YeOldeTechy received an email today from Best Buy.
They are preparing for the conversion of television to digital in the following ways:
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-Beginning in early 2006, Best Buy began providing consumers with in-store and online information about the DTV broadcast transition including brochures and a dedicated page at BestBuy.com/DTV.
-In October 2007, Best Buy was the first CE retailer to exit the analog business, pulling all analog tuner products from store shelves.
-Best Buy has launched a dedicated hotline – 877-BBY-DTV9 – where consumers can call and speak with a trained home theater specialist to ask questions about the DTV transition and to learn about their options to get ready for the switch.
-Customers will also be able to redeem their DTV coupons and order converter boxes through this hotline if they are unable to get to a Best Buy store.
-Best Buy store employees across the U.S. have received training on the DTV broadcast transition and the options available to consumers. Store employees in positions that are most likely to assist consumers with DTV broadcast transition inquiries have participated in an additional series of in-depth training sessions since June 2007.
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Note: When I went to Best Buy about two months ago to inquire about their plans for the conversion, they helped me a lot (as did Radio Shack). I received an application form for the Converter that I could Fax in, and saw several really nice TV's with digital tuners to, possibly, replace my 35 year old TV. Very cool.
Less than one year to go to digital...pass the word....if you or your friends use an antenna to receive your TV broadcasts, you will need to read my Blogs on this subject and take action.
It is a free web-based version of PhotoShop with a limited set of features. Here is the web site.
What are some of the Features of Express?
There are quite a few very cool features for editing a photo (cropping, red eye touch up, sharpening, balancing, sketching, distorting, and more), embedding a photo on a blog or web site, emailing a photo, setting up a public gallery for viewing photos, and downloading the touched up photo back to your computer.
This picture shows the editing options on the left side. I was cropping a picture when this screen shot was taken.
The picture of one of our backyard flowers at the top of this blog entry is an embedded link from my picture gallery on Express.
Background
There are new applications becoming available (and also just now becoming interesting to YeOldeTechy) that allow use via the Web. This means that instead of loading the application (in this case PhotoShop) on your computer, you simply use it from a central location.
Rent an app.....a concept I first heard of when I was part of a startup in 1995. THAT is a story in itself...
This is a very interesting and powerful use of the Internet.
YeOldeTechy PhotoShop Tasks
I use PhotoShop Elements 4.0 for a lot of my Blog work.
The tasks I complete with PhotoShop are very basic, but, they suit my current needs / expertise.
They consist of the following:
1. I crop the photo or picture 2. I compress the photo or picture to save space on my Blogs and Web Site (Save for Web feature) 3. I upload the photo or picture to my Blog or Web Site. 4. It would be good if I could access my photos on Flickr.
Lets see how Adobe PhotoShop Express can meet my current needs.
What I Learned Today
Before I start...
Adobe PhotoShop Express is a very cool application, but, I found out it takes a long time (15 minutes or more) to implement the changes I made in my photo.
It also does not allow one to "save as", which is very irritating. I worked around this by uploading three of the same picture. One I kept as the "original" (see top photo), one I cropped, and one I "popped" a pretty green color.
1. I can crop a photo.
Here is the cropped version. I had to hit the checkmark to save my changes...something I am still getting used to in PhotoShop Elements...arrrggghh.
Note that I was not asked to "Save as" which I would have preferred.
2. Compress the Photo
I do not need to compress if I can embed. The pictures on this Blog were all embedded. Very cool.
For fun, I "popped" a color and saved the photo with the flower a pretty green color now.
That again took a lot of time to update. So the virtue I am learning here is patience.
Lets try a link to my nice green flower? That works....but I like to embed. Going off the Blog takes time away from your reading my wonderful prose.
I can now get more creative with my photos...so keep checking in as I refine my photo enhancing skills!
3. Upload to Blog or Web site
I was hoping the embed would seamlessly take care of this. Yup. It is very easy to grab the embed code and paste it on your blog or web site. Cool.
