Post-CEDIA with HT Guys' Ara Derderian
Dolby Podcast Episode 48, September 25, 2008
Ara Derderian from the HT Guys podcast shares what was hot in home theater at the 2008 CEDIA show. Find out about his top pick – the DirectTV PC Tuner – plus what he thinks of Dolby Volume, OLED TVs and other home theater products.
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Mentioned in this Episode
Craig Eggers: Streaming to you from our headquarters in San Francisco, this is Dolbycast, the insider's guide to entertainment technologies from the experts at Dolby Laboratories. We're here to give you the straight talk and news on everything you need to know about technologies that excite your eyes and ears.
We are back at Dolbycast, and as promised, we have some very special guests today. Joining us via phone is Ara Derderian. Ara works with Braden. He is part of the HT Guys podcast. You can access their podcast at www.htguys.com. Great friends of our program, Ara and Braden do podcasts on HDTV and home theater. They've been a great friend of Dolby, and we've had them on our show before. We brought them back to talk about the CEDIA show. This is tradeshow season, so let's get the scoop from those guys.
Ara, welcome back to Dolbycast.
Ara Derderian: Thank you, it's great to be here. I always enjoy the podcast and it's always a pleasure to be on the podcast.
Craig: I know you guys do a really great job, and we're enthusiastic about the things you do in the marketplace.
Ara: Thanks, yeah we have a great time with it. We started the show about three years ago and we were wondering if it would take of or if anybody would listen. Three years later we have about 45.000 to 50.000 listeners all over the world, and our enthusiasm has gotten even stronger with each year that we do the show, so it's a lot of fun. Home theater is a great hobby.
Craig: You would have to say you have 50,000 listeners [laughter].
Ara: You know it's funny. I threw out that number and then I listen to shows like Twit or other stuff on Revision3, and I think "geez, we're so small compared to them", but I realize that is a pretty large number.
Craig: So Ara, where is Braden?
Ara: Braden is AWOL. He was supposed to be here at 4:30. He's probably in southern California traffic. He's probably running a bit late. When he gets here, let's give him a bit of a hard time about it, but I'm going to hold down the fort until he gets here.
Craig: Let's do that, but before we get there to refresh our listeners, give us a bit of history about you and Braden and where you come from and what you're doing now.
Ara: Sure. Braden and I met when we were working for Sony Pictures. We worked in their Advanced Digital Systems Group and that was part of the sound department at the studio and we developed equipment for the sound stages for Hollywood and we just got the love of sound and home theater there.
And while working there we got involved from a, we weren't working in the high definition area, but we were involved in some trade shows. We would go and share booths, and we were seeing some stuff that blew us away and that just sparked this love for that technology. And eventually, Braden and I left Sony, but the thrill and excitement of home theater stayed with us and when podcasting hit, I guess it seems a bit over three years ago, we decided to try it out and here we are.
Craig: Well, you guys have certainly been successful.
Ara: Thanks, yeah it's a lot of fun. It's a lot of work, too. My wife would be the first one to tell you that.
Craig: Tell that to my boss. So this really seems to be the tradeshow season. I mean we just came off of the IFA show in Europe, which is a huge, huge show. A lot of the the major consumer electronics companies have huge halls. I know that I saw you at the CEDIA show. Coming up at the end of September, early October is the CEATEC show in Japan were all the coolest little gadgets are highlighted and i know if you're into photography there is the Photokina show coming up in Europe.
Ara: Yeah.
Craig: It really seems to be a season for tradeshows.
Ara: Right, and then as you extend it just a little bit more, you can either say that CES kicks off the season and then there is a long hiatus, or it's kind of like the dessert of the trade shows. So Braden and I would typically go to two trade shows. We will go to the CEDIA and we will go to CES. IFA, we would love to go to and CEATEC, but the HT Guys' travel budget is a little bit constrained, so we just keep it to the shows that are in the U.S.
Craig: So the next time I will see you will be at the CES then.
