What a day (and a half or so....)

So, I haven't blogged in a long time.  Got a couple of posts sitting in the email, waiting to go up, PLUS things have been a shaking in the Ratskellar in terms of new and good tech stuff. But the last day or so has been very, very interesting on a couple of fronts....

1. Sprint's XOHM has gone live in Baltimore (sort of - maybe another week before I can sign up), and it certainly looks like it's going to be the Comcast killer I crave.  They have a $35 ($25 for the next six months) home option - you have to buy an $80 modem, but it is reportedly comparable to cable.  And for that price?  Gives me a chance to yell at Verizon, too, for not delivering FIOS (or even DSL for that matter).
   
2. Found out yesterday there are several iPhone apps out there that allow you to control the mouse on your computer.  I was grooving on iPhone's Remote - which allows you to control the iTunes content on your PC (well, as much as one can groove with some cranky guts).  But this would essentially give me a super remote which would allow me to a) start iTunes (or any other program), b) drag the window over to the tv, c) select the media I want to play, d) control all aspects of that media - stop, start, rewind, fast forward, volume....   all from the couch!!!  The only question is - which one?
3. Sportacular - the sports news iPhone app - had an upgrade that looks pretty snazzy.  Can add favorite teams, and hide those leagues that you don't care about - like the NBA and golf.
4. Photogene - an iPhone app that allows you to manipulate shots from the Camera roll - appears to have upgraded as well, and adds the ability to Sharpen, and put color filters on.  Pretty cool.
5. AND - though I only played with it for a few minutes - seems I missed an upgrade to the Facebook iPhone app which looks really quite cool.
6. I used my iPhone this afternoon to find my first geocache.  It was so sillily exciting, I nearly forgot all the other cool stuff that has happened.

And what were some of those other tech things to report on?

1. After my LG VX8700 external display broke, I decided to go through Asurion - the insurance company - to get a replacement.  Hilarity ensued. 
2. And then we broke down and got iPhones.  Lots of stuff to report on there.  Comparison versus N800, app store, apps, using it in the cloud....
3. I killed Comcast - mostly. 
   
4. And replaced it with a digital HD antenna.  Cool!
5. And we got a supercomputer (well, not really, but it's pretty super!) that we successfully hooked up to the tv and can handle media quite nicely.

So, a bunch of info to get up there.  But first - my take on the cloud.

Netflix Roku versus TiVo/Unbox

So Pogue wrote a little something about the new Roku Netflix box.  The ten second summary: Netflix now has a set top box that allows you to stream movies from Netflix using their streaming movie service.  No additional charge (other than the hardware cost) and you can take more than 24 hours to watch it.  Pogue admits that there are other services - expressly naming Amazon (Unbox) and TiVo - but says that each of these "is fatally flawed."  Not so the Netflix/Roku player.

 

This all sounds great, but frankly I think Pogue and everyone else is making a mountain out of molehill and not crediting Amazon/TiVo the props they deserve.

 

The fatal flaw that Pogue mentions?  Well, it's either that you have to download it and watch it on your computer, or you only get (horrors!) 24 hours to watch the movie.

 

The first flaw is a problem - as he says, not many people want to watch Lord of the Rings in a desk chair; we want to watch it on TV.  The Unbox/TiVo solution is excellent, though.  While you have to shell out more money for your Roku or Vudu or AppleTV box, you've probably already got the TiVo to do what TiVo's do - digitally record your tv programs.  This is just an added feature, one that makes the TiVo set a multitasker - and a hell of a one at that!

 

But the second is something of a red herring, in my opinion.  The Roku box doesn't have better technology than the TiVo/Unbox combo; in fact it's more primitive: it's simply a dedicated streaming video player - there's no storage that I can tell, it just hooks itself up to Netflix's servers and streams the data into the (most likely) flash-based player in the box - similar to the way your MS browser on your computer grabs it.  There is nothing in the technology that necessarily inhibits the Unbox/TiVo from doing more than a 24 hour rental.  The fact that practically everyone is susceptible to this 24 hour rental model suggests it is the corporate lawyers and the other industry players decreeing a 24 hour limit - it's DRM, not an issue with the player or service. 

