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Well at least I’m glad I didn’t invest in HD-DVD at all.

Toshiba to announce HD-DVD pull-out Tuesday

Ouch.

Today I finally got my Tivo Series 3 up and running with all its cablecard powered HD goodness.  Comcast sent out someone to configure the cards which was part of the process that I dreaded the most.  I had read a number of horror stories from the Tivo forums about all the problems people were having with getting cablecards working in their series 3 boxes.  Much of the problem seems to be due to many cable company techs just not knowing what they are doing.

For example, my Tivo came with a specific set of instructions for “cable installers” to use when configuring the cablecard(s).  The instructions specifically state that if you’re using 2 single stream cards, you need to install and configure the first one in slot 1, then after it is configured and working, you configure the 2nd one.  However, the Comcast tech this morning promptly jammed both cards into my Tivo and was perplexed as to why the machine was giving him errors.  When I explained the instructions I had read and handed them to him, he shrugged me off as some stupid end user.  Ten minutes later, he decided to try and install just one card at a time and what do you know, the first card worked.

The problem once we got a single card working was apparently a faulty 2nd card and of course, he didn’t bring spares.  He then left to go get another card and returned 45 minutes later with 2 other technicians.  My living room Tivo install was starting to look like a state highway construction job as the main tech pulled out the working single stream card and dropped in a new multistream card (of which you only need 1 to have access to dual tuner functionality) as the other two watched.  He then called the home office and had them “hit” the new card to activate it and 10 minutes later my channels started working.  Hazzah!

The whole ordeal took about 2.5 hours all told but as of now it looks like everything is now working properly with my new Tivo which makes me happy.  I’ll be dropping off the Comcast DVR at the office ASAP before the damn thing burns my house down or something.  I’m actually surprised it has lasted over 2.5 years.

Now I should never again miss another Family Guy.

… and Comcast’s piece of shit DVR is to blame.  I put my Tivo on the shelf almost 3 years ago in favor of Comcast’s DVR, mainly because it supported HD recording.  For the most part the experience was passable with a few annoyances, but the alternative of analog + over-the-air HD recording with Tivo was never appealing enough to get me to switch back.  When the original $800 TivoHD unit came out, I was all but certain to be stuck with the Comcast DVR for a long time to come. 

Then last night, after recently being “upgraded” from the Microsoft built software to Comcast’s own “iGuide” software, the DVR committed the ultimate sin … it failed to record the Family Guy season premiere.  That is unforgivable and I will now promptly go out and purchase the “cheap” version of the Series 3 TivoHD unit and badger Comcast for 2 cable cards (or 1 “M” card) and be done with their awful iGuide software for good.

Third DRM post in a row, I know.  At some point this may stop being interesting to me … until that time, here goes.

From Engadget:

In case you missed it, Sony’s CONNECT music services based on the ATRAC audio format are finally — at long last — coming to an end. In North America and Europe, anyway. The off again, on again music service with a penchant for the ol’ ATRAC lock-in will be phased out. Buried in that US-bound video Walkman press release, Sony states that, “Specific timing will vary by region depending on market demand, but will not be before March 2008.” The CONNECT e-book service for the Reader will not be affected.” We expect the swift demise of ATRAC to follow.

They follow up with an update that while Sony will be offering “guidance” on how to convert ATRAC files to a non-DRM’d format, they note that this will only be for non-purchased music (stuff you’ve ripped from real CD’s), leaving all that ATRAC protected music worthless and all the money spent on it, a waste (unless you’re Sony of course).

This comes just a week after MTV announced their closing of the URGE music store in favor of Real’s Rhapsody music service.  Fortunately for anyone who owns URGE tracks, both UGRE and Rhapsody use Plays for Sure DRM so they *shouldn’t* lose access to their music licenses … that is until Rhapsody decides to close up shop.

DRM is becoming more and more like ocean front property in Kansas … buyer beware.

Last week I was bitching about how Google was effectively screwing all of their Google Video customers who were dumb enough to purchase DRM riddled movies from them, only to have Google pull the plug rendering their purchases useless.  Sounds like I wasn’t the only one bitching and now Google is offering real refunds for everything purchased via their now defunct service.  That’s all well and good but I’m now a little annoyed at their “this is what we meant all along” attitude.  From their blog:

We planned to give these users a full refund or more. And because we weren’t sure if we had all the correct addresses, latest credit card information, and other billing challenges, we thought offering the refund in the form of Google Checkout credits would entail fewer steps and offer a better user experience. We should have anticipated that some users would see a Checkout credit as nothing more than an extra step of a different (and annoyingly self-serving) kind.

Bullshit.  If you had planned on giving refunds all along, you would have given refunds from the start, not after people started to tear you to shreds over your plan to make people buy MORE stuff just to get a refund for stuff they already purchased.

This is typical marketing/PR backtracking after trying to fly under the radar while screwing paying customers.  It’s PR 101: When you get caught trying to do the wrong thing and screw customers, say you were trying to do the right thing all along and were just misunderstood.

