MEMS mics are taking over. Almost every mobile device has ditched its old-fashioned electret microphone invented way back in 1962 at Bell Labs. Expect new piezoelectric MEMS microphones, which promise unheard of signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) of up to 80 dB (versus 65 dB in the best current capacitive microphones) in 2015. MEMS microphones are growing like gangbusters.
Analysts and veterans of the International CES expect to see plenty of 4K ultra-high-definition televisions, new smartwatch uses, and a large section of the show floor dedicated to robotics. 2015 will be the first year CES gets behind 4K in a big way, as lower price points make the technology more attractive to consumers. Samsung, Sony, Sharp, and Toshiba will be big players in the 4K arena. OEMs must solve the problem of intelligence and connectivity before 4K will really take off. CES attendees may also see 4K TVs optimized for certain tasks, along with a variety of sizes. There will be 10-inch and 14-inch and 17-inch UHD displays.
4K is not enough anymore? 8K – finally come true? Korean giant LG has promised to introduce ehdan 8K TV at CES 2015 exhibition in January. 8K means a total of 33.2 million pixels, or 7680 x 4320 resolution. 4K video material fate is still uncertain, 8K video can not with certainty not available for a long time.
Sound bars will be a big issue at shows. One problem with new TVs — the thinner they are, the harder it is to get sound out.
Open file formats Matroska Video (MKV) and Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) gets more widely used as Windows 10 To Feature Native Support For MKV and FLAC.
Watching shows online is more common now. More people are watching videos on smaller screens. You can use a tablet as personal TV. Phablets and portable televisions have taken off in China, Japan, and Korea, where many people watch videos during long commutes. Tablets now have become so ubiquitous and inexpensive that you can buy them for a specific application. Much of the innovation will be in software, rather than hardware — tuning the tablets to boot up like a television instead of an Android tablet
We’re all spending more time with smartphones and tablets. So much so that the “second screen” may now be the “first screen,” depending on the data you read. It seems inevitable that smartphones and tablets will replace the television in terms of time spent. Many metrics firms, including Nielsen, report on the rapid increase of mobile device usage—especially when it comes to apps. Half of YouTube’s views now come from phones and tablets.
Qualcomm will push this year broadcast LTE. That will be picked up more and more by some vendors in tablets, so they can have broadcast TV signals, but it doesn’t have to be generic LTE.
There will be lots of talking on traditional TV vs new streaming services, especially on who gets which program material and at what price. While it’s possible to create a TV platform that doesn’t deal with live channels, smart TVs and game consoles alike generally try to integrate the content as best they can.
Netflix’s new strategy to take on cable involves becoming best friends with cable to get its app included on set-top boxes of cable, fiber and satellite TV operators. Roughly 90 million U.S. households subscribe to cable or other forms of pay TV, and more than 73 million subscribe to the biggest five operators alone. That’s why Netflix has been working hard to team up with one of these major operators.
Google intends to integrate content best it can. Google Publishes ‘Live Channels For Android TV’ App Into The Play Store. G The “Live Channels for Android TV” app is unsurprisingly incompatible with phones and tablets, maybe because for some reason those markets are intentionally artificially tried to be kept separate.
Virtual reality video is trying to get to spotlight. Samsung’s new Milk VR to round up 360-degree videos for Gear VR article tells that Milk VR will provide the videos for free as Samsung hopes to goose interest in virtual reality. Milk VR service will provide free 360-degree videos to anyone using a Gear VR virtual-reality headset (uses Galaxy Note 4). Samsung wants to jump-start the virtual-reality movement as the company is looking at virtual reality as a potential growth engine at a time when one of its key traditional revenue sources — smartphones — has slowed down. The videos will also serve as a model for future filmmakers or artists looking to take advantage of the virtual-reality medium, as well as build up an ecosystem and viewership for VR content.
Although digital video is increasing in popularity, analog video remains in use in many applications.
1,154 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sight elsewhere than in the foot, Hollywood!
Netflix spread to the world a week ago a rumor that the use of VPN services via BEEN restricted.
Free or paying a few euros a month vpn service has so far made it possible, for example, Netflix Yankee range of viewing in Finland – or Netflix in general use in countries where the service is not even officially in use.
Netflix is caught between the devil. On the other hand, of course, wants to sell its services as much as possible.
On the other hand country limitations circumvention of the benefits can not be the company’s side too openly praises. Movie and TV series rights owned companies want to treat the Earth still like the last millennium was the habit – in order to each other completely isolated from the market area. Wooden ships and of tar haiskahtava thinking is fortunately understood to bury in the music industry side, with Spotify and other streamauspalvelut bring novelty plates practically at the same time, the whole world heard.
If Netflix at some point to introduce drastic means of preventing VPN connections, it will take the same path as the TV shows from Hulu offers.
Screening does not, of course, can never be complete, and services are developing ways of hedging rotation hackers are always one step ahead.
Own their rucksacks Rokkaan will also bring the illegal services. Torrent sites and torrent technology to take advantage of viewing software offers a range of top global companies, ignoring the film pressure from legitimate businesses.
The old adage that express the is hard to compete with, it is certainly true, but it is not impossible. It will tell already tens of millions of Netflix users who pay not only the Netflix user identification, but also probably a few euros a month, vpn service to the top. Willingness to pay, therefore, can be found – if the supply is right.
Even now, Netflix offers a variety of service levels. What more devices or the better the image you want to watch, the more you pay. What about if there would also be quite legally in other countries Netflix selections of providing the level of a few euros extra charge? Surely there are contributors, and all you could.
As long as the stupid artificial land borders have been eliminated, it is time to think about how far the film release schedule online services worth the stretch. Sony’s infamous Interview The film was released incidentally at the same time and on-line services to be watched that a few hundred movie theater screens. The second half of the week the movie theaters collected $ 5,000,000. At the same time on-line services that were rented or purchased 31 million – even though the piece was easily illegally downloaded a couple of hours of on-line publication of the first minute after.
Source: http://www.tivi.fi/blogit/uutiskommentti/tahtain+muualle+kuin+omaan+jalkaan+hollywood/a1041345
Tomi Engdahl says:
The True Story of Grouper, a.k.a. Crackle
http://recode.net/2015/01/09/the-true-story-of-grouper-a-k-a-crackle/
“Halfway through Grouper’s development, this stealthy little startup called YouTube released a sneak preview of its video site.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Netflix falls short of Q3 subscriber numbers, stock tanks by 26 percent
Reed Hastings says Netflix and HBO can both ‘prosper’ with internet TV
http://www.theverge.com/2014/10/15/6984955/netflix-q3-2014-earnings
Netflix has released its Q3 earnings today, and the results have some investors in a panic. During the quarter, the company brought on an additional 3 million subscribers. That brings Netflix’s total customer base to 53.1 million; CEO Reed Hastings says he expects to close out 2014 with 57 million global members. But he also acknowledged that the 3M number missed Wall Street expectations — and the company’s own forecasts.
“This quarter we over-forecasted membership growth,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why Netflix won’t block VPN users – it has too many of them
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jan/09/why-netflix-wont-block-vpn-users
Millions of people watch Netflix through VPNs from countries where it hasn’t officially launched, new figures show
More than 30 million Netflix users live in countries where the service is unavailable without the use of location-masking software, giving the company a hefty financial incentive not to crack down on members who use the technological loophole to watch content not authorised for their country.
The figures, which come from market research firm GlobalWebIndex, show that Netflix has more than 20 million users in China alone, all of whom must connect through virtual private networks (VPNs), as the streaming video provider has not yet launched in the country.
