John’s post got me thinking about the other options for video on demand. Besides the movies you can get from your cable or satellite provider; Amazon on Demand, iTunes, Netflix Watch Instantly and Vudu also offer downloadable or streaming movie services.  Over the last year, I’ve used Amazon, iTunes and Netflix, but I keep coming back to Netflix as the most rational choice in this space.

Sumit has already written about Netflix’s watch instantly feature, but the service has improved considerably since he made his original post.  Netflix, has continued to grow their library through a partnership with Starz, bringing recent movies like Ratatouille and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End to the service. They’ve also put some currently airing TV seasons on the service, like season 3 of Heroes. Netflix still doesn’t have the library of new releases that Amazon on Demand, iTunes and Vudu have, but it continues to improve.

Netflix has done a better job of putting their service on a variety of convenient devices for watching on your TV. You can currently stream Netflix movies to your TV using the Netflix Player by Roku, the Xbox 360, the LG BD300 Blu-ray Player, the Samsung BD-P2500 Blu-ray player and in the near future on TiVo HDs. With the $99 the Netflix Player by Roku and all of the other options, Netflix Watch Instantly beats all the services hands down in the pricing and variety of compatible devices.

I’ve used Netflix Watch Instantly on both a Xbox 360 and the Netflix Player by Roku. While the interface is slightly different between the two, they both allow you to easily navigate through a queue of movies you set up on your computer. Movies start quickly once they are selected and the overall user experience is very good on both devices.

Quality-wise Netflix Watch Instantly looks like SD digital cable when displayed using the Netflix Player by Roku, which is not amazing, but reasonable if you run it through a decent video processor. At the very least, it’s comparable to Amazon on Demand playing on a TiVo or iTunes video files played from an iPod.

Finally, the price is right for the Netflix service with plans starting at $8.99/month for unlimited viewing (the plans include Netflix DVD by mail service as well), compared to $0.99/rental and up for the other services. Ultimately, the value and convenience of the Netflix service make it my choice for Video on Demand.

The other day I received notification from DirecTV that they would soon be delivering movies in 1080p to my satellite box, and that the box could handle them, and I could watch these movies on my HDTV as I would any other programming.

Well, the question is how well this will work, and will it provide us with anything we don’t already have in terms of the final image on our TV screens.

First, programming is currently delivered in 1080i, and the end result is different when the source is, say, a live TV program shot in 1080i, vs. a 24fps movie shot on film or digital.  With the live program, each field, which consists of 540 lines, representing 1/60th of a second of video action, does not allways merge with the subsequent field because it represents the subsequent 1/60th of a second in the video action. On old 1080i CRTs TVs you end up with “combing” where edges of object are not straight because they moved between one field and the next. On newer 1080p TVs this material is deinterlaced with variable quality.  If done incorrectly, entire frames are interpolated from individual fields, resulting in only 1/2 the resolution.  If done correctly though, only areas of the picture in motion lose resolution, and the remainder of the picture is full 1080 line quality.

Film on the other hand, has individual frames, 24 of them per second, and each frame gets divided into two fields. 1080p TVs are able to recombine the fields into frames yielding a true 1080p image.

So, whether the filmed movie is sent to us via cable or satellite in 1080i or 1080p, the end result will look the same when the TV merges the two fields to become 1080p.

What then is the point of this new venture?

Marketing? Probably. Will it increase subscriptions? Probably.

Will it work? Probably, as long as the cable or satellite box can downconvert to 1080i or 720p so that it can be connected to the majority of HDTV’s out there that were purchased before 1080p.

Dish Network has been offering 1080p24 movies as part of their VOD (Video On Demand) service now for several months. It seems to be working.

Whether the movie is sent the cable or satellite box as 1080p24 or 1080i60 is unimportant, as long as the box gives a choice of, and can output it correctly as, either 1080i60 for old HDTVs, 1080p60 for the newer ones, or 1080p24 for those lucky enough to have one of the new TVs that accept 1080p24 and interpolate in between frames to give us a 120 Hz image (120 frames per second, with each native frame in the 24 FPS movie having 4 interpolated frames in between). I don’t think that is what is going to happen, but, we will see, and it looks like it will be soon.

This summer I caught the HTPC (Home Theater PC) bug, and I decided to build one for the living room.  I have written a few blogs during the course of this project.  Now I am almost done!  I say almost, because as with the A/V room, this is one of those things that is never fully completed.

My music, home videos, and pictures are all on a NAS (Network), and they are readily available.  Currently, I am using a Media Center Extender to gain access to this content from other rooms.  The Blu-ray optical drive in conjunction with Arcsoft’s Total Media Theater enables Blu-ray playback on the HTPC.

