Blockbuster Jumps in With Download-to-TV Solution

Today, Blockbuster announced that they will be offering a video on-demand download service with a box from 2Wire Inc. that connects to the TV. At first glance, I thought they were copying the Netflix/Roku solution that we've come to enjoy so much, but they're not. Instead of an all-you-can-eat subscription model like Netflix, the Blockbuster solution is a download movie rental service. After the first 25 free download rentals, included in the $99 purchase price of the 2Wire box, rentals will cost at least $1.99. They claim that this means they'll be able to offer much more recent content than the Netflix subscription service, but Netflix has recently secured a number of top-tier Disney titles including "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," "Ratatouille," "Meet the Robinsons," and more. In my mind, there is no comparison -- the subscription model wins. I don't think consumers are ready to "leave the meter running" on the TV set, and will be much more comfortable with a predictable bill for a set of content they value.

Switching From Satellite to ATT UVerse -- The Installation

I'm tempted to say "you just won't believe this," but with technology, almost no amount of frustration is a surprise these days.

As someone who makes a living by being up-to-date on the latest technology, and helping people craft plans for new technology businesses, I make a point to try a lot of technical things. So, when I heard that ATT's U-verse was available in my area, and that they had enabled whole-home access to their personal video recorder, I thought I should investigate. After a trip to the ATT store, I learned that we could save about $40 per month by switching from satellite to the ATT quadruple-play package of U-verse television, broadband Internet, cellphone service and land line service. That sounded like a deal, so we decided to try it. What they didn't tell me was that it would take 10 hours to install it! That's right, TEN HOURS.

Why did it take so long? Well, for starters, they need a line that goes from outside of the house, directly to the 2Wire gateway box that they install in front of the phone, Internet and TV services. That line can't have any branches off of it like most phone lines do. At first, he thought he would run a new line, but our crawl-space is very tight, and they couldn't get a tiny installer out to our house to squeeze through and install the line. Eventually, they were able to open EVERY SINGLE PHONE JACK IN OUR HOUSE and find a way to rewire them so there was a straight path to the gateway. At one point, he asked me if it was important that the phone jacks still work when he was done. I can kind of understand this question, after all, nearly everyone uses cordless phones these days, but I insisted that "yes, I would like for my house to still be in working order when you finish." He was very nice, very polite, and did as I said.

So what have I learned by trying out ATT U-verse so far? For starters, I can see why the telephone companies are having trouble rapidly growing their business. I asked him what was typical, and he said that they are allocated 3 hours for a one-TV household, 4 hours for a two-TV household, and up to 8 hours for a 3-or-more TV household. What I learned though was that the number of phone outlets, or the size of the crawl-space can also extend the installation time. I'll write later about how we like the service, but for now, let this be a warning to consumers that switching to ATT U-verse may take longer than you think. And for investors, it may take longer for telcos to eat satellite video service provider's lunch -- if for no other reason than that it takes so long to install these things!

Is Your Camera Seeing Too Much Light?

A few months ago, I attended the Northern California Chapter of the Digital Cinema Society -- a meeting of professional cinematographers to discuss the latest and greatest technology and tools available. The featured presentations were mostly about high-definition video production, and it was fun. There were several interesting video clips shown, and a lot of discussion about what it took to make them. In one of the behind-the-scenes shots, the subject of filtering Infrared came up, and it struck me that there's no reason for that to be just a movie problem -- it also applies to still photography.

In a nutshell, the problem is this. The sensor technology that sits inside all of our digital cameras is intrinsically sensitive to light we can't see -- especially the light that's redder than red, or infrared. Of course, manufacturers put filters in to make the sensors see things the way we do, but they can't get rid of all of the infrared sensitivity. The result is that our cameras still sense infrared, and what's worse, the red, green and blue sensors often all sense some infrared. That means that a light which is very strong in infrared light (like most tungsten lights are) can lead to very muddy images like the one shown on the right here.

