Some Stats for Netflix.
58 Distribution centers.
10 Million customers.
750,000 new customers in the "last six months" this was said around April 09.
46 Million DVD's in it's whole catalog.
2.2 Million movies every day get's processed.
$300 Million annual mail shipping costs.
It looks like it's about 1000 DVD per employee. 180,000 DVD average in the Fremont CA. distribution center, and 180 employees working there.
See video clips below:
Nightline on Netflix
USA TODAY Visits Netflix | Jefferson Graham
USA TODAY's Jefferson Graham visits Netflix's distribution center in Fremont, California to see how some 200,000 DVDs are returned, processed and shipped back out. Behind the scenes at a Netflix distribution center.
Netflix distribution center
King5.com's look inside the Netflix Northwest distribution center.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Video Industry clips from ABC News.
This is almost not worth putting up here.
I was really looking for a segment where they toured the Netflix distribution facility.
From ABC News 5/21/2009:
Super DVD
From ABC News 2/26/2009:
No More Red Envelopes for Netflix
From ABC News 1/05/2009:
Netflix on TV
From ABC News 2/22/2007:
End of the DVD As Walmart Enters Download market -VIDEO
A downloadable movie may be the wave of the future that kills the DVD format.
Wonder what happened to this last one?
I was really looking for a segment where they toured the Netflix distribution facility.
From ABC News 5/21/2009:
Super DVD
A new model of DVD can hold up to 500 movies.
From ABC News 2/26/2009:
No More Red Envelopes for Netflix
The movie rental company will offer some streaming-only deals for users.
From ABC News 1/05/2009:
Netflix on TV
The rental company and LG are selling televisions that can stream movies.
End of the DVD As Walmart Enters Download market -VIDEO
A downloadable movie may be the wave of the future that kills the DVD format.
Wonder what happened to this last one?
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Final Call for Chapters: Springer Book on Intelligent Video Event Analysis and Understanding
------ Final Call for Chapters ---------------
Springer Book on Intelligent Video Event Analysis and Understanding
To be published in Springer-Verlag in the series "Studies in Computational Intelligence"
We are soliciting high quality chapter submissions for a book of Intelligent Video Event Analysis and Understanding. Extended versions of the best papers from the VECTaR2009 workshop, as well as other high quality submissions will be considered
Introduction
Detecting, interpreting and understanding various video events is one of the ultimate goals of the computer vision system. Despite rapid progress in this area, there are still a significant number of challenges that need to be addressed to enable an automatic video event understanding system. Those challenging include robust detection of event under motion clutters, event interpretation under complex scenes, multi-level semantic event inference, putting event in context and multiple cameras, event inference from object interactions, etc.
To address these and other outstanding challenges, high-quality chapter manuscripts are particularly welcome in the following areas, but not limited to:
o Motion interpretation and grouping
o Human action representation and recognition
o Abnormal event detection
o Contextual event inference
o Event recognition among a distributed camera network
o Multimodal event recognition
o Spatial temporal features for event categorisation
o Hierarchical event recognition
o Probabilistic graph models for event reasoning
o Machine learning for event recognition
o Global/local event descriptors
o Metadata construction for event recognition
o Bottom up and top down approaches for event recognition
o Event-based video segmentation and summarization
o Video event database gathering and annotation
o Efficient indexing and concepts modelling for video event retrieval
o Semantic-based video event retrieval
o Online video event tagging
o Evaluation methodologies for event-based systems
o Event-based applications (security, sports, news, etc.)
Objectives:
This book aims to present state-of-the-art research advances of video event understanding technologies. It will provide researchers and practitioners a richful resource for future research directions and successful practice. It could also serve as a reference tool and handbook for researchers in a number of applications including visual surveillance, human-computer interaction, video search and indexing etc. Its potential audience will be composed of active researchers and practitioners as well as graduate students working on video analysis in various disciplines such as computer vision, pattern recognition, information security, artificial intelligence, etc.
Submission Procedure
Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit chapter proposals before November 30, 2009. The chapter proposals should contain a title, an abstract, and the outline of the organization. The proposals will be considered based on the relevance to the book, contribution to the community, as well as the balance of topics. Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by December 15, 2009. Full chapters are expected to be submitted by April 30, 2010. All chapter manuscripts will be double-blind reviewed.
Authors should prepare their manuscripts by following the instructions in Springer-Verlag's author's guidelines for the series "Studies in Computational Intelligence" at http://www.springer.com/
Submissions of chapter proposals and inquiries should be forwarded by email to the editors at videoevent09@googlemail.com.
Important Dates:
Submission of Chapter Proposals November 30, 2009
Notification of Chapter Proposals December 15, 2009
Submission of Full Chapters April 30, 2010
Final Decision on Accepted Chapters June 15 , 2010
Camera-Ready Submission July 31, 2010
Guest Editors:
Dr. Jianguo Zhang, Queen’s University Belfast, UK
Dr. Ling Shao, The University of Sheffield, UK
Dr. Lei Zhang, Microsoft Research Asia, China
Prof. Graeme A. Jones, Kingston University, UK
Contact email address:
videoevent09@googlemail.com
About The Series
The series "Studies in Computational Intelligence" (SCI) publishes new developments and advances in the various areas of computational intelligence – quickly and with a high quality. The intent is to cover the theory, applications, and design methods of computational intelligence, as embedded in the fields of engineering, computer science, physics and life science, as well as the methodologies behind them. The series contains monographs, lecture notes and edited volumes in computational intelligence spanning the areas of neural net-works, connectionist systems, genetic algorithms, evolutionary computation, artificial intelligence, cellular automata, self-organizing systems, soft computing, fuzzy systems, and hy-brid intelligent systems. Critical to both contributors and readers are the short publication time and world-wide distribution - this permits a rapid and broad dissemination of research results.
