video « Randy Weber

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Review: Roku XDS

Thursday, November 25th, 2010

Roku XDS

I give the new Roku XDS a C. Great for video, but terrible for audio.

I picked up a new Roku XDS for $100 at Amazon. I had pretty high expectations after reading some reviews and checking out the product page. I planned to use it to listen to my MP3 collection and Pandora, as well as to stream video from Netflix and Hulu Plus. That’s all I wanted from it. Sounds simple. I figured I’d be able to get rid of my prior generation Apple TV that is only being used to store and play my music. I was wrong.

Video

The Roku really shines with streaming video. When comparing its Netflix interface to that of my Internet-connected Samsung Blu-ray player, the Roku is great. Not only can I access my instant (streaming) queue, but I can also search for movies – something I can’t do with my Blu-ray player. Also, Netflix loads faster, the videos play at a higher resolution, and the UI just seems speedier. Netflix is great on the Roku.

Hulu Plus is also pretty good, but not perfect. There is some overscanning going on, but it’s not enough to worry about. Also, I have to pay extra for it ($7.99/month) which sucks considering I still have to watch commercials. But it’s still better than plugging my computer into my TV.

I recently downgraded my DirecTV package. The combination of Netflix and Hulu Plus are good enough to allow me to stick with the downgrade.

If I had one wish, it’s that Roku would work something out with ESPN so that I can watch ESPN 3 on my TV. I’d pay extra for that. I get it free on my PC as a Comcast subscriber. Currently ESPN only makes it available via deals they cut with ISPs. I can’t buy it as an individual. I hope this changes.

Overall, the Roku gets an A- for video.

Audio

The Roku seriously disappoints here. First of all it doesn’t have a built-in application to play MP3s connected to it via USB or over my home network. The only way to hear my own music is to first upload it MP3Tunes.com. This comes with an annual fee and it takes forever to complete the upload – multiple days for around 50GB of music. But I was willing to give this a shot since this would solve my offsite backup needs for my music.

The UI for MP3Tunes on Roku is terrible – it’s sluggish, under-featured – i.e. doesn’t support browsing/shuffling by genre – and it’s buggy. What’s worse, the service doesn’t handle playlists well, especially big ones. This is a known bug confirmed by their tech support. The Web-based UI for MP3Tunes is better, but only slightly. It’s still buggy and slow. I hate it and wish I hadn’t wasted my time and money on it.

Pandora works decently well on the Roku, but not appreciably better than on my Blu-ray player.

Overall, the Roku gets and F for audio.

Recommendation

If you don’t care about audio, then by all means get the Roku. You’ll love it. If you want to listen to your own music, this isn’t the device for you. You will be very disappointed. Get an Apple TV instead.

Regarding which model to get, the XDS is great because it has more connections and it has a replay button that is missing on the entry-level model. Spend the extra money for the XDS.

Posted in Apple, Comcast, DirecTV, Hulu, Randy Weber, TV, gadgets, music, reviews, satellite, video | No Comments »

Why Monopolies are Bad – DirecTV, NFL Sunday Ticket, and Terrible Customer Service

Sunday, September 26th, 2010

DirecTV = Terrible Customer Service

DirecTV has an exclusive on NFL Sunday Ticket in the US. They use this very effectively to grab subscribers from cable and to lock them in for 2 years. I’m one such person.

NFL Sunday Ticket is great, when it works. It’s expensive, but it’s the only way I can watch Cowboys games in San Francisco, plus I love the Red Zone channel. Today I missed both because of an incorrect satellite configuration (a configuration that was done by DirecTV).

I called DirecTV to resolve the issue and request a pro-rated refund for the week since I didn’t get to see what I wanted to see. They wouldn’t issue a refund. The person on the phone was nice and seemed to understand, but said she couldn’t do anything. It’s great to be a monopoly.

