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Big week this week in the geek world! Holy cow!

• First, the AppleTV was hacked to run XBMC and Boxee. This means that my long-standing complaint about lack of format support goes out the window, and the AppleTV takes a big step towards usefulness. A few minor steps with a USB stick and your AppleTV might actually let you do more than spend money! Huzzah!
• Next, the Dell Inspiron Mini was hacked to run Apple’s OS X Leopard. Wow!
• And my biggest complaint about NetFlix’s streaming service has been addressed — now they offer actual mainstream content. (Oh, and it looks like some NetFlix love for Mac is coming, too.)

The future hasn’t totally gotten here yet, but we’re getting there.

I’ve railed quite a bit against the AppleTV, because I’ve always wondered what the point is of having a media center extender that can’t play all formats and won’t stream live TV. I’m a big fan of video-on-demand–which is why I had such high hopes for the NetFlix box–and the user interface and menu design of the AppleTV sets the standard for most other applications. Nonetheless, the device has too many “it can’t do that either” statements attached to it.

Arguably, the AppleTV is made far more useful when hacked. The plug-ins and additional programs made available by the folks at AppleTVHacks.net (I can’t tell if the URL describes the content or the authors) fill in many of the gaps left behind by Apple (like format support, access to alternative movie rental sites, and FTP access), and include instructions on all the warranty-breaking fun, to boot. For those with pockets deep enough to buy an EyeTV license as well, some hacks even integrate EyeTV (mac’s only PVR application of note) with the AppleTV interface.

This is all well and good, provided that you have the money to blow. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the current media center extender champ, the STX-HD100 is available for Mac, Windows, and Linux, has no format restrictions, and requires no hacks–so I’m left wondering why anyone would bother paying more money for less functionality?

I’m guessing/hoping that Apple’s realized this, and that on September 30th of this year we’ll finally see the long-awaited hybrid between the Mac Mini and the AppleTV. Let’s take a few shots in the dark and say… solid state hard drive, slimmer form factor, HDMI output, running a full version of Leopard? Depending on the price point and how much the machine is usable as an everyday workstation (and given the success of the Mini, I’d say this is a given), this could be what a lot of home theater nuts have been waiting for. With a real operating system on board, accessible by the user, that means that additional format support and functionality becomes a LOT easier. I’m not sure I’ll be ditching SageTV anytime soon, but it’s the right direction nonetheless, and I like the idea that Apple is implicitly acknowledging that the Mini was perfect for the living room from the get-go.

What would you pay for this new super hybrid? $300? $400? Leave thoughts in the comments, or just bitch and moan like me. It helps.

I’m a sucker for gadgets as much as the next guy, but I can’t stand hype. It drives me a little nuts, particularly in the world of tech toys, because based on marketing copy it’s easy to make any toy sound great. Thankfully, every time a new one comes that doesn’t live up to its claims, there’s usually an underpraised alternative waiting in the wings. Here’s a list of three such examples: devices that were “it”…until people got their hands on one.

1. The Sony UMPC. Remember when Sony was trying to tout their Ultraportable Media PCs? They took a good idea and gave it the Sony treatment: starting with a laptop so small it can be toted just about anywhere, they then added bloatware (often to the tune of Vista), unnecessarily powerful components, and a price tag starting at more than a grand.The alternative: Netbooks. The Asus corporation was the first on the block to offer a 7″ laptop with basic Internet functionality and a sub-$300 price tag, but now they’re everywhere.
2. The Popcorn Hour A100. People review this device as though it were crafted by a deity, and I have yet to understand why. Sure, the A100 is great for accessing media files from a remote server and playing them back on TV, and yes, it plays lots of formats… but it doesn’t connect to any Live TV functionality (ala SageTV, Windows Media Center, or BeyondTV), and traps the user into using their proprietary interface. If someone can explain to me how this is any better than a $50 XBOX running XBMC, I’m all ears. The alternative: SageTV’s ST-HD100. Everything the Popcorn Hour can do plus LiveTV and countless add-ins, and a better financial value.
3. Chumby. OK, I’m particularly bitter about this one, because I waited years for this to come out after its initial announcement. The concept is simple: a small device with a 3″ screen and enough hardware on board to run widgets, or small applications dedicated to one functionality. All the software was written in Flash, and users could make their own Chumby widgets as needed. I was jumping up and down at the thought of a Chumby perched on my nightstand, acting as an alarm clock, digital picture frame, and streaming radio player at my whim.Yeah, turns out no. The software on Chumby was so buggy and froze so frequently, after an RMA exchange I gave up entirely. Aside from having a screen that was barely sensitive, Chumby was so generally unresponsive I ended up feeling like more of a Chumpy.The alternative: the iPhone. Instead of widgets, the iPhone’s applications do all of the same things the Chumby does, with the key difference that on the iPhone, everything just works. I’ve tried for years to resist the temptation to become an Apple snob, but it’s failures like the Chumby that keep making that difficult!