Indexed by DBLP, Ulrichs, SCOPUS, MathSciNet, Current Mathematical Publications, Mathematical Reviews, Zentralblatt Math: MetaPress and Springerlink
Springer Book on Intelligent Video Event Analysis and Understanding
To be published in Springer-Verlag in the series "Studies in Computational Intelligence"
We are soliciting high quality chapter submissions for a book of Intelligent Video Event Analysis and Understanding. Extended versions of the best papers from the VECTaR2009 workshop, as well as other high quality submissions will be considered
Introduction
Detecting, interpreting and understanding various video events is one of the ultimate goals of the computer vision system. Despite rapid progress in this area, there are still a significant number of challenges that need to be addressed to enable an automatic video event understanding system. Those challenging include robust detection of event under motion clutters, event interpretation under complex scenes, multi-level semantic event inference, putting event in context and multiple cameras, event inference from object interactions, etc.
To address these and other outstanding challenges, high-quality chapter manuscripts are particularly welcome in the following areas, but not limited to:
o Motion interpretation and grouping
o Human action representation and recognition
o Abnormal event detection
o Contextual event inference
o Event recognition among a distributed camera network
o Multimodal event recognition
o Spatial temporal features for event categorisation
o Hierarchical event recognition
o Probabilistic graph models for event reasoning
o Machine learning for event recognition
o Global/local event descriptors
o Metadata construction for event recognition
o Bottom up and top down approaches for event recognition
o Event-based video segmentation and summarization
o Video event database gathering and annotation
o Efficient indexing and concepts modelling for video event retrieval
o Semantic-based video event retrieval
o Online video event tagging
o Evaluation methodologies for event-based systems
o Event-based applications (security, sports, news, etc.)
Objectives:
This book aims to present state-of-the-art research advances of video event understanding technologies. It will provide researchers and practitioners a richful resource for future research directions and successful practice. It could also serve as a reference tool and handbook for researchers in a number of applications including visual surveillance, human-computer interaction, video search and indexing etc. Its potential audience will be composed of active researchers and practitioners as well as graduate students working on video analysis in various disciplines such as computer vision, pattern recognition, information security, artificial intelligence, etc.
Submission Procedure
Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit chapter proposals before November 30, 2009. The chapter proposals should contain a title, an abstract, and the outline of the organization. The proposals will be considered based on the relevance to the book, contribution to the community, as well as the balance of topics. Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by December 15, 2009. Full chapters are expected to be submitted by April 30, 2010. All chapter manuscripts will be double-blind reviewed.
Authors should prepare their manuscripts by following the instructions in Springer-Verlag's author's guidelines for the series "Studies in Computational Intelligence" at http://www.springer.com/
Submissions of chapter proposals and inquiries should be forwarded by email to the editors at videoevent09@googlemail.com.
Important Dates:
Submission of Chapter Proposals November 30, 2009
Notification of Chapter Proposals December 15, 2009
Submission of Full Chapters April 30, 2010
Final Decision on Accepted Chapters June 15 , 2010
Camera-Ready Submission July 31, 2010
Guest Editors:
Dr. Jianguo Zhang, Queen’s University Belfast, UK
Dr. Ling Shao, The University of Sheffield, UK
Dr. Lei Zhang, Microsoft Research Asia, China
Prof. Graeme A. Jones, Kingston University, UK
Contact email address:
videoevent09@googlemail.com
About The Series
The series "Studies in Computational Intelligence" (SCI) publishes new developments and advances in the various areas of computational intelligence – quickly and with a high quality. The intent is to cover the theory, applications, and design methods of computational intelligence, as embedded in the fields of engineering, computer science, physics and life science, as well as the methodologies behind them. The series contains monographs, lecture notes and edited volumes in computational intelligence spanning the areas of neural net-works, connectionist systems, genetic algorithms, evolutionary computation, artificial intelligence, cellular automata, self-organizing systems, soft computing, fuzzy systems, and hy-brid intelligent systems. Critical to both contributors and readers are the short publication time and world-wide distribution - this permits a rapid and broad dissemination of research results.
Indexed by DBLP, Ulrichs, SCOPUS, MathSciNet, Current Mathematical Publications, Mathematical Reviews, Zentralblatt Math: MetaPress and Springerlink
Friday, November 20, 2009
Response To California's Large-Screen TV Regulation
From Slashdot:
"It's great that unelected bureaucrats in California are clamoring to save energy, but when they target your big-screen TVs for elimination, consumers and manufacturers are apt to declare war. CEDIA and the CEA are up in arms over this. Audioholics has an interesting response that involves setting the TVs in 'SCAM' mode to meet the energy criteria technically without having to add additional cost or increase costs to consumers. 'In this mode, the display brightness/contrast settings would be set a few clicks to the right of zero, audio would be disabled and backlighting would be set to minimum. The power consumption should be measured in this mode much like an A/V receiver power consumption is measured with one channel driven at full rated power and the other channels at 1/8th power.' This is an example of an impending train wreck of unintended consequences, and many are grabbing the popcorn and pulling up chairs to watch."