I wanted to learn more about this, so I pinged my most knowledgeable color-science friend, Ricardo Motta. Ricardo is the Chief Technology Officer and Vice President, Imaging Systems at Pixim. I asked Ricardo if he knew how to test a camera's IR sensitivity, and then, how to filter if needed to improve it's rejection of unwanted Infrared. Apparently, I picked the right guy, because he immediately offered to show me how he does both of these things.

The good news is that Ricardo knows how to test cameras. The bad news is that it takes a lot of well thought through high-end electro-optical equipment and precise technique to do it well. His setup at Pixim is very impressive, and possibly the best in Silicon Valley. Unfortunately, it doesn't do much for the average photographer. If you want a quick check though, here's a tip. Grab your digital camera and one of your consumer electronics remote controls. Point the remote control at the camera, and press one of its buttons. If your camera still senses some residual infrared, you'll see it on the camera's preview, or playback display. Here are some pictures with the remote control on and off.

So, you do the test, and find out your camera "sees" IR just like the rest of ours -- is it the end of the world? In a word, no. First of all, remote controls are fairly bright IR sources, and most of the time, there's not that much IR to filter. Second, if you start to notice that you're getting really muddy shots and you suspect that there's a lot of IR in the light, then you can pickup an IR filter to go over your lens. According to Ricardo, the best is a Blue Glass BG39. I won't go into the details here, but the short summary is that it rejects IR better than the other choices, and even though it's not as color-neutral, when combined with the in-camera white-balance, it delivers more vivid colors.

Finally, if you want to see things as really "glass-half-full," you can take advantage of the IR sensitivity of your camera by putting red or infrared-pass filters over your lens, and experiment with infrared photography. Be ready to put the camera on a tripod though, because you will have lost a lot of sensitivity by the time you filter out most of the visible light. It's a fun thing to experiment with though, and you can get some really pretty results like this shot that I took last month in Zion National Park. Needless to say, the sky wasn't really black, and the rocks weren't really white, but when you crank up the red sensitivity, the blue sky goes dark, and the red rocks go white.

NVIDIA Founder Offers Entrepreneurs Advice

Last night I had the pleasure of being entertained and educated by one of Silicon Valley's local success stories -- Chris Malachowsky, Co-Founder of NVIDIA. The event was part of the Fall Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship Speaker series at Santa Clara University where my mother teaches, and I attended briefly as both an undergraduate and graduate student. The reason I say "pleasure" is that Chris is that rare combination of both success and grace. Though NVIDIA has become a multi-billion dollar a year company, Chris still knows the value of individuals, and can make anyone feel appreciated. His coaching seemed to come from a genuine desire to help, and I'm delighted to be able to summarize it here.

From Chris Malachowsky -- "What I learned"

• Don't jump in the foxhole with just anybody.
• Have a Vision -- there's was "to be one of the most important technology companies in the world."
• Recognize your competitive weapons -- every director of every function needs to be constantly thinking and acting to make that function a competitive weapon.
• People invest in people -- the VC's asked lots of questions, but in the end, Chris believes they invested because they believed in the management team.
• Focus, Focus, Focus -- take risks where you're differentiated, get to market as quickly as you can, then learn and adapt.
• Who you hire matters -- if you do it well, you'll always be the dumbest guy in the room.
• Stand for something, and don't be afraid to be useful -- people like working for someone willing to chip in and get things done.
• Know when to get off the train -- disasters don't usually happen in one moment, they are usually the product of a long chain of events, so it's better to recognize when things are going badly, and adjust earlier.
• Don't underestimate what you don't know -- 'nuf said.
• The only shame in failure is not learning from it -- "Experience leads to good decisions, and bad decisions lead to experience." Don't wait to be sure. Do something.

Like I said, it was a pleasure, and I hope others will find some value in this. Pass it along.

