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Hooray! The last of the parts for my new build arrived last week. I have spent the last several months planning this build. The goal was to upgrade to a machine that ran Blu-ray and recorded in HD with ease, while also building an HTPC that was even quieter than my prior build. Music playback is also imporatant, but that is something that I was already satisfied with in my older HTPC and wouldn't be much of a change in the new build. I had been waiting on the arrival of my Intel E8500 and it showed up on the doorstep on Thursday night courtesy of UPS. Looked like I wouldn't be going to work on Friday. My fiancee flew in Friday night, and the goal was to have everything up and running (and the apartment cleaned) prior to her flight arriving. Theoretically we would be enjoying plenty of HD all weekend long.

Yeah! Toys!

I took advantage of my planned day off to get a little extra sleep and rolled out of bed around 9:30. I was meeting a buddy who is a stay-at-home dad at 10 for some breakfast before we both got rolling on projects for the day. My buddy was going to attempt to repair his broken XBox 360, while I stripped down and rebuilt my Home Theater PC. Breakfast was excellent. I really have become quite the fan of avocado in my omelettes. Mmm.....tasty green fatty berry. Bet you didn't know that avocado is technically a large berry. At least you learned something from my blog today. Then it was time to get rolling on the build. I'd start by stripping out all of the old components, cleaning the inside of the case, and installing Acoustipak insulation.   

As I sit and am battling with my remote control switching between the Dodger baseball game and the Monday Night Football game, I can't help but be frustrated that my thousand dollar Windows Vista Media Center cannot do what my father's television set from 1990 could do--PIP, Picture-in-Picture . You know that feature, where you can watch something on the big screen and then another different channel on a small picture in the lower left?

In this day with widescreen TV's being so prevalent, there is so much real estate on-screen that you could easily have two channels on screen both of an acceptable and viewable size. Technology should not be an issue either since the majority of MCE systems today have at least two tuners. So I ask myself--as I do every year around this time where I am forced to choose between my sports--how is this still not in Media Center 6 years later?

For those of you saying this feature is only for sports fans, I beg to differ. I can't imagine I'm the only one that would not mind watching the Presidential Debate on a small screen with audio, but then watch something else. Think of how much faster you could just switch the audio between the shows during commercials, and then go back to it as soon as the show is back from commercials.

There's been a lot of buzz around the entertainment industry lately about the next new thing now that the standard for the next generation DVD format has been put to rest.  So what is the next new technology that will be coming down the pipe?  It's one that I'm very excited about.  3DTV.

3D movies have been in theaters for a number of years now and some companies have been trying to develop a way to bring it into your living room for 15 or more years.  So what's different now?  The idea is the same but now it has the backing (and drive) from Hollywood's major studios.

So here's a little background for you.  In August of this year,  there was a task-force meeting in Los Angeles, consisting of over 160 people from 80 different companies, that was chartered by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) to discuss the feasibility of bringing 3D entertainment home.  They are expected to publish a report sometime in the next 6 months with guidelines for a content mastering standard.

The Entertainment Technology Center at the University of Southern California is attempting to put together a lab containing all of the various 3DTV implementations to be used as a staging area for studios to preview how their content will look prior to distribution.  This lab was founded by George Lucas (yes the man behind Star Wars) in 1993 and is sponsored by many big names withing the entertainment industry as well as a number of technology companies.  This group wants to define the core issues that arise bringing 3D into your living room.

Other groups doing work on 3DTV standards are 3D4You in Europe, which is government-funded, which aims to work on capture, coding and format specifications for 3DTV.  The Original System for Image Rendition via Innovative Screens (OSIRIS) was launched in February and is taking a crack at 2D and 3D projection technologies.  The Blu-Ray Disc Association is working on their own 3D implementation but has not yet made a public statement about it.

One group, Insight Media,  is projecting that by 2012 3DTV sales of various types could be as high as 28 million units, up from less than 300k in 2007.  They have also indicated that in the next 5 years various Hollywood studios are tentatively planning on doing close to 80 movies in 3D.  Word is, they're working on converting Star Wars and Lord of the Rings from 2D to 3D!  I can't wait for that!

