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a few quickie questions! DVD/pano/etc

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Some questions I know you all can answer easily...

1) Can you watch a movie on the 17" screen.. stream netflix or youtube or hulu??
2) Does the pano roof have a screen that can cover the glass?
3) Does the center armrest have any storage? -- I think the armrests slide forward and back, but does it lift up and have storage inside?
4) is the car only 3G ... i read somewhere that it was going to be 4G and Wifi?

Thanks everyone! I have my order in, and am having fun reading all about the car here until it comes....

I was thinking that I should start a pool at work to guess the delivery date (like people guess the birth date of someone expecting..).
Order 14,417 (My guess is August 3rd)..
 
1) No -- youtube needs flash plugin which isn't available for the screen (it is Linux of some sort). Hulu and netflix need apps to stream and I'm pretty sure the Safari-like browser doesn't have the plugins.
2) Not yet. One was demo'd. Current owners think screen unnecessary with possible exception of keeping the car slightly warmer in winter.
3) No. Storage is exposed between the seats. Armrests cover the cupholders, which could be used as storage I suppose. There is an aftermarket solution being sold through teslaccessories.com. And there is the cubby below the screen.
4) Currently 3G but has ability to go 4G and wifi. The software isn't enabled for wifi yet and the 3G is provided by the company. 4G might be a later offering, nothing known at this time.

Aug 3 is a pretty good guess. I'd guess June 23, just for giggles.
 
1) Tesla may never provide streaming video due to potential legal issues with showing video visible by the driver
4) As I was preparing to finalize my order (which I did yesterday), Tesla rep told me there wouldn't be 4G in the car - and that 4G might only be supported using cell phone connection, like other manufacturers are already doing - disappointing...

HOWEVER, things could change before orders are finalized for 14xxx's...
 
I would love to be able to watch some videos while I'm parked and charging the battery. It's a perfect way to spend some time, right?

Since there's no DVD player AFAIK, the videos would either have to be streamed or played on local media. It should be relatively easy to setup a basic media player, or "borrow" (as long as they re-distribute code) an existing GPL-licensed Linux media player like mplayer.

As for codec support, that's technically easy but legally tricky. There are patents on most good/modern/standard video codecs (notable exception is OGG/Theora), so Tesla would need licensing/rights to distribute whichever codecs they choose. The main one they'd want to license would probably be MPEG-4 and H.264. Both are already implemented in the freely-available ffmpeg library, but like I said, licensing concerns for the codec itself if not the code...

Also, if they got a license for H.264, they could compile support for it into the web browser. I would *hope* they are using a slightly modified Chrom/Chromium (or at least something built with WebKit). If so, html5 video support with H.264 should be fairly simple. If they are not using WebKit, shame on them. They wasted valuable developer hours implementing something they didn't need to. Something particularly complicated and error-prone - CSS support. HTML and Javascript aren't exactly easy targets either.
 
> there's no good reason not to have video available when the car is in park. [mnx]

Or in motion either, so we could listen to videos as we drive.

Feature #1 (user added): Black towel taped to dash allowing 17in screen to be covered up during transit. Then I won't even be tempted to try to focus on it.

Feature #2 (user added): A/B switch allowing alternate video input, say from a media player. Then we could listen to videos ripped at home. Like listening to Letterman audio on Ch6 which GM radios were able to tune in on 87.0mc, back in analog FM days.
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ahh that is why I always receive CH 6 on 87.7 (and also why it is so quiet!)

> there's no good reason not to have video available when the car is in park. [mnx]

Or in motion either, so we could listen to videos as we drive.

Feature #1 (user added): Black towel taped to dash allowing 17in screen to be covered up during transit. Then I won't even be tempted to try to focus on it.

Feature #2 (user added): A/B switch allowing alternate video input, say from a media player. Then we could listen to videos ripped at home. Like listening to Letterman audio on Ch6 which GM radios were able to tune in on 87.0mc, back in analog FM days.
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ahh that is why I always receive CH 6 on 87.7 (and also why it is so quiet!)

?? GM oem fm radios were able to tune down far just enough that they could receive CH6 analog TV audio back before TV went digital. Oddly, the aftermarket FM radios were not able to tune down far enough, at least I never found one that did. ONLY the GMs could receive ch6 audio. CH6 Albany, NY is CBS so on my late night commutes from NYC to the Vermont border I partook of the late news and then Letterman. Did this all thru the 80s & 90s. GM clearly made this capability a requirement for their FM suppliers, bless them. The video frequency was below the audio so you didn't have to tune thru that fat noisy bandwidth. The aftermarket receivers stopped exactly at 88.0mc, so you are correct, the audio was at 87.7mc. I have no idea what the situation is today with digital transmission.
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