Nvidia shield

I've been thinking about getting one of the Nvidia shield consoles for a while now.  The little console that could if you will, the home media server version has my eye because I can run plex on it and 500gb of storage gives you room for quite a few movies (assuming you've optimized them a bit), and from what I'm reading the newest version of shield experience lets you add libraries from SMB network shares, usb drives and micro sd cards.  This is great news and I'm saving my bloggy dollars as we speak to get one (half way there!).

That was enough to get my interest for sure, I've been running kodi via the Openelec on an old Acer Aspire revo r1600 (it's a ridiculous product name). It's a crappy nettop atom based pc with the one redeeming quality of having the nvidia ion chipset on it. Nvidia ion was h264 (the standard for .mp4 video) processing.  Meaning the dual core atom processor circa 2009 is able to playback 1080p video without stuttering.  The cpu alone wouldn't be up to the task, and topping out at like 19w it is tiny and only needs an hdmi to be a full featured media center.  Out of the box openelec supported my Media Center usb ir adapter and I can run it with the Logitech Harmony remote and from the xbox 360.  Keeping a keyboard handy is still worth the effort as I've been having some trouble with my usb wifi adapter lately, but otherwise it runs easily.  Kodi doesn't support streaming and transcoding out of the box and doesn't have the fit and polish of Plex, so I've been wanting to jump to that as my full time media player.  Simplifies all kinds of tasks for content on the go and for kids in the house on tablets. 

The final push for me to want the shield was plex had a lifetime plex pass sale recently, $75 for apps, and early access to features and the ability to back up your phones pictures to your media server was too good of a deal.  After I bought my subscription I found a video on running emulators for classic games on the Shield too. We still have our old Nintendo and Super NES, but I never got a N64 and I really miss classic Mario Kart.  The new ones don't have the same soul... So I'm not encouraging anyone to look for the app called happychick on a .hk based website that would allow you to play emulators on your android device, but if you did do those things you might look at this really cool bluetooth gaming controller that works really well with the emulator (allegedly) 

finally, full disclosure.

Going to Bat

I won't make any comments about either his service in the US military or the rest of his congressional record, but John McCain is sort of my hero this second. It's dull to watch for sure, but he introduced legislation to force cable companies and network operators to offer a la carte programming (choose just the channels you want) and prevent local market sports blackouts when the venue or team publicly funded. Both of these things are awesome, and chances of passing are about nill. The third point of the legislation should sound like an awesome victory for the startup Aero.



Source: The verge

Ikea is still fairly awesome

So, I've been re-designing my living room for a little while now to make room for my little boy.  I wanted him to have some open space to tear around in, and put stuff that little finger would find way to interesting away and out of reach.  I posted about the inspiration before, but we pulled the trigger on it on Sunday and bought the cabinets.  The countertop I want to use to finish it up is out of stock and won't be in for quite 4-6 weeks.  It turns out to be fine for my purposes as I need to build a toekick box for the cabinets and figure out how to get all the wires to the areas they need to be (the cable and ethernet jack are far from the TV ect.)  A few weeks ago we mounted the TV to the wall, and after examining the stud placement I think I can get all the components fished through the walls so they come out behind the tv and the rest of the wires will be hidden behind the cabinets in a 3 ¼" void.  The board I will use to create the spacer will serve as the cleat for the countertop once its in and if I'm feeling really fancy I may end up with an electrical outlet similar to this one on the wall or embedded into the countertop.

USB Wall outlet [?]

Living Room Project

My living room has been a disaster for much longer than I'm ready to admit, so as our debt diet comes to a close I have been dreaming of a way to reduce the clutter and get my home ready for a soon to be mobile infant.

There are two ikeahackers projects that have my eye as the inspiration for how I want my room to look.  The first is a solid wall of bookcase and the second is a way to conceal stuff in that bookcase.  Here are some pictures for reference.

via Ikea hackers

via Ikea hackers

What do you think? It's in concept state at this point, I'm just trying out ideas, but I like the clean look of a wall to wall with a mounted TV above it.

USB wall socket

Now that everything is charged by usb it seems like we should be able to ditch those darn wall warts.  Seems a few other people think this too!

The first one is from RCA and it is just an external add on to your existing plug.  It is a pretty basic, easy to install and only costs about $20

Image via RCA

 The second one I found is more involved, you have to remove the outlet and replace it with a new one.  Not for the completely clueless for sure and it's clean look costs $25-30, but I like this look a lot.

Image via Apartment Therapy

So much in the world

So warning ahead of time, the link is not safe for work!!!

Any how, one of the tumblrs I follow posted a <NSFW> link to this </NSFW> and I knew I needed to watch this show.  That is a frame from Season 2 episode 1 of Sherlock.  I looked and guess what season on is on Netflix, if you don't have netflix get a disposable email address and start a free trial, it really isn't that hard.  Any how if you followed the NSFW link above don't let that set your hops too high, the show runs on BBC before the watershed, so typically you won't see the implied nudity but damn it I really enjoy the show.  I've only watched one episode of the first season as I'm waiting for my wife to catch up so we can watch them together.

