REDMOND, Wash. — May 21, 2013 — A new vision for the future comes to life today as Microsoft Corp. unveils Xbox One , the all-in-one gaming and entertainment system created for today and the next generation. At Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Wash., the company showcased how Xbox One puts you at the center of all your games, TV, movies, music, sports and Skype.

See the full press release at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/Press/2013/May13/05-21XboxPR.aspx.

Lots of information at http://www.xbox.com/en-US/xboxone/what-it-is.

I still haven’t given up the idea that my Samsung 55” HDTV can be successfully driven by a cool little Windows 7 or Windows 8 box.  Zotac just announced Zotac Zboz.  Catchy name.  Sounds familiar.

I’d like to put something like this in my entertainment center and have it record FIOS TV from a Ceton USB or HDHomeRun Prime network tuner. 

Anyone doing this?  I tried this before with an ATOM based Acer Revo and it didn’t work out so well.  Anyone have thoughts on the chipset in this?  Click the pic for the manufacturer information or the link below.

See http://www.zotacusa.com/zbox-amd-e-350-apu-all-in-one-zboxnano-vd01-plus-u.html.  Looks like they have a .PDF data sheet at http://www.zotacusa.com/specsheet/ZBOXNANO-VD01-PLUS-U.pdf.

Need a camera that shoots 1,052 frames per second at 1080p resolution?  Well, if you’re trying to stop action a bullet or a NASCAR race, this baby has your number.  No, it isn’t exactly a compact digital camera, but it is six figures.  $118,000 to be exact.  Full specs and hardware porn at http://www.visionresearch.com/index.cfm?sector=htm/files&page=camera_HD_new.

This thing makes my new Canon G11 look like a spec of dust. I feel so inadequate now. Grin.

Now available for order at tivo.com

You wouldn’t think you could actually make a technology leap in high definition television at home.  I mean after all high definition televisions are all displaying the same thing, right?  Wrong.  I did it this past weekend and the results are still blowing me away every evening.

A few months ago I had decided to purchase a new HDTV and sell my HP 58” DLP MD5880n to my brother-in-law.  Buck was willing to give me a little money for it, but in the end I decided to just give it to him.  Pretty good deal for him, eh?

I had narrowed my list of possible sets to a 58” Samsung Series 8 plasma, a 58” Panasonic V10 plasma, and the 55” Samsung Series 8 LED LCD.  I went to a BestBuy in far north Texas in Flower Mound because they had them all on display nearly side-by-side.  All three sets are impressive and after looking at the picture quality, fiddling with menus and settings, and kicking the tires I left the store in order to shop for the price I wanted.

Waiting turned out to be a good and bad idea.  Just before the BestBuy visit, I noticed the supply of the Samsung LED LCD UN55B8500 I wanted was starting to dry up.  I knew CES was coming and Samsung was likely to announce a successor, but I hadn’t anticipated inventory disappearing already.  But the internal Microsoft employee deal was already gone.  Not a good sign.

BestBuy put the UN55B8500 on sale.  In fact, as of this writing it still is but they didn’t have any in stock other than display models in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana.  Nothing in the central warehouse for shipping from bestbuy.com either.

I looked at frys.com and noticed they also had the set on sale.  I called the salesman I had talked to a week earlier and asked if he had one new in the box.  He said he had two.  I told him I’d be there in 30 minutes to buy one.  I already knew from prior dimension and weight research that the box would fit perfectly in my wife's Honda Element with one back seat folded up.  It did.  Perfect fit.  Made for each other.  Karma.

The Wife Acceptance Factor

My wife rarely comments about technology changes around the house.  After living with a nerd for so many years she is used to stuff coming and going.  I think she thought I was crazy to consider replacing the DLP set.  I’m not really sure.  I didn’t really ask because I didn’t have to get the purchase through the budget committee.  The purchase was funded by selling of stuff from my home office I wasn’t using.  I also won third place in a contest and that helped seal the deal. 

We moved the HP DLP off the den entertainment center stand and into the garage for bro-in-law pickup. We then pulled the box out of the Honda and set it in front of the tv stand.  I think she was pretty surprised when I lifted the box cover off and we lifted the new set out of the box and on the stand.  Thin and light baby.

I had the protective tape off, box removed and new HDTV up and running about twenty minutes later.  I had to go over and pick her jaw up off the floor.  I must admit, the out-of-box experience was fantastic.  There was absolutely no question from anyone that has been to my house since that this HDTV is a technology leap. 

You want to see Verizon FIOS TV shine?  This set really does it justice.  The recordings coming off my TiVo are fantastic.  The Blu-ray 1080p playback is unreal.  It’s actually too good.  Is that possible?  Let me put it to you this way.  You actually feel like you are on the set where some of the movies or TV shows are being shot, while they are shooting it.  My wife commented, “It no longer looks fake.  It looks like we are on the set”.

Watching the remaining football games last Sunday was a blast.  So clear and detailed.  I am looking forward to this coming weekends NFL games. I am also going to re-watch some of my favorite movies.  The XBOX 360 across HDMI at 1080p aint bad either. Gotta love winter. 

The Samsung UN55B8500 is a phenomenal set.  I just hope I am not kicking myself in a few weeks for not buying the new Samsung Series 9000 LED with 3D capabilities.  Naw, this should keep me happy until the holodecks are available in 2015.

Yesterday afternoon I received the Acer AspireRevo 3610-U9012. It’s classified as a consumer desktop or nettop but HDTV and media center enthusiasts like myself are looking at this device for a different purpose.  In fact, I want the Revo for one purpose and only one purpose.  To replace my TiVo Series 3 with a small form factor Windows 7 machine. In other words, HDTV recording and playback. Period.

Can the Acer handle it?

Yes. For my purposes it’s clear this little machine will do what I want.  Thank heavens for the amazing NVIDIA ION graphics chipset in this machine.

I like to net this stuff out early in a write-up but you should pay close attention to my requirements and compare them to yours. My main requirement is recording premium cable content on Verizon FIOS TV.  I am not using this machine for Netflix downloads, Hulu, or anything else.  I might later, but for now it’s main role in life is to record FIOS programming I specify.

First impressions count but as I discovered testing smartphones, things can add up later.  This is just the first 24 hours of use so some show stopper could crop up later.  Let’s dig into the details of prepping and testing the Revo.

Unpacking and prepping

You can see the full specifications and all of the software that is loaded at the factory on the Acer website.  Unpacking was easy but I didn’t use the wireless keyboard, mouse or speakers that came with the PC.  Instead, I hooked the machine up to my KVM switch in order to prep the machine for my needs.

Within a few minutes of me powering the machine on and logging in for the first time, a program launched and asked if I wanted to create a factory recovery disk set.  Of course I answered yes and plugged in my external Sony DVD burner.  It took about thirty minutes to burn the three DVD’s.  I wish every OEM did this. 

After creating the factory disk set, I started uninstalling all of the software I didn’t intend to use.  This was pretty much everything but Windows 7.  That took about 75 minutes and it wasn’t fun at all. MyWinLocker was a particular pain in the ass.  It’s beyond me why the OEM’s install all of this software.  I know it’s a revenue stream for them but they should seriously ask their customers BEFORE installing it.

Show Time

After removing everything but Windows 7, it only took fifteen minutes to go through the Media Center Setup, let the MCE shell update and sync, then run the Digital Cable Advisor.  The Revo passed the test so I plugged two external ATI Digital Cable Tuners into the Revo and ran the MCE setup again to define the FIOS TV service for North Texas.  Both of my ATI tuners have been paired to the FIOS TV system for some time so as expected I was able to tune in all of the channels right away.  It takes a little while to sync all of the guide data.

While the guide data was downloading and populating, I hit a few channels to see how live TV looked.  The first channel I hit was ABC and President Obama was giving the State of the Union address.  Actually, now that I think about it, I looked at FOX first and noticed the audio was out-of-sync with the video.  Then I switched to the other national channels.  ABC was in perfect sync so I left it there for a few minutes to gauge how well things were working.

I wanted to get a better idea of how well the Revo was handling motion so I surfed through some of the movie channels and watched various programs.  The HDTV playback was smooth as silk.  This is a very good sign.

Time to Sleep

The next thing I wanted to test was some basic power management stuff.  I really just wanted to verify the device would turn off the monitor on time, suspend, resume on a recording event, then go back to sleep.  I also wanted to make sure I could wake the machine with nothing but the remote control. It does that flawlessly.

In fact, the Revo has recorded over twenty programs and has not missed a wakeup event yet.  In order to do that, the device needs to make sure all of the drives are spun up, tuners alive and kicking, etc.  That orchestra is working very nicely.

Storage

The Revo comes with a 160GB 5400rpm hard drive inside the case.  This is perfectly fine for the operating system and any applications, but it not sufficient for high definition recording storage.  You can record 160GB in one day and in fact I did.

Instead of recording to the internal drive, I recorded all of the HDTV programming to an external drive.  The external drive is a 3.5” Hitachi 1TB 7200rpm drive in a Nextstar 3 enclosure.  The enclosure is connected to the Revo via the Revo’s eSATA port.  The SATA chipset is NVIDIA nForce.  It’s the first time I’ve used NVIDIA SATA and it’s working very well.

By the way, my long term solution is not the Nexstar 3 case.  I use a better enclosure for HDTV recording that has a much better fan and ventilation for cooling.

Oldies but Goodies

Several of the peripherals I connected to the Revo are pretty ancient by technology standards.  For instance, I didn’t use the included keyboard and mouse.  Instead, I am using a standard issue circa 2005 Windows XP Media Center Edition Remote and IR Receiver (see pic above), and Windows XP MCE Remote keyboard (also pictured below).

I have no plans to use a keyboard or a mouse with the machine on a day-to-day basis but it’s nice to mess around with some oldies to see how they work with the new kid on the block.  As expected, the IR receiver, remote control and keyboard all worked very well.

I also tested several bluetooth mice.  I am currently using the Presenter Mouse 8000 but my all time favorite is the Wireless Laser Mouse 8000.  I tested several just to make sure in a pinch I could connect one and do some stuff on the machine.

TiVo Replacement?

Is the Acer AspireRevo a TiVo replacement?  In the strictest sense the answer is really no.  The TiVo is for the most part a single purpose device.  The Revo is really a general purpose device that just happens to fulfill the HD DVR role really nicely with Windows 7.

The Revo is nearly silent and has an abundance of connectivity options. I am using the HDMI port on the Revo to display on a Dell LCD panel right now via a HDMI->DVI adaptor.  Unlike the TiVo, the Revo does not have built in tuners and slots for the CableCards I am using.  Therefore, when you compare the cost of a TiVo solution to the Revo plus the other components you need to buy, the TiVo solution is cheaper.