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
E4 NYC Manufacturer Training Sessions
I just got this in the mail. Maybe it's the flu I am suffering from today, but the more I read the less I understand what the hell these guys jabbering on about. Some sort of Free training on Audio and video gear I think. These marketing guys need to be shot.
You'd think there would be at least one line of clear english that explains what this is.
Looks like there are a few interesing talks, if someone read this and goes, please send me a scan of the handout and some summary of the talk please.
I am really interested in:
"Digital Signage Revenue Past the Install: NEC’s Revolutionary Business Platform for the Digital Out-Of-Home Market"
From: http://www.almoproav.net/e4/nyc09/manftraining/
You'd think there would be at least one line of clear english that explains what this is.
Looks like there are a few interesing talks, if someone read this and goes, please send me a scan of the handout and some summary of the talk please.
I am really interested in:
"Digital Signage Revenue Past the Install: NEC’s Revolutionary Business Platform for the Digital Out-Of-Home Market"
From: http://www.almoproav.net/e4/nyc09/manftraining/
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More mail: DVR KIT promotion
Hi John,
Thank you for your time to read this letter.
Does DVR KIT sell well in your country?
Do you ever plan to import some such kits?
Now we have a great promotion on DVR KIT,it is only $157
Good quality as well as competitive price, i believe it will benefit your business directly.
Welcome to contact me for your information.
Thanks & warm regards!
Alinna
Eonboom Electronics Limited
Room 5122, LianMing Commecial Center,
No.151 GuangYuanZhong Road,
GuangZhou, GuangDong China
Website: www.eonboom.com
Email/MSN: alinna@eonboom.com
Skype: alinna.ok
Tel:86-020-86385228
Fax:86-020-86385238
Thank you for your time to read this letter.
Does DVR KIT sell well in your country?
Do you ever plan to import some such kits?
Now we have a great promotion on DVR KIT,it is only $157
Good quality as well as competitive price, i believe it will benefit your business directly.
Welcome to contact me for your information.
Thanks & warm regards!
Alinna
Eonboom Electronics Limited
Room 5122, LianMing Commecial Center,
No.151 GuangYuanZhong Road,
GuangZhou, GuangDong China
Website: www.eonboom.com
Email/MSN: alinna@eonboom.com
Skype: alinna.ok
Tel:86-020-86385228
Fax:86-020-86385238
H.264 network DVR at $69
Wow, $69, I don't know how they can afford to do this.
--------------------------------------
Dear Valued Customer,
I would like to invite your attention again to our product.
Take your time to see what we have and how competitve our products are!
Trust us, we will be your most reliable supplier!
When choosing CANTONK, you will enjoy lots of advantages from us!
※Lead technology
※Guaranteed quality
※Competitive price
※TWO YEARS WARRANTY
※OEM Service
Our product range: CCTV Cameras, accessories, DVRs & Rearview system
Our website: www.cantonk.com
Latest price list will be sent to you upon your request.
Sample order will be taken seriously as well!
--------------------------------------
Dear Valued Customer,
I would like to invite your attention again to our product.
Take your time to see what we have and how competitve our products are!
Trust us, we will be your most reliable supplier!
When choosing CANTONK, you will enjoy lots of advantages from us!
※Lead technology
※Guaranteed quality
※Competitive price
※TWO YEARS WARRANTY
※OEM Service
Our product range: CCTV Cameras, accessories, DVRs & Rearview system
Our website: www.cantonk.com
Latest price list will be sent to you upon your request.
Sample order will be taken seriously as well!
Should you need more information about us and our product, please feel free to contact me.
Marissa is here at your service!
My Email: marissa@cantonk.com; Marissa@cantonk.com.cn
My Msn: marissa@cantonk.com
Skype: marissa.cantonk
Best Regards,
Marissa
Oversea Sale Dept.
********************************************************
Cantonk Corporation Limited
CCTV cameras & accessories, DVR, Rearview Systems
www.cantonk.com
Tel: +86-20-82168263
Fax:+86-20-82168297
Email & MSN: marissa@cantonk.com; marissa@cantonk.com.cn
Skype: Marissa.cantonk
********************************************************Marissa is here at your service!
My Email: marissa@cantonk.com; Marissa@cantonk.com.cn
My Msn: marissa@cantonk.com
Skype: marissa.cantonk
Best Regards,
Marissa
Oversea Sale Dept.
********************************************************
Cantonk Corporation Limited
CCTV cameras & accessories, DVR, Rearview Systems
www.cantonk.com
Tel: +86-20-82168263
Fax:+86-20-82168297
Email & MSN: marissa@cantonk.com; marissa@cantonk.com.cn
Skype: Marissa.cantonk
Monday, November 16, 2009
IR Water-proof Camera for sales at USD15.6/pc,UTP Video Balun at US$1.55/pair
I get this sort of stuff from China all the time, Anyone wanting to put together a group purchase let me know.
John L. Sokol
---------------------------------
Dear Purchaser,
Good day.
The below are Hawell November Promotion items. Believe you will find the price is quite attractive, right?
25M IR Water-proof Camera,1/4 Sharp CCD,420TV lines, 24pcs IR leds
Economical UTP Video Balun,Smart design
Wanna to get it? Pls just contact me now.
