http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/ Engadget HD Comments for ZeeVee's ZvBox streams your PC to your HDTV over coax 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/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/May 1st 2008 8:25AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/May 1st 2008 9:54AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/
If it does, this is HUGE for the AV distribution market. I've been wanting something like this for a LONG time.]]>May 1st 2008 10:48AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/May 1st 2008 10:07AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/
If that's the case, and, like most people, you only have 2 or 3 TV's, then you may as well just buy 2 or 3 extenders with HDMI and be done with it... right?

This thing still requires a HTPC... sooo... What am I missing?

]]>May 1st 2008 11:04AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/May 1st 2008 5:40PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/May 1st 2008 3:29PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/May 1st 2008 8:20PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/May 1st 2008 9:18PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/
Even if it did, it would look horrible. You won't be able to make out small text because the 1080p resolution would be reduced by about 1/4. I think the DTV set top boxes do ATSC (the T is for terrestrial) not QAM (a standard for cable tv), so it probably wouldn't work at all.]]>May 9th 2008 2:10PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/May 1st 2008 9:29PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/
Based on what I've read in this blog it seems like they have put together what looks like the best solution to bridging the gap between the internet and television by allowing users to get all their media from every possible source with a single device and using a delivery method that already exists in every home that was built after the Civil War.]]>Jun 3rd 2008 10:42AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/Jun 3rd 2008 2:52PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/Jun 2nd 2008 10:45AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/Jun 2nd 2008 5:56PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/or if u have the computer in another room, you can have a professional DIPLEX the signal with the Coax that is being used for the 622 from your dish, so u dont have to run a second coax to ur tv , then you have to go to MENU--->6 for system setup ----->9 for local channels then scan locals and select them all and add them, just make sure to setup the ZV box's modulator to use a clear digital channel thats not occupied by any broadcaster localy so they dont interfere and then u'll see the channels in yellow on the guide, ofcourse you wont see any guide info but u can set it the 622's manual timer to record and there u go PC DVR on HDTV :)

PS: u can record ur ZVbox's PC screen and two sattellite channels all at the same time (single mode must be selected) and watch a prerecorded show
mkmkmk13
MOE]]>Jun 11th 2008 7:18PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/the tv has to have a QAM tuner built in though
just like ur sattelite or cable boxes
they use coax from the source ( cable operators / satellite dish ) to transmit a digital signal then ur Dish box or cable box translate it to HD picture and then sends it to ur TV using an HDMI / Component / DVI cable
same thing with ZVbox except the QAM tuner does the translation from digital from the coax cable to HD picture directly all done inside tv, so from built in QAM tuner inside ur tv you wouldnt need to use an HDMI cable]]>Jun 11th 2008 7:24PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/So, if you use a lower resolution currently (maybe your 20/22" LCD does not support 1920X1080), will the ZvBox out the resolution of the source signal from the VGA port or does it upconvert to 1080p? Plus, what if you run a higher resolution? What will the image look like on your HDTVs (especially those that are only 720p)?]]>Jun 16th 2008 7:54PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/Jun 16th 2008 7:03PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/Jun 22nd 2008 8:08PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/Since it is using QAM (encapsularting ATSC) the signal is (most likely) compressed using MPEG-2. It would be very interesting to see the quality of this and what it does to a PC screen. Too much compression and the edge artifacts are going to kill the picture quality. Also, not all MPEG encoders are created equal and even with the best ones, the settings used for encoding make a huge difference in potential quality. For isntance you would not use the same settings for sports as you would for news

Because it is MPEG-2 it is never going to rival the quality of Blu-Ray (h.264). Playing back your local media (Blu-ray drive on the PC) will cause some loss of quality, also what are they doing about frame rates, most PCs are going to want to put out 60hz progressive, the signal going down the wire will most likely not be 60p.

All in all though, this could be really exciting for a lot of people.

In case any of the zeevee folks are monitoring this thread..

MPEG 2 Quality: Are their settings for adjusting this? What is the bitrate, what GOP structure?

More than one: Can we modulate onto multiple QAM channels?

Sounds great, I would order one today if I can get some feel for the quality of encoding that it is doing.
]]>Jun 23rd 2008 11:15AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/Jun 26th 2008 2:15PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/Jun 27th 2008 9:08AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/01/zeevees-zvbox-streams-your-pc-to-your-hdtv/
1) Our current chip/platform will be able to deliver reliable reproduction of internet/computer video up to 1080i resolution. HD over coax is no problem, as most of you picked up that there is plenty of "room" on your home coax using MPEG-2 (you guessed it!). I am in the beta program and it looks awesome. We have about 50 reviewers that will be getting units soon, but if you want a sneak peak check out newteevee.com and ehomeupgrade.com coverage from the Connections show: http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/2008/06/25/zvbox-demo-at-connections-2008/ and http://newteevee.com/2008/06/30/ntv-demos-the-zv/

2) Most of you got that the break-through here is being able to get any content your computer can "see" through VGA; uses existing home coax so no new wiring or wirless setup/interference/complexity (though you might need to use the splitter we give you to split around your STB/HDMI so your new Zv channel gets added to your cable line-up); no new STB at each TV (makes the wife happy and saves $$$), and a very cool ZvRemote/Zviewer combo that lets you control your computer from 150 feet away, has an imbedded laptop touchpad, and multi-media controls, and ingests RSS feeds to natively launch content from the best sites on the web (Hulu, Joost, ABC, CBS, Fox, Mojo, StumbleUpon, etc.) but you can add your own; and finally allows you to do web browsing, check email, and other deskptop apps. Oh, and no new subscription fees.

3) So ZvBox is kind of a "super-box" that combines AppleTV, Roku/Netflix, MediaCenter, HP MediaSmart, LG, that plays HD content, is completely open, and does not charge you any subscription fees. How much would you pay to eliminate all that clutter and not be restricted by limited content menus? Is there anyone on this thread willing to do a cost comparison for a whole house solution to let's say 3 TVs for what they would have to spend (with AppleTV, Media Extender, etc.) to achieve a subset of all this functionality (make sure to calculate what you might pay for movie downloads per month versus what is already free online). Requirements also include the ability to start/stop content from any HDTV, web browsing, Dolby Digital audio, etc. Any takers?

Other answers:

Moe: We do have beta users on satellite but it can be a little tricky on setup and usage (switching inputs, etc. and a variety of reasons I won't go into here) but I am sure the folks on this site can figure it out :-)

Earthling: You are exactly right there are some tuning trade-offs with frame-rate, latency etc. As the marketing guy I can't give you the exact specs, but our engineers have done a fine job and the resolution looks great. Zviewer also comes with a resolution wizard to help you adjust your screen to the best resolution/position on your TV. Current ZvBox is a single QAM channel right now.

Will: I would be playing Unreal Tournament with you too but there is slight delay that could effect how quickly you react when I sneak up behind you with a particle blaster. Not a problem for most online games (e.g., poker) and strategic or educational PC games, but might put you at a disadvantage where a few ms matter most. This latency is not noticable for video playing, web browsing, etc.

That's it for now. I hope I answered most of your questions.]]>Jul 11th 2008 1:00AM