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The entertainment industry & US Government want to censor the Internet

Today, numerous sites across the web, including Wikipedia and Craigslist are “blacking out” in opposition of the Stop Online Piracy Act (in the House) and the Protect IP Act (in the Senate).

These pieces of legislation are particularly insidious. Crafted by the entertainment industry in an attempt to combat piracy, what they would actually do if signed into law would be to give the Government and private corporations a channel to censor the Internet.

These putrid acts would also have many other unintended consequences if signed into law, such as stifling US technological innovations, instilling a state of fear in all websites across the web (who could easily be banned for “linking” to copyright infringing content), putting huge burdens (both technical and monetary) on ISP’s in order to comply with blacklisting, damaging the Domain Name System and much more. Watch the video below to learn more.

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

We strongly oppose SOPA, PIPA and any other legislation that would give anyone the power to censor the Internet any way, shape or form. If you value the freedom of information and the current experience of the web, PLEASE contact both your Senators and your House Representative today and urge them to oppose these acts and any other similar legislation.

For maximum effect, we recommend that you call, email, fax and write a snail mail letter (yes all of those) to your representatives in Congress. The more contact they receive, the more likely they will be to side with their constituents. Ask all of your friends and family to join in and TAKE ACTION, as the fate of the free Internet is at stake.

Call your House rep
Email all your reps (both your House Rep & Senators) through EFF, Google or DownsizeDC
Find your representative to snail mail or fax a letter
Find your Senators to snail mail or fax a letter

Google TV gets an upgrade

In the run up to this year’s CES Expo, a new teaser video has been posted declaring Google TV to be all new for 2012.

If you remember, we were looking forward to Google TV’s release, but when it came it was underwhelming. The remote was unwieldy, and the menus were less than intuitive.

On top of those problems, content providers were blocking the devices so the promising features were damaged.

Here’s hoping Google learned from their mistakes, made a few new content-providing friends, and is finally releasing a product worth buying.

Are movies on disc dead?

During the Great Format Wars of 2007, some Outsiders kept their distance from the fray by declaring all physical media a lost cause. In spite of their valiant efforts, Blu-ray Disc sales have grown considerably, and the format is picking up the slack where DVD has left.

But the rag-tag bunch of insurgents would not give up, and now Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, iTunes, HBO Go and other mercenaries have kept their fight up and streaming video has become ubiquitous. Netflix instant-only subscribers far outnumber disc-only subscribers.

Given all that, nothing comes close to the director’s original intention of a cinematic experience like Blu-ray Disc does. Academy Award-winning director Ridley Scott even wrote an article for the Huffington Post arguing this point:

Blu-ray disc, of which I’ve been a supporter since its inception, is the closest we’ve come to replicating the best theatrical viewing experience I’ve ever seen. It allows us to present in a person’s living room films in their original form with proper colors, aspect ratio, sound quality, and, perhaps most importantly, startling clarity.

The problem with an argument like this is that it is directed at the geeks like me who care about quality over convenience. The people who have massive screens at home who can really make use of the higher definition video, and powerful speaker setups capable of delivering the audiophile-quality Blu-ray Disc provides.

The mass market consumer buys eggs at Walmart because it’s more convenient. They order clothes on Amazon without ever trying it on to avoid going to the store. And for years have complained about DVDs presented in their original theatrical aspect ratio, which lead to the horrific pan-and-scan copies that lopped off the sides of the picture.

Even more damning, the younger generation are watching more video on portable 3″ screens than on larger televisions or computer screens. At that size, high-definition really doesn’t matter.

Ridley Scott argues that, “Technology will need to make many more huge leaps before one can ever view films with the level of picture and sound quality many film lovers demand without having to slide a disc into a player, especially with the technical requirements of today’s 3D movies.” The important part of that sentence is “film lovers.” There are film lovers, and then there are casual film consumers. There is the guy who watched The Tree of Life four times in his local indie theater, and then the girl who stayed up all night to watch the latest Twilight regurgitation.

Personally, I spend more time streaming video from Netflix on my computer than I do in front of my TV with a Blu-ray Disc. This is borne out of practically though, as I can’t really blast my surround sound system while my kids are asleep. What I prefer is the high-definition quality and emotional impact of Blu-ray Disc, but what the reality I’ve come to is compromise happens where the rubber meets the road.

And in the end, I feel like going out to the Imax last weekend to see Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol was the best compromise of all. Big screen. Big sound. Kids at home asleep.

Roku offers cheapest ever media player

Just in time for the holiday shopping season, Roku is offering a limited edition “Purple box” for only $49.99. The Roku LT offers the same features as the Roku 2 HD, except without Bluetooth nor expandable memory slot.

