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.

To follow up on a 22 Sep 07 entry, this was announced today from Western Digital:

My Book Studio Edition

Sorry PC-based PVR-lovers, this one’s for Mac users only. Here’s excerpts from the Western Digital press-release:
“From storage-hungry high-definition video editing to big design projects and managing photo shoots, creative professionals require high-speed performance and huge amounts of storage capacity for the rich multimedia content generated by their work.”

“Equipped with high-performance quadruple interfaces (USB 2.0, FireWire® 400/800 and eSATA)”

“,Offered in capacities from 320 GB to 1 TB (terabyte),”

“Estimated pricing for the My Book Studio Edition storage appliances ranges from $199.99 USD to $399.99 USD depending upon capacity.”

Click here to read the entire press-release. Snoogins.

“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.â€? 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,â€? 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.

Need an external hard drive for movie storage? Look no further, Western Digital has come to the rescue. Introducing “My Book Essential Edition 2.0″, a hard drive the size of a paperback book. Contained within it’s cover is 1 TB of disk space, and a 2.0 USB port. It’s a plug-n-store device for all your PVR needs, and it costs $349.

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?

From Replay TV comes the “Personal HD”, a USB-based system that allows you to watch and record HDTV on your PC or notebook. Everything you need to get started is included; an HD tuner, antenna, remote control, software, and a 1 year subscription (after that it’s $19.95 a year, to keep the subscription). All available in November.

Other benefits are: Pause live TV, advanced searches to find and record your favorite shows, and transfers video to your iPods, iPhone, and AppleTV.

Replay TV

This from Mac Rumors via Gizmodo; It seems, amidst Apple TV Update 1.1, lay a curious iTunes Store “setting”. According to Mac Rumors, it has little affect on the Apple TV functions. So… what is it for? Many computer geek detectives are weighing in. With the addition of WiFi iTunes Store on the iPod Touch (and for the iPhone in the very near future), the educated guessers are saying it’s for Apple TV to download from iTunes Store directly. Because it is currently unable to do this without the aid of a computer, it has become an issue for Apple TV owners. Time will tell if it’s a strong assessment.

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.â€? 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).

Get DirecTV’s NFL Superfan and Sunday Ticket Packages and you’ll be able to stream live games to your PC. Unfortunately, Apple and Linux users won’t be able to use this feature. Streaming requires Windows Vista or XP. It also requires a football-sized wallet for the $368 clams you’ll be shelling out.

From Ars Technica.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 Vistaâ„¢ Ultimate (or Home Premium) with Media Center functionality, a remote control, and an optional external cable TV tuner that works with a CableCARDâ„¢ 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-HiColorâ„¢ 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 Discâ„¢ 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® Coreâ„¢ 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.

According to the San Jose Mercury News, Hewlett-Packard will unveil a home media server at CES this week. Apparently details were sketchy, but HP said it would be a a powerful media server so that content can be retrieved from any networked home computer.

In similar news, the SJ Mercury News also leaked news about Microsoft’s upcoming new Xbox’s that deliver PVR functions, video-on-demand and IPTV.

Update: HP just released the press release and a picture of the HP TouchSmart PC (see above).

According to DailyTech, Microsoft filed a patent for DVR advertising technology. The US Patent Office filing shows that Microsoft is creating technology where ads are not permanently embedded into a TV show, but uses a DVR ad-server instead. Ads can be turned on or off, depending on when a TV show is being watched. For example, new ads can be inserted into shows that may have been recorded weeks ago.

If this works, it can be great news for advertisers who can better target ad campaigns to the growing number of DVR owners.
From the DailyTech article:

Using a DVR-based advertisement database, a time-sensitive database is kept of all current ads being served on network TV. When a user watches a particular program, the Microsoft ad server will lookup relevant and appropriate ads from the network that produced the program and serve ads. If a show is recorded and watched repeatedly over time, different ads will be served. This method helps advertisers target and produce ads appropriately.

Still, this doesn’t address the problem of ad-skipping. Most DVR owners watch recorded shows and skip ads. Having targeted ads looks good from a technology point of view, but most users hate ads. Can this technology ever help users actually watch and like these ads?