But I like the UI in the media center shell for Windows 7 so I wanted to try this solution. A couple of critical transitions are coming. First, I need to see how my Wife likes this solution.  After using the TiVo for several years now, change is hard and lets face it, the TiVo Series 3 works darn well.  Then there is my acceptance.  The jury is out right now.  I need to fully explore the interface.  One thing I haven’t discovered on the Revo is how to search and filter movies that are only HD.  New user stuff like that will start to get discovered this weekend as I plan to move the unit from my office to the entertainment center here in the den.  Then the real testing begins…

Summary

The Acer AspireRevo is meeting my expectations so far.  I’ll come back and update this post later with more findings and discoveries.  I figure I’ll have formed a solid opinion on the device in a couple of weeks.  Right now I give this a solid thumbs up.  I wish I had the Dell Zino sitting here for a side-by-side comparison.  If the Revo fails the critical WAF, it probably won’t be the hardware so the Zino probably won’t make the difference.  The WAF test is going to boil down to software.  As it should be.

[12/6 FINAL UPDATE] The Acer AspireRevo 3610-U9012 is not going to get to the all important WAF. It didn’t pass the more stringent KAF and I’ll be setting up a return.

For the uninitiated, WAF stands for Wife Acceptance Factor and it’s critical to integration of any technology into the family.  The Keith Acceptance Factor is a strict filter that is imposed on all incoming tech that will be used by the family.  New tech has to get by me first.

Where did the Revo fall down?  There were three key areas.  The first place was the speed of the Media Center Shell UI.  When the machine was on my desk for the initial check out, UI navigation and speed wasn’t super apparent. I was using a keyboard and mouse a lot.  When I put the Revo in the entertainment center and started comparing it to the TiVo Series 3 side-by-side, frustration started to set in.  It was just too slow.  There was a big difference in the remote control operation and responsiveness.

Second, and really the kiss of death were the lockups that happened in the MCE UI.  Any lockup or halt is unacceptable.  This simply doesn’t happen in the TiVo so the bar is high.  Having the Revo lockup and force a shutdown of the unit simply won’t work.  It isn’t apparent if it’s the hardware or software and I won’t be troubleshooting it.

Lastly is the comparison of the required integration of the Windows based solution compared to a TiVo appliance.  The TiVo contains the internal tuners and has slots for the CableCards built right into the unit.  The TiVo is a single purpose appliance and it really shows.  Does one thing great as opposed to the Windows 7 unit and all of the added peripherals that were needed.  I held up all of the power, USB, SATA and other cords needed to connect the Revo and showed my wife.  She said, “I could not connect that”.  Exactly.

If you want to record HDTV from cable or fiber, and don’t want to use the cable companies rental HD DVR, then the TiVo is still king.  I still love the Windows Media Center Shell UI but we really need a single purpose appliance to perfect the experience.  Unfortunately the Revo isn’t it.

Microsoft announced at CEDIA that customers will now be able to add digital cable tuners with a CableCARD™ to any Windows® 7-based PC with Windows® Media Center. The Digital Cable Advisor tool is being provided by Microsoft to analyze consumer PCs to ensure that they are capable of a quality digital cable viewing experience.

The Digital Cable Advisor measures system parameters such as CPU speed, RAM, graphics card support for hardware acceleration, and digital connection capabilities. If the PC meets the minimum requirements, the tool enables digital cable functionality on the PC. Then, users can add a digital cable tuner with a CableCARD™. With a digital cable subscription from a TV service provider, users can access cable pay-TV, including premium content.

In addition, the latest ATI 1.19 Firmware which enables Copy Freely for CableCARD™ recordings is now available via Windows Update.

See the full details on the Windows 7 Media Center Team blog at http://thegreenbutton.com/blogs/windows_media_center_team_blog/archive/2009/11/06/digital-cable-advisor-now-available.aspx.

This is by far my favorite feature of Windows 7 !!!

FINALLY!!!  We made some seriously cool announcements tonight at CEDIA.  Here’s an excerpt from the press release:

Today at CEDIA EXPO 2009, Microsoft Corp. discussed key Windows Media Center features for Windows 7 and announced a series of initiatives that enhance the digital cable experience in Windows Media Center. With the addition of native support for additional international broadcast TV standards, including QAM and ATSC, there will now be support for switched digital video (SDV), a new tool that will make it possible for end customers to add a digital cable tuner with CableCARD to their PC, and for existing digital cable tuner with CableCARD customers to enjoy more portability for digital cable TV that is marked as “copy freely” (CF). In addition, Microsoft and the Media Center Integrator Alliance (MCIA) announced the winner of the 2009 Windows Media Center Ultimate Install Contest, showcasing the many ways Windows Media Center can be used in a whole-home solution.

See the full release @ http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2009/sep09/09-09MSWinMCCEDIAPR.mspx.

It used to be you had to buy a very specific configuration from the OEMs to be able to record premium high definition programming across a CableCard OCUR configuration.  Now you can build it yourself!!!  This is really good news for enthusiasts that want to take advantage of Windows 7 and the Media Center functions.

Look very closely at the press release.  There are a number of jewels in it.  Man, my Christmas list keeps getting longer and longer.

Engadget.com has a pretty decent review of the new features in the Media Center feature of Windows 7 at http://www.engadgethd.com/2009/07/27/windows-7-media-center-review/.  If you haven’t ever experienced recording TV with Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7, you need to check it out.

Saturday I did an in-place upgrade of my Windows Vista Ultimate x64 SP2 machine.  The upgrade went very smoothly.  I hit one small issue with my digital cable tuner activation that I was able to workaround.  Since that time I have recorded several movies.  I am also testing sleep/resume to verify it is waking up properly for scheduled recordings.

I’ll report more results later and capture some of the action in the form of a screencast.

Anyone else other than me think it sucks that we can buy all sorts of Star Wars approved apparel, but when it comes to buying the widescreen Blu-ray versions of the movies they are nowhere to be found?  What is it with George Lucas and the owners of that franchise anyway?  Click the pic for your pre-order link but having Yoda stuck into your lappy USB port isn’t going to make you a Jedi, and the force isn’t making a Blu-ray anniversary boxed set.

Loyal blog readers know I haven’t been exactly kind to Dell over the years.  The ridicule has been focused primarily on the lame GPU in my Latitude D820.  I’m over that now.  The machine is three years old so the rant can be put to rest. 

It’s also no surprise that on the internet you tend to hear more gripes than accolades.  Duh.  That’s pretty much human nature.  We are usually on the bitter end of the “I got screwed” stick.  But on occasion people get delighted.  It isn’t often that customer service is good, and they exceed your expectations.  Apparently someone at Dell cares.  And I care they care. 

What Happened ???

At 8:15am on the morning of June 8th I hit the power button on my Dell XPS 420.  Bad idea.  The power supply began arcing badly and I swear it seemed as if fire erupted from the backend of the machine.  Smoke billows.  My wife and I almost have heart attacks as this machine is making a terrible sound and having an electrical exorcism. 

She rushes into my office and makes an attempt at help.  I do my best non politically correct version of the Jedi mind trick, “You don’t want to come in my office and help kill the exorcist beast”.  I’m basically trying to triage fire, a severe electrical issue, smoke and possibly burning the house down at sub nanosecond speeds.  She catches the look on my face and backs off.

I get things shut down and pull the plug on the volcanic bastard.  Unfortunately I am headed out of town for the next five days so all I can do is set the smoldering hulk of XPS 420 in the middle of the floor and hope I resolved the issue.  I’m sad.  I love the Dell XPS 420.  So perfect in every way.  Beautiful case.  HDTV recording capability.  Eats HD video for lunch.

Help Desk Time

It’s now a week later and time to call the help desk for the first time.  Nope, scratch that.  Time for the Dell Support chat session to India.  I wonder what that is like.  Actually, I have a pretty good idea.  Like many of you, I’ve been on the ugly end of the “on call” support line.  It must be an amazingly fun thing to field the complaints from dissatisfied America customers in India.  I digress.

The folks on the chat were very professional.  I think they got a little nervous when I mentioned electricity arcing from the machine.  I told them all I needed initially was a replacement power supply.  I knew it was toast and figured we’d find out after it’s replacement what else got fried.

They were having nothing of it.  They indicated to me this would be a full machine replacement because they don’t like to risk such matters.  Probably a good idea.  But I knew there was the problem.  They haven’t made the XPS 420 for months.  And I’m not particularly relishing the idea of a lame refurb for a machine replacement, when the machine being replaced isn’t even a year old.

It Gets “Better”

You know how this goes right?  I have the overnight business support warranty.  The actual brand name for the warranty changes but I’m thinking overnight means overnight.  Wrong.  Overnight is true for stuff like a video card or something, but a full machine replacement is 7-21 business days (as I was informed).

This isn’t my first goat rodeo.  I knew that was coming.  So I didn’t let my blood pressure pop a vein in my forehead.  As I get older I am more at peace with things out of my control.  People that know me are probably laughing hysterically right now.  But it’s true.  I maintain my kewl and figure we’ll see what happens. 

Fast forward one week.  I decide to call Dell and no sooner do I start digging out the email with the chat session transcript and the FEDEX truck arrives.  Timing is everything and I am already thinking the timing is beyond fascinating.

Delivered

The FEDEX guy starts walking up the sidewalk and as usual I meet him at the door.  The box has a big Dell XPS logo on the side and the FEDEX dude makes some comment it means Extreme Framerate Server.  I told him he got that right and say thank you.

I’m right in the middle of my fiscal year end reporting so I don’t have time to unpack the box right right then.  I do however have the smarts to rip the packing slip off the box and throw it on my desk.  Time to make a quick sandwich.

Curiosity kills the cat.  I peek at the packing slip.  I notice something odd.  It says NVIDIA GTX 285.  That was a mental train wreck right there.  I’m thinking, “Isn’t the NVIDIA GTX 285 one of the hottest video cards made right now???”  I smile and think, wasn’t that cool?  Dell threw me a bone on the replacement XPS 420 refurb piece of crap they sent me.  That was so far from the truth.

Wrong, So Wrong

Much to my surprise, I didn’t receive a refurb at all. I also didn’t receive what I figured they might send if I was lucky, the Dell XPS 435.  Instead, they sent me the Dell XPS 630i.  I didn’t really know it at first.  I pulled it out of the box and there was no Zune or PMP bay in the top so I knew something was fishy.

Yep, after checking online, this is the XPS 630.  One of their top machines.  I start checking the specs.  750 watt power supply.  Uh oh.  My electricity bill is going up. Then I start thinking…  does this bad boy have the OCUR BIOS I need to use my ATI Digital Cable Tuners and record HDTV from FIOS TV?  Nope!!!  Crap, now what do I do?  Uh, hello?  Use the other XPS 420 you have.

So the net net is that I burned up a Dell XPS 420, and nearly my house, but Dell did a great job of fixing the situation and sending a machine in less than a week.  The customer support folks on the chat session were very professional. The replacement unit I received exceeded my expectations even though I lost one of my favorite XPS 420 features. I have used the machine now for four days and so far I am very happy with it.  It’s very quiet and a solid machine for expandability in the future.  I’ll do a much better review in a few weeks.