With more than 300 streaming channels including Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, Pandora, EPIX, Crackle, Disney and HBO GO, Roku is considered one of the best choices for streaming video players. The Roku LT streams 720p high-definition video and features built-in wireless.



The Roku LT will be available from Roku.com, Amazon.com and in retail stores.

UltraViolet has arrived

The most promising content ownership solution from the owners of properties has finally arrived. On October 11, Warner Home Video released Horrible Bosses on Blu-ray Disc and DVD with UltraViolet enabled. Warner is committed to including UltraViolet on all upcoming releases, including Green Lantern, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, and Shameless: The Complete First Season.

Sony has also announced the upcoming releases of The Smurfs and Friends With Benefits will be UltraViolet enabled.

Every major studio except Disney is on board with the technology, and there is massive support on the hardware manufacturer side as well. The Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE) group of companies is hoping to challenge the streaming or renting concept we’ve all embraced for one of true content ownership.

Best Buy and Walmart are both interested in selling UltraViolet hardware.

How it works

UltraViolet logos will be located on compatible Blu-ray Discs and DVDs, and inside there will be a redemption code. The user will set up an account at UVVU.com and enter the codes. The content will then be available for use on up to ten devices (PCs, HDTVs, BD players, mobile devices, etc). Up to six people may be registered on each account with access to the content.

Eventually, UltraViolet content will be available for purchase as digital-only, but this may be burned to disc by the end user.

The caveat

Until UltraViolet-enabled hardware becomes available, owners of Horrible Bosses (and other future Warner Bros. UltraViolet content) will only be able to watch the digital copy at Flixster.com. Hardware support should follow in early 2012.

Why I cancelled my Hulu Plus account

I had concerns about what Hulu Plus would offer from the outset, and it was actually worse than I thought.

Hulu provided me with two months of free Hulu Plus to try it out. I signed up for it because I wanted to watch Hulu in high-definition on my TV, instead of on my laptop. What glorious times would be had!

After installing the app on my PlayStation 3, I logged in to my Hulu account and went to my subscription list. The subscription list shows all the TV shows I subscribe to and the settings I have for each of them. I went through show after show after show, and they all said “Web only” on them. There were a few shows I could watch on the TV, like Community, House and The Colbert Report. But the shows I enjoyed the most, like Louie, Chuck, and Suits, were not available on the TV or on mobile devices.

Meh. Well, I’ll live with some shows I guess. Right? Maybe if the shows actually worked.

I was watching The Daily Show with Jon Stewart one day, and the show kept freezing to buffer – again and again. Every few seconds. It was un-watchable. The commercials played fine, but the show would freeze up. I set the video to standard definition even thinking it was a bandwidth issue, and it still froze. Which had me pulling my laptop out again to watch the show, which of course was what I was trying to avoid with Hulu Plus.

And then I started looking through the collection of shows Hulu had. I found an old classic, Chappelle’s Show. I had good laughs again. But then there were the commercials. I’m expected to pay for this service at $7.99 per month when that’s what Netflix is charging me without commercials. I put Chappelle’s Show on my Netflix instant queue and watched it sans commercials.

Speaking of commercials, I went even further into the classics and found Macross Plus was on Hulu. Here was an anime series that doesn’t have commercial breaks being cut up into segments to insert Hulu’s commercials. Again, my Netflix instant queue solved that problem real quick. (Oh yeah, Macross Plus was also not allowed to stream to the TV with Hulu, but it did with Netflix.)

So before Hulu charged me a single month for their service, I had cancelled it. I couldn’t watch the shows I wanted on my TV. When they would play, they wouldn’t always work. And I was still bombarded with ads.

I know I railed against Netflix for their new pricing structure, but I guess it is true that they still offer more than anyone else for less.

Thanks, Hulu! Your free trial showed me your service just isn’t worth it!

Music by Google coming soon

On May 10, Google launched Music by Google, a cloud-based service which allows users to upload their music collection and stream it to computers and Android-based portable devices.

The description of the service sounds a lot like Android Cloud Drive. The web interface even looks similar. Google doesn’t have an MP3 store like Amazon, so you will have to purchase your music elsewhere (for now I assume).

However, Google does seem to integrate with the Android devices better. (Of course, they own Android.) The computer library, cloud library, and portable library are always in sync, including playlist selections. One feature that is cool is if your portable device were to go offline, the recently played songs are still available to listen to as they’re now stored on the local hard drive.

Google also has an instant playlist feature like iTune’s Genius Playlist.

Watch this video for more information:

Music by Google is in Beta now, and is only open by invitation. You can request an invitation at the website music.google.com