Dec 2007
The Future of Digital Media
12/25/07 09:03 PM Filed in: Technology
Since I want to be able
to claim credit for this before it happens, I decided
to blog about where I think the future of Digital
Media lies.
The current fight is between whether to produce solely HD DVDs or Blu-Ray Discs, though that fight is almost over seeing as how the HD DVD format has swept the market leaving Blu-Ray lagging behind and being used mostly by Sony on videos and games.
For years we've been trying to find the an unscratchable disk. We have yet to find one that is practical and cheap enough to mass produce. So the nagging question remains: What will the next Digital Media format be?
In large part, the Adult Film Industry (AFI) has always lead the way in choosing the next format which the public will use. Why? Because the AFI has enough billions per year to throw around on such things (yes, more than Hollywood). The AFI was one of the first to catch on to the VHS, it was the one of the first to realize the possibilities of the internet, it was the first to test out the DVD technology, it's paving the way for High Definition Technology, and it will pave the way for the next medium. The AFI has announced that it will accept the HD DVD as it's format of choice; first of all, the HD DVD is significantly cheaper to produce. Second of all, Blu-Ray discs are almost entirely produced by Sony, who has long refused to produce Pornographic films (go Sony!), so the AFI is almost forced to use the HD DVD. Blu-Ray players have been much more expensive than HD DVD players in the past, but they are coming down to a more competitive price.
With the release of the AppleTV, my guess is the next medium for our Digital Media is going to be small Flash Media, similar to the SDRAM chips for your Digital Camera. Currently those sell for about $10 a gig, so I'm guessing once they come down to around $5 for four gigs, the AFI will start looking at them (and so will the rest of the market.) Think how simple it will be! You'll have two ways to purchase a movie. You'll have a massive External Hard Drive which will be attached to your Entertainment System; You'll purchase the movie from somewhere in a small case, something like a GameCube video game comes in, I suppose, and bring it home. You'll open it to find the small Flash chip inside. No discs, so no worries of scratching! Plug the chip into the front of your AppleTV (or whatever the competition is by then). You'll need leave it plugged in for only a few minutes while it automatically copies the movie onto your External Hard Drive (in a High Definition format, of course). Once the video file is on your External Hard Drive, you can pull out the Flash chip, put it back in the case, and place it on a shelf to forget about. The movie is now on your External Hard Drive, easy for you to access by simply scrolling through all the movies on the drive, much like you would scroll through things you saved on DirectTV.
What if we don't want to go to the store to purchase that crazy Flash chip? Easy! It just so happens your TV will be hooked up to your wireless internet (does that make sense ... hooked up to wireless?) You'll be able to easily peruse the iTunes Music/Movie Store (or any digital media store that's available at that time) directly from your TV, select the movie you want to buy, iTunes will automatically charge your credit card and begin downloading the movie to your External Hard Drive immediately. And look, you didn't even have to go anywhere! Yet another excuse for American obesity.
The technology is almost there with Apple's AppleTV. It just needs to be pushed a little bit more, and the price of Flash media needs to come down. My guess is by the time my generation graduates from college and is beginning to purchase our own Home Entertainment Systems, we'll be making a choice for this medium! And, of course, by that time, there will be many more options for something like this; Microsoft will have their own soon enough.
UPDATE 1/7/2008:
Warner Bros. has announced that it will be adopting the Blu-Ray Disc format over HD DVD. Sony and Warner Bros. are two huge producers, and Hollywood has declared that it wishes to also complete the transition early into 2008. This makes the HD DVD essentially worthless. While it is good to have finally made a decision (so retailers can finally stock only one format), I'm not very pleased with the decision, though it seems final as 70% of the production market is now producing solely Blu-Ray (Disney, Fox, Sony, Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema), leaving Toshiba as just about the only company in support of HD DVD.
On that note, this is good news for Apple, since they have been planning to include full support for Blu-Ray (and only marginal support for HD DVD) in the upcoming MacBook Pros and Final Cut HD. Microsoft has been in support of the HD DVD format, however they will most likely change soon enough.
