Inundated with Media!!!

I'm not complaining by any means but as I realized today I am extremely inundated with media. There was a time when I had a very large VHS collection and I thought that was pretty cool, then I started with DVDs and figured that was a step up, along the way I've had a nice steady supply of CDs as well. Yet today on top of all that (well except VHS I got rid of all of them for the most part) I've started gathering all of that media on the computer plus I've got a good supply of online media such as video podcasts and more!

The newest thing I've come across is TVTonic which is available as part of Windows Vista Media Center, its basically video podcasts but its all brought together in a sort of TVish way, for me I guess its early rumblings of IPTV of sorts. There is alot of cool programing all collected in a pretty nice user interface (actually except the first continue to the program splash page?) that makes it amazing fun to collect media to watch. I came across it via the Windows Vista Team Blog announcement that it would be used to deliver additional Olympic content right to your PC via NBC. Well turns out there's alot more than Olympic coverage to download.

On top of that I've got Blu rays coming from Blockbuster and this immense collection of On Demand from Netflix and if not for the HD content from my cable company I could probably say goodbye to the "usual" way of getting content on the tube.

Finally I've been creating a sort of video on demand of my own via my home network, sure its more work than most people would be willing to do, but its pretty cool nonetheless.

Occasionally I do find time to actually enjoy some of this media and realize that whenever I have a few moments I surely will have something to watch!

Being a Dual 360 Household.

Today I became known as a "dual 360 household". By virtue of a friend I obtained a second Xbox 360 which now resides upstairs on an SD TV. At one point awhile back I had purchased a second original Xbox and a copy of the Media Center DVD to use it as a Media Center Extender but for some reason it stopped working and I did without. Then I bought a 360 and since then the media capabilities of the system have grown, and it became apparent. I needed my upstairs media center back.

Quite some time ago there used to be talk of how game consoles would become these entertainment boxes for the living room, it just never seemed like a good idea. Yet that time has come and guess what it is a good idea. Its also the main reason for that second 360, heck it may never even see a game spin in its drive. Actually I shouldn't say that, but maybe at least not until my son is old enough to be able to play games. Right now its going to do a lot of streaming video, audio, pictures and DVD playing.

My only hope is that my wife will get used to it enough to use it when I'm not around. I've spent a lot of time prepping all the kids movies to make it easy to pull up a video at any time (and for good measure I've added all her favorites as well).

In any case its a testament to the product and what it can do, the 360 has not always had the most heralded reputation but even after mine did get the dreaded RROR a while back its still probably the only piece of technology that not only am I willing to start using it again, but adding a second as well. Here's hoping for a long period of good use!

HD-DVD: Or why I'm not really choosing anything.

I was thinking about this yesterday and a comment by Logan Macleod stirred it up a little more.  In regards to HD DVD and Blue Ray I'm not really so much choosing anything as I am not choosing anything.  Let me explain.  First of all the difference between DVD and Hi Def DVD is not the great difference that we saw with VHS to DVD.  In particular its limited even more by upconverting DVD and HD DVD players.  Right now I can honestly go between watching a DVD to an HD DVD to even movies encoded to play on my Media Center/360.  Sure there are quality differences, but they are not as dramatic.  More importantly I don't notice a HUGE difference in DVD and HD DVD (except whenever on an HD DVD they show vista type scenes, you know mountains, valleys, oceans, lots of color and detail.  But I digress.  I purchased my HD DVD player because of a good price and a good deal, I have not yet found that with Blue Ray and even for someone as technology savey as I'd like to think I am, I am still a little confused with the Blue Ray specs.  Sure Sony keeps updating the PS3 and its a great Blue Ray player but as a media machine its not there yet.  When I buy a product I am buying it for what it is when I purchase it, I want to know that going in if the product is never updated that it fulfills the need I have for it.  Neither Blue Ray or the PS3 do that, yet. This post is not to say that I am against either the PS3 or Blue Ray, but until they both decide what they are and when their ready to be that, I will continue to choose to not choose by choosing.