CableCARD view on Vista?

Now that we're getting down to 6 months on the VISTA schedule it might be good to look at what is on the horizon for Media Center.  Specifically, CableCARD capabilities.

http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/entry/2199/more_concrete_details – this is a good start.

So it looks like we'll be getting CableCARD support in Vista just when the cable companies are abandoning Cable Card 1.0.  Great.  So now we're stuck in a grey area of support – CableCARD 2.0 should be out, but no guarantees.

And they won't allow home-built or older Media Centers to be upgraded to CableCard with any kind of support.  Even better.

HD Beat has a great set of articles – looks at CableCARD 2.0, Vista features and other HD information.  http://www.hdbeat.com/search/?q=cablecard

Well, I for one am fed up with the horrid software that cable companies and the set top box makers force on us.  My DCT6412 is very bad – I won't detail everything, but I'm glad it at least can record shows and we finally got ESPN2 HD – woot! – that only took about 3 years too long.  

Let's hope that CableCARD 2.0 is actually good – something CableCARD 1.0 was NOT.

ps – sorry about the links, I'll try to address that in future posts.

Until next time! 

Brain Age getting new users

An odd thing happened this weekend.  My wife asked me about the Nintendo DS.  Actually, she asked me about "That Brain Age game".  So, as my jaw dropped to the floor, I managed to ask her how she'd heard about it.  She said she had read about it or heard about in one of her regular magazines or a news show.

Now, most of her media consumption consists of US and People for wasting time while blow drying her hair, NBC's Today Show while drinking her coffee and Radio Margaritaville on Sirius while driving.  So Nintendo must be doing something really right in their quest to get new gamers to buy their products.  Did I mention that she's addicted now to Brain Age and that she's playing Sudoku? 

BTW, I hadn't even heard much about the DS until she brought it up, so I quickly found out that the DS Lite was launching and got one on Sunday.  I have also since discovered that the Homebrew crowd is creating some cool programs for the WiFi enabled DS.  Now I just need a streaming audio application to grab the Media Center Connect feed from XP and we've got a portable media player, too.  hehe

So, kudos Nintendo!  You're getting new users – in fact, Brain Age is so cool, we may have to get another DS Lite because I haven't been able to get my hands on our current one since Sunday afternoon… 

Xbox 360 and MCE update

Quick update – I noticed that several people have been reading the site – especially on the Xbox 360, even with the long delay in posts, so I thought I would post an update on the performance so far.

The WAF(Wife Acceptance Factor) is HUGE! The 360 is housed inside a totally enclosed cabinet, connected with optical cables to my Yamaha reciever and through Component to a Sharp LCD flat panel hanging above the fireplace. In order to keep everything hidden I got a Logitech Harmony 890 – it uses RF to transmit to an IR repeater and so I can control everything with one remote while keeping everything hidden. The 890 is working well even though I had read some reviews saying others had problems – I must have lucked out and gotten updated firmware that stopped lockups and other issues.

I love having '24' in all it's HD glory recorded and being able to be displayed in either room. Not to mention the fact that all of our music and photos are fun to have on during parties – people always ask how they can do the same thing.

Well, off to hang out with the wife..

XE104 a bust

Well, the Powerline product connected as advertised – no hassles there. It transferred data and connected to Xbox Live at a much higher rate than the 802.11a Linksys WRT55AG I have(which is getting RMA’d, so we’ll see what happens with that).

Then, I tried to connect to Media Center. Nothing, nada, zero. Apparently they can’t see SSDP broadcast packets or delay them enough that the MCE and Xbox 360 never get connected. It’s unfortunate, because these are otherwise great devices – the speed isn’t as much as advertised and signal drops off FAST – go more than 30 feet and you’ll be down in the 30-40MBps range. Any more distance than that and you’ll be hitting the 20s.

So, if they fixed the problem with the broadcast packets, all would be well – very impressive speed and performance – but back they are going to Amazon today.

So, be WARNED! – I have tested these with Xbox 360 and they DO NOT work with Media Center Extender functionality. But, if you are just connecting to Xbox Live, you should be OK.

XE104, I hardly knew ya…

Netgear XE104

Well, now that the Cisco has been working well for 2 weeks – no lost Vonage calls and the wireless router seems to be able to keep up, it’s time to optimize the network infrastructure for HD transmission between the Media Center and Xbox 360.

 Wireless is working great for songs from MCE to Xbox 360, but HD content isn’t getting the required 22MBps from my 802.11a router(Linksys WRT55AG).  I investigated several items – wiring the house is not an option with the current setup – it would be a total nightmare and not worth the expense if I can figure a way out around it. 

 Enter the new Netgear XE104, based on HomePlug Turbo (85MBps spec, probably 25MBps sustained throughput from what I’ve read). http://www.netgear.com/products/details/XE104.php

I have two on the way and they will hopefully help me avoid re-wiring the house.  HomePlug will become relevant, IMHO, to a lot more people when HomePlug AV products come out – 200MBps spec, no wireless style issues of dropouts or deadspots. 

Since I only have one MC Extender, that’s what I’ll test first and post how my experience goes.

iPod Nano

I am a gadget freak and I have to say that one of the cooler devices I’ve gotten in a long time is my 2GB Nano that I received for Christmas.

I got a gift card to the Apple Store and dealt with the hordes the day after Christmas to buy the black 2GB Nano. I was thinking of getting the 4GB version, but I want the Nano for exercising, using in the car for podcasts and bringing along on long trips – a day’s worth of music and even more time for podcasts should be plenty. I also plan on getting the 5G iPod eventually to replace the laptop on vacations – transferring digital photos to it would make it possible to ditch the laptop on long trips.

The best part about the Nano I have seen so far is the way it handles podcasts. I have a 1G iPod(I think I was also the first evidence of the ‘Halo’ effect – I had to have that iPod, so I also bought a Lampintosh.) but it doesn’t have the podcast handling that the Nano does. I like that I can subscribe to podcasts, play them, link back to the Powerbook we have now and then it downloads the updates to the subscriptions. The only change I would make is to allow you to play podcasts like a playlist – just keep going without having to go to the main menu.

Well, off to take care of the boy, he’s waking up!