Media Center and Me

 

CES 2010 was a great show for Windows Media Center, which enjoyed several minutes of demo time during the pre-show keynote address. The ability to watch and record four streams of HD programming (using the forthcoming Ceton CableCARD tuner) received an enthusiastic round of applause from the audience. Meanwhile, a lot of Media Center features - like Internet TV – were highlighted on their biggest stage in some time.

Above: Showing Media Center and a Ceton MOCUR card recording 4 HD programs at one time during the CES keynote.

What’s more, the keynote really highlighted the kinds of unique experiences to be had when you connect a PC to your TV. While this may be self-evident for most folks on TGB, the wider population is only beginning to embrace these possibilities.

In light of the growing popularity of TVs with the ability to display Internet-based content via widgets, or the emerging category of set-top media streamers (like the Boxee box, Nuu, Popcorn Hour, Roku, etc) – designed to aggregate and deliver Internet-based content on your big screen, the focus on Media Center in the keynote served as a reminder that a much larger world of rich, digital entertainment experiences are possible when you hook-up a Media Center PC to your TV.

Media Room 2.0 integration with 7MC machines was the only ‘new’ announcement about Media Center in the keynote, but the time given the platform hopefully pleased those who expressed concern that the 2009 keynote was too light on Media Center, as well as those who’ve felt the recent marketing focus of ‘TV on the PC’  takes a limited view of Media Center’s capabilities.

CableCARD Tuners getting shot of innovation

I saw the Ceton tuner in action in the Microsoft booth, as well as in MSI’s booth, where I found it running on an unattended PC and immediately told it to begin recording four HD shows at once so I could try it for myself without any marketing dudes around. This task was accomplished without missing a beat. I wanted to shout out to the people all walking by not noticing: Don’t you see this! Can you see what’s happening here? Four streams of HD content from one CableCARD!

 

Above: The Ceton card in a MSI media center PC on the CES show floor.

Silicondust’s CableCARD tuner combines the company’s advancements in networking a digital TV tuner with CableCARD , something of especially great interest to folks considering a small form-factor PC that may not have room internally for a full-sized tuner card. I have to admit that when the time comes for me to retire my franken-rig, I’ll be sorely tempted by these small form factor PCs, and the Silicondust tuner makes the idea that much more attractive.

Both of these advancements really demonstrate how innovation can grow when restrictions on a technology are relaxed. It was only this past September, after all, that relaxation of the OEM-only and Copy Freely restrictions for OCUR tuners was announced.

What about extenders?

As many have pointed out on TGB, Media Center extenders were not mentioned in the keynote, a disappointment for some hoping for news on this front. Instead, the keynote focused in on a variety of small form-factor PCs (sometimes called net-tops) that are packing a full-featured PC into the size and space of extenders from year’s past, as well as a range of all-in-one PCs. 

Both of these form factors were all over CES – in every major manufacturer’s booth, suggesting we’ll see more models and competition on this front in the coming year. Some of the small form factors can even be mounted to the back of the TV.

Above: Some small form factors from msi.

It will be interesting to see if this model gets any traction as more of these PCs roll out. Already on TGB I’m seeing folks cite additional costs, maintenance and the lack of a unified EPG as concerns.

Above:  I actually thought this was an extender when I first spotted it – small form factor PC from Asus.

Even if you were disappointed by the lack of extender news at CES, there was plenty more of interest to Media Center users at the show.

Touch PC: Coming soon to your kitchen?

If ‘net-tops’ catches on as a term for small form-factor PCs, then one day we may refer to all-in-one touch PCs as ‘counter-tops.’ I first saw the HP Touchsmart at CES in 2007, where it was announced. In fact, we had it in the Life|ware home a few days before it was officially announced. It was covered up with a sheet. My job was to stand by the sheet and when somebody asked what was under it, say “Nothing. Go away.” I did this for two solid days.

 

Above: CES 2007: Before this was unveiled, I guarded it. For two days.

With the focus on touch in Windows 7, we’re seeing more of these devices join the Touchsmart in this blooming category. A former colleague recently ordered one from Dell and has had great things to say about it. At CES, I tried all-in-one ‘counter-tops’ from Asus, Shuttle and MSI, the latter of which I found particularly impressive. I even tried out a prototype all-in-one touch from Samsung.