This system is undoubtedly complex, with software and hardware subsytems from different companies, but this is not a consideration once it is in use.  The HTPC is meant, at the very least, to be a replacement for the DVD player and as such I expect it to function just as reliably.  This is the only part of the experience that I am not entirely happy with.  While some issues have been resolved either via a hardware change of a software update, some remain.  These include:

- Sometimes the PC is unable to talk to the NAS, requiring a router reboot.
- Sometimes switching the TV input back to the PC freezes the machine, most likely an HDMI handshake issue; this requires a PC reboot, somewhat of a time consuming process.
- Every so often I am flashed with an update message for the OS or an app.  Oftentimes, these updates are ok, but sometimes you get unlucky with a rogue update.  A restore from a previous backup or reverting to an earlier system restore point can get you back to the old state if necessary, however, this is still work.

When things don’t work, you do realize the merit of using special purpose devices.  The DVD player remains connected in the living room to serve as a backup.

I don’t, however, wish for these reliability issues to overshadow the ease and convenience that come with using the HTPC.  When the system works, which is more often than not (my wife disagrees with me on this), it is a delight to use.  We have been making playlists, purchasing music online and watching old family pictures that we had not seen in a long time.  Music is often accompanied by a slideshow.  It has been a good experience and well worth the time investment.

If you use an HTPC, please share your experience.

I have been reading reports in several magazines lately about the complaints from recording engineers that they are being forced to turn up the recording volume throughout entire albums because the louder the music, the more it sells.

You have probably noticed this in your latest rock music CDs. Everything is the same volume: loud.

It is easy to do. The recording itself has quiet sections and loud sections, but during the editing process, the engineers simply turn up the quiet sections so they are near 0 dBFS (the FS means Full Scale).

There must be a lot of music fans out there who like it, because they are not ones who seem to be complaining.

So, why should the recording engineers care, as long as the consumers are happy?

Well, the problem is that the recording has no dynamic range, so it does not even come close to sounding like live music.

Secondly, it is affecting recordings other than hard rock music. I listened to a Barbra Streisand album of popular music, and when she sang softly or was really belting it out, the volume was the same. In fact, this was my first experience noticing the lack of dynamic range in modern CDs.

Telarc - bless their hearts - doesn’t seem to have fallen into this deep hole. Their recordings from day one have so much dynamic range, they sometimes have to warn consumers on the cover that there is some really loud stuff on that album so be careful.

None of my SACDs seem to have dynamic range issues either. It is such a specialized market, I guess no one is pressuring the engineers to screw up the recordings by putting all the sound up near 0 dBFS.

So, my question here is, the readers who follow Secrets on a regular basis are probably a little different than those people out there who just put everything on their iPods, and just don’t really care about the sound quality (other than having it loud).

What do you, as Secrets readers, feel about all this? Are you content with the way modern rock CDs are recorded?

I attended my son’s back-to-school night at his high school this week, and to my surprise found a front projector set up in every one of his classrooms. Granted, these were business-type projectors, not really designed or appropriate for home theater use. But even so, I was impressed on a couple of different levels.

First, at the risk of sounding ancient, I remember copying notes that my teacher wrote with chalk on a blackboard, risking eye strain, white lung disease, and the dreaded nails-on-the-chalkboard sound at 10 kHz. So purely from an educational perspective, watching a powerpoint or graphics presentation on a big screen has to enhance the learning experience.

Second, from a home theater enthusiast perspective, it’s nice to expose our youth to the benefits of watching content (even educational content!) on a huge screen, rather than a three-inch video on computer from Youtube or on their iPod. Maybe in another five or ten years, when those high schoolers start looking at setting up their own home theaters, they’ll remember those front projectors from the classroom and think, “hey, one of those will work really well at my place.”

Now that the buzz from CEDIA has faded (and I mean that in a metaphorical, not physiological sense), I realized it’s tough to draw any dramatic conclusions or mega-trends from the show. There is still a market for high-end, price is no object equipment. Consumers are getting tremendous value on the end other of the spectrum from trickle-down technology. Front projector manufacturers continue to tweak their products, and lower the entry-level price point for 1080p. In-wall and in-ceiling speakers are here to stay. IPod/iPhone integration products are everywhere. The PS3 still seems to be the Blu-ray player of choice, although many are looking forward to the new Oppo.

If anything struck me, it was that even at a time of economic uncertainty, attendees were still passionate about their products and the home theater world in general.  Stopping at booths, talking to reps and just people watching, it is obvious that the industry is filled with men and women who love the audio-video experience. I have a few friends outside the business who can relate to it, but put 25,000 professionals all in the same place, and you find yourself in a bar very late at night talking about the variables in subjective speaker evaluations.  And at the end of a long day, that’s what makes our world go around.