UPDATE 1/9/2008:
Paramount Pictures has abandon the HD DVD and has said it will be returning to producing the Blu-Ray Disc, leaving Universal as the only large company still in support of the HD DVD and over 75% of the market turning to Blu-Ray.
For a fancy graph, check out this article here.
UPDATE 2/15/2008:
After Best Buy and Netflix declared on the 12th that they would be carrying Blu-Ray exclusively, rental Wal-Mart announced today that it also will be stocking only Blu-Ray discs! Following these announcements, it is rumored that Toshiba will withdraw support of the HD-DVD and move solely to Blu-Ray, joining the rest of the pack.
The fight is almost over!
UPDATE 2/19/2008:
Game over! Toshiba has said it will discontinue use of the HD-DVD disc format, switching to Blu-Ray. The battle is over ...
The current fight is between whether to produce solely HD DVDs or Blu-Ray Discs, though that fight is almost over seeing as how the HD DVD format has swept the market leaving Blu-Ray lagging behind and being used mostly by Sony on videos and games.
For years we've been trying to find the an unscratchable disk. We have yet to find one that is practical and cheap enough to mass produce. So the nagging question remains: What will the next Digital Media format be?
In large part, the Adult Film Industry (AFI) has always lead the way in choosing the next format which the public will use. Why? Because the AFI has enough billions per year to throw around on such things (yes, more than Hollywood). The AFI was one of the first to catch on to the VHS, it was the one of the first to realize the possibilities of the internet, it was the first to test out the DVD technology, it's paving the way for High Definition Technology, and it will pave the way for the next medium. The AFI has announced that it will accept the HD DVD as it's format of choice; first of all, the HD DVD is significantly cheaper to produce. Second of all, Blu-Ray discs are almost entirely produced by Sony, who has long refused to produce Pornographic films (go Sony!), so the AFI is almost forced to use the HD DVD. Blu-Ray players have been much more expensive than HD DVD players in the past, but they are coming down to a more competitive price.
With the release of the AppleTV, my guess is the next medium for our Digital Media is going to be small Flash Media, similar to the SDRAM chips for your Digital Camera. Currently those sell for about $10 a gig, so I'm guessing once they come down to around $5 for four gigs, the AFI will start looking at them (and so will the rest of the market.) Think how simple it will be! You'll have two ways to purchase a movie. You'll have a massive External Hard Drive which will be attached to your Entertainment System; You'll purchase the movie from somewhere in a small case, something like a GameCube video game comes in, I suppose, and bring it home. You'll open it to find the small Flash chip inside. No discs, so no worries of scratching! Plug the chip into the front of your AppleTV (or whatever the competition is by then). You'll need leave it plugged in for only a few minutes while it automatically copies the movie onto your External Hard Drive (in a High Definition format, of course). Once the video file is on your External Hard Drive, you can pull out the Flash chip, put it back in the case, and place it on a shelf to forget about. The movie is now on your External Hard Drive, easy for you to access by simply scrolling through all the movies on the drive, much like you would scroll through things you saved on DirectTV.
What if we don't want to go to the store to purchase that crazy Flash chip? Easy! It just so happens your TV will be hooked up to your wireless internet (does that make sense ... hooked up to wireless?) You'll be able to easily peruse the iTunes Music/Movie Store (or any digital media store that's available at that time) directly from your TV, select the movie you want to buy, iTunes will automatically charge your credit card and begin downloading the movie to your External Hard Drive immediately. And look, you didn't even have to go anywhere! Yet another excuse for American obesity.
The technology is almost there with Apple's AppleTV. It just needs to be pushed a little bit more, and the price of Flash media needs to come down. My guess is by the time my generation graduates from college and is beginning to purchase our own Home Entertainment Systems, we'll be making a choice for this medium! And, of course, by that time, there will be many more options for something like this; Microsoft will have their own soon enough.
