Nov 14 2006

News - Monster releases HDTV calibration DVD

Monster, best known for their retail marketing prowess" have jumped onto the HDTV calibration scene. In conjunction with the ISF, Monster has devloped a "wizard style calibration DVD for you to balance black levels and colors. No word yet on how it compares to the other well known calibration discs out there.

From the article:

“This is the one DVD that will improve all your other DVDs,” enthuses Joel Silver, President of the Imaging Science Foundation. Monster promises that the presentation includes a “step-by-step video walk through, with no intimidating test patterns or complicated programming, and no extra equipment required.” The disc, co-produced by the ISF, is hosted by Jenna Drey and ‘Head Monster’ Noel Lee, but don’t let that put you off. It sells for 19.95 pounds.

Nov 14 2006

News - TiVo Series3 HD Digital Media Recorder

Sound And Vision has a relatively unknown company's product on their test bench. Oddly named "TiVo", with a capital V, it sports quite a few features that may make this HD DVR a front runner in the PVR race. 

From the article:

The TiVo Series3 HD Digital Media Recorder contains slots for two CableCARDs, which you can lease from your cable company for about $1.75 each per month (at least in my area). Each card decrypts all the digital channels you subscribe to, including premium channels, though you'd still need a separate tuner from your cable company to access video-on-demand.

The Series3 is the most capable and attractive DVR yet. With six tuners (two analog, for conventional terrestrial stations or analog cable channels; two ATSC, for terrestrial DTV; and two digital cable), the Series3 is compatible with everything except satellite. The OLED display on its front shows the names of programs being recorded, and the 36-button remote is completely backlit. This is also the first DVR to be certified by THX, an assurance program for audio and video quality.

 

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Nov 13 2006

News - CableLabs Testing Multistream CableCards

Well it's about friggin time now isn't it?!?? After seeing how long it took to get cablecard in Vista, I'm terrified to ask about this type of cablecard for any PVR. 

CableLabs said it will begin offering verification testing of plug-and-play devices like digital-video recorders with the multistream interface beginning in January as part of CableLabs Certification Wave 49. The M-Card project is supported by TiVo, Motorola, Digeo, Solekai, Digital Keystone and ViXS.

Read the rest here

Nov 13 2006

News - DivX wants to be in your living room

PVRWire covers the latest article about DiVx's strategy in the home entertainment realm, with some interesting ideas.

 Greenhall says Apple has it right in focusing on a way to bring PC-based media to the TV set. But where Greenhall differs from Steve Jobs is the hardware. He says consumers don't want to have to buy a special device just to move their media throughout the house. Rather, DivX is hoping to partner with the manufacturers of DVD players, PVRs, and other set-top boxes on a software standard called DivX Connected.

Read the rest here

Nov 13 2006

News - Getting Started With Home Automation Lighting Control (Part 4)

The 4th & I believe final part of Chris Lanier's Home Automation series is up for your enjoyment.

 Now that you not only have an idea about what it takes to install and setup mControl, now you might want to know that it’s not limited to controlling your home just from your Media Center PC.  You can gain access from just about any room in home, and you can even access mControl securely (using SSL) from just about anywhere in the world!

Read the rest here

Nov 13 2006

News - Pioneer Ups the Ante for Professional Displays

Pioneer Ups the Ante for Professional Displays with Full-feature Plasmas Now Available

 

Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. is now shipping its new high definition 50” PDP-507CMX and 60” PDP-607CMX commercial plasmas.  The plasmas take advantage of Pioneer’s new PureDrive™ Pro circuitry, available exclusively in the new professional displays, in addition to proprietary technologies to deliver brilliant, sharp imagery with improved panel efficiency.  PureDrive Pro, one of the industry’s most powerful signal processing engines, ensures the plasmas maintain the purest digital signal possible with minimal data loss for smooth, bright imagery that delivers the intended message to an audience. 

“With the increasing desire of a high definition display for use in a variety of commercial settings, our new plasmas provide flexible functionality and breakthrough picture needed for today’s professional applications,” said Jim Krodel, vice president of industrial display for Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc.  “Our plasma displays are designed for enhanced usability and performance in single or multiple presentations, as well as for simple integration in larger scale exhibits and event venues.” 

