Hey, this film was nominated for two Oscars! Of course, they were for cinematography and art decoration, not screenplay. Hard to believe this was largely considered to have the most advanced special effects at its time, especially considering Star Wars came out only a year later. But if you can't appreciate this film for all it's campy splendor, then appreciate the concept. If I could party and screw constantly until I was thirty, it would probably be worth the sacrifice.
Talk about showing your age! I wonder if a 30 year old will understand a reference to an obscure, 1976 sci fi flick (and definitely one of Farrah Fawcett's finest)? Sanctuary! Run to Sanctuary!
Re:Hmm HDTV Still Cripled...
on
A Look at IPTV
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· Score: 1
A couple of things. The other repliers are correct, the telcos are looking at H.264 (technically the same as MPEG-4), which will allow them to stream HD at MUCH lower data rates than MPEG-2. The other point is that they're also investing heavily in fiber infrastructures to support much higher data rates to the home. For new construction, we're looking at fiber taken directly to the home (wouldn't that be nice!) and for existing homes, you can still expect 30Mbps or more from vDSL over a fiber/copper hybrid. So the good news is that you can get your TV, voice, and 10Mbps Internet connection (maybe more if you're not watching TV at the time), but you have to wait for the build out in your neighborhood.
I've got a dual HD tuner MCE box that is now running almost flawlessly. Being within spitting distance from San Francisco's Sutro Tower, I get all the networks, PBS, WB, UPN and others for free OTA. That said, I have over $1000 and countless hours invested in the project - building the box, getting it to not crash, getting stutter-free HD, figuring out how to transfer programs to other devices and formats, etc... It would have been a whole lot easier and more economical to pay DirecTV the $500 + $10/month for their HD DirecTiVo, but what's the fun in that? For me, it wasn't about saving money or getting some functionality I don't have (I have an SD DirecTiVo and love it), it was about having a new and complicated project to geek out on. I'll admit that I love listening to my MP3s over my home stereo and viewing my photos on my TV, but there are way easier and cheaper ways to that as well. There's just not enough variety in off-the-shelf HTPCs right now to be able to buy one that affordably does everything you want it to do, so you're forced to build - that alone takes it out of the mainstream.
If you're willing to put some time into it, there are ways to get the recorded shows off of a TiVo box if you have a network-connected Series 2 box. Yes, DirecTV's support for the Series 2 features is lame, but there are ways around that, too. I've been thinking about trying this, compressing the MPEG-2 files on the TiVo to MPEG-4 files on my MCE box (and accessing them in the "My Videos" section) so that all of my programming is available in one place. This is clearly not something your average joe would ever attempt (or even know about) - sometimes it's great to be a geek.
Ouch! OK, I seemed to have lost both my sense of humor and sarcasm... my apologies. Had a two hour meeting with Legal today - enough to make anyone completely humorless.
Uhhh...last time I checked, Yahoo!'s primary source of revenue BY FAR was still advertising (like higher than 80%). I imagine it will be a cold day in hell when they officially support a product that erodes that revenue source.
The RCA unit records just like a VCR - you have to play back the video into the device. Sure would be nice just to drag and drop the video files from the TiVo to the RCA, but that's not an easy proposition (see this guide for the complicated process of extracting video files off a TiVo). But I just set up the RCA to record when I go to sleep or when I leave for work and soon enough I have hours of entertainment for plane rides and train commutes.
Most people want their PDA's to be small enough to fit in a pocket and have batteries that don't need charging every day. Why do you think the industry keeps trying to cram them into cell phones? Same with MP3 players, which is why you see tiny flash memory based units and Apple's intro of the iPod Mini. A device with a screen large enough to view movies is by definition too big to fit in a pocket. I have RCA's version of this which does everything the Archos does except the PDA functions and find it perfect for storing and viewing digital photos and for using airplane time to catch up on programs I Tivo but never get around to watching. That's functionality that I was willing to pay the $400 price tag for, but probably not much more. But I also have a Treo 600 for phone and PDA and keep a seperate, smaller MP3 player even though the RCA can play them as well - all because of size and battery life. A word of warning to anyone thinking of buying the RCA - I'm enjoying it, but it's pretty buggy, so caveat emptor.
So, will there ever be an all in one multimedia/communications/organizing device? In spite of the fact that people will continue to try to make them, the features by their very nature are contradictory and will result in units that may be decent at some tasks but mediocre at best with others.
I had a friend who worked for GM during the time of the Fiero. She had worked on a kickass aluminum block 6-cyl for the Fiero that she claims made the car an absolute rocket. But GM was worried about cannibalizing sales of the Corvette, so they never put that combination in production. Such a shame...
