Engadget HD Podcast 189 - 04.20.2010

This week was packed with HD news, from digital delivery and the rental wars to just what's holding up 3D movies. We still found time to wonder what PlayReady support from Samsung could bring to the table, and why CableCARD devices still cost so much. Speaking of, the HDHomeRun beta was open and closed, if you blinked and missed it, don't worry, we've got the details. To close things out, we're talking about the first software update for the TiVo Premiere, Verizon's first off network mobile DVR manager, the channel count war and finally just why LG's latest announcement has us excited about OTA again.

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Hosts: Ben Drawbaugh, Richard Lawler

Producer: Trent Wolbe

00:12:52 - Netflix Watch Instantly adds closed captioning support for the PC, Mac
00:15:33 - Blu-ray and Digital delivery up, but overall home media is down
00:20:37 - Poll: Will 30-day rental windows pull you away from Netflix & Redbox?
00:26:30 - Star Wars Box set in works. Due in the Fall of 2011?
00:28:58 - 3D movies have accounted for 33 percent of the box office this year
00:31:40 - Alice in Wonderland to hit Blu-ray on June 1st, but not in 3D
00:33:00 - Sony Pictures is releasing Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs on Blu-ray 3D June 1 -- in Germany
00:34:35 - PS3's summer 3D firmware is all fun and games... and no Blu-ray movie support?
00:38:45 - Samsung, Microsoft work PlayReady DRM support into upcoming devices
00:41:09 - Niveus shows how it can help cable and satellite providers get HD on your PC
00:45:33 - Why do CableCARD host devices still cost so much?
00:52:02 - HDHomeRun CableCARD tuner beta signup is on
00:55:40 - TiVo Premiere is updated and expanded, but is it ready?
01:01:37 - Verizon FiOS DVR Manager ensures you'll never miss an episode of iCarly... 'evar'
01:05:28 - Dish adds EPIX HD and eight more to crack 200 HD channels, depending on how you count to 200
01:10:47 - LG proposes an update to ATSC for non-real-time content

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[S4Rs Posted Apr 20th 2010 4:22PM]

Wait, so people are surprised an interface based on Flash is crashing all the time? I bet Tivo ends up blaming Adobe on it like everyone else...

[10nisman94 Posted Apr 20th 2010 7:58PM]

I have been able to use both the fios mobile remote scheduling web page and the regular desktop remote scheduling web page from my iPhone, the new app is better though.

[andysexton Posted Apr 20th 2010 8:59PM]

RSS MP3 feed isn't working yet. Broken link or something?

[andysexton Posted Apr 20th 2010 9:39PM]

@andysexton Working now.

[fais Posted Apr 21st 2010 7:22AM]

Ok here's my problem with 3D. I don't wear glasses but my visionin my left eye is less then 100%. Now in the real world my stronger right eye compensates so I don't notice but with 3D glasses doesn't happen so I'm left with an out of focus image and a headache.

I think this is probably quite common so what do you suggest people do get one very weak contact lens just for the movies?

[Brian Posted Apr 21st 2010 11:53AM]

@fais Id this is a problem, would this only be a problem with the 3D glasses? I wouldn't think this is a problem with glassesless 3D, which I think will over take the TV sets that need glasses. The technology is there, just a matter of how quickly they can import on it's fault which right now are huge.

[Brian Posted Apr 21st 2010 11:54AM]

@fais Forgot to mention that to my point. If this is only an issue with sets you need the glasses, then you should go ahead and buy normal glasses instead of having to pop in and out contacts.

[cypherx Posted Apr 21st 2010 10:12AM]

All right, my aac rss feed updated on time this week! Happy TV pod cast, tv pod cast, tv pod cast! (sang to the tune of Happy TV funhouse from SNL).

[Brian Posted Apr 21st 2010 11:51AM]

You know with Tivo you can kinda view what is being recorded from the guie. It's not viewing it in the guide, but from the guide so you don't have to go into the scheduled. If you go to a show in the guide and I think try to record it or just going into the info of the show, you can see if it is set to record. It's been awhile since I had a Tivo so I can't remember exactly but it is better then going into the scheduled recordings. But it still sucks compared to Media Center showing a red dot on the guide on what is set to record.

[Brian Posted Apr 22nd 2010 1:59AM]

@Brian Sorry, typo. guie is supposed to be guide.

[Brian Posted Apr 26th 2010 5:25AM]

Finally just finished listening to all of the podcast and wanted to also add that you can RDP into your Media Center box. RDP is disabled by default in Windows 7. You can just enable it you can RDP into your Media Center and do remote scheduling. You just can not watch any shows through RDP. You can doing a VNC setup to watch media; personally I'd rather use RDP over VNC since I am not trying to stream anything from home. I RDP to my Media Center box all the time to schedule shows from work. You also may want to enable concurrent logins if you use your Media Center box hooked up to a TV so that it doesn't log off the user account logged in on the TV. You can Google the hack to enable concurrent sessions.

This doesn't take the place as a dedicated app to allow you to do remote scheduling but it does work. I really don't mind RDPing to my Media Center and I can RDP with my phone. But it would be nice to have an app on my phone with an interface made for my phone. I also use Home Server and have my home server domain name setup in which my router port forwards RDP connections to my Media Center. This way I do not need to know my IP address, I just need to know my domain name to my Home Server. If you don't have a Home Server you can also use dynamic DNS through Media Center or through your router so that you don't need to know you IP address.