Here is a very detailed look at one of the best HTPC case mods I have seen in a long time. Ever since the HTPC case market really opened up we have not seen the number of mods as we have seen in the past. This particular mod takes a Coolermaster tower and converts it into a VERY functional and sexy HTPC case.

From the article:

Mystique² was created to compete in CoolerMasters' 2006 Modding Contest--which he won in a landslide. Boddaker would be the first to mention that two of our other team members locked up second and third place for the sweep, Feldm4n's awesome Spiderman 3 mod which you can read about here, and Ton's excellent Super Hornet, which will be covered in an article next Friday.

I think a few of you have seen the Tech Crunch story that quoted Bill Gate's opinion on DRM and how it is affecting the media industries. Rather then link to that story directly, I thought I would like a story that links to that story to give you a slightly different perspective. One that might be a bit more relevant to MR's readership.

From the article:

The interesting angle here is that EMI, one of the largest music labels, has decided to sell DRM-free music on Yahoo! Music, potentially leading the way for other labels to follow suit.

If the music industry fails to treat consumers as legitimate buyers -- and instead makes them feel like criminals by locking away what they can do with what they legally own -- then the beautiful capitalistic economy we live in will do the rest of the work.

SageTV is hard at work squashing bugs :). They have released RC2 for version 6 with the full release coming soon! Click the read more for the full release notes!

Release Notes:

SageTV V6.0.17 Release Notes 12/14/2006 RELEASE CANDIDATE 2

Core Updates
1. Fixed bug with scaling GIFs while decoding them using the native image loader
2. Fixed bug with OGM duration detection
3. Memory usage optimizaitons for getting the name of a capture device (used heavily in the Scheduler, and was found through analysis of a user's dumps)
4. Native image loader is now enabled by default. Use "ui/disable_native_image_loader" to disable it.
5. Disabled multipass encoding for 3GP format since it doesn't always fit within the desired parameters
6. Fixed bug where Razr transcodings wouldn't play back on a Razr anymore
7. Changed offline transcoder so it allows WMV9 files to be converted (even though WMV9 is not supported officially)
8. Disabled debug logging by default
9. Fixed bug where invalid formats in a transcode job would cause no transcode jobs to be executed at all.
10. Fixed bug with metadata parsing where we interpreted Unicode chars as UTF-8

I was a little worried with the lack of HA news lately, but much to happiness an article has arrived. Crestron, perhaps the famous of the custom HA companies, has released a new WiFi panel with an embedded XP OS. With it being XP, it comes with all the capabilities such as web, email and multi-media capabilities.

From the article:

The system features:

• 8.4 inch active matrix SVGA display with 16 bit color depth
• Magnesium allow enclosure
• Integrated 5 way thumbpad and up/down arrow buttons
• Four softkeys positioned below the touchscreen are programmable for context sensitive menu functions
• Bluetooth support
• USB 2.0 support
• Built in fingerprint scanner
• Integrated 802.11a/b/g with WEP encryption support
• Wireless video from network cameras and servers
• Includes stylus with onboard storage slot
• Internal Li-Ion battery pac
• Windows XP embedded OS
• Optional desktop docking station

The advantage of going LCD panel or plasma is no doubt how slim the TVs are. A few manufacturers have tried to close the gap by developing slim cabinet TVs. Whats even better, the new TVs will accommodate wall mounting :D. 

From the article:

The DLA-HD1 (shipping in February at $6,299.95) produces a 15,000:1 native contrast ratio through a new .7-inch D-ILA panel and light engine design that does not require an iris.

The company claims this will yield strong black levels, and the “the industry’s highest” contrast performance, without sacrificing brightness performance.

The projector will use a 2x Fujinon zoom lens, and can be easily mounted on a ceiling or tabletop. Lens shift is said to be 80 percent vertical and 34 percent horizontal.

Well, it's Thursday, so you know what that means. Another episode of the Media Center Show with Ian Dixon. This week up, he's got Tim Cutting, the CEO of Niveus, which are making some nice Media Centers these days.

Show Times:
00:41 Coming up this week
01:16 Vista XBOX 360 Extender screen saver problems, see HERE
02:09 Media Center Extender’s and PC spec
03:59 Question on Sky from the forums
05:10 Charlie Owen on Why Our Look & Feel Isn’t Available To Applications 06:30 Big Screen TV- The weekly Nial spot!
07:50 My Movies update
08:15 Vote in the Media Center Show awards
08:40 New Media Center Show Extra out soon
08:45 New Version of mceBackup out soon
10:00 A message from Onevoice
10:50 Welcome back to Tim
11:15 Recap on Niveus
12:40 Media Server not a PC
16:58 Certification
18:00 Connections and back panel
21:55 what is new?
23:00 Rack version
26:00 DVD server
30:25 Managed Copy on HD-DVD
31:40 Info on HD-DVD
36:00 State of the next gen DVD war
38:00 Cablecard
41:00 Cablelab Certification process
44:00 How it works
48:00 No more irblasters!
52:00 Niveus Cablecard Readiness
54:30 Vista
56:30 Companion Software
1:00:00 Thanks to Tim
1:01:00 Words and Music by Ian Dixon

Check out the show here. 

Not the most glowing review, but not bad either. And for a Sony, it's pretty affordable at $4000, so at least worth a second look.

The Sony VPL-VW50 (Pearl) projector packs quite a punch - it's a new level of performance and resolution at an affordable price, but is definitely not perfect. Details can be lost in mixed bright/dark scenes. Most of the other projector issues are, in my opinion, overly emphasized by nitpicking users and are a lot less critical than some people would have you believe.

Read the rest here.