As a Time Warner Cable customer, I've experienced rather annoying issues with the Scientific Atlanta 8300HDC digital video recorder (DVR). I've been forced to replace it on several occasions. Other times, it would simply stop working, requiring me to unplug it from the wall to reboot.

It had become such a problem that I finally decided I'd had enough last week and that I'd ditch Time Warner Cable's HD DVR for a TiVo HD. For $239.99 at Best Buy (the company was offering it on sale--the TiVo HD usually retails for $299.99), it was a great deal. I also paid $129 to get one full year of TiVo service.

My new toy.

(Credit: TiVo)

With the TiVo HD in hand last Monday, I was ready to enjoy my new toy. I contacted Time Warner Cable to get all the details I needed to get set up.

Training anyone?
When I called Time Warner Cable last Monday, I was extremely displeased by the company's customer service. No one quite understood what I was talking about when I told them that I wanted to switch from my HD DVR to the TiVo HD. I asked them what the set-up process was. I wanted to know if I lost any channels.

After waiting for about five minutes for the customer-service representative to find information on the TiVo ("Sorry, we don't get many of these requests," she told me), she finally read to me, verbatim, what it said on her sheet.

According to the technician, I would need to have a multichannel CableCARD installed to get my programming. Unfortunately, I would lose several channels even with the CableCARD. I was told by the agent that I would need a Switched Digital Video adapter in addition to the CableCARD to retrieve those channels. An SDV adapter is basically a black set-top box that connects to the TiVo HD, allowing you to watch switched digital video channels. It's a fancy term for saying that Time Warner Cable is trying to save bandwidth.

Somewhat satisfied by the information, I told the agent that I wanted to schedule an appointment for a Time Warner Cable technician to come to my house and install both the CableCARD (you're not allowed to install it yourself) and the SDV adapter. No luck. The agent told me that I would first need to go to the Time Warner Cable Web site and fill out an online form. Upon doing so, I was put in line to receive an SDV adapter.

Cohen spins vinyl on a Clearaudio turntable.

(Credit: Clearaudio)

Every year, the major record companies produce more miserable-sounding recordings. I'm not surprised by this. The labels know most folks listen to music with iTunes or streaming audio, and sound quality is a low priority for most music listeners. My weekend poll is ample proof of that.

Lyor Cohen, CEO of recorded music for the Warner Music Group, cares about sound, at least at home. He admitted, in so many words, to being an audiophile on the pages of the September 20 New York Times Sunday magazine. The media has been alerted! It's like learning that a fast-food bigwig is a wine snob.

Cohen was Run-DMC's road manager in the 1980s, and he now works with Jay-Z, Madonna, and the Beastie Boys. In the article, Cohen said his hi-fi is his "favorite possession." The Clearaudio turntable pictured in the article is a very high-end German model that "won a gold medal at a consumer technology convention a few years ago."

Episode 47 of the Digital City, where we install Apple's new Snow Leopard OS update; discuss the current round of game console price cuts; check out some Netbooks with HD displays; and find out why Time Warner Cable's new "Mystro" cable box firmware update makes us want to give up on TV altogether.

Related links:
>>All things Snow Leopard
>>New price cuts upend console value landscape
>>Rise of the high-def Netbooks

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If you aligned yourself with the red team during the HD DVD vs. Blu-ray format war, we wouldn't blame you if you felt a little turned off to the whole idea of high-def discs. Warner's new Red2Blu program is trying to relieve some of the sting for the losers of the format war, giving owners of Warner HD DVD movies the option to trade in their movies for Blu-ray versions of the same movie. The program isn't free--you send in the cover art from your HD DVDs along with $4.95 per movie, plus a $6.95 shipping and handling fee for your entire order--but it's definitely better than having to shell out another $30 bucks for a new Blu-ray. There are some minor restrictions, such as you can only trade in 25 movies per household and only one copy of an individual title, but the biggest restriction is that the offer is only good for Warner titles.

All the home theater editors at CNET already jettisoned their HD DVD collections on eBay, but we're interested in hearing whether any of the HD DVD faithful plan on using this program. Tell us your thoughts in the comments.

(Sources: Warner Red2Blu via Engadget)

(Credit: John Falcone/CNET)

Recently, Warner announced its new DVD-on-demand program. Dubbed "Warner Archive," it's a Web site that allows the company to market more obscure titles from its back catalog. Consumers choose the specific titles they want, and Warner manufactures them as needed and mails them directly to the consumer in under a week.

