SnapStream Blog

It’s now Saturday morning and it appears the worst of the hurricane has passed in Houston.  Hurricane Rita did us all a favor and veered off to the east as it approached.  It also continued to weaken to a high category 3 as it made its way inland.  Out in Sugar Land, which is on the far southwest side of the Houston sprawl, we didn’t even get rain…just some heavier than normal winds.  To sum up, while there are power outages all over town, there is only some light damage to the east side of town and from what I can tell, virtually no damage to the west side of town as a result of the hurricane placement.  There have been some reports of looting but most of them are being arrested immediately. (Go HPD!)

The major problem right now has mostly to do with moving people around.  First of all, there are people trying to come back into Houston right now even as we speak. Not smart!  The city, state, and federal officials are telling everyone to stay put and NOT come back into town.  Some common sense will tell you that if there was no gas on the way out, there probably isn’t going to be any more gas on the way in either.  If you somehow get stuck without gas in the middle of the emergency response, you are most likely just going to be sitting there for a while.  In addition, the emergency supplies and manpower are needed to respond to power outages and other damage that has occurred.  Remember, Houston didn’t get hit badly, but that just means other coastal areas did.  If eager and premature returnees start clogging the freeways, lives may be put at risk.

The evacuation may not have gone as smoothly as possible, but it definitely was not unwarranted.  We just got lucky at the last minute.  If the hurricane had kept strength and veered west, there would have been a much different story being posted here.  The most interesting thing about this right now is the real-world testing of the quantity of resources, organization, and time it takes to optimize the evacuation and subsequent repopulation of a major city.  Although an entirely separate problem domain from software design, the principle to me remains the same…it’s difficult, if not impossible, to substitute planning for real-world scenario testing and validation.  It’s just as applicable to the major statewide events as it is to the design of media center software.  I’m quite certain that if a big one does hit Houston in the future, we’ll be much better equipped to respond as a result of what happened this week.

At the moment, the current recommendation from authorities is for folks to have Monday and Tuesday off and to wait for word on when to return to Houston.  Even though the storm may be over, people aren’t going to be able to drive to and from work without fuel available, and, frankly, I have no idea when that situation will be resolved.  We’re still learning from this as much as anyone.

Houstonions are used to bad traffic, but this really takes the cake.  Highways are backed up for miles in all directions and people are running out of gas waiting in the lines.  Supposedly the Department of Transportation is running around gassing up cars, but it’s hard to say how well that’s going.  Most gas stations are completely sold out of gas at this point. Of course, the goodies like plywood and generators were sold out days ago.

It’s pretty clear that this city is hardly equipped to handle all the people leaving, even with all the forewarning.  Our director of engineering, Alfonso, just gave me a call a minute ago.  He left around 4 AM and just broke out of traffic around 2 PM on his way to San Antonio.  The whole drive is normally about 3 hours, so that gives you some idea of the gridlock.  And the traffic is even worse now…some people have driven only 15 miles in 5 hours and have simply given up and turned around.

In fact, I’d have to say at this point it looks more dangerous for many people in the Houston area to be stuck out in the middle of the road with no gas, no food or water, and no air conditioning in sweltering heat. It’s probably a better idea for people outside of the storm surge areas to stay in, which additionally frees up more room for the people in the storm surge areas to get out.

If there’s a bright side to this, it’s that the storm appears to be veering east and weakening, which would spare the folks in Houston the brunt of the hurricane. Might not be so good for New Orleans, though. 

Well, it looks like the hurricane known as Rita is heading straight for Houston. At the beginning of the week, we were buckling down to get another beta release of Beyond TV out.  Two days later and everything has changed.  We’re busy running backup procedures, arranging for employees to stay in touch, lifting up all of our equipment off the floors, and hoping the roof doesn’t fly off the building.

You can read more about Hurricane Rita at the Houston Chronicle…potentially the largest hurricane to hit the United States since the United States started recording hurricane data.

