New Hardware

Video fidelity on the ancient (Anno Domini 2003) Dell 2400 has been somewhat ... janky. A little hardware upgrade is in order.

First, the replacement device must be a full computer. Roku boxen or other purpose-built devices have limited lifespans and lead no afterlives as re-purposed devices (the Dell 2400's fate: add disks, become file server). Forget a TV with the logic built in; that's just a really expensive laptop.

Second, the box must be cheap. Apple Mac Mini for $700? Seriously? No. Apple TV for $99, tethered to the iTunes mothership and $3/video? No. Hell no.

After spec'ing costs for fully silent, i.e. fanless, hardware, it turns out the low cost and quiet operation of micro-formfactor machines wins. Separate PC components cannot compete with prices of these all-in-one, bare-bones units, and slightly back-level-but-still-capable is always cheaper. Best part of commodity parts: they're easy to replace and they get cheaper over time.

Device of choice: a Zotac ZBOX HD. The naked processor+graphics unit requires memory, disk, keyboard, mouse, and OS, but these commodities are cheap or free. A recycled copy of Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit helps lower costs, too. Microsoft Windows™ is alas necessary as CBS refuses to stream to Linux platforms and watching The Big Bang Theory is really, really important.

The box is clean and opinion on the 'Net is happy. The device appears to have tidy engineering. Most of the case is empty space awaiting the customer's hard disk and memory stick. The unit has ports a-plenty: 6 USB, one HDMI, one DVI/VGA (with adapter), one external SATA, one wired ethernet, one 802.11 b/g/n wireless net, a card slot, microphone, audio, and an SPDIF plug (who uses this anymore?).

Box set-up was annoying because loading the OS required copying it to a USB stick. For absolutely no good reason, the Windows 7 64-bit tool to build bootable USB sticks, bootsect, won't run under Windows 7 32-bit. After loading the OS, the usual four- to six-hour cycle of applying Windows updates, installing drivers, anti-virus software, Microsoft Office 2007, and updating everything again ensued. The Zotac folks have some recent BIOS updates, too.

Once installed, the unit nestles into very little space in the entertainment cabinet. The supplied stand lets heat escape its top. The box comes with a mount to fit it on the back of the television but then the on/off button would be out of reach.

Video streaming from CBS (for aforementioned reason), FOX ("Glee!") and especially from ESPN (fooootballl - the computer's final parts arrived Saturday late; getting it running Sunday for Oregon/Auburn's BCS championship game Monday was important), while better than the poor, overmatched Dell 2400, remains merely "adequate". Tests show the image jitter is a function of watching streaming video in HD.  Internet jankiness, while ignorable when watching on small screens,stil appears on big displays. For $60/month and the freedom from Time Warner, it's worth suffering.

Movies, however, look fine. The streaming engine and most of the transfers for Netflix are good enough to watch just about anything. Even junk. Joe Queenan's point about the Bullock Algorithm is well taken: at $2 or less, we'll watch it. At $3 ... meh, not so much.

New U-verse TV Prices

AT&T is raising some U-verse TV prices 1 February.

From: A message from AT&T
Received: 01/04/2011 2:16 PM


Thank you for choosing AT&T U-verse. We hope you're enjoying the tremendous value of your services. We've worked hard in 2010 to provide you with the best entertainment experience. We've added more TV programming and innovative features, including U-verse Mobile, U-verse Online and My Multiview, which lets you watch four channels at the same time. And U-verse will just keep getting better in 2011.


Effective February 1, 2011, the monthly price for some U-verse TV packages will be increasing. U-family will continue to be $54, U100 will be $59, U200 be $69, U200 Latino will be $79, U300 will be $84, and U450 will be $117. If you are paying a monthly high-speed Internet equipment fee for the Residential Gateway, the monthly price will be $4. If you are on a current U-verse TV pricing promotion, the promotional benefit will continue until the applicable promotion ends or expires.

Interesting that the Spanish-language channels have a $10/month surcharge, probably paid directly to Telmundo, Univision, etc. "¡Aye! ¡Mis telenovellas!" Since they are available over-the-air in this market, they ought to be freely carried. Their regular programming is nearly the same as English-language popular TV, with such keen news exposés as "¿El Rey del Pop homicidio o suicidio?"

Wait. Nevermind; please take ten bucks.

Time-Warner Cable OFF, Game ON

TWC turned off cable television service today. It had been working over the weekend.

Its dearth became apparent when firing up Stanford/VT Orange Bowl game at 5pm. No signal.

ESPN.com, however, is cheerfully streaming the game. In high-definition.

Game ON.

Emailed Comments

MT writes

I 'killed' my tv by not watching it.  We'd be rid of the instrument too, except for video games and netflix.

TVs make great monitors. LWP says

I love watching stuff on the computer -- I can skip or mute ads, watch what I want when I want.  So superior to TV.