Are these PCs really on their way to our kitchens? Are they resistant enough to smudges and fingerprints to hold up? Can the masters of our kitchens get used to using a counter-top PC for recipes, schedule keeping and what not?

I think about these PCs as an opportunity because I feel like I’m still waiting for the PC to solve one of the biggest issues in our home life – the crazy flow of paper. With two kiddos in grade school, every day brings home a new flurry of papers. Plus there are the bills, notes from the homeowner’s associations, newsletters and so on that come in the house every day. When we’re on our A-game, the papers get processed straight-away. My wife will add school events, conferences and whatnot to a big desk calendar on the countertop. Bills get put in my pile, other papers get recycled.

Problem is, the pace of life with kiddos – the running to and from karate, swimming lessons, soccer practice,  the vet, the doctor, flu shots, chess club and so on, means we are rarely on our A-game. Rarely. The papers start to spread until every few days we push them into a pile or two in the corner by the microwave with the hopes of running through them and getting events on the calendar soon. (By ‘soon’ I mean before someone comes over for a visit.)

 

Above: The Big Calendar on a good day. Can a touch PC on the countertop solve this problem?

And while the big calendar provides a unified view of our schedule, it is, after all, still paper. I sure can’t pull it up from my laptop or on my phone when I’m at work. If we have a frantic morning and I am out the door without checking it, odds are good that I’m going to miss one of my assigned pick-ups or drop offs.

The company that solves this problem – provides the easiest, fastest and soccer-Mom-approved way to get items from paper into a unified family calendar via a ‘counter-top’ PC station, that allows me to check that calendar from my TV (via Media Center), at the office or on my phone, as well as allows access to our family’s entertainment, pictures and music will have a winner on their hands.

That’s asking a lot, I know. But from what I saw at CES, I believe we’re on the right path with touch PC hardware, and Windows 7 is well-positioned for the shift. Now if some innovative software developers can tackle the flow of paper into our lives….

Media Center Remotes…

Speaking of Innovation, it was nice to see new ground being broken around Media Center remote controls. The voice-controlled remote by Amulet Devices looked, felt and performed with the certain elegance that marks a well-made product. Unlike the old  remotes where you had to push a button to talk, the Amulet has an internal accelerometer, and begins “listening” to you when you tilt it up towards you. Its performance in demos in the noisy hall was spot-on.

Both the SilverPAC and the Elan Microcontroller remotes also looked pretty cool, although I had a hard time getting used to the latter.

Above: Remotes from Elan Microcontroller with dual touch pads on the back.

I have to admit, too, I really appreciated the simplicity of the Boxee Box remote, which features a simple navigation/Enter control on one side and a full thumb keyboard on the back. Would love to see this,or a similar remote, working with Media Center.

Project Natal: Home for the Holidays

It’s difficult to say which news I brought home from the show was more exciting for my 9-year-old son: that Project Natal will be available this holiday season on XBox, or that Lego is launching a massive multiplayer online universe game (and that I signed him up for the beta). I’ve not yet seen Natal demo’d live – instead having watched clips online or saw it on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. But given Microsoft’s commitment to natural user interfaces (and I often wonder why more companies aren’t talking about this idea), and their emphasis on touch in Windows 7, one can’t help but hope that some of the technologies used in Natal will one day appear elsewhere in the ecosystem.

And, of course, I think we’ve got a lock on what we’re asking Santa for next Christmas.

USB 3.0: faster data transfer than eSATA, FireWire

Picked up a Parks and Associates report at the show that suggests that by 2013, the average home’s data storage needs will be in the range of 1.5 TBs. That’s the average home – not the power user’s home. That’s a lot of data we are accumulating.

Saw a few demos of USB 3.0 data transfer at the show and can say that it sure looks impressive as heck, way faster than USB 2.0 and much faster than FireWire and eSATA. When the time comes to upgrade my main Media Center PC rig, I sure hope to have hardware options that support USB 3.0, especially since I tend to add storage as I grow and need it. USB 3.0 is also two-way – meaning it can upload and download information simultaneously. A huge improvement looming when this begins to make its way to the mass market.

