Its only a matter of time....
Click here for the official link
Say farewell to the free Wall Street Journal on the iPhone.
According to Paid Content, News Corp's Rupert Murdoch announced that readers of the WSJ on the Blackberry and iPhone will be charged $2 per week for the privilege of reading news through the respective apps. Online and print subscribers of the WSJ will only pay $1 a week. No time limit has been set yet, but Murdoch says it will be within the next few months.
There's bad news for Hulu lovers as well. Murdoch also said News Corp is considering either a pay-per-view or subscription model for Hulu. "No final decision has been made," Murdoch said via Webcast at an investor conference today. The WSJ itself reports that subscription offerings will roll out for media content before the end of the year, though it was made in a different context from the Hulu statement.
Tuesday, 15 September 2009
Friday, 11 September 2009
New TV Season upon us - Torrents Revisited
With the new Fall TV season just getting started, I thought it a good time to review and update my downloading system. If you've been following for a while, or been reading the older posts, you know I originally was using Vuze as my torrent client and TVRss.net as the subscription center for the feeds into Vuze. Well, TVRss.net went down earlier this year, and has not yet come back up. That led me to look into other options like TED (Torrent Episode Downloader) and moving over to Transmission as a client (smaller footprint in the system and less resource use the Vuze).
After using it for a couple of months over the summer, and really now much more with new shows popping up, I'm just not happy with TED. For example, last night I opened it up to see what was new and Top Chef had apparently started weeks ago, so there were 4 episodes ready for download. Of the 4 episodes, TED downloaded one, and reported torrent problems with the other 3. Not good.
All this led me back to looking for feeds. I decided to go back and really look at ShowRSS, which is an alternative to TVRss.net - which also offer RSS feeds to most popular shows. That also led me back to using Vuze, because Transmission doesn't natively offer RSS subscriptions (apparently there are work arounds, but it seemed like too much of a hassle), and Vuze had been working fine for me.
I have to say, I LOVE ShowRSS.net. I popped in Top Chef, it brought up all the episodes, and Vuze downloaded all 4 in about an hour and a half. Then I really started looking into it. Here's the thing to do, which you're gonna love.
1. Make a free account with ShowRSS.
2. Select all the shows you want to download from the drop down.
3. Under "FEEDS", leave the options as set to default - this will download the highest quality available (so if there is a 720 version and a SD version, you'll get the 720 - unless you just want to select one specific version)
4. Click "Get my Feed address"
You now have one RSS address for ALL your shows! Just go into Vuze, click the "+" sign next to Subscriptions and paste in the RSS feed you copied and Vuze will populate ALL the shows. Don't forget to check the "auto download" in the top right corner of Vuze.
I think this is so nice. You can then go back to ShowRSS and add or remove shows and not have to update Vuze.
In Vuze, under preferences, set it up so your torrents files go one place (like the downloads folder, for ex.) but all your actual avi files end up in your public shared folder, or wherever you have set up for Plex to find them. This will keep things nice and neat.
I hope this works out well for everyone, and if you have thoughts or suggestions, please post in the comments section.
UPDATE 9/13/09: Several comments have pointed out another really good quality app which you should also check out. Automatic looks like a great, low resource app which can use transmission and get shows. I think between the ShowRSS site/Vuze combo or the Automatic / Transmission combo, getting your shows this season should be a piece of cake.
(Screen shots are current shots as of today, so you can see real time results).
After using it for a couple of months over the summer, and really now much more with new shows popping up, I'm just not happy with TED. For example, last night I opened it up to see what was new and Top Chef had apparently started weeks ago, so there were 4 episodes ready for download. Of the 4 episodes, TED downloaded one, and reported torrent problems with the other 3. Not good.
All this led me back to looking for feeds. I decided to go back and really look at ShowRSS, which is an alternative to TVRss.net - which also offer RSS feeds to most popular shows. That also led me back to using Vuze, because Transmission doesn't natively offer RSS subscriptions (apparently there are work arounds, but it seemed like too much of a hassle), and Vuze had been working fine for me.
I have to say, I LOVE ShowRSS.net. I popped in Top Chef, it brought up all the episodes, and Vuze downloaded all 4 in about an hour and a half. Then I really started looking into it. Here's the thing to do, which you're gonna love.
