tech, news, productivity, views and stuff
One of the nice things about the Google Nexus One is the beautiful screen which is much much nicer than the iPhone screen.
I did wonder how video would look on the device, so I copied over a video that I had encoded for the iPhone, 480 x 270 H.264 and AAC audio and was very pleased with the result. It played fine, and looked fantastic.
Pleased with the fact that not only did it look good, I didn’t need to re-encode the video from the iPhone version so that it would play on the Nexus One.
Back in June 2008 when Apple put movies into the UK iTunes Store I had a go and didn’t have a huge success.
So my first proper attempt to get films off the iTunes Store was not a great success, ah well maybe next time.
So now over a year later, what’s the situation?
Well I am downloading a fair few movies from the iTunes Store now, buying and renting.
I do like how quick and easy it is, and sometimes how much cheaper it is too (and annoyed by how expensive it can be too).
I usually watch the movies via an iPod through the TV, as I still haven’t got round to buying an Apple TV, but then I still don’t have that HD TV to watch them on (and I am pretty sure I can’t easily connect an Apple TV to my current TV).
I will probably get an Apple TV if I get an HD TV as I would prefer to watch HD movies on an HD screen.
I was impressed with HD on the TV Shows and downloaded Lost in HD and the newest Doctor Who special in HD too.
So is everything working?
Well not really.
My ADSL is still way too slow, which means it takes hours to download a movie. Also I have a monthly bandwidth limit which means I usually plan my iTunes downloads overnight as Plusnet my ISP gives me a “free” download time between midnight and eight in the morning.
Also now and again iTunes fails to download the movie “properly”, so it downloads it again! As a result I have two versions in my iTunes library.
However despite a few minor issues I am pleased with movies and TV on the iTunes store and use it on a regular basis.
Finally had a chance to try out my new Elgato Video Capture.
I connected a PSP to it using the PSP AV Cable and captured the use of the PSP GO!Explore.
It was very simple and easy to use. Once I had captured the movie I could either save as a Quicktime movie, send to YouTube or edit it in iMovie.
Having just purchased the turbo.264 HD from Elgato I have now purchased their new Video Capture device.
Transfer video to your Mac from a VCR, DVR, camcorder, or any other analog video device as an iTunes-ready H.264 or MPEG-4 file. Elgato Video Capture’s easy-to-use software assists you through every step, from connecting an analog video source to recording the video on your Mac and choosing how you will watch and share it.
There is no easier way to transfer home video to your Mac to play in QuickTime, to sync with an iPod, iPhone or Apple TV, to edit in iMovie, or to upload to YouTube.
I have been looking for something like this from Elgato for some time. I have a couple of Pinnacle devices for capturing video, however either they capture without a preview which is fine for most things, but not all. Or it is Windows only and this means adding extra conversion time to use the captured footage with iMovie or similar.
I use to be able to do it with my original EyeTV device, however that did not capture at a sufficient quality, but this was a fair few years ago now.
So now I have one, still in the bag at the moment.
Having just purchased the turbo.264 HD from Elgato, checking their website I was interested to see a new product, called Video Capture.
Transfer video to your Mac from a VCR, DVR, camcorder, or any other analog video device as an iTunes-ready H.264 or MPEG-4 file. Elgato Video Capture’s easy-to-use software assists you through every step, from connecting an analog video source to recording the video on your Mac and choosing how you will watch and share it.
There is no easier way to transfer home video to your Mac to play in QuickTime, to sync with an iPod, iPhone or Apple TV, to edit in iMovie, or to upload to YouTube.
I have been looking for something like this from Elgato for some time. I have a couple of Pinnacle devices for capturing video, however either they capture without a preview which is fine for most things, but not all. Or it is Windows only and this means adding extra conversion time to use the captured footage with iMovie or similar.
I use to be able to do it with my original EyeTV device, however that did not capture at a sufficient quality, but this was a fair few years ago now.
So I am going to get myself one.
Typical really.
This morning I blog about Doctor Who not been available for the iPhone and by this evening it is!
So I guess it was a technical problem.
