Engadget HD Podcast 079 - 04.02.2008
Things are back to normal this week sans guest, but there's plenty to talk about. We get a little discouraged by this week's news -- between the apparent demise of Plasmas, the number of HDTV owners that actually have HD, and the poor customer service that plagues our industry; there isn't much to be excited about. But alas, we still love us some HD, as we discuss the IRL's new HD goodness and our lack of love for ESPNews HD. As for the format war, there hasn't been much to talk about, but we discuss Home Media Magazine's new Blu-ray vs DVD pie chart as well as the end of HD DVD at Best Buy.Get the podcast
[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes (MP3).
[RSS] Add the Engadget HD Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator and have the show delivered automatically
[Zune]Subscribe to the Podcast directly in the Zune Marketplace
[MP3] Download the show (MP3).
Hosts: Ben Drawbaugh and Steve Kim
Producer: Trent Wolbe
01:23 - Comments from Engadget HD Podcast 078 - 03.26.2008
14:43 - Verizon whines to FCC: make it easier for us to gain market share
17:57 - FiOS TV service is great, Verizon customer service -- not so much
23:48 - Did you get invited to beta test DirecTV's Media Center tuner?
28:48 - The Hauppauge HD PVR with component inputs gets delayed
31:16 - DISH Network's small spectrum buy leaves analysts perplexed
34:43 - Only half of US HDTV owners subscribe to HD programming
37:41 - HD DVDs vanishing from Best Buy stores
38:50 - Nielsen VideoScan High-Def market share for week ending March 23rd, 2008
40:59 - Forthcoming BD-Live rollout gets inspected
42:11 - Indy Racing League to stuff HD cameras inside select cars
48:16 - Poll: ESPNews HD is on the air, do you have it yet?
50:16 - 2008 a make or break year for plasma manufacturers?
LISTEN (MP3)
LISTEN (AAC)
LISTEN (OGG)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Justin @ Apr 2nd 2008 1:31PM
Hey guys, I haven't had a chance to listen to this one yet, but will soon. Just wanted to put up a link to some, generally misinformed, format war ramblings going on over at joystiq.com (http://www.joystiq.com/2008/04/02/why-some-ps3-games-need-installations/#comments). It all started with a post about the fact that since BD reads at a constant speed as opposed to the variable speed of a DVD, developers who (I guess) are just porting over a game don't want to make the adjustments for the read speeds and just have the game install that portion to the hdd instead.
There hasn't been much format war ranting going on lately, thought this might amuse some.
haveacoke @ Apr 2nd 2008 3:17PM
Ben, there are several blu-ray titles with ditial copies: Hitman, Rambo, Juno, Jumper, and Alien vs. Predator: Requiem. Many more to come most likely from FOX and Lionsgate. Probably other stuidos will follow suit eventually.
ieko @ Apr 3rd 2008 11:25AM
Why only one CableCard tuner Ben? Are you going to grab a 360 to use as an extender? The 360 is still loud, but I feel that unless you're really listening for it or watching something with a lot of quiet parts you're not going to notice. As far as the processor inside the 360 goes it's 65nm now with a 90nm GPU.
Don't worry, it'll work. It'll take all day, but it'll work.
FIOS' HD lineup *is* not great right now but at least we know that by fall we should be having large smiles on our faces and laughing at everyone else (Read: Comcast customers) because our HD won't be touched by Mr. Bandwidth-Saver with most every other carrier. But yeah, the billing department doesn't know left from right.
As far as your podcast volume is concerned have you guys tried using Soundforge? If you use the Wave Hammer or iZotope Multiband Compressor you should be able to get some good volume. It's much better than hitting "normalize."
My name is pronounced "E-Echo" by the way. Steve, you're asian I don't know how you got this one wrong. I would've totally given a pass to Ben though haha.
Ben @ Apr 3rd 2008 11:29AM
Only 10% of my programming is on cable -- except during football season -- and the content that is on Cable is repeated alot, so if there is a conflict at 9pm, then I can just catch it when it's on in 3 hours. I'll have 2 ATSC tuners from my HDHomeRun and I might add a third integrated ATSC tuner or another HDHomeRun.
The 360 is too loud to watch movies or TV on, period. Also, the 360 has IR issues with repeaters which I use. So the extenders with their slower performance is a better option for me. As for games, I might play 10 hours a year, which isn't worth $400 to me. If I was going to get a console for games, I'd get a PS3, as my favorite game is Gran Tourismo and only available on the PS3.
Haha, thanks for the tips and the pronunciation of your name.
ieko @ Apr 3rd 2008 11:38AM
Didn't realize I had you on speed dial there Ben.
Anyway the only reason I have a 360 is because of Media Center. I already had a PS3 and never had any intention to buy any 360 games, so that's no excuse Mr. First World! But I suppose the jet engine fan is a decent reason not to get one.
Aren't you worried that all those additional ATSC tuners will get Media Center confused?
Ben @ Apr 3rd 2008 11:40AM
Confused? Why would they cause it to get confused?
