This demonstrates questionable ethics, by the web designer if not by the company itself.

Update: An employee of the business contacted me.  Their web designer use the photo without permission from the business owner, who didn't monitor the site that closely. My photo has been removed.

The Album: For the past couple of weeks, I anticipated the arrival of the latest Dave Matthews Band album: Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King. For the first time since I was in college, I sat down in a dark room and listened to an entire album, start to finish, with no interruptions. For the first time in 11 years, I think Dave Matthews Band has released a great studio album.

The album starts off with a beautiful, haunting saxophone solo by LeRoi Moore. I was overcome with sadness, realizing at all that was lost musically and otherwise, when he passed away last year. But just as the sadness peaked, the album made a sudden and unexpected shift directly into the horn-heavy, hard-driving, and upbeat song Shake Me Like a Monkey. The song Alligator Pie has The mood, tempo, and instrumentation changes throughout that represent the best of everything that is Dave Matthews Band, both new and old. The album ended and I sat in the dark room, reflecting, and then the "hidden" track at the end started about 30 seconds later, with a saxophone feature, a dissimilar but none the less perfect bookend to the into to the album.

I think multiple listens are required to fully appreciate the musical complexity and lyrics of a song, much less an entire album. But you do know if you want to listen to it again, and I do.

I've been a fan of DMB for 16+ years, and I can't help but reflect on all of the changes in my life and compare them to the current-at-the-time music of the band. From college to graduation to employment to marriage to fatherhood, there have been DMB songs/concerts/memories to help track the timeline in my mind. I'm glad there is something new and positive to echo my current chapter. And at the same time, I lament all that has  been lost along the way.

Why can't they get "Dave Matthews Band" right? The first thing I did with the CD was to back it up to my server. I use dBpowerAmp Muisc Converter to do  bit-perfect backups of CDs. I've paid for the annual subscription to make sure I get the best meta data possible (description: PerfectMeta™ uses 4 providers: AMG, GD3, MusicBrainz and freedb simultaneously to get the most accurate album details.) So how does this quadruple-verified data get the band name wrong — twice?? The artist name is not "Matthews, Dave Band" — it's "Dave Matthews Band".  The album artist isn't "Dave Matthews" — it's "Dave Matthews Band"! The labels provide this data. Why can't they get it right for a band that released dozens of albums under the same band name?

Anthem Audio Quality: As I mentioned earlier, this is the first time I sat down and listened to a complete album in years, and the first time ever since adding an Anthem Statement D2 to my home theater. I can't believe how awesome the room sounded playing from a "low quality" 44.1 kHz 2-channel CD. At first I thought it sounded 3-D, but the more I listened the more I was convienced it was 4-D (and I don't even know what that is, but it's better than what I thought it was.)

I used the Anthem Logic Music mode, which subtly adds multi-channel resonance using 7.1 channels. It's targeted at highly damped home theater rooms and recreates the effect of a 2-channel setup in a room with lots of sounds reflections.  (Rooms designed for 2-channel need low acoustic damping and lots of reflection; multi-channel setups need  high damping and minimal reflection. A room has to be setup for one or the other because both sound terrible if you target the middle ground.) In addition, the D2 is capable of the full-spectrum frequency correction for all 8 speakers. This combination makes this is the is by far the best sounding system I've even owned. Anthem really knows what they're doing in terms analyzing a room and making it sound great. It brings 2-channel audio to life in a manner that is true to the original recording without gimmicky surround effects.

Bourbon: There's no way I could listen to an album entitiled Big Whiskey without sipping a glass while doing so. My friend Bryan Willett introduced me to Blanton's Single Barrle Bourbon Whiskey over the weekend and Nicole picked-up a bottle while in Lexington. It offers the smoothness that a Scotch can't match but it has enough complexity to keep the flavor interesting. I sipped it uncut but on the rocks. Highly recommended.

I think the ideal demo scene is comprised of the following:

• lots of action
• some setup before the action so viewer isn't lost or thrown-into the action too abruptly
• some humor
• and of course, great audio and video

Here are some of my favorite demo scenes. Most are edited clips taken from my Blu-ray disc backups, but some are (still) standard-def versions from DVD backups.

Serenity: Firefly takes on the fleet with help from the Reavers (but stop immediately after Wash says "I am a leaf on the wind. Watch me soar." for the last time.)

Air Force One: The dogfight scene (MiG-29s attack Air Force One, F-15 counter-attack)

Iron Man: Suits up and flies to the desert, frees hostages, blows-up tank, attacked by F22s

Spider-man 2: Abduction of Mary Jane from coffee shop, fight with Doc Oc on the train, stops the train

Superman Returns: Superman saves the crashing plane.

The Matrix: Neo/Trinity gunfight in the lobby, infiltrate building and save Morpheus, helicopter crash.

