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Mac Mini Competitor: Sony’s VAIO TP Series Living Room PC VGX-TP1
With the HP’s announcement that they will no longer be focusing on their line of Digital Entertainment Centers, I have been looking for media center computers that are stylish enough to be in a living room as part of a home theater system. Sony has a couple of interesting media centers that are scheduled to […]
Continue reading...Digital Cable Tuners delayed
2. April 2007
Through Velocity Micro PC and Niveus, the first wave of Digital Cable Tuners have been released. However, the next round of Digital Cable Tuners have hit a snag and will not be available until mid-April. Apparently, ATI needs to update the firmware for the system. I went to the Velocity Micro PC webpage and “customized” […]
Continue reading...Kaleidescape wins DVD Ripping Lawsuit
30. March 2007
One of the main appeals for media centers PC is the ability to store all of your movies digitally on a hard drive, eliminating the need to place a DVD in a player. Thanks to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, ripping a DVD is technically illegal. One brave company, Kaleidescape developed a media center interface […]
Continue reading...Xbox 360 Elite geared towards high definition
30. March 2007
Microsoft announced this week the release of the Xbox 360 Elite. For $480, you can buy a supercharged version of the Xbox 360, with a high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) cable and a 120 GB hard drive. These features are not geared towards gamers, but rather are an attempt to make the Xbox more attractive as […]
Continue reading...HP exiting media center market
27. March 2007
It looks like my overview of HP’s z565 Digital Entertainment Center was just in time. HP has announced that they will no longer be focusing on their Digital Entertainment Center line of products. From CEPro: The company instead will focus its energy on MediaSmart, the new brand of TVs with digital media adapters built in […]
Continue reading...HP z565 Digital Entertainment Center streamlines home entertainment
24. March 2007
With the release of Digital Cable Receivers, Microsoft will be relying on OEMS like Hewlett-Packard to deliver quality Vista-based media centers that are approved by CableLabs. Hewlett-Packard over the last year has begun to release some very cool media center-based products, like the TouchSmart IQ770 and the HP z565 Digital Entertainment Center (at present without […]
Continue reading...Movie studios win lawsuit against Cablevision about network DVRs
23. March 2007
According to the Associated Press, several prominent movie studios won a lawsuit against Cablevision, who has been experimenting with network-enabled digital video recorders (i.e. Tivo-like devices). Cablevision was attempting to allow their customers to store recorded content on their servers, which would enable the company to offer Tivo-like services without the capital expense of providing […]
Continue reading...Apple TV versus Xbox 360 as Media Centers
23. March 2007
Apple released the Apple TV this week, with the usual hype surrounding the launch of any Apple product. The Apple TV is Steve Jobs’ first attempt at moving video to the living room. At $299, the Apple TV is an expensive device for streaming video. Gizmodo made the inevitable comparison for the Apple TV with […]
Continue reading...Velocity Micro shipping media center with CableCard support
21. March 2007
Media Center PCs with CableCARD support have yet to hit the marketplace. It appears that Velocity Micro might be the first company to release these long awaited computers. EngadgetHD pointed out that a Velocity Micro employee was over at AVSForums.com and stated that Cablelabs certified PCs will be shipping within the week. I took a […]
Continue reading...Sony VAIO Digital Living System VGX-XL3: Great design but needs more than one tuner
15. March 2007
Home theater computers that will support CableCard digital receivers are right around the corner. Most of the announced products to date have been from smaller manufacturers like Niveus or VidaBox. Sony is also preparing their own version of a Vista-based media center computer, named the VAIO Digital Living System VGX-XL3 . With a great overall […]
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3. April 2007
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