VOOM to employ Windows Media 9

[soledade]

Offtopic MS Rant

OK. I've seen enough Microsoft bashing on this site to puke. MS is what they are because they built a better mousetrap. They pushed the limits of the law, like every for-profit company does, to maximize profitability. Don't lecture me about them profiting from other's innovations, I know the MS stroy. Vurbano is absolutely right about this. Voom could use an alliance with the company seeking to be the leader in raw technological power. Voom is striving to position itself as the leader in high-end content delivery to people's homes. All of you Sun employees and people who bought PlayStation2 and then realized it was a toy for 14 year olds need to pipe down.

Crap! The reason behind MS success is the "IT full employment gurantee". IT is a crappy job. People complain all the time, nobody notices when it is done right. MS created a line of products that guaranteed "full employement" and "a sea of users that need you because they cannot support themselves". IT purchasing reccomendations are made with self interest in mind.

The bad thing about MS is that when they enter a market the chronology goes something like this:

(1) Release bug ridden crappy product early.
(2) Make a bunch of fixes start to gain market share.
(3) Steal every decent idea of anyone in the market.
(4) Release version 3.0 (or around that) which is actually a decent product.
(5) Drive everyone else's sales into non-existance by giving it away if they have to.
(6) Monopoly
(7) STOP UPDATING the product. No INNOVATION because there is nobody left to steal from.

Internet explorer is a great example. Version 6.0 is the last one. You will get no improvements unless you buy the next version of windows, or subscribe to MSN internet service (supports the next version of IE built in to the MSN software).

 

[Sean Mota]

All this hype and no substance, i dont care how many high def channels you have if your installers dont show up to install the boxes. customer service is horrendous and forget about the non return of money billed to my cc

Steve,

no hype! The released just came out today and given past history this probably has already been tested and waiting to go into production by the end of september 2004.

Regarding the installers - I give you that one but I was also upset about E* installer not showing up either and also about the horrible customer service that D* offer and I dropped them because of that. If you still have money that was incorrectly charged to your cc, you should contact V* and have them return it to you. I was in the same situation as they incorrectly charged my cc. It took them sometime but it was done.

 

[squicken]

Crap! The reason behind MS success is the "IT full employment gurantee". IT is a crappy job. People complain all the time, nobody notices when it is done right. MS created a line of products that guaranteed "full employement" and "a sea of users that need you because they cannot support themselves". IT purchasing reccomendations are made with self interest in mind.

The bad thing about MS is that when they enter a market the chronology goes something like this:

(1) Release bug ridden crappy product early.
(2) Make a bunch of fixes start to gain market share.
(3) Steal every decent idea of anyone in the market.
(4) Release version 3.0 (or around that) which is actually a decent product.
(5) Drive everyone else's sales into non-existance by giving it away if they have to.
(6) Monopoly
(7) STOP UPDATING the product. No INNOVATION because there is nobody left to steal from.

Internet explorer is a great example. Version 6.0 is the last one. You will get no improvements unless you buy the next version of windows, or subscribe to MSN internet service (supports the next version of IE built in to the MSN software).

I don't love any corporation . . . except the NFL. Microsoft is a profit driven enterprise. They do these things because it makes shareholders money. Many of their product decisions annoy me. I'd also prefer they give everyone a new version free. Monopoly is the ultimate evolution of any ulta-successful company. I was objecting to the characterization of MS as "evil".
In terms of this thread, I don't see Microsoft abandoning this technology before Voom abandons it. The marketplace gave up on Microsoft's previous flops before the company did. Please forgive the libertarian (sp?) in me.

 

[bbtkd]

Comment on installers

From what I have seen, the same guys install all the different dish brands so you really can't say that the V* installers are any worse than the others - same guys. The problem here is that they are still coming up to speed on V* and probably don't have one in their house or office. If V* were smart, they would offer a good discount to get the installers more familiar and hooked...

 

[sschaem]

WindowsMedia technology, a good thing

The next MCE version of windows really kick ass. Sepcially
with the wireless boradcast and XBox stations.

