According to an announcement made on Tuesday, big-box retailer Best Buy is now entering the Internet-based entertainment business. They’ve decided that (shocking!) web-based video is here to stay. Therefore the company will start offering customers the option of purchasing videos for instant download, thus “making it easier for them to rent and buy movies over high-speed Internet connections.”

The field for this market has been growing for some time. Popular retailer Netflix has been offering a selection, albeit a somewhat lame one largely consisting of second-rate movies, to its existing customer base for several years. Amazon has its “unbox” video system. Blockbuster followed suit some time ago. It’s all very predictable. Offering videos online reduces space requirements at brick-and-mortar storefronts, eliminates the problem of missing or damaged DVD media, eases inventory management, and generally makes life easier for the retailers. For consumers, it means not having to run to a store in the hope the video you want is actually available.

Best Buy isn’t doing this alone — they’ve partnered with online retailer CinemaNow to provide the service. This also makes sense, since it means Best Buy doesn’t have to create its own Web presence and video library. They just profit-share with CinemaNow — which also gets a bigger share of the pie by leveraging Best Buy’s vast retail presence.

If you haven’t tried using online videos, it’s really quite nice. But of course, you need a fast and reliable Internet connection. Video files can be 1-2GB in size, and you’ll need a connection capable of streaming them without interruption. Or you’ll need to subscribe to a service like Amazon’s, which allows you to download the video files to your machine for later viewing. The latter also means you need enough free disk space to store all those video files. There’s nothing worse than waiting several hours to download a file, only to have a “disk full” message show up just before it completes.

Online viewing is fun, and it works. It’ll just keep getting better as network connections improve, since you’ll be able to get full HD and other high-quality formats streamed right into your home.

Over the last few years, “slim” has been “in.” Laptops, following in the steps of products like the Macbook Air, have tried to become as light and thin as possible. Netbooks, those $300 little jobbies everyone seems to want to own, are also driving this trend. One of the ways it is being accomplished is by removing components some people find indispensable, and others just don’t use: the CD/DVD drive, or “optical” unit. You can trim a lot of weight, and thickness, from a laptop just by removing those components.

PCs have had optical drives of some type installed since the last floppies went out of vogue. In the late 1990s. Manufacturers ramped up to optical storage since software vendors were shipping whole product sets on CD, and later on DVD, as “all on one disK” distributions. No more stacks of 50 Microsoft Office floppies…just one CD. Later it became “just one DVD” as software outpaced 600MB CD capacity, but the component sizes were the same and compatible with one another. Now, however, these are vanishing from cases and leaving us with few easy options when we want to watch a DVD or (heaven help me) install software from CD.

One of the biggest lessons from the craze for “netbooks” — inexpensive little laptops designed mainly for browsing the Web — is “that people were so excited about the small, easy-to-carry size that they didn’t miss having a CD or DVD drive. USB is an obvious choice. With a single port, the user can connect a single CD or DVD drive to their laptop at will, thus re-establishing the balance between input & output device.”

But let’s say you’re seriously into watching DVDs or listening to CDs. The obvious solution is that you should keep your existing unit. Folks like you “might want to think twice if you’re hooked on transferring CDs into MP3s — or if you spend a lot of time watching DVDs on airplanes and don’t want to squint at your iPod.” I’ll admit guilt to the latter, having watched whole movies on flights from Boston to London. But I carry my laptop for both business and writing, and am used to having it strapped across my back on a regular basis.

Maybe on future models the paradigm will involve a big memory stick sized to fit a whole movie. That would be the death knell for the laptop-based optical drive. And it’ll happen, too.

About five years ago I bought a new digital camera, replacing an ancient 1.3 Megapixel unit with a 7.2 MPixel Sony Cyber-Shot point-and-shoot model. At the time, it was fairly close to the top of the food chain. True digital SLR units at the time were well over $1000, and at this point I just don’t shoot enough photos to justify that cost.

The Sony is a great unit. It’s easy to use, small, reliable, and I was able to bypass the camera’s internal memory totally by adding a 512MB Memory Stick. Take some shots, pop the stick free, and download everything into any PC with a combination reader attached. Sadly, one of the camera’s best features (its compact size) resulted in its demise last week. I left it on my car’s bumper, and it fell off when I forgot about it and drove off. Oops. Cracked the view screen, but the camera itself still works.

