This blog is no fan of Apple hardware and the locked down approach to software availability that goes with it. The re-incarnation of the Mac Mini with an HDMI port is of interest nonetheless. Informed opinion is saying that this spells the end for Apple TV.
There appears to be a trend emerging here, the Boxee box, Google TV and now the Mac Mini; these are all (basically) dedicated PCs which provide a link between your TV and the internet. Thus there is a move away from the seperate server (usually a PC) and media player system which has been the focus of our story so far. The crucial point here will be whether the Mac Mini addresses the "10 foot interface" problem in any useful way.
The BBC are also trying to get on the bandwagon with Project Canvas. However the arrival of yet another product on the market months ahead of Canvas can hardly be seen as good news by the consortium.
Friday, 18 June 2010
Thursday, 17 June 2010
Question Time questioned
As we have noted before, bias is all the more effective for being subtle. Changing the makeup of the Question Time audience from a 50/50 split to a 60/40 split would probably not be detected as a blatant act of bias. No doubt the producer would argue that this is within the margin of error. However the point is that it will make a big difference in the perceived reaction to a debate. See Douglas Carswells blog for the full story.
On the other hand it is easier to promote blatant bias if you are dealing with a local story. Fewer people will be aware of the truth. See Conservative Home for this story.
You may well be saying that members of the Conservative party probably would say that and you may be right. However note the careful way in which the point is made in both cases. These are both well presented stories and the comments threads also shed light on the issue.
On the other hand it is easier to promote blatant bias if you are dealing with a local story. Fewer people will be aware of the truth. See Conservative Home for this story.
You may well be saying that members of the Conservative party probably would say that and you may be right. However note the careful way in which the point is made in both cases. These are both well presented stories and the comments threads also shed light on the issue.
Wednesday, 16 June 2010
Spend Less!
See this story in the Daily Mail about how the unions at the BBC are unhappy with their proposed rise and would like a pay increase of 7.3 per cent. In the print version yesterday the union rep was quoted as saying "the cake is not big enough".
Then compare what the BBC employees think with what the public think. The BBC was the most popular target for spending cuts. A massive 70% of the population want the BBC to spend less.
Source for this chart can be found at this link.
Then compare what the BBC employees think with what the public think. The BBC was the most popular target for spending cuts. A massive 70% of the population want the BBC to spend less.
Source for this chart can be found at this link.
Saturday, 12 June 2010
and another thing............
At this blog we really do not worry about sounding like 'disgusted of Tunbridge Wells'. Indignation is our thing. So lets tackle digital radio as a change from our usual focus on television. If ever there was a technology looking for a problem to solve, this is it.
Clearly sending video pictures over the airwaves takes up large amounts on bandwidth. It makes sense to adopt a technology, in this case digital transmission, that makes best use of the space available. By comparison audio channels occupy a tiny amount of bandwidth. Since the police and fire services were moved out of the FM band there is currently little problem with providing extra channels. Reception of the analogue signal generally provides a very high quality audio output, approaching Hi Fi standards. DAB, on the other hand, is alleged to provide poor quality, especially in fringe areas. Not surprisingly there is growing antipathy to DAB; see the Save FM site for instance.
The DAB- standard which the BBC has pushed forward in the UK has been largely ignored in the rest of the world. Those countries which are going digital are mostly adopting DAB+. This means that if you do buy a new digital radio for your car; it will stop working at Calais.
We wondered what the BBC did with the 12% of the Licence Fee that it did not spend on programme content. Part of the answer is that it likes developing new media standards. Somewhere in a back room at the BBC are a team of engineers who made this technology work. By adopting digital radio we will be giving them job satisfaction; with pride they will be able to point at your DAB reciever and say 'I designed that codec'. So for a mere £200 (across the nation) to upgrade the radios in your car and house you can bring happiness to a techie. Sweet!
That is the problem with the Licence Fee. You give money to the BBC and they have to spend it on something. You will not be consulted on whether that something is what you want. It would look bad if the project got abandoned. So you now have to pay out on new hardware to save face at the Beeb.
Clearly sending video pictures over the airwaves takes up large amounts on bandwidth. It makes sense to adopt a technology, in this case digital transmission, that makes best use of the space available. By comparison audio channels occupy a tiny amount of bandwidth. Since the police and fire services were moved out of the FM band there is currently little problem with providing extra channels. Reception of the analogue signal generally provides a very high quality audio output, approaching Hi Fi standards. DAB, on the other hand, is alleged to provide poor quality, especially in fringe areas. Not surprisingly there is growing antipathy to DAB; see the Save FM site for instance.
