Austin360 blogs > Digital Savant
Net neutrality gets a boost in Austin FCC visit
I wasn’t able to make it to this morning’s public broadband Internet hearing, but was happy to see it reported on in multiple outlets.
The biggest news, which we were hearing drips and drabs about over the weekend, is that FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski unveiled a proposal for net neutrality the same morning as this Austin public hearing. The proposal is for a policy that would keep Internet carriers like Time Warner Cable and AT&T from blocking or capping Internet traffic based on content. (Further reading on what net neutrality is can be found here.)
Here are a few more articles about today’s events, which sound like major progress for advocates of an open, free Internet.
More reading:
The new Web site OpenInternet.gov.
Dow Jones article on industry reaction.
Exciting times! Post your thoughts in the comments or links to other articles and information on the subject.
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Two game bummers, one game bright spot
First, the worst news: a free massively multiplayer online game developed in Austin, “Dungeon Runners,” has been given the ax.
NCsoft, which has had a rough year (at least in the U.S.), will kill the game on Jan. 1., 2010.
Developed in Austin, the game didn’t have the flashiest graphics or the biggest budget, but it had a refreshing sense of humor and some very entertaining voice work. It wasn’t a game that held my own attention very long (admittedly, I have an incredibly short attention span for online games), but it was nice to see a scrappy, low-budget game hold its own against the big dogs.
A while back, NCsoft sent us a completely inappropriate Bling Gnome doll that I had to hide on my desk lest I get fired. It was just the kind of silliness the game was known for; sad to see it go.
Speaking of disappointments, I attended the second keynote at the Game Developers Conference Thursday morning. It was delivered by two senior-ranking workers at Blizzard who’ve helped make “World of Warcraft” the phenomenon it is today.
Slam-dunk speech, right? Not so much. The two joked about being hungover and stretching the presentation to avoid doing a Q&A with the audience. That stopped being funny the moment the presentation ended without a Q&A and the lights came up.
The Blizzard-themed presentation was simply a breakdown of how the massive amount of labor on such a big game is divided. There were thrilling chain-of-command flow charts and big chunks of time devoted to how many people work in data centers for the company.
It was fascinating, briefly, to hear how much work it takes beyond simply game design to pull off such a huge game. The company has grown from about 400 employees to over 4,600 largely because of “WoW.” But did the entire hour-long keynote have to be devoted to a corporate structure breakdown?
Maybe it would have been more interesting to hear about what it is that has made “World of Warcraft” so successful; what’s the magic sauce behind Blizzard’s amazing level of polish and how do they find the best talent? How has the game reduced its difficulty over time to sustain growth to bring on new players?
We got none of that. It’s one thing to protect your trade secrets, but quite another to deliver such an uninspired keynote to such a large audience.
(You can hear the speech in its entirety [good luck with that!]) on this site.
And finally, some good gaming news: “BioShock 2” will be out in February, earlier than had been anticipated after a delay had been announced earlier this year. It was originally due this holiday season.
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The Linkdown for Thursday, Sept. 17
The Linkdown is hoping the gorgeous Austin cool weather sticks around until at least early November… of 2010.
If you happen to be stuck inside, though, here are some good online links you should check out:
- U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson’s site was hit with a Denial of Service attack last weekend. Austin angle? Local political Web company Piryx hosts his site.
- As mentioned in the previous post, Maker Faire will not happen in Austin this year. Attendance numbers for 2007 and 2008 were 20,000 and 32,000, respectively, according to this Make magazine blog post.
- The deadline for the $5 million 2010 Knight News Challenge is Oct. 15. Save our industry so that I get paid and can continue to afford frivolous things!
- Hey, iPhone keyboard! Down side: makes it look like a BlackBerry.
- Internet pioneer Bob Taylor speaks at UT today.
- Cyberchase exhibit opens this weekend at the Austin Children’s Museum. Fun!
- Sigh… Webby Awards are open for nominations until Oct. 30. Jimmy Fallon and Ariana Huffington star in this video promoting it. I feel like I have to wash out my eyes now.
- Austin’s Pixel Mine has another iPhone game: “Space Dock.”
