Archive for January, 2009
The 800 lb. Fruit In The Room
If you’re a Mac and not a PC, you probably already know that Apple has abandoned its own tradeshow and chose not to exhibit at the recent Macworld Expo. Reasons for the decision were spoken and unspoken, including the health of CEO Steve Jobs, but the official party line was that Apple is no longer only a computer company, it’s a consumer electronics company. So starting next January, Apple will be a major exhibitor at the Consumer Electronics Show, where it will be watched with extremely wary eyes by the major Japanese and Korean manufacturers.
Considering how much juice Apple and its various products have in today’s market, it’s hard to believe that it was only about ten years ago that the company was pretty much given up for dead. Its market share of the computing world was frozen at around 3%, mostly ghettoized in publishing and media production. Its product line was more confused and self-cannibalizing than General Motors – did anyone ever know the difference between a Performa and a Quadra? Then-market leader Michael Dell said Apple should shut down and give the money back to the shareholders. Sony was rumored to be thinking about buying Apple out altogether, very much on the cheap.
Proof of the power of prayer
Things are, er, slightly different now. Apple could buy out Dell for cash. Now there are rumors of Apple buying Sony instead of the other way around. Microsoft tries to copy Apple’s look and feel (yet again) by hiring one of their main interface designers to create Vista. The result is millions of customers clamoring for a return to Windows XP.
It’d be easy to give the iPod’s popularity the credit for all this. It not only brought in a cash cow, it familiarized many millions of users with the simplicity and elegance of Apple’s operating system. Even those who would never switch their PC to a Mac swear by their clickwheel, or these days, their Touch. Or their iPhone.
But Apple’s advantage goes much further than the iPod. It is perfectly positioned to be a winner in the next generation of consumer electronics products. It excels in areas where the traditional CE market leaders – Panasonic, Samsung et al – are at their weakest, namely interface design and software implementation.
Before you say so what, consider how interchangeable today’s hardware has become. The old way of establishing “product differentiation” was to make a better widget. Manufacturers would tout that their TVs had a better picture than the competition, or their receiver sounded better. These days, with so many TVs to choose from (and many of them looking plenty good in the store with an HD feed), consumers choose on price and styling as much as “quality”. Go into a Best Buy and the AV receivers and speakers aren’t even connected – are you really going to buy one versus the other based on “better” sound?
So what differentiates today’s CE products? Software and usability, and this is where the traditional market leaders are generally clueless. Ever try to navigate the setup menu of a Yamaha receiver or a Hitachi TV? Ever want to do it a second time?
Most receiver OSDs make Atari look good
Imagine that configuring and calibrating your home theater was as easy as it is with Apple TV. Imagine that finding shows on your DVR from Cablevision, Time-Warner, Adelphia or whoever else was as easy as finding tunes in your iPod. Imagine having Apple simplicity inside your AV gear – regardless of which brand you buy.
A typical DVR interface from your cable company
Beauty isn't always skin deep
Why did Microsoft’s OS win out over Apple’s back in the 1980s? Because Bill Gates figured out that it would be better to be a software company and let hardware makers like IBM, Gateway, Compaq and others build the machines while DOS (later Windows) ran them. Conversely, Apple decided to remain a closed system of hardware and software. They tried licensing the Apple OS for the proverbial five minutes, but when Steve Jobs returned to the company in the late 1990s, the clone licenses were revoked.
Now the shoe’s squarely on the other foot. While Microsoft has tried (and tried and tried) to get its operating system into the CE space — witness Windows CE and Windows MCE for just 2 examples – each effort has flown like a lead zeppelin. At the same time, Apple has so far kept the major CE makers at arm’s length, but the strategy has served to increase interest, not diminish it.
Who’s the next big player in consumer electronics? Hint: the company won’t be based in Japan, Korea or China.
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Add comment January 27, 2009
The Next Big Format: Netflix
When Sony’s Blu-Ray technology won the format war over rival Toshiba’s HD-DVD disc, many industry observers responded with a shrug. Who cares about discs, went the argument, when movies on demand are just around the corner? While we’re certainly not at the point where discs are going away any time soon, we’ve definitely rounded the corner on the idea of instant home movie delivery for the mass market.
Sure, your cable provider now has a few dozen titles they’d be happy to let you have on demand. They’ll even let you watch it day and date with the movie’s DVD release – provided of course, that you pay for both the disc and the VOD. We regret that we weren’t asked to participate in the focus group for that idea.
DirecTV says it’s got over 700 movies on demand, but if you subtract the duplicates and the titles that aren’t really movies, like “About Inside NFL”, the actual number is much less impressive. Fortunately it’s not as disappointing as Dish Network’s paltry selection, which constitutes a smaller movie collection than we have on our own DVD shelves.