Did I leave out any honorable mentions? Is it really worth mentioning that I perhaps bought a Zune when they first came out? Leave thoughts or rants in the comments.

The NetFlix box, the device that streams movies from NetFlix to the TV, is an amazing little piece of hardware, and an emblematic one at that. Designed to be part of the next big step for NetFlix, the concept and implementation are both deliciously simple: instead of bothering with DVDs, and waiting for the mail, play a flat monthly fee for streaming online access to an entire catalog of movies. I’ve been waiting for this for a long time, because I’m too cheap for cable TV, and I have a limited amount of hard drive space, so storing my own DVD rips isn’t really an ideal solution.

Here’s the rub: While the hardware is pretty close to perfect (with a connectivity suite to be envied, and a surprisingly compact form factor), licensing limitations and poor interface design make the device near useless.

First, on licensing: the movies available in NetFlix’s streaming “watch it now” service aren’t exactly the A-List. It’s clear that someone at NBC likes them, because a healthy host of their shows are available (OK, granted, it is pretty cool to watch any episode of The Office at any time), but beyond that, users are more likely to find themselves settling for a flick they’ve never heard of more often than not. To be fair, this isn’t NetFlix’s fault; it’s the industry model, where every content distributor wants fair compensation for online distribution according to their own definitions. Still though, as a vocal NetFlix supporter, I’d like to have the same experience with this device as I first did with their service: overwhelmed by the choice, thrilled to have access to so many things I’ve been meaning to see. After a few hours with this box, you’ll be scrounging to find anything with a recognizable actor.

On interface: Surprisingly, with the NetFlix box, users can’t browse the catalog of available titles using the included remote. Instead, users must manage a separate movie queue on the NetFlix website, and every title listed in the special queue becomes accessible from the hardware. This cripples the experience, as any time I want to see a new movie I have to find a laptop and manage the queue.

If anyone were to hack this device, it could very well be as useful if not more so than the SageTV STX-HD100–meaning, a low-footprint fanless media center front-end. If and when that happens, maybe then I’ll regret selling it.

So after a crazy summer, and more than a few breaks from all my home theater madness, I got back in the HTPC saddle this week and have started to resume work on building my ultimate Media Center using SageTV.

A quick recap on my current requirements, beyond the DVR and media playback basics:

• Must be able to search for TV episode metadata for my archived TV video files, and save it
• Must be able to search for Movie metadata and cover art, and save it
• Must be able to scan new TV recordings for commercials, and then auto-skip them during playback
• (Bonus:) Must be able to transcode from HDTV to XviD *.avi, cutting commercials, all from the couch

When I first tried solving the problem, I was convinced that the answer lay in one of the most popular SageTV customizations, SageMC. The SageMC “STV” (which is a fancy acronym for “theme that enhances functionality”) actually seemed like it could meet all of my requirements with little to no poking, but in the end, it became too cumbersome, and SageTV suffered a noticeable slow-down when the SageMC STV was in use. So I returned to the default theme/STV, frustrated for a bit.

