With an MSRP of $10,000, this is definitely drool-worthy, and maybe overkill. But then again, I'm sure prices will come down as more manufacturers release more 1080p plasmas. When would you need full HD on a 50" plasma? Well, to put it bluntly: when you want to sit up REALLY close and really see every detail. If you're planning on […]
Read moreHP, more then any other major company, is embracing Media Center technologies. Evidence of this is their latest LCD/HTPC combination. Without reading the review here are a few things that I think this TV needs to be successful. 1. Good UI (this ranges from playlist support, to responsive UI… basically the whole nine yards) 2. Support for DVD, HD, SD, […]
Read moreSilicon Optix, the leader in programmable video processors, announced today that its Reon-VX HQV video processor will be featured in Toshiba’s new top-of-the-line HD DVD player, the HD-XA2. “As a reference standard for high-end video, HQV’s video processor complements Toshiba’s HD-XA2 HD DVD player with the capability to produce amazing detail and clarity from high-definition (HD) material,” said Jodi Sally, […]
Read moreHere I thought the format wars would remain somewhat quiet this week until CES started up. Welp, I was wrong. Samsung has now dropped the price of its Blu-ray price to $899. This translates into price slashes from other retailers including a $330 price drop from Amazon. Amazon's price of $570 brings it much closer to to HD DVD and […]
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I know I preach over & over again how your HTPC can be used as your one-stop upconverter, but figured this was worth a news posting for those sans-HTPC, since it does only cost $80, not a bad deal. On our test 46-inch DLP set, the upconverted DVDs looked noticeably better than standard DVDs, as you'd expect. However, even […]
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I gotta be honest, I'm surprised to see another remake of this style of case from Silverstone. I remember the first LC05, and while it was a cool design, I don't remember seeing much buzz around it, nor anyone using it. Well, nonetheless, they've made some nice improvements to it & marked it with the cool name, LC09….just rolls off […]
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New year's starting off with some nice new reviews. Tweaktown has up the Gigabyte AVPC Center HTPC system, which I honestly can't decide if I like the look of it. One thing's for sure, it doesn't look like a computer, which is always a positive for WAF. So how does it stack up as an actual Media Center? The H663 […]
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Ok, so my first take on this somehow ended up blank. Anyhow, Zalman really falters on this case with so many vents & fans. It's a shame, as the aesthetics of the case are great, I personally really like the design & style, but you just can't release an HTPC case that clocks in at almost 40db!! The HD135 is […]
Read moreThis is the great thing about the TiVo, is even with all their innovations, the community around it helps & provides the rest while everyone waits for an official Mac software from the company. TiVoDecode Manager 2.0 features the following updates: On the fly MPEG4 encoding is supported on both Intel and PowerPC processors New option to automatically add MPEG4 […]
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I know typically I haven't posted any notebook reviews, but these are deserving I think, as they are Media Centers which also include HD-DVD players. Nice feature of HP's is the built-in IR sensor, versus the Qosmio which has an external box, which really is just annoying if you have to travel a lot with it. Our primary objective in […]
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