Broadcast Television

We get our broadcast television shows using a basic over the air (OTA) antenna, connected to our Tivo so that we can record the shows and watch them at our convenience. This process has been mostly full proof with the exception of a 2 week period where some electrical issues in our house caused the Tivo to randomly reboot, sometimes mid-recording. Those issues seem to have worked themselves out as they haven’t happened in about a month. The Tivo we have is a Series 3 HD model, so we pay a yearly subscription for the Tivo service that comes out to around $10 a month. The Tivo has a digital decoder in it, so it handles the digital TV signal just fine. Our antenna is a basic (what looks to be hand built) roof based antenna that was placed (and left) by the previous owner of our house, no “HD Antenna” here, just a basic run of the mill signal catcher.

Cable Shows

My wife and I like quite a few cable shows, like Burn Notice, Warehouse 13, and Haven. Since we cut cable, we can’t watch these on their respective channels. The original solution for this was to use Hulu Plus, but after some research, we determined that this wasn’t really a great idea. One reason is, we don’t like to get too far behind in our television shows, mainly because we already get behind due to our son’s medical issues. So having to wait until a season was over to watch it on Hulu Plus, and with commercials no less just didn’t seem all that appealing. Fortunately for us, pretty much all of our basic cable televisions shows are available for purchase from Amazon the day after they air. Yes, at $2.99 for an HD quality video, it can get pricey, but what’s interesting is that it doesn’t even come close to the 80-90 dollars we were spending on cable. To come close to the cost of cable, we’d have to buy every episode of every single television show we watch at $2.99 for a month to come even close to hitting that amount. During the summer season, when most of our cable shows air, we’d come close to going over, but we’d at the most break even.

We use a couple of methods to watch these shows that are purchased through Amazon. The last couple of months, we have relied on our Tivo to handle the playing of these videos. Amazon gives me the option to tie my Tivo to my Amazon account, and when I purchase these episodes, I can choose to push them to my Tivo from Amazon’s webpage. The other and more recent option is to use our Roku box. This little device allows us to access a multitude of streaming services all in one place, and all through a single HDMI connection.

Premium Cable Shows

This part we haven’t figured out yet. Channels like HBO and Showtime don’t put their stuff up for purchase until it’s in video disc formats. Showtime eventually makes their shows available to watch in digital form, but it’s usually after the whole season has aired and in most cases after its available on DVD and/or Blu-Ray. So for these shows, at the moment, the only options are to either get cable during these show runs, wait and get the released season sets, or download the episodes through illegal means. What the premium stations should do is offer their shows for sale through Amazon, Vudu, or another service just like the non-premium cable channels. There’s no rules that say they can’t charge more per episode than the other stations (say $4.99 for an HD video download). Yet, these channels are very stuck in the old way of doing business. HBO is a perfect example of this in that in order to get HBO Go, you have to tie it to your cable television account through your cable provider. Why can’t HBO offer HBO Go as an online service that I have to pay money for? Why do they insist on continuing to require a cable subscription? It’s 2011 HBO, lets move on.

Online Services

The final thing for our cutting cable needs was utilizing online to fill in the holes left by the hundreds of channels we lost by getting rid of cable television.

• Netflix – For movies and older television shows. While an item’s availability can fluctuate, Netflix is continually adding content. You just have to keep an eye on what’s new and catch things as they show up to help ensure the longest possible timeframe to watch them.
• Amazon Instant Video – We have an Amazon Prime account, which in addition to free 2 day shipping on anything we buy, also gives us access to a large (though not as large as Netflix) selection of free streaming video.  Also, we can do streaming video rentals through Amazon. This can pretty much only be done on the Roku box.
• Vudu – High quality video on demand service. These people stream new(ish) releases to your television in full 1080p with 5.1 surround through their proprietary HDX format. It’s not Blu-Ray quality, but for streaming it’s pretty dang close. Renting a movie can be somewhat costly, $5.99 in the HDX format. But buying it in the HDX format will get you the SD and HD (720p) versions too, so if you have to downgrade due to connection issues, you have the option with the HDX streams.

The combination of these services, helps fill in the gaps of the channels we lost to cord cutting. Amazon and Netflix give a decent selection of streaming television shows and movies to watch at any given moment, and for newer releases we can rely on Vudu.