Summary

Way to go Dell.  I didn’t request anything special and you certainly exceeded my expectation on the handling of this case.  The only thing I would say that needed improvement is the bad news your CSR’s deliver to customers.  Instead of telling them it could take up to 21 business days, you might want to emphasize it could be a lot less.  I can’t imagine how pissed I would be if they informed me of that if I had one laptop and it was dead.  21 days would have meant a laptop rental in that case.  Anyway, I am happy how this turned out.  Thanks for not screwing your customers.  I’ll keep my Dell stock a little longer.

As much as I would have liked to see HD-DVD succeed, I ended up caving and getting a Blu-ray disk player.  I purchased the Sony BDP-S350 player and have been enjoying it.  When I purchased the player a few weeks ago, I picked up a few titles but considering I already owned their SD equivalents I figured I’d wait until a good new title arrived before I wrote about it.

Ironman arrived in stores this week and BestBuy had it for a “great” price.  If you’ve been tracking prices you’ll know I’m being sarcastic considering the prices of Blu-ray titles are pretty expensive.  I also said had because the title sold out in my area very quickly and I ended up getting the title at a store by my office.

As expected, the movie looks great on my 58” DLP set.  The color and contrast look very nice and the sound is awesome.  I had a chance to compare the move in three different settings. 

Charles Van Huesen has a 73” Mitsubishi set at his house.  But Charles doesn’t have a Blu-ray player so I watched a few portions of the movie on his big screen in standard definition (upscaled) with his rocking sound system.  The explosions rattle the house and neighbors.  His sound system is far better than mine and adds some punch to the movie.

But the Blu-ray title is superior and adds some clarity so as soon as Charles returns the Lenovo ThinkPad W500 I loaned him, he’ll get the Blu-ray demo and you can imagine what’s going to happen after that.  I mean come on, if he can afford a 73” HDTV, he can afford a $300 Blu-ray player.  So much for the college fund for Austin.  Grin.

I am also watching the movie right now on my Dell XPS 420 using the 24” and 27” I have.  Looks great on both although it looks much better on the big screen.  I’m looking forward to other titles that will be coming out this fall.  Now if we can just get them to reduce the prices of the movies, maybe they’ll see more adoption of the tech.  Right now it’s a pretty expensive proposition.  Enjoy.

I've had my Dell XPS 420 six months now so I thought I'd give you an update on my impressions of the machine and changes I'm made to it since the initial purchase.  In reality, it just now does everything I want correctly.  Windows Vista SP1 fixed the last issue I had with the machine.  So once again for all of you that want to stick with Windows XP, this machine is a really good reason to go with Windows Vista.

My XPS has been running Windows Vista Ultimate x64 since nearly day one.  All of the applications I use work really well on the 64 bit platform, even though most of them aren't native 64 bit compiled apps.  I am using two main video editing tools.  Sony Movie Studio Vegas Platinum Edition and Expression Studio 2.  Vegas is my workhorse and I am getting ready to create my first high definition DVD on Blu-ray.  I don't yet have a Blu-ray disk burner, so if someone has a good recommendation, let me know.

A few weeks ago I pulled the two 512MB RAM sticks and replaced them with two 2GB sticks.  I have a total of 6GB of memory now in the machine.  I don't really need all of that memory but the memory at dell.com went on sale and I had a $200 gift card waiting to be burned.  So I got some memory, a Zune charger for my wife, and some other stuff.

The one thing that hasn't worked correctly until recently is the machines ability to wake up from sleep and record a program.  If you are buying one of these to be a DVR, then that would be a key feature that needs to work.  Mine didn't.  It would sleep correctly.  It would wake up on time and attempt to record.  But the machine wouldn't record.  It had something to do with how long the tuners need to wake up before they were ready.  I guess they need strong coffee like I do.

A few days ago I upgraded the firmware on my ATI TV Wonder Digital cable tuners.  Here are the links to the new updates:

32 bit: http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/vista32/ocur-vista32.html

64 bit: http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/vista64/ocur-vista64.html

After I upgraded the tuners, I installed Windows Vista SP1.  I was told after applying SP1, I should re-apply the NVIDIA video drivers for my 8600 GTS so I did that as well.  Magically everything works now.  For the past three or four days it has woken from it's slumber, recorded whatever I had scheduled, then gone back to sleep ten minutes after doing the recording.  Yaaay !!!  It has never done that correctly until this week.  I don't know exactly what fixed the issue.  It was probably the combination of the firmware upgrade, and SP1.

Now keep in mind my XPS 420 is a pretty lowly model by XPS standards.  It has the Intel Q6600 quad core processor.  The video card is a good video card, but it is by no means a top of the line card.  But my machine is very quiet and does exactly what I want it to do, and I have high confidence it will continue to do so for the next three to four years. 

If you are considering one of these, buy with confidence.  Rock solid.  Nice looking.  Good price.

Mitsubishi Electric Diamond Vision™ Is Dallas Cowboys’ Choice for New Stadium

World’s Largest 1080p High-Definition LED Video Displays Will Span 60 Yards

WARRENDALE, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Dallas Cowboys, whose ingenuity and reputation for excellence are the gold standard in the National Football League, have selected Mitsubishi Electric to provide all of the fully integrated high-definition LED video displays, LED fascia ribbon boards and scoring display systems for their new stadium, which is scheduled to open for the 2009 NFL Football season.

The one-of-a-kind, four-sided scoreboard will feature the world’s largest LED high-definition (1080p) video displays. The center-hung structure consists of four Diamond Vision™ video displays, with the two main sideline displays measuring 72 feet high by 160 feet wide and two Diamond Vision™ end-zone displays measuring 29 feet high by 51 feet wide. It will be suspended 110 feet directly over the center of the playing surface and stretch from one 20-yard line to the other.

See the full article and specs at http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/news/sections/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsLang=en&newsId=20080416005327.

Tonight I was surfing the guide on my TiVo S3 an noticed Showtime HD has Casino Royale scheduled.  Considering I had just watched half of the movie last weekend on DVD before heading to Phoenix and Las Vegas, I thought it was pretty interesting timing.  So I setup the recording and watched a different movie.  I also set my Dell to record the movie as well.  Keep in mind I am feeding the Dell and TiVo with FIOS TV.

A few minutes ago I started watching the Showtime HD version of the movie.  Much to my dismay, Showtime is showing a chopped version.  By chopped I mean it is zoomed and therefore you cannot see the full theatrical frame.  Why do they do this?  I know why they do it.  They want to fill the screen as opposed to having black bars on the top and bottom. 

I hadn't planned on comparing the DVD to the Showtime HD version, but I was noticing some bad motion on the Showtime version.  Some of the motion stuff I noticed was likely a combination of factors.  The zoomed movie doesn't help such matters.  But I started paying closer attention to the actual picture quality (PQ).

In short, my Sony standard definition upscaling DVD player was doing a pretty remarkable job.  And the standard def DVD player had one thing the Showtime HD version didn't...  the entire picture.  I can understand taking a widescreen movie and chopping it to fit a 4:3 aspect ratio screen, but there is little excuse to chop a 2.35:1 ratio movie for widescreen playback.  Let's not forget Verizon had nothing to do with the cropping of the movie by Showtime.

For a more interesting look into the antics of the cable providers (chopping and compression), see the post at http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=13393488&postcount=1.  This is a great comparison of Comcast to Verizon FIOS TV. 

The HD programming content war is going to happen.  Eventually enough consumers are going to become educated on this stuff and start demanding better quality.  It will be interesting to see what standards of measure can be agreed upon.  If they can be agreed upon.

Until then, buy yourself a good upscaling DVD player for less than $100 and enjoy your current movies because you have no control over what the networks and cable providers do to the content.  No control other than to vote with you dollars by discontinuing service but even that's too extreme for me. 

I’ve been a fan of Verizon FIOS since day one.  I was one of the first people outside the initial pilot on Keller, Texas to receive the service.  I’ve had it over three years.  The data service has been stellar.  Reliable.  Fast.  Cheap.  How many people say that about any computer service?

At the time FIOS TV was made available in my area, I was a FIOS Business customer running a static IP plan.  I was hosting five domains using Microsoft Small Business Server Premium.  SBS is a great product for that implementation.  ISA, Exchange IIS, etc.  It’ll spoil you rotten.

During the first couple of years of FIOS use, I was using it only for data.  I was not using the video offering.  You see, someone decided businesses would not want TV services so that wasn’t engineered into the business plans, or I should say not in the static IP plans.  For that reason, I was stuck using Charter Communications for my video services.

Charter became unreliable and eventually after a huge outage, I kicked them to the curb and switched to FIOS TV.  That took a lot of work because I had to move our domains, email and websites to a hosting plan.  We are using 1and1.com for those services and I am happy with their price and reliability. We use the $9.99 per month business plan.

FIOS TV has been a pretty good service with a few exceptions.  Their HD DVR is pretty lame so I switched to a TiVo Series 3.  There’s just one problem.  There’s only a few HDTV stations on the FIOS TV service and it’s customer base is starting to get restless.  Everyone seems to want 150 HD channels.  The problem is that I don’t think there’s 150 quality HD channels.

Let’s talk about quality for a second.  It’s been pretty widely reported that FIOS TV is one of the best services in the US for watching high definition programming.  The working theory is that Verizon compresses the programming signal less than anyone else.  We’ll see if that theory holds up.  But the quality you get largely depends on the source.

For instance, some of the programming coming down that pristine fiber strand has already been butchered.  One channel in particular I know has the habit of taking a standard definition source and trying to upscale it, stretch or zoom it for widescreen formatting, and calling it HD.  It’s crap and they know it.

The same thing will happen when everyone is forced to switch from analog to digital this year.  You’ll simply get digital crap instead of analog crap.  But it will be digital and the FCC can mark it off their list of things to do.  Why do I call it digital crap?  Because garbage in produces garbage out.

It takes work to convert a classic source to a beautiful HD master piece.  I don’t know what it took to digitize “Lawrence of Arabia”.  I went looking for the details of how Sony did it, but so far I haven’t been able to come up with some decent facts.  The HD version of the movie was broadcast on HDNET 2/10/2008 and I recorded it to my TiVo Series 3, and my Dell XPS 420.

So what’s my point?  My point is, that even when everyone in the USA is forced to go digital this year, even when most of the cable and satellite providers have 150 HD channels, don’t expect those channels to broadcast 24x7 of high quality HD content.  It simply doesn’t exist right now.  You aren’t going to see “Lawrence of Arabia” quality programming coming down your dish, cable or fiber connection across all of those networks.  It’s a classic and how many classics do you actually see getting produced these days?

I’ll settle for a small number of great channels with premium programming.

A recent Wall Street Journal article, "The New Workplace Rules: No Video-Watching" written by Bobby White highlights the fact that many people are watching videos at work.  It's even more interesting that the heaviest consumption of those videos takes place during the lunch hours.

I worry about this for a couple of reasons.  First, if the corporate IT departments block all incoming video streams I'll be cut off from you.  No more screencasts.  No interesting videos.  Possibly no webcast replays.

But I worry most because we have pretty grandiose plans.  Everyone on my team has a HD camera.  Some of us are just figuring out how to use them.  We aren't experts like Ben Waggoner so it's taken longer than planned to actually create some content. 