It’s clear that DirecTV has adopted the mindset that customers will do anything to keep getting NFL Sunday Ticket and that they’re locked in to the service, so why bother doing anything to keep them happy. They’re probably right, but this is exactly why monopolies and exclusives are bad for customers. Another great example is AT&T and the iPhone.

When I asked about my contract and service level, I learned I have 11 months left. I found out I could downgrade and save $33/mth (of course, I’d lose some channels). When I offered them the choice of issuing me a refund for 1 week of service for NFL Sunday Ticket vs me downgrading by $33/mth going forward, they still wouldn’t issue the refund. I immediately downgraded my service. They just lost $33/mth * the 11 remaining months on my contract or $363 in revenue to save issuing a one-time refund that couldn’t have been more than $15-$20. Plus they’re going to lose me as a subscriber at the end of that 11 month period, so they’re going to be losing even more future revenue and a little piece of all important market share. Unbelievable!

Posted in AT&T, Apple, DirecTV, TV, cable, customer service, football, gadgets, iPhone, mobile, partnerships, reviews, satellite, sports, video | No Comments »

Technology and Me – A Day in the Life of

Saturday, March 13th, 2010

This is the third post of three about technology changes over the last decade. First I covered what I was using in 2001 and what I’m using in 2010. Second I covered what I consider to be the biggest changes for me over the last decade. Today I’m covering how these changes have affected me on a day-to-day basis.

A typical day for me begins with the following before getting out of bed:

1) turning off my alarm (iPhone 3GS)

2) start download of the day’s WSJ This Morning podcast (iPhone 3GS)

3) checking the temperature (iPhone 3GS)

Once I get out of bed:

1) I get dressed to take my dog for a walk while listening to the WSJ podcast that has finished downloading.

2) I feed myself and my dog while continuing to listen to the WSJ broadcast.

3) I connect my iPhone to some powered speakers and finish the WSJ podcast as I shower and get dressed for

work.

As I leave the house to go to work:

1) I listen to music on my iPhone as I walk to bus stop.

2) While waiting for the bus I check my personal and work e-mail.

3) After checking e-mail, I play games and listen to music on my iPhone until I reach work.

It’s amazing how fast time seems to pass when you have so many productivity and entertainment options

available.

Depending on what I’m doing that day at work, I might listen to music, Pandora, or local sports talk from

Dallas (the ESPN Radio iPhone app is great) as I work.

At work I’m always connected to the Internet and most of my collegues are located remotely or at another

office. Work is done primarily via e-mail and chat. I’m on the phone no more than once or twice a day.

Prior to heading home from the office, I start the downloads for a few ESPN podcasts which keep me company

until I get home and walk the dog.

Once, I walk my dog and feed the two of us. Then I catch up on TV shows waiting for me on my DVR. I’ll

typically surf the web and read the days news and tech blogs on my laptop as I watch TV.

When I crawl into bed at night I set my alarm, plug in the charger, and turn on some relaxing tunes on my

iPhone 3GS.

As you can see, the iPhone has been deeply integrated into my daily activities. I have a hard time seeing

how I’d get by without it.

A typical day for me begins with the following before getting out of bed:

iPhone iTunes icon iPhone Weather icon

1) Turning off my alarm (iPhone 3GS).

2) Starting the download for the WSJ This Morning podcast (iPhone 3GS).

3) Checking the temperature (iPhone 3GS).

Once I get out of bed:

WSJ This Morning logo

1) I get dressed to take my dog for a walk while listening to the WSJ podcast on my iPhone that has finished downloading.

2) I feed myself and my dog while continuing to listen to the WSJ podcast.

3) I connect my iPhone to some powered speakers and finish the WSJ podcast as I shower and get dressed for work.

As I leave the house to go to work:

iPhone iPod icon iPhone Mail icon iPhone Sol-Free icon

1) I listen to music on my iPhone as I walk to bus stop.

2) While waiting for the bus I check my personal and work e-mail.

3) After checking e-mail, I play games and listen to music on my iPhone until I reach work.

It’s amazing how fast time seems to pass when you have so many productivity and entertainment options available.