 “T.H.E. Show” has for the last couple of years taken space near CEDIA very much as they have each year in Las Vegas for CES. Although not very large at all and predominately known as a 2-channel show, this year it was held at the Denver Athletic Club a mere two blocks from the convention center.

A modest show with 3 rooms it included; Martin Logan, Magnepan, Audio Research, Professional Home Cinema, 3LCD, Stewart Filmscreens, Ayre Acoustics, and more.

At the time of my arrival the Magnapan room shared with Audio Research was unavailable with a photo shoot which left the Martin Logan/Ayre Acoustics/ASC room my first demo and what a delight. Martin Logan’s new CLX electrostatic speakers which start around $20,000/pair, visually dominated the space painted in bright red.

The CLX is a 57” curvilinear line source with a double diaphragm. They delivered delicate, clean and a rich dynamics, all through some awesome components from Ayre including a pair of MX-R mono amplifiers. The highly respected C-5xe universal player and the new K-1 preamplifier delivered an elegant presentation.

I walked into a full-throttle surround sound demonstration with PHC, Professional Home Cinema rocking the room. Ironically enough, they are known for some very large hulking speakers that look and sound like they could easily fill a commercial theater. Thousands of watts of power and a beautiful picture care of a Digital Projection on a Stewart Filmscreen showed the absolute best a home theater can sound.

Attendance overall at CEDIA this year was down but exhibitors at T.H.E. Show were enthusiastic about the crowds filling their rooms and anticipate it growing, so look for them in Atlanta next year!

I had a great time attending CEDIA this year.  The pacing of it was very relaxed and the show floor wasn’t that crowded.  In fact, most of the manufacturers were pretty calm about things and they simply showed off their latest iterations of products that raised the bar on quality or lowered the price to the consumer through efficiencies and cost savings in the manufacturing process. 

Blu-ray, having been the declared winner of the format war that was still right in the middle of its battle during CES didn’t have an elaborate booth to show off BD-Live or Bonus view with and there was merely a section of the Sony booth displaying a few informational placards here and there.  Blu-ray was the defacto standard at the show for displaying high detail content though as many booths used a Playstation 3 or some stand alone player to show off their displays or screens.  I was a bit amused during a press conference when Sony announced a 400 disc mega changer in the works.  Certainly the price of Blu-ray media will have to come down a ways before a product like that will become attractive.  In fact, some manufacturers such as Toshiba weren’t ready to buy in to Blu-ray just yet as they thought that it represented only a small piece of the pie and other forms of receiving content such as via high speed downloads would compete for just as much attention in the near future.

There were a lot of other cool products to see at the show though but not many of them were heading into new frontier.  Most of the manufacturers were releasing products that kept up with the latest technologies such as the latest lossless sound codecs or the latest trends such as in-wall speakers or subs.  There were a few exceptions to this such as Mitsubishi’s booth which had a demonstration of their 3d technology present in their DLP displays.   I found it to be very novel while playing video games to see the hero character virtually hover in front of me as he hacked and slashed away at the three dimensional ghouies that seemed to float in mid air.   During movies though, my eyes would often lose focus while looking through the specialized 3d glasses and it often became a strain to continue watching not to mention that I often became distracted with annoying characters that I wanted to reach out and squash.  Still, it’s something new and different and Mits gets the kudos for that.  Dolby and Audysssey also definitely get the thumbs up for their dynamic volume technologies that give regular listening levels that much more punch without disturbing the other residents of our domains.  At least half of my listening is done way below reference levels and these features are a welcome addition as they also handle abrupt changes in volumes between source material such as a broadcast movie and a noisy used car commercial.

Alas, the most enjoyable aspect of this CEDIA for myself was corresponding with all of the people who make up this industry.  Whether it be the awesome group from Paradigm who always push the envelope in quality and features, Ron Stimpson from SVS who is passionate about getting consumers great products at great prices, Jason Liao from Oppo who is determined to deliver the best player to value ratio, or all the others who I am failing to mention, these are great people who love this stuff and continue to bring it to market year after year.

CEDIA 2008 in Denver is just around the corner, next week in fact and I feel corny enough to say I’m really looking forward to it, again. Firstly it’s really nice to see and spend time with the other staff at Secrets scattered around the country. Although the show is exhausting to cover, we all look forward to working together to bring the latest and greatest, along with a few anecdotes and some humor.

I also enjoy meeting many of the great people in the industry from the PR companies to the manufacturers themselves who put so much effort into these shows.

Call me stuck in the 70’s, but I’m looking forward to seeing the Doobie Brothers sponsored by SpeakerCraft and Monster Cable.

Hopefully along the way we’ll experience some great demonstrations both in video and audio, have some terrific dinners, drink some amazing wines, walk miles, and spend as little time in shuttles as possible.

As much as we want to cover it all, by all means if there are those of you that want to hear about anything specific, tell us and we’ll find it for you.