IceTV Win! Now what do their subscribers get …
Posted by banger@epgstream in Electronic Programme Guide, Random Thoughts on April 22nd, 2009
Well it looks like IceTV has finally had things go it’s way with a landmark win in the Australian High Court today! The High Court ruled that IceTV’s electronic programme guide did not breach Nine’s copyright.
IceTV subscribers have been actively providing financial support to keep IceTV going during these past periods of court action. Subscriptions prices have been high and product development fairly low (I mean an iPhone application doesn’t really cater for the vast majority of subscribers) with most existing services not evolving over the past 12 months.
Hopefully IceTV will recoupe the majority of court costs brought about by Nine’s actions, allowing them to really start to deliver some value for their $99-$156/year subscription.
When you step back and look at it, is a reliable TV programme information (date, time and description) really worth a whopping $99/year? “No!”. Now obviously there is some cost involved generating the data, but after the EPG is compiled it’s just data … Data that can be replicated in an instant and distributed very cheaply over the wonderful free network we all know as the Internet. With a well designed system, there should be very little logistical cost difference between servicing 1000, 2000 or even 10000 subscribers, so in theory prices should get cheaper with more subscribers!
Why don’t we see massive price drops in IceTV’s subscription rates as they start to accumulate a bigger subscription base? Well it’s probably because there hasn’t been any commercial competition to help drive prices down … And you know IceTV’s prices can go lower … We’ve all seen their 50% off subscription offers around Christmas and High Court trial dates. Kinda like the Angus & Cootes when they have their “50% off gold, diamond and jewellery sale” and you realise they’ve been fleecing you every other day of the year except for sale day … And they’re still making 5-10% markup during the sale! 
I’d like to see, if possible, IceTV’s prices come down further by offering different subscription levels for data and services. Really let the average user pay for the services they want to use, not the services the *might* use (i.e. iPhone app.).
For instance, I’d be interested in the MXF/XMLTV and native Windows Media Center services (and maybe even the desktop widget), but I’m not that interested in paying for the IceTV Interactive remote scheduling and iPhone features that I’d never use. As an example:
[*] MXF/XMLTV Guide Gateway – Base $25/yr
[X] Windows Media Center Guide Gateway :: Add $10/yr
[X] Windows Desktop Widget :: Free
[ ] Mac Desktop Widget :: Free
[ ] Windows Interactive + Web Portal :: Add $10/yr
[ ] Mobile Interactive + Web Portal :: Add $5/yr
[ ] iPhone Interactive + Web Portal :: Add $5/yr
So in the above example, I’d be willing to hand over $35/year for a basic Windows Media Center guide service with no frills attached. Hopefully IceTV will reduce their prices soon otherwise you might see other EPG peddlers start to open their doors for cheap $$$ business … Heck, there is no reason why the EPG can’t be outsourced to India even!
Hmmm … epgStream.net could even outsource their EPG generation to India for $5/year per subscriber …
You can read more on the court summary here or Peter Vogel’s personal comments on the ruling here.
Problem with One HD listings fixed!
Posted by banger@epgstream in Announcements, XMLTV: Guide Pack on April 8th, 2009
I’ve had a few reports from users that their One Digital listings were available but One HD wasn’t! On further investigation it seems that I left out the One HD settings for some “generic” state settings.
If, for example, you selected your region as “NSW” then your One HD channel would be missing. However if you selected a more specific region, such as “NSW – Sydney (CBD)”, then you’d be watching your One HD sport in all it’s glory …
The configuration has been updated so you should be able to re-run the “Guide Wizard” to update your Windows Media Center settings to get One HD information again.
One Digital and One HD updates … Complete!
Posted by banger@epgstream in Announcements, XMLTV: Guide Pack on April 7th, 2009
Sorry to everyone who was waiting patiently for their Australian Time Zone and One Digital updates on Sunday but as usual it’s busy all round!
All you’ll need to do is run the our “Guide Wizard” application again and it will automatically configure these new changes. After that just open up Windows Media Center and perform a manual “Get Latest Guide Listing“.
Enjoy!
Commonwealth Bank phishing never looked so good!
Posted by banger@epgstream in Random Thoughts on April 3rd, 2009
Have you noticed how Australian phishing emails look pretty good compared to the rest of the world? Well, when I say looks good, I mean it’s visually convincing at first glance with a clean style and even the logos are from the Commonwealth Bank’s own website. Once you actually read through it though it’s a little odd, not a lot, just a little …
Actually in all probability this email probably isn’t Australian and it seems to have been doing the rounds for at least the past six month. The sentence structure and content of this email just doesn’t seem to sit right with me. The mention of “permanent email address“, “failure to comply” and “this error” all seem fairly excessive for such a trivial “verification” activity. Oh, and the “Apologize” is a big poke in the eye too!
