All PVR

LG Electronics released an all-in-one home theater in South Korea.

With no word on a US release, you’ll just have to admire it from afar. This “Chocolate” inspired Theater-in-a-Box, has a touch screen along with 1000 watts of amplification for 5 of it’s 5.1 speaker system. The “.1″, or subwoofer, rates at 155 watts. The speakers may be somewhat bland for the home theater crowd, but the machine is refreshing.

Along with a touchscreen, here are some features:
1. Upscales videos to 1080p
2. Contains both HDMI and USB ports
3. Plays MP3s, WMAs, JPEGs, and DivX videos, as well as playing and burning capabilities of DVDs and CDs.

If LG can hit a certain price point in the US, it might do well. Unfortunately, all-in-one theaters don’t sell well in the arena of serious home theater lovers. What will the future hold for this boxed Chocolate Home Theater?

Found on Coolest-Gadgets

Also check out Athusa and Limited Edition Foods

From Teleglass comes the T4-N Limited Edition Video Glasses. The glasses create a simulated 45 inch screen (as if sitting from six feet away), with a resolution of 640 x 480. Coolness abound, you can focus and adjust each monitor to reduce eye strain. As you can see by the picture above the audio comes from frame-mounted earbuds.

Just connect any NTSC viseo player and enjoy. They look stylish, unlike the competition, and it’s hidden components reside in the frame and nose-piece. Word on the street is that they cost $1150 per pair, but you’ll have to hurry, because there’s only 500 available.

Pink Tentacle via Teleglass

And now for something completely different… Athusa and Backyard Birding

The “mythical” Traveling Terabyte Gear

In reference to an entry published on Sept. 23 (“Hacker Sends War-Tough Marines a Befitting PVR�?), I have received a generous update about the Traveling Terabyte Project. Go to www.travelingterabyte.org for all the official information.

This is an important project that connects us to our beloved Devil Dogs (Marines). It provides them a care-package that we can all share in to show support. Hopefully it gives the soldiers a bit of home when they’re abroad, and keeps them grounded when they’re in hell (Ooo-Rah!).

They are not yet taking donations (as this is a grassroots movement stemming from the generosity of one person, Deviant Ollam), though there should be something set up soon.

And, as a big fan of this project, I will also be posting updates and hopefully finding more supporters, at Athusa.net. Let make it work.

Very, very special thanks, and American gratitude to: AST Cell. As well as to all the people involved with this project.

“Deviant Ollam” is a New Jersey hacker/network engineer who saw fit to create the Traveling Terabyte Project (TTB). A program in which he sends hard drives, filled with popular movies, television shows and music, in Pelican cases, to Marines in the former Soviet republic of Tajikistan.

Deviant said this about his revelation, “I’ve got this extra storage and thought ‘what could I do with it?’. It didn’t really make sense to put the disks into my already hugely ridiculous raid array.�? So, why not send them to a few Leathernecks? Everyone needs a little inspiration (even tough-guys). But, shipping the drives to a war-torn country could’ve been an obstacle, “You can’t really put the drives in bubble wrap and throw them in the mail,�? So he instead packed the equipment into the olive-drab cases with international power adapters and USB cables.

Once Marines receive the cases they often add their own files customizing and personalizing their gifts (becoming a snapshot of our modern heroes lives). And, like any grassroots movement, these drives have become a small overseas urban-legend. Eventually being delivered to the American embassy in Dushanbe Tajikistan, just to prove they exist.

Hopefully the Traveling Terabyte Project will get legs. I’m still searching for a donation website. If anyone knows of one, please comment. Anything we can do to remedy some of the stress of being in a war zone, is something we should do. They’re heroes.

From one American cyber-geek to another, thank you, ‘Deviant Ollam’.

More thanks to TG Daily for getting the word out on this project.

