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By Andrew Van Til (babgvant) | Published Sunday, 07 March 2010 |
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Intel DH57JG and Core i3-530 Review
With more mini-ITX options than ever it’s a great time for small form factor (SFF) PCs. Enthusiasts are finding more ways to get the most out of these tiny boxes both in the A/V stack and backing it. Take a look with us at the soon to be released Intel DH57JG motherboard paired with a Core i3-530 to find out if the tiniest member of Intel’s Clarkdale offering can bring a full featured HTPC to the SFF world.
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By Mike Garcen | Published Tuesday, 09 March 2010 |
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How "Old Dogs" hasn't gotten more notice is beyond.....ok, totally kidding...that movie was just plain awful. And let's talk about Boondock Saints II. I was a HUGE fan of the original....but BOY was I disappointed. For having waited so long I was extremely disappointed with what it delivered. Michael Moore's Capitalism is sure to upset as many people as it entertains, I haven't watched it yet. Pick of the week was tough. Obviously Precious has gained a lot of notoriety recently and really was a great film. But I had to go with the film I enjoyed more here...
MissingRemote's Pick of the Week
 
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No brainer here. Nominated for several Academy Awards, Up In The Air can be appreciated by anyone who's ever had to travel for a living. And fear not, it's relevant for those who haven't also. It's equal parts humerous and serious and I was thoroughly entertained throughout. |
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By Mike Garcen | Published Tuesday, 09 March 2010 |
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Have you seen those HTPC Chassis with the slick touchscreen display that allows you to control what's on your main screen? If you've ever envied those but didn't want it in the chassis or some other reason, then you may be interested in this offering. At $200 though, you will want to carefully evaluate.
The iMedian HD software is part of most - if not all - Soundgraph displays and products. It succeeds the iMedian application and aims to replace the Windows Media Center functionality or add such a feature to systems lacking the MCE extensions. I had a hard time figuring out how to launch the application, so that it would display properly on the FingerVU 706 instead of my 30 inch Samsung LCD. Turns out you are required to run FingerUI first and then select it through that application. It will then use the 7 inch display as the only screen real estate. To may add folders to be watched for each type of media - music, pictures & video. The software than searches through these folders and subfolders and display its findings for you to select and listen to or view. You may also use TV tuners and listen to radio with the iMedian HD - assuming you have compatible hardware in your PC. This could be an interesting area of use, as a small 7 inch TV running on the side is certainly rather useful. |
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By Mike Garcen | Published Tuesday, 09 March 2010 |
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This is pretty cool from one of the higher end A/V Receiver companies, jumping on the Windows 7 wagon relatively quick. Should help to encourage the other manufacturers as well. I'd love to see this feature in action, but the ability to stream music using PlayTo to the various zones the Denons support sounds awesome.
As you’re building your stereo system at home or looking to update an existing stereo system, you should definitely consider A/V receivers such as Denon’s models that carry the Compatible with Windows 7 logo. That means these receivers work great and can take advantage of Windows 7. For example if one of the Denon receiver models above powers your stereo system at home, you can use Windows 7’s Play To feature to streaming your music to your stereo system over your home network.
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By Mike Garcen | Published Tuesday, 09 March 2010 |
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Have you not convinced yourself that you NEED a MediaSmart Server from HP based on our Reviews yet? Well, if you're a TiVo user maybe this announcement will win you over. Pretty fantastic at a fabulous price--FREE!
HP has just announced the availability of the HP MediaSmart Expander for TiVo. This software application lets TiVo owners store movies and shows on their MediaSmart Server as well as watch them on their PCs, thus offloading your DVR material to the MediaSmart Server and sharing it is now possible. TiVo customers are already able to record and pause live TV, and access on-demand videos to watch hit movies and TV shows etc, but with this new HP software application, TiVo customers can now: |
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By Blue | Published Monday, 08 March 2010 |
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From the outside of the box, you can see where a cursory glance would
pass these off as real. Once you open the box, which is supposed to be
sealed till it gets to the customer, you can easily see that things are
not right.
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By George (Skirge01) | Published Monday, 08 March 2010 |
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I know we have quite a few very talented people here at Missing Remote, so I wanted to let everyone know about this feature from EH. Sadly, the majority of my TV room was done by my father or else I'd definitely enter (well, it's also not completed yet). Given the range of theaters which EH generally showcases, it's great to see them looking for more down-to-earth, DIY projects. Throwing $1M at a few contractors doesn't impress me as much as something like our own Adidas4275's work, who I definitely think should submit his! (Sidenote: I totally missed his home automation update back in January!)
There are so many great projects out there. Now, we want to compile them
into a book for all to admire. Submit your room to be a part of our
special publication! Also, many projects will be featured on
ElectronicHouse.com, where an additional 178,000 viewers will get the
chance to drool over your handiwork.
We are looking for theaters, basements, garages, game rooms, audio
setups, home automation systems—basically, any and every DIY tech
project. However, the project must be completed, part of your current
residence, and be your own creation (or with very little help).
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By George (Skirge01) | Published Monday, 08 March 2010 |
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While I was linking to this great Ars Technica article, it was quickly picked up by Hard|OCP and SilentPCReview. The article will most likely hit home for the highly intelligent and very technical MissingRemote visitors we have. The simple rule is that if you enjoy the content a site provides or utilize their forums, please disable any ad-blocking programs you have, such as Ad-Block Plus and NoScript. The sites you enjoy take great strides to provide content and forums for your enjoyment, so you can be assured that they do their best to not be intrusive with any advertising. Personally, I use ABP and NoScript all the time, but I make the effort to disable them on sites I visit frequently.
