Ramblings from another nerd on the grid
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?
VS
Ok ladies and gentlemen, we know who the next opponent is. Dallas stands in the way of a Manning versus Manning Superbowl Sunday. Are they up to the task as the spoilers? I think so.
Today Sony announced they'll have 16GB Memory Stick Duo cards available in March. That means the Sony PSP becomes a more viable video playback device when the price of these sticks come down. After all, the 4.3" screen on the PSP is still one of the best on the market. And of course, if you dig pink here's the unit for you. Kitty kitty.
That's a direct quote from a couple of teens I know. Let that sink in. Are they going to get old, or is email as we know it going to disappear? Thoughts?
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.
Holidays are fun, mostly. It's tinker time. Nerds get to experiment and build new nerd contraptions. Or is it geeks? Anyway, like a lot of you, I had fun with a few nerd projects and still plan to come back to a few topics I explored over the holidays. Holidays are cool because you get to do what you want to do, not what the boss wants you to do. Right?
Well, reality usually sets back in when Hawaii gets beat, or time runs out and you have to check your corporate email box after two weeks. Scary, right? Reality really set in today when I was prepping for a meeting with Matt Hester. The main focus of the meeting is to review some content we'll be delivering on a roadshow. It's a takeoff on the "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" ads but we are using the concept as the theme for a series of live events. The first event is in NYC and we'll be covering Search with the various platforms.
After I got done with the primary content, I decided to fire up my Windows Vista virtual machine. This VM I am referring to runs on my Mac via the VMWare Fusion virtualization product. One small problem, the VM was pretty hosed after it started running. Explorer.exe kept crashing. I could not get Defender updates. I could not get the VM to survive long enough to pull updates and update itself. Bad news. I tinkered with the VM for a while then started to wonder why...
I decided to fire up some other VMs. Sure enough, Kubuntu 7.10 was toast. SLED v10 SP1 would attempt to run then kernal panic. Bad news across all fronts. I was happy to see that all of the VMs were behaving badly. I would have been sad if it was just Windows Vista.
So what happened?
I'm guessing the fact I finally updated the "Leopard" OS on my Mac from 10.5 to 10.5.1 must have been the culprit. I did that about a week ago. I did not update VMWare Fusion. After seeing the crap above, I downloaded and installed the Fusion update but it did no good. The VMs were still toast.
Change Management
So let that be a lesson to you. If you are going to rely on virtualization as an OS or application tool, don't assume the virt product properly sandboxes the VMs and prevents them from behaving badly. Apple or VMWare messed this up for sure. You've been warned. Treat your virtualization software environment just like you do the hardware application platform. If you introduce change, make sure you are managing change or it will manage you.
Robert's good people but sometimes he irks me. He does that on purpose of course. Creating chaos helps drive the conversation and Robert is obviously great at that. I'll read his blog briefly every week or so to see who he's promoting or picking a fight with. This week I noticed he posted some information on CES I thought was pretty good. See http://scobleizer.com/2008/01/02/how-to-survive-ces-without-getting-off-the-couch/ for a quick read. We're all going to get pounded with announcements in the the next week or so sit back, relax, crack the top on a cold one and enjoy the show at engadget.com.
Oh, and if you didn't notice, HP has gone on the offensive and announced a number of kewl machines and products yesterday. Not to be outdone, Dell dropped the price of the XPS 420 I've written about. And just think, the Mac frenzy at MacWorld 2008 hasn't started yet. Save those pennies... there's no telling what is going to happen the next two weeks.
Congratulations to the New England Patriots!!! Awesome season.
Can anyone stop these guys?
I know this is a bit late in the day, but Santa's helpers have been busy. I hope each and every one of you have had a chance to reflect on the true meaning of this day, hug someone close or even a complete stranger.
My wife and I got a wonderful phone call today from my sons E-8C J-STARS as he was on patrol in the Middle East. So while we were eating Christmas cookies and opening presents, he was serving his country over seas. Makes you think.
Have a wonderful week and close to 2007. I'll be back online right after the new year starts so until then, enjoy the holidays and stay safe.
Santa keeps bringing me toys and it isn't even Christmas yet. This time I received the long awaited HP 6910p notebook computer. I like to do first impression posts pretty quickly on new hardware because first impressions count, and I forget about the out of box experience later.
In the spirit of transparency you should know that HP is sponsoring my team this fiscal year although the year is half over and we just got the machine. I don't know what that means, but I'm guessing we'll have the HP 6910p long after the fiscal year closes on June 30th. I also have no idea why the 6910p was chosen. I would have picked a different machine but since I wasn't asked, I'll just accept what I was given and assume HP had a good reason. AT&T is also sponsoring our HSDPA cell module data connections in the unit. Thanks HP and ATT. We appreciate the goodies. Now for my initial thoughts on the machine.
The Hardware
I like the form factor. The 6910p is a 14.1" widescreen and the LCD we have runs a native resolution of 1440x900. This unit is going to make a nice travel partner. It isn't the slickest until on the market from a size perspective, but the dimensions are pretty nice.
