Engadget HD Podcast 090 - 06.26.2008
By Trent Wolbe 
posted Jun 26th 2008 11:00AM
posted Jun 26th 2008 11:00AM
Although the show is a little late this week, we have plenty to go over. For starters, we once again enjoy laughing at Toshiba and Kaleidescape for trying to tell us to stop trusting our eyes and start trusting them instead. Next, we try to figure out how long it'll take for Blu-ray discs to start out selling DVDs. We talk a little Vista Media Center, some digital transition, and finally a budget HT system that evidently is well worth the cost of admission.Get the podcast
[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes (MP3).
[RSS] Add the Engadget HD Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator and have the show delivered automatically
[Zune]Subscribe to the Podcast directly in the Zune Marketplace
[MP3] Download the show (MP3).
Hosts: Ben Drawbaugh and Steve Kim
Producer: Trent Wolbe
00:44 - Comments from Engadget HD Podcast 088 - 06.11.2008
02:56 - Toshiba remains stubborn, looks to DVD upscaling while brushing Blu-ray off
04:05 - Kaleidescape's overpriced upscaling DVD players get reviewed
08:52 - Blu-ray Disc sales estimated to exceed DVDs in 2012
12:00 - SlySoft keeps AnyDVD HD current, circumvents latest BD+
16:21 - Ask Engadget HD: Using a HDTV to distribute audio
18:56 - Poll: Do you utilize picture-in-picture functionality?
21:27 - The Media Center Extender shootout
30:20 - Netflix to do away with Profiles
33:41 - Comcast plans to go all digital in 20% of its markets by year's end
36:04 - NFL Network to become ESPN 8, THE "OCHO"?
39:50 - Cannon PC showcases Media Center with six CableCARDs
41:22 - $50 JVC SXXSW6000 5.1 surround system gets reviewed
LISTEN (MP3)
LISTEN (AAC)
LISTEN (OGG)
I have to agree that There Will Be Blood was awful. I would have only given it a 3.
If you guys think 2012 is a good time frame for Blu-Ray to pass DVD, don't you think digital downloads, SD and HD combined, will pass both by then?
Depends.
Are you talking renting or buying?
If you are talking Renting, then I think the only thing holding it back will be the state of Broadband in the United States. I think you need at least 12-16mbits / second to provide a kind of instant-start experience you can get off of say On-Demand or you will need more advanced compression techniques than AVC where you can get these files down to about 5GB total for a 1280x720p/24 with 5.1 sound at 2 hours and not too much compression. Also with all but Verizon announcing that they are looking at caps on broadband, that will also limit some of the uptake on downloaded rentals.
If you are talking buying, besides the broadband limitations listed above. I need to have someway of backing up and/or a way of making a disc readable on a standard Blu-Ray player (BD-5 and BD-9 or BD-25 and BD-50 if I have a BD burner). There is no way, I am going to purchase a movie via a download service if it is depending on the reliability of a hard drive in either a computer, game console, or dedicated device like an Apple TV. It's a deal breaker even if the service allows me to re-download in the event of a failure, a moderately sized collection (50 to 100 movies) could easily take up 500GB to 1TB and it would literally takes days or weeks to re-download. And if Caps are common, you could literally take up 4 months (at Comcast's 250GB Cap) if you did nothing else but download your movies back...or you one have one hell of an overage bill.
Here is what I see in 2012.
Blu-Ray is the reference format for HD movies (What I would use for the movies I really like and want the best possible copy of).
Downloads would be for either rentals or for lesser titles that I don't necessarily want to pay full price for but would not mind having at the right price (say $9.99) as long as it was at least 720p/24 at 5.1 Dolby Digital.
Sounds like the Netflix Profiles are another one of those "1st world nation problems"
OMG! I have to share and manage my queue manually? BOYCOTT.
I didn't even know what they were until now.
Their are 6 ESPN channels,
1. ESPN
2. ESPN 2
3. ESPN News
4. ESPN Classic
5. ESPN U (All College)
6. ESPN Deportes (Spanish ESPN)
Now for Blu-Ray... call me when movies cost 15 dollars on Blu.
i enjoyed the show. i always enjoy making fun of dumb tech as supposed to talking about how bad it sucks, it's nice to see that coming from you guys who get to review and use these gadgets and services for a living or get to interact with the people who make them.
Ben, it is so ironic that your description of Their Will Be Blood actually made we want to see it, since it actually describe so many elements of a great movie! In addition to the great acting and cinematography you acknowledged, you described complex characters, unexpected plot devices, a strong emotional impact and a sharp contrast to the movie Dodgeball.
Movies need not have explosions, battle scenes, fast-paced action, high hilarity or happy endings to be considered a great movie experience. Sometimes, a disturbing, challenging, fascinating, unexpected movie will provide a higher quality use of your time.
What would you consider your top dramatic movies of all time? Movies without any significant action or comedy.
ben regarding your comment on the 360 overpowering everything in your rack you really must have one of the older units. i never hear mine unless i stick a disc in the console to play a game and what i hear is the disc spinning and not the console itself (which is very quiet playing downloaded games/demos/movies).
my projector (optoma hd70 makes far more noise than my 360 does) and both are about the same distance from my ear.
You are right Ben, There Will Be Blood is awful. And even the newer 360s (I'm on my 3rd one!) are still loud.
In case you REALLY want to know why Netflix killed profiles:
"The Netflix site was designed without profiles, then features were added continuously for a few years, then profiles were added, but with minimum disruption to existing features, rather than a ground-up redesign, then a few more years of features were added over the top.
Now in some ways its too messy and its slowing down our ability to change and add new features, so a lot of investment is going into cleaning up the code. Part of that cleanup is to simplify and re-implement things so that we can get more interesting and advanced things done more quickly in the future. For this feature that is used by a percent or two of the user base, it will make cleanup a lot faster by removing it."
http://www.hackingnetflix.com/2008/06/the-reason-netf.html
Ben, that's just plain blasphemy... There Will Be Blood was a great movie. How is it any different from Goodfellas where you're just following Henry Hill around his life. I thought the whole movie was great, but whatever.
And I don't understand why your so dismissive of the people being pissed off at the netflix thing. I don't have Netflix, but it is a service that customers use, pay, and like. If they change something against the customers wishes, how is it not reasonable to expect some outrage? Isn't the netlix profiles something that hardcore customers use? So why would they get rid of something that their best customers APPARENTLY love?
It's kinda like windows getting rid of games. Sure only a small percentage really use that feature but blah blah blah.
Oh yeah, and I think you're seeing longer posts because Firefox has that built in spell-checker. :)
I just listened to the podcast today and I had to chime in about "There Will Be Blood". I absolutely loved that movie. Daniel Day-Lewis was incredible, and I couldn't stop thinking about his rant in the bowling alley for days. My brother watched it in the theater 3 times. I guess it's one of those love it or hate it films.