4. Link to Flickr
It does not yet link to Flickr...only Facebook, Picassa and Photobucket.
YeOldeTechy's Summary
There are some issues with the implementation, but, hey, it is BETA, so that is understandable.
I really like the concept, and will use this as much as I can going forward.
Stay tuned for updates as I test this more over the weeks to come.
Here is an Album I have made available for public viewing:
When I clicked on the Album photo above, I got a Security warning telling me the the certificate was for photoshop.com when I was being directed to yeoldetechy.photoshop.com.
Perhaps this an area that Adobe needs to address in the near future.
I clicked OK to allow connection...and everything worked fine. Note you need Flash 9.0 to make all this work...but that is easy to get from Adobe.com.
In a previous blog entry I took a look at Proclaim which I consider one of the best streaming applications around.
Today I received an email with this link. Take a peek, it is very interesting. Short corporate messages are becoming more and more important (and you can save $$ on travel, save the environment...DUH).
I really need to use Proclaim a bit more than I do....gee, I wonder if I can keep a free account forever? Remember: starving blogger and substitute teacher.....
I need to find out if they can embed video on this Blog instead of going thru YouTube? That would help me a great deal.
There is a lot of talk and hoopla about "telepresence".
To most, the current definition of telepresence has evolved to mean: A very expensive room-based super-high-quality videoconferencing capability. And you need to buy two.
Many years ago (starting in 1992) we developed a concept called "Personal Telepresence". This was based on your personal computer and included the ability to meet with multiple people via videoconferencing, exchange files, show movies, work on a whiteboard, "staple" papers together, etc. etc. The cost was estimated at the time to be around $5000 per end.
YeOldeTechy says: Great applications for "being there" and "collaborating as if you are in the same room" exist on your desktop (ie no need to schedule a room or travel to that room)....and you do not need to break your bank account. Anyone with a computer can use (and afford) "personal telepresence" like capability.
See the following links and see my Reviews on three products that offer the ability to "be there" for a fraction of the cost of a super duper telepresence system:
"Hello, how are you" says the stranger you just walked by.
"I'm fine, how are you?" you reply.
The stranger gives you the evil eye as he or she continues talking.
You feel like a dork.
My daughter, Kristen, and I have been thinking about how the world will look with millions of people wandering around seemingly talking to no one.
I must say, this is yet another weird direction the world is heading where people simply cannot disconnect from their electronic devices.
And, to me, people really look stupid with those earpieces. We need a new accessory to complete the picture....a big red light on top of their heads to let you know they are on the phone.
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In a previous blog entry I voiced my concern about brain cancer and cell phone use. Bluetooth technology is, again, a microwave technology working in the 2.4 GHz range with powers ranging from 1 mW to 100mW (1 to 100 thousandths of a watt). These are very small power numbers to be sure, but, remember this device is near a hole that leads to your brain...your ear.
I would be very careful about using these devices for long periods of time.
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Relax, slow down, turn off....your life will be much richer in more ways than just money.
OK, this is not "technical" except for the the YouTube video, which is pretty grainy. I give it 1.5 WaterTowers for quality.
But in case you did not know; YeOldeTechy grew up on Long Island and lived and breathed the Yankees as a kid. My Yankees: Mantle, Maris, Skowron, Kubek, Boyer, White, Richardson, Lopez, Ford....I was obsessed....later it was Munson, Pepitone, even up to Reggie and Willie Randolph.....
Last year I was in Oakland watching the "new" Yankees play the A's....I was so broken up I could hardly keep from crying...hmmmm, I actually did. It was 46 years (I think) prior to that that that I sat in my last game at Yankee Stadium watching the Yankees with my Dad....I lost it....
I would give anything in the world to strike out like Crystal did today. Actually, Bobby Richardson was my hero (along with Roy White) so I would have dinked it to right for a single.....oh well, he is famous...I am not.
This Blog has moved....please read this entry here.
3 WaterTowers
Quick Overview: WiLife is a home and business camera security system.