Replacing it, however, was easy and surprisingly inexpensive. I found its younger brother, a Sony DSC-W290, at an Amazon partner site for $210. I’m almost happy the old one was damaged, since the new unit is 12.1 Mpixels and can actually shoot up to 720p HD widescreen movies as well as 1080p stills. It also has a better Zeiss lens and a 5x optical zoom. There’s built-in facial recognition software, and it’ll auto-adjust modes more easily than the old model.

As a bonus, it uses the same battery and memory stick as the old unit. That means the old one isn’t a total loss — I can re-use (a startling concept in this throwaway age) these components, as well as my old charger.

My only complaint is that both models use proprietary connectors, with standard USB on the other end. One would at least think Sony might use standard mini USB to make cables more readily replaceable — especially if, for instance, you’re on vacation and mislay your interface cable.

Sometimes accidents are fortuitous. I wasn’t planning to spend $200 (plus another $14 for a 2GB Memory Stick) on a new camera, but all in all it was a good purchase. Now if I can only remember not to leave this one lying on a car’s bumper…

A while back I decided to try out Amazon.com’s “Unbox video” feature, which allows subscribers to view videos using either a streaming technology or by downloading them to their PC for later viewing. I installed the player on one of my spare laptops, bought a few videos (mostly “House” episodes, if anyone’s interested), and was generally happy with the service. Playing the videos on my HDTV rig was very easy and the quality was definitely acceptable.

However, yesterday I decided to move the downloaded videos to a different machine that I’m dedicating for use as a movie/TV server. Imagine my surprise when attempts to run the newly installed Unbox player application were greeted with DRM-related errors. The message basically says “there’s something wrong with the DRM on this machine, and you need to reset it.” The application even helpfully routes you to a Microsoft URL where a fix is allegedly available. However, the “install” box on this URL is grayed out, so either the site is broken or the fix is already installed on this machine.

As it turns out, the Unbox player uses Microsoft’s massively broken (and long since hacked) DRM model. I still haven’t worked out the details, and there’s no support to be had on Amazon’s Unbox site, but it appears the player was written for Media Player 9, and doesn’t work properly with version 10 or above. And since the Unbox videos are DRM-protected, you can’t just play them with any old media player application.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Draconian DRM, sponsored by media-company paranoia over lost licensing income. Basically, if you buy DRM-protected media and something happens to the provider, you’re out of luck. Unless I can get Unbox to work on this machine (or, hypothetically, hack the DRM-protected files to remove those nasty headers, which is patently illegal) I’ve lost the money spent on these videos. Too bad for the consumer. It’s like buying hundreds of Betamax tapes, then having all the players die due to a hardware glitch…the consumer is out of luck.

Entertainment companies just throw up their hands and claim they need to protect their rights. And I agree with that…to an extent. The system is fundamentally flawed when protecting these rights renders legally purchased media unplayable.

Today we lost guitarist and inventor Les Paul, the original designer of what became known as the “solid body electric guitar,” at age 94. His invention, which was marketed by Gibson starting in the 1950s, practically revolutionized the music industry.

Just think about what we owe this guy. He invented what may have been the first “real” electronic instrument that was used in actual concerts (as opposed to being a curiosity or toy). Along the way, he also “helped bring about the rise of rock ‘n’ roll with multitrack recording, which enables artists to record different instruments at different times, sing harmony with themselves, and then carefully balance the tracks in the finished recording.”

Prior to this invention, artists who wanted to record their works had only one real option…live performances recorded in one shot, with the entire group playing as one. If someone made a mistake, or a microphone failed to pick up a certain performer, they probably had to start over from the beginning. One can imagine a pile of discarded record albums (since that was the recording medium of choice prior to the arrival of magnetic tape) lying around a studio, then being tossed in the trash.

Today, with electronic instruments and recording software like Roland’s Sonar Pro, individual instruments and vocals can be recorded one at a time, then mixed at will. Someone’s tempo off a bit while performing? Speed it up, or slow it down, via the software. Mix, remix, make mashups, and what have you — Les Paul was probably the guy who started it all. And he invented all these things in the days of analog media, tube-based circuitry, and no computers.

