Blog Entries
Methods of Watching TV
Feb 3, 1:09If you've got cable, Internet, and Netflix you end up with a large number of TV viewing options. Its nice to have the options but is there some way to collect and summarize my available options at any one time?|
|
TV | PC |
|---|---|---|
| Comcast TV | Xbox 360 + Windows Media Center | Windows Media Center |
| Comcast OnDemand | Cable box | Fancast |
| Hulu | Xbox 360 + PlayOn + Windows Media Center | Hulu |
| Netflix Watch Instantly | Xbox 360 + Netflix App | Netflix Watch Instantly |
| Netflix DVDs | Xbox 360 | PC |
Comcast Digital Switch Impact on My Windows Media Center
2009 Sep 25, 2:19
Irritatingly out of line with what their commercials say, in my area Comcast, under the covers of the national broadcast digital switch, is sneaking in their own switch to digital,
moving channels above 30 to their own digital format. Previously, I had Windows 7 Media Center running on a PC with a Hauppauge PVR500 which can decode two television signals at once setup to record shows I like. The XBox 360 works great as a Media
Center client letting me easily watch the recorded shows over my home network on my normal TV.
Unfortunately with Comcast's change, now one needs a cable box or a Comcast digital to analog converter in order to view their signal, but Comcast is offering up to two free converters for those who'd like them. The second of my two free converters I hooked up to the Media Center PC and I got the IR Blaster that came with my Hauppauge out of the garage. I plugged in the USB IR Blaster to my PC, connected one of the IR transmitters to the 1st port on the IR Blaster, and sat the IR transmitter next to the converter's IR receiver. I went through the Media Center TV setup again and happily it was able to figure out how to correctly change the channel on the converter. So I can record now, however:
- I can only record one thing at a time now
- Changing the channel is slow taking many seconds (no flipping through channels for me)
- The Hauppauge card can't know if the channel change worked. So if it tries to change to HBO (I get it for free with one of the Comcast packages) which is encrypted and the converted won't show, the channel doesn't change but the PC doesn't know it and ends up recording some other channel.
Video: Project Natal invades Late Night with Jimmy Fallon
2009 Jun 12, 12:37"Last night on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Microsoft's Kudo Tsunoda brought along his baby, Project Natal, and let Jimmy Fallon, John Krasinski, and Stephen Moyer go to town. The footage has made its way onto Hulu and while these are pretty much the same demos for Ricochet and Burnout Paradise that we saw at E3 last week, they're still impressive."
Netflix Watch Instantly Recommendations
2009 May 3, 9:17
Netflix lets you watch a subset of their movies online via their website and a subset of those movies are available to watch on the Xbox 360's Netflix app. so its not always easy to find movies to watch on Xbox 360. Yet, I regularly see my Xbox friends using the Netflix app and its a shame they didn't make an easy way to share movie recommendations with your friends. Instead we must share movie recommendations the old fashioned way. Here's the movies I've found and enjoyed on my 360.
- Weeds
- You don't have to be a stoner to enjoy this humorous and dramatic satire featuring a widow trying to raise her children and deal pot in suburbia.
- Avatar The Last Airbender
- An American animated series that's an amalgamation of various Asian art, history, religion, etc. that maintains a great story line.
- Paprika
- If you enjoyed Paranoia Agent you'll enjoy this movie in the same animation style and by the same director and writer, Satoshi Kon. Its like a feature length version of a Paranoia Agent episode in which a dream machine lets outsiders view one's dreams but eventually leads to blurring the dreams and reality.
- Grindhouse Planet Terror
- I didn't see either of the Grindhouse movies when they first came out, but of the two, Planet Terror is the more humorous and exciting gore filled parody.
- Outsourced
- A refreshing romantic comedy that still has a few of the over played tropes but is easy to enjoy despite that.
- The King of Kong
- A hilarious documentary on the struggle between the reigning champ hot-sauce salesman and the underdog Washington state high school science teacher to obtain the Donkey Kong world record high score. After watching, checkout this interview with the creators of the movie and the villain.
- Primer
- I've mentioned Primer before, but I put it on here again because its really good and you still haven't seen it, have you?
Fallout 3 'Broken Steel' DLC Preview - Shacknews - PC Games, PlayStation, Xbox 360 and Wii video game news, previews and downloads
2009 Apr 21, 1:28Fallout 3's May 5th DLC removes old ending, adds new quests, new levels, new perks. Sounds good! "In a nutshell, Broken Steel will remove the game's ending entirely, with Bethesda's Pete Hines saying simply to fans that called for an open-ended resolution, "We got the idea." Players will still have to make the final choice, but following that climax the game will continue, presenting new epilogue quests, another 10 levels to gain, and new perks, monsters and achievements to keep the climb interesting."Downloads: PlayOn Streams Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, and More to Your Xbox 360 and PS3
2009 Feb 24, 9:32Of course Netflix is already available on the 360, but PlayOn lets you watch Hulu on the 360. So far so good with the trial software. "Windows only: Previously mentioned Windows utility PlayOn-which streams popular online video to your PS3, Xbox 360, and HP MediaSmart TV-has officially left its beta phase in the dust"
Failing Electronics
2008 Oct 22, 12:54Electronic devices shouldn't fail, they should just sit wherever I place them and work forever. A while back my home web server started failing so I moved over to a real web hosting service. And this was the home web server I built from pieces Eric gave me after my previous one died during the big power failure the year before. The power socket on my old laptop has come undone from the motherboard so that it can no longer be powered. Just a week or two ago my Xbox 360 stopped displaying video. The CPU fan on my media center died. I also want to put my camera and GPS in this list, but the camera died due to accidentally turning on in my pocket and the GPS was stolen so those aren't the devices just arbitrarily failing.
Gametrailers.com - Xbox 360 - E3 2008: Exclusive Dashboard Walkthrough HD
2008 Jul 16, 8:05"Not just an update, but an entire overhaul is planned for the Xbox 360 Dashboard, and we get an in-depth look at the new features."NetFlix Media Center and Ong-Bak
2008 Jun 15, 7:57
I just installed vmcNetFlix which lets you watch your on demand NetFlix movies via your Vista Media Center or any Media Center
Extenders like the Xbox 360. It works well but fails poorly with some cryptic error messages and long timeouts. Be sure to get NetFlix on demand movies working in your browser before installing
this plugin. Once I did that everything worked very well.
To test it out I watched Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior in which Ting must travel from his country village to Bangkok where he works with his cousin in the city to recover his village's stolen religious artifact. Its a mix of Perfect Strangers, Street Fighter and Pad-See Ew. Martial arts movies, like porn and video games, aren't required to have a strong plot but Ong-Bak has a fine plot line and enjoyable Thai martial arts. I saw the Tiger Knee in there several times. An enjoyable movie that reminded me of watching martial arts movies with my friends in high school.
Featured Windows Download: vmcNetFlix Streams Watch Now Videos to Your Xbox 360
2008 Jun 13, 12:52Stream NetFlix's on demand movies to your Vista Windows Media Center and all extenders including Xbox 360.
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