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Ben Drawbaugh

Tampa, FL - http://bjdraw.com

Managed Copy hits Blu-ray Discs December 4th, but you still can't use it

by Ben Drawbaugh posted Nov 7th 2009 at 2:34AM

Managed Copy demo
The egg had to come before the chicken right? Well either way, one of 'em came first and in the case of the latest Blu-ray feature, Managed Copy enabled Blu-ray Discs will come before the hardware. Less than five months since AACS was finalized and the details of Managed Copy were revealed and so far we've only seen one demo and not a single product announcement. This doesn't surprise us, but AACS-LA is apparently surprised because although all Blu-ray Discs sold after December 4th have no choice but to allow at least one copy to be made, the requirement to label the packaging as such has been postponed until Spring of next year. We'd expect at least a few products that support Managed Copy to be announced at CES and although we highly doubt any stand-alone Blu-ray players will sport this feature anytime soon, we do have our hopes on PC software and expect a few movie jukebox devices like Kaleidescape -- that we won't be able to afford -- will be announced at the big show in Vegas.

The best HD sports on TV this week

by Ben Drawbaugh posted Nov 5th 2009 at 6:56PM

LSU vs Alabama
Oh what a wonderful week it is now that baseball is officially over -- enjoy it while it lasts though as we heard that spring training was going to start in December this year. Big college football game this weekend as two top ten teams meet in Alabama and we'll all get to see if Alabama deserves its number three spot. Also this week are a few NFL divisional games as the Ravens take on the Bengals and Dallas travels to Philly, both of which are playing really good right now.

CFB
# 9 LSU at #3 Alabama CBS 3:30 Sat
# 16 Ohio State at #11 Penn State ABC 3:30 PM Sat
#24 Oklahoma at Nebraska ABC 8:00 PM Sat

NFL
Baltimore Ravens at Cincinnati Bengals 1:00 PM CBS Sun
Dallas Cowboys at Philadelphia Eagles 8:20 PM NBC Sun
Pittsburgh Steelers at Denver Broncos 8:30 PM ESPN Mon

NHL
Los Angeles Kings at Chicago Blackhawks Vs 8:00 PM Mon
Pittsburgh Penguins at Boston Bruins Vs 7:00 PM Tues

NBA
Chicago Bulls at Cleveland Cavaliers TNT 8:00 PM Thurs
San Antonio Spurs at Portland Trail Blazers ESPN 10:30 PM Fri

Poll: Did you like the new show V?

by Ben Drawbaugh posted Nov 4th 2009 at 5:41PM

ABC V logo
The ratings are in and ABC's V was the highest rated series premier this season with a rating of 5.0, a 13 share which equals 13.9 million viewers. Of course this doesn't mean that many actually liked it and since we were pretty split here at Engadget HD, we wanted to know what you thought of this new Si-Fi show.

Did you like the new show V

A la carte lawsuit against cable companies dismissed

by Ben Drawbaugh posted Nov 3rd 2009 at 5:27PM

Generic TV image
Nothing shocking here as a judge has dismissed a lawsuit against cable companies for not offering cable channels a la carte. We always find this whole a la carte issue interesting because in reality customers aren't really asking for less channels as much as they're asking for lower prices. So while we're usually against new laws to regulate businesses, we do think that something should be done to reign in on all the tying that content providers do, as well as other restrictions. So what customers should really be doing is asking congress to prevent ESPN (for example) from holding back on the main offering in order to force programmers to carry the completely useless ESPNews or ESPN Classic. Or maybe, the entire you can't carry our channel unless its on the basic tier silliness. No, no, la carte channels aren't the answer, but real competition is.

[Via TechDirt]

Nielsen reports the effects of the digital transition

by Ben Drawbaugh posted Nov 3rd 2009 at 1:20PM

Nielsen DTV chart
This is a really interesting report of the affects of the digital transition on ratings. Like the fact that "TV stations that transitioned to digital only experienced an 8 percent share decline immediately following the analog shut-off." But even more interesting is this that same number goes up to 13 percent if the broadcaster switched from UHF to VHF because of reception problems -- no wonder some broadcasters are going back to UHF. The other thing that piqued our interest was that cable companies seemed to be the real winners here as 18.2 percent of those facing the decision to buy a converter box, just ordered cable instead -- little do they know that they are just putting off getting a box.