UPDATE 1/7/2008:
Warner Bros. has announced that it will be adopting the Blu-Ray Disc format over HD DVD. Sony and Warner Bros. are two huge producers, and Hollywood has declared that it wishes to also complete the transition early into 2008. This makes the HD DVD essentially worthless. While it is good to have finally made a decision (so retailers can finally stock only one format), I'm not very pleased with the decision, though it seems final as 70% of the production market is now producing solely Blu-Ray (Disney, Fox, Sony, Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema), leaving Toshiba as just about the only company in support of HD DVD.
On that note, this is good news for Apple, since they have been planning to include full support for Blu-Ray (and only marginal support for HD DVD) in the upcoming MacBook Pros and Final Cut HD. Microsoft has been in support of the HD DVD format, however they will most likely change soon enough.
UPDATE 1/9/2008:
Paramount Pictures has abandon the HD DVD and has said it will be returning to producing the Blu-Ray Disc, leaving Universal as the only large company still in support of the HD DVD and over 75% of the market turning to Blu-Ray.
For a fancy graph, check out this article here.
UPDATE 2/15/2008:
After Best Buy and Netflix declared on the 12th that they would be carrying Blu-Ray exclusively, rental Wal-Mart announced today that it also will be stocking only Blu-Ray discs! Following these announcements, it is rumored that Toshiba will withdraw support of the HD-DVD and move solely to Blu-Ray, joining the rest of the pack.
The fight is almost over!
UPDATE 2/19/2008:
Game over! Toshiba has said it will discontinue use of the HD-DVD disc format, switching to Blu-Ray. The battle is over ...
|
2007 Benchmark; Ah, The Irony
12/23/07 03:42 PM Filed in: Technology
Well, the 2007
benchmark tests are in. They have been for a while,
I've just been slow in posting this article.
Ironically, the fastest laptop tested as of 10/25/07
was a $2,419 (plus the cost of Windows Vista) Apple
MacBook Pro. The tests were run using WorldBench 6
Beta 2. Granted, the MacBook Pro came in only one
point (at 88 points) above Gateway's E-265M (at 87
points). It's even more laughable that Apple doesn't
even specifically design their computers to run
Windows, they just allow it, and Apple couldn't care
less if you run Windows or not.
Read the PC World article for yourself here.
Read the PC World article for yourself here.
YouTube Evangelism and Music Videos
12/22/07 09:13 AM Filed in: Technology
| Media
I always chuckle a bit
when I browse my way over to some YouTube video by
Korn, Mudvayne, or some equally controversial band.
It's not so much the videos that amuse me, it's the
comments left if you scroll down below the videos. We
all know these are mainstream bands, and we all know
metal bands can be known for their colorful language
and often lyrics relating to the occult, so let's not
hold them to any moral standards, OK? But then we
have the Christian users who enjoy searching for
these videos and then leaving comments pointing out
how wrong all the artists fans are for liking it.
First of all, why are you searching for the video if
it offends you? You don't have to be listening to it
or watching it. Second of all, leaving a comment
saying, "You guys are idiots. This music is not
edifying to God in any way. He wouldn't be happy that
you're watching this. You're all going to Hell."
Well, those aren't the exact words, but there are
oh-so-many comments that say almost exactly that, or
at least allude to that.
Listen, telling someone they're an "idiot" for what they believe is not going to get them excited about switching to your religion. And since when has your personal relationship with Christ been about how guilty someone made you feel, so you just HAD to become a Christian. Isn't it way more beneficial to slowly but surely show someone God's love through the way you act? I'm pretty sure insulting someone's entire way of life through harsh words isn't a good way to show God's love.
Personally, I don't think you can even begin to "witness" to someone on a YouTube discussion board for a Slipknot music video, so please stop! Do you realize it makes all the fans hate Christian even more than Slipknot (and most of America) already does? Just look at some of the posts following when someone attempts to "witness" in response to a video like that. They're not pretty.
The comments on YouTube are to comment on the video ... what you liked about it, what you disliked about it. If you absolutely hated it, generally nobody cares, and you would have been better off spending the five minutes of your life doing something more productive. And why take another five minutes to write a demeaning comment to everyone else who did like the video or song? That just doesn't make sense to me ...