Kill Bill: The final sword fight between Uma Thurman and Lucy Liu, starting where Uma steps out on to the snow and the music starts playing.

Casino Royal: Opening chase scene.

Quantum of Solace: Opening chase scene.

Transformers: Scorpion fight in the desert; also the opening scene.

The Dark Knight: Joker/armored truck chase scene in the tunnel; also the opening scene.

Star Wars Episode 3: General Kenobi vs. General Grievous (unfortunately, there is a cut to another scene half-way through the fight. I created a demo version and edited the other scene out.)

Star Wars Episode 2: Jedi battle at the Geonosian execution arena; Yoda vs. Dooku light saber fight.

Toy Store 2: The opening sequence of Buzz Lightyear vs. Zurg.

1. Seamless multi-room experience: I want every TiVo in the house to display the exact same recording content even though it’s distributed across multiple boxes.
   1. Single Season Pass / To Do List: I don’t want to manage Season Passes on each TiVo, I want them to talk to each other and come up with one master Season Pass list.
   2. Coordinated Recording: I don’t want there to be recording conflicts when there is a free tuner available on another TiVo. Pool the tuners and record scheduled shows on any available tuner.
   3. Single Now Playing List: I shouldn’t have to browse my recorded shows based on which TiVo they are stored on. And I shouldn’t have to be sitting in front of a specific TiVo to delete shows from it. I don’t care which one a show is stored on. List all available shows in 1 list.  Stream the shows in real time if stored on a different TiVo so it doesn’t have to copy the entire thing locally.
2. Email/SMS Notification of Conflicts and Upcoming Auto-Deletions: I don’t want to go sit in front of my TiVo and specifically search for recording conflicts. Send me an email or SMS a few days in advance. The same goes for shows that are about to be deleted. And give me the option of which show to cancel instead of always dropping the lower-priority season pass.
3. Complete Online Management: Allow me to manage every aspect of my TiVo online. This includes Season Passes (and their priority), manage my channel listing, view upcoming showings, manage WishLists, etc.  This should include a feature that backs-up my season passes in case of hardware failure.
4. Record re-runs only if the first-run episode was missed: Sometimes TV services goes out, sometimes there is a conflict, there could even be an issue with TiVo that caused the recording not to happen.  Take note that this episode was missed and record that episode when it is rerun.
5. Text input: TiVo doesn’t have to redesign the peanut remote to give us text input capability.  Just release IR and TCP/IP commands for all letters of the alphabet and let third-party remote manufacturers create the hardware.  If they do decide to release their own keyboard TiVo remote, that would be a nice bonus. But creating additional codes takes almost zero times and resources.
6. An Official iPhone Application: There needs to be an official iPhone application that does everything. Remote control of any TiVo in your house. Season Pass management.  Remote scheduling. Steaming shows stored on your TiVo.  Copying shows over from your TiVo to your iPhone.  Everything that you do sitting in front of a TiVo, you should be able to do within an Official TiVo app for iPhone.
7. Clear QAM channel mapping: Even if this is manual, allow users to take advantage of the free/unencrypted HD channels that are available over cable without having to mess with cable cards.
8. HD Component Video Recording: Take advantage of the “analog hole” to record HD video from any device. This would allow a TiVo HD to work with pretty much any HD Cable or Satellite box.  If the analog encoding hardware can’t be incorporated inside of TiVo, make TiVo work with the Hauppauge HD PVR (via USB)
9. Pie-in-the-sky: Direct Steaming Playback of Video Files stored in a file share. This feature is a bigger stretch than any of the others, but I'd love to see it implemented. Let browse the shared folders on my Windows Home Server and steam the files directly to TiVo without having to use TiVo Desktop or a video transcoder. Even better, display the cover art and movie description (stored in XML files along with the movie) and replicated the features offered by the Media Browser plug-in for Windows Media Center.

Interested in seeing what suggestions others have? Here are some great posts with some different ideas:

• http://observationpoint.org/articles/2009/05/01/my-tivo-series-4-wishlist/
• http://www.tivoblog.com/archives/2009/05/07/series-4-tivo-wishlist-whats-on-your-list/
• http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/28/ten-years-of-tivo-how-far-we-havent-come/

Pros:

