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Why is Netflix ignoring Linux?

While Linux doesn’t have a terribly large percentage of the operating system market, with just over 1 percent, it simply doesn’t make any sense that Netflix doesn’t support the open platform. Jumping to the answer right up front: it’s Microsoft’s fault.

Netflix Watch Instantly uses the Microsoft Silverlight platform with Microsoft PlayReady DRM. This is fine for the majority of users who use Microsoft Windows, and Macintosh OS X. However, Microsoft Silverlight does not run on Linux platforms.

The full story is a bit more complicated than that, however.

There is a Linux project for Silverlight called Moonlight, which is developed by Novell. Microsoft even helps with the Moonlight development. So why doesn’t this work with Netflix? Well, Netflix uses the newest implementation of Silverlight, and Moonlight is a full version behind. Additionally, the query from Netflix checks the operating system for support and will not respond to a Linux query.

So why doesn’t Microsoft add support for Linux in Silverlight? That is a good question. They are working with Intel to provide a Silverlight platform for the Atom processor which is ported for Linux, but they are not looking to support the broader Linux community. That’s what Moonlight is for, they claim. Microsoft’s Brian Goldfarb, director of the Developer Platform Group, said,

I’m really clear about our commitment to Moonlight. I see the work we’re doing with Miguel and Moonlight as core to our strategy for delivering implementations for Linux.

It really appears Microsoft is deliberately preventing Linux users from achieving full support for Silverlight in the latest version. They do this while simultaneously claiming they want to bring Silverlight to “as many platforms and as many devices as possible.”

The fact remains that if Microsoft can port Silverlight to Linux for Intel Atom netbooks, they just as easily could port it to the broader Linux base.

The conclusion to the matter is that Netflix’s decision to use the Microsoft Silverlight platform has alienated their Linux user base, and it appears Microsoft is deliberately preventing these users from full Silverlight support.

There is a way to watch Netflix Watch Instantly in Linux, but it is through a virtual machine window running Windows XP (although the virtual machine makes the video choppy). Of course since you’re running Windows XP anyway, what’s the point?

Sign the petition to bring Linux support of Netflix.

Introducing Google TV

It seems like every consumer electronics manufacturer is adding more and more Internet-dependent features to every device. Practically every Blu-ray Disc player, HDTV, and smartphone streams internet radio, internet video, and features social networking apps. Navigating between all of the apps can be a challenge. Enter, Google TV.

Google TV is an Android operating system for the television powered by a modified Atom processor from Intel. Sony and Logitech have also joined in the endeavor, announcing a Google TV HDTV set and a Google TV set top box, respectively.

There are no specs provided for any of the hardware yet. Sony’s offering is called Sony Internet TV, and presumably will include a new line of LCD televisions apart from the current BRAVIA series. Also announced was a line of Blu-ray Disc players integrated into Google TV set top boxes.

Logitech does not have any model information available, but they are tentatively calling the variety of options eventually provided the “Google TV companion box.” This will be a stand alone set top box for use with any television, with Logitech Harmony compatibility built in. There is a hint that the companion box will require HDMI, so some TVs may not benefit. There is also a statement in the Logitech FAQs that cable and satellite boxes need an “HDMI output as well,” meaning these receivers may pass through the Google TV box. This makes sense considering the Google TV is supposed to search for television programs.

Google TV provides access to websites, and the Sony HDTV and Logitech companion box will support qwerty keyboards. But their main feature is using Google’s powerful indexing abilities to quickly find television programs, online videos, online audio streams, and even access recorded content on compatible cable and satellite DVRs. Internet video from Netflix, Amazon Video on Demand and Youtube will all be supported, with many more to follow. Google is working with multiple cable and satellite providers, but Dish Network will be compatible at launch in the fall of this year.

Because this is an Android produce, apps will be supported, though the extent of which hasn’t been detailed yet. Logitech claims they will have “video calling and a variety of controllers – even a Logitech smart-phone app.” The press release does mention Google TV will support Adobe Flash content.