As a creator of content I'm genuinely enthused about the tools and technologies.  What's not to love?  Laptops and desktops are powerful.  HD video cameras are almost affordable.  Software is now powerful and relatively easy to use.  I look at this as a tool for my job, information delivery.

What to create?

I recently developed a test video.  The Windows Server 2008 Overview video is a high definition 720p video I created from scratch.  This is a dress rehearsal for the tools and techniques I'm learning and honing.  This particular video uses several media elements and is just over 60 minutes in length.  The beginning is an introduction shot here at my home office using the Sony HD camera I have.  It also incorporates Powerpoint and demonstration captures using Camtasia 5.

My Criticisms of My Video

I'm pretty critical of my work, so let me highlight some of the stuff I dislike about the video, then I'll highlight the stuff I like.  Lastly, I want to ask you a few questions that will help me in the direction I am headed.  Pay no attention to the outlaw at right.

In the introduction, you'll notice I start off smiling nicely enough but the tone gets all too serious.  I need to drop 20 pounds.  Don't we all?  I'm obviously over concentrating which becomes apparent with the smirk at the end of the intro.  Have you ever tried to shoot video of yourself and deliver a salient set of remarks.  It isn't easy so as I practice, I'll get better. 

I'm very used to walking around on stage with 30-1000 people in the audience.  Trust me, talking to 1000 people is easier than looking into a camera or recording audio.  Imperfections are highlighted when recorded.  The lighting in the video is a little dark.  It was late in the day and the sun was already almost gone.  I'm thinking of shooting my future intros poolside.  It'll be more fun than the office look.  You'll be especially jealous if you see a perfect top shelf margarita sitting next to me.

This is the first screencast style video where I used Powerpoint.  The main reason I did it was because I wanted to see what recording widescreen 1280x720 slides would look like.  If you look closely on the beginning and ending slides (video bumpers), some of the graphics are slightly stretched but the Powerpoint deck looks killer.  I'll fix graphics issues better in future versions of my work. 

My delivery of the material is ok, not stellar.  I considered recording it again but have decided that I probably won't.  I have way too many subjects to cover.  So I fumble my words here and there on a few of the slides.  This is also true in the demonstrations.  This is primarily because I just snatched the slides and went to work pretty quickly on the test and demos.  I just wanted to slam something out there that would demonstrate the possibilities.  See some of my motivations in the next section.

So basically you have a 60 minute video overview.  The intro video is pretty good for a rookie that is learning.  The slides and demos look amazing.  When you are watching the video, be sure to set Windows Media Player to fit the player on resizes.  Try the video full screen or at other sizes that suite you.  Be sure to try the video at 100% zoom which is 1280x720.  If you are using a large square 4:3 ratio monitor, you'll see black bars on the top and bottom because this is a widescreen video.  Matt Hester didn't like that much.

Feedback I would like from you

I would like to learn a lot from this test, but I need your help.  My intention was to create a 60 minute high definition video that I could use to test the tools, techniques, our platform(s), your ISP connection and thoughts. 

When you are watching video on a subject, what is your pain threshold?  Is 60 minutes too much?  Many of our webcasts are 90 minutes.  Do you prefer shorter bursts of say 10-20 minutes?  I've been doing 5-10 minute screencast demos but when you add powerpoint, it doubles the time easily.

Do you like or dislike Powerpoint mixed with the demos?  Powerpoint is a great tool for providing references, animations and other information.  Would you prefer the information via a conversational video or in text via a blog post like this?  How did the slides look to you?

The demos are typical of what I've been doing the past couple of years with a couple of key differences.  They were shot at 1280x720 resolution instead of 1024x768.  They were shot at 30 frames per second instead of 15.  The bit rate for the video is much higher than any of the work I've created in the past.  This is the reason the demos and slides look killer.  What do you think?

How is the streaming?  I've been experimenting with the various delivery platforms and I'm nowhere near done yet.  I have at least two more content delivery platforms to test.  This particular test is pure streaming.  I've also been testing Silverlight progressive download playback and it's promising as well.  This video should stream pretty well for most of you here in the US that have a 3meg or better ISP connection.  It's a variable bit rate stream with a peak of 3meg.  My FIOS 15/2 connection plays the video smooth as glass.

What tools do I use?

I used a variety of tools.  Camtasia 5, Expression Encoder v2 Beta, Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum Edition, and Windows Media Encoder were all actually used at various points to create the final video result.  On the hardware side, my Sony HDR-HC7 video camera, and a Dell XPS 420 was used for the final encoding.  I'll get into the details of capturing, editing and final production in a future blog post.

Call To Action

Be critical.  Tell me what you dislike.  Tell me what you like.  Tell me how you learn.  Tell me what subjects we aren't covering effectively.

[UPDATE]  Here's the Silverlight version of the video.  This Silverlight player is going to playback the exact stream from the link above.  You have two viewing options with this player.  The small version that is embedded below, and full screen.  You can go full screen two ways.  Either double click the player, or click the button on the far left of the player controls. 

Supply and demand.  Can't live with em, can't shoot em.  Tom's Hardware is reporting that the price of Blu-ray players went up pretty significantly as the HD-DVD competition disappeared.  I'm in shock, aren't you?  There are a few predictable things in this world.  One of them is greed.

The second is revenge.

If the Blu-ray player makers and resellers think I'm going to rush out and buy a player right now, think again.  What were those imortal words of Khan again?  Let's reprise, shall we?

"To the last, I will grapple with thee. From hell's heart, I stab at thee. For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee."

Ok, that's probably a little harsh for the situation but I can hold out for a while.  First of all, my upscaling DVD player does a pretty nice job with regular standard def DVDs.  And regular DVDs are a hell of a lot cheaper than Blu-ray disks.

I also get plenty of HD content from Verizon FIOS TV.  And it looks like I'll be getting more.  The cable companies seem to be in this battle for who has the most HD channels.  I don't care if Verizon ever wins that battle but a few more channels would not hurt, and it's pretty much a given that's going to happen in 2008.

So basically I'll sit this one out for a while and ignore the Blu-ray makers and players.  Jack your prices all you want.

NEW YORK - Verizon technicians are upgrading FiOS with next-generation electronics to dramatically enhance the speeds, and thus the capabilities, of Verizon's all-fiber-optic FiOS broadband, video and voice network.

Known as gigabit passive optical network (G-PON) equipment, the new electronics can increase the line-rate bandwidth on the Verizon fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) network by four times downstream to the customer and eight times upstream back to the network. This provides the capability for future enhancements to Verizon's industry-leading FiOS Internet and FiOS TV products as new applications are developed and as customers demand more bandwidth.

Mark Wegleitner, Verizon Telecom's senior vice president-technology, said Verizon has already started to deploy G-PON broadly across the company's FiOS system.  The new equipment is being used in communities where Verizon is building FTTP for the first time. "Already, our all-fiber network is proving that it can deliver faster Internet speeds," Wegleitner said.  "G-PON electronics position us for the next level of even faster Internet speeds and even more interactive FiOS TV with new features.

"The G-PON deployment also illustrates the future-proof aspects of FiOS: We can use the same fiber network we use today but enhance the speed and capacity with new electronics in our central offices and at the customer premises."

The states where Verizon began initial deployment of G-PON are:  California, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Texas.

See the rest of the article at http://newscenter.verizon.com/press-releases/verizon/2008/verizon-extends-industry-lead-1.html.

See an article with pretty pictures at http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Verizon-FIOS-GPON-in-Nine-States-90824.

See http://policyblog.verizon.com/policyblog/blogs/policyblog/czblogger1/359/meet-rich-the-100mbs-man.aspx for an article about a Verizon employee that already has a 100Mbs connection. 

Verizon, are you hiring?

I am not talking about the hit series based on Halo.  I am talking about Blu-ray (blue) versus HD-DVD (red).  As you may have noticed, this week Warner Bros. Entertainment issued a press release that they are, "in response to customer demand", going to release it's high definition titles exclusively on the Blu-ray disk format beginning later this year.

See the press release at http://www2.warnerbros.com/web/corpcomm/press_release.jsp?id=BlurayDiscFormatRelease.

So what does this mean?  What will happen next?  Well, I guess your guess is as good as mine but I would imagine CES will be very interesting this week.  Bill Gates will be delivering his keynote tomorrow at 6:30pm.  I wonder if he'll say anything about HD-DVD.  Probably not, but I'm sure a lot of eyes and ears will be looking for any hints of what is to come.

So what are you going to do?

Like some of you, I have a little stash of gift cards I received from Santa and relatives this Christmas.  I usually burn them on DVD's each year.  The real question now is what to spend them on.  I'm inclined to just purchase regular ole standard def DVD's and let my upscaling DVD player try to make them look good.  It does an ok job, but HD it isn't.

I guess it's time for this little war to end but something tells me it isn't over just yet.  I wonder what would happen if Toshiba started selling a $149 HD-DVD player and HD-DVD titles for $19.  Would that even have an impact in the market?  Would it improve the market share enough to change the landscape?  Would Warner Brother change their mind if HD-DVD grabbed 60-70 percent market share?

Or is content king?  I'm thinking content is king.

[UPDATE for 1/6]  See http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/06/live-from-the-toshiba-ces-press-conference/ for the CES Toshiba press conference and slide decks.  I'm glad they had a great 4th quarter, but it remains to be seen what HD-DVD player sales will do now.  I was a little surprised from the article that they didn't take any questions. 

My first impressions of the Dell XPS 420 can be summed up in one word, "Solid !"  I've only completed a couple of phases in my new machines metamorphosis, but so far I'm pretty impressed with the machine and it's future.  So let's dive into what it was like when I received it, and the road we're on.

What is the goal?

When I purchased the machine Sunday, I had a couple of goals.  First and foremost, it's a video editing workstation.  I wanted a Quad core machine that could handle intense high definition and standard definition encoding, decoding and transcoding.  Second, I figured if I held out long enough, the Windows Vista market would mature and I could add premium high definition television recording.  TiVo is still handling the bulk of those duties at the moment.

The Package

The box arrived via Fedex in a light rain.  I'm glad it wasn't a heavy rain because the hand holds are open into the box.  There was no water damage.  Inside the box was the typical foam enclosure and a special XPS branded pack of goodies including a mouse pad, wire ties, wiping cloth, binder for disks, etc.  Nice job Dell.

The Hardware

Since I already have an array of LCD panels, I didn't order one with the unit.  If you can afford the Dell 24" widescreen LCD, get one.  I love mine.  I also have a 20" 4:3 aspect ratio LCD sitting right next to the 24" in a multimon configuration.  This gives you a ton of viewing options for the various applications and media you might view.  The 24" is running 1920x1200 and the 20" is running 1600x1200.  I use a KVM switch with these two monitors for the machines I own and use for work.

The XPS 420 computer is a medium to large size case.  There's easy access into the unit and it is designed to hold up to three hard drives, one or more DVD drives, media readers, etc.  I ordered my Dell with the cheapest hard drive they offer knowing I will be immediately replacing the drives through other sources to cut costs.  I also ordered it with the standard 3GB of memory.  The main two hard drive bays are quick access requiring no screws.  There is power routed to both bays.  If you order like I did but plan to add another drive, make sure you buy a SATA cable with the right angle end.  A standard SATA cable will protrude too much and prevent case closure.  I already knew that and had a cable in my drawer already.

