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Netflix alliance helps filmmakers meet its stringent video demands
Netflix doesn't care whether its content comes from small producers or large studios, but cash-strapped filmmakers might blanche at its strict video quality requirements. To make it easier to figure out what to buy or rent, Netflix has launched the Post Technology Alliance. It's partnered with camera, editing, color correction and encoding companies to show producers exactly what equipment they'll need to create Netflix shows from start to finish.
Four ideas Hearthstone should borrow from Magic
I've been playing Magic for almost 20 years. In all that time, Hearthstone is the only other collectible card game that has ever really won me over. Hearthstone is a very different game from Magic, despite some obvious similarities. I want Hearthstone to remain a very different game. Even as wildly successful as Hearthstone has been, however, Magic and other card games have some great ideas that I think Blizzard should borrow to make their own game even better. 1. Format variants Magic has many fun variants, most of them multiplayer: free-for-all, Commander, Two-Headed Giant, Star (or Color Wheel), Planechase, etc. Some of these were invented by players and later adopted and supported by Wizards of the Coast. One of the joys of Magic is how flexible its formats can be. Compared to that, the single format of one-on-one battles in Hearthstone is less exciting. (Of course, Hearthstone is limited by its technology in a way that real cards aren't.) Sure, we're getting a raid in Curse of Naxxramas, which could shape up to be a fantastic single-player variant. But an online game like Hearthstone, with millions of available players, begs for multiplayer formats. They could be competitive or cooperative, playing against other teams or "bosses." A Planechase variant could be adapted quite easily by using the different game boards, once Blizzard adds a few more. Multiplayer variants will be more tricky due to the game's current layout, but I have faith that the developers can make it work.
Google will drop H.264 support from Chrome, herd the masses towards WebM and Theora
We knew Google was rather fond of its WebM video standard, but we never expected a move like this: the company says it will drop support for the rival H.264 codec in its HTML5 video tag, and is justifying the move in the name of open standards somehow. Considering that H.264 is presently one of (if not the) most widely supported format out there, it sounds a little like Google shooting itself in the foot with a .357 round -- especially considering the MPEG-LA just made H.264 royalty-free as long as it's freely distributed just a few months ago. If that's the case, Chrome users will have to download a H.264 plug-in to play most web video that's not bundled up in Flash... which isn't exactly an open format itself. Or hey, perhaps everyone will magically switch to Chrome, video providers will kowtow, unicorns will gaily prance, and WebM will dominate from now on.
Boxee box specs revealed
This is probably the last time we'll post about the Boxee box, as it's not really an Apple product, but given that it's based on software that lots of Apple TV and Mac mini owners use, and that we've been following its release, I figure we can update you one more time. Over at CES, Boxee has officially announced the strangely shaped media center, and released specs for it: It'll sell for "under $200" by D-Link, play everything from DivX to H.264 MKV and even Flash 10.1, and let you log on to plenty of online services, including Pandora, Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr, along with the Boxee app itself, obviously. Sounds like quite a device. Release date is set only for "the first half of 2010," but it seems closer than ever to actually appearing on store shelves. Our only real concern is that shape -- how exactly is that supposed to fit in our already crowded entertainment center?
XBMC "Camelot" update brings lots of new features
Just in case the gifts you got from your family last week didn't float your boat (no kidding, I got a Yakov Smirnoff DVD -- I love my parents, but they're not the best gift givers in the world), here's another fun present to unwrap. The folks at XBMC released a brand new version on Christmas Eve, and it's available as a free download right now over on their website. XBMC is the open source app that started off as "Xbox Media Center" (designed to be run on the original Xbox hardware), but has now blossomed into a full-featured media center that is usable on your Apple TV or Mac. Thanks to an app, you can use your iPhone as a remote as well. The new version 9.11, a.k.a. "Camelot," has far too many new changes for us to list in their entirety here, but there's a revamped (and good-looking) user interface with increased skinning capability, updated support for different subtitles and video formats, new movie database scrapers for picking up information, and specifically in Mac OS X, support for the very popular Logitech Harmony Universal Remote. The devs say they're excited to get this one out the door, if only because it means they can move on to bigger and better very soon. Kudos on the release (during the holiday season!), and if you're an XBMC fan, have at it! [via Engadget]
Save space on your iPhone by re-encoding movies and TV shows
If you encode your own video for watching on various devices and you're looking to save every last MB on your iPhone, it could be worth your time to re-encode at least some of your larger files with more conservative settings. While I, for example, have been copying the iTunes Store's settings and encoding my DVD movies at full dimensions and about 1500 Kbps to really let H.264 shine, the truth is you don't need anywhere near that much data to watch quality video on an iPhone's display. By re-encoding your videos and perhaps keeping them in a special iPhone playlist for synching, you can bring even more of your favorite videos with you in a fraction of the space. Unfortunately, you can't re-encode videos you've purchased from the iTunes Store because of the DRM. This how-to primarily applies to video you download from the web or encode yourself from DVD movies and other sources.To keep things simple, I'll use Blade Runner as our encoding guinea pig (which runs a length of 1:56) and Handbrake for all the encoding. Following are a few sample screenshots of how far you can compress a movie, along with the settings you can use in apps like Handbrake and TUAW favorite VisualHub to try this out for yourself.
