|
By Mike Garcen | Mikinho | Published Wednesday, 28 July 2010 |
|
|
Continuing MissingRemote's tradition of providing you guys the patches necessary to enable Concurrent Sessions, we've created a new thread for Windows 7 Service Pack 1. The process below has been confirmed working with the Beta versions of Windows7 Ultimate, Professional, Home Premium and Enterprise Editions, x86 & X64 build 7601, Service Pack Build 178.
One of the most popular articles ever at MissingRemote.com has been our guide on how to enable Concurrent Sessions for Windows Vista.For those unaware of what it is, enabling Concurrent Sessions allows you to Remote Desktop into a system that someone else is on, under a different user account, and access the system without kicking the user off. I, for example, use the feature to have MCE running on my Television, and then I remote into my main user account to access all my files without interrupting my MCE session. Special thanks to Mikinho for compiling the package below and making this all possible.
Continue Reading...
 (0) Comments |
|
Read more...
|
|
|
By Andrew Van Til | Published Tuesday, 27 July 2010 |
|
|
|
Dell Inspiron Zino HD
Anyone in the market for a small and sleek entry level home theater PC knows that there are many options. With so many systems at very different price points, finding the right balance between capability and dollars can be difficult. The Inspirion Zino HD from Dell certainly has the right look, and being based on AMD’s 780G chipset, the right lineage. Keep reading to find out if it can check the boxes on the feature list without busting your wallet and find a nice cozy spot next to your TV.
|
(10) Comments
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
By Gene | Published Friday, 30 July 2010 |
|
Coming to a Redbox [hopefully] near you!
It's really no surprise that Redbox is going nationwide with its $1.50 Blu-ray rentals,
at every step along the way of its Hollwood dealmaking, the company has
pointed out its aim towards procuring a supply of high definition
movies, and now the day is finally here. The high definition disc
packing kiosks currently number 13,300, and the plan is to have Blu-ray
in all 26,000 locations by the fall. While we spotted plenty of Blu-ray
enabled locations with a San Francisco zip code, other areas in the
Midwest and East Coast weren't so lucky. The site points out a few of
the movies on offer, including Green Zone, Book of Eli and Bounty
Hunter, but there's no way to check which movies are in stock at each box.
Of course, at this price, we might be willing to take our chances until
Redbox gets things straightened out, or starts offering an online competitor to Netflix.
(0) Comments |
|
|
By Mike Garcen | Published Friday, 30 July 2010 |
|
Our friends at WeGotServed recently dealt with a topic we all *believe* to be true, but they went ahead anyways and actually got some concrete facts to go along with it. I don't think the results will surprise anyone, but maybe this is the extra motivation you needed to take the (rather expensive) plunge to solid state goodness.
It’s not all good news, however, bear in mind that SSDs are far more expensive per GB than a standard hard drive (though the cost is slowly reducing), and the capacities available are smaller. The sectors on an SSD can only be written to a certain number of times, so they have a limited (albeit very long) shelf life. That said, an SSD is great upgrade for a system drive and today, we’ll walk through the process of installing an SSD in our Media Center PC and check out the performance improvements gained.
(0) Comments |
|
|
By Mike Garcen | Published Friday, 30 July 2010 |
|
I don't normally post hot deals in the news page, but $85 for the HDHomeRun from SiliconDust is a pretty great deal. Just an FYI, these will work in conjunction with the HD cablecard tuners coming out later, in case you were wondering.
Naturally, the SiliconDust HDHomeRun Network-Based Dual Digital HDTV Tuner
works on Windows, Mac or Linux, so there’s no excuse for missing out.
Unless, for some reason, you’re under the impression that “silicon” and
“home run” aren’t compatible. And if that’s what you think, seriously,
wise up, Poindexter. It’s the 21st Century. Nerds go to the gym now.
And you think some guy who knows how many times Spider-Man fought The
Rhino can’t remember Rashard Mendenhall’s yards-per-carry last season?
