The Title says it all, Netflix has added TiVo to it's list of partners (expect full rollout early December).  Does anyone not expect Netflix to be everywhere by Christmas, and possibly in HD?

Thanks to the folks at MediaMall, you can now watch Netflix Instant Movies and TV, Hulu, and more on your Popcorn Hour, PS3, or Xbox.

Here's a video showing the Popcorn Hour in action:


Play Netflix/Hulu on Popcorn Hour (and Xbox/PS3) - Watch today’s top amazing videos here

Video review of Popcorn Hour's 2 new products, the A-110 and B-110.  There will be a companion audio segment in RHTI 40, recorded this weekend:

Popcorn Hour A-110/B-110 Review - The Real HT Info Podcast - The most amazing videos are a click away

No major changes in functionality here, so I didn't spend a lot of time flashing up the video with cut scenes, and the like.  Instead, I focused mainly on comparing the original A-100 with the 2 new offerings.  If you haven't seen the review of the original, you can catch it here:

Popcorn Hour A100 Review $179 - Amazing videos are here

While not surprising, welcome news all the same.  Netflix Instant Watching Movies will be coming to the Micorsoft XBox 360 this fall.  Couple this with the recent price drop on Xbox 360 Pro (which also makes a decent media extender) and you're looking at a pretty solid deal. 

Here's the catch, you have to have an XBox Live Gold membership which will run you $50 a year or $8/month.  For non-gamers, the Roku Box is still looking pretty attractive at $99 w/ no fees.

(picture via Engadget)

The short version:
This $99 box, along with your $9/month Netflix Subscription (which you may already have), allows you to stream any of the 10,000 Watch-It-Now movies and TV shows on Netflix.com to your TV over a wired or wireless connection.  While the Netflix offerings are currently in Standard Def, It's also ready for when HD becomes available.

So, how valuable is this really?  Just visit your Queue.

Of the 440 movies I currently have in my Netflix Queue, 44 are available for Watch It Now.  No, I didn't make that up; A Perfect 1 in 10 of my movies could be viewed instantly at no additional charge (those same 44 movies would cost me $132-176 at Apple iTunes).

Couldn't you already view these movies on your TV if you have a laptop or HTPC?  Sure, but this product is for the other 99%.  Think your mom, your kids, your brother-in-law who was in the fishing accident.

And what's next?  Not that I think a $99 player (with potential for future HD upgrade) isn't already great, but what this signals to me is that we can expect to see more Netflix integration into devices that we already have (PS3 and Xbox).  Maybe even the Popcorn Hour?

"Dream Big", I always say.

About a month ago, I finally got around to watching The Bourne Ultimatum, and now forgive Bourne for beating Transformers and costing me $35 in an Oscar pool (I still won, but it was a tie and I had to split the top prize).

The Bourne Ultimatum took home the award for Achievement in Sound Editing and Sound Mixing, as well as Film editing.

I've started noticing little "jokes" sound designers put in.  For instance, in the car chase scene in Ultimatum (1:30:52 in), Bourne rolls a cop car and a spring flies off towards the camera with this "sproing" sound.  Maybe it was an unintentional joke, but I laughed.

Here's an MP3 of the "sproing" in question:

http://realht.info/blog/blog_items/bourne%20car%20chase_mixdown.mp3

This got me thinking about the craziness that is sound design and Foley effects.  When they film that big car crash, they don't just set up a camera and microphone and then run the cars into one another.  

In fact, it's likely that very little of the sound is from the actual car crash.  More likely is that all those sound of twisting metal and breaking glass are created on a sound stage, then painstaking added one by one after the fact.

Odds are that spring was added after the fact also, in CGI.  Either that, or it was the most fortuitous spring explosion ever, and they just had to play it up.

You can currently get the HD-DVD Combo disc of Bourne Ultimatum (will play in a standard DVD player) for less then the price of the Standard DVD.  I've also linked the book, for those of you still clinging to the printed word.

So its not totally official yet, but The Popcorn Hour A100 is due for a $37 Wireless N adapter which will provided 20mbps streaming of HD Video from your PC or server to a small, noiseless device connected to your Home Theater (should be more than sufficient, but faster speeds are possible in the future).

In my opinion, you'd have to be a fool to buy a Windows Media Extender (if you could find one) over a PH at this point.  Apple TV still provides ample competition, especially with a user interface that is the best out there, and given the PH's near unusable support for music.  On the other hand, good luck getting anything but Apple-blessed formats to play, whereas the PH doesn't ask questions, it's just throws up your High Def Content in your Theater.  Got file formats?  Popcorn Hour plays 'em.

