Check out my full review of 6 Months Without DirecTV on lunch.com.

Check out these thoughts on where we’d like to see iPad development go!

http://lunch.com/t/13am

Icon for Remote Buddy

Now that I’ve official suspended my DirecTV account, I’v switched entirely to a diet of EyeTV and Boxee, I’ve found that I have some issues with my remote control usability.  After watching the videos of Remote Buddy on iospirit.com, I decided to give it a spin.  Long story short, I don’t know why I waited.  Remote Buddy essentially solved all my issues and simplified controlling all my applications with one remote.  For my full review, and a lot more detail, check out my review on lunch.com.

EyeTV iPhone App

This is a follow-up to my recent review of the Elgato EyeTV 250 device for the Macintosh.  This review will address the iPhone application specifically.  If you want to know my impressions about the device itself, please check out my review.

As far as features are concerned, the EyeTV iPhone app delivers.  It essentially allows you to stream live or recorded tv shows from your Mac directly to your iPhone (via Wifi AND cellular data streams).
The user interface is very clean and simple to navigate.  The first screen gives you four simple options:

1. Live TV
2. Recordings
3. Schedules
4. Guide

This is one of the best looking and simplest iPhone apps I’ve used so far… if only it worked…

Before I begin to tell you all the things that DIDN’T work for me, I will preface my remarks by saying I am using an iPhone 3g, not the newer 3gs, so it is possible most of these issues are resolved by using the newer hardware.

When used over Wifi, shows and live feeds took VERY long to start — upwards of 30 seconds or more.  Once playback began, stuttering was common and the app would occasionally lock up.  Looking through the Elgato support site, they recommend turning off the Bluetooth feature on the phone to improve performance.  Even though this step is unnecessary when using the Slingbox or NFL Sunday Ticket app (two other apps which provide video streaming), I complied.  My results improved, but only marginally.  Recorded shows that were specifically re-encoded for iPhone definitely worked better than Live TV, but still not to the point where I would consider it ready for regular use.  There is also a setting in the iPhone app for the size of the data stream you want to receive.  Changing these values seemed to actually change what channels or recordings were available for me to watch, but it’s actual function still is a mystery to me.  But moving the slider around did seem to slightly help video playback.

To confuse matters even more, Elgato support recommends buying their other device, the Turbo.264 HD Encoder which they say will automatically adjust the video feed on the fly to match your network settings.  However after spending money on the original EyeTV device, plus the $5 for the iPhone application as well, I’m not ready to drop even more money into this project without knowing exactly what kind of results I should expect.  I would have thought that re-encoding the video for the iPhone would have precluded me from having to add this additional device.

I will continue to tweak the different settings to see if I can get better results, but hopefully a software update will address my current concerns without requiring an additional hardware purchase.  For now, I would recommend a Slingbox device over the EyeTV iPhone software for streaming video.

Elgato EyeTV Software

I picked up the Elgato EyeTV as part of my experiment to see if I could cut out my DirecTV service entirely.  The short answer is… “no”, at least not quite yet.

The Elgato EyeTV 250 is a USB device for the Macintosh that allows you to watch and record TV broadcasts from over-the-air (OTA) or clear QAM (unencrypted digital cable) signals.  Setup was pretty standard fare — plug in USB connector and power outlet, install software, connect antenna or cable source.  I tested the device with both cable and antenna and the results were a bit mixed.  The scanning channels process took quite a while for both sources, but the cable source returned better initial results.  When using a smaller “digital OTA antenna” I wasn’t able to get all of my major network channels (CBS, NBC, ABC, etc).  However, after connecting to a larger antenna which is mounted in the attic, I was able to pull in all the major networks.  While this was great for my Mac Mini media center (which doesn’t really move), it did mean that it wouldn’t be easy to take the USB device as a travel companion and grab TV from different locations while on the road.

(Quick side note:  Elgato does sell another device which does NOT require a power adapter and some reports have stated that it is able to pull in OTA signals better.  However, the 250 Plus which I picked up has an analog input which in theory would let me record additional sources to the computer — such as converting old tapes or recording video game gameplay.  Recording video game snippets sounded like a cool option at the time, but if I were to do it again, I’d opt for the EyeTV Hybrid TV Tuner Stick).