Chris Lanier recently summed up the poor misguided path of Media Center since becoming a part of Windows Vista:
{joomsay}Media Center’s number one problem has been failing to define itself in the market. Enthusiasts and power users want features not currently provided by Media Center, most of which Microsoft has shown little interest in actually implementing, and they want it at the smallest price possible. The high-end custom install channel wants the same things, but are willing to pay as much as they need to in order to get the features. Then the rest of the world doesn’t know that Media Center exists, and even if they did they want it at a price lower than what enthusiasts and power users are willing to spend.{/joomsay}

While custom installers keep busting tuner limits (which makes any kind of tuner limit a big fat joke now), so the number of CableCARD tuners is up to something like 8. This doesn't solve the looming issue of SDV. Why aren't the custom installers pushing the industry, namely Microsoft and ATI (providers of the OCUR hardware), to get the bi-directional CableCARD specification into real shipping PC hardware?  Media Center will never be viable without the ability to properly support the digital cable TV infrastructure.

Likewise, where's the DirecTV tuner? And why isn't Dish Network being courted too?

All of this lack of focus and total deflation of the push for Media Center as a premiere digital media platform has left me a bit cynical and close to trading in my Media Center PC for a stand alone DVR and a PlayStation 3 for its Blu-ray playing & media streaming abilties and calling it quits with Media Center.

The strength in PC solutions lies in the inherent flexibility. The PC is a jack of all trades, which is why Media Center was such an ambitious concept... circa 2005. Microsoft's clout in the PC industry and reputation in the business world should have been a fairly easy sell for these service providers. Vista's new protected paths and DRM foundations should have made for a no brainer. Yes we hate DRM, but let's face it premium content isn't getting to the PC without it.

Vista Media Center had (realistically Windows 7 is where all the resources are currently in Microsoft) the potential to allow a world where in theory a DirecTV, a Dish Network, and a CableCARD tuner could all be used at once in one device. Heterogeneous support (something other PC DVR software vendors have had forever) is only available to OEMs with the elusive and feature underwhelming "TV Pack" update.

So let's talk about where Microsoft really could, and should, work on Media Center. Some of these are directly in their control (MS owns the IP elsewhere in the company), some are a good opportunity to work with the 3rd party vendors they love so dearly to provide their system vendors with product differentiation, and some admittedly are harder to implement, either due to industry politics or some other factor.

One of the greatest selling points you will hear in regard to Vista CableCard OEM PCs is that "It will save you money", because you will not have to rent whatever set-top-box your cable provider deems a requirement to view digital and HD channels. And originally, it was a valid point and one which really helped validate the necessity of the FCC's support of something which would reduce the ridiculous monopoly which cable companies had on how you can watch television.

I wonder if what's become of the situation is what the FCC and the other Consumer Fair Rights groups had in mind when they came up with the idea. Apparently, the Cable Companies (for this case, I will use Comcast, but have also been told that Time Warner shares this 'fun' habit) have taken it upon themselves to deem that the charge for the cable cards alone are not substantial enough--most likely as they are simply not making enough money out of the deal. Having to provide a service without forcing a consumer to rent their box?! ABSURD!

I will be the first to admit, the idea of being able to use my Media Center with high definition cable was the number one reason I chose to go with Cable Card. But a very close second was the cost savings--yes, I know I had to purchase an OEM system, but I was going to anyway, so it was a wash for me. Imagine my shock when I looked at my cable bill, which had then jumped from $70 or so to the near $90 range, and found out that the cable cards were the culprit! I am in the San Jose - Bay Area and am forced into Comcast San Jose. When I initially setup Cablecard, my understanding was that I would be charged $1.79 per card. Not free, but hey, not nearly as bad as paying $8-10 for a set-top box with a hideous user interface and response time. After looking at my bill however, it appears that is simply not true...