Conclusion

The result of the last few months has proven this experiment rather successful. My wife and I haven’t really noticed the lack of channels and we’ve made some progress in catching up on older television that we’ve wanted to watch (via Netflix) but haven’t gotten around to.  Our 9 year old daughter has been the most vocal about the lack of cable, but the less television she watches, the better right?

What is Boxee

Boxee is a piece of downloadable software that runs on Linux, Windows, and Mac OSX.  Boxee allows you to watch videos off your network, and gives you easy access to videos from online sources like Revision3, ABC, other video sources online.  It’s designed with the use of a remote in mind and is based on the popular XBMC (XBox Media Center) project.

The Goods

Boxee is very easy to use.  I was able to get it installed (on Linux), was quickly able to point it at my network shares containing videos and music files.  It index my videos, grabbing information about them from various online places (like TheTVDB and IMDB).  It comes with some nice default installed plugins and applications, my favorite among those is the Pandora application which is quite nice.  The fact that Boxee automatically downloads video information and reviews for various albums it finds is quite nice and means that a new user needs to spend no time on organizing their collection with things like NFO files and thumbnails.

Navigation through the application is nice, simple, and if you’re using a remote it is easy.  When browsing movies or TV shows you can see nice thumbnails for the movie or TV show.  You also can see summaries for those movies and television show episodes.  They also grab reviews and ratings so you have a good idea of what you’re getting ready to watch or listen to.

The plugins are extremely nice and if you are willing to add third party application repositories, you can really fill out your Boxee experience with a large amount of content from all of the internet.  Things from CBS, Revision3, Cartoon Network, even MIT’s Open Courseware.  There’s lots of content here and as Boxee grows in popularity, the amount of plugins will continue to grow.

The Bad

While Boxee might be based on XBMC, it pulls some of it’s best features out.  For one thing if you’ve set up your video collection and have it all ready for XBMC with fanart, NFO files, and thumbnails: Boxee doesn’t use these files at all.  So when Boxee starts loading up your movies it ignores the NFO file and will on many occasions find info for the wrong movie.  For example, my wife purchased the current Rob Zombie remake of “Halloween” but Boxee insists on showing the poster and info for the original film from 1978, even after telling Boxee that it is the recent remake.  It doesn’t use DVD order for TV shows (example, Firefly).  It also completely ignores some movies (like in my case “1408″).  And the recommended “naming conventions” are just about worthless.

Why on earth would you gut XBMC and take out one of it’s best features.  Considering that XBMC was designed for exactly the kind of thing Boxee wants to do, to have Boxee turn off or rip out such an important piece seems like a poor decision.

Another thing that seems to be missing is XBMC’s ability to skin the interface.  There are some really nice skins for XBMC (see Aeon).  I guess one reason to not allow skinning is to control the UI completely and on some level I get that, but the kind of people that would use an alpha product are the kind of people that want to customize.  I would personally love an Aeon like skin, it really impresses when showing off.  This isn’t really a deal killer, just kind of a “nice to have” because customizing the experience is kind of nice.

Overall

In the end, Boxee offers a lot, and the fact that it’s in alpha means that one can kind of forgive some of these things that I consider drastic oversights.  Hopefully the beta (due next month) will resolve some of these issues.  I think as the product grows and matures it has the possibility to bring something nice to the area of HTPC software.  However, if XBMC gets a nice Pandora app/plug-in, I’ll probably switch back to using that full time as I’m more familiar with it and like it’s skinning abilities.

Once you get the television, you will need to find content to display on it.  We discussed various HD content and what is and isn’t 1080p.  Buying a high definition television and not using it to watch high definition content is essentially a complete waste of money.  I highly recommend that you upgrade your cable/satellite box & service or looking into receiving over-the-air (OTA) high definition broadcasts via a digital tuner and high definition antenna.

Finally we looked at the kinds of cables that you can connect to your HDTV.  Since different cables can transmit different kinds of content, it is important to note what cables will bring you high definition versus those that will not.

Overall, you should have enough information to be able to start really researching various televisions and accessories.  I have not covered doing surround sound in this series as I wanted to focus more on the video (since that’s a large part of the HD experience).  Also, doing home theatre surround sound can be just as complex as picking the television to watch and really requires its own series of articles (we will not be covering that next).