Similar devices like the iStar, with their fancy on/off switches and new-fangled SATA support, had been creeping up on the PH for a while, but with Wireless, the Popcorn Hour pulls ahead once again.

Here's my video review of the Popcorn Hour A100, in case you missed it...


Popcorn Hour A100 Review $179 - Click here for another funny movie.

My "Free" HD-DVDs are here.  I mailed the form in on February 29th, and they arrived on May 7th.  Not too bad I guess, your typical 6-8 (or 10) weeks.

What I requested:
The Italian Job
Pitch Black
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
The Frighteners
Troy

What I received:
The Italian Job
12 Monkeys
Jarhead
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (combo dvd)
Troy

So, other than having no desire to ever watch these movies again (I've seen them all at least once), not a bad deal.  I was going to ebay them, but instead, the first person to email me with the subject line "Long Live HD-DVD" wins one of them, your pick.

If you don't know the email address, you'll have to do a little detective work, eh?

Fine print: Open only to residents of the US.  If you're the first email, and you reside in foreign lands, I'll give you a shout out on the show, but you're on your own for HD-DVDs.

UPDATE: Congrats to Jon who was first in and selected 12 Monkeys as his free HD-DVD.  Thanks to everyone who emailed.

As a side note, I promise NOT to do the next contest at 8pm on a Friday.

Back in Episode 8 we started a brief discussion on Acoustics in your Home Theater.  Then in Episode 10, we talked about how you can make panels that help treat reflections, making everything sound cleaner and clearer.  Well, the most commonly prescribed material for such a panel is fiberglass.  Of course, fiberglass can be itchy and irritating to work with.

On the other hand, open-cell foam is non-irritating and easy to work with, but it doesn't perform nearly as well as fiberglass, and is often more expensive.

Well, a company called SoundAway has a product made from recycled denim (essentially reclaimed cotton).  Not only do they perform very well, they are fairly inexpensive, non-irritating, and earth-friendly.

The material comes in a variety of thicknesses, and is available in flexible rolls for in-wall or adhesive mounting, or more rigid panels that can be hung on a wall or used as ceiling tiles.  The panels even come in a variety of colors, so no fabric covering necessary (well, it depends on who you ask).

I need an excuse to order some of these to see them first-hand.  Maybe the Weis Cinema could use some (no, it definately could, I just need to see what kind of budget I get in July.)

I'm trying to think of an excuse to get my hands on a couple, but my own space is about as treated as it's going to get.

Ever wonder what the big boy's theaters look like?  Well, it doesn't get any bigger than Dolby.

Here's a shot from Jim @ Platinum Home Theaters.  He'll be on the show in the future to talk about his trip to both Dolby and THX.

"I visited Dolby today, and met Ioan Allen, who as you probably know, developed the application of Dolby technology to film sound, and appears as the "Dolby Consultant" on many film credits, and also met Craig Todd, who developed the steering logic behind Dolby Stereo (theater systems) and ProLogic.  I also got to see their screening room, designed by Ioan, and he took me through some of the design criteria.

The seats were designed to be acoustically identical to a human, so the acoustics of the room don't change if it's fully occupied or not.  The acoustics are also variable, they can make it more live for recording work, or very dry for films."

You know what a fan of DIY I am.  If you have the knowledge and skills, there are countless ways to improve you system while saving money.

I'm also a fan of front projection systems.  When it comes to getting that larger than life experience, you need a big screen, and at 10 feet away, that screen should be at least 70".

For a screen that size, you're looking, almost exclusively, at front projection.  Front projectors are really coming down in price, but the thing that folks always forget to factor in is the cost of the screen.  You can't just shine that projector on a white bedsheet and expect to get the best image possible.

Of course, a professional screen can add $1000 or more to the cost of your Front Projection system.  But is there a less expensive option?

Some the folks at The Home Theater Shack think so.  They've come across a mixture of aluminum and base coat paint that seems to rival even professional screen at a cost of only a couple hundred dollars.  They call it Black Widow because it is very bright while retaining good black levels (high contrast ratio, if you will).

The mixture can be applied to a piece or wood or laminate material, or directly to a wall, if you choose.  Jim even floated the idea of using these speakers and painting right over them (we'll have to ask him how they sound).

So can this DIY screen, costing only a few hundred dollars, really rival the performance of professional screens costing thousands of dollars?  I'll leave it for you to decide based on the measurements, but the folks using Black Widow seem pretty happy with the results.

If you're looking for a DIY screen, I'd take a look at Black Widow.

I'm already getting emailed specific questions about the AW1 from Episode 31, so I'll be covering a follow-up in the ext episode.  Post or email (realhtinfo@gmail.com) questions, and I'll make sure they get answered.

