90% of the audience reacted as if they’d never seen it before – wow).  It also works in high definition (up to 1080p resolution), including full upscaling/downscaling of video.  It supports almost every video codec, including MPEG-4 HD, WMV HD, DivX, MPEG-2, H.264, etc etc.  It also streams iTunes (including protected content if from a Windows PC, sorry Mac folks).  It also has USB to locally connect a flash drive or an iPod.  It also supports multiple units so you can start a video in one room, then finish it in another.  It also has full PVR (TiVo-like) capabilities.  And from the demo, it looks like it works very well!  As a guy who has spent about 8 years designing award-winning devices just like these, I am quite impressed.  Quite!  MSRP $349, available early 2007.
    IMG_2330 digital entertainer HDIMG_2334 digital entertainer HD diet coke mentosIMG_2335 digital entertainer HD diet coke mentosIMG_2336 digital entertainer HD diet coke mentosIMG_2337 digital entertainer HD diet coke mentosIMG_2338 digital entertainer HD multiroomIMG_2339 digital entertainer HD multiroomIMG_2353 digital entertainer HDIMG_2355 digital entertainer HD

IMG_2326 dave zatz and sakshi goelI’ve seen a bit of other coverage already of the conference.  MacUser compares it against iTV and calls the UI “uninspired” which is a fair point, but I think making comparisons against a product that’s not really been “announced” yet isn’t quite appropriate.  Also, I disagree that Apple will beat the $349 price point, as I think they’d rather rip into their loyal customer base who are more willing to overpay for the Apple brand.  More coverage from Ed Kohler, Eric Savitz at Barron’s, Gadgetell, and SciFi.com, but for very extensive details, here’s the Engadget transcript.  I also bumped into Dave Zatz (with Sakshi Goel of Netgear), Netgear’s resident CES blogger.

So there’s my front-runner for most interesting new product of CES: the Netgear Digital Entertainer HD.  We’ll see how the rest of the show pans out!  More Netgear conference pics below and the whole CES collection is here.

IMG_2352 netgear new productsIMG_2340 full house at netgear press conferenceIMG_2331 vivek pathela, vp product marketingIMG_2329 debbie williams, cmoIMG_2327 stage

Posted in Convergence, Gadgets, Mobile Technology, Networking, Product Announcements, Video/Music/Media | 6 Comments |

Video entertainment options are all over the place

Posted on December 1, 2006 by Jeremy Toeman

Cinemanow and Movielink made the first huge strides in Internet-delivery of movies with their offerings several years ago, albeit not to much success.  In the past 2 years we’ve seen things move in leaps and bounds. 

HD playback controls GUIHere is my list of some of the most prevalent/important things going on right now:

  • Multi-tuner high definition DVRs are commonly available.  DVRs (HD and SD) are in about 15-20 million homes in the US today.  Timeshifting is no fad.
  • Sling Media sold over 100K Slingboxes in the first year, and now have 3 different models on the market and are in 9 countries.  Placeshifting is the new black.
  • Over 40 million HDTV sets are expected to be sold in the US by the end of the year (cumulative).  HDTV is important.
  • IPTV set-top boxes (like a cable box, but hooked up to your DSL) are in millions of homes worldwide.  It might not be a slam-dunk in the US, but many people are watching TV streaming over the Internet.
  • YouTube.  100 million videos a day.  I don’t care if it’s long-tail or short-tail or rat-tail.  I don’t care if it’s user-generated content or all clips from SNL and the Daily Show.  People are comfortable watching video on Web sites, regardless of quality.
  • Moviebeam (love the concept, but the movie selection is so lackluster these days – I’ll post more soon), Applie’s iTV, Akimbo, SAT+GO, ITVN, Xbox Movie Downloads, and a slew of other companies have boxes, products, or services that are all providing alternatives to the traditional cable/satellite TV offerings.  I don’t know how any of these options will fare, but they all seem to either be very niche-y or not compelling.  But there’s a lot more to come. I have seen the future, and I can’t name the company, but it’s coming next year, and it’s going to rock. 
  • Wal-mart’s online DVD offering (details here) sounds completely off the mark.  Jonas wrote a good piece about it, and I think it’s simply an offering with no market appeal.  If I buy the DVD, why do I need a download?  If I download it, why do I need a DVD?  Greed begetting greed.
  • Regal Entertainment is giving moviegoers a “panic button” in case they see someone on a cell phone and are unable to confront them directly.  That’s just weird.
  • Entrance to SNL studioSaturday Night Live is debating allowing live viewing of rehearsals online.  There’s a near little coincidence, as I personally attribute ALL the success of YouTube as originating with the spread of the “Lazy Sunday” clip from SNL last season (which they, at the time, vehemently protested).
  • The NFL is looking into streaming live games online, and the NHL has some archives online (which is about as much as we’re gonna get, since Bettman doesn’t really care about the fans anyway).
  • Mobile mobile mobile.