Having the Voom receiver connect an MCE box would be something to get extremly exited about! (Is that a USB2.0 connection on the motorola box??)

I seen the future... and mpeg was not in it...

Stephan

 

[Vaggeto]

Funny to see all the Microsoft bashing that goes on. Looks a lot like it did before the Xbox came out... that thing sure is full of viruses and they sure have taken everyone else down 3 years later, huh? I think this is great, and although I liked Mpeg4, I really like the idea of wmv9 because it was shown to be a better codec.

 

[squicken]

Funny to see all the Microsoft bashing that goes on. Looks a lot like it did before the Xbox came out... that thing sure is full of viruses and they sure have taken everyone else down 3 years later, huh? I think this is great, and although I liked Mpeg4, I really like the idea of wmv9 because it was shown to be a better codec.

GREAT point about the Xbox.

 

[rang1995]

April 19, 2004 08:05 AM US Eastern Timezone

USDTV and Microsoft Join Forces to Deploy Windows Media 9 Series for ``Best-of-TV'' Line Up

NAB2004

SALT LAKE CITY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 19, 2004--
Local and Network Affiliated Broadcasters to Benefit from Increased Channel Capacity and New Revenue Streams





U.S. Digital Television, Inc. (USDTV) today announced it will implement Microsoft Windows Media 9 Series (WM9S) in its unique "over-the-air" pay-TV service. By utilizing the compression efficiencies of WM9S, USDTV will enable more broadcasters to participate in delivering the USDTV service and still efficiently transmit their high-definition programming. USDTV and Microsoft will continue to work together to develop services and technologies that deliver great digital media experiences in the home.

USDTV is the broadcast industry's first pay-TV service to integrate WM9S into its service. The company plans to fully implement WM9S by Q4 2004 with the launch of its second-generation set-top box.

"Maximizing available bandwidth with Windows Media 9 Series will allow more broadcasters, especially network affiliates, to participate with USDTV," said Steve Lindsley, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of U.S. Digital Television, Inc. "This will enable us to bring more content variety to viewers and create additional revenue-sharing opportunities for broadcasters."

"Windows Media 9 Series enables USDTV to expand their programming and reach new audiences," said Amir Majidimehr, General Manager of the Windows Digital Media Division at Microsoft. "Windows Media has approximately three times the compression efficiency of MPEG-2 and easily scales up to high definition (HD), delivering HD at what would normally be considered SD data rates."

USDTV's unique television subscription service is the first of its kind in the broadcast industry. The company bundles multiple cable channels to enable broadcast partners to deliver the service to subscribers' homes through standard VHF/UHF antennas. Customers view these digital and high-definition broadcasts via USDTV's proprietary set-top box instead of a direct cable connection or a satellite dish. The USDTV service offers 12 of the most popular cable channels and also receives the digital and high definition TV channels of local and national affiliated broadcast stations all for only $19.95 per month.

The USDTV "over-the-air" subscription television service represents a new business model for television broadcasters across the country. The company partners with national and local television broadcast entities to carry its service of popular cable channels over the station's unused digital spectrum. Broadcasters share in monthly subscription fees and can also benefit from additional recurring revenue streams generated by on-demand content enabled by USDTV's next-generation set-top receiver. The box will fully integrate WM9S with digital video recording capability and a hard drive and is expected to be available in Q4, 2004.

About USDTV: U.S. Digital Television, Inc. is introducing the first "over-the-air" terrestrial digital subscription TV service in the United States using the new digital broadcast channels of local television stations. USDTV provides subscribers with cable channels and local broadcast channels in digital-quality picture and theater-quality sound, including HDTV, at unmatched prices. The company is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. www.usdtv.com.

About Windows Media: Windows Media is the leading digital media platform, used by consumers, content providers, solution providers, software developers and corporations throughout the world. The new Windows Media 9 Series will power the next wave of digital media, delivering the best playback experience, unmatched audio and video quality, and integrated optional digital rights management technology, and is the most comprehensive platform for developing digital media products and services. The Windows Media platform includes Windows Media Player; Windows Media Services, the powerful streaming server for distributing content; Windows Media Encoder for content creation; Windows Media Audio and Video for the best-quality audio and video; Windows Media DRM for protecting content; and the Windows Media Software Development Kit for software developers. Windows Media Player, available in 26 languages, is the fastest-growing and now leading media player. More information about Windows Media can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmedia/.