The new plasmas utilize key technologies that Pioneer has refined throughout the past eight years of research and development.  Improved picture accuracy is a result of First Surface Pure Color Filter (PDP-507CMX) and Pure Color Filter II (PDP-607CMX).  These technologies also reduce the impact of external lighting, allowing the plasmas to be placed in nearly any room environment with little to no picture degradation.  The new commercial plasmas boast smooth, natural image reproduction from Advanced Continuous Emission IV as well as PureDrive Pro technologies. Ultimately, users gain a sophisticated presentation display that is ideal for executive meetings, digital signage as well a host of other professional uses. 

Pioneer’s Expansion Solutions™ technology greatly enhances functionality.  Both the PDP-507CMX and PDP-607CMX possess dual expansion card slots allowing users to insert a variety of expansion cards to modify or enhance the displays’ A/V capabilities for customized display solutions.  Expansion cards are available from Pioneer and third-party manufacturers.

Pioneer’s plasma displays offer significant longevity for a commercial user.  Sixty thousand hours is an approximate time for the display panel to reach half of its original luminescence.  This approximation may vary depending on source and type of content, settings, environment and use.  This approximation does not provide or imply any warranty beyond the manufacturer's standard limited warranty.

The 50” PDP-507CMX and 60” PDP-607CMX plasma are now available for a suggested retail price of $6250 and $9995, respectively.

Nov 13 2006

News - Yamaha RX-V2700, 7.1 Surround Receiver

Home Theater Blog has a quick writeup on Yamaha's upcoming RX-V2700 receiver. With well over two paragraphs dedicated to the writeup, they do give you the main information you need to know on the receiver with a good detail on the video processing chipset from Anchor Bay Technologies.

From the article:

The Yamaha RX-V2700 7.1 surround receiver features 140 watts x 7-channels, 3 HDMI inputs, 96/24 Dolby Digital EX and DTS-ES decoding and Anchor Bay Technologies ABT1010 internal scaling chipset. Not a bad looking receiver on paper, I’d love to get some face time with a Anchor Bay equipped receiver, source or display, as I’ve heard very positive reviews of their de-interlacing and video processing capabilities.

Nov 13 2006

News - Term of the Week - EDTV

About.com's weekly feature is here again and they are talking about EDTV. EDTVs were big a couple of years ago in the plasma market when HD versions were considerably more expensive. With the price drops of HD plasmas and LCDs its hardly worth while to invest in an outdated technology such as EDTV.

From the article:

EDTV stands for Enhanced Definition Television. EDTVs typically have a native resolution of 852x480 (480p). 852x480 represents 852 pixels across (left to right) and 480 pixels down (top to bottom) on the screen surface.

 

Nov 13 2006

News - Homezone Takes A Step Forward

Homezone has taken a step forward with AT&T's recent announcement of a Sat and IPTV service combination. The PVR box will sport a 250 GB hard drive, WI-FI, remote schedule, and internet radio. It sounds like AT&T are on the right path. They are using the down path of the internet right, now lets up they use the up path (placeshifting, networked house, digital home applications).

From the article:

In a move that mirrors the rollout of BT Vision, US telecoms giant AT&T has announced that it will offer a multimedia service based around a network PVR/Dish Network satellite receiver. The service will allow users view both satellite content and to access IPTV subscription services offering movie, TV and music downloads from content provider Akimbo.

Nov 13 2006

News - Xbox360 HD DVD Playback

If there is a hack... there is a way. I wonder if companies actually think people won't find work around for getting non-pc parts to work on PCs. Latest on the hit list is the ability to use the $200 HD DVD add on with a XP enabled PC. As of right now, file browsing is confirmed and playback is spotty at best.

From the article:

The same day the XBOX360 HD-DVDROM Addon was released to the public in USA, we at blueprint figured out how to use it in windows, now as of this moment, officially, the movie that came with the hardware "King Kong" is currently a Dual Layer (30GB) disc so it would appear the studios are aiming for that size minimally for the majority of movies to start off with at least, this of course mean's you will not be directly copying any hd-dvd's as of yet. However, the most important thing is were now able to read the UDF (Universal Disc Filesystem) v2.5 which is currently used by the Toshiba Corp with there first generation HD-DVDRom drives. You can see the entire contents of the HD-DVD Media when in the drive.