Depending on what I’m doing that day at work, I might listen to music, Pandora, or local sports talk from Dallas (the ESPN Radio iPhone app is great) as I work.

iPhone iPod icon iPhone Pandora icon iPhone ESPN-Radio icon

At work I’m always connected to the Internet. Most of my collegues are located remotely or at another office. Work is done primarily via e-mail and chat. I’m on the phone no more than once or twice a day. I used the phone far more when I was doing Business Development.

My primary applications include Outlook, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Excel on a 10″ Dell laptop running Windows XP docked with dual 20 inch LCD monitors. I use Word and PowerPoint far less in product management than I did in Business Development.

Firefox logo Internet Explorer logo Office 2007 logo Windows XP logo

I also keep Meebo’s web-based chat application open all day on a small USB monitor to access AIM, Live Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger. I keep up with industry news using Google Reader and Techmeme.

Meebo logo Google Reader logo

Prior to heading home from the office, I start the downloads for a few ESPN podcasts which keep me company until I get home and walk the dog.

Galloway and Company Tony Kornheiser Show ESPNU College Football

ESPN Football Today Around the Horn Pardon the Interruption

After I walk my dog and feed the two of us, I catch up on TV shows waiting for me on my DirecTV DVR or stream some music using my Apple TV.

DirecTV Apple TV

I’ll typically surf the web and read the days news and tech blogs on my laptop as I watch TV or listen to music. I have a 17″ Dell laptop running Windows 7. I primarily use Google Chrome to browse the web at home.

Google Chrome logo

espn_logo

The Dallas Morning News logo

Wall Street Journal logo The Economist logo

I actually have print subscription to Business Week (it was free).

When I crawl into bed at night I set my alarm, plug in the charger, and turn on some relaxing tunes on my iPhone 3GS.

iPhone iPod icon

As you can see, the iPhone has been deeply integrated into my daily activities. I have a hard time seeing how I’d get by without it.

I heart my iPhone

Posted in AOL, Apple, DirecTV, Microsoft, Randy Weber, TV, Windows, e-mail, gadgets, games, google, iPhone, lifehacks, media, mobile, music, personal, satellite, sports, video, work, yahoo | No Comments »

I’m Lovin’ the NFL Sunday Ticket and the SuperFan Upgrade!

Sunday, September 13th, 2009

This is my first season with the NFL Sunday Ticket. I love it!

I have 2 games recording and I’m watching the RedZone real-time highlight channel on my iPhone. RedZone is great!

Maybe I’ll stop complaining about how much this costs.

Posted in DirecTV, Randy Weber, TV, World Wide Weber, football, iPhone, mobile, reviews, satellite, sports, video | No Comments »

Are You Ready for Some Football ?!

Saturday, August 8th, 2009

Football season is fast approaching. My first football season in SF was TERRIBLE. 6 out of 17 weeks during the NFL season saw only 2 games aired Sunday afternoon, robbing me of the 3rd game that the rest of the country typically gets to see. But worse, those 2 games were the 49ers and the Raiders. So not only was I getting robbed of a game. The games I was left with were crap. And don’t get me started about not being able to see hardly any Cowboy games.

The college season was even worse for me. I ended up having to listen to most of the early season Longhorn games on Yahoo Sports Radio at a ridiculous price. And I did say listen, no picture. It took me 2 months to try to figure out how to cancel the service once the season was over. When I did figure it out, it was on the phone. Listening to all the things that Yahoo has subscriptions for was incredible. That company is solid, though perhaps a bit unfocused. But I digress.

So I swore this season will be different. I ordered DirecTV last night with a Wednesday install. No more drama about whether or not the NFL Network will be part of my cable package on Comcast. The NFL Sunday Ticket will insure that I can see my Cowboys play. And ESPN College Game Plan should at least help to alleviate missed Longhorn games. At least Texas has a great pre-season ranking, so they should be a national game most weeks they play.