Ara: That's correct.
Craig: So you attended CEDIA. I saw you there.
Ara: Yeah.
Craig: And you attended our press dinner.
Ara: Yes, I sure did. I met a lot of people in the industry there. It was a nice dinner.
Craig: We had some great announcements at CEDIA which we will talk about in just a second, but let's talk about CEDIA just for a moment.
Give our listeners a bit of a background. What is CEDIA? What do they do? Who attends the show? What types of products will we see there?
Ara: It's the Custom Electronics Dealers' and Installers' Association. It's really a show for dealers and installers. It's not so much for the typical consumer.
However, there is a lot of stuff that ends up for the consumer there. There's a lot of press there as well, so if you're not in the industry, you're not going to be able to get in. So it's kind of like a private party, if you will. But a lot of cool stuff in like home automation, networking, video distribution, that kind of stuff is what you're really going to see there. A lot of TV and that kind of stuff. There were some new televisions displayed there, but most of that stuff is showing up at CES for whatever reason.
Craig: And what's really neat about the show is, before the actual tradeshow event where all the manufacturers have their expositions and exhibitions, there is a whole training element related to the whole CEDIA show genre, if you will.
Ara: Yeah, and there's classes, so if you really want to learn about your trade basically - how to do installations, how to do calibrations - there is that aspect of it. It's not just a trade show, it's also a training. That's a very good point. It's a little bit different than just like a consumer show.
Craig: These people not only know the products, but they also know how to best make them work together, how to put them together, how to drag wire through walls. These people are really the experts, aren't they?
Ara: Right, and what's cool is when you see them they're all exchanging tips and tricks, and I'm sure maybe if you have a competitor in your market there, maybe you're not going to do that. But they come in from all over the world for that matter and so there's a lot of people helping each other out. I find it a really fun show. It's smaller than CES, and since it's more focused I find I can cover a lot more ground in less time.
Craig: I also find it as a high‑end kind of guy, I really appreciate the CEDIA show, because that is where you see some very coolest of the cool products.
Ara: Yeah, exactly. Some of that stuff that is like out of reach for the mere mortal, but is stuff you dream about. We saw this one display at Stewart Filmscreen, and it was this glass projective screen. It had a film on it and it got projected from behind. So I'm asking the guy how much it cost, and by the time it was done, it was something like $20,000, and you still had to have a custom cabinet build for it. It was a little bit out of my price range for what he was calling a "bedroom projector.
Craig: A "bedroom projector"?
Ara: Yeah, exactly.
Craig: So, did you get a chance to come by the Dolby exhibit?
Ara: Yes, I did, and in fact I brought a few people with me and I said, "you got to take a listen to that Dolby Volume" that you had in your - what's the word - cinema and you guys did a fantastic job with that. It sounded incredible.
Craig: I have to give credit to our producer and his cohort, John. We put together an entirely new revised theater. We had a 9-foot Stewart screen, a Joe Kane Samsung calibrated projector, PMC speaker system and Bryston amplifiers, and I got to tell you I didn't get a chance to hear it before the show and I know that Jamie, our producer, brought me inside and said "you got to sit down and see this and listen to this", and I was blown away. It did a great job.
Ara: It was really nice, and what I liked about the show, again, is it is little less crowded, so you had a theater at CES, but there was always a long line to get into it. This one, the show is accessible. You didn't really have to wait very long to get into it. I think they made it so more people could enjoy it. Also, you guys were displaying this new technology for LCDs, which I thought was very interesting.
Craig: High dynamic range technology, enchanted contrast, enhanced blackness. Yeah, it is a great technology and we really think we can move the LCD business forward looking into the future. We had 4 real themes in that theatre presentation, obviously the first was Dolby TrueHD, 100% lossless audio.
And the second presentation was built around Dolby Digital Plus, and how it can complement the interactive audio features of Blu‑ray disc, the secondary audio capability.