(0) Comments |
|
|
By George (aka Skirge01) | Published Thursday, 29 July 2010 |
|
|
I have to admit that this news actually brought a tear to my eye. No, not simply because there actually is going to be a second season. While I am very happy about that, what was very moving was the news that star Andy Whitfield, Sparatacus himself, has apparently triumphed outside of the gladiatorial arena in the biggest battle of his life by beating cancer. If you weren't aware of this, he was diagnosed back in March with treatable Stage 1 non-Hodgkin lymphoma. If you click the link below, The Flickcast also has an interview with Andy.
Spartacus: Blood and Sand is back with a vengeance, with more
blood and you guessed it – more sand. In addition to shooting what will
be a glorious Season 2, Starz is also shooting a six-part prequel that
will be covering The House of Batiatus’ rise to arena awesomeness and air in January 2011.
(0) Comments |
|
|
By Andrew Van Til | Published Thursday, 29 July 2010 |
|
|
Sage V7 users are in for a special treat today. PluckyHD has opened up the public beta for Sage My Movies and a couple more videos to show how cool it is.
Current Release: 1.09 stvi / 1.10 api.
Release Date = 07 29 2010
This is the thread for support of SageMyMovies that can be found in the plugin manager of SageTV.
Note you must install the UI mod not the standard installation.
(1) Comment
|
|
|
By Mike Garcen | Published Thursday, 29 July 2010 |
|
|
Enjoy the home theater podcasts from this week!
Equipment and training required to calibrate professional studios and home theater systems. Guests: David Abrams of Avical Video System Specialists.
Joining me for another round table recording are Andrew Edney and Garry Whittiker. We discus some listeners emails including DVB-S, digital audio and talk about some of the weeks news including new Media Center apps, Windows 7 Tablets and my new toy the iPad. I am trying to integrate the iPad with my Media Center systems so Garry and Andrew have some app recommendations.
More podcasts available after the break....
(0) Comments |
|
Read more...
|
|
|
By Mike Garcen | Published Thursday, 29 July 2010 |
|
Considering my family are some of the biggest Library renters ever, I shouldn't be surprised by this...and yet I am. I haven't been to a Library for a while, but man their movie selection used to be pretty awful. Of course, you can grab a bunch of DVDs at once. I don't know, still impressive, I just wonder if it's a good use of your Public Library's funding.
So says a new survey from the OCLC Online Computer Library Center, a nonprofit national library cooperative, which found that public library branches in the U.S. lend out a whopping 2.1 million DVDs a day, topping the two million discs rented daily by Netflix and the 1.4 million DVD rented each day by Redbox, according to Courant.com (by way of the bloggers at Inside Redbox).
Pretty impressive, and it also turns out (according to a separate survey noted in the Courant.com piece) that the video catalog of your average library has more than doubled over the past decade or so, with 166.7 video "materials" (including DVDs and old VHS cassette tapes) available per 1,000 people as of 2008, compared with 73.5 materials per thousand foiks back in 1999.
(0) Comments |
|
|
By Mike Garcen | Published Thursday, 29 July 2010 |
|
Our friend Brent over at Geektonic has an awesome review of the super sexy Sonos S5 digital sound system, covering all the ins and outs, and how it integrates with your home and even iPod. Looks super impressive, if only I had multiple rooms period, this thing would be well worth the investment so it seems.
Remember back when you began using an MP3 player instead of a Walkman? Okay, perhaps not all of you are as old as I am for that example but bare with me. Compare how listening to music changed when you upgraded to a good MP3 player versus that Walkman. That’s how much Sonos changed our home during the month I reviewed it. Now that you know how much I loved doing this review read on to see if I think it’s worth spending the $399 for the Sonos S5.
