Media centers seem to be all the rage nowadays, as high definition movies and television shows, as well as higher quality picture and music have started to invade the market. While some recent additions to the media center families, like AppleTV and distinguished models from several startup companies have been impressive, none have really captured the idea of replacing a Tivo, computer, amplifier, receiver, Netflix deliveries, media players, DVD player, and catch-all computer … until now.
As Alienware describes it, the Hangar 18 can do just about anything:
* Watch - Watch, pause, and record your movies, TV shows, photos, and internet videos on your widescreen TV in high definition
* Listen - Listen to all your favorite songs and artists with Hangar18’s onboard 5.1 surround sound amplifier
* Share - Wirelessly stream all your media to other PCs, mobile devices, and media extenders throughout your home.
* Download - Download content from all over the internet to one secure location to store and share with your home and others.
Sony has updated their Blu-Ray disc player product lines with a lower-priced bargain player that still supports all the wonderful features of high definition media. Along with the price drop comes the fact that this is now the cheapest Blu-Ray player, as the $499 20GB PS3 has been phased out of existence.
The undeniable leader in plasma technology, Pioneer recently unvieled their 8th generation plasma TVs. These new models sport the latest plasma technologies with 80% deeper black levels, mind boggling 20,000:1 contrast ratios and full HD 1,920 x 1080 resolutions. They’ll be offered in sizes from 42 - 60 inches this September. No price was mentioned but expect to pay a pretty penny. Now excuse me while I go wipe the drool off my mouth.
Hey rich face! Have more HDMI components that you have inputs? In that case you may have more money than you need, which works out well since this 4X4 HDMI splitter is gonna set you back close to 2 grand. Of course if you really need one, this puppy does cover all the bases including HDCP and HDMI.
Switch easily between any four HDMI sources
Distributes any of the four inputs to any or any combination of the four HDMI output displays
I’m just going to say it: I hate YouTube, but have yet to find anything worthy enough to replace it. I like it’s huge collection of videos, but the fact that people spam video tags so badly that searching for a video can sometimes bring up posts with hundreds of categories with no relation to the desired result makes me want to rebel against humanity.
With the introduction of the beta for DivX Stage6, web video just got better looking. By using the slick interface and tools provided by the DivX format, up to 1080P resolution, and the ability to download the videos for viewing on other devices such as a DivX compatible DVD player, Stage6 could be another big contender for YouTube. This video can attest to the quality that is available from the site:
It’s certainly a possibility. According to a thread over at the AVS forums, Wal-Mart recently placed an order for blue laser HD-DVD cores from a Chinese company worth close to $100 million dollars. With Wal-Mart buying 20 million of these cores that certainly have something in mind.
Running the Chinese websites through various translators people seem to be guessing at a $299 price point. We’re getting there but it’s still a little too pricey for the average consumer. It may not end the format war but like it or not Wal-Mart has the ability to tip the scales one way or the other all on it’s own.
Hooray for continuing to format war! Just as we began to see one format (Blu-ray) begin to show signs of pulling ahead we get the news that another set-top player manufacturer is preparing to make a dual format player. Samsung has now decided the time is right to help keep 2 formats in the marketplace. Time will tell if it plays both formats natively or in some weird emulated way like the last dual-format player.
Samsung says they’ll have the player ready for the holidays, but no word yet on features or price.
The newly enhanced Nero, aptly named Nero 7 Ultra Edition Enhanced debuted at this year’s NAB conference in Las Vegas and the newest addition adds a slew of HD extras, but they’re going to cost you … maybe.
“Nero users can now author their video content onto Blu-ray Discs (BD-R and BD-RE) featuring sophisticated menus, and can play the authored discs on their PCs, and via Blu-ray players.”
But Nero, what about HD-DVD?
“Because Nero is committed to supporting the full range of HD formats, the company has also released a new plug-in that enables HD DVD playback with the Nero ShowTime application.”
Ahh, I see and how much is this whole enchilada going to set consumers back?
Nero 7 Ultra Edition Enhanced is currently available at retail for $99.99, and via download from www.nero.com for $79.99. Current Nero 7 owners can download the update free of charge. The additional HD-DVD plug-in costs $24.99.
Well, you drive a hard bargain but if you don’t mind, I’ll just sit this one out, at least until the dust settles on this whole format war.
It’s not the 1st time we’ve seen the prices on the HD-DVD players drop. This time, they’re calling it a “strategic reduction” but we the consumers can think of it as “an increasingly better deal.” Looking to stave off the PS3 Blu-ray player, Toshiba is slashing the prices on all of their HD-DVD players. This means you can pick up their base model (the HD-A2) for $399 and their high-end model (the HD-A20) for $499.
Of course this still makes the HD-DVD add-on for the Xbox 360 the best deal if you’ve already bought the console and you’re looking to make the jump into HD.
They’ve been a long time coming, but we finally have a company getting ready to release some Media Center PCs that are CableCARD-ready. Up until now there hasn’t been an easy way to get HD television into a PC if you were getting the signal from a cable company. They all make you use their own decoder (crap-tastic) boxes.
Luckily for all of us the gov’t forced the cable companies to offer an alternative to the boxes, and the CableCARD was the solution. It’s the way TiVo can offer an HD box (I had to get 2 cableCARDs from my cable provider for it to work). And now you’ll be able to do the same with this PC, thanks to its inclusion of AMD’s TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner.
“The TV Wonder DCT is the first of its kind, giving PCs the ability to tune NTSC, ATSC over-the-air, QAM encrypted ATSC and CableCARD support.”