1. Make a free account with ShowRSS.
2. Select all the shows you want to download from the drop down.
3. Under "FEEDS", leave the options as set to default - this will download the highest quality available (so if there is a 720 version and a SD version, you'll get the 720 - unless you just want to select one specific version)
4. Click "Get my Feed address"
You now have one RSS address for ALL your shows! Just go into Vuze, click the "+" sign next to Subscriptions and paste in the RSS feed you copied and Vuze will populate ALL the shows. Don't forget to check the "auto download" in the top right corner of Vuze.
I think this is so nice. You can then go back to ShowRSS and add or remove shows and not have to update Vuze.
In Vuze, under preferences, set it up so your torrents files go one place (like the downloads folder, for ex.) but all your actual avi files end up in your public shared folder, or wherever you have set up for Plex to find them. This will keep things nice and neat.
I hope this works out well for everyone, and if you have thoughts or suggestions, please post in the comments section.
UPDATE 9/13/09: Several comments have pointed out another really good quality app which you should also check out. Automatic looks like a great, low resource app which can use transmission and get shows. I think between the ShowRSS site/Vuze combo or the Automatic / Transmission combo, getting your shows this season should be a piece of cake.
(Screen shots are current shots as of today, so you can see real time results).
Thursday, 10 September 2009
Offical Update on Plex & Snow Leopard
Here it is, straight from the Plex Developers...
Plex on Snow Leopard: Issues and Workarounds
Snow Leopard is out, and we just wanted to take a minute and update you all on how Plex runs on this great new OS. Thanks to reports from our users as well as our own testing, we’ve found that Plex seems to have four serious issues on Snow Leopard:
- Apple Remote issue: Plex is not able to gain exclusive access to the device, which causes the system to see the button presses as well. Our friend Evan looked into this and reported it to Apple as an apparent bug. Apple replied “…this is a known issue, which is currently being investigated by engineering.” One of our clever users (FortyRock) came up with a workaround, which we recommend only if you’re comfortable editing system files. It should be noted that this apparent bug affected lots of other software, such as VLC, EyeTV, Hulu Desktop, etc.
- GMA X3100 issue: There are apparently corruption/color issues on systems with this chipset (more details here). There is no known fix or workaround for this issue as of yet.
- Digital audio (AC3/DTS) issue: There is an apparent issue with Core Audio that prevents digital audio from playing more than once successfully. We’re investigating the problem, and there is a workaround by user dannyv45 that has helped some people out.
- SMB connection issue: Plex appears to have problems connecting to a Snow Leopard SMB server. We’re investigating the issue.
So the bottom line is that if you have a system that you’re using exclusively for Plex, you’re probably better off staying with Leopard, as the new OS doesn’t bring anything in the way of advantages for Plex, and it brings a good handful of serious issues.
The one question we keep getting asked is “When will a Snow Leopard compatible Plex be released?”. Unfortunately – especially given the nature of some of the issues – it’s hard to predict. In the meantime, work continues on Plex/Nine and the next maintenance release of Plex/Eight…
Thursday, 3 September 2009
Backing up data
Hemmel posted a question/comment about what I'm doing for backup, and I figure it is a good time to address that.
I am a photographer by profession and I have a lot of data which I can't afford to lose.
Currently my main machine is an Intel based Mac Pro with 4 internal drives, each of them at 1TB. One of them is strictly the OS with apps and general / personal documents, personal pics, iTunes library,etc.. AND the TV shows for PLEX. Two of them are photography drives , holding only RAW files / JPGs and related client files and the 4th one is for the movies for PLEX.
Backup - I have a 1 TB external drive which I use for Time Machine to backup the OS drive.
I have a 5 bay eSata box which I use SuperDuper to backup all four of the main drives with SuperDuper. I am in the process of changing this, though. For 2 reasons. The first is that this unit is REALLY loud. Its like having a turbine engine running in your room. It is definitely something which I only turn on to back up, and otherwise it is off. This is an issue because I've noticed I lose track of doing backups and I've gone weeks without backing up, which is not good. Second reason I am changing is because I've run into several issues where the drives do not mount even though the unit is on. Actually now, I can't get them to mount at all.
