For Windows 7 Media Center (WMC) users the Xbox 360 has long been the only actively produced choice to extend the experience to multiple TVs–until the Ceton Echo Extender for Windows Media Extender (MCX) hit the market. When we first saw the Echo it was a very different device, driven by an Intel Atom based system on a chip (SoC), […]
Read moreWith so many holiday deals around these days, lots of us are evaluating what’s the right new television to purchase. While everyone’s budget and needs are different, there is some good information here that addresses some of the often quoted rumors in regards to the neverending debate between plasma and LCD televisions. Contrast ratio is also the greatest difference between […]
Read moreFractal Design has seemingly come out of nowhere and made some pretty sexy and quiet chassis. In the past, we’ve reviewed their 3000 and Define R4 and been thoroughly impressed. With their Node 605, they attempt to succeed in a space that’s been difficult to break. The slick HTPC-style chassis has a hidden panel to cover the USB ports and […]
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TunerFreeMCE, a longtime favorite Windows Media Center plugin, has made the leap from WMC to the Windows Store as TunerFree. TunerFree collects on-demand content from a variety of sources, including BBC iPlayer, ITV, Hulu, NASA TV, and BBC Radio. As an American, the only BBC content I could reliably access through TunerFreeMCE was BBC Radio, but part of the beauty […]
Read moreWith retail availability just a few days away it turns out that Ceton still has a few tricks up their sleeves – with an announcement going out tonight that they will be adding the Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) rev of Android to the Echo. Not much is known about what that means exactly with queries around Play access gleaning nothing […]
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It took a year for OpenELEC, the super-lightweight Linux distro optimized to run XBMC on low-power HTPCs and embedded devices, to go from 1.0 to 2.0. It doesn’t look like we will have to wait nearly as long for 3.0. It has been barely a month since OpenELEC 2.0 was released to the world, and already the OpenELEC team has […]
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Intel’s Next Unit of Computing (NUC) shot to the top of many HTPC enthusiasts’ Santa lists when Intel finally revealed the final specs and prices earlier this month. The NUC will be available in two versions, the Thunderbolt-equipped DC3217BY and the DCDC3217IYE, which forgoes the Thunderbolt port in favor of a Gigabit Ethernet port. Our friends at TechReport recently got […]
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The release of Plex Media Server 0.9.6.8 also marked the release of Plex/Web, the first new feature for Plex developed under the PlexPass subscription program that the Plex team introduced earlier this year. PlexPass subscribers now have another early-release feature to play with: PlexSync. PlexSync will be a new feature for the Plex mobile clients that promises to greatly simplify […]
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While most of us were cleaning our houses in anticipation of the wave of Thanksgiving visitors, MediaPortal fans were busy jumping on the alpha bandwagon with the release of the MediaPortal 2 Alpha 1 Autumn release. The MediaPortal team teased the MP2 Autumn release last month. The Autumn release is noticeably more stable than the MP2 Summer release and with […]
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In the quest to build the perfect low power home theater PC (HTPC) it is natural to select low voltage memory under the assumption that it will reduce consumption – lowering your power bill, and producing a greener system. To test this theory three Hyper-X Genesis LoVo memory kits from Kingston were put to the test in three different HTPC […]
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