[Via TVB]

Logitech's new Harmony IR repeater

by Ben Drawbaugh posted Nov 3rd 2009 at 12:01PM

Logitech IR repeater
Anyone who has had a Harmony Remote knows the "is this device on" hell that follows if an IR code is missed while an Activity is firing off. To address that and the whole hidden equipment craze, Logitech now offers a IR repeater called the Logitech Harmony IR Extender System that is available for $59. The way this works is there's one table top IR receiver that you place in the open, and then three IR blasters that you place in front of the devices you want to control -- of course this will require that you hide your equipment as otherwise the devices would receive the same IR signal twice. Not a bad deal at the price, but we do wonder if it is compatible with our own stick on IR emitters. We doubt this is as good as the RF version of the Harmony, but no doubt it's cheaper if you already own the remote.

Join the Engadget HD podcast live on Ustream

by Ben Drawbaugh posted Nov 2nd 2009 at 6:30PM

It's Monday, and we know that getting the week started can be tough. We're here to help by letting you peek into the recording booth when the Engadget HD podcast goes to tape on Monday, October 5th at 6:30PM ET. Think of it as a kind of time machine that will help you power through your day by reviewing what happened in the week HD-wise. Embedded Ustream tools and a list of topics after the break.

**UPDATE** And we're done, thanks everyone!

Continue reading Join the Engadget HD podcast live on Ustream

Blu-ray releases on November 3rd 2009

by Ben Drawbaugh posted Nov 2nd 2009 at 4:47PM

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra - Blu-rayOctober is over and before you know it Black Friday will be here, and so all the studios are preparing their holiday selection. Although this mostly consists of classics like It's A Wonderful Life, Forrest Gump and others, there are also some okay day and date titles like G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra and The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3. Next week Disney makes things much more interesting for animated feature fans though as both Monsters Inc. and UP will be released on Blu-ray for the first time.

  • G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (Paramount)
  • Forrest Gump (Paramount)
  • It's A Wonderful Life (Paramount)
  • The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (Sony)
  • Aliens In The Attic (Fox)
  • I Love You, Beth Cooper (Fox)
  • Say Anything... (Fox)
  • Two Girls And A Guy (Fox)
  • The Answer Man (Magnolia)
  • Christmas Vacation (20th Anniversay Edition) (Warner)
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars (The Complete Season One (Warner)
  • North By Northwest (Warner)
  • Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut (Warner)
  • Command Performance (First Look)
  • Direct Action (First Look)
  • Earth 2100 (MPI)
  • Food, Inc. (Magnolia)
  • Howards End (Criterion Collection)
  • Wings Of Desire (Criterion Collection)
  • Love Actually (Universal)
  • Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs (Image)
  • The Narrows (Image)
  • Not Forgotten (Anchor Bay)
  • Rocky: The Undisputed Collection (MGM)
  • Witchblade: The Complete Series (Funimation)

SeaChange shows 108 TB DVR at Cable-Tec

by Ben Drawbaugh posted Oct 29th 2009 at 7:07PM

SeaChange diagram
More news from the Cable-Tec Expo and this time it's from SeaChange -- although we'd all probably love to have this in our home, the RS-DVR is 108 TB and is designed to service 500 subscribers, while taking up 7 racks of data center space. The system would probably work nicely for operators like Cablevision who plan to replace the DVR sitting under your HDTV with a network based version -- especially since SeaChange claims the total cost of ownership is only $100, which apparently is less than a third what DVRs are currently costing providers. The RS-DVR can record 4,000 SD shows at once, which might just be enough since Hollywood is requiring cable companies to record one copy of each show per customer. It can also serve up content to portable devices while still letting you resume where you left off later on your HDTV. No word if there's been any takers, or even a price though.

Members of the ATSC agree on measure to curb loud commercials

by Ben Drawbaugh posted Oct 29th 2009 at 5:24PM

ASTC logoAnd here it was not even a few weeks ago when we thought our only hope to address crazy loud commercials was a new law and now Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) has agreed on a measure that'll solve it with out Congress. The new Loudness Recommended Practice will be called ATSC A/85 and specifies that all content be submitted with the audio set at -24 dB (±2 dB). NBC Universal has already gotten started by deploying new software that will ensure all the content stored on file servers is at the correct level, otherwise the encoder will correct it. In addition, new dB meters have been installed to ensure technicians have the necessary tools to make sure this happens. Among others, CBS, Starz, HBO, ABC, and PBS are also involved, but everyone is going to have to get on board to ensure the end of commercials that are louder than the content. Of course this still doesn't mean we'll watch them, but on the rare occasion that our Media Center doesn't automatically skip 'em we won't get blown out of our seats.

The best HD sports on TV this week

by Ben Drawbaugh posted Oct 29th 2009 at 4:19PM

Green Bay vs Oregon
The best time of year for sports' fans continues as the World Series is in full swing, College Football is about to start off its last month, and the NFL bye weeks are here. The two biggest college football games this week are on the same time and the same channel, which means you'll have to click on the ABC link to see the coverage map to know which game you'll get to see -- we're going to get the Texas game, luckily. Also this week is the over hyped rematch between the Vikings and the Packers is also on this weekend, and since it's at 4pm, everyone should get to see it -- who wants to anyways.

