Digital Home Thoughts - News & Reviews for the Digital Home

Curious about what was revealed at the Computex 2011 show? The team over at Netbook News collected the best stuff they saw at the show and put it into a single video. Worth a look!

"If you're considering uploading a movie or TV show to YouTube, go ahead and get it out of your system now, because pretty soon, such an act could land you behind bars with a felony count on your rap sheet - at least if Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) get their way."

While there is nothing imminent at this point in time, you've likely been thinking this idea was not far off. The proposal for this future bill is focused on increasing the penalties associated with streaming unauthorized content. The issue has been studied by Victoria Espinel, President Obama’s US Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator. Currently, related laws state that “reproducing” and “distributing” copyrighted content are felony offenses. Streaming, on the other hand, is still considered a “public performance,” which carries lesser consequences. It seems significant new deterrents will be in place, including up to a five-year jail sentence and fines. Hit the Read link for a more detailed discussion of the proposed bill.

No matter where you fall on the Apple/Windows side of the fence, you have to admit this is utterly hilarious - I love the way it plays to the fanboy stereotypes. ;-)

"If you take handheld videos (on your smartphone, for example), the videos may suffer from shakiness. YouTube has an easy fix for this issue with their video stabilization editing feature."

Lifehacker has posted a nice tip about the YouTube video stabilization feature. If you are the type of person that takes a lot of videos with, say, your smartphone, then you'll be very familiar with the issue this feature is trying to resolve. Those shaky videos can be improved quite easily, although the processing time for your video may make you wait a fair bit to see the result. Nevertheless, results can be quite good and may help you get the most out of a seemingly poor video.

If you're a power user who has ever done overclocking, you've no doubt spent hours in your system BIOS tweaking settings and reminiscing on the early '90s when we were still using DOS. The computer BIOS hasn't significantly changed in well over a decade - some might say two decades - but, finally, the old BIOS as you knew it is dead. Long live UEFI!

"We've gone through a few ways to ensure a fast internet connection when you need it, but if your voice and video chats are of sub-par quality, there are actually quite a few different settings you can tweak for optimal connection.PC World has a great guide to tweaking the more advanced settings of your router for optimizing your router for VoIP and video, though the same rules can apply for any bandwidth-heavy activity like file sharing or video games. While we've discussed a few of the options before (namely QoS and port forwarding), PC World also mentions a few settings we haven't touched on before, like using a DMZ, splitting your traffic between two wireless networks, wireless multimedia extensions, and wireless intelligent stream handling."

If you use video chat a lot, but experience choppiness, or lag, or even just general poor video, then there may be some tweaks you can make on your router to improve this. Lifehacker found an article on PC World about settings that you can change on your router to improve voip and video streaming.

"So, how would renting a movie from Flix on Stix work? Basically, you'd step up to a kiosk, browse for a movie (or a TV show, or even a game) using a touchscreen interface, pay with a credit card, and then plug in a thumb drive (your own, or one supplied by Flix on Stix) into the kiosk's USB port."

Here we go again. Remember DIVX? No, not DivX, DIVX. It was a system attempted by Best Buy where you could "rent" DVD-like discs that would play in special DIVX players. You would pony up some cash, and a licensing server would then allow you to watch the DIVX movie on a DIVX player for a certain amount of time. When you are done, you would toss the disc. Not ringing any bells? That is because it failed. Read more...

Product Category: Video, Graphics, Photo & Music Software

Manufacturer: Roxio

Where to Buy: Amazon.com [Affiliate]

Price: $82.98 USD

System Requirements (Minimum):Microsoft® 7 (32- or 64-bit), Windows VistaTM SP2 (32- or 64-bit), Windows® XP SP3 (32-bit), Windows®XP SP2 (64-bit), Intel® 1.6GHz Pentium 4 processor or AMD equivalent, 512MB RAM for windows XP and 1GB RAM for Windows Vista and Windows 7, 1024x768 DirectX 9.0c compatible graphics card with at least 16-bit color setting, sound card, DVD-ROM drive, Hard drive with at least 3GB free space for the installation process.

