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By Tim (Lothar) | Published Saturday, 30 January 2010 |
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Review: EFO RF Wireless Handheld Keyboard
Everyone comes to a point sooner or later where having a remote control in front of you just doesn't meet all of your needs. For those times it is handy to have a keyboard nearby. But who wants to lug out a big keyboard that tethers you to the HTPC? It's much more convenient to use something wireless and easy to hide. Let's have a look at an offering from EFO to see if it fits your needs.
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By Mike Garcen | Published Sunday, 07 February 2010 |
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Not sure what to be more impressed about here, the fact that Hulu topped a billion in a single month, or the fact that that number is paltry compared to what YouTube does monthly. Guess people don't mind watching videos on their computers huh? :-)
The average Hulu viewer watched 22.9 videos during the month, representing another all-time high for the property. Despite the milestones, Hulu, which is reportedly mulling a pay-per-view service in addition to the current ad-supported business model, represented just 3% of online monthly video streams, but second behind juggernaut, YouTube, with nearly 40% market penetration and 13.2 billion videos viewed.
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By Mike Garcen | Published Sunday, 07 February 2010 |
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Big fan of Media Browser, and so far it's still free and still improving. Here's a new theme for it that looks super slick.
Now I know many of you will be thinking backdrop switching? this hardly counts as a new feature and indeed you are right. Media Browser and Diamond for that matter have been using backdrop switching for years now so what’s the big deal? Well beginning with Diamond 0.3 users can now switch backdrops at the EHS level |
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By LowTech | Published Thursday, 04 February 2010 |
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Just some speculation on what to expect next for the iPhone.
Not much is known beyond that, except for one other tidbit. The N89
supports version 3.1 of the AVC codec, which includes the ability to
record in 720p. This thin sliver of information suggests that the next
version of the iPhone could support high-definition video capture and
playback.
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By David Norman | Published Tuesday, 02 February 2010 |
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ThinkFlood's RedEye
The idea of an app for the iPhone that allows you to control your A/V equipment is not new, but Thinkflood is unique in that it adds hardware into the mix. RedEye by Thinkflood attempts to convert the iPhone into an activity based learning infrared remote that is competative with the biggest players in the industry. The infrared extender is similar in form factor to the standard Apple charging cradle but packs some specialized hardware. Inside the base station are multiple infrared LEDs that when connected to the iPhone via Wi-Fi allow you to control just about anything with an IR sensor. At an MSRP of $188 this device is priced in the middle of high end activity based radio frequency remote controls. Will it be the "ultimate evolution of the remote control?"
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By Matt Wright | Published Thursday, 04 February 2010 |
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Half-height, passive, does HDMI bitstreaming and does dual-stream video decode. Now the only question is if it will properly deinterlace 1080i...
AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced the introduction of the ATI Radeon HD 5450 graphics card, the latest addition to the award-winning line-up of ATI Radeon™ HD 5000 Series graphics cards. The ATI Radeon HD 5450 graphics card delivers a state-of-the-art HD multimedia and game experience at a value price. Sharing the same leading edge features found in the critically-acclaimed ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series - support for DirectX 11, ATI Eyefinity multi-display technology and ATI Stream technology - the ATI Radeon HD 5450 provides an uncompromising Microsoft Windows® 7 experience.
- Cutting-edge technology for today’s software: The ATI Radeon HD 5450 graphics card offers great performance, allowing users to get the true Windows 7 experience with full DirectX 11 support, for less than USD $60 for a 512MB memory configuration.
- Expanded productivity with multi-display technology: Featuring support for ATI Eyefinity multi-monitor technology, the ATI Radeon HD 5450 graphics card helps users be more productive in today’s visually rich applications by expanding their on-screen real estate, putting more information at their fingertips.
- Silent running: Offering leading-edge performance per watt, the ATI Radeon HD 5450 redefines entry level performance and ultra-low power consumption, making it possible for AIB partners to deliver passive cooling models to market in addition to whisper-quiet, single slot fan-cooled versions.
