As the glue in a well-equipped home theater, the audio video receiver (AVR) is a natural hub where audio and video processing can be consolidated into a single device alongside other functions like over the top (OTT) IP services. Onkyo has embraced this ideal with the 135 watts per channel TX-NR818, which offers decoding support for all of the modern […]
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Finding a good low profile heat sink and fan (HSF) that isn’t also incredibly wide is a lot harder than it should be, especially for AMD’s FM1/2 socket. Fortunately this will be much easier now that Noctua has announced its NH-L9 HSF for that platform (NH-L9a) and Intel’s LGA 1155 socket (NH-L9i). It’s hard not to like Noctua’s cooling solutions, […]
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Intel’s third generation Core integrated processor graphics (IPG) chip, aka Ivy Bridge (IVB), got off to a slow start for us with a set of high-end CPUs not really intended for the home theater PC (HTPC). We still do not have one of the low power Core i3/i5 with HD4000 graphics on hand; now that they are available, H77 based […]
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Anyone already in Ceton’s Echo Windows Media Center Extender beta program found out this morning that they will start shipping the units in the next few days. Taken on its own this is less news than continued taunt aimed at those unlucky enough to be left out, but we did find out something very interesting in the mailer – the […]
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In an HDMI A/V environment, Consumer Electronics Control (CEC) is the glue that ties components together into a cohesive unit–able to be controlled by a single remote without the hassle, or expense, of a normal universal as well as removing infrared’s (IR) line-of-site requirement for playback devices. Where there can be problems with the protocol, most often the root cause […]
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Aperion Audio announced the ARIS a few months back, and I have to admit that the idea of a 100W DLNA speaker system from a company that knows audio was very intriguing. The PR (available after the click) still doesn’t note whether DRM laden files are supported (they can be with Windows 8’s Play To) or what CODECs are supported […]
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The Ceton Companion app hasn’t been out for that long, but it must have seemed like an eternity for NOOK users watching with envy while everyone else enjoyed managing their Windows Media Center lineups and discovering upcoming premiers from the convenient interface. Fortunately for them the wait is now over (along with some other things like iPhone 5 support) with […]
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I get that these sorts of posts are mostly about generating clicks via false dichotomy, but I don’t understand the basis of pitting a display technology against a resolution. These concepts are in no way mutually exclusive – we can, and probably will have 4K OLED HDTVs before long. Of course both of these technologies are currently relegated to the […]
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I’ve been looking forward to Roku’s Streaming Stick since they first mentioned it back at CES. Of course the specifics around pricing and how long we’d have to wait were unknown, but today that changed a little with Roku announcing that the MHL enabled streamer would be available “soon” at $99. The lack of a clear when is a little […]
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Features like VUDU and HDMI CEC put the first generation NETGEAR NeoTV on my short list of preferred media streamers. But while they have continued to update the device at a breakneck pace, the lack of 5.1 audio in the Netflix application was a pretty big CON. Fortunately this gap will not only be rectified in the NeoTV (NTV300), NeoTV […]
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