Buying an HDTV Series Article List:

Introduction

720p vs. 1080p & Seating Distance

LCD & Plasma

DLP, OLED, & Projectors

High Definition Content

Cables

HDMI

This cable is probably the one you will hear the most about.  It carries both video and audio signals in a single cable.  This is fantastic as it drastically cuts down on the number of cables you’ll need behind your equipment.  Most high definition equipment comes with some form of HDMI connections available on it.  It is important to note: only HDMI cables can carry a full 1080p signal.  That’s very important to remember.  If you want a 1080p signal from a Blu-Ray player to be at its highest possible resolution, you will need to use an HDMI cable.

When it comes to HDMI cables, the sales guys at Best Buy will try to tell you that you need to $80, $100, or even $160 Monster HDMI cables they sell.  Do not fall for this trap.  I will point you to this fantastic article on HDMI Cable Bench Testing.  Even if you don’t completely understand the article, it’s worth a read.  The main point it makes though is that that $160 HDMI cable is no better than a much lower priced cable from Monoprice.  So when the sales guy tries to sell you the high dollar cable, simply tell him no thanks.  Believe me, it’s worth having to wait a few days for your cables then pay the prices some of these places are asking.

Component

The next step down from HDMI is component (I’m ignoring DVI since it is so close to HDMI).  Component cables are the 5 plugs (3 video, 2 audio) and preceded HDMI in HD content delivery.  These cables will support up to a 1080i resolution which makes them perfect for cable/satellite boxes when an HDMI cable is not available.  They are also slightly less expensive than HDMI cables (though not always by much).  Again, Monoprice is your friend here on good quality cables at more than reasonable prices.

One thing to keep in mind though, on some devices, the video component inputs are not right next to the component audio inputs, in cases like this you will need to purchase female-to-male cables to be able to run the audio component plugs to the appropriate place.  Check your connections before you place an order so you know exactly what you need.

Next Week

Next week, we’ll take a look at what we’ve talked about, and close out our series.

You do have a few options when it comes to high definition content.  The easiest is your local channels’ digital signal, but there is cable, satellite, or even Blu-Ray players.  All give you some form of high definition content, but not all of it is that covenanted 1080p resolution.  In fact, the only true 1080p source at the moment is a Blu-Ray player.  Television (either OTA or cable/satellite) is only

Local Stations Over-The-Air (OTA)

The quickest (and probably cheapest) way to get high definition content onto your new HDTV is to plug in an antenna to receive your local channels’ digital signals.  Most high definition televisions come with a digital tuner that will allow you to receive the digital signal with ease.  Something to keep in mind though is that different networks will broadcast different resolutions.  For example, Fox affiliates transmit a 720p signal while ABC affiliates will send out a 1080i signal.  You’ll probably want to take a look at AVSForum’s Local HDTV Info to find specific information about your area.  There is a lot of great information such as antenna aiming suggestions and signal information for various channels in several of the city specific threads.

Cable/Satellite

The next option is the all digital option of cable or satellite (or fiber optic).  These options are generally completely digital and do not require the use of an antenna or digital tuner in the television since the digital tuner is in the cable/satellite box.  Most of these signals for these kinds of connections are completely digital.  The main reason to go with a cable/satellite feed for HD content is that a lot of cable channels (HBO, Discovery, etc) have high definition versions of their channels, so you get access to more high def content.  Also, if you get something that has on demand content (i.e. Comcast) they also offer high definition content through this channel.  So you can get some pay-per-view movies in high definition.

Upconverting DVD Player

Finally, you have upconverting DVD players, while not truly “high definition” they do offer a nice way to take advantage of your television without having to buy a lot of expensive new equipment.  Upconverting DVD players can be had for less that 100 dollars (really good ones go as high as $200) and can send a higher quality image to your television.  A good upconverting DVD player will give you a noticeably higher quality picture on your screen (assuming your screen can handle the resolution).  You can rewatch a nice chunk of your movie collection and enjoy it in a whole new way for less than one hundred dollars.

