Aunty's New Frock

I guess its a bit outrageous to kick off a blog and then not post for ages, but here's the reason why:


It's the ABC Commercial Media Player and it looks gorgeous, but of course this kind of media project should never be just a beauty contest. The real challenge was to integrate various media delivery technologies, in particular streaming, download, DRM and e-commerce. And still make it easy to use.

And it doesn't get much easier than buying downloads or DVDs (or both) inside the video player while you're watching the preview. Very smooth.

What's that, you say? iTunes? Well, its kinda clunky compared to this. But ohhh, aren't their devices gorgeous?

OK, yes... Aunty makes her content available there as well, but TV is a whole different ballgame to music - old media's transition online has created a complex, multi-faceted environment. On top of that, the Australian market adds its own challenges. Apple doesn't have all the answers.

SUCH a geek

I am now the hopelessly proud owner of a sonic screwdriver.

Curiously, it probably has even more functionality than the prop we see on TV... it telescopically extends, makes the noise and shines a blue light like the TV one... but it can also be used as a pen. By swapping amongst the supplied nibs, you can use it as an ultraviolet pen - the blue light it emits includes UV frequencies so you can reveal what you've written. I'm not sure why I think that's so cool, but it just is.

Of course, on TV the sonic screwdriver can do all sorts of stuff. Back here on Earth, though, we all know that a geek's real sonic screwdriver is one of these:


One sits on my desk to delight visitors. The other sits in a drawer until needed (they no longer let managers wear bladed objects on their belts around the office). One reminds me of the value of thinking beyond the immediate and the currently possible. The other can disassemble pretty much everything in my office with frightening speed.

In this job, you need both.

So close...

I know there's a lot of talk about Vista at the moment, but I needed at least one computer with it installed for testing - so what the hell, I upgraded my home PC.

Neatly side-stepping the many and varied blog entries that I could make about that process, the reason I took that decision was because of Media Centre.

Getting content from the interweb onto your TV is pretty much the Holy Grail for many content providers (at least those not obsessed by mobile phones) and lets face it, the sofa is way more comfortable for both me and Trixie. So I got myself a media extender, initially to see how downloaded files looked in the lounge.

But then, after many years of faithful service, the PVR broke down.

Her Indoors is sufficiently passionate about television that there may be several shows that are required viewing on at the same time. A PVR is essential, but our timing couldn't have been worse - Topfield is between models. Would Media Centre come to the rescue?

On paper, it should have been ideal. I'd been talked into buying a dual-tuner HDTV card with the media extender, so with a few settings tweaks we should have been good to go.

Initially, it all seemed to go well. The Media Centre interface is very well thought out, and the functionality was well ahead of the old PVR. But then I was summoned to account for a missing recording. It turns out that the driver for one of the tuners wouldn't start, despite being identical to the other (working) tuner. This meant that when two programs were selected to record at once, one would fail - at random, as there's no way of telling which tuner is to be used by which program.

The moral? A general-purpose desktop PC, particularly one that is still being used for general purposes, will never be as reliable as a purpose built appliance. Never. At least while there are as many hardware vendors for PC hardware as there are. Much as I'd like to meet whoever wrote the drivers for that tuner card for a "product evaluation session" (you know exactly the sort I mean), it's not reasonable for them to anticipate all of the possible hardware combinations that their card will be slotted into.

Which is one of the reasons Apple has such a reputation for reliability - they have complete control over the basic hardware in their machines, which means greater predictability for software developers and add-on hardware vendors. Fewer surprises for them means fewer surprises for the punter that buys their gear. But then the more open and chaotic nature of PC hardware means that you get a vast range of gadgetry at much better prices.

I've since fixed the issue, of course. I just have to hope it all holds together until the new PVR arrives. Otherwise my attempt at convergence may see me spending way more time on the sofa than I'd counted on.