The Elgato device comes with their latest version of the EyeTV Software.  This allows you to watch TV, schedule recordings (and “season passes”) and browse the program guide.  The app also allows you to edit your recorded videos in order to trim out unwanted sections (such as cutting out commercials from the recorded shows) and even save the output as a compressed format for portable devices such as the iPod or iPhone..  The software worked quite well on my Mac Mini when used with a keyboard and mouse, but the software suite just isn’t quite ready to be fully controlled by a remote control like I was hoping to do with the dedicated home theater Mac Mini.  The included remote control offers quite a bit of functionality, but I plan to use the Elgato with my Plex software and the Apple Remote and I couldn’t get everything dialed in to a point where I could get by on the remote alone (thankfully, the Snatch app on my iPhone was available in a pinch).

Elgato seems to have some decent developer support and I did come across two helper apps which were huge bonuses.  ETVComskip and PyeTV (both available via Google Code) added tremendous functionality to the EyeTV.  ETVComskip will analyze your recorded shows and automatically strip out the commercials.  While this worked pretty well most of the time, I did have one case where it output ONLY the commercials.  The other app, PyeTV, integrates EyeTV with Front Row to bring you a step closer to remote control unity.  Recorded shows worked fine with PyeTV, but switching to the program guide or live tv always made it difficult to return to the Front Row interface.  Hopefully the folks at Plex will come up with an integrated solution and it seems to be a top feature request.

For the most part, the EyeTV was a success.  The hardware worked great to provide an excellent HD picture and the automated recording,  scheduling, and commercial cutting features were a great bonus.  Unfortunately, the software still feels a little unpolished (a third party developer shouldn’t need to be the one to build in Front Row support).  The ability to customize the commands would be a big step forward, but what really needs to happen is the software needs an interface which can be fully controlled by the Apple Remote (and allow for more 3rd party development).

Once football season is over, I’ll try putting my DirecTV account on hold and see if I can get by solely on freely available content.  In order for that to happen the EyeTV is going to be a big part of my plan.  I just hope future software updates will make the transition even easier.

Plex logo

Sorry for the lame headline, but I’m very excited to pass along the latest announcement from the Plex group that Plex is now Snow Leopard compatible!

Highlights:

• Apple Remote fix
• 5.1 Audio issues  fixed
• Several fixes for crashes

You can read all the details here:

http://elan.plexapp.com/2009/10/26/plex-0-8-3-let-it-snow-leopard/

Hulu Desktop Start Screen

As more and more television networks start making their content available on-line, the need for a traditional cable or satellite service continues to diminish. Yet one of the biggest obstacles isn’t necessarily the quality of the content, but it’s accessibility from the couch. Hulu.com is great when you’re sitting at a computer, but few people are willing to give up their traditional remote control for a keyboard and mouse on the couch.

Click the link for the full review

Snow Leopard Plex compatibility

Ready to upgrade your Mac Mini Home Theater to latest operating system offering from Apple? Might want to hold of 10.6 Snow Leopard upgrade for just a bit. It appears that there is an issue with Plex and the Apple Remote where any button presses while in Plex continue on to the operating systems’ default behavior. What exactly does this mean? Pressing the Menu button will take you out of Plex and launch Apple’s Front Row application. Additionally, the “up/down” buttons will change the system volume. I’ve been able to verify this on my own system, and I would advise holding off on upgrading until this has been fixed.

The Plex developers are aware of this issue and have even started a Snow Leopard forum so you can submit additional issues or monitor the status of the fixes.

http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php?showforum=44

So, I’m a little late to the game and I decided to check out AMC’s Mad Men television show.  Thanks to Netflix, I worked through the three disks of Season 1 just in time to set up my DirecTV DVR to record the Season 2 marathon.  The next day, I sat down to start Season 2 and it began with a recap of Season 1… only during the recap I realized that I somehow must have missed an entire episode, specifically the season finale.  I had already returned the disk to Netflix, so my solution for an instant fix was to buy the episode off of iTunes.

Purchasing via iTunes

Anyone who has used iTunes for purchases before knows that it’s generally very easy to find what you’re looking for.  A quick search in the text field got my right where I wanted, but I could have easily browsed through the links and genres in the iTunes store interface to find my television show.

I was given the option to purchase the entire season or single episodes at a time.  Additionally, I could choose either High Definition or Standard Definition.

I planned to watch this on my Mac Mini home theater setup, so I opted for the HD version.  Once Apple validated my account credentials, the download began.  Conveniently, Apple sends you both the HD version for your computer/AppleTV device, as well as the SD version for your iPod.  Unfortunately, the estimated download time was over 2 hours.  This obviously wasn’t going to be something I could start streaming immediately… so I was going to have to wait yet another day to find out what happened to Don and the gang in the season finale.