 

There is nothing that technologically allows the Roku box to get around this DRM issue.  What the Roku/Netflix box has going for it is that, since it's an extension of NetFlix and these are streaming media, it's subsumed in your subscription (not actually free).  That doesn't mean that NetFlix has really gotten around the 24 hour limit - they've just nullified its effect.  How?

 

First, as Pogue points out, these aren't cutting edge movies - they are older titles and a lot of crap that have progressed through the industry's various "windows."  You know when you would go to Blockbuster and you could take out the really old titles for a week at a time?  Why?  Nobody cared - there was no demand, they had been on tv for years, and income from renting them was seen as gravy.  But try to take a hot, "new" title (an appellation that would still pertain like 2 years after its release) - and you had ... 24 hours (later expanded to 2 days, as I recall). 

 

Second,  it's streaming video.  It's not being stored on your hard drives, so again no one cares.  But because of that, quality and ease of use (see Pogue's description of "tv" quality video on a 2.2M cable connection and the rewind/fast forward concessions) suffer.  Not to mention - what happens when you're network isn't quite up to snuff - or is getting hammered because all of your neighbors are also using the service.  (Have I mentioned lately that I hate Comcast?)

 

Third, to the extent that anyone does care - it doesn't matter; it's free!  Watch half an hour of this old title, stop the feed, get back two days later and restream the feed, skipping through the parts you've seen.  You're not paying any more for the service, and Netflix is beaming the same amount of this uncared for schlock as if you were watching something new.

 

And again, I'm not saying this Netflix/Roku box isn't good.  I like Netflix, and this is a very nice addition (even if I have to pay $99), and we might very well end up getting one for us and for our families.  What I'm saying is someone ought to recognize what the TiVo/Unbox service brings, instead of bashing it as "fatally flawed."

 

The Unbox stuff is really quite cool....  Pogue even thought so, too.  I can select the videos on the TiVo AND on the computer; on the computer I can select for watching on computer or on the TiVo.  (It appears that you have to get on your computer and set up your Netflix instant view queue in order to see it on your Roku box.)  If I buy a movie, it keeps it on the Unbox server, so I can delete the movie from my TiVo to save space, and then redownload it when I want to watch it again.  I think I can even start to watch the movie before it finishes downloading. I can start a download from Unbox at work to my TiVo, and then it's available on TiVo when I get home.  It takes a little while to download, but the video quality is better and I get better control of the movie.  In fact, the Unbox is really tightly interwoven into TiVo - it operates just like a TiVo video, and TiVo's swivel search will find Unbox titles. 

 

But most upsetting to me is that everyone is making a big deal out of this 1 day rental thing.  I don't get it. 

 

First, Unbox allows you to download the movie, wait up to a month, and then start watching it.  My wife's response to this complaint was logical - I think the issue is sometimes you get a movie, and then something comes up, and you don't get to it right away.  And I can see that; been there myself.  But Unbox's 30 day "rental period" followed by a 24 hour "viewing period" gets around this problem rather elegantly.

 

Second, especially if you just get the movie and none of the extra material, how many people take more than a day to watch a movie, and how often do they do that?  When I finally get a chance to sit down and watch a movie, the chances are very good I am going to watch that whole movie in one sitting.  While a lot of people squawk about it, I have some serious questions about how many people take multiple sittings to watch a movie once they start.  Yes, I can imagine situations in which it might take a couple of sittings to watch a movie; my roommate used to watch half an hour of a movie every morning while getting ready for work.  But we're talking an 80-20 solution here.  As Pogue himself points out, Netflix doesn't even see this thing as your exclusive movie service.  The whole thing is premised upon the fact that when you want to see the latest movie (about 80% of the time), you'll get it from the mail service; when you want to see a movie now (the other 20%), you'll use the instant view service.  I really believe the splits are something similar for this 24 hour thing: 80% of the people 80% of the time will watch a movie within 1 day (especially if they have to).  It's not going to work for me the 20% of the time I want to watch a movie in more than one sitting (when I will likely use my Netflix subscription), or the 20% of the people who habitually watch their movies serially; but is that something that Unbox/TiVo needs to worry about?  Is that something that they deserve to be knocked on?  Especially when Netflix/Roku doesn't worry about it for their 80-20 solution, and doesn't get knocked for it? 