Below you will find an introductory video from Google, and the press release.




SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (May 20, 2010) — Today at the Google I/O developer conference in San Francisco, leading industry players announced the development of Google TV—an open platform that adds the power of the web to the television viewing experience, ushering in a new category of devices for the living room. Intel, Sony, and Logitech, together with Best Buy, DISH Network and Adobe, joined Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) on stage to announce their support for Google TV.

Over the past decade, the Internet has created unprecedented opportunity for innovation and development across the world, but so far the web has largely been absent from living rooms. With Google TV, consumers will now be able to search and watch an expanded universe of content available from a variety of sources including TV providers, the web, their personal content libraries, and mobile applications.

Search across TV, Web, and Apps

Google TV is based on the Android platform and runs the Google Chrome web browser. Users can access all of their usual TV channels as well as a world of Internet and cloud-based information and applications, including rich Adobe® Flash based content – all from the comfort of their own living room and with the same simplicity as browsing the web. When coupled with the Intel® Atom™ processor CE4100, Intel’s latest system-on-a-chip designed specifically for consumer electronics, the new platform will offer home theatre quality A/V performance. Sony and Logitech said they would be delivering products based on the new Intel Atom processor and running Google TV later this year. While Google TV is designed to work with any TV operator, at launch the user experience will be fully optimized when paired with DISH Network.

Google TV expands video choice from the hundreds of channels available today through a pay TV provider to the vast storehouse of video content available through the web and streaming videos. The Google TV experience is complemented by the ability to watch streaming video from leading content platforms, including Netflix, Amazon Video On Demand, and YouTube. Google TV will also have the capability to run apps from the Android Market.

To navigate the array of content that will now be available through a single device and on a single screen, Google TV introduces an integrated search experience to help viewers easily find relevant content across over-the-air and pay-TV channel listings, DVR, and the Internet, as well as a picture-in-picture layout to access multiple windows simultaneously. Google TV also features an innovative home screen to help viewers quickly organize their favorite content and personalize their TV viewing experience. Some of these features are only available with advanced integration from DISH Network.

Broad Alliance of Industry Leaders

Eric Schmidt, Google Chairman and CEO said, “We are very proud to be working with this distinguished set of partners, all of whom have decades of experience in hardware, design and retail.”

Sony announced plans to introduce “Sony Internet TV,” the World’s first TV lineup incorporating the Google TV platform. The first models are planned to be introduced in the U.S. market in the Fall of 2010 with the lineup featuring both a standalone TV model and set top box-type unit incorporating a Blu-ray Disc drive.

Howard Stringer, Chairman, President and CEO, Sony Corporation said, “I am delighted to announce the unique alignment of Google’s rapidly growing, open source Android platform with Sony’s unparalleled expertise in the field of TV design and technology. The addition of ‘Sony Internet TV’ will further bolster Sony’s comprehensive TV lineup and will fuse new levels of enjoyment and interactivity into the TV experience.”

Logitech will introduce a companion box that brings Google TV to existing HDTV home entertainment systems, easily integrating with any brand of HDTV and set-top box. The companion box will incorporate Logitech’s Harmony® remote control technology, and will include a controller that combines keyboard and remote control capabilities. The company also has plans to introduce an HDTV camera and video chat for Google TV, along with additional choices for navigation and control, including apps to turn a smart phone into an advanced controller for Google TV and home-entertainment systems.

Gerald Quindlen, President and CEO, Logitech said, “We committed to Google TV early on because it aligns with our strategy to support open platforms that enable new immersive experiences in the digital living room. While Google TV enables seamless discovery of all your content, Logitech enables seamless control over how you experience that content. We look forward to continued collaboration with Google and the developer community to create new Google TV experiences that have yet to be imagined.”