For obvious reasons, orders, fulfillment, the beta program, and other contact with SnapStream may be delayed or affected by the hurricane.  We thank you for your patience while we ride this thing out.

Richard Kuo
Chief Technology Officer

MrLefty1 submitted to us via Flickr his very high end home theater room for our digital living room showcase. I must say, the SnapStream product suite is moving up in the world. It’s getting to hang out in very posh home theater rooms like MrLefty1’s. His living room is SWEET!! Custom built shelves, fire place and ooh…are those leather couches MrLefty1?

In addition to the living room itself, I also posted a photo and listed the components of the PC in his basement that powers this living room in our showcase. It’s pretty impressive and I think worth sharing.

BTW - This is an ongoing project for us so it’s still not too late to submit your photos.

Let’s now explore what you’ll need to setup HDTV on your home PC. Remember, setting up HDTV can take a little bit of work, but once you’re done, you’ll have totally free and totally clear high-definition picture quality for the best TV shows on.

First Things First — Is it available where you live?

Not all stations are currently broadcasting in HD. And even within a given station, only certain programs are being broadcast in HD. To learn more about what TV stations in your area are broadcasting in HD please visit http://www.checkhd.com/.

What you need to create an HDTV PC

In the United States, HDTV is broadcast in the following ways:

• Over-the-air (OTA) in Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) format
• Over cable in Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) format
• Over satellite via a proprietary format

This means that you can get HDTV programs through an antenna, an HDTV cable box, or a satellite box. Currently, however, only OTA format, i.e. through an antenna, can be easily captured on your PC. To capture and play this signal on your PC, you need:

• Beyond TV 4
• an HDTV compliant Antenna
• an Interconnect Cable
• a computer with minimum specifications, outlined below
• HDTV shows broadcast in your area (see http://www.checkhd.com/ for a list)

And optionally (but recommended):

• An HDTV Television set with proper cabling to display content from the PC (see cabling instructions below)

Antenna

There are many different types of antennas that can capture an HD signal. The type that you will need is determined by your location in relation to the source of the HD signal, your terrain, and the distance to the broadcast tower. Antennas range from small "Rabbit Ear" antennas to large rooftop antennas. CNET has put together a very helpful and complete article on choosing and installing HDTV antennas. You may want to check it out when you’re done reading this post! To determine which type of antenna you will need, visit the Antenna Guide at www.checkhd.com, and follow these directions:

1. First, input your location.
2. Then, use the color-coded chart to determine the type. For instance, if your stations are mostly "Light Green", you will need a "Large Multidirectional Antenna." These colors are standardized for antennae approved by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA). Whether shopping in a store at Circuit City or online at Crutchfield, you should see these colors indicated on the packaging for all antennae.
3. Select a CEA-approved antenna with the appropriate color code. There are six color codes which denote different types of antennae. They are, as follows:

There are a lot of types of antennae, but it’s pretty simple to determine which type you need on www.checkhd.com. The basic difference between a directional and a multidirectional antenna is that a multidirectional antenna allows you to receive signals from towers that reside in different cardinal directions from your house. In some areas, the broadcast towers will all be located in one general direction, and thus a directional antenna is all you need. But in others, you will need a multidirectional antenna to capture broadcasts, for example, if there is a tower to your north and one to your south, each of which broadcasts channels that you would like to view. Some antennae have more than one color code designated. This means that they will get the channels marked in both of those colors in your www.checkhd.com search results. All of this information refers to HDTV-dedicated antennae. However, you can try to hook up your current antenna to you HDTV set-up and see which OTA stations you can receive. In all likelihood, you will get better results with an HDTV antenna.

Interconnect Cable

To receive the best signal, use RG6-style coax cable and connectors. This style is available at most local electronics stores like Radio Shack. Failure to use this grade of cable will result in reduced or no signal.

Splitter (optional)

If you need to split the signal, use an HDTV-compliant splitter of at least 5 - 1100Mhz. Be sure that you are not getting a combiner. Though combiners and splitters look very similar, if not identical, a combiner will not properly split the signal.