As for the current season, while it may eventually end up on netflix if you cannot possible wait one second, check out a little program called expat shield.  It will give you a British IP so yo can stream shows from the BBC iplayer.  It seems legit, but if you have any nervousness about installing it, you should check out one of my favorite security softwares on earth Sandboxie.  It lets you install things without letting it really install.  It installs it into a sort of sandboxed part of your computer.  Uninstalls are super quick and it logs all the changes it tried to make to your computer, pretty handy for investigating software.

Anyhow hope you enjoy the show it's really pretty quick-witted, and similar in pacing and theme to the Sherlock Holmes blockbuster movies you've no doubt heard about; just with real British people and it is set in modern day.

Check your bills

I've been told enough times that I should know better, but I learned the hard way the check your bills, and double check the line items. In my neck of the woods you have your choice of network providers Comcast, or Qwest (aka usworst). Comcast has its own issues, and Qwest would have had my business if they weren't the worst company on the planet. I'll save that rant for another time, because the source of my misfortune is Comcast.

The other night I woke up in the middle of the night and was totally unable to get back to sleep. No problem I tell myself there is always the internet, that's pretty handy for passing the time. I get downstairs, log into Xbox Live and join a match. I play literally 5 minutes and I get disconnected from XBL. I assume (like a normal person) that my xbox is trying to go tits up on me and work through about 20 minutes of chasing my network bits around, rebooting the xbox, and generally troubleshooting everything to figure out my dlink cable modem (keep this in mind my dlink, not Comcast's cause I paid cash to not rent that from those f*ckers). I get Comcast on the horn at 3 in the morning to let them know that I was very disappointed about the state of my internet and come to find out that they where charging me for my cable modem. I tell them politely to stop gouging me for shit I own and the rep just gives me a partial credit for that month. Fast forward to the next months bill and the charge is still on there. I check back as far as their online billing department decided they want to limit their liabilities to (1 year) and figure out they may well have been charging me an equipment rental fee all along. For the last 5 years factored at $84 a year mean I'm feeling short about $400. I did what any sane person would do I called their 800# and tried to see how much free shit I could get out of this.

All told I got $70, got the charge removed from my bill going forward, and got my internet speed boosted to 12mb/s for the next 6 months. I'm not sure that we are done with this matter or not, but it is an excellent reminder for you all.

Check your bills, it can save you some cash in the long run.

More Set top box power

This is the story that won't die apparently, another blog posted on set-top box power consumption.  This time with an info-graphic.  Info-graphics mean business people.  I kid, but seriously if the stats they are posting are true it is scary how much power is being wasted by the average household.

Source:Geeks are Sexy

Windows 7 toy

image via ehomeupgrade

I am sure the implementation of this will be crap, but why does everyone just come out with reference designs now. It seems like everyone wants someone else to license and manufacture the products that they develop, rather than developing and manufacturing. The idea of having a smart picture frame that supports DLNA and has a touch screen interface to browse through your media in any room seems like a no brainer, but as far as I know this product has yet to be released.

Media Center Addons

I haven't played with any media center related gear in a while now, and my vista machine is starting to need the old windows 7 upgrade I have been sitting on for about 4 months now.  I thought I would look around for a better solution than the ugly  Microsoft IR remotes

Electronista had an article a while back about inserts for front side bays to give a more finished media center look, so I thought I would look in on how well received they where.


The highend Antec 30126 VERIS Premier Multimedia Station only had a rating of 2 stars and based on the review of one particularly motivated reviewer I think Antec should have learned that pc enthusiast is an exceptionally hard to please target market.


Next up the middle tierAntec 30125 VERIS Elite Multimedia Station is well liked by the one person that seems to have purchased this item ever, but I am not sure that that is the type of ringing endorsement I would want if I where Antec.

Finally the low end Antec 30124 VERIS Basic Multimedia Station seems like a decent product despite the 3 star rating. In short it looks like the software is terrible, but the product is ok when you let windows find drivers on its own.

Yikes, I was actually excited by these products when they where announced. Glad I didn't buy them I guess.

Wireless video transmission

After watching the Engadget Show EP5 I was reminded of the Intel wireless display technology demoed at CES recently. This is using some custom drivers for the wifi chip in the laptop to switch quickly between the Wireless network for internet access and a PAN link to a television set/ or display device. There are have been some rumblings about the limitations of the 2.4ghz spectrum being saturated, but I think that this technology shows that there is still a ton of opportunity for innovation in how we use that spectrum. Saturated or not, the ability to sling the images from your laptop to your tv without having to purchase another STB ala The Boxee Box or a popcorn hour is a pretty neat feature, but it would make it hard to surf the while you are image slinging. So rather than getting a dedicated box to use while you surf the internet, you have to get another laptop. Oops, guess Intel forgot that people actually watch tv with a laptop on their lap now to distract them from their distraction.

