Vouchers for Digital Converter Boxes

For those of you, probably a very few number, who receive their television strictly over the air or anyone who has a TV connected to rabbit ears, pay attention. Beginning January 1, 2008 people will be able to apply for vouchers from the government to assist in paying for digital to analog converter boxes for their television. Unless you have a relatively new television, your set won’t have a digital tuner and will need this box to acquire the new digital signals being broadcast now and mandated for the analog shut-off on February 17, 2009.

There are some key facts to know:

1. Each household can apply for up to 2 $40 vouchers. The prices of the boxes will range from $40-$90 give or take a few so you should be fairly well covered.
2. From January to march, ANYONE can apply for one of these boxes. After March, only those who get their television strictly over the air may apply. This means if you have an antennae for local channels and satellite for everything else, you must apply before March 2008.
3. These vouchers will ONLY cover the basic tuner box.
   1. Antennae input and coax output. You won’t be able to use the vouchers on models that also have a DVD player or DVR (Digital Video Recorder) built in.
   2. There will also be NO outputs for high definition video or audio on these boxes. If you want any of these features, you will have to fork over the money yourself.

As of right now, there is only a little over a year left until the analog shutoff. Now is the time to start planning for the event.

GET YOUR COUPONS AT https://www.dtv2009.gov/

700MHz Spectrum and The Digital Transition

I’ve written a few posts about the conversion to digital television in 2009. Analog will shut off and digital broadcasting will inherit the Earth…well America at least with other countries soon following. So what is going to happen to the space analog TV occupies now and…wait, why is this happening again?

As we might recall, Bill Clinton proposed a balanced budget during his administration. The deficit was wiped out and life was to continue better than ever. This was more of a projected budget and a premature assumption at that. This was the big kicker for the transition to digital broadcasting, although it has been delayed a handful of times. While it does offer better picture quality and more channels, it stands to make the government billions and BILLIONS of dollars…hundreds of billions even. Now we’re back in a deficit with the projected income already included.

The airwaves will be returned to the public, and by public I mean you buy stock in companies such as Google or Verizon who will then purchase a very tiny sliver of the spectrum for their own purposes or you can do it if you happen to have a few billion dollars floating around in your couch cushions: starting bid $4.6 billion.

There is no telling what will actually come out of the spectrum after it’s purchased by these companies but it would be ridiculous to expect anything in the first few years. Companies and people are going to research its uses, develop their own product and then offer you a new service or just horde it for themselves. Rumor has it wireless carriers will get first crack at it and then others after that. Some will remain in the hands of the government for the public safety network. Expect to see an improved Amber Alert System.

The truth is, you as a consumer aren’t going to see much right away, and when you do see something, you probably won’t realize or even remember where it’s coming from. But the devices and products should be pretty amazing especially if people companies like Google have anything to say about it.

Enable Discreet Audio Through HDMI in Playstation 3

This is a retraction to a story I wrote yesterday about the PlayStation 3 not supporting discreet 5.1 surround sound through HDMI. I have since deleted the story. After browsing more articles on the issue, I finally found one comment where someone offered a solution to the problem and if you’re having the same issue, here is the solution. Within the Playstation3, there are two audio settings: One is “audio settings” under settings which, in order to use HDMI, you must select “HDMI” as your output and then “auto” on the next screen. Then save your options. Once that is done, you want to go to BR/DVD Setting and find the audio options for this heading. You want to make sure the audio for HDMI is set to “Bitstream” and not “Linear.” Save your settings and you will be good to go.

Sorry again about the previous story and accusing Sony of the issue.

Your Shows May be Put on Hold…or Already Are

In case you’ve missed the news or have been left in the dark to wonder why your favorite TV shows are now in repeats, there is a little writers’ strike going on in Hollywood. It’s actually quite massive. After talks over the summer for contract negotiations fell through, the Writers’ Guild went on strike. The last time this happened it was in 1988, lasted 22 weeks and cost the industry $500 million.