The machines we received are full featured. It has the Intel PM965 "Santa Rosa" chipset, the Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 processor, 4GB of RAM, 120GB 7200rpm SATA primary drive, ATI Mobility Radeon X2300 discrete video processor with 128MB of memory, 3 USB ports, IEEE 1394 "FireWire" port, Intel 82566MM GigE Ethernet, Intel 4965AGN wireless, Sierra Wireless HSDPA cell wireless, etc. In short, pretty much all the bells and whistles.
Included with my package were a couple of Multibay hard drives. Those hard drives allow me to have two spindles in the unit which is a core requirement for my team when running the usual array of virtual machine demos. Unfortunately, the drives that came were 80GB 5400rpm PATA drives. What am I supposed to do with them? They aren't going to cut it so I pulled a 100GB 7200rpm PATA drive from a USB enclosure I have and replaced one of the 80GB drives with it. That wasn't a trivial chore. A NASA engineer must have designed the Multibay hard drive enclosure because it took some time to disassemble it, replace the drive, and reassemble it. Fun.
The LCD screen has a matte finish and is plenty bright. I've been running 1680x1050 or higher resolutions on my other 15.4" laptops so going back to 1440x900 seemed like a step backwards, but you get used to it pretty quickly. The ATI Catalyst drivers work on Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 RC1. We'll get to my units long term role but this is probably a good hint.
The 6910p includes an integrated smart card reader (I haven't tried yet), a PCMCIA card bus slot, S-Video out, VGA out, audio connections and a SD slot for memory cards. We received the standard battery (from what I can tell) but haven't tested battery life. I normally run plugged in on high performance so I don't worry too much about life.
One thing I would have liked in this machine is an ExpressCard slot. HP now makes other business notebooks with an ExpressCard slot so if that is important to you, you might want to consider one of those models.
The Software
I was pretty pleasantly surprised with the first boot experience. On the first boot, you are given the option of installing either the 32bit or 64bit version of Windows Vista Business. That is soo cool. I picked the x64 version and let the install proceed. The install takes a pretty long time. The installation routine partitions the primary drive into several partitions, installs the software, then takes a snapshot of everything for later recovery if needed. I thought that was nicely done although it takes over an hour for the process to complete. After logging in and checking a few things out, I did my usual best practice of creating the disk recovery set (which HP supplies a program for). I created the factory image recovery disk set which takes either 9 CDs, 2 DVDs or a single dual layer DVD. After it completed, I booted the disk set to see if it looked like it would work, then flattened the box.
Why would I flatten the machine?
Simple, Hyper-V baby!!! As you might suspect from the previous paragraph, I did not spend any time looking at the Windows Vista implementation provided for any significant period of time. It looked like the usual OEM stuff but I did notice it was not cluttered with a bunch of software I would not need. I did see a firewall product, a lite version of Roxio 9, a DVD playback product, etc. It looked like a well thought out mix. You know, business stuff.
But I need a server demo machine and wanted to see if this little bad boy would run Windows Server 2008 RC1 with the Hyper-V virtualization stack. I was not disappointed. Windows Server 2008 RC1 setup allowed me to nuke the partitions, re-partition the drive and install the Enterprise edition without issue. I turned on wireless support, audio support, installed the ATI Catalyst video drivers, etc. I also installed the ATT cell module software and confirmed it works with Windows Server 2008 Enterprise x64. It does. The 6910p is running Windows Server 2008 RC1 x64 with Hyper-V nearly as fast as my Lenovo ThinkPad T61p. This is a really good sign. I loaded up a massive MOSS virtual machine and confirmed it ran well enough. It did.
Summary
Looks like I have a nice little workhorse machine. I need another primary drive so I can easily swap operating systems if needed. I am also investigating the true capabilities of the Multibay. It would appear that although I received a PATA hard drive Multibay caddy, this unit also supports SATA drives in the Multibay. Time will tell on that.
When I receive another primary drive, I'll go back and install some other operating systems and try them out. Until then, I plan to keep on using it as a Windows Server 2008 RC1 demo server. Cheers.
[UPDATE for 1/19/2008] I finally got around to installing the x64 version of Windows Vista Ultimate on this machine so I thought I would offer some additional information. First, it appears there is an issue with the Intel AMT drivers, service and software. On my machine it hangs the Explorer shell at login. It eventually gets past whatever the error is but it isn't the best experience. After removing the software in add/remove programs, it plays nice. Something for HP and Intel to look into. Maybe us as well.
Second, I don't really like some of the hardware design aspects. There are intake/exhaust areas on the bottom. This means if you plan to use it on your lap, you'll definitely want to use a Targus Coolpad or something so that the machine can breath properly.
Third, it's a little noisy. It isn't terrible but it is noticeable. I am running default power and fan settings in the BIOS so I may experiment with that over time to see if I can reduce some of the noise.
To summarize, it runs Windows Vista x64 and Windows Server 2008 x64 fast and clean as expected. It's smaller and lighter than my Lenovo ThinkPad T61p so it's going to make it hard to decide what to take on the road with me. I would imagine it'll get the nod when I have to take two machines. Since I'm running x64 versions of the OS, I did not spend any time looking at the factory 32bit image that it shipped with. Enjoy.
