Thoughts of a multimedia madman

Monday, May 22, 2006

eTV hotel TV system

While I was away at a wedding this last week I had a chance to observe a rather fancy hotel room TV service at the Future Inn in Cardiff Bay. This system isn't your ordinary low grade 14" portable with some badly tuned in satellite channels and maybe an "information channel", this was a super fancy system called eTV. This eTV system appears to be a standard PC running inside a Fujitsu Siemens specialised multimedia case. The case had SCART sockets as well as your usual monitor outputs, there appeared to be a network card and some RCA audio connectors as well. Connected to this case was an infrared receiver for the supplied remote control and keyboard. The video output went to what appears to be a standard 19" or larger Sony LCD monitor and some Logic 3 speakers were mounted under the desk to provide the audio output. The specialised computer case I mentioned had 4 directional buttons on the right hand side plus an "ok" button in the middle, there was also a green backlit 20x2 LCD panel in the centre of the front panel, along with a DVD drive above it. The case itself is quite large for a media PC, it's larger than a typical VCR though smaller than the average home cinema amplifier.

The computer itself can be turned on from the remote and therefore doesn't require user to push any button on the case itself to get started. After passing by what appeared to be the BIOS start up a loading screen then appeared before what appeared to be evidence of X windows starting since I say a gray chequered background and a black cross briefly before the eTV interface came up. At this point I could tell that the box was probably running Linux, this was only further confirmed when I right clicked at one point to see a pop up menu that was definitely not Windows or Mac styled. The interface itself seemed to be well presented and easy to use, I felt very comfortable using it and I think a lot of thought has gone into it. The interface is divided into 4 colour coded areas: TV, Internet, Mail and Music.

From the TV section I could watch a selection of UK TV channels which appeared to be the standard Freeview selection. The TV section also gave access to pay per view movies all of which had an image, along with a synopsis of the film and a viewing cost of £5.95 each. The Internet section provided access to a built in web browser that you navigated with the supplied keyboard which also had mouse functionality integrated, I found the mouse a bit clumsy to use but the web browser seemed perfectly functional to me. The Internet section also offered Internet games, these appeared to be fairly standard Flash based games such as a Puzzle Bubble clone and other simple games, I did find it slightly annoying that I couldn't use the remote to play these games.

The mail section seemed to you access to a range of e-mail services, I didn't really touch these but they seemed to cover web mail and standard mail. Finally there is the music section which I found the most impressive and developed. From the music section you can play an audio CD, access a worldwide selection of Internet radio stations and play a selection of stored CD albums of which a good variety of artists and genres were covered. The audio playback appeared to be powered by the Helix DNA system for the album playback and Internet radio however I did notice the album playback could be a bit problematic.

My thoughts are that the eTV system is essentially a customised Linux distro which runs X with a main application providing all the UI. Because there appears to be no aerial I assume there is a central computer in the hotel that provides all the data such as TV channels as well as the music which is then pushed to these client devices in the hotel rooms. I think the system is impressive and certainly a step in the right direction for hotel systems and the system is not unlike the media server stuff I wrote while at University which I had actually envisioned its use in a hotel in a similar way to this system. This is certainly a system to keep an eye on and I think it's a good example of a well implemented media client/server system.

Friday, May 12, 2006

Who are Sony kidding?

Sony have finally unveiled the full details of their PlayStation 3 (PS3) console to much fanfare but is it going to be a hit or a disaster? I think Sony have taken a huge gamble and I think they have made it clear where they are focusing their market. Forget the PS3 being the must have Christmas present for all but the most spoilt children. The initial price is going to be eye watering $499 for the cut down model and $599 for the standard model, that's over £400! You can buy a PC for that which is arguably a more useful purchase.

The PS3 does come stuffed full of technology and for anyone needing a multi functional media box this could be a good buy even at this initial price as it offers High Definition Blu-ray playback as well as DVD, CD and even SACD (that's the high definition audio successor to the CD if you didn't know). It also has a multi-format memory card reader which I assume will let you view and maybe manage your digital photos. The Bluetooth facilities may allow some form of interaction with your mobile phone and the wireless networking should allow you to access services like Sony Connect for music/video (I assume).

