The search for this year’s best HDTV was recently held at Value Electronics in Scarsdale, NY. The two day event does a side by side comparison to find the best HDTV on the market among the current crop of LEDs and plasmas. Each HDTV is set up by a professional calibrator to produce its best possible picture. While there were three HDTVs in close contention, the Samsung F8500 Plasma was crowned the “King of HDTV” by the voting public present. Panasonic’s VT60 and ZT60 plasmas scored a close second.  Once again, the best LED/LCD models were not in contention with the plasmas.

The professional HDTV calibrators, who tuned the sets, did express a personal preference for the Panasonic plasmas because of the deep blacks demonstrated. Other reviewers such as CNET also prefer the Panasonics but this may have been before Samsung’s firmware update for the F8500 which addressed several picture quality issues. However, the experts did say that the choice depends on the lighting conditions of your viewing room and your personal viewing habits. The Panasonics work best in a light-controlled room or to put it another way, a room without sunlight coming in. The Samsung seems to be the set for those of us without a dedicated home theater room. Its brighter picture is better suited to handling a room where light can come in. If you do most of your TV viewing during the day in a room where lots of light comes in, you may want to consider a LED or LCD set instead.

Value Electronics has published a scorecard of how each HDTV performed in each category. The reviewers did look at other factors as well. As an example, the Samsung also exhibited better 3D performance and SD upscaling. Follow the video link below to get more detail.

Finally, if you’re interested in learning more about HDTV picture quality and what distinguishes sets from one another, I strongly recommend that you watch the video from the shoot out (unfortunately, I don’t see the second day’s video posted).  During the presentation, the HDTV experts cover a lot of the settings on a TV and what they do. For example, when and why you should turn settings such as overscan and noise reduction off.

The other interesting tidbit covered in the video was the difference in picture quality between a studio master, a Blu-ray and Internet streaming video at 1080P. While you won’t be able see it the quality difference in the clip, it turns out that Blu-ray is very close in quality to the studio master. On the other hand, there is a noticeable drop off in quality between a 1080P Blu-ray and streaming video. There’s limits to what compression technology can do.

To wrap up, remember these are the best HDTVs on the market. You can still get an amazing picture from lower tier models. For example, Panasonic’s ST60 Plasma also has an amazing picture for half the cost. The differences here are mostly incremental.  It’s also amazing that the best picture out there, the Samsung F8500 51″ is available for under $2,000. My only wish is that Samsung offered a 55″ version (there are 60″ and 64″ versions). If for some reason, my current 50″ LCD gives out this year, I’m sure I’ll find a way to cope with the 51″ Samsung.

Update: Panasonic has announced the availability of the ZT60 plasma.  From now till July 31st, it will be exclusively available at Best Buy Magnolia stores.  The 65″ is retailing for $4,100 while the 60″ is at $3500.

All Hail the 2013 HDTV Champ!

Copyright 2011, 2012 Tech of the Hub - Home Theater, Gadgets, Streaming Video Blog

Aereo will soon be available in its second market: the greater Boston area. It’s a service that lets you stream over-the-air television to your computer, iPad, iPhone or Roku. You can either watch live TV or record shows with Aereo’s cloud based DVR. Folks who have preregistered, including myself, will start to receive invitations on May 15th with general availability on May 30th. Judging by the map on Aereo’s website, it looks like service will be provided to eastern Massachusetts, Worcester, the Cape, the Islands as well as southern New Hampshire. I’m assuming Bristol county was not included since its part of the Providence media market.

Aereo’s secret sauce is that each customer has access to their own miniature antenna. The antennas are about an inch in size but Aereo houses thousands of them in one giant array of antennas. Essentially, your renting an antenna from Aereo. Despite the dedicated antennas, Aereo has been the target of several lawsuits from broadcasters to shutdown the service. So far, attempts to shutdown the service have failed.

What I’m looking for Aereo?  First, the channel line-up. Will we see all of the over-the-air Boston stations?  Will New Hampshire locals also be included given the coverage area? I’m also interested in seeing the picture quality Aereo provides and if there’s Dolby surround sound or not.

Aereo has a variety of monthly pricing plans. The entry level plan for $8 includes 20 hours of DVR storage. For an extra $4 a month, you get an additional 20 hours of recording time. There’s also a daily rate as well as a discounted yearly option. I can see how Aereo would be a valuable service for folks who don’t have an easy option to put up an antenna. While it offers fewer channels than cable, it does include DVR for only $8. Will that be compelling enough for the market? Only time and lawsuits will tell.

