Recently in Video Hardware & Software Category

Sony must be reading my blog, since just last week I suggested Sony take on Apple by offering a universal multi-media device that does gaming, mobile calling, video playback, MP3 music, and GPS navigation. I jokingingly called this hypothetical Sony device the Sony PlayStation Multimedia Video GPS Phone - or Sony PSMVGP for short. I knew Sony would be the perfect company to take on Apple and especially that juggernaut known as the Apple iPhone, when I said, "Sony, an expert in electronics, TV screens, and gaming, is the perfect company to take on the Apple iPhone."

I explained last week, "Sony If Sony were smart, they'd come out with a Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) with built-in GPS, GSM cellular service, and wireless Internet functionality. This hypothetical device would blow away the Apple iPhone. It would offer awesome 3D gaming, cell phone functionality, Internet/email access, video playback, and GPS navigation. The device would have everything you need for long trips with the kids. They can play videogames, watch videos, or access the Internet. What more do you need? Sony, an expert in electronics, TV screens, and gaming, is the perfect company to take on the Apple iPhone."

Just a few days later Sony launched the Sony Walkman NWZ-A801 and NWZ-S610, which were obviously targeting the Apple iPod MP3/video player. Once again, I tried to prod Sony into launching my "ultimate converged gadget" when I wrote, "These two new series combo audio/video portable players are a great start for Sony. But I'm still waiting for Sony to create the Sony PlayStation Portable Multimedia Video GPS Phone or Sony PSMVGP for short. It would combine a Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) with built-in GPS, GSM cellular service, and wireless Internet functionality. Then life would be good. "

Well, today there is a big story in the Wall Street Journal saying, "Sony Corp., Chief Executive Howard Stringer is quietly preparing a big move to expand the company and challenge rival Apple..." The article goes on to say, "People familiar with the situation say Mr. Stringer is planning to use Sony's technology-packed PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable videogame machines, along with its Bravia high-definition televisions, to develop products and services to let users download television shows and movies, similar to the way they download music and videos using Apple's iTunes store and iPods."

I'll be damned if that quote isn't nearly identical to what I was saying last week. Of course, there is no mention of GPS navigation or mobile phone functionality, but I wouldn't be surprised if through the Sony Ericsson relationship they developed a mobile phone with high-end multimedia and GPS functionality.

What is very interesting is that in addition to the news today that "Sony is going to take on Apple" is that Sony Ericsson President Miles Flint today announced he was stepping down to be replaced by Dick Komiyama, current chairman of the board at Sony Electronics, USA. Replaced by someone at Sony Electronics? Could something be afoot? This is a very interesting restructuring. Could Sony be looking to leverage their expertise in electronics and home entertainment and bring it to their Sony Ericsson mobile phone division? While my prophetic words from last week were somewhat of an obvious prediction, my timing was certainly impeccable!

The Provia A1 navigator GPS isn't your typical utilitarian GPS that gets your from point A to point B. No siree, Bob! The Provia A1 navigator is more like the iPhone with it's sleek design, 7" touchscreen, and cool 3D graphics. This Provia A1 GPS just begs to be carried around just so you have cool gadget bragging rights. The Provia A1 navigator is from Korea’s HTMS and features a Samsung 800 x 480 resolution widescreen touchscreen 7-inch display. It has handwriting recognition for quickly keying in address or other other information. Navigation uses super-detailed, razor-sharp 3D maps, complete with models of buildings and other landmarks.

Since it's 3D, you can see highway overpasses/underpasses and know which road you're supposed to be on. 2D GPS navigation units can often confuse the driver with parallel roads at different height levels since they don't clearly indicate which "level" the driver is supposed to be on.

The A1 is a complete media player with audio and fullscreen video playback. Even cooler, it has a "picture-in-picture" (PIP) mode, so you can simultaneously watch a movie and get directions. It also features a DMB receiver so you can receive over-the-air (OTA) digital television broadcasts. This bad boy plays DivX, XviD, H.264, WMA, WMV, OGG, mp3, MPEG-4, and a bunch of other formats.

If Sony were smart, they'd come out with a Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) with built-in GPS, GSM cellular service, and wireless Internet functionality. This hypothetical device would blow away the Apple iPhone. It would offer awesome 3D gaming, cell phone functionality, Internet/email access, video playback, and GPS navigation. The device would have everything you need for long trips with the kids. They can play videogames, watch videos, or access the Internet. What more do you need? Sony, an expert in electronics, TV screens, and gaming, is the perfect company to take on the Apple iPhone.

I wouldn't be surprised if Sony came out with such a cool converged device. Wonder what Sony would call it? Sony PlayStation Multimedia Video GPS Phone? Or Sony PSMVGP for short?

Via Technabob

A litle while ago, TiVo introduced Amazon Unbox movie downloads. but you still had to log on to Amazon.com to order your moves for playback on your trusty TiVo.. Fortunately, some coders came up with a home-grown solution that allowed you to order directly from the TiVo interface - though it does requires a Windows PC and is a bit of a kludge. Well, TiVo and Amazon got together and are now offering Buy on TV which lets you buy movies directly from your broadband-enabled TiVo Series2 or Series3 set top box. You can find movies or TV programs to download by browsing under TiVoCasts or Swivel search on your TiVo's menu interface.