Blu-Ray

The only true 1080p source is Blu-Ray.  If you have a 720p television, you can still send out a 1080p signal from your Blu-Ray player and the television will usually down-convert to a resolution that it can handle.  There are  a lot of Blu-Ray players on the market, and not all of them are equal.  The players that you see for sale for cheap (well below $200) are what are known as “Profile 1.0” players and do not conform to the latest standard of Blu-Ray discs.  This means that you might run into trouble playing newer BDs (Blu-Ray Disc) on these players.  Most of the players being released today however, are  “Profile 2.0” players and can play the latest discs, as well as do something that is called BDLive, which can give you additional content stored on servers for online access.

Something else to think about is that all Blu-Ray players work as upconverting DVD players as well.

Next Week

Next week, as we look towards finishing this series we’ll be looking at cables to connect this all together.

DLP Televisions

The abbreviation DLP, stands for “Digital Light Processing” and was invented by Texas Instruments.  Images shown on DLP devices are created by microscopically small mirrors that are laid out in a matrix.  Each mirror represents 1 or more pixels in the projected image.  So in this case, the number of mirrors corresponds to the resolution of the image being projected.

Most DLP televisions do what is commonly referred to as rear-projection.  This is why these televisions are generally much thicker than their LCD or plasma brothers.  However currently you can purchase 1080p DLP televisions that are larger than 70-inches for the same price as some 52-inch LCDs.  So you can get a really large screen but it’s going to come in a bulkier package.  Also, DLP televisions can lose some of their brightness if you aren’t looking directly at the TV.

Projectors

If you have the space and you want the true “home theater” experience, nothing will work better than a projector.  But be prepared to drop a nice amount of coin to go this route.  The 1080p projectors cost just as much (in most cases more) as a 1080p LCD/plasma.  The advantage here is picture size.  You can really get a true theater experience using a projector.  The downside to owning a projector (besides price) is the bulbs, they have to be replaced eventually and they can cost upwards of multiple hundreds of dollars.  Some can even cost as much as 1/3rd the price of the projector itself.  Also, it is recommended (though not required) that you buy an actual screen to display the projector’s image onto.  It will greatly improve the quality of your viewing experience if you buy a screen.  Again though, if you want the true theater experience in your home, nothing is going to beat a projector.

OLED

The Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) televisions are something that was just recently introduced (in the last year or so).  And currently there is only a single TV available for purchase via Amazon (Sony’s XEL-1 11” OLED Digital TV).  Since OLED is so new, the TVs are going to be expensive.  That Sony television I just lined to is $2500 for 11 inches of screen.  The big deal about OLED is that you can get really slim displays.  That 11 inch television is only 3mm thick, that’s really thin.  The other big deal about OLED is that it will supposedly fix all the flaws in LCD with regards to motion blur.  If this in fact the case, then OLED could beat out both LCD and plasma TVs once the sizes get bigger and the price comes down (but that’s probably not for a while).  Unfortunately there are not enough OLED televisions available to the general consumer yet to really be able to weigh the pros and cons of the technology.  We’ll just have to wait and see.

Next Week

Now that we’ve covered the different display technologies, we’ll next move is to help you understand what high definition content is available to view on your new television.

Plasma

We will start with the plasma technology since it is the older technology.  When you start looking at televisions people will generally push you towards the LCD displays because over the last couple of years they have become more popular due to their size and resolution (it was hard to find a 1080p plasma that was larger than 36”-40”).  This is no longer the case.  These days you can find plasma displays that rival LCD size and resolution and generally at cheaper prices.

Some things to consider when you look at the plasma televisions is that they will have smoother refresh rates, better viewing angles, and better overall pictures.  The downside is that they are generally heavier (which can make them harder to mount), can get something called image retention, and can have really reflective screens.

The reflective screen is not a big deal if you can control the lighting situation for the room.  With newer and higher end plasmas, the percentage on image retention is pretty much nil.  And the extra weight isnt really that big of deal as long as you take it into account when setting up the mount.

LCD

The LCD technology with regards to televisions has become incredibly popular over the last couple of years, reaching a point where they have been outselling plasmas for at least a year.  With LCD, you can get larger screen sizes than you can with plasma but at the moment, both stop at right around the 65 inch mark.