Kind regards,
Tarring tarring@cctvhowell.com
Shenzhen Hawell Advanced Technology Co.,Ltd
Website: http://www.cctvhw.com/english/
Tel:86 755 81706890
Fax:86 755 81706890
MSN: tarringhee@hotmail.com
Skype: tarringhee
Address: The 5th building of the 2nd Industrial Park of Yousong
The 1st Road of Donghuan, LongHua Town, Baoan District
Shenzhen City, Guangdong, China
John L. Sokol
---------------------------------
Dear Purchaser,
Good day.
The below are Hawell November Promotion items. Believe you will find the price is quite attractive, right?
25M IR Water-proof Camera,1/4 Sharp CCD,420TV lines, 24pcs IR leds
For sale: US$15.6/PC (MOQ:50PCS)
Economical UTP Video Balun,Smart design
For sale: US$1.55/Pair (MOQ:100 Pairs)
Wanna to get it? Pls just contact me now.
Kind regards,
Tarring tarring@cctvhowell.com
Shenzhen Hawell Advanced Technology Co.,Ltd
Website: http://www.cctvhw.com/english/
Tel:86 755 81706890
Fax:86 755 81706890
MSN: tarringhee@hotmail.com
Skype: tarringhee
Address: The 5th building of the 2nd Industrial Park of Yousong
The 1st Road of Donghuan, LongHua Town, Baoan District
Shenzhen City, Guangdong, China
Hawell Newest Economical H.264 Stand Alone DVR
from tarring@cctvhowell.com
date Tue, Nov 17, 2009 at 5:58 PM
subject Hawell Newest Economical H.264 Stand Alone DVR
Hi, dear Sirs,
Good day!
Welcome to inquiry about HAWELL NEWEST 16chs economical H.264 stand alone DVR HW-SVR7216
Main feature :
1. H.264 SOC solution, low power consumption
Skype: tarringhee
date Tue, Nov 17, 2009 at 5:58 PM
subject Hawell Newest Economical H.264 Stand Alone DVR
Hi, dear Sirs,
Good day!
Welcome to inquiry about HAWELL NEWEST 16chs economical H.264 stand alone DVR HW-SVR7216
Main feature :
1. H.264 SOC solution, low power consumption
2. D1 preview resolution
3. 16chs video input, 4chs audio input; 1chs audio output
4. Support multi-users ( Server and clients )
5. Support network connecting
6. SATA HDD, USB/ CD&DVD-RW/network backup
7. Mouse /IR remote controller control, 1ch VGA output
If any doubt, just contact me freely.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Best regards,
Tarring tarring@
Shenzhen Hawell Advanced Technology Co.,Ltd
Tel:86 755 81706890
Fax:86 755 81706890
Skype: tarringhee
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Time To Ditch Cable For Internet TV?
I can relate to this article from Slashdot:
"A flurry of announcements from YouTube, Boxee, Dell and Clicker on Thursday brought good news for anyone considering canceling their cable service in favor of internet TV. First, YouTube announced that within the next few days it will start offering full 1080P HD streams; better than your cable company can offer. Next, Boxee announced a 'Boxee Box' that promises to make it easier to get the content off your computer and onto your TV. Or you could hook up Dell's Inspiron Zino HD instead. 'This is an 8" x 8" PC running Windows 7 (with an option for Ubuntu) that you certainly could use as a desktop machine, but the form factor just screams 'Hook me up to your TV!' via its HDMI port,' says Peter Smith. And, last but not least in this roundup of announcements is the launch of Clicker, a programming guide for internet TV that aims to help you find what you want, when you want it."
Collaborate, promote distribute across The internet
This is a collage of small and upcoming video related web sites that I have run across.
Livestream (formerly known as Mogulus), the production control room was one fixed location, and all collaborators in the process had to be in the same building. Remote cameras for communication were possible, but also expensive since they required satellite feeds.
Older Mogulus commercial, very cool.
Livestream can mix videos from several sources such as web cams, video clips from YouTube, user content into your own live TV program in real-time and broadcast live.
A production team can be scattered in locations around the world, and still work together as if they were in the same room, a virtual news studio in a sense. Satellite feeds are obsolete, since remote cameras are now inexpensive and easy.
It also supports animated television graphics and can look like a major network broadcast using it graphics library that includes a ticker, bumper, lower third name, and logo bug.
Other live free flash based video streaming sites are:
Stickam offers live streaming video and claims to be the largest live streaming social network.
Justin.tv
UStream
Other interesting sites are:
Qik is mobile application that allows you to stream live video from your cell phone and broadcast live.
AnyClip allows you to find any moment from any film, instantly.
SoundCloud is similar to Livestream for audio. It's online audio platform caters to music professionals enabling them to collaborate, promote distribute their music. SoundCloud provides a efficient and simple way for music professionals to exchange music they are involved with in private settings allowing for easy collaboration and communication prior to a public release.
From the Big Brother dept.
Affective Interfaces Uses a webcam and emotion sensing technology, to capture customer’s facial expressions in response a product and can help uncover non rational influences affecting decisions of purchase and engagement. It will apply statistical data gathering to bring some understanding of how people are feeling a brand, products and messaging.
Livestream (formerly known as Mogulus), the production control room was one fixed location, and all collaborators in the process had to be in the same building. Remote cameras for communication were possible, but also expensive since they required satellite feeds.
Older Mogulus commercial, very cool.
Livestream can mix videos from several sources such as web cams, video clips from YouTube, user content into your own live TV program in real-time and broadcast live.
