jr conlin's ink stained banana

About a week ago, my Archos 605 exploded. Well, not "Oh God! My House is on Fire!" exploded, but the battery catastrophically failed and expanded to the point where it blew the back off the device and dismounted it from it's DVR base. i suspect the problem was that the near constant trickle charge from the base it was on caused the problem. i contacted Archos and the offered the option to RMA it, and replace the battery for $65 (Which, i'd guess means rolling the "Oh God! My House is on Fire!" dice again in another couple of years), or $100 off on a new Archos5 or 7. Considering i already have an Archos5 (which i've now relegated to "charge and load only before lengthy trans-continent flights"), i decided to not send Archos any more of my money.

This kinda lead to the next question: What should i get as a DVR?

It's actually more complicated than it sounds.

You see, i kinda got used to the idea of having a second DVR that i could use to record my geek-tastic shows on and have playing while i wrote code. It was also sometimes useful to have something that could encode video and audio when i wanted to save something that didn't come on CD or DVD. i have a Hauppauge 1600 that came with my desktop computer, but it's only recently kinda/sorta supported under Ubuntu, and frankly, i still can't get it to work quite right. i also had a crufty old USB video capture plugin device i'd picked up sometime in the past for $30, and let me say that it's capture ability rivals that of an etch-a-sketch. Plus, neither of these had a decent IR Blaster so having it change channels for me was kinda out.

One thing i've also kind of learned over the years is that it's often better to have dedicated devices rather than farting around with trying to get something else cobbled up and working. Instead of trying to get wireless networking operational on a given device, it's cheaper and far easier to just go get a dedicated access point.

To that end, i ordered a Neuros for $99 (oddly, cheaper than the PVR base add-on for the Archos5, when it was in stock). Toss on one an old 60GB drive i slapped into a USB shell or a spare CF card i've got and i figure it'll suit just fine (Hell, if i really wanted, i could probably just plug in a cheap 1TB USB in a few years and be good to go for quite some time.)

Plus, if i ever do get that 1600 working right under Ubuntu, i can move this thing to the bedroom. Which is something i'd have a helluva lot more problems doing with my desktop.

i'm sure that it's strange to a lot of folks in this era of convergence, that i'd be happier heading in the opposite direction. i won't argue that it sucks that i need something like a bandoleer to haul around the various gadgets i'd like to have, but then again, i'm not terribly upset when the latest version of the phone i just bought gets video either. (Or really that upset when my camera stops working and can't swap it out.)

Today, i ended the media hub experiment.

i pulled the living room PC out of the entertainment center, and reformatted it with Kubuntu. There's a few reasons for this, but ultimately it boiled down to one big one. i wasn't using it.

See, the original idea was that having a PC in the living room would allow me to do things i was currently unable to do. Things like watch movies, see pictures and listen to music. Granted, it did do that, but in the end, so did my laptop, and that's where things started to fall apart.

What i've found is i really don't need a dedicated box, or more appropriately, a less dedicated box. Like i mentioned earlier, my living room already has a suite of appliances that pretty much do what i need. i don't need a box that tries really hard to be something that already works exceptionally well.

When the folks that promote these sorts of things talk about them, they talk about building for the 10' screen (since that's about how far most folks sit from the TV). Having a dedicated computer wired up to the TV was ultimately a broken experience. A TV (even a HD one, doesn't have the sort of resolution that a 27" monitor does. For that matter, a 27" monitor isn't really all that legible from 10' away either, a remote makes a lousy keyboard (as does a keyboard make a lousy remote) and so anything you see has to be seriously customized.

That's one of the really bad parts. You see, with things being seriously customized, behaviors and functions have to be sacrificed, what was once on a single screen now has to be divided up onto several dozen because it simply doesn't fit otherwise. It really is so much easier to simply drag out the nice, 17" laptop and run some photo gallery at full screen for a bit. (Heck get a mouse that can do long distance and you can even sit at the other end of the table.)

That's great, except there's less and less reasons to have your computer console 10' away from you. Smaller, more useful devices are becoming more the norm. Sure, i've got an Archos, but honestly, an iPod is just as good for showing video. Plus (unlike some hulking box permanently wired into my living room) those devices are cheaper and more portable. For a few bucks, i can get cables to plug said device into the TV and i'm back at showing videos on my TV. Yeah, getting up off the couch to pick a new movie is a pain, but Americans need more exercise anyway. Plus, as i demonstrated to myself last night, i sat with the Archos on the wireless net surfing around while Anne Marie watched TV. i had a separate screen that didn't interfere with what she wanted to see, and was able to look up TV listings for a show we both wanted to watch later.