 

And again - this isn't even Unbox/TiVo's fault.  The 24 hour limit is a DRM issue, created by Hollywood lawyers.  If you can convince Hollywood that their best interests rest in allowing an expansion of that time limit - it's a relatively easy to execute.  What's the best amount of time?  Again, an 80-20 solution I think would come close to something like 36 hours.  Say I start to watch a movie at 6pm and watch it for 30 minutes.  The next morning, while eating breakfast, I watch 15 minutes.  I have a dinner I'm going to that night, so I don't get back to start watching the last 45 minutes or so until 10pm, and I still have plenty of time.  

 

Whew - as always, a lot of words.  But here's the quick and dirty.

Issue	Unbox/TiVo	Netflix/Roku
1. Download	You can use your PC or the TiVo box to select movies to rent or own	You must maintain your queue with your PC
2. Speed	Takes longer to get a big enough chunk to start watching, but you can start remotely.	20 seconds to start watching
3. Cost	$4 for rental of most titles, $16 to buy	$99 initial outlay, cost subsumed in Netflix subscription
4. DRM	24 hour	N/A
5. Quality	"Very good"; DVD-like	"TV-like" with a fast cable connection
6. Library	Old and new	Not new/garbage

 

 

If Unbox/TiVo is fatally flawed, so, too is Netflix/Roku.  Will Unbox/TiVo beat out Netflix/Roku?  Probably not, given the fact that Netflix/Roku is "free" and is supported by Netflix.  Will it survive?  Maybe not, if Netflix can catch on here in a big way.  But I think Unbox/TiVo does a really good job, and if it fails, it won't be because it wasn't as good a product. 
 

 

--
Noel Schively
 

Creative Zen Stone +

People wonder why the iPod, in its various forms and incarnations, is so popular.  And the reason is, the alternatives just aren't as user friendly.

 

A couple of months ago I decided that I was tired of pulling my iPod out of its protective sleeve to pop it in another sleeve to take to the gym.  I really only listened to a handful of albums - Modest Mouse We Were Dead... , Soul Coughing's Ruby Vroom, a couple of live Jethro Tull performances....  I considered getting an iPod Shuffle, but I'm just not a "shuffle" sort of guy; I'm more of a "play the album as it was originally conceived" sort of guy.  I was really worried that, without a screen, I would be blind among my four or five albums, never sure which one I was about to listen to.  So I looked around and found a good price and a postive reviews on Creative's Zen Stone +.  It was small, it had a screen, had enough memory for me to pop my four or five albums on, and seemed perfect.  Additionally, it had an FM radio, voice recorder, and stopwatch functions - things I thought I might use, but not necessities.  Got the wristband attachment for it, figuring that would be a little easier to use in the gym than some giant armband thingy, and if I really liked it, I could wear it as a third watch....

 

Now, don't get me wrong.  The sound on the thing is really good.  Even through pretty mediocre sports headphones, the sound was surprisingly good, perhaps better than on the iPod.  The form factor is nice - small, shaped like a skipping stone or one of those little rocks you get in the faux Buddhist sand gardens (and thus very appropriate).  The screen isn't anything to write home about, but it works as a GUI and to let me know what song I'm on.  But everything else, while working okay, was sort of a disappointment. 

 

1.       It's a little on the large side to wear as a watch; not too too bad, but a little large.  But what makes it impractical to use as a watch is the fact that when the Stone+ shuts down - it shuts down.  It goes into a "deep sleep," and in order to wake it up, you need to hold the top button down for a small millenium before it switches on - and then it starts playing music, so you have to pause the music.  The top button is a sort of rocker switch - hold down on one side and you control the power, the play/pause, and the menu functions, hold down on the other side and you have a programmable hot key - which you can set to display the time.  But the thing has to be on and awake for that programmable button to work.  Then it shows the time for like 5 seconds before switching to the song display.  It will show the song display for 30 seconds, then switch back to the watch face for 30 seconds, then go black; still awake, but black.

