Engadget HD Podcast 060 - 12.5.2007
by Trent Wolbe 
posted Dec 5th 2007 at 11:00AM
On this week's Podcast we ponder what Toshiba has to do to catch up to Blu-ray's title sales lead. We also take some time to enjoy poking fun at both HD DVD and Blu-ray's PR machines. Ben throws in a story just so he can say how much he dislikes WealthTV and neither of us can figure out who would actually want TiVo's PC software from Nero. Then we finish things up with a little discussion of the poll results, where we asked you where you got your HD from.Get the podcast
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Hosts: Ben Drawbaugh and Steve Kim
Producer: Trent Wolbe
16:45 - How many HD DVD players does Toshiba need to sell to just break even?
21:22 - Blu-ray and HD DVD both find reasons to be thankful
24:27 - Venturer's SHD7000 HD DVD player now at Wal-Mart for $200
27:48 - WinDVD gets Blu-ray Profile 1.1 certification, whatever that means
29:39 - PC Rush orders up 10000 HD VMD players: any takers?
31:28 - Xbox 360's DivX/XviD support doesn't include Media Center
35:19 - TiVo coming to PC via Nero software
39:13 - Patent Office upholds Tivo's "time warp" patent, EchoStar not so happy
43:41 - Charter adds WealthTV to 11 Louisiana cities
45:02 - Poll: Where do you get your HD from?
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LISTEN (OGG)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Big Sam @ Dec 5th 2007 12:15PM
Yes I really have to see every NFL game I can, especially out of market :)
Ben @ Dec 5th 2007 1:06PM
Big Sam, so do I, but that's why I subscribe to DirecTV's Sunday Ticket during football season. So anyone who has to see every game can, but maybe not on their cable provider.
John B @ Dec 5th 2007 12:21PM
Heh! Sorry about the link. That's the first thing that was a relevant response in the ol' Google search. It's Google's fault, I tell ya!
Comparing me with "The ABC Nightly News"?! Eww... I'd like to think that I have more credibility than *that*! ;)
Big Sam @ Dec 5th 2007 12:24PM
I agree Ben, sports has to be live. Especially football. For college, one of my fellow alumni will have texted or called me after the game. And for the NFL, I'm also monitoring my fantasy football scores which are updated almost instantaneously. And it just feels wrong to watch a game if its done. If I've missed it I'll just watch the recap on ESPN-HD.
I get excited when I get mentioned on the podcast :) I remember the first time it happened last year I jumped for joy in the car.
Joe Maki @ Dec 5th 2007 12:32PM
re: TiVo on the PC.
It's a reasonable substitute for Media Center. As for cable card support, the device needs to be certified, TiVos software has already passed muster. I suspect as pc cable card tuners become more reasonably priced and prevalent in the market their software will support it.
xemumanic @ Dec 5th 2007 12:48PM
FYI, AC3 5.1 *is* supported via the new Xbox 360 dash update. I believe it was Gizmodo who originally thought it wasn't able to, but they've since discovered they were wrong ad adjusted their article accordingly. No biggie, there was a lot of misinformation about this until they figured it out.
However, you were totally on the mark about the Media Center on the 360. Everyone wants to see it, but I think I know whats going on. The actual MCE app isn't on the 360 (at least not initially) it's downloaded from the host MCE PC. 360s with a HDD will cache this program after downloading it for faster startup, but Core/Arcade 360s will have to download it each time its loaded up. So it seems the real problem is the Extender app that's downloaded form the MCE host PC. This has to be updated.
xemumanic @ Dec 5th 2007 12:50PM
Edit: *totally on the mark about DivX and other codec support on MCE on the 360.
You guys have GOT to add some way for posters to edit their posts when mistakes are made.
Zodiac @ Dec 5th 2007 2:47PM
Yeah, have some consideration for the people that regret something right after they clicked the "Add Your Comments Button."
Also for the people that might do a little "drunk posting"
Zodiac @ Dec 5th 2007 2:45PM
Ok, I realize that you said that Steve, but Ben said that we'd all do the same thing if we where in the same position, and that's what I was talking about.
Alright now I'll shut my mouth about this. I don't want to be that annoying guy that posts about the same crap on every episode... :-|
.....
