David Fisher : What is Noise Blog

Your personal computer, television and the internet have never been so close to being intertwined. Yet, there is still a vast distance to be breached before they are really are the same and connected as one. I have gotten a bit closer to getting things set up at my apartment to make this so, and I’d like to share it with you.

Not too long ago I was introduced to Boxee. Boxee is a media player, similar in concept to Apple’s Front Row or Microsoft’s Media Center application. It’s currently in private alpha, but anyone in the program already can send you an invite, so you can contact me for an invite. As being alpha software it has a few bugs, but they are being worked out quickly and the massive functionality allows you to overlook those easily for the time being. Boxee plays almost any DRM-free media that you can throw at it, including 1080p H.264 video with 5.1 surround output.

Additionally, Boxee is social and allows you to see what your friends have viewed and recommended for you, and for you to stream in content from nearly any RSS feed/torrent, and other popular services including Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube. Oh, and you can control it all through an Apple Remote.

Then there’s the Usenet. The Usenet is a nearly 30 year old discussion and filesharing service. It isn’t a peer to peer service like bittorrent, but has much of the same content that you might find through various bittorrent search engines. Basically, this is a great place to get files of almost any type, including audio and video.

The Usenet can be accessed publically via your ISP’s usenet servers, but that generally isn’t the best way. Most ISPs have caps on access and the speeds aren’t that great. Also they don’t archive the files far back. Basically, that’s not a great way to access the Usenet. To better access Usenet you need to use a Private Usenet server. At first I tried Giganews as a private server, and they were ok, but a bit expensive. I’ve found a better deal with NewsDemon. They have unlimited access from $17.99/month, with plans starting as low as $8.99.  To better organize them and interface with them you should use something like Newzbin which helps search, sort and access NewsDemon/Usenet. It isn’t free either, but it’s about a dollar a week or less. Both are reputable services and work well. Also with a private usenet server you have much less of a chance with the RIAA/MPAA should you choose to download copyrighted material since you aren’t forced/encouraged to re-share the files and there is no public record of you having downloaded the files.

As a client I use SABnzbd+ which is an automatic newreader. It is a free python program that is cross platform and is accessed once running through your web browser. It can be easily configured and can automatically pick out the bookmarks that you set in Newzbin, auto initiating downloads from NewsDemon. SABnzbd can automatically unrar files and move them to a completed folder upon download. Boxee can be configured to automatically scan these folders upon launch, and will pick up anything new that you’ve downloaded; unlike iTunes that would require that you manually add the new files if they weren’t downloaded via iTunes.

What this all ends up in is the ability to download high quality music, and even 1080p 5.1 surround full movies quickly, securely and with confidence. You can then play them back in an easy to use, flexible and social media player that works with a remote control so you aren’t tied to your computer at all times. I download at speeds in excess of 7 to 15Mb/sec consistently.

I  store all of my media on an Ubuntu file server that has over 2TB of attached storage. My friend Rich and I both share this server and queue up SABnzbd from Newzbin. We are connected between our rooms with gigabit copper ethernet. 1080p takes about 3MB/sec over this connection, so it never skips a beat. We have a gigabit switch connecting all of our systems (Wii, Xbox360, PS2, two macs, a router running DD-WRT and the Ubuntu server). I also use this server for backups and my Aperture storage of vaults. Adding storage to a system like this is super easy with external USB drives. I picked up a 640GB drive the other day for just $99 from Best Buy and they get cheaper every day. Surely I could have found it even cheaper online.

We are using DD-WRT’s built in tracking of bandwidth per month to make sure that we don’t go over Comcast’s 300GB/month cap (resets on the first of each month). We only of course download open source, creative commons, and public domain materials via this service but should you choose to download commercial sources they are fully available. I no longer have to worry about completing downloads using my laptop, having my laptop overburdened space-wise with HD content.

I connect to my TV with a DVI cable, and to my studio monitors for audio via a Mackie 400F interface. You can also use a 3.5mm to TOSLink optical cable to use the built in output of the Macbook Pro/Macbook to connect with 5.1 to your reciever for full quality surround output. Boxee and OS X fully support this.