And here are a few photos from the Austin Game Developers Conference expo floor:
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No Maker Faire for Austin this year
I was very sad to hear, from Pat Beach who wrote about last year’s spectacular event, that Maker Faire Austin will not be held this year, according to an August 31 post on the Maker Faire site.
It sounds like there may still be plans for a 2010 fest, which is great, because the October 2008 Maker Faire was a great gathering of geeks, crafters and entertainers.
It’s the kind of event that Austin frankly needs and here’s hoping the economy will rebound enough for a Maker Faire Austin to become a reality next year.
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Sony Online president talks kids, women and MMOs
John Smedley, whose company employs about 1,000 in the very competitive online game industry, was speaking about “FreeRealms,” a massively multiplayer title targeted more toward young players and women than the company’s usual fare. His keynote remarks kicked off this week’s Austin Game Developers Conference, which brings together video game publishers, social media game creators and others for mixers, panels and networking.
In creating a big online game that moved the company away from its typically male-centric demographic, Smeldey said, the company continues to tweak and redefine “FreeRealms,” a whimsical, colorful fantasy game. Though he did not say how much the company is making on so-called “micro-transactions” it charges for content within the game, “FreeRealms” passed the 5-million-subscriber mark last month. The game launched in April.
The most popular U.S.-based online multiplayer game, “World of Warcraft” has recorded about 12 million paying subscribers at its peak. “Warcraft” is a cash cow for its company, Activision Blizzard, as it charges a monthly fee for players in addition to the retail price of the game. “FreeRealms,” on the other hand, is free to play for any new subscriber. Sony plans to make money on small fees for items like virtual clothing, potions and trading cards used in the game.
“FreeRealms,” on the other hand, is free to play for any new subscriber. Sony plans to make money on items like virtual clothing, potions and trading cards used in the game.
Smedley said that the the company tried to bust through the typical demographics for games it has developed like “Everquest”; he said Sony’s games typically have about 85 percent male players averaging 33 years of age.
About 51 percent of “FreeRealms” players are under 13 and the game’s population is 33 percent female. Designing for kids, however, has presented its own unique set of challenges, he said. An initial sign-in screen proved too difficult for many kids to master (many, he said, don’t know what year they were born), kids have much shorter attention spans than older players (“Like 5-minutes kind of short,” he said), and younger players typically don’t spend money online as readily as adults.
Sony Online, Smedley said, is refining the way the company handles chat conversations. All chats are monitored by software that flags inappropriate language and does not allow numbers to be transmitted in the interest of protecting young players. While that’s been working well, he said, the company erred early on in giving too much free content away when the game launched. “I would urge all of you not to do that,” Smedley joked to his game developer audience, “we make mistakes. We’re trying things.”
The game’s success, he said, comes from learning from data mining to see how the game is being played and tweaking constantly. The game is partially designed to emulate the Mac OS operating system, which many kids use in school, and offers many mini games like racing and card duels to satisfy those short attention spans. Sony is also partnering with retail chains, paying them to distribute “FreeRealms” to new players, and is having success launching French, German, Spanish, Latin American and U.K. versions of the game.
Smeldey revealed that the company is working on a PlayStation 3 console version of “FreeRealms” due out sometime in the middle of 2010 and is also planning a Facebook-based online game. The company said in July it laid off about 5 percent of its work force, 41 employees.
Details were scant about the Austin studio’s upcoming comic-book themed “DC Universe Online,” but Smedley did tout the 10-year run of the company’s flagship game “EverQuest.”
“It’s one of only a few games to hit that mark,” he said, “How many of you are still playing ‘Madden’ from 1999?”
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First set of solo SXSW Interactive speakers announced
South by Southwest Interactive has announced its opening speaker for its March 2010 festival, as well as other solo presenters.
While many a Twitter account boasts of a person’s “Social media expert” credentials, danah boyd has the bona fides to back it up. She works for Microsoft’s research division and is a fellow at the Harvard University Berkman Center for Internat and Society. She’ll presumably be speaking about social networks 2 p.m, Saturday March 13 at the fest.
