November 17, 2005
VLC rules for DVD
Thanks to this thread: Applications: DVD Decoder software for pointing me to the Video Lan Client open source project. I have some VOB files that are ripped DVDs. They are dvd's that I made myself from home movies. I want to watch them on my IBM X40. Windows won't play them without paying for extra software. Quicktime won't play them. Real wants exta software and I hate that player like the pleague anyway. No free player software for DVDs. So I finally find this free open source thing. Works great. They need to work on the menu interface for navigation a little more, but not a biggie. Now I can watch my home movies on the plane finally!
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Posted by Martin at 9:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 26, 2005
The new HDV video camera to lust for
This week: SONY UNVEILS WORLD'S SMALLEST AND LIGHTEST HD CONSUMER CAMCORDER. Cool 1080i native. I am placing my order. Sony HDV
Posted by Martin at 8:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 20, 2005
HDTV PVR cookbook
Thought I had posted this last week: EFF: Cooking with EFF: KnoppMyth r5a5 and pcHDTV for DTV Liberation
I know that Comcast is coming out with an HDTV PVR, but you can expect them to respect the FCC's broadcast flag restricitons, so I won't be counting on it. I bought two cards and will be building my own thank you.
Posted by Martin at 7:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 16, 2004
Review of NumberSlate versus PeerFlix
Found a blogger who did a surprisingly thorough side by side review of Netflix, NumberSlate and Peerflix: Shanafelt Sector: Peerflix vs. NumberSlate vs. NetFlix The winner: Peerflix for selection and shipping time. And that was on the old site. The new site (which I just visited) is WAY better. Much more usable and better organized. Danny fixed many of my pet peves like showing which movies in your "i want" cue were actually available on PeerFlix and which were not. They also de-coupled peerbux from dollars (you are welcome). And the performance is fixed as well. I expect the Canadians to continue to do well in this new area.
Posted by Martin at 8:31 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
October 22, 2004
SeattlePlasma local flat retailer
This guy advertises in the local classified ads: Seattle Plasma - Plasma TV, Plasma Displays, LCD Flat Panel Monitors. Call him and he will beat any local price (much better than on the web site).
Posted by Martin at 11:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 17, 2004
Tivo Home Media Option
Now here is one product that I am VERY glad I was not an early adoptor on. Not only did waiting pay off financially (it is free now instead of an extra charge), the software went through a couple revs and now is actually VERY good. Just installed the PC software, told Windows XP SP2 firewall that is was fine for Tivo to act as a server, drag and dropped two folders into the desktop application and went upstairs to turn on the Tivo. All the while, I am thinking, this can't be this easy. My desktop PC on which I put the Tivo server software is hard-wired into a router. Hanging off that is a Cisco Aeronet 340 wireless access point three floors away from the TV/Tivo. Out the back of the Tivo hangs a USB Wifi card (Netgear) which has been hooked up for some time to download the program guide. I seem to remember though connecting the Tivo WiFi card to the neighbor's open network since the signal from mine was weak and Tivo choked a bit on WEP.
So turning on the Tivo, I expected reconfiguration hell. But no, there on the main menu was a "music and photos" option (thanks Tivo automatic firmware upgrade). Selecting that, the next screen showed me the two folders that I had just shared on my desktop! And of course offered me more media from their "partners". I selected music and played it immediately. Since the Tivo is routed through the stereo amp and Dolby 5.1 5 speaker set up comes out of that, the sound was GREAT! Couldn't find the option to set up playlists, but I am sure there is one on the desktop application (with Moodlogic i see in the promos). Surprised, I clicked over to photos and turned my flat panel into a slide machine with one click! Only nit is that the Tivo doesn't resize the photos to full screen on my 16:9 ratio flat panel. No hicups at all technically. I was totally prepared to write the afternoon off to debugging.
Finally a consumer software application that works across home media and computer devices and didn't need any debugging! Way to go Tivo!
Posted by Martin at 1:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 9, 2004
Feeling audioly challenged
So just bought the Klipsch RW-12 Reference subwoofer for my home theatre. Need more thump in the bump!
Posted by Martin at 11:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 15, 2003
DIY Tivo
Just read a long thread on Slashdot about building your own TIVO. Looks like the two software projects leading this free option are:
MythTV
and FreeVo
To save you the time, basically unless you have alot of spare time on your hands and are quite the Linux hacker and like debugging drivers, just go with the Tivo. The hardware costs of DIY parts is about what you would pay for a 40 hour TIVO plus a lifetime subscription. And there are plenty of sites that will help you "upgrade" your Tivo. I love my TIVO and guess I am not enough of a geek to yet want to build my own. I am waiting until this feature is standard on my home media PC.
Posted by Martin at 9:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
All TV cards reviewed
Look no further than TV-Cards.com - News. The site is pretty consumer oriented. But they have most every card you may want and lots of other tricks and tips. Not a serious DIY site though...
Posted by Martin at 9:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack