Monthly Archives: November 2006

BluewinTV and Logitech Harmony 880 remote

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so what’s the effect of using a brand new and exiting TV technology like IPTVe? you have a living room flooded with remote controls 😉

so my "home entertainment" system looks like this:

  1. TV
  2. Dolby Digital Reciever
  3. BluewinTV SetTopBox
  4. Digital Cable SetTopBox
  5. DVD Player
  6. XBox360

And of course all are from a different vendor… you get my point, right? 😉

that’s why I decided to purchase a Logitech Harmony remote control. i chose the Harmony 885 because of a bigger display, so you can configure more custom buttons per display page.

 

the setup was really easy for all my equipment, because everything was found in the huge logitech database, so no need to configure anything manually… until it gets to the BluewinTV STB 😀
i know that the STB is manufactured by Linksys… but since nearly every model has a different RC controller that does not buy me anything.

so there’s no way around manual configuration: for that you have to "learn" every keypress of the original BluewinTV remote with the Logitech Harmony 885 … so it takes around half an hour to have all keys in the system. But after that (to be honest: annoying) "programming" everything is fine… i just need to select "Watch IPTV" and the remote is automatically setting up my TV, my Dolby Digital reciever and my BluewinTV STB … no more handling of 3 remote controls 🙂

 

BluewinTV works like a charm with the Harmony 🙂 It’s even way better from my point of view than the original remote, because unlike this one, you don’t have to point the Logitech Harmony EXACTLY towards the STB… the tolerance here is much higher 🙂

microsoft hardware beta software for windows vista

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if you are owner of microsoft hardware like fingerprint reader, webcam, mouse, keyboard, etc you may have been dissappointed that these devices only have limited application support in windows vista so far. especially the missing IntelliPoint and LifeCam software was disturbing me.

but beta software for vista is now available from microsoft’s vista hardware support page.

UPDATE:
Unfortunately there is still no support for the Microsoft Habu included 🙁

network monitor 3 is RTW

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yeeha… finally… netmon3 is released to web.
i am using the beta version(s) of netmon3 since quite a while and i think it’s definitely not comparable to older versions of microsoft’s network monitor. while i really like ethereal / wireshark and think it’s a very very good network monitor, i think netmon3 is slightly better… and it’s free (like in free beer) as well. especially the possibility to create own parser very easily via script opens tons of new possibilities…

it will take some time until the download will appear on microsoft.com, in the meanwhile use these steps to get it already:

§ Go to http://connect.microsoft.com

§ Sign in with your passport account

§ Choose "Available Connections" on the left

§ Choose "Apply for Network Monitor 3.0” (once you’ve finished with the application, the selection appears in your "My Participation" page)

§ Go to the Downloads page (On the left side), and select the appropriate build 32 or 64 bit build.

give it a chance (it take some time to get used to the new UI) and feel free to report feedback here.

swisscom unlimited card & windows vista

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if you have one of these nice "unlimited cards" from swisscom, which are able to provide you with UMTS, GPRS, EDGE, HDSPA and WLAN connections, you might be happy to hear that this works now out of the box in windows vista without the need to install additional software.

  • insert the card and let windows vista install all drivers (needs connection to windows update)
  • after installation create a new dial-up connection with the following number and no username/PW:

*99***1#

  • done! 🙂

thanks to randy who provided this information!

microsoft habu

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i recieved a microsoft habu mouse from marco (thanks again for that) shortly before it was hitting the stores in early november. the habu is the first cooperation between razer and microsoft.

at our recent Underscore Mini-LAN i had a chance to finally test it out a little bit. Honestly: It rocks 😀
I cannot remember any mouse since the original Razer Boomslang back in 1999 that immediatley felt so good in the hand and played so smooth.

we played a lot of (quake-based) shooters, so the basic requirement was fast-movement and precise aiming. after a few minutes of testing I found mouse-sensitivity settings that were fitting to my gameplay style. while playing urbanterror i had an incredible SR-8 sniper rate… i even began rushing with the SR-8!

a few words to the mouse "outfit":
the blue light looks very slick, although this is not a criteria to buy a mouse for me (but obviously it is for my girlfriend ;)).
what i really like is the exchangable thumb-button plate: if you don’t like the position of the two thumb-buttons, you can exchange them with a different plate which has a different button placement. Nice idea!

In addition the scroll wheel "feeling" is great… it scrolls smooth like there is no raster behind it, nevertheless you get feedback of your scrolling.

all in all i am totally happy with that mouse… also a lot of my friends at the LAN made comments that they want to buy it 🙂
if the microsoft-razer partnership creates more of such good devices, i am really looking forward for more!

BluewinTV launched in Switzerland

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BluewinTV powered by our IPTVe technology was now finally anounced to the public by Swisscom 🙂
See below some pictures from the launch event:

 

 

It’s great to see after such a long time of preparation and work, how all that now pays off and a real product is approaching the market with full power.

Since it’s now officially released and not a "secret" anymore,I will now more often blog about BluewinTV and Microsoft IPTVe in general.