Last week our Mac Business Unit (MacBU) completed Office:mac 2008. This was released to the manufacturing process which means the elves are busy getting it ready. No, Santa isn't going to bring it for Christmas so you don't need to worry if you've been naughty or nice.
We do however plan to have it ready January 15th for MacWorld 2008. See the Mac Mojo blog post on the subject.
If you absolutely need Office for your Mac right now, go ahead and buy Office 2004 for the Mac. We have a killer promotion going right now that gets the next generation Office:mac 2008 Special Media Edition into your hands for the cost of shipping. Here's an excerpt from the promo:
Super Suite Details If you buy Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac Standard Edition, Office 2004 for Mac Standard Edition Upgrade, or Office 2004 for Mac Student and Teacher Edition, we’ll send you Office 2008 for Mac Special Media Edition (a $500 value) for FREE - you only pay shipping and handling. Offer valid for purchases made between November 1, 2007 and January 14, 2008.
Super Suite Details
If you buy Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac Standard Edition, Office 2004 for Mac Standard Edition Upgrade, or Office 2004 for Mac Student and Teacher Edition, we’ll send you Office 2008 for Mac Special Media Edition (a $500 value) for FREE - you only pay shipping and handling. Offer valid for purchases made between November 1, 2007 and January 14, 2008.
Promo full details @ http://www.microsoft.com/mac/go/promotions/supersuitedeal/
Office:mac 2008 version details @ http://www.microsoft.com/mac/go/promotions/default.aspx?pid=versions
Office:mac 2008 features @ http://www.macoffice2008.com
Are you into big iron? Well, if you are the heavy metal sort and get your jollies by building clustered server configurations, then we have new tools for your tool belt. The latest tool you should be checking out is known as Hyper-V. It's part of the latest shipment of Windows Server 2008 RC1.
Fortunately Robert Larson gets you started right way with his latest blog post on "Building a Host Cluster with Hyper-V Beta 1". Check it out. Good stuff.
If you haven't downloaded Windows Server 2008 RC1, you should. I am totally amazed at how fast it is on my Lenovo ThinkPad T61p notebook computer. It's also interesting because it shares a common code base with Windows Vista. That's a different subject we'll get to later...
Let's face it, the Windows Mobile device market in the US just isn't as fun as the markets in other parts of the world. Sure the Apple iPhone is fun and popular, but it doesn't sync my email.
I'd like a kewl phone that is first and foremost, a phone. I would like it to be small. I would like a keyboard that is unobtrusive.
I need my phone to access my corporate email. It needs to have a delete key. Grin.
It would seem the HTC Touch Dual fits the bill nicely. Maybe the HTC S730. Sorry, I am reluctant to make the plunge into the HTC Touch with no keyboard.
There's just one problem. Neither is sold in the US. Sure I can buy one, but have you looked at the prices? Anyone know where I can get one for $150 US new? How about $300? Exactly. Nowhere.
Most of the sliders in the US are too big. The HTC TyTN II style devices are a little too big and clunky to me. I had a Mobile 5 PPC device that was similar and didn't like it. I am a Smartphone fan and love the candy bar form factor. The HTC Touch is small and cute. The iPhone is sexy.
I think the iPhone would be perfect if it had 32GB of storage, had Microsoft Exchange server email support, and cost about $300. I know it's a pipe dream but dreams are free. Anyone want to speculate on what Apple will announce in January?
So I'm here stuck in the US and have four carrier choices where I live. Verizon appears to have the fastest most stable cell network. Their EVDO network rocks but their device choices don't. Then there's Sprint. Better device choices but the network isn't up to par, yet. And of course there's AT&T or T-Mobile. AT&T is supposed to have 3G coverage at my house but after reporting it three weeks ago, it still isn't fixed. T-Mobile really needs to get into the game. GPRS/EDGE, give me a break.
So until the market changes, I guess I'll stick with the GSM ATT Palm Treo 750. The honeymoon is over with it already primarily because of the AT&T billing hassles I've had which started day one in July. I'm hopeful they may actually be fixed, finally. After five months, one would hope so. Good thing I got the phone for free.
Merry Christmas or ba humbug? Any better in Europe?
The Verizon fiber optic data service called FIOS is having it's third birthday here in the US, and to celebrate, Verizon is rolling out new plans. I'll be calling them later this morning and if the news is true, I'll have to decide what new service I want. Considering uploading video and other large binary blobs is getting harder, I'm very tempted to sign up for the symmetrical 20/20 plan. Yea, that's 20meg speeds both directions.
I have the 15/2 plan at the moment, and I believe if I do nothing, my plan will automatically change to the 20/5. It could be changed to the 10/2 plan. I really don't know, but I know it's going to change since I'm month-to-month and they no longer offer my plan.
Here are the plans for my zip code. Just think, 100meg speeds are just around the corner. When that happens, HD movie downloads become a reality. Rad man.
Looks like the ante for the cable providers just got increased. Get some popcorn. Turmoil to follow.
My blog has a birthday today. It's three years old, but in blog years I think that makes it about 24 or something. I still remember the first two posts at http://blogs.technet.com/keithcombs/archive/2004/12.aspx like they were yesterday. I was trying to figure out what to write. Then it hit me, just WRITE !!!