Thanks,

Marshall

Here's the full review (finally).  The popcorn hour does so much, that in in these 15 minutes, I could only scratch the surface.  If you have specific questions or requests about this product, please let me know at realhtinfo@gmail.com , and I'll do my best to get you the answers.

Popcorn Hour A100 Review

Unless you've been at a conference in St. Louis, you've probably already heard the news.  HD-DVD pulled the plug, leaving Blu-ray the winner by default.

To bad, so sad, I'm glad...

...well mostly.  I'm still a little sore that the lower cost, more consumer friendly DRM alternative didn't win, but hey, whad ya' gonna do?

So two immediate thoughts:

1) Congrats Blu-ray, but let's face it, you got here on back room deals and market-fixing, not by offering a superior product.  Feel free to quote bandwidth and capacity, but HD-DVDs specs in that area were more than sufficient for High-quality HD, especially given VC-1 and H264 vid, and DD+ audio.  Give us a standalone player sub $200, and complete your spec already.

2) Now to HD-DVD...let's face it, you lost this war for yourself.  You had zero response for Blu-ray announcements.  When the going got tough, you sat there with dumb looks on your faces.  Now, we've all invested in hardware that won't play the latest titles, and when that hardware dies (as mine tried to after only a FEW HOURS), our HD-DVD collections will be worthless.

Here's what you need to do...release the encryption and offer us an easy way to take the 1s and 0s off the HD-DVD discs and burn them to DVDs or Blu-ray discs in a format that our PCs, Blu-ray players, and media centers will play.  VC1 and H264 with DD audio will do fine.

Wipe that "who, us" look off your mugs, and do the right thing.  You gave us the pointy end of the stick, and now you owe us.

I'm in St. Louis for the next few days at the NACA National Convention.  My main reason for attending is to try to hire an employee for the upcoming school year...for my "real job" of course.  The Podcast can't even afford me right now.  Luckily, it's a labor of love.

Looks like the timing for this trip couldn't have been worse, as the HD-DVD empire is slowly crumbling.  I recommend Engadget HD for the latest, and I'll try to record some commentary as soon as I get a free moment here (a special STL edition of The Real HT Info Podcast).  Do take their coverage with a grain of salt until you hear from Tosh themselves (official press release-style); the EnHD folks can be a little Blu-Biased (call it "sensationalism", "good journalism", whatever.)

Wal-mart, according to a corporate blog, is ditching HD-DVD hardware come June.  While Best Buy stopped short of thi, saying that they would continue to carry the HD-DVD players (but not to tell their customers), Wal-mart's going the extra mile and banishing HD-DVD players from their shelves.

Now, I'm sure you'll still be able to pick up the HD-DVD media at Wally-World, but with studio support slimming, new titles will be slow coming.

I'm an unabashed HD-DVD supporter.  While remaining officially neutral in the war, I've admired HD-DVDs low production cost, low consumer-hardware cost, and a spec that was complete from day 1.  That is to say, I'll miss it when it's gone.

Those days are coming sooner than expected.  I bet one listener that, on Dec 24th, 2008, there would be HD-DVD media on the shelves at Target, and HD-DVD players for sale at Best Buy.  While currently, both of those are true, it might not last until Christmas Eve.  On the line, $1, a Holiday Card, and a little pride.

$1, a card, and my pride?  A small price to pay for a unified format.  I long for the dayswhen we can talk about Home Theater without discussing the Format War.  Maybe, we could even reintroduce audio into our recently video-centric HT setups?  Dare to dream, I say.

To the victor goes the spoils (and to whoever gives me quality downloadable content, goes my dollars, if anyone's keeping score.)

We're Going Blu-ray
	Dear Marshall, You're receiving this email because you have asked to receive high-definition movies in the HD DVD format. As you may have heard, most of the major movie studios have recently decided to release their high-definition movies exclusively in the Blu-ray format. In order to provide the best selection of high-definition titles for our members, we have decided to go exclusively with Blu-ray as well. While we will continue to make our current selection of HD DVD titles available to you for the next several months, we will not be adding additional HD DVD titles or reordering replacements. Toward the end of February, HD DVDs in your Saved Queue will automatically be changed to standard definition DVDs. Then toward the end of this year, all HD DVDs in your Queue will be changed to standard definition DVDs. Don't worry, we will contact you before this happens. You can click here to change your format preferences. We're sorry for any inconvenience. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please call us at 1 (888) 638-3549. -The Netflix Team

So ebay has been kind to me.  I had been trying to pick up a pair of S38ii, planning to use one as a center channel, matching the pair I had already as fronts, and giving me 3 identical front speakers.  But, S38ii were hard to come by, and I'm, weak, so the plan went out the window...

