By Mike Garcen | Published Friday, 03 September 2010
Amulet Devices Remote Control
"Voice activated." In the past just the words alone have made many cringe as implementations have been fairly weak and suffered from a myriad of different variables in the environment which made performance lackluster. Amulet Devices looks to change that with their own Remote Control and Media Center (MC) software implementation by embedding a microphone inside the remote as well as designing their own interface for controlling it. The potential for voice has always been there, and it looks like Amulet may be the first to get it right.
By Mike Garcen | Published Thursday, 09 September 2010
Lots of good variety this week in our roundup of podcasts, so enjoy!
Picking The Right RAID Mode, Roku Gets More Affordable, Steve Jobs: 720p is the New HD! Apple TV 2.0, Plex: Goregous Interface for OS X Home Theater, Which home theater calibration certificates are worth the money, and the Blu-ray releases for September 7th, 2010.
If you know of a podcast you would like added to the weekly roundup, please do e-mail me at mike (at) missingremote dot com and I'll make sure to add it's RSS to my list!
By Mike Garcen | Published Thursday, 09 September 2010
Are you a SageTV user and not skipping your TV Commercials? Oh the shame! Well fear not, Brent over at GeekTonic has a great quick guide on how to easily do so.
The problem is with most HTPC programs installing and setting up commercial skipping is less than easy and often requires multiple programs, time, and some techy know-how. I’ve just experienced the 2nd easiest commercial skipping installation ever! (BeyondTV is the easiest by far since commercial skipping is built in – unfortunately BeyondTV is a dead software PVR product.)
By Mike Garcen | Published Tuesday, 07 September 2010
Lots of releases this week, most older than new with some good ones like The Black Dahlia, Mars Attacks! and I was really tempted to go with Poltergeist as my pick simply due to its classic nature in the horror genre.
I am fully prepared for some flames for this request, but let me start by saying I was already a fan of the short SNL skits and Will Forte in general. That being said, the main reason I'm recommending this is because it simply made me laugh. Of course it's ridiculous, of course there are lots of dumb jokes, but if you enjoyed the MacGruber character from the skits I think you'll enjoy this as well. I wasn't a huge fan of Val Kilmer's role as the archenemy, but Ryan Phillipe was surprisingly very amusing. A good time if you're prepared for it.
Note: Warner Brothers, Universal and Fox titles which have the 30-day Netflix/Redbox rental window imposed on them are noted with ** next to the title.
By Mike Garcen | Published Tuesday, 07 September 2010
NMedia won't exactly wow your visitors, but they do provide quality HTPC cases at a ridiculously affordable price.
The matte black finish combined with a flashy black plastic front bezel really sets off this case and makes it look like a typical receiver or Blu-ray player you might see on the shelf of any person's home theater system. The sliding door on the front panel seemed sturdy enough for extended use too, and the addition of a media card reader is very functional.
By Meester.Rip | Published Tuesday, 07 September 2010
I'll need to see a review and price before making a decision. There is mention of a track pad also.
It's a little hard to tell from the presser, but it sounds like there's an optical track pad hidden somewhere on here as well. We also don't have any mention of release date or price, but do details like that really matter? No, they don't. Because this remote's sexy. And you're sexy. Problem = solved.
By Tim (Lothar) | Published Monday, 06 September 2010
I am happy to say that I now possess two Windows based laptops that each have the Mythtv frontend software built natively on them. The Mythtv devs have been very busy over the lasts couple of weeks putting together a server to host all of the Mythtv dependencies - MinGW, MSYS, etc - so that the build script will reliably build for Windows users. You are no longer forced to see if there is an updated package when the build script is unable to find the version that it was expecting. I can say from experience with both this script and the previous versions that this one is much easier to use. The process is still the same but you save a lot of time and headache not hunting down the dependencies.
If you know of a podcast you would like added to the weekly roundup, please do e-mail me at mike (at) missingremote dot com and I'll make sure to add it's RSS to my list!
By Andrew Van Til | Published Sunday, 29 August 2010
SageTV STP-HD300
Those familiar with SageTV know that one of its major strengths is an consumer electroincs (CE) style extender, the STP-HD200, which really extends the entire experience – supporting everything from DVDs with menu support, to BDMV (Blu-ray folders) and MKV with PGS (aka Blu-ray) subtitles. The STP-HD200 was not perfect however, especially for those who use standby on the SageTV server or connect it directly to a TV, so when the opportunity came up to get an early look at their upcoming STP-HD300 which fixes both of those issues (and a whole lot more) it was impossible to say no.
Click through to watch the unboxing and read the full review.
By Mikinho | Published Wednesday, 01 September 2010
I'll update with the official specs when Apple updates their site but the new Apple TV was demonstrated today at the Apple Fall Event.
