I've mentioned before that we converted our DVD library so that we could stream it over our home network. One drawback of that setup was that my main development machine had to be online to host the videos. In addition, when anyone in the house wanted to stream that content, it put a small load on my machine. I really wanted to offload those demands. I looked at the various options on the market, and settled on the Western Digital My Book Live (2TB). The WD My Book Live is a single drive NAS that is DLNA certified. We had recently purchased a Samsung SmartTV (UN55D6000) which is also DLNA certified, so I was looking forward to streaming directly from the drive to the TV with no other components in the mix.
I installed the WD My Book Live on our network and set about copying over our music, movies, and pictures to the drive. We have quite a collection, so this was a multi-hour job. When the copy completed, I switched on the Samsung TV and it immediately found the My Book on our network. It streamed our home movies, music, and pictures perfectly, but each time I tried to stream one of our movies the set would stall on the Loading screen for about a minute before giving the message "Not Supported File Format". Even more frustrating, rather than returning to the table of contents, the set immediately attempted to stream the next file in the directory, which hung the machine for another minute until it responded to the request to exit.
I searched to see if this were a known issue, and which product was the culprit. I found that each product has their own slight issues that, combined, resulted in many users complaining about the same problem. It seems that Samsung's DLNA client makes use of the DLNA server in an unusual way, although still keeping within the letter of the DLNA spec. The WD My Book Live uses the Twonky Media Server to stream content. The version of the server on the device (5.1.9) did not respond appropriately to these requests, which resulted in a failure to stream the video. Other DLNA clients, such as my PS3, stream those same videos just fine from the WD MBL.
My first thought was to figure out what file format our home movies used and transcode our movie library to that format. That is a pretty daunting task considering the size of our library though, and if it sacrificed picture quality I wasn't interested. Fortunately, I found that other users with this same issue had found a solution. It seems that Twonky recognized the issue with Samsung sets and corrected it in the latest version of their software (6.0.34). Western Digital doesn't have any plans to release an official firmware with this version of Twonky, but that didn't stop folks from finding a way to do it on their own. This forum posts describes the steps for upgrading from the stock version of Twonky to the latest revision:
http://mybookworld.wikidot.com/forum/t-305396/upgrading-twonky
The Western Digital My Book Live is apparently powered by a PowerPC CPU and runs an embedded version of Linux. After modifying the config file for the machine, it is possible to get a terminal prompt and update the Twonky software. In addition to correcting the streaming issue with Samsung sets, it also includes the ability to display album cover art. Using this new version of Twonky is unsupported, and you have to pay a $20 license fee for the upgrade. I'll gladly pay that fee for working software, although I am disappointed that Western Digital doesn't plan to release this as an official upgrade.
DLNA
How to Make Your DVD Collection Streamable
If your family is like ours, you probably have a fairly sizable collection of DVDs. You have kids movies, feature films, television show collections, and potentially even home videos. Before Netflix made movie streaming mainstream, you probably thought nothing of keeping a media shelf full of DVD cases and occasionally popping one in your DVD player. It is so much easier now, though, to search for content through that Netflix interface. Wouldn't it be great if all of those DVDs you have around the house were as easy to access as your Netflix content?
Well, with a little time, a PC, and a home network, you can. There are a number of steps involved, though, so I've put together this guide on how to make your DVD collection available on your home network.
DISCLAIMER: This is a guide is intended for use with content that you *own* and have the *right* to use. Distributing copies of copyrighted feature films is against the law. Everybody behave and do good, mmkay?
Ok, with that out of the way, let's talk about the major steps in making your DVD collection available over your home network. First, there are a couple of things you are going to need:
- A Computer with a DVD drive. This guide assumes a Windows machine.
- A home network, wireless or wired
- A gaming console (PS3, Xbox360, Wii) or Home Theater PC (HTPC)
There are three major steps in going from the content on your disc to streaming to your TV, and one optional step.
- Rip the DVD content to your PC
- Transcode the content to a streaming friendly format
- (Optional)"Tag" the file with additional information
- Publish the content on your home network
Step 1 - DVD Rip
The first step is to get the content of the disc and onto your PC (otherwise known as ripping) where you can work with it. For this I recommend DVDFab. DVDFab is actually a swiss army knife when it comes to DVDs and Blu-Ray discs, but we're only interested in one feature: HD Decrypter. If you find the software suite useful, I encourage you to buy a copy, as the suite of tools is really quite nice.
