Engadget HD Podcast 177 - 02.09.2010
By Trent Wolbe 
posted February 9th 2010 6:13PM
posted February 9th 2010 6:13PM
Leading off the podcast this week is breaking Netflix Watch Instantly news (only to find out after recording that 5.1 and closed captioning features would be available this year, but not 1080p) before trying to figure out exactly what Comcast was thinking with its new Xfinity brand name. After that we get elbow deep in the NBC/Boxee standoff, even more Netflix numbers and Blu-ray player sales projections. Of course we've got some 3D news from the last few weeks to recap, from the HDMI spec going public to Comcast's 3D efforts, Sky's inaugural soccer broadcast and Samsung's BD-C6900 showing up momentarily on Amazon. Of course we had to discuss Panasonic's plasma revelations, before closing out with the new (& cheap) ATI HTPC video card and a few poll results.Get the podcast
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Hosts: Ben Drawbaugh, Richard Lawler
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Program
00:01:25 - 1080p, 5.1 surround sound coming to Netflix Watch Instantly in 2010? Update: No, yes (and closed captioning)
00:06:48 - Comcast smears the XFINITY brand across all its services
00:11:53 - NBC's Jeff Zucker talks about Boxee with congress, Boxee talks about The Facts with Jeff Zucker
00:19:50 - Netflix celebrates Q4 success of 1 million new subscribers and eyes bigger growth ahead; Roku too
00:30:50 - In-Stat sees Blu-ray players closing in on DVD sales in 2013
00:33:37 - HDMI 1.4's 3D spec publicly released
00:43:39 - Comcast CEO not sure 24x7 3D is in our future
00:48:40 - Inaugural Sky 3DTV soccer broadcast received warmly, hooligans opt for Michael Jackson & the Grammys instead
00:52:52 - Samsung's 3D Blu-ray player available for preorder on Amazon: $399 - Update: Not anymore
00:54:35 - Panasonic cops to rising black levels in its plasma HDTVs, but questions still remain
01:00:59 - ATI Radeon HD 5450 focuses on multimedia features, neglects gaming
01:03:48 - Poll: How did you watch Lost?
01:09:55 - Poll: Best HD sporting event this month?
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I guess I didn't miss TiVo talk after all. I was thinking I missed it since I got home late and it was listed as the second topic for the live stream.
Zune video maxes out at 10mbit for their 1080p (netflix 720p is 5ish). And Ive always heard the reason netflix was stereo was because of the roku device (and their insistence on wanting one set of encodes that work across all devices). With the wii/ps3 I believe they are doing custom encodes now which means the 360 will get custom encodes as well. I would expect if netflix does come (I still think it will even with the updated part) it will use the same video/audio profile as zune (and might even be exclusive for a while on the 360 because it supports silverlight and its smoothstreaming tech that I think is the most important part in making 1080p a reality).
As far as free content.... most of the trailers and previews of the movies are in 1080p. So there is free content and there are movies on there that are $3-4 rentals but its typically the older stuff which doesn't have the best quality. I'd be interested in you doing another "roundup" of bluray vs zune vs vudu vs amazon vs psn vs netflix (and anybody else I might have missed).
This year I want to take the plunge and buy my first large, flat panel TV and a Blu-ray player. And what the heck, I want 3D capability just in case it does take off.
I'll most probably get the new Panasonic 3D Plasma and Panasonic 3D Blu-ray player, even though I'm a Sony fan. (My current set-up is a Sony 32" HD CRT and Sony DVD player, but Sony just doesn't impress me like they used to.)
However...
With Blu-ray still in its relative infancy, and manufacturers scrambling to come up with new technology to get our dollars, I'm starting to feel that buying any Blu-ray player OTHER than a PS3 could be a mistake, as the PS3 is the only player that has the firmware upgrade flexibility to adapt to any emerging technologies.
Or does the upcoming Panasonic 3D Blu-ray player appear to have all the remaining bases covered?
Thoughts?
