Engadget HD Podcast 137 - 05.20.2009

Good times this week as the oldest editor for Engadget HD finally joins your old favorites, unfortunately this new addition also introduced some technical difficulties so we had to work extra hard to clean up the audio. But despite our hard work we're afraid you're still going to be able to notice things didn't turn out quite right. We also continue to try out broadcasting the show on uStream and honestly think we've almost figured it out. When we do have it down, we'll be posting a link and letting you know the time and place in advanced. This week did have a really good slate of topics and the three of us didn't have any problems finding lots to talk about, so get ready for plenty of HD talk.


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Hosts: Ben Drawbaugh, Steven Kim

Producer: Trent Wolbe

Program
00:01:38 - Comments from Engadget HD Podcast 136 - 05.14.2009
00:10:50 - Time Warner Cable loses HDNet at the end of the month, says "being in HD is not enough"
00:15:15 - History prepping WWII in HD series
00:19:49 - Netflix CFO talks Watch Now selection, competition
00:27:09 - Logitech Harmony Adapter for the PlayStation 3 review
00:35:15 - LG's WiFi-enabled, DivX-friendly BD390 Blu-ray player now shipping
00:39:25 - How do you like your TiVo, with bleeps & bloops or without?
00:43:33 - Automatic commercial skipping comes to Windows 7
00:52:55 - Linksys discontinues its Extenders for Media Center
01:02:00 - Hands-on with Microsoft's internet tv beta 2, still unwatchable
01:08:30 - If you saw Star Trek or The Dark Knight on IMAX Digital, did you get your money's worth?
01:21:35 - Poll: Best LCD backlighting choice?
01:27:45 - CBS.com ups the HD streaming ante, offers 1080p HD gallery of full episodes and clips
01:30:05 - HDMI 1.4 brings internet sharing, dreadful tiers of quality
01:34:50 - RealNetworks steps up its RealDVD legal case, just wants your approval

LISTEN (MP3)
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[(Unverified) Posted May 20th 2009 9:01PM]

Wow, 5 mins in and I can't Richard but once...........hopefully it gets better or its gonna need more fixin'.

I'm sure you guys will get it working sooner than later.

[IseWise Posted May 20th 2009 9:33PM]

Yea his mic fades in and out. : (

[(Unverified) Posted May 20th 2009 9:42PM]

NVM, it got better as the show went on.

I hope to hear Richard on more often too.

[xoxidine Posted May 21st 2009 6:17AM]

Mic fail. They mentioned getting a new mic too. Can't wait for that review.

[(Unverified) Posted May 21st 2009 6:54AM]

The weird thing is that I listened to the ustream for the first 20 minutes and I was able to hear Richard fine. I'm now 6 minutes into the podcast and have only heard Richard once.

[(Unverified) Posted May 21st 2009 9:25AM]

Someone needs to be fired for letting this podcast out to the public. Person 3 mic is off.
Don't you guys listen to the podcast to make sure the thing sounds good?
Sloppy work.

[andy vt Posted May 21st 2009 10:19AM]

I don't pay anything additional for my first STB (HD service is $7/month).

[andysexton Posted May 21st 2009 11:41AM]

AAAAaaaah, this problem with Richard's audio in the first half of the podcast is killing me out of frustration. I think I've discovered my own little OCPD problem....

[zeeke Posted May 21st 2009 5:35PM]

I kind of feels like I've been kicked of the bus or something.. this was clearly a live show since Richard was online only. Did you guys not get the rights to his audio for re-release?

Just remember that you have fans/listeners/groupies overseas as well and ustream is a no-go for me over here in Sweden.

Keep up the great (read: lately mediocre) work

zeeke

[MiggityMikeB Posted May 21st 2009 9:03PM]

I can't hear guy three. This is unlistenable...

:(

[(Unverified) Posted May 21st 2009 11:02PM]

Pretty excruciating trying to guess what Richard was saying based only on the replies to it.
Ah well, I know @tront usually does great work, and everyone's allowed a mistake here and there. Any plans to re-release the episode somehow, or is that pretty much impossible?

Shame, really, since the slate of topics *is* rather full this week!

[PaulF Posted May 22nd 2009 9:02AM]

Stuff happens, the drop out was annoying for about 1 minute. X-box as MS's only extender is a BAD MOVE (unless they just don't care that much about Media Center as they once did). While I love having my server under the main TV (dead silent Zalman HD135 case), I have an extender at the secondary TV and every other computer can access the server via Client software (SageTV user). Server/Client is where its at. I would not however, pay for an X-Box at each TV. Aside from the heat and noice issues, I DON'T GAME...at all...ever. It just seems like overpaying or underusing the purchase. I bet a lot of 40ish guys feel the same way. MS does need to produce an extender in-house, using the Sigma chip...thinking that everyone will buy X-Boxes is a pipe dream.

[(Unverified) Posted May 22nd 2009 11:32AM]

I am VERY interested in the new LG BD390 since I already have a wireless N network and would love to get Netflix on my TV. But, it is not yet the Popcorn Hour destroyer yet. Unless it can play a wider variety of codecs. My main desire is to play home videos (in HD, albeit a cheap HD camera), and I would have to convert every file to stream.

So my question is whether it is possible/likely that they could later update the firmware to broaden the include other codecs?

[BobMac Posted May 22nd 2009 11:59AM]

I've been listening to these podcasts since before EngadgetHD was called EngadgetHD. While the hosts aren't the most dynamic personalities, I do respect their knowledge and opinions. The last few podcasts (since their inclusion of chat) have been poor. First, they're too long. This one is over an hour and half...not a problem since I can jump chapters. The second -- and the more serious problem -- is the dead air. I assume they are reading the chat box during these dropouts. It's unprofessional and rude to those of us not participating during the recording. This podcast also features a guest that we can't hear. Ben or Steve needs to listen to these podcasts at some point as a subscriber.

[(Unverified) Posted May 25th 2009 5:46PM]

makes sense why the dead air started becoming more of a problem recently

[BenD Posted May 22nd 2009 12:00PM]

We hear you loud and clear and completely agree. We'll address these concerns. Thanks for the feedback.

Ben

[ohpleaseno Posted May 22nd 2009 5:56PM]

Okay, to be fair, I was mistaken about the Sage TV bashing. I relistened to 136 and the comment I was referring to wasn't there, it was from one of Ben's other guest appearances on a different show. Mea Culpa.

As for everyone complaining about this show, you need to relax. When they add new wrinkles, the first episode has problems, but they shake themselves out over time. I especially don't understand people complaining about the length of the show. I mean, you care enough to listen, then you care enough to comment on it, so why would you start complaining about getting more of a free thing that ypu obviously enjoy?

[wyldtek Posted May 23rd 2009 10:16AM]

I love the podcast but this was the worst show you have done. With Richard cutting in and out it was hard to listen to.

About the History Channel, it seems so many channels are going to more and more reality shows these days. Some good, most bad. They are so cheap to produce and so popular eventually most TV will be nothing but "reality". Then the movie Idiocracy will seem prophetic... I hope they are in HD :)

[(Unverified) Posted May 27th 2009 6:10AM]

No finger pointing from me, mistakes happen.

Was disappointed that I couldn't listen to this show, because I always enjoy it.

I'm certain lessons were learned ;)