Back to satellite TV. I’m nervous about this. Besides the crazy price and long commitment for all of this, I found cable to be pretty reliable. More reliable than most of my friends’ satellite services. I’ll let you know how it goes.

NFL Sunday Ticket Mobile But check this out. With the NFL Sunday Ticket SuperFan package you can watch games on your iPhone! How cool is that?

All-in-all, I’m expecting an improved, if not more expensive, football experience this season.

Posted in Comcast, DirecTV, Randy Weber, TV, World Wide Weber, cable, football, personal, satellite, sports, video, worldwideweber, yahoo | No Comments »

Apple TV, part 3 (Boxee)

Sunday, February 1st, 2009

I hooked up the Apple TV, accessed iTunes on my Mac mini, and synced my music from my mini to the Apple TV.

Next up was installing Boxee. Not quite as easy as the instructions made it out to be, but I still got it installed and working. There was some overscan on the video but the software has a really easy way to adjust the overscan, so no problem.

Hulu worked, though it listed videos that weren’t available anymore. That was annoying. ABC.com didn’t work, nor did Fox. That’s makes Boxee a lot less useful. Didn’t try You Tube.

I like the Apple TV’s implementation of Front Row for music much better than I like Boxee. I see Boxee as my avenue to Internet video. For that it works well. I had an episode of 24 running from Hulu. It looked great.

The Apple TV and Boxee are definitely worth it.

Posted in Apple, Hulu, Randy Weber, YouTube, gadgets, personal, reviews, video | No Comments »

Apple TV, part 2

Friday, January 30th, 2009

As I said earlier, the Apple TV is a breeze to setup. I’ve since loaded all of my music onto it. It took forever to load 65GB of tunes via Wi-Fi. But it’s done and it looks and sounds great. It operates pretty much just like Front Row on my Mac mini. So it’s a keeper. I’ve disconnected my mini from the TV and taken it downstairs to the office where it will replace my ancient mini-ITX project PC. My next step is to load my photos onto the Apple TV. Then I’m going to try out Boxee.

Posted in Apple, Randy Weber, gadgets, personal, reviews, video | No Comments »

Apple TV

Sunday, January 25th, 2009

I’m setting up my new Apple TV today to replace my Mac mini in my entertainment center. So far, it’s been a breeze to get it connected to my mini and to get it on my wireless network. I’ll let you know more once it’s all set up.

Posted in Apple, Randy Weber, gadgets, personal, reviews, video | No Comments »

Customer Service Excellence

Saturday, January 17th, 2009

It’s OK to make mistakes as long as you admit it, apologize for it, and fix it. This is a great example from Hulu on doing just that found at 37signals:

This note, however, is not about the fact that episodes of ’’It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’’ were taken down. Rather, this note is to communicate to our users that we screwed up royally with regards to how we handled this specific content removal and to apologize for our lack of strong execution. We gave effectively no notice to our users that these ’’Sunny’’ episodes would be coming off the service. We handled this in precisely the opposite way that we should have. We believe that our users deserve the decency of a reasonable warning before content is taken down from the Hulu service. Please accept our apologies.

Given the very reasonable user feedback that we have received on this topic (we read every twitter, email and post), we have just re-posted all of the episodes that we had previously removed. I’d like to point out to our users that the content owner in this case – FX Networks – was very quick to say yes to our request to give users reasonable advance notice here, despite the fact that it was the Hulu team that dropped the ball…

Well done.

Posted in Hulu, Internet biz, customer service, leadership, marketing, pr, video | No Comments »

TiVo Partners for New Functionality

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008

According to the Wall Street Journal, TiVo is now offering a great new product feature done in partnership with Entertainment Weekly. TiVo users can now record shows recommended by Entertainment Weekly. It appears that TiVo looks to do more partnerships like this. Anything that makes it easier to find and record the best shows is great in my book. I love it.

Now if I could easily share my recordings list with my friends, I’d be even happier.

Posted in Randy Weber, TiVo, business development, partnerships, video | No Comments »