The DAB- standard which the BBC has pushed forward in the UK has been largely ignored in the rest of the world. Those countries which are going digital are mostly adopting DAB+. This means that if you do buy a new digital radio for your car; it will stop working at Calais.
We wondered what the BBC did with the 12% of the Licence Fee that it did not spend on programme content. Part of the answer is that it likes developing new media standards. Somewhere in a back room at the BBC are a team of engineers who made this technology work. By adopting digital radio we will be giving them job satisfaction; with pride they will be able to point at your DAB reciever and say 'I designed that codec'. So for a mere £200 (across the nation) to upgrade the radios in your car and house you can bring happiness to a techie. Sweet!
That is the problem with the Licence Fee. You give money to the BBC and they have to spend it on something. You will not be consulted on whether that something is what you want. It would look bad if the project got abandoned. So you now have to pay out on new hardware to save face at the Beeb.
The government has decreed that 50% of radio listening will need to be digital before it will set a changeover date. So if you are tempted to surrender your analogue radio for a digital one (the scrappage scheme as it is being called) think again. Yes your old radio might be sent to a good home in Africa; but you are bringing nearer a costly and pointless imposition on the rest of us.
Fortunately it seems that content providers are beginning to realise that digital radio is a dead end. This week another radio station pulled the plug and turned itself into an internet only station. With mobile internet becoming a reality, people can still listen on the go. Lack of content is going to kill digital radio. Yay!
Friday, 11 June 2010
Monitoring Part 2
What the setup looks like now that the new monitor has arrived. Note the ethernet over mains plug to the left of the picture.
Wednesday, 9 June 2010
Monitoring
Given that VAT is forecast to increase in the budget, Nomad has been urgently looking for something to spend his money on. Obviously he would like a Google TV box but that may not be available at any price for another 12 months. An upgrade of the monitor seemed a plausible project however, the existing 22" monitor being a little small for the distance it is used at.
We recommend buying a monitor with native 1920x1080 pixel resolution (16x9 aspect ratio). This will give the best results when viewing Full HD output (Blu-Ray for example). You can expect that Full HD TVs will provide this resolution and aspect ratio however monitors may not as they are typically driven from a PC video card. The other vital consideration for a monitor is that it has a HDMI input; this will allow connection of the Google TV box when it arrives.
Incidentally, for those of you who have not followed the plot from the start, we do recommend buying a monitor instead of a TV. Operating a TV, even one disconnected from an RF input (aerial) gives TV Licensing a possible line of attack should they ever knock on the door.
Nomad rather liked the Iiyama 26" monitor. However this had a 1920x1200 pixel resolution (16x10 aspect ratio). A Full HD picture would therefore either have been distorted or left part of the screen blank depending on the settings.
So in the end Nomad bought the Iiyama ProLite B2712HDS-B1 27" Widescreen Monitor (B2712HDS-B1). So far it is working well.
The Datasonic 22" monitor will now become the monitor for the PC, displacing a CRT monitor which was a castoff from work.
We recommend buying a monitor with native 1920x1080 pixel resolution (16x9 aspect ratio). This will give the best results when viewing Full HD output (Blu-Ray for example). You can expect that Full HD TVs will provide this resolution and aspect ratio however monitors may not as they are typically driven from a PC video card. The other vital consideration for a monitor is that it has a HDMI input; this will allow connection of the Google TV box when it arrives.
Incidentally, for those of you who have not followed the plot from the start, we do recommend buying a monitor instead of a TV. Operating a TV, even one disconnected from an RF input (aerial) gives TV Licensing a possible line of attack should they ever knock on the door.
Nomad rather liked the Iiyama 26" monitor. However this had a 1920x1200 pixel resolution (16x10 aspect ratio). A Full HD picture would therefore either have been distorted or left part of the screen blank depending on the settings.
So in the end Nomad bought the Iiyama ProLite B2712HDS-B1 27" Widescreen Monitor (B2712HDS-B1). So far it is working well.
The Datasonic 22" monitor will now become the monitor for the PC, displacing a CRT monitor which was a castoff from work.
Monday, 7 June 2010
Canvas?
I am posting a story on this link even though it is two years old. It appears to answer a question that has been bothering me recently; namely what the purpose of Project Canvas might be?
It would seem that the rationale of the BBC in pursuing Canvas is the same as that for Freeview. The BBC wants to promote the adoption of a standard that does not support subscription. As the public buy more boxes that only support 'free to air' it becomes more difficult to switch the BBC to a subscription model. However it also becomes more difficult to introduce a new commercial subscription service. In this way a box which you are attracted to buy because it is 'free' actually ends up restricting your choice of content.