3D Gaming and 3D TV

Calling the presence of 3D offerings at CES this year a “trend” is to minimize the extent that this technology was present. Every hall featured major vendors and small companies with 3D offerings – from gaming, to home theaters, TVs and more. I tried them all. I tried so many of them, in fact, that I couldn’t possibly begin to tell you who has the best offerings: it’s all a sort of blur in my mind now (albeit, a blur in 3D).

 

Windows Media Center was also in on the act, showing a 3D Bluray disc playing via Media Center. They had used Total Media Theater to run the Bluray player, and were using a graphics card that supported NVidia’s 3DVision kit. I’m told, too, that the display itself was critical – a Viewsonic LCD that supported 120 Hz. It’s tough to accurately capture a 3D experience on the web, but Ian Dixon posted a short video of the Media Center solution here.

 

There were always big crowds around the 3D demonstrations; people jostling to get a pair of 3D glasses. Some made snarky comments to each other (‘oh something else to lose in the couch’) others were quietly impressed. I tried 3D gaming, though not being a huge gamer, can’t tell you how much it enhanced my experience. I do know that while the game’s characters certainly seemed dimensional, I didn’t feel any more immersed into the game’s world as I would have been on a 2D display. (Then again, it may be that the jostling of the crowd around me was keeping me from feeling a more immersive experience).

I found the 3D experiences completely in line with any 3D movies I have experienced over the past few years – that is to say, it was always most effective when a scene seemed to be staged for gratuitous 3D exploitation – an alligator jumps from the water right at you, for example; or a character reaches a long arm right towards you.

If 3D is indeed destined for the home (although the Times’ David Pogue points out a slew of challenges to be solved before this happens), it will be interesting to see how content producers take advantage of it. Will my local news be in 3D one day? Live sports? Will we start to see special channels dedicated to 3D broadcasts like we wee HD channels today? Will I one day sort my Media Center EPG by 3D TV?

Prior to this year’s CES, I would have guessed that at best, 3D productions would be the occasional exception rather than the rule, but after seeing the sheer investment by so many companies, I have to suspect that content producers are also preparing to make a similar leap. I asked the folks at Parks and Associates if they had recently produced a report showing some huge pent-up demand for 3D in the home, but was told that their “Trends in 3D Television” report is slated to be published this year.

Then it occurred to me that the data these companies needed to justify their investments may already be out there. If you’ve gone to any CGI movie with a kiddo in recent years, you probably have noticed that many theaters offered it in 3D for a few bucks more than in regular old 2D. My kids always want to see the 3D version, so we usually pick it. It would be interesting to know how 3D versions of films performed against their 2D counterparts, and if this information is at all driving the move of 3D into the home.

To be sure, almost all 3D demos at CES used a CGI film, often a kid’s movie like Scrooged, or an older one like Toy Story, meaning the same animation can be re-rendered as a 3D offering, I would imagine fairly quickly.

Then, of course, there’s Avatar. If a 3D demo wasn’t using a kid’s movie, it was surely using Avatar clips. I haven’t seen the film as yet (not sequentially, at least, though I saw so many clips from it at CES that it is possible I have seen the whole film – just not in order). Like may of you, I’ve read the articles about the new technologies James Cameron pioneered to make the film. Are new production techniques going to make 3D content more easily produced?

I shot video at CES with a Kodak Zi-8 pocket camcorder that can shoot up to 1080p. Will we one day be shooting our kiddo’s birthday parties on pocket 3D camcorder and upload the files lickety-split via USB 3.0 to my Media Center, where I can browse through and select them with simple waves of my hand in front of a wall-mounted Natal camera? Why not?

Thin is in

This year’s CES seemed to mark the end of the Biggest Flat Screen competition. I didn’t see one “World’s Largest (technology type) TV” throughout the entire show.

Instead, it was all about the thinnest screens possible – as measured in millimeters. I saw some truly amazing edge-to-edge or almost edge-to-edge TVs scarcely as thick as my pinky. I don’t think I would want my kids anywhere near these TVs – some looked like a hard enough sneeze would break them in two, but oh – the picture. Amazing.

