All PVR

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).

Godzilla has been unleashed upon Japan…only…much smaller. The new Qosmio G40 from Toshiba is set to trample much of Nippon into a pulpy mess. It’s jam-packed with powerful guts, DUAL DIGITAL TV TUNERS, and a heavy price tag (did I mention dual digital TV tuners?).

Here’s a few specs:
-Watch one program, record another (contains CyberLink SoftDMA and HDMI-CEC compatible with new Regza TV’s).
-HD-DVD drive.
-NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics, 256MB.
-17-inch WUXGA (1920 x 1200) display.
-2 megapixel webcam.
-2GHz, T7300 Core 2 Duo processor.
-2GB memory, upgradable to 4GB.
-320GB of HD space.

And so, the “thunder-lizard” stampedes on, cutting a swath through Japanese cities the size of the Amazon river basin. To tame the beast it’ll cost you ¥400,000 or $3252.29 USD.

Engadget.com

It may not be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, but it is capable of recording 100 hours of HD programming. It’s the HR21 PRO by DirecTV. This information was leaked from a CEDIA advertisement (shown above).

Here’s the mild-mannered list of known specs:

1. Faster than a speeding bullet! It’s equipped with “Optical HDMI Output (DLI)”. This means you’ll be able to have longer runs of cable, due the the use of fiber optics instead of the regular [short] HDMI cables.

2. More powerful than a locomotive! It’ll be the first DirecTV DVR to support 1080p.

3. It’s the Brand-Of-Steel! It’s rack-mountable, for those who have home theater rigs.

There’s no pricing yet available, and supposedly, it’s due for flight in November. So keep an eye out for this friendly neighborhood DVR (it felt wrong not to include at least one Marvel reference).

Originated at technabob.com, discovered on engadget.com.

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.

(Mitsubishi Laser TV on Left, Samsung LCD on Right)

Per reader request, here’s a few links to quench your thirst:

Official Mitsubishi Electric Website Press Release
Technology Review (published by MIT): Article 1, and Article 2
News.com (Australia)
Product News (with YouTube video)
GadgetGuy.com (Australia)

For those of you who haven’t heard yet, Mitsubishi will be releasing a HDTV at the end of this year that will be powered by lasers. If you’re thinking of purchasing a big screen HDTV (with which to watch your PVR/DVR) you may want to wait. According to the 2 companies making some of the TV’s components (Arasor International of Australia, and California-based Novalux), these new “Laser TV’s” will dominate plasma technology. Mitsubishi says they’re half the price, weight and thickness; twice as good, and use a quarter of the electricity of LCD’s and Plasma’s.

If you’re curious about how it works, here’s the skinny on the optoelectronic chip-laser technology:
1. It uses pure red, green, and blue lasers to create the image instead of the traditional white lamp. Displaying superior, and more vivid colors than any other display.
2. Lasers last the lifetime of the projection TV, i.e. no burnout.
3. It’s equipped with a Texas Instruments 1080p DLP chip.
4. It’s thinner, lighter, and more power efficient than LCD’s and plasma’s.

Novalux chief executive Jean-Michel Pelaprat said this of the picture: “If you look at any screen today, the color content is roughly about 30-35 per cent of what the eye can see, but for the very first time, with a laser TV, we’ll be able to see 90 per cent of what the eye can see. All of a sudden what you see is a lifelike image on display.�?

That’s big talk. I guess we’ll “see” what they mean in December.

In keeping with this week’s theme, here’s another all-weather HD LCD TV on which you can watch your PVR, spa-side. Produced by Aquivo, it’s so tough it can withstand the force of a fire hose. The reason? It’s constructed with a sealed aluminum frame and special tempered glass. Aquivo is one world’s leading all-weather LCD producers (based in the UK). They make LCD sizes from 25 to 55 inches. All HD or HD Ready.

Special Thanks To: Engadget and Shiny Shiny

The Sunbrite outdoor LCD HDTV is just another way to watch your DVR (or whatever) by the pool, or on the patio. Have your house pre-wired and this TV stays outside permanently. It’s a 32″ super-bright, all-weather, HD LCD TV, with a native resolution of 1366 x 768. Here’s more specs:

“Protective anti-glare, contrast-enhancing and scratch-resistant window protects the screen from rain, dirt and other elements. Special coating protects internal electronics from corrosion. Dual-fan airflow system keeps unit cool and protects the TV from rain, dust and insects.”

It also has a Picture-In-Picture function and stereo speakers. It costs $4195 at Skymall.com.

ABC Full Episode Streaming has been available for some time now, but the specialized high-quality streaming ActiveX component installation was not available for Windows Vista users.

