When we were at CES, CyberLink was showing a beta version of PowerDVD 12. There were some advancements in the product versus its predecessor, PowerDVD 11 – most notably automatic refresh rate switching, but the best part was that they gave me a copy to bring back and test on a variety of systems to provide a preview of what […]
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I’ll admit that this wasn’t what I was hoping for when I saw the message from Dune HD in my inbox this morning (give us the VUDU already :)), but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t interested. Home automation is a natural next step for home theater geeks (if you’re here, this likely includes you) once the consumption problem has been […]
Read moreI saw the new UI that comes with 1.5 while at CES and found it to be a big improvement over previous revs. Besides that, the biggest feature “get” is probably support for live ATSC via the optional dongle, but those still having issues with HBR audio will have to wait however. Full release notes on the click… Boxee Box […]
Read moreThose who know me, know that I’m not a big fan of advertising. Of course “the why” isn’t nearly as simple as it would first appear however. The fundamental problem with advertising isn’t with the message per se, but the delivery – as an onerous chore, forced upon us in some sort of arcane moral obligation for “free” content. While […]
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I often find that that good networking kit is neglected when it comes to building an solid connected home theater, with low-end network interface cards (NIC), routers and wireless access points (AP) creating a sub-standard experience. It’s also an area where we haven’t done as much as we should to spread the word through guides and reviews – something that […]
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One of the more frustrating things about the market for media streamers is how little file support has progressed over the last couple years. Of course that’s not all bad, because generally most things work and there’s still a lot of work to do on the UI but it was refreshing to see an actual HDMI 1.4 (yes, they are […]
Read moreGiven the pre-CES hype I expected to love the OLED displays when I saw them up close, but that turned out to be a major disappointment. Oddly enough, I did find a “next gen” display technology that was quite interesting; at the Sony booth of all places. Comparing their Crystal LED to OLED isn’t exactly fair because the content being […]
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After sitting through Samsung’s CES press conference and seeing their newest displays I was expecting great things when we finally made it to the booth. Unfortunately, it was all about Smart TVs at Samsung; which is not to say that connected platforms aren’t important, just in my opinion less so than picture quality. While it’s impossible to really judge the […]
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When Ceton brought a four tuner CableCARD to the Windows Media Center community, they breathed new life into a product languishing from neglect. Not content to only do this, or be entirely dependent on the continued presence of Media Center in subsequent releases of Windows; they have created a “turnkey” competitor to TiVo (and hopefully an exit strategy for SageTV […]
Read moreBoxee didn’t have anything dramatic to show this year, but it was great to take a look at the new UI for 1.5, see the EPG, and watch some Live TV on it. It was also nice to raise the possibility of Copy-Freely Digital Cable Tuner support and PVR functionality with them. While clearly they weren’t going to give up […]
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