LG had some amazing TVs. Samsung also had some nice looking sets, but like last year, they stationed some chachi next to them to tell people not to take pictures (usually after you have just taken the picture). What’s the deal with that, Samsung? Why are you bothering to trot them out at CES if you don’t want people taking pictures of them? Is there some sort of CE espionage you are avoiding with that one, single chachi who tells people not to take pictures? Is he that good? What should I do with the picture I took before he got all up in my grille? Sell it on e-bay? 

Here’s the side view of LG’s thin screens. LG seemed to realize and accept that if you show a product at the world’s largest consumer technology show, you’re going to probably have to make peace with people taking pictures of it. Look closely – see that black line in the middle of the photo? Nice job, LG.

 

Above: See that thin black line in the middle of the picture? That’s the TV.

Slate PCs, e-books and more

I have yet to be tempted by e-book readers, even though reading is my main downtime activity and I read 50+ books a year. It’s not that I haven’t tried them out – well before CES, I checked out a friends’ Kindle (which he loves) and spent a good deal of time with a Nook at Barnes and Noble over the holiday. The thing is, I get most of my materials either at the library or from the local used bookstore, and find myself reluctant to drop a few hundys on a device that would have me paying $10 or so per title thereafter.

But the sheer number of e-readers at CES suggests to me the prices on these devices will drop radically this year. In the International section of CES, you couldn’t go more than two feet without hitting an e-reader waiting to be re-badged and picked up for distribution. There were e-readers of all sizes and shapes. There was one just for comic books, and another for cookbooks and recipes.

Above: The scene next to my bed. Will an e-reader replace this? 

Will my local library one day offer e-books for e-readers? Would that make the waiting list a thing of the past? Will publisher’s embrace this technology? Will they find creative ways to monetize their out-of-print titles? How far away are we from the 99 cent e-book or from the two-week, $1.99 e-book rental? Will those business models make it?

CES suggests that the e-reader accessories market is set to boom. Above: A waterproof holder for your e-reader. I am going to pass on the ‘for when you read underwater’ jokes.

The e-book readers that caught my attention were those that were hinged with two screens. In one demo, a college textbook appeared on the left-side screen, and then on the right, related interactive content: videos, click-throughs, etc. It was a slick demo, but the thought occurred to me that publishers, who are already operating on razor-thin margins, may not yet be positioned to begin producing textbooks with embedded rich media interactive pieces (of course, if you are such a publisher and need a tech-savvy communications firm to produce some interactive modules, be sure to drop me a line).

Above: All the joys of Reading In Your Hand. As opposed to books, which you hold with your feet.

Then it occurred to me that a college textbook on one screen could be easily paired with a web community on the the other. Imagine being able to immediately hit a forum filled with all the other college students in the world using that particular text at that moment, to ask questions and discuss ideas. Not to mention that web-enabled textbooks could be updated dynamically – not each year with the publication of a “new edition.” In this way, the textbook moves away from its roots as a stable location of certain knowledge and more into the dynamic flow of information that marks this age. No longer a foundation on which conversation is built, but rather a dynamic part of the conversation itself.

 

Above: e-readers from Copia are Wi-Fi enabled to power what they call “social reading.”

But if we are talking about an e-reader with embedded rich content and an associated web community, I guess we’re really just talking about the web, are we not? Which is why the slate PCs shown in the keynote and around CES loom so large; Are they the all-in-one device that the UMPC, the tablet and the e-reader have all tried to be? Will they create a new category the way netbooks stormed the scene a few years back? Will Steve Jobs make all of these questions seem irrelevant the next time he announces a new product? Will manufacturers continue to use shiny black finger-print loving plastics to house touch-based devices? Will it always bother me as much as it does now? 

The Art of Moving and Not Moving

One thing that consistently causes me to stop in my tracks at CES: Art. Real art. The kind that savvy corporate marketers are wise enough to employ strategically on a crowded trade show floor.

First, the Zune team, which pairs a display of their Zune graphics package with a big, vertical display that scrolls through the art packages offered on Zunes. One image in particular shows a sad, old-school panda bear hoisting a boom box on his/her shoulder. It made me ache for the 1980s of my youth, my bright yellow plastic walkman and a ride to the mall so I could buy the brand new Police album on cassette.