The company that’s really breaking through in new video delivery is the one that’s done the best job in old video delivery – Netflix. While we wish someone would arrest the company’s ad department, which has been clogging our monitors with unwanted popups for way too long, we have to hand it to the guys with the red envelopes. People love their service, which is cheap, reliable and fun. They’ve become more than a household name, they’re now a verb. And they’re about to do to the cable companies what they did to Blockbuster – hand them their lunch.
At the recent CES Expo, LG announced it will market a TV that has the Netflix “Watch Instantly” service built in. Which in essence is nothing more than an Internet connection and a simple user interface. The company had already introduced a Blu-ray player with the Netflix service, and Samsung has done the same. More Netflix on demand is available with the Xbox and through TiVo, and through a relatively cheap add-on box by Roku. With any of these “solutions” you’ve got access to what Netflix claims as 12,000 movies and TV episodes. Ok, so a lot of that is dreck you didn’t want to watch on TV for free, never mind through a paid download. But it’s still a much better library than anything else that’s out there and legal.
We’re not saying it’s game over for Time Warner, Comcast or Cablevision. But how much do you want to bet that the experience of selecting and purchasing movies will be better with Netflix than it is from your cable or satellite provider? Engadget did a nice job comparing the current Netflix players; we wish they would have contrasted them to the lame, slow-as-a-pig interfaces we’re all used to from the cable or satellite company.
It’s going to take some years before all the necessary technologies improve with Netflix and other on demand video services. For now, Netflix movies sans disc are stereo only (no Dolby Digital surround), and even when titles are available in high def, the video quality isn’t always what we’d expect. That’s what puzzled us about the Blu-ray not mattering argument – if BD is viable for only 10 years, it’s still a hit, and it’s been with us 2 years already, with all its growth ahead of it. Consumers obviously prefer the best quality to feed their fancy new HDTVs, and until there’s more 1080p content from the satellite companies, BD is still the best game in town.
But not everyone cares about 1080p and ultimate picture and sound. A lot of people prefer convenience over quality (hence the iPod), and in that respect, Netflix is just what the doctor ordered.
Now if they’d only leave us alone with the popups.
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1 comment January 22, 2009
What The Analog Shutoff Means To You
Take one: Probably nothing, thanks for reading.
Take two: OMG, in just a few weeks, free TV goes away (um, no it doesn’t).
Take three: What’s an analog shutoff?
In case you haven’t already heard, on February 17, 2009, all analog television broadcasting in the U.S. will cease and be replaced by digital television (DTV) broadcasts. If you’re not aware of this rather momentous news, don’t blame the manufacturers, the retailers, the FCC or Consumer Electronics Association, all of which have fought the good fight and spent many millions to educate the public and promote the DTV transition.
CEA even went so far as to create a “Convert Your Mom” educational program, starring Florence Henderson of Brady Bunch fame as “America’s Mom.” As an aside, we’re genuinely puzzled by the CEA’s seeming fixation on the Brady Bunch, whose theme song was also used for the organization’s CEKnowHow sales training program. Hint to CEA: everyone under the age of 40 and over the age of 41 is rolling their eyes.
Back to our point – the end of free TV. Well, not really. Just the free analog TV that people watch through an antenna, instead of paid cable or satellite TV delivery. Those old over-the-air (OTA) analog broadcasts are being replaced by free OTA digital TV broadcasts, which are also received through an antenna. In other words, it’s an upgrade for everyone, what’s the problem?
Well, if you get your television programs from your local cable company, you probably don’t have a problem, though you might. If you do, it’s up to your cable provider to make things right for you. If you get DirecTV or Dish Network, you probably don’t have a problem. Then again, you might.
On the other hand, if you’re one of the estimated 7% of people in the U.S. who watch TV only through an antenna, don’t receive any pay TV services, and still have an old analog (non-digital) TV, the airwaves will go dark for you on Feb 17. Your TV will not be able to display any programs without (at the very least) a digital converter box.
The DTV converter box is a small device that goes between your antenna and an old analog television. The antenna connects the to the converter box and the box connects to the TV, either through a coaxial cable connection (also called an RF or simply “Antenna” connection), or through the standard yellow-red-white cables for composite video and analog stereo. Feel free to check out Wirewize’s glossary for more information.
The box converts the digital video broadcasts into analog video that any TV can display. The boxes are simple and relatively cheap — $40-70 each. A government program was even set up that would allow eligible households to get up to two coupons, worth $40 each, toward the purchase of eligible DTV converter boxes.
