Even those without a Home Automation (HA) system can appreciate the value in a keyless entry option for the home, but the real value for a lock like the Yale Real Living Electronic Touch Screen Deadbolt is realized by leveraging Z-Wave to integrate it in a HA system. After doing that, it unlocks a wide array of actions that simplify […]
Read more
Today Intel announced at the North American Broadcasters show that they will be releasing a version of the Media SDK (MSDK) for Linux. For those who don’t know, the MSDK is the software layer that enables Quick Sync (QS) hardware accelerated video decoding and encoding. Given the location of the announcement Intel is probably targeting MSOs to use this technology […]
Read more
After experiencing NETGEAR’s previous generation NeoTV NTV200, with solid function, value and distinction as one of the only media streamers with HDMI CEC support it was genuinely exciting when the NeoTV MAX (NTV300SL) arrived with a dual-sided QWERTY remote, full VUDU 3D and Netflix multichannel audio with subtitle support–that NETGEAR only asks $70 (MSRP) for the device was gravy. With […]
Read more
Roku makes one of the most compelling Over the Top (OTT) streamers available today, offering oodles of content options, a clean, responsive UI, and (my favorite feature) universal search. Of course for those who want to use more than a few of the 750+ channels the current UI doesn’t scale well, so now we have another reason to like the […]
Read moreAs the months dragged on I was a bit concerned that the issue noted in our review of the TX-NR818 where it converted 23.976 content to 24.000 was not going to get fixed. Thankfully that is not the case because today Onkyo released a firmware update that resolves it (and a couple other issues) – Huzzah! I’ve been running a […]
Read moreUsing a HTPC isn’t always the easiest way to watch content, but nothing combines the flexibility, capability and potential into a single consumption point like it does. Those that demand the highest quality often rail against the complexity required, and to be fair they have a point, but it’s there and few products demonstrate this like the high quality video […]
Read more
Looks like Dune HD hit their delivery target for the TV303D, and Damien has it reviewed. The results were much more mixed than I expected from Dune HD, hopefully just teething issues with a new platform. Overall I would say I have some mixed thoughts with the TV303D. On a positive note, network performance is excellent which is critical for […]
Read more
When I’m building a dedicated XBMC box, I often turn to the “embeddded” OpenELEC distro because of its drop-dead simple installation process and just-works feature set. And now with XBMC 12 is out, bringing a modern audio pipeline and Live TV to the platform, it’s a great time to upgrade or check out the HTPC software. If you need a […]
Read more
If the Arc Midi R2‘s transparent side panel was a little to flashy, or the price a bit too steep you might want to check out Fractal Design’s Core 3000. It has many of the same features like dust filters and oodles of space for about $35 less. I’ve been putting off replacing my aging Lian Li tower chassis […]
Read more
When Microsoft disabled optical disc drives for media players, I was wondering where applications like TotalMedia Theatre would go – after all, if you’re not shipping a new product every so often it’s difficult to keep the fresh stream of revenue required to keep making bug fixes and adding support for new “protection” schemes. I wasn’t able to see this […]
Read more