 

[DarrellP]

USDTV needs to go belly-up QUICK! Thankfully all of my local digitals will soon be all HD so they can't sell out their bandwidth to these spectrum stealers. There oughta be a law!

 

[dfergie]

In the Albuqurque forum at avs, they say that a few of those channels have already sold out...to usdtv

 

[seandudley]

In the Albuqurque forum at avs, they say that a few of those channels have already sold out...to usdtv

Remind me not to move to Albuquerque.

 

[madpoet]

WM9 announcement may have delayed the PVR until November

 

[txdude]

WM9 announcement may have delayed the PVR until November

But imagine, that PVR may be able to record much more if it uses WM9

 

[madpoet]

Scant comfort, if I'm being honest.

 

[Trill]

This scares me.

Bill looked at the 15 billion a year in video games and figured he'd muscle his way into that billion dollar pie, then muscle everyone out later.

As opposed to having Sony monopolize the console market. I would rather have consoles costing far less than $200, the good games that come out of Microsoft Studios, and cheater free online gameplay. The Microsoft entry into the console gaming market has done nothing but benefit the consumers.

Someday if he hasn't already, he'll see the money made from satellite and muscle his way in, then nickle and dime our ass like he does. Under the M$ flag we'll pay for several tiers of sloppy service. I'm sure the package I have now would cost close to 200 a month.

As history has shown, MS has not been able to muscle its way into any market utilizing its deep pockets and software monopoly. It has had to compete just like all other players, and has failed a few times.

As for updates. They'd charge us for DLC thru the system like they do on Xbox Live.
I'd rather have a sh*tter codec with large bandwidth than anything M$ makes to futher the monopoly on our lives.

Are you serious. Just about all the content on XBOX Live has been free for download. XBL has been a great deal. Exactly how does MS monopolize your life? Are you not free to use Linux (many free distros) instead of a MS OS? Are you not free to use Open Office (also free) instead of MS Office? Are you not free to use Netscape, Mozilla, Opera, etc... instead of IE? You can keep your crappy less efficient codecs, WM9 produces great quality video, and I'm all for it.

 

[red ufo]

As opposed to having Sony monopolize the console market. I would rather have consoles costing far less than $200, the good games that come out of Microsoft Studios, and cheater free online gameplay. The Microsoft entry into the console gaming market has done nothing but benefit the consumers.

Cheater free my ass. RCTW, Counterstrike, UC about 80% of all there games are full of cheats, hacks, exploits, bugs. I've never had a console game crash until I played Morrowind/Ghost Recon/KOTOR to name a few and its not my DVD player its the buggy console and software.

As history has shown, MS has not been able to muscle its way into any market utilizing its deep pockets and software monopoly. It has had to compete just like all other players, and has failed a few times.

Again false, they destroyed Netscape, monopolied media player, stole all the technology from AOL on AIM. M$ don't have an original idea if it killed them, they started by basically stealing dos.

Are you serious. Just about all the content on XBOX Live has been free for download. XBL has been a great deal. Exactly how does MS monopolize your life? Are you not free to use Linux (many free distros) instead of a MS OS? Are you not free to use Open Office (also free) instead of MS Office? Are you not free to use Netscape, Mozilla, Opera, etc... instead of IE? You can keep your crappy less efficient codecs, WM9 produces great quality video, and I'm all for it.

Ya, free my ass. I've never got a game for free. Try $50 bucks for games 1/2 done like Mechassault for instance. Ship it with 5 maps, make $50 off the cusomer, then finish the game later on and start nickle and diming them. That is what you have to look forward to from here on out. Wait until they nickle and dime you on Halo2. Download a new gun? $5 bucks.

