Samsung sure knows how to run a press event, and to be honest it was an easy sell because they announced some amazing TVs (although Panasonic did sure did their best to make 3D and 3DTVs incredible boring, so boring that I’m going to save any comments until tomorrow when I get a chance to see the TVs up close). […]
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Oddly enough the most interesting thing I saw today was Dish Networks announcement of their new whole home DVR set top box (STB) the Hopper, alongside a “extender” called the Joey. Details were a bit sparse, but it looks like the solution works over MoCA and actually offers a real whole home solution HTPC style. Check out the pictures and […]
Read moreUntil recently, proper support for hardware accelerated decoding on Intel GPUs has been missing from the Free Open Source Software (FOSS) community. Eric Gur added the feature to ffdshow a few months ago, but for those who have transitioned to nevcairiel’s LAV Filters because of the greater stability offered by his codecs that didn’t offer a real solution to the […]
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If your display is more than a year old, you know what it’s like to have been left behind by the OEM’s Over the Top (OTT) platform. It’s not hard to fix that by putting a Roku or other OTT streamer next to the display, but in some places (like a slim wall mount, bedroom, etc.) it can be difficult […]
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Creating the right audio environment is a critical part of enabling an immersive home theater experience, but is often neglected either due to ignorance or the erroneous assumption that good sound is unattainably expensive. The process of finding the right speakers is made even more difficult with few shops providing an adequate listening environment, let alone one with options in […]
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We don’t post many press releases because, frankly, they aren’t that interesting. This is a definitely an exception, because as you can see from the video (don’t ask where we found it ;)) NIVEUS has created something very, very cool on top of the Windows 8 platform (OK, and Windows 7 too) supporting CableCARD (via the HDHR PRIME) and satellite […]
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Like many enthusiasts, I’ve been waiting to find out how Sharp’s Elite HDTVs would stack up against their adopted, and now cast off, sibling; the Pioneer Kuro. Fortunately, it looks like Sharp is serious about bringing a legitimate successor to market and not just brand engineering, but still fails to secure a clear win versus the benchmark set back in […]
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Connected media streamers, like the pair from Roku and NETGEAR that we reviewed recently, focus on providing access to IP content but generally cannot handle local media well enough (if at all) to be a viable unifying solution. Until we have enough bandwidth, and services able to deliver quality audio/video services over the Internet, those devices act as a supplement […]
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If you are in the market for an inexpensive connected media streamer, the number of options has exploded recently. A couple weeks back we took a look at Roku’s XS, and today we have the newest member of NETGEAR’s NeoTV lineup – the NTV200. At first glance, the unit’s price ($79.99) and lack of a USB port for local content […]
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JRiver Media Center quietly turned their audiophile PC music player into a full featured media playback application over the last few releases. In the last revision they added Red October (a feature that tames DirectShow codec selection) as well as bringing madVR support to a SAF friendly 10′ UI (Theater View). The latest rev (dubbed B17) brings better TV support […]
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