When you open DVDFab you will be presented with a list of options along the left. We are interested in the DVD Copy option at the top. We then get additional options. When ripping a DVD, you can select to copy all of the contents of the disc, which includes the special features, menus, alternative languages, and other content on the disc. Alternatively, you can choose to copy just the main movie feature. Your selection will depend on the content you are ripping, but for most feature films your best option will be Main Movie. On the right hand pane of the window use the source field to select the DVD that you would like to copy from. In the Target field select the folder to copy the content to. DVD content is large, and you will want to have plenty of room on your hard drive. If your PC has two hard drives, I recommend creating a folder on the second drive for storing the DVD rips. In the "Volume Label" field name the content you are ripping. DVDFab will use the name from the source DVD label, but you are free to use whatever you like. The software will create a new folder in the target folder with this name. Finally, for best quality, dropdown the DVD size selector to choose DVD 9. This will retain a perfect bit-for-bit copy of the disc rather than performing compression. We're done here, so click the next button.
This next screen displays the tracks found on the disc and which one will be copied. DVDFab is very good about detecting which track is the feature film on the disc. However, if you are ripping a disc that contains episodes of a television show, you may find that you need to fiddle with some of the options. For now, I'll assume that DVDFab correctly selected the main track. Go ahead and click Start to get the rip going. This is a long process, and the time it takes to rip the disc will depend on the length of the content, the speed of your DVD drive, processor, and hard drive. Usually you can expect an hour of content to take about 10 minutes to rip, but this will vary.
Step 2 - Transcode to H.264
Transcoding is the process of converting from one video file format (or codec) to another. I like the Handbrake software for this step. Handbrake comes with a number of profiles that allow you to tailor the transcoding process to the device you intend to display your content on. For the purpose of this guide I'm going to assume you want to display the content on a high definition television from a gaming console, such as a PlayStation3. Select the High Profile option, as this will give you a good copy of the content for streaming without too much compression. From the menu bar, click the Video Source button and choose Video Folder. Now browse to the folder created by DVDFab when it ripped the disc. You may notice that the folder you selected now has several sub-folders: Main Movie->
Step 3 - Tagging (Optional)
While this step is not required to get your content streaming on your home network, you may find it helpful. Tagging allows you to supply additional information about the video file, such as the actors who perform, the director, date it was published, and cover art. I use a free app called MetaX to do this tagging. It isn't the easiest app to use, but the price is right and it has the features I need. First, open the video file you would like to apply tags to. You'll see it added to the list on the right. Next, select that item from the list. Now, on the left side, enter the name of the video in the search box and click Search. The app will pull up data from several tag databases that match the search term. Clicking search results will populate the fields in the main section of the app. If you don't find what you are looking for you can manually enter the details for your file. Once complete, click the check box next to each box that you would like associated with the file, or click the check mark button in the toolbar to toggle all checks. Finally, click the Apply button (shaped like an arrowhead) to apply these tags to the file. You can add several files to your queue and tag them all at once.
Step 4 - Publish
The final step to making your content available is to publish it on your local network. If you are running Windows 7, the built-in Windows Media Server software can do this for you. I've found the security settings required to get Windows Media Server to work properly to be very frustrating, so I use PlayOn. The PlayOn service runs on your PC and makes content available to your other network devices, such as other PCs, game consoles, and mobile devices. While you need to pay for a license for much of the content, the My Media (beta) feature is free to use without a full license. Again, the PlayOn software is great, and I encourage you to purchase a copy, but if you are looking to stream on the cheap, the free version will get you there. The My Media feature of PlayOn requires that you also install the VLC Media Player, which is a fantastic piece of free software for playing movies.
From the PlayOn control panel you need to configure the software to find your local files. Pull up the PlayOn settings window and go to the MyMedia tab. You need to check the box to enable the My Media feature (beta). You can then add folders to PlayOn that will be made available to your networked devices.
Start Streaming!
Now your content is published, go watch it! If you have a PlayStation3, your PlayOn server will appear as an option in the Video section of the cross bar interface. If you use a Wii you will need to open the Internet Browser and browse to the address of the server on your network. The same works for the Xbox360 or a laptop. You will be presented with a menu that allows you to select content. If you use an iPod Touch, iPhone, or Android device there are PlayOn apps.
