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Tag: Antenna

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Boxee announces Boxee TV

Image representing Boxee as depicted in CrunchBase

Boxee disappointed us a while back, when they discontinued their software in favor of their hardware solution. From the beginning, their hardware has suffered from problems, and software updates have been too infrequent.

Boxee has been at the forefront of negotiating for the future of unencrypted basic cable. As we previously have written, we aren’t thrilled with the solution the FCC came up with. But now, it is more clear why.

Boxee has announced the $99 Boxee TV. It is a DVR that stores recordings in the cloud(for $15 a month) and uses your antenna/basic unencrypted cable to do so.  It contains many of the Boxee apps, but not as many as the legacy Boxee box. By the way, they are killing the Boxee Box, except for maintenance updates.

This is just yet another example of Boxee pivoting again, and is bound to fail again. Not because some of their ideas aren’t good. But the Boxee Box attracted Cord Cutters…and it has a mandatory(not optional), $15 a month charge. In order to store in the cloud, you need to transcode and downgrade your HD signal.

And it relies on Cloudee, their cloud video service, to remain in business for the device to work. Boxee doesn’t have the best track record so far on continuing to provide service to its users. Tested did the math and estimated at 2 hours of recorded TV per day, that would be over 50GB uploaded a month at the estimated data rate.

So, to conclude. Don’t buy it. Don’t suggest anyone buy it. Because Boxee and its people will just dissapoint.

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Published on October 17, 2012
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FCC Kills clearQAM – Everyone Needs a Box

no-cable-tv

The FCC has issued an order amending its rules to allow cable operators to encrypt the basic service tier. This tier consists of broadcast and a few other assorted stations.

Their rationale for this is that it will ‘benefit’ consumers who can have their service activated and deactivated remotely, reducing truck rolls and waits for service calls.  The problem is the “small number” of cable subscribers who will be adversely affected.

A few years ago, you could change channels directly on your TV. These were cable channels…channels you paid for. You are still paying for them, but now you have to pay to rent equipment from the cable company. The current cost of a box from our cable provider is $10 a month, plus a $4 fee. To rent a cable card is only $2.50, by comparison.

This is an issue. The $90 a year difference would pay for a cable box purchase in two years, or pay the additional cost to add a cablecard slot to the average television. This has not happened.

As a condition of the FCC Rule, operators must provide either a converter box with home networking capability that can provide access to basic channels or allow existing equipment access with software upgrades. But, we have some doubts as to the utility of these devices.

As a user of open-source software, it is unlikely that they will allow anything to be used that they cannot control. So, in the end, it is time to break out the broadcast antenna.

There is, of course, the cablecard option, however, Time Warner Cable, our local cable company, is the only company to make a cablecard essentially useless to a Linux user.

Maybe it is time to cut the cord. That’s still an option, right? You can get Internet without TV, right?

 

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Published on October 14, 2012
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Thinking about Dual Band Routers

RADIO FREQUENCY ENVIRONMENT AREA
RADIO FREQUENCY ENVIRONMENT AREA (Photo credit: elycefeliz)

Wireless-G has been the established standard for the last few years. We remember when we started playing with Wireless-B. It was only recently we jumped to Wireless-N. We didn’t need the speed jump.

With the increasing crowding of wireless spectrum, gigabit wired networks, where possible, are probably a good move.

We jumped this past month to dual band Wireless-N because of of the 5GHz frequency it offered. Wi-fi usually operates at 2.4GHz, but N supports two different frequency ranges.

Very few devices take advantage of the 5GHz band, which means that there will be little interference. Living in a city, there are at least 16 2.4GHz wireless networks in range of our test device.

Dual Band routers offer antennas for both frequencies, which means that you can have the devices that do not support 5GHz still operate.

After much consideration, we overbuilt and purchased the WNDR4500 when it was on sale.

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The router offers speed and reliability for the price, as well as multiple simultaneous full speed connections, guest networking, file sharing, and more. We needed the extra speed after we upgraded to wideband. The router had to keep up with the increased throughput.

This isn’t a router review. It is the most expensive router we have ever purchased. But if house networking is important to you, your router should be too. And if you are concerned about interference from other access points, upgrading to the 5GHz band is a viable option.

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The cost of a new Intel wireless mini-pci card is not prohibitive either. Most of these cards are easily accessible on a laptop, making it a simple upgrade.

But what do you think? Is less interference worth it? Do you care about the possible 450mbps throughput? What would be your rationale for going with a high-end router?

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Published on April 2, 2012
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Some TV Stations Going All Digital Today

DTV Countdown Clock
Image by The Joy Of The Mundane via Flickr

As Crunchgear reminded us, today is the day of the original DTV transition date, and many stations are dropping their analog broadcasts today. These stations would have to pay money to keep these broadcasts on the air, including rental fees, and delays to contracts to dismantle equipment.

They also mention the usefulness of Antennaweb in setting up your broadcast antenna. We’ve tried it, and used one of their maps to try and aim a in-house antenna. There is an antique antenna on the roof of the building, which gets decent reception. But we have yet to get all of the channels an antenna our size is supposed to get.

Ultimately, in June, all analog will go away. Hopefully there will be no more delays.

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Published on February 17, 2009
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