A production team can be scattered in locations around the world, and still work together as if they were in the same room, a virtual news studio in a sense. Satellite feeds are obsolete, since remote cameras are now inexpensive and easy.
It also supports animated television graphics and can look like a major network broadcast using it graphics library that includes a ticker, bumper, lower third name, and logo bug.
Other live free flash based video streaming sites are:
Stickam offers live streaming video and claims to be the largest live streaming social network.
Justin.tv
UStream
Other interesting sites are:
Qik is mobile application that allows you to stream live video from your cell phone and broadcast live.
AnyClip allows you to find any moment from any film, instantly.
SoundCloud is similar to Livestream for audio. It's online audio platform caters to music professionals enabling them to collaborate, promote distribute their music. SoundCloud provides a efficient and simple way for music professionals to exchange music they are involved with in private settings allowing for easy collaboration and communication prior to a public release.
From the Big Brother dept.
Affective Interfaces Uses a webcam and emotion sensing technology, to capture customer’s facial expressions in response a product and can help uncover non rational influences affecting decisions of purchase and engagement. It will apply statistical data gathering to bring some understanding of how people are feeling a brand, products and messaging.
Analysis of network Blueray players. Don't blink!
Don't blink things are moving fast! I can't believe how fast device manufactures are adopting Internet streaming and how many deals have been cut on the back end. So let me start with a particular arbitrary Blueray player and work backwards from there.
I have been reading through the Samsung BD-P3600 manual, not that I have particular reason for looking at Samsung first I just happen to hit it first in Google.
LG actually seems to be the most active in this area, and if I have the time I will go through their product manuals also.
I suspect most of the Blue Ray Profile 2.0 players are offering very similar functionality.
The Samsung Blueray players supports 4 streaming web sites:
BlockBuster
For those not in the United States, they are the Largest Brick and Morter movie rental company. Starting with VHS and now mostly DVD and starting to offer BlueRay and rumors of SD and USB Flash Drives. I will be writing an article on this next.
When examining the Samsung manual I found a really interesting thing.
The images below was grabbed from the PDF of the Samsung BD-P3600 manual
Notice the little "Powered by Cinema Now" at the bottom right of the Blockbuster menu screen.
Wow! I must have blinked and missed this.
CinemaNow is interesting because they offer a Streaming movie rental service too.
They were aquired by Roxio some time back. Roxio does DVD creation software.
Seems a deal was cut in January of 2009
Blockbuster finally makes big online move with CinemaNow
Blockbuster is still looking for ways to compete with Netflix. With a new partnership announced today, the video rental chain will now offer online movie streaming through CinemaNow, but playing catch-up won't be enough to overtake its popular competitor.
Roxio is a division of Sonic Solutions (NASDAQ: SNIC; http://www.sonic.com)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_Solutions
VERITAS ?!?! They make enterprise backup software NetBackup. What they heck are they doing here!
Sonic to Acquire CinemaNow Nov 2008
This picture gives you some Idea of what the menu screens on the BlueRay player look like.
Sorry the manual was only in Black and White.
Next YouTube.
I hope you are all familiar with by now. You know now owned by Google.
Above is what YouTube looked like in the manual.
BD-LIVE
What is BD-LIVE, this is all they had in the manual.
From Wikipedia
Web site What is BD-LIVE?
USE of Opensource GPL Code!
I have been reading through the Samsung BD-P3600 manual, not that I have particular reason for looking at Samsung first I just happen to hit it first in Google.
LG actually seems to be the most active in this area, and if I have the time I will go through their product manuals also.
I suspect most of the Blue Ray Profile 2.0 players are offering very similar functionality.
The Samsung Blueray players supports 4 streaming web sites:
- Blockbuster
- Netflix
- Pandora
- Youtube
- Surprisingly they are not supporting HULU!
- BD-LIVE
BlockBuster
For those not in the United States, they are the Largest Brick and Morter movie rental company. Starting with VHS and now mostly DVD and starting to offer BlueRay and rumors of SD and USB Flash Drives. I will be writing an article on this next.
When examining the Samsung manual I found a really interesting thing.
The images below was grabbed from the PDF of the Samsung BD-P3600 manual
Notice the little "Powered by Cinema Now" at the bottom right of the Blockbuster menu screen.
Wow! I must have blinked and missed this.
CinemaNow is interesting because they offer a Streaming movie rental service too.
They were aquired by Roxio some time back. Roxio does DVD creation software.
Seems a deal was cut in January of 2009
Blockbuster finally makes big online move with CinemaNow
Blockbuster is still looking for ways to compete with Netflix. With a new partnership announced today, the video rental chain will now offer online movie streaming through CinemaNow, but playing catch-up won't be enough to overtake its popular competitor.
Roxio is a division of Sonic Solutions (NASDAQ: SNIC; http://www.sonic.com)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_Solutions
Sonic Solutions was created in 1986 by former Lucasfilm employees who developed the SoundDroid digital audio editing system as part of the Droidworks project. (Another notable spinoff of the project is Pixar.)
In 2002, Sonic spun off their entire audio division as Sonic Studio, LLC, to concentrate solely on the DVD marketplace. With the acquisition of the Desktop and Mobile Division (DMD) of VERITAS Software Corporation in 2002 and the acquisition of Roxio in 2003, Sonic increased its focus on consumer media creation software
VERITAS ?!?! They make enterprise backup software NetBackup. What they heck are they doing here!