That really was the final straw for me and the moment the lightbulb went off. i'm exceptionally geeky and wanted to make this work, yet it didn't. It certainly didn't work for Anne Marie. If it wasn't really working for me, why would any of my non-geek friends, relatives or relations be bothered with this?

The box is going up for sale tomorrow at work. i'm figuring maybe $250 for it since it's still in good shape (Heck, "hardly used" seems appropriate.) and possibly someone else might find it far more interesting to play with than i did.

Kinda sad, but in many respects, the most interesting experiments are the ones that don't turn out the way you expect.

i'm seriously digging the Archos, and i blame Mookie.

See, he's the one that observed that having a iPod Touch was nice because he could use it to watch shows. Interesting thought, thinks i, and so i tried a little experiment.

Previously, i'd spend time trying to zone out with the tube becoming increasingly annoyed that there wasn't any good shows about astronomy, cooking or particle physics to fill my dreams with string theories and meatballs. So i set up a copy of Miro and have it set up to fetch various things of interest. i don't watch them on Miro, though. No, instead i grab the Archos, open up the shared directory and start playing the streams as i lay beneath the covers. Yay!

i'm… i'm a huge geek, aren't i?

For various reasons (up to and including the fact that i just found out i had jury duty this weekend), i decided to get an Archos 605 wifi. i can hear the collective gasp that i didn't get a touch iPod or any other such beast, but hang on a minute, let me explain why.

First off, this isn't an ipod.

Let me expand on that. The iPod is a device that plays music, shows videos and oh yeah, connects to the web. The Archos is a video device that plays music and connects to the web. Oh yeah, and does other stuff too. Unlike the iPod, this thing is really more a "Portable PVR with Wifi". i got it principally because i figured that it would be a fairly good at being that, and to be honest it doesn't do a half bad job of it.

It's not without it's lumps, so let's get those out of the way first:

1) It costs more than you think.
It bases for around $279 and for that you get a pretty respectable player. To do any video or USB stuff, however, costs you. ($77 for the DVR station, but that does let you connect up to HDTV, $30 for access to the built in browser, $20 for access to the unencrypted VOB player, and possibly $20 more to play H.263 and AAC streams)

2) It hangs on occasion.
Kinda annoying, really, but then it's a little box doing quite a lot.

3) It's slow to recharge.
Granted, i've been messing with it quite a lot, so that's not exactly helping the recharge speed.

Plus my own personal nits:
4) It can't talk to my Samba server (but then, i know there's something goofy in the configuration since it doesn't show up in the browse list for any of my other windows boxes.)

5) It can't really drive my 100GB portable drive.
While it's USB2 in, it's probably NOT USB2 out right now. Or it could be that with the unit charging there's not enough juice to drive the external drive too. i'll check that again later. It can read it fine, only there's not enough power coming out of the USB-A to drive the disk. Adding a 5V power supply solved that problem.

6) The Wifi Server doesn't quite work.
Again, haven't dug into this 100% but when i set it into server mode, i can't find it or connect up. i'll go read the manual and see if i can figure out what the problem is.

and now The Good.
It's small. Smaller than i thought. It's about the size of a large pad of post-its. The DVR station is also kind of small, with the connectors in the back, so there aren't wires all over.

The DVR remote is both small, and pretty powerful. It passes the 10'+ range with ease, has a mini keyboard and mouse pad, which is pretty cool when you think about it. (Not illuminated though, so touch typing is a must.)

Did i mention it does HDTV? Yep, a tiny little box has no problem sending HD quality signal through the SVideo or component outs.

As for the browser, again, it's definitely a plus. It does flash and AJAX without a complaint, and the 800×400 screen does two types of renders, the "normal" which is still readable, and a "zoom" version which doubles the size of the fonts. Again, pump it to the TV and i've got late night browsing.

i'll also admit, full screen videos wins.

So far, there's more to like than dislike about it.

Now, for the question i've been asking myself, what about my previous media box? Will i be trading it in for another one of these? No, probably not. i tried grabbing a stream from KQED (didn't work), so anything that doesn't come as a flash stream probably won't play.

