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To celebrate the launch of the Avideus line of Media Center PCs and to give back to the HTPC community, MissingRemote.com has teamed up with PCAlchemy to give away a great Media Center PC. Full rules, details and HTPC specifications can be found here. The Media Center PC is configured with a Core 2 CPU, Blu-ray player, ATI Radeon HD 3850, Vista Home Premium and a whole lot of other goodies. To enter, go to Avideus.com and locate the standard CPU and video card for two Avideus Media Centers. Report the information back to the contest forum thread at missingremote.com.
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By Alan Cooke | Published Thursday, 15 May 2008 |
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I have started testing on the Bravo Hybrid PCI-E from Avermedia. I enabled QAM in VMC and after several hours of troubleshooting I realized that over the weekend my cable co encrypted all QAM but the locals. Argh, what a waste of time, I was sure it was the software. At any rate, below is a very quick initial summary of my testing, a complete review will follow in the near future.
- When tuning HD channels, there is a few second of stuttering before everything smooths out.
- Analog tuner appears to be ok.
- No tests on composite or S-video capture
All in all I am not getting the warm and fuzzies quite yet.
VMC Plugin News: Hauppauge has released a beta VMC QAM plugin for the 1250, 1600, 1800, 2250 @ SHSPVR
VMC Plugin News: MCE Media Manager open source plugin released (Torrent plugin) @ Chris L.
Tru2way News: CableLabs plans to demonstrate Tru2way at The Cable Show @ mediaexperiences2go
Hardware News: VidaBox release in-wall flush-mount touchscreen w/ XP embedded @ Chris L
Home Theater News: 9 ways to even out your audio tracks (disarming the big explosions)@ Sound & Vision
Home Theater News: Sony STR-DA4300ES HDMI 1.3a, DTS-HD, TrueHD, $1299 MSRP & BDP-S500 $599 MSRP review @ Home Theater Mag
Streaming News: Logitech Squeezebox Duet Music Server review @ Audioholics
Cooler News: OCZ Freeze thermal compound review @ Elite Bastards
Cooler News: Xigmatek HDT & Red Scorpion cooler review @ Madshrimps
Motherboard News: Asus Striker II DDR-3 motherboard review @ Hardware Overclock Austria
Storage News: OCX SATA-II 32GB 2.5" SSD review @ Benchmark Reviews
Video Card News: GeForce 8800 GT performance review @ Digit-Life
Video Card News: GeFroce GTX Extreme OVerclocking article @ Madshrimps
Video Card News: Radeon HD 4850 (rumor mill says full HDMI audio implementation) coming in June @ The Tech Report
Misc News: EVO-G MP1 Mousepad review @ Hardware Logic
Misc News: Nova Winner 3 mouse pad review @ Tech-Reviews
Misc News: Samsung ML-1630 printer review @ Overclockers Online
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By Alan Cooke | Published Tuesday, 13 May 2008 |
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In what appears to be a post written by me (notice the grammer), Ben, from EngadgetHD, asked AMD if they had planned to release a tuning resolver for the digital cable tuners. The answer, of course, was a non-answer but they did mention they are talking to the right people to possibly make this happen. Corporate speak for we need to make this happen so we don't look like idiots?
I am sure ATI thinks this is important for the future of their operations.
EngadgetHD Link
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By Alan Cooke | Published Tuesday, 13 May 2008 |
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Today's question of the day: What defines a good HTPC?
I have my thoughts, as we all do, before I muddy the waters I figured I would let you guys have a stab at it.
If you ever want a question answered by the MissingRemote.com staff & MissingRemote.com community, please use the submit news button or contact us via email. We will be happy to post it up on the front page, and give you our thoughts. We can't guarantee we will post every question but we will certainly post the well thought out relavent questions.
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By LowTech | Published Tuesday, 13 May 2008 |
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TGDaily (TGD) reports that Sony has over stated their
longevity claims regarding their OLED TVs.
This claim is based on a report from a “group” called DisplaySearch yet
no hard supporting evidence is offered.
So I Googled DisplaySearch and found they have a website and
subsequently I found the summary of the “characterization report”. The summary offers even less information
that TGD does and furthermore they apparently want some compensation for the
full report. I’m guessing that TGD
coughed up the compensation, me, I’m not that curious of their take on an 11”
OLED so that’s as far as I got.
On a personal note I was really looking forward to the
introduction of large OLED displays for the living room/entertainment pleasure
pit. After all, all of the hoopla surrounding
OLED tech makes these sets seemingly perfect for the next “big thing” in home
entertainment, but if the half-life claims prove to be correct and consistent
then any benefits will be instantly negated.
Sony claims that the XEL-1 maintains its brightness for 10 years, or around 30,000 hours. However, DisplaySearch tested out two units and found that they would lose half their brightness in just 17,000 hours of use.
DisplaySearch link
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By LowTech | Published Tuesday, 13 May 2008 |
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Hardwaresecrets.com bring us their take on the
Enermax PRO82+ 525w PSU. Compared to
the new 1kw monsters out there a 525 watter looks kind of scrawny. Nonetheless, this is a highly favorable
review of the PRO82+ but does Joe Q. HTPCer really even need 525 watts?
Wow! What a power supply! We could not only deliver its labeled 525 W power at 50º C but also maintained efficiency between 85% and 90% all the time! In fact this is the power supply with the highest efficiency we reviewed so far. Not only that. We could pull almost 600 W from this unit still with 85% efficiency. That is impressive |
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By Alan Cooke | Published Tuesday, 13 May 2008 |
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Electronic House has an article up talking about Pansonic's Hollywood. A good article for those wanting to know what happens on the "inside".