Don’t be evil my ass.

Google Video is shutting down and now people who “purchased” DRM’d video are being “refunded” with Google Checkout credits.  Nice, you lose the content you “purchased” and the only way to recoup your loses is to go find something you probably don’t want to buy that accepts Google Checkout money and buy that instead.

Does anyone have any examples of where a DRM’d content provider went out of business or discontinued to the service and didn’t leave their customers high and dry?

In the last 5 years that I’ve been running this latest version of my blog (my original “blog” started in 1998), I’ve noticed that my posts slow down a bit during the summer.  This summer appears to be no different, and no it’s not because I’m big into doing outdoors junk.  To be honest, I’m not sure why this happens but it does.

Anyway, this post is to remind you of my typical summer “slow down” so you don’t think I’m ignoring you. (I am ignoring you, I just don’t want you to know it.)

I need to upgrade the blogging software sometime soon as well which may bring this entire house of cards crashing down.  That should be fun.

Here’s a quick update on some things I’ve posted recently:

• The replacement Dell E1705 is still working great.  Not one blue screen yet.
• My Xbox 360 is still out for repairs and the phone call to support was a good experience.  Took about 30 minutes total and the return/repair isn’t going to cost me a dime.
• XM Radio tried to convince me to come back to them after the O&A issue.  I did not take the bait.
• Forza 2 for Xbox 360 has turned out to be huge disappointment for me. (More on this maybe sometime in the future).

Last month I contacted Dell about my Inspiron E1705 that was blue screen crashing more often than I was comfortable with.   The short story (for those that are scroll impaired) is I called Dell, they sent me new RAM, that didn’t fix the problem.  I contacted them again, they wanted to send me a new motherboard, I debated whether I wanted to do a mobo replacement on a 7 month old laptop, someone else from Dell contacted me about my problem and sent me a brand new laptop instead.

The new laptop arrived but there were two problems.  First was that the WiFi/Bluetooth card did not match the card I originally purchased (I bought the Intel card, the replacement had the Broadcomm card).  Second, and more of a problem was that one of the internal fans had a very loud whine to it.  Since the laptop is usually on my desk at work or behind my couch at home, it can’t be making any kind of constant, crazy buzzing noises.  Another problem is the replacement came with a 53WH battery when I originally bought the 80WH battery. (Ok that’s 3 problems but the battery one isn’t really a problem since I’ll just swap them out).

I contacted Dell letting them know of the problems and they gave me two choices, have another replacement laptop shipped to me which would take a week or have the parts sent to me next day and I could swap them out myself.  Since it was just a fan and network card, I decided to take the parts.  I got the time to do the install this weekend and it took about 2 hours.  There was one problem however, the replacement network card they sent me (marked “Refurbished”) did not work when I installed it.  I took the card out of my old laptop and installed it in the new laptop and it worked like a charm.  The fact that the refurbished network card didn’t work only strengthens my position that refurbished hardware is less than desirable and makes me glad I didn’t take the refurb mobo swap.

With the new fans and old network card installed, the E1705 is running like a top again.  The RAM rarely goes above 150 degrees now and I haven’t had a single blue screen crash.  I even turned up my WoW settings to full-max to try and see if I could reproduce the crash.  I’ll keep the old laptop for a few more days just to make sure this new one doesn’t have the same problem before I send it back to Dell for inspection.

Tonight I came home from my weekly poker game (I won again ) and I booted up my Xbox 360 to grab the new Colin McRae: DIRT demo.  I pressed the power button and got the light configuration you see to the right.

I have been dreading this day for a year and a half now and like many others, my 360 has finally succumbed to whatever it is that makes it decide that I no longer deserve to play Crackdown or the Halo 3 beta.  I didn’t even get a chance to plead my case.  Judgment was swift and painful and apparently there are no appeals.

The good news is that after seeing how many 360’s were dying right after launch, I did something I never do … I bought an extended warranty (2 years).  Even though Microsoft recently extended the warranty of all 360’s to one year, I would have still been out of luck since my dead 360 is now 18 months old.

Now I must call the Xbox warranty number and cross my fingers that the replacement will be easy and painless.

This weekend I spent a few hours playing the new content available for Crackdown (both free and non-free) and I have to say that it is some of the best $10 I’ve spent on Xbox Live Arcade in a while.  If you enjoy Crackdown but haven’t gotten the add-ons yet, you’re missing out.  Especially the new Agency Buggy vehicle.

One thing I really wish the new content had however, is 4-player cooperative play.  Last night while playing with a buddy of mine, we decided that adding 2 more players would make this game so much better.  The city is so big and there’s so much to do that having just two people playing makes it seem like something is missing.  And something is … more players.  Even the “street racing” mode is 2 player only, meaning there will be as many as 10 AI controlled racers in your race and only one living, breathing person to smash into.

Hopefully the next downloadable pack (if there is one) will give us 4-player co-op.  I’d certainly pay another $10 just for that feature.