Seeking Nerdvana

Australia's Ten Network is set to broadcast sport in glorious high definition next year, finally give us a taste of what couch potatoes can expect from the digital revolution.

Next year Ten will broadcast its Saturday night AFL match in HD, as well as all games from the Rugby World Cup in France, reports The Australian.

High defintion sport could take digital TV to the masses.

Read the full post at http://www.hydrapinion.com/index.php/play/2006/12/08/sport_goes_high_definition

* NOTE: This post is on Hydrapinion, an opinion-based, multi-headed blog - or hydrablog - I've started with four other freelance technology journalists. My topic is Play and my day is Friday so from now on I'm going to point to Hydrapinion every Friday, but Friday is also the day I'll post TechVidReviews here at Seeking Nerdvana and reprints of my magazine products reviews that don't appear online elsewhere.

Two interesting recent news items show a glimmer of hope for Australia's fledging electronic content delivery eco-system.

The first is ReelTime offers Download-To-Own movies to XBox 360 - a follow up to ReelTime's recent move to offer download-to-own movies available the same day as they hit the retail shelves. Adding XBox 360 compatibility may not sound like much, but it shows that ReelTime is obviously putting some serious though into its strategy as well as how end users actually want to user their content. Such an approach is very encouraging.

The second is Internode upgrades network for IPTV push - another step forward for one of the country's most progressive ISPs which has just picked up PC Authority magazine's ISP of the Year as part of its Reliability and Service Awards. I think we're in much safer hands if the future of IPTV lies with a company like Internode rather than Telstra, although Internode admits its plans are still somewhat at the mercy of Telstra. You also have to respect a managing director like Simon Hackett of Internode, who returns your emails at 1 in the morning when you're working on a story. Now that's a service you'll never get from Telstra.

Microsoft has improved security in Windows Vista and released its own OneCare security suite so third-party security vendors such as McAfee have to work harder than ever to earn their place on computer desktops. McAfee has responded by cramming even more features into McAfee Total Protection in an effort to be a one-stop shop...

Read the full review at http://www.theage.com.au/news/upgrade/play-it-safe/2006/12/04/1165080883539.html

Asher Moses at Fairfax reports the Australian federal government has finally made some concessions on its draconian proposed copyright laws.

The amendments also removed on-the-spot fines for some copyright offences and ensure it's legal to do things like transfer music to an MP3 player.

Asher Moses writes; "The Government has listened to the Senate Committee and stakeholders and has improved the effectiveness of the reforms," Mr Ruddock said in a statement.

"The amended reforms make it clear consumers can transfer the music they own onto devices such as iPods and enable the next wave of technology by allowing people to record a TV or radio program on mobile devices to watch it at a more convenient time."

The amendments also removed on-the-spot fines for some copyright offences, to ensure they didn't "unintentionally capture harmless activities of ordinary Australians".

I've been one of many people shouting from the rooftops about how ridiculous the new proposals were. I guess if enough people make enough noise for long enough, even the luddites in Canberra listen.

Lounge room nerdvana is one step closer now that DVD/hard drive recorders are finally coming with built-in digital tuners, but we're still a long way from my dream device.

There are high hopes for the Philips Cineos DVDR9000H but I was very disappointed with it.

One digital tuner is nice, but I really want two so I can record two programs at once. I'm not the only one out there not happy with the current crop of recorders, and many of my fellow nerdvana seekers hang out at DTV Forum "Australia's leading Digital TV and AV forum". There's an amazing 17 page thread currently running, following their pursuit of the ultimate lounge room companion. They're piecing together scraps from press releases, foreign websites and industry gossip in the hope of discovering something available in Australia that does that whole job rather than the piecemeal solutions available today. Some of the posts really sum up frustrations I feel in my quest, such as walexx's comment; "Im so sick of talking and reading about all this stuff, I just wish they would start to come out on the market. I cant believe that its 2006 and we are still waiting for what is really simple all in one units." Amen to that.

DTV Forum is a great place to pick up leads on where that dream device might come from. They've got high hopes for the Philips Cineos DVDR9000H but I'm sorry to say I didn't think much of it in my TechVidReview. The group is also interested in the Omni GO-D660 Digital TV Receiver With HDD & DVD Recorder and the DMC-3900T Twin Tuner Digital media center. Neither are household names, but they both sport dual SD digital tuners so I'll have to add them to my list of things to check out. The search contines.

It's a remote control battle royal over at cnet.com.au with Brian Haverty's reviews of five high-end universal remote controls.

Logitech's Harmony 785 took the honours over some far more expensive competition.

Haverty has reviewed the;

Logitech Harmony 785
Philips Pronto RU980
Sony AX1400
Sunwave SRC-7000
Marantz RC5400

Interestingly the $AU399 Logitech Harmony 785 took the honours over some far more expensive competition, it's a shame the new $AU699 Harmony 1000i Advanced Universal Remote didn't get a run - I'd be interested to see how it measured up.

Universal remote controls have been around for a few years so you'd expect manufacturers to be getting them right by now, but Haverty has absolutely canned the $AU1199 Marantz RC5400. It just proves that having a good reputation in one area doesn't necessarily translate into good products in other areas. In other words, stick with what you know.

I still think my DSE 8-in-1 LCD Touch Screen Learning Remote Control (a rebadged Sunwave SCR-300) offers great value at $AU89 but if you've got more to spend there's some lounge room bliss to be had.