But lost in all this is just how good the video processing is, and if you didn’t know PHL existed, you probably wouldn’t expect this Panny’s video to be much different than some other BD player manufacturer. But it’s the video processing that’s the reason to get this player - the UniPhier platform combining all kinds of tech down into one chip-set that speeds up operations and provides improved video signal processing. |
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By Alan Cooke | Published Tuesday, 13 May 2008 |
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Welcome to another edition of The Daily Button. If you haven't been around much, we have a few recent articles that may interest you.
HTPC Buying Guide: Audio
Comprehensive Build Guide for a wide range of budgets
Antec Fusion Black 430 Review
Vista Media Center Plugin comparison
Home Automation: Getting started with lighting control and home automation @ Chris L
VMC Plugin News: Another video library goes open source @ Chris L
VMC Plugin News: Reminder plugin released @ Chris L
Snapstream News: BeyondTV 4.8.2 beta: Now with Couchville TV listings @ PVRWire
Blu-ray News: Blu-ray release for this week @ EngadgetHD
Blu-ray News: Chyeap profile 1.1 Blu-ray players heading to Wal-Mart for $398 @ EngadgetHD
Remote News: 12 remotes for your next install @ CEPro
Remote News: Firefly giveaway @ Brent Evan's Geek Tonic
Speaker News: Montana EPS2 Floor standing speaker review (only $10,000 per pair) @ Secrets of HT & HIFI
Speaker News: Axiom Millenia M3, $375 MSRP, speaker review @ Audioholics
Display Device News: Mitsubishi HC6000 1080p $3995 MSRP projetor review @ Sound & Vision
Display Device News: JVC DLA-HD100 D-ILA 1080p, $8000 MSRP projector review @ Ultimate A/V
Motherboard News: ASUS M3N-HT delux review @ Hardware Logic
Enclosure News: Silverstone TS01B 2.5 SATA review @ Xtreme Computing
Fan Controller News: Noise Blocker FanSpeed Controller @ Tech-Reviews
Video Card News: XFX GeFroce 9600GT review @ Elite Bastards
Video Card News: Sapphire Radeon HD 3650 OC review @ Pro-Clockers
Video Card News: Sapphire Toxic Radeon HD 3870 review @ Big Bruin
Video Card News: Radeon HD 3650 comparo @ HotHardware
Motherboard News: Sapphire Pur 790FX review @ Digit-Life
Motherboard News: Asus P5Q Deluxe P45 review @ VR-Zone
PSU News: Enermax zModu82+ power supply review @ PC Perspective
PSU News: Getting the Best Buy on a power supply @ Hardocp
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By Alan Cooke | Published Tuesday, 13 May 2008 |
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I guess a good sign for my build log is that I do not have a whole lot to report :). Everything is working smoothly, especially with the latest firmware update to the ATi digital cable tuners. I have yet to experience a problem.
Since we last spoke, I did dip my toes into the Blu-ray waters by installing a Lite-On Blu-ray drive into an external enclosure. The external enclosure in question has been working great, however, the 40mm fan that is installed makes and awful screeching noise, so I will have to look into replacing that. Functionally it works great, but I can't recommend because the fan failed so soon after purchase. Below is a link to the newegg product page of the external enclosure.
Product Page
On the software end, I added Big Screen Headlines 2 and Arcsoft Total Media Theater. We will have reviews of these products coming out shortly. Arcsoft has done a great job integrating TMT (Total Media Theater) into the Vista Media Center experience. There are no focus issues, the remote works great and as of the latest software release, everything appears to work great for disk based playback (I have yet to rip the movies to a hard drive and try it). The UI is not a perfect match but it emulates a 10' experience nicely.
What are my future plans?
Well I plan on ripping my DVD collection using Video ReDo and converting to DVR-MS for easy streaming. This takes about 15 minutes per disc and are streamable to extenders. I am currently researching what to do for Blu-ray streaming. I am not sure that problem has been solved yet. I may have to wait until that process matures. I would like to go to an extender based setup, but the whole Blu-ray thing is limiting me right now.
I plan on dipping my toes into the home automation world pretty soon. Chris has done a great job providing some beginner guides that I plan on following :).
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By Mike Garcen (ShadyMG) | Published Monday, 12 May 2008 |
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Netflix & Media Center users must be excited these days. With Netflix allowing for streaming of movies to your computer, it was inevitable for some fantastic developer to create an MCE plugin which would bring that to your home theater PC with the convenience of your remote control & from your sofa.
Nobody could have predicted however, that there would not be one, or two...but THREE different Netflix plugins for MCE. So, since we're here to help, we've decided to do a special 10th edition of our Life With a Plugin series, matching up the 3 Netflix Plugins to see which is worth your time--MyNetflix, vmcNetFlix & NetflixMC.
Due to the nature of this review, I'll be doing things a bit different, but hopefully keep things short & clear who the winner(s) are. Click the title for the full article.
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| vmcNetflix's Smooth Interface |
Various Play options within vmcNetflix
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HTPC Buying Guide: Audio
Dan gives the scoop on what to look for when considering HTPC centric audio. Confused about audio standards?
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HTPC Build Guide
Looking too build a new HTPC? Look no further then MissingRemote.com's quarterly build guide.
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Antec Fusion Black 430
The search for a great frontend has met its match today in the Antec Fusion Black. Sporting a black front panel, LCD with integrated IR receiver and a quiet design, what more could you need?
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Omaura TF8 Review
Omaura's first foray into the HTPC case market is a hot one. Check out our look of the low-profile microATX TF8.
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