Specifications: External Link

Pros:

• Fun, quick, and easy;
• Huge, capable, fully loaded suite;
• Learning Center.

Cons:

• 3D features won't please everyone;
• Not all applications in the suite have been improved;
• Retail price double that of iLife.

Summary:There is a third dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and between Roxio Creator 2010 and 2012 - which indecently is Roxio Creator 2011. I have taken some liberties with Rod Sterling's famous words (see The Twilight Zone), and Roxio has taken some liberties with the notion that two dimensions can be converted into three. But really, how cool would it be to do just that - convert your 2D photos and video into 3D? I put on the included 3D glasses and took a look for myself. Spoiler alert - it's pretty cool! Read more...

What's that? You're keen on getting a Nikon D7000, but you're kind of curious how the video looks, how (if?) they compensated for the "Sensor Jello" problem, and what the ISO performance is like in video mode? Well, wonder no more: the above video should answer most of your questions. Curiously, it's only available in 720p rather than 1080p. Still, it's helpful!

Long-time readers of this site know I'm a big fan of Smugmug; they deliver the best platform for photo sharing I've seen, and customer service that's light years beyond anything else I've experienced. I don't consider myself a professional photographer - I don't charge for the photos I take - but I take advantage of some of the services that Smugmug offers. The video above looks like it was shot with an all-DSLR approach, and looks as beautiful as you'd expect.

I'm a long-time Smugmug user and it's really cool to see a behind the scenes video about the company. I have a great deal of genuine respect for Smugmug as a company - they're very different than the big faceless corporations out there doing photo sharing/hosting. If you're passionate about photography and are curious about some of the inner workings of Smugmug, this video is worth watching. Too bad it's not in HD though!

Excited about the Canon EOS 60D? Then these two videos will get your blood pumping - the one above is the marketing promo video, and the one below is a series of sample videos taken with the camera (and looks great). Enjoy!

The above screen shot of the email I just received pretty much says it all; I'm a MotionBox subscriber, so this is somewhat disconcerting, because they don't mention what happens to all of the embedded MotionBox video out there. I've used MotionBox on my personal blog, and have embedded quite a few personal videos there...so will that stop working? I have no clue - but I have less than a month to find out. I'm not very pleased by this - guess I should have gotten an account with Vimeo. :-(

"Everyone has had the experience of staring at the back of a machine, device, or gadget, scratching their head, gazing in bewilderment at some unfamiliar cable port. In this massive guide to the bizarre world of plugs and cables... we'll explain nearly every modern connector for computers, TVs, and audio equipment, including which ones to use when you have choices, and which ones you can easily adapt to fit others."

Until all equipment becomes wireless, connecting the gear in our Digital Homes will depend upon a variety of cables. PCWorld.com has put together a "Giant Cable Guide" intended to help sort through the various types of cables and connecting ports that might be found in the typical home. The Guide is broken down into five categories of cables - Display, Proprietary, Peripheral, Audio/Video, and Networking - and includes advice on preferences (e.g.: when possible, use S-Video instead of Composite Video), adapters / converters, and methods that can be employed to add additional outlets to a given type of port. I found the article somewhat basic (or skimpy) overall, but it might still be a useful reference.

"DSLR's, the game-changing family of hybrid cameras are the darlings of the media world. Cheap and capable of eye-catching imagery, they've captured the imagination of thousands of would-be (and real life) cinematographers and directors. It seems everyone has a feature in production using the neat little cams which are going to take over Hollywood. But this picture isn't perfect. Here are 8 reasons not to buy a DSLR for video."

