Category Archives: HDTV and Home Theater

Good news: DirecTV got the Feds’ approval to move DIRECTV5 to 72.5°W, which means that Toledo locals are just around the corner. This follows their previous announcement by about six weeks– not too bad! Now all I have to do is figure out how to get DirecTV to come install the additional dish I’ll need to get the locals.

Great news! Despite objections from the MPAA and the NFL, the FCC today approved TiVo’s TiVo-To-Go gadget for recording shows on a TiVo and playing them back on a PC or DVD player.

Finally, we’re getting locals! Dish turned on their Toledo locals last week sometime, and DirecTV has announced that they’ll deliver them as soon as they get FCC approval to move the DIRECTV5 satellite to 72.5°. Of course, this might take a while, especially since DirecTV is already in trouble with the FCC for moving DIRECTV3 without permission. Still, I’m hopeful that this will happen before the fall TV season starts, since most of the shows I want to TiVo are local broadcasts.

TiVo gets lots of press attention because of their broad patent portfolio, even though they haven’t been overly aggressive about using it for leverage. However, they’re not the only ones with interesting PVR-related patents. Time-Warner has a patent that covers inter-scene tagging and playback. Scenes within a broadcast program can be tagged with codes that indicate their content; through an unspecified interface, the user can selectively play back or omit certain types of scenes. For example, I guess you could use this to implement a V-chip-like device that would do on-the-fly editing of the program stream at the PVR, skipping over the naughty bits during playback. The patent also mentions that it could filter content from live TV broadcasts (paging Ms. Jackson!) Interestingly, it was filed in January 2000 and approved in February 2002, but I can only find one later patent that references it.

Bob Thompson asks what’s going to happen with digital TV in 2007. Here’s the situation as I understand it. Bear in mind that DTV ≠ HDTV: local stations are free to broadcast digital signals with standard-definition programming, and many of them do. (See this FCC page).
There are (I think) 18 different DTV formats , all of which fall under the rubric of the ATSC (advanced television systems committee)– a sort of grandchild of the NTSC. These formats range from ordinary standard definition (SD) TV to the “enhanced” 480p format to full-blown 720p or 1080i, 16:9 signals. The big push behind the use of digital signals is bandwidth: the spectrum allocated for one NTSC TV channel can host several DTV channels. For example, my local PBS station is using its channel allocation to simulcast four different PBS feeds (including PBS Kids), plus the national PBS HDTV feed. The local CBS affiliate simulcasts sports– the other night, when I complained that the Duke game took over from the GT-Kansas game, it turns out that the Tech game was simulcast on the other digital channel. Of course, what’s likely to happen (at least in some markets) is that affiliates will continue broadcasting their existing SDTV signal, then simulcast shopping channels, which they can be paid to carry. This is exactly parallel to the claims by DirecTV and Dish that they carry 160+ channels, when 8-10 of them are shopping channels that no one wants to actually watch.
Anyway, broadcasters currently have to be all-digital by 31 December 2006. The FCC has wiggle room to push this date back until 85% of the people in a given market area have the ability to receive digital signals, either because they have cable or satellite or because local penetration of DTV tuners has increased. By July 2007, TV manufacturers will have to include digital tuners in all of their TVs; 36″ and bigger sets will have to include a digital tuner by July 2005.
Note that this says nothing about HD tuners, just digital tuners. All of the cost estimates I’ve seen are wildly speculative; for example, this WaPo article says that a digital TV will cost $800 in 2007. It’s hard to understand how adding a digital tuner to an existing $250 27″ set is going to triple its price, especially once the low-end, high-volume manufacturers get into the act.
As far as Ron’s original question about how this affects PCI tuner cards, it’s hard to say. There’s already an effort to make all TV sets plug-and-play compatible with QAM-based digital cable systems; it seems likely that ATI, or someone, will make a compatible tuner card that will offer the same functionality. (Right now, the FCC says that cable systems cannot encrypt retransmitted signals from local stations, so even without buying premium channels you should be able to get your local broadcast signals this way). It’s certainly possible to do DTV tuning with a little combined hardware and software; for example, the VBox DTA-111 works quite well with Microsoft’s Media Center for tuning and decoding HDTV channels, and it’s not that expensive (about $200). Economies of scale will drive these prices down.
A parenthetical note: what’s currently not clear is what will happen with satellite retransmission of local channels once they go all-digital. Right now, neither major satellite service retransmits HD network signals, with the exception of the CBS national HD feed. It’s pretty clear that they don’t have enough bandwidth to carry all of the locals, so that opens the question of what happens with SHVIA’s upcoming revision.