Xbox charges you for stuff you normally get for free on the PC version that came out 2 years in before. This internet if full of ass kissing Microsoft fanboy apologists praising a monopoly up and down. Alot of them are low dollar tech support or interns just sucking up.

As for Xbox being an US product its not. It was made in Mexico then that cost to much so they outsourced them for China. The only thing made in the US is Bill Gates cashing his checks.

The proof is in M$ getting sued for anti-trust all over the globe. I hope Voom don't go with any M$ windows codec because later I don't want to pay for forced upgrades, license fees, or Voom charging us a small surchage in order to license the codec from M$.

Thats my opinion and I'm sticking to it.

 

[Ominous1]

Xbox charges you for stuff you normally get for free on the PC version that came out 2 years in before. This internet if full of ass kissing Microsoft fanboy apologists praising a monopoly up and down. Alot of them are low dollar tech support or interns just sucking up.
.

Next time you get a USER MADE firmware update for your STB let us know....

Don't compare user made content, free PC mods, to things developers make (expansion packs you pay for)

 

[rang1995]

latest from Wilt:

Both implemented in hardware--remember the current box has the slot for a card and the later versions will have the chip inboard/on-board and internal.
Wilt
-----Original Message-----
From: rang1995 [mailto:rang1995@aol.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 20, 2004 6:24 PM
To: VOOM@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [VOOM] Re: VOOM Select Windows Media 9


--- In VOOM@yahoogroups.com, "Wilt Hildenbrand" <wilth@o...> wrote:
> Thought I said this earlier, maybe not broadly enough; we're going
to build
> both into the receiver side and select the best on the encoder
side as the
> technology is ready.
> Wilt


Wilt- Both can go into the current STB? one a software upgrade, the
other a Module???thanks

 

[oddwunn]

Guys, regardless of your political position regarding MS, their codec rocks!!

Since we (over at AVS) are serving as a testbed for the new codec, I am in pretty close contact with the MS development team. They are some of the finest people in the business and are truly concerned with producing the most efficient, highest quality HD output possible, and WMV9 gets the job done! Even in their very first effort, T2 Extreme, they managed to fit the entire 2+ hour movie on a single red laser DVD9 - in 1080p none the less!

I have built a computer specifically for the task, as the horsepower currently is very demanding of a system (I am running a P-IV 3.2 ghz Northwood, 1 gig dual channel RAM, hyperthreading mobo, Radeon 9800 Pro) and the results are nothing short of spectacular!! The team is working on tuning up the code to allow it to run on less horsepower, but with CPU and RAM prices perpetually falling, this should not be an issue for us for very long.

Don't worry about the output resolution of the codec. Since it is a codec, by its very nature the output resolution can be changed to suit the needs of the content. For example, if the original source material is 720p, it makes very little sense to "upscale" the output to 1080p, when the resolution is not there to begin with. Instead, WMV9 would most likely be used to output 720p and merely use the codec to crunch the space required.

And the fact that full resolution 1080p can be handled by this codec just means that they are ready for the future. Right now only a handful of display devices can fully resolve 1080p, but higher resolution displays are being worked on as we speak. And if your current display device can only handle 1080i, it doesn't matter, as your display will be able to "downscale" it just like it does when it "upscales" 480i. You just won't get the full benefit of the extra resolution until you buy a device that can show it off properly.

I have personally viewd lots of WMV9 material in both 720p and 1080p (both native ), and I assure you that the picture quality is absolutely awesome!! I have spent a lot of time searching for artifacts, and once in awhile I find them (along with others doing the testing at AVS), we report them to MS, and they fix them! Even though the codec is still in constant development, at its present state it produces the finest HD image I have ever seen....PERIOD!!

The fact that Voom is planning to adopt this codec is the best news I have heard this year! This can be nothing but a win win situation for all of us.

 

[rang1995]

i agree, people may not like MS for various reasons,but as sports fans know you may hate an opposing player but love to have him on YOUR team..what i mean VOOM having MSFT with them(helping on their codes,software whatever,maybe a teamup later)isn't a Bad thing