The PlayOn interface for streaming is a little quirky, and it can be frustrating to try scrubbing to a specific point in a video. The DLNA support on the PlayStation3 is fantastic, and is a great way for viewing your streamed content.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting
There has been a lot of discussion recently concerning federal funding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). The CPB is a non-profit, private organization created by the federal government in 1967, and is charged with the stewardship of federal funds for promoting public broadcasting. The lion's share of these funds are awarded to local television and radio broadcasters. A much smaller portion of those funds is awarded to companies like National Public Radio (NPR) and Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Both of these companies are private, non-profit media enterprises that generate content such as Car Talk, All Things Considered, Radiolab, Sesame Street, Reading Rainbow, NOVA, and others.
According to CPB's 2009 Revenue report, the CPB had total revenue of $2,643,336,000. Of that total revenue, 81.9% came from non-federal sources, leaving 18.1% of the CPB's revenue coming from federal sources, or $478,443,816. In 2007, there were roughly 138 million federal tax payers in the US (the most recent number I could find). We don't all pay the same amount in taxes in the US, but if we did, that would work out to just under $3.47 from every federal tax payer going to the CPB.
Two of the biggest issues in politics today (or any day for that matter) are taxes and jobs. The tea party, and by extension republicans, have suggested that eliminating federal funding for the CPB is one method to help reduce overall taxation and move towards a balanced budget. This has met with a mixed response across party lines. Fans of NPR and PBS have expressed concern, and have taken to social media outlets such as Twitter and Facebook to plead for continued federal support of these organizations.
In my view, the majority of those pleading for continued support of the CPB are doing so because they enjoy the programming provided by NPR and PBS. I don't have any numbers to back this up, I'm basing this off of what I'm seeing from my social media streams, so this is hardly a scientific analysis. What may not be clear to these fans of NPR and PBS is how little of those federal funds are appropriated to the media enterprises. According to the CPB's Fiscal Year 2010 budget, $28,535,000 was allocated towards radio programming grants. According to NPR's records, federal grants make up around 2% of their annual revenue, which in 2010 were just over $184 million. So doing the math here, NPR received around $3.7 million in federal funds. Television is a similar scenario. The CPB allocates $71,587,500 in grants for television programming. I had trouble finding information on the portion of those grants that were awarded to PBS, but even if it is the full amount it represents a small percentage of the $571 million in total revenue that PBS received in 2010.
The funding to NPR and PBS represents a very small portion of the total funds the CPB distributes. The vast majority of funds are given as grants to local radio and television broadcasters. This is where the real impact of de-funding the CPB would be felt. By de-funding the CPB many broadcasters in rural locations who could not otherwise support their operations will go silent. These rural broadcasters are often one of only a handful of sources available in their area. Growing up, we didn't have access to cable at our home, as our home was in a very rural location. Satellite television involved very large dishes, not the Dish Network and DirecTV that you see today. The stations we could regularly receive at our home were our local PBS station, NBC, ABC, and CBS. Our home was certainly not as remote as what you might find in states farther north and west.
Given this analysis, I don't have a big problem with revoking funding to content producers, such as NPR and PBS. These media enterprises receive a very small portion of the federal funds allocated to the CPB. While any reduction in revenue is painful, to those pleading for continued funding based on their love of the programming, I say, make a bigger donation! I highly doubt that the revocation of funds to either of these media enterprises will result in the end of Sesame Street or Click'n'Clack. However, I do feel that the CPB provides an important service to Americans who do not represent a profitable investment to major network broadcasters. I do feel that revoking funds to local public broadcasters very likely might mean the difference between them staying on air or going off air. I do support the continued funding of these local broadcasters, and I hope that the CPB continues to receive funding to support them.
However, I hope that the CPB's mission is modified. Radio, in my opinion, is a medium on the death march. When do you listen to broadcast radio? At the home? Likely not. In your home, you are much more likely to be watching television or browsing the web. In your car? Maybe, or you might be listening to satellite radio, or your MP3 player. At work? Again, there has been a major shift towards streaming content over the web by office workers. Television, too, is not the media powerhouse it once was. I believe that the CPB's mission should be modified to help meet the president's call to improve broadband internet service to every American. By using the CPB's funding to retrofit local broadcasters with LTE data services (or some other data technology) more Americans will have ready access to broadband internet service. This will provide more than just a public media outlet, it provides access to the wealth of content on the web.