Other presenters announced today include author and MIT professor Dan Ariely, Web design expert Paul Boag, Ruby on Rails expert Heinemeir Hansson, author Molly E. Holzschlag, Creative Commons CEO Joi Ito, social tech expert Clay Shirky and wine video blogger Gary Vaynerchuk, who was a big hit at last year’s fest and was recently profiled in the New York Times.
According to the official site, more than 700 speakers will be announced for more than 200 sessions at the fest.
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Mint and Intuit get their finances together
Back in July, when I interviewed Aaron Patzer, the CEO of hot financial start-up Mint.com, a marriage with Intuit seemed like the furthest thing from his mind.
But maybe my radar was a little off. Today, rumors what the company behind Quicken was purchasing Mint.com for $170 million proved true.
Patzer, a former Austinite, came up with the idea for Mint after a frustrating experience using Intuit’s services. The two companies even had a public dust-up a while back over Mint’s sizable growth. Mint rode a wave of positive buzz about its Web-based service and its extremely popular iPhone app, both of which make it easier to track your finances and see trends in your spending.
That aside, the deal makes a lot of sense. Quicken is still an established brand trusted by many and Mint has some great technology that will nicely complement Intuit’s financial products.
(Pictured at right: Mint CEO Aaron Patzer. Photo provided by Mint.)
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The Linkdown for Friday, Sept. 11
The Linkdown is trying to stay dry as the Austin Summer of Dry Heat suddenly becomes the Austin Late Summer of Torrential Flooding. It’s feast or famine around here, isn’t it?
Here are some Internet links worth not only a click, but also a read and a rumination:
- Austin’s second Twestival is 5 p.m. Sunday at Buffalo Billiards. The first Twestival raised money for Charity: Water. This one will benefit Mobile Loaves & Fishes. It’s a family-friendly event.
- Courtney Love and surviving members of Nirvana are not thrilled that a computer-animated Kurt Cobain is singing Bon Jovi and hip hop songs in the latest “Guitar Hero” game. What’s the fuss about? See video at the end of this entry.
- The Austin Game Developers Conference is next week!
- Whoah, Blu-ray media server! Me WANT!
- Austin’s Heatwave Interactive worked with superstar T.I. on the game “Platinum Life.”
- Do you know anything about real-time search data visualization? You could win $1,500 from OneRiot.
- Chris Brogan will be speaking in town again next week to talk about his book, “Trust Agents” with Julien Smith.
- Austin’s BAE Systems is making all-weather vehicles for the Army and Marines.
- Lawyer much? You can get a 7-day free trial of LSAT prep courses from Knewton. Who would object to that?
- Another apps review site. This one’s got some pretty good content. It’s called Appolicious
- Yahoo! has launched iPhone and BlackBerry apps for Finance, Fantasy Football and an iPhone-only app for Flickr.
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Video: Digital Savant’s Magical Mystery Meetup
We had fun!
The first Digital Savant meetup was also a showcase for “The Beatles: Rock Band.” A copy of the game was given away by the American-Statesman and the game was available for play by an enthusiastic group of players.
Thanks to everyone who came out, to Game Over Videogames and the Video Game Doctor for contributing prizes, to the Statesman’s marketing department for making it all happen, to Opal Divine’s Marina for their hospitality and to Harmonix for making a video game that seemingly has universal appeal. Check out the video from Jenni Jones, below:
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Live Chat: Apple’s big music day, ‘Beatles: Rock Band’ and more
The live chat has begun. Jump in to participate! We’ll be going until about 1:30 p.m. CST.
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In the air, tech-overloaded
I don’t travel very often (babies will do that to you), but when I go somewhere, I try to make sure I’m stocked up like a proper mobile warrior.
That means carrying the right cell phone/laptop charger in the smallest and lightest form you can get it. It means buying a Mophie Juice Pack Air for my iPhone for those long days of walking that I did over the weekend in New York City.
It means having small game console like the Nintendo DS, which also has very tiny game cartridges. You can easily fit a dozen of them in a small laptop bag pocket.
What I wasn’t expecting was that the travel apparatus itself was going to take care of me, rendering many of my preparations unnecessary. We flew Jet Blue for the first time and everything they say about the airline is right: it’s a different experience. Although there was no in-flight Wi-Fi, there was free wireless Internet in the JFK airport terminal. In the air, XM radio and DirecTV were on offer. We did watch two episodes of DVDs, but mostly my eyes were glued to episodes of “The Sopranos” on A&E. Sure, they’re the edited versions, but I can’t pass up an opportunity to see the classic “Long Term Parking” episode again.
