Avinash Meetoo: Blog

I’ve just found out that my MyT set-top box now sports a new user interface (developed by Thomson (and I suppose customised by our friends at MT) according to the blurb).

On the whole, the new user interface is better than the previous one (which was horrible from an aesthetic point of view). But Christina and I spotted some glitches and issues (especially when using the VoD feature) that might require some looking into by Asvin and al.

First of all, there is a new search facility which looks cool as you can search by title, actor, director (at last!) and year. Unfortunately, when you, say, search by actor, you only get one empty text field (see above) and you have to type the name. It would have been extremely more interesting to get a kind of drop-down with all current actors (i.e. actors in films available through VoD). As it is, you must do a lot of guesswork and, as every one knows, GUI must be as foolproof as possible.

We have also discovered a bug. If you choose to search by year and enter non-numeric characters, the GUI crashes (simply said…)

Basically, the search facility, while better than previously, has some serious usability issues. In fact, Christina and I both agree that the GUI does not allow someone to easily find a film to watch. There are too many pages and too many slowdowns. Another thing is that the price of the film should be immediately visible and not hidden in a sub-page (this is a paid service after all…) Another nice enhancement would be to restrict searches to specific categories.

One nice feature though is that when watching the TNT channels, you can see what program is being broadcasted and when it will finish.

Good effort on the whole… but MT still has some work to do to make the experience seamless!

(Ahem! Christina and I would be happy to be consultants for that usability enhancement project )

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written by avinash

I’ve been reading Robert Cringely latest article on the latest gadget from Apple, the Apple TV, intensely and it is extremely interesting.

The Apple TV is being advertised by Apple like this:

“Say you’ve just downloaded Cars from iTunes. Instead of huddling around your computer to watch, you pop some popcorn while your computer wirelessly syncs your new flick to Apple TV. Then you pull up a seat, put up your feet, and pick up the included Apple Remote to play your movie on TV. Give yourself a hand: You’ve just changed the way you watch digital media.”

But if you think about it, it’s not cost effective to have a hard disk inside only to store 640×480 video sequences (as those can very easily be streamed from your PC or Mac running iTunes - it requires only 1.5Mbit/s). Of course, it’s nice to be able to watch something even if your computer is switched off but could the hard disk be used for something else?

Robert Cringely thinks that Apple simply wants to change the way movies are distributed over the Internet (and, in the future, how movies are distributed full stop)

He says:

“If the Apple TV is plugged in it is turned on. Did you notice that? That means the hard drive will have at least the capability of running 24/7. Now envision a BitTorrent-like file distribution system that is controlled primarily by iTunes, rather than by you or me. A centrally controlled P2P system is VERY powerful because it allows for the pre-positioning of content.

Say Disney releases Cars 1.5 — a direct-to-DVD release expected to sell millions of copies in its first few days. There is no way iTunes could even hope to participate in a launch like that simply because there isn’t enough bandwidth at a good price — or any price. Even BitTorrent would have troubles handling a small part of such a launch until enough seeds were populated and running. But what if the movie was effectively pre-seeded — loaded over a few days on a distribution tree of thousands of Apple TV boxes which could then deliver the movie locally at high speed if purchased. Or if not purchased the seeded copies could still work together to serve other Apple TVs on the same ISP subnet.”

The more I think of this the more I see it might actually happen.

Imagine a sea of Apple TVs always on participating in a massive P2P movie distribution network. If the movies are pre-seeded (i.e. they are sent to the Apple TVs, say, one week in advance), then, in essence, they would be watchable the second they are actually released by the film company.

Will Apple change the way we watch films? Or will the hard disk only be used to cache iTunes media? Only time will tell.

But this being Apple, I think that Robert Cringely might be onto something.

(Image courtesy of Apple)

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written by avinash

Christina & I love watching good films. I’ve managed to build a small but very enjoyable home cinema system. Here are the components that I have:

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written by avinash

I’ve uploaded some brief videos Christina and I recorded during David Guetta’s show at La Citadelle in Mauritius on 13 January 2007.

Here is another one:

The last track played by David Guetta during his show in Mauritius in 2007 was Nirvana’s “Smells like teen spirit” with (how to say it) a predictable consequence on the crowd. In more simple terms, we all went berserk:

Enjoy

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written by avinash

Here is today’s top pick:

Identity

• Parabole Maurice - TPS Star - 8:15
• 2003. By James Mangold. With John Cusack, Ray Liotta, Amanda Peet…
• Rated 7.3/10 at IMDB: “Stranded at a desolate Nevada motel during a nasty rainstorm, ten strangers become acquainted with each other when they realize that they’re being killed off one by one.”

Lola rennt (Cours Lola. Cours)

• Parabole Maurice - TPS Star - 2:15 (Tuesday)
• 1998. By Tom Tykwer. With Franka Potente, Moritz Bleibtreu…
• Rated 8.1/10 at IMDB: “A young woman in Germany has twenty minutes to find and bring 100,000 Deutschmarks to her boyfriend before he robs a grocery store.”

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written by avinash