Then, after doing some looking, I found that I would have better success by trying to address my requirements individually rather than trying to find the one STV that could do it all. My end result: I’m now using an STV that mimics the AppleTV interface, with all of my core requirements (plus the bonus!) met through a few choice add-ins.

Here’s how I did it. Note: This is by no means the most efficient way to do this. I’m sure there are easier, faster ways to accomplish this–and if you know of them, add them to the comments, please!–but for now, this is the best way I know how. The first few steps are repeated from the original post, and everything else is new!

For getting SageTV to look like an AppleTV:

1. Install the iSage STV. No rocket science to this one, but the iSage STV does a great job of paring down the SageTV UI while borrowing a little bit of Apple’s class (minus the black turtleneck).

For existing TV video files:

1. Get your TV video file directories and naming conventions in order. Make sure that your folder structure and naming convention of your video files are consistent and accurate. If this means having to rename a lot of files, I recommend using a utility like Ant Renamer. My final structure and naming convention was <Show Name>/<Season #>/s##e##.extension.
2. Generate *.my files using Roxy99’s TV.com scraper for Sage. This is fairly straightforward: install this small application and point it at your video directory. For each video it identifies individually, it generates a .my file in the same directory containing all of the episode’s metadata.
3. Use Roxy99’s .my to .properties converter. SageTV will look to a .properties file to define the metadata for a video file of the same title, so this application will take the .my files from the previous step and generate corresponding .properties files.
4. Repeat as needed, or set up a scheduled task in Windows to repeat this process on a regular basis.

For existing movies files:

1. Download and install the IMDb search STVi (an STVi is another fancy acronym meaning “small functionality or tweak that can be added to an STV”).
2. Restart SageTV.
3. Test adding metadata to a movie file. Browse to a movie file, then right-click (or hit Options on the remote). Choose IMDb search, and save the correct results.

For setting up ComSkip:

1. Download and install the ComSkip Monitor tool. The ComSkip Monitor is a small application designed to run the ComSkip application in the background, creating cutlists listing commercial timestamps after each new TV recording. It comes with everything you need, including ComSkip itself.
2. Run through the ComSkip web-based configuration, setting preferences as desired.
3. Install the ComSkip playback STVi. Now that Sage is going to know where the commercials are, this plug-in will allow it to skip over commercials during playback of TV.

For transcoding from HDTV to *.avi:

1. Install Auto-C It all starts with this STVi, Auto-Compress. Admittedly, I’m still working on this part, but hey, it’s there.

There ya have it! If all went well, your SageTV installation now plays back HDTV without commercials, your video file archives contain metadata, and the entire experience looks as good as an AppleTV without the price tag or pretension. I’ll post screenshots and more of a detailed walkthrough later, but feel free to add your comments below.

This weekend, I got my feet wet in the Linux world again after getting the chance to install Ubuntu Hardy Heron on my laptop. It’s been a while since I’ve tried any flavor of Linux, but I have to say that I’m beyond impressed with this particular version. Ubuntu Hardy Heron is the first Linux distro that I would give to my parents. It’s quick, comes with all of the basics, and is pretty easy to customize.

I did, however, have to figure a few things out for myself–keeping in mind that I haven’t read the instructions to anything for going on 12 years–three things in particular that I’ll share with both of my readers today.

• The interface can be customized to look like OS X, Vista, or XP. Say what you will about cosmetic changes–usability is everything, and key to usability is familiarity of layout. I spent some time following a tutorial on making Ubuntu look like OS X and had my machine tricked out in less than an hour. Score one for Linux: I don’t have to give up the look and feel that I’m used to in order to take advantage of the security and price benefits of Ubuntu.

• You need to install WiFi Radar. Oddly, Ubuntu doesn’t come with a wifi network detector built in, so I had to go find one. Look up Wifi radar to enable your system to see available wireless networks.

