Cerwin-Vega! has unveiled the newest addition to its home audio/video product line with the introduction of the CVHD Series home entertainment 5.1 and 2.1 home speaker systems. The performance of the CVHD has roots all the way back to when Cerwin-Vega speakers made plaster fall from the roofs of theaters nationwide while delivering the rumbling bass of Sensurround for the movie Earthquake. The new CVHD Series is true to this legacy and redefines the home entertainment landscape with its sleek design, performance driven engineering, and very attractive price point. CVHD utilizes many state-of-the-art techniques such as its Linear Dispersion Speaker Technology™ (LDST), custom designed high efficiency Cerwin- Vega! drivers, neodymium magnets in the woofers and tweeters, and highly damped polymer enclosures with proprietary high frequency waveguides, all of which contribute to the ability of the CVHD to deliver a stunning home entertainment experience...

Read the rest of the Press Release. 

No, not Logitech's Harmony. Another one. The company is actually called Harmony, and their software the Maestro LSX is apparantly special enough to get an award at the upcoming CES. Their software does appear to be cool enough, but their website seems like it's stuck in 1999...GOOOOO BIG FLASH INTROS!!!

In addition to the all-in-one control of lighting, irrigation, awareness cameras, and thermostats, Maestro was designed with the family as its prime concern. A plethora of family-friendly features give Maestro its “whole home” appeal. For example, when Maestro is not in use, it becomes a digital picture frame displaying all the pictures in a slide show format which are normally sentenced to isolation on the family’s digital camera.

Read the rest at eHomeUpgrade. 

And there was much rejoicing! Sony, the main driver behind the Blu-ray standard, has finally started to ship their player. The specs in this article are a little week. I am not sure how it is going to handle the next gen HD audio formats and 1080p/24f. If you stumble across the specs, please post them in the comments of this article:).

From the article:

The unit compliments the company’s lineup of full 1,080p capable displays and source devices, including BRAVIA flat-panel LCD and Grand WEGA SXRD rear-projection televisions to the new PlayStation 3 game console, BD-ready Vaio computers and PC drives.

“I’m thrilled that it’s here just in time for the holidays,” said Randy Waynick, Sony Electronics’ home products division marketing senior VP. “Combining a Sony 1,080p HDTV set and our new BD player with an HDMI-enabled A/V receiver and surround sound speakers provides the epitome of the high-definition lifestyle.”

Being from Canada, I never truly understood how big of a deal the NFL is until I moved down here. I have seen coworkers discuss the games for over an hour on Monday morning. Verizon is making a smart move by getting in the NFL mix. I am sure it cost them a pretty penny.

From the article:

Customers who subscribe to video and broadband with Verizon can now enjoy live NFL action on their TVs, PCs and laptops, both at home and away from home," said Bob Ingalls, chief marketing officer of Verizon. "NFL Networks already is a premier part of our video offerings, and we're delighted to add it to our fast-growing roster of top-quality online entertainment programming. This reflects our commitment to providing consumers more and better choices in video and online entertainment."

Through a separate agreement, Verizon provides the NFL Network TV channel to subscribers of its 200-channel all-digital FiOS TV Premier package.  

Mvix has just added HD and wireless capabilities to their latest extender. It looks good on paper, but I have yet to see screen caps of the GUI.

Mvix Website:

The new generation of Hi-Def Multimedia Playback is finally here ! Experience a hi-definition media file playback and take your audiovisual experience farther than ever before. The Mvix™ High-Definition Wireless Multimedia Center (MX-760HD) provides an unprecedented file format support and literally puts life back in your digital media content. This hard drive-based multimedia center, built around linux-based architecture is a true home-theater PC offering endless possibilities.

The Mvix™ Hi-Def 802.1G Multimedia Center links to your home network and plugs all your digital media content directly into your TV. You can now access all your multimedia files (music files, videos, and photos) and play it on your large-screen plasma or HDTV. It features the wireless 802.11g technology with WEP infrastructure to deliver maximum wireless signal rates (of up to 54 Mbps) for streaming digital media. The Mvix™ player supports over two dozen media formats, including high-definition video (WMV-9 or MPEG-4 format). The media center is capable of accessing files no matter where they are stored - on it's internal hard disk drive (not included), on your Personal Computer, External USB Storage or even a Network Attached Storage (NAS) box. It provides an easy way of viewing your digital photo files or a slide show with background music. It is even programmed for automatic decoding and convenient bookmarking (playlist) of multiple files within a folder.

As the title mentions, Acer is the first company to have a TV ViiV certified. What exactly does that mean? I really have no idea at this point, I am sure they verified it takes standard HD resolution and timing. Is it a Vista extender? This really means nothing to even a geek like me.

From the article:

"Acer's AT3705 is the first LCD TV that integrates digital TV with media gateway functionality," said Jim Wong, president, IT Products Business Group, Acer Inc. "It provides customers with an integrated digital experience via the range of practical and convenient applications. We envisage a true Digital Home experience to converge information with entertainment, then, we may claim the arrival of the Digital Home era." Viiv is based on industry standards such as DLNA, UPnP, and DTCP-IP. The AT3705 LCD TV allows playing back content such as recorded digital broadcast TV programs and protected content 

geogecko sent word that Fusion has recently released a HDTV PCI-Express tuner card. The specs do not say if it is QAM capable or not nor was I able to track down if anyone has reviewed this product yet. It is good to see PCI-Express cards finally hitting the market, it was very frustrating to have no use for those slots.

Fusion's Website: 

Next Generation Express interface & Latest chipset

- High performance HIGH DEFINITION ATSC/NTSC TV reception card
- High bandwidth PCI-Express 1x slot utilization (250MB/s Bandwidth)
- Superb Conexant CX23885 chipset & LG 5th generation tuner.
- Supports Windows Vista™ 32bit and 64bit, XP x64™ Edition