Some advantages to the LCD technology is the brighter screen works well in bright rooms, the screens are generally less reflective, and there are more LCD models that will do the 1080p/24 true cinema frame rate when compared to plasmas.  The downsides however can be pretty steep, the biggest two are viewing angle and motion blur.  Viewing angle is when you try to view the panel from any angle other than straight on.  moving to the side will cause the image to lose its punch.  Also, motion blur is/can be an issue depending on what you are watching.

When shopping for an LCD, you’ll notice some of them say “120hz” and what this is, is a way to combat motion blur.  You can look at this wikipedia article on “Flickr Free” to get a better understanding of what is going on with this and how it works.  Essentially it uses trickery to try and eliminate motion blur.  Common consensus though is that Plasma handles motion better than LCD.

So Which One to Get

Here are some things to consider when picking which of these technologies to go with for your HDTV purchase.  If you can control the lighting in your viewing room, Plasma is a really good way to go.  The less ambient light in the room the better.  If you’re in a bright room (lots of windows, lights always on regardless of time of day, etc) then you’ll want to focus on the LCD technology.

If you have to go LCD, I would recommend that you look at something with the 120hz technology to help fight the potential motion blur that could occur.  But, keep in mind that if the source has blur in it, it won’t matter what TV you have because the blur is in the source and the television will display what it receives from that source.

Another thing to consider is seating.  If there will be people sitting to the side and viewing from an angle.  Not all LCDs handle this very well, especially once they are made to not me so bright.  Plasmas handle this better as well but if you sit at a bad angle both don’t really do well.

Finally, you’ll want to consider the length of time between television purchases.  Most plasmas today have a lifespan of around 85,000-100,000 hours.  What does that mean?  Well lets say that a TV is rated for 50,000 hours, then it will take 17 years for the TV to reach what’s known as “half-life” when the picture will be only half as bright as when you first bought the TV (my understanding of this or my math could be off here, if this is the case please feel free to correct me in the comments and I’ll make edits).  So that’s just something to keep in mind.

Next Week

Now that we have discussed the pros and cons of the LCD and plasma technologies, next week we will touch on the alternate display technologies like DLP, OLED, and projection.  We’re just going to hit the high points of each and weigh the pros and cons.

Considerations to Keep in Mind

Just so you know, there is no hard and fast rule on display resolutions.  There are factors that will determine exactly how much detail you can see in the image your television produces.  Some of these factors include seating distance, eye sight, and even viewing angle.  When doing research for purchasing a high definition television, you will some charts that help you determine what size TV to get at various seating distances (example HDTV Distance Chart [PDF]), use these as a guide rather than a hard/fast rule.

720p versus 1080p

The numbers refer to the resolution of the image being displayed on the television.  What is resolution?  It is the number of pixels on the screen.  A pixel is a little dot of color that is part of a larger picture.  The general rule of thumb is that the more pixels you have in a certain amount of space, the better the detail you will see.

What do these numbers mean?  You will see them a lot so it is important to understand exactly what they are and what they mean.  The most basic definition of what these mean is the number of physical lines on the screen.  So 720p means 720 actual lines on the screen progressively (we’ll get into that a little later) where as 1080p means 1080 lines on the screen.  So basically the 1080 resolutions (both “p” an “i”) are going to give you better detail in the picture you see on the screen.  Both however will give you a better image over your current CRT television.

So which one is better?  You are probably going to spend a good deal of money on this high definition television set, so you’ll want to get the best deal you can.  When deciding on what television to buy knowing how far you will be sitting from the television on average.  For example, with a 52 inch screen you’ll notice the detail difference for a 1080 resolution at around 6 feet (remember these numbers don’t take eye sight or viewing angle into effect).  But with a 720 resolution you’ll see the detail at around 10 feet.  Remember that I said that those numbers aren’t “sure things” and your experience may vary.

But a 50 inch 720p HDTV can be had for less than a 1080p set (usually around 500 dollars less), so if your room has seating that’s 10 feet away and moving it closer is just not an option, then a 50 inch 720 resolution television will serve you better than 1080 television that is the same size at 10 feet away.  This is not to say that you wouldn’t notice any of the 1080 detail at 10 feet away, just that you will lose some of it in distance.