Not every Netflix “user” is a subscriber to the service, however. GlobalWebIndex surveyed almost 200,000 individuals across 32 markets, and asked how many of them had watched Netflix in the previous month using a VPN. A significant proportion of those saying they had will have watched at a friend’s house, or been sharing a username with others – indeed, as of October 2014, the company had 16 million international members, significantly less than the total number of users of the service.
“Account sharing is pretty widespread,” says Jason Mander, Head of Trends at GWI. “Our numbers are always going to be higher than the number of paying subscribers.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
IEEE to adopt HDBase-T, standardizing UHD transmission over Category 6 cabling
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2015/01/ieee-1911-hdbaset-category-6-cabling.html
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), along with the HDBase-T Alliance, jointly announced that the IEEE Standards Association Standards Board approved the HDBase-T Specifications 1.1.0 and 2.0 as part of the IEEE’s standards portfolio. The HDBase-T standard will become IEEE 1911 standard once the adoption process is complete.
“HDBase-T is a successful technology for long-distance ultra-high-definition distribution of digital media today, with hundreds of HDBase-T products currently commercialized,”
“HDBase-T enables all-in-one transmission of ultra-high-definition video through a single 100-m/328-ft Category 6 cable,” the announcement explained, “delivering uncompressed 4K video, audio, USB, Ethernet, control signals, and up to 100 watts of power. HDBase-T simplifies cabling, enhances ease-of-use, and accelerates deployment of ultra-high-definition connectivity solutions. The cost-effective LAN infrastructure and power transmission support also help reduce and simplify installation and electrical costs.”
HDBaseT Alliance now offering 2 programs approved for InfoComm certification
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2015/01/hdbaset-infocomm-rus.html
The HDBaseT Alliance, the cross-industry group tasked with promoting and advancing the HDBaseT standard, announced that it has been named an official InfoComm International Renewal Unit (RU) Provider. According to a press release, this will allow the more than 9,000 professionals holding InfoComm International’s Certified Technology Specialist credential to earn renewal units towards their certification by completing the HDBaseT Alliance’s Installer Expert education programs.
Tomi Engdahl says:
DisplayLink demos 5K display connectivity over single USB cable
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2015/01/displaylink-demos-5k.html
This week at the 2015 International CES in Las Vegas, DisplayLink, the consortium for USB graphics technology, is demonstrating the latest commercially available Dell UltraSharp 5K monitors connected over a single, standard universal USB cable providing 5120×2880 resolution
DisplayLink said the demonstrated solution both solves the 5K connectivity problem and equally enables non-5K PC, notebooks, and tablets to connect to 5K displays over a standard universal “Plug-and-Display” USB 3.0 cable connection. DisplayLink uses a standard off-the shelf Microsoft Surface Pro III, connected over a standard USB 3.0 cable to a DisplayLink-based docking station, to Dell’s new 5K UltraSharp UP2715K, 27” Monitor, enabled by DisplayLink’s latest 5K chipset.
“5K monitors with 5120×2880 resolutions were just released in Q4. DisplayLink is demonstrating dramatically simplified 5K connectivity to any PC,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fail of the Week: Cat6 != Coax
http://hackaday.com/2015/01/12/fail-of-the-week-cat6-coax/
With a new Kenwood 5.1 receiver acquired from questionable sources, [PodeCoet] had no way to buy the necessary coax. He did have leftover Cat6 though.
Clearly hovering at that most dangerous level of knowledge where one knows just enough to get further into trouble, he selected the “twistiest” (orange) pair of wires in the cables. Reasonable logic, one must select the strongest of available shoelaces for towing a car.
It worked perfectly unless anything electrical happened. Any electrical occurrence at all (plus, according to him, occasional Arduino voodoo hexes) caused the Kenwood’s audio relay to trip off and go into standby mode.
It turns out that replacing the cable with some shielded coax made the problem disappear.
Comments:
Impedance isn’t the problem.
Long cables have two main problems when it comes to transmitting fast-moving signals: induced noise from external EMF sources and the distributed inductance/capacitance of the cable itself.
There are multiple issues here:
1. twisted pair works for shielding when the current in both wires is the same and opposite and the readout is differential. If the source and receiver are grounded together through some other place(like mains) there is no current through the ground wire in the twisted pair, thus making the other wire act as a simple plain wire. Twisted pair is to be used only with differential signalling.
2. It’s the different cable impedance that can also screw things up. Twisted pair should be higher(100ohm) vs the 50-75ohm coaxial. If the terminating resistor is 50ohm, then you would get more attenuation
Simplest fix is probably to connect all other non connected wires to ground.
S21 is a ratio, so 0dB means some 2 things are equal, some thing gets split in two identical halves. I’ll let you read on the S parameters a bit to figure out why matched networks are not 100% efficient.
A Balun on one end to do Unbalance to Balance (and impedance matching), then another on the far end to do the reverse. Unfortunately, the fix is way more expensive than getting the right cable.
Tomi Engdahl says:
CNN’s Drone Journalism Is Just the Beginning
http://www.nationaljournal.com/tech/cnn-s-drone-journalism-is-just-the-beginning-20150112
CNN announced Monday it has come to an agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration: The news network will be allowed to test drone systems for news-gathering.
“Our aim is to get beyond hobby-grade equipment and to establish what options are available and workable to produce high-quality video journalism using various types of UAVs and camera setups,” CNN Senior Vice President David Vigilante, said in a press release.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Telecentric Illumination
http://video.techbriefs.com/video/Telecentric-Illumination;Sponsored-Videos-from-Edmund-Op
Telecentric illumination is quickly becoming the illumination of choice for precision metrology due to its ability to produce “hard” edges that can be easily analyzed. Use this easy-to-follow three minute tutorial to see why the benefits of telecentric illumination far outweigh those of standard, diffuse illumination sources in machine vision applications.
Tomi Engdahl says:
CastAR Hands-On and Off-Record Look at Next Version
http://hackaday.com/2015/01/12/castar-hands-on-and-off-record-look-at-next-version/
CastAR, a glasses-based Augmented Reality system developed by Technical Illusions. The hardware has been in the works now for a couple of years, but every time we have come across a demo we were thwarted by the long lines that accompany them.
Oculus Gear VR is a mounting system for a Samsung Galaxy Note 4 which serves as the display on the game.
you are completely shut-off to the world.
there is no interfacing with what’s around you until the VR gear is removed.
CastAR completely solves this particular problem. The hardware uses polarized glasses which have two 720p projectors and two cameras built into them. The frames feel like a set of large sunglasses with thick plastic frames and do not block your peripheral vision or the ability to look around the room. You could play games with friends while sitting around the table and still look at the people and the room normally.
In addition to the glasses, CastAR relies on a computer to drive the experience, a passive infrared marker which the cameras uses to measure your movement, and a retroreflective material on which each person’s experience is projected.
Technical Illusions is beginning to fulfill the Kickstarter units now. But [Jeri] is already hard at work on the next revision of the hardware.
I’ve been trying to think of any drawbacks to this system. The only thing I can come up with is that it is a projection based system. I have always felt that projection systems don’t have displays as bright and vibrant as ones that use screens. That said, CastAR’s projectors appear to perform as well as any consumer projectors.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mario Aguilar / Gizmodo:
Neil Young’s PonoPlayer promises high-res audio, but with no discernible sound improvement and massive file sizes, it’s not worth the $400 price tag — Don’t Buy What Neil Young Is Selling — Neil Young’s “high resolution” PonoPlayer goes on sale for $400 today. You shouldn’t buy it.