In a weird way, it was an embarrassment of tech riches. Instead of busting out my iPhone or laptop during the flight, I just kicked back and enjoyed what was there. I even had time to read an actual book. The kind with pages and a binding.
As for New York City, it was great to see the Apple Store cube in midtown Manhattan and to be able to have a real use for all those GPS apps and Google Maps. We were never too far away from a restaurant we were looking for.
And, I’m not saying you should jump the gun and tether your iPhone 3G to enable your laptop to avoid expensive hotel wireless charges, but let us just say that if you did happen to do that, it actually works very well. So I’ve heard.
A few quick orders of business — tomorrow night is the big Digital Savant “Beatles: Rock Band” meetup. My story about the game ran in today’s paper and there was a fantastic interactive feature by Rob Villalpando you should definitely check out.
At the event, we’ll be giving away a copy of the limited edition “Beatles: Rock Band” set and Video Game Doctor will be giving away a refurbished Nintendo Wii system.
Hope to see you there!
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The Linkdown for Wednesday, Sept. 2
The Linkdown goes on vacation tomorrow for a much needed trip to New York City, but will return next week to bring you more Internet goodness. Also, did you hear we’re having a “Beatles: Rock Band” meetup on Wednesday? You should RSVP for that.
- Today is the 40th anniversary of the Internet. It’s almost enough to make you a little nostalgic.
- Texting and driving is so bad they’re having a summit about it. For goodness sake, don’t text and drive on the way there!
- Ubiquity eMarketing Summit is tomorrow, which isn’t exactly something I’d normally mention, but blogging superstar Chris Brogan will be there.
- Texas Department of Agriculture and Connected Nation have launched a Web site to get your feedback about broadband and about Internet access. Go check it out.
- AT&T; fixes state capitol cell phone dead zones. Even legislators hate dead zones!
- Opera 10, the free Web browser now featuring turbo speeds has been released.
- Nintendo announces Oct. 4 date for “Wii Fit Plus” plus black Wiimotes and Nunchuck controllers.
- In-flight Wi-Fi is more beloved than peanuts.
- Round Rock libraries will have “Mario Kart Double Dash” tournaments starting Sept. 12. YES! This is a fantastic tournament game.
Have a fun week and Labor Day weekend!
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Do not panic: Gmail is down
Many many people are reporting that they’re having trouble accessing Google’s Gmail service, a fact that Google is aware of and is working to correct, according to the company’s Twitter feed and status page.
Rather than being a temporary blip, the outage has lasted several hours, sending users to access their mail via mobile phones or through a separate e-mail program’s IMAP import function (which Google is advising).
If Gmail is your secondary e-mail, you’re probably not too worried, but if your business uses Gmail as its e-mail server and it’s mission critical for you… well, you have my sympathies.
Hey, there’s always Yahoo Mail or Windows Live Mail.
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CableCard leads to unwanted cable box for Time Warner customer
A few months ago, Bob Bledsoe began to notice that some of his high-definition cable channels were disappearing.
He called his service provider, Time Warner Cable looking for answers. The technician couldn’t figure out the problem, but after several more phone calls and some Internet research, Bledsoe discovered the problem: A Sony HDTV he purchased about three years go and its CableCard technology were no longer compatible with some of Time Warner’s programming.
Introduced several years ago, CableCard was supposed to help eliminate the set-top boxes that commonly deliver our cable content to our TVs. TVs equipped with a CableCARD slot could instead view and record shows within the TV. Bledsoe said he paid about $1,800 for the television and had Time Warner come out to install the card; he was satisfied with his programming.
Until a few months ago. “The bottom line when all is said and done, I found out that the cable card I had in there, because Time Warner was switching over to another technical way they get HD and can do it, I lost half of all the HD channels. I couldn’t get ‘em,” Bledsoe said.