I’m almost ready to forgive WTOL; their broadcast of the Georgia Tech-Kansas game today was flawless (especially the 5.1 surround!), and so was the outcome. What a great second half. I vividly remember the last time Tech went to the Final Four, since I was just finishing my degree. Now they’re back in. Sweetness. (Personal to all Duke fansr: I was rooting for Xavier to beat Duke, and now I’m rooting for Duke to lose. I’m just sayin’.)

Yesterday, I spent about two hours giving Dish the boot. I pulled down the two-LNB Dish 500 dish and replaced it with a so-called “phase III” DirecTV dish. That was easy; it actually took me about 15 minutes to hang and align the dish to receive good signals from all three satellites. Then I spent the next 45 minutes (no kidding) on the phone with DirecTV, activating my two receivers. There’s a Philips DSX40 TiVo in the living room and a generic Philips DSX5500 down in the basement. Why the basement? Well, since it’s connected to the old TiVo, the new receiver can feed a signal to the bedroom TV or to my flat-panel, which faces the treadmill. Voila! Instant treadmill entertainment. What do I like and dislike so far?

Continue reading →

At last night’s party, a few folks were asking about HDTV in this area. They were a mix of satellite and cable subscribers, some with TiVos and some without. I thought I’d write up a summary to cover the bases, since I didn’t want to bore them all with the details during the party.
So, if you want HDTV in Toledo, here are your choices.

• Get it with an antenna. The local ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox stations (along with WBGU-PBS) all broadcast HD programming at least part of the time. With a tuner like the Samsung SIR-T151 (or the newer SIR-T351, which adds DVI output) and an appropriate antenna, you can get this programming for free. Total cost: $200-400 for the tuner, $50-300 for the antenna. With this approach, as long as you get an adequate signal, picture and sound quality are excellent. You don’t get any premium channels like ESPN or HBO. This is what I currently do, and I’m putting up a better antenna this week– my little indoor unit doesn’t cut it.
• Get it on cable. Buckeye Cable has HD service. For $10/month, you can rent the box (I think they’re still using the Motorola DCT-5100); $4/month gets you the two local networks they carry– CBS and Fox. Another $11/month nets you Discovery HD, Mark Cuban’s two HDNet channels, and ESPN-HD. I had their service and liked it, but the lack of ABC was a deal-breaker. However, Buckeye does throw in HBO-HD and Showtime-HD if you subscribe to them already.
• Go orbital. Dish and DirecTV both offer satellite HD feeds. They have almost identical channel lineups: Discovery HD, ESPN-HD, HDNet and HDNet Movies, and InHD. Both services offer CBS-HD, but we can’t get it in this area because WTOL isn’t owned by the network. Prices vary; for existing Dish customers, you can get an 811 HD receiver for around $150, then you pay another $10/month for the HD content. However, the 811 has tons of bugs in it. Some of them are minor annoyances; others, like the notorious dark picture bug, are more serious. I’d avoid them until they get the bugs fixed. DirecTV has a $99 deal for existing subscribers, and their receivers work fine. Not all of them have DVI out, so if you want to use a projector or TV via DVI, make sure you pay attention to what you’re getting.
• VOOM. There’s a new HD provider: VOOM Stupid name, cool idea. They offer an integrated satellite and over-the-air tuner that picks up locals and their HD channels. Besides ESPN, Discovery, et al, they also have about 15 original channels (a cartoon channel, a couple of movie channels, and so on) that are all HD. Plus, they throw in some standard-definition channels like CNN. Two problems: they’re expensive (MSRP of $749, although there are various rebates that push the price closer to $400), and they don’t carry the same range of channels that Buckeye, Dish, or DirecTV do. Most particularly for us, they don’t carry BYU-TV, which guarantees that I won’t replace my existing satellite service. (Augment, maybe, but not replace).