Phew, I’m exhausted.  Did I miss anything?

Posted in Convergence, Video/Music/Media | Leave a comment |

YouTube on VCast is the wrong approach for Mobile

Posted on November 28, 2006 by Jeremy Toeman

The talk of the town today (recommended reading: IP Democracy, PhoneScoop, TechCrunch) is the announcement that Verizon and YouTube are doing a deal.  Quick summary: you have to be a VCast subscriber and from the NY Times:

YouTube said its editors would select short videos from its library for the Verizon Wireless service. Verizon Wireless said it would vet the videos to make sure they met the company’s editorial and taste guidelines.

“We’ll select content that has the broadest appeal and the highest entertainment value,” Ms. Liang said.

 The funniest read on it so far comes from fellow Canadian Mathew Ingram:

I know that Forrest Gump said “Stupid is as stupid does,” but there’s really no other word for what Verizon is doing with its much-heralded launch of YouTube video on cellphones. I mean, really. How much stupider could this get? The answer, to paraphrase Nigel Tufnel in Spinal Tap, is none — none stupider. Fred Wilson sums it up in a single word: Lame. In fact, this deal is right off the lame-o-meter. How do I lame-ify thee? Let me count the ways.

Now I agree with this as lame, but not for the same reasons as others.  Fred wrote “This deal violates the entire ethos of YouTube, not free, not open, exclusive, no community, limited, censorship, etc, etc.” and over on LostRemote I read “I don’t see this as being an especially tempting offering – it goes against the free spirit attitude of YouTube.”  These are fair points, but not what I perceive as the most important flaw in the plan.

People don’t surf to YouTube because it’s free or open, nor because of the site’s free spirit.  Actually, people don’t really surf to YouTube much at all.  Whoa, slow down – I know they serve a kajillion videos a day (or is that bajillion?).  What’s key about all this is how people use YouTube. 

They share.  They link.  They blog.  They email.  They don’t surf.

When YouTube serves 200,000 streams of a video, it’s not because 200,000 people come over to YouTube.com, and go find videos to watch.  It’s because people were sent there by friends, colleagues, and blogs.  YouTube is viral, not programmed.  And that’s the key flaw in the Verizon/YouTube relationship.

They should scrap the budget on the ‘editors’ and instead invest on building a simple technology that allows people to SMS the clips they watch to each other.  Not only will this increase usage of the service, it’ll also increase SMS traffic (something the carriers like a lot) and will also help incent new users to pay for VCast.

Posted in Mobile Technology, Video/Music/Media, Web/Internet | Leave a comment |

Did DVRs kill the watercooler chat?

Posted on November 27, 2006 by Jeremy Toeman

I received my first TiVo back in 1999.  It was a 14-hour unit, made by Philips.  It changed my life.  Now I don’t even mean that in that lighthearted way – it really did change my life.  Prior to owning a TiVo I watched about 2 hours of TV a week, total. Since then, my hours have climbed to a staggering 10-15 hours per week! This is still significantly lower than the 4 hours per day of the average 2-person US household (unbelievable, ain’t it?  it climbs to 8 per day when you include all US homes!), but it’s much higher than I’d really like.  I’d blame it on Heroes, but there’s enough other stuff I watch that I have to accept responsibility for my actions.

In the early 2000’s I was still a (very) early adopter of the DVR (digital video recorder, the ‘generic’ category for what a TiVo is), always preaching its virtues to friends, colleagues, and strangers on the bus.  I remember many times when someone would start talking about a TV show and I’d have to just walk away, not wanting to hear the details for a show I hadn’t yet watched.  Worse yet, during the 2003 playoffs (hockey, of course), not one, but two games’ endings were spoiled by eager relatives calling while I was still an hour or two behind on the game.  In each incident, I’d always exclaim “haven’t seen it yet – don’t say anything!!!” and then proceed to explain the DVR.

TiVo HeadquartersNowadays, TiVos are fairly well-known in the mainstream (if you are reading this and thinking to yourself “what’s he talking about, everyone has a DVR!” you are very out of touch with the masses.  DVRs are in roughly 1 in 5 or 1 in 6 of US households, that’s it.) and you see references in TV shows and movies (and even Sprite commercials).  My Mom has a TiVo (she calls it Mister TiVo), my wife uses it, my in-laws have a DVR, my Dad doesn’t have one but knows all about it, etc.  In fact, timeshifting (using your DVR) is so prevalent, it’s being tracked by Nielsen – who recently reported that DVRs are actually boosting show ratings.