As this KansasaCity.com blog post explains, it appears that Time Warner’s switch to a new kind of digital TV delivery service, “Switched Digital Video,” is the culprit. CableCard is a one-way technology that can receive and record cable signals. Switched Digital Video is, instead, a two-way interactive format that does not work with the old CableCard standard.
TiVO Series 3 and TiVo HD records used with Time Warner Cable also have CableCard slots, but in a customer letter, Time Warner said they would provide adapters at no charge to circumvent the HD channel loss for those customers. Unfortunately, there’s no such adapter for CableCard TVs.
Of about 45 HD channels he previously could watch, Bledsoe says he lost about 22 of them. Unlike CableCard customers in Kansas City, however, Bledsoe says he was given no advance notice that he would be losing those channels.
A new kind of CableCard technology that does provide two-way access, called Tru2way, is in the wings, but is not available yet and would not help customers like Bledsoe; it is not compatible with earlier CableCard TVs.
“I am sitting here, paying Time Warner a lot of money — $1,500 a year for broadband and cable,” Bledsoe says, “And I’ve got a TV I spent a bunch of money for. I can’t get half of the HD channels they supposedly promised everybody.”
Bledsoe says he was told by the company he could get a cable box to replace the cable card, but he would be paying more than the $2-$3 he pays a month for CableCard access. Eventually, he gave in and had the box installed, but he says that as of Tuesday morning, he still hasn’t gotten a clear answer on how much more he’ll be paying a month.
Bledsoe was pleased with the customer service he received; all were friendly and tried to answer his questions. But, he says he is considering switching to AT&T if Time Warner Cable won’t provide him with the channel lineup he originally had for the same price he was paying with his CableCard setup.
For a time, the Federal Communications Commission was investigating the CableCard situation with Time Warner as well as Cox Communications and calling for customer refunds, but in June appeared to back off, except in the matter of whether the companies should have notified their customers 30 days before the changes went into effect.
We left phone messages for two Time Warner representatives to get comment from the company — one message was left last week, the other on Monday. Neither call was returned.
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Apple event next week: expect new iPods, possible Beatles news
“It’s only rock and roll, but we like it.”
That’s the tagline on the image above, part of an invitation Apple Inc. sent out to tech journalists and others this morning for a San Francisco music event taking place on Wednesday, Sept. 9.
The rumor mill, as always, churns about all things Apple. The most common predictions are that Apple will introduce new iPod models, which will include some features previously reserved for its iPhones (such as a built-in camera). I’d add to the list of new potential features GPS (gotta love that built-in Compass app), bigger memory sizes and possible price drops.
There are also expectations that Apple will introduce its “Cocktail” album project, a collaboration with music labels to make whole music albums into more interactive experience.
Less likely is that Apple will introduce a new touch-screen tablet device. Although tech analysts seem to agree it’s in the works, the timeline for it seems to favor an introduction in early 2010.
The timing of the event and its focus on music, however, seems to suggest some connection with The Beatles, whose music catalog has yet to appear in the iTunes store. September 9 is the date that “The Beatles: Rock Band” will launch (we’re doing a meetup that night to celebrate!) and the date that Beatles remasters will be released.
Which is why the invitation has me so confused. If there’s any connection whatsoever to the Beatles at this event, why tease to it by referencing lyrics from The Rolling Stones?
Your guess is as good as mine.
Here’s a thought: limited-edition Rolling Stones-branded iPod?
One more thing: expect Apple CEO Steve Jobs to appear in his first public event since returning to the company from a medical leave of absence. A big-media, music-related, potentially game-changing Apple industry event is exactly Steve’s style; don’t count on him to miss this one.
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The Smartphone Smackdown: transcript
In Saturday’s American-Statesman story about smartphones (and accompanying video, also below), we invited four Austinites with different devices to tell us about them.
The following is a longer transcript of that meeting, edited slightly for clarity:
American-Statesman: When did you get your phone and where did you buy it? Tell the story.