Don’t Buy What Neil Young Is Selling
http://gizmodo.com/dont-buy-what-neil-young-is-selling-1678446860
Neil Young’s “high resolution” PonoPlayer goes on sale for $400 today. You shouldn’t buy it. The recalcitrant rocker isn’t wrong for wanting to reclaim audio quality in the digital age, but in the service of that goal he’s peddling junk science, and supporting expensive gear and music files you don’t need.
For the last few years, Neil Young has been been the most visible proponent of what’s called both “high resolution” and “high definition” audio. These huge audio files theoretically sound much better than any other digital files that have ever existed before.
To put that sound in the hands—and ears—of the people, he created the PonoPlayer, a triangular portable music player that promises only the highest of fidelities. He’s not alone. Last week at CES, Sony announced a whole battery of new high-resolution audio products, led by an absurdly expensive $1200 Walkman, loaded with hardware that’s supposed to optimize the reproduction of the music loaded on it.
At the most basic level, the push for high resolution audio is rooted in reality. By adopting digital formats like the MP3, and the lossy encoding of the music streamed by subscription services like Spotify, we’ve sacrificed audio quality for convenience. A music lover should care about improving their audio quality by using better files.
The rationale behind high-resolution audio is that by maximizing the sampling rate and bit depth, you also maximize audible detail and dynamic range in the music you’re listening to. This sounds great on paper, but in practice it’s an absolute fantasy.
The CD-quality standard—which Young and HRA proponents say isn’t sufficient—wasn’t adopted randomly.
To the human ear, audio sampled above 44.1 kHz/16-bit is inaudibly different.
Still, this demonstrated mathematical truth does not stop people from claiming that they can hear the difference on higher quality audio.
I’m saying that they’re succumbing to confirmation bias, that natural impulse to hear or see what it is you want to hear or see. If Neil Young thrusts a gadget in your hands and says, “Listen dude, you are not going to believe this shit,” you are probably going to hear exactly what Neil Young wants you to hear.
Of course, there’s a scientific way to overcome confirmation bias, called double-blind testing,
It’s incredible to me the lengths that educated and intelligent people will go to say that they’re somehow endowed with impossible hearing powers that necessitate a level of audio encoding that’s demonstrably unnecessary.
First of all, high-resolution audio files take up enormous amounts storage space. A “high resolution” 96 kHz/24-bit file is roughly three times larger than a CD-quality 44.1 kHz/16-bit file.
Moreover, the push for high resolution audio leads people to think they need more expensive hardware than they do
The point is that you don’t need fancy hardware to make music sound good, and that no amount of hardware will make your ears hear better than the limits of biology and physics.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung, Disney, Netflix, and more team up to define Ultra HD and how you’ll watch it
The UHD Alliance will set standards for 4K content
http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/5/7493099/uhd-alliance-announced-samsung-disney-netflix-others-standardize-uhd-ces-2015
4K TVs were one of the big stories of CES last year, but even now, there remain questions about what you’ll be able to watch and how you’ll be able to watch it. It turns out, basically every company involved in this process — from content creators to TV makers — realize that this is a problem, and they’re teaming up to solve it. Samsung is today announcing that team: a partnership called the UHD Alliance, which plans to set standards for 4K content, terminology, and delivery.
(Here’s one good example of why that’s necessary: UHD and 4K are generally used interchangeably, even though 4K is a slightly different resolution than UHD).
Samsung thinks that this is a critical time to create the alliance. Bill Lee, Samsung’s VP of TV, says that Samsung expects 4K TV ownership to quadruple this year.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Broadcom CEO: Life After LTE, 5G Cellular Exit
4K UHDTV, iGrill and proliferating remotes
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1325250&
Broadcom CEO on IoT, iGrill and 4K UHDTV
EE Times: What have you seen on the show so far?
EE Times: But none of the cable guys are doing 4K today. Are they?
McGregor: They’re all working on it. I mean, all of them. If they don’t have a plan to deploy it, they’ll be out of business. Because consumers are going to buy a 4K TV set, and if their cable provider does not offer 4K content, they will change. They’ll go to a satellite provider, or to streaming guys offering 4K. So, there is competition. It’s going to move fairly rapidly.
It’s going to be completely different from the 3D phenomenon we saw five years ago.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Broadcom CEO: Life After LTE, 5G Cellular Exit
4K UHDTV, iGrill and proliferating remotes
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1325250&
EE Times: But none of the cable guys are doing 4K today. Are they?
McGregor: They’re all working on it. I mean, all of them. If they don’t have a plan to deploy it, they’ll be out of business. Because consumers are going to buy a 4K TV set, and if their cable provider does not offer 4K content, they will change. They’ll go to a satellite provider, or to streaming guys offering 4K. So, there is competition. It’s going to move fairly rapidly.
It’s going to be completely different from the 3D phenomenon we saw five years ago.
Tomi Engdahl says:
All Of Samsung’s New Smart TVs Will Run Its Tizen Operating System
http://techcrunch.com/2014/12/31/all-of-samsungs-new-smart-tvs-will-run-its-tizen-operating-system/?ncid=rss
In its latest attempt to make the operating system happen, Samsung announced today that all of its smart televisions will include a Tizen-based platform in 2015.
In theory, this means that the new smart TVs will be able to sync with other Samsung devices that use Tizen, the company’s own open-source operating system. For example, they can stream content over wi-fi or connect automatically by Bluetooth. In its announcement, Samsung said its “Tizen’s compatibility with other devices establishes Samsung’s Smart TVs as the control center of any Smart Home.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Peter Burrows / Bloomberg:
GoPro stock drops over 12% after Apple is awarded patent for remote-control camera system
GoPro Plunges After Apple Gains Remote Camera Patent
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-13/gopro-plunges-after-apple-gains-remote-camera-patent.html
Investors are concerned that the patent will let Apple, the world’s largest company by market valuation, make products that are similar to what GoPro offers
Apple receives thousands of patents each year, most of which never lead to products, Anderson said. He said it’s more likely that Apple would use the remote capability included in the patent to let customers control the zoom and other photo and video settings on their iPhone or iPad cameras from another Apple device.
“GoPro has done well, but we’re talking about four million units and $1 billion in revenue in the past year,” he said. “Apple doesn’t do things with single-digit millions of units in mind.”
While competitors, including Sony, unveiled new high-resolution cameras at the Consumer Electronics Show this month, GoPro’s prominent brand will let it maintain market share, said Alex Gauna, an analyst at JMP Securities LLC.
“The success of GoPro has inspired quite a bit of imitation, but none of it is overly threatening,” Gauna said. “It still looks like their market to dominate.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
American icon Klipsch has introduced a home theater system, which is no more than the speaker cables separate amplifier idea. The name is the Klipsch Reference Premiere Wireless Home Theater System. This is the beginning of simple and intuitive, immediately ready for use, home theater systems, the triumph.
Amplifier and wires to replace a small wireless transmitter hub.
Source: http://www.hifimaailma.fi/uutiset/av-vahvistimien-paivat-ovat-luetut/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Amazon Signs Woody Allen For His First TV Series, To Run On Prime Instant Video
http://techcrunch.com/2015/01/13/amazon-signs-woody-allen-for-his-first-tv-series-to-run-on-prime-instant-video/
The streaming video market has become very serious business, and Amazon today announced its latest talent grab for Amazon Studios to demonstrate its intent to own it: it has signed up none other than Woody Allen, the iconic writer, director and actor with a sometimes controversial private life, to write and direct a television series — his first ever.
