AppleTV + Time Capsule

The AppleTV announcements were expected but still welcome: HD Movie Rentals and lower pricing.  What was unexpected is the news that it won't require a computer. Does this simply mean that you can rent movies from appleTV without iTunes or that a customer doesn't have to have iTunes at all?

1280X720 compressed won't hold a candle to Blue Ray 1080P but more content is great and it will look better than Amazon Unbox on Tivo.

The 160GB limit has always bugged me on the AppleTV.  The AppleTV can't mount a remote volume, except to be a streaming endpoint.  No announcement was made linking AppleTV and Time Capsule but the combo intrigues me....The OS can do spanning across multiple volumes no problem....Can we have file extensions that unify across multiple Time Capsules to allow for lots of storage? 

Is there a media storage product here? No, but an indication of interest from Apple is a nice thing....

Kaleidescape a bargain...a realistic view of media storage options...

[This post is really old - here is an update for those looking for a deal - 6/27/2011]

KALEIDESCAPE SYSTEM FOR SALE:

5U Server with 3X500GB, 2X750GB (KSERVER-2500)

Dvd Reader (Kreader-2000)

Movie Player (Kplayer-2500)

$4,500 Call 650-375-8700

I work with a lot of folks with technology backgrounds.  It's taken as a given that all media will be digitized and local storage is a good thing. Kaleidescape, for many (myself included) represents the best of media servers today but many forsee a day when they can get something workable for less money.  I see the systems as very well thought out and looked at as a system, not a single room playback device, the amount of technology and service delivered right now is simply staggering when it's broken down.

1. A flexible storage array network. The Kaleidescape system starts at 250GB of storage and goes to at least 45TB.  I've heard of systems working with as many as 30 simultaneous client devices. 
2. A system monitoring service - Kaleidescape monitors the systems and provides advanced replacement of failing hard drive units. 
3. The best media browsing front-end around - no one else is even close.
4. A wonderfully complete meta-data service including adding additional data without additional cost.
5.  Three different types of client devices: movie, music only and bulk loader.

The most optomistic views promoting a future of Kaleidescape type functionality for "free"  run as follows:

• AppleTV is a great front-end.
• Apple - or a hacker - will enable great DVD image playback.
• By pre-fetching large amounts of DVD image data and deploying cheap playback devices to each display, I won't have a contention problem for network or disk resources.
• Disk is cheap.
• Therefore, if I just wait, I can get everything Kaleidescape provides from Apple + a bunch of cheap disk.

I agree if you are going to be okay with Apple's iTunes movie library.  If you would like to leverage your existing library or have a broader base of content requiring storage of original encrypted content, I disagree.

Even if you agree with all the predictions above (or substitute MythTV or Microsoft Vista, etc. for Apple above), I think Kaleidescape provides an enormous amount of value in just the storage angle.

Let's take it as a given that people who have stored 1000 DVDs or 15,000 CD's would rather not lose them and don't have a second electronic copy lying around.  You need it safe.  Let's also take it as a given that we need and want an expandable system - even when disks go from 750GB to 2TB each, we don't want to have to rebuild a disk array.  Therefore we need a flexible storage system.  This is not free. 

Unit                                       Capacity 

                                                  Delivered/Total                                             Cost                                                                 $/TB                                      Monitored/Service Contract

Buffalo Terastation       2TB/2TB                                                          ~$1600                                                             $800                                                      No

No monitoring, double drive failure takes down system, rebuild array to go larger.

Hitatchi SMS100              9TB/9TB                                                         ~$12,000                                                        $1333                                                     No

No monitoring, double drive failure takes down system, rebuild array to go larger.

NetApp FAS2050            10.5TB/99TB                                                  ~$49,000                                                       $4667                                                   Yes

No monitoring, support for extra disks, expandable without forklift upgrades.

Amazon S3                           10.5TB/Unlimited                                  ~$44,856                                                         $3738                                                   Yes

Look at Hitachi cost plus Amazon S3 together...remarkably close on cost/TB vs. NetApp.

Kaleidescape 1U              3TB/Unlimited                                         ~$11,000                                                           $3667                                                    Yes

Kaleidescape 3U           10.5TB/Unlimited                                       ~$35,000                                                       $ 3334                                                   Yes 

[Costs for K-Scape include server but exclude players]

Is Kaleidescape doing everything that NetApp is doing? No way - Kaleidescape cannot handle the total data throughput of the NetApp unit.  But for a monitored, expandable, no-fork-lift upgrade system, it's the lowest cost per TB around.  Is it 4.5X the cheapest storage possible? Yep.  If double drive failures weren't somewhat common and RAID-5 took care of all problems, EMC + NetApp wouldn't have a business.  The combination of the hardware, operating system, front-end software and monitoring service is an amazing value for those who want a media server.

Note: Moores law helps - but only somewhat.  During the next 5 years when we should expect our storage dollar to go 32X farther (2⁵), I expect movie storage requirements to increase by 10X-12X...so this problem should become 2/3 cheaper.

Note: Piracy + acceptance of low quality helps a lot.  A lossy compressed copy of an entire SD DVD can fit into 700MB if you don't really care about motion artifacts, extras, copy protection or the directors original intent.  I'd expect the college freshmen of 2013 to be running around with 500 movie libraries on their phones...A 160GB iPod classic can do that today if they are ripped to the iPod screen size.

Crestron hits a home run with new media distribution system

So much of the av world is run by lowest common denominator.  TV supports HDTV but DVD is only SDTV, display SDTV.  Installer doesn't have proper cables to hook-up an HDTV to a HDTV cable box - hook it up with composite cables (I've seen this done by Comcast SO often...) 