Well let me leave you with the news that the new Doctor Who will be announced tomorrow.
I am a great fan and user of BBC iPlayer, great for catching up on what you have missed and for watching things again (especially when repeated on BBC Three at an unsociable time).
I will often use an iPod touch to watch programmes, either in bed or more often then not connected to my TV. However now and again I get the following message.
Sorry, this programme is currently unavailable
You can see this in the Christmas edition of Doctor Who.
This means that you have to use a computer to watch the programme. I get the same “error” with the comedy Outnumbered episode seven (but not with the previous six episodes of Outnumbered).
I believe that the error (it’s not really an error, but I think it is) is a rights issue. In other words the rights holders have not allowed the programme to be made available to the iPod touch (or the iPhone).
Why?
Well I suspect that the issue is the way in which BBC iPlayer works on the iPod touch and the iPhone. Basically the BBC serve the iPhone with a DRM free MOV version of the programme. On the iPhone you can’t save this file, so it is not an issue, however a quick Google search provides various ways in which you can get your computer to pretend it’s an iPhone and as a result are able to download the DRM free version of the BBC programme.
Of course I don’t know for sure if this is the issue, or it is a technical problem and the programme just hasn’t (yet) been encoded for the iPhone and the festive break is the cause of the delay.
Well I know you are thinking that you could access BBC iPlayer already on your Mac or Linux PC!
Well what we’re talking about here is not the Flash based web BBC iPlayer, but the iPlayer which allows you to download BBC programmes and watch them while offline.
Not tried it yet, but thinking it could be useful for train journeys.
Read more on BBC News.
The BBC has created a version of the iPlayer that works with both Mac and Linux computers.
The two systems, which have been able to stream BBC programmes via the iPlayer for a year, will now be able to handle downloads.
The BBC, working with Adobe, has developed the new version, known as BBC iPlayer Desktop.
I have realised lately that I am downloading more video from the iTunes Store than in the past. I am downloading films and TV series as well as renting films too.
I quite like the fact that I can get a TV series for £10 and downloaded Life on Mars. However that was a special offer and most series are if you buy every episode quite expensive as a result!
I still think renting is expensive at £3.49, but at least here in the UK we have 48 hours in which to watch the film, over in the USA it’s only 24 hours. Due to busy lifestyle sometimes I want to watch a movie over two evenings. I have watched a few of the 99p rentals which I think are value for money, and if there were more then I would probably rent more, but one a week!
Not tried HD, but as I don’t have an Apple TV or a HDTV not much use to me!
Okay, in a previous post I mentioned how I quite liked the GO!VIEW service for the PSP from Sony and Sky.
Having now used the service for two months I have unsubscribed.
I think I would have probably unsubscribed last month, but the service wouldn’t let me so I was automatically subscribed for another month.
So what’s the problem, it’s not as if I don’t watch “rented” video?
Well let’s see?
Was it easy to find what you wanted?
Basically yes, the Flash based interface was a little annoying and a little too clever for it’s own good, but for most purposes it was fine.
Were the files good quality?
Yes, as I said previously:
The quality of the Doctor Who video was quite poor, almost VHS quality, however I was more impressed with the quality of the Hustle video which was (in my opinion) as good as the quality I have managed converting EyeTV Freeview recordings.
Was it easy to move the files to the PSP?
Yes, and when you consider I was doing this on parallels on my iMac, I had added a extra layer of complexity.
So why have you unsubscribed then?
To be brutally honest, the one reason I have unsubscribed is that there is no new content.
In the last two months, there have been no additions to the content line-up. So we have Hustle season 1, but no seasons 2, 3 or even 4! We have Spooks season 1, but none of the other seasons. We have a single Doctor Who story and though you can rent the new Doctor Who, as part of the Entertainment package you only have the single Jon Pertwee Spearhead from Space.
True I could have watched other stuff, but I didn’t want to watch Desperate Housewives or badly made TV movies. I wanted more of the stuff I had watched.
So though it was only costing £5 per month, I’d rather not pay £5 per month for re-watching the same content again and again…
If they bring in new content, I may subscribe, but for now I’m going…