Barrett

May 12, 2013

Does Your High Speed Internet Plan Need a Little Boost?

Those blinking lights on your broadband modem are a soothing reminder your home Internet service is up and running. Whether you’ve got enough bandwidth to handle your family’s needs is another question entirely!

SCENE 1:
Fade up from black to a moving star field.
In the distance, we see the ship.
Dissolve to a wide shot of the bridge.
The door whisks open.

Captain Barrett walks in.
He does a quick survey.
All the glowing lights seem to be blinking correctly.
He sits down in the captain’s chair and…

Stop!!!

This is the kind of daydreaming that happens when you’re counting the days until you can finally get to see Star Trek Into Darkness.

Let’s try this again…

I walk into my home office, pet my cat Filbert, who’s always waiting for me, and then sit down in my black swivel chair from IKEA.

Boot up my trusty iMac.
Look at my Optimum Online broadband modem.
Everything seems fine.
I begin happily typing away.

They say ignorance is bliss…

We Need More Dilithium Crystals!
My wife enters our office and walks up behind me.
I sense a disturbance in the Force.
(oops, wrong universe)
(but with J.J. Abrams at the helm of both franchises, does that really matter anymore?)

My Jedi Master speaks.
(Actually, Yoga)
“Hey, how fast is our Internet connection?”

I look up.
(I should know the answer.)

“I’m not really sure. But it seems to be working okay, right?”
(inferior response)

“The IT guy at work says we need at least 30 Mbps download speed.”
(megabits per second)

My wife’s job sometimes requires her to use powerful web publishing tools early in the morning or late at night from home.
So our Internet bandwidth download speeds have to be beefy enough for her software to work.

So I quickly go to speedtest.net to double check.

It’s clocks in at only 18 Mbps.

Red Alert!!

The IT guy is in the doghouse.
(and I’m not talking about the friendly IT expert at work!)

Upgrading Optimum Online
So I call Cablevision’s Optimum Online tech support to complain about our obviously slow Internet connection.

My complaint is short lived, because I quickly find out our current Internet plan is only designed to provide a download speed of 15 Mbps.

Cablevision was actually exceeding its service level commitment.
Shame on them!

So now what?

Was there a higher level of service I could buy?
(of course)

It’s Optimum Online Boost Plus, and for $14.95 more a month, you get up to 50 Mbps for downloads.
And the upload speed improves from 2 Mbps to 8 Mbps.
(Upload speeds are always designed to be slower.)

This tier also comes with web hosting features and additional mailboxes, but for now, the pure, raw speed was all I cared about.

So I gave the order and made it so.
(translation: I upgraded to the new Warp Factor 8 plan.)

Problem solved?
Yes…
Though I have to admit, I was cranky to be shelling out even more to Cablevision as a triple play customer.
(TV, Internet and phone)

The Internet piece alone was $49.95/month.
(with $5 multi-product discount)
(New customers get the first year for $29.95.)

Now, I’m dropping $65/month for my faster Internet connection.

I’ll remind myself that’s the price of a cup of coffee a day and move on…
(and who doesn’t need their cup of Joe?!)

One Size Doesn’t Fit All
So I had restored my family’s tech harmony, but my Optimum upgrade got me thinking about my family’s growing Internet needs…

Once upon a time, one broadband plan was enough…set it and forget it.
15 Mbps?
Sounded good to me.
I thought we were covered.
And I never thought of us as heavy data users…

Stream a movie on Apple TV
Maybe a little Netflix on my Roku box
Some Bob the Builder cartoons on my laptop in the mornings for my three- year-old on Hulu Plus

But the explosion of streaming, online gaming, and social media for all of us has created an ever-growing demand on the broadband pipe.

The Internet Innovation Alliance, a coalition of business and non-profit organizations, has put together a fun little video the kids might enjoy that demonstrates this Internet data explosion.

The Relative Size of Internet Data

So you can see how it makes sense that high speed Internet service tiering would necessarily evolve to keep pace.

Have I Got a Deal for You!
The good news is every service provider is ready to sell you higher data speeds at home to accommodate your growing bandwidth needs.

