Scobleizer - Latest Comments in What Mark Cuban is missing about HDTV

Re: What Mark Cuban is missing about HDTV

Josh Bush — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 01:43:27 -0000

actually i can hookup my pc to an hdtv, i use hdmi which is better than hdtv.

Re: What Mark Cuban is missing about HDTV

Alan Patrick — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 07:54:41 -0000

Robert, Hi. We met on Friday am in London. Mark is wrong, I have already done this, as it is a common myth (why don't people just *try* things ????) I have blogged about it haere at broadstuff

Re: What Mark Cuban is missing about HDTV

Aaron — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 20:12:28 -0000

Cuban is talking about HD content, not watching content on HD TV's. Most of that content is NOT hd. Perhaps some of it is but you can't count on the perfect storm of high speed broadband, wifi, high end PC, media center, media center extender, and HD TV. That is a lot. Robert, I know that we live in a nerd bubble. But it is a bubble. Step outside it and you will see. Is it easy, yes, for us. Is it cheap, no. The average TV price is still way below $1000. Is it coming, yes. Is it coming soon, probably not. Do I like to ask questions and then answer them, yes. ;-)

Re: What Mark Cuban is missing about HDTV

totoro — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 12:03:44 -0000

Robert, your wife's MacBookPro is as noisy as your Xbox360? She seriously needs to take that in for repair-there really should be no comparison fan noise-wise. A properly working MacBookPro is dead silent compared to an Xbox360 (or a PS2 or TiVo box for that matter).

Re: What Mark Cuban is missing about HDTV

Mr Angry — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 18:35:12 -0000

It's funny how we all feel compelled to precede any criticism of Cuban with "I know he's a billionaire but..." Does anyone think the broadcast.com deal was a product of intelligence and not dotcom insanity? Some good work to be sure but truckloads of luck.

Then he says "only idiot would by YouTube" moments before people WAY smarter than him (by any metric you choose including bank balances) buy it. He says a PC won't connect to a HDTV and Scoble elegantly ans simply proves him wrong. He's not smart, he's not even telling the truth. He's just spouting attention grabbing one-liners designed to promote his own business interests, nit the truth.

Re: What Mark Cuban is missing about HDTV

Todd Blanchard — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 15:33:03 -0000

We'll have to see how Apple's iTV comes out. I suspect that'll be the missing link.

Re: What Mark Cuban is missing about HDTV

Bubba — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 15:31:32 -0000

Lot's of people missing Cuban's point, including you Bobby. It's not about buying a computer and hooking it to the TV. Those services will be implemented by the incumbant providers and the relevant CPE. It's not going to be your Windows Media Center that fetches your Rocketboom or You Tube downloads or feeds. Cuban's premise is how many are going to go get the two thousand dollar TV, only to drop a grand on a computer to park by it so they can get Web HD (or any Web) content? Very, very few as evidenced by the sluggish Win Media Center sales (or deployments of Mini's and Front Row). Tivos (and like set top DVRs) already straddle both the sat or cable connection and Internet and it's not going to be too long before that sort of purpose built box becomes the box that is going to get and play your Web content on your big TV.

Bub

Re: What Mark Cuban is missing about HDTV

Kevin Edwards — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 14:44:32 -0000

*Sigh* I started posting this morning and then finished before those lasts posts were made. I see that the topic is now being clarified to mean "streaming" and there are bandwidth issues regarding this.

I guess I never considered "streaming" as being a requirement, or even desirable. Maybe I've been TiVo-fied (as a user from day one) such that when I sit down, I want to have a local library from which to watch, and the ability to tell a device what type of content I want to be receiving.

To me, the whole live broadcast model is dead for all content that's not time-based sensitive.

Re: What Mark Cuban is missing about HDTV

Kevin Edwards — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 14:36:06 -0000

Ya, I love the man, but that was a weird thing for Mark to say. I've had my Mac connected to my HDTVs for years now. I've used several methods to connect including my favorite, eyeHome from ElGato http://www.elgato.com

Lately, I've been going from my Mac to TiVo, and have been putting my media drives (Several TeraBytes of content) into HTPCs such as TVisto, TViX and MviX. (see Amazon)

I definitely look forward to the iTV with FrontRow as while these other Mac friendly options work well, they're not very elegant.