• Small Size: I knew this was going to be a tiny little PC, but I was still surprised by the diminutive size when I took it out of the box.  The Wind can be packed away in pretty much any bag and you don't even know it's there.
• Nice Appearance: The glossy black plastic looks quite nice for a PC in this price category. It does show fingerprints, but it is also very easy to clean. It's also available in White.
• Screen Size: If you're using 1 application at a time, the 10" 1024 x 600 screen works surprisingly well.
• Battery Life: With the 6-Cell battery, battery life is fantastic.  I didn't time it with a clock, but I'd estimate battery life to be at least 4 hours. And a 9-cell battery is available for about $60 on eBay.
• Integrated Peripherals: Integrated webcam, bluetooth, SD card reader, Gigabit Ethernet, 160 GB Hard Drive
• Upgradeable Memory: There's an slot for a second 1 GB memory module, bringing the total memory up to 2GB. The 1 GB module cost me less than $10 shipped.
• Upgradeable Keyboard: Why would someone want to upgrade the keyboard on their laptop? Because they mistakenly purchased one with an International keyboard layout rather than a US layout. Luckily, replacement US layout keyboards can be purchased for less than $20 on eBay.
• Macintosh OS X Compatibility: If you want to install OS x on non-Apple hardware, this is the netbook to do it on. Much of the hardware works with existing drivers and there are third-party drivers for the missing features. I was going to try this out, but then Windows 7 Beta 1 was released and I saw no need to do so.
• Windows 7 Runs Great: I installed Windows 7 Beta 1 using a SD card in the in-built card slot. Installation took about 20 minutes. I did have to download a replacement touchpad driver from Synaptics to get scrolling working on the touchpad. Also, the internal microphone didn't work and I had to replace that driver as well.  Otherwise, it was a flawless experience.

Cons

• International Keyboard Layout Sucks (make sure you buy US Kyeboard version): I unwittingly purchased a model with the International Keyboard layout. The Shift and Enter keys are smaller and moved over toward the outside edges of the keyboard, to make room for "international" keys. Luckily, a replacement US Keyboard install (and potential BIOS flash) resolve this problem.
• US Keyboard Layout:
• 
• Smallish Touchpad Size: The touchpad is perfectly usable, but I would prefer that it be a bit wider.
• Combined Mouse Buttons: The left and right mouse buttons are actually one big, single piece of plastic that rocks to the left or the right; the pivot point is in the middle. Two separate buttons that depress straight down would be easier to use.

Don't Care:

• There is no optical drive: I store everything on my network and if I really need to get files onto the Wind, I'll copy the files from the disc using a different PC.
• Will not play HD Video: The screen isn't high-enough resolution for HD video, so I don't care that it doesn't have the processing power to play it. Give me the SD version instead.

If you're looking for a netbook, the MSI Wind should be on your short list.

So two price increases (from $11.99 to $13.99/month) and one feature removal (no online steaming.) Is this enough to get me to leave Netflix? No. I've been a customer for almost 10 years. But it did get me to switch to a cheaper plan ($11.99 for 1-disc-at-a-time, unlimited discs, and unlimited online steaming.) It has also made me more likely to cancel in the future, when other, more convenient options emerge.

Automatic online delivery of true HD movies for a flat monthly fee is my ultimate goal. Netflix and Vudu are converging on this target from two different directions but neither is there yet, and probably won't be for quite some time. So I'll continue to wait and be ready to switch to who ever offers the best viewing experience for the lowest cost.

I started off by prepping my site content for the new theme. Using the P2Pconverter extension, I converted many of the old and outdated pages into posts to unclutter the top page navigation bar. Unfortunately, WordPress does not automatically forward the old page URLs to new locations. Instead of manually forwarding each URL, I decided to take a hit on search engine traffic and let the search engines find and index the new locations.  Google, at least, has already adjusted their links.

I then did some work on the theme itself. The top javascript navigation bar was overlapping long page titles in the drop-downs for sub-pages. Also,  the sub-page background was transparent and that made the text difficult to read. So I edited the Cascading Style Sheet to use automatic height instead of fixed height for the sub-page "cells" and changed the cell background color from transparent to black. I also added white lines to the top of each cell to provide visual separation between them.

Next, I made some changes to some of the colors and hover effects to suite my tastes. I then modified the footer to include copyright information. I abandoned all of the custom code I used to have in the right column and decided to use only Widgets because they are easier to maintain. I also added code so that all of my comments are highlighted in a different color than other comments (thanks Bhupendra.) Finally, I modified the main page to show post excerpts instead of full posts.

Because the new theme works with threaded comments (so you can reply to other comments), I enabled that feature in the WordPress admin panel. Other improvements include displaying tags at the bottom of each post and Gravatar pictures for each user next to their comments.

In the future, I may adjust the content width and add an additional widget-bar along the bottom of the page.

The downside of the new theme is that it is extremely inefficient compared to the old design. It uses a lot more javascript, many more small images, and a very large background image. I plan on slowly optimizing this in the future, but I decided the new theme was enough of an improvement to take a hit on page load times for now.

If anyone has feedback or suggestions, I'd love to hear from you.