The Intel Atom CE4100 processor will power both the Logitech and Sony devices. Paul Otellini, Intel President and CEO praised the collaborative effort and said TV as we know it was being “reinvented.” “Today marks the next step in the evolution of TV. TV’s are becoming smarter as a result of the microprocessor and the Internet. Traditional TV programming will be merged seamlessly with the infinite amount of content on the Internet to enable every viewer to determine what they want to watch, when they want it. This is Moore’s Law transforming television, powered by the performance of Intel microprocessors.”

DISH Network has been a key partner with Google on advanced integration development for Google TV. The two partners began a joint trial over a year ago with more than 400 DISH Network and Google beta users. Based on the continuous feedback from the trial, Google and DISH Network have built the optimized Google TV experience that seamlessly integrates traditional TV, DVR and web content.

Charlie Ergen, Chairman, President and CEO of DISH Network, said, “Google TV marks the next evolution in television, and we are excited to be the first to partner with Google to bring this experience to our customers. Only DISH Network Google TV customers will be able to enjoy a unified search across TV, DVR and web; easily find related content; and manage their entire TV viewing experience. Additionally, the advanced integration will allow developers to create new and exciting applications to enrich the TV viewing experience.”

Best Buy will bring their retail experience and consumer expertise to the project, with Google TV devices being sold at Best Buy locations nationwide later this year. “Every day, our 180,000 Blue Shirt store employees and Geek Squad Agents work with our customers to get them the best home theater experience possible”, said Brian Dunn, CEO Best Buy, “We are thrilled about the new and exciting experiences smart TVs, like Google TV, provide to our customers – and we are looking forward to showcasing those experiences in our store and ensuring customers get connected to all the products and services that bring those experiences to life.”

Finally, Adobe Flash Player 10.1 will be integrated directly into the Google Chrome browser on Google TV, enabling viewers to experience tens of millions of web pages with rich Flash content including games, animations, applications, videos, audio and more. Shantanu Narayen, President and CEO, Adobe said, “An open web ecosystem offers endless opportunities for creativity and innovation. Flash Player 10.1 extends the advantages of full web browsing and consistent, rich experiences to smartphones, tablets, netbooks and Internet-connected TVs. We’re thrilled to be part of the Google TV initiative with other industry leaders who share a common vision of enabling access to the best web experiences possible.”

Opportunity for Developers

The demonstration at I/O highlighted the unique opportunity developers have to help shape the future of Google TV. Today Google announced that they would soon release a set of TV specific APIs for web applications, encouraging web developers to begin building unique web applications for use on television sets. Later this year Google will also release an updated Android SDK, which will support applications built for Google TV.

Google also plans to open source the Google TV platform to help spur innovation in the industry and so that other developers can benefit from the project. The long term goal is to collaborate with the entire developer community to help drive entertainment in the living room forward and to introduce the next generation of TV-watching experience.

For more information about the project visit google.com/tv.

About Google

Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google’s innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Google’s targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia.

About Intel

Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) is a world leader in computing innovation. The company designs and builds the essential technologies that serve as the foundation for the world’s computing devices. Additional information about Intel is available at www.intel.com/pressroom and blogs.intel.com.

About Logitech

Logitech is a world leader in products that connect people to the digital experiences they care about. Spanning multiple computing, communication and entertainment platforms, Logitech’s combined hardware and software enable or enhance digital navigation, music and video entertainment, gaming, social networking, audio and video communication over the Internet, video security and home-entertainment control. Founded in 1981, Logitech International is a Swiss public company listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (LOGN) and on the Nasdaq Global Select Market (LOGI).

About Sony

Sony Corporation is a leading manufacturer of audio, video, game, communications, key device and information technology products for the consumer and professional markets. With its music, pictures, computer entertainment and on-line businesses, Sony is uniquely positioned to be the leading electronics and entertainment company in the world. Sony recorded consolidated annual sales of approximately $78 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2010. Sony Global Web Site: http://www.sony.net/

Report: Avatar Blu-ray causing problems with players

This week, several consumer electronic integrators have complained the Avatar Blu-ray Disc has caused various problems for players.