Copyright 2011, 2012 Tech of the Hub - Home Theater, Gadgets, Streaming Video Blog

The free Windows version of TiVo Desktop is being discontinued. TiVo Desktop can by used to download shows to your PC as well as stream photos and music to your TiVo. This weekend, a note appeared on the TiVo desktop web page stating that the free version is only available until June 5th, 2013  (click on pic below to download the free version). A follow-up email was sent out to customers today as well. The free TiVo desktop version for the Mac will still be available. However, it’s limited to publishing photos and music from your Mac. You need Roxio Toast for the Mac to download shows from the TiVo. On the PC side, you can still purchase TiVo Desktop Plus for $15.95, reduced from $24.95. Apparently, TiVo Desktop Plus is required for Windows 8.

I’m not shedding any tears given the number of free TiVo Desktop alternatives available. kmttg is one example. Personally, I’ve used PyTiVo and iTivo for the Mac. PyTiVo is used to upload content from the Mac to the TiVo. I’ve used iTiVo to automatically download shows and then serve them back to my Apple TV via iTunes. You could say it’s a ghetto version of the TiVo Mini. Another option is to get a TiVo Stream to download content directly to your iOS devices or use a TiVo Mini to watch in another room. Finally, the Netgear ReadyNAS Ultra and Pro models can archive shows off the TiVo and copy them back as needed. The process is a little kludgy:  Set up a schedule on the ReadyNAS for archiving and then select programs to archive by setting “Keep Until I Delete” on the TiVo (an archive button would be nice!)

All of these alternative methods and TiVo Desktop respect the no copy or CCI byte set by the cable provider. I’m bummed as FIOS recently implemented this in the Boston area so premium content from channels such as HBO can no longer be downloaded. With the base Premiere model that’s a challenge given the small amount of storage.

 Thanks @brennokbob for the tip!

Copyright 2011, 2012 Tech of the Hub - Home Theater, Gadgets, Streaming Video Blog

At the beginning of the year, I was contemplating “cutting the cord” and canceling my cable TV subscription. After thinking about it ad nauseum, I decided to keep a cable TV package, albeit a lower cost one with fewer channels. After all of the analysis, I realized that canceling cable would only result in incremental savings. Those incremental savings were not worth the disruption and the loss of content. While cord cutters typically keep their Internet connection, the savings is incremental given the pricing structure of most cable companies.

The good news is that renewing my Verizon FIOS contract did result in about $20 of monthly savings. I saved money two ways: I dropped my cable package from Extreme HD down to Prime HD (290 vs. 210 channels). Verizon had upgraded me to Extreme sometime ago for no additional cost and the reality is that I didn’t watch most of those additional channels. My existing Internet package, 25/25 Mbps was no longer an option so I chose to drop down to the 15/5 Mbps package. While my upload speed did drop, download speeds are comparable to the old 25/25 package. Total cost with taxes and two CableCARDs is now about $115.

As I went through the renewal process, I was pleased to see that Verizon now offers a more bare-bones cable TV package called “Select HD” (150+ channels / 30+ HD). I could saved a few more dollars by opting for Select HD. However, Select HD is missing both Comedy Central and ESPN (a major driver for the cost of cable). Given the desire to watch baseball and the convenience of watching Comedy Central on the big screen (one could watch the Daily Show and Colbert on the Comedy Central web site), I opted for the Prime HD package.

When I finalized my package, Verizon informed me there was an addition $6 regional sports fee for New England Sports Network (NESN). That felt somewhat disingenuous to sneak the fee in during check out. Regardless, I am still saving money, so onwards.

After renewing, the only surprise was that BBC America was not included in the Prime HD package. The surprise stemmed from seeing BBC America listed in the lower tier  Select HD package. You have to upgrade to the Extreme HD package to get BBC America back. I’ll pass and buy Doctor Who a la carte.

The other way I’m saving money is by suspending my Netflix account for a few months. While I enjoy the Netflix service, I’m also an Amazon Prime member and there’s lots of overlap between the two services. I’ve gotten through a lot of the exclusive Netflix content including House of Cards and Lilyhammer. A bad cold one weekend allowed me to get through the lingering titles in my Instant Queue including Conan O’Brien’s Can’t Stop and Page One. I’m also disappointed that Netflix reserves their best video quality, Super HD, only for customers on ISPes participating in their Open Connect program.

What’s the point of saving money, if you can’t spend it? I’m using the savings to subscribe to HBO to watch season 3 of Game of Thrones. There’s a promotion on FIOS where HBO is now only $9 a month for up to 12 months. Between HBO, Amazon Prime and the regular cable line-up including a great season of Mad Men, there’s more than enough content to watch on this trimmed cord.

