SnapStream Blog

DVR users younger, shifting half their programs – 11/07/08
Across the major broadcast networks, the median age for a time-shifting viewer is younger than those who watch live. The median age for NBC, ABC and CBS’ DVR audience is 10 years younger than those watching live. For FOX, the difference is five years; for the CW, it’s two years. via NewTeeVee

The Sate of the Blue-Ray in HTPCs – 11/05/08
Although it is relatively easy to get full-resolution Blu-ray video from a Home Theater Personal Computer, it is extremely difficult to get full-resolution audio. Here is a run-down on the current state of HD Audio on the HTPC. via CarltonBale.Com

HTPC remote control: USB-UIRT review & giveaway – 11/04/08
If you delve very far into the world of home theater PCs (HTPCs), one of the first things you’ll want to tackle is freeing yourself from the keyboard and mouse. To really transform your HTPC into more of a set-top box and less of a computer, you’ll obviously want to control it with a remote – aka the 10-foot interface. via ZatzNotFunny

Double the viewers, double the TV – 10/30/08
Texas Instruments, the maker of the DLP Cinema chip, is developing technology that might reduce the common problem by allowing two people to simultaneously view two different programs — on the same TV. via Hollywood Reporter

How to make your own USB IR receiver – 10/25/08
Don’t want to pull out the keyboard every time you pause, adjust the volume, or fast-forward? There are a few ways to deal with this. The easiest is the USB-UIRT, but lets say you’re handy with electronics and want to make your own IR receiver…. via GeekTonic

Share media with your HTPC and Dropbox – 10/14/08
The idea is so simple it is pure genius – kudos to the boxee team for thinking of this. It gives you a way to sync media files you may stumble across while at work, on the road or anywhere with an internet connection back to your HTPC. via GeekTonic

Bad economy hitting HDTV Sales? – 10/14/08
Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. analyst Craig Moffett tells the The Wall Street Journal that amidst economic turmoil, sales of HDTVs seems to be suffering. While there are no specific stats for HDTVs, Moffett points out overall sales in electronics were down 14 percent year-over-year in September. Best Buy revealed a 2 percent drop in same-store sales in September, after it had been predicting 4 percent growth during that period. via NewTeeVee

Brad over at AOL’s Download Squad blog writes a short piece on why Beyond TV is one of his favorite apps to pay for and in doing so, has a nice overview of Beyond TV. A snippet:

But probably the main reason I prefer BeyondTV to the alternatives is that it has an intuitive feeling user interface but allows you to dig around in advanced menus if you want to tweak things.

Thanks Brad, glad you like it!

An enthusiast custom-modified an old TIVO case to house his home theater PC. He’s running XBox Media Center, a piece of open-source media center software, but if he were running Beyond TV and he wanted to complete the theme, he could grab the community-created TIVO look alike skin for Beyond TV and the community-created TIVO-like sound effects. Ha!

(via Missing Remote)

Down for the count Dish to pay TiVo $104 million – 10/06/08
The nation’s highest court today shut the door on EchoStar’s and Dish Network’s petitions for a final appeal of their patent infringement case. Now all they can hope is for mercy from TiVo, if they are to continue producing DVRs in the US. via Beta News

RealNetworks banned from selling RealDVD – 10/06/08
Less than a week ago, RealNetworks announced its RealDVD DVD-ripping software. About 24 hours later, they received news that six movie studios were suing to stop those software sales. The studios have won, it seems—at least temporarily. via Electronic House

Congress may see the glass half-empty on DTV transition – 09/24/08
After a pair of congressional hearings in recent days where witnesses gave generally favorable reports on the status of the nation’s transition to digital television — still slated for next February 17 — leaders there are still putting out the word that a crisis of misinformation may not be avoided in time. via Beta News

Complaints pour in after digital TV test – 09/23/08
A major problem during a test run in Wilmington, N.C., was the inability of over-the-air viewers to receive new digital signals, according to figures collected after the test. via MSNBC

An alternative to cable chatter: live streams of local stations – 09/22/08
In the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, the national media’s attention was quickly diverted by the financial crisis and the presidential election last week. But the four local stations in Houston used the Internet to extend their reach, streaming their exhaustive coverage online and drawing viewers around the world by providing an alternative to the chatter on cable news. via NY Times

Watch TV episodes online a week before they air, on Hulu – 09/18/08
NBC is putting many of their premiere episodes on the popular online streaming website, Hulu so that every US resident can watch the online episode a week early. via GeekTonic

Study: DVRs in 27% of TV Homes – 09/15/08
Leichtman Research Group (LRG) said today that 27 percent of TV households in the U.S. have at least one DVR, and 30 percent of those homes have more than one. Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for LRG, is quoted as saying that the number of DVR households in the U.S. basically doubled in the past two years and will double again in the next four years. via NewTeeVee

SnapStream is located in Houston, TX so we have the occasional the tropical storm or hurricane blow through town. This year, after a dodging tropical storm Edouard’s bullet, we took a direct hit last week from Hurricane Ike. Compared to Hurricane Rita (which we wrote about 3 years ago here, here and here), there was a lot less evacuation chaos. It was clear, to me at least, that city and county officials had closely studied the pandemonium that Hurricane Rita created 3 years ago and had built a pretty robust hurricane response plan from that experience.

The SnapStream office is about 40 miles from Galveston, where Ike made landfall, so we didn’t get hit as badly as many, but we did lose power and the office took on some water. So the office was without power for a couple of days, but we were able to restore power to most of the building by Tuesday afternoon. Our Internet wasn’t affected, but to give you an idea of infrastructure damage, take a look this electricity pole down the street from our office. It carries our Internet and electricity:

Holy hovering light pole, Batman!

I’m happy to say, though, that between yesterday and this morning, our hovering electrical pole is no longer hovering. So I’m breathing easier about our office’s power and Internet.

All of our customer-facing services were down for most of Sunday and part of Monday, but they are all back up and running now. The only thing we’re behind on now is technical support (the bulk of our support team was pretty significantly affected by the Hurricane) but we’re going to be working through the weekend to play catch-up.

Thank to everyone for their good wishes.

Here are two posts I’ve made this week over on the SnapStream Enterprise blog related to visualizing television.

Word clouds of the Daily Show and the O’Reilly Report

and

TV coverage of the conventions