The HDTV Tuner Card

To capture high-definition content with Beyond TV, your TV tuner card needs to support BDA drivers. Ask your manufacturer if you are unsure if your card does. Most BDA compliant cards will work with Beyond TV. We suggest the following HDTV tuner cards for use with Beyond TV:

• ATI HDTV Wonder
• AverMedia AVerTVHD MCE A180
• Divco FusionHDTV3
• Divco FusionHDTV5
• VBox DTA-151
• VBox USB-A 3560

If you want to record high-definition content, you must use an HDTV card or a hybrid card that can record both analog and digital content. Beyond TV 4 supports multiple tuners for free, so you can use an analog card with an HDTV card simultaneously.

The Computer

You will need an up-to-date computer with recent hardware to decode the HD signal. Make sure your computer meets or exceeds these specifications:

• 2.4 GHz or above Intel or AMD processor
• 512MB Ram
• ATI Radeon 9550 or NVIDIA GeForce 5200 or above video card. Failure to use a proper video card will result in a choppy picture.
• Windows XP (Home or Pro) with Service Pack 2. SP2 is a requirement, not a recommendation.
• DirectX 9.0c
• Sufficient gigabytes of free hard drive space. A typical HD show is about 9 GB for one hour of TV. This is up to 8 times more usage than traditional MPEG-2. For normal usage, 200 GB of free space is a practical minimum. The following chart shows the approximate amount of hard drive space you will need depending on recording times.

Now you know what you need to get started creating you own HDTV PC. In the next article, I’ll discuss the process of actually setting it up! Stay tuned…

We all know how successful Apple has been with the iPod, and there’s been a lot of buzz lately with the iPod Nano and iPod phones. But on a recent trip to San Jose, I truly realized how much of a main stream phenomenon iPods have become. As I walked to my hotel room I passed a vending machine and saw…

So now you can get a soda, some candy, an iPod, a wireless card for your laptop, and even some deodorant all from the same vending machine — finally, a one-stop shop that meets all of the hi-tech business travelers’ needs. I guess they know their audience. I was definitely tempted, but managed to pull away without any extra gadgetry.

Will there be support for multiple HD tuners in Beyond TV 4?

Absolutely!  We have this running in house and in our homes right now, and it works great.

Some limitations that you should be aware of.  First of all, splitting the HD signal to multiple tuners must be done with care.  It’s very easy to cause the signal to drop out or disappear entirely if done improperly.  Second, as with all multi-tuner situations, keep an eye on the overall performance and responsiveness of your system as the number of tuners increases.

Third and last, BTV4 will support multiple HDTV tuners, but that doesn’t mean the cards themselves will (although many of them do).  Because we want your experience to be as trouble-free as we can possibly make it, we will be posting a list of recommended multi-tuner configurations before the release of BTV4.  If you end up trying alternate configurations, please make sure to do a little web surfing on your purchases to verify the card and drivers you purchase support this feature.

Are there any plans to improve the basic intelligence of the product in the 4.0 release, particularly in the area of conflict handling?

Definitely.  For example, we recently made changes that allow users to adjust the start and end of recordings to work around the infamous CSI-ER overlap issue.  We’ve also licensed and rolled out new HDTV guide services in preparation for HDTV support in Beyond TV 4.  Apparently some companies consider this optional? No, I really don’t understand it either.

Anyway, in BTV4 you will see new HD indicators in the program guide so you can immediately identify what shows will be airing in all of their full high-resolution glory.  We will definitely be continuing to tweak the available types of recordings and available information to catch all of those little side cases that our customers come up with.  Although…don’t forget, adding an extra tuner or two is a very easy and reliable way to save you from worrying about recording conflicts!

Remember, you can ask us questions by posting to our Q&A forum. We answer a couple of questions each week.
Richard Kuo
Chief Technology Officer

Next to Christmas, I have to say that the Fall TV season is one of my favorite times. It’s like the networks are sending me new packages to open every night for an entire month. Of course some of them turn out to be the “puke green sweater from Aunt Mildred,” but it’s still fun to watch.