Cynthia Lux, Palm Pre owner: Hi, I’m Cynthia — I am a computer geek and I’m a gadget geek. I have had several Palms. Actually, I started out with a Handspring Visor as my PDA. Two years ago, I went to a Palm Treo 755, which I liked a whole lot but the screen was really small. I had all these people running around with iPhones making me a little bit jealous because they can get to real Web sites. When Palm announce the Palm Pre, I was really excited; I actually got mine on the first day they were available, June 4 or 6. I waited until 5 p.m. and I managed to run to the main Sprint store during my dinner break and they still had some. I showed it off to everyone that night because I’m a geek. (Laughs)
Jennifer Brown, BlackBerry owner: I’m Jennifer Brown. I have the BlackBerry. I got my phone because I started a company and I really needed a phone that was more oriented toward business and e-mail. I had a friend who had a BlackBerry; she really, really liked it. I went to the store. I had AT&T and they had the BlackBerry plan I wanted. I started off with a BlackBerry Pearl and within about three months I realized I really really liked it with all the features and I went to the Blackberry Curve immediately because it had the full keyboard. And ever since then I’ve been really happy with it. I’ve thought about getting the touch-screen BlackBerry (the BlackBerry Storm) but I have not heard a lot of good things about it. So I am gonna keep what I have because I’m really happy with it.
Clay Spinuzzi, T-Mobile G1 owner: I’m Clay Spinuzzi. I have been using PDAs forever. Like Cindy, I started with the Handspring Visor. I went through PDA after PDA from there. At some point, I thought, I’ve just gotta merge these two worlds and have something that will allow me to do Web surfing real-time. I like to be connected as much as possible. I looked at the iPhone. But there’s just something inelegant about repeatedly jabbing the screen with your forefinger. i wanted to wait until the G1 came out and compare the three major platforms that were out at that point. I did and Google had me from the word go.
Chris Carter, iPhone owner: I’m Chris Carter and I’m the iPhone geek. Like several other people at the table, I tried several other platforms. I had a kinda-smartphone, the Nokia 3650 that I would tether with my Windows Mobile Pocket PC so I could surf the Web with my Pocket PC. That wasn’t the greatest solution but that was the best that I could do at the time. I tried BlackBerry after that and wasn’t quite thrilled with that. Again, that was the best option that was available at the time. When the iPhone came out, being a long-time Mac user, I couldn’t wait to try it out. I skipped the first generation. Got a 3G and used it for the past year. This past June when the 3GS came out, I actually happened to be on a vacation in New York City the day it launched. My vacation was planned ahead of a time; I’m not THAT big of a geek. I went ahead and used the online reservation system and went to the 5th Avenue store. I was one of the first 10 people who came out of the store with the 3GS to get their iPhone at that store when it launched. CNN was there with their cameras interviewing me. It was kinda cool. Never had that happened with my BlackBerry. My Wife now has the 3G. No complaints. I finally found one I’m happy with.
(Continued after the jump…)
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Meet/chat up a BioWare developer tomorrow
Game emporium Gamerz Videogame Exchange, which we’ve written about before, is hosting an event tomorrow for those interested in breaking into the games industry (or those just curious about what it’s like behind the scenes.)
Lou Talamo, a senior environmental artist at BioWare in Austin, will speak and greet at 3 p.m. Saturday. Talamo has worked on games including “Tarzan Untamed,” “Area 51” and “Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.” He’s also worked in film.
The store is located inside Lakeline Mall near the cinema, on the lower level.
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New receiver, mo’ problems (Part 2)
One of the more frustrating conversations you can have by phone is trying to help someone figure out why components in a home theater system aren’t turning on or displaying the way they’re supposed to.
A few days after I’d installed our new Pioneer receiver and switched many of the connections and inputs to a more efficient HDMI setup, our Logitech Harmony remote control still wasn’t set up perfectly and I’d get phone calls from my wife about something that wasn’t working.
It wouldn’t have been an emergency except that we have a 2-year-old and part of her afternoon routine after daycare is to come home, eat an early dinner and watch one of her favorite movies, “Bolt.”
When the DVR wasn’t displaying properly to show Noggin on the TV or the receiver would turn off instead of switching to the PlayStation to play her DVD, she’d throw a fit. My wife would call, ragged, asking what was up with our setup, which had been working fine before I “upgraded” to the new receiver.
A couple of things were happening: the remote didn’t have all the buttons customized as I’d taken the time to do for commands from old receiver.