• This is a very nice looking set top box; possibly the most attractive design I've seen, with lots of glossy, high-quality plastic. The bottom of the unit even has a nice textured pattern on it.
• It's unexpectedly heavy.  This is not a thin sheet metal enclosure with a tiny circuit board inside.  It feels solid, dense, and well constructed.
• It passed my easy of installation test: I didn't need to consult the install manual.  Plug in the Ethernet cable; plug in the HDMI cable; plug in the power cable; done.
• The RF remote does not require line-of-sight to the unit; I put it in the closet (located behind the wall on which my TV hangs) and closed the door.
• The RF remote fits well in your hand and has an Apple-like simplicity about it: 1 scroll wheel and 5 buttons. In use though, I found it slightly confusing because it only scrolls up and down, but much of the on-screen user interface is left-to-right. I soon figured out that if you keep scrolling down with the remote wheel, the on-screen selector moves all the way to the right and then jumps down to left side of the next row.
• The user interface looks very nice and modern and features movie cover art for top movies on pretty much every screen.  It looks much better than TiVo and even better than Windows Media Center.  However, the menu structure and groupings will take some getting used to.
• I need a faster internet connection. I was surprised that I had to wait 30 minutes before I could watch the 1-hour documentary March of the Penguins in HD.  My 2 mbps Comcast cable connection speed is lower than the recommended 4 mbps required for instant viewing of HD.
• I really need a faster internet connection. HDX (near Blu-ray quality) movies take several hours to download. I didn't see an exact time estimate, but it's looking like 6+ hours per movie.
• I was initially disappointed by the high cost of the hardware, especially the XL version, but Vudu just announced massive price cuts.  $150 is the new price of the basic Vudu box (down from $299), $499 is the new price of the XL version (down from $999) and it now includes the previously optional $100 home theater connectivity software package.

For the full review, I intend to evaluated the Vudu hardware and service to 1) see how it compares to Windows Media Center for movie storage and playback, 2) see how it compares to Netflix DVD/Blu-ray rentals via mail, 3) see how it compares to Netflix Watch Now, and 4) see how well it integrates into a dedicated home theater with a single universal remote control.  Here's the photo gallery of the unboxing:

• Drivers. The drivers for the motherboard (Nvidia 9400) wouldn't install from Windows Update and were over a month old.  (At least I was able to install the latest drivers on the Nvidia website.)
• Lockups. The PC locked up twice during the install and once afterwards, requiring a power-off reboot.  This makes me nervous about stability going forward.
• Arcsoft TotalMedia Theatre won't run.  They don't have Win 7 support yet and forum posts suggest it will be some time before they do.  I want to watch Blu-ray movies, so this is a major issue.  I could buy PowerDVD 8, but I don't care to make an redundant purchase of software that I don't like as well.
• LogMeIn (remote screen control application) won't install.  I can get by without it by using Windows Remote Desktop, but I really like how LogMeIn doesn't blank the TV screen when I take control from my laptop.
• My online DVD backups won't play. This is might be due to Arcsoft TotalMedia Theater causing a conflict, but I'm not going to continue troubleshooting due to the other issues.
• I can't play MKV video files without a complicated install procedure. A simple install is available for the 32-bit version of Windows 7, but not the 64-bit version.  With so many other things not working, this is just one more reason not to devote any more time to a lost cause.

These are not operating system problem, but rather application and driver issues.  By the time Win 7 is launched, the applications and drivers I require probably will be compatible.  But right now, they aren't.  So I'm wiping the drive clean and switching back to what works: Windows Vista 32-bit.

I came across the website ChairMD.com and found out that it might be possible to have the back replaced under warranty. All HermanMiller chairs are covered by a 12-year warranty. So I filled-out the warranty request form on their site. They provided a diagram chair so that I could clearly identify the failed part and I also entered all of the chair configuration and serial number details from the sticker on the bottom of the chair.

4 weeks later, a replacement chair back arrived via FedEx.  I'm elated.  Instead of an expensive repair, I received a nearly effortless warranty replacement. Thank you Chair MD!

Baja has been there through every milestone of my adult life. He was there when I finished grad school, there when I  moved and took my first full-time job after college, there when I moved into my first (and later my second) house, there when I purchased my first (and also my second) new car, there when I met and later married my wife Nicole, there when I once again went through grad school, and there when my daughter Ainsley was born.  He was at the door every day that I came home and he was at the foot of the bed every night when I went to asleep. The bottom of bed is now vacant and my computer keyboard is sadly absent of feline affection.

He was the big brother of our household.  He fussed at us when we groomed other pets and made them upset. He carefully supervised water changes in the aquariums.  When our dog Sunny tried to assert her might, he laid his ears back and turned and walked away, his equivalent of an eye-roll. When Ainsley was crying, he would come investigate.

Baja, Mr. Kitty, you will always be a part of our family and will be dearly missed.