On that note, and probably going in the complete opposite direction of what I just said, may I please have permission to point out the terribly quality of our music videos today? What happened to the days of Thriller, when Michael Jackson was still black and music videos held a story line and a point and weren't so vague they left you feeling numb and wondering, "Wow ... I can't decide if that was really deep or completely pointless." The vast majority of music videos today are spent simply showing the band playing their instruments, usually off time with the music. The videos then pan to some girl or boy, but usually a girl, who is probably struggling with something, running from something, or arguing with her boyfriend or parents. Oh, and don't even get me STARTED on rap videos. The only budget cost you have in a rap video is the cost of the scantly clad strippers you hire to dance around the rapper while he sits on a cruise ship floating through the Caribbean.
It's all too predictable! What happened to the five minute dance scenes and a gripping plot line, almost making the music video a short film! Thriller the song was nearly six minutes long, but the video was extended to nearly fifteen, with a budget of 800,000 1983 dollars (that's about 1.4 million 2007 dollars.) That's the way it should be.
Another problem is the artists lip movement synced with the audio. It's not. Ever. It's ridiculous that with all our modern technology, and the amount of money we pay the digital guru's who mix these videos, that we can't manage to get the artists lip movement to actually look like they're singing the song. I would suggest that perhaps it's a more difficult task than we give them credit for, but that's simply not the case. Perhaps I should allude again to any Michael Jackson video ... the audio is synced almost perfectly with his mouth. Basically in all old music videos that told a story, the audio was synced so much better than it is in todays MTV hits. What is the deal?!
Music is getting less and less good and more and more repetitively stupid, if you ask me, the videos are showing for it. Too bad the good artists who could dance, sing, and direct/produce good music and music videos have unfortunately undergone too much plastic surgery to even be able to bust a dance move, let alone sing a proper note.
Listen, telling someone they're an "idiot" for what they believe is not going to get them excited about switching to your religion. And since when has your personal relationship with Christ been about how guilty someone made you feel, so you just HAD to become a Christian. Isn't it way more beneficial to slowly but surely show someone God's love through the way you act? I'm pretty sure insulting someone's entire way of life through harsh words isn't a good way to show God's love.
Personally, I don't think you can even begin to "witness" to someone on a YouTube discussion board for a Slipknot music video, so please stop! Do you realize it makes all the fans hate Christian even more than Slipknot (and most of America) already does? Just look at some of the posts following when someone attempts to "witness" in response to a video like that. They're not pretty.
The comments on YouTube are to comment on the video ... what you liked about it, what you disliked about it. If you absolutely hated it, generally nobody cares, and you would have been better off spending the five minutes of your life doing something more productive. And why take another five minutes to write a demeaning comment to everyone else who did like the video or song? That just doesn't make sense to me ...
On that note, and probably going in the complete opposite direction of what I just said, may I please have permission to point out the terribly quality of our music videos today? What happened to the days of Thriller, when Michael Jackson was still black and music videos held a story line and a point and weren't so vague they left you feeling numb and wondering, "Wow ... I can't decide if that was really deep or completely pointless." The vast majority of music videos today are spent simply showing the band playing their instruments, usually off time with the music. The videos then pan to some girl or boy, but usually a girl, who is probably struggling with something, running from something, or arguing with her boyfriend or parents. Oh, and don't even get me STARTED on rap videos. The only budget cost you have in a rap video is the cost of the scantly clad strippers you hire to dance around the rapper while he sits on a cruise ship floating through the Caribbean.
It's all too predictable! What happened to the five minute dance scenes and a gripping plot line, almost making the music video a short film! Thriller the song was nearly six minutes long, but the video was extended to nearly fifteen, with a budget of 800,000 1983 dollars (that's about 1.4 million 2007 dollars.) That's the way it should be.
Another problem is the artists lip movement synced with the audio. It's not. Ever. It's ridiculous that with all our modern technology, and the amount of money we pay the digital guru's who mix these videos, that we can't manage to get the artists lip movement to actually look like they're singing the song. I would suggest that perhaps it's a more difficult task than we give them credit for, but that's simply not the case. Perhaps I should allude again to any Michael Jackson video ... the audio is synced almost perfectly with his mouth. Basically in all old music videos that told a story, the audio was synced so much better than it is in todays MTV hits. What is the deal?!