Before you read watch this wonderfully produced video using video clips from the WiLife security camera.
Interesting Experience
It all started shortly after installation.I went to the “online.wilife.com” link on the “Online” setup page to check my online status.I was sent to a web page that asked for my login and password.Since I was new to WiLife I did not know, at the time, that this was a bogus web site.I entered my email address and password for WiLife.Now I am receiving junk emails.I had been phished. Arrrgggh.
I then un-installed WiLife from my home computer, and re-installed it on my work computer to see if this phishing incident was a repeatable act.It was not. Whew.
However, even though this phishing experience was not related to the WiLife product, I proceeded with caution for this evaluation, being careful not to enter sensitive data.
OK…..putting that odd incident aside let’s proceed with the evaluation.
Version and Cost Information
I was sent the most basic form of WiLife 2.0 to evaluate.If I were to purchase this “Starter Kit” it would cost me $299.00.Adding additional cameras cost $229.99 each.Pretty steep.
The features can be upgraded by signing up with the “Pro” or “Platinum” services, which will cost you.Those upgrades, however, open up a number of features that I was not able to access during this evaluation.One of the most important, to me, is the ability to tell the camera what portion of the viewing area to trigger on.I had cars going by on the street triggering the camera; I would have focused on my Honda if I had the “Platinum” capability.
You can go here (Platinum) to find out more about the Platinum upgrade.
Here are the basic features I was expecting:
Use of an outdoor camera
Connection of that camera to the Command Center on my Windows XP machines
The ability to view the camera via the Internet
The ability to receive emails and cell phone messages when an “alert” happens.
Easy installation in less than 10 minutes
Networking connection via my home’s power outlets
What I got was this:
Yes
Yes
Yes, but you need to use Internet Exploder
No, but I did not test email, only cell
Yes
Yes
YeOldeTechy liked….
Installation
The installation is a breeze.Mount your camera and plug it into the nearest wall socket.I used a 50 foot long extension cord for the evaluation, but, if I were to use WiLife permanently, I would have to hire and electrician to put power where I needed it.
WiLife uses your house power lines to make the network connection between the cameras and the computer super simple.The instructions warn you not to plug your devices into power strips.I tried it and low and behold….it did not work!So don’t do it….
YeOldeTechy says: I am amazed how well this works over the house power lines.Good job, WiLife!
The installation hardware for the camera is also pretty slick.A nicely thought out set of knobs and a rotating ball joint allows the camera to be pointed in virtually any direction.
The software installation on my PC went smoothly.The software takes you step-by-step with very nice pictures and helpful explanations. The software automatically checked what it needed to ensure operation.I could adjust the disk space for the WiLife video capture.Very cool. Before starting, the software alerted me that the camera software version needed to be upgraded.I decided to upgrade it and the process proceeded flawlessly.
Camera Quality in Daylight
The quality of the camera in daylight is terrific. Once the installation and upgrades were complete, I was rewarded with a very high quality, live, video image of my driveway.
User Interface (Command Center)
The Command Center on the PC is attractive and easy to use.A few minutes with it and you are an expert user.
Notice the red light on the bottom left of the picture and the words at the top (Live/Rec).This means that the WiLife is recording an event on my hard drive.When that recording stops, the red light goes out and the word Rec is taken off.I can view the recording by clicking on the big Green Button that says “Go to Playback”.The quality of playback is very good (in daylight) and can be seen in the video I produced at the beginning of this Blog entry.
I only have one camera so that is the only section that is lit.You can choose the view to be single or 4 or 6 windows.So if you had six cameras, you could see all of them at once.Sweeet.
I like the clock in the bottom right hand corner.
There are three main buttons you can click on “Setup”, “Go to Playback” (this changes to “Go to Live” when in playback mode), and “WiLife” which is an easy link to the WiLife web site.
Setup
In setup, you have several options.The first, and most important for this evaluation, is the camera set up.On this page (see picture below) you can change the name of the camera, change the color of the text overlay, mess with the brightness and contrast (I kept it on “Auto” and it worked great), and change the quality of the video, its frame rate, and, finally the bit rate.