Re: What Mark Cuban is missing about HDTV

Jonathan Tregear — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 14:02:16 -0000

As Mr. Cuban points out one of the real problems is how to get HD content to the computer in the first place. He’s made this argument elsewhere and it’s valid to a point. Cable broadband bandwidth even at 6 Mb/s is inadequate for this. To get sufficient broadband bandwidth for HD would require the cable companies to stop walling off most of the bandwidth available on their pipes into the home for their own proprietary use and that’s probably not going to happen. That’s the whole network neutrality thing.

Technically, it’s not that difficult to connect PC’s directly to HDTV's either as suggested here or through a DVI/HDMI or component cable. Likewise, most recent computers certainly have the processing power to decode MPEG4 or VC1.

The real showstopper isn’t technical it’s legal. That XBOX component connection you mention is not a secure video path, so any protected HD content that you were to get on your PC wouldn’t be playable over your component connection. Only HDMI/HDCP connections can do that and the XBOX as of this time can’t do HDMI to my knowledge.

I find Mr. Cuban almost invariably disingenuous when it comes to discussions about HD. The technical issues he raises are generally smokescreens to disguise the public policy issues that are really the roadblocks to any attempt to bypass industry authorized methods of distributing and consuming content.

Re: What Mark Cuban is missing about HDTV

LayZ — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 10:58:50 -0000

Thanks, Mark, for reinforcing my point.

Re: What Mark Cuban is missing about HDTV

mark cuban — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 10:39:28 -0000

The point of the post isnt that you cant. Its that most PCs arent out of box capable. Sure Macs have DVI out, but most dont have the processing power. If they did, QT would be the default transport for high def already since it does such a great job with any resolution.

For PCs, its only the last 2 years that PCs have had enough CPU or Graphics power to push HD out a compatible port. Which means even IF those computers are compatible with HDTVs and can play HD content, they are small in number and those without arent going to run out and get HD compatible PCs .

Hooking up an XBOX to remotely stream. Get real. Possible. Yes. Has been for a while. To stream HD, works for some content formats. Certainly doesnt have a chance of becoming ubiquitous and the obvious solution to playing HD content from the net to an HDTV. THe Xbox w HD DVD had a far far better shot of being a ubquitous inhome media server that connected the net to HDTV but MIcroSoft chose to make Online a Walled Garden. A mistake they may never live down.

Works great when you are trying to subsidize your hardware costs, but kicks you in the ass when you are trying to become dominant outside of gaming. Its a back to the 1970s strategy of the mini and mainframe software strategy. Maybe they have hired some former Xerox Parcers ?

THe question I was answering, and maybe I didnt write it as well as some others would of was

"Will HD content from the Net to a consumers HDTV replace traditional distribution methods of content from a satellite or cable plant to a vendor provided box connected to an HDTV ?"

The complexity of alternatives in these comments just proves my point that they wont, and the comments dont consider the bandwidth issues of downloading or streaming content that pretty much has to be encoded at 9mbs or more for 80pct of the most popular content.

thanks for reading and commenting on the blog. Thats what makes blogging fun !

Re: What Mark Cuban is missing about HDTV

Stephen — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 09:28:45 -0000

Okay, I just bought an XBox and an HDTV, so I'm a major newbie at this. I can view media center content through the XBox on the TV, but media center won't play mov files. The rocketboom hd files all seem to be mov, so how do I see them in high def through the XBox?

Re: What Mark Cuban is missing about HDTV

katie — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 07:57:46 -0000

Can't answer the mini size picture on your HDTV. I'll look into that. (Thanks for letting me know.)

No dvi port? Get an adapter.

Anyway, if the point is that HDTV isn't consumer friendly/ready, I think we've all proven that :)

Lets leave the Wii out of this. Nintendo isn't making home entertainment systems, they are making game systems. Different markets, different strategies. When everyone has EDtv, they'll come out with a new system. When everyone has HDtv, they'll come out with a new system. They didn't use cutting edge components in their box, so they don't need to wait five years for full profitability to refresh and bring out something new. They can do that in two years.

High framerate FPS games are a niche, with a niche size audience. It doesn't look that way, since the majority of the gaming market likes that kind of thing, but the majority of the gaming market is a tiny slice of the general population. I mean, there's nothing wrong with that, but there's a reason why we are still called geeks instead of mainstream.