Whether you’re a professional musician, an amateur with a tiny recording studio in your basement, or a hobbyist who just likes remixing music, you should thank Les. He may not have invented computer-based music editing, but today’s music industry is built on many of his innovations.

Fans of music sites like Pandora and Blip.fm, as well as the companies themselves, got good news recently when per-song royalty fees they’d been forced to pay music companies were slashed by 40%. A few years back, the royalty structure had been altered drastically. This forced streaming sites to pay fees many consider exorbitantly high, especially given that such sites offer free access.

The money-making model for such sites is simple: in exchange for free music, they offer links to retailers where users can buy songs (or whole CDs) they really like. Enjoying a song you’re listening to? Click on “buy this” and you’re taken right to that song or CD on Amazon or another retailer. Streaming sites also sell ad space, and probably gather usage and popularity statistics that are fed back to recording companies.

These sites are a great way for listeners to experiment with artists and genres they might otherwise totally ignore. Who wants to buy a song you’ve never heard, or (worse) a whole CD from an artist you’d like to check out but might not like? It’s even harder in the case of Indie artists who never get airplay on regular radio.

I own a number of CDs I regret ever buying. These days, I’m far more likely to experiment if I can listen to a few tunes from an unknown CD or artist for free. It’s also ridiculous that recording companies forbid you returning CDs since they can be copied. You can return clothing, electronic gear, and other goods as long as they’re in “new” condition…but it’s nearly impossible to return a CD unless it’s visibly damaged right out of the package. No wonder the recording industry is so roundly hated. They treat their customers as if they’re thieves.

Streaming sites should have a much easier time staying afloat under the new discounted rates, which is good for both consumers and producers. The former get a chance to try before they buy. The latter will almost certainly make more money since consumers will have additional avenues through which to explore new music.

Allowing streaming sites to die due to high fees they simply can’t afford is bad business. It’s really good to see that a compromise has been reached.

While shopping for a new Sony flat screen TV recently, I found out many now include a VGA port. This allows you to plug your PC directly into the set, treating the PC as its own independent input. I immediately put this on my list of must-have features. Since the new set is installed and ready (surround sound not yet installed fully) I decided it was time to test the VGA port.

Setting it up was a snap. I dug a spare VGA cable out of my Magic Box of supplies, found another cable with a 1/8″ stereo jack on one end and 2 RCA jacks on the other, and carried a spare laptop to the TV room. The VGA cable went from the laptop’s external monitor connector to the TV input, and I connected the laptop’s stereo output jack to an unused audio input on my main amplifier using the 1/8″ adapter cable. The whole process took about a minute. Then I switched the laptop to send output to both its screen and the external monitor adapter, switched the TV to its built-in PC input, and suddenly I was looking at a 46″ Windows logo. Okay, that was a little scary.

My wife & I settled on an episode of House from season 5. These are no longer on Hulu for free, but Amazon has them available for instant download at $1.99 each. A few mouse clicks later, the video started running. I switched the output to “full screen” mode, and we sat back to watch the show.

Technically, the experience was pretty much flawless. The streaming video was smooth as silk, with no stuttering or other distractions. The audio output was pretty good — certainly as clean as anything you’d get from cable or satellite. The only detracting element was the compression of the video stream, which produced somewhat low-resolution imaging that was apparent on the big screen.

The best part was the total absence of commercials. We were able to watch the whole episode in 45 minutes (yes, network TV really offers only that much entertainment per hour) and didn’t have to crowd around a 19″ monitor to do it. I’d call this a successful test.

The next stage will be to outfit a spare desktop PC with a high quality sound card, some big disks, and high end graphics. This affair will be connected permanently to the new TV and audio system, and will act as a video server/storage device.

If you haven’t had the opportunity to try one of the newer TVs in this manner, you don’t know what you’re missing.

I’m old enough to remember the days of dial-tuner TVs (19″ was huge, 25″ was nirvana) capable of receiving exactly 12 channels. For those of you too young to remember, this was VHF channels 2-13. Of course, those were also the days when you were lucky if 3 or 4 channels were available in your area. My how things have changed.