I selected VGA (640 x 480) which is better than QVGA (320 x 240), 15 frames per second (Remember: I am a videoconferencing nerd, but, I could have selected 5 or 10 fps), and 400 kbps transfer rate (or 600 and 800 kbps).
The other pages control the other features.
On the “Recording” page you can set the sensitivity of the motion trigger, schedule a recording time, and view disk usage.
On the “Alert” page you can set up your email and cell phone account information (I did not do the email due to the phishing incident), schedule email alerts, and set manual alerts.
On the “Online” page you can create an online account, connect or disconnect to the Internet (to stream your video).
On the “Advanced” page you can find your cameras, rediscover them, manage security, check for updates, update a camera, rebuild video list, find orphan clips, get system info (your computer), and run a diagnostic.
To keep this Blog entry as short as possible:The page options all work nicely and intuitively.
Playback
Playback allows you to view the recording.You can go back as far as the recordings have been taking place and watch.I like the ability to adjust the timeline.You can compress it to cover many days, or stretch it out to view a particular hour.
YeOldeTechy did not like…
The video quality of the camera at night is, understandably, lacking.Unfortunately, WiLife sells a special spotlight for indoor use only.So if I were to use WiLife I’d have to purchase and install a spotlight to cover my driveway.Motion is detected at night, but the people who (or cars that) trigger it are unrecognizable.
WiLife is Windows centric.Not that this is a bad thing, but, you need to install it on a Windows machine (which not everyone has) and you must use Internet Explorer to view the video from your cameras on-line.I use Firefox, and by trying Firefox I messed up the on-line capability until I rebooted my computer and started from scratch.Don’t get me wrong, I like Windows (sort of) since I have Windows machine it is just that I use Firefox for my browser (for security reasons mostly), and there are a lot of folks out there with other operating systems.
Also, Windows is not known for its security…how interesting that a security system relies totally on Windows.
What if the power goes off while you are on vacation?If you are like me, your home computer is not set-up to turn on automatically.Security is down for the remainder of the time.
I was not able to enter or use the cell phone alert capability.Due to the phishing incident, I did not enter my email information to try the email alert.
What about energy conservation?I turn as many electronic devices off as possible.My computer “on” all the time is not something I want to do.
Suggestions
I am a big fan of stand-alone appliances and if that stand-alone appliance happens to work well with your home computer, even better.
At the very least, I would like to see the WiLife cameras come with a memory card slot and battery backup. Example:I have several Sony memory sticks hanging around doing nothing, I can use them for storage of video.I’m sure there are a lot of folks with SD memory cards doing the same.No matter what, if the WiLife had this kind of stand-alone capability, I would be more than willing to purchase a memory card if I had to.With on board memory and battery backup the camera can continue to record events if power, or the computer, dies.When the computer comes back online, the recording is transferred.No information is lost.
Taking that one step further, connect the camera(s) directly to the Internet thus bypassing the computer for that purpose as well.Did I say I liked “stand-alone” devices?
Open up the viewing of the on-line capability to other browsers would be good.
How about using Flash for the video?
How about adding audio? That enhances the use as a security system, and may open up a ton of other uses like parties, weddings, home video for grandma and grandpa of the kids playing in the back yard, etc.
Summary
I installed and used a single outdoor WiLife camera connected to the Command Center on my computers for the past two weeks.
WiLife worked very reliably, but, I did not come to rely on it because I turn my computer off regularly, and I do not have a spotlight to illuminate the area at night.
It is a good product if you can live with the limitations.
According to this news announcement, Apple will be making the iPhone more enterprise friendly by providing access to email and other corporate functions.
Devices such as Research in Motion's Blackberry and various Palm devices will be most impacted by this announcement.
Apple also plans to "open" development to third parties. How far this extends remains to be seen.
In a previous Blog entry, YeOldeTechy took a peek at the iPhone and deemed it an industry changer. I still believe that iPhone is the most innovative cell phone to be introduced.