And then as you mentioned the HDR technology, which provides incredible picture quality, brings a whole new level of contrast and brightness to an LCD display.
And then finally, quite frankly, was the highlight for the show for me, which was the very first AV receivers with Dolby Volume.
Ara: They were really nice looking ones, too, a little big in size, but you could tell very professional-looking. The only knock I have - I don't want to say it's a knock - it's just they were the high end. They were the flagship-type receivers, so it's probably going to be a little bit of a while before we get something like that in more of a lower/mid‑range type of receiver.
Craig: Yeah, I would love to see Dolby Volume in a broader range of products, and we are working towards that. But I am also gratified by the fact that high‑end companies - AudioControl, Arcam, Harman - chose to adopt Dolby Volume in their products.
It proves to me that this is a technology that spans a very, very wide range of consumer activities and enthusiast activities. People who demand the very highest quality as well as people who want to listen to consistent volume levels, to be able to turn their system late at night and hear the entire sound track. Dolby Volume solves all those problems and I was particularly gratified to see Dolby Volume implement it - even in the high end products that we talked about.
Ara: Yeah and I will tell you just a couple nights ago my wife and I are watching The Fringe. I don't know if you had the chance to check out that show. It's kind of like X‑Files little more up to date. High definition, Dolby Digital – it's really nice, but when the commercials came on she looked to me and literally said when is that receiver coming?", because I keep telling her Dolby solved this problem. And I said, "You know what, we could probably have it at Christmas time. So I am working that. I haven't told her what it costs and so I am just going to make it to the point where she just says, "go get it", and not ask any questions right. Easier to ask for forgiveness then ask for permission.
Craig: There you go. So to our listeners check out the Harman Kardon website, Arcam website, AudioControl, and we continue to work with hardware manufacturers in the industry. And I expect that we will also have an in‑depth program coming up sometime soon on Dolbycast, talking about Dolby Volume - really giving you the scoops as to why it really is an incredibly remarkable technology in the marketplace.
We are going to take a short break, and we are going to come back and talk to Ara and, hopefully, Braden when he shows up and we will talk about some of the other cool things that we saw at CEDIA. So standby, this is Dolbycast.
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Announcer: If you have questions for the experts at Dolby Laboratories, email us at dolbycast@dolby.com. That's dolbycast@dolby.com. For more information and links pertaining to today's topic, be sure to logon to dolby.com/dolbycast.
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Craig: And we are back at Dolbycast. Joining us by phone is our special friend, Mr. Ara Derderian of the HT Guys. And Ara, I have to ask again, where is Braden?
Ara: [laughter] That's going to be a recurring theme. I have to say Braden is overworked – he really is – so I am going to cut him some slack on this, and you know, I think I am going to buy him a calendar.
Craig: You know, I don't think we're cutting him any slack and when he hears this podcast, I don't know what the reaction is going to be.
Ara: I know we are all playing. Braden is a good guy. I am sure he's got a very good excuse.
Craig: One of the things I saw at CEDIA was we are starting to see more and more of the high-end guys - the Rotels, the Krells, if you will and other companies - start to introduce Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD into the standalone processors. And I know that for a guy like me that's got five amplifiers and a processor, that's something that I want.
Ara: Yeah, and it is something I aspire to. I don't know that my wife does. Again, I brought that up again. Something about my finance - I call her my finance committee. And yeah, there is some really nice high end stuff out there, and yeah, I would like to have something like that as well.
Craig: Some nice designs and I tell you what blew me away was the D'Agostino, folks. They had the Krell 707. This thing is 10 inches high, solid aluminum case almost and it is $30,000. So, Ara, if you have $30,000, you want to outfit the processors at my home theater, go at it.
Ara: You know what I want a Mustang Shelby Cobra, before I think I want that. And that's not even enough. That gets me half way there, so.
Craig: There you go. I didn't get a chance at CES to really get out of our exhibit and I know that Panasonic introduced their 80‑inch plasma at CES this past year. And I have to tell you for the first time ever I actually saw it at a trade show and it was pretty spectacular.
Ara: Panasonic has great plasmas. We actually call them "the-best-bang-for-your-buck plasma". We look at Pioneer and plasma. Pioneer leads in plasma. Pioneer is the "go to" plasma, if we have to make a recommendation or anything.
And it's for two different markets, too, right? What I like about the Panasonic is that you can get a really good plasma for a decent price. Pioneer - you are going to get the top quality, but you pay for it. One thing I noted, I talked to the guys at Panasonic and they told me there was going to be...like you said, I think you said there is nothing new there. The stuff still looks fantastic though.
Craig: It's incredible.
Ara: I asked them "when's all your new stuff coming?" and they said look for some stuff coming out at CES, so that kind of got me excited about that. And the other thing is I asked them about their ultra thin plasmas that we saw at the CES last year, or I guess, it's this year. And they said that's still about 10 to 11 months away before it actually gets into the marketplace.
Craig: Is that right?
Ara: Yeah.
Craig: Well, talking about ultra thin, Sony introduced a plasma television. Actually no, it wasn't plasma it was LCD, wasn't it?
Ara: Yeah.
Craig: And they said it was the thickness of a Blu‑ray case?
Ara: This is what I am looking for and when I see stuff like this I start wondering about the OLED, because one of the big things about the OLED is less power - it's lighter, it's very thin. But when you start getting LCDs in that range, you almost start wondering if OLED doesn't get on the market soon, it may become obsolete before it gets here.
Craig: Sony was showing their 11‑inch OLEDs - obviously spectacular picture, but $2,300 for an 11‑inch screen.
I didn't get a chance to see the really thin Sony set. What did they do with regards to audio and processing? Is that built into the device or is it a satellite device? How does that work?
Ara: That's a good question. I didn't look into that and some of these manufactures are actually putting it vertically in the bottom portion of the television. And so what ends up happening is the bezel on the bottom ends up being like 6‑inches tall. But I did notice that on the Sony where they are putting that. That's a good question.
And now with the wireless technology coming out, we are going to see a lot more of it actually separate from the display. You could actually put it in your home theatre rack or something and then beam it wirelessly to the display panel.
Craig: That makes a lot of sense.
Front projection is still a big part of home theater. Projectors are coming down in price, the value is going up. I didn't get a chance to really spend a lot of time at Planar or Runco or any of the other exhibits. Did you get a chance to really see anything cool in projection?
Ara: No, we don't focus too much on projection here, although I know a lot of our listeners want us to.
The bulk of our listeners are in the flat panel or actually some rear projection, a few of those guys left. But front projection is an area I want to get into, and the prices – and here is the reason I'm thinking about it is the prices are coming down. Panasonic had a nice projector that they announced at the show. You can get 1080p out of these projectors and you can throw up a 10‑foot wide image, and it looks fantastic. That will really give you the full home theater experience.
Craig: While we're talking about the big screen experience, if you will, I guess one of my laments, Ara, is the fact that rear projection seems to be becoming a thing of the past.
Ara: Yeah, I'm disappointed about that as well, I own two of them. One of them, a 65‑inch Mitsubishi and, you know what, bang for your buck, you can't get a better deal. I've seen over at Costco. They had a 61‑inch Samsung with a stand for less than $2,000. I thought that was a fantastic deal. It puts out a really nice picture. It's just a bummer that everyone is going to the flat panel displays.
That's not a bummer that they are going to that, but it's a bummer that they are doing it at the expense of the rear projection. But, if you think about shipping and how hard it is to get a TV that big delivered and installed, it kind of makes sense.
Craig: I've got a 65 inch-wide DLP in my theater. I'm not going to trade it out. I'm really happy with the performance. I do have to say though it's a product that you definitely want to get calibrated.
But to your point. The bang for the buck, the value, the experience that you get for what you invest and the large experience that you get for the investment is pretty incredible.
