stepheno.net » HD

Miro Internet TV on demand

stephen olsen — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 11:02:54 +0000

The “internet tv” and video player Miro, previously known as Democracy has caught my attention lately.

I tried Democracy for the first time more than a year ago. My first impression was OK. Considering the fact that I can’t afford to keep up with the latest hardware updates, I tried it on a little older Mac. This proved the program rather CPU intensive. The concept behind Democracy was a good one however. Being able to subscribe to channels in a podcast type of manner has evidently become a winner.
Being able to “store” the channel material is an advantage over more “live services” such as Joost, since you can pause any time you want. You skip the ads and if you do have low bandwidth you can download the whole episode/show before viewing.

That same success is what Miro has has expanded on. You can obtain HD material which is becoming more in demand.
Miro also offers a BitTorrent service. (Because of rather limited bandwidth I seldom use BitTorrent, but gave it a try with Miro.) The first torrent in Miro worked impressively. Though afterwards I had to pause a download to be able to use my bandwidth for necessities and when I resumed it started downloading from the beginning. In other words it restarted instead of resuming. A quick search online on Miro’s forum proved that others had this problem, and it was not yet resolved.
My main challenge to Miro is help the users find the content, in an even greater manner. I find myself using the content I find in the applications more than outside subscriptions’. Therefore my guess is that if the content is more accessible people will stick to the application. Another Joost-joy I am missing is being able to control Miro via remote.

For Miro’s slightly biased comparison of Miro vs. Joost check out their comparison.

New Apple HD Format

stephen olsen — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 08:58:53 +0000

Along the release of Final Cut Studio 2, Apple also mentioned more about their new ProRes 422 format. The format features a 10bit 4:2:2 sampling system, a normal bitrate of 145 mbit/s and 220 mbit/s for HD. On Final Cut Studio’s Whats New page, Apple claims that ProRes 422 offers uncompressed High Definition quality at Standard Definition file sizes.

AppleInsider takes a closer look at Apple’s new ProRes 422 Format.

Costly HD Security Camera…

stephen olsen — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 11:46:24 +0000

Stumbled upon this new HD camera this morning. Iconix HD-RH1 is a 64-gram miniture camera with a 1080i/p resolution. However accoding to Create Digital Motion it will cost about $15,000. In light of its price, I don’t think its main use would be for security cameras. Though this camera could be a small step in the direction of the videocameras and Crime Scene Investigator techincal equipment you see on TV and in movies. (You might have seen movies, where they zoom into the surveillance images and find details not visible in its original size.)

If you are interested in more of its specifications, you will enjoy reading their product page.

(Via Create Digital Motion)

Red Rules Raw Recording

stephen olsen — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 14:33:31 +0000

The camera that many have commented looks like some kind of cool futuristic weapon. Its cool design is not very surprising, considering the camera is being developed by Jim Jannard, the founder of Oakley (Source: HD Cinema Group).

RED dubs its RED ONE camera UHD, Ultra High Definition, a fair title with its whopping 12 Megapixels. Red can record up to 60 fps in RAW or 2 x over-sampled HD in 4:4:4 or 4:2:2. The camera was announced almost a year ago (Ref. Gizmodo), but RED has only recently gone public with pricing.

The actual body is cheap (picture above), only $17,500, however it’s useless without pricy accessories. HD4Indies has more on pricing.

Canon Powershot Now With HD?

stephen olsen — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 14:04:08 +0000

Canon launches a new consumer mini-HD-camcorder: Powershot TX1. Following their Powershot line from the digital still-cameras this camera features 7.1 megapixel for still shots and 720p HD footage.
The HD capabilities are still very mediocre, comparable to that of Panasonics (My mention: Consumer HD(V)-Camcocrder?) and Sanyo (Engadget review). An advantage with Canon’s is that it has an optical-stabilized lense, something that at least Sanyo’s is missing.

Picture copied from dpreview.com

If you want to call it a limitation or not, the 4GB SD card will give you 13 minutes of 1280×720 resolution (at 30fps).
For a more indeapth review checkout the review over at Digital Photography Review.

(Via Engadget)

Consumer HD(V)-Camcocrder?

stephen olsen — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 11:33:02 +0000

Canon HV20 a $1100 HDV camcorder reviewed t hdvinfo.net. Some of its nifty features include: HDMI, 4-channel audio and 10x HD Lens w/ Super Range Optical Image Stabilisation. Canon’s 2.96 megapixel 1/3-inch CMOS sensor provides native 1920×1080 resolution.

Also found some lines written on the HV20 over at HD for Indies. And yes it will really boil down to what you need it for, with this 1/3 inch sensor you can’t have anything close to the quality of its big brothers, hence note the word consumer.