Rather that continuing to mess with it, I jsut gave up and decided to go with the Drobo unit. The version 2 has firewire 800 (finally), is supposed to be nice and relatively quiet (based on reviews and youtube vids) and seems like a good all around choice with overall positive reviews.
The only thing I was hesitant about was the whole RAID thing which means that 4TB worth of drives = 2.x TB worth of drives. Before it was one to one which was nice, but really, my OS drive, even though it is 1TB, is far from full, and so on, so calculations from the Drobo calculator and adding up the current data I have revealed that the current 4TB worth of drives I have for backup will do just fine in the Drobo.
I'll be using SuperDuper to automate the backup process to the Drobo, and intent for it to stay on/go to standby so it can always be backed up.
At the end of the day, the Drobo is not cheap - $350, and neither is filling up a bunch of drives. For me, I end of having my business fund all this and write it off. But really, unless you're running lots of drives, and just have a primary drive on your main computer, or even just on the mini, let's say 1TB, you can get one external drive and use super duper, or time machine, and probably be good to go.
I know I recently had my main OS drive crash. Having come from a windows world, I was so anxious, thinking oh great, my machine is down, work is at a standstill, Time Machine won't work, etc... But that wasn't the case.
I went to Best Buy, picked up a new drive for $100. Pulled out the old one, slid in the new one, put the OS disc in, formatted the drive, then it came up that it sees Time Machine has a copy and would I like to restore. Click Yes. 3 hours later, I came back and the machine looked just like it did the night before. I didn't lose any data, and literally only required me buying a new drive, installing it, putting a disc in, and clicking "yes". This is a far cry from the pain of a friend I have who is currently going through a BSOD on a windows machine. Its been 6 days and he is still down, trying to work it out between himself and a local repair company.
If you have a good backup workflow, please post so others can see as well. Thanks!
I am a photographer by profession and I have a lot of data which I can't afford to lose.
Currently my main machine is an Intel based Mac Pro with 4 internal drives, each of them at 1TB. One of them is strictly the OS with apps and general / personal documents, personal pics, iTunes library,etc.. AND the TV shows for PLEX. Two of them are photography drives , holding only RAW files / JPGs and related client files and the 4th one is for the movies for PLEX.
Backup - I have a 1 TB external drive which I use for Time Machine to backup the OS drive.
I have a 5 bay eSata box which I use SuperDuper to backup all four of the main drives with SuperDuper. I am in the process of changing this, though. For 2 reasons. The first is that this unit is REALLY loud. Its like having a turbine engine running in your room. It is definitely something which I only turn on to back up, and otherwise it is off. This is an issue because I've noticed I lose track of doing backups and I've gone weeks without backing up, which is not good. Second reason I am changing is because I've run into several issues where the drives do not mount even though the unit is on. Actually now, I can't get them to mount at all.
Rather that continuing to mess with it, I jsut gave up and decided to go with the Drobo unit. The version 2 has firewire 800 (finally), is supposed to be nice and relatively quiet (based on reviews and youtube vids) and seems like a good all around choice with overall positive reviews.
The only thing I was hesitant about was the whole RAID thing which means that 4TB worth of drives = 2.x TB worth of drives. Before it was one to one which was nice, but really, my OS drive, even though it is 1TB, is far from full, and so on, so calculations from the Drobo calculator and adding up the current data I have revealed that the current 4TB worth of drives I have for backup will do just fine in the Drobo.
I'll be using SuperDuper to automate the backup process to the Drobo, and intent for it to stay on/go to standby so it can always be backed up.
At the end of the day, the Drobo is not cheap - $350, and neither is filling up a bunch of drives. For me, I end of having my business fund all this and write it off. But really, unless you're running lots of drives, and just have a primary drive on your main computer, or even just on the mini, let's say 1TB, you can get one external drive and use super duper, or time machine, and probably be good to go.
I know I recently had my main OS drive crash. Having come from a windows world, I was so anxious, thinking oh great, my machine is down, work is at a standstill, Time Machine won't work, etc... But that wasn't the case.