Recently, however, I’ve noticed that there’s a lot less chatting about the shows themselves.  While some are musing that TV viewership is down (the stats simply disprove this theory), others think that watching behaviors are changing.  I agree more with the latter than the former.  I believe the combination of timeshifting, TV shows on DVD, and online video is causing more of a social impact than a viewership one.

Today, when you watch a show and start talking about it, you hear responses that range from “I’ve got it in my Netflix queue” to “I haven’t watched it yet, it’s on my DVR” to “I’ll download it from iTunes tonight” and more.  People seem a lot more prone to saving entire seasons for future viewing, so you can’t talk about Entourage when your friends are waiting for it to arrive from Amazon.  Heck, I don’t even read many pop culture blogs or Web sites, for fear they’ll have divulged events from this week’s Heroes, which I just didn’t get around to watching.

I don’t agree at all that people are watching less television.  I think they may watch it with less enthusiasm than they once did.  I think they watch it with more distractions than they once did.  They watch it at different times (and places) than in the past.  They watch it on different devices. 

My feeling is that social culture is changing to de-emphasize an episode of a show as something worth talking about.  I haven’t quite figured out what’s filling that void, just as long as nobody ruins another show for me.

Posted in Convergence, General, Video/Music/Media | 2 Comments |

Smokin' Toe's Turkey (now with muvee videos on Stage6!)

Posted on November 25, 2006 by Jeremy Toeman

IMG_1652 smoked turkeyThe single best turkey I’ve ever made, eaten, smelled, eaten, and eaten.  Wow.  The only one I’ve made that looked better was the 25-pounder I cooked with my cousin a few years back, and while that was tasty, this year’s knocked it out of the park.

Now I’ve been posting a lot of recent stuff on non-techie topics, and I’m feeling a little guilty about that, so I’m going to amend for it all here.  This post also contains vlogging, a quick intro to Muvee, and my first use of Stage6 from DivX (quick disclaimer: I am doing some consulting work for DivX, although it is wholly unrelated to turkey cooking).

First up: the vlogging.  I used my trusty Canon SD700is (recently rendered obsolete with the SD800is) to do all the video work.  Sure I could’ve used my DV camera, but I didn’t care that much about the final video quality, and didn’t want to spend all the time downloading the video from the miniDV tape.  Also, my wife and I did all camera work, no tripods, microphones, or anything fancy was involved. 

Next comes the editing.  My first video project, I did all the editing myself.  From the notes I took, I spent 13 minutes importing and editing clips, 20 minutes working with transitions, photos, and titles/credits, then 11 minutes to export the video, for a total of 44 minutes.  You can see the video here (running time 4:50), I feel it’s the most informative, yet dullest of the batch. 

Muvee logoWhat’s this? Batch?  Yes, that’s correct, I have created multiple videos.  The next three were all done using Muvee AutoProducer, which is one of the most impressive pieces of software I’ve seen in years.  I’ll do a full review shortly, and this is not the best demonstration of its power, but I wanted to do an easy “compare and contrast.”  It took 6 minutes to import all content and create titles/credits and pick a style for the video. It took another 4 minutes to analyze the media files (a one-time only requirement), and I had my first video ready.  Over the next 10 minutes I experimented with different styles until I had the one I liked, then waited 13 minutes while it exported the video, for a total time investment of 33 minutes. 

The really impressive part was I then spent less than 10 minutes to preview a dozen more styles, and generated two additional videos in another 10 minutes.  To see the fruits of my labor (and you should watch one of them in contrast to my manual editing work), watch style one, two, or three (I recommend #1).  As you’ll see, all three are more entertaining and upbeat than the manually produced version.  Muvee is awesome, and I’ll really prove it in the next few weeks with a detailed review.

Stage6 logoFor my last tech experiment of the day, rather than go with YouTube, I decided to try out Stage6 for my video-sharing needs.  Creating a profile was simple and took a few seconds (although I decided to actually flush it out with all the personal details too, but that was not a requirement), but uploading a video wasn’t as straightforward as I’d hoped. 

First, I was required to download an uploader (although I think there was a plug-in version as well, but I may have accidentally missed that), then I realized my videos weren’t in DivX format already, a requirement of the site.  I proceeded to download Dr. DivX, after which I was prompted to download a DivX codec update.  Pain in the rear, however, Dr DivX worked really quickly and flawlessly, and coincidentally included a built-in uploader to Stage6.