Controlling your Home Theater PC
Last year I converted one of our PCs into a Home Theater PC (HTPC). We had moved to a rural location that didn't offer cable, and I didn't want to pay a monthly subscription to Tivo just to be able to record Over The Air (OTA) television broadcasts. I purchased a Silicon Dust HDHomerun Dual Tuner unit and connected the PC to our television using an HDMI cable. This worked really well for setting up recordings of broadcast television for later viewing. One of the hurdles that limited use of the HTPC in our household was how to control the HTPC. Using a television or DVR is fairly straight forward. Most people are familiar with a remote control and will intuitively understand how to use them. What do you do when someone hands you a keyboard and mouse instead? I made several attempts at finding a good control solution that everyone could understand.
Attempt #1 - Wireless mouse + wired keyboard
Mouse - Logitech MX Revolution
Keyboard - Logitech Wave Corded Keyboard
These were already in the house, so it was the first thing to try. It worked ok, but there were some major annoyances. The range on the wireless mouse was terrible. The mouse was very touchy about detecting movement on fabric. It either wouldn't move, or it would jump all over the screen. We didn't need the keyboard often, but it was an irritation to have to get up to use it.
Attempt #2 - Wireless Multimedia Keyboard
Keyboard - BTC 9019URF
I also had this keyboard, which I'd picked up at Fry's on sale for $40 a few years back. It is a wireless keyboard that includes a joystick for moving the mouse as well as mouse buttons (right, left, click wheel). When I originally bought it, my intention was to strap it to my treadmill so I could get some exercise while doing my regular browsing, e-mail, bills, etc. It uses some custom RF protocol for communicating back to the USB dongle. It worked fairly well when sitting close to the receiver, but the range is really poor (less than 15 feet in my experience). It also chewed through batteries like mad. The mouse would tend to drift, as the joystick sometimes wouldn't right itself. Typing was painful, as it often missed or doubled keystrokes. I wouldn't recommend this keyboard.
Attempt #3 - Windows Media Center Remote + wired keyboard
Remote - Siig Vista Media Center Edition Remote
Keyboard - Logitech Wave Corded Keyboard
After the batteries died on the wireless keyboard, we ditched it and went back to the corded keyboard. Fry'shad the Siig Vista MCE remote available for $30, so I picked it up. Like the wireless keyboard, it uses a usb dongle, but is IR rather than RF. This worked really well on our Win7 HTPC. All of the buttons on the remote work as expected within Media Center, and the family felt comfortable using the HTPC this way. It was familiar, and it was a lot less like using a PC and a lot more like using a DVR. The remote also worked within the Hulu and Boxee interfaces to some extent. The only negatives were the need to get up to use the corded keyboard, and the slight ugliness of an IR dongle at the front of our media cabinet.
Attempt #4 - Logitech DiNovo Mini
HTPC Keyboard - Logitech DiNovo Mini
I received this as a Christmas gift and it is *awesome*! The DiNovo Mini is a very small form-factor wireless keyboard with a touchpad that can be toggled to either act as a trackpad for moving the mouse, or as a D-pad. The keys on the keyboard are about twice as big as on most cell phone keypads, which makes it easy to type with. The keys are also backlit, which is great when watching something in the dark. It uses a rechargeable battery, so no stocking AAs or AAAs. It has a hinged cover so that when it is not in use you can cover the keys to keep dust and other couch detritus out. The form factor is great. Traditional wireless keyboards are pretty big, and it is awkward to keep them on the couch or endtable. This little guy fits right along side my other remotes. I only have one minor quibble with it. The record button doesn't work. There is a driver hack to get it working in WMC, but by default the record button is mapped to Windows Media Player, and will launch it rather than setting the currently selected show to record. You can either use the driver hack or manually select record to work around this, but it was a point of confusion when we tried using the remote to schedule recordings. Aside from this minor issue, I can't recommend this device highly enough. The $150 MSRP is a little salty for a keyboard (you can find it for closer to $110 from Amazon) but in my opinion it is totally worth it for making the HTPC more useful.
Cutting the Cord
Last year we cut the cord to our cable provider, not out of desire, but out of necessity. We moved to a rural location that didn't offer cable services. Still, this was something that I had wanted to do for some time, and was glad to have my hand forced. My current setup is as follows:
- Win7 running Windows Media Center
- PlayOn Lite
- HDHomeRun Dual Tuner
- PS3
- Wii
- Netflix
I'm not a big TV watcher, but my wife is. She was quite surprised to see how much of the TV she really wanted to watch was available OTA. Sure, she missed being able to scan for the background noise of guilty pleasures on traditional cable networks, but not so much that we've missed paying the $100+ per month to watch them. We have a very limited "broadband" internet connection through our rural wireless provider (~1.4M down, 512K up) but it is enough that we can stream one show from Netflix. This has been a boon for our kids, who definitely would be missing Nick, Sprout, and Disney.