Comcast dvr scheduling

Comcast's Motorola Crap DVRS catch up with functionality that Orb users have had on Window Media Center since 2004. Way to listen to the people Cast. Now all we need to do is get MS or Comcast or Verizon or even Tivo to copy the Replay TV "federated recording" feature and DVR's will finally catch up with where they should have been in 2005. I think DirectTV owns the ReplayTV intellectual property and have squandered their chance to make that blockbuster feature a reality. Imagine multiple DVR's on your network, and they decide if one of the DVR's is in use when it needs to be recording to have one of the other DVR's record it for you. Another bonus is you don't have to worry which DVR has your content because it streams around your network for you!

Gizmodo via ZatzNotFunny via Comcast

Mobile DTV for wifi devices

There you have it a device that gives Wifi Devices access to DTV, is it me or does this tech seem like a solution looking for a problem? I have watched daytime TV and lets just say it leaves much to be desired, I suppose it could really kick up the rerun market on some stations, but the times that I would use this are in the morning, sometime over lunch and in the early evening. Currently there is basically nothing interesting on the TV at those times, but the existence of the potential market could push some demand for good daytime television.

If your interested in watching DTV on your mobile here is the link via Engadget

Hopefully this proves to be the egg to the metaphorical chicken of good daytime programing.

Chumby One

via ehomeupgrade.com

The Chumby is a widget based smart object, and as much gadget lust as I generally tend to have this is one of those products I just cannot seem to get into. The replay on it seems relatively low for what it is, considering I can find iPod touches around that offer way more functionality for similar cost. The Chumby One is a little less offensive running at $120 rather than the $199 for the Chumby Classic. The Chumby Classic came wrapped in leather which made it more than a little weird, and I for one if very happy they dropped the leather for the Chumby One.

Professional quality video distribution

via Justaddpower.com

Other than crazy wealthy individuals there are few people that will appreciate the sheer awesomeness of this product, but some of my work projects of late have put me in proximity to video distribution and I appreciate this. I don't know that it supports multicast (one transmitter outputting to many displays simultaneously) like my dream for it would be, given that it appears Vlans on the network. I for some reason envision this allowing for the networked home to finally have the ip video and audio distribution rather than proprietary or custom cabled jobs.

via Engadget via CEpro

tech savy

This is a photo of the reset button that was located under the battery of a Creative Zen Media Center Portable that I am getting ready to sell. The reason I show this is that I was struck by the things that I just do, that would have overwhelmed most consumers, to keep electronics running. This device has not been plugged in for such a long time that it was fully dead, it wasn't in deep power sleep or something it had no juice. I plugged in the power supply and the charge light did not come on, so I started by checking the voltage output on the charger to ensure that it hadn't gone bad. I got out my multimeter and striped a wire because the charger was a barrel connector type that required positive voltage to be measured from inside where the probe on my multimeter would not reach. After verifying that the charger was giving steady 5v output, I pulled the batter cover off and lifted the batter to see if the posts on the battery had corroded. Realizing that Li-poly batteries don't corrode, I started looking for a hard reset button and found it while I had the cover off. This immediately started the unit and the charge light came on when I re-inserted the battery. I didn't read a manual or do a google search on why there was no power I started to troubleshoot, and was totally fine with not only the process but the outcome.

Most consumers would have come to the conclusion that it was broken, and called the manufacturer. Given how far out of warranty this device is, they would have been frustrated by the general lack of support they would have been offered, and likely would have pitched it into the landfill or sought help from a whiz-kid via craigslist (assuming they even knew that you could get that type of help). I came to own a Samsung Media Center portable under very similar circumstances, the owner never figured out how to turn it on. Apparently the device shipped in "locked" state. Flipping over the device there was a cover that exposed a hard "on/off" switch, sliding the switch to on, and pressing the power button on the front brought the device that he thought was broken to life. These are engineering decisions that lead the consumer to be confused and annoyed, often to the point that they give up. Apple certainly makes CE devices that are better about this than most. They are not flawless for instance because there isn't the familiar power button leave my mother baffled how to turn off her iPod. Sure it will go to sleep eventually so you could just lock it and it will time out, but she didn't know that.

These type of design logic flaws come up again and again, the 30gig Zune for instance when you plug it in after the battery has completely drained does not begin charging, but rather displays a image on the screen that does not mean anything to the user. After unplugging the device and getting it to power on you can plug it in to resume charging, the device will not charge fully with the unintelligible symbol displayed. This is a design/logic flaw, that took me a few minutes of troubleshooting after letting the device charge for half the day, and booting it up to find that I did not have anywhere near a full charge! After the device was up and running it started to rapidly take a charge, but not until the software had initialized. Never having owned an iPod, I asked and was not tickled to hear that they handle the low power state much more elegantly. I own the original 30gb zune so I cannot speak to if the new ones handle it better, but it is a pretty glaring error in my opinion.

