Comments on: Digital convergence is all about sports http://strom.wordpress.com/2006/06/28/digital-convergence-is-all-about-sports/ New and improved with just a hint of lemon Mon, 28 Dec 2009 20:05:05 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: David Strom http://strom.wordpress.com/2006/06/28/digital-convergence-is-all-about-sports/#comment-727 David Strom Sun, 02 Jul 2006 21:44:54 +0000 https://strom.wordpress.com/2006/06/28/digital-convergence-is-all-about-sports/#comment-727 Amen to your CCFs...you're not telling us anything we don't already know. The ones who need to pay attention to these issues, however, are the vendors. -- Joan Nadish, PR consultant Amen to your CCFs…you’re not telling us anything we don’t already know. The ones who need to pay attention to these issues, however, are the vendors.
– Joan Nadish, PR consultant

]]> By: strom http://strom.wordpress.com/2006/06/28/digital-convergence-is-all-about-sports/#comment-720 strom Sat, 01 Jul 2006 22:16:38 +0000 https://strom.wordpress.com/2006/06/28/digital-convergence-is-all-about-sports/#comment-720 My husband has a MONSTER of a TV in the family room in the basement. It has no less than 7 remotes including the one to turn the antenna on the roof so he can get HD from a city north of us. God help me if I have to turn it on and no amount of praying will give me the knowledge to turn it to a different channel. And, I need divine intervention when it comes to switching from Satellite to regular TV. Cussing a blue streak used to help me when raising the kids...they knew they were in trouble when the swear words started spewing forth. So, here's my solution. I gave up. I gave the room to my husband entirely and it shows - wires hanging out all over, the davenport sags in the middle because he lays down on it while watching TV, and the numerous remote controls overwhelm my end table. I also said I'd never put a TV in my living room, but things change. When my mom comes over, she wants to watch a TV and NOT have to go down the stairs to the basement. So, we bought a flat panel screen TV and it hangs on the wall instead of one of the paintings I so dearly love...sigh...It has a DVD player hooked to it but that's all...NO MORE! Oh, BTW, we used to have DirectTV and I hated having to switch over to Satellite and back again and then try and figure out which button to push on which remote. So, we switched to Dish and it's wonderful...one control, no switch box and I can get local channels on it, which I couldn't with DirectTV, thus the switch over to Satellite. Check out Dish! -- Sue Nail, Radiosophy.com My husband has a MONSTER of a TV in the family room in the basement. It has no less than 7 remotes including the one to turn the antenna on the roof so he can get HD from a city north of us.

God help me if I have to turn it on and no amount of praying will give me the knowledge to turn it to a different channel. And, I need divine intervention when it comes to switching from Satellite to regular TV. Cussing a blue streak used to help me when raising the kids…they knew they were in trouble when the swear words started spewing forth. So, here’s my solution. I gave up. I gave the room to my husband entirely and it shows – wires hanging out all over, the davenport sags in the middle because he lays down on it while watching TV, and the numerous remote controls overwhelm my end table.

I also said I’d never put a TV in my living room, but things change. When my mom comes over, she wants to watch a TV and NOT have to go down the stairs to the basement. So, we bought a flat panel screen TV and it hangs on the wall instead of one of the paintings I so dearly love…sigh…It has a DVD player hooked to it but that’s all…NO MORE!

Oh, BTW, we used to have DirectTV and I hated having to switch over to Satellite and back again and then try and figure out which button to push on which remote. So, we switched to Dish and it’s wonderful…one control, no switch box and I can get local channels on it, which I couldn’t with DirectTV, thus the switch over to Satellite. Check out Dish!

