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Time Warner Cable will let you junk your set-top box next year | Internet & Media – CNET News

My Comments

Since the late 1980s, the American cable-TV industry had relied on the provision of a set-top box that they lease to customers as a way to control the business relationship. This was even though since the start of that decade, most “brown-goods” companies sold TVs and video-recorders with “cable-ready” tuners that can be directly connected to a cable-TV service.

The consumer-electronics industry and related press had been crying foul that the cable companies were effectively controlling their customers and these customers couldn’t gain access to desireable functions that the devices offered like picture-in-picture or improved remote controls. As well, the cable companies have required that customers use these set-top boxes for advanced services like pay-per-view TV and have supplied set-top boxes which are PVRs. Even the CableCARD technology which was to put more power in the customers’ hands has been met with frustration such as requiring a truck-roll for the installation of this equipment even though it could be supplied as a self-install kit.

A trend that is breaking through and affecting pay-TV is to use the home network to distribute the content to the display device. The need to bring this about was driven by the popularity of the Apple iPad and other tablet computers being used to personally view video content and these devices had effectively become an alternative to the old portable TV with the 12”-14” screen. The cable industry was also facing the reality of American households “cutting the cord” i.e. abandoning cable TV service and watching their video content either from free-to-air TV or online video services like Netflix and Hulu.

This has been aggravated through the availability of devices like multimedia-capable games consoles, Blu-Ray players and network video players that work as front-ends for the online video services.

In Australia, Foxtel woke up by providing IP-hosted pay-TV under the Foxtel Play / Foxtel Go banners where people just used particular games consoles, smart TVs, regular computers or mobile devices to watch Foxtel pay TV via the Internet.

Now Time Warner Cable have allowed a person who signs up to a “double-play” package of Internet and cable-TV with them to dispense with their set-top box if they use a Roku or XBox 360 to watch the TV content. This is starting to appear also as a trend amongst other US pay-TV firms and is overcoming various hurdles and requirements like closed-captioning, emergency alerts and “delay-to-the-gate” blackouts for sports broadcasts.

Here, these services may be offered as the “value option” for households who don’t need the PVR-capable set-top box whereas the PVR is offered for the packages with “all the fruit”. These packages would also integrate the IP-based functionality with, perhaps, support for network viewing of PVR-hosted content.

Personally, I would also see this evolve to other common platforms like the PlayStation 3 and the smart-TV / Blu-Ray-player platforms that the likes of Samsung, Sony and Panasonic are building up. It could end up as a chance for the cable industry to construct packages tariff charts and service options that exploit the capabilities of these IP-based setups.

Introduction

I am reviewing the Denon Urban Raver AH-D320 headset which is a circum-aural headset that can be used with smartphones or as a pair of regular headphones with other audio equipment. These headphones are pitched for most popular music such as dance music by having a strong bass response that can accent the bass line and rhythm.

Price

Recommended Retail Price: AUD$199

Type

The headset itself

The Denon Urban Raver AH-D320 headset is a well-built unit with a circum-aural solid-back earpiece design thus allowing for the strong bass response. They are available either with blue highlights or red highlights.

Connectivity

Detachable cable on this headset makes for something that will last a long time

A feature that I admire with the Denon Urban Raver AH-D320 headset is the use of a detachable cord which is able to be unplugged from the headset itself. This allows for a user to replace the cord with another one should the cord is damaged which is something that commonly happens with many headphones and earphones, often having the user write off a pair of headphones when this happens.

The fact that the microphone and controls are integrated in one of the earpieces rather than an inline pod or a boom attached to the headset, and the headset uses a single-sided connection as well means that a simple four-conductor cable with a 3.5mm four-conductor plug at each end can be bought or made up easily should something happen to the cable. It also does away with the need for a boom which can be easily broken off through regular use.

This headset worked with my Sansung Galaxy Note II phone as a proper smartphone headset. The limitation here with Android phones is that the only remote control ability is the multifunction button functionality for starting and stopping music or answering / ending calls.

