OpenMedia

A very big thank you to everyone involved with LCA 2008 in Melbourne. Not just the organisers and speakers, but the awesome participation by all of the delegates.

The slides for all of the talks should now be online, as well as videos for most of the sessions, see conference website for more details

OpenMedia was very pleased to have a chance to participate this year in the following sessions and events, and we are really looking forward to LCA 2009 in Hobart.

Monday 29^th January – Multimedia Mini Conf

• Lightening talk on Digital TV in NZ

Tuesday 29^th January – SysAdmin MiniConf

• Reliable, Repeatable, Reproducible Infrastructure
• Improving Operations and Systems Management using Trac

Wednesday 30^th January – main conference program

• The Consumer View of Technology

Friday 1^st February

• MythTV BOF

Saturday 2^nd February

• MythTV Stand at the OpenDay

Steven from OpenMedia will be giving three talks at this years Linux.conf.au in Melbourne. As part of the SysAdmin miniconf on Tuesday 29^th he is giving the following two talks -

• Reliable, Repeatable, Reproducible Infrastructure
• Improving Operations and Systems Management using Trac

On Wednesday he will be giving the following talk as part of the main conference program -

• The Consumer View of Technology

If you happen to be in Melbourne from the 28^th Jan – 2^nd Feb then say hi or grab him for a chat.

Steve from OpenMedia had the great privileged of being able to present two sessions at yesterday’s Auckland BarCamp. Many thanks to Ludwig and his great team for organising such an amazing event, along with one of the best conference T-Shirts I’ve ever seen.

It was a great opportunity to catch up with Regan from Throng, Robert O’Callahan from Mozilla, and a number of the guys off geekzone.co.nz including Mauricio Freitas and Fossie.

Our presentations included a round up on the state of Digital TV in New Zealand, including a Live Demo of freeview’s DTT test channels. Steve also talked on the challenges facing Open Source adoption, in particular issues around media playback given existing patent restrictions. You can find links to both of the presentations below.

• Digital TV Update
• We’re Not Really There Yet

We hope to have an update at http://www.mythtv.co.nz shortly on the DTT testing, including details on the use of AAC audio on the TVNZ multiplex. It looks like we are in for a very interesting DTT platform.

Keep your eyes open for the OpenMedia team in Portland Oregon over the next week as we will be attending both UbuntuLive and O’Reilly’s OSCON 2007.

There are some great sessions on emerging technology including OpenMoko, as well as a chance to catch up with the Mythbuntu team.

Feel free to catch up with us over one of Portland’s many excellent Micro Brew beers.

Three articles on freeview from this weekend’s Herald are available on their website

• ‘Future TV’ angers viewers
• The Freeview revolution
• Set-top box firms launch price war for Freeview dollar

It would appear that the switch to wide-screen by TV3 and C4 has provoked a negative reaction from a number of consumers. Time will tell if NZ is really ready for 16:9 TV.

We also expect the initial use of the DTH (satellite) service exceed the 30,000 predicted by the Herald. Even in the larger cities there are a lot of people who won’t be able to get the DTT (terrestrial) service. The recent advertising blitz by Sky TV to get people with old unused dishes to reconnect is also a good sign.

A lot of consumers will be holding out for the arrival of TVs with integrated digital tuners. Word of warning – make sure that that will support the NZ terrestrial service as existing units designed for the UK and Australia might not work here.

Also OpenMedia would like to clarify that we don’t provide EPG data. We have been working on supporting the EPG data streams that are part of the freeview platform. As well as supporting the official freeview MHEG-5 based EPG, we provide our own integrated EPG software that allows consumers to record from a Sky Box, directly off freeview in digital quality, and off their old VHF/UHF aerial. No need to worry about selecting the correct input as myPVR does it all automatically. Lastly unlike the new official freeview STBs, myPVR provides a digital video connection for newer screens.

OpenMedia and myPVR got a special mention in this weekends Herald article titled “TV – but not as we know it“.

Sadly the on-line version of the story doesn’t include the picture of Steven (our self confessed geek) demoing myPVR that is included on page B9 of the printed edition.

For more details on myPVR‘s support for freeview see our new info page.

OpenMedia have now launched a website dedicated to myPVR. This new website mypvr.co.nz will have all of the most up-to-date information on myPVR and where it stands in the world of freeview digital television.

OpenMedia is also pleased to announce that myPVR now ships with a dual core CPU as standard. By using AMD energy efficient CPUs we can provide the best levels of computing power, whilst maintaining a low system temperature.

OpenMedia are proud to announce their association with Axent Audio and Freeview Shop who are now selling myPVR. For further information please take a look at our new myPVR Sales Page. Otherwise you can contact Ben Carroll at Axent audio on 09 827 1220 for a myPVR Demo, or just take a look at the freeviewshop website.

OpenMedia are very pleased to announce that its market leading myPVR Personal Digital Video Recorder now comes with a built-in web browser based virtual remote control.

Customers who would otherwise be unable to use a standard remote control unit to perform operations such as setting TV recordings and playback, changing TV channels and watching their favourite TV show can now achieve these things simply and easily. These customers can now use a standard web browser on their own home computer to control their myPVR.

OpenMedia believe that this innovation is a world first, and confirmation of the ability of the Open Source software development community to respond rapidly and effectively to end user’s needs. In particular OpenMedia would like to thank one of their customers – Thane Pullan a young man from Christchurch with Cerebral Palsy, whose particular needs prompted the development. He said:

This development is expected to be of practical benefit as an accessibility solution to people around the world.

The work has been released to the Open Source community under the Gnu Public License, and as an optional add-on to MythTV which forms the foundation of myPVR. OpenMedia would like to acknowledge the Open Source community for its timely help in providing solutions to components of the final product.

Specialised adaptations to the accessibility aspects of computers have enabled handicapped people to enjoy access to modern information processing and entertainment technology comparable to that offered to the general public.

Handicapped users of the myPVR Personal Video Recorder are now able to use their computer, as tailored to their own requirements, to tune into TV programs, record and play back programs, DVDs and CDs, and manage their library of videos and music.

For a demo of the Virtual Remote Control please click through for the standard version or the alternative wide layout.

Traditional Remote Control	Web Virtual Remote