– Sue Nail, Radiosophy.com

]]> By: strom http://strom.wordpress.com/2006/06/28/digital-convergence-is-all-about-sports/#comment-714 strom Fri, 30 Jun 2006 09:00:46 +0000 https://strom.wordpress.com/2006/06/28/digital-convergence-is-all-about-sports/#comment-714 I think your observations are right on, but I reach some different conclusions. First, I eparate HD from converged media in the living room. I've got converged media and I love it. It has little to do, however, with broadcast TV, HD or not. Like you, we watch little of it. But my evolution of digital video in the family room is following the same path that audio took: ripped and downloaded the music to my PC; moved it all to a server to be able to share it around the house on the network; found the family room friendly device to play the music through the stereo system (I've used Turtle Beach's Audiotron for years). Video is going the same way. Video is home movies, Hollywood productions, YouTube clips, obscure animation, public domain stuff. TV is last on my list. I've now got a terabyte of ~1,500 pieces of video from all over the place. OK, a bunch of it are classic movies I've "ripped" from my hacked Tivo, but I don't count that as TV. The key to the whole system though is the best hack I've ever installed: Tivoserver. This magical piece of software serves up video in virtually any format (specifically whatever a full ffmpeg compile can handle) through my Tivo. All the video appears in the "Now Playing" list. Select the clip and it gets transcoded and served up on the fly. The WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) is max'd out: she can find and play anything she wants. We also just threw up a folder full of photos on the TV/monitor that we took on our family cruise. Yup, through the Tivo interface again. I'd do my music this way too, but I'm too happy with the Audiotron. So, I agree: it ain't gonna be Windows in MY living room. It might have been MythTV, but I know I'd spend 10 hours fiddling for every hour of watching. Once Verizon finishes the Fios install in my neighborhood, I'll get Slingbox or the equivalent and I'll be able to serve this stuff up anywhere I am. I also agree it ain't gonna be sports that gets me to HD. Frankly, I don't know what will. It's not likely to be TV of any sort. The DRM crap that Hollywood is imposing on HD DVDs of either format will keep me away until that gets cracked. But without any of that, I'm as happy as a pig in you-know-what with the setup I've got. My only problem: I keep running out of disk space. But that's a good problem. -- Rich Bader, Easystreet.com, Portland OR I think your observations are right on, but I reach some different conclusions. First, I eparate HD from converged media in the living room. I’ve got converged media and I love it. It has little to do, however, with broadcast TV, HD or not. Like you, we watch little of it. But my evolution of digital video in the family room is following the same path that audio took: ripped and downloaded the music to my PC; moved it all to a server to be able to share it around the house on the network; found the family room friendly device to play the music through the stereo system (I’ve used Turtle Beach’s Audiotron for years).

Video is going the same way. Video is home movies, Hollywood productions, YouTube clips, obscure animation, public domain stuff. TV is last on my list. I’ve now got a terabyte of ~1,500 pieces of video from all over the place. OK, a bunch of it are classic movies I’ve “ripped” from my hacked Tivo, but I don’t count that as TV. The key to the whole system though is the best hack I’ve ever installed: Tivoserver. This magical piece of software serves up video in virtually any format (specifically whatever a full ffmpeg compile can handle) through my Tivo. All the video appears in the “Now Playing” list. Select the clip and it gets transcoded and served up on the fly. The WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) is max’d out: she can find and play anything she wants.

We also just threw up a folder full of photos on the TV/monitor that we took on our family cruise. Yup, through the Tivo interface again. I’d do my music this way too, but I’m too happy with the Audiotron.

So, I agree: it ain’t gonna be Windows in MY living room. It might have been MythTV, but I know I’d spend 10 hours fiddling for every hour of watching. Once Verizon finishes the Fios install in my neighborhood, I’ll get Slingbox or the equivalent and I’ll be able to serve this stuff up anywhere I am. I also agree it ain’t gonna be sports that gets me to HD. Frankly, I don’t know what will. It’s not likely to be TV of any sort. The DRM crap that Hollywood is imposing on HD DVDs of either format will keep me away until that gets cracked.

But without any of that, I’m as happy as a pig in you-know-what with the setup I’ve got. My only problem: I keep running out of disk space. But that’s a good problem.

– Rich Bader, Easystreet.com, Portland OR

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