Fox has lobbed the first volley in the primetime war with “Prison Break” (now a record all for me), followed soon by “The O.C.” (yeah, I admit to watching it) and “Reunion” (which might just be good). I’m also looking forward to “My Name is Earl” and “E-Ring” on NBC.

Don’t forget to ShowSqueeze and keep anything you find interesting until you’re sure it’s going to stay on the air. Both “Commited” and “Skin” got the ax, so I keep my DVD copies of both closely guarded.

To check what’s on when, take a look at the TV Guide listing of all the new premieres.

…But are you ready for it? Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be telling you a little bit about HDTV in our blog. I hope it both educates and excites you…and most importantly, gets you ready for Beyond TV with HD!

The Basics

Why the hype?

High-Definition Television’s (HDTV or HD) major appeal is its sharper and wider image display accompanied by award-winning Dolby Digital (AC-3) audio. Once you have experienced the higher clarity, crisp digital sound and life-like pictures of HDTV, you’ll never want to go back to a Standard-Definition Television (SDTV or SD).

Adding Beyond TV’s HDTV support to your Personal Computer (PC) will empower you to intelligently record and playback your favorite HDTV programs. You can also ShowSqueeze your high-definition recordings to conserve hard drive space and transfer smaller files to portable devices. This guide will help you take advantage of this exciting technology by explaining the steps necessary to create an HDTV setup with your digital video recording PC.

A Sharper Image

There are three main reasons why HDTV is superior to SDTV: picture resolution, video clarity, and high-fidelity Dolby Digital (AC-3) audio.

First, the picture created by HDTV technology has a higher resolution than most consumers are accustomed to. The usual SDTV picture, as established by the National Television Standards Committee (NTSC), has 525 vertical lines of resolution (only 480 of those are visible). However, HDTV adopts a new format established by the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) that provides for 480, 720, and even 1080 lines of resolution. As a result of higher density of scan lines, HDTV has approximately ten times the picture detail of SDTV!

In addition to enhanced resolution, HDTV uses the power of digital communications to champion over SDTV. SDTV is transmitted as an analog signal. Over time and through transmission, analog signals can weaken, degrade, and bleed. HDTV, however, is transmitted solely as a digital signal, which provides much more robust control over weak signals and is completely free of signal degradation and bleeding.

 

 

High-definition pictures are 6x the resolution of standard-definition pictures (click to enlarge)

Finally, no television experience would be complete without the crystal-clear and life-like sound provided by Dolby Digital AC-3 audio technology. With HD, you’ll be able to immerse yourself in your favorite television broadcasts as you hear bullets whizzing behind your head or hear the distant birds chirping as if they were right outside your window.

Seeing More

Aspect ratios in HDTV also differ greatly from standard analog or cable television. Aspect ratio is the width to height ratio of the picture displayed on your screen. The aspect ratio of digital television is typically 16:9, while the aspect ratio of conventional television is 4:3. When films are viewed on television, it is thus necessary to crop them, cutting off part of the picture (Panning & Scanning), or to letterbox them, relegating the picture to the middle of the screen with black bars above and below it. The aspect ratio of digital television is much closer to that seen in movie theatres, which means that digital television lets you see more of the original picture in its display of movies than do other formats.

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With HD you see the full picture (left), rather than the cropped standard picture (right).

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How it Works

Compression and Encoding

MPEG-2 encoding is used to compress the large amount of data needed for high definition pictures into the 6 megahertz bandwidth currently used for analog displays. MPEG-2 may sound familiar to some of you out there. As you may know MPEG-2 encoding is also used to compress the video on DVDs today. This is also the technology that SnapStream Beyond TV uses to record your favorite TV shows.

Next time, I’ll discuss what you need to setup your own HDTV with Beyond TV 4. Stay tuned for more on HDTV…"