@Darren Pillans don't forget about vizio's promise of some very large, very affordable HDTV's coming this year that will be both wifi enabled and truly 3D ready! not sure when they are coming but i'm sure their launch will somewhat coincide with 3d's coming out party. haha. i'm seriously considering jumping to that 73" they promised for the sweet price of only $3500!
Hi, I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this but here I go. I'm in the market for a TV Tuner for my new 27in iMac. Could you suggest one that will work with OTA HD, and has good software to go along with it.
Thanks for your help.
The new Intel i3 and i5 CPUs do bit streaming. It's about $100 for the low end i3 and a motherboard is also about $100. But the motherboards also have to support it and I don't think anyone has one out that does support it. I could be wrong on that, but also the i3 motherboard that I bought doesn't support it while my i3 CPU does. Zotac will have a motherboard out soon that will support it, if it's not already out. So this new Radeon for $50 is almost not worth buying if you are building a new media center.
I should add that the new i3 and i5 CPUs have a GPU integrated in the CPU. The GPU supports bit streaming and was one of the announcements at CES. And they are pretty low power, I believe its max 73 watts.
have to comment on your anti-Flash sentiments from the podcast sir! I'm fine with the no-hulu argument as you make a good point with the skyfire browser, BUT without flash i won't even be able to properly browse engadget/HD! i hate pulling up posts with embeded videos that just leave a big blank spot on my screen!! =[ And lets face it, that is just the tip of the iceberg for stuff that won't load and won't be useful on this device. I won't go off on the rest of the shotcomings/disappointments in hopes of avoiding any heated arguments but i imagine my late-to-the-party post will limit the readers of said post to a small host of listeners anyways.
@(Unverified)
You are right, although Flash is a terrible platform, it is a necessary evil. But I'd argue that access to sites that rely on Flash is a bigger loss than mist web video. The fact is that YouTube serves up like 90% of the web's videos, and it is supported. Of course that doesn't help you if the content you want to watch is on Vimeo or Viddler etc, but the real solution there is an App or HTML5, not Flash.
@BenD how bout you get engadget to lead the charge then and get all of the posts to rock that internet saving HTML5! i could completely care less about which tech gets the job done but i don't feel like giving a current device a break based on what MIGHT win down the road. But seriously, how bout you get on those guys to get ahead of the curve! It would also add some nice functionality to that engadget app. I'm sure I would be considerably less irritated by this if it weren't for my companies instance on using SmartFilter to block anything streaming related....
@SpongeBobPistolPants
Our App has video support, but not all of our videos are available via it. Not sure why all of them aren't.
@BenD basically the only videos that work in there are the youtube videos.
A couple of other thoughts on the iPad. I am really thing about getting one but here are a couple of good and bad things you did not talk about. One is its ability to replace the Kindle for books. So for some people you definitely would take it with you and use it away from the sofa or even to travel with. Also with the color screen you should be able to get magazines and comic books on the iPad (awesome). The bad though is there is not the ability to connect the iPad to your network and access files while you are at home. Why do I want to sync the device if one of the big uses is for the sofa. Why cannot I play music, videos or access files from my home server? Also what do you do if you are browsing the internet or even using (I do not know how would use the software) iWorks to do something. You are going to have to email it to yourself to get it off the iPad? I rarely ever even plug in my iPhone to my computer. Also what about printing? If this has iWorks on it how do you print? I really have to email it to my self to do that?
I will probably get one anyway but it really could be better.
@techsponge i think the guys were attempting to stay somewhat on topic by focusing on how it might relate to video topics (even if Ben was only going to use it to lookup info on shows he's watching - with no keybard, really?).
@SpongeBobPistolPants
The iPad has a keyboard. I can type on my iPhone at about 30wpm, so I'd bet I'd be even faster on the iPad.
@BenD i can't say i've tested my wpm on my iphone but i agree that it's pretty fast.... and hey, it's not like you'll have to worry about bouncing back and forth between an IM window and that web searching, right? =P though chrome (and full safari) have shown that a good set of tiles at the start can save a lot of typing.