Also — and I didn’t figure this out until much later — our TV was set up to control other devices via HDMI connections. That means that every time the remote told the receiver to switch to a particular input and sent similar commands to the TV, the TV was also sending out commands of its own to the receiver to do the same thing, resulting in the Pioneer shutting down or switching to the wrong input. It wasn’t until I disabled that option that I stopped getting weird shut-downs and input mistakes on the receiver.
Another big wrinkle that I’m still ironing out is that HDMI works differently than traditional composite (red/white/yellow)/RCA or S-video connections. HDMI is digital and it requires devices on both sides of the cable to do a “handshake” before transmitting information. It works a little like this:
Receiver using traditional A/V cable: (Knock knock) Hey, TV, I have come to your door to deliver this signal.
TV: Well, I’m a little busy right now.
Receiver using traditional A/V cable: OK. Well I’m just gonna stand here and keep delivering this signal until you’re ready for it. I could wait for hours if you like.
TV: That’s very sweet, thanks.
But with HDMI cables, it’s a bit different:
Receiver using HDMI: (Knock knock) I have a digital package for you.
TV: I’m not quite dressed yet. Could you leave it at the door?
Receiver using HDMI: Nope, sorry, I need a signature.
TV: Ah. Well, could you come back later?
Receiver using HDMI: Maybe. We’ll see. Probably not.
TV: But…
Receiver using HDMI: See ya!
This became a problem with us when the receiver would switch to the correct HDMI input before the TV fully turned on (it’s a Sony rear projection TV and takes a few seconds to warm up). The remote would turn on the DVR, the signal would be transmitted, but the TV would miss the handshake and would stay blank even though we could clearly hear the audio from the DVR through the receiver.
Most of the calls from my wife were about the TV staying blank while the DVR or Blu-ray player were trying to display.
That’s what I’ve been playing with lately. The Harmony remote’s software allows you not only to determine what order devices are turned on, but also the actual timings between commands being sent and how long it waits for a device to turn on before sending them.
I’m still fine-tuning the timings for commands and the order devices turn on. We’ve had fewer and fewer blank screens as I keep experimenting and the receiver really does sound very good (even if I can rarely crank it up).
HDMI is great for transmitting audio and video over a single cable, but it can also be flaky in certain situations and cause a good deal of frustration. I’m glad Harmony has robust “Help” options in the remote and in its software because some of this stuff is not easy to figure out.
It’s about 100 times harder to figure out over the phone.
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Xbox 360 Elite drops to $299; 360 Pro is no more
As expected, Microsoft has announced it’s dropping the price of its flagship Xbox 360 Elite game console to $299.
That comes on the heels of a price drop from competitor Sony, which is now selling its PlayStation 3 for that price. Sony is also introducing a smaller PS3 called the “PS3 Slim” for $299.
The Elite is a black console that comes with a controller, headset and 120 GB hard drive. The other version of the Xbox 360 is a stripped-down “Arcade” edition that does not include a hard drive. It costs $199. The Xbox 360 Pro, which was $299, is being phased out and will cost $250 until supplies run out. That model has a 60-GB hard drive. The new pricing goes into effect on Friday.
Game sales have softened over the last few months and both companies will be expecting the price cuts to spur holiday sales. Nintendo, which sells the Wii for $250, has announced no price cut on its console, despite dips in sales.
News of the Elite price drop was leaked early in a Wal-Mart circular that listed the price reduction.
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New receiver, mo’ problems (Part 1)
There’s a school of thought in upgrading computers and electronics that tech geeks frequently ignore: if it ain’t broke, don’t go trying to fix it (or upgrade it).
It’s why many of us have stuck with Windows XP instead of moving on to Windows Vista and why some people would rather stick with an old Palm Pilot for appointments and contact information than upgrade to a snazzy new smartphone.
In upgrading my home theater A/V receiver from an 11-year-old Sony model to a new Pioneer receiver, I knew I was taking a risk in upsetting the delicate balance of cables and devices in our living room cabinet.
One late Friday night when my wife and daughter were asleep, I got back there in the thick of wires and connections and got to installing. I used my handy labelmaker to make sure I didn’t mix up speaker wires and I was able to eliminate about half of the cables back there by switching over to HDMI, which can carry audio and video signals in one cable. In the end, I had a box full of extraneous wire, an old Sony receiver to get rid of and a pretty great-sounding new receiver.