Content providers directly over the web are gutting not only cable TV, but first generation services dependent on signal like TiVo. Newer TiVos cover the gap; CS writes

We never had cable, just a TiVo (Premiere now) on an antenna, and there are a lot of stations in Long Beach most in HD.  We use [TiVo] to watch older shows from Netflix too.

The house is 60 miles and two mountain ranges away from the transmitters that serve Long Beach and the Los Angeles metro area, otherwise the new simplified setup would include an antenna too.

FS says

 Yeah, we have TM-Basic and saw the Hi-Def (QAM-compatible) disappear and the nasty artifacts on analog appear. I pushed analog cable to every computer in the house using small cheap analog amplifiers and PCI tuner cards.  Everyone [...] [is used to] watching TV in a window on their computer and taping shows with Windows Media Center.

FS say putting D/A boxes for Time-Warner's signal no option. Another nail in TWC's over-priced coffin.

TWC has put out DH as well

I've had the same F#%!ing problem with the Time Warner service. I've had them out here 3 times last week but I still get fluctuations with the cable TV and (sadly) the Internet too. (The Internet has been just a little better the last few days.) I've got all the battle stories too trying to call TW and talk with tech support weenies; dropped calls, mis-information, long hold times, etc. - absolutely crazy.


If you see a guy in Front of Time Warner with a sign that says "Time Warner Sucks!" that's me!

Seems like things haven't improved much since 2008. DH is now looking into U-verse as well.




Finally, KT asks

What bandwidth are you getting now?


I have a friend who is thinking about the switch but was told the DVR function of uverse was lacking. Namely that you can't rewind a live show unless you are recording it. True, not true?

With the service upgrade, pretty stable around 12 Mbps.  No idea about the U-verse DVR's features as it went back in 2008 and AT&T keeps upgrading their software over the line.

Firmly in the Middle of the Road

The New York Times reports that time spent on the Internet now matches time spent on cable TV.

Joshua Brustein reports that a Monday, December 12 Forrester Research paper shows all age groups are using the 'Net as much or more than TV. People are still watching TV, just increasingly over IP.

Time spent consuming "lean forward" services like Facebook, YouTube, and so forth matches "sit back" entertainment over cable or broadcast television. In 2007, 18% of surveyed adults watched TV over the 'Net; in 2010, 33% did.

The trend marks a well-understood "beginning of the end". As customers leave, fixed infrastructure costs transfer onto fewer and fewer payers. Rates increase, driving more customers to substitute other goods.

Time-Warner Cable, ComCast, and the like better come up with a compelling suite of services and better pricing soon or end up like Yahoo!, MySpace, and ultimately GeoCities.

Time to short some stocks.

See "American Internet Use Catches up with TV Use" (13 Dec 2010).

Love Notes from AT&T

Just arrived in the mail, a price increase notification from AT&T:

The price of the Elite service is increasing $5 to $40/month February 2011. Good thing we just jumped from Elite to Max ($45/month) and doubled our speed. No word if U-verse Max is increasing found online.

Reading between the lines, most U-verse broadband customers have the bottom three tiers (Express/Pro/Elite). By December 2009, U-verse had 2MM customers. If 2/3rds run the bottom tiers of service, AT&T just bumped revenue by $6.67MM/month. A year later in 2010, if there are 3MM customers (50% AGR), that would be $10MM/month top-line increase.

That'll help speed roll-out.

Faster!

The U-verse connection is only "Elite" grade. That's $35/month for "up to" 6 Mbps down and 1 Mbps up. For another $10/month, it becomes "Max" grade and gets "up to" 12 Mbps down and 1.5 Mbps up.

Some of that $60/month recouped from Time-Warner Cable is begging for work.

Log onto uverse.att.com, "U-verse Internet My Details", "Change Plan", "Modify". Select "Max", proceed through checkout (4 screens). Receipt screen says

YOUR ORDER HAS BEEN PLACED
Thank you for your order.
Order Date: 12/12/2010 1:40PM PST.
Order Number: digit string
INSTALLATION INFORMATION
About your order:
Once your order has been processed you will receive an email with your confirmation activation date.
Order Status:
To check order status, visit www.att.com/uverseorderstatus

An email arrives within the same minute, confirming the order.

Three minutes later — 1:43pm — another email arrives:

Order Confirmation
We've finished processing your recent order.
Thanks for choosing AT&T U-verse!
...
Confirmed Installation Date:
Sunday, December 12th
Confirmed Technician Arrival Time:
Between 12:00 AM and 12:00 AM

Nice! Likely AT&T has already flipped the bit in the Residential Gateway and scheduled a reboot for midnight.

A quick sidetrip through www.speedtest.net shows the connection still runs at 6 Mbps down and just under 1 Mbps up.

Log onto the RG. "Settings", "Diagnostics", "Reboot System". Okay to reboot? Fire when ready, Gridley.

Make coffee. Five minutes later, the network is back. What does www.speedtest.net think?


Abracadabra,
presto-change-o!
12 down, 1.5 up.

Good work, AT&T.