Extra Note – Some people will tell you that you won’t notice the 1080 difference until you get to screen sizes above 50 or so.  This depends again on your vision.  My friend has a 42 inch television and I can tell the difference between 720 and 1080 with my glasses on, with them off however I can not tell the difference.  Just something to keep in mind when looking at televisions in the store.

What Does that “p” Stand For

As you look at HDTVs in stores you’ll notice that some say “1080p” and others say “720p” on their descriptions.  You’ve probably have asked yourself (or a sales person) what this means.  The “p” means “progressive scan” and it is how the signal is delivered/processed.

There are two major kinds of scanning technologies available on most HDTV sets: progressive and interlaced.  When a signal is progressive, that means that the all the lines of a single frame are shown.  So if you have are watching 30 frames a second progressively, then you will see all the lines of each frame.  When a signal is interlaced (like most regular TV) you see the lines from two frames together rather than in a single frame.  This means that you are actually seeing parts of two different images rather than a single image.  When looking at an interlaced signal you are see what is called fields and two separate ones at that.  You will using see all the even lines of one field and all the odd lines from another field.

So overall, a progressive image is better since you see all the lines of a single frame and you see them as the frames move so you see more detail as a scene progresses.

Some will argue that it is really hard to tell the difference between progressive and interlaced, and they are right in most cases.  However, when you see interlaced content on occasion mouth movements can not sync up with the audio (this is because parts of the mouth might have lines in it that are from one field and the other part from the other field), images can look “off” on occasion if there is a glitch in the signal, and sometimes images can become disjointed.  Overall though, you’ll probably not notice the difference.  Where the progressive part really comes in handy is during action sequences, the scenes will “flow” better due to the nature of a progressive signal.

Seating Distance

Lets touch on seating distance real quick since it’s a really quick topic and doesn’t really need its own post.  I posted a link to a chart that shows about where the optimum seating distance is for various resolutions on different sized displays.  Again, these charts don’t take into account your eye sight.  If you have better eye sight you can sit further and still see the detail, worse eye sight and you’ll need to sit closer.

However, seating distance can play a huge role in how big a television to buy.  For this, I recommend Amazon’s formula.  While not exact it’s the easiest to do to get an idea on what size television to buy.

Minimum Size = Viewing Distance/3

Maximum Size = Viewing Distance/1.5

Like I said it’s not a hard formula to perform and it can help you figure out what size television to buy.  Bigger is generally better so the closer you can get to that maximum viewing size, the better you’re probably going to feel about your purchase.

Next Week

Next week, we will start look at the different display technologies with a heavy focus on LCD and plasma technologies.  I’ll probably do those in a single article and spend a second article looking at projectors and DLP televisions since those two options aren’t as popular as LCD and plasma but are available (projectors will become more popular as prices drop).

There is a lot of information out there floating around about high definition televisions.  It can be extremely confusing for the average consumer to go through and figure out what will work for them and what won’t.  There are some many things to consider when buying a HDTV that one can easily get lost in the process (I know I did).

What I hope to offer you, the reader, is an easy to understand series on what to not only consider when purchasing a high definition television but the things to look for and avoid.  Hopefully you can avoid the long and countless hours of research that I had to do.

Some thing we’ll be discussing are: 1080p vs. 720p, LCD vs. Plasma, viewing distance, connectivity (cables), and some more related topics.

Check back next week when we dive right in my looking at what exactly 1080p is and why you may or may not need it.

If they get the original cast back to do this, you can bet some easy money that I will buy it.  I own the complete television series on DVD and it was a great show.  If you have yet to see this fine piece of television then either buy it, rent it, or Netflix it right away.  You will not be disappointed.

Over the years the Fox executives have given us The Simpsons, Married With Children, House, as well as other great television shows.  They have also cancelled great shows such as Family Guy (brought back only after DVD sales soared), Firefly, and now we can add one of my new favorite shows Drive to this list.

I honestly do not understand what these guys are thinking.  Drive is a fantastic show and has the potential to be really great.  However, it will never get to see that potential as it’s been cancelled.

Go Fox, your record for killing great programs still stands above the rest.

For more information you can read the TVGuide article.

I guess I’ll have to find another way to get Smallville on my iPod since I am already record 2 other programs in the same timeslot on my DVR.