Just in case you were interested in following this verification link, it would take you here:
http://thesmclan.com/deeefiance/includes/netbank.com.au/bankmain.html
Phishers are definately pulling up their socks these days and I hope to hell my dad doesn’t get emails like this because I know he’ll be one of those people who click the “Verify Your Email Address” link … God bless his trusting heart!
Excuse me while I give my dad a call! 
More Information: http://www.commbank.com.au/security-privacy/online-security/latest-security-alerts.aspx
One Digital and One HD updates.
Posted by banger@epgstream in Announcements, Windows Vista & XP, XMLTV: Guide Pack on March 31st, 2009
This weekend, in conjunction with our daylight saving changes, we’ll be updating our XMLTV: Guide Pack channel mappings. This will mean that if you run our “Guide Wizard” application on or after Sunday, 5th April 2009, you’ll see the following channels defined:
- (#1) One HD
- (#10) Ten Digital
- (#11) One HD
- (#12) One Digital
Users won’t have to re-run their channel scan setup again to view these new channels. All you should need to do is perform a manual “Add Channel Listings” from within your Windows Media Center setup.
Daylight savings comes to an end!
Posted by banger@epgstream in Announcements, Electronic Programme Guide, Windows Vista & XP, XMLTV: Guide Pack on March 31st, 2009
Well it’s that time of year again when daylight savings comes to an end and all the various states go back to “Queensland” time again.
Tasmania, Victoria, Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales and South Australia will wrap up daylight savings on Sunday, 5th April 2009. Western Australia will finish earlier on the Sunday, 29th March 2009 (err… last week).
We’ll be doing a bulk update of our XMLTV Guide Pack online configuration so all you have to do is re-run our “Guide Wizard” application on Sunday morning and you times should be back to normal!
Don’t forget to set your wall and digital clocks back 1 hour @ 3:00 am and remember that your Windows XP and Vista machines should automatically adjust the time for you!
Reference: Implementation Dates of Daylight Savings Time within Australia
Time flies when you’re very busy!
Posted by banger@epgstream in Windows 7 on March 14th, 2009
I just realised I haven’t made a post on our Windows 7 Guide Compiler (wmcGuideCompiler7) for a fortnight now so I thought I’d just drop a journal entry to let everyone know what’s happening.
Thumbing through (or should I say clicking through) my diary tonight and realised I’ve only spent about 10 hours in total over the last 14 days working on the compiler. To my surprise, the majority of that time was spent on designing and developing the user interface!
UFC 96 – JACKSON vs JARDINE
Posted by banger@epgstream in Random Thoughts on March 12th, 2009
Yeah baby! This Friday the 13th I’ll be preparing for a night of drinking, eating and yelling at the big screen TV while I re-live the UFC 96 experience. On the fight card are a few of my favourite fighters: Rampage, Jardine, Matt Brown and Matt Hamill.
My picks for the UFC 96 main card events are gonna have to be …
Continue reading …
Make $$$ by selling a domain name!
Posted by banger@epgstream in Random Thoughts on March 11th, 2009
I’ve got quite a few domain names tucked away with some of them actively in use, but the vast majority of them sitting on the shelf for future projects.
Always in the back of your mind you think that one day, some blue-chip company will send you that golden $$$ email saying that they want one of your existing domain names. In reality, this very rarely happens unless you happened to have owned pizza.com …
Check out this email I received yesterday …
Continue reading …
What! I missed the 1st & 2nd round of the comp?
Posted by banger@epgstream in Random Thoughts on March 11th, 2009
You have got to be kidding me! Just when I though the next set of boulding competitions are starting in july, I find out there is a new boulding competition started up by The Pitch climbing centre! &#%@ … I’ve already missed two rounds of this competition …
The “Revolution” competition is geared towards, and I quote, “bouldering for the masses” and features a new scoring system, an extended duration and a cheaper entry fee. Normally, ASCF competitors would climb for 2 hours and be scored on their best 10 climbs. In the new “Revolution” format, competitors climb for 3 hours and are scored based on two criteria: (1) your top 8 climbs and (2) the total sum of all your climbs.
This second criteria is pretty novel and lets competitors win simply through good ‘ole climbing attrition. Basically this means that mere mortals who don’t have the goods to climb the 8 hardest climbing problems set, can simply try and blitz the field by climbing as many of the “easy” climbs as possible.
New format, same problems!
The one thing I hate about these climbing competitions is that unfortunately some of the competitors, both male and female, don’t mind taking shortcuts and cheating. The competition format tends to be on an “honesty” system where you actually “tick” off all your climbs … and in 99% or cases everyone is honest, but it’s that 1% that erk me.
I remember seeing some climbings falling off climbs or using extra features and then happily ticking off the problem. Great for their score sheet, but crap for everyone else if these less-than-honest folks walk away with prizes. I even remember one guy I’ve been climbing with for ages entering the “Beginners” category and, of course, winning … “But I haven’t bouldered in ages.” was his justification!
How do we solve this annoying problem? Well, we can’t really unless every single climb is monitored by an official which would incur great cost.
See you guys at round #3 in April! 