Mitchell @ Dec 5th 2007 2:59PM
Every time i listen to your podcast and hear you bashing Tivo or other DVR's I laugh.
I use MythTV which has every feature you could possible want in a DVR. A nice web interface, check. View available space free, check. Re-number you channels, check (So your channel 800 can appear as 10).
All these features from free software too! Only costs $20/year for listings.
Only downside is premium HD content is ussaully a no go. Unless your provider will send them over your firewire port unencrypted. You ussaually only get the major networks, ESPN, and TNT from what i have read and experienced.
If you have never used MythTV you should really check it
Mitchell
cckrobinson @ Dec 5th 2007 3:51PM
I disagree about the Tivo Lifetime subscription not being a good value. As long as it's transferable (which I'm not sure able for the TivoHD\Series3) then you'll get a good chunk of it back when you sell the unit. Do a search on ebay for series2 boxes with lifetime. You get at least 75% of what you paid for it back. It's only a bad deal if you box dies and it can't be fixed.
Brian Bock @ Dec 6th 2007 11:23AM
I guess my allusion to Y2K doesn't work for most people. Y2K was of course the pending disaster (that didn't really happen) that had people stockpiling water, guns, gold, drugs, gas, etc. I think when the analog switch is turned off that it won't be as dire as Y2K was supposed to be, but it will be big with a lot of pissing and moaning. Y2K+9.26 is April 2009. (It's 9 years past 2000 and 4 months and 7 days later because the turn off is April 7, 2009. That's the 98th day of 2009 and 98/365 = .26).
*SIGH* It was a lame joke and I regret it. Some geeks you are. :-P
Ben @ Dec 6th 2007 11:24AM
Ahh, I should've figured that out.
But I thought the shutoff was in February?
Larry @ Dec 6th 2007 11:25AM
Put me down for some one does not watch games buffered. For me the biggest problem is I like listening to radio coverage for the local broadcast team instead of whoever is covering the game nationally.
The reason it is a great idea that the Venture and the A3 are the same is the economy of scale factor. The manufacturing of players become cheaper when the volume of parts ordered go up plus Toshiba doesn't have to take on the brunt of the cost.
Brian Bock @ Dec 6th 2007 11:30AM
Blu-ray or HD DVD would clobber the other if they dramatically increased the number of quality titles. Both catalogues are horrid. Otherwise most of us will keep watching standard DVD. It's content, Baby!
Brian Bock @ Dec 6th 2007 10:57PM
February is the shutoff? Hmm. That's what I get from using The Google.
Zodiac @ Dec 6th 2007 1:10PM
YAY! I managed to get my real name on the podcast, now I REALLY am internet famous. :D
Anyways, doing a podcasts at CES, would totally be awesome. Like Dvorak says CES is pretty "over-covered" but this would actually make it very interesting, for me at least. And it would make a nice one stop for CES coverage.
Oh and apparently the differences between the BBC and the Discovery versions of Planet Earth are pretty major. The US version is 1080i and looks ok and the BBC version 1080p and is the best thing on HD. Kinda paraphrashing the guys from highdef digest.
BBC Version:
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/planetearth.html
Discovery Version:
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/983/planetearth_us.html
ieko @ Dec 6th 2007 3:54PM
Ugh, Wealth TV IS the most worthless channel ever. It's so bad that it's the only HD channel I removed from my Media Center guide. Seriously Verizon, what the hell? Oh and why not give everyone 20/20 up/down speeds while you're at it, just because I'm in a "less competitive" (Is there a such thing as a competitive market for this stuff?) market doesn't mean I don't want to have that extra 5mbps!
I totally agree about the BBC version of Planet Earth being way better. I watched it before the Discovery version aired and when I heard that robotic female voice and saw that they had edited the series I promised myself I'd never subject myself to that garbage ever again. By the way what happend to the Discovery networks anyway? All the interesting shows are ruined by over-enthused narrators, not to mention TLC is now the female redecorator channel.
locke6854 @ Dec 7th 2007 3:03AM
This is cooler than when I create a post and see the big bold words "YOU DID IT!"
I just think... man! yea! I did it. High Five
drew @ Dec 8th 2007 12:02PM
the venturer hd dvd player is indeed the same as the toshiba hd-a3. it even has the same firmware. at $199, it is quite a steal of a deal in canada, where it is $100 less then the a3.