It also works properly as a pair of regular headphones with most devices that use the 3.5mm stereo headphone jack or a 6.5mm stereo-headphone jack adaptor.

Where the mocrophone and smartphone-control knob is on these headphones

As for durability, these headphones look to me as though they could last a long time. This is through the absence of any earcup supports that could easily break after a fair bit of use and the wiring that exists to pass the sound to the other earcup isn’t just a wire integrated in the headband. Instead there is the use of metal strips that are pat of the headband’s design when you adjust the headphones for your head that does the job.

Comfort

The Denon Urban Raver AH-D320 headset felt tight but didn’t feel very “sticky” even for long journeys. As well, I hadn’t noticed the headband very much because of the use of an appropriate amount of padding. Here, you could wear these “cans” for a significant amount of time without them becoming uncomfortable.

Sound

The Denon Urban Raver AH-D320 headset is very efficient in that you don’t need to turn the volume up to have the sound come through clearly. This is a bonus for headsets that are pitched for portable equipment like smartphones and tablets because if you don’t need to turn the equipment up loud to gain that ideal sound, you are saving on battery runtime. As well, there is a chance for the headset to sound its best without requiring the device’s amplifier to clip.

The music comes across with a lot more bite across the frequencies thus being able to sound clear and without any colouring which could cause fatigue.

I have noticed the very tight bass response but these headphones can sound muddled on some tracks where there is a lot of competition in the bass end such as a bass-guitar along with drums. The other instruments do come across clearly even though there is the preference for the bass response on this headset.

I made a phone call using this headset and the caller’s voice had come across very clearly and they were able to hear and understand me through the headset’s microphone. As well, the headset’s microphone worked properly with Google Voice by being able to pass through what I said clearly to the Android smartphone.

As for use in noisy environments, the Denon Urban Raver AH-D320s worked well by providing some noise reduction. I had used them in the CBD (downtown area) of Melbourne and noticed some reduction in the city noise but was able to hear essential noises that alert me to vehicle presence.

As well, I had noticed a distinct noise reduction when I was using them while sitting up the back of a regular transit bus through a long journey. Here, I was able to hear the program content from my phone even as the bus was at cruising speed and had noticed less of the engine noise. This would improve on their suitability for people who ride on diesel trains or buses where there is the increased noise during travel.

Other Usage Notes

I let some friends who are in to funk, soul, 70s-era American disco and related music try the Denon Urban Raver AH-D320 headphones with their Samsung phones which were full with this music. They tried it with Daft Punk’s northen-summer party anthem of 2013 “Get Lucky” and Stevie Wonder’s classic “Jammin’” and were very impressed with the way these headphones came across with these numbers. One of them who used to be a DJ in the disco heyday of the 70s found that these headphones had a better response to the $1000 cans he used in those days.

Limitations and Points Of Improvement

Denon could provide a microphone-headphone breakout cable and/or a USB communications-audio module as optional accessories for their headsets. These accessories would please gamers who use them as communications headsets for their favourite online games.

They, like other headset manufacturers could provide an inline switch on the cable for switching between Apple or OMTP headset wiring to provide maximum compatibility with smartphones or other communications devices that use either wiring.

Another point of improvement, which could lead to a model variation, would be to offer a Bluetooth wireless variant. Here, they can offer the wireless link that a lot of us crave for our mobile devices.

Conclusion

I would recommend the Denon Urban Raver AH-D320 headset as a cost-effective decent headset that does justice to most popular music. Here, these headphones could come in to play as a step-up from that pair of cheaper headphones that you use with your smartphone or media player or could work as a pair of DJ “cue” headphones.

They would also be a good gift idea for something to give someone who is in to rock, soul, dance or similar popular music and a group of people who pitch in together for these headphones, like a couple or family, can ease the burden when it comes to purchasing these as a gift.

Statement Of Benefit

After realising that there was a friend of mine loves his rock music wery much, I have purchased a set of these headphones close to Christmas to give to him as a gift. I was able to purchase the set for AUD$99 off the recommended retail price effectively from the distributor’s warehouse door.

