Dec 16 2006

News - CQC 2.0 Released

I have been following hte devlopment of CQC since my days at HTPCNews.com and frankly it looked like it required a bit too much programming for me to be bothered. I say that, however, I have never really played with it to know if it would serve well as an out of the box solution. Perhaps I need to take it for a test spin someday :).

Release Notes:

Media Management:

There was a massive overhaul of the media management system in this release. There is now a Charmed Quark specific media repository, which is managed via our own repository management and CD ripping tool, which also provides metadata retrieval. So you will no longer need either J.River or DVD Profiler if you use our new repository. And you no longer require an export/import cycle to get new data into the repository as with J.River/DVD Profiler, since any changes made with our repository manager are immediately available.

As with everything in CQC, the repository manager is network distributed so you can manage the repository from any machine in the network, including ripping and uploading CD data. In addition, many new features have been added to the user interface system to provide a better media browsing experience, and a new hierarchical layout was implemented so that you can group multi-disc sets into a single browsable item that can be opened up to access to individual discs.

  • We do not provide DVD ripping services, for legal reasons, but you can point our repository at externally ripped DVD files.
  • The existing J.River and DVD Profiler based repositories are still supported, but aren't able to fully benefit from all the new features.
Dec 16 2006

News - Case Study: Mystique 2 By Boddaker

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.

 

a226-9-tn

 

Dec 16 2006

News - Monster Central Control System

Monster has tiptoed into the input and HA worlds with their release of the AVL300.  A quick glance at the shape and button layout makes me think that this would be uncomfortable for day to day use. Other then that, it appears very similar to the Harmon 890, except for a few dollars more and Z-Wave support.

From the article:

In creating AVL300 Monster Cable partnered with Logitech while they were developing the RF-based Harmony 890 and brought them the Z-Wave lighting protocol. Logitech was originally working with the Cypress RF chips used in URC remotes, but Monster’s partnership with Z-Wave and the launch of the Monster Lighting products was the extra incentive the product designers needed to incorporate the Z-wave technology. Monster Central basically leveraged Logitech’s Harmony database and set-up infrastructure and jointly developed a MONSTER. The Monster AVL300 remote is not only capable of providing a complete control solution for your entire AV system, it has also been complemented by Monster’s Central Control System for multi-room RF capability and advanced lighting control.

 

Dec 16 2006

News - How Digital Rights Management Hurts Major Music Labels

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.

 

 

Dec 15 2006

News - The Apple iTV Remote

Interesting.....and seemingly overly long. But who am I to judge. Decide for yourself, assuming this is even true.

VEXO is a universal remote that has been designed to control upwards of 16 devices. VEXO offers a silver-colored key-coin made of aluminum, set in black, glossy polycarbonate glass—instead of the usual chaos of buttons. Rotating and pressing operations controlled by the thumb take care of all the actions. The back-lit display makes its self-sufficient in the dark.

 

ruwido-side

 

 

Read the rest here

Dec 15 2006

News - SageTV V6.0.17 RC2 is Now Available

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

Dec 15 2006

News - DirecTV activates Networking for Intel Viiv PCs

10's of people must be excited about Direct TV's announcement that they are finally rolling out updates to connect to ViiV computers. The features are somewhat pointless and I would doubt they would be widely used. Am I cynical? Heck yah! The ViiV and Live platforms have proved to be nothing but marketing at this point. 

They really need to hire me as a consultant sometime ;).
From the article:

However, there is a catch. Network functionality will only work with Intel ViiV compliant PCs. Your ViiV PC needs to be running Intel ViiV version 1.5 or higher. This is obviously going to annoy any non-ViiV PC owner who will be feeling very left out.
 

 

Dec 15 2006

News - Crestron Isys i/O TPMC-8X : your house under control!

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:

1319

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
Dec 15 2006

News - Mark Cuban Partners With Dell

Mark Cuban, known for his low key opinions, has teamed with Dell to add a little Blu-ray loving to Dell's XPS M1710 computer. With each computer bought that has a BR drive, Mark with throw in a free HD Net movie of the shuttle launch. That would look spectacular on a big screen. Thanks to Mark C. for helping out the cause :).

From the article:

"Mission" was released to retailers in early October, when Magnolia officially entered the Blu-ray derby with six titles, including "Bubble," a 2005 film from director Steven Soderbergh about three Midwestern factory workers whose lives are changed by a local murder, and "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room," a documentary about the Enron financial debacle.

Dec 15 2006

News - JVC Shows Slim-Cabinet D-ILA TVs

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.

 

Dec 14 2006

News - TiVo recording delete screen adverts are live

I'm still not sure how to feel about this. I understand what PVR Wire are saying in that users already pay a fee, they shouldn't have to endure extra ads. BUT, that being said, the ads are pretty non-intrusive, and have you looked at TiVo's latest numbers? They're not making money, so assuming you don't want to see the lifetime membership worth nothing, I wouldn't mind it (then again....I use software PVR so if Microsoft ever tried this, off to SageTV or Beyond Wink)

TiVo is continuing to roll out new advertising methods on its PVRs and the latest advert appears on the "Delete this recording?" option. This has now gone live as we can see pictured right

 

tivo-delete

 

 

Dec 14 2006

News - The Windows Media Center Show #87 - Tim Cutting

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

Dec 14 2006

News - BT launches new broadband TV service

Interesting idea, where they're taking an a la carte method of on-demand. I don't know though, the prices aren't the cheapest, but at least they're making some agreements with some media companies, possibly getting them some exclusive content in the future.

BT Vision is delivered through a new set-top box, dubbed the V-box. This device contains an HD Ready personal video recorder (PVR) able to store up to 80 hours of content, pause or rewind live TV and record programmes at the touch of a button. It's worth £199, but will be given free to existing and new customers who sign up to a new contract with BT Total Broadband. There will be an installation charge of £60 to have the box installed by a BT engineer, however, plus a one-off connection charge of £30.

Read the rest here

Dec 14 2006

News - Sony VPL-VW50 Projector Review

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.

sony-vpl-vw50-projector-front-main

Read the rest here

 

Dec 14 2006

News - Lewis launches new multi-room AV server

Its always hard to tell what a "Media Server" will cost these days. It seems like it can range from $500 to $15000. Thankfully, Lewis' new Media Center box is around the $1000 mark. Its clearly a MCE machine with a very nice looking case. However, it talks a lot about Media Distribution, which I assume is just using extenders of some sort.

Product Page:

While watching a recording you don't have a chance to see the ending, your Multiroom unit will remember where you were up to and carry on from that point.

Now you can store all of your films and digital content in one location with the ability to watch six different movies in upto six rooms from one Dvd collection.

Want to view the extra features that Dvd's allow, No problem, every Dvd Is stored in perfect detail without any loss of sound or picture quality with all menus faithlessly reproduced.

With a large Dvd collection you may want to watch an action movie on the main screen while a disney film is played in the games room, this is all possible with a Lewis MC1200 / Multiroom combination.

 

lewis_multiroom_front_thumb

 

 

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