Write about nerd stuff happening around you. So the first blog post on my blahg is very fitting I think. I mean who else gets excited about a big orange spool of fiber optic cable sitting in front of the house other that a computer nerd? Which reminds me, in about 6 weeks my Verizon FIOS fiber optic data service celebrates it's 3rd year anniversary as well. Yea, you read that correctly. I've had if for three years and you still don't. Na nu Na nu boo boo !!!
It's been fun writing the past three years. I hope you like my style. I plan to keep it up. Happy Holidays everyone!!!
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.
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).
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.
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.
Windows Server 2008 RC1 with Hyper-V Beta is publicly available here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=8F22F69E-D1AF-49F0-8236-2B742B354919&displaylang=en
Beta Integration Components for Linux available through connect.microsoft.com:
1. Login to https://connect.microsoft.com/default.aspx
2. Click on Available Connections in the left panel.
Review the available programs and apply for the Linux Integration Components for Microsoft Hyper-V.
Ready to begin testing Windows Vista for real now? Good!!! The Server Pack 1 Release Candidate 1 is now available to the public. There are several ways to get it.
Get Windows Vista Service Pack 1 RC (Update for existing Windows Vista users)
There are 3 different ways to access the Windows Vista SP1 RC depending on the unique business needs of individual users and their organizations.
Be sure to read all the details at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsvista/bb738089.aspx before you do anything. And please make a backup before you start the install process.
I know this story broke a couple of weeks ago, but I was on vacation. But I did think this was interesting for a couple of reasons. First, the game consoles we use are really powerful computers so don't underestimate their capabilities. Second, what should we be doing to react?
What am I talking about?
I was cruising some of the blogs I link to so I naturally hit Kim Cameron's Identity blog. An article there caught my eye. That blog of course links to the BBC story which as far as I can tell is the source.
Here's an excerpt from the BBC story:
"Security researcher Nick Breese used a PS3 to crack supposedly strong eight-character passwords in hours. Typically, previous attempts to crack such passwords took days to get the same result."
As you can see, it's a pretty scary thing to think about. Now what do we do about it? Sixteen character passwords? Multifactor authentication?
So like I said, if you see someone using a game console in your conference room, they may not be blowing off some steam after a hard days work. They may be hacking your network.
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.
Five new Windows Vista SP1 Guides have just been made available on the Microsoft download center. The deployment, app compat, security, hotfix and general overview should give you plenty of reading while you wait.
Get them @ http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e71f0083-1013-4f9c-a3f9-c56e7120a5e9&DisplayLang=en
Join in the fun at https://www.microsoft.com/servers/faces/. This is an interesting new resource area for Windows Server 2008.
Sound off at http://edge.technet.com/Forums/Perimeter/350-Which-is-more-important-to-you-WinXP-SP3-or-Vista-SP1/.
Let us know what you think!!!
Windows Vista SP1 Release Candidate 1 is now available for download. If you are a TechNet or MSDN subscriber, the bits to get the process started are now on the subscriber download center. Those of you that are subscribers get to go to the head of the line and install right now. Everyone else will have to wait a few more days.
Enjoy!
Want a subscription? See http://blogs.technet.com/keithcombs/archive/2007/12/06/technet-plus-direct-100-discount.aspx for more information.
[Note] I highly recommend doing a full backup with Complete PC, Ghost, TruImage or your backup software of choice before doing anything. You never know if something might happen and having a good backup is a best practice. You should also be aware that installing this RC1 turns on a time bomb that expires next summer. When SP1 ships in production form, installing it removes the time bomb.
Kai gets to go where many of us don't. Secretly he wants to start CTU and be Jack but until that happens, he still gets to see inside many of the places you and I never will. Kai interviewed Johnny Walker who heads up the security force for Microsoft physical assets. You can download the interviews and listen on your Zune or iPod.
See http://blogs.technet.com/kaiaxford/archive/2007/12/06/technet-radio-physical-security-at-microsoft.aspx for more information.
So you have that fancy new terabyte drive all dressed up and no dance partner, right? Well, our server folks have been busy making plans on how to fill some space. In fact, here's some killer (yet massive) downloads you should consider:
Exchange Server 2007 SP1 VHD - 1.8GB download
SQL Server 2008 November CTP VHD - 2.2GB download
ForeFront and System Center Demo Toolkit - 1.8GB download
System Center Essentials 2007 - 2.6GB download
Please note that this toolkit will not prevent the installation of the service pack from CD/DVD, or from the stand-alone download package. This simply prevents the service pack from being delivered over Windows Update.
Get it @ http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=d7c9a07a-5267-4bd6-87d0-e2a72099edb7&DisplayLang=en
Do you have the ability to move through time? Can you self heal? Can you fly? No? Well, how about something for us mere mortals?
We have an exciting launch coming and you have the opportunity to participate in a big way. On December 7, technical communities around the world will have the opportunity to participate in a virtual train-the-trainer and launch execution program consistent with the 08 Launch Wave of Windows Server 2008™, Visual Studio 2008™, and SQL Server 2008™.
See more information @ http://www.heroescommunitylaunch.com/.