...which is how I came to be the proud owner of a new pair of JBL S310ii ($260 shipped for the pair).  They'll be going in as my new fronts, and I'll probably move one of the S38ii to center.

I've had them for almost a week, and just got around to connecting them today.  I'll give you my impressions in a few days.

I've decided to wait until after Jobs' Macworld address (12 noon eastern tomorrow, the 15th) to do the next episode, and then include it in the CES roundup.  Frankly Macworld and CES are so close together (they actually overlap next year), that they should be considered the same event.  I'm sure Apple would be happy to take part in CES, if it weren't so full of the little people.

Jobs' days of rubbing elbows with the likes of Samsung or Logitech are over.  He dines alone these days.

Still, Apple's foray into Home Theater with the AppleTV and Downloadable movies has made them relevant in the HT world, just not too relevant, and I'm guessing this Macworld is going to change that.  Here are my predictions for the Macword Keynote, along with the percentage chance of them actually happening:

100% - Apple starts a rental program for it's downloadable movies (sorry, TV will stay purchase only).  This is a given as Microsofthas the lead and Apple needs to catch up in this area.

75% - These rentals will be $2.99 for older movies, $3.99 new movies
...and you'll only get 24 hours to watch them.  This is way too expensive, but there's only a 25% chance that apple will hit $1.99, which is where they need to be to make a splash.

50% - These movies will be HD w/ discrete 5.1 sound
It's a toss up as to whether Apple will meet Microsoft on the HD front.  There is just as good a shot they will stick with sub-DVD quality for rentals.

25% - Blu-ray in Macs
Even so, it's will probably not be standard equipment.  Expect it as an option, or as a "Black Pro" model with a $400 idiot tax.

10% Apple TV refresh/Mac mini HTPC edition
The old Apple TV has unused functionality still, no refresh in sight.  But, there is a slim chance that apple will release a Mac Mini Pro model, if you will, or HTPC.  It will have the Front Row-lite or AppleTV interface (but not full Leopard), come with a remote, and allow you to purchase or rent movies from that simple interface.  It will be black.  It will have Blu-ray.  It will have TV tuners as an option (but certainly not cable card).  It will cost $499.  It will likely not happen and jobs will retire te mini, much to the dismay of the HTPC crowd incapable of building a proper PC themselves.

0% - HD-DVD in Macs
If this happens, I will eat 8oz of Crisco and then punch myself in the face.  Email me with more creative wagers, realhtinfo@gmail.com

Well, Christmas came and went, but Dec 26th is my Grandma's 80th Birthday, so we're still in the Holiday mood here.

As for Christmas, the only HT related stuff I got was the Blade Runner HD-DVD (which I hear is an amazing restoration).  I won't be back in front of my HD-DVD player for another week and a half, but I'll let you know if it lives up to the hype (I don't really have any doubts).

Non-HT stuff, my Grandma crocheted me a pretty sweet blanket.  Sounds lame, but it's not. She picked the colors so it should match the Home Theater decor. How awesome is that?

For the giving side of things, I gave my sister a pair of Senn PX100 headphones, and told my parents I'd chip in $500 for when they finally get an HD set (a big gift for me, but it's the least I can do for everything my parents have done for me over the years). Hey, I've got to encourage them anyway I can, right?

How about everyone else, HT Related, what did you get/give this holiday season?

After a few, trivial delays, the plane landed and I'm back in IA.  We are knee deep in the holiday spirit, and if I haven't said it yet, have a good one and BE SAFE.

No, I haven't abandoned podcasting, but with the lack of news over the past weeks, and general busy-ness with travel and the College semester ending, I've certainly been a little negligent.  Forgive me.  There will be a holiday episode, and after CES hits in just a few short weeks, you'll be hearing a lot of me.

To fill the time, I recommend listening to some archived episodes.  If you have ideas for future episodes, email me or comment in this post.

P.S. The image for this post is artwork done by my mom @ tourdefarms.com

Another snow day, this time I didn't go anywhere, mostly because I didn't have anywhere to be.  I'd recently moved the seating position in my Home Theater, so I redid my BFD filters (EQ).

In the picture, the Blue is before, the red is after with EQ.  Episode 9 talks more about this.

Finally, Sony has decided not to stake the format war on their (root-kit installing) reputation alone.  The Samsung BD-P1400 has hit the low price of $269.  This puts them neck and neck, sorta, with the Toshiba HD-A3 DVD player @ ~$200 most days of the week.

So the real question is, "When are combo player manufacturers going to figure out that their products are way too expensive?"