2.       The controls don't feel intuitive to me.  I've used it several times - not steadily, I'll admit - and every time I'm fishing for stuff.  I'm turning the volume up when I want to go to the menu, for instance.  I have to go to the menu (center button once if the display is dark, then again when the display is on), tab over to Music Options (right on the ring), choose the menu (center button), down through the menu options (either right or down on the ring), center button to select.  If I want to choose an album, it goes something like - center button (to turn on the display), center button (to get to the menu), right ring (to move to Music Options), center button (to choose the Music Options menu), center button (to choose Browse Music), down/right ring to navigate through albums (stored as folders), center button to choose the album.  I guess this isn't more onerous than iPod controls, but it feels weird - Music Options, "Browse Music" to choose an album?  Things are stranger when you need to change the clock, or find an FM station, or want make a recording.  Am I pushing the rocker switch on top, or the center button?  Additionally, some menus have a "Cancel" option - which takes you all the way back to the song display, for instance.  Some don't have any way to back up at all, you just have to wait 10 seconds until the song display takes over.  There is no "back" function at all, so once you go down a path, like say the Browse Music, you can't go back, there is no cancel, you must wait 10 seconds to go back to the Song Display and start all over again - unless you choose an album....

3.       This is really annoying: there is a noticeable pause between tracks.  I have two live JT albums, which should have almost no pause between tracks.  More and more modern albums are so thematically composed, that often times songs will bleed seamlessly into one another; I'm listening to the Decemberists Picaresque right now, and it just did it - blending into "On the Bus Mall" as the last chord of "Engine Driver" resonates.  We Were Dead... does this as well.  But the Stone+ is totally incapable of doing this.  I'm not talking a slightly annoying 1 second gap, as you might have on old vinyl when songs were discrete songs.  I'm talking an unbelievably long, several second gap - long enough for you to go "WTF is going on?  Have I ripped my headphones out?  Did the battery die?  Did the album end?  WTF?"  And then the song starts.

4.       A really nice feature of the iPod is the music automatically pauses when you rip the headphones out.  I'm constantly doing this at the gym: get the cord wrapped around a piece of equipment, pull, and the ear pieces drag out of my ears, the cord rips out....  Or, more gently, in the car with the iPod plugged into the Aux port - you tug the Aux cord out and the iPod stops.  Not so with the Stone+.  But this goes beyond losing a few seconds of music when you manage to perform a de-earbudding.  With the iPod you essentially have an "If I can't hear it, the music is off" attitude - which saves an untold number of battery hours.  With the Stone+, you can be listening to some music (to the point the display has gone dark), decide to stop, detach the headphones....  and the display remains dark, but the music keeps playing, eating battery life. 

5.       The battery life isn't too good in standby mode.  This might be a function of the fact that I don't use it all the time.  But just about every time I pick it up - the battery is just about dead.  I recently had surgery, so didn't go to the gym for like a month, and so didn't have a reason to wear it.  It so drained of power that I had to reset it before it would actually take the charge.  It was weird.  Took three overnight "chargings" for me to figure this out.  Not a big thing, I guess, just ... annoying.

6.       It's a quibble, and is a problem with the fact that I had the iPod first and encoded all my CDs through iTunes, but in order to get them to play on the Stone+, I need to re-encode all of them first.  I need to do the same with the N800.  But there is proprietary Creative Zen software that I need to use in order to copy the music over; it doesn't act like a mass storage device that I can drag and drop .mp3 files onto.  I haven't yet tried with my DRM free music that I got through eMusic or Amazon to see if that will load without too many hassles.

7.       It seems really sensitive.  Twice now I've shorted out the thing with static electricity when I pulled my fleece off.  Luckily, it's nothing that a reset (via a pinhole in the back) can't take care of.  But it's a pinhole, and when you do it at the gym, you usually don't have anything small enough to reset, so no music for you.

In a sense, a lot of these are quibbles, and the constant comparison to the iPod is slightly unfair; the Stone+ is a decent enough machine.  And if this was my first DMP, these prolly wouldn't be hang ups.  I would be habituated to pausing the music before taking out the headphones, I would have encoded all my music in a more open format, I would be as used to the Creative music manager as I am to iTunes, the navigation would be second nature.  But the difference with an iPod is obvious.  The iPod just works; I have to work the Stone+. 

So all and all, not a bad machine, but not a great machine.  I'm going to continue to use it as my gym machine, but it will never be my second choice, let alone first....     