The RC1 wave has begun. First up at bat is Windows Server 2008. If you've been following my screencasts or other blog posts on the subject, you know it's going to be a strong server product.
But what about the desktop products? Well, after you head on over to grab Windows Server 2008 RC1, keep those downloaders all warmed up because Windows Vista SP1 RC1 and Windows XP SP3 RC1 code are on the way. Lot's of stuff to test. As soon as their links go live, I'll post another blog post.
The links to everything are just now getting propped to the production microsoft.com areas so things aren't quite settled at the moment but everything should be nice and pretty before the weekend. Enjoy.
I decided last night to finally let the Apple update software download and update my Apple MacBook Pro. I received the Pro a little less than a month ago and immediately upgraded it to "Leopard" which is OS X v10.5. As with all of the modern operating systems, OS X includes a tool that notifies you of software updates, security patches, and other updates to the OS.
Last week I went to Georgia to visit relatives and play with the newest members of our family. Before doing that, I took a moment to look at the Apple forums to see if anyone was having issues with the OS X v10.5.1 update. Sure enough, there are quite a few problems. The problem is that I mostly forgot about those checks and when I pushed the button last night, I was in denial. There's no way that could happen to me. Not the kid. No way.
Wrong!
You know that little sixth sense that tells you not to do something? Most good IT Pros have it. That's why we're Pros. Well, pay close attention to that sense. I didn't.
More importantly, I broke a cardinal rule. I didn't run a backup first. I mean come on. This is Apple with those cool Vista versus Mac commercials. There's no way in hell they would dare release an update that would cause a catastrophic failure of my Mac. Right?
So what happened exactly? Heck if I know. All I know is that the Apple app said it had an update for iPhoto and OS X that would require a reboot. Let's see, I wonder how many updates I've applied to Windows XP and Windows Vista in the last 5-6 years that required a reboot. I have never cratered a Windows machine such that it would not do anything other than boot from DVD. Sure, I've had blue screens on bad video drivers but those are exceedingly rare now. I've had to boot to safe mode a few times.
I take that back. I cratered a Windows Server drive one time. I shut down my Windows Vista machine in a hurry, pulled the drive out of my laptop, and popped another drive into the laptop with Windows Server 2003 on it. Just as I popped the drive in and it connected, I noticed Vista wasn't really done shutting down and it wrote to my server drive. You ever have that sinking feeling in a moment like that? I knew, just knew bad stuff happened. Sure enough, that drive got whacked somehow by the write. Good thing I had a dupe of those demos.
Back to the story on OS X. I messed around with the machine doing drive diags and such. I knew this wasn't a hardware failure. I knew a kernel component or something got replaced or hammered and was missing. I started to take it down to my local genius bar and say, "Here genius, you fix it!!!" But I'll be darned if I'm going to let an OS X update hose my Mac and get away with it.
What to do?
When the tough get going, the tough restore. Yea, I punted. I figured the only way out of this mess was to resort to a backup from Time Machine. Sure enough, I had several to choose from. The last good one was from 11/13 so I thought about what I would lose. Since I didn't take the Mac to Georgia, I knew not much. In fact, the only thing I added was a new version of the Messenger:mac beta I'm testing. That's all I lost by using the backup.
Which brings me to a point. Are you backing up? I know many people who don't. Imagine losing the hard drive of your Mac or Windows machine right now.
Let that sit on your brain for a moment...
Can you afford to lose EVERYTHING on that hard drive? Your email. Your pictures. The serial numbers for electronic copies of software you purchased. Your music. The doctorate you've been working on for months and months. The proposal and presentation you are delivering tomorrow that might make or break your company and job. Scared? Good. Go buy an external hard drive tomorrow and plug it into your machine and do a backup. Do one every Sunday night before you travel on Monday.
Whenever my Mac gets used during the daylight hours, I plug in the Time Machine dedicated drive and let it do it's thing. It's a good thing I do. Saved my bacon. Back up and running in less than an hour. I'm still upset. I never expected such a catastrophic failure. I guess I should not be surprised at this point. My Mac has been far from bug free. I crashed it day one with Time Machine. I crashed it twice trying to work with HD video. Now this.
Somebody needs to re-write some commercials I know...
[UPDATE] Sorry, but I just couldn't help adding a reference to "Leopard is the New Vista, and It's Pissing Me Off". I'm pretty sure there are some inaccurate statements in the article, but it's a worthy read. Summary, there's work to do in the Apple and Microsoft houses.
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...
The Hunt
The early bird gets the worm and I almost missed mine. When the new Zune's went on sale a couple of weeks ago, I thought it would be a big deal. I went so far as to stop by Wal*Mart at midnight to try to snag one. The discussion with the late shift was pretty interesting. I asked, "Do you have any of the new Zune's?" The ladies responded, "I'm not sure if we have any Zooms. We'll have to check in the cage." Twenty minutes pass. "Sorry, we don't have any Zooms. Who makes it?" Sigh...
There was another Wally World on the way home so I asked the guys there. They knew exactly what I was looking for but they said they have not received their shipment. Maybe on the truck tomorrow. Oh well, it was worth a shot.