I went to Best Buy, picked up a new drive for $100. Pulled out the old one, slid in the new one, put the OS disc in, formatted the drive, then it came up that it sees Time Machine has a copy and would I like to restore. Click Yes. 3 hours later, I came back and the machine looked just like it did the night before. I didn't lose any data, and literally only required me buying a new drive, installing it, putting a disc in, and clicking "yes". This is a far cry from the pain of a friend I have who is currently going through a BSOD on a windows machine. Its been 6 days and he is still down, trying to work it out between himself and a local repair company.
If you have a good backup workflow, please post so others can see as well. Thanks!
Monday, 31 August 2009
Mac Mini Firmware update
Apple has released the Mac mini EFI Firmware Update 1.2 via their Software Update utility and on the Web. According to the company, this update improves compatibility with the latest Apple memory kits on Mac mini computers. To complete the firmware update process, users should follow the instructions in the updater application (/Applications/Utilities/Mac mini EFI Firmware Update.app). The updater will launch automatically when the installation is complete. The Mac mini EFI Firmware Update 1.2 weighs in at 2.4MB and requires Mac OS X 10.5.7 or later.Apple also released the SuperDrive Firmware Update 3.0. This update should eliminate the noise made by the optical disk drive during system startup and wake from sleep on your Mac. It works with both the iMac EFI Firmware 1.4 and Mac mini EFI Firmware 1.2 updates. The SuperDrive Firmware Update 3.0 weighs in at 18.3MB and requires Mac OS X 10.5.7 or later.
Friday, 28 August 2009
The Snow Leopard Post
Well, I'm posting early. FedEx delivered as promised and so I went ahead with the upgrade. I did both the Mac Pro Desktop and the Mini. The upgrade was easy and flawless as promised. I didn't do anything special other than run the software update before the upgrade. The mini needed something and the Pro was good. The mini took 1 hour and 2 minutes to upgrade from disc insert to the welcome movie and the Pro was a little shorter it seemed. The Pro did find and app which required installing the Rosetta code, the mini didn't need it.
I haven't really played around with anything too much yet, but I can report that Plex works just as it did before. I am playing both avi for the TV and Video TS folders for the DVD rips with no problems. Hulu and Netflix as apps both work as does CNN. I didn't check the others, but there is no reason they shouldn't.
The one thing I have noticed, is that the movies load a lot faster. Again, this is the Video TS folders streamed wirelessly through an Apple Airport N router, just as before. With Leopard, it would take about 25 - 30 seconds for the movie to start playing (the main menu screen on the DVD) after clicking the movie. I tested on 3 different movies so far, and they're starting in about 5-10 seconds from clicking the movie. It is a much noticeable difference in load speed for the Video TS folder.
Other than that, I don't have much more to report. I thought I'd get this up so those of you wondering would know. I'll add to this post later in the weekend as I have time to play around with it more.
Friday night UPDATE: Looks like there is an issue with the Plex, Harmony and iTunes. Harmony remote does cause iTunes to start and then the movements of the Harmony causes iTunes to go forward or back with tracks, and plays them. I'll be looking into this and posting back when I have found a solution. Also, check plexapp.com forum, as I"m sure they'll be talking about it too.
Friday Night Update 2: This is from the PlexApp forum. Apparently the team is aware of the bug and I assume will be working it out.
The remote signals that are sent to the Mac are picked up by Front Row and iTunes. This will cause them to interfere with each other. Every time you press the Menu button to return to top level in Plex, Front Row starts. Every time you move up or down through the Plex menu's, the system volume changes. When you press Play, iTunes starts..
Not really workable! You're fine as long as you use the keyboard only.
From what I've red and experienced, this is the only bug still left to kill.
Friday Night Update 3: Some peolpe might find the new "Wake from Sleep" useful for their setups. I haven't played with it, but you can read about it by clicking here.
Saturday Update: The Plex Forum has made a new section solely for Snow Leopard. You can find it by clicking this link
MONDAY UPDATE: A super long work day on Saturday left Sunday as recovery and no time on the mini. But looking at this latest post, I can't wait to get back to the house to test this. Looks like there is a new 720/1080i & p settings feature in the display settings! Could we now have a proper output for HD TVs? I'll report back here once I test out, or leave your results in the comments section. Click here for more information on the setting.