 

 

Write Right, InvisibleShield & N800 Screen Protection

So, according to General Antilles and some people over at the ITT site, you're a complete fool if you don't put some screen protection on your N8x0.

Now, I have mine in a little modified case I got off of eBay - specially (ill) constructed for the N800.  The N800 is swaddled completely in faux leather, with a nice design concept that has little holes for all the controls on the N800.  Here's a link to the eBay search - done on 'N800 case'.  It appears to be a "book type" case, and there are about a million out there for under $20.  Got mine from some outfit in Hong Kong, which has prolly changed names by now...  Anywho, it works pretty good; adds a little bulk, but the thing of it is, all the little cut outs for the N800 controls don't really line up well.  Thankfully, the case is tight enough that the N800 doesn't readily slip out, so I snipped the one little piece of side leather (where the power and headphone port is located), and now when I need it, I just give it a good firm shake and the N800 slides partially out.  Good solution.

But I didn't have any screen protection on it.  And I was a little worried that the constant dragging of the hanging bit o' leather was gonna cause some scratching (though keeping it in the case generally saved it from the harshest wear and tear).  And General Antilles said I should get a screen protector....

I had withheld, because my little solution was working well.  The real impetus for change started with another piece of kit - my iPod.  I had had several cases for it (my wife teases me that I'm a headphone-aholic, which isn't true - it just took me awhile to find a few specialized sets of headphones that I like; I'm really a case-aholic, but shhhhh.....), but wasn't real real happy with them.  I was happiest with the iSkin line, particularly the Claro.  But that added bulk, was a little bit of a pain to get out of the case, and I bent the kickstand.  But I really liked the slim .5mm, "U2 Special Edition"-like skin that came with it; only problem was, it didn't have a screen protector on it.

So I started looking around for screen protector solutions I could use for all of my kit.  And I decided to try Fellowes' Write Right, because they looked thin, came in packs of ten, were cheap, and I could cut to the size of the screen of whatever kit I wanted.  The trimming worked rather nicely; each sheet has a grid that helped a lot.  Application wasn't too bad -  basically, you trim to fit, peel the backing off, attach one edge to your kit, and use the included cardboard squeegy to press the adhesive down smoothly, guide the application, and iron out the bubbles.  I did ruin one sheet for my N800 because I had a problem getting it down square and without bubbles and when I pulled it off to reapply it, some hair got irretrievably stuck on it.  But they were like 50 cents a piece!  Whatever!  After I more closely followed the directions for the second time, it worked much better.

As I say, it did take a little bit of work; but I was quite happy with my efforts.  Put one on my iPod's screen, one on the LG's internal and external screen, and one on the N800.  (I need to put one on the camera, too, and the one on the LG's external screen has since fallen off).  But all in all, okay....

Unless you're using it for a PDA.  The surface is thin, and feels kinda hard and rigid and a little slick - which was very nice for the N800.  Touching the screen seemed to work fine, and may have actually improved the "pinpoint" accuracy of the touch.  Touches and stylus motion glided smoothly across the screen at first.  But after a little while, the stylus chewed the surface of the protector to shreds.  It basically created very fine etchings.  On most angles, you didn't visibly notice these etches.  But you sure as hell felt them with the stylus.  And along the side where the scroll bar is located there were so many etched lines that things got kinda hazy.....

Now, they're cheap enough that it would be easy enough to remove each one when it got a little bad and replace it.  Installation wasn't ideal, but it wasn't too bad.  But, I decided I wanted to try something else.

People over on the ITT board mentioned invisibleSHIELD by Zagg.  So I decided to try it.  $13, shipping brought it to $20.  They have this thing in the demo videos where they say "built to protect army helicopter blades," and show it being slammed down on a pair of scissors, which only succeed in temporarily stretching it.  Which is cool.

I got it, and was a little daunted by the instructions.  There's a rubber squeegee, and some lubricating mist that come with it, and an exhaustive list of instructions that include description of a "palming" technique, and a link to an on-line installation video.  This seemed like a big deal.  When I finally worked up the courage to do it, however, it was really easy....  I peeled the backing off the protector, spritzed it with the lubricating mist on both adhesive and outward sides, lightly cupped it in my palm, slapped it onto the face of the N800, and used the squeegee to push water and bubbles off the surface and out from under the protector.  The lubricating mist allowed me to slide the protector around and bit and get a better fit, even though it was cut perfectly for the N800.  I had to wait 12-24 hours before I could really use it, but that was no big deal.  So, installation: really easy.