I just bought a new set, replacing a 46″ rear-projection HDTV I bought in 2002 — yes, I was an early adopter. The old unit was in perfect shape, but was too big for the available space in my new house. It’s now been donated to a senior citizens home, where I hope it sees good use. This particular unit was exceptionally “modern” for its time, as one of the first units with an HDMI input.

The replacement is another Sony, also 46″, also HDTV of course. Not only does it have multiple HDMI inputs (7, to be exact), but it’s also a 120HZ 1080p unit that hangs on the wall. It uses about half the power, and is EnergyStar 3.0 compliant. It adjusts its backlighting to match ambient room light. And I’ll bet it has a much wider viewing angle. The rear-projection unit was limited in this respect.

One thing that attracted me to this particular model is that it has “a PC input2 (HD-15 pin) [that] offers the added versatility of using your HDTV as a computer monitor.” So I can grab a decent spare PC, put in a really good video card, put it on my home network, and watch videos on Hulu or other services on a screen that’s 5 times the size of my standard PC monitor. It also takes Blu-Ray and any number of other formats, and can receive various types of USB and memory cards.

Today’s models are not just a “TV” anymore — instead they’re multimedia output devices that can be used for a wide range of entertainment and educational purposes. The sad thing is that, even with 200 channels to choose from, there’s still nothing to watch!

Amazingly enough, if you look deeply enough on the Internet you can actually find worthwhile, educational material. I know that’s shocking, what with all the porn and financial scams one could peruse first. However, here’s the link (iTunes required) that will take you to the lectures. They’re a set of 8 public events commemorating Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday, and they aren’t bad. Apple iTunes maintains these for free, so you can just download them charge free

This is the type of information sharing for which, startlingly enough, the Web was actually created all those years ago. The first uses of hyperlinking and embedded data were related to scientific study, and were designed to get users from text matter in a document body to footnotes or even a link to another document with related data. Now we’ve evolved (sorry, had to) into a more sophisticated model in which we’re not just linking flat ascii text, but whole multimedia productions.

The cool thing about this case is that access and storage for this purely academic, non-profit lecture series is being provided by an application usually used to download music for which there’s a cost basis. However, the people at Apple are also providing free access to certain, well deserving works. The Darwin lectures certainly apply. Here’s hoping we see more such lectures made publicly available from other institutes or universities.

There’s also PLoS, the Public Library of Science. This is a web site where academic research papers are freely available, rather than encapsulated in journals that cost $10,000 a year to subscribe to (many are read by no more than a dozen researchers). So if you really want to learn about Darwin and his theories — and I will note that most people who claim to understand them are totally wrong — here’s a good place to get started. The lectures are interesting, they’re not dry or boring, and they actually show what it’s all about.

Maybe you’ll learn something. High technology being used to provide free academic access. It can’t get any better than this.

Most people remember the music industry’s violent (and nonsensical) opposition to the idea of ripping music into MP3 and other formats. Almost as soon as the idea caught on, studios began complaining about copyright violation and alleging it was causing them massive profit losses. Despite all opposition, however, online music flourished and is now a major component of music sales.

The same situation can be found regarding the release of digital books, or “e-books.” While Amazon’s Kindle device and others have made serious inroads in the publishing world, it turns out many authors’ estates, or the authors themselves, refuse to release their works in electronic format even today. I find this interesting, since Project Gutenberg and other online initiatives have been putting books into electronic formats for years.

In many cases, it appears the resistance is largely based on a distrust of technology. Apparently “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling “has expressed a preference for books on paper and a wariness of technology,” while it apparently took years before publishers were “able to convince the Tolkien estate that the e-book is a legitimate, widespread format.”

There are, of course, other reasons. Some books just aren’t well suited to the digital format. In other cases it’s simply a money issue — some publishers probably believe the e-books will be copied and distributed freely. Wow. It’s not as if people don’t read a paper book and give it away to others when they’re done. But I digress.

The good news is that publishers are “getting less resistance every day” from various authors, and this trend will probably continue as more writers are born into a predominantly electronic environment. Changes in attitude can take generations to complete, and the process of acceptance is generally far faster today. I once read that the transition from stone to copper tools took something like 10,000 years to complete. Now we change technologies wholesale in less than a generation. Maybe there’s hope for the future after all.