Sonic to Acquire CinemaNow Nov 2008
Sonic's technology solutions and Roxio applications power the management and playback of Hollywood content on PCs and CE devices
This picture gives you some Idea of what the menu screens on the BlueRay player look like.
Sorry the manual was only in Black and White.
Next YouTube.
I hope you are all familiar with by now. You know now owned by Google.
Above is what YouTube looked like in the manual.
BD-LIVE
What is BD-LIVE, this is all they had in the manual.
From Wikipedia
The biggest difference between Bonus View and BD-Live is that BD-Live requires the Blu-ray Disc player to have an Internet connection (usually via a standard Ethernet RJ-45 network port) to access Internet-based content. BD-Live features have included Internet chats, scheduled chats with the director, Internet games, downloadable featurettes, downloadable quizzes, and downloadable movie trailers.[86][87][88]
Web site What is BD-LIVE?
USE of Opensource GPL Code!
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Netflix, Blockbuster and Pandora streaming are now being supported in Blueray players
Samsung's BD-P3600 is an example of the new Blueray players coming out with Internet capabilities.
the BD-P3600 comes with a standard Ethernet RJ-45 jack, and a Wi-Fi USB dongle.
It can stream media off connected PC although I am told it's setup is difficult.
But the interesting this is It now supports streaming movie rental from Netflix movie rentals and Pandora Internet radio.
You can read the manual for it here.
All Blueray players are required to support MPEG-2 Part 2, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, and SMPTE VC-1. The Samsung player also supports DIVX.
- MPEG-2 is the codec used on regular DVDs, which allows backwards compatibility.
- H.264/MPEG-4 AVC was developed by MPEG and VCEG.
- VC-1 is a codec that was mainly developed by Microsoft.
Newest Blue Ray players now support what's know as Profile 2.0 also known as BD-Live.
Despite Profile 1.1 also being known as "the Final Standard Profile", the newer Profile 2.0 is just starting to roll out.
The reason it's called BD-Live is that the major difference between profiles 1.1 and 2.0 is that Profile 2.0 requires that the player have an Internet connection, usually via an Ethernet port. Although some Profile 1.1 Blu-ray players have an Ethernet port, these are strictly for firmware updates or playing video from streaming video from users PC's and can't be used to access downloadable content across the Internet.
In addition to Ethernet connectivity, the other major requirement is 1GB of local storage capability. All that means is that the player has to have some way of adding storage to the player, which is where the downloadable content is stored. Some players use USB ports or SD card slots to fulfill this requirement, while other players have some built-in storage.
There is also a Profile 3.0, but it is an audio-only profile, intended to be used with audio-only Blu-ray Discs.
Wikipedia BlueRay Player profiles
Netflix has been working with a number of hardware vendors to make them "Netflix Ready"
List of Netflix Ready Devices
These include:
- LG Blu-ray Players : LG BD370, LG BD390
- LG HDTV's : 55LH50, 47LH50, 42LH50, 60PS80, 50PS80
- LG Home Theater Systems: LHB953, LHB977
- Roku and TIVO - HD Set Top Boxes,
- Samsung Blu-ray Players Models: BD-P1600, BD-2500, BD-P3600, BD-P4600
- Insignia Blu-Ray Player: NS-BRDVD3, NS-WBRDVD
- Sony Blu-ray player: BDP-N460
- PS3 and XBox360 game consoles.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Motionbox , win a free Roku player.
from 
Lowell Dempsey
tojohn.sokol
dateThu, Nov 12, 2009 at 11:48 AM
subjectFollowing up on my last email
Hi again John
I emailed you last week about Motionbox announcing a new PRO service and I wanted to let you know about some more exciting news. Motionbox is giving away 3 brand new Roku players to 3 random people who sign up for a free account during the month of November, to celebrate Motionbox's upcoming featured channel on the Roku digital video player. We thought you might like to share the news of this giveaway with the readers of Video Technology. Please check out this microsite which explains everything - feel free to repost any or all of it:
http://motionboxnews.com
There are now 3 levels of Motionbox service - Basic, Premium, and PRO. Motionbox makes it easy to share your videos online and is a great alternative to YouTube; better quality, more privacy settings and even editing features. If you are able to post or tweet about Motionbox please send me the link so I can share it with everyone. I am here if you have any questions.
Thank you so much,
Lowell
--
Lowell Dempsey, Motionbox
lowell@motionboxnews.com
www.motionbox.com
Lowell Dempseyto
john.sokoldate
Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 11:48 AMsubject
Following up on my last emailHi again John
I emailed you last week about Motionbox announcing a new PRO service and I wanted to let you know about some more exciting news. Motionbox is giving away 3 brand new Roku players to 3 random people who sign up for a free account during the month of November, to celebrate Motionbox's upcoming featured channel on the Roku digital video player. We thought you might like to share the news of this giveaway with the readers of Video Technology. Please check out this microsite which explains everything - feel free to repost any or all of it:
http://motionboxnews.com
There are now 3 levels of Motionbox service - Basic, Premium, and PRO. Motionbox makes it easy to share your videos online and is a great alternative to YouTube; better quality, more privacy settings and even editing features. If you are able to post or tweet about Motionbox please send me the link so I can share it with everyone. I am here if you have any questions.