Ara: You bring a good point up about calibration. In general, it's very true about the DLPs, because you will see a significant picture improvement with some proper calibration. But all TVs, in general, a lot of people will bring them home and just turn them on and not do anything about it.
We say, at a minimum, if you just take it off the default setting and just put it on say "cinema" or "movie"" or something like that, you will make an improvement over the standard setting in the showroom.
One thing I did find interesting, Samsung now has on their televisions. The first time you power up, it says, "Are you using this in your home versus is this in a showroom?" If you answer "yes", it takes it off the default and puts it into a cinema‑type setting, that is actually pretty good right out of the box.
Craig: So I understand you were also at the Mitsubishi exhibit at CEDIA.
Ara: Yeah, again Samsung and Mitsubishi are the only ones that have the rear projection now and I did see the laser view. Some fantastic colors, fantastic contrast. The one thing I noticed with the laser view is I noticed a little bit more like silk screen effect. I spoke to the engineers there and they said it's a Gen 1, and they are working on it, but the potential of that television down the road is really high. I'm looking forward to that.
It's a little bit pricey at this point, and you can only get it through custom installers. I think it's going for about $7,000.
Craig: Is that right? Wow.
Ara: Yeah, but prices will come down. When they get it fine tuned via firmware update or what have you, it's going to look fantastic.
Craig: I know our friends at Mitsubishi are introducing 3D‑ready television sets into the marketplace. You told me an interesting story about watching some video games in 3D.
Ara: Yeah, they had a demo at Samsung, actually, the 3D. But the chips they use for the DLP all support the 3D. I found the game could be more engaging. When you're looking at it in 3D, it's kind of new. They had a car racing game up, and it really did enhanced the game.
The neat thing about it is the glasses they use aren't those blue and green glasses like you had from the 50s. These really made the 3D jump off the screen. Cool technology. I'm looking forward to where it's going go.
Craig: I think when we're talking about home theatre, it really always has been about the experience ‑ the big screen experience obviously, the experience of surround sound. Now, when you look towards the future I think the 3D experience is going to be part of home entertainment. It certainly is something we will be looking at moving forward.
Ara: Yeah, definitely. It's the next step, and in fact a lot of the Hollywood producers are actually talking about that and producing a lot of movies with 3D in mind. So yes, I'm looking forward to when it becomes just commonplace.
Craig: I want to go to another area. We've been talking about home theater and inside the house.
But one of the things I noticed walking through the aisles of CEDIA was the phenomena, if you will, of outdoor entertainment. I saw LCD displays, with water being sprayed on them. Tell us, what was that about?
Ara: Yeah, that is pretty cool. They have it in, a lot of people, especially out here in California - I guess all over the country for that matter, but in California I guess we can use them year around. They have these really nice patios, and they've got these TVs that are kind of inside a outdoor counter and it lifts up. Imagine you are out there barbecuing or if you got a Jacuzzi or something and you want to watch the game. It's a great way to do that out in the backyard.
What I saw, these things are good down to like 10 below zero and 140 degrees when you have electronics on, it heats it up – so incredible range in temperature.
The other place that that technology actually works in the bathroom, believe it or not. I've got friends that say, "God, don't you have some downtime?" And I say, yeah in the morning you're getting ready, I have the news on.
Craig: Stock report in the shower.
Ara: Not in the shower, but there is an area right between the two mirrors in my master bathroom that I'm trying to figure out how to put a TV in there. The thing is it gets steamy in there when you take a shower and you need something with the electronics protected from moisture. This is kind of where they are going.
Craig: What does the financial committee say about this endeavor?
Ara: Believe it or not but this is one of the things she is OK with, because we have a Sling box and she will take our laptop into the bathroom while we're getting ready in the morning and she just has it on the news. I always tell her, "How would you feel if I would have that right there on the wall and you don't have to have the laptop?" And she is kind of, "Well, this works just fine." But that is not good enough for an HT Guy.