Oh yes, and the other question that I had about how the BBC spends the 12% of the Licence Fee that does not go on programme content. Part of the answer is that it likes developing standards for new media platforms. We intend to return to this point shortly in regard to the debacle over digital radio.
It would seem that the rationale of the BBC in pursuing Canvas is the same as that for Freeview. The BBC wants to promote the adoption of a standard that does not support subscription. As the public buy more boxes that only support 'free to air' it becomes more difficult to switch the BBC to a subscription model. However it also becomes more difficult to introduce a new commercial subscription service. In this way a box which you are attracted to buy because it is 'free' actually ends up restricting your choice of content.
Oh yes, and the other question that I had about how the BBC spends the 12% of the Licence Fee that does not go on programme content. Part of the answer is that it likes developing standards for new media platforms. We intend to return to this point shortly in regard to the debacle over digital radio.
Saturday, 5 June 2010
Codec Wars: Google strikes
It turns out that we were unfair in saying that Google might not be doing the heavy lifting for Google TV. Google has bought a company called On2 which produces a codec called the VP8 and open sourced the codec. At the same time they have defined a new open source format known as WebM.
Codec? A codec is pretty vital to everything you read about on this blog. A codec is what turns a video signal into a file (or a datastream). Another codec reverses the process to produce the video signal that you watch.
Apple and Microsoft back the patented H.264 codec. This codec supports the widely used MPEG4 video standard and you have to pay to use it (obviously the public pay indirectly). Not surprisingly Apple (the bad guys) do not competition for thier codec very much and are threatening to sue for infringement of thier patents.
So once again Google are opening up the medium to wider use. Clearly this paves the way for Google TV. We like Google. Some people are currently criticising Google for collecting un-encrypted wi-fi data. So you install a radio transmitter in your house that broadcasts your personal data around the neighbourhood, what do you expect? Turn encryption on you fool.
Codec? A codec is pretty vital to everything you read about on this blog. A codec is what turns a video signal into a file (or a datastream). Another codec reverses the process to produce the video signal that you watch.
Apple and Microsoft back the patented H.264 codec. This codec supports the widely used MPEG4 video standard and you have to pay to use it (obviously the public pay indirectly). Not surprisingly Apple (the bad guys) do not competition for thier codec very much and are threatening to sue for infringement of thier patents.
So once again Google are opening up the medium to wider use. Clearly this paves the way for Google TV. We like Google. Some people are currently criticising Google for collecting un-encrypted wi-fi data. So you install a radio transmitter in your house that broadcasts your personal data around the neighbourhood, what do you expect? Turn encryption on you fool.
Friday, 4 June 2010
Seen on Facebook:
'X' Would probably perish without iPlayer. I don't think i watch proper tv anymore
The world is changing, and no, before you ask, it was not a status update from Nomad.
The world is changing, and no, before you ask, it was not a status update from Nomad.
Thursday, 3 June 2010
Conservatives rational, shock, horror, probe.........
I know we promised less stories about BBC bias, but every so often we have to remind ourselves what this blog is for. In any case it would be a shame to miss Britain's best blogger commenting on the BBC.
We have commented before that bias is all the more effective for being subtle. Dan's story illustrates perfectly how the BBC simply applies its own prejudices to the issue under debate.
The Left invented the concept of institutional prejudice. They are however rather slow to apply the idea to those organisations that they have themselves subverted. The problem however, as with all other issues related to the BBC, is that it is a state funded organisation. The BBC is therefore, almost immune to outside pressure and will continue to be biased until the Licence Fee comes to an end.
We have commented before that bias is all the more effective for being subtle. Dan's story illustrates perfectly how the BBC simply applies its own prejudices to the issue under debate.
The Left invented the concept of institutional prejudice. They are however rather slow to apply the idea to those organisations that they have themselves subverted. The problem however, as with all other issues related to the BBC, is that it is a state funded organisation. The BBC is therefore, almost immune to outside pressure and will continue to be biased until the Licence Fee comes to an end.
Wednesday, 2 June 2010
TV Licence Resistance plan demo
Recieved this e-mail today:
Hi nomad, we'd just like our members to be aware of this event,
"Demonstration in support of ‘TV licence refusenik’ Tony Stone
Demonstration in support of ‘TV licence refusenik’ Tony Stone
Friday 4 June 2010 at 10:00
South West Surrey Magistrates Court, Mary Road, Guildford GU1 4AS
Our colleague Tony Stone is on trial this Friday in Guildford for his refusal to pay the TV licence fee on the grounds of the BBC’s indecency, bias, and the general unfairness of the TV licensing system.
Other well-known ‘TV licence refuseniks’, such as Vladimir Bukovsky and Gerard Batten MEP, are coming to support Tony and to give evidence in his defence.