I haven't really played around with anything too much yet, but I can report that Plex works just as it did before. I am playing both avi for the TV and Video TS folders for the DVD rips with no problems. Hulu and Netflix as apps both work as does CNN. I didn't check the others, but there is no reason they shouldn't.
The one thing I have noticed, is that the movies load a lot faster. Again, this is the Video TS folders streamed wirelessly through an Apple Airport N router, just as before. With Leopard, it would take about 25 - 30 seconds for the movie to start playing (the main menu screen on the DVD) after clicking the movie. I tested on 3 different movies so far, and they're starting in about 5-10 seconds from clicking the movie. It is a much noticeable difference in load speed for the Video TS folder.
Other than that, I don't have much more to report. I thought I'd get this up so those of you wondering would know. I'll add to this post later in the weekend as I have time to play around with it more.
Friday night UPDATE: Looks like there is an issue with the Plex, Harmony and iTunes. Harmony remote does cause iTunes to start and then the movements of the Harmony causes iTunes to go forward or back with tracks, and plays them. I'll be looking into this and posting back when I have found a solution. Also, check plexapp.com forum, as I"m sure they'll be talking about it too.
Friday Night Update 2: This is from the PlexApp forum. Apparently the team is aware of the bug and I assume will be working it out.
The remote signals that are sent to the Mac are picked up by Front Row and iTunes. This will cause them to interfere with each other. Every time you press the Menu button to return to top level in Plex, Front Row starts. Every time you move up or down through the Plex menu's, the system volume changes. When you press Play, iTunes starts..
Not really workable! You're fine as long as you use the keyboard only.
From what I've red and experienced, this is the only bug still left to kill.
Friday Night Update 3: Some peolpe might find the new "Wake from Sleep" useful for their setups. I haven't played with it, but you can read about it by clicking here.
Saturday Update: The Plex Forum has made a new section solely for Snow Leopard. You can find it by clicking this link
MONDAY UPDATE: A super long work day on Saturday left Sunday as recovery and no time on the mini. But looking at this latest post, I can't wait to get back to the house to test this. Looks like there is a new 720/1080i & p settings feature in the display settings! Could we now have a proper output for HD TVs? I'll report back here once I test out, or leave your results in the comments section. Click here for more information on the setting.
Thursday, 27 August 2009
Time Warner testing Internet TV
From my local Business Journal Magazine here in N.C. - click here for official link.
Also SlashGear Offers more Insight Here
Also SlashGear Offers more Insight Here
**EDIT: I've replaced the below text with the SlashGear article - its more interesting :)
Looks like good things come in pairs. Today, both Verizon and Time Warner announced that they are going to start issuing trials of Internet TV for subscribers. It’s part of the TV Everywhere initiative, and allows users to watch television shows on the web regardless of whether or not they’re at home. For Time Warner, you must have an existing cable TV service, and FiOS TV for the Big Red. Many of the shows on the provided networks will go online around their original air date, and actually shows that rarely reach sites or online retailers like Hulu or the iTunes Store respectively.
It’s looking like Verizon is planning a quieter approach to their trial, and not surprisingly, are only going to offer two Time Warner-owned channels: TNT and TBS. It’s Time Warner that’s taking the boom-stick approach, and plans on offering their own channels, as well as HBO, IFC, SyFy, and several other high-profile networks. 5,000 subscribers will be included to start, but Time Warner plans on reaching several more areas in the coming months. And as deals come through, both providers will be adding more channels regularly.
This TV Everywhere plan is an almost last-ditch effort from TV providers to get customers to keep their existing TV packages. A lot of people are shying away from standard television now a days, considering you get the same shows via the internet without much hassle anymore. Both Verizon and Time Warner are hoping that by providing Internet TV with their current plans, it will get people to keep their plans and not drop them. Time Warner has been under some heavy opposition for putting on low bandwidth caps in trials, to either discourage the switch from internet-only television watching, or to make up for the lost revenues. Either way, the bigger question is will people keep paying for their television when they can get it for free, if not cheaper on the internet?
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