This article brings up some excellent points about the limitations of using a DSLR for video - the biggest of which is the ergonomics. DSLRs were designed to take pictures; video is just an afterthought. I love the way DSLR video looks, but this article raises some very valid points that should make anyone re-think a DSLR video project if they assumed it would be easy. Not that it can't be done - Vincent Laforet has proven amazing things can be achieved - but it's not something you should go into blindly. I wonder what kind of challenges they had on this episode of House shot with a DSLR?

"PC Audio and Video are frustrating. Over the years of writing my Digital Lifestyle newsletter I've answered hundreds of reader questions on everything from common Windows XP frustrations to specific issues in dealing with audio and video problems. Eliminating the frustrations quickly so you can get back to watching video, creating home movies, archiving your music collection or simply enjoying your computer is the primary aim of this ebook: Audio and Video Answers."

Jake Ludington is one of the most experienced digital audio/video guys I know - I go to him for answers when I'm stumped - and he's discounting his 200 page eBook from $47 down to $7 for a short time...the sale price ends on April 16th. If you'd like to expand your knowledge of digital audio and video, I'm certain this is worth your $7.

"New features in this release include tethered shooting support for select Nikon and Canon cameras, the ability to import and manage video files from DSLR cameras for a streamlined workflow and additional behind-the-scenes architecture enhancements for faster importing and loading of images. The addition of luminance noise reduction to the color noise reduction options already available in the beta helps photographers achieve overall exceptional image quality from high ISO images. The import experience and watermarking functionality have also been modified to reflect feedback received from the Lightroom community during the first beta period."

Anyone using the Lightroom 3 beta? I'm toying around with it on one of my laptops, but it's a sadly underpowered 1.6 Ghz AMD Neo processor that is pretty awful at keeping up with Lightroom - I'm still using Lightroom 2.0 on my main media editing computer. Lightroom 3.0 brings some pretty cool things to the table - I like that it's able to import and manage video files now. It's a hassle to insert a memory card, import the photos using Lightroom, then have to manually dig to get the video files. I don't expect Lightroom to help me edit the video files, but I do expect it to at least import them for me. Looks like Lightroom 3.0 is shaping up to be a winner!

What's funny about this video - and it's not the ham-handed joke at the beginning - is that it's highly unlikely that a first-time DSLR buyer would pick one of these up. More likely is that pros or semi-pros with lots of money already invested in a lens system would pick a model from their brand of DSLR. Still, it's fun to compare each model and see where each one shines - Nikon really trumps Canon now in low-light shooting in terms of noise, but Canon has a clear lead in the realm of video while Nikon sputters along at 720p 24fps video.

This is an unboxing and first impressions video of the rugged and waterproof Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS1 [Affiliate]. This camera has a 4.6x optical zoom, a 12.1 megapixel CCD sensor, and can shoot 720p video in AVCHD Lite format. It's dustproof, can be dropped from five feet, and is waterproof to 10 feet. It also features optical image stabilization, a 2.7-inch 230,000-dot LCD display, and all the usual features such as face recognition and smart presets. It comes in orange, green, or silver. I purchased the orange one, largely because I thought a bright orange camera would be harder to lose on a beach or under water. The full specs can be found here. Read more...

"More than 81 percent of all online video viewers click away if they encounter a clip rebuffering, according to a new study by Tubemogul. The Emeryville-based video distribution and analytics startup took a close look at 192 million video streams over the course of 14 days to figure out how much rebuffers matter. The result: 6.81 percent of all streams rebuffer at some point, and around 2.5 percent rebuffer twice"

People are not very patient with re-buffering video streams. It appears that online video streaming will not be viable until the end to end solution is a lot more reliable. Viewers are not willing to accept videos that pause almost seven percent of the time. It seems like an odd phenomenon. People will wait through commercials (or at least until they can fast forward their DVR past the commercials) to watch TV, but if an online video re-buffers for a couple seconds they will quit watching. Maybe people who watch videos online are used to instant access to everything on the Internet. Alternatively, maybe they are more willing to wait for commercials to watch Grey's Anatomy than to watch a video of some strangers cat running into a window on YouTube.