The next morning I got up early. I was talking with my wife about the possibility of finding one at the SuperTarget and getting a $25 gift card with the purchase. It just so happens she was planning on going there and getting a Starbucks along the way. How convenient! Grin. So I follow her to see if they have one. As it turns out, they didn't but we spent nearly as much on other Christmas gifts anyway. I took the gifts, produce and head home. It's looking like I am not going to bag my game. But I am a skilled hunter. Time to use the tools of the trade.
After putting up the groceries, I fire up my trusty laptop to see what's happening on our internal Zune email alias. I figure if there's a channel supply issue, it'll be apparent pretty quick since I'm an hour behind the east coast but ahead of the west coast sleepy heads. I spy a tip. According to the tip, the CircuitCity stores seem to have more stock than most retailers. The one by me has been pretty good at having hard to find stuff because it's a little off the heavy trodden path of the shopping areas in the metroplex. Sure enough, a call to customer service indicates they have two. I'm at the desk five minutes later. I bag my game and head home to eat some music and video.
The Unit
I immediately unpack the goods. Slimmer 80GB player, check. Premium ear buds, check. Sync cable, check. Hey, where's my Zune pouch? Drat, no cover for the unit. Fortunately the legacy iPod Video I have has a little pouch that came with it that is unused. Now I wish I had not sold my Belkin case to Bryan when I gave him the Zune 30.
The Zune 80 is similar to the Zune 30. It is obviously thinner (3.6mm). In fact, it's slightly thinner than last years iPod Video 80GB player but 2.4mm thicker than this years iPod Classic.
I like the size and I really like the feel of the surfaces. It is not slippery. The black surface reminds me of my Lenovo ThinkPad T61p. The back is brushed silver. I can't wait to see the 80 with the laser etched artwork. That is going to look very kewl on this unit.
I plug my Zune 80 into the laptop and let it charge for a couple of hours. While it does this, I review the manual. Read The Fabulous Manual (RTFM). I install the Zune software and of course check out the premium ear buds. More on those later. Since I am a video buff, I of course have an eye on the screen. I am a little under impressed. I knew it was only slightly larger than the Zune 30 but I was hoping it would be more widescreen than square. Nope. What were we thinking? Have any of you purchased a TV or HDTV in the past couple of years? Was it square or widescreen? Of the past thirty DVD's you purchased, were any FULLSCREEN ? Gosh, I hope not.
The new squircle Zune pad is interesting. I am not used to it yet. It seems a little sensitive to me. I keep selecting the wrong song or video. It's probably just me. I noticed someone was talking about using this with gloves on and having a hard time. After testing it with gloves on, there are two things I notice that aren't possible with gloves. You cannot press in the middle to select an item, and you can't raise or lower the volume. That requires a direct touch from your finger.
The navigation system is easy enough. Moving around and playing media is pretty straight forward. Changing settings is easy. I immediately check the wireless status and make sure it is off. I want to save precious battery life.
Speaking of battery life, I've been doing my sustained video playback tests. So far it appears the Zune 80 will play video for about 3 hours 30 minutes when the LCD brightness is set to high. If you set the brightness to medium, it adds an hour to the playback time. From totally dead to totally charged takes about 2 hours when using the USB port on my Lenovo ThinkPad T61p.
The screen itself is very nice. It has good contrast and color however I am used to finer grained controls for brightness, contrast, gamma, etc. I am also wishing the Zune 80 had zoom and aspect ratio controls for video playback. To compensate, I have to create video output that works well with the Zune. That isn't trivial and I'll cover that in more detail in another post. I attempted to get some notes on paper with a previous post, but it was rushed before we left town to visit our family in Georgia. I am taking my time this time around and it will be much more detailed. Although the screen is obviously much larger that many other portable media players, I still prefer widescreen. I prefer big widescreen. 4.3 inches is my preference and right now I'm still digging the Archos 605 WIFI screen more. The Zune 80 is going to be much easier to travel with when space is at a high premium, but I usually have plenty of space in my backpack.
The ear buds that come with the Zune 80 are good. I like the magnetic tips to help keep the cords managed. I also like the braided cords to help keep things from getting tangled. You get some noise from the material used in the cords, but I didn't notice any of that on my recent flights to Georgia and back.
I like the new Zune software in many ways. It's easy to move around and figure stuff out. I would prefer more color schemes for the software. I like dark themes like the previous version. This version is a bit dainty for me but it is bright and easy to see. Some users have commented they don't like the play and pause controls in the bottom right. It doesn't bother me.
I purchased a three month Zune marketplace pass and downloaded some music. The software is very music focused although I have seen some pretty terse feedback on the changes in categorization and scoring. I added a portion of my music repository to my personal ThinkPad and let the Zune software add it to my collection then sync to the device. It's all pretty straight forward. I am not a big music fanatic (any more). When I was in college it was different because I was a DJ, but I'm much more into video now. The Zune marketplace is lacking the type of video I am interested in (movies and television programming). Syncing my movies into the collection and over to the device was pretty slow. They were not conversions because I had already encoded the .WMV files to support the Zune. I can't tell if it's a Zune issue or another symptom of the bugs we are tracking with the ThinkPad and non primary hard drive copies and moves.
