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Author: David Shanske

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2011-09-25 06:23:49

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Integrated Channel Mapping

Back view of a Series 2 Tivo unit
Image via Wikipedia

For those of us still using cable, we caught this post from CableRant. It mentions a beta test of a feature called Integrated Channel Mapping by Cablevision in two communities on Long Island.

Integrated Channel means that if you go to channel 2, you will automatically get the HD version from channel 702 instead.  No more channel surfing between two sets of channels.

Sounds like a good feature to have. Once you adopt a high definition box, why shouldn’t the box, which already maps channels from their real to lineup numbers, hide the SD channels in favor of the HD ones for all channels that are identical except for the quality level?

We run our own DVR, using MythTV, and already do that, filtering out the SD channels for their simulcast versions. We find this a useful feature, and we think it should be available everywhere.

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Published on February 16, 2009
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Mimo Mini-Monitors

Mimo 710 Monitor
Mimo 710 Monitor

We recently came across a review of the Mimo 710 7″ USB-connected monitor. With a current list price of $129.99(may change in the future), this miniature monitor uses a single USB connection for both data and power, offering an 800×480 resolution, the same as a digital photo frame, and weighs only 1.3lbs, making it the perfect accessory for those people who need extra screen real estate, but not a full sized monitor. They can be oriented horizontally or vertically for use.

The $199 740 model adds a touchscreen, audio jacks, a USB port, and a webcam to the package.

Mimo advertises it as extra space for things such as an IM client, widgets, toolbars, etc. As of now, drivers for the display and touchscreen are available for Windows and a Display Only driver for Mac OS X. Drivers are not currently available for Linux, but we have high hopes.

Several reviews suggest this item would be an ideal accessory for a netbook, being as it has a rather small form factor as well, and users may need the extra room sometimes. We could also see it used for people who want a place for the above information, but don’t want to use up the desk space for a regular monitor.

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Published on February 15, 2009
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681 Stations Still Shutting off Analog this Week

Logo of the United States Federal Communicatio...
Image via Wikipedia

Engadget HD  reports that even with the DTV Transition delay signed into law, the FCC has approved the request of at least 368 stations to switch analog off this Tuesday. Crunchgear places the number of stations at 40% of the country’s broadcast stations. Another posts reports some preliminary lists of stations going off the air.

There is no obligation or mandate to broadcast in analog, only a mandate now effective in June to cease broadcasting in analog. The four major networks have agreed to stay on the air, but that applies only to the 100 or so stations they own, not any privately owned affiliate. The FCC could also pressure broadcasters to stay on if doing so is in the “public interest”.

We’ve already weighed in on the DTV transition. We are for it. The boxes are out there, the coupons were out there, and will be again, we hope. And even without them, there are ways to get through this. Digital broadcast brings free HD, clearer picture overall, and additional bandwidth for extra channels(although we have yet to found a secondary channel we watch regularly, although NBC Weather Plus wasn’t lacking in usefulness, but it is no longer with us.).

In some markets, there are apparently channels people want to watch offered on digital subchannels. NBC offers NBC Universal Sports in many markets. RTN, the Retro Television Network, airs classic television on digital subchannels of its affiliates. Or the This TV Network, offering movies and old shows from the MGM library. As fans of classic TV no longer offered by supposedly classic networks Nick at Nite and TV Land, we wouldn’t complain if we got any of these. For a synposis of digital subchannels, Wikipedia has a good summary of possible uses.

For those of you wishing to consider dropping cable service, over-the-air digital broadcast is certainly the way to go, with or without bolstering by internet and dvd services.

Here is the supposed complete and final list of stations shutting off on Tuesday.

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Published on February 15, 2009
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Kindle 2 Announced

Amazon Kindle with carrying cover, Open.
Image via Wikipedia

Engadget released a nice set of pictures of the Kindle 2, the next generation of Amazon‘s E-book reader. For alternate coverage, Crunchgear has a nice Kindle 1/2 side-by-side photo comparison.