So there you have it. Content, delivery, simplicity and control. All the HD and surround sound goodness that you’ve been dreaming of your computer doing for years. I can’t wait to see where it goes from here.

I’d like to get an HDTV for here shortly after the first of the year. Prices should be down. Does anyone reading (I’m seeing the stats here… some of you ARE reading!) have any hints on HDTVs?

Here’s what I know I want:

37″ (my apartment is small and 42″ just feels overkill)
DVI inputs
1080p (so I can use well as a computer monitor)
No speakers needed/wanted
LCD (preferably with LED backlights to reduce fading/power consumption)
Good contrast/black saturation
Natural colors
No gimmicks/ambilight
Could care less about a remote.

I have thought of getting the Apple 30″ display, but it’s been ages since Apple actually updated it. I’m not one to generally care about impeding updates, but if they put out a 4K monitor, I’d shit a brick. Then again, I don’t really do video, so why do I care.

The Dell 30″ display looks tempting. It’s cheaper, and have more inputs (so I can plug in game systems or a commodore 64).

Oh, and the cheaper the better. Under $1000USD for sure, if not cheaper, would be killer

So I got an Elgato eyeTV Hybrid yesterday. I got it do that I could interface my Commodore 64 (using the Prophet 64 cart) with my Macbook Pro, since I don’t have a TV anymore, and the C64->VGA project stalled and isn’t going anywhere.

First of all, I thought that my C64 had horrid video normally. Untrue. It looks amazing using this. It had been speculated on a forum that my video board was just bad in the C64, but I don’t think it is.

The Bassline and Sequencer look fine, but the drummer… still is having issues. Maybe I’ll try the composite output for the drummer instead (which normally looks worse, but oh well).

I also need to build the DIN Sync cable, or just buy one for $10 from online. It’s got a funny connector, so unless I decide to solder to the board, i’ll probably just get the cables to hook it to the x0xb0x.

So now the small problem somes in. I thought, “hey this does HDTV, it’s supposed to be free over the air, that should be fun!” I went to Best Buy and bought an RCA AN1251 HDTV antenna. I got zero channels of either analog or HDTV from my desk, which while I do have to admit that I live in a basement, was somewhat underwhelming. I have a window!

I should also mention that I did try hooking up the eyeTV to my cable line here, since I was nearly forced into getting “basic” cable from Comca$t, since they want to be able to say that they have a larger audience to sell advertising to. What crap. Anyway, the quality, or lack of of analog TV really shows itself when you’re viewing it on a high resolution LCD monitor. It got 41 channels (about half not in English, or being religious ones), but all pretty poor quality and REALLY poor sound through my Event 20/20 monitors.

I moved closer to the window. No go. I got 3 shaky HDTV channels, and while I hate the show Ugly Betty, it was neat to see a bit of it in HDTV. I couldn’t judge the sound quality, but I’m sure it was as good as a DVD from the data-rate that was coming across. I got 2 super-fuzzed out standard antenna channels.

I was blown away. This was an amplified antenna that was supposed to give up to 55dB of gain. However, in messing around with it, it was clear that it wasn’t at all ‘clean gain’, which sucked. I wish that RCA still knew anything about amplifier designs, but apparently with the Made in China attitude they have forgotten how. They used to make some kickassed tubes back in the day, so I assume someone there knew something at one point. Turning it up more than 25% on the gain control dropped the signal quality to zero, while increasing the signal strength.

So I went back to Best Buy with Rich. Got another Terk antenna, which some people online had reported as being kick ass. The lady asked if the antenna was defective, I told her it was defective by design. Took the Terk home. It was even worse, and took up yet more space. This one didn’t even get 1 channel HD or analog.

So my conclusion is one of the three.

1) The eyeTV works great with direct signals, but horridly with antenna
2) My apartment has the worst reception ever. I figured living in the middle of Boston would help, but I get less channels than a guy in the mountains of West Virginia.
3) Both antenna makers suck, and/or you have to spend 10x as much to get a decent antenna.

So I’m walking through the rain in a bit to Best Buy to return this antenna, and buying a really really cheap coax cable so that I can plug into my cable here. All of this, and I don’t even watch TV. Just more a proof that the functionality works, and so that if other people are here (such as my girlfriend) then they could entertain themselves with Ugly Betty.