YeOldeTechy says: This move by Apple will only solidify it's leadership. With the Blackberry outage problems, and extreme ease-of-use of the iPhone, I'm sure many will find iPhone an attractive alternative.
Here is a very cool demo of a third party application written by Salesforce.com
Here is an even cooler version of "Super Monkey Ball" by Sega on the iPhone.
This Blog has moved....please visit this entryhere.
Before you read, you can watch my future Oscar winning documentary on “Using VUDU”.You will not be bored, but, in case you are interested to see what movie I used as an educational demo you can fast forward to minute 1:25.Or, alternatively, you can read my book review here.
Goodbye, Blockbuster and Netflix.It’s been nice knowing you, DVD.Watch your back, Blu-Ray.There is a new kid in town, and that new kid is about to change the world.That new kid is VUDU.
“Dad, do we have to give the VUDU back?, I love it”.This is from my 16 year old daughter, Kristen.I love it as well which shows you that VUDU spans the generations from Kristen’s “Me” to my “Baby Boomer”.
As soon as this poor, retired, starving blogger gathers enough money to buy a VUDU, I will.
YeOldeTechy says:VUDU is the future. Downloading movies via the Internet will change the DVD and Blu-Ray industry as much as downloading music is changing delivery of music by CD.VUDU is extremely easy to use, feature rich, and the video and audio quality is superb.
Quick Look at Some Features
Spending almost two weeks with VUDU we have a great appreciation of several of VUDU’s features.
The search capability is very powerful allowing you to find a movie in one of several different ways.You can search by actor or director, by title, by genre, or you can use the icons at the main menu to search for “HD Titles”, “War Movies”, “Best Picture”, etc. See the picture below where I am ready to search for “Best Picture Winners from 1927 -2007”.Wickedly cool.As I finish up this Blog entry there are 5075 movies in the VUDU database.
Embedded in the search capability are interesting facts on the actors or directors and a quick synopsis of the movie with a rating.See the picture below.You can select an actor or the director and VUDU shows you what movies VUDU has in its database with that actor or director.For example, I can click on Nicolas Cage and see that VUDU has “National Treasure” and several other of his movies.By the way, “Next” is way better than 2 stars. Nicolas Cage rocks.
The remote is extremely easy to use.Of course I needed directions from Kristen, but, once I got the hang of moving the dial and also pressing the dial to select the chosen option, you can use the dial and 4 buttons to do anything you need.Since the remote is RF (radio frequency) you do not need to point it at the unit.You would not believe how hard that is to get used to.
Almost every movie has a “Preview”.We enjoyed watching many previews and found a few movies we would like to rent by watching the preview.
After finding a movie you can place that movie in your “Wish List”.Once there, you can easily find it again and select it to watch.See picture below.
The ease of starting a movie.No need to drive to a store, no need to get off the couch find a DVD from your own collection open the DVD player, etc.Simply find the movie and play it.See the Oscar winning documentary at the start of this Blog for a demo.
The video and audio quality are outstanding.In fact, the quality of a standard definition movie surpasses the quality we get with our progressive upload DVD player.The high definition movies are simply tremendous (see picture below).We watched several movies, both high definition and standard, and never once saw an Internet based glitch or slow down (I have DSL).
VUDU has mastered the art of video-on-demand with their “peer-to-peer” technology.
Need for Improvement
Although VUDU is nearly a perfect product, there is still some room for improvement…..but not much.
I would like to see a built in 802.11G wireless network capability.I would much rather pay for that capability built in at the factory than to purchase an external device for that purpose.To be clear, VUDU allows an external connection to a wireless Ethernet device.But, for this evaluation, I simply made a Cat 5 cable long enuf to connect my hub in the study to the VUDU in the Family Room.
I see VUDU is recommending a “power line” networking device from Linksys.Ah!! Another evaluation for my Blog!But seriously, this is a very cool way to move data around the house.Story:Many years ago, YeOldeTechy designed such a device for his modem (remember modems?), it worked really well, but every time the refrigerator fired up I got a ton of packet losses. Great design, huh?
