The pace of improvement in the 802.11AC market has been blistering, and I had a chance to talk to NETGEAR about their newest top-end entrant the $299 Nighthawk X6 (R8000) – AC3200 Tri-Band Wi-Fi Gigabit Router yesterday. Before digging into the specifics of the R8000 it is critical to understand what exactly the X6’s AC3200 actually means. Unlike the AC1750 […]
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There must be something in the water at D-Link the last few weeks; their product announcements just keep rolling in. I certainly don’t mean that as a complaint however. Choice is a good thing :). This time it’s a $40 Wi-Fi enabled motion sensor which is part of their growing collection of wireless home automation (HA) devices. We have PR […]
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For home theater PC (HTPC) the value of a good wireless keyboard should go without saying. After all, despite its special role in the A/V stack a HTPC is still a PC – so text entry and pointer based navigation is an essential aspect of configuration, use, and maintenance. Also as over the top (OTT) content’s search based consumption takes […]
Read moreIt’s hard to argue with the installation simplicity of a soundbar and wireless surrounds, especially in a rented or older house where pulling wires can be a chore. I ended up with a pricey Yamaha sound projector a few years ago because there weren’t really any good alternatives that supported HDMI and real surround sound, so it’s nice to see […]
Read moreIf you’ve ever wondered how to approach matching up a set of speakers with an amp (or AVR), but didn’t know where to start Home Theater Review has a great primer available. But first, a caveat: this article is intended as a quick primer for beginners. As such, it contains a number of simplifications, many of them bordering on grossness. […]
Read moreIt looks like MSI is bringing out a line of “green” motherboards which allow you to disable features/components that aren’t being used to save power. Frankly, I think this is an amazing idea as long as it can be done without compromising the stability of the system. My only complaint is that it appears that only mATX boards will be […]
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With the D-Link DAP-1650 now available there’s another option for those looking to extend or bridge your 802.11AC home network. Best part is that it’s only $89.99 for the multi-function device with four Gigabit Ethernet ports and up to 867Mbps (5GHz) and 300Mbps (2.4GHz). Full PR after the click. D-Link Now Shipping 11AC Dual Band Range Extender Range Extender Works […]
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A small home theater PC (HTPC) driven by an Intel Atom is not a new idea. Both NVIDIA’s ION and Broadcom’s Crystal HD offered solutions that coupled the chip’s TDP with specialized hardware that overcame its shortcomings–one with a complete GPU, the other providing just hardware accelerated video decoding. Neither of these products truly delivered on the concept of a […]
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Even in a mid-sized home, it is quite common to end up with a few “dead spots” where the main Wi-Fi router just does not provide enough signal to make the network work smoothly. Until recently–if your network is based on 802.11AC–the only way to address this, and take advantage of AC’s performance was by adding another full-on router acting […]
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Last year CyberLink added the option to subscribe to PowerDVD alongside their cloud service, and that continues to be available this year with PowerDVD 14. The $44.99 per year (or $14.99 per quarter) alongside the standard purchase options of Ultra ($99.95), Pro ($79.95) and Standard ($49.95). If you opt for the subscription or Ultra 10GB of CyberLink Cloud storage is […]
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