I would prefer having my Zune show up as a hard drive to my laptop. I would also prefer being able to manage my collection on the laptop differently from the Zune device. I understand why the Zune team is doing this, I think, but I much prefer the way Archos and Creative expose the hard drive and the folders. I think at the very least we should have an advanced mode that allows for exploration of the hard drive through traditional tools like Windows Explorer.
The new Zune 80 holds it's own. There's a lot to like and it will be a solid seller this season and beyond. Since I am mostly into video, I am still looking for a larger screen, better video controls, and a deeper video offering from the Zune marketplace. I will also be looking for better battery life, a removable battery, or extra battery options from Microsoft or other partners. This years Zune offering took another great step forward and I look forward to future generations.
In case you've been wondering where I've been, I've been recruiting and interviewing candidates. Well, I found an excellent candidate and we've been in intensive training in the deep woods of Georgia. Here he is... I know, he's a bit young but we need to start early these days.
Happy Holidays everyone !!!
"See you" after the holiday break.
It seems like every year around this time, I'm in exploration mode on the new gadget in my portfolio. This year is no exception and there were some unexpected surprises with my testing results. If you look back at last years post, you'll see we had the PSP, iPod Video, Zune 30 and Zen Vision W in the mix.
This year the Zune 30 has been replaced by the Zune 80 and I added the Archos 605 WIFI. The Zune 30 is a Microsoft asset so I gave it to Bryan Von Axelson and it not included in this years test round. The iPod and PSP were dropped from the testing. Which of course leaves the Zune 80, Archos 605 WIFI and Zen Vision W as the three players that made my cut for testing.
Why?
I cut the PSP because I am no longer interested in dealing with memory sticks. I cut the iPod Video because the screen is too small and the only reason I keep it around is to test iTunes podcast integration. Keep in mind the iPod isn't the iPod Touch.
So Which is my Favorite?
I might as well cut right to the chase. There are two answers. For audio, the Zune 80 is a strong favorite and it isn't just because I work for the evil empire. I like the new device, I like the new Zune software, and I like the Zune Marketplace Pass all-you-can-eat audio buffet. I would like for Robert Plant and crew to make some of the Led Zeppelin tracks available as part of Pass collection for "free" but I guess if you helped define rock, you can pretty much call your shots.
For video, the Archos 605 WIFI is the hands down favorite. This essentially unseats the Creative Zen Vision W because the Vision doesn't support the higher bit rates I would prefer. The Archos player is thinner, smaller, supports more video playback formats, has longer battery life (with the extra battery), is touchscreen, etc. Basically you'll have to pry it from my cold dead hands. It's a keeper.
What were the surprises this year?
I set out this year to see if I could move my transcoding to the H.264 standard. The Zune 80 adds additional video playback and output support for that format and others. Nope, no can do. I would need to buy plug-ins for the Archos, and the Zen Vision W doesn't support H.264. Since the Zune 80 doesn't support DivX AVI, it meant I need to move back to Windows Media Video (.WMV). The problem with moving back to Windows Media Video is that the Creative Zen Vision W doesn't support bit rates above about 768 on the video side. Drat. There's an upside and downside to that. The upside is that the video file plays on all of the players. The downside is the loss of resolution and that the WMV transcodes take quite a bit longer than going to DivX AVI or some of the other formats supported by my utility.
The Zune 80 screen is very forgiving with videos encoded at lower bit rates. The Archos and Zen are less forgiving because of their 4.3" screen size but thankfully the lower bits rates are still good enough. If the Creative Zen Vision W dies or I sell it, then I will probably double the bit rates. In the end I was able to come up with some settings and therefore output that would run on all three players in the test. This means I can transcode a DVD one time and use it across my main three players.
Tools and Formats Used
Like last year, I am still using the Xilisoft conversion tool. It has been updated and includes support for Apple TV, H.264. Zune, etc. It's pretty easy to use and it's faster than the version I was using last year. I like this utility because it creates video for a variety of popular players and formats. The other aspect I like is the ability to clone an existing profile in the tool and modify it for your needs. I usually test a variety of video sizes so I like lots of choices from the profile. My only complaint about the tool I'm using is it's cropping support. That really needs to improve if you want to chop black bars.
Here are the settings I am using for video conversion:
2.40:1 Widescreen - 480x270 video size, 768 video bit rate, 128 audio bit rate, Pan and Scan zoom. 1.85:1 Widescreen - 320x180 video size, 768 video bit rate, 128 audio bit rate, Pan and Scan zoom. 4:3 Fullscreen - 320x240 video size, 768 video bit rate, 128 audio bit rate, Pan and Scan zoom.
2.40:1 Widescreen - 480x270 video size, 768 video bit rate, 128 audio bit rate, Pan and Scan zoom.
1.85:1 Widescreen - 320x180 video size, 768 video bit rate, 128 audio bit rate, Pan and Scan zoom.
4:3 Fullscreen - 320x240 video size, 768 video bit rate, 128 audio bit rate, Pan and Scan zoom.