- Rich HD multimedia experience: Home theater buffs will particularly appreciate the ATI Radeon™ HD 5450 graphics product. This passively-cooled, ultra-quiet card is a home theater PC builder’s dream, enabling high quality, high-definition home theater experiences. The home theater experience is enriched with features such as HDMI 1.3a with Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio for the ultimate media PC.
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By Mike Garcen | Published Thursday, 04 February 2010 |
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Now here's a surprising announcement. Panasonic is answering the question posed by many folks as to the deterioration of the black levels of their plasma sets. Considering the black level debate is one of the top reasons consumers choose plasma over LCD, will be interesting to see the fallout of this.
It admitted that "background brightness will increase" but described the change as "automatic" over the TVs' lifespan and part of normal operation in order to "achieve the optimal picture performance throughout the life of the set." It also said that newer plasma TVs will include a "more gradual change in Black Level over time," but made no mention of a fix for existing plasma TVs, whose owners first noted the issue at enthusiast web site AVS forum. |
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By Mike Garcen | Published Thursday, 04 February 2010 |
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Thanks to some additional editor recommendations, have some great new (for me) podcasts in the roundup. TONS to choose from that should keep you entertained for quite a while.
Joining me this week is Oebele Beetstra from OABSoftware talking about his great range of apps for Windows Media Center. Oebele has been developer for Media Center since the XP days and has a great collection of apps including email, Twitter and stock apps.
When we first started our podcast there were five competing technologies vying for your living room. Today its pretty much down to LCD and Plasma. Most would say LCD is running away with the market but Plasma is hanging in there. So what about LED? LED is not a new TV technology but rather a different way to light the LCD. A Liquid Crystal Display is a glass panel that works by controlling the opacity of segments of itself by varying the electrical signal. Each individual segment, called a pixel, acts as a shutter to control the amount of light being passed through. The light source is what we will be focusing on today
Getting the most our of your HD system and the Spears & Munsil HD Benchmark Blu-ray setup and test disc.
More podcasts after the break, click Read More.
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By Mike Garcen | Published Thursday, 04 February 2010 |
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The Popcorn Hour A-200 has not gotten a ton of reviews, but given its relatively new life on the market that's to be expected. Of course, after Cedia a lot of the buzz was around the Popbox from Syabas, so you will want to consider that before making any investments in this or any other media player. I'm a fan of the UI, but disappointing to see some issues at this price point.
Now for the big one, bitstreaming of HD Audio. It seems more and more this is the first question that is asked when a new player is announced, can it bitstream DTS(MA) and TrueHD. It also became somewhat of a hotly debated topic with the C-200. The A-110 was capable of bitstreaming HD audio from standalone m2ts files, so it was expected that this same feature would apply to the C-200 (adding to the confusion is that the specs do state Audio Pass-Through of DTS-HD and TrueHD). However, it was discovered that the C-200 could in fact not bitstream from standalone m2ts files, only from Blu Ray disc structures (i.e. ISO or BDMV). It appears the lack of this feature is due to the new Sigma chip that is used with the C-200, so there is still hope that this “bug” can be resolved soon enough. |
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By Mike Garcen | Published Thursday, 04 February 2010 |
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Now here's something cool. The old Sony DVD changers never really took off (well, maybe when their prices dropped to under $100), but it's good to see a Blu-ray solution. The hard drive cost to store a Blu-ray movie is significantly more than a DVD, so being able to store 100 in this changer could save up to 4-5 terabytes! Just be prepared, does come with a $1500 price tag and is not the most attractive device in the world, but very cool nonetheless!
When connected to an S1Digital Media Center or any third party Microsoft Windows 7 or Vista PC that includes media center, customers are able to load up to 100 Blu-ray and/or DVD movies into the S1Digital Bly-ray Disc Changer. Using the included playback software, each disc will be scanned and metadata and cover-art automatically downloaded to the server. Once catalogued, users can view more information about the movie, or watch the movie by selecting the appropriate cover-art, which is all available on the familiar and easy-to-use media center interface. The changer is simple to use and enables almost instant access to movies without having to physically find and load each movie. (This feature is coming soon).