Copyright 2011, 2012 Tech of the Hub - Home Theater, Gadgets, Streaming Video Blog

Time flies and the Doctor Who Season 7 Part 2 premiere has snuck up on us. I almost forgot about our good Doctor but noticed the uptick in searches on the site for “Doctor Who Season 7″. Well, it’s a busy TV weekend with the Walking Dead finale and the Game of Thrones premiere both on Sunday. The premiere Doctor Who episode, “The Bells of Saint John”, will be broadcast on  BBC America on Saturday, March 30th at 8 PM / 7 PM Central.  For those cord cutters or trimmers out there in time and space, the episode will also be available for download or to stream the next day on Amazon Instant Video, iTunes and VUDU.

This season picks up after the Christmas special, “The Snowmen”. The Snowmen reintroduced the Doctor’s new companion, Jenna-Louise Coleman who also starred in the season 7 part 1 premiere, “The Asylum of the Daleks”. To get you excited for the episode, I’ve included the prequel to the Bells of St. John as well as the trailer for the season itself. Thankfully, this half season is a solid eight episodes. Hopefully, we’ll have a rich, complex plot worthy of Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary. As an extra bonus, I ‘ve added the teaser trailer for the 50th anniversary special which is a great retrospective of all eleven Doctors. So, ready your sonic screwdriver and enjoy the premiere.

Bells of St. John Prequel

Copyright 2011, 2012 Tech of the Hub - Home Theater, Gadgets, Streaming Video Blog

I’ve been re-watching Game of Thrones season 2 to get ready for this Sunday’s season 3 premiere on HBO at 9 PM. For those of you with Verizon FIOS, HBO is free this weekend, so enjoy. Now for some thoughts on the season 2 Blu-ray: The recently released Game of Thrones Season Two Blu-Ray / DVD / Digital Copy impresses on many fronts.

The most impressive part is the audio and video quality of the individual episodes. I’ve done most of my Game of Thrones viewing via HBO GO. The quality of the Blu-ray is quite a contrast to HBO GO. I’ve rewatched the first four episodes and each time I’m amazed by all of the visual detail that has been revealed thanks to Blu-ray’s video quality. I can now see the sigils on each character’s armor such as Tyrion’s lion, Bran and Rob’s wolf as well as the kraken over Balon Greyjoy’s fireplace. I have never noticed how ragged and worn down Daenerys looked in the desert during the opening episode. Audio is just as impressive. The DTS Master Audio sound track brings some serious bass.  The opening scene of episode one makes a statement with the clang and deep bass of weapons colliding in combat.

This is also my first experience with HBO’s Digital Copy called “HBO Select”. On the packaging, it states you can get a digital copy of the show from iTunes, VUDU, UltraViolet and Amazon Instant Video. Instead of going to HBO’s redemption page, you can directly redeem the enclosed redemption code on each service. I successfully redeamed the code on iTunes, VUDU and Flixster (the VUDU redemption does not add it to your UltraViolet locker) but not on Amazon Instant. It was also a pleasent surprise to see that HBO provides a digital copy in 1080P and Dolby Digital on VUDU and iTunes. It’s the first time I’ve seen a Blu-ray’s redeemable digital copy available in HD.

Compared to many other Blu-rays and DVDs, Game of Thrones are comes with a number of compelling extras. Within episodes, there’s an interactive feature similar to whats available on the HBO Go iPad and web apps. The interactive features within episodes give good back story to the complex world of the seven kingdoms including house histories and character bios.  There’s also a number of animated features telling back stories of the the different houses. The stories are narrated by characters in the series and told from their point of view. There’s also an interactive app called War of the Five Kings which charts the progress of each of the contenders for the Iron Throne. Finally, there’s several in episode commentaries and an in-depth documentary on the making of the Battle of Blackwater Bay that I’m looking forward to watching.

There are also four easter  or “dragon” eggs on the Blu-ray set that lead to deleted scenes. Buzzfeed has clues for finding the eggs. Instead, if you don’t like puzzles, you can watch the deleted scenes here on tor.com. Finally, the packaging is top notch as well.

There’s lots of shows I enjoy watching but few I would bother watching a second time. The better quality audio and video gives an extra dimension to Game of Thrones making the second season worth watching again. The Game of Thrones Season 2 (Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy) is available at Amazon.

