When last we spoke (er, wrote/read) things were not going well for the electronics in my house. My frontend (client) motherboard had died, my backup/development system was having a tough time picking up the slack with video and audio issues, and my fallback system (my wife’s laptop) was suffering a midlife crisis. Well, today I’m gonna give you a quick […]
Read moreIf you’re looking for a nice compact speaker system that will deliver decent sound, this may be of interest to you. Techgage Altec Lansing grabbed some attention at the 2007 CES with their PT7031 and PT8051 ‘Powered Theater’ speakers, which created a virtual surround sound field around the listener. Their new FX3020 SoundBar features a similar concept – but does […]
Read moreNow that Zap2It has closed their doors on their free program listings for us open source users, it is time to move on to what it is being replaced with. In my case of Mythtv, that means moving to Schedules Direct. Disclaimer: This blog entry may be technical in places but I wanted to be sure and detail the hoops […]
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Today’s story is a lesson in patience. Lothar’s Rule #1: Don’t get too attached to any particular electronics. Just when things start working smoothly for you, life (or your wife, if you really screwed up) will slap you in the face. Frontend In our last episode, (has it really been a couple months?) I described the steps I had to […]
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Hauppauge HVR950 ATSC/NTSC Hybrid Review You’ve probably heard by now that in 2009, broadcast tv will all be changing over to digital TV transition. Because of this, any TVs, DVRs, etc. made from this point forward must also include an ATSC tuner. For the HTPC world this means that any PC TV tuner made from this point forward must have […]
Read moreIf you’ve been around for a while, you know that I’m a big supporter of Mythtv. Everything about it is free (until September, when Zap2It stops offering free program guide info, but that’s neither here nor there). The OS is free, Mythtv itself is free. It’s just really nice. However, we’re going to depart from that for this build because […]
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Logitech Harmony 670 Universal Remote Review On the table today is the Harmony 670 Universal Remote from Logitech. Let's find out what it's capable of for an MSRP of $149.99. So, you find yourself armed with a fancy new tv, a top notch receiver, fancy floor shaking speakers, a new HTPC to drive it all and […]
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This weekend my wife hosted a baby shower at our house, so we had a bunch of people over. I soon found myself removed from the family room and the computer room 'cause guys weren't allowed… So what's a guy to do with no HTPC? Luckily for me, my brother was over and brought along his Mac . With time […]
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For the last couple weeks, I've been hearing about "the stations between the stations" and "hidden stations on the radio dial". In fact, the radio commercials are talking about HDRadio. This got me curious. What is HDRadio? How is it different from what I've already got? So I did a little digging this afternoon. As it turns out, HDRadio […]
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nMedia MCEKB RF Keyboard When sitting on a couch in your living room, sometimes a keyboard and mouse just won’t work comfortably on your lap. Read on to see if this keyboard with trackball can meet your needs. INTRODUCTION Founded in 2004, nMedia has set out to "create future home entertainment PC systems that are optimal for today’s […]
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