Annie Leibovitz, Spencer W. Kimball and Nike

On Monday night, I had the good fortune to be invited to a presentation by world-renowned-photogapher Annie Leibovitz in San Francisco. She read from her new book titled "Annie Leibovitz at Work." As she read, several of her photographs were projected in the theater, and the overall effect was like tagging along with her on a tour of her life. Not surprisingly, her tale, like that of many phenomenally successful people, had striking elements of chance, but when asked what she attributed her success to, she said "it's work" and "you just have to do it." She apologized for sounding like a Nike commercial, and I couldn't help but remember the first person I knew who espoused that slogan was the President of the Mormon church when I was growing up -- Spencer W. Kimball. In fact, long before Nike splashed the slogan around the world, he claimed it as a personal motto, and had it modeled into a plaque that sat on his desk. It's safe to say that there are few things in life as different as Annie Leibovitz, Spencer W. Kimball and the Nike corporation, so I'm impressed that they all three emphasized the message "do it."

As a photographer myself, one of the things that impressed me most about Annie Leibovitz's presentation was her pictures of the queen. She only had 25 minutes, and took four different poses with varying attire, and no "costume changes," just a progressive unlayering of very formal attire. To do that, I assume takes considerable preparation, and a readiness to "just do it" when the subject arrives.

Before going to the presentation, I thought Annie Leibovitz was someone with good skills that got lucky. After all, there are many, many skilled photographers in the world who never get noticed, never get the chance to shoot for an up-and-coming national magazine, never get the chance to travel with the Rolling Stones, and never make it big. After seeing her presentation, and hearing her advice, I think I'm a little more humbled and chastened. Though it's easy to say "just do it," it's much harder to actually live by that creed on a daily basis. Perhaps I should give her, and many other "famous pros" more of a break, and recognize that working hard has it's rewards too. Put another way, if you've got the skills, and are ready to work hard, one "big break" is probably all you need, and that's not too much for any of us to expect over a lifetime.

6 Ways to Improve Netflix Instant Streaming

We've been using the Netflix Instant Streaming now for about three months, and I have to say our family loves it. I keep thinking we should keep a log of our hours, but I'd estimate that 20% to 30% of all of our TV watching is now through the Roku box. That's pretty amazing when you think that it's an OTT (over-the-top) Internet video streaming service that we're getting through a DSL Internet connection. Still, there are a few ways it could be improved, so here goes:

1. Faster start times -- I know a streaming feed over the Internet needs to be buffered, but why not have a memory card slot the user can put some Flash memory in, and pre-buffer the shows in their queue? It wouldn't cost much, and it would mean all of the shows in their queue could start almost immediately.

2. Built-in HDMI switch -- Most people don't have a lot of HDMI inputs available on their receiver or TV yet, but that's the highest quality, most convenient way to connect a new video source like the Roku. At our house, we solved that problem by putting an HDMI switch between the Roku, our DVD player and the AV Receiver. The switch defaults to the DVD player if it's on, or goes to the Roku if the DVD player is off. Building this into the Roku (or LG Blu-ray player, or XBox 360, or TiVo) would make the install even easier.

3. Netflix iPhone Queue Manager -- The Netflix Instant Streaming app makes you go to the PC to add shows to your queue. I know there are at least a couple of apps that claim to do this, but they appear to be weakly integrated, and not supported from Netflix. The PC is an ok fall-back, but the iPhone is much more likely to be with me on the couch. For now, I'll keep trying the emerging 3rd party iPhone apps.

4. On-screen content finder -- Wouldn't it be great if Netflix could introduce me to what I want to watch when I want to watch it instead of offering me a laundry list of things I've already "queued up?"

5. Integrated TV DVR and Netflix Instant Streaming Recommendations -- This is the holy grail. My digital video recorder knows a lot about me and my family. Netflix knows a lot about us too. Unfortunately, neither knows what the other knows, and consequently, my video recorder is a little dense when it comes to speculatively recording shows for us, and Netflix is a little dense about the TV shows we like. Getting this information shared and leveraged is probably a business challenge, but the results could be delightful.

6. Ratings Preferences -- Why can't I tell Netflix that I'm not interested in movies or TV shows with particular ratings (Say R or X)? Maybe I'm just missing how to do this, but it seems a pretty basic request -- sort of like turning on search result filtering in Google.

Like I said, we love our Netflix Instant Streaming, but there are ways to make it better, and I'm guessing we'll see many of them sooner rather than later.