Thursday Podcast Roundup – October 8th

This week, as Adam warms himself by the fire, he and Josh get a chance to cover all of the great emails and comments we’ve received in the last two weeks. You guys make our show what it is so keep them coming! There are a ton of options for contacting us and you’ll find them listed below. We also take time to discuss your various 3rd party options when it comes to movie cataloging and viewing within Media Center. There are some great options out there when it comes to displaying your movie collection and we talk about three of them. Each has it’s pros and cons and you’ll find links to them below.

This week on the show I am talking to Tim Curtis about SinCast, Sincast is a way of disturbing content around the home for synchronised multi-zone audio and video (more details here). I also have a round up of the weeks news.

We kick things off with a trifecta of 3D news — whether you’ve seen it or not, whether you think it’s the next big thing or just a gimmick, it’s coming; and not a moment too soon for former 3D naysayer Ben. He’s full of surprises this week as he also was smitten by the VUDU HDX black magic on the LG BD 390 Blu-ray player. Maybe it’s the integration with a top-notch Blu-ray deck, or maybe he’s just easier to please during football season, but it’s hard to fault the picture quality and — thanks to Dolby Digital Plus bitstreaming — the audio. For sure, HTPC video cards have a little ways to go before they can deliver the same ease of use at everyman prices. Speaking of what’s not easy to use, we also talk about CableCard’s failure to deliver a world of premium content flowing freely across wildly imaginative devices.

The Custom Integrator Show Installment 01E is live. This one starts our series on HDMI. Before we get started though, Ian provides a little more background on his experiences with his Zune HD. Unfortunately, there currently does not seem to be any DLNA support as we hoped. I also cover a little bit about the new announcements from the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) regarding their Smart Grid efforts. They just released their NIST Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability draft document at http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/releases/smartgrid_interoperability.pdf. I feel these efforts really impact those integrators working with control and monitoring systems that may need to integrate with the efforts of the utility companies. Of particular interest are the sections covering the Home-to-Grid aspects. There are several other documents detailing these aspects that we plan to cover in future installments.

Not content with what the HT Guys have declared the best universal remote on the market, Logitech continues to put out new Harmony Universal Remotes. Of the two most recent models on the market, the Harmony 700 and the Harmony 900, we’ve had a chance to look at the 700. It is the less expensive of the two, and can be found in retail stores and online for an MSRP of $150 US (Buy Now).