• Mac Mini – $600
• Apple Wireless Keyboard – $80
• Apple Wireless Mouse – $70
• Pinnacle HD TV Stick for Mac – $130
• Elgato eyetv3 (upgrade) – $50
• APC Back-UPS ES 350 – $30
• Total – $960

• DishTV – $130
• Netflix – ($15)
• Savings – $115
• Buyback – 8.3 Months

It certainly is a large sum upfront and we are lucky that we could bankroll it with some of the money I made on side work last year and before Management was laid off.  The upside is that the cost will be quickly recouped in under a year since we are no longer paying for cable/satellite.

My first impressions of opening the box was that the HD Stick is an elegant little piece of hardware, small and unobtrusive, with the focus on being portable.   Setting it up was a snap, just connect together the antenna, HD stick, USB extender, and plug it into the Mini. The real challenge comes when trying to find good signals but more on that later.

Before we could get to any of the DVR goodness we still needed to find some signals which the software takes some of the pain out of by providing auto-tuning that ranges from a quick scan that is over in a minute or a laborious scan which can take upwards of ten or more minutes.  Both scans can make use of the Pinnacles signal boost which is supposed to help lock in on weaker signals but we did not see much of a difference in the channels we could find and lock onto.  This is the real challenge for the viewer regarding DTV, signals are either on or off and there is no middle ground like there is with analog where you can tune in just enough of that show to make out the characters in a field of snow and have passable audio quality.  When a DTV signal becomes weak the screen freezes, no audio and no video, and if it persists long enough the screen goes out and you are left looking at a nothing.

The stock hardware, in our case, is doing an admirable job in that it has tracked down fifteen stations (three of them in Spanish but we just love a good Mexican soap opera).  When we run into the inevitable “it is too windy, too cloudy, too snowy” situation we just rotate the antenna around a little and the signal pops right back.  In contrast, my in-laws are getting DTV using a roof mounted antenna and they only have a slight edge in the number of available channels and similar problems with shows cutting in and out based on atmospheric conditions so kudos to Pinnacle for designing a pocket-sized solution which is competitive with an architecturally sized one.  Once we reached a satisfactory number of channels we began testing out the software capabilities.

The software that ships with the unit is very basic, allowing for tuning into the available signals, downloading a program guide from Titan TV, and pausing live TV, anything beyond that requires a software upgrade. After about fifteen minutes of twiddling with the bundled software we upgraded to Elgato’s eyetv3 for approximately $50 which enabled a suite of DVR style options including scheduling recordings by either date and time or keywords about the show, as well as the ability to export recordings to iTunes.

The first thing we realized after recording a couple of shows was that we need more drive space, a lot more drive space.  Recording an hour long show consumes around 9GB of drive space so if you plan on queuing up a pile of shows, like we did, then expect to need a massive amount of drive space.   I am sure it is tucked away in a help file or manual somewhere detailing how much space is consumed by recording but a nice addition would be a little gauge notifying you of how much drive space you will use up recording or the ability allocate a certain amount of disk space to recording to ensure that you never blow out the whole drive with Word World and Sesame Street.

Exporting shows to iTunes is a great addition but like any type of transcoding it requires a fair amount of horsepower and time.  We are using the basic Mini and its specs are tad under powered for crunching through some 9GB of video to produce a 700MB file ready to throw on our iPhones.  For the time being we are only recording shows here and there and thinking very carefully if we want to transcode them as the task largely renders the Mini unavailable for use.  That said, it is a damn cool feature and the results are fantastic.  My feeling is that when the Minis are refreshed and we purchase a new one that we’ll likely make use of this feature to give Gabi some entertainment options when traveling.

TV watching is as simple as launching the application and changing the channels with either the on screen remote or the one included.  We found the on-screen remote to be a tad obnoxious but it was the only option because the hardware remote did not work until the latest version of eyetv3, once it started working we turned off the silver remote as seen in the image on the left.  The remote allows you to access and interact with nearly all of the features of the software and so far we have seen its range and signal strength to be on par with our TV remote, which is surprising considering it is powered by only a watch battery.