One of the things Zagg mentions is that it "improves your grip" - and that's just about right.  After about 18 hours of drying, the protector set up clear as a bell - even a little glossy when held at the wrong angle.  It has a kind of slightly "pebbled" surface to it that attacking it with the squeegee didn't solve, but it doesn't interfere with the view.   The problem is that this thing is like rubber.  This isn't too bad with a finger - again, it seems to improve the "pinpointability" - but with the stylus it is horrendous.  The N800 stylus catches on the surface of this thing like nobody's business.  Moving widgets around on the desk top is a chore.  Using the little "up" gesture on the software keyboard to generate uppercase letters - never an easy proposition - is damn near impossible.  It feels squishy.....

This seems to improve if I use a different stylus; I have an old Concept (who used to make the WriteRight protectors) honking stylus that glides pretty well across this protector.  But it's huge!  The stylus on an old Cross multi-pen works about as well, but it's pretty big, too.  The stylus from my old Dell Axim doesn't catch quite as much as the Nokia's native one, but it's still pretty catchy.  I'll have to try my wife's multi-pen with stylus, but I'm looking at a solution here that does not fit into the slot on the back of the N800.  Not ideal.

So....  If you like to use your finger a lot - this may work very well for you.  Seems to be no problem with cleaning (it even seems to stay cleaner), I know that nothing is getting through this thing to damage the actual screen, it is practically invisible, applies easily, and the finger (at least the nail) seems to glide nicely (a fleshy fingertip still grabs somewhat).  But I like to use the stylus a lot - and I am seriously considering removing the protector.  I know it provides superior protection, but the gripping and grabbing and squishiness is a serious deal breaker.  I don't think I take it out nearly as often anymore because I don't want to confront it.  I'll prolly try to find a stylus to use with it - but I am kinda missing the smooth glide I had without a screen protector....

My adventures in N800 videoing

My wife doesn't understand.

Several weeks ago, for the span of about two weeks I had been trying to pick media players out for the N800. This has necessitated a lot of back and forth, to and fro, long hours hunched over my glowing screen. "You care more about that thing than me," she chides. Which, of course, is untrue - but given the fact that almost all spare time has been devoted to installing and uninstalling apps, repositories and libraries - I can hardly blame her for the appearance.

Nobody tells you what you really need to know to enjoy video. And with all the different things out there, it's really tough to figure it all out. A lot of chaff, and a lot of bad stuff.... But.... this is what I think needs to happen so you can turn your N800 into a multimedia powerhouse.

As I understand it, there are three pieces to multi-media: music, pictures, and video. And the first thing I decided was that the native apps on the N800 - Images and Media player - were surprisingly okay in handling those three. No bells and whistles, but they do a good job. Images ain't bad at all - includes a slide show mode, and the quick 30 second drill revealed it could do most things. Playing music with Media player was a little weak - the interface seems a little scooby and playlisting is ... difficult, plus no album cover art. But as a video player, it does a much better job.

But I wanted something with more pizzaz. I wanted a reason to listen to the music on my N800 over using my iPod. Since the iPod has a great, intuitive interface - that's going to be real tough to pull off. But with a sample of music on my N800, I wanted to plug it in at work, hook up my headphones, and listen to the stuff I usually like to listen to. Leave my iPod for more obscure stuff, car listening, mobile listening, etc. I figure this might persuade me to listen to more FM radio, and use the N800 (rather than work's internet) for calendar entries and non-essential email, maybe even use it as an interface for SMS with my phone over bluetooth. And maybe ... maybe ... watch a couple of movies I've wanted to watch but haven't had time.

I'll get to music and pictures in a second, but my choices really seem to be driven by video playing.