Copyright 2011, 2012 Tech of the Hub - Home Theater, Gadgets, Streaming Video Blog

The Mad Men Season 6 Premiere is almost upon us. AMC is getting us ready for the “affair of the year” with a number of teasers before the April 7th premiere. Of all of the promos, the most telling is the poster for the season 6 premiere. It appears to contain two Don Drapers walking in different directions. One is walking towards Madison Avenue, the other one is walking away holding the hand of an unseen woman. Coupled with the TV promos, it makes us wonder what is “the affair of the year? Perhaps it’s not the usual Don Draper affair as the police can conspiculously be seen in the background.

For those of you who’ve seen season 5, you can read my take on the finale here. For those of you who haven’t seen Mad Men season 5, it will be available on Netflix shortly, just in time for some binge viewing. Update (3/25/13): Season 5 is available on Netflix! Netflix has an exclusive agreement with AMC to stream previous seasons of Mad Men.

Luckily, there does not seem to be any issue with AMC being available on cable or satellite this season. For those of you with cable or satellite, the two hour premiere will be on AMC on Sunday April 7th at 9 PM Eastern / 8 PM Central. The show should also be available the next day on iTunes and Amazon Instant Video. The season 6 page is already up on iTunes with a sneak peek. It looks like we are going to avoid the shenanigans that delayed this past season’s Sons of Anarchy.

I’m looking forward to the premiere after a great season five. Unlike the Walking Dead, the good news for Mad Men fans is that show runner Matthew Weiner will still be the driving force behind the show for the seasons 6 and 7.

Update (4/8/2013): The season 6 premiere episode is available for a short time on AMC’s web site.

The partners at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce

Copyright 2011, 2012 Tech of the Hub - Home Theater, Gadgets, Streaming Video Blog

The Roku 3 or the 4200X has launched, the latest Roku box in their line of popular media players. The smaller and sleeker Roku 3 is a direct replacement for the Roku 2 XS, one of our favorite streaming devices. I like the Roku because its comprehensive line-up of streaming services in 1080P and surround sound as well as its unified search. Consensus among on-line reviews is that the Roku 3 is a solid incremental upgrade over the Roku 2 XS.

The hardware is biggest change with the Roku 3. Its new processor, the dual-core A9, has five times the processing power of the Roku 2. Dan Rayburn from the Streaming Media blog gives some great background on it. In addition, Dan reports there’s also more on-board memory so the Roku can buffer more making less susceptible to network disruptions. Other hardware improvements include dual-band wireless and a headphone jack on the Roku remote. Roku even includes a set of purple ear buds. Unlike previous Roku models, the Roku 3 only supports HDMI. Walt Mossberg reports that AirPlay-like functionality called Miracast will come to the Roku 3 later this thanks to its upgraded hardware.

The Roku 3 is sporting a new user interface to help users navigate the hundreds of channels available. Better yet, the new interface is fast. A video demonstrating the new interface is below. The 3×3 grid is reminiscent of the interface on the Netgear streamers (which have a 5×3 grid). It appears the new UI also comes with several themes to chose from. According to Roku’s website, the new UI is coming to the Roku 2 line in May. It will be interesting to see how it performs on the Roku 2 hardware. As much as I like it, I hope it doesn’t throw my mother for a loop who uses her Roku LT to watch one channel!

Folks were hoping that the Roku 3 would launch with an official YouTube channel. Sorry but no signs of YouTube. No one seems to have firm information on this. Dan Rayburn speculates that the Roku 3′s new hardware will bring a YouTube channel soon as it can handle YouTube’s HTML interface. However, Cnet has the “impression” that we won’t see YouTube anytime soon due to non-technical issues.

In my current living room set up, the Roku 2 XS and the Apple TV 3 are my two go to streaming devices. Since my Roku 2 XS is wired with ethernet, dual band wireless doesn’t buy me anything. The headphone upgrade is cool but I can achieve it other ways in my set up (the headphone out on my Onkyo receiver). Given the new UI is coming to the Roku 2 that doesn’t leave much besides a snappier interface and the potential for future upgrades that take advantage of the new processor. To conclude, I’ll probably pass on the Roku 3 for now but I will recommend it to new Roku customers so they can future proof.

The Roku 3 is available for purchase directly from Amazon and Roku. It will be available at retail in April.