Comcast, in their shrewd way, have apparently seen fit to start charging me an ADDITIONAL $6.99 fee PER CABLECARD! And yes, that is separate than the already charged $1.79 each. After speaking to 3 customer service reps and 2 managers, I got a variety of excuses and responses as to why they HAVE to charge me the outrageous $6.99, stating on the bill it is for a "Digital Addon Outlet." Even when I explained this is for a single Media Center PC and that they have not installed any other outlet, they refused to budge. Here's the kicker--when I posed the question to them of how much a Set-top-box rental costs, they replied, "$6.99," and even admitted that yes, it would be cheaper to go with one of THEIR set-top-boxes instead of Cablecards, stating, that the only reason he knows why anyone would go Cablecard would be to "hang their TV on the wall."

I feel terrible writing this, as I really love the technology but there is already significant negative publicity surrounding cable card--with the lack of inexpensive boxes, to the terrifying thought of Switched Digital Video--but I had to bring this out into the open as I think it's an absolute atrocity of the idea the FCC started which was wonderful for the consumer. In the end, at least for now, it seems Comcast and other cable companies will continue to gouge you in every way, shape or form, until you resign to the fees and services they want you to use.

If this outrages you half as much as much it did me, I IMPLORE YOU to GET INVOLVED!! Write your cable company, write to the Consumerist and other Consumer Advocacy Groups. Digg this and any similar articles...and most importantly, let your WALLET do the talking! I know I will be, and there is power in numbers, and if enough Consumers speak up about this atrocity then that is how things can change.

EDIT 8/27

I wanted to update as a lot of people have replied with some great information. The main item of point, was pointing me to the Comcast FAQ which states some interesting facts, which basically lead me to believe I shouldn't be charged more than $2.05 per card. I took their advice and spoke to yet another CSR & their Supervisor, and pointed out the above FAQ, and to remind them that all my cards were on a single MCE computer.

Here's the kicker--she had no problem removing the $6.99 charge off my account, but then the Comcast system AUTOMATICALLY DISABLED the Cablecard it was associated with!! So even if a CSR wanted to uphold what Comcast should be doing, the system has now been designed to prevent them from doing so!

digg this article!

Long time MissingRemote readers will remember the 7th Life With a Plugin episode covering Remote Recordings in Media Center, which covered the only two options for remote scheduling shows: Webguide4 and MSN's Remote Record.

Remote Record has always seemed to play second fiddle to Webguide, simply due to it's lack of features. But if there is one thing it dominated, was simplicity. No port forwarding, no configuring...and FAST since it relied on MSN's web server instead of using your PC as a server. If you needed quick scheduling of a show or series, Remote Record was the answer. And best of all, it was free.

So imagine my dissapointment today when I saw the following announcement:

This is dissapointing on SO many levels. First, this is a terrible time to lose ANY Microsoft offered plugins--with all the negative publicity surrounding the various Online Spotlight applications which have mysteriously and without warning dissapeared--the last thing Media Center needs is a useful tool like Remote Record biting the dust (especially as it was offered by Microsoft itself). Secondly, the only comparable replacement is Webguide, but since Webguide is now controlled by Microsoft, its future is just as clouded (I'm praying it does not follow the Yahoo! Meedio fiasco). Add to all this the fact that the upcoming TV Pack Update will most likely break Webguide anyways, and Microsoft has now singlehandedly taken away all abilities to remotely schedule shows for your Media Center; a feature which has been around since the beginning.

I have no idea what's the plan, but I must believe there was a better way to go about this. Especially for a division as large as MSN TV, the bandwidth for this app must have been minimal. Even if they are developing a replacement, why not keep Remote Record alive on a backup server somewhere until it's ready. It's the type of feature which everyone takes for granted, until you are at work all day and realize that the season premiere of LOST is on tonight!