OK so Sony have made a well specified device that should tick all the boxes for the young male market especially the computer and home cinema geeks. However unless my observations are the exception then the games market is still largely dominated by children and adults under the age of 25 who are those most unlikely to have £400 to stump up for the PS3 and it's a very tall order to expect it as a present either. Therefore Sony must either be prepared to drop the price noticeably and risk some serious money loss or they need to convince the buyer that the PS3 is a valuable asset to their home entertainment setup for the media features as well as the games. I think they may just about convince male buyers that it's worth the investment but as for women and those on low incomes I think this will be a very hard sell especially considering the asking price. My personal belief is the majority of population would not buy a console that cost over £200 and at £400 it's unlikely to attract many new players to the platform because of the initial investment. This initial investment will require the purchase of at least one or two games which could add another £80-100 on to the initial cost.

I think by contrast Nintendo's aim to hit a much lower price point will be far more attractive to everyone especially families. The added bonus of the controller encouraging more active participation especially in games such as tennis will further encourage parents and non-gamers that it's a more worthwhile purchase over the traditional button bashing controllers used at present.

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Keeping it real with technology

"Just because it's possible doesn't mean you should put it straight into products" is a point I feel needs to be stressed when new technology comes along and lets you do something cool. Take for example the wireless security and ignition systems now being installed into many new mid to high end cars. These systems allow you to unlock your car and start your engine without the need for keys, instead they use wireless fobs or other means to identify the driver of the car. These systems eliminate the need for mechanical security and entirely rely on software and are hence vulnerable to hackers who can in some cases break the security in under 20 minutes, just ask David Beckham who lost two BMW X5's because of this.

The problem we face is it's possible to replace so much of the stuff in our lives with computer technology and the sales / gimmick value of doing so makes it very tempting to do so but this isn't something we can rush into. New technology can takes years to implement correctly and reliably and often those who rush in first get burnt. Would you trust your Windows PC to be a life support machine? Of course not! I love new technology and all the new possibilities it brings but also being a software developer I know how hard it is to deliver something reliable and secure especially if when you add in commercial pressure to deliver something within a set timeframe. I wouldn't trust or rely on anything that hasn't been thoroughly developed and tested though I'd quite happily test and experiment with something that's bleeding edge.

Our cars are already full of little computers doing all kinds of important tasks and I feel happy relying on them doing their job though I'm a little concerned that the ECU in my Fiat is a bit unreliable. However you won't find me buying in early to new technology like electronic braking and assisted driving until it's been well tested in the real world. If you do buy in early to new technology you are making yourself the industry equivalent of a drugs test volunteer and the potential consequences of that can be unpleasant.

Inspiration for this article: Gone in 20 Minutes: using laptops to steal cars

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Custom electronics

I've recently taken an interest in electronics, it started as part of my efforts to build my media box. Last summer I wanted to use a better, higher quality interface to my TV than a standard S-video connection as TV out via S-video was a bit blurry and the colours weren't very clear. To fix this I built a VGA to RGB SCART cable which maps the pin out of a VGA cable to a SCART cable directly. Since the success of that project I've been considering a few others, one of which interested me is building an alphanumeric LCD display for displaying information such as CPU stats or track details while using Winamp. The device itself seems simple enough to build but what surprised me is the cost of the components. In the case of the LCD module it isn't hard to see how quickly the price shoots up when you're only buying one. Graphic LCD modules (where you control each pixel) are even worse, some of ones I found listed cost even more than a Gameboy! It seems the economies of scale play a large role in electronics where as an individual buyer one component will cost me more than what it costs for me to buy a complex electronics device from a retail store. If you don't believe me, take a look at the cost of a TFT panel or this small 320x64 graphic panel from RS Components!