See the comments below for more antics and fond memories of our good friend.

I scoured various reviews and picked the MSI Wind with the 10" screen, 160GB hard drive, 6-cell battery, and bluetooth. Here's why I picked it over the competition:

• I passed on the Lenovo Ideapad S10 because it only had a 3-cell battery and a poorly-reviewed keyboard.
• The HP Mini 1000 was a bit more expensive and sacrificed too much performance to get the slightly smaller size; I didn't like the tiny and slow iPod-sized hard drive and it doesn't have a 6-cell battery option.
• The Asus Eee PC 1000H was my second choice and is largely identical to the Wind, but I ultimately picked the MSI due to better Mac OS X compatibility should I choose to purchase and install that OS. It also has a better keyboard layout, although the Asus has a larger trackpad that supports multi-touch.

The best part is the price. $337 after applying the Live.com 25% cashback from Ebay. I can't believe how inexpensively laptops have become.

Of course, I had to do an upgrade. More memory is always better and I purchased an additional 1GB of Crucial Memory for $13 shipped from Newegg.

More details on my experiences with the MSI Netbook are to follow.

This is such a good deal that I've I installed the Live.com search Add-on for Firefox and replaced Google as the default search engine.  I've found the search results to be just as useful as the Google results.  Live.com earned bought my loyalty.

Here are the details:

This discount applies only to buy-it-now items purchased with PayPal on Ebay.

Go to http://www.live.com and search for something like "wii".

You should see (at the top of the page in the Ad area) something that says "Live Search cashback" and an Ebay link and the 25% off offer.  Click the Link.

Once on Ebay, search for whatever you want (Wii, Nikon D90, MSI Wind, Sonos ZP90, etc.) and filter by "buy-it-now" items.  Purchase the item with buy-it-now and PayPal, and get 25% off. If the seller uses a third-party checkout, then the offer is not valid and you will be warned that the offer does not apply.  If they do use PayPal, the amount of the discount will be shown on the checkout screen before you pay.

This offer is good for up to $200/purchase and $2000/year.  The only catch is that you have to wait 60 days to get the 25% refund (to make sure you don't return the item.) This is good for up to 12 purchases on Ebay and then you are no longer eligible.

Apparently it was 35%-off a couple of months ago, then disappeared entirely, and now is back at 25%-off.  Who knows how long it will last. More details are available here:

http://pages.ebay.com/cashbackoffer/terms.html

Thank you Microsoft! (Who needs Yahoo! anyway? This is a much better use of that money.)

The problem for users of Home Theater Personal Computers (HTPCs) is that there are very few hardware combinations that will properly pass the original 24 frame/second signal digitally to the receiver/display; the video drivers don't support 24 Hz output properly.  One obvious example of this is the latest motherboards with the Intel G45 chipset. There is a setting in the HDMI video drivers for 24p, but the resulting video has noticeable jerks/pauses a couple of times a minute, apparently due to the driver improperly matching the output frame rate with the input frame rate.

Nvidia 9300 and 9400 chipsets – the first solution for HTPC 24p

The only exception of which I'm currently aware is motherboards based on the new nVidia 9300 and 9400 chipset. Multiple sources have confirmed that 24p playback is flawless over HDMI. Several vendors, including Asus (P5N7A-VM) and Gigabyte (GA-E7AUM-DS2H), have just released motherboards based on these chipsets.

(I plan on upgrading both of my HTPCs to the Gigabyte motherboard. Since Protected Audio Path is no where on the horizon, I see no need to wait.  Surprisingly, this is the cheapest upgrade I've done, because the motherboard contains everything I need for video, audio, and Blu-ray video decoding and I can use my existing CPUs, RAM, hard drives, cases, and power supplies.)

The downsides of 24p on a HTPC

The downside of setting the output of the HTPC to 24 Hz is that not everything is recorded at 24 Hz. Television shows are at 60 Hz. So if you're watching a movie, you select 24 Hz and if you're watchined recorded TV or TV on DVD, you select 60 Hz.  This is not automatic; you manually have to make these changes youself. So while a bottom-of-the-line Blu-ray player can automatically switch to the correct frame rate, an expensive and highly flexible HTPC cannot.

The simplest way to change the frame rate is to go to the video driver control panel and make the appropriate setting. But this is not very elegant for a HTPC. Instead, it possible to assign shortcut keystrokes to each resolution and map those to your remote control. This is a pain to setup, but it means that a press of the button switches between the two.

Theoretically, it's possible for a program such as My Movies to store the appropriate framerate for each movie / show in its internal database and issue the appropriate "change video refreash rate" command when each is played, but I don't think this is a supported feature yet.

What about 120 Hz?