The initial report is that two different Blu-ray players from different manufacturers won’t play standard DVDs after watching the Avatar Blu-ray. A message appears on screen saying, “this disk cannot be played.”

Others report firmware updates are needed to play the James Cameron movie, or it won’t play at all. Another reports DVDs play fine, but several other BDs won’t play.

One baffling report is the Avatar BD played through Crestron’s pricey ADMS-BR results in a pixelated mess.

Fox Home Entertainment seems to be the most persistent advocate of Blu-ray DRM, and several past releases have caused manufacturers to rush for firmware updates. It seems ridiculous that players have to be updated for specific titles.

Have you experienced any problems with the Avatar Blu-ray Disc?

Kaleidescape adds Blu-ray support

After over two years of press releases, Kaleidescape has finally released their Blu-ray Disc players. First announcing BD support in 2008, Kaleidescape has been hard at work on a powerful high-definition media player. Originally scheduled for 2009, the project was put on hold in order to engineer a whole new processor enabling multiple streams of high-definition video.

The M500 movie player is the main player for the Kaleidescape System which allows for content loading and video playback (including discs not loaded on the server) and retails for $3,995. The M300 movie player retails for $2,495 and is a small-form factor movie client allowing streaming from the server.



The big questions have been answered. The server will store the Blu-ray Disc content, index it in the same menu as DVDs, and stream it over the network. A gigabit network will support five streams of bit-for-bit high definition video, while a standard 10/100T network will only support one stream. The kicker is the disc must be loaded in a player before the movie will start (any player in the system). The benefit is Kaleidescape bookmarks movies so the film will start immediately instead of waiting to load a menu, and so there is no sitting through trailers and warnings.

Kaleidescape has the largest metadata collection in the world (even bigger than Gracenote), and is individually bookmarked by Kaleidescape and given additional content like cover art, reviews, and more. Concert videos are even bookmarked to each song, another bonus. Additionally, if you run across an obscure title Kaleidescape doesn’t have, you can mail it to them and they will index it for free.



If finding a movie and loading it in the player before playing beats the whole purpose of a server, it does. But it was done that way for DRM purposes. Kaleidescape still hasn’t worked out all of the kinks with licensing, and until they get the go ahead from the Advanced Access Content System Licensing Administrator (AACSLA), they will have to prove the disc is present. This is why Kaleidescape is working on a multi-disc changer which will provide this presence without having to load the movie. The changer will index movies as they are added so it won’t have to find the disc before allowing access to the movie. Michael Malcolm, CEO of Kaleidescape, said, “Every once in awhile, there is a way to randomly check. Once it finds that one [disc] is missing, it will check them all.”

The multi-disc changer should retail between $3,000 and $5,000, which is more than half the cost of the Crestron BD multi-changer.

The new M Class players are also said to be “a platform for future sources of content.” These sources have not been named, but Kaleidescape feels content should be owned by the client, not rented, borrowed, or streamed. Also on the road map is iTunes sync and AVCHD support.

Along with new high definition players is news of an upgrade to the GUI, now in full 1080p high definition.

For videos on how the Blu-ray works, and on the new GUI, visit the Kaleidescape website.

Build your own Hi-Fi

There has been a resurgence in Hi-Fi over the last several years. While CD sales have slumped, vinyl record sales are on the rise. Jack White’s Third Man Records is releasing albums only on vinyl and digital download. Even Best Buy has made room in stores for vinyl.

This last month, GQ magazine had a multi-page spread on Hi-Fi. The equipment in the article (like the clothes on every other page) are priced a little bit higher than the average Joe can afford, so I thought I’d put together a similar system at an affordable price (though not at the same level of performance).

