MyTVPal.com is set to launch a 1080; VOD and IPTV service this week. As you can probably guess the majority of the reported 700 channels available will be SD only with a small percentage being HD. As you can tell by my tone, I am somewhat skeptical but any progress in the HD front is good progress. 

Browsing through the channel lineup, I found a good many things that I would find entertaining. Not from a quality TV standpoint but more of a YouTube standpoint. Just different channels to surf and browse and have some fun. Maybe I can watch some crazy foreign game shows at 2:00 in the morning.

MyTVPal.com 

	Ch. 100	Van Helsing - Enhanced Definition trailer
	Ch. 101	Around the world in 80 days - Enhanced Definition...
	Ch. 102	Tropix - Standard definition Trailer
	Ch. 104	Wake - Standard Definition Trailer
	Ch. 105	NABIAS - Standard Definition Trailer
	Ch. 106	Behind the 9 - Standard Definition Trailer
	Ch. 107	NABIAS2 - Standard Definition Trailer
	Ch. 108	Ocean Park - Standard Definition Trailer
	Ch. 109	Latin Drama - Standard Definition Trailer
	Ch. 110	JPOP Music video - Standard Definition Trailer
	Ch. 111	Into the Blue - HD 720p Trailer
	Ch. 112	Spiderman 2 - HD 720p Trailer
	Ch. 113	XXX state of the union - HD 720p Trailer
	Ch. 114	Around the world in 80 days - HD 720p Trailer
	Ch. 115	Euro Koncert 1 - HD 720p sample
	Ch. 116	Euro Koncert 1 - HD 720p sample
	Ch. 117	Euro Fussball - 720p sample
	Ch. 118	Japan HD sample
	Ch. 119	Jpop HD - Sample
	Ch. 123	Euro Fussball - 1080p

If you are looking for a projector to simply get an image up on a screen, the HD81 from Optoma is likely one you are going to pass over. It's hefty array of features make it ideal for the serious HT enthusiast looking for a native 1080p projector that full fills a few other purposes. It has an exceptional range of input options and a reported 10,000:1 contrast ratio.

The feature that caught my eye was the Gennum VXP video processor. You essentially get a $3000 video processor included with the price of your projector. However, there are a couple of things that could be improved to make this a perfect projector.

From the article:

You can perhaps see that to hit your target screen size (and this projector is certainly bright enough to go to a larger sized screen) you’re going to have to have a fairly long room. I would have liked to have seen a bit more zoom on this lens, or at least the option to order a shorter throw lens for rooms that capitalizes on width and not depth. With the $9,999 retail price tag of this projector, Optoma is betting that this device will make its way primarily into dedicated theater rooms with a long throw or double row of seats. In my reference room I wasn’t able to hit my 100-inch Stewart StudioTek 130 at full size from the fixed mounting position and had to back the unit up against the back wall on my portable projector stand.

Here is a bit about the video processor.

Gennum VXP-based Video Processing (FineEdge, Fidelity Engine and TruMotionHD)
VXP is Gennum’s acronym for “Video eXcellence Processing” This system utilizes the GF9351 chipset and provides an incredible amount of features that includes: full 10-bit video processing, directional interpolation algorithms (jaggie reduction), pixel-based motion adaptive deinterlacing (2:2 and 2:3 pull-down) with bad edit detection, and noise reduction on both SD and HD content.

The PS3 may have received a lot of baad press, but its flexibility may make up for that in the long run. Its not quite as media friendly as the Xbox 360 but the fact that it has a built in Blu-ray player AND you can install Linux on it may mack up for that. The PS3 just screams as the ultimate DIY media machine. I could ramble on about that all day, lets get to the story at hand. PC World takes a look the Blu-ray experience offered by the PS3. This is an article clearly worth reading if you intend for your PS3 to be a Blu-ray player.

From the article:

I tested both players with a 50-inch high-definition plasma screen, the Pioneer Elite PRO-FHD1, running the output over HDMI at 1080p. I could see that the images from the PlayStation 3 appeared noticeably sharper and crisper, with more depth and detail than the Samsung unit produced. That's probably because the BD-P1000 was released with noise reduction enabled by default and offered no way to disable it. Samsung's misstep on this setting goes far to account for the flat-looking image, and for the generally lower picture quality that I and other reviewers noted on the BD-P1000 during the summer. (The company says this problem has been fixed via a firmware update released at the end of October; all players shipped since then have the new firmware.)

You can now expect to see Control4 in Best Buy's Magnolia stores. Currently Control4 sells through tweeters and have been involved with Circuit City in test trials. There is a lot of bread at stake in the housing market. Out of the 1.5 million homes that will be constructed next year, only 4 to 6 percent of them will be completed with some form of home automation. Its clearly a growth market.... Is it time to buy stock?

From the article:

"They are right up our alley," Control4 CEO Will West said of Magnolia. "They are one of the leading companies in proven custom installations at a process-driven retail level. They're not just pushing boxes but working with clients to create customized offerings that fit their needs and lifestyles."

Magnolia recently agreed to carry Exceptional Innovations' Life|ware home control solutions, a direct Control4 competitor, in two new stores in Santa Clara and Santa Monica, Calif. Magnolia eventually plans to roll out the Life|ware solution to its other locations. The retailer has no immediate plans to sell either line through its Magnolia outlets within Best Buy locations.

The basic $9.99 universal remote from Radio Shack really doesn't cut it in the Home Theater environment. Certainly it is an improvement over handling multiple remote but its unlikely to win any "favours" from your significant other. The Harmony line of remotes from Logitech doesn't quite step into the HA realm (yes I know about the 890), but it does make navigating your home theater a lot easier. The Harmony remotes, including the 670 feature in Digital Trend's review, feature an activity based system that will setup every system involved in an activity. For instance, if you press watch DVD it will turn on your DVD, receiver and TV. Based on your input it will assign the remote buttons to each device. In this case, the volume buttons would control the receiver, and the navigation button set would control the DVD player.

From the article:

The Logitech Harmony 670 Universal Remote gives you control of all your home electronics with a touch of a button, or two. This universal remote which was designed to work specifically with DVR devices will also control up to a total of 15 devices. This includes your TV, DVD player, and even your house lights. The Logitech Harmony 670 Universal Remote will never be out of date since it can be updated via its USB port. The software for the remote is supported on both Windows and Mac computers as well. At $150 entry point, it's a bit more expensive then a standard Universal Remote, but you don't get the same features or the ability to upgrade it to keep it current with new. 

This week's HT Guys podcast features a few interesting stories for the HT enthusiast like RCA's teleceiver and a new TiVo feature that allows you to share videos on the web. The focus of the podcast is archiving of your media and how to distribute to your home. They also talk about a construction project and how media distribution is integrated into it.

Listen to the podcast here:

Read the summary here: 

I have been preaching this for a long time! Never buy the extended warranty on CE devices! It is a big money sink and a way for the big chains to make an extra buck.

From the article:

Two possible exceptions

There are two caveats to our just-say-no advice: It's worth considering an extended warranty if you're buying a rear-projection microdisplay TV. Repair costs can be high, and these sets have been three times more likely to need repairs than other types of TVs. We also think it may be wise to get an extended warranty (which includes extended tech support) if you're buying an Apple computer, because they come with only 90 days of phone tech support.