CES: How the hell am I supposed to make this stuff work together?

Connecting.

It seems like companies had no problem doing that at CES. Everybody was in a partnership with everybody else and was in a hurry to tell people about it, I'm not even going  to make the lame high school compariso...oops.

But seriously, after all the talking is done, I still don't know what is going to work with what, or how. I can't even imagine what it's going to be like for the average consumer this year, because this stuff is gibberish to me. Let me run down a list just of the things I'm left with far more questions than answers about.

Intel:

• Viiv: I still don't know what this is. I know that Intel has partnered with everyone and their mother. (Seriously, at this point I wouldn't be at all surprised if I visited home and found that I needed at the least a software upgrade before I could eat some DRM protected home cooking). The questions I need answered are, will I absolutely need to buy an Intel PC to take advantage of this content? How will I take advantage of it, can I build my own Viiv PC? And what does this mean anyway?
  

Microsoft:

• Congratulations, the Xbox 360 is getting HD-DVD playback. How much, how will it connect to my 360 and my TV and when can we expect it, until you answer those questions I'm not excited in the least.
• Is Wintel really dead? Viiv relies on Windows Media Center, but Microsoft is partnering with AMD on their competing AMD Live standard, (btw, everything I said about not knowing what Viiv is, goes double for AMD Live).
• Now that Google is using DivX, is Microsoft going to add support for streaming to the Xbox 360 or am I going to have to wait for a mod chip?

Continue on for questions for Google, Sony, HANA or provide your own answers/questions.

Google:

• Great, you're offering lots of video content for download, and have partnered with Intel, like everyone else. But no high definition? All I've got to go on is the vague "better than SD" to go on?  pish posh I say.

Sony:

• Where is the damn PS3? I'm not going to ask twice.
• So, if Intel is supporting HD-DVD along with Microsoft, what is going to happen when Sony makes a Viiv PC, is it going to blow up when I put a HD-DVD or Blu-ray disc in it? The world awaits the answer.
• Some Blu-ray players might not support features like BD-J? Even at a "discounted" $1000 or so, thats a joke, whether it is you or your parters, get it in there.

HANA

• Where were you guys? Not at the cable press conference, no mention in conjunction with next gen game consoles, you were AWOL at IPTV announcements, what's the deal? Did anybody stop by the booth?

What questions do you have now that the information / tech / entertainment companies have shown you the future, or can you answer any of mine?

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 9th 2006 4:02PM]

Apparently I'm not the only one who doesn't know what Viiv is. I mean seriously, can anyone break this down?



Intel's Inside move @ http://www.thestreet.com/_tscs/tech/gamesandgadgets/10260844.html

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 10th 2006 8:20AM]

I tracked down the HANA guys at ces they were hiding in a meeting room near the central hall right around the corner from Tivo(even harder to find).

I asked them a few questions and they had a working demo that looked cool.



I still don't know how HANA is going to be any different than HAVi but guy at the booth seemed to think it would be. Everytime I asked him what the difference was he would site features that were also features of HAVi. His only real answer was it is cheaper but that is really no answer at all. They did have some cool HAVA over COAX/CAT5/Fiber connectors that I have never seen before which could help expand the video network around the house. They also had a cool demo setup with some Mitsubishi TV's as well as some samsung TV's. There were a few Samsung prototype stb's that never existed in the HAVi days so that is also promising.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 10th 2006 10:26AM]

Good lookout, sounds interesting. THe folks over at CE Pro have a good rundown of hhow hana is different, but we'll see how much support it gets.



http://blog.ce-pro.com/news/5422.html



and again, does anyone really know what Viiv is?

http://www.htpcnews.com/



and again, does anyone really know what Viiv is?

http://www.htpcnews.com/

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 10th 2006 2:09PM]

Viiv is Intel's lame marketing approach for new products that can be used to build an HTPC (Home Theater PC) that are fast enough to handle HDTV content. It takes a lot of processing power to handle it. Oh yeah, the crucial part, IT ALL HAS DRM BUILT IN!!!!!

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 11th 2006 12:58PM]

No no...dont go with a mod chip. If you do, which there probably wont be for a good amount of time, your console will be banned from the Xbox Live Service.



Check out this thread at the Official Xbox.com forums.



http://forums.xbox.com/984500/ShowPost.aspx

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 12th 2006 3:20PM]

I'm not seriously considering modding my 360, voiding the warranty is the last thing on my mind, plus I think all the supposed mod chips announced are hoaxes, that notithstanding, not supporting DivX is just silly, I've got just as much unlicensed content in WMV as I do in DivX, I shouldn't have to convert it to play it.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 13th 2006 12:11PM]

Just making sure. Alot of people have come to the Xbox.com forums, and I have had to break it to them that they have voided their warranty. (I am an Xbox MVP, by the way).