I hope that this insight sticks with me for a while when I think about the consumer experience with Electronics. I have classified most of the experience as acceptable up until recently, but everything needing to be fiddled with is starting to get old.

Loosening the TV's grip

In preparation for the arrival of our first child I have switched to basic cable as a way to encourage us to watch less "frivolous" TV. There seemed to be too much just turning on the TV and watching whatever was on, rather than choosing a few shows to watch and trying to get something done. I realized that not everyday has to be a completely filled day with measurable goals achieved, but I was sick of night after night of just coming home and turning on the TV rather than getting the house in order for the arrival of our child, or just finish some of the many miscellaneous computer projects that I have started, and just need to apply some of my time to complete.

For the first time in a long while everything north of channel 30 is snow, and I am really fine with it.

Another Generation of Media Center Adopters left out in the rain

I write about the Media Center experience quite a bit on this blog, and I do for the most part appreciate the elegance of the overall experience. The box that MS paints around what you can and cannot do does make me pine for alternatives from time to time but, for the most part I am satisfied with what I get. Being the owner of several first Generation Media Center accessories, the discontinuation of the new generation pains me not for their overall quality or covetablility[sic], but for the disconnect between the Microsoft death by a thousand OEM's and Apple's "own everything" approach to digital media devices. The Media Center Extender is one area where Microsoft wants others to pickup the ball and run with, but simultaneously competes (original xbox for Generation 1 and xbox360 for the current). Given that the device that they makes is multipurpose (games and media) it is the logical winner in the race for dollars and space in the home, but Microsoft seems unable to take the mantle as sole producers of extenders. I am all for the OEM opportunity, but it feels like the partners get drug along so that the products in question are really repackaged Microsoft reference designs.

The partners do not get any positive out of these products that I can tell, and given the closed loop nature of these things it seems unlikely that Microsoft will change their stance anytime soon and release the Software Sled and let us figure out the integration bits. As long as the extenders are based on Windows CE, the experience will be lacking and the rise of the Intel Atom should be enough to convince them that an device like the Apple TV with a stripped down OS customized to the task, offers some very interesting price performance opportunities. I think that the computer as appliance is starting to take root in Microsoft, just look at the Windows Home Server. This is the type of product that HP can get their arms around, design software that extends it, and offers them and the customer competitive advantage. I hope that this round of failure opens Microsoft's eyes. Release the Soft Sled, we know it either has been conceptualized or is in use internally and recognize the opportunity for the Microsoft Media Center Integrated Consumer Experience.

Digital Product overload

The level of choice in the digital home market space is starting to reach a level, that I have having trouble choosing what path to walk. I have been pretty firmly grounded in the Media Center product family, and happy with that choice. I now run entirely off on one Media Center Pc and Xbox 360 extenders in the home, and have found that experience pretty stable, and acceptable for the wife. There are a great deal of plug-ins for the Media Center that can extend the functionality (The Green Button is great for information about this and everything Media Center related) but watching a video about plug-ins that are coming out for the Popcorn Hour, and seeing some of the Sage-TV extenders go on sale recently makes me wonder if I picked the wrong horse. There are some great things coming out of Non-Microsoft companies, even the Apple TV is starting to look useful with a little hackery ala Boxee. I know that I am moving more towards the Microsoft vision of the connected home with a powerful PC that drives the home media experience on less powerful presentation devices, and a laptops for misc entertainment experience.

Hulu, and online content are changing the options to a large degree, and smaller (surprisingly) powerful devices are looking like they might displace the experience I have bought into all together. If we see Boxee on Xbox360 with out plug-ins like SecondrunTV and better STB style DVR's I may have to rethink the whole living room altogether. That said, I am more than a little excited to try out the NetFlix Streaming, as we may soon give up on Cable all together.

I call Vaporware

I am a confessed Media Center lover, and have bought into the whole universe that Microsoft wants to put in my living room. I have the Media Center PC, I have the Xbox360, I have the Zune, I have a HP generation 1 extender, and 2 Media Center Portables, where the hell are the cool sideshow devices I was promised?

I seriously hope that Ricavision has some other way of making money, because at more than a year and the only product close to market, (that was supposed to have shipped this summer) is still not shipping... you do have to start wondering if the pretty pictures are anything more than the Phantom Console was.

In closing the current model of

1.Announce product
2.???
3.never ship product
4.fail

needs to be transformed to

1.Announce product
2.???
3.Ship product
4.win

In closing Ricavision sucks right now because the won't give me shiny things to buy.