Re: What Mark Cuban is missing about HDTV

searchengines — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 07:29:58 -0000

Thanx,

these strategies are what separates the Geek God from those Precocious Geek Kids -

http://digg.com/users/world...

Let's hope this becomes page one on Digg and take your stats through the roof

Re: What Mark Cuban is missing about HDTV

tom6003 — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 06:43:36 -0000

My Fujitsu notebook connects perfectly to my Sony HDTV over a VGA cable at 1360x768. Okay it's not digital, but it's direct and I can view HD shows.

Re: What Mark Cuban is missing about HDTV

Guest — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 03:52:06 -0000

>>But it was so dominant for so long in this game that >>it is just cruising off of old success (everyone I >>talk to who bought a Wii is buying it for their young >>children who like to play simple games — these are >>not folks who are looking to play Gears of War).

Having stood in line at Fred Meyer most of the night to get my hands on a Wii I have to disagree with you. There was a good mix of young and old, men and women in line to get a Wii. Many of those I spoke with in line had a 360 and some even had a PS3. All were very excited about the Wii and not just for their kids. The Zelda games are amazing and the new controllers are a lot of fun. I like the review MSNBC did of all 3 consoles and mentioned by the end of the night, everyone was gathered around the Wii, even the hard core gamers. For some of us, just glitzy graphics don't make a good game. Nintendo understand this and I appreciate the fact they are not trying to take over my living room. If you have young kids, the Wii is a no brainer.

Re: What Mark Cuban is missing about HDTV

Robert Scoble — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 03:22:03 -0000

Jeff: that's true, but so far I can't use Xbox Live to download ScobleShow or Rocketboom or any of the others.

Re: What Mark Cuban is missing about HDTV

jeff douglass — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 02:53:48 -0000

and you forgot to mention the newly available xbox live service :).... you can now download HD movies and TV shows directly to your xbox 360....who needs the PC???

Re: What Mark Cuban is missing about HDTV

Robert Scoble — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 01:27:03 -0000

Bob: it's ironic that now I get to be the one that says "when that ships, give me a call!" Sorry, I had to take that cheap shot, I heard it so often when talking about stuff coming out from Microsoft.

Anyway, we'll see about iTV. I'll probably be first in line to get one of those, too. You didn't miss that we have three Macs in our house, right? I'd love to be able to share stuff from those onto my HD screen.

Re: What Mark Cuban is missing about HDTV

Bob Jones — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 00:58:43 -0000

How Windows and Microsoft centric your solution is.

iTV purports to do that much better than an xbox 360 does, and has the added bonus of working on Mac OS X and Windows.

Re: What Mark Cuban is missing about HDTV

Robert Scoble — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 00:11:37 -0000

LayZ: pedantic. His goal is to display video on his HDTV that's on his PC. My way does just that.

Re: What Mark Cuban is missing about HDTV

LayZ — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 00:07:44 -0000

So your PC is NOT CONNECTED DIRECTLY to your HDTV. You've proven Cuban's point! He didn't say you couldn't do it via routing it through an XBOX 360, did he? He's also referring to the majority of the population that likely have a PC that's anywhere from 2-5 years old, not geeks, or pseudo-geeks. Did you even read ALL his post, or just the headline?

Re: What Mark Cuban is missing about HDTV

Michael Bailey — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 00:00:56 -0000

Well great - it's good to see that my fanless mini-itx machine is going to be the perfect set-top box to put in all of your living rooms - the only noise is a typical DVD sound when playing movies, but heck you can always import the movie to the harddrive and hear nothing.

Re: What Mark Cuban is missing about HDTV

Robert Scoble — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 23:43:18 -0000

Warren: yeah, yeah, yeah. Nintendo is more profitable THIS YEAR and probably next. But it was so dominant for so long in this game that it is just cruising off of old success (everyone I talk to who bought a Wii is buying it for their young children who like to play simple games -- these are not folks who are looking to play Gears of War).

Now, you wanna bet how good that strategy will be five years from now when a good chunk of the market has moved to HDTV? I think it'll smell like the London sewer system, that's what.

Sony and Microsoft are losing money for a reason: they know the real prize will come in 2010.