Craig: I think, besides doing a podcast, you must be a remarkable sales person.
Ara: I have a very forgiving wife and you know, she just says "that's his hobby" and she's okay with it.
Craig: I have this vision of doing a throw down with Bobby Flay. You're out on your own grill, grilling up something, watching Bobby on the Food Channel, kind of competing vicariously with Bobby Flay. What do you think?
Ara: That actually is a great idea, because whether it would be in the backyard or in the kitchen, I do have the Food Channel on sometimes while I'm cooking. It does inspire you and to have it out in the backyard with Throw Down or...he used to have a grilling show, too. That would be actually kind of cool.
Craig: Grilling and chilling.
Ara: Yeah, good idea. I like that.
Craig: So what about front projection? Did you see any ideas in front projection for outdoor entertainment?
Ara: The only thing I saw specifically for outdoor was an inflatable screen - like those bounce houses that they have. That's kind of the scenario there and the pump was pretty quiet, so it's not going to really interfere with the noise. But yeah, you put this thing in there, you inflate the screen, you project your movie on there, and when you're done, you let it collapse and you put it away until you have your next outdoor movie night.
Craig: You're seen a lot of speaker companies come out with environmental speaker designs, subwoofers, the whole gamut, really.
Ara: Right, and in the lot them they have the decor to kind of fit in with your backyard. They got them decorated as rocks or something that can tuck up under your eaves and look natural there. So, they really are taking it to the next level. A lot of people don't understand it is better to have a bunch of speakers at low volume outside then have something inside cranked really loud, so you can hear it outside.
Craig: That's a good point. But I guess the whole idea of outdoor home entertainment is no longer a Socal or Nocal experience, is it?
Ara: Oh no, not at all.
Craig: Very cool. So while we wait for Braden to show up, we are going to take a quick break, and we are going to be back with Mr. Ara Derderian of the HT Guys Podcast in just a moment.
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Announcer: You're listening to Dolbycast with Craig Eggers.
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Craig: And we are back at Dolbycast with our very special guest, and it looks like it is going to be our very special guest, Mr. Ara Derderian of the HT Guys. God only knows where the other guy is.
Ara: [laughter] When he shows up, I am going to give him some grief
Craig: So Ara, CEDIA is about not only great pictures and great sound, but also managing it. Putting it all together, delivering distributed audio, distributed video, bringing it all together for the consumer into a very, very comfortable experience. Home automation, whole house management of audio and video. Talk about what you saw.
Ara: Yes, that's an area that is starting to really take off for us on our show. We didn't really focus on it a lot, but a lot of our listeners are interested in it. And the ability to set up your home, so that you could press a button and create a scene like "movie", and then the lights dim, the TV turns on and everything happens just automatically. So the whole automation was huge at CEDIA.
Now, one thing I saw, big theme, I thought was iPod Touch or iPhone supports. A lot of people...
Craig: iPhone support?
Ara: Yeah well, iPhone and iPod touch in the home kind of acts the same as far as on your home network. They have applications written that you can control your whole house through your iPod Touch or your iPhone. I thought that was really neat.
Craig: That's cool. And you were talking earlier about Niveus and some of the cool things they had.
Ara: They have a home theatre PC and it's based on Windows Vista Media Center. And what they have done is, they have gone ahead and written their own plug‑in to manage your movie library. And, the neat thing about this company is they have the home theater PC, but also they have some tuner cards. They are external boxes that connect into the system. And you can have as many as 8 tuners, and you are supposed to plug your cable card into that. Now if you got a subscription to say Showtime, HBO or whatever, you set your DVR to record those programs. Their software goes, records it, downloads the movie hour, down loads all the metadata and puts it in this very nice manageable display.
You can just call up any movie that you've recorded, or backed up from DVD. It's really nice. It's got some really nice animations, the way the movie art moves around, the cover art moves around. I thought they did a fantastic job.