“Untitled Woody Allen Project,” as it will be called, will run in a half-hour format
Amazon Studios, which launched in 2010, is the original content arm of the company. I
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ars: Samsung Gear VR Is Today’s Best Virtual Reality
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/15/01/14/0322234/ars-samsung-gear-vr-is-todays-best-virtual-reality
Samsung took a distinctly different tack from Oculus VR in developing virtual reality tech. Whereas Oculus has a dedicated device, Samsung simply has a high-tech piece of headgear that you strap a Galaxy Note 4 phone into. A review popped up at Ars Technica after a month using the device, and they say it works surprisingly well.
They still say a purchase is hard to justify, simply because the content selection is lacking. But as that improves, the price tag will become worth it.
Gear VR: For today’s best virtual reality, strap a phone to your face
While not perfect, Samsung’s headset offers impressive hardware, standout VR experiences
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/01/gear-vr-for-todays-best-virtual-reality-strap-a-phone-to-your-face/
The Galaxy Note 4′s 2560×1440 resolution screen is the bare minimum necessary for a VR experience that’s going to come off as clear and comfortable for the masses. In-app text is rendered crisply, and while you can make out a bit of fuzziness between pixels, the lens system makes it feel less like you’re looking at a phone display inches from your face and more like you’re looking down a 3D tunnel.
Despite the over-the-top warnings, prolonged use of the Gear VR hasn’t necessarily led to any negative physical effects during testing.
A fully charged Note 4 battery can last a good four to four-and-a-half hours of constant use in the Gear VR carrier.
Of the two dozen or so games currently available on Gear VR, Darknet is the closest thing to a killer app for the system.
The problem with almost all of these games at this point (aside from Darknet) is that they feel like not much more than demos.
All told, the most awe-inspiring and impressive moments with the Gear VR thus far have all come from outside of games. Simple, minimally interactive virtual reality experiences like The Deep, BluVR, and Titans of Space have become go-to apps when passing the Gear VR around a party for friends to check out. It’s incredible just sitting in place and following along with your gaze as sea life or entire planets fly by in sharp, well-rendered, 360-degree glory. Without the power of a high-end gaming rig, the 3D graphics are just passable, but the sense of being surrounded by a complete, stereoscopic 3D world just can’t be matched by a flat monitor, no matter how powerful the hardware.
The handful of live-action 360 degree videos are more of a mixed bag.
Yet even these low-resolution videos deliver a sense of presence that really shows off the value of VR. Watching a Cirque du Soleil performance high above you from the equivalent of the stage floor or looking around a Paul McCartney concert from a vantage point on top of his piano is impressive
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ritsuko Ando / Reuters:
Sony said to be open to a joint venture or sale of its TV and mobile phone operations, though no deals are currently on the table
Sony CEO eyes options as pressure mounts on weak TV, mobile
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/12/us-sony-ceo-idUSKBN0KL27F20150112
Sony Corp CEO Kazuo Hirai has weathered a crisis over a cyberattack on its Hollywood studio and its controversial comedy “The Interview”, but his toughest moment may be just arriving as he prepares a new business revival plan.
Hirai and his deputies are now open to options including sales and joint ventures for its money-losing TV and mobile phone operations, company officials familiar with the leadership’s thinking say.
Last year Sony sold its Vaio personal computer business and spun off its TV operations
But even as many analysts say further drastic action is needed, such as a full-fledged exit from TVs
He stressed the success of Sony’s imaging sensors for cameras and its PlayStation 4
“Electronics in general, along with entertainment and finance, will continue to be an important business,” he said. “But within that there are some operations that will need to be run with caution – and that might be TV or mobile, for example.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Guitar amps on Wi-Fi
This is every guitarist and guitarist career dreamy expecting. British start-up company Ingenious Audio has developed a connector which sound can be transferred to the amplifier without wires using wifi connection.
Plug has been given a name to succinctly “Jack”. The second guitar is connected to the audio connector, the second amplifier connector (no routers or base stations are required).
Jack obtaining funding from Kickstarter campaign. The goal is to collect 20,000 pounds, which is already almost together. Kickstart’s website, “the wireless guitar freaking wire” can now be ordered 180 pounds. Delivery date is estimated to May.
Lower cost of one hundred pounds for one-Jack connector. It allows the guitar to connect to any wifi-interface device such as a smartphone or tablet.
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2275:kitara-vahvariin-wifi-yhteydella&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Peter Kafka / Re/code:
Wavelength Lets Viewers Share Movies for Free Using Ultraviolet — Hollywood’s home movie sales and rentals business is shrinking. Spencer Wang says he has a solution: Make it easier for people to watch movies at home, without paying a penny
Wavelength Lets You Share Hollywood Movies With Your Friends, for Free, on the Web — At Least for Now
http://recode.net/2015/01/14/wavelength-lets-you-share-hollywood-movies-with-your-friends-for-free-on-the-web-at-least-for-now/
Hollywood’s home movie sales and rentals business is shrinking. Spencer Wang says he has a solution: Make it easier for people to watch movies at home, without paying a penny.
Wang, a longtime Wall Street analyst, has just launched Wavelength, a service that lets people share movies they own with their friends, over the Web, for free.
This is one of those ideas that tech folks love, because it takes a behavior that’s no big deal in the physical world — Want to borrow my “Star Wars” DVD? Come on over! — and extends it into the digital world.*
So far Wang, the former lead media and Internet analyst for Credit Suisse, hasn’t been able to get Hollywood to sign on to his boot-strapped company. But for now, he seems to be able to work without their blessing, since he’s playing by rules Hollywood created.
Wavelength takes advantage of the UltraViolet cloud locker system the movie studios set up a few years ago, which is supposed to let consumers buy a single copy of a movie and stream it to multiple devices. Interesting and crucial fact: UltraViolet lets movie owners share their library with up to six people, presumably to allow family members to see each others’ movies.
But they don’t have to be family members.
Wavelength doesn’t host copies of the movies themselves, but sends users to an online portal run by the retailer that originally sold the film (Walmart’s Vudu, for instance), which streams the film.
In the long run, the challenge for Wavelength would be that the type of people who are likely to stream movies from the cloud may be the least likely to build a collection of movies.
The more pressing issue for Wang: He thinks that in a month, the consortium behind UltraViolet will rewrite its terms of service to prevent multiple users from sharing the same library.
So Wang’s plan is to sign up as many people as he can in the next few weeks, and then approach movie studios and retailers with a working model to plead his case.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Leo Kelion / BBC:
Facebook adds warnings to graphic and violent videos, prevents them from automatically playing — Facebook restricts violent video clips and photos — Potentially distressing video clips are covered by a warning that stops them auto-playing — Facebook has begun placing warnings
Facebook restricts violent video clips and photos
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30793702
Facebook has begun placing warnings over videos posted to its site, stating their contents might “shock, offend and upset” if viewed.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Todd Spangler / Variety:
GoPro partners with Vislink to create wireless transmitter for live HD broadcasting
GoPro to Launch Wireless HD Transmitter for Live TV Broadcasts
http://variety.com/2015/digital/news/gopro-to-launch-wireless-hd-transmitter-for-tv-broadcasts-1201404897/
GoPro wants to make it easier for TV networks to weave video from its mountable cameras into live sports and events programming.