Cog grinds its way to .06
Shaun Martin drops a note that Cog, an open source audio player that plays pretty much every format you'd want to play (I don't know if I'd ever need to play anything in Monkey's Audio but sure enough, it's there) has hit version .06. The release features a brand new UI (with two pullout drawers-- one that browses the filesystem for music, and another that pops up to show info on the playing file), plugin support, preferences (including builtin global hotkeys, which I really enjoy), and everything else you'd expect in an audio player-- Growl support, Last.fm support, gapless playback, and more.The only little flaw I can find is that there seems to be two Help menus-- maybe the Cog guys just want to be extra helpful. At any rate, if you're looking for a quick and free little open source audio player as an alternative to Apple's iPhone Activator, Cog will probably turn your gears.
PS3 firmware 1.82 on the way, adds AVC High Profile playback
Eric Lempel, director of PlayStation Network Operations, posted on the company's official blog that firmware 1.82 would be arriving on the PS3 in the next few days. The update's sole new feature appears to be AVC High Profile (H.264/MPEG-4) files. Now, instead of having to make due with Main Profile AVC, you'll be rocking the Separate Cb and Cr QP control and the 8x8 vs. 4x4 Transform Adaptivity! *drool*Lempel said that the update doesn't fix the audio problems that some commenters on the blog had complained about, but said that "hopefully this update is moving us closer." In other news that is not of any immediate help to anyone, Lempel says that Sony is "continuing to evaluate and improve things across the board, including PS2 software compatibility." Let's keep our profiles crossed.
PSP-PS3 connectivity stays away from discs
The PLAYSTATION 3 launch is getting closer and closer, and PSP fans are getting anxious. There's potential for a lot of great things to be done with the PSP-PS3 connectivity. Remote Play is one example of the connectivity at play: you'll be able to stream media from your PS3 to your PSP, so you see videos, music and images from your PS3's hard drive. However, according to PSX Extreme, you won't be able to stream copyright-protected content, such as disc media. So, you won't be able to stream the newest Blu-Ray movie from your PS3 to your PSP. You won't be able to stream any of your DVDs. How will purchased music work?However, all the media that's stored on the PLAYSTATION 3's drive should stream to the PSP reasonably well, and the PS3 supports quite a number of formats: 1UP reports that the PS3 will support: MPEG-1, MPEG-2 (PS, TS), MPEG-4 SP, and MPEG-4 AVC/H.264. Audio formats include: ATRAC, AAC, MP3, and WAV. The PS3 is clearly a lot more flexible with video formats than the PSP, and unlike the PSP, will support videos with resolutions as high as 1920x1080 (according to PS3 Fanboy).PS3 Fanboy also reports that future firmware upgrades may allow you to play PS3 content from your PSP, as previously theorized. While this is an exciting prospect, I hope that the immediate future brings us unrestricted video on the PSP, similar to what the PS3 has (having 480x272 video would be very nice indeed!).
Rumor: Apple might support both Blu-ray and HD-DVD in Leopard
In another move by a major player to negate this ridiculous next-gen DVD format war, Think Secret is reporting they have evidence that Apple might very well support both Blu-ray and HD-DVD with their upcoming Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard release. This is an interesting (and wholly welcomed) move from Apple in part because they're on the board of the Blu-ray Disc Association, while others like Microsoft, Toshiba and (strangely) Intel are camping out on the HD-DVD side of the fence. It would be great to see this rumor come true, as the last thing users need is another headache-inducing, hardware-stratifying format war to both up their daily computing.
Cheaper PS3 loses HDMI, slots, Wi-Fi, 40GB
As you can see above, there are a few things different between the two PS3 SKUs planned. (Hint: the obvious alterations concern high-def output and wireless connectivity -- though Bluetooth controllers should work just fine with both, with or without any chrome case highlighting.)So what's HDMI, built-in multimedia card-reader slots, wireless internet connectivity, and an extra 40 gigabytes' hard disk space worth to you? $100? Now that Sony's gone with the 2-SKU approach with its next-gen hardware (a la the Xbox 360's premium and "Core" systems), we can expect some tough consumer choices after six months -- with console shortages possibly for another six months after that -- as $100 separates the base $499 and premium $599 versions of Sony's "Clear Black" hope.HDMI is important to those who want to take full advantage of Blu-ray high def and have the new screens to use it; MemoryStick, SD, and CompactFlash slots would be nice for the PS3 memory-card users and those will run multimedia on the system; Wi-Fi's the only way to avoid stringing ethernet cables for online access; and 360 owners might appreciate the full 60GB available to potential buyers of the premium PS3 model. Neither model comes with a second HDMI port; thankfully, one should hopefully be all most users need. The details are laid out in a feature-comparison table at the end of Sony's official PS3 hardware press release, available in both Adobe Reader and Microsoft Word formats. Determine what's most important to your PS3 ambitions there.[Image pieced together from the PlayStation.com forums; thanks, Guru]