You are invited to join our demonstration outside the Court to support Tony and protest against the BBC bias.
Please spread the word."
Regards,
The TV LICENCE RESISTANCE Team.
http://tvlicenceresistance.info/forum/index.php
Hi nomad, we'd just like our members to be aware of this event,
"Demonstration in support of ‘TV licence refusenik’ Tony Stone
Demonstration in support of ‘TV licence refusenik’ Tony Stone
Friday 4 June 2010 at 10:00
South West Surrey Magistrates Court, Mary Road, Guildford GU1 4AS
Our colleague Tony Stone is on trial this Friday in Guildford for his refusal to pay the TV licence fee on the grounds of the BBC’s indecency, bias, and the general unfairness of the TV licensing system.
Other well-known ‘TV licence refuseniks’, such as Vladimir Bukovsky and Gerard Batten MEP, are coming to support Tony and to give evidence in his defence.
You are invited to join our demonstration outside the Court to support Tony and protest against the BBC bias.
Please spread the word."
Regards,
The TV LICENCE RESISTANCE Team.
http://tvlicenceresistance.info/forum/index.php
Googolplexed Good News
After the disappoinments of Hulu giving up and Canvas being approved, to name but two. We were due for some good news. Google TV is it.
Every so often something appears which defines the standard and creates a new industry. Think of the IBM PC for example. The IBM PC did nothing new, in fact all it did was to put a label on existing technology that Microsoft and Intel had already created. However the existence of a de facto standard backed by a big player, created an industry which is still thriving.
We are sticking our necks out here, but Google TV looks like a new such de facto standard. The technology all exists already but someone has to enforce the protocols and make it happen; clearly Google is big enough to do this. Obviously we have yet to see this working, it could still be rubbish, but something tells us it will be good.
In terms of the TV Licence campaign this is all that we could hope for. If all the video content available on the web could be accessed through a single box, then why would anyone ever watch 'television' again?
We have to go and lie down now before it gets too much! Google TV? It needs a better name though.
Every so often something appears which defines the standard and creates a new industry. Think of the IBM PC for example. The IBM PC did nothing new, in fact all it did was to put a label on existing technology that Microsoft and Intel had already created. However the existence of a de facto standard backed by a big player, created an industry which is still thriving.
We are sticking our necks out here, but Google TV looks like a new such de facto standard. The technology all exists already but someone has to enforce the protocols and make it happen; clearly Google is big enough to do this. Obviously we have yet to see this working, it could still be rubbish, but something tells us it will be good.
In terms of the TV Licence campaign this is all that we could hope for. If all the video content available on the web could be accessed through a single box, then why would anyone ever watch 'television' again?
We have to go and lie down now before it gets too much! Google TV? It needs a better name though.
Tuesday, 1 June 2010
Architecture Revisited
The technical solution promoted by this blog has been based around the networked media player and PC paradigm. Last year we suggested that an alternate approach based around a dedicated PC would be possible. The main drawback would be that the user interface is not suitable for remote operation.
Admittedly we have yet to actually see it in operation but what Google TV appears to do is to solve the user interface problem. This opens up the advantages of the dedicated PC approach.
Using our existing approach, to watch a single programme may require using two user interfaces which are physically located in different places. This happens if the server is not already programmed to make a particular item available. In this case both the server and the player require to be operated. However Google TV would carry out both functions in the same box. This would be particularily useful for one off programmes which are not programmed for regular download.
Much of the video content on the web is on isolated websites. See Telegraph.TV for a good example. There appears to be no protocol for a media server to access this content and therefore it is only possible to play it on a PC and not via a media player. Although TVersity makes an attempt to fill this gap for some websites (e.g. Youtube) it clearly is very limited in what it can do.
In summary Google TV appears set to change the game. This also implies, however, a fundamental change in the technical solution we recommend.
Admittedly we have yet to actually see it in operation but what Google TV appears to do is to solve the user interface problem. This opens up the advantages of the dedicated PC approach.
Using our existing approach, to watch a single programme may require using two user interfaces which are physically located in different places. This happens if the server is not already programmed to make a particular item available. In this case both the server and the player require to be operated. However Google TV would carry out both functions in the same box. This would be particularily useful for one off programmes which are not programmed for regular download.
Much of the video content on the web is on isolated websites. See Telegraph.TV for a good example. There appears to be no protocol for a media server to access this content and therefore it is only possible to play it on a PC and not via a media player. Although TVersity makes an attempt to fill this gap for some websites (e.g. Youtube) it clearly is very limited in what it can do.
In summary Google TV appears set to change the game. This also implies, however, a fundamental change in the technical solution we recommend.
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