The writers are hoping to reap larger royalties from DVD sales and digital downloads. While this would idealistically be nice, digital downloads have not been show to be profitable yet. TV shows don’t become profitable until reaching syndication (where the show is picked up for reruns on other stations outside of its normal viewing time). What happens is stations, locally and from other broadcasters like ABC, FOX, NBC, etc., place bids on original programming. This is why you see scrubs on Comedy Central, Family Guy on TBS, The Simpsons on ABC. You see how it goes. The magic number is 100 episodes for syndication even though some have broken this mold like Family Guy and Futurama. The only thing that might come out of DRM and DVD sales for now is perhaps lowering the magic number, but there are no extra profits to be had.

The LATimes has comprised a comprehensive list of the shows being affected. If that link doesn’t work just Google it. As you can see some shows, mainly the late night ones have already been put into reruns because they rely on current events for material. Others will take some time like primetime dramas and comedies. Even though there is material until January, it will be interesting to see a Soap Opera in repeats or even replaced with something else assuming the strike lasts that long. Other seasons will be put on hold for a while like Law and Order, Lost, My Name is Earl, etc. once their current new material is used up.

One thing to pay close attention to is shows like Scrubs in their final season. The last handful of episodes aren’t completed yet and with NBC ready to pull the plug on the show a few years ago even after an Emmy nomination, NBC may choose to just cancel the rest of the series. I hope not, but that is a likely scenario.

One thing is for sure, the television industry is going to lose a lot of money. Advertisers don’t want to pay for spots at current market price for old commodities. The audience is excited for new episodes of shows and will become disenfranchised with repeats and mid-afternoon infomercials. If the writers are able to get what they want, the industry will have to pay up but at least for now, they’re not having to pay their writers. It will be interesting to see what comes out of this. Hopefully something everyone can agree on and a return to our regular programming.

"If it Weren’t for Video Games, I Would Kill People" – Anonymous

I remember reading this quote a long time ago shortly after the Columbine shootings in 1999. Two kids walked into a school and wasted a bunch of their fellow classmates. The media was quick to blame, well…the media for the violent outbreak. Anything from Marilyn Manson to video games such as Doom and Quake. Jack Thompson set his sights on the game industry to encourage greater regulation and the banning of violent games. Politicians such as Joe Lieberman and Hillary Clinton support video games legislation as it pertain to minors. Greater emphasis has been placed on retailers such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy to not sell video games rated M for Mature to minors.

The ratings of video games in North America is conducted by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) which was created out of the backlash created by Mortal Kombat when it found its way on home consoles. Keep in mind the SNES version didn’t contain any blood and you needed a code to see it in the Sega Genesis version. The ESRB is voluntary so no one has to submit to it, except the game will never make it to shelves because stores rarely if ever sell an unrated game. There are 8 standard ratings:

EC – Early Childhood, E – Everyone, E10+ – Everyone 10 and over, T – Teen, M – Mature 17 and over, AO – Adults only 18 and over, RP – Rating Pending (which you will mainly see in ads), K-A – Kids to Adults (only found on older games and has since been discontinued) – wikipedia

These work a lot like movies ratings conducted by the MPAA and are pretty self-explanatory. Only two games have ever received and AO rating for violence: Manhunt 2 and The Punisher. Sony refused to license an AO version of Manhunt 2 on their Playstation 3 system, while contrary to historical reason, Nintendo has allowed its release on the Wii. It can be argued that receiving an M Rating will make a game sell more due to people wanting violence or sex in a game.

Wherever we look, however, there is a constant regulation or attempts at regulating video games. No one seems to want to point a finger at the real cause of violence in children, which is bad parenting. And maybe not even bad parenting but a lack of parental involvement in their lives and their interests/hobbies. I’ll flat out say it, video games do NOT cause children to act out violently. (I have an M.A. in media effects theory for video games). Engadget is reporting an update coming to the Xbox 360 will allow parents to control the time their children spends on video games. Apple has increased their parental security for their children in their new operating system so there is an increase for parental opportunity, but that doesn’t cut it either.

The ESRB should be abolished. Too often parents simply rely on the rating to make decisions for themselves or completely ignore them when purchasing games for their kids. Without the ESRB, parents would be forced to play a more active role in their children’s media selection. “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Sound familiar? The same goes with games. Parents need to delve into the game with their kids and play along. James Paul Gee wrote a book entitled, “What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy.” I highly recommend it. Parents might even learn a few things themselves. They could even use a lesson in humility from their kids during a gaming session.