Music is getting less and less good and more and more repetitively stupid, if you ask me, the videos are showing for it. Too bad the good artists who could dance, sing, and direct/produce good music and music videos have unfortunately undergone too much plastic surgery to even be able to bust a dance move, let alone sing a proper note.
Is That Support?
12/12/07 01:43 PM Filed in: Technology
Western Digital, how
I've always trusted you with my files. I'm not a fan
of Seagate. I can't stand Maxtor. Hitachi ... they're
alright. But Western Digital I've always heard
wonderful things about, and I've always been
completely comfortable putting all of my sensitive
data on their Hard Drives.
Until now ...
You would think when you fork out over $300 for a Hard Drive, you would have reliability. Not only reliability, but proper support. So when my Hard Drive stops turning on regularly, and when I finally do coax it into turning on my computer won't recognize it, I tried calling technical support.
Apparently I can't get support for my Hard Drive. Apparently the only thing $300 gets you is a Hard Drive and the ability to call for an RMA number to exchange your Hard Drive for a working Hard Drive. Hey, WD, I've got news for you! I have over 100 GB on this Hard Drive. Data that I don't want to lose! Between 60-80 GB of that data is music and movies. All but about 400 songs can be accounted for on my iPod, but the movies and videos I have no way of recovering.
Lucky for you, WD, I have all of my uber-important data (school documents, etc.) on my interal Hard Drive, which has never failed me.
More recently, when I get the Hard Drive to power up, I can put my ear against it an hear a repetitive *Tick**Tick*Tick*. Please don't be the drive head ...
I don't want an RMA. I want support to get my files back! Duh! Is it too much to ask you to pick up the phone?
Until now ...
You would think when you fork out over $300 for a Hard Drive, you would have reliability. Not only reliability, but proper support. So when my Hard Drive stops turning on regularly, and when I finally do coax it into turning on my computer won't recognize it, I tried calling technical support.
Apparently I can't get support for my Hard Drive. Apparently the only thing $300 gets you is a Hard Drive and the ability to call for an RMA number to exchange your Hard Drive for a working Hard Drive. Hey, WD, I've got news for you! I have over 100 GB on this Hard Drive. Data that I don't want to lose! Between 60-80 GB of that data is music and movies. All but about 400 songs can be accounted for on my iPod, but the movies and videos I have no way of recovering.
Lucky for you, WD, I have all of my uber-important data (school documents, etc.) on my interal Hard Drive, which has never failed me.
More recently, when I get the Hard Drive to power up, I can put my ear against it an hear a repetitive *Tick**Tick*Tick*. Please don't be the drive head ...
I don't want an RMA. I want support to get my files back! Duh! Is it too much to ask you to pick up the phone?
My First Complaint with Apple
12/12/07 01:27 PM Filed in: Technology
Honestly, it may not
actually be my first complaint. But it's definitely
my first significant, "What were the designers
thinking when they implemented THIS?" complaint.
Last week, I lost all audio in my Lappy speakers. Maccy the Lappy was completely silent. I plugged in headphones, and the sound came through clearly. I unplugged them; silence. I plugged in my stereo speakers; sound! I unplugged them; silence. Needless to say, I was puzzled. I plugged in and unplugged my headphones over and over in a fury, but nothing would make the sound come out! I double and triple checked the volume, but for some reason it said the volume was set to full, but at the same time, nothing was coming out of the internal speakers.
I was very confused.
I consulted my loyal friend, Dr. Brian Jones. The Doctor informed me that Apple's come, surprisingly enough, with Optical (Digital) Out! Usually you have to buy a separate card for something like this, but it's fancy that it comes standard with Apple computers, I guess. Unfortunately, Dr. Jones didn't know how to enable or disable Optical Out, he just knew it was in the computer somewhere.