The Diamani DUO line of LCD’s from Viewsonic has been launched. It’s a unique hybrid of TV and computer monitor. There’s a 19″ version for $349 and a 22″ version $399. Both sporting slim, sexy HDMI inputs, as well as HD tuners. They’re also equipped with VGA inputs. And to address your analog desires, there’s component, RCA, and S-video inputs. It’s the “be all to end all” of TV’s… I mean monitors… I mean… where was I? Oh yeah, It’s fine time someone tried to invent something useful for the practical man.

Electronista

At HGTV Marketplace, they’re offering a 4 seat spa with a motorized 61″ LCD HDTV. It’s a custom order through Catalina Spas, so there is no price listed. But, I’m sure if you have a vivid imagination you could conjure up a price close enough to what they’re asking. Who says the US economy is bad?

The Stinger (above) may be “old-school gamer” on the outside, but it’s all modern-tech on the inside.

David Flagg, President of Game Cabinets Inc., describes it like this:
“Anything you can do on your home computer you can do through this joystick on your TV.�? That includes surfing the Internet and having fun with online gambling, using Microsoft Windows Media Center Edition, loading in PC games and using its DVR function, he says, adding that it also has a DVD drive.”

Upgrade to The Stinger Plus, and it includes about a trillion old arcade games. It’s like a Video Game conjuring genie, magically producing games like Dragon’s Lair (1 &2), EA Tiger Woods PGA Tour, Pacman, Toobin’, and Dig Dug (click here for entire list of games).

It’s geared toward home theaters, but it’s also a fairly portable video game/entertainment system. With dimensions of 28.5w x 13.75d x 5h inches, you can easily take it to a buddy’s house.

Flagg says it successfully unites nostalgia and modern technology: “It wraps everything into one. The functionality is cool because there is so much you can do with it.�?

You can even get a Xbox and PSX adapter, which converts the output from the Stinger Controller into X-Box or PSX commands.

Think it’s expensive? Starts at $499 (’nuff said).

It’s alive…ALIVE! A report from Gizmodo has uncovered a creature so fierce, that Dr. Frankenstein himself would weep with jealousy. From the bowels of Harmon Kardon’s laboratory comes “the DVC600″ (insert scary voice here). All we know about this Unix-based media center is:

-It records up to eight high-definition TV shows simultaneously.
-It’ll record and playback Blu-Ray.
-It may, or may not be unleashed upon America (by the year’s end) Yet, it will most certainly flog Europe.
-It’s going to cost as much as Dr. Frankenstein’s electric bill, $3000 to $4000 Euros ($4092 to $5456 US Dollars).

Could this be the solution to our home entertainment nightmares? It’s certainly a step in the right direction. The Sony VAIO LT is an “All-In-One” 22″ Widescreen TV/PC with a DVR (and BluRay). Here’s what Sony has to say about it:

“Watch and record TV - including premium HD cable.
The high performance VAIO® LT PC/TV lets you watch and record analog, digital and cable TV (including premium HD channels2) on a stunning flat screen display. Featuring Windows Vista™ Ultimate (or Home Premium) with Media Center functionality, a remote control, and an optional external cable TV tuner that works with a CableCARD™ from your local cable provider, the VAIO® LT PC/TV lets you watch and record your favorite cable TV broadcasts, including premium HD channels, right from the box.”

“The VAIO® LT PC/TV can serve as your entire entertainment center – it’s all-in-one. The 22″ LCD display2 with XBRITE-HiColor™ technology acts as your HD flat panel TV while the cable TV tuner works in conjunction with Windows Media Center to act as your cable set top box with DVR. And since the VAIO® LT PC/TV features an available Blu-ray Disc™ optical drive, you can enjoy a movie in Blu-ray Disc® format and experience incredible picture and stunning clarity.”
“The VAIO® LT HD PC is sleek, slim and beautiful, but it can also rock some serious power. With an Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor, 2GB of RAM and an easily expandable roomy hard drive, the VAIO LT HD PC/TV is super-fast and can run multiple demanding applications simultaneously - such as graphics-intensive games and high-quality TV and movies - while downloading music or running virus-scanning security programs in the background.”

It also comes with a wireless keyboard and mouse, built in camera and microphone, wireless LAN technology (802.11 b/g/n), and wall-mounting system.

