As wireless networking has gotten faster and become more reliable, I’ve found myself relying on having a quality signal in more places around the house. As good as my router is, there are a few places where, while there is signal, it’s not quite as fast as I would like it to be. I saw a few new products at […]
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Projectors used to be strictly for those with expensive setups, but now it’s quite feasible to get a decent 1080p system without breaking the bank. Everything requires some compromise, so obviously you won’t get the same performance from a sub-$1000 device as something that cost 5x as much, but if you have the space it’s hard to argue with 100″. […]
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There is no substitute for discrete speakers, but sometimes compromised is required when provisioning the home theater. Soundbars are a good option when you can’t put a speaker where you want – anything is better than TV speakers. I’m a little disappointed that even though the ASB-2 has HDMI it doesn’t support HBR audio decoding, but that’s a small tradeoff […]
Read moreI like big TVs, so there isn’t much selling required for me to see the value of 4K. That said, on a smaller display (IMO, anything less than 60″) I can also agree that there isn’t much benefit to throwing more pixels at the problem, but there is another potential benefit to the developing standard… You’ve likely also heard the […]
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For home theater PC (HTPC) “small” is another word for “compromise”. Thankfully, the amount required by our miniscule content consumption devices has decreased exponentially over the last few years. There is still a price demanded however, tiny systems require slower mobile integrated processor graphics (IPG) to drive them. We have to choose between size and performance; it is simply not […]
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I’m not completely sold on subscription consumer-targeted software, but in enterprise it makes a lot more sense especially as the up-front cost of the applications rise. CyberLink has added their suite of content editing and creation to their cloud + yearly subscription model introduced with last year’s rev of PowerDVD. I had a chance to play with the PowerDirector the […]
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It’s no secret that we like Fractal Design’s cases. Everytime we test one it is always a positive experience. What’s not to like about a solid, well made chassis that looks great and won’t break the bank? From the look of it, the new Node 804 will continue that trend. It does seem to be geared heavily towards water cooling, […]
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I can’t claim to be the first to notice when HEVC decoding popped up in a recent Intel GPU driver update for Haswell (HSW) systems, and I was prepared to write it off as a mistake until an off-hand remark about the feature coming in a future driver update came up in conversation with a source well positioned to know. […]
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Roku’s first streaming stick required a [not-quite-MHL] “Roku Ready” host, and I imagine that limited the market dramatically. Why it took them this long to introduce one that works with HDMI and can be powered via USB is beyond me. That said, I think it’s a great idea, but if your TV, like mine, doesn’t power USB when it’s off […]
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It wasn’t that long ago that I added a portable router to my standard pack whenever leaving the house for vacation or business travel. It’s just so handy to be able to setup a Wi-Fi hotspot wherever I need one, and even if I don’t need to share a single for-fee wireless connection, it comes out of the bag because […]
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