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For those that are unaware of the awesome-ness that is Firefly, allow me to elighten you. Firefly was a television show that ran for 11 episodes before meeting its end. It is also the reason that people now band together to save television shows. Written and conceived by Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel), this is science fiction for the now, with some of the best dialogue to ever grace the small screen. Firefly has been labeled as this generation’s Star Trek. From the article:

The universe of Firefly and its spinoff film, Serenity, featured everything from Old West-style towns to futuristic urban environments, gritty spaceships and pastoral retreats — freedom fighters, oppressive government agents, smugglers, outlaws, mercenaries, trader, townsfolk, futuristic geishas and a race of corrupted humans known as the Reavers.

The idea of making a MMORPG out of the world that Whedon created is nothing short of brilliant. This could be a MMORPG that I could actually get into. But, you never now.

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From the article:

The pay cable network is developing a one-hour series based on the popular 1990s Vertigo comics series. Mark Steven Johnson, the writer-director behind comic adaptations “Daredevil” and the upcoming “Ghost Rider,” is writing the pilot, while Howard Deutch is attached to direct. Johnson and Deutch will executive produce along with Michael De Luca, George Agusto, Chris Bender and JC Spink.

If you do not know anything about Preacher, it is an excellent read about a down-and-out Texas preacher possessed by Genesis, a supernatural entity conceived by the unnatural coupling of an angel and a demon. Given immense powers, the preacher teamed with an old girlfriend and a hard-drinking Irish vampire and set out on a journey across America to find God — who apparently had abandoned his duties in heaven — and hold him accountable for his negligence. But it is definitly not kid friendly and the fact that HBO has picked it up means some justice might be done to it.

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Consider the fact that because of legislature like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), it is illegal for you to circumvent any technology put in place to stop you from watching a DVD or listening to a CD in a manner that the movie and recording industry have deemed, wrong. The problem is that only about maybe 15% of the population needs to listen to music or watch a DVD in a non-standard way so laws like the DMCA go unnoticed expect by the computer elite. Sure you might find a normal person or two that have heard of the DMCA, but chances are they do not know much about it and it is something that their geeky friend(s) told them about.

The recording industry is the worst of the content providers. The recording industry and their special interest group, the RIAA, have made suing their customers a legitimate business. Though as more and more people begin to actually challenge this incredibly odd business practice, the recording industry is finally going to need to face the music (pun intended) and start giving into customer demands. The reason that the recording industry made the deals they had originally made with with Apple to sell their music in the iTunes store, was because they did not truly believe that no one would download music legally. Well, billions of songs later, the record companies want to raise the per song pricing of the songs on iTunes and they want a bigger share of the profits. The record companies proved they were nothing more than money hungry corporations who had very little idea about what their customers actually wanted.

The movie and television industries (who are kind of one in the same), took a different approach. Except for a very small handful of cases, these two content providers decided to prosecute the providers of downloadable movies, in other words the person who actually leaked the film, rather than sue the customers caught downloading. The television networks jumped at the chance to provide content in a digital downloadable format, some having to be paid for while others were free with minimal advertising. The ABC network (which is owned by Disney) released four of its top shows to the iTunes store in Apple’s first round of video releases. When viewership of those four shows spiked in the ratings, other networks almost trampled each other to get in door. Themovie industry was not far behind, you could download movies from Lions Gate’s own website and companies like CinemaNow paved the road for something better.

Apple, if nothing else, has proven that people are willing to download content and pay for it. There is a pretty standard rule in technology and it is the first person to make it easy for everyone to do, is the person who is going to make the most money off of it (or be the most popular). And this is why Apple with their iTunes store has been so successful in the digital download arena. They have provided an easy way for even the most computer illiterate to download digital content. As a result of this, they are extremely well known in this area now. Apple is practically synonymous with digital downloads.