 

Nov 13 2006

News - Cortexa's Vista-ready Home Control System

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CE Pro has a quick blurb on Cortexa's new Vista-ready Control System. Looking at the screenshot, it appears similar to other systems on the market. I am not familair with what type of hardware this system uses, if you know a bit more about Cortexa and their systems please comment.

From the article:

Cortexa Technology has launched a Windows Vista-ready version of the company's Home Control System, able to control lighting, security, climate control, irrigation and more through Windows Media Center.

The home control system can be controlled with a touchpanel, Windows CE or XP device, a Web browser or through MCE.

Nov 13 2006

News - RFID Digital Door Lock

Keys? Who needs them! With a RFID lock, keys will be a thing of the past. You certainly won't have to worry about someone picking your lock because there is no keyhole. It also comes standard with a night mode that disables all external entry functions.

From the article:

mykeyfrid

With the PIN pad, you'll never lock yourself out ever again. Calling a locksmith to unlock your door or to change your lockset because you misplaced a key will be a thing of the past. Change your PIN and reprogram your RFID cards should you ever lose your keys or have them stolen. No need to change locks...

Nov 10 2006

News - Getting Started With Home Automation Lighting Control (Part 3)

Chris Lanier continues his series of Home Automation control with MCE. Today he talks a bit about setting up macros and posts his thoughts about what is missing from the product. It certainly sounds like a cheap and effective way to control your house from your chair. I am very interested in setting this up as well and will post my thoughts on it when I get it setup.

From the article:

Home Security IP Cameras are one thing, but lighting can also improve your home security. Let’s say you are going on vacation, how about setting up mControl to turn on your lighting at somewhat random times during the day to give your home a “lived in look”? You can do this very easily with mControl on a per day basis, per time basis, etc. You can even include a “Randomness” factor so that the lights don’t turn on everyday at the 8:00PM on the dot. Set “Randomness” to 15 minutes and they might come on at 7:45PM, 8:15PM, etc. Very nice, and those stupid plug-in timers are no longer needed. There are endless possibilities when you apply home automation to security, just let your imagination run with them and mControl can help.  

Nov 09 2006

News - Getting Started With Home Automation Lighting Control (Part 2)

Chris Lanier has the second part of this excellent article on getting some basic home automation going with, of course, a Media Center PC as the controller. It's pretty slick.

For the software side I will be using Media Center to do everything (naturally), and mControl from Embedded Automation is my plug-in of choice.  I’ve got a copy from Embedded Automation to play with, but as you have seen in Part 1 in my review, you can get the PowerLinc USB Controller with mControl which is the suggestion method since you will need the PowerLinc Controller anyway.

He goes on to say that mControl is quite easy to setup:

Setting up mControl wasn’t much harder than launching Media Center with my remote.  After the basic install wizard of mControl I just launched Media Center and selected mControl from More Programs.  I went ahead and added a zone, in my case I named it “Bedroom.  I then selected the Bedroom zone, and went to “Add Device”.

 

The nitty-gritty can be found here.

Nov 09 2006

News - Second generation Wii to offer DVD playback

An interesting tidbit from AVZombie says that the 2nd gen Wii will offer DVD playback

 

It won’t play them when it launches in the UK, but a second generation version of the Nintendo Wii games console will offer DVD playback, when it goes on sale in Japan late 2007.
The feature is unlikely to stay a Japanese exclusive for long. It looks likely that the second wave of machines will offer the feature when they are released worldwide. The move would be one way of maintaining dealer margins, when first generation equipment prices inevitably slide.

 

This is rather interesting because the previous "line" from Nintendo was that they were sticking the basics, their core, gaming. Not even the well established standard DVD format would be playable from the Wii. I wondered if this was a smart move, since the PS2 had DVD playback support built-in, and while it is a pretty poor player overall, it gave every college kid who owned a PS2 and free DVD player and lots of students use(d) it as such.

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