The company announced a pact with Vislink, a technology provider specializing managing and delivering HD video and associated data, under which GoPro’s HERO4 cameras will be available with a wireless transmitter for live, broadcast-grade video. The transmitter is small enough to be worn or mounted on various equipment to provide new perspectives for TV producers, the duo said.
The wireless HD transmitter will be showcased during popular live events this winter, including ESPN’s Winter X Games 2015 Aspen from Jan. 22-25, as well as select AMA Monster Energy Supercross events and other live sporting events.
oPro said more details on the product, including pricing and availability, will be announced this spring. While broadcasters have already been using footage from GoPro cameras, they’ve only been able to use it in a post-production workflow after the video has been downloaded from the memory cards.
“Now with unique GoPro perspectives available to broadcasters, watching live events is like being part of the action instead of watching it from the stands,” said GoPro president Tony Bates.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Image Sensors World
News and discussions about image sensors
http://image-sensors-world.blogspot.fi/
Future of Automotive Cameras
http://image-sensors-world.blogspot.fi/2015/01/future-of-automotive-cameras.html
Mobileye published its presentation at Deutsche Bank 2015 Global Auto Industry Conference on Jan 13, 2015 with the company’s Chairman and CTO Amnon Shashua talking about automotive camera trends. Few slides from the presentation
Tomi Engdahl says:
2nd Generation FLIR One Camera
http://image-sensors-world.blogspot.fi/2015/01/2nd-generation-flir-one-camera.html
FLIR announces an enhanced resolution 2nd generation Lepton thermal camera core and attachments for Android or iOS devices, including iPhone 6 and iPad. FLIR’s MSX technology, providing enhanced thermal images with sharp detail from visible camera for easy interpretation.
FLIR CEO Andy Teich says in a Youtube video that the new Lepton core features 4x higher resolution than the old camera. Electronista says that the new Lepton has 180×120 resolution. The older generation Lepton used to have 80 x 60 pixel array.
Tomi Engdahl says:
[Tesla500] Builds a High-Speed Video Camera
http://hackaday.com/2015/01/15/tesla500-builds-a-high-speed-video-camera/
[Tesla500] has a passion for high-speed photography. Unfortunately, costs for high-speed video cameras like the Phantom Flex run into the tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. When tools are too expensive, you do the only thing you can – you build your own! [Tesla500’s] HSC768 is named for the data transfer rate of its image sensor. 768 megapixels per second translates to about 960MB/s due to the 10 bit pixel format used by the On Semiconductor Lupa1300-2 image sensor.
This is actually [Tesla500’s] second high-speed camera
The processor is a Texas Instruments TMS320DM8148 DaVinci, running TI’s customized build of Linux. The DaVinci controls most of the mundane things like the GUI, trigger I/O, SD card and SATA interfaces. The real magic is the high-speed image acquisition, which is all handled by the FPGA. High-speed image acquisition demands high-speed memory, and a lot of it!
The HSC768 is capable of taking SXGA (1280×1024) videos at 500 frames per second, or 800×600 gray·scale images at the 1200 frames per second. Lower resolutions allow for even higher frame rates.
HSC768 High-speed camera
HSC768 High-speed camera intro
http://omeganaught.com/category/projects/imaging/hsc768-camera/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Full SHTTTRRR Control Lets You Take Your Time…
http://hackaday.com/2015/01/15/full-shtttrrr-control-lets-you-take-your-time/
He has a Canon 1000D camera but, unfortunately, it does not have time lapse capability. So, instead of shelling out a chunk of change for a new camera [Glitchmaker] decided to make an external shutter control device that can continue to instruct the camera to take photos at predetermined intervals. He calls his project: SHTTTRRR.
Luckily, the Cannon camera has a remote shutter input jack that only requires connecting one pin to another in order to take a photo. Inside the box is an ATTINY45 microcontroller. It reads the button pushes from the single panel-mounted button and calculates the time between two button presses. That time between button presses determines the frequency of the photos taken. At the appropriate times, the ATTINY45 signals a transistor to connect the two appropriate pins on the camera’s remote shutter input jack. The device continues to tell the camera to take photos until it is shut off. The result is a series of time-lapse photos that was previously not possible on that camera!
SHTTTRRR
A small shutter controller for Canon EOS Cameras
http://hackaday.io/project/3812-shtttrrr
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Giant Flip-Dot Display at CES
http://hackaday.com/2015/01/14/the-giant-flip-dot-display-at-ces/
Flip-dot displays are grand, especially this one which boasts 74,088 pixels! I once heard the hardware compared to e-ink. That’s actually a pretty good description since both use a pixel that is white on one side and black on the other, depend on a coil to change state, and only use electricity when flipping those bits.
What’s remarkable about this is the size of the installation. It occupied a huge curving wall on the ooVoo booth at 2015 CES.
The panels are arranged in 21 columns of 9. This provides a black and white display resolution of 588×126. Cognitively, that’s horrible resolution. But the sheer size and novelty of the technology makes the 74,088 mechanical pixels look and sound stunning as they click their way from one state to the next.
Each module has a built-in controller which are commanded via serial. To gang 189 of them into a single display, [Pat] sourced some serial to Ethernet hardware
ooVoo will be taking the display to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, March
“eInk doesn’t use a coil (or magnetism). It pulls black dots through a white liquid using a charge differential. When the dots are pulled to the back it looks white, when pulled to the front it looks black.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Twitch launches free music library for video game streamers
http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/15/7547849/twitch-music-library-free-live-streaming
Game streaming platform Twitch is trying to solve a problem that has plagued it for months: how can you enforce copyright laws without limiting what players can do on the service? Today, the Amazon-owned company is launching the Twitch Music Library, which collects songs that are cleared for use on live streams or in archived video. It’s part of Twitch’s long-running expansion from video games — its original raison d’etre — to music.
Twitch says there are currently about 500 songs in its archive
The company clearly hopes to take its work with musicians further in the coming year.
The library, however, is also a direct response to last year’s crackdown on music streaming. Shortly before being acquired by Amazon in August, the company began screening archived videos (though not live streams) for copyrighted music, muting all audio if it was detected. Twitch suggested using royalty-free external libraries, but the system’s false positives reportedly ended up muting audio of crowd noises, singing, and music owned by the streamer.
In some ways, Twitch’s solution is similar to that of YouTube, which provides a blanket copyright license for videographers through deals with major record labels.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why does Apple’s Lightning to HDMI adapter have an ARM computer inside?
http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/1/4055758/why-does-apples-lightning-to-hdmi-adapter-have-an-arm-computer-inside
Panic Software, purveyor of Mac OS X applications, was curious why Apple’s $49 Lightning Digital AV adapter wasn’t performing very well. The picture quality was lacking, displaying odd video artifacts and failing to output full 1080p video. So Panic cracked open the case, and what should it find… but a tiny ARM computer chip inside. It’s got an Apple logo on top, and markings indicate it might have 256MB of memory within.
Why does the adapter need a processor, though? Panic Software’s theory is that the device actually delivers video via AirPlay streaming. Your iOS device would compress the video, then the adapter would decompress it and deliver it to an HDMI-equipped TV. The video artifacting, a common issue with video processed that way, seems to support the theory, as does the lag some users are reporting.
a commenter claiming to be an anonymous Apple employee has: they claim the device doesn’t use AirPlay, but does indeed decode H.264 video sent over the Lightning cable using the ARM chip
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nielsen Provides Internet Video Metrics
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1325291&
To evaluate OTT viewing in metered households, Nielsen adds a dongle that detects the IP packets associated with video streaming content in WiFi traffic to the TV.