The products in today's quicky review are the Zalman CNPS8700 LED low-profile all copper CPU cooler and the Zalman VF900-Cu VGA cooler. Both heat sinks are radial-finned heatsink coolers made for the quiet computing enthusiast. Or in our case :), the HTPC enthusiast. Zalman has been well known around these parts because of their CNPS7000 series of CPU coolers; lets see if they continue their game with their current generation of coolers.

Zalman 8700 Low Profile Cooler	Zalman VF900-CU VGA Cooler

Well, it's official.  I now have a Mythtv frontend running under Windows.  It's not all peaches and cream though.  Right now it's just the frontend software running.  I don't have any plugins going, and the backend is running on my linux server.  The frontend is now working well enough that I have it connected to the tv and the AV receiver.  My wife isn't thrilled with the bars across the top and bottom of the screen (it's a 4:3 CRT running via DVI) but this motherboard doesn't have svideo or composite.  My wife doesn't really see the difference in video quality so she'd rather do svideo like on the last board.  I'm actually happy that it doesn't because it forces the higher resolution.  But I digress...

Mythtv is now running under Windows.  Once I've had time to play with the settings and get things working more reliably, I plan to write up a guide so that the rest of you can try it out too.  Look for that sometime in the coming months.

Right now I actually get better performance running Mythtv Player than I do running Mythtv but I'm sure that will be worked out.  Right now, playing an HD stream in Mythtv Player, CPU usage is around 25% on this system.  Running the same show via Mythtv runs the CPU 85+% and stutters.  SDTV is nice and smooth but CPU usage is again much higher in Mythtv than in Mythtv Player.

The only thing left related to Mythtv is transplanting the system from my Antec NSK2400 case to the Antec Fusion 430 Black so that I can use the IR receiver.  I'm hoping that I can integrate that into Mythtv.  I attempted to use WinLIRC to do it but it's based on a really old version of LIRC (0.6.something) and it only recognized serial receivers (and it didn't like my remote setup much at all).

Once that's done that leaves ripping my DVD collection.  I'm not sure if I'll put that in Mythtv or have it available via VMC (or maybe both).  The options right now are quite numerous and I'm very excited.

I've also decided to throw my HVR-950 USB tuner in this box and run that via VMC when I feel like.  I haven't gotten to that yet but hopefully I will in the near future.

One major issue that I'm having right now is overscan.  I'm not familiar with ATI drivers so if anyone can tell me how to shrink down the screen and add custom resolutions I am all for it.  Mythtv runs quite well (there's an option for setting the corners of the screen) but the desktop is problematic.  I know many of you out there are familiar with what I'm talking about.

That about wraps things up for today.  I'm quite happy right now.

Again, please feel free to drop a line in the forums.  Even if it has nothing to do with this blog. 

Well, I told you that I would keep you all updated in with my new frontend build.  So here's the first report card.   As you will recall, there were three goals I wanted to achieve with this setup:

1. Run Mythtv (replace the old frontend)
2. Store all (or most) of my DVDs on the HDD
3. Virtualization

So far, I've accomplished... pretty much nothing.  The system itself is built, but even that was not painless.  All the parts went in just fine, but for whatever reason I was having problems with my RAM.  It would not POST the first time I powered it up.  Eventually I ripped out one of the sticks and then it worked ok.  Then I swapped the slots that the RAM was in and it powered up with both sticks.  After that, it all powered up smoothly.

For the base OS I decided to go with Fedora 9 x64 so that I could get the most out of my nice processor.  The only big problem I ran into here is that Adobe does not have a 64 bit version of their flash player for Linux.  That sucks.  In the end, I decided to switch to the 32bit version of Fedora 9 even though I probably won't need the flash player much.  I may switch back before all is said and done.

Once the OS was in place, I decided to jump right into loading Mythtv to take care of goal #1.  This is where I ran into my first software issue (other than the flash player).  I'm using the atrpms.net repository to install Mythtv from because they have packages pre-compiled, so installation is as simple as # yum install mythtv.  The problem was that the dependant packages needed by Mythtv conflicted with what was already installed on the system.  So I (tried) to upgrade the system with # yum upgrade.  I quickly found out that you want to upgrade the system before adding the atrpms.net repository because, again, the packages conflicted.  So I quickly removed the additional repository, updated the system and then added the repository back in.  Once that was done, Mythtv was quickly installed and running. 