 

Above: A full-screen tableau of rotating Zune art always caused me to pause and look for a while whenever I passed the Microsoft booth at CES. This one is by artist Andrew Pommier. I had a stuffed panda teddy bear as a kid, which is probably why it resonates with me…his name was Choo-choo…wait a second, am I over-sharing?

And sure, I gave Samsung a hard time earlier for their ‘’don’t take pictures of these TVs that we have put on display for the 120,000 attendees here” policy, so let me give whomever decided to do their “Digital Media Art Gallery” their props. Along one long wall of their show floor area, a sort of alley was created between their booth and their neighbors. It could easily have been left alone as simple, negative, empty space that people cut through on their way across the floor. But someone at Samsung had the idea to drop some dark cubbies in along the wall and then commission some digital media artists to create looped pieces that would run on Samsung displays. (Will get some video of this up soon).

Fantastic. I never was one to go in for digital media art, and yet all of the pieces along this aisle way mesmerized me (and, in the process, made me think those Samsung displays sure looked great). In one, an artist slowly photographed (and by slowly, I mean, took 20,000 photos) of small CE devices (two phones and a camera, I think) being crushed by an industrial press of some sort, then set the loop to run backwards – so that the devices emerge slowly from a pile of dust.

In another piece, three Samsung displays were used. On the left, a video of a woman making a cake. On the right, a man eating the cake. In the middle, a simple close-up of the cake rotating around – over the course of four weeks! Getting all moldy and decrepit with each subsequent turn.

I have to say I’m impressed  with whomever approved this piece, because I could easily imagine being in a meeting where some I-don’t-get-art chachi cleared his throat and said “Why do we want to associate our product with decaying cake?”  (Probably after he managed to push a “No photos of the new TVs at CES policy” into place).

Here’s why: the piece itself is moving and mesmerizing, and your product displayed it so well that I stood on the show floor at CES for ten minutes and watched it two times through.

Accessories

An entire subculture exists at CES among companies who make things to cover or carry other things – cell phone cases, carriers, bags, and so on. Apparently, the key to succeeding in this field is to 1) convince the consumer that their personal identity and well-being is hinged on the graphics package/bling that they choose for their portable electronics and 2) that the designs and styles they offer are, in fact, the coolest and most adroit available.

Two such companies found themselves booth neighbors. One went down the “bikini-clad women” route – to an extent I’ve never quite seen it taken to that level in all my years at CES.

The other chose to have two of their artist set-up with giant easels working on new paintings.

So sure, while the bikini-company had large groups of slightly-to less-than-slightly embarrassed men grouped around waiting to get their pictures taken with the models before walking away shaking their heads and feeling just a little bit queasy, the company that highlighted its artists had a small, consistent grouping around the painters for five and ten minutes at a time, watching them work, asking questions and seeing the designs come to into existence.

I can’t remember either company’s name, though. I’m way to old to worry about my cell phone case.

Props for Polaroid

The final bit about art that I wanted to mention – and yes, we are coming to the end of my CES Odyssey, was from Polaroid. Yes, that Polaroid – the instant camera company still searching for its footing in a digital world.

Polaroid’s booth included several large cases filled with great framed Polaroid photography. Museum-BLOCKED EXPRESSION. Totally analog in the midst of a whirling dervish of digital mayhem. The images, I learned, were from Polaroid’s corporate collection, and are set to be offered for auction by Sotheby’s later this year. (Hey, revenue’s revenue, right?)

Whether intentional or not, the photographs themselves drew me well into Polaroid’s booth, where I found myself looking over a glass encased collection of old instant cameras – it was liking walking through my photographic childhood – no less than five of them were in our home at one point or another – including the classic Swinger of the 60’s and culminating with the Joy Cam, which someone got me when I graduated from High School and I had fun with during my first few years of college.

Above: Cameras from my youth – my dad had an original Land (left) and a Swinger (right). I picked up a Swinger at a flea market last year because it had one of those Dyno label maker labels on it that said “Parran Crump” and my wife said “Why are you buying this camera?” and I said “Because it belonged to Parran Crump,” and she said “Who’s that?” and I said “I don’t know, but man, what a great name to find on an old camera.”