Several minutes later, I began uploading videos, and am now officially a member of the long tail.  And I didn’t even have to use clips from SNL or the Daily Show to participate!  Ni-ice.  As you noticed from the post, the only way to really share videos from Stage6 is via linking or email. 

I’d like to see them step up the features for bloggers by including some HTML sharing code, embedding tools, and thumbnails.  Also, while I know the codec is huge in Europe (just like David Hasselhoff), I am curious to hear back from readers if there were any issues playing the videos

Anyhow, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, full of turkey and techie, just like me! 

Posted in General, LD Approved, Video/Music/Media | 1 Comment |

Europeans can now watch Slingbox on their mobiles

Posted on November 16, 2006 by Jeremy Toeman

Stickered PhonesWhen it comes to mobile technology, it seems that major carriers and phone manufacturers around the world have a common mantra: “they do it in Japan and Korea, therefore …”  The statement applies when trying to convince other industry players that a given service/feature will have huge adoption rates in the US or other countries.  The phrases sound like this: “The Japanese play 3 hours of video games a day on their handsets, and spend $1023 per month for social networking services and content, so we need to bring this to the US as soon as possible!”  For the most part, it’s a lot of malarky (is that really a word?). Why?  Well, if let’s say you have one country/culture in which 2-4 hours per day of train-based travel is the norm. And you have another one in which the average commute is done by car and is under an hour.  Sounds like you don’t have much of a match, doesn’t it?  So a few years back when the discussions of mobile TV first started blossoming in the US, I was personally a bit of a skeptic.  And then I helped design and build SlingPlayer Mobile, and I saw the light.

I’ve used SPM (as we were known to call it) to kill time on the tarmac.  I’ve programmed my DVR from the long lines at Starbucks.  I even watched some of the NHL Playoffs last year on my commutes home (yes, my wife drove, I’m not that bad).  Funny thing is, I was once quoted as saying “Nobody’s going to watch the entire Super Bowl on a cell phone.”  And while I stand by that statement, for this year’s game I did have my PPC6700 showing the game live in the bathroom so nobody would have to miss a minute’s action (go Stillers!).

As was announced today, Europeans (starting in the UK, spreading outwards in 2006) can soon have the same joy.  Instead of Heroes they’ll be watching Eastenders.  Instead of the Superbowl, they’ll do the World Cup (in a few years).  Instead of The Office, they’ll do.. oh. well… The Office.  Hmm.

In an interesting twist, Sling Media launched SlingPlayer Mobile in Europe with a mobile operator, 3.  Now 3 is going for some kind of quintuple or octuple-play by bundling a few other options and services with their new X-Series offering (live Webcast tomorrow), and you can read more details about it over at the SlingCommunity site (or Unwired or Gadgetell) .  Seems like an interesting play, but I’ve gotten spoiled I guess, since I’m a Windows Mobile user, and the extra services are all available to me on the 6700 I use. 

Slingplayer on Nokia N73The other interesting element here is this is the first time the Slingbox is viewable from a non-Windows Mobile device.  The handsets for the launch are the Nokia N73 and the Sony Ericsson W950i.  I think it’ll be interesting to see the performance comparisons as more and more users adopt the service.

Good thing the Internet rumor mill didn’t go too far after Blake mentioned something about a mobile carrier at last week’s Web 2.0 show.  Check out speculation at Unwired, MocoNews, and Engadget.  It doesn’t take too many hops in the blogosphere to go from “idle comment” to “solid fact” these days.  Either way, congrats to Sling and 3 for putting together a great relationship that brings smart value-added services to their customer bases.

Akihabara Subway stopWell, time for me to get back to playing 3D interactive multiplayer video games on my mobile phone with built-in GPS, DVR, MP3, and waffle-making capabilities.  I’ve got a long way to go to get to Akihabara.

Posted in Convergence, Mobile Technology, Product Announcements, Video/Music/Media | Leave a comment |

Best Movie Trailer Ever

Posted on November 11, 2006 by Jeremy Toeman

This is a few years old, but makes me laugh out loud every time I see it. Watch and enjoy.

Posted in General, LD Approved, No/Low-tech, Video/Music/Media | 1 Comment |

Behind the scenes at Microsoft error reporting

Posted on November 3, 2006 by Jeremy Toeman

I was sent this link last night, and only got a chance to watch it this morning. I practically did a spit-take (not good at the laptop) while watching. Note to the impatient: it takes about 1:45 to get to the funny.

Thanks to Sam at PodShow for sending it my way!