Concerns
Fundamentally, the VUDU needs to be on all the time since it is part of the peer-to-peer delivery network.However, these days (and into the future) energy costs are increasing at a very rapid rate.Having yet one more electronic device on 24x7 is concerning.VUDU may be a power hog or it may be a power miser, I do not know.All I can request is that future units be designed with power consumption in mind.On the other hand, you do not need to get in your car to visit the rental store, so maybe the green equation tips in favor of VUDU.I suspect it may.
I had a concern about backup.When you purchase a movie now, you have a hard copy of it.I asked that question of VUDU and they will have (starting this week with version 1.3) an archiving capability where you can backup your purchased content to a “VUDU vault” (an email from VUDU tells me this in in Beta as of 3/4/08).If you happen to lose the hard drive, you can then download your vault contents for no cost. Very cool.
This is not VUDU’s fault, but, I like to watch the “special features” that come with a disc.In an email response to my question, VUDU replied with the following: “So far, the studios have not made special features available for digital distribution.It is VUDU’s hope that they will be able to deliver them in the future.”
Cost Comparisons
As far as I can tell, VUDU is not a clear cost saving alternative.All things considered, depending on what you have, or need to purchase, it is pretty much a wash.Let’s look at my particular situation.
My goal is to watch high definition movies. I already have a progressive upload DVD player and a high definition TV.To watch high definition, I would need to replace my “old” DVD player with a Blu-Ray player then rent, or purchase, Blu-Ray movies.
The Blu-Ray player costs about $400 at Best Buy (but I can also spend up to $1000).I could then rent Blu-Ray movies at Blockbuster for $4.99 plus tax or I could purchase Blu-Ray high definition movies at Best Buy for around $29.99.
The VUDU player costs $295.00 with free shipping but I would need to spend the money saved on a permanent Ethernet connection (either wired or wireless) near my TV.The VUDU high definition movies rent for about $5.99 or I can purchase a high definition movie for $24.99.VUDU rentals start about 30 days after they are available for purchase.
The typical rental cost of a VUDU movie is between $2.99 and $3.99 for a standard definition movie (with some really old Westerns going for 50 cents or for free).At Blockbuster we can rent a standard definition movie for $3.99 plus tax.
Depending on the rented movie, you have 24 to 48 hours to watch it. We did a test with "The Waitress" and started to watch it for the second time 5 minutes before it's expiration. Sure enough, when that 5 minutes expired the movie stopped playing and we saw this on the screen: "The viewing period for this movie has expired". Darn, those VUDU designers are way too smart.
VUDU sets up an account for a certain value (from your credit card) of your choice. As you watch the movies the rental fee comes out of your account. When the account reaches $5.00, VUDU automatically ups the account to the specified $$.
Future Directions
According to VUDU there will be the ability to connect an external hard drive, via it’s currently unused USB port, to expand the local VUDU capacity (it now has a 250 gig hard drive). VUDU will automatically format that drive.With 1 Terabyte drives now on the market, your movie storage capability will be greatly enhanced with this future capability.
In fact, in the Winter of 2008, VUDU XL will arrive with it's own internal 1 Terabyte drive. The thought of 2 Terabytes (one internal and one external) just for videos, to me, is mind boggling! I received an email and the VUDU XL with 1TB disk is available now...March 4, 2008 ! Great news.
Summary
I cannot say enough good things about VUDU.This is simply the most outstanding new product I have evaluated since ooVoo.It is good to know that innovation is alive and well and living on Tasman Drive in San Jose.I wish VUDU the best of luck, and who knows, a Tasman neighbor may be interested in you!
I already miss my VUDU…boo hoo.
+++++
Technical Evaluation
The following section is included for the more adventurous, or self hating, individual who likes to get into the nitty-gritty (Dirt Band?) technical stuff.J
Set Up
Refer to the picture of the VUDU back for much of the following discussion.
