Do Home Theater PC’s (HTPC’s) have a future? If yes, how will they look and operate? And if not, what will people use instead to bring Internet digital content to their TV’s? Could there possibly be an HTPC in your future?

There are billions of dollars and thousands of jobs at stake in determining these questions, but it’s hard to say that the answers are yet apparent, much less already decided. Having played and worked in this area for a while now, I thought I would jot down some ideas. The timing seemed appropriate as a follow-up to Dave’s recent article on media streaming devices, and as I just finished building a couple of new HTPC’s (and also, sadly, retired my prized DivX Connected “Gej-box” media streamer).

The latest media streaming devices that Dave looked at included a digital media adapter from Netgear, a networked Blu-Ray player from LG, and another networked Blu-Ray player from Sony. Despite how new they are, they still seem to be hobbled by the kind of issues that have faced basically all streaming devices since they first appeared a few years ago. These devices are inevitably limited in what they can do, either in terms of playable file formats or by a particular digital distribution systems (i.e. Netflix, Amazon VOD, YouTube, etc.). None of them have proven to be “universal players,” despite some of the marketing copy them employ. And as Dave noted, the context for such devices is still somewhat dominated by gaming devices such as the XBOX 360 and Playstation 3, that also have very strong streaming options, but still share a number of annoying limitations (some dictated by hardware, some by business decisions).

Fundamentally, these networked media devices are asked to do something they are just not fully designed to do, no matter their particular pedigree or price point.

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An oft-mentioned aspect of the digital comic discussion at the San Diego Comic Con this year was the role of intellectual property rights, as both a source of revenue for creators but also as victim to widespread comics piracy. As with so many popular artistic endeavors, the creators themselves often expressed ambivalent feelings towards intellectual property conceptions, especially in light of technological changes radically undermining the traditional business models of comics publishing. Many of the most interesting comic book creators I heard at the Con seemed to recognize that new distribution models, digital comics in particular, could create innovative avenues for exposure and revenue, even if every digital copy was not purchased in the same way a physical comic book would had been. On the other hand, every publisher I encountered at the Con seemed to have the precise opposite opinion, that physical and digital property required the exact same treatment both legally and economically, despite the fundamental differences between an economy of scarcity and one of ubiquity. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s beginning to be some interesting commentary on the purchase of video codec company On2 by Google, see here, here and here. Much of the speculation understandably has to do with what this will mean for Google’s future with video, either via YouTube or in the Chrome browser and eventually OS. Within the specs for HTML 5 there is a push towards a simpler, more open video standard, with the open source Ogg Theora already getting some official support. Since On2’s earlier VP3.2 is the basis for Ogg Theora, some believe by purchasing On2, Google is likely looking to take their much more advanced VP7 and VP8 codecs open source and possibly license-free. Such a move would provide HTML 5 with very advanced video technology for free, and would create serious competition for other current codecs and/or platforms such as h.264, Flash, Silverlight, etc., while at the same time giving Google another point of real strength in future internet developments.

One question that I have yet to see answered sufficiently is how empowered Google would actually be to make such an aggressive move in regards to video technology. On2 claims that VP8 and their earlier technologies are completely patent free, unlike other video codecs like H.264 that have very complicated patent claims handled currently by the MPEG-LA licensing body. Even though there are excellent open source versions of h.264 encoders, such as x264, users still have take care of licensing with MPEG-LA. If Google could actually release VP8 technology as open source, or even if just royalty-free, codec, that would be a major disruption of the current video landscape and the future plans of many competing companies, including Adobe, Microsoft, Apple and DivX (full disclosure, I am a DivX stockholder). There have, however, been some rumblings about just how patent protected On2’s codecs really are. I don’t know enough to comment, other than to say that patents and video technology can be very, very complicated and messy.  In any case, there will certainly be much investigation and discussion around these issues before we see any major shifts from Google based on their purchase of 0n2.

Catch more of Bruce’s digital media musings over at Digitalwerks.

Just a follow up to my previous post on video on the Android, as has been reported a few places, Qik is now available for the G1. It has a lot of limitations, based on the T-Mobile network and the camera hardware, but it does work, and it opens up some very cool possibilities. The ability to live-stream from such a small device will allow for video coverage of places that previously would have been impractical if not impossible.

I’m really looking forward to doing some field testing with Qik on the G1 at the upcoming San Diego Comic-Con, which should be a lot of fun, at least as long as I can keep a 3G connection, and the battery holds out.

Catch more of Bruce’s digital media musings over at Digitalwerks.

An update to my previous post about the Swedish Pirate Party growing after the Pirate Bay verdict.

The voting results has the Pirate Party winning roughly 7% of the votes in Sweden, which will allow them to gain 2 seats in the upcoming EU parliament. According to reports from Sweden, the party did quite well among the young, receiving around 19% of voters under 30. From a US perspective those numbers may not seem too significant but in a proportional representative system, it’s actually very, very good for an upstart party, although the usual caveats about the general disinterest in EU voting certainly applies. Nonetheless, there’s little doubt that outrage among young Swedes over the Pirate Bay verdict did indeed cause a reaction. Whether or not the 2 Pirate Party representatives in Strassbourg can make a difference among the 725 other MEP’s remains to be seen, but if the copyright lobby expects to continue its crusade against file-trading without opposition, both legal and otherwise, they may be in for a rude awakening.

See Torrentfreak for more detailed coverage and discussion.

Catch more of Bruce’s blog thoughts at Digitalwerks.

Photo by bookgrl

After a few delays, the 1.5 (Cupcake) update for the Android G1 phone from T-Mobile has arrived. Impatient as I am, I followed the instructions from the AndroidGuys and forced my phone to update, although I think I only gained about 12 hours ultimately. In any case, it’s a big step forward for the phone and the Android platform, with some great UI improvements, including the much discussed virtual keyboard.

For me, however, the most exciting new development is the implementation of video recording on the G1.  After the phone is updated a new app appears, “Camcorder.” The use is fairly simple, just point and shoot. There are two quality settings, “Low” and “High,” with the Low setting designated for “MMS” usage. One nice feature is that video recording is integrated into the Camera app, and the user can switch from video recording to still photography with the click of one button.

The captured video uses the .3gp container format for the h.263 video codec. Audio is labeled as “samr” and is the standard 3gp audo codec of AMR-Narrowband. Using the “High” setting the video resolution is 352×288 and the bitrate looks to be around 350-400 kbps. ”Low” has a resolution of 176×144 and bitrate around 200 kbps.

How does the video look? Read the rest of this entry »

All of the above have both positive and negative aspects, and none of them have really taken off enough to be considered a mainstream success, at least in the context of advanced content delivery. Cost and complexity are probably the biggest hurdles to wide acceptance for all of them, but we are seeing some interesting moves to increase attractiveness to consumers.

Richard Lawler on EngadgetHD has reported that JVC’s US Blu-Ray player debut will be the first such device to playback Matroska (.mkv) files. The move to support codecs and file formats beyond those required for the official player specifications developed on standard definition DVD players in 2003 and then really took off with the growth of DivX certification thereafter.  Clearly JVC is trying to differentiate themselves from their Blu-Ray player competitors by appealing to a subset of consumers that are downloading Blu-Ray rips but would like to watch them on devices other than their PC’s.  Also interesting is that JVC is not working with DivX to do this, in fact they explicitly say “DivX files” are incompatible. These moves by JVC is interesting for a few reasons.

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