Roku 3's Back Connections

Roku 3's New Remote and Headphones

Copyright 2011, 2012 Tech of the Hub - Home Theater, Gadgets, Streaming Video Blog

Sony’s PS4 unveiling was the tech equivalent of a burlesque style striptease. Some details were revealed but lots was left to the imagination. We still don’t know the pricing of the console, the specific release date, the size of its hard drive and finally, what the console itself looks like. Its reminiscent of the scene from the Pirate of Silicon Valley where Steve Jobs tempts Bill Gates with only a peek at the revolutionary Macintosh.

The event did its job to tempt perspective buyers of a next generation video game console. Sony wants them to realize there’s an alternative to the Wii U. Not that they should worry too much given the Wii U’s less than impressive sales. However, not revealing everything also gives Sony the opportunity to still maneuver after Microsoft’s new Xbox is unveiled.

Sony focused on what was most important: the games! While Sony talked about the gamer being the center of the action and consoles no longer being single use devices, the selection of games and game play are still central to a console’s success. Personally, the demos of the Watch Dogs, Destiny and even Knack look compelling (videos below).

While they didn’t go into all of the tech specs, Sony revealed enough to convine us that this console has some serious processing power. The PS4 may not be a revolutionary device, but it seems Sony focused on improving game play. I feel like every time I start up my PS3, I need to run a system update. The PS4 has a dedicated chip to run updates in the background. There’s also a suspend/resume function that lets you quickly jump back into where you were in the game. Hopefully, when the PS4 is asleep, it consumes much less power. I’m also interested in trying out new DualShock 4 Controller and see if it’s easier to handle.

Sony didn’t say too much about the console as a streaming video box and more details would be forthcoming. From the presentation slide, it looks like we’re going to see the same line up of services currently on the PS3 including Netflix, VUDU and Amazon Instant Video. However, as conveyed to Joystiq later, the PS4 is capable of outputting Ultra HD or 4K video. Don’t be surprised if the PS4 is the first device to support Ultra HD for Netflix and VUDU. While Ultra HD sets have just come to market that won’t be the case five years from now. Remember, the current PS3 has been on the market for six years already. It is interesting to note that the PS4 doesn’t leave any legacy devices behind retaining both composite A/V outputs as well as digital optical audio. Only offering HDMI would be a way to keep the cost of the console down.

Finally, the other benefit to launching this way is that Sony guarentees that the tech press will cover the PS4 several more times before launch. Enjoy the videos!
PS4 Summary

PS4 Launch Full Event

Watch_Dogs

Destiny

Copyright 2011, 2012 Tech of the Hub - Home Theater, Gadgets, Streaming Video Blog

HBO is following the same playbook as last year to build excitement and subscribers for the season three premiere of Game of Thrones. HBO tightly controls where you can watch its shows. While other networks will make their shows available on iTunes, Amazon or their websites the next day, the only place to watch an HBO premiere is HBO. An exception was the Newsroom which was also available on YouTube but it was also a season one premiere.

If HBO is following the same plan as last year, don’t be surprised if there’s another significant announcement about HBO GO before the March 31st premiere. Last year, HBO announced the availability of HBO GO for the Xbox as well as adding interactive features to the HBO GO iPad app before the season two premiere. This year, HBO has already added AirPlay to their iPhone and iPad apps. Perhaps HBO GO will be added to another platform such as the Playstation3. HBO has already stated that a native Apple TV app is coming but hasn’t supplied any dates.

Like last year, the previous season’s Blu-ray / DVD is about to be released just short of the new season. Initially, Target had the best pricing for the season 2 set at $30 in store (including an exclusive George R.R. Martin interview). However, Amazon has now met the price on the eve of the release. While Best Buy has some exclusive Lannister and Greyjoy packaging, it’s still pricing the set at $35 at this moment.

A lot of the pre-show hype is focused on the Night’s Watch. HBO has put up a web site called My Watch Begins where you can record your oath to the Night’s Watch. In addition, they’ve put together a web video on the history of the watch below.  In New York, there was a Night’s Watch event at the Union Square Best Buy complete with foods from the Seven Kingdoms. I couldn’t attend as I was manning the wall up in here in the cold north.

Don’t be surprised if HBO throws out the playbook next year given significant changes in HBO’s Digital team. Following the departure of Digital Exec Alison Moore, All Things D has reported on the group’s restructuring. A leaked memo on the restructruing refers to the group’s disrupting technology. However, don’t expect any disruption around the need for a cable subscription to watch HBO.

Update: The season three trailer has been added below. Enjoy!

Update: HBO will be available for free on FIOS for the Game of Thrones premiere, March 31st.

History of the Night’s Watch

Season 3 Trailer

Copyright 2011, 2012 Tech of the Hub - Home Theater, Gadgets, Streaming Video Blog