For various political and economic reasons, the analog shutoff date had been delayed through the years (the original date was 2007), but until last week, the Feb 17 date had been firmly fixed. That day was chosen because it falls between two of the year’s biggest TV events, the Super Bowl and March Madness.
All seemed well and finally on its way until President-elect Obama suggested last week that it might have to be delayed yet again. It seems the Commerce Department has run out of money for the coupons that subsidize DTV converter boxes. Obama officials are also concerned the government is not doing enough to help viewers in rural, poor or minority communities with the transition — in other words, the people most likely to be dependent on free analog broadcasts with an old analog TV.
Obama’s call for a delay was met with controversy from all directions. According to CEA, there are plenty of coupons available, but bureaucracy is holding up the distribution. According to electronics retailers, a delay now would confuse the public. The FCC says that a delay would hurt wireless carriers that are waiting for the airwaves that will be freed up by the transition. Public safety groups waiting for those same airwaves are also against the delay. A growing number of lawmakers are for it.
We’ll keep you posted here at Wirewize on other things you ma or may not need to know about the DTV transition. Whenever that is.
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Add comment January 12, 2009
The Case For Calibration
Ever take a crack at adjusting the “Picture” menu on your new TV? We didn’t think so, because most people don’t. Most people believe that once they bring their TV home from the store and connect it, they’re getting a great picture that’s optimal and factory fresh.
What if we told you that you could dramatically improve the picture in just a few minutes, at no extra charge? It’s not only true, it’s necessary.
Picture calibration is the process of making adjustments in brightness, color, tint, contrast and sharpness, among other settings. Virtually every TV has a menu that lets you make subtle (or dramatic) changes to these picture qualities.
You can make most of these adjustments yourself, without professional help. We suggest this as your first step, because we’ve been hearing reports of unscrupulous retailers charging big bucks for bogus adjustments.
Why do you need calibration? Because when TVs get shipped from the factory, the picture settings are usually pre-adjusted to settings that are too bright and too colorful. This is so they’ll stand out from other TVs on the retailer’s floor and look attractive under the fluorescent lights of a showroom.
While these settings might make the picture pop in the store, they’re completely out of place in a home setting. They’re too bright to be comfortable to watch (especially in a dark room), and because the light output has been goosed so high, they consume a lot more electricity than they should. This is not subtle; everyone with a new big-screen TV gets the second sticker shock when they see their next electric bill.
Making picture adjustments to counteract the factor settings is simple. Go into the setup menu of your TV and call up the “Picture” or “Video” menu. You’ll see adjustments for the following:
Brightness – also called “black level,” this setting determines the overall light output of the TV. It’s usually set much too high from the factory.
Contrast – also called “white level,” this setting determines how present and pure the color white is in the picture. Also usually set too high from the factory.
Color – this setting controls the saturation (intensity) of color in the picture.
Tint – this setting changes the color emphasis from red to green and usually doesn’t need much adjustment.
Sharpness – probably the most over-used and misunderstood setting. If you set the sharpness too high, you may actually be making the picture fuzzier.
Color Temperature – this setting isn’t present on every set, but it’s a measure of whether the picture is “warm” (a subtle red-gold cast) or “cool” (a subtle blue cast).
Many sets also have “automatic” picture settings that are usually engaged when the TV comes from the factory. To make any adjustments to the other picture settings, you’ll usually need to turn these pre-sets off.
So what are the right settings? A lot of people will tell you that whatever looks best to you is the right setting. Don’t listen to them. You can make preferential settings to your taste of course, but you’re better off making them after you’ve adjusted the set to the officially “correct’ settings.
And what are those? A professional with Imaging Science Foundation (ISF) certification will be happy to talk to you about them at length, while they hold up a color temperature meter to your TV and begin writing a bill for $200-300. They’re right of course; there really are standards to what video pictures are supposed to look like, and if you’re enough of an enthusiast, the money for a pro calibration is likely well spent. Obviously this only applies to upper-crust TVs – there’s little point to spend half again on a $600 LCD cheapie set from the local MegaMart.
For most folks, we recommend a smaller investment of $25-35 dollars for a good TV calibration disc. These DVDs will have a series of test patterns, similar to what you see below. Spoken instructions will guide you through the proper setup and they work for any TV from any maker.
To give you an idea of what you’re adjusting for, notice in the test pattern above that there are two vertical stripes in the “black” area at the bottom right. One is lighter than the background around it, one is darker. The calibration disc will guide you through brightness and contrast settings you can make so that both these bars disappear into the black field around them. Similar procedures will be provided for color, tint, sharpness and other settings.
When you’re done with these adjustments, your movies will look more realistic, your sports will look less unrealistic and you’ll have a set that’s been optimized for longer life.
Worth a DVD? We think so too.
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Add comment January 5, 2009