Real Time: Hmmm, the first thing I need is Ethernet to my TV.Since my house is fairly old, I do not have wiring there and I cannot purchase a wireless Ethernet adapter to connect to my wireless router (poor and starving blogger, remember).Sooooo, I will need to find a long piece of cat 5 cable and drag a line through the house.Arrghhh.
Result: I went to Radio Shack and purchased a 100 foot long roll of Cat 5 wire.I had everything else I needed to make a long cable connecting my Ethernet switch in the Study to the VUDU in the family room.Once I did that, I cracked the VUDU box and started the install process.
In the box is almost everything you need to connect the VUDU to the network and to your TV.It has an Ethernet cable which was too short for my evaluation, an HDMI cable, RCA cables and a small RF antenna.It has a sleekly designed remote control and batteries.The hardest part of the installation (other than making the cable and running the line) was installing the batteries in the remote.The cover is darn hard to get off and back on.The RF antenna screws on the back of the VUDU unit, very simple, and then I needed to connect the “coax” output for audio to our Bose sound system.
Before I get too far ahead, I had to do some pre-installation thinking about how to connect the VUDU into my existing home theater (if you can call my kludged mishmash of components a “theater”).After making some drawings, the solution was obvious.All I needed to do was replace my DVD player with the VUDU.After all, that is the point of the VUDU, right? All my videos for the evaluation period were now on the VUDU or in cyberspace.See my drawings below.
The picture at the start of this section shows the back of the VUDU.It has component video, S-Video , analog and digital “coax” audio outputs.It has an HDMI connector , an Ethernet 10/100 Mbps port, a USB port (not used in this version, but, will be used in the near future), an I/O port, a switch for 480i and 480p if you are not using the HDMI connection, and power. You can see the RF antenna on the left and the remote sitting on top.The remote is an RF unit and it took a bit time to get out of the habit of pointing the remote at the unit.
The VUDU found an IP address automatically when it was turned on. Unfortunately, it grabbed my printers IP address and I could not get the printer to work after that. Luckily, the VUDU device has a way to manually enter an IP address (and gateway and DNS). I did that and experienced zero network issues ofter that.
Speed Test
I connected my laptop to the end of my new, homemade, super fast Oscar winning, Cat 5 Ethernet cable (where the VUDU would connect) and did a DSL speed evaluation for VUDU from their web site .It is good to do this before purchasing a VUDU to ensure you have a sufficient high speed connection.They recommend at least 2 Mbps downstream, which means you need DSL, Cable modem, or better.Dial up will not work.
Video Quality
Outstanding. It uses MPEG-4 and has resolutions of 1080p/24 (24 frames per second), 1080i, 720p, 480p, and 480i. I talked about these resolutions in a previous blog entry on HDTV here. The high definition movies are received using Dolby 5.1 surround sound.
The family agrees that the standard definition video is better than DVD’s played back using our Sony DVD player with progressive upload.The picture is significantly clearer.I see no movement effects and have not yet had any problems watching a movie all the way thru without interruption.In other words, the downloading of the movie outpaced watching it.
VUDU offers a free HD version of “The Bourne Identity” but I suspect that the movie is already on the hard drive (I now know it is).As you can see from the picture the quality is terrific.
How VUDU Delivers the Video
According to VUDU, they have developed a “hybrid peer-to-peer” delivery network where every VUDU box on the Internet can hold portions of videos available for playback.As you play a movie, you are actually getting the movie from other VUDU boxes.Extremely cool.This concept is essentially the same as I reported in this Blog awhile back for Meraki Internet access.I can only imagine the complexity of the VUDU software.But, even with that, the performance in the two weeks I had the VUDU was absolutely flawless.
VUDU tells me that less than 10% of your disk space is used to hold video’s being watched by others and that VUDU is careful not to overdrive your network if you are using the network for another purpose (like watching a movie or intense computing).
The picture below shows what VUDU thinks of my Internet connection.I did have to wait for the high definition movie to download.Not a problem at all, I just continued with my day while the movie was getting ready.