If you read a site and care about its well being, then you should not
block ads (or you subscribe to sites like Ars that
offer ads-free versions of the site). If a site has advertising you
don't agree with, don't go there. I think it is far better to vote with
page views than to show up and consume resources without giving anything
in return. I think in some ways the Internet and its vast anonymity
feeds into a culture where many people do not think about the people,
the families, the careers that go into producing a website. People talk
about how annoying advertisments are, but I'll tell you what: it's a lot
more annoying and frustrating to have to cut staff and cut benefits
because a huge portion of readers block ads. Yet I've seen that happen
at dozens of great sites over the last few years, Ars included.
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By Mike Garcen | Published Sunday, 07 March 2010 |
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I meant to post this earlier. Nothing concrete here but some interesting words from the head of Microsoft. Not exactly a glowing show of support for Media Center itself, but still having some sort of device in the living room is at least still on their minds.
"In the case of the TV we've got both strategies. We actually have a TV implementation in some senses built into Windows," Ballmer said. "It works really well for small screen TVs that you might call a PC, but for that big screen device here's a piece of hardware that we build, there's no diversity. You get exactly the Xboxes that we build for you. We may have more form factors in the future that are designed for various price points and options, but we think it's going to [be] important.
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By Mike Garcen | Published Sunday, 07 March 2010 |
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Big fan of Lloyd Case from his past work and good to see he found a home at Anandtech. Here he's covering the discussion of THX Certified HDTVs and whether they're worth anything.
The implication of buying THX certified gear is that you get that sound mixing room environment. Any home theater enthusiast will know this simply isn’t the case. All the logo implies is that the amplifier will deliver a certain signal quality. Without tuning and calibration, a THX certified receiver will sound no better than any other high quality receiver that’s not certified. And if you calibrate your speakers and amplifier to your space, does THX necessarily sound better? |
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By Mike Garcen | Published Friday, 05 March 2010 |
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If you have read any of my hardware reviews, you know I'm a *huge* fan of the Kill-A-Watt device, which allows you to see exactly how much electricity your devices are draining. If you always wanted to have one but on all your devices, then you're finally in luck! Cool device with only a few drawbacks, one being the $75 cost. But given that the original Kill-A-Watt still costs around $30, it's pretty reasonable.
Power geeks and generally paranoid people will find some subtle tools here that justify the extra expense: There's a "Max Amps" switch that lets you set the point at which the auto-shutoff engages. When it does go into "over current mode," the red light will flash, letting you know that you've had a surge. It also has an "over load mode" that automatically cuts out at 15 Amps, as well as an EMI filter and a self-test.
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By Mike Garcen | Published Friday, 05 March 2010 |
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When I saw the announcement of the Zino HD from Dell, I immediately thought how huge this was for the SFF market if big boy Dell was getting involved. This isn't an HTPC-focused review, but it gives you at least an introduction into the device (at least until we can get our hands on our own!).
One place that the Inspiron Zino HD does excel is in HD video playback. No matter what we threw at it, the system was able to play it without any hiccups or stutters--that is, as long as the video playback was the only task taking place at the time. We encountered a number of times during Windows Media Video 9 and DVD playback, where the playback momentarily stuttered when a file transfer or McAfee Security Center update (you get 15-free months) was taking place in the background. With its small form-factor and HDMI output, the Inspiron Zino HD could make an excellent home-theater PC; but if this is what you relegate the system's primary role to, make sure that there is nothing else going on while watching movies, or your viewing enjoyment might get temporarily interrupted.
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By Mike Garcen | Published Friday, 05 March 2010 |
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This chassis really reminds me of the old Silverstone low profile chasses I tried building a system with. There's a lot of sacrifices you make when going low profile, but given the plethora of wonderful on-board video solutions, life is probably much simpler nowadays. Not sure it's going to be worth the $200 investment, but agree it's better than the original $300 asking price.
Granted though, we like the simplicity, and versatility. The vCase3 can house multiple HDDs, a regular power supply and with the current selection of mATX motherboards available can make a serious HTPC or even regular PC. Rubber feet, sleek black design, good interior, good connectivity, anti-vibration ODD/HDD protection and we didn't even mention it, but the fan is quite silent as well. We really can appreciate this chassis for what it is, does and offers.
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By Mike Garcen | Published Friday, 05 March 2010 |
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I'm actually in the market for a new TV and looks like this is a solid option...except $3600 is a bit out of my price range for a 46 inch. But still, good words from the guys at S&V Magazine.
Samsung has managed to pull off a hat trick with its UN46B8500. Here, finally, is a truly flat LCD TV that’s capable of delivering consistently deep blacks and strong shadow detail, and also provides good color accuracy right out of the box. And its Widget collection is also impressive, especially now with Samsung's recent addition of Blockbuster OnDemand movie streaming. The only issues that would temper my enthusiasm are its limited viewing angle and its price — at $3,600 list, you’re definitely paying for the UN46B8500’s performance. But if you’re swayed by neither of those issues, you can rest easy knowing that this slim Samsung is the best LCD TV we’ve tested in the past year.
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By Mike Garcen | Published Friday, 05 March 2010 |
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We haven't done this in a while as Alan was much better at this than I am, but I wanted to get back and let everyone know about some great discussions going over in the MissingRemote Forums. Feel free to hop in on any existing discussion, start a new one, or ask any questions no matter how technical or basic they may be. Or just use it to let off a little steam (we're all rooting for you Bigee!)
Here are some of the most active threads this week:
A look at Solid State Drives (SSD) v. Hard Drives (HD)
Do I really need a Softsled solution
ShadowHC's HTPC/Server Build Log Continues Strong
Which Home Automation Device to use asks fornold, Zigbee, Z-Wave or X10
Got a new Windows 7 system built or bought and looking for tips? Is there a Win7 New Computer Setup Guide?
Digital Cable Switch affecting you?
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