• The deal with software. OK, so it goes like this: a synaptic package contains software functionality, but it needs to be manually controlled either from the command line (yuck) or by a separate GUI (graphical user interface) application. (It may help to think of packages as engines; you can have the engine, but the engine needs a car in order to let a user manipulate it into doing anything.) Ubuntu lets you install packages to your heart’s content–but once installed, you’ll need either some command line ninja skills or a separate application to call each package. Separate from that, the option exists to install applications, which contains the GUI and the packages (or, alternately, just the GUI for a package you’ve already installed). Applications are more how traditional users are used to thinking of software, and are easily installed from the Ubuntu Add/Remove menu.

I don’t know that I’m a full-blown convert yet, but I’m getting there. Fortunately, so is Ubuntu.

Lately I’ve been playing with SageTV, because I’m pretty sure their STX-HD100 device might be the one to rule them all. What I’m focusing on first, though, is getting all of the metadata straightened up for my video files.

In English: I want to be able to browse through my archived TV episode files on my television and be able to see the accompanying episode titles, descriptions, and so on, on a per-episode basis. On top of that, I want the same description-type information for my archived movies, and some poster art would be nice.

It’s a little labor-intensive, but here’s what I’m doing:

Movie Metadata. For movie descriptions in Sage, it’s easiest to install the SageMC STV first. (An STV is like a theme for Sage, although it includes additional functionalities and layouts.) Once installed, when browsing to a movie, there’s now a right-click menu option to retrieve movie data from IMDB. Movie synopses: check. Posters: check.

TV Metadata. This can be a little trickier, because there are so many individual episodes, typically. I had to take a few different steps here:

Standardize file names. Using AntRenamer, I went back through and completely standardized the folder structure and file names of all of my TV episode files. The structure ended up being <Show Name>/<Season #>/s##e##.extension.

Use Roxy99’s TV.com scraper for Sage to generate .my files. This is fairly straightforward: install this small application and point it at your video directory. For each video it identifies individually, it generates a .my file in the same directory containing all of the episode’s metadata.

Use Roxy99’s .my to .properties converter. SageTV will look to a .properties file to define the metadata for a video file of the same title, so this application will take the .my files from the previous step and generate corresponding .properties files.

So far, this has been pretty successful, although some manual tweaking is necessary with things like two-part episodes, specials, and so on. I’ll post screenshots once it’s all complete!

…because I found an incredible painting this weekend.

I’m just barely getting used to the idea of switching to a codec other than XviD for my video content. I love XviD—it’s beautiful, it encodes quickly, and I can get it to play on just about anything—but lately others have convinced me that H.264 may be where it’s at.

Well, just as I was getting comfortable with those formats, a new contender began appearing in the codec landscape: MKV. Matroska Video files are open-source and are generally used for capturing 720p (or higher) content. Digital audio, massive resolutions, and accordingly enormous file sizes. MKV files are what I would use if I needed to make a full-resolution back-up of a movie in HD. As it is right now, I’m fairly happy with making MP4s and XviD files from HDTV, but I could see using MKV as my “special occasion” format.

I’m not sure exactly how one would make an MKV from an HDTV broadcast, but I think this would be a good place to start…

I’ve long extolled the virtues of VideoReDo, a Windows-based application that allows users to edit high definition MPEG-2 files, cutting out commercials as needed. The software is worth the $50, and what’s more, it plays pretty nicely with DVR-MS and TS/TP files for those using Windows Media Center or BeyondTV to perform their HD capture.

On the Mac side, up until recently I was only aware of EyeTV, which is a full-blown PVR application itself that just so happens to support in-line editing of video files. The EyeTV implementation of MPEG-2 editing is quite slick, although EyeTV has the annoying habit of keeping TV files in the *.eyetv format after they’ve been edited–extracting the raw *.mpg file from within requires a whole other step.

Enter StreamClip: a cross-platform MPEG editor. With much of the same functionality, StreamClip offers easy one-stop commercial editing. As if that weren’t enough, bundled with the Mac version is an included QuickTime component called “Save as AVI,” which allows the user to save their edited files to transcoded formats.

Anyone else drooling yet?