We setup our recording through the Win7 HTPC, and those recorded shows are available on our other sets via the PS3 using Windows built-in DLNA support, and on the Wii using PlayOn's MyMedia, which is currently in beta.
Another big project during this switch was to make all of our DVD content available on-demand. I used a combination of DVD Shrink, Handbrake, and MetaX for this project. Just like our recorded TV, that content can also be called up using the HTPC, PS3, or Wii.
It isn't a perfect solution. Bad weather knocks out both our OTA TV reception as well as our internet connection. Even with good weather, online content and services have a long way to go before it is a true competitor to what the major cable operators can offer. Asking my wife and kids to switch between Clicker, Hulu, PlayOn, Netflix, and a variety of other apps in the hopes of maybe finding the content they want to watch is non-starter. Keeping it simple is key, and that is something the cable operators have much better control over.
TV Follow-Up
The television issue has a happy ending. As a result of very good customer service on the behalf of both Samsung and HH Gregg, I have a replacement set in the basement now. The day after my last post I plugged in the set and it wouldn't come on. The power indicator was lit, but it never showed a picture. I was at day 11 on the set, and HH Gregg policy says they don't do returns after 10 days, so I was afraid I was going to be stuck. I called anyway and was thrilled that they would replace the set. I put it in the back of the van and within two hours was back home with a new unit in back. This was a much better solution, because once something breaks, even after repairs you'll always wonder how much longer it has. The new set is working just fine.
TV Trouble
All is not well in the land of the new TV. The first week I had the set, it gave me a scare. After a few hours of playing Burnout Paradise on the PS3, the TV picture suddenly went black. The set would seem like it was trying to power the picture back on, going from a dark black (off) to a powered on black (light black?). It would make a short buzzing sound, then back to off again. A few seconds later the cycle would repeat. I let it do this for about a half an hour but the picture never came back. I tried to turn the set off, but it wouldn't respond to either the remote or the power button on the front of the set. In the end, I just had to unplug it. After it was unplugged for about ten minutes, I plugged it back in and everything was working again.
Samsung 61" 750 series DLP
I've had a few days now with the new television in the basement, and I have a few thoughts. If you want to lookup the specifics yourself, the television is a Samsung HL61A750, which is the 61" DLP set in the 750 series. I've gotten a lot of the same questions, so I'll try to answer them here.
New TV
If you've been into any major electronics store lately, you probably couldn't pull yourself away from looking at the enormous, beautiful televisions on display. With the economy in a slump the prices on these units have come way down. For several years I've wanted to put a nice big HDTV in the basement, but finding the money for one amid all of our other needs just wasn't in the cards.
Blu-Ray Movie
Last night I got my first chance to watch a Blu-Ray movie on the PS3, and to be honest, I think I was hoping for a little bit more. Maybe the difference is more stark on a 1080p television, but on my 1080i set not so much. The biggest difference was in sound quality. I couldn't support the best audio option out of the PS3, but the bitstream option sounded better than our current DVD player does. The picture quality, while better, wasn't amazingly better. We have a progressive scan (480p) DVD player now, which looks great on our set. Our television is rear project 55" set that is about 5 years old. It uses the tradition 3-tube setup (3 monitors at the bottom, one red, blue, and green, converged by a mirror onto a screen), not the newer DLP, LCD, or plasma that are common in larger sets. Maybe with one of those newer technologies at the higher 1080p resolution it would really shine, but as it stands I'm less than blown away. The price premium for a Blu-Ray film vs. a DVD is anywhere from 50-100% depending on where you buy. So is it worth buying the movie twice to see this upgrade? For me, I'm not there yet. Hopefully the price of Blu-Ray movies come down over the next year as the price of players also fall and become more common place. Another hope of mine is to get a new big screen 1080p set so I can test my theory of the better picture on the newer set. Unfortunately, I don't see that one happening anytime soon :-P
Total Home Digital Video Recorder from AT&T U-Verse
The Total Home Digital Video Recorder (THDVR) is here! When we first signed-up for AT&T U-Verse service, the tech mentioned that two big features were scheduled to arrive this year. As I reported back in March, one of the few things we didn't care for about U-Verse service was the limitation of a single High Definition stream. We could watch or record one channel in HD, but the rest had to be standard definition (SD). The second issue was that each home was limited to a single DVR. With Comcast we had two DVRs. The tech said that both of our irritations would be addressed with future software rollouts planned for this year. Two months ago we noticed that AT&T had switched on the 2HD/2SD service, which allows us to watch two high definition streams and two standard definition streams simultaneously in the house. Last week I noticed that the non-DVR equipped sets had the option to view recorded programs. Yeah, the THDVR has arrived!