Stereo speakers

First things first: speakers. Forget surround sound for a minute; when looking for a great Hi-Fi system you want to focus on stereo audio. GQ selected a pair of Bowers & Wilkins CM1 speakers at $1000 for the pair. I’m surprised considering the expense they put into the other gear, though they did get the “speakers first” part right. The speakers are the most critical part of a Hi-Fi system.

There is a general axiom when it comes to speakers: the bigger the better. This isn’t always the case, but is a good general rule. However, we don’t all have the space for tower speakers at home, so I will take GQ’s lead and offer some more affordable bookshelf speakers.

Monitor Audio is another respected British speaker firm, and you can’t argue with their prices. Often compared to speakers twice the price, the BR2 bookshelf speaker retails for $450 a pair. Featuring a 6 1/2 inch Metal Matrix Polymer woofer, and a 1 inch Ceramic Coated Aluminum Magnesium dome tweeter, this two-way speaker out matches most speakers in the same price range. The Bronze BR series speakers from Monitor Audio feature the same drivers as their higher-priced speakers, but with a cheaper cabinet. So they might not look as nice, but their performance is similar.

Still a little rich for your blood? Try the Axiom M3 v2 available direct at $330 a pair.

Power amplifier

Great speakers demands great amplification. Cheaper amplifiers can cause distortion in the speakers that (though not always audible) can damage the speakers. GQ offered a Cayin A-50T tube amplifier at $1,400 retail. This is actually a bargain when it comes to amplifiers. I’m hard pressed to find a comparable product for less.

Our friends in the British Isles comes to our rescue again with Cambridge Audio. The 650A amplifier provides 75W per channel, and retails for $699. This award winning stereo amplifier is another product that offers astounding performance at a low price.

For those Axiom speakers, try the Cambridge Audio 550A at $549.

The above amplifiers all have integrated preamps, so you can use them as is with the sources plugged directly into them.

Digital-Audio-Convertor (DAC)

GQ got this one right on the money. The $1,200 Peachtree Audio Nova is an integrated preamp/amplifier with a DAC for connection via USB to a PC, AppleTV, Squeezebox, Apple Airport, Sonos, or other digital audio source.



Of course if you’re looking for a lower-priced alternative, the Peachtree Decco 2 can be had for $799 offering much of the same features.

Turntable

The gateway to analog audio is the LP turntable. The offering from GQ is the VPI Scout at $1800, which is a great turntable at a great price. They also offered a budget turntable at $380, the great-looking Pro-Ject Debut III. Just keep in mind the tone arm and cartridge can also run you a few hundred dollars, so these turntable prices are not the final amount.



While not nearly as stylish as the other two, the Denon DP-200USB retails for $250. This turntable also encodes MP3s, so you can take that rare black-blue vinyl and put it on your iPod easily. You’ll be the hippest cat on a fixie this side of Williamsburg.

CD player

I do still listen to CDs. They just sound better than the compressed audio files. GQ thinks so too, “it’s like the difference between watching Avatar in IMAX 3D and streaming it over YouTube on a laptop.” That’s why they offered the $2,500 April Music Aura Note Premiere. You can forgive that price considering it is essentially a CD player/DAC/premp/amplifier all built into one, but that’s still expensive.

For the realists out there, I’m just going to suggest the Oppo BDP-83 Blu-ray Disc player. One of the best Blu-ray players on the market, equaling product four times its price, and is also one of the best CD players, SACD players, and DVD-Audio/Video players around as well. All of this for $499.

If you’re looking for something a little lower in price, the Sony Playstation 3 is also a great CD, SACD, DVD, and BD player. And it’s $299 price point is unbeatable.

The concession

Don’t have so much to spend? Invest in a good pair of powered speakers, like the Audioengine A2. These only cost $199, sound great, and can you can plug your sources into it directly (one at a time).

I hope this article helps spur your motors to piece together your very own Hi-Fi system at home. Please, sit down and enjoy an album from beginning to end. I’d suggest the debut album from Jonsi.

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