Consumer Friendly (or Disney Hostile) DVD Players? [Slashdot]

OK, the writer is looking for a DVD player that will let him skip trailers as well as the FBI notice on DVDs. Someone suggests VideoLAN as an option. So what is VideoLAN?

VideoLAN is a project of French students from the École Centrale Paris and developers from all over the world. Its main goals is MPEG streaming on a network, but it also features a standalone multimedia player. The VideoLAN Server can stream video read from a hard disk, a DVD player, a satellite card or an MPEG 2 compression card, and unicast or multicast it on a network. The VideoLAN Client can read the stream from the network and display it. It can also be used to display video read locally on the computer : DVDs, VCDs, MPEG and DivX files and from a satellite card. It is multi-plaform : Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, BeOS, BSD, Solaris, QNX, iPaq... The VideoLAN Client and Server now have a full IPv6 support.

VideoLAN is free software, and is released under the GNU General Public License.

Pretty sweet. Now, if you have the scratch, imagine setting this up with a server that has some large, fast hard drives. The server watches the folders of your machines that you ahve set up with PVR cards, and grabs the show once it's taped. You also set up the server to snag a stream of a DVD as it's played, so that you have an archived copy in your system. Since you own the DVD and would never, ever tell anyone about this, you don't have to worry about getting busted for it.

Now, the cool thing is, you can have the server multicast, so you can effectively program your own TV channels. I know that for me, alte nights when I can't sleep, the best thing I can do is sit down with a quart of milk, a box of cookies, and watch some horror films, preferably Hammer Studios Dracula series. Puts me right out (and explains a lot, really.) Now, if you could tie this in with your personal assitant/Major Domo, Higgins, you'd be onto something.

Higgins: "Sir, you have insomnia?" (Higgins has noticed that you are stirring, and have just gone from the kitchen to the living room, and are now aimlessly channel surfing.)
User: "Yes Higgins. Anything good on?"
Higgins: "Mostly infomercials on broadcast. HBO 12 is showing ''My life in Bhutan'', which is one of your favorites..."
User: "No thank you Higgins, Que up some drive in horror, bugs and vampires please." (User has just used some keywords to describe what he's in the mood for. Higgins will now search through his archives for what the User likes, hasn't seen recently, and that matches the search terms used)
Higgins: "How about, The Giant Mantis, Them, and Dracula's Brides, sir?"
User: "Perfect. On the headphones, and theatre lighting."
Higgins: "Done and done." (Higgins switches the audio channel to the user's wireless headphones, and the changes the lighting to the theatre preset for the room.)
User: >belches
Higgins: "Excuse me sir?" (Higgins is in the headphones how)
User: "Nothing Higgins, I'm all set, goodnight." (This is a voice cue to put Higgins into standby unless he is addressed by name)
Higgins: "Goodnight sir."
User: (Kicks back and drifts off watching the film.)

Obviously, Higgins could be configured differently, to either respond with tones and text displays, differing genders and colloquialisms depending on region and user preference, etc, etc.

10:51:28 PM    

More Remote Control? Try a Dish. While cable companies try to exercise as much control over their content as possible, satellite companies like EchoStar and DirecTV give the consumer more options. But that kind of freedom might not last. By Brad King. [Wired News]

Here's hoping the FCC doesn't mess this up for DVR owners. Aside - 1996 Telecom act was supposed to get cable companies to open up their networks, in terms of allowing conumers to buy their own cable boxes, much like you can do with satellite. That hasn't happened. But if I could have bought a DVR/cable box, I'd probably have both digital cable and an iMac with a superdrive right now, as well as the software that would let me burn the full length movies that I had recorded. Not to sell, or give away, but so that I could archive my favorite shows and flicks that I recorded, which, last time I checked, is legal.

Hmmm, reading the above link, according to Nov 1991 legislation, your digital cable box is illegal...

10:56:26 AM    

Smile, You're on In-Store Camera. Thanks to advances in various types of recognition software, you're not even safe from prying eyes -- and greedy retailers -- when you wander around a department store. By Erik Baard. [Wired News]

Brickstream Corp. makes a software system that can track customers as they move through a strore, noting how they flow through while they shop, what they look at, and how long they wait in line. Store managers can they track how the customers are shopping, how long theya re waiting in lines, the entire experience in the store. This allows them to better plan for peak service times, and therefore to better serve their customers.

Those who avoid shpping online and using frequent shopper cards can now be tracked as well, which may mean the death of private shopping, should large chains adopt this technology.

10:23:59 AM    

Technology Briefing: Hardware. MTI TO INTRODUCE NEW FUEL-CELL DESIGN MTI MicroFuel Cells plans to introduce today a simplified design for methane-powered fuel cells. It plans to shrink fuel cells by 2004 into devices small enough to supplement or replace lithium ion batteries in devices like cellphones and laptops. The prototype is half the size of MTI's first device, which it publicized last fall, but still twice as big as a commercial version will have to be, according to William Acker, chief executive of MTI, a subsidiary of Mechanical Technology. MTI is one of a number of companies racing to develop methane-powered micro fuel cells, which many energy experts expect to become the leading candidate to power future portable consumer electronics. Initially, though, they will probably be used to recharge or extend battery life. [New York Times: Business]

MTI makes a variety of power systems, including flywheels and proton exchange fuel cells. The flywheel systems vary from 6kWh to 250 kWh hours, and unfortunately, the site is flash based so you'll have to poke around yourself to find out more about them.

There is very little on their site about their methane micro fuels cells, other than how the tech works and that they are making progress over the course of the past year.

I wish them luck, as I think that having your own cogeneration/power storage is a good idea, especially as demand increases. Being able to recharge or power your personal electronics with a compact built in generator is even better.

5:39:09 AM    

Big Screens Ready to Show Pictures on Memory Sticks. Many of the larger televisions to be introduced by Sony this summer and fall have a built-in Memory Stick slot on the control panel that allows viewers to insert a small removable storage card and look at digital photographs right there on the big screen. By J.d. Biersdorfer. [New York Times: Technology]

Sony is going for ubiquity in with their Memory Stick technology. I could have used this last night as I fumbled through my four sticks trying to find a particular shot to show a friend last night.

5:00:16 AM