[opendtv] Re: Sony Vaio home theater PC
- From: Tom Barry <trbarry@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 10 Mar 2009 05:41:30 -0400
It may or may not have been on this list but yesterday I read some
article about what the convergence of TV and computer increasingly looks
like. The answer was it basically looks like a computer.
They have all the problems you mention but more and more people are
getting used to them. Many on this list probably know I have used
nothing else for about 8-9 years now. Add a wireless keyboard and, in
my case, a track ball sitting next to my chair and it pretty much takes
over all media entertainment functions while also allowing big screen
web browsing and email from a recliner. Most of the time I don't even
touch the keyboard.
Though the use of a computer for entertainment media is hindered by the
fact it can be used to get around most copy protection functions by the
determined. While that is a feature for the users it is a nightmare for
media distributors. But it is happening anyway.
- Tom
Kilroy Hughes wrote:
> That's pretty sweet. I'm surprised more companies don't package HTPC systems
> like this with low noise, remote control, tuners, disc player, and home
> theater A/V connectors ready to go. Maybe they will now there are so many
> digital entertainment sources to manage.
>
> I've been enjoying a similar system I put together about a year ago (except
> only ATSC tuners, not CableCard). I'd recommend upgrading to a couple 1TB
> drives in a RAID 0 array instead of 500GB, mostly because it's cheap; not
> because I have a problem storing tens of thousands of digital photos and
> music albums, a few dozen HD TV shows, and millions of tiny e-mails like this
> one.
>
> My biggest problem was getting a reliable ATSC signal because I'm near city
> center on a flat lake with line of sight to the transmitters (:-) go figure.
> I went through several tuners and antennas until I found a combination that
> could handle the multipath for most of the stations with a single antenna
> position and gain ("5th gen" tuner cards beat out the built in DTV tuners I
> tried). I still record dropouts and blocking every couple minutes when the
> rain gets bad ... about 160 days a year in Seattle. I never watch live
> broadcast, so I'm not around to beat and swear at the antenna when it's
> happening and just have to delete shows when they are too messed up.
>
> However, "reception" is quite reliable on Hulu, Fancast, etc. over my modest
> 1.5 Mbps DSL phone line; and there's always You Tube links in emails and
> video downloads to watch. Call me a Luddite, but I refuse to tweet.
>
> The graphics card is important, and it looks like Sony's is good enough. I
> use a 55" 120Hz flat panel for primary display, and usually connect with
> 1920x1080P60 HDMI for general purpose video and desktop use. I also use a
> separate dedicated HD disc player in another input that connects at
> 1920x1080P24 so the display can "refresh" at 120Hz without 3:2 pulldown
> judder or luma requantization. Sometimes I'll downshift the PC to 24P or 30i
> so the display will use or extract 24 frames buried in a broadcast signal or
> DVD image file for 42ms/frame display duration (sometimes I turn on frame
> interpolation for 120Hz, mostly not), but I usually don't bother because I
> use the 24P disc player for serious DVD and HD disc viewing.
>
> Most ATSC broadcast content is so ugly with MPEG-2 compression artifacts and
> other defects at this level of "magnification" that it is worse than adaptive
> internet streams and DVD with lower MTF. DVD usually looks better than ATSC,
> and HD DVD/BD dramatically better when each is fully optimized. Staged HD
> shows like local news and Leno, and 60P sports look very good on ATSC, better
> than DVD; but the majority of airtime is bothersome bad on this kind of
> system. It's hard to watch a great show like "Planet Earth" falling apart
> because it's bit starved or badly encoded; as opposed to the transparent and
> immersive disc experience. Web pages, Flash animations, text, PowerPoints,
> magazines, digital photos, etc. look perfect from across the room, and
> broadcast suffers by comparison. I don't have cable or satellite to compare
> to now, but they used to look worse than ATSC, except for my 8VSB reception
> problems.
>
> I use a single Harmony remote control for entertainment, and keyboard or
> mouse for surfing or working. (The remote sets all the inputs, turns on/off
> the appropriate boxes, etc. I just say "make it so" with buttons for "Watch
> recorded TV", "listen to radio", "play music", "surf the net", "watch DVD",
> etc.; and the buttons on the remote setup the system (not trivial) and take
> on the appropriate functions/codes.)
>
> These systems CAN be very consumer friendly by consolidating TV, streaming
> video like Hulu and NetFlix, Web, radio, "CD audio" (ripped), music services
> like iTunes, DVD and BD disc, video games, photos, VOIP phone, IM, email,
> news, RSS feeds, video editing, disc burning, EPG/PVR, etc. into a single
> user interface and remote control(s). But, they can be impossible for the
> average consumer if not well integrated by someone like Sony, and spared
> amateur modifications like P2P programs, Trojans, random antivirus and
> indexing programs, etc. that will bring the system to its knees, crashing
> along the way.
>
> Kilroy Hughes
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
> Behalf Of Manfredi, Albert E
> Sent: Saturday, March 07, 2009 16:26
> To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [opendtv] Sony Vaio home theater PC
>
> Just had a chance to play with this little, round, home theater PC STB
> device. It is just the sort of PC I had in mind, to bring the Internet
> to the (H)DTV and audio system.
>
> RF remote keyboard with standard mouse pad. Built in BluRay
> player/recorder. Built in PVR functionality, using its hard drive.
> Regular old Internet access. Windows Vista installed. Also a normal
> looking remote control, for the non-Internet related functions.
>
> http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalo
> gId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921665296592
>
> This was in a store, and Saturday afternoon, which had a way of giving
> me a realistic demo. Which is to say, there may not have been any RF
> reception issues per se, since this setup wasn't even using WiFi (it has
> 802.11b/g built in), but that didn't mean "good reception" anyway. With
> all the kids in the store playing with laptops and stuff, the poor guy
> couldn't even manage to stream 400 Kb/s. Not even close. Never managed
> more than a couple of seconds of streaming video.
>
> Obviously, the congestion problem here was between the store's internal
> network and its Internet link. However, seems to me the problem would
> also occur in most ISP nets in the near term, if the majority of users
> start watching TV over the Internet.
>
> Still, I did manage to see what the low rate IP media streams look like
> on a ~50" LCD HDTV. Not bad. And of course, there are sites that allow
> download of much higher quality stuff. They want about $1700. It's also
> very quiet. This is the sort of STB that will probably become the norm,
> in short order.
>
> Bert
>
>
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