There’s nothing wrong with advertising per se, but I find the broadcaster’s posturing around DISH’s recent feature enabling automatic commercial skipping for Primetime TV highly objectionable. While DISH has deep pockets, and the pugnacity to put up a good fight, it shouldn’t have to go it alone – with Public Knowledge starting up a campaign to lend us a voice […]
Read more
Not long ago it was easy to lean primarily on a traditional remote control – universal, of course — relegating the keyboard and mouse to the audio & video (A/V) cabinet, closet, or other locale of last resort –dragging it out just for occasional maintenance or troubleshooting. However, as over-the-top (OTT) content providers such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu and […]
Read more
I’ll forgive you if you need a few minutes to check for flying pigs (I certainly did) after discovering that a major MSO has enabled [limited] automatic commercial skipping on their best DVR. Now it’s not quite the same as we in the HTPC community have grown accustomed to since it only applies to PrimeTime Anytime content viewed after 1AM […]
Read more
With six drivers, four amps and Aperion Audio’s reputation for quality speakers the ARIS looks like a great way to push music around the house using DLNA. The PR (after the click) does not specify what codec/containers or DRM schemes (if any) are supported though – although the W8 “certification pending” is promising because I’ve heard that it supports “protected” […]
Read more
If I’m honest I don’t really get these ASROCK’s NVIDIA + Intel HD Graphics SFF HTPCs because there really isn’t much that adding a dGPU nets you outside of slightly better gaming performance. That said, I am glad that ASROCK continues to develop new machines for this segment and that these systems are beginning to look a lot more like […]
Read moreI wasn’t expecting much when sitting down for Dish Network’s CES 2012 press event, but that skepticism was amply dispelled after the Hopper/Joey whole home DVR system was announced. Obviously, Dish wouldn’t be the first company to say one thing, and release something bearing only a cursory resemblance to the initial promise so it was critical to wait until someone […]
Read more
Last year Intel’s Sandy Bridge “TOCK” married the graphics processing unit (GPU) and CPU on the same die, making it a first class citizen in the system and introduced a true integrated processor graphics (IPG) solution. With HD audio bit steaming introduced in the previous generation, full hardware acceleration of VC-1, AVC (H.264), MPEG2 as well as 3D Blu-ray (MVC) […]
Read more
I use ARCTIC’s PWM fans in most of my personal systems because they’re quiet and they do a good job cooling the PC so it’s great to see the lineup expanding to include options directly targeting always on systems – like the file server. Full PR after the click.
Read more
In our first look at the new 2012 Apple TV it was clear that the form factor and basic function was consistent with many of the other over the top (OTT) media streamers on the market, but it was the visual appealing user interface (UI) that really shines compared to similar devices which became apparent in the video walkthrough. What […]
Read more
D-Link added another option to the over the top (OTT) media streamer market today with the just released “MovieNite”. While the name isn’t that interesting, features like 1080p, VUDU and Netflix coupled with a price of $60 are. The PR (available after the click) doesn’t mention if Netflix is the full fidelity experience (5.1 + subtitles) so we’ll have to […]
Read more