A lot of flat panels advertise their 120 Hz refresh rate. This is the output video refresh rate of the panel itself, not the input refresh rate. The highest-possible refresh rate that is supported by HDMI is 1080p/60 Hz. No source component (HTPC or stand-alone DVD or Blu-ray player) can output 120 Hz over HDMI.

Conclusion

If you want a perfect video frame rate with no jerkiness or stutters over HDMI, it is possible on a HTPC using the latest Nvidia chipset. However, you manually have to change the output refresh rate of the video card, and knowing the correct framerate of the source materail is not intuitive. This is the price you pay for having a beautiful browesable for instant movie playback.

Most people would choose a Sony PlayStation 3 or stand-alone Blu-ray player to deliver this content to their receiver / display, but some people like me prefer to use a PC because it is extremely flexible and allows browsing and playing of movies backed-up on your hard drive. Although it is relatively easy to get full-resolution Blu-ray video from a Home Theater Personal Computer (see this AVSforum thread for hardware details), it is extremely difficult to get full-resolution audio. Here is a run-down on the current state of HD Audio on the HTPC.

Protected Audio Path Required

All Blu-ray movies with AACS protection, which is pretty much all of them, require a Protected Audio Path (PAP) to transmit the original HD audio if the bit depth and sample rate exceeds 16-bit, 48 kHz. Without PAP, all audio must be downsampled (a.k.a. "bit crippled") to 16-bit, 48kHz per the AACS specification. Unfortunately, there is no Protected Audio Path (PAP) on any computer right now, so all HD Audio is currently downsampled on a PC.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, most Blu-Ray HD Audio soundtracks are 16-bit, 48 kHz anyway, so you are getting the soundtrack in full fidelity. However, there are quite a few Dolby TrueHD / DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks that are 24-bit, 48kHz, so these are downsampled down to 16-bit, 48kHz. The same is true for the very few 24-bit, 96 kHz soundtracks (the maximum possible resolution of 8 channels.)

As far as when PAP will be available for PCs, no one knows. It is not a hardware standard that can be used across devices, it is not a universal Windows Vista standard (rather it is specific to each driver/hardware config), and there is no industry group working on a standard. The only possible way to have PAP is a proprietary solution specific to each piece of hardware.  Pluse, this hardwarw would have to be supported by uniquely by software players. Hardware and software companies working together — not a good thing! This could take forever.

Does downsampling make an audible difference in Sound Quality?

Every home theater enthusiast wants the best sound quality possible, even if the advantage is only theoretical. Having said this, even at the lower 16-bit / 48 kHz, the sound tracks sound amazing. If you can hear the difference between 8 channels of 16-bit / 48 kHz and 24-bit / 96 kHz, you have a truly golden ear.  I'm won't go into detail as one could nit-pick this to death, but you won't get any audible improvement even if there is no downsampling.

Even with the down-sampling, HD Audio is a significant step up in quality from compressed Dolby Digital 5.1/DTS 5.1 on DVDs. This a difference you can hear. Down sampling from 24 to 16 bits is not.

But what if AACS protection is removed?

If the down-sampling restriction applies only to AACS-protected Blu-ray movies, then you should be able to run AnyDVD HD and remove AACS from Blu-Ray. If this occurred, the software player should not downsample/bitcripple the output and existing motherboards with HDMI could play the full resolution signal. Unfortunately, all of the software players currently downsample regardless of whether the media is AACS protected or not due to stipulations within the Dolby True HD and DTS-HD Master Audio codecs. Hopefully this limitation will be removed in the future and currently-available motherboards, even without PAP, will be able to pass full-resolution audio.

Is it possible to rework the movie and get HD Audio using a different player?

Yes, it is, but isn't easy. Basically you decrypt the Blu-ray disc using AnyDVD HD, split the audio and video into different files, convert the lossless HD audio track into a lossless 8-channel FLAC file (containing identical audio), and the recombine the video and FLAC audio in a MKV container and play it back using your favorite video player.  Unfortunately, you lose all the extras on the disc. See this AVSforum thead for details.

If the open source community develops an audio codec that can decompress these lossless formats, it will be possible to get software such as Media Player Classic to play the unencrypted disc. But once again, this means no menues or other content in the forseeable future.

What about bit-streaming?

The restrictions on bit-streaming are the same as on full-resolution HD audio: not allowed by AACS.

As an aside, there is no benefit to bit-streaming, as the end result is bit-for-bit identical sound. It's only a difference of the player or the receiver doing the decompression (assuming the player doesn't mess-up the decompression.)

What are the differences in all of the sound formats?

Good question; MissingRemote has an excellent overview that details which codecs can be sent over the older optical (toslink) connectors and which require HDMI.

Why is the HD Audio Steam so protected anyway?

