Blu-ray disk to hit 400GB capacity by 2010

Not really useful as so much as just interesting. I get the feeling that film studios aren't even filling up the 50GB's that is provided to them with current generation disks what are they going to do with 4x the space? ...and if that wasn't enough supposedly a 1TB (1000GB's) is ontrack for 2013.

What this really does is provide "options". Movie piracy is so prevelant because what is provided currently by the film studios is easily copied and distributed. If 400GB's of high def interactive goodness was provided with every purchase of a blu-ray movie it would be difficult to distribute all of that.

Also what does this mean for Sony's Playstation 3. Metal Gear Solid 4 was said to use every bit of space on the blu-ray disks. Can we expect more epic games that would approach the current or even future 400GB barrier? Or is that just too much work for the game studios for too little return?

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HDMI going wireless?

I'm a big fan of "clutter removal" inovation. When the HDMI cable came out it it consolidated a fist full of video and audio cables into one. Well Tzero Technologies has figured out a way to take HDMI into the wireless realm. Looks like it works alot like bluetooth does today but higher bandwidth.

Here are the quick specs:

Range - 20+ meters

Bandwidth - 480Mbps

Latency - 16ms

Audio - 7.1

Video - 1080p @ 24/56/30/60fps

All at a projected cost of $50 per device you wish to connect up wirelessly. Seems pretty cool especially for people who need to run cables thru walls, under carpets, etc. ...and at a reasonable price too!

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HTPC on the cheap

HTPC (stands for Home Theatre PC), basically you can create a mp3, movie, tivo, bittorrent server that you can then run to any tv/computer in the house for cheap. I'm looking into doing this for myself.

First and foremost is the case for the little guy. I wanted something that I could fit in my entertainment cabinet that didn't look like a computer. A quick look at Newegg and I discovered tons of cases for cheap, some not so much. It looks like you get what you pay for, like this little gem.

Next step will be to gut out your old PC that is taking up space in your closet and install it in your newly bought case. Then you need to install an O/S and all the software you'll be using. Bit-tech.net has an excellent article on installing Xubuntu (Linux) and the software needed. After reading it i'm convinced its so easy my mother could do it, and best of all its free!

Since I have a PS3 I'll be installing a "Media Server", just google it and you'll find it online, so my PS3 can read the mp3's and movies I have on my server.

Honestly i'm a bit jazzed up about this, just need to figure a cool way to turn on the unit remotely (i'm sure the higher end cases can have that handled) and then I think i'll have a nice addition to my entertainment center.

How to make $400

1) Buy World of Warcraft play with friends and have lots of fun.

2) Get tired of playing World of Warcraft and sell account.

3) Profit!

I sold my character finally for $400. While originally I was hopeing to get a lot more, I realized that getting anything for something intangible like a MMO character should be celebrated. I think i'm going to put this $400 towards a PS3, it doubles as a HD blueray player and well I guess I could use one. :) ...or I could put it towards getting some new furniture. ...or I could put it towards upgrading my tv which still not sure if its the problem or my cable box.

Regardless its nice to have options, and to be rid of the money sink ($15/month) that is World of Warcraft.

More HD woes

I'm not sure now if its the TV or my cablebox that is causing all these problems. This weekend i'm going to borrow my dad's ps3 and watch a blueray movie like spiderman or something and see how it looks. ...because last night I was watching all night on it and had no real eye strain. I was watching a Terminator 3 which clearly has a lot of action sequences and didn't have any of the stuttering I thought I saw on Monday, though it was a low def signal. Also on the hi-def side I didn't see any real problems watching mythbusters, other then that it seems that after a while watching a saved show on my DVR the video will freeze up but the audio will continue. Also sometimes when i'm in guide view, the preview window in the top right doesn't expand to full screen when I leave the guide (that definitely sounds like a bad box to me). Could these problems be a sub par HDMI cable? Hmm I dunno. Hopefully some of these questions get answered this weekend?

My new HD TV

So this past weekend I bought a 42" HD 1080p (with lots more acronyms) from Costco. It was on sale for $950. Last night I setup the HD box from my cable provider, so I started getting in a true HD signal and I’m unimpressed.

I kind of feel it’s the TV’s fault. I can feel my eyes are straining, sometimes my eyes feel like this before I get a migraine so I dunno perhaps that’s going to happen and it’s not the TV. ...however Brighthouse (my cable provider) has lots of HD content on demand, so I started watching the live performance of the Gorillaz in 1080p and well thinks just didn't look as crisp as I was expecting. ...and then of course there was that eye strain. ...and as I was fiddling with the menu for the TV it froze. The menu froze on the screen and I couldn't get rid of it. I couldn't even turn the TV off I had to pull the power plug out the back.

I'm getting together with my mom who did a ton of research before buying her TV, and I think I’m going to need to borrow a blueray with movie to see what the TV really can do. Normally I’m a pretty frugal guy. It wouldn't bother me that I’m not getting the best picture in the world. ...but if I can’t watch my TV cause it gives me headaches, well its useless to me and I may have to upgrade to a better TV. Luckily for me, Costco offers a 90 day return policy.