In my first part of the series on this year’s International Funkaustellung 2013 trade show, I had covered the personal IT trends that were being underscored here. These were the rise and dominance of the highly-capable Android smartphone, the arrival of the large-screen “phablet” smartphones, Sony offering high-grade digital-photo abilities to smartphones and improving on these in their smartphones, the convertible and detachable-keyboard notebook-tablet computers becoming a mature device class as well as the arrival of the smartwatch as a real product class.

Now I am focusing on what is to happen within the home for this second part.

Television-set and home AV technology

The television set is still considered an integral part of the connected home, especially as a group-viewing display device for content delivered via the Internet or the home network.

4K Ultra-high-definition TVs

Most of the activity surrounding the 4K ultra-high-definition TV technology has been with manufacturers releasing second-generation 4K models with the focus on the 55” and 65” screen sizes. It is also the time when the HDMI 2.0 connection specification, which yields the higher throughput for the 4K ultra-high-definition video plus support for 32 audio streams and more, has been called and most of these manufacturers are accommodating this in their second-generation designs whether baked in or as a firmware update as in the case of Sony’s newly-released 55” and 65” 4K designs.

Panasonic had initially held off with releasing a 4K set but released the Smart VIERA WT600 which is a 55” OLED 4K which had the “second-generation” credentials like the aforementioned high-speed HDMI 2.0 connection. LG had launched a pair of 4K models with one having a 50-watt soundbar and “micro-dimming” which adjusts the screen brightness in an optimum manner for the video material. Even Haier, the Chinese consumer-goods manufacturer had jumped in on the 4K bandwagon.

There are still the very-large-screen 4K UHDTV sets with screens of 84” to 94”. Now Samsung have launched 4K models with astonishing screen sizes of 98” and 110”.

At the moment, there is some work taking place concerning the delivery of content with the 4K screen resolution. Sony have set up a download-based content delivery service with the FMP-X1 hard-disk-based media player and based around a rental-based or download-to-own business model. Samsung is partnering with Eutelsat to deliver 4K UHDTV broadcasts to the home using satellite-TV technology as well as others working with the Astra satellite team to achieve a similar goal.

OLED TV screens

Another key trend that is affecting the “main-lounge-room” TV set is the OLED display reaching 55” and above in screen size. Those of you who own or have used a Samsung, HTC or Sony smartphone will have seen this technology in action on the phone’s display.

Samsung and LG have increased their factory output of these large-size screens which has allowed the material price of these screens to become cheaper. Here, it has allowed for more manufacturers to run an OLED model in their lineup, whether with a flat display or a convex curved display. Most of these models are 4K displays and have a 55” screen. Haier even went to the lengths of designing a 55” flat OLED TV that is in a housing that can’t easily be tipped over while LG had fielded a model with a flat OLED screen and a model with a curved OLED screen.

For that matter, LG improved on the aesthetics of the flatscreen TV by implementing a “picture-frame” design which make the TV look like a beautiful large piece of art on the wall. This was augmented with a screenshow collection of artworks that are part of the TV’s firmware.

Other TV and home-AV trends

Brought on by the Philips Ambilight background-lighting initiative, some of the manufacturers are integrating LED-based background lights in to their TVs to provide the complimentary lighting. Philips even took this further with the ability to synchronise LED-based multicolour room lighting with their set’s Ambilight background lighting.

What I also suspect is happening with TVs destined for the European market is that they will be equipped with DVB-T2 digital TV tuners. This is to complement the arrival of DVB-T2 TV-station multiplexes in various countries that are primarily offering HDTV broadcasts.

Sony is also taking a stab at high-grade home audio by building up a file-based music distribution system that implements hard-disk-based media players with one downloading the music as files and syncing it to these hard-disk media players. Like SACD, this technology is meant to sound as good as the studio master tapes. Comments have been raised about the provision of two different files for each album or song – one that is mastered to best-quality standards where there is the full dynamic range another file, packaged as an MP3 perhaps, that has compression and limiting for casual or “noisy-environment” listening.