The machine is very quiet.  There is plenty of ventilation through the case and it will be easily vacuumed when it's time to get rid of some of the dust.  The case itself is pretty attractive with the piano black front and silver sides. There are lots of USB ports front and rear, IEEE 1394 front and rear, GigE ethernet on the back, and an eSATA port on the back.  I see a future for that port.

The XPS 420 comes with a Sideshow LCD panel on the front top.  I haven't decided what if anything I'll use it for, but you can add all sort of Vista Sideshow gadgets and have it display stuff like the weather, number of unread inbox messages, stock ticker, etc.  It'll be fun to play with that later but it's a back burner item for now.

I fired the machine up and took a look around but that was pretty short lived.  I installed Ghost 12 and made an image of the factory install then pulled the 320GB drive out of the box.  I installed a 1TB drive for the OS and applications, then another 500GB drive for additional data capacity.  Although the XPS 420 comes with RAID on the motherboard, I am currently not using RAID 0 or 1.  I do frequent backups so I really don't need the data protection, and I don't have an I/O bottleneck at the moment that would require building a volume with more than one drive.

The machine configuration I ordered comes with two ATI Digital Cable tuners.  I'm not particularly impressed with the tuners because I think their design and stands are too big and clunky looking.  They are external tuners and connect to the XPS 420 via USB.  Good thing the XPS 420 has lots of USB ports.  The tuner cases are designed to let the heat dissipate.  I have both of my tuners hidden behind one of my LCD panels.  Easy access to them, but out of eye sight.  They are ugly (to me). 

The Software

Although Dell lets you deselect a bunch of software normally referred to as "crapware" in our industry, this machine comes with an impressive set of software.  Now don't get me wrong, there's stuff installed I would uninstall like the Google Desktop, but all in all it wasn't totally hosed by a bunch of crud.  One of the suites you cannot deselect on the ordering site is Adobe Elements Studio.  This includes Adobe Premiere Elements 4, Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 and Adobe Soundbooth.

I've been using Premier Elements for a while and like it.  I have never used Photoshop before but it's time to learn considering we dropped development and sales of the Digital Image Studio product family.  I've also never used the Soundbooth product, but if it works well, I know we can put it to use.  Dell supplies the product disk and serial numbers for the Adobe Elements Studio products in case you want to reinstall.

The Operating System (OS) and HD Television

Dell ships the XPS 420 with a number of OS choices.  Unfortunately none of the ordering configurations had what I want.  So when the tough get going, the tough flatten the box and re-install from scratch.  I considered running Windows Vista Home Premium, the 32bit version that the XPS 420 shipped with, for at least five minutes.  But I decided to roll the dice and install Windows Vista Ultimate x64.  I was a little worried about it for one reason and one reason alone.

The XPS 420 can be configured to support high definition recording.  Not just any high definition recording, premium cable high definition recording.  This is called OCUR and it's a Cable Labs certified and approved configuration that is required.  The BIOS used by OCUR machines is special.  So is the activation process.  As it turns out, it was pretty easy to switch to the x64 OS and config.  You just install a retail copy of Windows Vista Ultimate x64.  When you fire up the Media Center shell and go through the TV tuner configuration, you will be prompted for a special product key.  That key is on the COA sticker on the back of the XPS 420.  After you plug it in, the tuners are activated.  In reality, this sets up the PKI key sets used for the DRM required to be in place for OCUR systems.

After activating the tuners in the Media Center shell, it was a simple manner of downloading the guide and watching the standard definition channels.  Verizon is coming by on Tuesday to deliver the CableCards that plug into the tuners.  After those are in place and properly paired to the Verizon FIOS TV system, I'll be able to view all of the channels I pay for and record any content.  In the meantime, there's a menu item under the TV setup area that lets you scan for "other TV services".  This scan will detect any unencrypted QAM channels and add them to the guide listings.  Most cable systems carry ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, PBS and others "in the clear".  My scan found those channels so I mapped them to the appropriate channel for my area thus replacing the crappy standard def signal with the unencrypted QAM HD version.  Nice.  The machine plays high definition absolutely smoothly and fluidly.  It should.  The little screenshot at right shows me watching ABC in HD while directly connected to my Exchange Server mailbox (non cached mode) and surfing the net with IE7.  It's not even batting an eye.

Performance

There has been a lot of discussion in the industry about Windows Vista, it's performance and usability.  The Dell XPS 420 really makes Windows Vista shine.  I ordered mine with the Intel Quad Core Q6600 processor, 3GB of memory (2x1GB and 2x512MB), 320GB 7200rpm SATA drive and the NVIDIA 8600 GTS video card.  This is far from being a top of the line machine but it's still a very respectable platform.  Like you, I have a budget so I didn't order the Extreme Quad processor, a RAID array, etc.

From what I can tell of the performance so far, it's going to meet my needs nicely.  I'll know by the time the weekend is over.  I plan to do some transcoding and video work tomorrow.  When I decide to pull the 3GB of memory and bump it up, I will probably load it with 8GB of 800MHz RAM.  That will improve the overall platform some and give the applications plenty of headroom while watching HD programming.

If you are a serious gamer, look closely at the graphics card and power supply options.  I decided the 8600 GTS would meet my needs, cut down on power consumption, and lower the heat generated.  So far it seems to be the right choice for the roles my machine will play.  If you are a serious gamer, I'm not sure the other 475W power supply would meet your needs.  Then again, that's why Dell makes the XPS 720 and purchased Alienware.

Summary

Like I said, this seems to be a very solid machine.  If you can find one for $1500 delivered to your door, you should jump all over it.  The case and construction offers a lot of flexibility and expandability.  Ask me in 3-4 years how I like the machine.  I hope to have this one that long.  I'll write more about this later after the CableCard install.  Buy with confidence. I am changing my rating to buy with some caveats.  See the 12/29 update below.

[UPDATE for 12/21/2007]  The CableCard install happened Tuesday without issue and I can see all of the FIOS TV channels in the guide.  I can watch and record the HD channels.  However, I have had a number of recording failures when the machine resumed from sleep.  I am trying to spot a pattern so I am testing various sleep states (S1 and S3).  More later...

[UPDATE for 12/22/2007]  I updated the tuner firmware to the latest available production firmware from ATI.  I also applied the Windows Vista updates that were recommended in the firmware release notes.  This did not resolve the sleep/wakeup and record issues I'm seeing.  In fact, it made it worse.  Fortunately this isn't the core mission of my machine otherwise I'd be upset.

ATI Firmware updates:

http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/vista32/ocur-vista32.html

http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/vista64/ocur-vista64.html

[UPDATE for 12/27/2007] I have been running my machine for the past five days without letting it sleep.  It has recorded each and every program without issue on a variety of HD channels I receive with my Verizon FIOS TV package.  In fact, extender Xbox 360 HD playback has also been flawless.  I am researching the power states supported by the machine and will experiment with sleep again before too long.  I wanted to establish a baseline to verify the tuners are really working properly when fully powered and connected at all times.  I'd say 5 days and 500GB of recorded HD content has done that.

[UPDATE for 12/29/2007]  It appears I have the suspend/resume issue resolved with my XPS 420 when recording high def premium channels.  I have a bunch of programs set to record over the next few days so I'll document my config and post a completely separate post on the subject Wednesday or Thursday of next week (assuming we can declare success).  Spoke to soon...  the machine missed a recording this morning so this issue is not fixed... sigh...

I also seem to have identified a bug in the eSATA port implementation.  In order to use the eSATA port, the Intel ICH9R SATA RAID controller must be in AHCI mode.  My eSATA port didn't work with the factory config they shipped me (x86 Vista Home Premium).  I checked this morning since I still had the factory hard drive in original install state.  I reset the BIOS to factory settings and checked things there, too.  I'm assuming if you buy a machine directly from Dell with a RAID config implemented (two or more drives), that the RAID and eSATA port works.  However, that's a x86 32bit implementation.  I'd be interested to know the drivers and versions implemented on that configuration.  Send me email if you have it.  Dell is aware of this issue and looking into it.

[UPDATE for 1/11/2008]  I have rebuilt my machine from the ground up.  I am still on BIOS A02 and have the SATA controller in RAID AHCI mode.  My eSATA port is working properly.  In order for me to do this, I had to reinstall the operating system again, which is unfortunate.  I could not figure out how to get it to work any other way even though I received feedback inside and outside Microsoft.  I do not recommend doing this. If you reinstall the OS more than one time, you'll likely break the OCUR HD recording capability if you have the ATI digital cable tuners.  I recommend you wait for Dell to come up with a supported solution from their engineering team.  They may end up fixing this will a BIOS update or something.  I certainly hope so. 

At this point the only remaining problem I have with my machine is sleep/resume/record/sleep.  I was sent a list of KB articles and their associated fixes.  I will look more carefully at this over the weekend as time permits.  I can certainly live without this working correctly but I would prefer to get it fixed. 

So where do I stand on my buy recommendation?  I still think this is a super machine.  Dell is very aware of the AHCI RAID issue, sleep/resume and other minor issues.  If you don't need to attach a big freaking hard drive or cluster of hard drives to the XPS 420, then buy with confidence.  If you need the eSATA port and you buy a machine today, most likely the machine will arrive properly configured and this issue is effectively only valid for people that purchased prior to today.  They can be fixed a number of ways right now but obviously a reinstall of the OS would be a last resort.

[UPDATE for 5/8/2008]  See http://blogs.technet.com/keithcombs/archive/2008/05/08/dell-xps-420-six-month-report.aspx for my six month report card.

I've been resisting the urge to buy a new machine, but I think the wait is over.  I've been wanting a Quad processor to help speed along transcoding as well as providing a better platform for high definition editing.  I figured I'd just have to live without the CableCard capabilities since it seemed the expense ROI just wasn't there.

Well Dell is being disruptive again and is changing the game nicely.

Introducing the Dell XPS 420.  It has everything I want and with my EPP pricing, is right in the ballpark for what I have saved (and budgeted) to spend.  My current desktop machine is 3.5 years old.  It still works nicely and is currently running Windows Vista Ultimate x86 SP1 RC1.  It's great for email, surfing the web, gaming and recording over-the-air high definition television.  It isn't great for transcoding standard def video or encoding high definition video.  Its single processor just can't keep up.

It's funny, just the other day my wife says she needs a machine for her retail store.  She needs a machine to store order information, customer information, etc.  Her plan is to use Access for this information.  I told her then she can have my Dimension then along comes this Dell update.  Sure seems like the planets are aligning nicely.

If history repeats itself, we'll never see a significant promotion (discount) to the XPS line.  Of course as soon as I buy one, history will change.  In the meantime, check out the specs and configurable features at dell.com.

[Update] Ordered Sunday, shipped Tuesday, received Wednesday.  Man that was fast.  I'm moving some data around and begin the fun stuff tomorrow or Friday.  Work is getting in the way of my fun.  Oh well, work takes a back seat until next year starting Friday 12/14 at 5pm. 

