(RED)WIRE

[Brad]

FYI, I just downloaded the first edition of RED(WIRE) and U2's track is not in this week's release.

It's the Jay-Z and Jenny Lewis tracks from the "launch party" on MSN; both MP3 audio and H.264 video are included.

Looks like both the audio and the video are iPod compatible, which is nice.  I just wish they would hurry up and post higher quality versions of the U2 song and video.

[Trevor]

I installed the redwire player, I can play the mp3 and video from the player but I don't understand where the files are stored... in which folder I can find them?
...and hope to see the u2 track the next week...

[Brad]

I installed the player on my XP machine.  The files are in the following directory:

C:\Documents and Settings\Brad\Application Data\REDWire.C1598DF48661B2477B3D37A86A1D57CC87AD5372.1\Local Store\

It might be something slightly different on your machine.  I'm not sure why they are putting the files in a hidden directory if they are DRM-free.

I was able to add both the MP3 files and the videos to iTunes and to my iPod.

[Trevor]

wow... thanks, the files are there, similar path on vista... but why to hide them?!!
anyway they are mp3 @ 256k encoded with itunes 8.02... not so bad quality...

[Brad]

FWIW, U2 has reposted the "I Believe In Father Christmas" video on their iLike page.

http://www.ilike.com/artist/U2/videos/254060807

I extracted the MP3 from the FLV file.  The audio is higher quality than that from the MSN video, with much less compression artifact, but it's mono. (It's 128 kbps mono.)

It's a little easier on the ears until the high quality version shows up on (RED)WIRE.

[Trevor]

...I noticed that the "exclusive" track (by jay-z) is encoded @ 256k and the "showcase" (by jenny lewis) @ 320k...

[Trevor]

is it the second issue ready to download? I have the player open since this mornig (now here it is 23.15) but nothing has been downloaded... and no email in the box...

[Brad]

There wasn't anything this morning, and I can't install the program at work.  Last week it was around 7:00 PM PST (3:00 AM GMT) when they finally got the downloads up.

[Trevor]

anything today too? or I have some problem with the player??

[Brad]

Nothing for me this morning, either...

You know, if you're offering a new service and you give away the first two issues for free to hook people into subscribing, you probably should try to be punctual with those first two issues.

The first issue was late by a day in Europe.  The emails announcing the first issue were nearly a week late.  The press release had promised that the MP3s and videos would be easily transferable into iTunes; instead you have to go digging for a hidden directory and transfer them yourself.  And now the second issue is AWOL.  All in all, a pretty weak launch if you ask me.

Were it not for the promise of U2 content, I think I would be discouraged from renewing by what I've seen so far.

[Trevor]

finally both video and mp3 (256k) are available...
happy christmas ;-)

[Brad]

Yes, nice to finally have a high-quality version of this.  A little late, but at least they got it out before Christmas.

This will tide me over to the new single comes out, hopefully very soon.