The home network

TV via the home network

Broadcast-LAN devices

There has been a fair bit of activity on the “broadcast-LAN” front courtesy of the SAT-IP initiative for satellite TV which I previously touched on. This has manifested in a few satellite-based broadcast-LAN boxes that are equipped with multiple tuners showing up at this year’s show including one 2-tuner model from Devolo and one four-tuner DLNA-equipped model from Grundig.

Similarly, SiliconDust have brought in the SimpleTV service model to Europe which provides a network-hosted PVR and broadcast-LAN setup for regular TV. I would see this has having great traction with Europeans because all of the European countries have free-to-air offerings anchored by the well-funded public TV services like BBC, ARD/ZDF, France Télévisions, and DR which yield content of high production and artistic quality. AVM have also used this show to launch a SAT-IP-compliant broadcast-LAN setup for the DVB-C cable-TV networks that exist primarily in Europe but links to an existing Wi-Fi network segment which wouldn’t let the device do its job in an optimum manner.

Other TV-over-Internet technology

Philips has also joined in the “over-the-top” cloud-driven TV party that Intel and Google were in by putting up their concept of a “virtual-cable” service delivered via the Internet.

LAN technologies

Wi-Fi wireless networks

Even though the 802.11ac high-speed Wi-Fi wireless network standard isn’t ratified by the IEEE, nearly every major manufacturer of home-network equipment has at least one, if not two, wireless routers that support this technology. Some even supply USB network-adaptor dongles that allow you to benefit from this technology using your existing computer equipment.

HomePlug powerline networks

There have been a few HomePlug AV2 adaptors appearing with the Continental-style “Schuko” AC plug on them, such as the Devolo dLAN 650+ and the TP-Link TLP-6010 but the manufacturers wouldn’t really state whether these fully work to the HomePlug AV2 standard. They are typically rated at 600Mbps for their link speed and are at the moment the Single-stream type.

As for Devolo, they have launched the dLAN 500 WiFi which is a HomePlug AV 500 “extension access point” for wireless networks. Here, Devolo have made an attempt in the right direction for “quick setup” of multiple-access-point Wi-Fi segments by implementing a “settings-clone” function. But this works using the HomePlug AV backbone and only where you use multiple dLAN 500 WiFi access points on the same backbone.

Home Automation

Some of the appliance manufacturers have gone down the “connected path” by equipping some of the top-end appliance models with Wi-Fi connectivity and implementing a manufacturer-developed dashboard app for the iOS and/or Android mobile platform. Here, these apps either work as a secondary control surface for the appliance or provide extended setup and configuration options that aren’t available on the appliance’s control surface.

Samsung went about this with their high-end washing machine where they use this connectivity as a remote “dashboard” so you can know if the machine is underway and on the correct cycle or be able to be notified when the washing is done. Philips uses a similar setup for their multifunction countertop cooker but it allows you to determine a recipe on your phone and dump that down to the cooker. But this, like a similarly-equipped coffee machine was really a proof-of-concept machine.

Thomson had offered a convincing home-automation kit which uses its own connectivity technology but can connect to Z-Wave or Zigbee networks using a bridge module. My question about this kit is whether you can start out with what is supplied but grow beyond by adding in the extra modules from Thomsom or other third parties as required.

Other Trends

This year has become a key year for vehicle builders to push forward connected app-driven infotainment and telematics in their vehicles that will hit European roads. It implements a mobile broadband connection to the car via the driver’s smartphone or another device along with apps for popular online services optimised for safe use in the car or to work with the car.

It has been exemplified by Ford implementing a “SYNC AppLink” setup that allows users to control favourite smartphone apps from their vehicle’s dashboard, including the ability to support voice control.

Conclusion

It certainly shows that at this year’s IFA, the personal IT products like tablets, convertible notebook computers and large-screen smartphones are becoming a very diverse and mature product class while the 4K ultra high definition TV technology is gaining some traction as a real display class.