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By Mike Garcen | Published Wednesday, 03 February 2010 |
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Have you guys seen this, 155 inches of OLED glory?!? I doubt this would ever actually see a price tag but it's a fantastic proof of concept as to the potential of OLED, after we've only seen smaller sized ones until now. Start saving those pennies!
The imposing OLED screen does have some issues, however, and Mitsubishi says that the resolution is still quite limited - without mentioning what it actually is. Durability on the small OLED panels is also shorter than on the LCD and plasma technology. Mitsubishi mentions a lifetime of around 20,000 hours. It is the first time that the OLED technology has surpassed 40-inches. Today manufacturers have trouble creating 32-inch OLED-TV for the consumer market. The 155-inch screen can be delivered now but is primarily aimed for outdoor use. |
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By Mike Garcen | Published Wednesday, 03 February 2010 |
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I don't hide the fact that SageTV is a fantastic media center application. They are constantly innovating their product and their WHS version is just another example. Just the product which us Media Center users have been clammoring for in Windows, already exists with SageTV, and the homeservershow guys cover installing and using.
Because it is on your WHS, you have a shared guide among all of your extenders/clients. One of the most common functions that WMC users with multiple WMC machines spread out over the network want is a shared guide. Sage on the WHS allows you to have a shared guide so that you can schedule recordings from any room in the house with an extender/client. |
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By Mike Garcen | Published Tuesday, 02 February 2010 |
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Our friend Brent from GeekTonic.com got a nice interview completed with the folks at Avermedia, makers of various tuner capture cards. Main point of discussion is their new capture device eerily similar to the one Hauppauge has had out for a while. I was hoping to see a lower price point than $199, but am hoping it's released with something to make it a clear winner over Hauppauge--maybe native MCE support, which Brent is skeptical about (and I am also).
First, there is no Optical audio in or Optical audio out. This is a biggie for some as it means no 5.1 audio. But if priced right this might not be a huge deal really. I confirmed with AverMedia that this first generation of the device will only have stereo audio. Secondly you’ll note the HDMI output. At first this seems a strange addition as it doesn’t record from HDMI. But it will allow you to connect the device to a TV with HDMI inputs. |
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By Mike Garcen | Published Tuesday, 26 January 2010 |
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After a slow start to the year, February starts off with a ton of new Blu-ray releases. A lot of these are remastered for Blu-ray and we have a lot of classics here...from Gangs of New York, to Casablanca, to Godfather. Not too many actually new movies here, with the exception of Love Happens and a few others. I must add, at fear of getting objects thrown my way...if you are feeling nostalgic and enjoyed the original, Universal Soldier 3 was...*gasp*...actually entertaining. Dolph and Van Damme return in their roles and make for a fairly entertaining ride.
MissingRemote's Pick of the Week
 
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While not too many new choices, I think Zombie Land would have been my pick on most weeks anyways. The plot is nothing new--the world is ending and people have turned into zombies--but I found the narration by Eisenberg was quite humerous. Of course there's plenty of blood and gore here, but it's a pretty fun ride with plenty of laughs...especially the cameo of Bill Murray. I won't say more to that to keep it a surprise, but if you enjoyed Shaun of the Dead, you will almost certainly enjoy Zombie Land. |
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By Mike Garcen | Published Tuesday, 02 February 2010 |
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Here's an interesting twist to the upcoming cable card tuners announcements--just like the HDHomeRun, the Ceton tuners will be able to be network accessible. Unlike them however, the Ceton will need to be installed inside your system, so keep that in mind as well. Still good news!
Ceton's MOCUR should work as a networked tuner, according to a post by VP Jeremy Hammer on The Green Button forums. His post indicates that, like the HDHomeRun CableCARD, Ceton's product will be available to other PCs by bridging it with the host computer's Ethernet card, and not blocked as it was with ATI's product.
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