Ah, but is that the correct analogy or is it more like VHS vs. Beta? Beta is a clearly superior videotape format, yet VHS had the manufacturer's support (you would think Sony would have remembered that when they came out with the memory stick). Try to find a Betamax VCR these days - good luck. I don't pretend to know which audio format will "win", but don't underestimate the impact of manufacturer's support and don't forget all the hidden business agendas present in decisions to support a given format. It's not only about technology.
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Hey, this film was nominated for two Oscars! Of course, they were for cinematography and art decoration, not screenplay. Hard to believe this was largely considered to have the most advanced special effects at its time, especially considering Star Wars came out only a year later. But if you can't appreciate this film for all it's campy splendor, then appreciate the concept. If I could party and screw constantly until I was thirty, it would probably be worth the sacrifice.
Talk about showing your age! I wonder if a 30 year old will understand a reference to an obscure, 1976 sci fi flick (and definitely one of Farrah Fawcett's finest)? Sanctuary! Run to Sanctuary!
A couple of things. The other repliers are correct, the telcos are looking at H.264 (technically the same as MPEG-4), which will allow them to stream HD at MUCH lower data rates than MPEG-2. The other point is that they're also investing heavily in fiber infrastructures to support much higher data rates to the home. For new construction, we're looking at fiber taken directly to the home (wouldn't that be nice!) and for existing homes, you can still expect 30Mbps or more from vDSL over a fiber/copper hybrid. So the good news is that you can get your TV, voice, and 10Mbps Internet connection (maybe more if you're not watching TV at the time), but you have to wait for the build out in your neighborhood.
I've got a dual HD tuner MCE box that is now running almost flawlessly. Being within spitting distance from San Francisco's Sutro Tower, I get all the networks, PBS, WB, UPN and others for free OTA. That said, I have over $1000 and countless hours invested in the project - building the box, getting it to not crash, getting stutter-free HD, figuring out how to transfer programs to other devices and formats, etc... It would have been a whole lot easier and more economical to pay DirecTV the $500 + $10/month for their HD DirecTiVo, but what's the fun in that? For me, it wasn't about saving money or getting some functionality I don't have (I have an SD DirecTiVo and love it), it was about having a new and complicated project to geek out on. I'll admit that I love listening to my MP3s over my home stereo and viewing my photos on my TV, but there are way easier and cheaper ways to that as well. There's just not enough variety in off-the-shelf HTPCs right now to be able to buy one that affordably does everything you want it to do, so you're forced to build - that alone takes it out of the mainstream.
If you're willing to put some time into it, there are ways to get the recorded shows off of a TiVo box if you have a network-connected Series 2 box. Yes, DirecTV's support for the Series 2 features is lame, but there are ways around that, too. I've been thinking about trying this, compressing the MPEG-2 files on the TiVo to MPEG-4 files on my MCE box (and accessing them in the "My Videos" section) so that all of my programming is available in one place. This is clearly not something your average joe would ever attempt (or even know about) - sometimes it's great to be a geek.
Ouch! OK, I seemed to have lost both my sense of humor and sarcasm... my apologies. Had a two hour meeting with Legal today - enough to make anyone completely humorless.
Uhhh...last time I checked, Yahoo!'s primary source of revenue BY FAR was still advertising (like higher than 80%). I imagine it will be a cold day in hell when they officially support a product that erodes that revenue source.
The RCA unit records just like a VCR - you have to play back the video into the device. Sure would be nice just to drag and drop the video files from the TiVo to the RCA, but that's not an easy proposition (see this guide for the complicated process of extracting video files off a TiVo). But I just set up the RCA to record when I go to sleep or when I leave for work and soon enough I have hours of entertainment for plane rides and train commutes.
So, will there ever be an all in one multimedia/communications/organizing device? In spite of the fact that people will continue to try to make them, the features by their very nature are contradictory and will result in units that may be decent at some tasks but mediocre at best with others.
I had a friend who worked for GM during the time of the Fiero. She had worked on a kickass aluminum block 6-cyl for the Fiero that she claims made the car an absolute rocket. But GM was worried about cannibalizing sales of the Corvette, so they never put that combination in production. Such a shame...
Ah, but is that the correct analogy or is it more like VHS vs. Beta? Beta is a clearly superior videotape format, yet VHS had the manufacturer's support (you would think Sony would have remembered that when they came out with the memory stick). Try to find a Betamax VCR these days - good luck. I don't pretend to know which audio format will "win", but don't underestimate the impact of manufacturer's support and don't forget all the hidden business agendas present in decisions to support a given format. It's not only about technology.