As you can see, I dropped support for a couple of players this time around and it helped reduce the requirements for video support. I am a bit disappointed in the Creative Zen Vision W player supported video and audio. I should have paid more attention to the lack of detail in the specs for that device before I bought it. The Zen makes up for it by having a great screen with rich color and contrast. My wife likes that player so we'll still use it for another year or two. Windows Media Video (WMV) is king this year so we'll use it as the playback format on my media players. I'll be writing a review shortly focused on the Zune 80. Until then, happy holidays.
[UPDATE 1] I think I posted this too quickly. I am already seeing an issue I don't think I can live with, so I need to make a decision. The tool I'm using is taking WAY too long on the WMV transcode. All of the testing above was done using short five minute clips so I didn't see how drastic a difference there was. I can take a couple of paths. I can still move to H.264 which would mean I can build a repository on that format the Archos and Zune 80 can play. This cuts off the Zen and would mean I would still need to transcode DivX AVI for it. Or, I can look for a new tool that does WMV very quickly. Time to write Xilisoft for their suggestion. If you have a tool you like, let me know. Thanks. Sad. Bummer. Back to the drawing board...
[UPDATE 2] The tool I'm using has three encoder settings. wmv1x, wmv2x and wmv3x. wmv3x is the one that is the default and takes forever. For instance, one DVD took 4 hours to convert. It worked perfectly after the conversion (the Zune 80 doesn't need to convert), but it takes much longer than I had anticipated. wmv1x and wmv2x both take a little over an hour, but the Zune 80 does a conversion on the sync. It would appear the conversion on the sync would eat any time gained by using the other settings. I'm more seriously considering a two format approach. H.264 for the Zune 80 and Archos 605 and DivX AVI for the Zen Vision W. This will be the easiest method since the Zen will be used infrequently by my honey. I'll wait to hear back from Xilisoft Support, but I'm guessing that's going to be the final solution.
Can we all just get along? :?)
How many of you are running a corporate laptop and plan to install the Zune software? Are you also using an internal Windows Software Update Server (WSUS) implementation? If you are using such a configuration and aren't connected so that the WU client can connect to your WSUS servers, the Zune installation may fail when it goes to check for updates. Ask me how I know...
Consumer meet IT. IT meet Consumer.
[UPDATED] I removed the reference to managed desktops. This is really a mobile disconnected scenario. See the comments for further clarification.
Dogs rule, cats drool. It's actually the other way around (usually) but in the video, it's clear that the puppies are squarely in control of the situation. See Amits blog post and video at http://www.amitvaria.com/2007/11/04/gang-of-puppies. Funny stuff. The Pink Panther theme was genius.
This should get your blood pumping. I mean, what's it like to run Windows Vista on an overclocked Quad processor like this? Let's consider the first part of the specs:
Holy cow! That's a lot of juice my friends. I wonder how much power it draws when it starts. See the rest of the technical specs here. Looks like a wicked fast machine. The case isn't bad either.
Who's bold enough to order one and not tell the wife, install it and have sitting there glowing at night when she gets up for a drink of water? Sorry, even I'm not that brave.
I'm guessing the Windows Vista Experience Index on this baby is a 6.0. It'll be interesting to see what happens when it runs SP1, assuming of course 6.0 is not longer the top score possible.
Bet Michael Dell isn't running Ubuntu on this!!!
Don't get mad, get even. I must say I didn't like the "review" Ryan Block gave the new Zune today on the engadget.com website. Maybe it's because I own an Apple iPod Video 80GB. Maybe it's because I own a Playstation portable (PSP). It might be because I own the Creative Zen Vision W. Or it could possibly be because I own the Archos 605 WIFI. And it's very likely because I own the Microsoft Zune 80GB player and am a Microsoft employee. Damn straight it is.
I think I'm pretty qualified to assess the strengths and weaknesses of a portable media player. I own many of the top players on the market and understand their nuances. It might be that I learned to do fair and balanced evaluations of hardware and software while working at another company before joining Microsoft. As a result, it really irks me to see Ryan rant on about how bad the Zune is. Apparently it irked a lot of other people, too. They turned off comments after about 130. Nice. Come on Ryan, there's plenty to like and it will be a solid competitor this holiday season. Sorry you didn't get the Zune 80 to play with. Come check mine out.
As you can clearly see in the picture, I am running the Zune software on my Apple MacBook Pro with Leopard. In fact, it's the 64 bit version of the Zune software (2.1.888 to be precise). So it isn't accurate to say you can't use a Zune with an Apple computer or OS X. If you click the pic, you'll get the full size version and see more detail.
And for those of you that are skeptical the pic is real, trust me it is a full screen capture I did just a few minutes ago. If you look really carefully, you can see how. Or simply read back through my blog and you'll figure it out. I'll probably get some screencast software installed to my Mac soon, then I can show ya for real.
Zune potential customers, you are going to dig the Zune software and device. I snagged an 80GB Zune at the CircuitCity near my house this morning. I think we took an awesome step forward. I'll give you a serious run down on my impressions soon. I need to do some transcoding tests first so I can take some video with me on the road.
Read all of the reviews on the grid. I think you'll find the vast majority of the reviews are very very positive. There's a reason for that. Oh, and before I forget, if someone spots a kewl kickstand case for my Zune 80, let me know.
Enjoy Zune!