It has several improvements over its predecessor

  • Screen refresh is 20 percent faster
  • 7 Times Greater Storage
  • 16 Shades of Grey as opposed to 4.
  • Thinner

We still can’t justify the $359 cost for the privilege of paying more for books than the printed version. The discount has to ultimately, if not subsidize the cost of the reader, at least justify with value-added service the cost of buying it. For less cost, one could use an old PDA or a cell phone, although the screen would not be as conducive to easy reading. For the same cost, one could go for a netbook.

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Published on February 9, 2009
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Asus Eee 1000HE

comparison of the sizes of a package of handke...
Image via Wikipedia

For those of you following the netbook craze, there is new Asus Eee out there.

Engadget has a roundup of various reviews. The HE is built around a new six-cell battery and offers over seven hours of battery life, and offers the standard compliment of features. PC Magazine declared it as dethroning the MSI Wind as the leading netbook, with a list price of $400.

In a related story, Eee PCs are expected in Walmart by years end.

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Published on February 9, 2009
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Ditching Your Pay-TV – Redux

Sports scores in Windows Media Center on Windo...
Image via Wikipedia

We like to continue the thread of losing cable or satellite in favor of alternate options. In the current times, it seems worth keeping alive. In a post last month on Engadget HD, there were lots of comments that brought up some important issues.

  • With Hulu, Netflix, and other services, we now can get a variety of older movies and some recent TV shows that should satisfy most demands.
  • WAF – Also known as the Wife Acceptance Factor(Applies to other relationships as well). How well does your solution work for your less tech-inclined housemates?
  • Antennas – If you drop in favor of broadcast, do you really want to put a large antenna mounted outside to get the most stations, or can you get most of what you want with a simple small one.
  • “I mean I’d rather wait 6 months to watch Entourage on Blu-ray then to pay $70/mo or watch it in crappy quality.” – You can use the money you saved, if you are willing to wait, to buy box sets of the series you like the most. You’ll get better quality, no station logos, and extras.
  • Homebrew DVR solutions like Windows Media Center or MythTV(which we use) work seamlessly with over-the-air broadcasts and provide full DVR services for the cost of a computer to run it.
  • The worry is that bandwidth caps which many internet providers are imposing will interfere with low-cost online streaming , as internet access will now be metered and thus up the monthly entertainment cost you pay.

The New York Times looked at Netflix’s Watch Instantly service, and they seem to like it. Even though there are a lot of movies not exactly top of the line, it includes the Starz Play catalog. And you still can get things by mail.

For those of you who want to start working on integration, PlayOn media server(Windows Only) is out of beta. capable of streaming Internet video from YouTube, Hulu, CBS, Netflix, CNN, ESPN and others to your PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 or other DLNA compliant hardware via a PC. The reviews are good, although you need an always-on computer to stream content to your set-top box. There is a lot of DLNA compliant hardware out there. As of now, it isn’t linux-compatible, so we’ll hold off.

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Published on February 8, 2009
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Digital Television Delayed…Really This Time

HAYWARD, CA - JANUARY 28: An old analog telev...
Image by Getty Images via Daylife

After initially being defeated, the bill to defer the Digital TV transition till June 12th was passed last week. However, some stations had already indicated they are sticking with the Feb. 17 date. The FCC said it had heard from 276 stations to that effect, in addition to 143 stations that had already pulled the plug, and another 60 who said they planned to do so before Feb. 17. The FCC had pointed out that some of those 276 may change their minds once the date changes. The FCC has been working on regulations that might cover the above circumstances.

But, there might be a bigger problem. Many manufacturers stopped making the boxes, expecting the demand to peak around February 17th. The trade association estimates there are approximately 3 to 6 million boxes available, and there are at least 3.7 million rebate coupons requests on the federal waiting list. Not to mention the confusion the switchover is producing on the older generation.

The NYTimes reports help is coming from an unlikely source. In Houston, which is the 10th largest TV market in the country, the local Meals on Wheels has been delivering and installing converter boxes for its clients.

For those of us who feel comfortable with such things, digital over-the-air broadcasts is an excellent way to get HD programming from local affiliates at no cost. Unlike your local cable concern, this feed is not compressed to the same degree, giving it a better quality to enjoy. We have one hooked up in addition to our cable, for this very reason.

