While SageTV may have been acquired by Google, this has not put much of a damper on a very active user development community. New tools and plugins are still being released for SageTV all the time. The latest new release is Phoenix 2, a sleek, streamlined, and very responsive new user interface that takes advantage of the existing metadata and […]
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As we march towards more efficient CPUs it is great to see OEMs taking advantage of the inherent capabilities to deliver smaller form factors. We saw it with Intel’s NUC, where they provided a very cabable bare-bones HTPC, and now GIGABYTE has come out with something similar. I’m really happy to see more vendors/competition in this space. Full PR after […]
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While I wish that they would do more to officially embrace a position in orchestrating the home theater it is still interesting to see how AVR OEMs evolve their products. At least from Onkyo it appears to be the year of integrated Wi-Fi & Bluetooth – which is a nice get. I’m not that interested in their custom integrator (CI) […]
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When it comes to no-hassle media playback it’s quite easy to recommend picking up one of Dune HD’s media streamers. They provide a simple “just works” content experience, but there is still some work to do when it comes to unified file storage and delivering a rich, navigable UI. Which is where VidaBox comes in with the “LiivNAS: Dune Edition”. […]
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No Home Automation (HA) is really complete without connected deadbolts making it possible to manage access. Which is exactly why I have the original Kwikset Z-Wave locks in my home. Frankly, I’m a big fan and there’s a lot to like about the locks, especially SmartKey which lets you re-key the locks whenever you want without involving a locksmith. There […]
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Panasonic’s ST line of plasma display panels (PDP) usually win the cost/benefit valuation for HDTVs, but it looks like this year they also topped last year’s best display. This is great news not just for 2013 ST buyers, but also hints at the good-things-to-come from the VT & ZT models. Panasonic’s ST60 models fall smack in the middle of their […]
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With a 17 watt integrated processor graphics (IPG) in a four-by-four inch chassis, Intel’s Next Unit of Computing (NUC) is of obvious interest to home theater PC (HTPC) enthusiasts. This footprint and low-power consumption, coupled with Intel HD 4000 graphics, promises to deliver an incredibly capable client system. It is small enough to hide away, or place discretely next to […]
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OK, they didn’t really kill any puppies (that I know of), but it certianly feels that way because they won’t be building better plasma display panels than the 2013 crop. It’s unclear what this means exactly – hopefully we’ll still be able to buy them until OLED’s production issues are sorted. Update: According to the HDGuru (who asked Panasonic), they […]
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Even those without a Home Automation (HA) system can appreciate the value in a keyless entry option for the home, but the real value for a lock like the Yale Real Living Electronic Touch Screen Deadbolt is realized by leveraging Z-Wave to integrate it in a HA system. After doing that, it unlocks a wide array of actions that simplify […]
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Today Intel announced at the North American Broadcasters show that they will be releasing a version of the Media SDK (MSDK) for Linux. For those who don’t know, the MSDK is the software layer that enables Quick Sync (QS) hardware accelerated video decoding and encoding. Given the location of the announcement Intel is probably targeting MSOs to use this technology […]
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