Still, i'll probably poke around with this more and more to see what i can do with it.

Recently, someone was talking about Media PCs and what's good and bad about them. About three quarters of the way through my reply, i realized that it would make a great blog post, so here it is:

My general problem with these boxes is that they seldom integrate with what you have already.

Most folks have equipment they've already purchased and invested time in learning how to operate (VCRs/DVD players, TiVo's, cable/satellite, etc.) All of these often have specialized connectors or controls that create a huge rats nest of wires behind one's home entertainment center. Granted, tech geeks and home entertainment fetishists can afford to turn over $500 equipment investments, but the other 98% of consumers won't.

Media PCs often do a lot of things, but never quite get them 100% correct. That means that media PCs almost never replace equipment the consumer already has, rather, it becomes yet another box, and unlike some of those (e.g. a tuner/amp) not even a central element. About the only device they may replace wholesale is a $50 DVD player, and at five to ten times the cost, not a particularly sound investment at that.

My dream Media PC is one that actually removes problems rather than introduces them.

It would have:

• 2GHz CPU with 1GB memory minimum (video processing takes horsepower)
  with large copper core cooling stack to reduce noise.
• 80GB min 5400 RPM drive
• "small" footprint
• 8 USB 2.0 fully powered inputs (ideally independent hubs)
• long distance RF wireless keyboard, mouse, remote (minimum working
  distance 20 ft.)
• HDMI bus support (for stackable HDMI input/output connectors)

In addition, it would have a set of "stackable" USB plugin modules, each module would support Input and Output support for:

• Video
  S-Video, component, RCA
• Audio
  Optical, standard phono jack
• IR
  multi-frequency IR remote control with "stick on" broadcast unit.
  (Note, these currently do not exist in the market, and would be fairly pricey per unit. The gains would come via the devices ability to intelligently program and mix using them.)
• A dedicated 7.1 USB sound module output.

Why this configuration?
The CPU/Memory bit is already explained. Handling the conversion load, particularly for high-def, isn't cheap. Particularly if the CPU is also responsible for rendering the video.

The disk may seem fairly small, but most home networks have NAS type servers. The local disk would be mostly used for local data storage and operating system concerns. Additional storage would be provided by the USB ports.

Why 8 powered full USB2 hub ports? Because that would provide hideous amounts of bandwidth for attachments, including the IO modules (mentioned later), disk storage, network connections and other things. Some, obviously, could be split across a USB hub since things like mice and keyboards don't require a great deal of bandwidth to use. Making the consumer think about that, however, is bad. (This is another reason for having the 2GHz processor)

The HDMI interfaces are ugly and quite possibly evil. Personally, i'd prefer something like the much rumored high-speed USB video link since that doesn't have stupid overpriced licensing concerns or weird DRM restrictions, however HDMI is the current standard and will become more pervasive until something better shows up.

Operating system should be irrelevant, however the greatest support for Codecs and licensing DRM is currently Windows based, so i'd probably recommend XP Media Center in order to use JANUS based media.

And finally, the input/output port modules. Frankly, these could be their own devices, really, but they're what makes the whole system "tick". The #1 Biggest Problem that folks at home have to deal with is wiring together all your crap. in some respects, i kinda lucked out. i've got an amp at home that handles up to five video and audio sources (s-video/rca audio-video/digital audio) and lets me switch to one of them for output and display. It's because of that one feature i can't get rid of my amp, even though i really don't need it.

The PC could then be used as a smart central device, allowing for "one button" switching and setup with existing devices as well as any internal functions that may be desired. People may not need/want/desire a replacement for some element (e.g. game consoles and satellite/cable boxes with integrated DVRs. Cable Cards are currently not a solution.) The PC is smart, and could be configured to do all sorts of clever routing and handling. There's no need to have only one path so long as you can define an input and output module.

That's what the Media Center PC should be. The Central PC for my media. The master control system that is much more than just a replacement for a Tivo that shows RSS feeds and pictures of cats from Flickr. That crap is secondary and shouldn't be even close to a main feature. It wouldn't be cheap, but it would be modular and allow me to swap out stuff easily as well as buy stuff as i needed or could afford it. Anything else is just another black box driving up my power bill.

Can someone build that, please?
(right after they build my ultimate portable media device?)