For folks who use DirectTV, this is nothing new, but I'll explain for those who don't quite know what I mean. In our house, we have one TV that is connected to a DVR, and three TVs that are connected to standard set top boxes (STB). The TV with the DVR can schedule recordings and play them back. The other TVs cannot. Now that the DVR and STBs have been upgraded we can schedule a recording from any TV in the house, and watch it from any TV in the house. So if I'm sitting in the living room and I see that Battlestar Galactica is going to be on later, I can schedule it to record. The next day, when I'm on the treadmill in the basement, I can watch that recording. Not only that, the kids could be in the family room watching a recorded episode of Dora, while my wife is in the living room watching the latest episode of Pushing Daisies in HD.
It's nice to see our service provider keeping a promise and rolling out new features without increasing our costs. This just affirms for us that switching from Comcast was the right decision.
Comcast vs. AT&T U-Verse
Competition is a good thing. Over the past couple months I've seen AT&T trucks rolling all over town, setting up little tents and doing lots of infrastructure work. Turns out they were installing fiber so they could offer U-Verse service in our area. U-Verse is AT&T's multi-service answer to your cable companies combined internet, television, and phone service.
The Frustration
I'm currently a Comcast customer (formerly Insight, rolled into Comcast for reasons unknown). I'm paying entirely too much for the service we receive. In our home we have:
- Widescreen HDTV in the living room
- Surround Sound Receiver and Speakers
- DVD / VCR Combo player
- Nintendo Wii
- Gamecube
- Comcast Dual-Tuner DVR
- Surround Sound Receiver and Speakers
- Studio Monitor in family room
- DVD player
- DVD player
- Standard TV in Basement
- Comcast Dual-Tuner DVR
- Countless video game systems
- Comcast Dual-Tuner DVR
- Standard TV in bedroom
- hooked directly to coax
- hooked directly to coax
As far as services, we get:
- Basic Cable (about 30 analog stations)
- Extended Cable (another 30 analog and 30 digital stations)
- HBO
- Starz
- Internet Service
Our local stations come in HD for free. So for those services and two tuners we were paying a total of $143.09 a month. Good grief! I don't have the bill in front of me, but I think it broke down like this:
| Dual Tuner #1 | $10 |
| Dual Tuner #2 | $13 |
| Basic Cable | $30 |
| Extended Cable | $30 |
| HBO | $15 |
| Starz | $10 |
| Internet Service | $35 ($45 with $10 discount for having television service) |
| Unexplained taxes and fees | $10 |
| Sub-Total | $143 |
Needless to say I've felt like Comcast has been bending us over for quite some time. I've also had a persistent gripe about the quality of their Video On Deman (VoD) service. The image is so compressed that during action sequences you can't really tell what is going on. I will say, however, that the quality of live television, especially in HD, is exceptional.
The Pitch
Now U-Verse sends us a pamphlet to let us know that their service is available, along with pricing and service comparisons.
U-Verse U400+Internet Express package includes:
- Nearly all available channels (over 400 digital stations plus local and music channels)
- HBO
- Starz
- Cinemax
- Showtime
- 1.5Mbps internet service
- 1 DVR capable of recording 4 programs included
- 3 non-DVR Set top boxes included
Total price - $124.99 / month. I assumed there would again be the usual $10 in unexplainable fees and taxes, but even given that it would be $10 less than Comcast for a whole lot more service. The other thing that really caught my attention was that the U-Verse service runs on CAT-5 cable (the same stuff that runs internet service to your PC). Our house is wired for coax cable (the traditional tv cable), but not for CAT-5. Some modern homes are wired for CAT-5, and I would love for our home to have it so I could get computing devices plugged in anywhere. Turns out, AT&T will wire your home for CAT-5 as part of installation, and the installation fee is waived! Awesome!
