Don’t Forget To Enter The Giveaway

Posted on Friday, March 21, 2008 by MegaZone

Just a little reminder, there are eight hours left to enter the site giveaway. Good luck! (And there will be more to come…)

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Vote For The Best HD DVR At EngadgetHD

Posted on Thursday, March 20, 2008 by MegaZone

EngadgetHD is conducting a poll as to the best HD DVR. I think you can guess my vote.

Posted in Blogs, DVR | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Sony To BD-Live Enable The PlayStation3 This Month

Posted on Thursday, March 20, 2008 by MegaZone

Sony has announced that the next firmware update for the PlayStation3, 2.20, will include BD-Live support, aka Blu-ray Profile 2.0, and it will street in ‘late March’. Since there are only 11 days left in the month, that means we’ll see it very soon. In one fell swoop this will make the vast majority of Blu-ray players in the world BD-Live capable, which should encourage more studios to make use of the technology. And it should help put pressure on the standalone player vendors to step up and release BD-Live enabled decks.

Unfortunately, this firmware update does not include the hoped for addition of DTS-HD Master Audio support. DTS-MA is the one major audio codec the PS3 lacks. It will internally decode Dolby TrueHD and output it as uncompress PCM, but there is no support for DTS-MA at this time. The PS3 will not bitstream TrueHD, and this is believed to be a limitation of the HDMI chipset used. So it is unlikely that the current PS3 HW could ever bitstream TrueHD or DTS-MA, but it could internally decode DTS-MA and output the uncompressed PCM, as it does with TrueHD, for the same end result. Perhaps Sony will update the HDMI chipset in future PS revisions to allow bitstreaming.

BD-Live isn’t the only addition in 2.20. PSP owners will be able to copy their photo and music playlists from the PS3 to the handheld. And there are other new additions:

  • “Resume play” will enable PS3 system to start playing a Blu-ray disc and DVD at the point it was stopped, even if the disc had been removed.(*1)
  • “Audio Output Device” will be a new Remote Play setting, enabling PSP to serve as a remote control for music played through PS3.
  • PS3 system’s Internet browser will be enhanced: Video files directly linked from a Web page will be able to be streamed, and the browser’s view speed will be improved.
  • DivX and WMV format videos that are larger than 2GB will be playable.
  • “Mosquito Noise Reduction” will be added as an AV setting in the control panel of the DVD/BD player for improved movie playback.(*2)

*1 BD-J format disc is not supported.
*2 BD discs recorded with BDMV format are not supported.

Here’s the full press release:
Continue reading →

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Gefen To Encrypt Drives On Their HD DVR

Posted on Wednesday, March 19, 2008 by MegaZone

I initially reported on Gefen’s HD DVR during CES, and then again last week when Zatz Not Funny got their hands on one. The real standout feature of the box is the HDMI input. That’s pretty much unheard of. HDCP is normally felt to preclude recording from HDMI. But Gefen claimed they were compliant as they preserved the HDCP flags on their HDMI output.

However, there was a wee loophole. The recordings on the drive were unencrypted. If you pulled the drive and connected it to a PC you could copy the raw H.264 files, as Dave Zatz discovered. A perfect HD piracy tool. Well, CNET News.com reports that Gefen is closing this loophole and will begin encrypting the drives. Why didn’t they do that from the start? Well, they had this to say to CNET:

Gefen did not anticipate that users would void warranty to crack the unit and use the internal drive in this fashion. The company is currently in the process of encrypting every internal drive of every HD PVR so this situation will be corrected.

So, either Gefen is run by truly oblivious individuals or they’ve managed to avoid reading every tech blog in the world. The very first thing we geeks do is violate the warranty and open the box up! See also my TiVo reviews with internal photos. Gefen was really surprised that someone a) opened the box, b) tried connecting the drive to a PC, and c) posted the results online? Really? I’d be surprised if someone didn’t do that with a new product! Since the boxes are not network connected, I don’t know how they’ll address units in the field. They may release a firmware update users can load over USB or SD – but they can’t force anyone to do so. If you run out and buy one now you might just get one from pre-encrypted stock. I’m just saying…

Now, if you’ll pardon me, I need to visit Gefen HQ. I have this old bridge over the East River that I’m looking to sell.

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Win A TiVo WiFi Adapter (Or Other Fabulous Prizes)

Posted on Wednesday, March 19, 2008 by MegaZone

Continuing the TiVo Rewards giveaways (gotta use up those points) this time around I’m giving away a TiVo Wireless G USB Network Adapter. Already have one? Don’t need one? OK – if you win then you can select any other reward(s) totaling up to 10,000 points. Could be a 1GB iPod Shuffle, or a TiVo Fan Kit and a TiVo CD Case. It is up to you.

You know, let’s make it even more interesting, I’ll select two winners this time!

I’ll accept entries until midnight EST Friday, March 21st. Entering is simple – leave a comment on this post with a link to a previous, non-giveaway, comment you’ve left on the blog – since May 20, 2007. (That’s the first WordPress post.) The time stamp on your comment is the link you need – like this. You can just post the URL, but it is neater if you use HTML links. For those who don’t know HTML, thusly: <a href=”http://www.gizmolovers.com/2007/05/20/major-change-wordpress/#comment-2320″>like this</a>. Obviously you’d use your comment link URL and not that one. :-) One entry per user, please.

Also, you MUST enter a valid email address in the email box when you comment. That is how I will contact the winner to get their shipping info. I won’t even consider entries without a valid email address. Don’t worry, they aren’t used for anything else.

The list at the bottom of this page may help you find your old comments.

Good luck! I’m just getting warmed up. There will be some, shall we say, larger giveaways coming to reward those who comment on the blog. ;-)

Posted in Site Updates, TiVo | Tagged , , | 23 Comments