One of the people that discovered my blog and the Archos 605 WIFI posting asked me about using TiVoToGo with the Archos player.  I've been meaning to try out the TiVo software so it was just the incentive I needed to check things out.  I like this time of year.  I get to burn some deserved vacation time and fiddle around with my gadgets instead of server software.  That and watch football, eat lots of goodies, and drink a few beers.  So many things to do, not enough time.

A few months ago when I bought the TiVo Series 3, I thought it would be kewl if I could offload the recordings to one of my portable media players.  I tried the TiVo desktop software briefly then, but I never took the plunge and purchased the Plus option that allows you to create H.264 or MPEG-4 "portable" versions of the recordings.  I made that purchase yesterday and last night put it to work.

As it turns out, it works pretty well.  I transferred about six weekly series episodes and a couple of movies to my laptop where the TiVoToGo software is running.  Those transfers end up being some files with the .tivo extension.  They are full blown HD versions of the recordings and look killer on my ThinkPad T61p 15.4" widescreen or Dell 24" flat panel.

During the transfer process, you can also kick off an additional transcode that will produce "portable" versions of the video.  The portable versions are down resolution versions of the high def recordings so there is a serious loss of bits during the process.  You can specify a variety of formats and for my tests I picked H.264 and MPEG-4. 

For comparison, the movie Happy Feet is 10GB in size after the transfer from the Series 3 to my laptop.  The portable version of the movie is 750MB.  Where did all of those bits go?  Well, from looking at the resulting playback, I would estimate the bit rate to be less than 700k. 

All of the H.264 and MPEG-4 conversions played well on the Zune 80 and the Archos 605 WIFI player.  Because the screen on the Archos 605 is much larger, the lack of detail in the video is more noticeable.  I didn't think the resulting bit rate and playback was great, but I would not characterize the video and playback as poor either.

So how long do the transfers and transcoding take?

The file copies take a pretty long time.  There's actually more going on during the file copies, or so it seems.  Keep in mind the files are pretty huge.  I use a 1000BaseT network at my house so the network isn't a bottleneck.  There appears to be some conversion going on during the copy from the TiVo box to your PC.  Another conversion takes place after that copy completes if you have specified you want a portable version.  This takes lots of time, and I was using my dual core laptop.

How would I set this up?

The TiVo desktop software lets you create a subscription called "auto transfer".  If you have a home server or desktop running the TiVo software, then it would automatically pull the recording off the TiVo and drop it to your PC.  You could of course have the portable version created at that time.  And then you could automatically sync that to a Zune 80 if the folder is being watched.

This is the holy grail.  We really need that type of support and automation in Windows.  We're working on it.  Until then, enjoy solutions like this with players like the Archos 605 WIFI or Zune 80.

There's a couple of other things worth noting here.  The movies came from HBO HD and Starz HD.  The weekly shows came from the local HD affiliates of ABC, CBS, etc.  All of this was delivered to my TiVo Series 3 via Verizon FIOS TV.  I understand some of the cable systems block what I accomplished (from the "premium" channels like HBO).  I personally think that stinks and see no reason for the block.

The video world as you know it is going to change soon.  Watch and see what happens over the next 3-5 years...

A couple of days ago I went up to the tivo.com website and filled out the form to request the new TiVo OS v9.2.  Well, it arrived early this morning while I was watching the HD recording of "Big Shots" so I snapped a pic of the message.  Ha Ha Ha.  Scared the crap outta me.  As it turns out, the update took about fifteen minutes and my hack Jumpstart 62 external eSATA drive is now officially supported via the new OS and settings.  I feel legit.

For those of you with a HDTV, now you have a great new HD DVR upgrade to consider.  First of all, they have the $200 TiVo Series 3 rebate promotion going.  That means you can get the dual CableCard tuner Series 3 for $399 after rebate.  I still think it's the best deal on the market.  This rebate runs through 1/26/2008 so Santa has plenty of time to think about it.

Second is official support for adding an eSATA drive.  They have the official 500GB drive in the TiVo online store at https://www3.tivo.com/store/accessories.do.

After adding the drive to a standard Series 3 TiVo, you'll have 750GB of disk space which nets out to just under 100 hours of high definition recording space.  This means you'll be able to record all of those weekly shows and several movies for several weeks before you need to start worrying about overwrites. 

Keep in mind this is the official verified drive.  A lot of people have added other non-official 1TB drives which I think is a bit crazy unless you want a ready archive of HD movies.

So how do you get the official support?  Buy the TiVo.  Buy the drive.  Have the TiVo OS v9.2 blown down to your S3 across the wire.  Add the drive in the settings area.  Simple.  See http://research.tivo.com/91priority/index.htm for the 9.2 request form. 

Ready, Set, TiVo !!!

[Note] Before someone comments, if you are looking to do any of the above to save money over your current rented HD DVR, you aren't going to save money and that's really the wrong approach.  What you get by going this route is a better guide than you probably have, and more recording space.  You give up pay-per-view and on-demand.  For my family, this has been a non issue.  I routinely surf the TiVo guide data (HD movies) and pick new releases or oldies for recording.  So my family goes to the "Playing Now" area of the TiVo and they see our weekly shows and other movies I picked.  It rocks.

Video cameras are everywhere but they are predominantly standard definition.  Chris Henley came up with the idea that each of the presenters on my team should have a camera to record customer testimonials, life on the road, etc.  But in this day and age, shouldn't those cameras be high definition?  You bet yer 1080i they should !!! 

So Chris convinced Dad to fork over the funds for a HD video camera for each person on my team.  Pricey little suckers.  Since they are high def, we'll be pushing the envelope soon on streaming and publishing and we are lining up some meetings with the various platform folks at Microsoft.com to discuss requirements, best practices for production, etc.

What camera are we using?

Most of the folks on my team purchased the Sony HDR-SR5C.  This is a nice little camera with a 100GB hard drive.  The connection from the camera to your laptop or PC is USB via a mini docking station that came with the camera.

I opted for the Sony HDR-HC7 instead.  This is a top loading MiniDV tape high def video camera.  This camera includes both USB and IEEE 1394 "firewire" connections as well as a host of other features like a remote control.  It's slightly bigger and heavier than the HDR-SR5C but I don't need to carry around the docking station.  If I want to do some edits on the road, I can just carry the firewire cable and plug it into the Lenovo ThinkPad T61p I use.

I've already tested it's ability to record HD.  My very first test was to record some shots of me in front of my high def 58" DLP HDTV with some movies playing behind me.  I figured it would give me an idea of how well it would do since I already know what those movies look like on my set. It did really well.  I'll need to learn how to control the aperture and focus more effectively, but it was a great first test.

We'll be doing some interesting work with the cameras and will start posting the results very soon.  Stay tuned for that...

As you know, I am a bit of a gadget collector.  So it goes without saying I was interested in today's Apple conference where they revealed their next wave of iPods.  Tell you what, it looks like a pretty nice set of new devices, but I'm not rushing out to buy anything just yet.

For starters, it's no secret my primary use for a portable media player is video.  Not gaming, not music.  Watching video.  When I look at new devices, I look at several things, but the big two are storage space and the size and quality of the screen.

That rules out the new iPod Nano and the iPod Classic.  Since I already have the 80GB iPod Video, there's no big reason for me to move to either of these devices.  The Nano has a 2" screen and the Classic has a 2.5" screen.  No thanks.  Next...

Then there's the iPod Touch pictured at right.  With a 3.5" screen, touch interface, a third of an inch thick, WiFi, web browser, integration with iTunes, etc. etc., it's one sexy little gadget.  This will certainly be close to the top of a lot of Christmas lists.  While the 16GB model with be adequate for many people, you can fill 16GB pretty quickly with video.  I don't like to worry about that.  I would rather see a 30, 60 or 80GB version.

The space needed for video depends on the quality of the flicks you are watching.  After all, you don't need HD quality for these units.  When I started doing video conversion several years ago for my PlayStation Portable (PSP), I was storing video on 512MG, 1GB and 2GB MemoryStick Duo cards.  You get really good at managing space with those type of constraints.

I eventually got sick of the memory stick shuffle with the PSP and moved to a Zune, iPod Video, and Creative Zen Vision W.  The Zune and iPod were purchased by Microsoft for work related activities.  The Vision W is my personal workhorse and it goes everywhere I go.  I have really enjoyed it because it has a 4.3" screen and a 60GB hard drive.  That's the problem Apple has with me.  Do I really want to downgrade my viewing experience for something much thinner?  What about moving from a 60GB drive back to 16GB?  For $400?  Probably not. 

Oh, there's also the Archos 605 WiFi to consider.  I can buy a 160GB Archos 605 for the same price as the Apple iPod Touch.  It's twice as thick but has ten times the storage capacity.  It also has a 4.3" screen instead of the 3.5" in the Apple.  Any questions?

Ok Zune team, your move.

Finally !!!  After six months since the official Windows Vista launch date, we're starting to see the PC based HDTV DVR field start to have some competition.  Timing could not be better because Intel recently slashed the Core 2 Quad Q6600 processor pricing and before long, it will become a standard offering.  I like to leap processor generations so my aging single proc home MCE 2005/Vista Ultimate machine is going to get a nice face lift over the next 6-8 months. 

For those of you that have been following the Windows Vista OCUR happenings, you know that there are some high end offerings that have been offered for several months now.  You're going to need to be a rock star to afford those.  I guess if you are building a multi million dollar house and home theatre, what's ten or twenty grand on a kewl media center pc and disk system?

Velocity Micro

For us mere mortals, Velocity Micro has some nice offerings.  They've been selling them for a couple of months now.  Their Media Center line offers some home entertainment friendly models or a couple of standard mini tower models.  I like the looks and configuration options for the CineMagix™ S85 Home Entertainment PC.

I mean, Velocity Micro has it going on.  You can choose from several different power supplies, cooling systems, case colors and windows, etc.  Check out all of the processor choices and notice they have the faster big brother, the Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700.

Velocity Micro offers a huge array, pardon the pun, of storage choices.  RAID 0, 1 and 5  configurations are all offered and although they are charging a bit of a premium over the DIY market, the premium isn't too bad.

One thing that isn't offered by Velocity Micro or any of the other OEM's below is an x64 certified configuration.  I'm investigating that internally to understand what is going on.  My next machine OS is going to be x64, period.  I don't want to worry about any memory limitations in the OS, BIOS or hardware.

Hewlett Packard

Last week HP started selling the HP Pavilion Media Center m8100y.  Like the Velocity Micro above, the m8100y offers the Q6600 Quad processor as a configuration choice.  HP also offers several memory configurations, three video card choices, up to a terabyte of storage and of course the ATI Digital CableCard tuner.

Unfortunately, the m8100y currently is only offered with a single digital cable tuner.  I'm hoping that's an oversight on the ordering website.  Considering they just started selling the machine, there's plenty of time for that to change.  The EPP pricing looks pretty good right now, but I'm in no hurry to buy.  I'm in no hurry because I bought the TiVo Series 3 to handle my HD DVR duties until this market has more offerings and lower prices.

