The Dune HD line of media streamers are lauded for their versatility and feature set, but much of that attention tends to fall on the hardware. This is probably because the Dune HD media streamers generally have a somewhat utiltarian UI. It works and it works well, but it might lack the visual pizzazz that many HTPC fans have come […]
Read more
The Consumer Electronics Association has announced that the next generation of high-definiton televisions will officially be labeled Ultra High-Definition. Several TV manufacturers have already launched TVs running at resolutions higher than current HDTVs, and they have been marketed as 4K, QuadHD, or Ultra HD. The CEA is hoping that standardizing on a specific term and setting minimum standards will assist […]
Read moreA couple of months ago, HBO and Netflix announced within days of each other that they were going to be launching streaming services in Scandanvia. At the time, HBO stated that HBO Nordic would launch in October, but Netflix was going with a less definitive launch date of “by the end of the year”. Call me cynical, but I think […]
Read more
When Amazon announced the Kindle Fire HD earlier this month, the company also announced its first release of the Kindle Fire line in the UK. Given the popularity of the Amazon-owned LOVEFiLM streaming service, it should be no surprise that many Kindle Fire tablets will probably be used to tap into the LOVEFiLM library of content. Evidently LOVEFiLM and Amazon […]
Read more
The VideoLAN Organization development teams have been mighty busy this week with two different versions of VLC receiving updates. VLC for Android Beta 6 has been released, the latest in a series of rapid fire updates for the project. With Beta 6, VLC for Android continues to improve compatibilty and performance across different Android devices and different versions of Android. […]
Read more
Utilizing a mobile device app to control another device has become commonplace. Indeed, build a new home theater with the right equipment, and it’s fairly easy for an iPod to provide more funtionality controlling the equipment than a remote control. In the last couple of years, we have also seen networks and streaming services explore how to tap into mobile […]
Read more
Aereo, the Barry Diller-backed service offering cloud-based live TV streaming and DVR services in New York by deploying thousands of dime-sized antennas to pick up OTA broadcasts for delivery to subscribers, has announced that the service now supports streaming to HTML5-capable web browsers. Streaming to web browsers had always been a part of the company’s plan, but previously, Aereo subscribers […]
Read more
There was a time when I would bounce from one media center frontend application to the next, always seeking out the perfect blend of eye-candy, customizability and functionality. One application that continues to find its way to my test system is MediaPortal. The MediaPortal team has been fairly quiet the last several months, but they recently broke cover with a […]
Read more
OpenELEC 2.0 is here. The heavily customized Linux distro built around offering a lightweight XBMC frontend has pushed out two release candidates over the last few weeks, and the team confidently predicted with RC2 that the final version was near at hand. OpenELEC 2.0 is based on XBMC 11 “Eden” and incorporates the official XBMC PVR code branch and the […]
Read more
The Simple.TV was undoubtedly one of the more intriguing DVR devices to be announced this year. It may have taken awhile, but the Simple.TV is now shipping. Kickstarter pre-orders are receiving the first units, with standard pre-orders coming up next. Like Aereo and the now official Boxee TV, Simple.TV provides DVR capablilites for over-the-air broadcasts and ClearQAM cable channels, with […]
Read more