This is a valid question. Since all the encryption schemes on Blu-ray have been cracked by both Slysoft and also independent developers on the Doom9 forums, there is full access to the unencrypted steams for pirates to copy. There isn't likely any way to introduce a new form of encryption without breaking all existing Blu-ray players. So the only result from all this protection is that owners of legitimate Blu-ray movies can't play the full resolution HD Audio soundtrack, but pirates can copy it without any issue. The media companies are ignoring the needs of their legitimate customers, which is disappointing to say the least.

Refrences: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=15006998#post15006998

• MPEG-2 was created in 1993 and gave great improvements of JPEG.
• Real Video and Windows WMV-9 were alternative compression codecs created for internet video streaming and are about 200% to 300% more efficient than MPEG-2.
• The MPEG association wanted to get into this segment and created MPEG-4 (later known as MPEG-4 ASP.) It was terrible, only 30% more efficient than MPEG-2.
• The European Standards body ITU created H.264 and it was much better than MPEG-4 for internet steaming video.  MPEG approached the ITU and they joined forces, creating the new MPEG-4 AVC, a.k.a. H.264 JVT, and it is completely different from and incompatible with the origianal MPEG-4 ASP.
• When HD-DVD was developed, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC, and Microsoft WMV-9 (VC-1) were compared. For HD video VC-1 was the clear winner, MPEG-2 was second, and MPEG-4 AVC gave the lowest quality/compression.
• MPEG-4 AVC HP (High Profile) was created to overcome the problems with the original MPEG-4 AVC, which focused only on low bitrate steaming video. MPEG-4 AVC HP is what is in every Blu-Ray (and HD-DVD) player and it completely incompatible with MPEG-4 AVC.
• Every Blu-Ray player supports VC-1, MPEG-4 AVC HP, and MPEG-2.
• Microsoft seemed to have their act together throughout this process and developed the right codec for multiple situations from the beginning.  It's roughly equivalent to MPEG-4 AVC HP in quality but requires less processing power to decompress.

Pros:

• Wireless design
• Smallest wireless headphones on the market
• Does not completely block outside noise (so you can still hear traffic if you're running/biking)
• Lifetime guarantee against failure from sweat intrusion
• Includes everything you could need: USB charger dock, wall charger adapter for dock, iPod bluetooth dongle, carry pouch, USB cable, replacement ear tips
• Fairly comfortable to wear for an over-the-ear design (but not as comfortable as the stock Apple earphones)
• Can control iPod from the right earphone (previous/next track and play/pause)
• Can change volume from the right earphone (press and hold the previous/next track buttons)
• Can be used as bluetooth headset for iPhone or any bluetooth-capable cell phone (auto-switches from music to phone mode when a call is made/received)
• Sound quality is adequate for spoken recordings (audio books) and video dialog and very casual music listening

Cons:

• Poor sound quality – zero bass ; stock Apple headphones sound much better
• Poor sound quality – background hiss can be heard when music volume is low, hiss increases with headphone volume
• Poor sound quality – high frequency noise / compression artifacts
• Expensive – $150
• Experienced a bug where I turned power off, but LED on headset remained dimly illuminated even when I powered it off multiple times – completely drained battery
• Overly large desktop charging dock into which earpieces do not firmly lock (can be knocked out much too easily)
• Bright flashing blue LED on iPod bluetooth dongle – very distracting when watching video
• Flashing blue light on the side of the earpiece – I don't like it when my ear blinks
• Bluetooth dongle works only with these bluetooth headphones (an FM transmitter dongle would work with any radio or car stereo)
• Buttons are small and somewhat difficult to press and hold (must hold the earpiece with your thumb and middle finder and firmly depress your index finger tip)

Conclusion: I returned them to Target. I decided that $150 was too much to pay for poor audio quality.  The Jaybird JB200 headphones are a pretty descent solution for listening to the spoken material while exercising or for casually listening to "background" music, but that's about it. They need larger drivers to deliver more bass and a low-pass filter to remove the high frequencies they can't accurately reproduce.

I've decided to purchase an Griffin iTrip FM Transmitter for $50 and use my existing $20 FM armband radio. This gives me flexibility to listen to either my iPhone or FM stations while at the gym.  I can also play my iPod through any car stereo if I so desire. The battery life of my armband radio is much longer and swapping AAA batteries every 6 months is easier than recharging earphones every 2 weeks. The sound quality of the FM radio is not audiophile-caliber, but the bass is better, the high frequencies roll off instead of producing noise, and the price is more appropriate to the audio quality.

The Jaybird JB200 is a very compact wireless headphone solution that addresses a specific need very well (small, wireless, casual listening, exercising.)  But for me, it was not compelling enough to overcome the poor audio quality and the high price.