Dell

Then of course, there's our buddies at Dell.  This week they silently added a high definition SKU to the online ordering site.  To see the new XPS 410 packaging, go into the Home Desktop area and select the XPS 410.  Select the Hi-Def viewing package to see the configuration choices.

Strangely, the XPS 410 isn't offered with a Quad processor.  They offer the Quad with the XPS 410, just not with the HD offering (with CableCard support).  Like I said, strange.

They have some beefy Core 2 Duo dual core selections, but I'm no longer looking at those.  I'm guessing the XPS 410 is getting close to the end of it's model life, so I would not be surprised to see this change before Christmas.

Like the Velocity and HP above, the prices are pretty decent though I think everyone is charging WAY too much for the ATI digital cable tuner.  Maybe AMD/ATI is distributing them at a high price and there is little margin...  who knows.

Fortunately Dell is offering the XPS 410 with a dual tuner configuration.  They snuck that in because two days ago, the XPS 410 was only offered in a single tuner configuration.  I guess they got enough phone calls to warrant the addition.

Summary

The market is expanding.  That's a very good thing for you and I.  Before too long, the Quad will be the entry level desktop machine.  Well maybe not the entry level, but it's already becoming a standard offering.  The Intel price cut had a lot to do with that.  Thank you Intel.  Combine that with some beefy hard drives and you have a nice HDTV recording solution that will also play games, run applications, etc.  Checking your email on a 58" HD screen is interesting.  Don't want a PC in the den?  Use the Xbox 360 to extend the Media Center experience across your home network.  Enjoy.

I am looking forward to having a new channel this year.  One of the Verizon FIOS HDTV benefits is the ability to receive NFL Network in HD.  Of course the pre season for US NFL Football officially kicks off this weekend and having another broadcast channel will be great.  For all of you Directv snobs, take that.  :) 

And for you Europeans, I know it isn't your brand of football with the pads and all, but you know what whimps we are.  Maybe the Superbowl should pit the European Football champ against the US NFL Football champ.  Then we'll see who's the champ...

When I switched from a Verizon rented HD DVR to the TiVo Series 3, I gave up video on demand and pay per view.  At first glance this may be significant for many of you, but my family rarely purchased a PPV movie or event, and the VOD offering was entirely standard definition.  Well, it's looking more and more like the Xbox 360 is going to fill in the PPV movie void if needed.  Not only that, the LIVE Marketplace just got a whole lot bigger and better with the deal we just signed with Disney.  Here's a juicy excerpt of the press release:

"In a move that will add to the incredible popularity of Xbox LIVE Marketplace, Microsoft announced an agreement with Disney-ABC Domestic Television to make high definition and standard definition feature films from Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, Miramax Films, and Hollywood Pictures available for rent on demand to members of Xbox LIVE in the U.S. A growing catalogue of current and library titles will be available this July with more blockbusters to come. Microsoft also announced the highly anticipated rollout of the high-definition video store on Xbox LIVE Marketplace for customers around the globe. Microsoft will begin bringing content to living rooms in Europe and Canada by the end of this year. Currently offering more than 2,350 hours of premium entertainment content from 28 networks and studios, and nearly 500 hours of HD content alone, this puts the U.S. on-demand, high-definition library for Xbox 360 at more than twice the size of the nearest cable provider."

See http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/jul07/07-10E3UmbrellaPR.mspx,  http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/jul07/07-10XboxLIVEDisneyPR.mspx and http://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/events/e32007/articles/disneystudiosnowonmarketplace.htm for more information on the deal.  Sounds awesome to me. 

Now I need to find my Xbox LIVE Marketplace point to USD calculator...

The "Live Earth" concert is just hours from starting and my new TiVo Series 3 HD DVR is in for the workout of it's life.  This concert is being broadcast on Universal HD in it's entirety.  That's 22 hours of high definition recording. 

For those of you not familiar with what's going on, see http://liveearth.msn.com/ or http://www.liveearth.org/.  See the factsheet for the concert venue locations, schedules, artist lineup, etc.  It's an amazing list of talent.  So what venue would you like to be at, and why? 

Go Green !!!  I'm trying to do my part.  Driving less.  Driving an eco friendlier Honda CIVIC.  Now what's with this weather?  The sun is out in Texas for the first time in two months.  This is July for heavens sake. 

Enjoy the concert!

"As of today, all Xbox 360 consoles are covered by an enhanced warranty program to address specifically the general hardware failures indicated by the three flashing red lights on the console. This applies to new and previously-sold consoles. While we will still have a general one year console warranty (two years in some countries), we are announcing  today a three-year warranty that covers any console that displays a three flashing red lights error message. If a customer has an issue indicated by the three flashing red lights, Microsoft will repair the console free of charge—including shipping—for three years from the console’s purchase date. We will also retroactively reimburse any of you who paid for repairs related to problems indicated by this error message in the past. In doing so, Microsoft stands behind its products and takes responsibility to ensure that every Xbox 360 console owner continues to have a fantastic gaming experience."

See the full text of the letter from Peter Moore @ http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/petermooreletter.htm.  Also see more information @ http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/systemuse/xbox360/resources/warrantyupdate.htm.

First of all, I want to say thank you personally and on the behalf of my company!!!  Microsoft appreciates your business and the opportunity to help you solve problems, make money and have fun.  FY07 has been a blast for me.  Let's rewind a bit and see what happened.

Back in July of 2006, the beginning of our fiscal year, we were heading into the final stretches of development for Windows Vista.  Many people at that point didn't think we'd ship on time.  Bad bet.  We also decided to make our desktop virtualization product, Virtual PC free.  No, not free like a puppy, really free.  We also said a sad goodbye to Windows ME.  Ok, maybe that wasn't so sad, but it closed the books on the Win9x era which frankly was very good for the industry.  It certainly set the stage for Windows XP.

In August, I started doing some Windows Vista screencasts.  It also became apparent in August that my recommendation for the Lenovo Thinkpad T60p as the platform of choice for Microsoft Across America, was a sound decision. Friends, we've been in front of 100's of thousands of people in FY07 with these machines as we launched Windows Vista, Office 2007 and Exchange Server 2007.  I didn't even need to play the supplied promo videos and slides at my shows.  People were amazed at the stability and performance of our platform choice.  In fact, my last show Thursday in Little Rock was nothing short of amazing.  I decided to do an impromptu demo of the high definition capabilities of Windows Vista.  It was amazing because at the time I did this, Windows Vista was hosting three other virtual machines running Windows Server 2008 Enterprise, a Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Core Read Only Domain Controller, and another Windows Vista demo VM.  It shocked the audience.  It shocked me.  It was impressive.

September was business as usual.  We released Windows Vista Release Candidate 1 with little fanfare.  What many didn't know was that many of the most technical people in Microsoft started using build 5600 as their production environment round the clock.  The volume of traffic on the internal Vista alias increases dramatically as people discover the subject matter experts in the company.  People talk about Microsofties being email centric, but trust me, you've never seen this kind of volume.  Multiple your Inbox volume per day by 100.  Laser focus is a good thing and I'm smack dab in the middle of it.  One of the interesting things that happened in September is the fuss over the Windows Vista startup sound.  Many people were concerned, present self included.  Way to much energy was expended over it, but in the end, the Windows team made the right choices.

October, what can I say?  We started giving away an Xbox360 at each of my events.  Is that kewl or what?  We also shipped IE7.  I like IE7.  Do you?  We also shipped Windows Vista RC2.  We are getting close to release and I'm downloading weekly builds of Windows Vista.  That was a 6GB download at that time.  "Got fiber?" has a whole new meaning.  Thank you Verizon for FIOS.  I still love the photo at http://blogs.technet.com/keithcombs/archive/2006/10/29/ciclops-cassini-imaging-central-lab-for-operations.aspx.

November... November was the beginning of the thrill ride.  Windows Vista RTM's.  I post gobs of information.  Lot's of people read.  My blog hits an unimaginable number of readers (thanks by the way), and life is simply rockin.  This is also the first anniversary of high definition TV being in my home.  It's also the first DLP lamp I burn out. That sucked. I start to set my sights on some toys for Christmas...  grin.  November was also the month Harold and I benchmark the Vista/Office/Exchange launch content and realize a single laptop isn't going to cut it.  Time to go shopping.

December started with a mystery.  Remember that?  Viral marketing at it's best.  At this point of the year, I had been asked many times if Windows Vista would run well on x, y, or z machine.  So I decided to install it on a Compaq EVO N620c.  Pretty amazing results for machine that is almost five years old.  7200rpm drives certainly help.  Daughter totals Honda Civic but walks away with a scratch on her knee.  Scary. December was also the month Seattle got blasted, literally, by a wind storm.  It knocked down trees and cut communications and power.  Scary, too.  We also released Exchange Server 2007.  This completes the three amigos we'll be demonstrating at the huge launch events next month.  As you might suspect, we're rather busy prepping for that but I still manage to find time for some fun.

January through March is a blur of humanity.  We are in full frontal launch mode.  Big events, huge crowds and we're giving away a copy of Office 2007 Professional to each event attendee.  I wonder how many copies have actually been activated.  Virtual PC 2007 goes gold and is available for free download from microsoft.com.  March is the month I start paying closer attention to my HDTV recording habits and realize how pathetic the HD DVR's I've been using are.  TiVo starts to look more interesting but the price is too high (back then).  I purchase a new Honda Civic Coupe.  I calculate I've already saved close to $2000 since that purchase on monthly payments, gas and insurance.  Nice.  I also posted some information about an episode of "Lost" and find out quickly that the episode won't be broadcast worldwide for another six months or so.  Spoiler.  People start to discover their hardware won't address all 4GB of RAM they purchased.  The frenzy around daylight "savings" time begins to build.

In April, Halo 3 starts to take center stage in the world of gaming.  We're testing the product internally and getting ready to let the world have a shot at whipping Microsoft employees.  Fat chance.  We release Beta 3 of Windows Server 2008.  We rebuild our content, again.  I purchase a HDHomeRun HDTV recording gizmo.  This is one kewl device.  This is also the month I discover a flaw in the way Microsoft IT handles updates for Microsoft employees. Grrrrr.  The Windows Vista Resource Kit ships.  Nice.

May was an interesting month.  Dell started shipping Ubuntu on some of their desktop and laptop machines.  I wonder how many have sold.  Windows Server 2008 Beta 3 momentum starts to pick up.  Intel officially announces the "Santa Rosa" chipset.  I see an 8GB laptop in my future.  Verizon starts shipping updated versions of the VZAccess Manager for Windows Vista EVDO users.  All of the beta and RC versions of Windows Vista expire.  We announce Microsoft Surface. 

Then of course there's June.  At this point, Texas has been pounded by rain for days, weeks and now months.  Things are serious.  We need some sunshine.  I know, be careful what you wish for.  I buy a TiVo for $400.  Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 is released.  We should have called it Virtual Server 2005 R2 D2.  Archos launches their fifth generation PMP.  Lust.  Windows Vista gets a great report card.  We release the June CTP build for Windows Server 2008.  Apple launched the iPhone.  Good luck Apple.