For TiVo lovers, the picture is complicated by the fact that existing TiVos don’t record HD, and that the only TiVo that will is a) also a DirecTV receiver and b) not actually shipping yet. Dish has an HD PVR, the 921, and VOOM has promised one for later in the year, but I want the genuine article. I don’t watch that much HDTV because I’m no longer willing to set my schedule around when programs are on TV; it’s really hard to go back once you’ve used a TiVo for a while. So, Garrett, if you want HD and TiVo, you need a new unit. You can always add a second box with HMO and copy shows from box to box, though; that way Tiffany can have her “reality TiVo” and you can have your own.
As for me, I think I’m going to take DirecTV up on their $99 offer for one DirecTiVo and two regular receivers. I’ll put a receiver in my office, one TiVo in the bedroom, and one in the living room, and keep my OTA receiver. Iif I can wire it right, I might be able to put our existing TiVo in the basement and feed its signal to a couple of places; that way, we can distribute programs between boxes without a lot of hassle. When the HD-TiVo ships, I may or may not buy one, depending on how stable it is at first release. These guys can experiment, and I’ll wait to see what they find out; when I do get one, I’ll sell my OTA box since the HD-TiVo has a dual ATSC tuner in it too.

According to this press release, TiVo will be offering an extension to their Home Media Option (HMO) service that allows you to stream XM Radio from an XM PCR, through your Tivo, over the network. This is cool, except that I probably won’t have HMO when this feature releases: it doesn’t run on my old faithful series-1 TiVo, and there’s no HMO available for the DirecTiVo boxes (including the HD-TiVo, now only a month from release). Drat.

Yow! TiVo got two stories on the front page of the Marketplace section in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal. Neither of them were exactly favorable, although they did spell “TiVo” correctly 🙂
The first, by Nick Wingfield and Jennifer Saranow, points out that (gasp) TiVo gathers viewing data. There’s a quote from Richard Smith (summary: TiVo is saying “you have to trust us”, duh), and a counterbalancing quote from TiVo’s chief privacy officer. The article points out that the satellite- and cable-based PVRs are capable of gathering this data, even though none of them currently do, and the closing paragraph summarizes my feelings exactly:

Some users, such as Jayne Spiegelman, 48 years old, say they’re willing to put up with some monitoring because of the benefits they get out of the technology. “If it starts invading my privacy,” the Atherton, Calif., technology executive says, “yeah I’ll have a problem with it. But right now, I’m so infatuated with the TiVo service itself.”

The other column is by Lee Gomes. Most longtime Mac users well remember his numerous (and wrong) “Apple is dying” columns from the early-to-late 90s, and this is pretty much in the same vein; he dismisses the filing as “somewhat cheeky” and doesn’t present any real technical detail on the merits of TiVo’s claim– understandably, I guess, since the suit is still in its early stages. The patents are interesting reading, though.

My friend Bob Thompson asks a reasonable question about TiVo:

Why would I buy a product that allows the manufacturer to keep track not just of what programs I watch, but the details about how I watch them?

My answer: why wouldn’t you? Every system other than OTA broadcasting has the ability to track individual viewer usage. If you actually read TiVo’s privacy policy, you’ll see that TiVo can’t pull any identifiable data on shows that you have watched, recorded, or rated unless you opt in. They can pull some anonymous data. Their policy says that

“This information allows TiVo to know that a TiVo service user from a particular ZIP code watched certain programming but we are unable to associate those viewing choices with you. If you use the TiVo Plus service, you may request that TiVo block the collection of Anonymous Viewing Information from your TiVo DVR.”

I’m OK with that; in part, that anonymous data allows them to develop inferences about program relationships (e.g. if I record 24, I might also like MI-5 or Alias.) Since there’s a way to opt out of having identifiable data sent to TiVo (and since that’s off by default, IIRC), I am willing to allow the anonymous information to be collected. Hands down, the $600 ($340 for the unit, $250 for the lifetime service) we paid for our TiVo four years ago has been our best technology investment ever.