At least two of the debut movies caught my eye, so I decided to give it a try. My test movies were "Countdown" and "The D.I." The former is a 1968 movie with James Caan as an astronaut scrambling to beat a Soviet space mission to the moon. In addition to a pre-"Godfather" pairing of Caan and costar Robert Duvall, it's of interest to me as an early Robert Altman film (years before his better known 70s hits "M.A.S.H." and "Nashville"). "The D.I.," meanwhile, is a 1957 flick directed by and starring Jack Webb as a tough-as-nails Marine drill instructor. This one is a gift for my father, who's been searching for this old favorite for years.

Both movies arrived in a padded envelope less then a week after my order. They're packaged in standard DVD keepcases, and I appreciated the lack of cellophane and other redundant packing materials. The front and back covers are obviously based on a template, but they are customized with photos, blurbs, cast lists--it certainly has a budget feel, but it's a step-up from some of the truly no-frills custom DVDs I've ordered in the past.

Warner Archive

The disc itself also has a professional looking label. According to The Digital Bits, "the discs will be burned rather than pressed which raises obvious concerns over longevity, although a proprietary burn technology is being used that Warners feels is much more reliable than what one can do at home on one's own computer." Indeed, the case includes the warning "This disc is expected to play back in DVD video 'play only' devices, and may not play back in other DVD devices, including recorders and PC drives." That said, we had no trouble playing it in several Blu-ray players, Windows PC DVD drives, or Xbox 360s. Only some PS3 models balked: the original 60GB PlayStation 3 didn't recognize the disc, but newer 40GB and 80GB models did.

(Credit: Screenshot by John Falcone/CNET)

Warner Brothers is releasing dozens of previously unavailable movies on DVD for the first time--but you won't be able to find them at your local Wal-Mart. Variety reports that the studio's new Warner Archive program will eventually offer hundreds of old movies and TV episodes for consumers to buy for $20 per title on an on-demand basis. Selected DVDs will then be manufactured, packaged, and shipped directly to customers within a week.

The program is launching with around 150 titles that were originally released from the 1920s through the 1980s. While some of the titles may not be familiar, many are headlined by such golden-age stars as James Stewart, Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Cary Grant, and Jean Harlow. There's also a touch of '80s cheese, with such nonclassics as "Oxford Blues" (Rob Lowe) and "Wisdom" (Demi Moore and Emilio Estevez). Available titles are already on display at warnerarchive.com (though some genres and decades weren't correctly displayed while we navigated the site).

Warner is planning to add 20 titles per month (movies and TV episodes), which should give the Vault more than 300 titles by the end of 2009. As Variety points out, the Warner catalog has more than 6,800 movies, but only 1,200 of those have been released on DVD so far--so there's a deep field of available content from which to draw.

The demand for classic and cult movies on DVD is certainly there, so I'm glad to see Warner making these movies available at a reasonable price. I just wish it would also make them available as rentals through video-on-demand services such as Amazon or Netflix. I've always wanted to see Francis Ford Coppola's "The Rain People," for instance--I just wish that I could rent a one-time viewing for $4 instead of buying it for $20.

What do you think?

(Source: Variety)

Many consumers are sticking with DVD, but it's not necessarily because of mistaken "perceptions".

In our recent review of the Panasonic DMP-BD55, we offered the view that Blu-ray has almost gotten its act together, after killing off HD DVD, getting more Profile 2.0 players on the market, and offering standalone players for less than $500. However, manufacturers are anxious to get more people on Blu-ray boat as quickly as possible, which is why we get e-mails from Warner Bros. attempting to clear up "confusion" about Blu-ray. According to the press release, the company did a survey of DVD owners that do not own Blu-ray players and found they have a "persistent lack of knowledge" regarding the new format. Warner Bros. offered three main "myths" that have confused consumers, as well as the company's response:

Perception: "I'd have to rebuild my movie library from scratch because Blu-ray can't play standard DVDs."
Truth: The switch from VHS to DVD made huge libraries of content obsolete. That's not the case with Blu-ray. Blu-ray players and PlayStation 3s can play ordinary DVDs! And not only can they play them, but the "upconversion" process makes them look even better!