There were a few small glitches. My Xbox 360 (an older model with no HDMI) couldn’t display 1080p video through its component cables via the receiver. I had to connect the 360 directly to my TV for that, but the sound still goes to the receiver and everything works fine now with the game console.
The included microphone on the receiver, which can set detect the room’s acoustics and adjust speaker settings automatically, is incredibly loud. It’s like setting off fireworks or watching “Rambo” full-blast in your living room. I wasn’t able to even use this setup option until my wife and daughter were out of the house.
But the rewards were pretty immediate, even aside from the reduction in cables and clutter. The new receiver works well with an iPod; it has a USB port and can display title and artist information as well as album art on the TV. It’s awful for video, though. Any video I tried to play off the iPod was in a tiny box on the screen and stuttered so badly it was unwatchable. But for listening to music, it’s a great setup.
I invested in a Sirius/XM Connect tuner ($29, refurbished, on eBay), and can now hear satellite radio through the receiver and — as with the iPod option — see artists, song titles and other information on the TV screen. It works great, but adding a second tuner to my Sirius/XM account was pricier than I expected: another $8.99 a month plus an activation fee.
One of the main reasons I got the receiver — to enjoy Blu-ray’s high-def audio options — has been the best reward for upgrading. Even though I have a 5.1 speaker setup and not a 7.1 set, formats like Dolby Digital TrueHD, DTS Master Audio and even uncompressed Dolby Digital all sound fantastic. Uncompressed Dolby Digital in particular is surprising: movies I’ve seen over and over now sound richer and more detailed.
When you access the PlayStation 3’s display options while watching a Blu-ray movie, it’s easy to see how much bandwidth is being used to transmit the audio. It’s easily pumping out 7 or 8 times the amount of audio data now over the HDMI connection than it was capable of doing over the previous optical cable with regular Dolby Digital.
Stuff like that warms my geek heart.
We watched “The Pixar Short Films Collection” with uncompressed Dolby Digital and, while it might have been my imagination, I definitely could hear the difference from the regular DD 5.1 feed. Things were good. I was even thinking about adding on those two extra speakers for 7.1 nirvana (if I could just figure out where on the walls to hang them and how to get them wired).
But there was one problem looming and it was a big one: since we bought a Logitech Harmony 880 remote years ago, we’ve managed to get the settings on it exactly right to control all of our devices (except for the PS3; more on that in a bit). It worked like a charm and never caused problems.
Little did we know the Harmony Remote was going to become the biggest problem in our new dream home theater setup. Things were about to get ugly…
(To Be Continued.)
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It’s on: ‘Beatles: Rock Band’ meetup on 9/9/09
We’ve been planning this for a while, but I’m pleased to announce things have been firmed up: On Sept. 9, the release date of “The Beatles: Rock Band,” we’re inviting all of you to come out for a Digital Savant Magical Mystery Meet-Up at Opal Divine’s North.
It’ll take place at happy hour time, around 6:30-9 p.m.
There will be music, drink specials to salute the Fab Four and a copy of “Beatles: Rock Band” on hand for you to check out and play. (Bonus: We’ll be giving away a new copy of the full game set at the end of the event.)
We’ve been wanting to do a Digital Savant event in a while to thank all the readers for supporting this blog over the years and the release of this game seemed like a great time to do it. Hope to see you there. I’ll post more details about the event closer to the date. Keep your calendar open for Wednesday, Sept. 9.
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We had a great opening weekend of our new feature exhibit, Cyberchase-The Chase is On! Thanks for mentioning it in The Linkdown!
View exhibit photos:http://www.flickr.com/photos/austinkids/sets/72157622405705606/
We'll be adding more photos
... read the full comment by Austin Children's Museum | Comment on The Linkdown for Thursday, Sept. 17 Read The Linkdown for Thursday, Sept. 17
Wow, talk about a let down. I mean i have heard of people being hungover at presentations but never one where they took out the Q&A; as a result. I am surprised people didnt mob them after and thrown bananas at them!
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