Which leads to my next problem...   Mythtv was up and running... slowly.  We're talking about 0.2 fps here with live tv and recorded shows.  Obviously the default video driver wasn't going to cut it so I attempted to load one of three available ATI/AMD drivers.  First was the closed source fglrx.  This one installed ok but when it came time to run it at reboot I was given an error message about an unrecognized symbol.  Then I tried the x11-drv-radeonhd driver from the Fedora repositories.  Turns out that the released version in the repository does not have support for the 780G graphics.  I later learned that there is support for it if you get the source code directly from the radeonhd website.  After trying out this driver, I found that it does not have any video acceleration, etc so this was no better than the basic vesa driver.  Finally I tried the other open source driver: x11-drv-ati which also did not have any acceleration (that I saw anyway) but at least it installed directly from the repositories, no compiling needed on my part.  So at this point I can't get the graphics driver working properly enough to replace my current frontend.

I'm skipping goal #2 for now because if I can't get #1 working there's no point in spending the time ripping movies.

While I'm trying to figure out what to do with the drivers, I decided to mess around with Virtualization.  I'm not going to go into too much of the detail here right now.  I'm still messing around with it.  Maybe it'll become a guide later once I know more what I'm doing.  For now I'll just say that I've virtualized Fedora 8 (which doesn't recognize my 640GB hard drive so I can't install it ), Ubuntu 8.04 LiveCD, and Windows Vista.  Ubuntu and Vista usually recognize my hard drive but not always.  I do like the pause button though.  It allows you to pause the state of your virtual machine and start up there later as though it was running the whole time.  I have run into issues where clicking the pause button kills the whole virtual environment.  Another problem I ran into is that the hardware isn't perfectly virtualized because the video drivers did not recognize my IGP.  Hopefully this is something that I can fix.  The final issue with virtualization at the moment is that you connect to the virtual machines via VNC so I don't think there's any chance of being able to virtually watch a Blu-Ray disk...  Might need to consider a dual-boot environment after all.  I can still run virtualized Windows withing Linux for certain apps but will probably need to boot into native Windows for any gaming or hardware video acceleration.

So here's the grades:

1. Mythtv: D+ -Installed ok but video drivers need work
2. DVDs: N/A -not attempted until other issues are worked out
3. Virtualization: C -It works to some degree but there is still a lot to be done before I'll be happy with it.

I hope that some of you are finding this interesting.  I'll be sure to add more info on this build as it comes up.

As always, please feel free to drop a comment in the forums.

The perfect extender! Is there one to satisfy us all? I doubt it, but based on recent reviews, I think there is lot of potential to improve upon existing designs that are in the marketplace today.

File Format

There are a million and one different ways to encode a video. I have alot of respect for communities that slice and dice files with open source software. However, I do not expected companies to support every container out there. I would like to think they could release a good set of tools that would allow us to convert to proper file formats. It is a compromise but that is the reality of the situation. A few major formats/containers should be supported.

.mts streams from Blu-ray discs

.mkv containers (DivX, H.264, VC-1)

.dvr-ms (the file format Windows Media Center uses, soon to be replaced by .WTV, so any extender should support the new file type too).

.VOB & ISOs

That "should" take care of the majority of the file formats out there. SageTV's extender comes pretty dang close.

Operating System

Obviously it should support whatever program you are working with like Vista or SageTV. Alternatively, I would like to see an alternate boot up environment (like HP's MediaSmart UI) and have it open sourced. Why not? It sells more hardware doesn't it? At least have a solid API and active developer community so users can add plug-ins.

Optical Disc

If ripping your media library isn't your thing, have an optional Blu-ray/DVD drive. Why not? I think a lot of people might be on-board with that and pay for the option. Or make an add-on that folks can buy.