Obviously lots of other stuff happened the past 12 months, but as you can see, it was an impressive year.  Today we officially close the books and will report earnings before long.  Thanks for your support.  Thanks for your business.  I look forward to another great 12 months.  Fiscal 2008 starts tomorrow.  Back to work!!!

I could not resist.  The recent promotions on the TiVo Series 3 HD DVR made me bite.  I tried to resist the temptation, I really did.  If you aren't aware, they dropped the price of the TiVo from $800 to $600 then offered a fathers day rebate of $200 on top of that.  So I ordered one from costco.com to take advantage of the $400 deal.

My present arrived safe and sound a couple of days later.  As soon as it arrived, I picked up the phone and called Verizon to order a couple of $2.99 CableCard decoders.  Those CableCards decrypt the signal and give the TiVo the ability to record all of the channels I receive.  In effect, it duplicates the capability of the Verizon HD DVR.

Why wouldn't I just continue to use the Verizon HD DVR?

There's a simple answer to that.  The Verizon DVR only records about 20 hours of high definition programming.  In the fall and winter when many of the US broadcast networks are in full swing, you can fill the recording space very easily in a week.  If I'm traveling, that becomes a terrible situation.

The TiVo comes with a 250GB hard drive.  I added an additional 500GB drive.  Now, I have about 100 hours of high definition recording capacity or roughly five times the capability of the Verizon HD DVR. 

So why not use Windows Vista?

I was really, and I mean really, torn with this decision.  Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate have similar recording capabilities.  However, in order to use a CableCard with Vista to record high definition programming, you must purchase a specially designed and certified machine from approved OEM's.  Those machines are referred to as "OCUR" capable machines.  OCUR is the acronym for the CableLabs standard called OpenCable Unidirectional Receiver.

In essence, the timing was good/bad (depending on the way you want to look at it) for me.  The current market for shipping machines that are OCUR capable is pretty limited.  The machines that are shipping aren't cheap.  I don't mind spending a little extra money for an emerging technology, but I just haven't seen the right configuration to jump on.  When we see some x64 Quad proc based OCUR machines I can afford, I'll revisit the possibility of using Windows Vista. 

The TiVo promotion was in the right place at the right time.  I wonder how many Series 3 units shipped in the past two weeks.  A bunch I bet. 

So what will I lose by using TiVo instead of the Verizon HD DVR?

CableCards are one way.  As a result, it's common to lose the Video On Demand (VOD) and Pay-Per-View (PPV) features.  In my case, this is no big deal.  We rarely use PPV.  We used VOD more frequently with Charter Communications, but that was because we had fewer premium movie channels and it was harder to find something live we wanted to watch.  That is not the case with my Verizon FIOS TV channel lineup.

Microsoft Mediaroom.  I love the name.  However, what the name conjures up in my mind isn't what the new name is all about.  Here's the full marketing description:

Microsoft^® Mediaroom™ enables a new, personalized television experience. Consumers can easily find and discover TV, video, movies, and digital media at the touch of a remote control. Live programming and video-on-demand in standard-definition and high-definition formats, digital video recording, MultiView picture-in-picture, music, and photos are presented together with an intuitive on-screen interface. With Microsoft Mediaroom, consumers get the best in TV plus all their media in one place.

Ok, sounds good.  When can I get it?  For me the answer is never until Verizon's name shows up on the list at http://www.microsoft.com/tv/Customers.mspx.

The piece I thought is missing is gaming.  I'd like to subscribe to Microsoft Mediagameroom right now that includes everything mentioned above (the HDTV stuff anyway), plus all of the benefits of Xbox360 and Xbox Live.

I want to subscribe to an all-you-can-eat service for about $100 per month.  I want to be able to select any TV program and watch it live or watch it later on demand in full 1080i HDTV glory.  You'll notice I didn't say record it.  Why should I record it?  It's already recorded somewhere.  Just deliver it when I want it, to my gaming mediaroom machine.

Until then, I have to settle for the available hacks like everyone else.  Your choices today for HDTV when YOU want it are TiVo, Windows Vista OCUR, or your friendly neighborhood telco/cableco HD DVR (assuming you want premium channels).  Sorry for digressing.

Anyway, click on the banner above for more information.  Be careful though, the Flash site they created sucks all of the performance out of my machine.  I'm sure there's a bug that will be fixed later.  Maybe they should have used Microsoft Silverlight instead. :?)

If you weren't aware, TiVo has slashed the price of their top of the line HD DVR also known as the Series 3.  Everyone and their dog has the unit discounted.  On top of that, TiVo is also offering a $200 rebate.  This brings the TiVo Series 3 to $400 or lower.  That's half the price of where is was at a few months ago. 

Here's a few of those deals:

http://www.weaknees.com/series-3-hd-tivo.php

http://www.dvrupgrade.com/dvr/stores/1/series3.cfm

http://store.tivocommunity.com/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=S3TIVO&Store_Code=EA

http://www.costco.com/

Look carefully at the rebate.  Basically it's similar to a cell phone deal.  You want the the lower cost?  Sign on the dotted line for a year or two of service.  Another thing to consider for the Series 3 is that there are recent developments in adding external hard drives to it's recording pool.  See http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/04/how-to-use-your-tivo-series3-esata-port-to-add-an-external-driv for the "kickstart 62" method.

Unfortunately, "kickstart 62" is unsupported by TiVo so it's entirely possible they could download a firmware update and turnoff the eSATA port.  That would pretty much hose anything recorded since the drives are "pooled".

Look around...  do you see any better deal or integration on the market?  Sure, the local cable company HD DVR is cheaper by the gig, but how many gig are you getting exactly?  If you are lucky. it's a 250gig drive which means you'll get a weeks worth of HDTV recordings if you are an average consumer.

Honey, I know what I want for Daddy's day...  :)

It's always fun to watch reactions to acquisitions.  We like to get into those spirited debates about Microsoft employees using competitive products, in public.  Give me a break.  If I need to use a competing product because it's better, most likely I will.

So what products do I use?

Camtasia Studio v 4.01 comes to mind immediately.  If you look at the screen capturing market, it was the best tool for my needs the last time I evaluated tools.  The Windows Media Encoding tools work, but when I did my testing they consumed too many CPU cycles.  That's super important when you are trying to capture something like Windows Vista and the Media Center Shell playing a high definition recording of a TV episode.  CPU cycles count.

Ghost.  Anyone heard of Ghost?  Of course you have.  It's the industry leading imaging tool and has been for years.  After Symantec bought the PQI DeployCenter line, they pretty much owned the market.  We have world class competing technologies now in ImageX, WinPE, etc.  In fact, the latest version of Symantec Backup Exec uses WinPE v2.0.  I'm currently using Backup Exec because it does a great job of backing up and restoring my machines.  Better than Windows Vista Complete PC.  Complete PC is great, but it doesn't do as good a job of restoring hard drive signatures so it seems to trip out-of-tolerance activation more frequently.

In the area of portable media players, the use of the iPod by Microsoft employees has been under public scrutiny since the Zune shipped.  Before the Zune there were products made by a wide range of partners. I have the Microsoft Zune, Apple 80gb iPod Video and the Creative Zen Vision W.  The Vision W gets the most use because I like to watch video and with the 4.3" screen, the Vision gives me better vision.

Regarding high definition TV recording, look at the product I'm using called HDHomeRun.  I have three or four blog posts on it.  Is it competitive?  You bet.  I can buy a Windows Vista machine from an OEM that records high definition premium channels.  I probably will.  But right now, HDHomeRun gave me more time to let those machines come down in price.

When we talk about the server space, if the Exchange team had refused to produce a 32bit version of Exchange Server 2007, there would be no doubt I'd be using VMWare Virtual Server to run x64 virtual machines.  I need to be able to test our x64 platform and demonstrate it.  In fact, we are getting ready to refresh the machines my team uses for that very reason.  The x64 wave has started and the wave is coming fast and furious.  Fortunately, the Windows development team has a hypervisor in development called Windows Server virtualization (WSv).  We'll start using it when we get closer to the public beta stages.

Let's see, what else?  I've been testing and using Adobe Dreamweaver 8.  Microsoft Expression is a great tool, but I just wanted to live in the Dreamweaver world for a while to see why so many people are using it.  It's a great product although my wife is not happy with the way it handles image thumbnails.  I'm guessing we'll be back on Expression before long.

Let's see, what else?  I use Adobe Premiere Elements v3.02.  I started with version 2 based on a recommendation from a fellow employee (Rory).  I upgraded to v3 for the Windows Vista compatibility.  I know, Movie Maker in Windows Vista rocks, but again, I wanted to use something outside the Microsoft world for a while.  My next little project is to learn how to do green or blue screen capturing of myself to insert me into your screencast views.  Don't worry, I have no plans to become the weatherman.

Let's see, what else?  I've been using Roxio for CD and DVD burning for years.  I stopped buying upgrades because v7.5 is still good enough for my needs.  It still burns stuff.  I don't need the DVD and video tools anymore although the sound editor is very nice.

And of course there's Linux.  I started running Linux before many of you were born.  Ok, that's a gross exaggeration but 1993 is a long time ago.  I still tinker with the products on the market simply because I'd be foolish to jettison those skills and ignore our competition.  I regularly look at the new versions of the leading distros and SUSE is still my favorite.  It's clean and professional.  I thought that long before we signed any agreements with Novell.

So I use competing products for two reasons.  To discover what the non-Microsoft view looks like, and to use a superior tool when needed.  The latter is getting pretty rare thankfully because it saves me money when I can buy a Microsoft product at a deep employee discount.  The Xbox360 is an exception.  I bought mine at Costco and I usually buy games before they are available at the company store.   

So I wondered how hard core Google is.  Do their employees use Windows, OS X or Linux?  If Microsoft had acquired Feedburner, would Google employees move their feeds?  I imagine a percentage of them would over time.  Does the Google internal IT department ban Microsoft products?  I doubt it.

Competition is good.

Just when I was about to write off my lowly single cpu Dell Pentium 4 desktop machine, it gets a reprieve.  In this case, the reprieve comes from an unexpected source, Windows Vista HDTV recording.  As you'll recall, I purchased the HDHomeRun product a little over a month ago.  I started using it with MCE 2005, then started testing it with some of the more powerful laptops I have.  HDHomeRun has been a joy so far. 

The laptop comment should get your ears perked up.  Even if you don't have a high definition TV, you can still record and watch high definition programming with Windows Vista.  You see, Windows Vista doesn't force you to install an analog tuner first.  Therefore you can start using the dual high definition tuners of HDHomeRun rapidly.  Since it is a network device, there's nothing to plug into your laptop.  Install the software, configure and enjoy.

I never bothered to re-test HDHomeRun with my desktop until this week.  Like many of you, real work has kept me busy.  Although I found my desktop is still underpowered for HDTV decoding and playback for smooth performance, it does a great job of recording.  Once recorded, it also does a great job of feeding my Xbox360 so I can watch the recordings on the couch in the den.  Best $169 I've spent in a while.