Pioneer First to Support WMA9Pro in High-end AV Amplifier

Pioneer has announced a new AV amplifier which transfers audio content using an optical digital S/PDIF interface and marks the start of a wave of high-end AV amps that will support the Microsoft Windows Media Audio 9 Pro (WMA9Pro) CODEC.

The amplifier, with the oh-so-catchy name, VSA-AX10Ai-N, is planned to be release in Japan in December 2003 and then in the US in January 2004 as the VSX-59TXi.

It will be able to pull audio from a PC via an S/PDIF interface and play back, in Dolby 5.1 surround sound audio, the correctly encoded audio files and films delivered on physical media or via a broadband connection. S/PDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interface) is an optical connection that transfers digital audio between devices without downgrading to analog.

Right is a photo of what we believe is rear of the VSX-59TXi, which like many AV amps looks truly frightening. It makes us long for the day when Ethernet and Firewire ports are the standard connectors.

UK Telco, BT Group Move Towards TV

There were two pieces of news today about the UK incumbent telecom provider, BT, getting closer to broadcast television. One, an official announcement that they will joint market UK Freeview (UK Free-to-Air Digital TV) receivers, the other in today’s Financial Times, that they are set to announce plans to enter the pay-per-view TV market with the launch of a new BT-branded digital TV and Internet service. It is possible that they are both the same story.

The financial markets response to BT previous discussion of getting involved with broadcast back in January 2003 was not positive, with their shares price dropping.

The FT Telecoms Correspondent, Robert Budden, reported that BT are in discussion with two companies that currently make Freeview boxes, SetPal and NetGem, with an aim to retail the STB’s for £129 when the service formally launches in the summer of next year. The exact details of the services are not know, but Time Shifted, PVR-type functions are expected as a minimum. It should also be noted that BT was granted a licence to broadcast back in March this year.

BT have realised that providing just the DSL connectivity to peoples houses will become a commodity – a utility in effect. With this area only become more competitive, it is not where the money will be made.
BT shares rose 1.62% today.

FT – BT piece

SetPal

NetGem

Exclusive Coca-Cola Content Delivered to TiVos

TiVo has been talking about providing virtual content channels for a while and now they’ve opened the offering with the biggest brand in the World.

The 25 minute entertainment program called “Sound Check” will be available exclusively to TiVo owners.
Cover music from Geffen, Interscope A&M artists such as Ashanti, Sting, Mary J. Blige and Leona Naess, it will feature interviews, music videos, behind-the-scenes footage, live performances and recording sessions.

There will be two methods of accessing the content. A short preview of the program will be made available in TiVo “Showcases” and if tempted, the viewer can have the full program delivered to them simply by clicking their remote control.

The second, and we think, more interesting uses something that TiVo are using called a “telescope tag”. When viewing a “Coca-Cola … Real” advert a “Thumbs Up” icon will appear on screen. If this appeals to the viewer, they simply click on the remote and the recording of the branded program is automatically scheduled. None of the viewer precious TV viewing time will be taken away from them, as the original content they were watching will be paused and automatically restarted after this process has finished. The telescope tag feature and Thumbs Up icon will also function if the view is fast-forwarding through content.

TiVo appears to have learnt from the disastrous incident when they forced UK TiVo’s to automatically record the BBC TV show “Dosser and Jo” back in May 2002 – then didn’t allow it to be deleted for a week.

We will be pursuing more details of this, as we feel it leaves a lot of questions unanswered, among them, how will the branded programing be delivered if it isn’t broadcast over a normal channel?, will it be available to TiVo owners worldwide or just in the US?, how will the telescope tagging be delivered?, will it be in advance of the advertising? plus many more.

One of the things that gets us most excited about future of a Digital Lifestyle is the alternative paths of content delivery that are opened up by the technology. This is a good early move.

Expect plenty more deals like this coming along.

TiVo

Interscope

FlashCast to Provide Channels on Mobile Phones

Macromedia is now talking publicly about FlashCast. Siting on top of the mobile phone’s resident Flash Lite player, FlashCast is a framework that enables channels of content to be downloaded and presented on a mobile phone. After a one-off download of the channel structure, small packets of content are updated when the handset is within service. There channels, currently text and graphics, are then presented to the user to be browsed as and when required, regardless of if the handset had reception.

ZDNet has an short video interview with the CEO of Macromedia that also give an idea of how a channel might look. He also reveals that DoCoMo has shipped two to three million handsets with Flash on board.

There is no official information available from Macromedia currently, but Mike Krisher has written a background to FlashCast and his piece carries out some comparison with Qualcomm’s BREW – a similar concept.

Given platforms live or die by the amount of content on them, it would seem likely that the large amount of content that is already authored in Flash make it more likely that FlashCast would succeed over BREW.

ZDNet interview video

Mike Kirsher – background to FlashCast

Emuzed supply PVR hardware for Microsoft Media Center OEMs

Following the announcement of Microsoft’s Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004 (MCE) , Emuzed, who supply video capture and encoding cards, have signed deals with a number of Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) that are using MCE.

Their two products Maui-III PCI PVR and Bali-II USB PVR Beanbag have the ability to encode to MPEG 2 on-board from PAL or NTSC signals, write out the recorded content out to CD or DVD and support an optional FM tuner. The Bali-II connects via USB 1.1 or 2.0

Two deals that they’ve announced recently are the Samsung MagicStation Q Media Center PC, HP’s new 17-inch widescreen Media Center zd7000 notebook PC which uses the USB version and most recently, the ViewSonic Media Center PC – the M2100.

A relative new comer, they look like they are taking trade from the previous default supplier, Hauppauge, which is based in Europe.