Comcast’s Xfinity Internet service gives you up to 20 Mbps
Their upgraded Extreme 50 service offers you up to 50 Mbps
Time Warner Cable has a whopping six Internet plans ranging from an itty-bitty 1 Mbps to their ‘Ultimate’ plan with 50Mbps
Then, there’s AT&T’s High Speed DSL(Digital Subscriber Line)
Their U-verse High Speed Internet has 5 plans ranging from 3-24 Mbps.
Verizon’s Fiber FiOS plans range from
15 Mbps to 300 Mbps download (Quantum)
(and 5-65 Mbps upload!)
That’s crazy fast!
(and expensive…over $200/month!)
And not to be totally outdone, Cablevision has it’s own ‘Uber’ plan:
Optimum Online Ultra
Up to 101 Mbps

How Much Bandwidth Do You Really Need?
So how much speed is fast enough?
The bad news is there is no simple answer.

It’s all about what you’re doing online and then doing the math.

Apple TV – 8 Mbps for a 1080p HD movie stream
Netflix – 5 Mbps for 720p HD viewing
and 7 Mbps for their ‘Super HD quality’ (1080p)
Hulu Plus – 3 Mbps for HD viewing
(Basic Hulu doesn’t offer HD)
Skype Video- 1.5Mbps

It starts to add up pretty quickly!

Is 15 Mbps Enough?
You’re probably saying to yourself, “I can only do so much damage on my own!”
So 15 Mbps should cover it, right?

That’s true if you’re the only one online.

Families quickly turn the equation upside down, because the real data drain occurs when the usage is ‘cumulative.’

Ask Big Brother
Our government happens to agree with this simple logic.
Yes, believe it or not, the United States of America has an official opinion about all of this!
Keeping up with the times, The FCC has published its own
Broadband Service Consumer’s Guide.

Here are a few of its key points:

1-2 Mbps is enough for email, web surfing and basic streaming video
(whatever ‘basic’ streaming means)
6-15 Mbps is enough to add either HD streaming, video conferencing, or online gaming
More than 15 Mbps is needed if you go with two of the above three data hungry activities
Basic web browsing doesn’t improve much after 10Mbps

Fascinating
So it all boils down to this:

If you’re on your own, 15 Mbps will probably cover you.
If you’ve got company at home, simultaneously sucking from your broadband spigot, it’s time to upgrade!

Or shall we say, you’ll need a little ‘boost.’

You may continue to dream about the day you’ll cut your cable cord, but your high speed Internet is already securely hardwired into your life.

It’s not going anywhere…

Resistance is futile.

May 5, 2013

How to Share Your Birthday Video with Flip4Mac

I captured the moment that defined my son’s third birthday. But there were 43 more seconds of video action I was hoping someone in the crowd would get. The next gauntlet would be to convert the video from QuickTime to Windows Media. More cake, anyone?

My boy just had his third birthday party.

And the best part was… he understood what it was all about!

He shouted with glee, “I’m three!”
He understood he received presents from all his friends
He loved blowing out the candles
He couldn’t wait to eat the cake
(that part was never difficult)

Home run.

And as if experiencing all these wonderful moments at yesterday’s party wasn’t enough, I also wanted to capture some of them for posterity.

You know. A few pictures. A couple videos.
What could go wrong?

The Birthday Song
I don’t know why the ‘Happy Birthday’ song is such an iconic moment at birthday parties.

The sixteen words almost command the same attention as-
“I do.”

If you miss it, it’s like the whole shebang didn’t even happen.

So I was eager to ensure I got my preschooler’s birthday-song moment on video.
I had all three of my cameras on hand and fully charged:

Two Canon pocket cameras (S100 and Elph 300) and my Canon DSLR (old T1i)

My wife and I had a couple ringers (other parents) in the crowd to help us capture the moment. I would be right next to my boy and technically part of the action.
(hard to pull double duty in that situation)
So I held onto the DSLR to take a couple quick candle-blowing close ups and relied on the two pocket cameras to do the heavy lifting for the video assignment.

If You Don’t Have the Video, Did the Birthday Party Happen?
I didn’t need two separate camera angles, but I wanted a back up plan if one of the cameras or volunteer camera operators ran into trouble.
You know… Murphy’s Law.
And guess what happened…?

