DavidStein
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I am somewhat confused that HBO doesn’t sell streaming subscriptions online. They must have some dcontract with cable/sat companies that prevents it because otherwise it seems like a no-brainer. what does HBO care if I am subscribed to comcast digital cable or not so long as they are getting their monthly subscription fees?
[url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139132&cm_re=SSDNow_V_series-_-20-139-132-_-Product]this one is well regarded for a value 64GB drive[/url]
for my money, its just too awkward interacting with STBs/DVRs, through no fault of google. they have to play with the system they are given. now if comcast/TW/cablevision/dish/dtv/etc would start licensing googletv to run on their STBs that would be something compelling.
[quote=”Lothar”]
[quote=”Ugadata”]
I just heard this morning that Apple may be looking to purchase Netflix, has anyone else ran across this news?
[/quote]I’d heard this rumor a couple of times also recently. I don’t know how legitimate it might be though. I’m not holding my breath.
[/quote][url=http://www.hackingnetflix.com/2009/11/should-apple-buy-netflix-revisited.html]I’m under the impression that its more analysts saying that netflix would be a good purchase for apple[/url], combined with Jobs recently saying in an analyst-centric conference call that they are sitting on their 50 billion in cash in case a good acquisition opportunity opens up more than an actual rumor coming from apple.
[url=http://blog.netflix.com/2008/11/encoding-for-streaming.html]here is there tech specs, at least as current as late 2008[/url].
i’m not sure if they have changed anything, it seems possible since they are claiming 1080p enabled streaming for the PS3 plus 5.1 audio is coming but who knows.
i guess i was off, its not 6Mbps, its 3.8Mbps. and its definitely 720p
my experience is that its not quite as good as a (compressed) cable HD feed but still very watchable. it works best for video without quick actions (duh, i suppose). i remember watching Big Fan and thinking it looked real good, but i imagine you can retain a lot of quality while still hitting bitrates with that movie.
lots of the streaming is in HD (for pretty much every device except the wii, which cant handle HD), unless you are talking 20+Mbps HD feeds which im sure is going to be a while.
but at 6Mbps you can stream a heck of a lot of stuff before you hit comcast’s 250GB barrier.
judging from these two articles/posts the cost of streaming is continuing to fall while costs to ship a disc are at least staying more or less constant:
[url=http://www.hackingnetflix.com/2009/03/what-it-costs-for-netflix-to-deliver-streaming-titles.html]in early 2009 it was estimated that it cost 9 cents to stream an HD movie and 78 cents to ship a disc.[/url]
[url=http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_34/b4192038586570.htm]by 2010 the streaming price had been pushed down to 5 cents per HD movie[/url]. they may have been able to wring some extra efficiency out of their sorting and stuffing facilities but its unlikely that they have gotten a better deal from the usps in the last year.
It clearly makes financial sense for them to push streaming as much as they can. the price difference is so drastic that even if people were streaming many more movies than they ever got on disc they still would be making money.
union of alien and predator anthology
v
intersection of alien and predator anthology
Are you sure its not something else in your htpc? ive been using it without issue for blu-rays.
i havent seen the pilot but i did catch one or two episodes. they weren’t great, but they were a lot better than i expected. i am a shatner fan, though.
well yes, a voice recognition input system hacked onto a mouse-based UI is going to be about as useful as when they tried to hack on a touchscreen interface onto windows (ie. it sucks). But it should be possible to write a voice recognition based interface from the ground up like iOS did for touchscreens, at least for 10′ interfaces.
though i suppose the same can be said for camera/gestures based UIs, perhaps there would be some (hard to accidentally make) gesture that would be required before it would take any inputs.
that being said, i’d probably still rather just say “computer, show ESPN” or “computer, display movies containing Jason Statham”
I find that to be a much more intuitive break from remotes. gestures, at least as i can imagine them, would be more like using a remote in that you would need sequences of gestures to do complex tasks.
id rather have voice recognition than use body movements to control my media devices. i dont want the channel to change because i am scratching my temple.
you quite probably have already checked this but once i had stuttering problems and i fixed it by enabling flow control on my network controller.
its probably a longshot for you, but i figured it was worth mentioning just in case.
I have my wireless keyboard receiver plugged into a USB cable and placed in the shadows where it still has closer to line of site than it does from the back of the case. I didn’t want it sticking out from the front of the case, but despite being rf i was still having dropped keystrokes and other interference problems when it was plugged into the back.
A built-in IR receiver is convenient, but I kind of like having my IR receiver at the end of a USB cable because its allowed me to position it up near the television where its more convenient to aim my remote at.
Obviously whether or not that makes a difference depends on your particular setup, but it is something to think about. from my usual sitting position I have a coffee table that gets in the way of line of sight with my htpc.
i have the redheaded stepbrother of the fusion, the NSK2480. I dont think it looks overly sparse without the volume knob, though if i were going to fix one thing on the both the fusion and NSK2480 it would be hiding the front ports behind a door or something. the fusion already does that with the optical drive, would it have been too much to not have a bunch of crappy ports clearly visible from the front?
(I do appreciate having a USB port, of course. i just dont want to see it)
regarding the LEDs, i just unplugged them.
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