Watching my HD Download

The following day, the download was complete so it was time to check out my TV show…almost.  The show appeared in iTunes as well as the Front Row application, but when I selected it, I was given the warning at the top of the page — one of my display devices wasn’t HDCP compliant.  I didn’t understand how — my Mac Mini was connected to two HDTV’s in mirrored mode using “Mini DVI to HDMI” and “Display Port to DVI” using a DVI to HDMI cable.  I thought instead I could just play the SD version of the show since I was now growing impatient, but I couldn’t find an option anywhere to play just the SD version.  After some digging around online, I discovered that the Display Port on the new Mac Mini does not support HDCP unless you happen to have one of Apple’s fancy new displays.  Instead, I disconnected the monitor attached to the Display Port and voila!  I had video!

Picture and Sound Quality

Picture quality was excellent.  I had watched the majority of Season 1 on BluRay and the picture quality from the HD iTunes download was on par with the blu-ray picture.  While there isn’t a ton of action, the costumes and set pieces are incredible and definitely worthy of the HD treatment.  As a side note:  at this time, DirecTV does NOT carry AMC in High Def, so this really was the only way for me to get Mad Men in HD.  As such, I’ll forgo watching Mad Men Season 3 on DirecTV and instead wait for a blu-ray or iTunes HD download.

As for sound, I’m under the impression that Apple does not support Dolby Digital for surround sound, but according to the FAQ on Apple’s support page they do support Dolby Pro Logic:

Do movies support surround sound?

Yes. Movies include audio which is encoded using Dolby Surround which delivers multichannel audio when played using Dolby Pro Logic systems.

Unfortunately, this is probably enough to prevent me from using iTunes for any action movie downloads/rentals, but for most TV shows, the quality is fine.  I would have to do an A/B comparison test to offer any more comments on the sound, but for my Season Finale, the sound was good.

Conclusion

Aside from a few technical hiccups, the overall experience was good.  I’d like to do a few more tests to see if my download times were typical or if things might speed up in the future.  It would be great if an HD movie or television show could begin playing after only a few seconds of buffering.  Also, I’d appreciate it if Apple could provide some additional error messaging to help with the HDCP issue, but in all honesty, I couldn’t reproduce the error while writing this article so it’s possible a recent iTunes upgrade or perhaps the Perian codec helper I recently installed may have fixed the issue.  Based on the picture quality alone, I would love it if Apple offered an “all you can eat” option like Netflix.  I still find the pricing a bit prohibitive in trying to justify it against the DirecTV and Netflix bills I already have, but I would seriously consider dropping the two and focusing all purchases through iTunes for month or two to test out if the economics work in my favor.  After a bit of finagling, I finally got everything working and the results were quite good.

OpenRemote Logo

OpenRemote is an “Open Source community for Automation”.  They are trying provide a complete open source solution to control the variety of “closed protocals and stacks” from typical home automation companies.

More importantly, they may be the answer to my “One Remote to the Rule Them All” quest!  If you look at my recent article on Controlling The Mac Mini,  I mention that my biggest issue with iPhone apps is that they cannot easily control other components in my system (for example, turning on the TV, changing the volume on the receiver, etc.)  According to OpenRemote’s recent tweets, they have managed to do a simple “proof of concept” test using an iPhone, a Wifi network, and an IR blaster to launch FrontRow on a Mac.  Read on to find out why this is so exciting.

OpenRemote Proof Of Concept Setup

If anyone has looked into Home Automation hardware and software, you quickly discover that it is expensive… VERY expensive.  But much of that cost is having a “professional” come in and configure the devices and set everything up.  As a Do-It-Yourself-er, I would much rather get some commodity hardware and configure my home automation software myself.  Unfortunately, I don’t have the time to delve into the hardware and software aspects of this.  If OpenRemote can deliver on their mission statement:

“To provide high-end building integration software and hardware for the masses and without vendor lock-in.”

then I would happily be one of the first in line to sign up for their device.  It sounds like there is still some Java and Linux components to their setup and I’m guessing it will be quite some time before there is a user-friendly “Drag and Drop” interface for configuring your device.  However, there’s a huge community of Java and iPhone enthusiasts (myself included) who would love to get their hands on this setup and test it out.  I haven’t even finished reading up their site, but I was so excited, I had put up a quick post.  However, as I learn more, I’ll be sure to follow up.