On Dec. 9, Nielsen NV held its annual analyst day in New York City, broadcasting the event on the web. Executive vice president and global product leader Megan Clarken’s presentation, “Bringing Clarity to a Complex Ecosystem,” detailed how Nielsen was providing the linear broadcast TV measurement metrics to video on demand on PCs, laptops, and mobile devices — phones and tablets.
The service, OCR (for “online campaign ratings”), launched in 2014. Next year, Nielsen will offer DCR (“digital content rating”), TV-comparable metrics for SVOD, subscription video on demand (Netflix), and AVOD advertising VOD (YouTube) for both advertising and content.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Xiaomi’s $30 Android streamer looks exactly like a phone charger
http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/15/xiaomi-mi-box-mini/
In addition to the phablet and headphones announced today, Xiaomi also threw in a little surprise. And by “little” we do mean literally, because this new Mi Box Mini is much smaller than the company’s earlier Android streaming devices; it’s so small that when it’s plugged into the power socket, you’d easily mistake it as a USB phone charger.
Despite the reduced size, this Android 4.4.2-powered device still packs a 1.3GHz quad-Cortex-A7 MediaTek processor, along with 1GB of RAM, 4GB of flash storage, dual-band WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 (for the remote control and other accessories) and support for DTS 2.0 plus Dolby Digital Plus. There’s HDMI 1.4a for 1080p 3D video output
Considering that folks outside China will miss out on the 1.4 million hours worth of content, the sideloading feature is a must for most of us here
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why 32 Million People Are Obsessed With ‘PewDiePie’ — The Biggest Star On YouTube
Read more: http://uk.businessinsider.com/youtube-star-pewdiepie-real-name-income-2014-11#ixzz3PHHduKFn
Tomi Engdahl says:
Amazon announces plans to make movies for theaters, Prime streaming
12 movies a year will come to theaters first, then Prime later
http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/19/7852513/amazon-studios-making-movies-for-theaters-prime-streaming
Amazon Studios is going to start making movies, and you’ll be seeing them in theaters before they become available for streaming on Prime.
And Amazon’s not exactly starting small; it plans to produce up to 12 movies each year as part of the new initiative, and those efforts will kick off in earnest later this year. “Not only will we bring Prime Instant Video customers exciting, unique, and exclusive films soon after a movie’s theatrical run, but we hope this program will also benefit filmmakers, who too often struggle to mount fresh and daring stories that deserve an audience,” said Roy Price, VP of Amazon Studios.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Blackhat filmmakers used hacking consultants to depict hacking in a more realistic way
http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/01/as-movies-go-hacking-in-blackhat-strives-for-realism-but-still-feels-forced/
During one scene in the upcoming hacker action movie Blackhat, a team is sent into the control room of a burned-out nuclear power plant to gather clues about the evil computer saboteur who sparked its catastrophic meltdown. The investigators, led by a convicted carder sprung from prison to track down the enigmatic perp, take an axe to a server cabinet so they can retrieve a badly corrupted hard drive that ultimately reveals the suspect’s true location.
As a way to advance the plot, the 60-second scene is mostly unremarkable. But had computer and security expert Christopher McKinlay not been retained as one of the movie’s two hacking consultants, it would have been the kind of Hollywood fare that makes technically savvy viewers groan.
The scene isn’t the only example of the pains Mann took to ensure his film portrayed computers and hacking in a realistic light. McKinley provided virtually all of the Unix line commands furiously typed by convicted hacker turned whitehat Nicholas Hathaway as he closes in on his quarry.
“Michael Mann was really interested in having Chris learn a lot,” McKinlay told Ars. “He originally wanted Chris to be able to type all the Unix commands live during shooting. He said, ‘Yeah, just teach him how to program so he can type all this stuff.’ That didn’t happen, but Chris did learn how to type and [learned] a lot about hacker culture and a little bit about Unix.”
The approach was intended to avoid the pitfalls that have visited so many other hacker movies, where crucial plot twists are facilitated through events or technical slights of hand that would never happen in real life.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sensor enables low-light imaging for smart-phone cameras
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4438373/Sensor-enables-low-light-imaging-for-smart-phone-cameras?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_productsandtools_20150119&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_productsandtools_20150119&elq=10546b8270914ab588c404e7492712b4&elqCampaignId=21213
Based on 1.1-µm pixel technology, the AR1335 CMOS image sensor from ON Semiconductor provides 18% better sensitivity than previous-generation devices, along with increased quantum efficiency and linear well capacity to enable near-digital still-camera quality and low-light imaging on smart-phone cameras.
The AR1335 offers crisp 13-Mpixel resolution with high-quality zoom and sharp reproduction of scene details. Professional video quality is supported through 4K ultra-high definition and cinema formats at 30 fps and full HD 1080P at 60 fps. On-chip camera functions include windowing, mirroring, column and row skip modes, and snapshot mode.
The AR1335 is now in mass production in die format. It has been designed into several smart phone models, with availability in leading phones expected by the second quarter of 2015.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How They Make Lingerie Models Look So Good
http://www.businessinsider.com/lingerie-model-photoshoot-techniques-2014-1
How do they make lingerie models look amazing?
Business Insider slipped behind the scenes of a shoot for AdoreMe, a startup to rival Victoria’s Secret. We interviewed the photographer, the founder, the makeup artist, and the model about how they make women look so desirable.
Here’s how the magic happens.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Vince Cable: Brits should be able to access Netflix anywhere in Europe
Business secretary calls for a single digital market
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2391039/vince-cable-brits-should-be-able-to-access-netflix-anywhere-in-europe
BUSINESS SECRETARY Vince Cable has called for a single digital market in Europe, arguing that consumers should be able to access digital content, such as Netflix, wherever they are in the continent.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) claims that creating a single digital market could boost the European economy by €340bn.
It would also be good news for consumers travelling abroad who need their fix of House of Cards or Breaking Bad, as Cable argues that all online streaming services, such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, should be portable within the EU.
“In today’s world of smartphones and WiFi, consumers who have paid for a service rightly expect to be able to use it across borders in the EU,” said Cable.
“In telecoms, of all sectors, there is no place for borders. It’s called a worldwide web for a reason. There is no other sector of our incomplete European single market where the barriers are so unneeded, and yet so high,” she said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
UPDATED with video: 2D streak camera operates at up to 100 billion frames per second, images propagating light pulses
http://www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/2014/12/2-d-streak-camera-operates-at-up-to-100-billion-frames-per-second-images-propagating-light-pulses.html?cmpid=EnlLFWJanuary202015
A receive-only 2D streak camera can capture events up to 100 billion frames per second
A team of biomedical engineers at the Optical Imaging Laboratory of Washington University in St. Louis (St. Louis, MO), led by Lihong Wang, has developed the world’s fastest receive-only 2D camera, a streak camera that can capture events up to 100 billion frames per second.1 “Receive-only” means that it does not require specialized ultrafast-laser active illumination for operation, like other single-shot ultrafast imagers. (the well-known streak-camera setup developed at MIT to image light pulses in flight is not a single-shot imager; it compiles images from many single ultrafast shots over a long period of time to produce a trillion-frame-per-second video.)
Using a technique they developed called compressed ultrafast photography (CUP), Wang and his colleagues have made movies of the images they took with single laser shots of four physical phenomena: laser pulse reflection, refraction, faster-than light propagation of what is called noninformation (meaning motion that appears faster than the speed of light but cannot convey information), and photon racing in two media.