Perception: "High-definition players are too expensive and I'm not ready to invest in new equipment."
Truth: There are Blu-ray players in the market for as low as $279 and this is expected to drop to $249 by Christmas. Also, PlayStation 3s are a great value, because for only $399 you get a Blu-ray player and a game console. Plus hardware and software companies are joining to offer consumers great package deals on Blu-ray players and PS3s with Blu-ray software.

While there's some merit to Warner's arguments, there's a whole lot of fact-bending going on. The truth is there still aren't that many titles available on Blu-ray right now. According to The Digital Bits, there are 772 Blu-ray titles currently available compared with more than 90,000 DVD titles. Yes, we're seeing many more new movies and TV shows released, but if consumers are expecting the same availability as DVD, they are going to be disappointed. Warner Bros. also argues that high Blu-ray player prices are just a "perception." That's debatable, but it certainly doesn't factor in the increased price of Blu-ray movies, which is significant. Not to mention the fact that if you really want to see the benefits of Blu-ray, you'll want a jumbo (50+ inches) HDTV.

And let's not forget that plenty of this confusion is not consumers' fault. Having several different Blu-ray profiles only added to this problem, as well as the vastly different audio decoding capabilities of the players. So while there have certainly been some misunderstandings about Blu-ray, it's not fair to frame buyers' legitimate concerns (like lack of titles and high player/movie prices) as myths. I say this as someone who does own a Blu-ray player and is willing to pay an extra dollar to rent Blu-ray movies from Netflix. But let's not pretend that the format doesn't need to make a lot of progress before it's a viable successor to DVD.

300 is one of the movies that will feature a lower price tag in the fall.

(Credit: Amazon)

As much as we complain about the high prices of standalone Blu-ray players, in some ways the high prices of Blu-ray movies are even more frustrating. Today, Warner Home Video has taken a step in the right direction, by announcing that the company will offer discounted pricing on select titles this fall. Blu-ray buyers can expect prices between $17 and $20, which is a lot more than DVDs sell for, but less than the $20-$30 prices Blu-ray discs currently go for.

While there isn't a complete list of movies that will be available at this lower pricing, Video Business reports that The Fugitive, Enter the Dragon, Clockwork Orange, The Shining, The Aviator, Road Warrior and Swordfish will get the discount. Additionally, some newer movies will get a smaller price cut, including 300, The Departed, I Am Legend, Ocean's 13 and We Are Marshall.

While this certainly won't make everyone run out and buy a Blu-ray player, it's definitely good news that studios are hearing complaints that Blu-ray movies are just too expensive at their current levels. Of course, we'd prefer if the prices fell below the $15 mark, which would make them feel comparatively-priced to DVDs, but we'll probably have to wait until at least 2009 to see those prices. In the meantime, at least there's always Netflix.

Sources: Video Business via High-Def Digest

Back in the old days (like 2007), the marketing strategy for new albums included a prerelease "rolling thunder" PR campaign. First came a single, followed shortly by the video.

Then a few chosen reviewers would get early copies with "NOT FOR RESALE" imprinted across the front, allowing them to have their reviews ready slightly before or on the release date. Retail outlets would receive promotional matter, like cardboard cutouts of the band standing in front of the album cover. A few warm-up shows would feature songs from the record. Meanwhile, somebody--a reviewer, a disgruntled record company employee--would leak the entire album to file-trading services.

You're announcing an album a week before it's released? What is this, 1979?

(Credit: Raconteurs)

Jack White and Warner Bros. have decided to dispense with all this for the upcoming release of the Raconteurs' new album, Consolers of the Lonely. Today, the band announced that the entire album will be released simultaneously online, on CD, and on vinyl next Tuesday. No advance singles, no reviewers' copies, and perhaps not even a video at release (they just finished shooting it).

The band would have waited even longer, but knew that the news of the album's imminent release would have slipped out, and didn't want this quick-release strategy to be seen as a reaction.

And why not? Radio stations hardly play this kind of rock 'n' roll anymore, and fans don't need reviewers to tell them what to think: the huge Jack White fans will buy it regardless, and more casual fans probably would have formed their opinion after sampling the leaked version anyway. This way, the band saves promotional money and the release date might actually be cause for excitement, rather than the jaded "oh, I downloaded that months ago" response that greets most album releases today.