One of the two pocket cams switched hands at the last minute.
Probably due to a moment requiring the juggling of children,
or some such understandable redirection of parental resources.

Then, apparently my video directive became diluted, and the substitute videographer shot a couple of photos instead of video.
D’oh!!

And the fate of the other camera operator?

Fortunately, he came through with flying colors.
(not that I had any real doubts… I had hand-picked this parent.
He had previously demonstrated the innate flexibility of a documentary cinematographer at other Lester events.
I know talent when I see it!)

So as they say… “I got the shot!”

Let Your Smartphone Share Your Magic Moments
Again, I don’t understand why the birthday song is such a ‘must capture’ moment, or why I’ve become so focused on it.

Maybe, it so effectively summaries the entire event, like a newspaper headline.

Plus, the whole candle blowing ritual has turned into a kind of sport for children.
(Will all the candles get blown out at once?!)

So once you’ve gone through all the effort to capture your boy’s birthday video vérité, you probably want to share it…

No big deal, right?

Case in point:
Before we had even said goodbye to all our guests, the first video came in via a friend’s iPhone. That ease of sharing via smartphones almost defies linear time!

If you can practice your video sharing via smartphone voodoo, I highly recommend it, as long as your video snippets are short.

The Limits of Streaming Your Life
Another way to share your home videos is to simply upload them to a streaming-friendly website like YouTube, Vimeo, or Facebook.

So what’s the problem?

Yes, you’ve shared your life’s precious moments via a streaming solution, but you haven’t truly ‘given’ them to anyone yet.

Remember, ‘streaming’ is not ‘downloading.’
(although you can sometimes download a file after you watch the stream)

An Internet connection may not always be available for streaming access
Your family and friends may eventually lose your link to access your file online
Your file may not exist forever online

If this sounds like the beginnings of an argument against the Cloud,
it’s not.
…or is it?

Let’s not go there…

Let’s just say today’s task is to simply get the birthday-song video to Grandma.

Four Steps to Get Your Home Movie from Your Apple Ecosystem to Grandma’s House
If you want Grandma to always have access to the video, she’ll have to download your file to her computer’s hard drive.

Step 1:
First, download your two-minute HD movie from your digital camera to your Apple computer.

Immediately, you’ve got two problems:

It’s a hulking 200 MB file.
(so it’s too large to email out)
Grandma has a PC that can’t play QuickTime Movies
These days, most cameras natively create their video files in the QuickTime format.
(So you’ll need a way to convert it to a Windows Media file.
More on this later…)

Step 2:
If you want to retain the full HD quality of your video, you’ll have to use a file sharing service like Dropbox or YouSendIt.

Once you upload your video, you’ll receive a downloadable web link to share.
If Grandma can handle the several steps to the download and save process, that’s clearly the way to go.

But if it’s too complicated, and she needs a one-click solution,
you’ve got to go old school:
Email the file to her.

Step 3:
Your next challenge is to compress your video before emailing it out.
(Translation: Sacrifice its quality and crush it small enough to fit into an email.)

I recommend using Apple’s ‘Compressor’ or QuickTime to reduce the video frame’s size and the frame rate.

Step 4:
Now, it’s time to convert your movie to a Windows Media file.

Can you cook up a Windows Media file with the QuickTime player?
Nope.
(remember, Apple doesn’t really like the Windows universe)

Has someone else figured out a fix?
Of course!

The solution I use is Flip4Mac.

It’s a product from Telestream that easily converts your MOVs into WMVs.
But it’s going to cost you:

The free Flip4Mac Player version simply lets you play WMVs on a Mac.

If you want to convert WMVs to MOVs, you’ll need the $29 Player Pro version.

But you want to go the other way.
That trick will set you back $49.
It’s called the ‘Studio’ version.

$49 to convert your movie to a WMV for Grandma?
That’s right.
(What? Now, you want to nickel-and-dime Grandma?!)

Believe me, this software will not have a one-time use.
It’s worth it.

This Is Not a Drill!
So I took my boy’s 140.8 MB Happy Birthday moment, which runs 44 seconds, and decided to email it to my mother-in-law who does, in fact, require a WMV version.