I ended up learning a lot about Dr. Edwin Land, who invented the Land camera – Polaroid’s first instant, which he invented after taking a walk with his daughter and she asked, after he took a photograph, where the picture was. That’s what got his wheels turning and led to the birth of instant photography.

In a way, too, digital cameras are the culmination of instant photography. Sure, there’s no film, paper or processing involved, but the instant gratification of sharing a photo you’ve just shot is, as they used to say in Texas, the sizzle that sells the steak. Polaroid is pushing a variety of products these days – including TVs, camcorder, digital frames and the like – but it’s their PoGo line of cameras I like best, because they print out 2x3 sticky-back prints right from the camera, the same way the old Land camera and Swinger and all the Polaroid’s of my youth did. I like that Polaroid is moving into the digital age with a nod to the ideas that got them where they are today.

One last thing I learned about Dr. Land, by the way…among his 400+ patents was…wait for it …3D glasses.

Yeah! There, set among their quiet photography gallery in the middle of a hall full of vendors touting 3D gaming and 3D TV as the next Big Thing for your home, were a few pairs of the original 3D glasses, sitting quietly, even humbly, one might say, on a shelf, waiting for their chance to change the world.

***

Some Random Bits

Above: The famous Landmark…parking lot.

Above: Replica of Captain Kirk’s chair. This would have been really cool if the buttons had done something, but they were just fakes. They didn’t even depress.

Above: CNBC broadcasting from the show floor on Day One. Steve Ballmer pointed out some good signs, economy wise, in the keynote – PCs sales in the fourth quarter of ‘09 lifted a dismal year to a 3% increase overall, with a 12% jump in PC sales predicted this year. He also said (and I’m looking for the source on this) that the global middle class is set to grow to four times it current size.

Above: I took this picture because I wasn’t sure if it was a real Giant Cup of Coffee or I was hallucinating because I needed a giant cup of coffee.

Below: I’ve got nothing.

 

 

Above: The Jewelry HTPC from Monueal. I’ve always seen their ads in PC magazines, but this was the first chance I had to check out their HTPCs.

 

Above: a keyboard with a sidecar touch screen that I spotted in the Asus booth. Seemed to have XP embedded or something powering the touch screen.

Below: Haier devoted a wall of their booth to sticky notes that said “Hello…my idea is….”

I couldn’t think of what to ad, especially after seeing the request for a beer TV. 

Below: A new pocket camcorder from Ion has a lens on both sides so you can record your own reactions along with the subject. This could be the ultimate blogger Interview tool.

Below: USB-powered fans that look like flowers. Believe it or not, I got chased down by a “No pictures” lady here. Clearly this is top secret stuff.

In: Pandas

Pandas are clearly in. In the ChangHong booth,a Panda with human hands passes out candy. Moments later, it removes its head to get in a big discussion with ChangHong marketing lady over the best way to “Panda it up.”

Above: So, I’m a Panda with human hands that wants to give away candy. I get it. But what’s my motivation?

This is the end.

CES (like this blog post) is long, rambling, loud and interesting, but ultimately an exhausting endeavor. It rolls right into the weekend and most of us travel home on Sunday, arriving in the evening and having to rise for work the next day. 

I got home Sunday evening and was immediately tasked with helping the kiddo’s review their homework before heading off to bed. My 9-year-old son, who to this point in his life has been showing every sign of being a little engineer that there is – presented me with his weekly writing assignment. This week’s topic was “If I owned a store…”

“If I owned a store, it would be called the BB Gun Phone store and sell BB Gun phones.”

And with CES still buzzing in my ears, I said “A phone that’s also a BB gun? That’s a great idea!”

And my nine-year-old sighed and said “It’s not a phone that’s also a BB Gun. It’s called the BB Gun phone because your calls connect as fast as a BB Gun can fire.”

Turns out, there may be a little marketer in there yet.

 

 

 

 

Clubhouse Tags: clubhouse, media center, media center-windows 7, ces, e-readers, zune, 3D tv, pandas