To make the purchase of this small wonder, you’ll have to shell out $2900 clams. (there’s also a no-frills standard model, without the BluRay drive for $1900).

Visit Sony.

Today we bring you another DVD/DivX player from Philips.

This beauty provides you with upscaled 1080p output, over HDMI with HDCP, for only $62.99

Plays all kinds of media, including DivX files, MP3, WMA, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2.

Get it from BestBuy.com or pick up in store.

deal

A NY Times writer tries his hand at building a DIY home media network after being inspired by a top-of-the-line set-up from Seagate’s CEO who has 7 terabytes of storage. That means “600,000 songs, 584,000 photographs and 1,000 hours of TV shows.”

So on a quest, the Times writer tried building his own under $1,000. While doing research he spoke to a Tivo product manager who spoke about Tivo’s desire not to be a media hub.

James Denney, vice president for product marketing at TiVo, said the company had not set out to be the center of everything. “Our approach is that there isn’t one hub in the house,” he said. “Our role is a display device near the TV.”

The overall result? His media network cost just about $850. and whole lot of effort.

PVR, DVR, digital video recorder, personal video recorder, home media, media server, DIY

So you got a new HD TV this holiday and are in the market for an HD DVR? Sure, there’s the HD DVRs from DirecTV, Comcast and Tivo. Now there’s another from Digeo

ZatzNotFunny says that Digeo is releasing two new stand-alone HD DVR units to be sold through electronics retailers in the second half of 2007. Actually they’re announcing two products–both with the Moxi interface including a CD/DVD player and the ability to stream video from a PC.

So I guess this is somewhat of an announcement of a future release.

Digeo doesn’t have a huge following or uptake with consumers. But if this is priced right and with the promised features, it can be a great option instead of buying an $800 Series 3 Tivo.

What’s better: DVDs or DVRs? That’s the question that bloggers Davis Freeberg and the One Eyed Man (Why DVR utterly Destroys DVDs) are asking right now. They write that there’s so much content available today, it is difficult keeping up with everything such as NetFlix queues and shows on their PVRs.

I can understand the dilemma. I’m a member of NetFlix and love getting movies. But too often, I never get a chance to watch movies that I receive. They sit next to the TV, unwatched. I hate sending back a movie if I’ve never watched it, but I do it anyway. Then I have to remember to add it back to my queue later on, or I may never watch the DVD again.

Here are my pros and cons of DVDs and PVRs.

DVDs are Portable. DVDs are very convenient and portable. I can lend a DVD to a friend but I definitely can’t let a friend borrow my Tivo. Discs are thin and easy to lug around.

DVDs are Good for Archiving Shows. My archive medium of choice are DVDs. I have Tivo Series 2 and a DVD recorder so I can record my favorite shows onto DVDs. I’ve even used Tivo2Go to archive shows on my computer, then burn them onto a DVD.

PVRs Have Lots of Choices. I can choose between TV shows, movies, documentaries, crime dramas, or anything else that I have saved. I don’t own many DVDs so I don’t have as many choices.

PVRs are Instant On. Having shows waiting on a hard drive is pretty darn convenient. I don’t have to get off my seat and insert the DVD, then wait through the Interpol warning, the FBI warning and the main menu to watch a movie.

PVRs Have Better Controls. My Tivo is easier to control than my DVD. I can stop the show with Tivo and come back to it whenever I want. If I stop a DVD that I’m watching and eject it, I can never remember where I left off.

Ultimately, it’s the content that drives what I use. If I’m watching a new TV show, I use Tivo by default. If I want to watch a movie, I usually go with DVDs.

Unlike many people, I don’t buy DVDs. I use NetFlix instead. I just don’t feel the need to “own�? a copy of a movie or TV show. I’ve never had the sudden, urgent need to watch “Moonlighting�?, “Rip Tide�? or even “V for Vendetta�?. If I want to see something, I add it to my queue, then wait until NetFlix sends me the disc.

For me, it looks like PVRs win this smackdown. It’s even made me reconsider whether I really need NetFlix at all.