1. Money. Starting at $499 and up to $830, the iPad is not cheap and the price doesn’t include a $30/month internet service. Getting people to pay for extra internet service with the iPhone was hard enough, but Apple and ATT&T was smart enough to bundle phone service and internet service into one package. The iPad does not have that luxury. Is Apple really expecting millions of people to pay for a $30/month home broadband service, a $20/ month mobile phone internet service, and now an additional $30/month iPad internet service.

2. No background apps. With a tablet like device, people are going to expect to be able to listen to Pandora, check email, and surf the web at the same time. They will be greatly disappointed with the iPad as it can only run one program at once.

3. Typing on the touch screen sucks. We thought the iPad would innovate here, but its keyboard interface is nothing but a bigger version of the iPhone’s keypad.

4. No front side camera, USB ports, memory card slot, or HDMI output. These are basics on the smart phones and net books, so why are they missing from the iPad? The same backlash the HTC xxx got with the 2.5mm headphone size is about to hit Apple. Apple wants its customers to pay for a $30 adaptor so they can plug in an external hard drive. Talk about milking your customers.

5. AT&T. The bogged down network is about get sloooweeeeer.

What could the Ultimate Connection Diagram be without a smart coffee table? Yes, the ultimate connection diagram now has a networked coffee table along with other updates such as iPhones, media extenders, and a Wii. Most notably, we added home automation devices such as light switches, security sensors, wireless cameras, automated blinds, networked thermostat, and a Micasaverde Vera home automation controller.

I have to ask if the connection diagram has become too big and complicated to be useful? I figure people can go to a specific room such as the master bedroom and use that as a smaller example …but let me know. Should we add smaller connection diagrams?

Hulu blocked Boxee a few months ago. Now they are blocking PS3 users and windows Mobile users. Why would Hulu block users at the same time they are showing commercial trying to get new users to try the service? The answer is a single word …money.

Hulu has become too successful and is scaring executives, especially the ones at the cable companies. The cable companies subsidize the cost of shows and don’t want to see their investments go for free on the web. People (a small amount) are starting to drop their cable service and purely use the internet to watch video. The result is pressure on Hulu to reduce the quality of their service with shows staying for shorter periods of time. Additionally, they are blocking support for devices like Boxee and PS3.

I don’t believe it’s the Hulu team who wants to block access. They are just feeling the pressure from executives at top. The executives aren’t smart enough to realize it doesn’t matter if people watch their ads on cable or on the internet. It’s all revenue and the revenue is going to disappear if they keep blocking access and disappointing users.

We’re glad to say our brand new home theater network forum is up at HTNforum.com. We tried the “blog post and comments” approach for asking questions and discussing topics at YourHTN.com, but I think the forum approach will make things easier. YourHTN will still be available to members so they can post their HTNs and HTN related news stories. HTNforum will now be part of YourHTN and where members can talk about HTN hardware, setup, and connection details.

Please let us know what you think about HTNforum and how we can improve it. Thanks and enjoy!

If your HD DVDs are gathering dust in the corner as your Blu-ray collection grows, you now have an option to switch out the HD DVDs for Blu-ray. Although its limited to Warner Brother HD DVDs only, you can switch out HD DVD movies such as Planet Earth, Matrix, Balde Runner, Harry Potter for equal Blu-ray versions. The cost is $6.99 for shipping and $5 per HD DVD. Not bad if you ask me. It might be even worth hunting down some bargain priced HD DVDs for $3 - $4 and paying the $5 to switch them to Blu-ray.

The details are at this Red2Blu link.

I recently became a fan of Hulu when my DVR forgot to record the season premier of 24. Normally there would be a few curse words thrown at the DVR, but I didn’t fret. I knew Hulu had my back. I turned on my HTPC and went to Hulu.com and started watching the first couple episodes of 24.

The quality of Hulu was real good. The streaming version looked like a normal standard def channel on my 42″ HDTV. I didn’t get any glitches either.

While I was on Hulu.com, I noticed all the movies they offer. Not any A-rated movies, but still some B or C rated movies. Requiem for a dream, Jumanji, Liar Liar, Picture Perfect, Karate Kid, Totally Baked… here is the link to the movies.

Pretty smart of Hulu if you ask me. Why not show these movies and make some advertising money off of them.

The more I think about it, the more I realize Netflix has taken over the red side (HD DVD) in the format war with Blu-ray. For example, take my queue pictured below:

Really? Don’t mess with Zohan, which was released over four months ago is just shipping. I just got the new Incredible Hulk after waiting about 4 months too. I regularly have 20 movies in the “short wait” to “very long wait” column. Not only does Netflix charge me extra for getting Blu-ray, they make me wait 4 months to get a Blu-ray movie.

The fact that Netflix charges more and won’t buy enough Blu-ray movies makes me think Netflix is conspiring against Blu-ray. It makes sense if you think about it. Netflix is paying extra for each Blu-ray disc so their business costs have gone up. Netflix is also pushing their streaming service which they spent a large amount of money setting up.

In the end, why would Netflix want Blu-ray to succeed?

Similar Posts:
The New Blue vs Red Format War and Five Reasons Why Blu-ray Will Survive
Blu-ray information

With Netflix recently launching HD streaming through Xbox and other media boxes; the question keeps being asked whether HD streaming will kill Blu-ray. Obstacles exist, but the clear answer is Blu-ray will do just fine.

What’s hurting Blu-ray right now is the high prices for players and the ridiculous prices for movies. Only videophiles will be spending over $300 for a Blu-ray player and over $30 for a Blu-ray movie. The video/audio benefits from Blu-ray don’t warrant the extra expense when compared to a sub $100 upscaling DVD player and a $15 DVD movie.

However, eventually prices for Blu-ray players and movies will drop to DVD levels. It’s all a matter of time. Blu-ray is already feeling the pressure of a doomed format and consequentially $150 Blu-ray players are appearing on store shelves. It could be a year or three years, but eventually prices of Blu-ray and DVDs will match and people will start picking up Blu-rays instead of DVDs.

The reduced prices of HDTVs has caused more and more people to want HD content. HD streaming can and will help fulfill this desire, but not to the point where it will overtake a physical medium. There are five main reasons why:

1. Look at the history of CD sales vs. downloads. The iPod has been around since 2001. Yet, CDs still out sell digital downloads by a margin of 3 to 1. People simply like having a physical disc.
2. Music doesn’t take much bandwidth to download, but a HD video does. The internet backbone and the broadband networks aren’t capable of the bandwidth requirements HD video requires. It will be at least five years before the internet backbone can handle mass HD streaming and it brings up the net neutrality question of who will pay for the upgrades.
3. Speaking of bandwidth, the 1 MB/s HD streaming video doesn’t compare to the 40 MB/s Blu-ray delivers. The differences between the highly compressed video and Blu-ray are easily noticed on larger HDTVs.
4. As much as we at HomeTheaterNetwork.com love Home Theater Networks, the fact is most people don’t have a network connection available in their home theater room. The new wireless 802.11n standard can handle the bandwidth of HD streaming, but that means everyone will have to upgrade. Also, how may wireless interruptions during a movie are people (especially the wives) willing to take?
5. All the movie studios are behind Blu-ray and want it to succeed. HD streaming has a larger pirating risk so movie studios will be pushing Blu-ray if they start to see it failing.

The lower quality SD streaming video could be a strong competitor to Blu-ray, but all the issues raised above sill pertain to SD streaming video. Blu-ray survived the HD DVD format war. It will survive the streaming war too.

Blu-ray Information
CNET’s reasons why Blu-ray will succeed
Crunchgear’s counter to CNET’s article