So if your first thought was: “How can they get away with that?” when you saw the Dish commercial skip announcement, it seems the answer is going to be: “Not easily”. We were given no choice but to file suit against one of our largest distributors, Dish Network, because of their surprising move to market a product with the clear […]
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The folks behind Plex have been busy this last week. First up was the release of a new Local Media Agent to make it easier to add custom posters and background art to the TV library. I tend to be picky about my metadata, especially the images I use, and few things drive me crazier than software that overrides my […]
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It’s been several months since we last heard Comcast chatting up their new settop box UI. At the time, the new UI was codenamed Xcalibur and Comcast was hinting at the ways they were looking to integrate the app experience from mobile platforms with a revamped high-definition live TV and DVR interface. Evidently, things are about to get real. Comcast […]
Read moreWe reviewed one of the higher end Dune HD media players last year and were very impressed with the quality and abilities of the unit. However, the cost of that one was $250, pricing it out of the market for lots of folks. Dune has listened to their consumers and up for review is a more affordable, $169 media player […]
Read moreAs more companies continue to battle for the Blu-ray player in your living room, so too do the features increase as the costs reduce. Samsung has the benefit of having a full line of products and are starting to leverage those between their different products. The trend is continuing. Blu-ray player competition is getting fierce and we all will be […]
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Not long ago it was easy to lean primarily on a traditional remote control – universal, of course — relegating the keyboard and mouse to the audio & video (A/V) cabinet, closet, or other locale of last resort –dragging it out just for occasional maintenance or troubleshooting. However, as over-the-top (OTT) content providers such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu and […]
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I’ll forgive you if you need a few minutes to check for flying pigs (I certainly did) after discovering that a major MSO has enabled [limited] automatic commercial skipping on their best DVR. Now it’s not quite the same as we in the HTPC community have grown accustomed to since it only applies to PrimeTime Anytime content viewed after 1AM […]
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The last release of the Plex Media Server brought the beta platform to version 0.9.6 and added some pretty big features, including DLNA and Silverlight Smooth Streaming service support. The new release pushes the version number slightly higher to version 0.9.6.1 and does offer several new features including support for the Netgear ReadyNAS Duo v2 and more streaming choices over […]
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When Apple announced the third-generation Apple TV back in early March, the company also announced that iTunes would begin offering 1080p movies and TV shows. A number of big studios were quick to begin hawking their even more high-definition wares, but two conspicuously absent studios were Warner Bros. and Fox. Fortunately, Warner Bros. has finally decided to get on-board the […]
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Comcast has announced that subscribers now have free access to more live sports content via the WatchESPN web and iOS apps. Unfortunately, the Android app is not currently supported. WatchESPN offers access to live streams from ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, and ESPNU, along with special content for college football and basketball. Comcast also expects the WatchESPN live streams to be available […]
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