Parents can sit with their children and reinforce the fact that it’s just a game. Aside from that, I think kids can figure out that they cannot tear off a man’s head with his spine still attached or simply walk around with a crowbar wrecking peoples’ faces. I’ve seen kids acting like Power Rangers, I even did it, but that’s an imagination. Walking into a school with guns and explosives is a mental disorder brought on by years of anguish and a lack of parental involvement, not the result of a visual stimulus from a glass tube.

If you’re a parent reading this, don’t ask your kids what game they are playing, just sit down next to them and pick up a controller and play along. If you’re a teenager or even a child reading this, ask your parents to play with you. God knows parents could have a little more fun and imagination in their lives. Video gaming isn’t the anti-social event it was once thought to be. It’s a lot more social than seeing a movie together or watching TV where everyone just sits and stares. Parents, set aside a night where you play games with your kids. You want them to do everything with you, right? Why not do something with them?

iPhoto’s Phatal Phlaw

I recently upgraded from iPhoto ‘06 to iPhoto ‘08. While I have had my gripes with iPhoto in the past including poor file management or the crazy duplication of photos. Whenever you made an edit to a photo, iPhoto would save one copy of the picture in an “originals” folder and then put another copy in a modified “folder” therefore doubling the size of your photo library…unnecessary! Why not just save the metadata changes instead of a whole other picture? I wish I could tell you iPhoto ‘08 remedied these problems, but I honestly can’t tell you if it has or not because of its new flaw.

What you are looking at now is the events screen, new to iPhoto ‘08, mildly obscured by the “Welcome” screen (can’t have you seeing ALL my stuff). In my opinion, the best feature of the update. Each icon is an event, or roll of photographs if you will. All you have to do to quickly browse photos is just drag your mouse from side to side over a thumbnail, and it will sequentially show all the pictures in that event as you slide across. Easy and quick.

However, let’s say I want to take some pictures from an event or roll and upload them to Facebook through my browser. Previously, when browsing photos in your OS X finder you were able to access the iPhoto folder, see the redundant originals and modified folder and select the folder you want and upload away. With iPhoto ‘08, when you access the iPhoto folder you are presented with:

the iPhoto Library (in Coverflow (an amazing Leopard addition by the way)). Notice how it’s not like the other browseable folders on the left and right. So what happens when you try to browse the folder?

That’s right, it opens iPhoto making it impossible to just browse your photos to upload to a site or to upload a single photo for an event like a Facebook event which is what I was trying to do. You have to export photos individually through the File>Export function or add a plugin like the one brought to you be Facebook developers or a flickr plugin, though this still doesn’t allow you to browse your photo library from a web browser.

Is Apple trying to hold my photos hostage? Or is Apple trying to make iPhoto so easy that it’s complicated? Perhaps they’re trying to prevent people like me from accidentally deleting a photo from the iPhoto Library folder and then wonder why it’s missing in my library when I have iPhoto open. I think that’s what Time Machine is for, right? Here’s hoping Apple will remedy this or someone will develop a plugin to allow you to browse your photos in the finder or in preview. This is also a heads up for anyone looking to upgrade. I feel all the new features are worth it, but this one really take a small piece of my soul away from me.

UPDATE: So I’m allowed to miss something sometimes. According to the comment below, I should be able to circumvent this complaint. When I get home I’ll give it a shot. Thanks for the tip. However, I don’t think this will resolve the issue of trying to search the album in a browser finder.

UPDATE 2: It turns out that you can in fact through the finder look at your photos in OS X if you have iPhoto ‘08, but you are still unable to do this through a web browser finder like trying to upload photos to a site through that site’s finder. Well I guess that takes care of one problem.

The Purr is Coming

This Friday at 6:00pm 10/26/07, Apple will release OS x 10.5 Leopard.  That’s kinda redundant actually, but soon a lot of people will have to make an important decision and not just those in the Apple camp already wondering if/when they should upgrade, but also PC users contemplating the Apple switch or to buy a new PC with Vista and the eventual release of service pack 1.

Fear not, for I hope to answer questions you may be having with this issue. I am currently working on a piece for the hot-topic of the price of a mac. I have also been inspired by my fellow blogger Tim at anotherguy.wordpress.com who is a Windows expert to do a piece on Vista vs Leopard, and I also hope to do a piece on “Leopard vs Tiger: Should I Have Waited?” Stay tuned!