NFL
Denver Broncos at Baltimore Ravens CBS 1:00 PM Sun
Minnesota Vikings at Green Bay Packers Fox 4:15 PM Sun

CFB
No. 5 USC at No. 10 Oregon ABC 8:00 PM Sat
No. 3 Texas at No. 14 Oklahoma State ABC 8:00 PM Sat

MLB
World Series: Philadelphia Phillies at New York Yankees Fox 7:57 PM all week

NHL
Boston Bruins at Detroit Red Wings Versus 7:00 PM Tues

NBA
Denver Nuggets at Portland Trail Blazers TNT 10:30 Thurs
Chicago Bulls at Boston Celtics ESPN 8:00 PM Fri

Transformers 2 tops chart, best selling Blu-ray of all time?

by Ben Drawbaugh posted Oct 29th 2009 at 12:40PM

Transformers: Revenge of the FallenThe first week numbers are in and they're pretty good -- Michael Bay's latest movie moved 500,000 Blu-ray Discs in one day and a total of 1.2 Million for the week. Now we didn't go back and compare that to previous years, but that is without a doubt the best week any Blu-ray title has had this year, so we'd assume its safe to say this is the best selling Blu-ray title of all time -- in its first week anyways. Love it or hate it, there were plenty of people willing to run out the first week and buy this movie. This has to ease the minds of Paramount execs at least a little bit. Too bad for Hollywood that this will probably be as good as it gets this year, although we admit the movies we're looking forward to on Blu-ray still remain unreleased.

Broadcom's new DVR chip could make all our dreams come true

by Ben Drawbaugh posted Oct 29th 2009 at 11:29AM

Generic Broadcom chipWe look to our TV provider and companies like TiVo and Moxi to bring us DVRs, but the one thing just about every DVR has in common is a Broadcom chip makes them tick. So while the rest of the box varies by a lot, if the System on a Chip (SoC) doesn't support it, then it probably isn't there -- assuming another chip isn't added for a specific task. So you can understand why we got so excited when we saw the specs on the latest SoC, the BCM7125, announced by Broadcom at the Cable-Tec Expo. It of course supports tru2way and CableCARD, but more interestingly; MoCA 1.1, DLNA, Flash (as in video streaming), DOCSIS 3.0, and a 3D graphics engine. This means that little little guy could be the key to a multi-room DVR without running wires, that will play Hulu directly from the internet as well as stream content from PlayOn, all via a great looking user interface. So yeah, it has potential. The sad news is that there's no way to know how long we'll have to wait before a DVR is released that'll actually take advantage it.

Details of 3D cable demo at Cable-Tec emerge

by Ben Drawbaugh posted Oct 28th 2009 at 11:08PM

Cable-Tec Expo 3D cable demo
Our friend Mari at the official Motorola Blog just got back from checking out the 3D demo at Cable-Tec and was able to dig up a few extra details in addition to sharing her impressions. Overall she said the circular polarized and active shutter demos both "looked good" but each was driven by a different set-top-box so it was hard to do a fair a to b comparison. This also makes us continue to wonder how compatible these two 3D display technologies are -- we suspect they are compatible and that this was just to prove that both IPTV and QAM worked as delivery methods. The most interesting tidbit is the fact that, thanks to new Multiview Video Encoding techniques, the 3D stream only requires about 30 percent more throughput than the same image in 2D. This isn't as much as Panasonic is claiming the new 3D Blu-ray spec will require, which is estimated at 50 precent. One other thing we're left wondering is what the frame rate of the demo was, but earlier this week CableLabs did confirme that the demo is 1080p and that the SCTE has already added 1080p at 60 fps to its encoding standards. We assume the frame rate had to be at least 30 fps per eye though, because otherwise the flicker would probably be noticeably annoying.

Rogers Communications in Canada is not sold on tru2way

by Ben Drawbaugh posted Oct 28th 2009 at 8:50PM

tru2way logo
Add Rogers to the list of cable operators that aren't happy with tru2way -- which is in addition to the CE companies and the public at large. No folks, tru2way is the new technology that many love to hate and we can't say we blame 'em, but we aren't sure what ground the big cable company to the north has to stand on, as it isn't exactly the model of openness. You see as bad as we think our entire CableCARD fiasco is stateside, our cold friends who talk funny can't even enjoy the TiVo HD, a Moxi or Windows Media Center -- so yeah, it's much worse.




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