Even worse is the fact that I was signed-up for their newsletter in the process. I have one of their computer cases and thought the newsletter may be of interest. It turns out it wasn't, so I used the unsubscribe link and unsubscribed. I recieved the newsletter again the next month and unsubscribed again. And the next month as well.  And then I tried the "unsubscribe via reply e-mail" method. I received yet another e-mail the next month. I unsubscribed via reply again and still continue to receive e-mails.

Today it was even worse. I received a CSX Newsletter, with different unsubscribe links that require me to sign-in to a site I've never visited and for which I have no account. CSX is a division of Coolermaster.

A non-functional newsletter system is unacceptable for any company, much less for one selling computer components. I'm giving up on the unsubscribing; this is flagrant spam. Coolermaster obviously has no respect for their customers and regret ever having purchased one of their products.

I finally found the Zonet ZVC7630W camera and the features seemed to be everything I was wanting, so made the purchase.  In summary, I'm very pleased with it.  It does everything I need it to do very well.  There are some advanced features that I haven't been able to get working but, truthfully, those are features that I don't really need.  In my experience, this is the best network web camera available.  Here is my usual list of pros and cons:

Pros:

• IR (Infra-Red) LEDs for viewing in total darkness.
• The included mounting hardware worked well for wall-mounting.
• Works for wired and wireless networks.
• Worked with my WEP and WPA2-PSK encrypted wireless networks.
• Support for multiple users and multiple user roles, so you can give different people different access rights.
• Support for multiple image protocols: MPEG4, MJPEG, 3GPP
• Works with all browsers (Java Runtime Environment required.)
• The basic features are Java-based and work with any operating system that supports Java, which is pretty much all of them.
• The flashing network activity LEDs can be disabled via the web configuration page.
• It was simple to setup. All I did was plug the wired network cable into my network, found the IP address it acquired, entered that into my browser, entered the default username and password (admin, admin), and it was working.  No manual required.
• View away from home. Dynamic DNS allows you to assigning a domain name to the camera so that you can find it and view it when you are away from home.  Support is provided for a large number of providers, including DnyDNS.org.  Unfortunately there is no support my new favorite provider DNS-o-matic, which can update multiple domains names and services.  Because of this, I used the Dynamic DNS update service in my router instead and had it update the netcam account as well as the other accounts that point to the same network.
• 
• uPnP support is provided, which should enable the camera to automatically open ports on your router to allow you to view the camera when away from home.  I didn't try this feature and instead assigned a static IP address to the camera and manually opened ports. (The default is port 80 for the web server and port 554 for the steaming video.)
• Motion detection feature that allows monitoring of a spercific area of the an image. When motion is detected, the picture is e-mailed, FTP'd, or saved to a flash drive (via USB port on camera).
• A built-in microphone and a speaker jack for 2-way communication. (I didn't test this feature.)
• USB port for adding a flash drive or exteranl hard drive, to allow storing of motion capture events.

Cons:

• Ugly navy blue color.  Why not white? Or even silver?  The color should try to match the surroundings of a typical home, not stand out like an ugly blue gadget.
• No audio support within Firefox browser (Java client).
• Username and password is sent a clear text and is not encrypted.
• It was not possible to change the administrator user name.  For security purposes, it's better to use non-default user names so that a curious third-party has to guess both the username and the password to gain access.
• I never could get RTSP (real time streaming protocol) to work, though I tried QuickTime, Windows Media Player, and VLC. According to the manual, it is supposed to work by viewing the url rtsp://your.camera.ip.address/mpeg4 .   I was hoping I could use one of these programs and not even have to user a browser to view the video. Unfortunately, the camera wouldn't work with either. If I went to the root URL, I was prompet for a password and if I went to the /mpeg4 url, I was not prompted for a password and received only a "not found" error message.
  • Non-intuitive RTSP URLs; you shouldn't have to enter "/mpeg4" or "/3gp" to the end of the URL, the camera should auto-forward RSTP requests to the correct address.
• No default NTP (time) server specified in the firmware for auto-setting of camera time. (I just entered pool.ntp.org)
• The Motion Detection screen was very confusing to configure and gave very inconsistent results. There are "threshold" and "sensitivity" areas on the config screen, but I have no idea which slider position makes it more or less sensitive.
  • No support for secure SMTP email servers for sending Motion Detections pictures.  This means that you have to use the SMTP server provided by your ISP; it will not send pictures through your gmail account.
  • Requires ActiveX (Internet Explorer) for motion detect configuration.
  • 
• Overlay of motion event name is on top of date and time overlay, making it difficult to even understand what this setting does.
• No firmware updates from the manufacturer, which makes me wonder how committed they are to improving their product.

So even though I found several issues with advanced featues of the Zonet ZVC7630W, it does all of the requried basics very well and it doesn't have the "only works with Internet Explorer" problem that most other cameras have.  I highly recommend this network camera.