Emuzed

HP zd7000 notebook

ViewSonic Media Center PC – the M2100

Hauppauge

Palm Release Tungsten T3 with Landscape Mode

Palm have released three new models, the Tungsten E, the very iPod-looking $99 Zire 21 and the one we find most interesting, the Tungsten T3.

The T3 is the first device from Palm that supports a high-resolution colour screen in landscape, which happens to be 50% larger than any of their previous products, making it, we feel, far more useful for reading document, managing calendars and watching video.

By adding the highly compact, wireless (bluetooth) keyboard it also becomes a much more realistic device for typing text into, whether that be email, documents or spreadsheets.

The only thing we are not quite sure about is what it is going to be like using the combination with the screen sitting on the left of the keyboard.

It is selling at Amazon in the US and is already the 16th bestselling item.

Tungsten T3 at Amazon.com

Tungsten T3

Arcade Game ROMs Finally Available for Legal Download

Arcade game ROMs have long been a popular download from the internet, due to the popularity of arcade cabinet emulators like MAME (Multi Arcade Machine Emulator). The files are basically software images of the games, which used to be stored on hardware chips before files became bigger and other storage mediums (such as optical drives) became popular in arcade cabinets. Many arcade games have not been ported to home consoles, so players have no legal way to acquire games that they may have nostalgic feelings towards, or have kudos for acquiring. These factors, coupled with the fact that some publishers no longer exist, or the games are seen as old and therefore (erroneously) in the public domain, mean that ROM sites spring up all over the internet. Many downloaders don’t think they’re doing anything wrong by downloading these files, but they are still in copyright.

So, just like the music industry promoting legal downloads, StarROMs Inc has released 60 licensed ROM images, from as little as $2 each – and we bet that people will be downloading these classics, just like iTunes. If the StarROMs initiative takes off, gamers will be able to download many more of their old favourites legally.

Sixty titles isn’t much to begin with – but StarROMs has titles ranging from 1978 to 1992: titles like Asteroids, Millipede and – oh my goodness!!! – Crystal Castles and Marble Madness!

Will other publishers follow? We hope so – there are many, many gaps in the collection. Since the ROMs are images of the original software, they are essentially platform independent – but they rely instead on an emulator to provide all of the functions that the arcade cabinet once supplied. Emulators have been developed and ported to many platforms – so you’ll be able to play perfect arcade classics on a wide variety of platforms: PC, Palm, phone and perhaps even set-top box. Given that many set-top boxes and TiVo devices run a modern Linux kernel, and MAME has long been available on Linux, it’s not too far fetched.

StarROMs

Mame

US Triple-Play-Operator to Offer 5Mb Connection to Homes

The RCN Corporation, a US company that offers television, telephone and Internet services delivered over cable, today announced that it will be raising its current 3Mb Internet delivery speed to 5Mb. Their already fast sounding 3Mb service came in a year ago under the tragically named MegaModem. Sadly the new service will be called MegaModem Mach5, but if you’re getting a 5Mb service delivered, you’re not going to argue about the naming.

RCN, who focus on supplying services to densely populated markets in the US and currently service one million connections, say the speed upgrades will happen, at no extra costs, on 15 October.

Significantly, when IP connections are offering this kind of bandwidth, it starts to become realistic for households to have a number of people watching different video streams or listen on different devices around the home.

RCN

Microsoft Re-launch Media Centre Edition in 2004 Guise

Microsoft launched Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004 yesterday with Microsoft Group Vice President Jim Allchin announcing the products new feature and new manufacturing partners. This follows their first release of PC as TV, PVR, DVD, photo displaying, music playing media hub in October 2002, which had a lukewarm reception and was felt by many more as a show of intention to be involved rather than a fully considered product.

As the Media Center Edition (MCE) is expected to be used in the lounge from a couch, without keyboard and mouse, one of the big focuses of is giving the viewer the ability to control all of the media functions via the remote control. Many of the previous functions and some of the new features are available via a single key press, such as ability to control the newly included FM radio, by selection favourite stations and skipping back seven second if you misheard something. The selection, rotation and display of photos and the manipulation of music has also been made easy using the report control.

A full list of the MCE functions are described in detail at the dedicated Website as are details on how to obtain an upgrade for the previous version.

Online Spotlight – A new channel for content

Microsoft have recognised that just giving people the ability to record their own content, TV programmes or radio is only part of the story. The real excitement lies in the new universe of digitised media that will become available. To this end they have launch Online Spotlight, an online guide created specifically for Media Center Edition PC customers that offers a central location for them to find the latest third- party services and software, such as music, movie trailers, news updates and even Karaoke.

The initial content providers include CinemaNow, Movielink and Napster, but sadly these will only be available with the United States.

Hardware supply partners

There are more than 40 original equipment manufacturers (OEM) planning to ship Media Center Edition PCs to consumers in Asia, Canada, Europe and the United States and China on the list of later this fall. Product pricing will vary for each manufacturer and market, but will start at below $1,000.

Two of the biggest new names are Dell and Sony with Dell reporting that they’re taking order online today and Sony shipping two new models of VAIO Media Center PCs in the next few weeks. Sony, who have already developed and currently market their own equivalent product, appear to be covering their bases.

HP and Toshiba continue their strong support and are the only two companies offering product in three major Continents – Asia, Europe and America with many of the newly announced companies choosing to offer in individual countries.

Of the announced supplier, Japan will have the widest selection of suppliers, numbering five, although interestingly Sony has decided not to sell it there, choosing the United States and Canada instead. The US and Germany will have four suppliers and Korea, the United Kingdom and France having three a piece.


It sounds like Microsoft have listen to their previous customer and have adopted many of their ideas, time will tell whether they have been successful and we are looking forward to finding out.

Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004 site