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Published on February 8, 2009
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Jumping on the Twitter Bandwagon

Image representing Twitter as depicted in Crun...
Image via CrunchBase

After our colleagues at Flight Wisdom signed up for a Twitter account to help people follow their blog, we decided to see how it went for them. Within days of signing up, users started to flow in, although some of them were already readers. Not only that, but by following other similarly themed Twitter accounts, they were able to get more up-to-the-minute news. If you haven’t already, check out Flight Wisdom.

So, we are proud to announce that we’ve set up our own Twitter account, GadgetWisdom. Not only will it automatically post a tweet when we post a blog entry, but it allows us to post our random thoughts when we don’t have time or yet enough material for a full post.

In order to keep up, we’ve integrated Twitter into our copy of Pidgin. Pidgin is a multi-protocol instant messenging client, and with an add-on, you can add Twitter monitoring and posting to Pidgin. Anyone we are following will pop up in the Gadget Wisdom window in our taskbar. So, it will help us keep better track of what is going on to talk about.

So, we ask you, what Tech Twitter Accounts do you think we should follow?

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Published on February 8, 2009
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Kindle No Longer So Cost Effective

amazon-kindle
Image by MARQUINAM via Flickr

Not long ago, we were on a plane and someone across the aisle had Amazon‘s Kindle. The Kindle, if you’ve missed it, is an E-Book reader. And if anyone had the power to make electronic book reading take off, it is Amazon.

But the Consumerist reports that nearly 30% of books sold for the Kindle are now above $9.99, making them cost more, not less than the equivalent paperback. As one person put it…

300 dollars was supposed to be a sort of covenant between us and amazon. we backed their device and they would usher in an era of low cost/reasonably priced literature. Sure it wasn’t written in stone but the way they advertised it many of us believed it, otherwise this forum wouldn’t be as popular as it is. Instead what is happening is that we put ourselves out there for a company and they returned the favor by charging us even more for books then if we just went out and bought the printed version.

The idea of electronic reading is eventually the reader pays for itself in savings offered by buying electronic over print media, making print a luxury. The size of the Kindle makes it, from what we saw, much easier to read on than a cell phone, which certainly could do the same job of displaying text. It offers an always-on wireless connection to provide content.

But ultimately, it is a $300 toy, for which there are rumors a new version is set to be released on the 9th of February. Three hundred dollars can buy a lot of books…or even a netbook computer to read books on.

On a related note, for free e-books, the following site was suggested as options….feedbooks.com – Provides a variety of contributed as well as public domain e-books in a variety of formats as well as subscription based service. Looks good to us. We’re off to read Sherlock Holmes and not pay a cent…

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Published on January 30, 2009
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Digital Transition Not Delayed

[youtube xy-pD-M0rY4 Digital Transition Information Video]

The Senate had signed off on a delay of the mandatory broadcast digital TV transition until June 12th, from February 17th, but despite Obama administration support, House Republicans defeated the bill, leaving the transition date where it is.

“In my opinion, we could do nothing worse than to delay this transition date,” said Joe Barton of Texas, the top Republican on the House Commerce Committee. “The bill is a solution looking for a problem that exists mostly in the mind of the Obama administration.” Barton led the push to scuttle the bill, which passed the Senate unanimously on Monday night.

The problem stems from the converter box coupon program, administered by the National Telecommunication and Information Administration, is now sending out coupons only as older, unredeemed ones expire, freeing up more money. They have nearly 2.6 million coupon requests and those people will not be receiving theirs till after February 17th.

Eliminating analog television is a good move in that the possibilities offered by digital television are much improved. Discounting the freeing up of bandwidth for other applications, digital television is clearer, higher resolution, offers multiple subchannels in the same space, and converting older televisions, with or without coupons, is a simple process, as outlined by the above video. And if you have cable or satellite, you aren’t even affected right now unless your cable company is using it as a smokescreen to try and upsell you based on fear.

it is an improvement, it will be confusing, and instead of the government delaying it, they need to put together a new coupon program, which will be less expensive than it will cost to delay analog transition. It would cost PBS $22 million alone to delay. Many have leases for signal transmitters that were due to expire on the date of the switch over and will have to make new arrangements.

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Published on January 28, 2009
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