It is basically small, silent, "attractive" and cheap. It will be released in 4 weeks for $99. It can stream from iTunes and Netflix and play content from your network as well.
No Blu-ray support so out of the question for me but at $99 it is very difficult to compete against for those without an existing HTPC network or watch Live TV using a STB.
Apple TV has been redesigned to be small in size but big on entertainment. Rent from the largest selection of HD movies — many available the same day they come out on DVD. Watch Netflix titles instantly. Rent TV shows, commercial free in HD. And stream photos and music from your computer to your widescreen TV. Best of all, Apple TV is just $99.
By Daniel Schoerner | Published Wednesday, 01 September 2010
It's not often we post news from the Wall Street Journal, but this was smack on the front of the second section today and seemed worth sharing. I'm looking forward to seeing what Amazon can field for a subscription service. It'll be intersting to see which appliances can connect to the service, and what content they can get on the platform. Becuase at the end of the day it's really all about the content. Click through to read the full article at WSJ.com.
Amazon.com Inc. is working on a new subscription service that would deliver TV shows and movies over the Internet, ramping up the battle among Web companies to control entertainment in the living room.
The Internet retailer has in recent weeks pitched a Web-based subscription service to several major media companies, including General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal, Time Warner Inc., News Corp. and Viacom Inc., among others, according to people with knowledge of the proposal.
By Mike Garcen | Published Wednesday, 11 August 2010
I'm not exactly clear on how this box is worth more than double of Patriot's Box Office with similar features, but hey...the interface at least isn't identical. I was concerned with the issues the reviewer had playing back Blu-ray filetypes.
You can pick up the Fusion HD for an MSRP of $219, with a little bit of variation if you shop around. It's a bit more expensive than other digital media players like the $149 WD TV Live HD, but it's a very different type of device. The biggest selling points for the Fusion HD, as far as I see it, are the playback of ISO files, BitTorrent functionality and the ability to install a two terabyte hard drive right into the unit. On these points it performs admirably.
By Mike Garcen | Published Wednesday, 01 September 2010
Today must be the day of pairs. Ok, maybe I'm a day late on this news, but great news for you free HTPC software fans as XBMC and Plex (for Mac) have released new builds. Looks like Plex ran into some issues with theirs, but appear to be actively working on fixing it. Either way it's great to see both groups continuing development.
Our mirrors (a big thanks to them!) were hammered badly as tens of thousands of downloaders tried to get the latest release, so in the morning we moved the main download site to S3 to ease of the pressure on the mirrors and get the app into people’s hands faster.
The improvements are too many to name, but head over to the milestone page to get an idea. By far the biggest new feature is the Add-ons system. Our community is full of talented script-writers, skinners, and designers; we wanted XBMC to display their full potential. The result is a powerful and flexible system that allows for complete customization of the XBMC experience. Gone are the days of digging for the latest version of buggy plugins, or incomplete skins in our forums. Most of our users probably never even made it that far.
By Mike Garcen | Published Tuesday, 31 August 2010
Right off the bat, I know I'm going to get a hard time for NOT picking Sam Raimi's awesomely classic Evil Dead. In my defense, I loved that movie, but I really didn't like it nearly as much as I had hoped having seen Army of Darkness first. So there you go. House 5th season is a great one as usual, and can't think of a worse movie idea than Marmaduke. Heard good things about Sons of Anarchy but never watched it.
Michael Caine has been around and played all sorts of characters, from ring leaders to Bruce Wayne's butler, always doing an awesome job of getting into the character. I had heard nothing but positive reviews about Harry Brown, but it was still as good as expected. The plot is Harry lives in an area in England run by a small gang which torments the citizens (it's better than I'm making it sound), and then Harry can't take it anymore. Great movie with good amounts of drama and suspense.
By Andrew Van Til | Published Wednesday, 01 September 2010
Am I the only one who really wants a job at the FCC today? They got their grubby hands on some of the first of the cool new remotes coming out--the Boxee remote and the Amulet Devices Voice Controlled remote! Hopefully there are no hiccups for either and we'll see them soon to market.
Amulet Device's intriguing voice-activated remote for Windows Media Center has long since missed itsoriginal ship date,
but it just popped up at the FCC, complete with product shots and the
user manual. Besides providing typical universal features like IR
learning, as a package the rechargeable battery-powered controller, USB
dongle, and companion Windows Media Center Plugin will allow users to
operate their home theater by simply speaking commands to the remote's
built-in microphone
Now we have some encouraging news for its planned November release date:
the QWERTY remote has hit the FCC. Called simply the "Remote
controller" (model numbers DSM-221, DSM-22), it looks to have passed
with flying colors, the FCC celebrating by ripping it to bits and
photographing every piece of exposed silicon.
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