GETTING HIP WITH IT
Staying with and sometimes ahead of the times

I like to think of myself as somewhat with the times when it comes to technology. I am definitely not one to jump in on any new thing though. I like any new invention to get broken in by someone other than me. As such, I still do not have a DVR. I realize this has been out for a while, but my life is not so incomplete without it and I have not taken the plunge.

I have, however, discovered the wonderful world of Hulu.com. Hulu is a website where you can view all kinds of TV shows, clips, and movies originally aired on TV stations. I have found it a wonderful place to catch up on all the episodes of Fringe I missed or was unable to watch all the way through due to a screaming toddler.

Hulu will offer episodes for viewing about 8 days after it originally aired, with limited commercials. Whenever I watch I believe I only see about three or four commercials come on during an entire show. Because Hulu consists of only certain networks, not everything is available.

This website discovery has been great for me. I will have it playing on the computer next to me at night while I am working on my projects. I feel liberated. I am no longer chained to what is on TV that night. Together with my Netflix streaming capabilities, I feel my viewing potential is without boundaries. It must feel close to what it’s like to have a DVR!

Netflix Streaming: Improving the Quality of the Stream

I recently installed a Netflix Streaming Blu-ray player in a friend's house. The idea seemed pretty seemless until you start digging into it. My first observation was the installation is not something a "non-geek" can do with ease. The player did not have the right firmware out of the box and we had to do a complicated USB download and installation (the USB stick had to be totally clear of any other files).

Once we got the correct software loaded on the player, it worked quickly. You queue up some movies in your Netflix account and select them on your on-screen menu and it starts to stream the video to your blu-ray player within 30 seconds.

My problem was with the quality. There was a "quality bar" indicator that showed us that we only had 2 bars out of 10. Apparently the quality of the video codec streamed to your tv depends on your connection. The streaming of the movies were terrible at 2 bars. Barely watchable.

Here are some tips from Netflix on how to improve the quality: http://blog.netflix.com/2009/03/netflix-trying-for-consistent.html

If you do actually get your player to work, at a watchable quality, you will come to know quickly that a very limited library is available for streaming. That was the most disappointing aspect.

As a videophile, I recommend not hassling with the above. It will likely lead to disappointement.