Watching TV with the Pinnacle HD Stick is a better experience than the usual converter box route as the software maintains the appropriate aspect ratio when displaying it on your TV; my in-laws see the playback distorted to fit their traditional TV aspect ratio, no black bars just crushed or stretched images.  Below is a screen grab which shows the playback maintaining the aspect ratio (note the black bars on the left and right).

Scheduling shows is a snap and it is made even easier with the ability to find and record programs by keywords. You can create clusters of channels and generate playlists based on those clusters and/or the keywords you are searching.  This ability would really shine when paired with a cable signal where the viewer might be faced with hundreds of channels.  Compared to the DVR we had through Dish eyetv3 is decades ahead but when only managing fifteen stations it feels like a sledgehammer and a spike when all you need is a thumbtack.

The total cost for getting DTV to our Mini is around $180USD before taxes, far more expensive than a $50 converter less the Federal coupon.  However, between the technical merits of the hardware and the features unlocked by the software upgrade make the additional money worthwhile.  Down the line we will likely spring for another antenna, one that is better suited for locking onto signals through walls and a roof and hope that it either adds a few more channels or at the very least makes the ones we can get more reliable.

The Pinnacle TV for Mac HD Stick is a great little product and coupled with the full version of eyetv3 makes for an easy to use DVR solution for the Mac.

* Online video content for kids is largely lacking and what is out there is either fragmented, poor video quality, hyper-religious, or a combination of all three.  Our biggest disappointment is in Netflix where the worthwhile Instant choices are limited to a handful of shows like Caillou and the errant film like the animated Madeline feature, the remainder is either siezure inducing confection or unsettling religious works.  It would be great to see PBS either push full streams through their website, I would pay for HD content, or ink a deal with a company like Hulu, Joost, or Jaman.  It is for this reason that we turned to finding a solution for getting over-the-air signals to fill the entertainment gap for our daughter.

ZaReason was great about setting up a test environment to make sure that the notebook could easily drive a similar monitor.  As always, they were fast and friendly with awesome tips on how to get things rolling once my MegaLap landed on my desk.

All that real estate leaves me feeling like a robber baron not to mention that the MegaLap is blazing fast and the screen is gorgeous.

So this is my second notebook from ZaReason (my BigLap is still a champ!) and I have to say I am so pleased with the service and support.  they aren’t kidding when they say, “Building Linux hardware so you don’t have to.”  Everything I have bought from them has worked right out of the box, no fuss and no bloat.  Just an elegant OS making use of all the hardware it is given.

Thanks to everyone at Zareason for making my computing life fun!

MegaLap Specs

• Intel Core2 Duo T7200
• 2GB RAM
• 512MB NVidia GeForce Go 7700
• 200GB SATA

Love It

• Voice is a service–unlike my past phones voice on this one is just another part of the service mix.
• Internet scaled for your hand–best mobile browsing experience I have ever had.
• Email whenever, where ever–be it the mail application (which could use some feature love) or the sublimely designed Gmail for iPhones I can quickly retrieve and respond to messages
• No keypad–I love the touch pad and how it learns alternate spellings and will offer them up as you type making the process fast and efficient.
• Wi-Fi–Sure other phones have it but the stumble feature works great.

Hate It

• Crippled bluetooth–Great, I can hook up a headset but no file transfers or even laptop tethering. That sucks, Apple.
• iTunes–Yeah, I know. I bought a something from Captain Product Lockdown and I am bitching about having to use proprietary software but seriously, if Amazon can offer a DLM for their music store why the hell can’t Apple port iTunes to Linux? It is a real cramp in my ass to have my phone decoupled from the rest of my computing existence. As for jail breaking, it is not an option because I cannot afford the remote chance of bricking it as this is my primary tether to my job.
• Rebooting–Like a Windows box, Management and I are finding we need to reboot our phones on a regular basis to keep the touch pad and Safari gremlins at bay. Methinks they need to take a look at memory leaks on the device.
• No multimedia SMS–Seriously. WTF. Almost as stupid as breaking the legs off Bluetooth.