Posted in General, Video/Music/Media | Leave a comment |

Technology Emmy Award Nominees/Winners Announced

Posted on November 2, 2006 by Jeremy Toeman

It’s amazing to read, but the same organization that only last year lauded “Everybody Loves Raymond” with “Outstanding Comedy Series” is now recognizing Sling Media, Visible World, TiVo, Moxi, Revver, and other new digital media companies with technology-related Emmys.  This is great to see, as it’s important sign that the whole industry is moving forward to embrace such technologies and services. 

Here’s the entire list:

  • The Emmy Award for Pioneering Development of On Screen Display (OSD) for Setup, Control and Configuration of Consumer Television Equipment:
    • RCA 
  • The Emmy Award for Streaming Media Architectures and Components:
    • Microsoft
    • Adobe
    • Real
    • Apple
  • The Emmy Award for Pioneering Development for Combining Multiple Transport Streams Which Are Already Encoded, Using Rate-Shaping and Statistical Re-multiplexing:
    • Terayon Communication Systems 
  • The Emmy Award for Development and Implementation of Automatically Assembled Dynamic Customized TV Advertising:
    • Visible World
    • Weather Channel 
  • The Emmy Award for Technology Advances in Serial Digital Interface Solutions, Enabling Over 20 Years of Seamless Studio and Broadcast Infrastructure migration:
    • Gennum Corporation
  • The Emmy Award for Privately Owned and Operated International Satellite Company Primarily for International Video Services:
    • Rene Anselmo, PanAmSat
  • The nominees for Outstanding Achievement in Advanced Media Technology for the Synchronous Enhancement of Original Television Content are:
    • DirecTV Interactive Sports – DirecTV
    • HSN Shop by Remote – HSN
    • NBC Olympics Now – BIAP Systems, Inc. 
  • The nominees for Outstanding Achievement in Advanced Media Technology for the Non-Synchronous Enhancement of Original Television Content are:
    • CNN Enhanced – CNN/Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
    • Fantasy Football Tracker – BIAP Systems, Inc.
    • Passions Vendetta – NBC.com
    • Sopranos:   Crime. Organized – Deep Focus
    • The Cultivated Life:  Thomas Jefferson & Wine – NetBlender
    • The-N.com Video Mixer – The N 
  • The nominees for Outstanding Achievement in Advanced Media Technology for the Creation of Non-Traditional Programs or Platforms are:
    • Entriq, Inc. Mobile Technology – Entriq, Inc.
    • Switched Broadcast is Transforming TV – Big Band Networks
    • The Slingbox – Sling Media
    • Vid-Wave – Boxx Communications 
  • The nominees for Outstanding Innovation and Achievement in Advanced Media Technology for the Best Use of Personal Media Display and Presentation Technology are:
    • Screen 3 – Hill & Knowlton/Motorola
    • Sectional Navigation Architecture – GoTV Networks
    • Xross Media Box – SONY
  • The nominees for Outstanding Innovation and Achievement in Advanced Media Technology for the Best Use of “On Demand” Technology Over Private (closed) Networks are:
    • Guided TV – ABC On Demand – Disney – ABC Television Group
    • Moxi Adelphie On Demand Browser – Digeo
    • Time Warner Cable’s Start Over – Time Warner Cable, Concurrent Computer Corp., Big Band Networks, Harmonic Inc., Scientific Atlanta. 
  • The nominees for Outstanding Innovation and Achievement in Advanced Media Technology for the Best Use of “On Demand” Technology Over the Public (open) Internet are:
    • ABC.com Full Episode Streaming Player – Disney – ABC Television Group
    • AOL Music’s Top 11 Countdown Show – AOL, LLC
    • GameTap – GameTap, Turner Broadcasting
    • Revver.com – Revver
    • Stim TV – NPOWR
    • Vongo – Starz
  • The nominees for Outstanding Innovation and Achievement in Advanced Media Technology for Best Use by Commercials in Creation and Use in Non Traditional Platforms and Technologies are:
    • ABC.com Full Episode Streaming Player – Disney-ABC Television Group
    • Ravenstoke – Turner Broadcasting Systems, Inc.
    • TiVo Interactive Advertising Platform – TiVo Inc.

More from the official Emmy site here. Conspicuously absent are YouTube, DivX (codec and/or Stage6), MSN Soapbox, and other online plays.  Maybe next year…

Posted in General, Video/Music/Media | 1 Comment |
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About

Jeremy Toeman is a seasoned Product leader with over 20 years experience in the convergence of digital media, mobile entertainment, social entertainment, smart TV and consumer technology. Prior ventures and projects include CNET, Viggle/Dijit/Nextguide, Sling Media, VUDU, Clicker, DivX, Rovi, Mediabolic, Boxee, and many other consumer technology companies. This blog represents his personal opinion and outlook on things.

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