Hulu? No hulu.

The first reports of Hulu looked promising, but unfortunately it is US only. Guess I'll cancel my request to enter the beta program.

Sound problem in Vista MC

A short recap of a problem I posted at The Green Button.

My sound stopped working over HDMI today in Vista MC. It has been working for several months previously without problems. Today the problems started, and I haven't even installed or updated any new software. I'll try to explain the details (I've rebooted, checked cables and all the simple stuff):

- Sound over SPDIF (optical) works
- Sound over HDMI does not work with Vista codecs in VMC (e.g. playing DVD or live TV). It does work with ffdshow audio, e.g. playing a Divx file - even within VMC. This makes me think the problem is not hardware related.
- Sound does not work with ffdshow audio through zoom player, but it does work using Media Player Classic (as well as VMC). This is extra weird since the codecs in use are the same.

If I exit VMC, open audio properties and play some windows sounds the sound is spotty, i.e. it comes and goes. If I configure the HDMI sound device the test sounds play perfectly.

The next day I figured new drivers could never hurt, but had problems finding them. It turns out that Intel High Defnition Audio HDMI is bundled with the driver for the G965 graphics. I found a new version over at Intel, dowloaded, installed, rebooted and the sound is back to normal.

What still has me stumped is that I had made no modifications at all to the system to make the problem appear. But I'm happy it seems to be solved now.

Got a new TV for the bedroom - pondering DVD solution

Now that the analog broadcasts have been shut down I figured I might as well get a new TV for the bedroom. I wanted a 20-23 inch widescreen TV with a built in DVB-T tuner and HDMI and there weren't that many options available. I ended up getting the Philips 23PFL5522D (clever name there, Philips!) which I'm pretty pleased with so far.

The TV sits up on a shelf and we view it from below which means I have to crank up the brightness quite high to get a good picture. When I stand up and look at it straight the image is far to bright, but it looks good from the bed.

With the TV in place I now need to find a media solution for this one as well. I'm currently thinking about:

• Xbox 360 Arcade as a media extender to my HTPC. As an added bonus I also get a gaming console. The Xbox also has a built-in DVD player. It might be a tad on the noisy side though.
  
• Sansa TakeTV (not available in Sweden yet AFAIK). Nice small form factor, but I need to rip movies before I can watch them. Rather inconvenient.
  
• Small DVD-player (there's not enough room for a full size DVD player). Not sure what's available, I might need to do some research here. This might double as a DVD player for the car. I would like one with HDMI, and I haven't seen this yet.
• Other options? AppleTV or a Mac Mini perhaps? Wait and see?

Mozilla Prism

I was thinking about trying out Webrunner a couple of days ago, but know that Mozilla Labs (which I didn't even know existed) have released Prism I went for that. Prism allows you to run webapps as local desktop applications instead of within the browser.

I'm not yet convinced of the benefits this but will try it out with Google Reader for a while and see if I like it or not.

Meh. The 0.8 setup file was corrupt, downloading it again with Free Download Manager (recommended software together with the FlashGot add-on for Firefox) did not help. Guess I'll wait a while to try this out.

DVB-T bug in Samsung Q97/Q96 plasma TV

After I got my HTPC I noticed that the built-in DVB-T reciever in my Samsung Q97 started to behave erratically (Q96 is an identical model with slightly different looks and should behave the same). Often the TV displayed "No Signal", although the analogue channels were working fine and the DVB-T receiver in my HTPC was showing digital channels perfectly.

Sometimes I could get the digital receiver to work after switching the TV off and then back on again, but after a while that didn't help either. So I had to start thinking. What had changed in my setup? I had added an HTPC connected over HDMI. After some testing I came to this conclusion:

If there is a signal on HDMI when you start the TV, the digital receiver will not work. Workaround: make sure your HDMI connected device is off when you turn on the TV.

I haven't seen this problem described anywhere else, but I'd be surprised if my TV was the only one behaving like this. Its a minor annoyance, but not a big enough problem to bother with the hassle of returning the set.

Some good TV shows

Previously today I was thinking about writing some TV recommendations and when I read Johannes's request for pointers I figured I'd get started. What good is a HTPC and TV with no content to watch? The following are some of my personal favorites, both old and new:

• The West Wing, Season 1-4. Aaron Sorkin stopped writing the show after season 4 and it was still very good, but no longer the best show ever. TWW is a show looking behind the scenes of the precidency of the United States.
  
• Sports Night, Sorkin's first TV series is another look behind the scenes, this time at a sports show on TV. It might have been Felicity Huffman's and Peter Krause's breakthroughs - at least that's where I first noticed them.
  
• Studio 60, Sorkin's latest TV show. If you're starting to see a pattern you can stop worrying, since Sorkin hasn't written anymore for TV yet. This is yet another look behind the scenes of a TV show, with Matthew Perry, Bradley Whitford and Amanda Peet depicting the main characters behind a Saturday Night-like late TV show. Unfortunately the general reception of the first season hasn't been that good and it looks like the show has been cancelled.
  
• On to the next writer, Steven Moffat, and two of his shows. Coupling is a brilliant british sitcom in a Friends-like setup but with a lot more bite. It was later reshot with an american cast, but you want the original british version.
• Moffat's latest show is the drama series Jekyll. Only six episodes of the first season, and its unclear whether or not there will be more. James Nesbitt delivers an impressive performance in the role as Dr. Tom Jackman/Mr. Hyde.
• Finally some quick tips on other shows I've enjoyed, but with no further motivation as this post is getting a tad long already: Gilmore Girls, Scrubs, Heroes, Grey's Anatomy, How I Met Your Mother, The Class (unfortunately cancelled after one season), Two and a Half Men, Californication, Boston Legal, Sopranos, Six Feet Under, and Entourage.
  

Some of the shows I started following but did not get that hooked on include Rome, The Riches (although I usually like Izzard's stand-up), and Dexter (only I only watched one or two episodes which weren't that bad - I might actually give this show another shot later).

So, do you have any tips of your own? Leave a comment.

Got my iPod touch - first impressions

As I mentioned a while back I was looking at getting the 16G iPod Touch. I went by the local Apple reseller this Wednesday and they had three in stock (they got their first shipment earlier that day with 10 units). I looked at it for 30 seconds and decided to buy it after having checked the manufacturing week. There were reports about units made in week 36 and 37 had quality problems, both with the screen and a hissing background noise with good quality earphones such as my Shures. This one was a week 38. And now its mine.

So, what do I think after a couple of hours use?

Positives

• The design and build quality is excellent
• The screen is really good
  
• The audio quality is great
• The user experience is the best I've ever had with a device
  

Negatives

• The software is buggy, especially when you use the Safari browser. Playing music and surfing the web simultaneously often ends up with the music stopping. Intermittent browser crashes are common
• Photos are always rescaled to a lower resolution before syncing to the iPod. I haven't found an option to store photos in a higher/native resolution
  
• I have two stuck pixels on my screen (i.e. they are always lit). Not a huge problem since the pixels are so small, but still.
• It probably doesn't work with my current iPod car integration. Not a biggie, since I'll probably be using the old 4th generation iPod for the car (and only for the car).
  

All in all I must say the initial impression is very favourable, the iPod Touch is probably one (if not the) best device I've ever had. Its definately the best iPod I own (I also have a 1st generation 512MB Shuffle, a 2nd generation 4GB Nano, and a 4th generation 40G iPod).

Stay tuned for tips on smart playlists and a couple of good web services for the touch.