Thank you so much,
Lowell
--
Lowell Dempsey, Motionbox
lowell@motionboxnews.com
www.motionbox.com
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Developing an H.264 codec
I had a good conversation with Dr Ferguson from Meraka Institute in South Africa.
He developing an optimized BSD licensed version of H.264 codec posted on sourceforge and looking for people to join in the effort.
There is already the X.264 project that is GPL but as you may know GLP code has some license problems for commercial products.
Below is a note about the project:
We are developing an H.264 codec for a commercial application and, due to IP (copyright) issues, it is important that the code is rewritten and free from any claim. We also need to get to the macroblock layer to implement some of our new real-time optimal bit allocation algorithms. Therefore to strengthen our case, we have opened it completely with the open BSD license to get as wide an appeal as possible. Our primary objective is to use the open source community as a software quality control mechanism but if anyone willingly participates that will be great. We are writing the C++ code using a bottom-up approach and have so far released the macroblock layer. This codec is a new addition to our open source Video Processing Project (http://
How are we positioning this implementation? We are interested in real-time software video applications and in this implementation we are attempting to balance fast, readable (OOP) and maintainable code. The 1st version will have limited baseline features to set the code framework before attempting the trickier bits e.g. Intra_16x16 prediction mode only and then later Intra_4x4 modes. The JM software is too slow for commercial applications and is written with too much "C style" to be readable, similarly for the x.264 codec. We are working on SMME implementations for some parts that will eventually appear. A secondary purpose is to make it easy for students/developers to replace our basic implementations with their own implementations of the base tools without worrying about the rest of the codec. We have concentrated on decoupling and encapsulation as best as we can without introducing too much overhead.
We should complete the basic implementation within a few months before tackling compliance issues. Developer comments are most welcome.
Dr Keith Ferguson
CSIR, Meraka Institute
kferguson @ csir . co . za
(tel) +27 (0)12 841 4433
(cell) +27 (0)73 488 2821
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Movies to ship on USB Sticks.
Movies to ship on USB Sticks.
By John L. Sokol
I just ran a across and add for movies included on USB sticks from Fry's electronics. Actually a friend Will who I was having coffee with that morning pointed it out, "Hey John, check this out! 4 Gig for $9.99, not a bad deal, but Sony is including movies with that!" The grainy new paper photo of the packaging really didn't do it justice.
(sorry for the poor image quality, all I had was my cell phone to capture the image with)
The Sony memory stick I have here with me now hasThe Da Vinci Code on it.
The real irony is later that day I ended up spending 5 hours at that company that developed that technology behind those Sony sticks.
Mo-DV located in Cupertino, CA. was first pointed out at great insistence to me by my friend and trusted music industry expert Leveious Rolando. For years I have kept asking myself why isn't the music and film industry putting their content on silicon. I started thinking about this back in 99 and later I even wrote a paper on and gave talks at number of big companies about the subject.
I think flash is really the only sensible way to go in the long run. In the end no matter how much resistance the industry gives it will almost surely have to end up doing it this way. Flash is more robust, and more reliable then CD's and the companys like SanDisk and Kingson are already leading the charge. Flash is reusable, it's Green, it's smaller and more convenient and best of all it has all the flexibility of a proper electronic medium. Imagine netflix shipping flash memory rather then CD's, how much easier and simpler. How much less physical inventory they would have to manage, and the reduced logistics alone! Picture kiosks at the supermarket where you could copy a movie over the your USB stick to play when you get home. It's almost like those reusable cloth shopping bags. Blockbuster would vanish overnight! It's somewhere between bit and atoms. It provides the hybridized best of both media something you can hold in your hand, something tangible and yet just as flexible as an Internet media technologies.
I know many DRM schemes have been proposed for Flash memory, but until this product came along, the industry just would never allow it to happen, at least legally *Cough*
The first customer is always the hardest and to land such a large customer such a Sony is a real surprise, and this time it looks like things are finally going to happen. Seems Paramount also just came online too.
I am also told there is already several other big studios doing deals to release movies in this format also. Fortunately there hasn't started a Flash Memory Stick Format war yet. It always seems there is, between records and 8-tracks, cassettes, and finally CD. With video between Beta and VHS finally ending in a smooth transition to DVD.
With Moores Law, Blue Ray or any atoms (physical) based medium just doesn't stand a chance against flash memory. Flash chips communicate purely electronically allowing a near infinite advancement and changes to the storage medium without requiring changes to the player hardware. With time, because of Moore's Law, the flash costs will drop so much lower then DVD's for both the media and players, that nothing else could possibly complete. Even if they tried, it would most likely end up as a USB attached storage device.
Also with the SSD (solid state disk) technology taking off, this will really push the price of flash down as it seems rotating disks will soon be as obsolete as paper tape or floppy disks.
Mo-DV, short for Mobile Digital Video, has a patented technology that offered enough DRM protection to change things. Now that several Hollywood studios are finally conformable with releasing movies in an all digital silicon format everything changes.
First there is the huge mobile phone market with already 3 billion phones having flash memory card slots The spectrum shortage and expense of cell phone wireless bandwidth for streaming and downloading make flash memory an economical and viable alternative delivery mechanism for video.
In the home consumer electronics market equipment manufactures can include at a much lower cost then a DVD or BlueRay player an integrated USB movie player. The total additional cost for the manufacturer is $0 to $15 depending on if they already have an on board DSP and USB connector. A number of manufactures already have USB supported on there equipment in anticipation of such formats arriving.