Crestron showed me a solution a few months ago that blew me away - and they announced it on their website today so I can talk about it....

Problem: Distributes lots of different sorts of media around a large home.  Assume that some of it is protected with HDCP, presume that content owners will continue to assert rights via DRM, assume lots of high-definition content.

Approach: Convert everything to the highest common denominator - HDCP encrypted HDMI.

Great, now we've taken the impossible signal to run and moved everything to it.....they are doing 1.3 HDMI, 1080P/60 or 1080P/24 over 2 cat5 and one Cresnet.....up to 500' runs.

Over this HDMI signal runs not only HD Audio + Video but control signals (2-way), lip-sync info, stereo audio, USB signals (remote keyboards, gaming remotes, etc.), composite video, VGA, component video and even 100BASE-T ethernet. The switcher is going to come in 8X8 or 16X16.  They've discussed room boxes for the back of sets and remote input boxes.  I know the cascading cables from Video switcher to Video switcher look cool but with this box, want to loop video + audio from one box to another (for distribution of 16 sources to 32 rooms, for instance) - just an HDMI cable.

I guess the 300 engineers in NJ are doing something else besides slapping black boxes around other peoples engineering.  I don't think a lot of people will be following Crestron with this.  Unlike most companies they have quite a few more markets to sell this than just residential (just think who else might be interested in moving a lot of video around, encrypting each frame with unique keys....just because HDCP has been broken for DVD's doesn't mean that internally generated content can't be encrypted reliably...)

Tivo Service Alert - Season passes may need revision

Yesterday Comcast changed the HD channel line-up - and they did it in a way that requires changes to some season passes.

1) Check your season passes for any of the channels below - basically all the HD channels except the networks.  If they aren't pointing at the correct channel number, delete and re-enter the season pass.

2) If the new channel #'s are not in your guide correctly, you may need to re-run guided set-up. According to Tivo, Comcast didn't broadcast the channel changes "properly".  Often you'll recieve messages that the channel line-up has changed.  These changes didn't broadcast these messages.  Guided Set-up Instructions

At one customer, this resolved it, at another, that step was not even required.

3) If that doesn't work, you can either call Tivo @ 877-367-8486 or Ambleside (this is not warranty work - charges will apply for Ambleside handling and followup with Tivo or Comcast.) I'd expect they'll clean it up in a few days as it probably effected all of Tivo's employees too.

On the good news side, Tivo recently released a new software version that enabled multi-room viewing, tivo-to-go and hard drive expansion.  Your tivo can also display pictures, home movies, music and lots of other stuff - click here.

Note: The below channel changes will occur in all Bay Area Comcast cable systems except those neighborhoods in Hayward, San Leandro, San Lorenzo, Half Moon Bay, Saratoga, Sunnyvale, Milpitas, Los Gatos, Santa Rosa and Mendocino County where our new advanced digital network is not yet in place.

November 15 Launch

USA HD launch on Digital Classic HD channel 738.
HGTV HD launch on Digital Classic HD channel 746.
Discovery HD launch on Digital Classic HD channel 750.
History HD launch on Digital Classic HD channel 758.


Existing HD Lineup Renumbering

Versus/Golf channel number will change from 721 to 722.
ESPN HD channel number will change from 723 to 724.
ESPN2 HD channel number will change from 724 to 725.
NFL Network HD channel number will change from 725 to 730.
A&E HD channel number will change from 718 to 734
TNT HD channel number will change from 726 to 737.
Universal HD channel number will change from 727 to 739.
MOJO channel number will change from 719 to 740.
MHD channel number will change from 728 to 743.
Discovery Theater HD channel number will change from 722 to 754.
National Geographic HD channel number will change from 715 to 757.
HBO HD channel number will change from 730 to 770.
Starz HD channel number will change from 734 to 780.
Showtime HD channel number will change from 736 to 785.
Cinemax HD channel number will change from 732 to 792.

 

Designing remotes for a Meta-data centric world

Remote controls have buttons - channel up, up down, select, numbers, etc.

A remote control doesn't have a lot of room.  It has to fit in your hand and can't be too tall otherwise it'll be unbalanced when you hold it.

Any screen or feedback competes in real-estate with buttons.  And, smaller and fewer buttons are better.

But todays world of control and media consumption really demand feedback in a way cassette + cable box didn't need.

Which playlist am I playing? What XM channel am I on? Did I turn the patio audio off? What is Preset 1? I can't hear anything...is (put device name here) even on?

All of these items mean we need feedback - a device capable of showing us what is currently playing. 

At one extreme we have the AppleTV remote.

  It's really small.

all functions are managed through menu selections except for pause/play

All feedback is through a display, no feedfback on device.

At the other extreme we have the Crestron TPMC-8X:

It's fairly large.

No hard buttons.

Lots and lots of feedback - you can even stream video to it.

I believe a nice remote needs a mixture:

Hard buttons: up/down/left/right/select, volume up+ down, a few others.

Feedback: Enough room to control and iPod or Satellite Radio.

We've been using the Crestron TPMC-4X to fill this role for a while.  It's a fine device and the entire package is better than we've had at that price point and form before.

The future is shown in the form of the Denon RF Remote:

Large Enough display to manage lights, iPod, other zones

Lots of hard buttons

Fits in hand

Runs on standard batteries.

Denon RC7000 by UEI

This unit only controls the Denon Recievers and can't be integrated into Crestron.  Crestron has announced a Zigbee remote based on the same hardware to ship in Q1 or Q2 2008. Now only if they could get rid of the rubbery buttons.....