Archive for February, 2007
Video Bitrate
Tuesday, February 27th, 2007
Techdigs gifts us with a perfect example of the difference between low and high bitrate video download services via their excellent BitTorrent Review:
low bitrate
high bitrate
Average bitrate translates into how much compression goes into producing the final video you download and display.
Tivo Streams Unbox Video
Monday, February 26th, 2007
Just noticed this over on Gizmodo (gee maybe I should re-subscribe?). Tivo is currently rolling out a new update for the Series 3 which allows you to stream Amazon Unbox videos off your PC to your Tivo box. I wonder if the Series2 boxes support this? I’ll have to do some digging. I currently don’t use the Tivo desktop software but if Series 2 consoles can act as a media extender for Unbox content? That’s a nice addition to the video download mix.
On a side note – Amazon rolled out a new update to Unbox recently as well. The upgrade sports the following updates:
- Faster downloads – it takes 20% less time to download your favorite movie or TV show
- Improved reliability and performance – loads 50% faster and uses less PC memory
- Full support for Windows Vista and Vista Media Center Edition
- Improved portable device support including Windows Mobile phones!
- New & improved user controls and settings – adjust brightness/contrast, organize by season/episode, download the portable videos only when you want to
I’m curious to know what “Full support for Windows Vista” details. Unbox content was already supported by Vista Media Center, so I wonder what they’ve added.
BitTorrent Entertainment Network
Monday, February 26th, 2007
The new BitTorrent video download service is out, and I think it’s a worthy addition to my Video Download Comparison post. The service provides movies for rental and television shows for purchase similar to Live Video Marketplace. Movie rental prices range from $3.00 – $4.00, video quality appears to be DVD quality, with ‘ok’ average bit rates of around 1.5Mbps and stereo sound. This is lower than Live Video Marketplace and Unbox but on par with other ‘almost DVD quality’ services like Wal-Mart and iTunes. As for titles, the regular cast of characters is there with Lionsgate, Warner Brothers, and Paramount, plus 20th Centure Fox. A quick hand count indicates the site has about 200-300 movie titles in the collection. They also have a number of older films and shorts that are free, including some free HD 720p and 1080i content which is neat. Unfortunately BT doesn’t appear to be juicing the freebie downloads – a test film I rented came down at over 500kbps, while a 720p freebie only managed about 20kbps before I cancelled it. About the only major complaint I have is with the online store – they’ve mixed the television and the DVDs together, which makes browsing individual films a real pain. Also, like Unbox, Windows Media sharing of films does not appear to be enabled, so you’ll need Vista before you can stream these DVDs to the living room, while purchased television shows might stream fine.
Probably the biggest road block BitTorrent faces is that they haven’t differentiated themselves from all the other players. Video and sound quality is not the best, and thier DRM restrictions are more restrictive than that of Unbox. Overall, there’s nothing compelling here to drive customers away from other services.
Update – According to eHomeUpgrade, the library is much larger than I originally thought -
BitTorrent’s newest entertainment network partner is MGM, the legendary Hollywood studio and owner of the world’s largest modern film library. With a roster of over 35 content partners, BitTorrent is offering a breadth and depth of content not found in any other download service. At launch, the network at BitTorrent.com will feature over 5,000 titles of movies, TV shows, PC games and music content, as well as over 40 hours of high-definition (HD) programming.
Hackers
Monday, February 26th, 2007
I always get a kick out of finding web sites that have been hacked. Today I was checking some links in blog comments and stumbled across a link to ImgFly – an image hosting service. Something about the home page just didn’t look quite right.
Cool! 
Tax Burden
Sunday, February 25th, 2007
I’ve done some ‘back of a napkin’ calculations in the past trying to figure out what the effective tax rate is for United States citizens once you include all the various taxes you pay, including federal, states, sales, corporate, and future taxes on investment and savings. My numbers came out to be around 50%. Steve pointed me to a study this morning which states the rate is more around 40% +/- 5% regardless of your income. I found the table the article shows interesting, it shows the ‘sweet spot’ for the lowest tax burden to be around $50,000.00 in income. The worst income area to be in is around 150K, which coincides with a 3% tax bracket increase for single filers.
Comments Fixed
Saturday, February 24th, 2007
I just fixed a bug in my comments where if you failed to enter a URL in the url field, the comment would be lost. Sorry for the mixup.
Inviting
Thursday, February 22nd, 2007
Medical Science Challenging “Viability” Point
Tuesday, February 20th, 2007
MIAMI (Reuters) – A premature baby only slightly longer than a ballpoint pen at birth was due to be sent home in the coming days from a Florida hospital after four months of neonatal intensive care, the hospital said on Tuesday.
The Baptist Children’s Hospital in Miami said Amillia Sonja Taylor was born at 21 weeks and six days on October 24, making her possibly the most premature baby on record to survive.
Twenty one weeks, the birth occurred in the 2nd trimester at 5 1/4 months. Roe vs. Wade defined the trimester system back in the 70′s, defining the viability point to be around the 28th week. The Supreme Court’s 1992 ruling on Planned Parenthood vs. Casey has since invalidated the trimester system, replacing it with a simple week count -
However, the plurality overturned the strict trimester formula used in Roe to weigh the woman’s interest in obtaining an abortion against the State’s interest in the life of the fetus. Continuing advancements in medical technology meant that at the time Casey was decided, a fetus might be considered viable at 22 or 23 weeks rather than at the 28 weeks that was more common at the time of Roe. The plurality recognized viability as the point at which the state interest in the life of the fetus outweighs the rights of the woman and abortion may be banned entirely.
“..a fetus might be considered viable at 22 or 23 weeks..”
At some point the Supreme Court is going to face viability at conception, invalidating every ruling on the subject of abortion that restricts the legal rights of the state by a pre-determined length of time post conception. All the more reason to either – overturn Roe and let the states discuss it entirely today, or maybe – fix the whole mess by amending the Constitution so that the right to have an abortion is an inherent individual right. Of course, the latter solution would never be ratified by enough states to pass, heck it probably wouldn’t even get through Congress. The former isn’t going to happen either. So baring a new landmark ruling that removes “viability” from the equation, abortion rights on the federal level are going to continue to erode, and state autonomy will continue to increase.
Nextag Sports Nice IE7 OpenSearch Button
Monday, February 19th, 2007
This is the first time I’ve seen these – Nextag had added a nice looking quick link on their main page which will add Nextag to your search providers in IE7. Hopefully we’ll see more of these on other major search sites over time.
XBL Getting ‘Galactica’ Game, Show Too?
Monday, February 19th, 2007
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Xbox Live will be getting a new Battlestar Galactica game through the Arcade gaming on Xbox Live this fall. They also hinted that the Galactica shows might be coming to Video Marketplace, hopefully in hi-def.