I've been watching this company grow form a small company, and every time I see them, their booth gets bigger and bigger. So it's NiveusMedia, and check them out.
Again, it's a little bit on the high‑end side, but it shows what you can do with a home theatre PC.
Craig: And facilitating the whole user experience, right?
Ara: Yeah, exactly. They've gone ahead and taken what ‑ I though Microsoft did a good job with their Media Center ‑ they have gone and taken it and augmented it with this plug-in that really does a nice job.
Craig: Interesting.
One of my things I have been waiting for quite some time is HD wireless transmission. I live in a spec house here in the Bay Area, and the place where they designated where I should be putting my television set is the wrong place.
And, of course, the cable comes out in that location. So I got my display on the other side of the room, I have got all ,u boxes in the little cube that they gave me for the TV.
Getting an HD signal from that cube over to my display device is something I have been trying to do now for a while. And I guess there are a couple of real cool solutions at CEDIA.
Ara: Yeah, Geffen has some. They had two solutions and one was for just within a room, so it won't go through walls, and the other one would go up to 100 feet through multiple walls. Depending on how you got your room set up, you would choose that one. And they were like 500 bucks a piece.
Craig: Right.
Ara: Belkin had a system set up. So wireless HDMI, that is – it's here, and like you, I have been waiting for it, because now you can put all your stuff in the closet and just have it beam the picture to the TV.
Craig: Sure, how cool would that be? I think there is a company called, what, Acoustic Research. They do actually HDMI over powerline.
Ara: Yeah, that's a nice technology. I have not played with it, but I think it has a lot of potential, because talk about being able to route it throughout the house. I would envision, and I am just talking off the top of my head here, that you would be able to plug‑in, and then as long as you have these adaptors throughout the house, you would be to route the video.
But if it is HDMI, as I am thinking through this, I think they have a one‑to‑one coupling. So, I don't know that you are going to be able to use it for routing video.
Craig: Yeah, we will have to look into that, and possibly do a subject on that in the future podcast. You know my final question I guess to you, is, was there one of those "ah‑ha" moments? Did a light go off on anything you saw at CEDIA that you didn't see in previous years?
Ara: I wouldn't say it's "ah ha", but I think I found something at DirectTV that was really cool that I really wanted. I have multiple DVRs in the house, and I want to be able to watch content from one DVR on the other. To me that seems logical that you can do that. But DirectTV showed an application, that's in alpha, that's close. It is not quite that.
So you install this application on your PC - Windows Vista or XP, and it will go find your DVRs in your system that are connected to your network. It will make your computer show up just like it does if it's on the TV. In other words, you would see the menus. You would see what other programs are there. You could pick the program, hit play, and you are watching what's on your DVR on your computer.
Craig: That's cool.
Ara: A lot of people have computers in their homes, in their offices whatever. But now, you would be able to watch what's on your DVR in your office while you are working or doing something.
Craig: Now, this is a standalone box from the folks at DirectTV?
Ara: No, it's software. Its software that goes on your PC.
Craig: Interesting, very interesting.
Ara: I asked them about the natural progression, "If you can do that on the PC, why not have me do one DVR to the other?" And the guy just kind of smiled, didn't say anything. My assessment is they are working on it, but they don't have any announcements.
Craig: Well listen, Ara Derderian of the HT Guys Podcast. Ara and Braden, both great friends of Dolby, and I am sure Braden probably got caught up in LA traffic down there.
Ara, thank you very, very much for being a part of Dolbycast, and really helping our listeners really get a sense of what happened at CEDIA. We always appreciate what you do and thanks for coming on the show.
Ara: My pleasure, had a great time.
Craig: And that concludes this edition of Dolbycast. Hey, send your notes, send your questions to dolbycast@dolby.com. That's dolbycast@dolby.com. Or you can give us a phone call at 1‑886‑DOLBY-C. One more time 1‑886‑DOLBY-C. This is Dolbycast. I am Craig Eggers. Have a great week. See you next time.