ABC’s streaming is, dare I say, best in the industry at the moment. It offers highest quality video (try it in Big size, or even Full Screen!), via the ActiveX component technology that they licensed from Move Networks.

The good news is that Windows Vista is now finally supported. I tried it out this weekend, and it’s working as advertised. I did run into a minor quirk with the initial installation of Player in my Vista. After install, while the player worked flawlessly, other IE Tabs started having some behavioral issues, including inability to download or run files from the Internet. But, quick Vista restart resolved these issues, so even though officially restart isn’t required, I highly recommended it.

In related news, ABC’s Full Episode Streaming is promising to bring us High Definition streaming quality, hopefully in time for their Fall Season. This is really exciting, and I am looking forward to that, and will keep you posted.

Oh, and you do have to be physically located in the USA to make it work, as far as I know. So, if you are, and you are on Vista or XP, or even Mac, launch your ABC Player and catch up on your favorite shows, including May’s blockbuster Season Finales.

ABC, WebTV,  streaming video, HDTV 

Sick of HD Media Externders? Not yet? Good, cause here is another one!

From the networking experts at NetGear comes this High Definition Digital Media extender that includes everything and the kitchen sink.

Seriously, check it out — iTunes support and YouTube support, among it’s flagship features, and of course the usual fare of XviD and WMV support. Another surprise? BitTorrent.com support, for the legally downloaded media (we presume). The software even supposed to work with TV tuner in your computer, though not sure if it’s streaming or you need to pre-record and watch later.

Check out complete details on NetGear product page, and here’s a nice Review.

And the price? That may be the only drawback, since it’s around $350 and up.

NetGear, EVA8000, HD media extender

Why should you care? It comes in Black, that’s why!!!

If you have been waiting for a reason to pick up 360, this one has several. It comes with long awaited HDMI connection (and cable!) and expanded 120GB hard-drive. It has a fine HD-DVD drive that you can purchase (still not built-in), for under $200, making it into excellent HD-DVD player to boot.

And did I mention the gaming goodness? Not convinced? How about ability to download lots of XBox Marketplace HDTV 720p content? You can pick up those Prime-time shows that you love, in HD quality, for about $4 in XBox points, to own.

And it’s one of the best HD media extenders out there. Just pair it over the home network with your Windows Vista Premium (or Ultimate) or Windows XP Media Center Edition.

And did I mention it’s black? Oh, yea, I did

Check out your local EBGames, today!

xbox 360 elite

Comcast is reporting a 72% jump in HDTV and DVR subscriptions. I think doesn’t surprise anyone, and with continued fall of HDTV sets the trend will no-doubt continue.

For some odd reason, Comcast doesn’t count non-DVR HD subscribers versus HD-DVR subscribers, but I am sure people moving to HD are most likely getting HD-DVR receiver and not just any old HD cable box.

The transition to Digital TV is only likely to accelerate, now that Analog over the Air transmissions end is fast approaching.

[via TVPredictions.com]

comcast, hd-dvr

No, you don’t need 3 expensive HDTV DVRs to do this, in fact, you only need One amazing one.

Which one? The excellent ViP622 from Dish Network.

It is capable of recording 2 HDTV broadcasts off the satellite along with 1 over-the-air HDTV broadcast.

Too good to be true? A friend of mine confirmed that his ViP622 had no troubles recording all 3 of those, while they watched 1 of the shows being recorded (with time delay, of course).

This is really amazing, considering how much data needs to be stored for each HD quality show, and to store it concurrently is quiet an achievement.

But, should you worry about getting Dish Network due to problematic Tivo lawsuit? I myself think the patent system is broken and we really should rethink the whole thing.

As always, comments about your experiences or thoughts on lawsuit are welcome.

LG released the next version of its HDTV with an integrated HD HDVR in Korea, and I hope it comes to the U.S. soon. Having an built-in DVR helps to avoid the problems of having a separate cable/DVR box, since the LG units can accept CableCards.

LG’s new LCD TVs have dual HD tuners so you can record two channels at once. But apparently they skimp out on the hard drive storage space. There are various sizes (from 37″ to 60″)

If you just bought a new HDTV this holiday season, you may be in the market for an HD DVR. After all, you probably want to record what you watch, especially in HD format.

But is it better to do-it-yourself and build your own HD DVR or suck it up and buy a Tivo Series 3 DVR for $800? Tim Coyle compares the two. He prices out a DIY system from Dell for $700, which is pretty comparable to Tivo.

He also lists out the Advantages and Disadvantages to buying vs. building. His conclusion? Build it yourself, since you can upgrade and fine-tune your own DVR.

Tivo, DIY, DVR, PVR, digital video recorder, personal video recorder