Source: Zatz Not Funny

Microsoft today announced that they have renamed Microsoft IPTV to Microsoft Mediaroom to more accurately reflect the comprehensive "media" functionality of their IPTV platform. In conjunction with the name change to Mediaroom, Microsoft announced several new features to its Internet Protocol television (IPTV) software platform, including in-home personal music and photo sharing and dynamic MultiView (multiple picture-in-picture) capabilities that will allow you to have up to 16 Picture-in-Picture (PIP) windows in a single screen.


Though unless you are Data, the android from Star Trek TNG, there is no way anyone can process that much video input!

Also, their API will allow multiple camera angles, which could be a huge boom for sports channels. Imagine for instance if you can subscribe to an NFL Plus Channel that allows you to see multiple camera angles within PIP windows. You'll be able to see live whether a player's feet was inbound or out of bounds without a replay.

The new Multimedia Application Environment provides an HTML-based development environment, with open-application-programming interfaces that will allow third parties to develop applications for Mediaroom, including video-on-demand portals, gaming, and interactive TV services. The Microsoft Mediaroom multimedia platform supports simultaneous recording of multiple high-definition and standard-definition TV channels. Sweet!

Ironically, AT&T U-Verse, a Microsoft partner that uses Microsoft-powered set-top boxes can only watch/record 1 HDTV channel at a time. Perhaps U-Verse customers and their Microsoft set-top boxes will get an upgrade in the near future to the new Mediaroom, which supports >1 HDTV channel? Although I believe it's not a set-top box issue with a single HDTV limitation, but rather it's a bandwidth limitation of AT&T U-Verse which utilizes a fiber/copper-hybrid approach. It's copper the last leg into the house (VDSL), so squeezing multiple HDTV channels plus have room for Internet surfing bandwidth is a technical obstacle rather than a software one.

No doubt Microsoft has made Mediaroom "transport agnostic" so it can work over coax, copper, or fiber. So the more bandwidth you have, the more advantage you can take of their multiple HDTV capabilities.

One of the important new features in Mediaroom is the personal media sharing. This enables consumers to listen to digital music and view digital photographs stored on PCs on their televisions. Currently, 10 service providers worldwide are commercially deploying the Microsoft IPTV platform for their digital-TV offerings, including AT&T, BT, Deutsche Telekom, T-Online, and Switzerland’s Swisscom.

Thus, unfortunately, you have to be in one of the select areas where this IPTV offering is being deployed. U-Verse is coming to Connecticut and it's being deployed very rapidly. Unfortunately, my neighborhood doesn't have it yet and I'm none too bitter about it too.

Microsoft dropped a bombshell with their new Microsoft Surface touchscreen computer that is a touchscreen coffee table with "eyes" that can see what is placed on it blending the virtual and real worlds together. Microsoft thinks this technology developed under the top-secret codename 'Milan' will change the world and be used as a coffee table replacement in living rooms and family rooms. According to Popular Mechanics, here's how the screen works... A diffuser turns the Surface's acrylic tabletop into a large horizontal "multitouch" screen, capable of processing multiple inputs from multiple users. The Surface can also recognize objects by their shapes or by reading coded "domino" tags (i.e. RFID). Like Superman, Microsoft Surface even has XRay vision. Ok, I lied, it's infrared vision, a different end of the electromagnetic spectrum, but it could have Xray vision, perfect for seeing through clothes or to view the other poker player's hand - Xray radiation be damned! This table this screen kind of reminds me of those old tabletop video games you'd find in bars and pizza parlors.

In any event, the infrared "machine vision" uses an 850-nanometer-wavelength LED light source aimed at the Surface screen. When objects touch the surface, the light reflects back and is picked up by multiple infrared cameras with a max resolution of 1280 x 960. Microsoft demo'ed the ability to take a digital photo, place the digital camera on the surface and the photo was instantly transferred to the Surface. This "surface computing" as it is called, can utilize a blend of wireless protocols, special machine-readable tags and shape recognition via the infrared cameras to merge the real and the virtual world. Microsoft's Milan team refers this as "blended reality."

Simply by embedding any variety of wireless transceivers, such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, RFID, etc. it can sync instantly with any device that touches its surface. I wonder how long before Microsoft or a 3rd party develops some "virtual world" games for Microsoft Surface. It could also be used as an educational tool for youngsters. For instance, the table could say something like "Place the yellow triangle on the table" and then determine if the child correctly performed this task. I do have some skepticism that this will pass the WAF (wife acceptance factor). You really think she'll want to swap out a nice wooden coffee table that coordinates with the rest of the room with some high-tech coffee table gadget? What about the power cord that will now snake across the floor unless you professionally install it under the rug? Nevertheless, all gadget lovers will salivate over this new piece of high-tech furniture gadgetry - including me. To quote Butthead, this is the coolest thing I have ever seen!