Bottom Line

The shine has worn off and my infatuation has mellowed into affectionate ambivalence. The iPhone has changed how I view cellphones and voice services in general. The device truly is a hand sized computer, allowing you to do many of the things you would on a laptop and it represents a paradigm shift: data is data is data. That said, it doesn’t blend well with a computing life off of either Apple or Windows. The inability to backup the device and sync content to it from my laptop handicaps the device enough that I will be seriously looking at what the Android based handsets will be offering this fall.

Why not offer computers, pre-built with Linux, to the people I like, or to their friends and families? I’m not a great coder, but as a former sysadmin I know my way around hard- and software enough to set up solid systems. So if these people (Debian Developers and such) provide all that great software, I could at least offer them some hardware, right?

Going that way with ZaReason was only the next logical step. Why re-invent the wheel, or try to set up competition, when there could be co-operation?

After months of hard work Wolfgang has launched a EU branch of ZaReason something that makes this happy ZaReason user just plain giddy. Congratulations and best of luck!

Add it to my short list of gadgets I’m lusting for this holiday/birthday season.

james@elwoodicious:~$ sudo alsactl names
james@elwoodicious:~$ sudo alsactl store
james@elwoodicious:~$ alsamixer

The catch here was that the input sources needed to be pointed at Front Mic and Mic.

james@elwoodicious:~$ sudo alsactl store

That’s it. Skype works, Sound Recording works, Ekiga…Doesn’t. Not sure why Ekiga doesn’t but that’s a puzzle for another day. Well, it does after a reboot.  Go figure.

So how has it performed? Unbelievably. I’ve owned a number of laptops from Toshiba, Dell, and Sony and out of all of them this has been the best build quality and features for the price.

• Battery life is solid
• Light for being a 17″
• Screen hinges are stiff
• Keyboard responsive and quiet
• Rugged design

Tech support from ZaReason has been equally great with quick response times with a genuinely conversational and friendly tone. They have worked hard to make sure that as much of the hardware is operational with the shipping version of Ubuntu. The built in webcam is the only piece that has given me problems in that the image displayed is upside down and cannot seem to be flipped but that is more a problem with the device and the driver.

segue/

After actually putting five minutes of work into researching the solution it is now fixed…

Gratefully cribbed from 0graham0′s post over at Ubuntu forums…

sudo mkdir /etc/camdriver

Download the driver from Sourceforge extract it and run the following…

sudo make
sudo modprobe videodev
sudo modprobe v4l1-compat
sudo insmod stk11xx.ko vflip=1

Add the following to /etc/modules

videodev
v4l1-compat

and to /etc/rc.local

insmod /etc/camdriver/stk11xx.ko vflip=1

Viola!

/segue

The great thing about ZaReason though is that they never dropped the issue and had emailed me possible solutions and are very receptive if you happen to stumble on one of your own and that level of service is what makes the company so great.

Bottom line: I love this laptop and I really love this company.

CNET has two great little reviews here and here of my unpurchased-iPod replacement, the Archos 605 WiFi. InfoSync also has a snazzy little video review.

Stuff that makes me drool…

• WiFi + Browser + Flash support + GMail = Me quivering with geek delight
• PDF viewing (Hello eBooks!)
• Touch screen
• Customizable wallpaper (look the little things count like being able to put your kid’s face on your gear…)
• Treated as a removable hard drive
• Supports folder based sorting (this is how I like to organize and listen to music)

Now to get Management to authorize the necessary funds…business cases anyone?

Oh yeah, and it fits in your pocket too…

See, I bounced back quickly from that little Apple induced psychotic break.

How cool is it that they included a screwdriver?

Quick thoughts: the company rules as their personalized service and quirky sense of humor (screwdriver to encourage you to work on your pc!) really make you feel more like a valued individual than just a customer; and this laptop is plain awesome as its super bright screen, quiet keyboard, and thin design is just begging me to stay up late playing. What a damn good day!