For those in the know, video compression is a fine art.
There are countless ways to get the WMV file to the finish line…
But for those of you who want a quick and simple solution, here’s how you do it:

Compress Your Movie

When your movie is open in QuickTime, under the File dropdown, choose ‘Export’
Under the Format dropdown: choose ‘480p’
Click on ‘Export’

This simple compression reduced the data rate and quickly dropped my frame size from 1280 x 720 pixels down to 640 x 360 pixels.
More importantly, it reduced my MOV file from 140.8 MB to a manageable 13.7MB.

Convert QuickTime to Windows Media with Flip4Mac

Then I converted the MOV into a 320 x 180 pixel WMV via the Flip4Mac integration with QuickTime.

And the final product?

Voilà!
I created an easy-to-digest 4.6 MB file to email Grandma.

Yes, the frame size is really tiny, but otherwise it looked and sounded reasonably good!

Easy as Pie
So there you have it.
Four easy steps, and now you too can sing with glee,
“Over the river and through the woods, to grandmother’s house your video file will go!”

2 Comments

April 28, 2013

How Much Does It Cost to See the Light?

The new $5,000 LED bulb? Not quite. But that’s the price you’ll pay for bleeding-edge tech like Ultra HD. (And that’s a bargain compared to the beginning of the year!) The new Cree LED bulb just broke the $10 barrier. Any takers?

I’ve got two brilliant deals to report today.
One for $10.
The other… $5,000.

While you get back on your chair, consider this-
If there’s one constant surrounding the home tech industry,
it’s if you wait long enough, the price will plunge.

So every so often, it’s a smart idea to take another look at the pricey tech you covet, because you never know when it’s time to pull the trigger.

Already Prime Time for Ultra HD TV?
Last week, I ran into a colleague at work one morning, while waiting in the cafeteria line.
He’s quite comfortable with his home tech and likes to chat with me about current video trends.
(the same way I enjoy talking with cinematographers I work with about the lenses they prefer)

He asked me if I expected to be using Ultra HD tech in the near future.
Knowing this new, crazy-expensive TV format was still in its infancy, I shot him a look of doubt and said we were years away from that transition.

But he didn’t seem satisfied…
He reframed his question and focused on the TV screens I work with.
When would I be replacing my HD screens with Ultra HD versions?

Again, I responded it wasn’t on my radar and not an imminent purchase decision.
(I didn’t want to be rude by pointing out the teeny problem of the severe pricing.)

I paid for my oatmeal and was careful not to expose any non-verbal cues revealing my true position on how silly I thought this conversation really was.

When I first blogged about Ultra HD TVs three months ago, the prototype screens at the Consumer Electronics Show cost a whopping $20,000!
(I think we all agree that price was a real non-starter!)

So why was my friend even bringing it up?

Maybe he was just trying to strike up a conversation about the newest tech he’d read about.
Tech heads talk all the time about gear they can’t afford, right?
No harm in that.

75% Price Cut
The next morning, I was quickly reviewing my email in the precious
‘quiet hour’ before my preschooler wakes up.
I looked briefly at a marketing message from Best Buy promoting their new Sony 4K Ultra HD TVs.

Did some marketing guru figure I’d won the lottery?
How silly is that?
But I clicked on the link anyway.

My jaw dropped…
$5,000.
That’s how much Sony’s new 55” 4K Ultra HD TV, which went on ‘pre-order’ sale last week costs.

And its larger 65” cousin goes for a mere $7,000.

What?!

That’s a pretty significant price drop from three months ago.
Granted, these are smaller screens than their $20K cousins… but still!

I’m still not sure who’s going to drop everything to run down to their nearest Best Buy to pick up a 4K TV at these still exorbitant prices.
But in just ninety days, Ultra HD has evolved from science fiction to simply crazy money.
It’s no longer entirely out of reach for some well-heeled early adopters.

It is amazing to see how fast Ultra HD is taking hold.
My friend was right on target to be talking about it.

And if the prices keep dropping, I can guess what the must-have holiday tech item will be this year or next…

Moving LED Bulbs Away from the Fringe
A similar story is brewing on the other side of the tech-pricing spectrum.
Let’s review society’s pricey journey to replace the simple incandescent light bulb.