Check out the video demo from Popular Mechanics:

Scobleizer talks about Microsoft throwing down the multi-media gauntlet with a new software called Silverlight that aims to take on Adobe Flash, the predominant video media format on YouTube and other websites due to its better cross-platform support. Microsoft's Silverlight faces an uphill battle against Adobe Flash since the Adobe Flash Player is installed on more than 700 million computers and content developers are used to Adobe's media creation tools. Not to be outdone, Adobe introduced Adobe Media Player, a standalone media player that can play content "offline", as opposed to streamed "online" like the current Adobe Flash player does. This is in direct competition to the popular Windows Media Player bundled with most Windows PCs. This brings back the glory days of the Microsoft vs. Real media player battles.

Scobleizer discusses 5 interesting reasons why Microsoft's foray into this space is important. He mentions Microsoft's huge lead over Adobe in HDTV. This is a valid point and considering Microsoft's strong relationship with cable companies and some carriers (AT&T, T-Mobile) with their set top boxes and IPTV platform called Microsoft IPTV Edition, Microsoft is positioned to offer a "converged" solution that has some interesting possibilities. For instance, you could download a movie to your PC, your cellphone, or your set-top box. In any scenario, Microsoft could allow you to play this downloaded content anywhere on any device. The media player wars just got interesting... Microsoft defeated Real quite handily (in my opinion), but Adobe has legions of fans that will make it a much tougher battle.

AT&T won't be reaching 18 million homes this year with its "Lightspeed" U-Verse IPTV & VDSL broadband network, giving more credence to my AT&T U-Verse Doomed? article. The ironic thing is that AT&T just a few days go stated it was ready for an aggressive rollout of U-verse. They told the San Antonio Express News that it had ironed out technical glitches with the service and is readying a breakneck expansion that will take it to all major cities in its 22-state service area and 8 million households by year-end. "We're ready to take our foot off the brake and step on the accelerator," John Stankey, AT&T's group president for operations, said Tuesday. "By the end of the year, we will be up and running in every significantly sized market where we operate."

Nice marketing snowjob job, AT&T! Instead, AT&T will reach less than half the original target of 8 million. USA Today stated today, "AT&T unveiled its latest 2007 target in an unusually quiet manner: It was offered up to Wall Street analysts on an earnings call on Jan. 25. The 8 million figure later showed up in a few investor notes, where it did not attract much attention." Fletcher Cook, an AT&T spokesman says Microsoft's IPTV software isn't to blame: "We're building a brand new service from scratch, and we want to make sure we do it right the first time." Blaming Microsoft is almost as fashionable as blaming President Bush for everything & anything - from global warming to knowing about 9/11 beforehand. (See: Wiki - Bush Derangement Syndrome. So, I'm glad to hear AT&T isn't blaming Microsoft for failing to meet their goals.

Update (I had some other thoughts and feedback from users)
One person emailed me and wrote:

Read with great interest your comments about the possible doom of U-verse. Taking those concerns into account, would you recommend it to a consumer like me who is considering switching from Comcast to U-verse if and when it becomes available on the west side of Indianapolis? The cost and channel availability seem to have cable beat by a mile, but your technological concerns may trump other advantages.

I'd appreciate your assessment on whether consumers should proceed to "sign up" for this new service.

I responded:

Put to you this way. If I could get U-verse in my area, I'd do it. Yes, I knocked AT&T for not meeting their target goals, as did many media outlets. While I think AT&T & Microsoft were perhaps 1-2 years too early with their proprietary technology, it is still a good solution.I'm just not a fan of proprietary solutions. AT&T and Microsoft have had a bumpy road, but I think AT&T & Microsoft have worked out most of the kinks.

Also, I am the least fan of cable. They are overpriced on everything. When I looked into Cablevision's Optimum Voice I believe it was like $39/month. Their broadband was like $45/month. And to get the channels I wanted, it was like $55/month for a grand total of around $139 for the "Triple Play" package. On top of that, the number of HDTV (high-definition) channels was only like 4 and of course, that was an additional $15/month.

I personally switched to DirecTV satellite, which is better than cable, but isn't a perfect solution either - since I then had to also sign up for AT&T DSL + AT&T Unlimited Voice. So I have two separate providers - a Single Play (DirecTV) and a Double Play (AT&T), which no doubt isn't the most cost effective. I just can't get U-verse or even the competing Verizon FiOS (fiber) solution in my area. I'd take either one. Both AT&T and Verizon are building out their networks as fast as they can - but not fast enough for my tastes.

So if you can get Triple play - voice, video, data using AT&T U-verse, with more HDTV channels and super-fast Internet, I say go for it!

AT&T U-verse is in Stamford, CT, which is where my boss, Rich Tehrani lives. I told him they're offering U-verse in his area. Of course, if he gets this cool Triple Play package before I do, I'll be quite jealous and will be forced to bitch & whine how come AT&T isn't offering U-verse in my neighborhood area. Maybe I'll check to see if their competitor, Verizon FiOS (fiber to the home - FTTH) has availability in my neighborhood.