I thought you could set priorities on tuners for viewing and recording with VMC. My plan was to set the CC as the primary viewing tuner and the two ATSC as the recording. There are only a few very rare ocasions when I'll use all three, but I record two OTA shows just about every night.
aaron @ Apr 3rd 2008 4:28PM
the best way to do it imo is to use the channel restrictions built in with the series recording options.
there is no real tuner priority built in with media center but since your hdhomerun channels are 1000+ its a pretty simple process to tell it to do series recordings and have it use the 1000+ channel (which ensures hdhomerun)
couple of other addons id suggest.... webguide, lifextender (for those non cablecard recordings.... for now), tvlibrary or mytv (for those archived tv series) and eventually netflixMC (doesnt work with the extenders yet but it looks like its getting very close... just another way to get content in media center).
ieko @ Apr 3rd 2008 11:49AM
I guess you can pull it off (See: http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/thread/230583.aspx) but I don't know about prioritizing tuners. This tool may work (http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/thread/244826.aspx) but I bet you'll need to go in and change the value in the registry. That shouldn't be too bad, I think I saw a value for such a thing when I was setting up my four DCT's.
Big Sam @ Apr 3rd 2008 11:58AM
Right before the Super Bowl I talked my brother into getting the 50" 720p Pioneer Kuro over a 1080p Samsung LCD. He was skeptical at first but after get got the TV he immediately thanked me. He said it was like watching TV for the first time. It was a HUGE improvement over his old HD tube and his friends LCDs.
Larry @ Apr 3rd 2008 12:05PM
I love the auction description where Steve talks about phoning home, and three minutes later Ben says the same thing again. Classic comedy routine.
The 50% HD adotption number will be the big hurdle for Blu-Ray. You joke about, but a lot of people just want a big screen to watch their dvds on. Which was part of my point about Voodoo not really being a player. Selection will not matter as much as name recognition and market penetration.
Julio @ Apr 3rd 2008 4:18PM
Since today is Good People day, I just wanna say I think Ben, Steve, and Trent are great peeps. Keep up with the great podcast.
:)
locke6854 @ Apr 4th 2008 8:59AM
All hdtv owners I personally know (or care to know) have LCD, but all but one are your average joe. My father wants a plasma, he's one of the few people thats never owned an hdtv (he's waiting for some reason).
As for blinding brightness, I love the PQ on my sony bravia, but I do turn the backlight down real low (who says that you HAVE to keep it overly bright?). It really helps the black level too.
Tom @ Apr 4th 2008 9:17AM
Just an FYI for you guys. Comcast in Boston has had Sci-Fi in HD for several weeks now. So the satellite subscribers won't be the only ones enjoying Battlestar Galactica tonight in HD.
An oddly enough, Comcast has added The Weather Channel in HD on this past Wednesday. OK, the channel is blank and just a place holder for now. But my TiVo program guide thinks there's something there (it's just the echo of the SD listing).
Isn't TWCHD due, like, in June sometime? Seems odd to give a place holder such a long lead time. Maybe Comcast knows something.
Julio @ Apr 4th 2008 3:01PM
Some guy from Panasonic was on The Digital Home podcast, and he thinks that consumers in the end always go for picture quality. Funny though that the survey they didn't mention anything about brightness. Most likely it's because people associate brightness with picture quality.
http://www.cnet.com/8301-13506_1-9909512-17.html
locke6854 @ Apr 4th 2008 10:11PM
oh and i want to mention the loudness vs audio fidelity issue-
Its my experience that anytime someone still clinging to dvd and crt hears my speakers with uncompressed PCM 5.1, they always respond with "well... it sounds LOUDER... not necessarily better... "
In fact, whenever I say "clear" or "crisp", my home-theater-in-a-box friends have this running joke that i just mean loud. They even use finger air-quotes.
(They were listening to klipsch reference at the time, btw)
Ah, to be naive (they say ignorance is bliss)
PaulF @ Apr 5th 2008 1:52PM
Gotta love an episode that gives me 3 topics to post about:
1. Ben, unless you want the HTPC up and running tomorrow, why on earth are you messing with Media Center? VMC doesn't do H.264 in it's current state (when will it?) and the Hauppauge HD-PVR will be out way before the DirecTV unit. Build your own HTPC *with the parts you want, in the form factor you want* and get SageTV. Add their extender and your golden. HDHR for clear QAM and the HD-PVR for everything else via component. H.264 ready out of the box.
2. LCD.s Plasma: To most consumers there is point on the quality scale called "Good Enough". Next to a Kuro the Sammy 81 series may not look as good, but that doesn't matter if you don't have a Kuro sitting next to it. I've got a Sharp 52" D64 that I love...I know there are a lot better sets out there, but for $2100 it was a great price/performance deal. My backlightis at -12 of 16...but it's nice to be able to go brightif I want.
3. FORMULA 1 NOT EXCITING!!!!!! Greatest sport on TV. Yes, passes are tough because of the parity but when they do, at least it's not a oval bore fest :)
Good show.
P
Ben @ Apr 5th 2008 1:55PM
Paul,
I hear you, but I'm still not sure about the idea of re-encoding all my HD. I'd much rather catch the encoded stream to disk rather than use the USB PVR which captures uncompressed HD and recompreses it. Sure it might not look worse, but it sure can't look better.
Sure many times it comes down to cost, but more often than not people are choosing LCDs over plasmas even when the LCD costs more. Most people think brighter is better and could care less about contrast and color accuracy.
I like F1 as well, main reason I don't watch it is because of the time zone difference and it isn't in HD. I was just kidding around.