http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/04/17/engadget-hd-podcast-081-04-17-2008/ Engadget HD Comments for Engadget HD Podcast 081 - 04.17.2008 http://www.engadgethd.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadgethd.com en-us Copyright 2009 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/04/17/engadget-hd-podcast-081-04-17-2008/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/04/17/engadget-hd-podcast-081-04-17-2008/I think people voted " I dont know what you are talking about" in the bitstream vs lpcm poll because they actually don't know what is better as well as what it means.
That would suck if they did enable bitstream on the PS3s with the new chip and left us early adoptors in the cold, but that is just me.
Totally agree with you on the Tivo front. I love it and hope these suits help them. All these cable companies come in and totally gimp the "greatness" that is Tivo and new adoptors dont know the difference.]]>Apr 17th 2008 9:38PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/04/17/engadget-hd-podcast-081-04-17-2008/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/04/17/engadget-hd-podcast-081-04-17-2008/Apr 17th 2008 11:31PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/04/17/engadget-hd-podcast-081-04-17-2008/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/04/17/engadget-hd-podcast-081-04-17-2008/
Also, a thread will show a higher number of comments before the comments actually show up. Possibly a side-effect from the redesign?]]>Apr 17th 2008 11:50PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/04/17/engadget-hd-podcast-081-04-17-2008/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/04/17/engadget-hd-podcast-081-04-17-2008/
But I think there are a lot of folks who still do it the old-fashioned way: they get home after a hard day's work, plop down and say "let's see what is on TV". If nothing compelling is on at the moment, a VOD would be great. Right now, my family only has a couple of shows we watch regularly, and if we aren't there when it is live, then sure, those are set to record. The only other things I DVR are things I happen to see coming up while rolling through the TV line-up that I know that family won't be interested in, like my history stuff.

So most of our TV viewing is live, spontaneous and entirely un-premeditated. We do not have Netflix, and we might rent a movie once every couple of weeks. And, we really have no idea when shows come on (other than our couple of favorites). So, if we decide on a Saturday night we want to watch a movie (pretty unusual), then just having HBO subscribed or, even better, VOD choices, would be a good thing. ]]>Apr 18th 2008 11:43AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/04/17/engadget-hd-podcast-081-04-17-2008/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/04/17/engadget-hd-podcast-081-04-17-2008/Sure there is unpremeditated TV viewing, but in most of those cases you catch a movie you've never heard of on HBO half way through. VOD is more like Netflix or even your DVR. At my house we don't go straight for the LiveTV button, we go to the My Recordings instead. If there's nothing there and we don't have time to watch a movie, then we'll hit the liveTV.

As for watching movies. With VOD you have about 20-40 to choose from, of which you may not want to watch any of them -- or you've already seen them. With Netflix, you almost always have 3 movies at your house that you want to see -- does anyone add a movie to their queue they don't want to see? Sure the mood may strike you for an action flick and you only have epics, but for me that's not usually the case.

Don't get me wrong, I see the appeal of VOD. My point is that the benefits don't outweigh the lower quality, additional restrictions, and the higher price. ]]>Apr 18th 2008 11:48AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/04/17/engadget-hd-podcast-081-04-17-2008/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/04/17/engadget-hd-podcast-081-04-17-2008/
Here is what we do: the TV only comes on about half of the weeknights (sports/dance/piano/homework/"reading time", and Wii play, etc), so when we do have an hour or so before bed time, we turn on the TV and if there happens to be one of our couple shows that have already aired (and we did not watch it live), we watch those from the DVR. Usually not, so we check the live TV, just running through to see if anything is on. Usually we find something (the wife and kids like home or design shows), but if not, we just turn it off and play a game. On a Saturday night, we sometimes rent a movie and watch it. That's about it.

Basically, just pointing out that "mostly unpremeditated" definitely IS a default model for some of us!]]>Apr 18th 2008 2:19PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/04/17/engadget-hd-podcast-081-04-17-2008/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/04/17/engadget-hd-podcast-081-04-17-2008/When I was talking about premeditated viewing, I was specifically talking about movies, in fact I'd say the opposite is true about "TV." As most people just turn the TV on to see what's on. In fact the TiVo feature "Suggestions" is for exactly that. ]]>Apr 18th 2008 2:20PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/04/17/engadget-hd-podcast-081-04-17-2008/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/04/17/engadget-hd-podcast-081-04-17-2008/
While we rarely think about watching a movie in advance (usually a last minute decision), having some available from Netflix would definitely be a benefit. Unfortunately, we rarely watch enough to make it worthwhile, I am thinking. What we do is usually run out to Blockbuster, or see if anything is coming up later on a movie channel. For us, VOD would be perfect, I think, in that it could save us a trip out to the video store.]]>Apr 18th 2008 4:36PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/04/17/engadget-hd-podcast-081-04-17-2008/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/04/17/engadget-hd-podcast-081-04-17-2008/Apr 18th 2008 4:37PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/04/17/engadget-hd-podcast-081-04-17-2008/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/04/17/engadget-hd-podcast-081-04-17-2008/
Loving that you went HTPC...not SageTV, but any HTPC is better than none :)

Do yourself a favor and pick up a MCE IR Keyboard. With that baby, you can teach your Harmony to control "ANY* program that offers keyboard shortcuts. Just go into your Activity and add custom commands for whatever you want, by holding the keyboard up to the remote's IR receiver.

I've got PowerDVD8 fully controlled.

PF]]>Apr 18th 2008 7:03PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/04/17/engadget-hd-podcast-081-04-17-2008/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/04/17/engadget-hd-podcast-081-04-17-2008/Thanks for the tip, but I'm actually using MCE Controller to send keyboard commands via TCP from my HA server. It works very good, but I'm having problems finding shortcuts for everything like ArcSoft TotalMedia Theater.

I'm waiting for the next update with BD Live before I try PDVD. Not sure if it'll work for me tough, as I really like the way that TMT integrates with VMC.]]>Apr 18th 2008 7:05PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/04/17/engadget-hd-podcast-081-04-17-2008/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/04/17/engadget-hd-podcast-081-04-17-2008/
Besides cost, I can't understand why there isn't more being made of the lack extras on HD discs. There seem to be tons more extras on the standard-def releases. Sometimes you're lucky if you even get an audio commentary. Often it feels like aside from the obviously superior image quality, they're asking you to pay more for less. I'm sure they're counting on re-selling these titles to me as their TRUE definitive HD versions in 2 years, but I think we'll be downloading by then.

Given the available alternatives, unless we see the prices on HD titles coming closer to it's SD counterparts, get used to these numbers.]]>Apr 19th 2008 3:50PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/04/17/engadget-hd-podcast-081-04-17-2008/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/04/17/engadget-hd-podcast-081-04-17-2008/Apr 19th 2008 12:41PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/04/17/engadget-hd-podcast-081-04-17-2008/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/04/17/engadget-hd-podcast-081-04-17-2008/Apr 21st 2008 3:18PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/04/17/engadget-hd-podcast-081-04-17-2008/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/04/17/engadget-hd-podcast-081-04-17-2008/
I wanted to provide an update on the Dish Network HD-only install. The technician showed up for the first appointment without the HD-DVR (VIP722). I guess all the providers have the same issues. Another technician showed up for the second appointment with a brand new VIP722. A new dish and 2 hours later I was up and running. Quality was one of my concerns about making the switch, but I am pleased. Picture/sound quality are great.]]>Apr 21st 2008 3:23PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/04/17/engadget-hd-podcast-081-04-17-2008/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/04/17/engadget-hd-podcast-081-04-17-2008/Apr 22nd 2008 2:19PM