Until then, please be content with my ramblings of newses of the day!

EA Going Communist…Where’s McCarthy When You Need Him?

The BBC reported today a senior executive from Electronic Arts, Gerhard Florin, said game systems should “make way for a single open platform.” I suppose this is Europe where Socialism is the new black. Even game analysts, according to the article, are not only suggesting but predicting this route. If the game companies were to unite under a single console or set-top box, I bet you could guess who would like to snatch them up. I’ll make you hold your breath a little longer. With a plan like this, the gaming industry would be in a world of hurt.

Let’s talk about basic economics. Competition is good. Competition breeds creativity. Imagine how shitty a world we’d live in with a single computer operating system. Linux users wouldn’t be welcoming the newest release of Ubuntu Gutsy Ribbon. We also wouldn’t be so entertained by Apple and Microsoft trying to outdo each other all the time. We get better products because Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo compete. Remember the days of Sega versus Nintendo?

One console would also create so many barriers to entry for new software companies through a lack of audience and hardware diversification. This would especially become difficult because EA would snatch up the single system as soon as it was released. EA would only need to buy out one company instead of three for exclusive licensing deals on the one console. It would be far too expensive for them to take over three. EA creates great games, but the last thing we need is them snatching up their own competition.

It is suggested the game industry is facing a lot of competition from PC’s and even, yes, Apple. What? Granted both can and do make great gaming platforms but they are not dedicated gaming systems no matter how much you tweak them out. Games will still crash more often than a dedicated console. They also become outdated a lot quicker. Game systems are becoming media centers for living rooms. You want to make the gaming industry better, stop making them game systems into media centers. I don’t need another DVD player in my living room; I have 5 or 6 between my computers, game systems, HD-DVD player and upconverting DVD player.

Give us a break EA. Shut your trap and just keep on making games.

Digital Transition (Part 1)

Today Best Buy announced it will no longer going to sell analog televisions. This could have some interesting implications for users of television, good and bad. The main good thing to come out of this is the, “Wait, analog TV is going away?” reaction. Since this is a Best Buy announcement, that is probably the only good thing to come out of it, but it’s a very important reaction. A majority of people do not know the over the air analog signal will be shut down on February 17th, 2009. This is 8 years after the original mandate but who’s counting, right? At that moment, anyone receiving their television over the air will lose their signal. Let me give you a little history.

When the Clinton administration announced their plan to balance the budget in the 90’s, it included the sell-off of the analog TV spectrum. For some reason, the government (mainly the FCC) thinks it owns the broadcast spectrum renting out licenses to stations instead of allowing them to own them creating another monopoly just like the United States Postal Service. The sell-off will generate billions and I’m talking BILLIONS of dollars of revenue for the US government. So at the base of all this is, you guessed it, to make money.

However, the plan to make this conversion was never fully hashed out leaving it mostly up to the stations to comply by a certain date but no instructions on how to do so. 1999 became 2003 and 2003 became 2009. A number of “stays of execution” have been proposed but this is going to be it. So what happens February 17th?

What happens is pretty much the proverbial flip of a switch. Stations will shut off their analogue transmitter and will turn on their digital transmitter. Fortunately, a lot of TV stations are already running a digital signal to compliment their analog. So don’t feel like you have to sit around and wait until the last minute. Star immersing yourself now.While some people complain this is happening without their consent and they don’t want digital television, there are a LOT of benefits.

Television can be received three ways: cable, satellite, and over the air. Even though it’s not a majority, people still receive free broadcast TV over their air through an antennae of some sort. Most likely receiving the standard NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, and PBS stations if they’re really lucky and only one of each from each nearby station. What digital allows TV stations to do is multi-cast, send out multiple channels all at once including high definition stations which I will touch on at another time. For example, currently the station I work for broadcasts 8 standard definition channels and 2 high definition channels between two transmitters. A year ago we only had one channel between two transmitters. This means a lot more choices for everyone including the over the air viewers. Digital television also has a much clearer picture than analog even though some people won’t notice it until they are seen side by side. Digital signals can also contain a 5.1 surround channel that many home surround sound systems are set up for.

So what do you need to do in order to prepare yourself for the digital switch? Probably a LOT less than you think. Stay tuned for my next piece in the digital transition as I tell you what you need to do.