Buy Windows Products 
Buy Mac Products – Uses the new CD/DVD burn functionality.
– Fixed a transfer to iTunes bug.
– Fixed a bug with the validate registration buffer
Replay Music 3.55
Replay Media Splitter 1.6.903
– Can now join files of the same file type (audio and video) using the Join Manager
How to connect your TV to your PC
It seems like there’s a lot of interest in how online video might kill Cable and Satellite services like DirecTV and Comcast, so I started a mini home project to see what it would be like for someone to actually try to send streaming video from a PC to a large screen TV. I know there are a lot of different ways to do this, and I figured it should be pretty easy.
I went to Fry’s – the best super-retailer for everything geek in California, expecting to see some sort of all-in-one setup for this. I can’t be the only person wanting to do this right? Anyway – after about an hour of searching I finally found what looked like it was going to work – a VGA to AV converter (with 3 different outputs) for about $39, and a separate 3.5″ mini-jack to RCA cable for the audio ($17). I would have expected a nice all-in-one setup, but alas – the video and the audio are separate beasts. My laptop has a VGA output and a 3.5″ mini headphone jack, so I was all set. (There were some other USB-based audio enhancer thingys, but these seemed like overkill.)
Now – back home to hook all this up. It seemed to be pretty straightforward, although I couldn’t get my AV receiver to display the video. There’s probably some menu setup I needed to do, but not being very patient, I finally just hooked all three outputs into the front of the VCR (yes – we still have one), and lo and behold – it actually worked!
I was a little concerned about the quality – since I figured attaching the output directly into the AV receiver would be better, but testing with Hulu and iTunes video – the results were totally acceptable. I was immersed into my shows, and not noticing anything horrible with the video or audio quality.
So anyway – this is totally doable. I will probably go back and play with the AV receiver some more, and maybe try to clean up the wires (which my wife hates). Eventually a wireless system would be ideal. But it works! And it’s awesome. The house I’m in right now has no cable, so this is a great way to get more entertainment without spending $70+/month.
Do you have any experience hooking up your TV to your PC? Please share in the comments. I suspect a lot of people are interested in this.
Replay Converter 3.30
– Able to convert more audio files, especially Real audio.
– Drop down lists extend further down to show more options.
– Able to convert .swf files.
– Video and audio files convert faster.
– Verification buffer overrun issue fixed.
– Able to convert more types of ASF files.
– Fixed widescreen aspect ratio bug.
– Fixed a DVD entry bug.
– Able to extract subtitles from DVDs when converting DVDs.
– Able to convert more types of FLV files.
– Updated splash screen.
– Added a TrialPay button in Replay Converter’s registration screen.
CD/DVD Burner module version 2.0:
– Fixed a file buffer overrun issue.
– Added a new DVD settings process
Are we really ready to cut the cable?
According to this article in TV Week, people are indeed discontinuing Comcast, but may be moving to Satellite and IPTV services like Verizon. Online video may be making an impact amongst the digerati, but until there is a nice easy way to pull it up on your TV, online video has a ways to go. This is all in spite of the horrid economy.
Maybe that will change soon with better software – and easily available content? This should be an interesting year.
First Newspapers, now Broadcast TV?
You’ve probably read how many local newspapers are in deep financial doo-doo recently. Some have even closed, like the Rocky Mountain Daily News.
Now, the same thing appears to be happening to Broadcast TV. This article shows the writing on the wall.
The problems with the newspaper and broadcast TV businesses are similar: people prefer on-demand content. Why huddle around your TV at 8 PM Thursday to watch your favorite show, when you can watch tons of great stuff from sites like Hulu whenever you like? Why read the newspaper (which may be 12 hours out-of-date – god forbid!) when you can get the latest breaking news online?
We’re moving to an on-demand world, and any businesses that fail to adapt to that mindset are doomed to fail.
Replay Media Catcher 3.02
-Update to the plug-in system which helps prevent firewall-related trouble..
-Fix for YouTube where YouTube videos will download 100% in demo mode.
-Fix for YouTube where YouTube videos won’t download twice.
-Fix for MP4 files being transferred via RTMP, they didn’t save properly before.
-Fix for miscellaneous sites that use the RTMP protocol.
-Miscellaneous interface improvements (tick marks on header control, new splash screen, alternating row colors).
-“Tips on start up” now shows up properly.
-HTTP files are now renamed by browser window (toggle in HTTP Plug-in settings).
-FLVToMP3 tool updated to tell user if there are no MP3 frames in an FLV and what they should do about it.
-Many smaller updates and bug fixes.
CBS boldly going where no one has gone before
There’s a new iPhone app out from CBS that lets you watch full episodes of some TV shows on your iPhone. Some old Star Trek episodes are available, but not everything. It looks like they are giving this a test run to see what happens.
If this sort of thing becomes prevalent, will it bring all 3G traffic to it’s knees? Beware the wrath of AT&T.
Cable TV – Coming soon to a PC near you!
This is an interesting article relating to Comcast’s plans to move into the video space.
It seems the Cable companies are scared to death about being bypassed by online video delivery, so rather than sit idly by and watch their business evaporate, they will be trying to make a compelling offering, with the hopes that their subscribers will stay.
You don’t suppose a recording option will be a part of their offering, do you???
YouTube cracking down on download sites
Looks like programs like Replay Media Catcher will soon be the only way to download videos from YouTube. TechCrunch’s video download tool has recently been blocked by YouTube, and it’s likely they will start to block other sites.
Here’s the story:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/13/youtube-kills-our-video-download-tool
What do YOU do about this? Use a PC-based download tool like Replay Media Catcher, which works free with YouTube. If you want the technical meat of why this will continue to work read on…
The way TechCrunch (and likely other sites) are being blocked is via the IP address of their servers. The server goes directly to the YouTube site, and pretends to be a web browser, and then figures out the download link. It’s easy for YouTube to write a script to block certain IP addresses.
The “client” approach (like Replay Media Catcher) cannot be foiled in this way, since the IP address for the download request comes from an individual user’s PC, and not a server. YouTube cannot tell the difference between your web browser, or a client running on your PC, since the IP address of the request is the same.
It will be interesting to see if YouTube continues to crack down on other sites.