Lately, the INOi MH720 that we use in our living room to watch movies has been showing its age, having trouble with new audio/video codecs and subtitle formats. I had been considering getting a new media player, but after looking into, figured it might be a better deal to get a nettop to use as a media center and as an additional family computer.

I finally settled on the AspireRevo 3610 and got lucky picking up the last one from our local Fry’s. It came equipped with 2GB RAM (enough for basic needs), 160GB hard drive (no big deal since using externals for storage) and an NVIDIA ION chip for graphics (hardware acceleration for HD video), along with an HDMI port out for both audio and video (easy HD connectivity to home theater).

The nettop came installed with Windows 7, which has and once again turned out to be a good upgrade. At first the network folder sharing was throwing me off because I was used to the previous Windows method. But after I got the hang of using HomeGroup [how-to geek], everything came together nicely. No more long USB cable running along the floor to transfer shows

For the media player application, Boxee came out with their latest beta, which does a nifty job of integrating local and web content to make a more complete browsing and watching experience. Basically, Boxee scans local folders and then displays the multimedia files with additional descriptions from the web, along with web-based episodes. It can even grab subtitles directly from opensubtitles for both movies and TV shows. Also, to keep from drowning in kids’ cartoons, I created a separate Boxee account to manage their content.

As for the remote control, the nettop came with a wireless mouse and keyboard, but that’s not very user-friendly for regular media use. I wanted to stick with our trusty universal remote URC-200 which has worked fine all these years, even with the different component upgrades. Unfortunately, the nettop didn’t come with an IR port. So I got a cheap media center remote with an IR receiver included. I used the media center remote to program my universal remote with the basic functions. Then, I found a program called Intelliremote which allowed me to control multiple applications with customized functions for each.

On a side note, I got to try out AmazonBasics when I ordered an HDMI cable. It was a good deal, came quick with Prime, and nice not having to wrangle with clamshell plastic packaging.

Of course, not everything is perfect particularly when on the “bleeding edge”, so here is my list of issues with the current setup:

• Boxee’s latest version does not have the ability to manually add, correct or update media files and descriptions.
• There’s some occasional strange resolution behavior when turning on the HDTV with Boxee already running in background.
• Annoying ads on web episodes, but nothing to be done about that.
• Flickr App on Boxee has been running slow, hopefully just a beta glitch.
• BBC App limited by geo-location (what’s with cold-war era borders).
• Easier customization of Boxee Homepage.
• Latest Boxee beta broke support for embedded subtitles (i.e. anime not working)
• Stronger parental controls on Boxee to limit content access.
• The current remote setup has limited mouse and text input ability.
• Windows 7 Homegroup folder sharing not backwards compatible with previous Windows versions.

Of course, this change required some equipment changes to accomplish. The first challenge was that our LCD TV did not come with a digital TV tuner since we had bought it before the US finalized its protocol. On top of that, the Tivos that we had could not record HDTV content. So I decided we could solve both problems with a new Tivo HD, which had 2 built-in digital tv tuners AND could record HDTV.

Next was to figure out how to receive the OTA signal. I decided to go with a Terk Indoor Antenna which simplified wiring and setup. And with the Tivo HD which seemed to have a more powerful signal decoder, we have been able to get most of the channels and shows that are available.

One of the benefits of switching over is that the girls have been getting better shows through the different PBS channels. And after the first few days, they don’t even miss the Disney channel anymore. Good-bye, cable tv.

In the past year, I’ve noticed that I have become increasingly less aware of what new movies have come out, even the supposedly good ones that win awards. And I think what I am experiencing is a disconnect with mass marketing channels which primarily try to catch our attention through television commercials and now even through pre-showing commercials in movie theaters (I hate those).

This first started after we got our Tivo a few years back and we got in the habit of skipping through commercials. It got to a point where I didn’t even know what the new shows were on the tube, and had to hear about it through friends or via online news feeds. It seems kind of ironic that by taking control of what I am watching, I became disconnected with knowing what was actually available.

In trying to find an image to visualize this post, I came across this diagram from Ogilvy (a big advertising company, go figure, I guess I’m not the only one thinking about this) talking about “Personal Circuits”:

The way that we consume media has changed significantly from the time where we were all glued in front of the television set, to the present where we have all these different “personal circuits” from which to be fed with music, videos, pictures, etc. I guess it shouldn’t be all that much of a surprise that I feel out of the mainstream, when the mainstream itself is splintering into multiple channels.

I can see how this disconnect is going to become greater until mass media companies figure out how to breakdown their messages into meaningful channels that people want to watch. Especially now that I am barely even using Tivo, now that most shows can be downloaded. And who wants to go to movie theaters nowadays with all those commercials taking up the first 30 minutes and the hassle of it all. Then again, maybe media really does want to be free and we don’t have to rely on the big media companies to tell us what to watch.

Until this all gets sorted out, or some new way of aggregating, sorting and identifying media that I am personally interested in comes along, I’ll just have to keep my eyes and ears open for those stray pieces that catch my interest.

After returning from Asia, I have been slowly catching up on my shows. Heroes is one of the few shows that Rebecca and I watch together, but I told her that she could go ahead and watch it while I was on my business trip. After watching them myself last night, I now see why she couldn’t wait for me. Those episodes (Unexpected, Company Man, Parasite) are some of the best television that I have seen in a long while.

In the last episode Parasite, there were some great quotes. The classic one for coffee lovers:

Sylar: “You’ve given me hope.”
Mohinder: “Hope is great. What we need is caffeine.”

The one quote that really stuck out was the one by Mr. Linderman to Nathan (and the fact that Linderman is played by Malcolm McDowell makes it even more awesome):

“…You see I think there comes a time when a man has to ask himself, whether he wants a life of happiness, or a life of meaning…. Two very different paths. To be truly happy, a man must live absolutely in the present. No thought of what’s gone before and no thought of what lies ahead. But, a life of meaning, a man is condemned to wallow in the past and obsess about the future.”

Granted, the requirement to decide between happiness and meaning is too simplistic and binary and avoids the issue of ethics and morality. The day after I watched the episode, my Bible reading was from 1 Peter 3:8-12 which provided a good counterpoint:

10″Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech.
11He must turn from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it.
12For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

What struck me more about Linderman’s quote was the description of how one achieves a life of happiness or meaning. For most of my life, I have found myself living much more in the immediate, which I believe is different from the present, since I was not spending the focus to actually relish the moment. My focus was more about identifying problems, finding a solution and moving onto the next. This approach also did not leave much room to dwell on the past or contemplate very far into the future. So, in this sense, I was achieving neither happiness or meaning.

It is only recently that I have been seeking to experience more of the present, as well as spending time reflecting on the past which by its nature forces me to dream of the future. Not coincidentally, one of my New Year’s resolutions is to appreciate the “stickiness” or “messiness” of life and relationships, acknowledging that conflict and struggle make up the majority of life and that solutions are only markers or milestones of what has passed.