SteveX Compiled

Finally! Hauppauge has a video capture device that can capture HD component video that's priced near consumer level. Here's a review.

It's the HD PVR Model 1212, and it's a USB device that you plug into your cable box through the YPbPr (component video). This is an unencrypted HD analog video signal that the device can capture and encode to 720p or 1080i. (No 1080p support but your cable box doesn't output 1080p anyway).

Of course it just figured that I recently deprecated my media center and switched to the stinky Rogers SA8300HD box, simply because I wanted HD. I'm not going to jump back into Media Center yet - I'll wait for HD capture to become a bit more common place - but it's cool to see it's possible.

One possible hitch - Blu-Ray has the cability to cut the resolution of disc playback to one quarter the full resolution when video is being played back through analog outputs. If the studios start to see the availability of HD capture as a threat, they could play that card. That also cripple everyone using those outputs legitimately.

I've migrated the Ottawa Events site from the server in my basement to a real host, and in the process, migrated it from ASP.NET to PHP. As much as I like ASP.NET, hosting is just easier with PHP.

If you have a moment try out the new site and see if anything seems broken. It should work just like the old one, though URLs have changed. It's here:

http://www.ottawaevents.org/

(Yes, I occasionally rant about sites whose URLs change; I'm working on some .htaccess magic to fix that, but in the case of the Ottawa Events site, URLs expire naturally anyway - there's not much point in a Google search for "ottawa jazz festival" finding the 2007 page).

The couch in my living room is a bit of a WiFi black hole for me for some reason, which is unfortunate because it's also one of the places I most want to use it. The signal is weak, and occasionally disappears.

802.11n can run at 2.4ghz and be compatible with 802.11b/g, or can run at 5ghz without that compatibility. I tried flipping the base station over to 5ghz, and to my surprise, found that my connection from the couch is much faster and much more reliable.

The down side is the Wii and the PS3 both connect to the network using 802.11g, so I need to switch the base station back to 2.4ghz whenever I want to get online with one of those devices.

The killer is going to be when the iPhone 3G comes out in 24 days 2 hours 28 minutes (as of this writing), and I'm going to want my network at home to be 802.11g most of the time.

My best option may be to add another 802.11g network in the house for those devices and leave the 802.11n network at 5ghz. Seems like overkill, y'know?

This Financial Post article presents some information from Rogers president and COO Nadir Mohamed:

Rogers now earns about $63 in average revenue per user (ARPU), a figure that has risen rapidly over the past few years with the increasing usage of data-heavy services such as text messaging and over-the-air music downloads.

With the introduction of the 3G iPhone and its application store on July 11, Mr. Mohamed estimated the device will bring about $90 in blended ARPU to the company, a reflection of how important wireless broadband adoption will be to the bottom lines of telecom providers.

They're not going to raise their ARPU to $90 by charging iPhone users less than $90 per month for the device, are they?

They might assume we're going to generate $10/month on apps and other premiums.. that leaves about $80/month for service. $40 for voice, $40 for data. That doesn't seem out of line.

One of the drawbacks of your small company turning into a big company is it becomes hard to do fun things.

I just received this email from Industry Minister Jim Prentice's office:

The Government of Canada has introduced Bill C-61, An Act to Amend the Copyright Act. The proposed legislation is a made-in-Canada approach that balances the needs of Canadian consumers and copyright owners, promoting culture, innovation and competition in the digital age.

What does Bill C-61 mean to Canadians?

Specifically, it includes measures that would:

expressly allow you to record TV shows for later viewing; copy legally purchased music onto other devices, such as MP3 players or cell phones; make back-up copies of legally purchased books, newspapers, videocassettes and photographs onto devices you own; and limit the "statutory damages" a court could award for all private use copyright infringements;

implement new rights and protections for copyright holders, tailored to the Internet, to encourage participation in the online economy, as well as stronger legal remedies to address Internet piracy;

clarify the roles and responsibilities of Internet Service Providers related to the copyright content flowing over their network facilities; and

provide photographers with the same rights as other creators.

What Bill C-61 does not do:

it would not empower border agents to seize your iPod or laptop at border crossings, contrary to recent public speculation

What this Bill is not:

it is not a mirror image of U.S. copyright laws. Our Bill is made-in-Canada with different exceptions for educators, consumers and others and brings us into line with more than 60 countries including Japan, France, Germany and Australia

Contrast this with what the Ottawa Citizen is saying:

• Under the new legislation, it is illegal to make a copy of a DVD, even if you purchased the DVD at a store.
• The legislation clearly states that users cannot circumvent digital locks placed on media such as DVDs.
• Time shifting, or the process of recording a TV program to a TiVo or digital video recorder is allowed, however the program must be watched and then deleted. "The time shifted recording could not be kept indefinitely. It could not be stored to build a library of recordings," according to the new legislation

How is it that DivX files that play on the Xbox 360 don't play on the PS3? Isn't DivX DivX?

I converted some files using ffmpegX, and they play fine on the Xbox 360. The PS3 says it's an unsupported format.

Looks like both platforms play WMV (surprisingly enough) but I can't find a WMV converter for the Mac.

Is there a decent format that is compatible with both systems, that has a converter readily available?

I guess they couldn't afford to run the Playstation Network for free forever.

Playstation Qore, $24.95/year.

Doors Open Ottawa is an event where participating buildings, which aren't normally open to the public, open their doors for one weekend and allow the general public to see what's inside. Many places offer tours, and there are quite a few interesting sites.

The Diefenbunker is open, and if you haven't been there already, it's the coolest place on the list.

Some buildings I'd like to try to get to this weekend:

The Britannia Water Purification Plant

OC Transpo Walkley Yard Maintenance Facility

Canadian Space Services Ltd.

Previous years they had the NRC wind tunnel at the airport open:

You could walk around inside and they had some of the engineers on-hand describing the testing they'd do; unfortunately this year it's not on the list.

Any particularly interesting places I'm missing?

Hey, when did iTunes start selling and renting movies in Canada? I just noticed this morning that the iTunes store was showing me movies, and just to make sure it really worked I had to buy a copy of Spinal Tap. It works.

$3.99 for a rental, $9.99 to buy a movie, at least for the few I looked at. The movie is still stranded in iTunes with no way to make it to my TV, unfortunately.