The Plan
So here was my plan - play the two competitors against each other. First, I called AT&T to get pricing on U-Verse. I wanted the U400+Internet service ($125) with improved internet service to 3.0Mbps (+$5) and HDTV service (+$10). Total - $140 which is what I'm paying to Comcast but with a lot more service features. I went ahead and placed the order for service and the installer was scheduled to come out in two days.
Next, I called Comcast to let them know about the AT&T service I just ordered, and that I wanted either more services or a discount. The operator stonewalled for a bit, but when she realized I was serious about cancelling that fat $150 / month check, she put me on hold to talk with her manager. Now here is gripe #1 with Comcast...it took 15 minutes on hold before an operator even picked up. Then I spent another 10 minutes on hold while she conferred with her manager. She came back to let me know that there was a package they could put me on that could offer more services than I have now at a lower rate. Turns out they had a HBO+Starz Digital Plus pack that included all of what I was getting plus over 100 digital channels and an extra set top box for $90 / month. Add the internet service and it came to a nice $125 / month. Great, I got what I wanted from Comcast - more services and a lowered bill!
Round 2 - I called AT&T to cancel the install. I had what I wanted from Comcast and there was no sense in installing the AT&T service if it was going to be ten bucks more, even if it did have more channels. After all, I hardly watch television. However, the AT&T operator quickly responded by offering $20 off for the first six months and reminding me that I'd be getting my house wired for CAT-5 for free. In addition, the first month of service would be free, and if I kept the service for 30 days I could get a $100 cash rebate check. So really, it would cost me nothing to try the service for a month to compare AT&T to Comcast. Given this scenario, I kept the appointment for AT&T to install on Friday, which just happened to coincide with when the Comcast installer would be in to install the new set top box in the upstairs bedroom. Oh what fun! Two competing installers at the house at the same time!
Oh, and before I forget, there was no long-term contract required for either of these services, so there was no penalty involved to cancel either way.
The install
On that 8am-noon arrival time, the AT&T installer arrived a little after 9am. Not bad, it gave me time to clear the cobwebs and have a cup of coffee. He walked me through the equipment that would be installed and we surveyed the house for the best way to run cable. We talked about the studio monitor in the family room that currently didn't have cable service and how it would be nice to have there. He took a look and said it would be no problem and no cost to run the extra cable, just $5 / month more on the bill for the extra set top box. So we gave him the go ahead on that extra set. He first had to run out to the D-SLAM (more on what this is later) to get service running to the house.
A little after 10am the Comcast installer arrived. He was in and out in under 30 minutes as he only had to hook up a box. I told him that I hadn't seen the new statiosn activated yet. He tried to call his dispatch to check on it, but ended up on hold for 10 minutes. He indicated that phone times had really degraded since the switch to Comcast, which I thought was a really weird thing for a Comcast installer to admit. Anyway, turns out the local office had a power outage, and the services were switched on by the afternoon.
The AT&T installer was at the house for over 8 hours! He got everything wired, fishing CAT-5 through walls, basement, crawlspace, and the garage attic. He left an extra 8-port gigabit switch to hookup all the PC's in the house and programmed all of the remotes for the TVs. I was really impressed with this guy!
The Comparison
Comcast
Pros:
- High Definition stations look much better
- All televisions in the house can view any channel at any time
- Two DVRs in the house, each with a dual tuner capable of recording two high definition channels at the same time, or viewing one channel while recording another.
Cons:
- Fewer HD stations available
- Fewer total stations available
- Video on Demand picture quality is terrible
- Only three sets hooked up in the house
- No choice on internet speed / price
AT&T U-Verse
Pros:
- Standard Definition televisions have a noticeably better picture quality on live television
- House is wired for CAT-5, yeah!
- Double the number of HD stations available
- Double the number of Digital stations available
- DVR can record 4 digital stations simultaneously
- Video on Demand picture quality is awesome
- Can host non-business related services on the internet connection
Cons:
- High Definition picture quality is good, but not quite as good as Comcast
- I can definitely see compression artifacts and aliasing in the picture
- Only one high definition station can be viewed at a time anywhere in the house
- Only one DVR on one TV for the house
- Overall picture quality on the High Definition Television for any station is not quite as good as Comcast.