I leaned over and glanced at the side of my computer, looking at the Audio Out port. Sure enough, a red LED was glowing out of the hole; that was strange. Apparently when the headphones were NOT plugged in, my Lappy was confused, thinking the audio was being sent to a set of Optical speakers, so it was muting my laptop speakers. This was a problem ...
I looked online and found out that sometimes if you jiggle a headphones plug around in the port, it might switch it off. So I tried that. Nothing.
It was time to bring in the big guns. I IMed David and asked him to come over and help me out. I explained the situation to him. "Do you have a paper clip or something small?" I didn't. We were in the SSC right by the Admissions office, so I popped in there.
"Can I help you?"
"Um hey. Yah, I have a small request of you."
"Yes?"
"I need ... a paper clip. And just so you know, I probably won't bring it back."
"Oh, I can handle that!!"
(Thanks, Admissions!) The lady behind the desk was really nice. I thanked her and ran back to David, handing him the paper clip. He shoved it into the port and wiggled it back and forth for what seemed like eternity. Finally, as I was watching, the red glow stopped coming out of the port.
I pressed the volume button my Lappy.
*POP*
SOUND!!
You've got to be kidding me, Apple. You mean to tell me you put the switch for Optical Out INSIDE the port? That's potentially the worst design I've ever heard of. Granted, if I had a pair of Optical speakers, they would probably flip the switch on and off for me when I plugged them in. But if that's the case, why is it so easy for the switch to accidentally get switched on with a pair of regular headphones?
That's just lousy. Lousy, I tell you. Give the average human a simple switch to turn it off if it accidentally gets turned on. I asked around, and apparently I'm not the only person with a Mac that has had this problem.
Last week, I lost all audio in my Lappy speakers. Maccy the Lappy was completely silent. I plugged in headphones, and the sound came through clearly. I unplugged them; silence. I plugged in my stereo speakers; sound! I unplugged them; silence. Needless to say, I was puzzled. I plugged in and unplugged my headphones over and over in a fury, but nothing would make the sound come out! I double and triple checked the volume, but for some reason it said the volume was set to full, but at the same time, nothing was coming out of the internal speakers.
I was very confused.
I consulted my loyal friend, Dr. Brian Jones. The Doctor informed me that Apple's come, surprisingly enough, with Optical (Digital) Out! Usually you have to buy a separate card for something like this, but it's fancy that it comes standard with Apple computers, I guess. Unfortunately, Dr. Jones didn't know how to enable or disable Optical Out, he just knew it was in the computer somewhere.
I leaned over and glanced at the side of my computer, looking at the Audio Out port. Sure enough, a red LED was glowing out of the hole; that was strange. Apparently when the headphones were NOT plugged in, my Lappy was confused, thinking the audio was being sent to a set of Optical speakers, so it was muting my laptop speakers. This was a problem ...
I looked online and found out that sometimes if you jiggle a headphones plug around in the port, it might switch it off. So I tried that. Nothing.
It was time to bring in the big guns. I IMed David and asked him to come over and help me out. I explained the situation to him. "Do you have a paper clip or something small?" I didn't. We were in the SSC right by the Admissions office, so I popped in there.
"Can I help you?"
"Um hey. Yah, I have a small request of you."
"Yes?"
"I need ... a paper clip. And just so you know, I probably won't bring it back."
"Oh, I can handle that!!"
(Thanks, Admissions!) The lady behind the desk was really nice. I thanked her and ran back to David, handing him the paper clip. He shoved it into the port and wiggled it back and forth for what seemed like eternity. Finally, as I was watching, the red glow stopped coming out of the port.
I pressed the volume button my Lappy.
*POP*
SOUND!!
You've got to be kidding me, Apple. You mean to tell me you put the switch for Optical Out INSIDE the port? That's potentially the worst design I've ever heard of. Granted, if I had a pair of Optical speakers, they would probably flip the switch on and off for me when I plugged them in. But if that's the case, why is it so easy for the switch to accidentally get switched on with a pair of regular headphones?
That's just lousy. Lousy, I tell you. Give the average human a simple switch to turn it off if it accidentally gets turned on. I asked around, and apparently I'm not the only person with a Mac that has had this problem.