Limitations and Requests
I would like to be able to see the hard disk space remaining and some usage stats (BW being used, packet loss, etc) while being used.In the videoconferencing world we can see this kind of information and it is very helpful when questions arise if there are problems.
The RF antenna may be a bit high if you have a location that is tighter.You can turn it sideways if you have to.I did that and it worked fine.
I also set the sensitivity to the remote to “Low” and a lot of the false hits I was getting using the remote went away.
Email Questions and Response from VUDU
Answers to your questions are below. Have a good weekend.
1. Is there a way to see how much VUDU disk space has been used?
The current box has room for unlimited rentals and approximately 50 owned movies. The next software release (1.3, due next week) will allow for deletion of previously purchased titles to free space on the drive and, where permitted, archiving of owned titles (currently available for select movies and all TV shows). Archiving transfers owned titles from the box’s hard drive to the “VUDU Vault” where they are stored and may be downloaded again for no additional cost. Further, VUDU is planning to upgrade the box’s software to support off-the-shelf external hard drives and will eventually format the drive and make it an extension of the VUDU box.
2. Do you “pre-position” the content closer to the customer? Or is the video sent from a central location? If central, are your servers in San Jose? How many simultaneous customers can you handle?
Vudu utilizes a hybrid peer to peer system so that every VUDU box—yours, mine, your neighbor’s, etc., contains some pieces of movies that are streamed to other boxes when users want to watch those movies. From VUDU's side, this means that when they know a big blockbuster movie is coming online, they can pre-position content around the network so there isn't buffering or too much pull on one specific copy. From the VUDU owner's point of view, it means you can get access to movies whenever you want - less than 10% of your drive holds these pieces of movies that are streamed to other boxes, so it doesn't adversely affect your watching behavior. And VUDU is careful not to use your box if you have a heavy network load - e.g. you are watching a movie yourself or doing some super computing in your study.
3. Will the USB port be used for an external hard drive? Will it be plug and play? Will any hard drive manufacturer work?
The VUDU box was designed to be flexible, able to adapt to the changes and improvements we plan to make to the product and service in the future. VUDU intends to introduce software to support off-the-shelf external hard drives for additional storage and will eventually format the drive to make it an extension of the VUDU box.
4. Will you include, do you include, backup software?
Back-up software is not included. VUDU has the ability to reset the box to its factory settings if needed. Software updates are performed automatically through the service.
5. If someone loses their content, do you have a record of that, and the ability to refresh a lost disc?
VUDU has a record of all rentals and purchases made on every box. VUDU’s one-year warranty dictates that should the hard drive fail and content is lost, VUDU will replace that content or offer credits should some titles no longer be available.
6. Do you have 24x7 support via telephone? Via email? Via web pages?
VUDU’s Customer Care is available at 1-888-554-VUDU (8838). Hours are Mon-Fri 9 to 7 and Sat-Sun 11-7. They may also be contacted via email at support@vudu.com.
7. Why are some movies “buy only”? Will they be able to be rented in the future?
Whether a title is available for rental and/or purchase is determined by the studios. Generally, new releases are available to own the same day that they’re available on DVD. They become available for rental roughly thirty days later.
8. Do you have the ability to view statistics? Packet loss? BW used? Other stats?.....while the machine is operating?
Users can test their bandwidth and gauge VUDU’s usage of their bandwidth within the Service Quality Screen in Info & Settings. They cannot view statistics or packet loss.
9. Will you include “special features” in the future? For example, with a DVD we like to watch the special features….bloopers, how they made the movie, etc.
So far, the studios have not made special features available for digital distribution. It is VUDU’s hope that they will be able to deliver them in the future.
10.Are the movie “previews” loaded on the disk or are they downloaded via the Internet in real time as you watch them, like the movies?
Previews are pre-loaded onto the hard drive so they are instantly available. Similarly, the first 20 seconds of every available title is cached to enable instant playback.