Why would one set of content makers jump into new waters so quickly while another trudges along attempting to get legislation passed to hinder the customer’s digital rights? I firmly believe that the movie and television industries learned from the recording industries mistakes. Yes, they still make some of the same ones, but overall the movie industry has been more open to different and often better kinds of distribution. I think that the recording industry wants to hang on to the practice of telling the public what they should like by means of payola, MTV, and mass marketing. The record companies just can not accept the fact a person will listen to Dashboard Confessional and then two tracks later listen to Metallica or Prodigy. This is a foreign concept to the executives in the recording industry. Also, the recording industry has over the last two decades shifted their focus from quality artists who write real quality songs to the mass produced, easily marketable singles. There are artists from the 70′s and 80′s that released entire albums that were good not albums with 3 good songs and 7 fillers. This kind of consistency is almost unheard of today. If you do not have a song that can get millions of spins, the record companies want nothing to do with you. This is one of the reason’s iTunes was so popular. No longer were customers stuck buying a 12 song CD for thirteen dollars, they could simply buy the track they wanted for $0.99 ad skip the rest of the album. With the focus on singles rather thanentire albums of good songs and people only buying a single song instead of an entire album, the record industry would like to blame piracy for their ills, when really, it is their own current business strategies that is causing their bottom line hits.

The television industry has kind of had a resurgence lately. With shows like: Lost, Heros, Battlestar Galactica, and My Name is Earl; the people in television have learned that quality wins out every time. If you produce quality shows, people are going to flock to watch it. They have learned that having one good show after another spread out across 12-22 episodes will pull more viewers than a show that is hit and miss. This is one of the distinct differences between the recording industry and the other content makers. One refuses to change with the times while others work to find new ways to make the new technology benefit their bottom lines.

When you get right down to it, everything comes down to money. How many albums can you sell? How many tickets and DVDs can you sell? Or even, how many viewers can we get so can charge our advertisers more. I have no problem with the bottom line being what these content makers care about. It is in fact what keeps them in business. My concern is when they do not take well to change. If you as a business entity can not grow and change with the times and your customers’ wants then you will die out and bereplaced with some that will grow and change as well as meet the needs of the customers.

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NBC is releasing a small 7-8 page comic a week in PDF format on the Heros’ webpage at nbc.com. The comics give a little insight to a character each week and gives a little bit of what happens between two episodes.

I am glad to see that the television companies are utilizing marketing campaigns like this. When a show is as good as Heros is, people can not seem to get enough extras to tide them over between episodes.

Points to NBC for this one.

[Technorati Tag: Television]
[Technorati Tag: Heros]
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The show focuses on a a group of forty thousand humans that survived the nuclear destruction of the human race by the Cylons. The Cylons are the robotic artificial intelligence that humans had created who also later rebelled, commenced a war with the humans and then disappeared. The Battlestar Galactica is a ship from this first Cylon war and is on the verge of being decommissioned when Cylons attack the 12 human settlements, known as the 12 Colonies. Commander Adama, is in charge of the Galactica and commences to go to war with the Cylons. But after discovering a fleet of ships of the last remnant of the human race, he along with newly appointed President Laura Roslin decide that running away and looking for the lost 13th colony on Earth is the better option for the human race.

Through out the course of two seasons there are various struggles. These struggles range from political, military, and to personal. Every character is brought vividly to life by the writing and the back stories associated with them. But what really stood out to me was the various political and religious statements made through out the show. There is a lot of talk about religion in Battlestar Galactica, at least of a science fiction show. And the politics of the first two seasons have very familiar tones to our own (United States) government at the time. It’s almost as if the writers were using this show as a soapbox for some of their political and religious views, but they do it in such a way that one, it does not effect the flow of the show, and two if you are not paying attention you’d never notice it was there.

Battlestar Galactica, runs its viewers through a ton of various emotions and all within a few episodes. April and I watched the first 2 seasons on DVD, and doing so got us through the story up to now much faster but it also allowed us to see complete story arcs. This really ran us through a bunch of emotions and I can even admit to shedding a tear during a few scenes. The writers really work to make you feel for these characters and they succeed beyond any preset expectations.

Battlestar Galactica is good television and should be enjoyed by everyone.

Season DVD sets can be purchased via Amazon.com:
Season 1
Season 2.0 (Episodes 1-10)
Season 2.5 (Episodes 11-20)

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I guess the fact that the movie being shown on ABC has been advertised as a DRAMA while the Michael Moore film was labeled as a “documentary” could be the real difference. This ABC movie is not being advertised as non-fiction while Farienheit 9/11 was.

Article can be found here.

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All I can say is “Freakin’ sweet!”

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A news bit can be found here, at TVShowsOnDVD.com.

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