Storage Options

I like the idea of USB ports that would recognize USB hard drives or even cameras. I wouldn't go as far as HP's personal drive slot but they are on the right track. If you truly have a headless server, why not be able to use these USB ports to transfer content to your server?

GUI

The GUI will obviously be based on the host program you choose. However, the chipset should have no problem rendering the animations. :)

Misc.

• Low power consumption
• Quiet
• Looks good :) We like stylish
• Gigabit Ethernet and 802.11n
• 1080p output
• Support for home automation applications

You may have recently seen or heard about a new upcoming device from ZeeVee called the ZvBox. The idea behind it is simple--connect your computer to the box via VGA, and connect it directly to the coax TV cable from any room in your house. Then tune to the Zv channel and you will see a high resolution of your computer, on that channel, from anywhere in your house.

Note on the "Zv Channel," since it does utilize the QAM signal, that means televisions without a QAM tuner will be completely out of luck. Per ZeeVee's FAQs:

ZvCast software takes video from the monitor output of the computer, and uses MPEG2 compression to turn it into an actual digital cable HDTV channel in real time. That channel is localcast over the home’s cable wiring, and can be tuned in by any HDTV with a digital-cable compatible tuner, also known as a QAM tuner (they’re quite common). 

I love companies innovating, but innovation for no new benefit, doesn't really benefit anyone in my opinion. The cost of the ZvBox is $499, and that includes ONE remote, and the ZvBox & cables. If you're shocked by the price, you're not alone. Just to put it in perspective, $500 is enough money to buy or build your own lower end PC that you could connect via HDMI to your TV. Of course, the benefit this box has, is that you can broadcast the signal to all your channels in your house. But...why? Who would want to see the same channel on all your TV's, and then if one person changes the channel, they all are forced to change. It reminds me of the older satellite boxes, which did the same thing and was very frustrating to live with.

The other failed device it reminds me of is the good ol' Video RF Modulators. You may remember these inexpensive devices in the early HTPC days, where you would connect from your TV-out of any device (computer, vcr, camcorder, etc...), and for $50, could broadcast & tune to that channel and view the content without any cables directly connecting it. The idea in the ZvBox is better in that it uses coaxial cables instead of the unreliable & low quality RF modulators, but still it's not that far off.

For a new company, you would hope that they have been paying attention to the Microsoft Media Center Extenders, and the fact that the price point between $250-350 is still too high for mass consumption. The beauty of Extenders, however, is that they allow you to access your computer's content withOUT interrupting the user. So for the price of ONE ZvBox, you could have instead 2 Media Center or SageTV Extenders & connect two TV's to watch with complete control over the content you are watching.

I think there is a market for this device, but not at this price point, and not on the Windows platform. For $500, you could (and should) just buy or build your own computer & connect it directly to the TV you want to control. Do you really want to hand your Significant Other (non-PC friendly) a remote with a touchpad on it? I can already hear the yells if she accidentally moved the mouse on-screen during a movie playback.

I'll leave with an open invitation for a discussion with the ZeeVee gentlemen. I'd be more than willing to talk to them & have them educate me further on the device, and maybe there's a market or usage I'm simply missing. As it stands now however, based on the information I've read and seen, the only success the ZvBox is going to have, is making people think that the Media Center Extenders are actually a well priced device.

Ok ladies & gentlemen...as has been implied by our fearless leader, I have in my possession some fabulous extender devices: The D-Link DSM-330 Connected device, and the upcoming HP Media Center Connect Extender (c'mon, you didn't think I would do a webinar without seeing the thing, did you?).

So...with that being said, I'm taking each one through its paces, and wanted everyone's feedback on if there's something particularly unique that they want to see for one, or both, of the devices. Is there a particular test you want run for video quality? Is there a particular codec or file format you want to know if it plays? Anything crazy you can think of, I'll test if I can. Leave your feedback in our comments section below, and I promise I will do my best!