Wang and his collaborators added components and used algorithms to complement existing streak-camera technology, expanding the view from 1D to 2D. CUP photographs an object with a specialty camera lens, which takes the photons from the object through a tubelike structure to a digital micromirror device (DMD). The micromirrors encode the image and reflect the photons to a beamsplitter, and on to the widened slit of a streak camera.
Once the raw data are acquired, the actual images are formed on a personal computer; the process is called computational imaging.
“These ultrafast cameras have the potential to greatly enhance our understanding of very fast biological interactions and chemical processes and allow us to build better models of complex, dynamical systems,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central:
Marriott looking to bring Netflix, Hulu Plus and Pandora to your hotel room TV
http://www.androidcentral.com/marriott-looking-bring-netflix-hulu-plus-and-pandora-your-hotel-room-tv
The hotel chain has confirmed to Bloomberg that it is testing a TV service that allows its guests to access streaming content from their own Netflix, Hulu Plus and Pandora accounts. The service is currently being trialled in eight hotels across the US.
Customers can already access services like Netflix on their laptops and mobiles, but by partnering with content providers, Marriott will be offering access to these services directly from a customer’s hotel room TV. Marriott is reportedly looking to provide the new TV service at an additional charge to its internet service, or include the aforementioned services in a “premium” internet tier.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Current State of Linux Video Editing
http://linux.slashdot.org/story/15/01/20/2237229/the-current-state-of-linux-video-editing
The VFX industry has for most of the last 30 years been reliant on Macs and Windows machines for video editing, primarily because all of the Linux-based FOSS tools have been less than great. This is a shame, because all of the best 3D and 2D tools, other than video, are entrenched in the Linux environment and perform best there. The lack of decent video editing tools on Linux prevents every VFX studio from becoming a Linux-only shop.
The current state of video editing for Linux
http://opensource.com/life/15/1/current-state-linux-video-editing
In the past, I had the pleasure of cutting on, training people on, setting up, and supporting Avid Media Composer, the cream of the crop of professional real-time video editing tools for film and TV alike—at least before things like Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere became useful enough to professionals.
In the VFX industry these three tools are used extensively among studios for cutting video and film and are both very simple to use for noobs and professionals alike as well as can be pushed very far in the hands of guru artists. The VFX industry has for the most part of the last 30 years been reliant on Mac and PC for video editing, primarily because all of the Linux-based FOSS tools have been less than great.
Pitivi was recommended to me, so it was the first app I tried out.
It looked great and professional-esque, almost Avid/premiere like. So, I brought in a video clip… and CRASH! I opened it again, brought in a clip, no crash, so that’s great. I added another video track… and CRASH!
I’ll try again when version 1.0 is released
For OpenShot: Open it, check. Bring in video, check. Cut video into timeline, check. Playback video, check. Add a title and hit render, then I waited… and waited… and waited.
With Lightworks, I thought: now we’re talking. Lightworks played a very large part in the professional video market about 10 years ago and was used by many PC based studios.
So, these days they have released a free version for all platforms. This version gives you all the rudimentary things that you may want, and there’s an RPM or deb download available.
For Avidemux, I installed it and opened it. Are people using this for editing?
For Cinelerra
I brought some video in, hit the garish, big green tick to accept the import, hit play, and found that it didn’t work. Bummer.
KDEnlive is a relatively new discovery for me.
All seemed pretty smooth. So, then I overlayed the end of one video over the start of another video track so that I could apply a transition, but I couldn’t find any.
By the time I got to Blender, I was really starting to get disheartened
For a start, the keys we all wrong.
I imported the video clips that I needed, check. I laid down the first video track, check.
Creating transitions was really simple too and reminded me of using Adobe Premiere.
Another nice thing about Blender is that the audio is able to be unlinked from the video.
The winner
I have found my new, open source video editor: Blender! It’s not Avid, FCP, or Premiere, but it’s more than that. It’s a true suite of tools that I would say can go head to head with the best of what I’ve used in the VFX industry. And, I’m genuinely surprised!
One more great thing about Blender: it’s fully scriptable in Python. Wow.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Steam Broadcasting Now Open To Everyone
http://games.slashdot.org/story/15/01/20/209246/steam-broadcasting-now-open-to-everyone
The beta test phase of Steam Broadcasting feature has been completed. It is now available to everyone by updating the client to the newest version. The feature allows users to watch and stream games to and from users on your friends list.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Peter Kafka / Re/code:
Netflix Q4 earnings beat estimates with $1.48B in revenue and $0.75 EPS; now has 39.11M US subscribers and 18.28M more globally — Netflix Says Its Subscribers Love the Shows It Makes — So It’s Going to Make a Lot More
http://recode.net/2015/01/20/netflix-shows-a-surprising-profit-and-delivers-the-subscriber-numbers-wall-street-wanted/
Janko Roettgers / Gigaom:
Netflix wants to complete its global expansion within two years, expanding to 200 countries
http://gigaom.com/2015/01/20/netflix-wants-to-be-everywhere-in-the-world-in-the-next-two-years/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ted Johnson / Variety:
Judge Rules That Dish’s Sling Features, Ad-Skipping Don’t Violate Copyright
http://variety.com/2015/biz/news/judge-rules-that-dishs-sling-features-ad-skipping-dont-violate-copyright-1201410019/
A federal judge said Dish Network’s offering of features that automatically skip ads and another that allows subscribers to watch live broadcasts remotely do not violate copyright law.
But U.S. District Judge Dolly M. Gee’s ruling, unsealed on Tuesday, came just days after Dish and the network challenging its features, Fox, said that a settlement of their litigation was “highly likely.”
Fox sought to limit key aspects of Dish’s Hopper service, including PrimeTime Anytime, which records and stores entire nights’ worth of programming, along with AutoHop, a feature that allows subscribers to automatically skip commercials. It also challenged Dish Anywhere, using Sling technology, which allows subscribers to view live programming remotely, outside of the home, on a range of devices.
While Gee ruled that such offerings did not infringe copyright, she sided with Fox in concluding that some of the Dish features, like Hopper Transfers, which enables users to download shows on mobile devices, violated its contract agreements with the broadcaster that restrict copying of programming for use outside the home.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Peter Kafka / Re/code:
Wavelength, which let people stream their friends’ movies bought through UltraViolet, is shelved less than two weeks after launch
That Was Fast: Wavelength, the Movie-Sharing Service Hollywood Didn’t Love, Is on Hold
http://recode.net/2015/01/20/that-was-fast-wavelength-the-movie-sharing-service-hollywood-didnt-love-is-on-hold/
Wavelength sounds like an interesting idea — a Web service that lets friends watch Hollywood movies their other friends own, without having to pay a penny. Unless you make or sell Hollywood movies, in which case it might sound like a bad idea.
Someone has apparently conveyed that sentiment to Wavelength founder Spencer Wang, who has hit “pause” on his new service, less than two weeks after launching.
“We are for the time being closing the wavelength.io beta as we speak with key industry constituents to showcase that wavelength.io is a great thing for consumers and the film business,”
Wavelength is supposed to let users stream the movies their friends own, as long as they’ve bought them using UltraViolet, the system Hollywood studios set up to encourage home movie sales.
Wang, a former Wall Street media analyst, has argued that his system would help spur flagging home video sales. But it’s easy to see how the movie guys, and the people who help them distribute and sell their product, might think otherwise.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Online Retailer Overstock.com to Launch OTT Service This Year
http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/online-retailer-overstock-com-to-launch-ott-service-this-year-1201409575/
Salt Lake City-based Overstock.com will launch an over the top content service by mid-year that aims to take advantage of the discount retailer’s Internet and mobile traffic.
Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne said the service will launch by midyear with a download-to-own and download-to-rent service. The goal is to launch a subscription streaming service by the second half of the year, or what Byrne called a “skinny Netflix” with a limited number of titles.
Access would be tied to Overstock.com’s “Club O” loyalty program that costs users $20 a year.
Byrne said Overstock.com ranks as the Internet’s No. 2 “mass merchant” behind Amazon.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Marriott Testing Netflix, Hulu In-Room Streaming to HDTVs at 8 Hotels
http://variety.com/2015/digital/news/marriott-testing-netflix-hulu-in-room-streaming-to-hdtvs-at-8-hotels-1201409757/
Hotel chain Marriott International is kicking the tires on an in-room entertainment service that lets guests stream Netflix, Hulu and Pandora on high-definition TVs — a potentially new revenue stream for the hospitality provider.
hotel visitors can typically access services like Netflix using their own devices via in-room Internet service.
But the idea is that Marriott could possibly capture incremental dollars from guests by bundling in streaming-content services for a premium.
Netflix confirmed it’s working with Marriott on the test.
Separately, Marriott runs its own inhouse studio, which is acquiring and producing content to be distributed across multiple platforms, including its own in-room TVs, in a bid to woo younger travelers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hands On With Microsoft’s Holographic Goggles
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/15/01/21/236202/hands-on-with-microsofts-holographic-goggles
Forget Google Glass — Jessi Hempel describes the amazing experience she had with the new Holographic goggles from Microsoft. From the article: “The headset is still a prototype being developed under the codename Project Baraboo, or sometimes just “B.”
“Right from the start, he makes it clear that Baraboo will make Kinect seem minor league.”
Project HoloLens: Our Exclusive Hands-On With Microsoft’s Holographic Goggles
http://www.wired.com/2015/01/microsoft-hands-on/#slide-id-1710301
In several months, Microsoft will unveil its most ambitious undertaking in years, a head-mounted holographic computer called Project HoloLens. But at this point, even most people at Microsoft have never heard of it.
The headset is still a prototype being developed under the codename Project Baraboo, or sometimes just “B.”
Translation: you used to compute on a screen, entering commands on a keyboard. Cyberspace was somewhere else. Computers responded to programs that detailed explicit commands. In the very near future, you’ll compute in the physical world, using voice and gesture to summon data and layer it atop physical objects. Computer programs will be able to digest so much data that they’ll be able to handle far more complex and nuanced situations. Cyberspace will be all around you.
What will this look like? Well, holograms.
Kipman cues a concept video in which a young woman wearing the slate gray headset moves through a series of scenarios, from collaborating with coworkers on a conference call to soaring, Oculus-style, over the Golden Gate Bridge.
Oh Baraboo! It’s bigger and more substantial than Google Glass, but far less boxy than the Oculus Rift.
Kipman’s prototype is amazing. It amplifies the special powers that Kinect introduced, using a small fraction of the energy. The depth camera has a field of vision that spans 120 by 120 degrees—far more than the original Kinect—so it can sense what your hands are doing even when they are nearly outstretched. Sensors flood the device with terabytes of data every second, all managed with an onboard CPU, GPU and first-of-its-kind HPU (holographic processing unit). Yet, Kipman points out, the computer doesn’t grow hot on your head, because the warm air is vented out through the sides.
Tricking Your Brain
Project HoloLens’ key achievement—realistic holograms—works by tricking your brain into seeing light as matter. “Ultimately, you know, you perceive the world because of light,” Kipman explains.
“You essentially hallucinate the world, or you see what your mind wants you to see.”
To create Project HoloLens’ images, light particles bounce around millions of times in the so-called light engine of the device.
“When you get the light to be at the exact angle,” Kipman tells me, “that’s where all the magic comes in.”
Project HoloLens won’t have a keyboard. If the voice and gesture controls don’t work perfectly the first time, consumers will write it off. Quickly.
Tomi Engdahl says:
2015: The year of MAD TV science, but who can keep up?
Blizzard of buzzwords foreshadow epic changes to TV tech
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/01/22/breaking_fad_tv_tech_at_ces_2015/
TV technology was obvious a big talking point, although image resolution is no longer the main attraction. No one says “if and when 4K takes off” anymore. Sales of 4K panels are already big business, with pixel-dense TVs fast becoming the norm for any screen that aspires to be anything other than bargain basement tat.
Telly chatter instead was actually all about colour performance and HDR (High Dynamic Range).
High Dynamic Range displays offer extremely bright peak whites, without emphasising noise, sacrificing black level or bleaching out shadow detail. As a result, they can look astonishingly lifelike. The catch is that there is no consensus on just how bright an HDR display should be, although there’s no shortage of opinions either.
Behind booth doors, LG had a prototype HDR OLED display on show, but revealed scant details about its plans. Sony had a 4K sample on open display, running HDR test footage from Netflix’s Marco Polo show. Elsewhere, Panasonic invited visitors to look at an HDR prototype LED in a darkened booth.
Only Samsung actually appeared to have an HDR display ready to sell, specifically a 1000 Nit model due to ship this spring.
One new factoid to emerge from CES is that HDR will not be restricted to just 4K material, but will be introduced onto 1080p content too.
He mentioned it in passing while talking me through the state of play with Ultra HD Blu-ray. At the show, his prototype deck was running a simulated HDR demonstration from 4K media.
The other tellybox buzz at CES was Quantum Dot. QD is an advanced LED backlighting technology that offers extreme colour vibrancy, but it’s actually just one of several techniques now being pursued to create wider colour gamut displays.
LG used CES to introduce its ColorPrime TV range for 2015
Samsung is the other big brand backing Quantum Dot.
Anarchy in the UHD
The UHD Alliance seems to comprise all the same folks who already pontificate on a dozen other standards bodies and committees. Its stated aim is to bring content providers and hardware manufacturers together to create a uniform platform. When asked how it would achieve this, I was told: “We’ll issue a badge of certification.”
I can’t help feeling what the consumer electronics industry (specifically TV and home entertainment) actually needs right now is a singular vision, not infinite committees hawking logos.
One CES introduction which I think everyone should approve of is better Smart connectedness. 2015 will be the year of the improved TV user interface.
Samsung gave us the first look at its homegrown Tizen OS for TV, which appears to pay close homage to LG’s webOS platform, while LG itself offered some minor webOS improvements
Interestingly, Sony has turned to Android for its 2015 UI. The interface will be familiar to any mobile user, and majors on intelligent voice search.
Ultimately, the most interesting Smart UI came from Panasonic. Powered by Firefox, it’s slick and minimalist, yet retains much of the customisation
Inevitably there were plenty of 8K displays dotted around the show too.
OLED remains the odd duck of the TV business, with only LG championing the cause. At CES, the brand offered more OLED panels than ever, 4K flat, curved and adjustable. All looked predictably impressive.
Arguably the most interesting new screen tech to break cover at CES came from Sharp, which used its extra-subpixel Quattron technology (last seen making Full HD more 4K-ish) to create a faux 8K pixel image from 4K sources.
Side by side with a genuine 8K panel, it seemed almost indistinguishable.
Sadly, we’ll never, ever see this innovation in Europe, because Sharp actually sold off its entire European TV and AV business to Slovakian electronics brand UMC last year.