Archive for March, 2009
EchoStar Unveils World’s First SlingLoaded HD DVR for Cable
Well, the National Cable and Telecommunications Show is starting tomorrow April 1-3 in Washington, D.C. and already Echo – Sling is making some MoCA noise with their new HD-DVR with built in Slingbox capability. The SlingLoaded T2200S comes with the following features:
– Supports MPEG-2, H.264 (MPEG-4) and VC1.
– 1GHz tuners to support expanded network bandwidth.
– Connect to the home network via Ethernet, WiFi (with optional WiFi
adapter) or Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA).
– Picture-in-Picture
– Supports advanced resolution formats up to 1080p24.
– Individual branding opportunities for MSOs.
– Supports Macrovision and DCS analog copy protection.
– Features an attractive, capacitive-touch, backlit front panel with
clock display.
Right now, the new set-top box is only available to cable providers but since it’s also Tru2Way-enabled, you might see some of the technology leak out into a retail product at some point.
Read the press release here.
Twitter (and maybe Netflix) On Your TV
More news about Samsung’s new widget enabled HDTVs that are coming out later this year with an additional twist.
Coming this summer: Two “premium” video on demand apps, which we think could be Netflix (NFLX) and either Amazon (AMZN) or Blockbuster (BBI). Samsung tells us its media player is capable of handling many popular video codecs and HD video.
This is certainly to be expected especially since the new Samsung Bluray DVD players have models with Netflix already a feature. That the TVs will be able to stream HD from the net over a MoCA link or some other home networking medium seems a logical extension.
Widgets, Connected TVs and MoCA
The Wall Street Journal did a review on the first Samsung HDTV to run the Yahoo Widget engine, one of the exciting new features for Ethernet connected TVs that will come out later this year. Widgets are mini-applications that you can run on your TV, much the same as your Electronic Program Guide, except you will eventually be able to choose the different applications you want to see:
The Yahoo Widget Engine comes preloaded on TVs with four basic widgets to start: Flickr (Yahoo’s photo service), Yahoo News, Weather and Finance. When prompted, these widgets appear in a horizontal dock along the bottom edge of the TV screen, along with Widget Gallery and Profile. (If you just want to watch TV, you can hide the widget dock easily.) Yahoo expects to offer 20 to 30 widgets within two months, and estimates that it will offer around 100 by the end of the year.
The article goes on to say that by the end of the year, Samsung will have 17 models with what they call Internet@TV:
The Samsung LED TV 7000 connects to the Web via a wired connection or by using a wireless USB device, which Samsung sells for $80. Currently, Samsung offers four models with built-in Web access, which it calls Internet@TV. By June, the company plans to offer a total of 17 models with Internet@TV. All TVs with the Widget Engine will have remote-control shortcut buttons to pull up widgets.
With all the Ethernet connected devices coming out in your living room, it’s going to be a lot more cost effective to buy one set of MoCA adapters rather than the $80 dongle for each of your gadgets. Let’s count them up HDTV + Bluray + Xbox + Sling + TiVo + ??? = A lot of wireless interference. Plus, at some time in the future these widgets will be streaming video which is when you’ll really need the speed and reliability of a wired connection.
MoCA Now at Fry’s!
MoCA at Fry's San Jose (Brokaw)
Just spotted at the Fry’s Electronics in San Jose, CA off Brokaw Road. Netgear MCAB1001 Coax-to-Ethernet adapters going for $199! It’s positioned solidly with the other 11N and Powerline bridges and looks good as part of the entire networking lineup. Fry’s had 8 units for sale and I need to check some of the other locations to see if they have the same. Come get ‘em while they’re hot!
First MoCA Bridge Review – Thumbs Up!
SmallNetBuilder.com just did the first review on the MoCA Ethernet-to-Coax bridge from Netgear (MCAB1001) and gave it a glowing thumbs up. They hooked up a pair of MoCA bridges and ran them through some difficult HD video tests in both the lab and in a home scenario and came up with this summary:
Simply put, MoCA is the only “alternative networking” technology that I have laid hands on that can reliably stream HD video—even 1080p. Of course, my limited test enviroment in no way presented a difficult test environment. But then again, my wireless environment is clean and so is my powerline. And neither of those technologies have been able to do what the NETGEAR MCA1001s did.
Wow, that’s a nice start to what will probably be a number of reviews that will be written on the new batch of MoCA products coming out. With all the new HD video streaming stuff that was shown at CES, it will be interesting to see how well the new HDTVs, Bluray Players, Tivos and Slingboxes work on a MoCA home network.
ConnectMyStuff.org
The folks at MoCA have a new website called Connect My Stuff ! and says it’s dedicated to conversations about in-home digital entertainment. It has some videos from CES as well as a couple of promotional videos about coax networking and how it works. They also just added a blog called Truth in Networking which explains what the different speed ratings you see on home networking products REALLY mean (exerpt).
The PHY rate is essentially the physical layer and represents a theoretical performance rate of data transfer. The MAC rate, media access control, is essentially the rate of transfer that is most common. The PHY and MAC rates are rarely if ever the same. But the former is higher and theoretically more impressive. After all, more must be better, right?
Pretty heady stuff. I assume we’ll be seeing more info about Multimedia over Coax Alliance fairly soon so I’m adding it to our bookmarks.
It’s Coming!
It’s coming. How do I know? Because CES said it would. Three, count’em, three announcements from Netgear, D-Link, and Actiontec on MoCA Ethernet-to-Coax bridges that will start showing up in stores near you. These black boxes perform a simple function: coax in and ethernet out. Connect one to the LAN port of your router and the other to your Xbox or Bluray player’s LAN port to start enjoying 175Mbps usable bandwidth.
D-Link DXN-221
Netgear MCAB1001
