Entries Tagged 'Digital Entertainment' ↓

In a world that’s ever changing it seems we are faced with to many choices. Day in and day out we make decisions that affect how certain situations will turn out. At the end of the day all the choices you made may have provided you with different outcomes if you had chose otherwise. Such is the case with the fate of the HD DVD and Blu-Ray formats. Eventually, one will win and one will lose. The choices of the powers that be will determine this fate.

Yesterday Dreamworks Animation & Paramount pictures announced that they would be releasing their next-generation DVD titles exclusively on HD DVD. Paramount had sold titles in both the new high-definition formats — HD DVD and Blu-Ray — but settled exclusively on HD DVD after deciding it offered better quality, lower priced players and lower manufacturing costs. The timing on this decision is akward as Blu-Ray is currently outselling HD DVD 2 to 1 in the US.

“The decision seems oddly timed given Blu-ray’s tremendous momentum both with consumers and retail,” Blu-Ray’s U.S. promotions chairman, Andy Parsons, said in a statement.

People want quality when it comes to their electronic devices and I believe that HD DVD offers the same quality as Blu-Ray with less cost to the consumer. The average HD DVD player sells for $299 verses the lowest priced Blu-Ray player at $499. This cost difference is hard to justify when you are getting pretty much the same quality picture. Many people I have talked to about the difference say that HD DVD actually has a better picture. But really, unless you have the two formats and do a side by side comparison I wouldn’t think you could tell. Especially with the naked eye.

This choice by Paramount & Dreamworks will surely add weight to the success of HD DVD and this decision changes the whole landscape of the competition, as Blu-Ray was way ahead of the game before yesterday. It will interesting to see how this one plays out.

LESSON OF THE DAY: Small choices can make big changes.

Technorati Tags: Blu-Ray, HD DVD, Paramount, Dreamworks

Yesterday Microsoft released their newest project to manufacturers, Windows Home Server. This new consumer based software will be for home users to store, stream, and backup and organize digital files from multiple pcs to a central server. The main thing Microsoft is touting is that Windows Home Server will be easy to implement for novice computer users with simple interfaces and one-click features. Some of the key features of WHS will be centralized backup using Single Store technology to eliminate duplicate files, file sharing of things like mp3’s and videos with network attached storage devices, remote administration, headless operation (no keyboard or monitor attached to device), and data redundancy. Another thing that will hurt initial sales of this new OS is that you cannot buy a copy of it and install it on a pc you already have, you will have to buy a new Pc designed for it. Sharing photos and other digital content with family and friends will be made easy with this, but really how hard is it to get a free flickr account for that? I am normally the first person who tries out new personal technology but with this new software I am already doing most of what it offers with my Netgear Eva8000 for streaming media, My Kodak easyshare software for sharing photos with family and friends and backing up with my external hard drive with one click backup software. Given my current experiences with Vista (along with many other peoples) I would have to say wait awhile for the bugs to be worked out on this one.

Technorati Tags: Windows, Digital, Server, Media

Now that some on the initial iPhone buzz is starting to wear off its time to start thinking about a new iPod. Rumors are starting to come out that by Christmas we could see a new iPod with a touch screen and even more capacity. While some speculate that the next iPod to be released will not have a touch screen I cannot imagine apple releasing one without it. It has been a year since apple released the 5g iPod that allowed video playback, but on that model the screen is really too small for video, which is why I think that the next one should be all screen like the iPhone. Apple has given us the Appletv and the iPhone this year, I can only hope that they will focus some time on the iPod seeing as it reinvented Apple. Everyone is wondering what the new iPod will look like and what new features it will have but as you all know Apple will keep all those details guarded until the very end, but as we get new info we will post it here. Below are a few concept ideas as to what it will look like.

Technorati Tags: ipod, touchscreen, video,

It is crazy to think that youtube has gotten so big now and that so many people use it that Casio is coming out with two cameras designed to shoot video optimized for youtube. As well as the camera being optimized for web video it also comes with software that downloads clips to youtube with just one click. The first camera is the EX-S880, which will feature 8.1 megapixels in photo mode; the second one is the EX-77, which will feature 7 megapixels. Both cameras have 3x zoom lens and use the Mpeg4 H.264 codec for video. By using the Mpeg H.264 codec people will be able to record longer videos with compromising the quality using a 640X480 resolution and up to 30 frames per second. Both of these cameras are designed to be really compact for easy carrying but packed full of features. The EX-S880 will be priced at $300 while the EX-77 will be $230, which is not really a bad price at all for just a regular digital camera let alone one that shoots videos.

Technorati Tags: Youtube, cameras, Casio

Tivo and Amazon.com have teamed up to offer an online rental or download service right to your television without the need for a pc. Unlike companies like Apple and Netgear which both offer great products to stream your media from a pc to a television, Tivo series two and three will be able to use Amazons unbox feature to rent movies for between $1.99 - $3.99 or have the option to purchase them for between $9.99 - $14.99 which is about what it cost to get movie rentals or purchases, this just makes it a little easier. One problem with the service is that Tivo recommends you have a 5 Mbps broadband connection to be able to download a movie in about an hour, but many people still don’t have that kind of broadband access. Another thing about this setup is that you will have to pay for your subscription to tivo as well as your purchases from Amazon, so I really don’t know if this convenience is really worth the money. With Amazon’s huge library of movies and television shows to choose from people will have lots of content to choose from but let’s not forget itunes offers movies and television shows without any subscription fees. While I think people want media on demand I still think that with all the cost of the Tivo and Amazon setup the digital media receivers are still a better option for right now.