It’s been difficult to beat Mr. Edison’s invention, because his 19th century technology, though wildly inefficient, gets the job done and costs about a buck a bulb these days.

The CFL replacement program was largely a bust with those icky, slow-to-illuminate fluorescent bulbs that would wig out before their time and contaminate your house with mercury if they happened to break.

And they never really came down in price.

Now, LED tech is making a play to construct the Edison bulb killer:

It radiates a nice light quality
It has a life span spanning into two decades
No mercury
And has the same shape as the old incandescent bulbs you still love

But LED light bulbs have also been wicked expensive.

A year ago, I talked about Philips’ new LED dimmable light bulbs that were supposed to change the world.

Their wonder LED bulb, won the ‘L Prize Award’ from the U.S. Department of Energy.

But, the 12.5-watt champion is still selling for $50 at Home Depot!!
(of course less on Amazon- $29.00)
Nobody really wants to buy a light bulb at either price…

So I saved some money and settled for Philips’ ‘loser light bulb.‘
They were really called AmbientLEDs. But I gave them the loving nickname, because they weren’t quite as efficient as their mighty L Prize cousins.
(Otherwise, you wouldn’t notice any difference.)

I bought a few for $15.00
(supported by a temporary $10 discount)
…and declared victory.

Philips LED Bulbs: The Next Generation
Philips continued to improve on their LED light bulb tech, coming out with their next generation model this past January.

Called the A19 LED Bulb, (that’s a zinger!)
it no longer has that Cylon-looking metallic exterior.
It’s even more efficient, sucking only 11 watts, but it still costs a hefty $15.

I’ve got to admit, $15 for a 60-watt replacement bulb is better than $50, but I’m guessing the relatively high prices have limited LED bulb use as a fringe science experiment for tech geeks.

Cree Takes the Spotlight
Last week, I went to Home Depot’s website and noticed their homepage had been taken over by something called Cree.

I know…
Who or what the heck is ‘Cree?’
(sounds like a lawn disease)
(or a new Star Trek alien race… THE CREE!!)

Actually, it’s a North Carolina-based LED manufacturer that seemingly out of nowhere has shaken up the competition with their new consumer friendly LED bulbs.
Their design almost exactly matches their incandescent ancestors, and the pricing can’t be beat.

In fact, Cree has just broken the $10 LED bulb price barrier.

Home Depot is their big distributor right now.
Here’s the pricing lineup:

The 6-Watt (40W equivalent) LED bulb costs $9.97
The 9-Watt (60W equivalent) LED bulb goes for $12.97
The 9-Watt (60W equivalent) daylight LED bulb sets you back only $13.97

Using Fringe to Go Mainstream
I know it’s hard to get too excited over a light bulb, but I’ve got to give credit to the marketing team at Cree.

They’re putting the company on the map with a clever TV adverting campaign that features actor Lance Reddick, who played Agent Broyles on the sci-fi TV series, Fringe.

Reddick isn’t really spoofing his TV character, but by playing his pitch straight while delivering some intentionally silly lines, you feel like you might be watching outtakes from a Fringe episode in the alternate universe.

Of course, all of the commercials are available on YouTube:

• The fun tag line from one of the spots is
“Nostalgia is dumb.”

• Their Eulogy spot is also quite clever

Deal or No Deal?
$5,000 for a super sharp Ultra HD TV that can’t be beat?
$10 for a light bulb that’s 84% more efficient?

Anyone ready to pull the trigger on this brightest tech available?

I did!
…went to Home Depot yesterday to pick up a few Cree LED bulbs.

Okay, so it’s clearly easier to drop a sawbuck than take out a second mortgage to pay for an Ultra HD TV.

Even so… I’ll understand if you feel you haven’t seen the light yet,
even with THE CREE.
(pray the Borg don’t hear about this…)

We all know that tech pricing drops as technologies mature.
Still, it’s been remarkable to watch this economic model in action over the past few months.

Who said home tech innovations can’t be a spectator sport?

…though I must admit, it’s not quite as much fun as watching Reddick pay the bills while talking sternly about innovation.

“If you argue with math, you will lose!”

Thank you, Agent Broyles.

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