Podcast Roundup, Monday March 22nd, 2010

There’s been a lot of cablecard news lately and we’re lucky as it’s not all bad. Of course, Ceton delaying their card until May 31st is first on everyone’s mind but the company has been able to remove the fan from the device so that’s a good thing! There’s other cablecard news this week and Adam and Josh step through all of it.

Busy schedules and illness has pushed this weeks show back and unfortunately Jose was unable to join us but Jon and Sheldon kept up the fort. This week we talk Android news and in particular carrying on from Show 29 Sheldon gives his first impressions of the Nexus One. We then go on to talk about the lastest WP7S news coming out of MIX`10.

Sometimes it feels like all we do is talk about what’s coming, but not today, as we get to actually talk about what is here — for a change. First on the list is 3DTVs from Panasonic and Samsung and how the two compare. Then we move on to some exciting new 3D content like The Final Four and The Masters. Then we talk Media Center and about our initial impressions of the Ceton InfiniTV 4, at which point Jeremy Hammer joins in the fun to fill in the details.

You can record 3 HD channels simultaneously with the Moxi 3-Tuner DVR, but does it beat a TiVo or Windows Media Center? What are the best settings for Surround Sound? Google’s testing a new video search tool, Clicker Finds Legal Video and the Blu-ray releases for March 9th, 2010.

We talk about DRM quite often. Technically it stands for Digital Rights Management, but we did have a listener recommend we try to change that to Digitally Restricted Media. The point of DRM is to protect digital media files from piracy. The actual result of DRM is a lot of frustration for those who just want to watch movies and listen to music.

We understand that many of our listeners don’t have the space for a full blown home theater system. However, those same listeners don’t necessarily want to listen to their movies through the TVs tiny speakers. For them a single unit solution is what the doctor ordered. The ZVOX 575 (Buy Now $699) is such a system that takes all of 10 minutes to un-box and start enjoying fuller richer sound from your home theater.

We spend a considerable amount of time in Installment 026 discussing the growth of HDMI and digital interconnects as the only high definition connectivity option available in about a year, especially for Blu-ray players. Of course, current equipment still should play as it does now (unless it potentially gets a firmware update that changes that), but we, as integrators, need to design and implement for the future

Scott looks at new applications for the latest 3-D technologies. Guest: Gene Dolgoff, the founder, CEO, and CTO of The 3D Source, Inc.

This week I am talking to Eddy Carrol from Amulet Devices about there very cool voice controlled remote control solution for Windows Media Center. Their system enables full interaction with Windows Media Center via a voice controlled remote control and it offers a whole range of possibilities . I have email and news items including a new tuner giveaway on TDL, updated Media Center apps and a lack of Freeview HD tuners for Windows Media Center.

Adam was under the weather this week, so we were lucky enough to have Matt Paprocki of www.doblu.com pinch-hit as co-host for the show. Thanks again for helping out on short notice, Matt

Last week Braden wrote that Cablevision is planning on rolling out network DVR (Cablevision To Roll Out RS-DVR In April) functionality in April. This technology has got us excited because it shows that Cable is pushing itself to compete with Satellite, FiOS and U-Verse. One area that cable still falls a little short when compared to these other services is the number of HD channels they offer. A new technology called Switched Digital Video is being deployed that will allow cable companies to increase the number of HD channels they offer. But not every is happy about it.