(0) Comments |
|
|
By Mike Garcen | Published Thursday, 29 July 2010 |
|
Now here's one you might not have predicted (or maybe you did), Netflix's costs on licensing streaming movie exceeds the bandwidth. NOW, the question that remains is, as the features of streaming and quality improve requiring more bandwidth, does it hit into their profits greater?
According to its 10-K filing,
Netflix spent $66 million in the second quarter 2010 to license
streaming titles for its Watch Instantly service, compared with just $9
million that was spent in the prior-year period. ( Hat tip to CNET)
The acquisition of new and better content has helped drive its
subscriber numbers up 42 percent over the past year, with 15 million
subscribers at the end of the second quarter, compared with 10.6 million
a year earlier. In addition, those subscribers are watching more
streaming content than ever, with 61 percent using the service, compared to just 37 percent a year earlier.
(0) Comments |
|
|
By Mike Garcen | Published Thursday, 29 July 2010 |
|
You can either take this as good or bad news, depending on your own optimism. I think a more focused Microsoft makes for the better, as it will hopefully prevent seemingly abandoned technologies such as the Extenders. Only time will really tell what this all means, if their "TV" definition even includes MCE.
Actually, Microsoft has eight core focus areas, General Manager of Investor Relations Bill Koefoed, told the Wall Street analysts (and a few of us press types) attending the day-long event.
The eight, according to Koefoed:
* Xbox and TV
* Bing
* Office
* Windows Server
* Windows Phone
* Windows
* Business users
* SQL Server
(1) Comment
|
|
|
By Andrew Van Til | Published Wednesday, 28 July 2010 |
|
I have to admit that the Dune BD Prime is a very tempting media streamer/Blu-ray player, too bad the price isn't. With big CE companies (i.e. Sony) starting to build streamer features into their decks this will be a very interesting segment in the next couple years.
There are two models currently, the Dune HD Base 3.0 and the Dune BD
Prime 3.0. The Base retails for USD 349.99 and the Prime retails for USD
449.99. The only difference between the Base and the Prime is that the
Prime comes with an internal BluRay drive, whereas the Base just comes
with an option to add an internal 3.5″ hard disk drive. Both players
come with three USB 2.0 ports (one front, two back), eSATA port,
Ethernet 100/1000(*) Mbit/s, HDMI 1.3, S/PDIF (optical and coaxial),
7.1 analog audio, 2.0 analog audio, component video, composite video.
(0) Comments |
|
|
By Mike Garcen | Published Tuesday, 27 July 2010 |
|
|
I know there are some Stargate fans out there, so SGU-1.5 is probably of interest there. Fan Boys is somewhat of a cult comedy from a few years back about a group of Star Wars fans on a road trip, it has its moments. La Boheme certainly has its audience as well. I was seriously contemplating selecting Rambo the collection as the pick of the week, but seeing as the individual titles have been available for a while, I didn't see it as deserving.
MissingRemote's Pick of the Week
 |
Fans of this series of posts will remember I was a huge fan of the original classic version of Clash of The Titans, even with its cheesy special effects. While I have yet to see this re-make, and while the reviews have been less than stellar, I can tell that at least the action and the (hoping) commitment to the original story line will be worth the positive recommendation. Those that have seen this...let the disagreements begin (or agreement)!
|
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.
(6) Comments
|
|
|
By Mike Garcen | Published Monday, 26 July 2010 |
|
As more and more smaller form factor cases come out, the need for a solid low profile HSF becomes all the more important. Here are two such items reviewed by the very smart folks at SPCR.
While slim short cases have plenty of appeal, they are by definition, short on space; the massive heatpipe cooler you would ordinarily install in a tower are out of the question. CPU heatsink clearance is the main obstacle to be overcome, whether limited by the case ceiling itself or another component hanging over the CPU socket area. Whatever the case, you have to make the most of the space provided, which is where low profile coolers like the Gelid Slim Silence and Prolimatech Samuel 17 come into play.
(0) Comments |
|
|