Now, my understanding is that the various video players out there - Video Center, UKMP, Media Box, and Canola2 - all use either Media player or MPlayer (another video player) to do their heavy lifting. I've read a lot of reviews, and a lot of people swear by MPlayer; it reportedly has superior codec support. But I just couldn't get Mplayer to work for me. There was usually an extremely annoying lag between what the people on the screen were saying and what they said. Your lips move, but I can't hear what you're saying ... for like a full second afterwards. So no MPlayer.

Of all those video players, only Canola 2 handled all multi media - music, pics, and video. It has a nice interface, and it's being upgraded all the time thanks to a dedicated core group of developers. Already there have been 2 fairly major updates, new music formats added, etc. Beats the pants off the other stuff. Plus, Canola 2 has album art and can pull in Internet feeds (podcasts, videocasts, photocasts, etc.) Got the nifty kinetic scrolling, and pictures look gorgeous on it. Some lag problems on start up and navigating to big photo stores (seem to have gotten better in the latest update) - but that may be worked around by doing some logical organization.... Also, there are a couple of utilities that help with album art and video thumbnails.

The lack of codecs isn't necessarily a deal breaker for me. The reason for this is, even with MPlayer I would have had to rip and recode video because I don't have a library of digital video already. Yeah - if you've got some digital videos, MPlayer is prolly better - but chances are you would have to recode for file and screen size. So I have the advantage of being a noob here.

Following Aisu/Ty/Penguin Geek's advice, I use Handbrake (with DVD43) to rip video from DVDs. I'm kinda playing with settings a little, and Ty says something along the lines of - it doesn't matter how you code the thing just so long as you get it digitized. It sorta lightly sucks that I can't rip from DVD directly to an N800-compatible file, but into each life.... [Settings?]

From there? I use Urho Konttori's (the guy who made UKMP) Media Converter to convert the digital video to an optimized format for the N800. Drag and drop, super easy.

Of all these things, getting Handbrake to rip the DVD (I think some of the protections are just too strong, and some of the DVDs are too weird) is the hardest part. It is also time consuming. I set up Handbrake to rip the DVD, and walk away (preferably to bed). Wake up the next morning, and use Media Converter on the new digital file (assuming everything worked) to create the N800 version. And then I go to work. And if everything worked (cross my fingers), I have a new N800 formatted video that evening.

I'm batting about .500 thus far.

So, the bottom line this....

N800: Canola2 using the built-in media player
Software: Handbrake, DVD43, Media Converter
Process:
1. Rip DVD using Handbrake
2. Go to Bed
3. Wake up next morning and use Media Converter to format the digital video for the N800
4. Go to work
5. Come home and copy N800 file to N800, delete it from the main machine, and test it
6. Delete Handbrake file
7. Delete and Repeat as necessary

PS - tried again last night, and two things:
A. The earlier vids I decoded no longer worked.... Tried it late at night, but they would load up in both Canola and Media Player (the N800's native app), but I'd just get a black screen. Now I had done a lot of stuff (upgraded Canola and Modest and GPE and a bunch of other stuff), so maybe it was a memory issue, but....
B. I found instructions on MaemoApps for using Handbrake to get to a N800 file. The key seemed to be specify an average bit rate of 1000. I ripped it, but I haven't tried it out yet. Tonight I'll load it up and see if it works. The comments suggest the Output resolution needs to drop to 400x224.... So if it doesn't, guess I'll try that, and then on to Media Converter....

Update 3/25/2008:
Okay - the Handbrake straight to N800 didn't work.

Played around for awhile, and this is what I found:
Handbrake - I use the AppleTV preset. Documentation says AppleTV gives the best image and was middle of the pack in terms of speed, so.... Might take awhile, but I know I started it off Saturday afternoon, went out, and when I woke up with a bit of a hangover the next day, it was done. It was, however, over 1 Gig.
Media Converter - I used the N800 Very Good setting ( I think). It's rated at like 13fps. Don't ask me why the N800 Good setting at 18fps is worse than the N800 Very Good @ 13fps; I don't know. Final file size: 257 Megs.

Video quality was generally pretty good; audio quality I thought was excellent. (This was a Jethro Tull music DVD). Color looked bright, images were for the most part very clear. There was some distortion when Ian Anderson was hopping all over the stage; it wasn't the pixellation I got on an action flick, but the image sort of developed all these "scan lines" around the body part that was flapping around the most...