Result
I'm torn. The HD picture quality on Comcast is noticeably better, and the dual tuner DVRs are a huge plus for my wife who is a voracious TV consumer. She definitely takes advantage of the ability to record one high-def station while viewing another. I don't watch much TV, but the TV I do watch tends to be the niche channels and Video on Demand stuff. So for me, the better picture quality of VoD and the abundance of niche market channels has real appeal. Add to that the inclusion of Cinemax and Showtime in U-Verse which Comcast asks additional payments for. We've only had the service for one weekend, so we'll give it a couple of weeks to see if we lean one way or the other.
The Technology
The U-Verse technology is really interesting. It is like no other television service. With your cable or even satellite television service, the cable company is constantly broadcasting all channels to your house simultaneously. So if you want to switch stations your Set Top Box (STB) just switches the frequency that it is tuned to. With U-Verse, only the channel you request is sent to your house by AT&T. So if none of the STBs in your house are on, nothing is being broadcast to your house. The way it works is a hybrid solution. AT&T runs a fiber optic cable to a residential box called a D-SLAM. The D-SLAM converts the signal on the fiber optic signal to a signal on your copper telephone line that runs the rest of the way to your house. You have to live within 3,000 feet of the D-SLAM for the service to work. This is much cheaper than the route that Verizon is taking with their Fiber to the Premises (FTTP) service where they install new fiber optic wire all the way to your home for every home in the neighborhood. The AT&T solutions uses your existing cable for that "last mile" connection.
So what does all that mean? It means that with U-Verse, you aren't watching traditional cable. Instead, you really have a very high speed internet connection that your television program is sent over. A residential gateway (RG) is installed in your house. This is like a giant cable modem with a 26Mbps connection. That's right, 26Mbps. Why such a big pipe? Not only does your internet service (1.5Mbps with the base offer) travel through this pipe, so does your television data. With current AT&T U-Verse service, one Standard Definition (SD) station uses about 6Mbps. One High Definition (HD) station uses around 19Mbps. This is where the single HD station limit is encountered. You just can't fit 2*19 into 26. If you have two HD sets in the house, only one can watch or record at a time. However, you can get 4 SD channels going at once (4 * 6 < 26). This also leaves room for your internet service (they currently offer up to 6Mbps service) as well as the future addition of VoIP telephone service.
So is that the end of the tech story? Not really. AT&T realizes that this limitation is going to kill them so they are working on improvement. One improvement is called the "bonded pair". You RG only really needs to use two of the wires coming into your house, but the installer is going to hook up another pair. Why? Later this year AT&T is going to enable "bonded pair" technology which effectively gives you two U-Verse hookups on one box, upping the total bandwidth to your RG to around 40Mbps. That alone would allow you to view two HD stations at once, but AT&T isn't going to stop there. They also plan to roll-out improved compression codecs. The U-Verse STB is currently decoding a MPEG-2 stream, which is a fairly old codec. In the coming months the service will be converted to use H.264 streams, which are a much higher compression while also a providing better video quality. The new codec will shrink your SD stream down under 3Mbps and your HD stream to 6.5Mbps. With the increased bandwidth and diminished stream size, AT&T plans to allow you to view 2HD and 2SD streams simultaneously. Let's see, with our new values that's 2*6.5 + 2*3 = 25Mbps. What about that other 15Mbps left over? Expect it to go to VoIP service and faster internet connections, or possibly some as yet unannounced service.
One last thing - the single DVR limit. Yeah, that's going away too. In the second half of this year AT&T is expected to release the Whole House Digital Video Record (or WHDVR for short) firmware that will allow you to stream recorded programs on your one DVR to any other set top box in your house. So now you can treat all of those STB's just like a DVR, and ignore the fact that the recording is being stored on another box. Neat!
Final Thoughts
Like I said, I'm torn on what to do about our service. But what would I recommend? If you do not have HDTV, it would be a no brainer to sign-up for U-Verse service over standard cable. The quality and selection are just so much better. If you have just one HDTV...it is going to depend on your taste. If you are HD snob, you'll be disappointed with the current service over what cable and satellite provide. On the other hand, if you have a smaller HD set, or just don't care about the quality, I would still recommend signing up. If you have more than one HD set that you use, the U-Verse product just won't work for you, so stay with what you have.
Television consumers are going to see great benefits of AT&T, Comcast, DirecTV, Dish, and all the other players going head to head for your entertainment dollar. Expect prices to come down and services to go up. Competition is a good thing!