A number of Flat Screen TV's already support playing movies from USB, but it seems to be intended for home movies. Today anyone using it to watch a Hollywood movie is technically doing so illegally and would be considered a pirate. Well now with the Mo-DV technology and a software update, they will be able to legally play early run movie shipped over the Internet or sold on store shelves in USB and SD card formats. Most Digital Cable boxes already include an a USB port also, they just don't appear to be enabled, but it's clear they should be able to play the new USB stick format with little more then a software update.
Even some car stereos now have USB and the ability to play MP3 off a Memory stick. Well studios should be able to sell DRM protected music on USB thumb drives rather then being tied to a specific player like your IPod orZune . Mo-DV's technology could work across anything using flash memory. Currently they are targeting the mobile phone industry, but personally I think it's really the flexibility to play across all devices with USB or SD, from cell phones, PDA, netbooks, laptops and desktop machines that really changes the game.
Links:
Mo-DV
Paramount, Kingston Puts Transformers 2 on USB
Sony Micro Vault Click with The Da Vinci Code Sony Model number: USM4GL/DVC
Xbox 360 getting Star Trek, Transformers 2 USB movie bundles
By John L. Sokol
I just ran a across and add for movies included on USB sticks from Fry's electronics. Actually a friend Will who I was having coffee with that morning pointed it out, "Hey John, check this out! 4 Gig for $9.99, not a bad deal, but Sony is including movies with that!" The grainy new paper photo of the packaging really didn't do it justice.(sorry for the poor image quality, all I had was my cell phone to capture the image with)
The Sony memory stick I have here with me now has
The real irony is later that day I ended up spending 5 hours at that company that developed that technology behind those Sony sticks.
Mo-DV located in Cupertino, CA. was first pointed out at great insistence to me by my friend and trusted music industry expert Leveious Rolando. For years I have kept asking myself why isn't the music and film industry putting their content on silicon. I started thinking about this back in 99 and later I even wrote a paper on and gave talks at number of big companies about the subject.
I think flash is really the only sensible way to go in the long run. In the end no matter how much resistance the industry gives it will almost surely have to end up doing it this way. Flash is more robust, and more reliable then CD's and the companys like SanDisk and Kingson are already leading the charge. Flash is reusable, it's Green, it's smaller and more convenient and best of all it has all the flexibility of a proper electronic medium. Imagine netflix shipping flash memory rather then CD's, how much easier and simpler. How much less physical inventory they would have to manage, and the reduced logistics alone! Picture kiosks at the supermarket where you could copy a movie over the your USB stick to play when you get home. It's almost like those reusable cloth shopping bags. Blockbuster would vanish overnight! It's somewhere between bit and atoms. It provides the hybridized best of both media something you can hold in your hand, something tangible and yet just as flexible as an Internet media technologies.
I know many DRM schemes have been proposed for Flash memory, but until this product came along, the industry just would never allow it to happen, at least legally *Cough*
Well Mo-DV is responsible for the DRM, encryption and copyright protection that finally got a major Hollywood studios to wake up and finally do something.
The first customer is always the hardest and to land such a large customer such a Sony is a real surprise, and this time it looks like things are finally going to happen. Seems Paramount also just came online too.
I am also told there is already several other big studios doing deals to release movies in this format also. Fortunately there hasn't started a Flash Memory Stick Format war yet. It always seems there is, between records and 8-tracks, cassettes, and finally CD. With video between Beta and VHS finally ending in a smooth transition to DVD.
With Moores Law, Blue Ray or any atoms (physical) based medium just doesn't stand a chance against flash memory. Flash chips communicate purely electronically allowing a near infinite advancement and changes to the storage medium without requiring changes to the player hardware. With time, because of Moore's Law, the flash costs will drop so much lower then DVD's for both the media and players, that nothing else could possibly complete. Even if they tried, it would most likely end up as a USB attached storage device.
Also with the SSD (solid state disk) technology taking off, this will really push the price of flash down as it seems rotating disks will soon be as obsolete as paper tape or floppy disks.
First there is the huge mobile phone market with already 3 billion phones having flash memory card slots The spectrum shortage and expense of cell phone wireless bandwidth for streaming and downloading make flash memory an economical and viable alternative delivery mechanism for video.
In the home consumer electronics market equipment manufactures can include at a much lower cost then a DVD or BlueRay player an integrated USB movie player. The total additional cost for the manufacturer is $0 to $15 depending on if they already have an on board DSP and USB connector. A number of manufactures already have USB supported on there equipment in anticipation of such formats arriving.
A number of Flat Screen TV's already support playing movies from USB, but it seems to be intended for home movies. Today anyone using it to watch a Hollywood movie is technically doing so illegally and would be considered a pirate. Well now with the Mo-DV technology and a software update, they will be able to legally play early run movie shipped over the Internet or sold on store shelves in USB and SD card formats. Most Digital Cable boxes already include an a USB port also, they just don't appear to be enabled, but it's clear they should be able to play the new USB stick format with little more then a software update.
Even some car stereos now have USB and the ability to play MP3 off a Memory stick. Well studios should be able to sell DRM protected music on USB thumb drives rather then being tied to a specific player like your IPod or
Links:
Mo-DV
Paramount, Kingston Puts Transformers 2 on USB
Sony Micro Vault Click with The Da Vinci Code Sony Model number: USM4GL/DVC
Xbox 360 getting Star Trek, Transformers 2 USB movie bundles
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