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?

If you are still struggling with installation of MythTV on latest Ubuntu, even after our handy guide from last week, it’s time to try another approach.

MythDora is a Linux distribution that is pre-built specifically for running MythTV on your box. This distribution is based on excellent Fedora Core 6, which itself is an open source derivative of the Enterprise quality RedHat linux.

For more info, check out MythDora home page, or just check out the handy videos right away.

mythtv, mythdora, dvr 

Ubuntu is quickly become the most popular Linux distribution. It is updated often, includes the latest Kernel, and sports a nice over-the-web auto-installer to add sea of custom applications.

Of course, MythTV is never known for it’s turn-key installation, not yet, anyways.

The latest version, 7.04 Feisty Fawn, improves one of the most lagging area of Linux, the Wirelss Network support. Frankly, when I installed it, it still had troubles recognizing my wireless USB adapter. But, you probably would want to run a network to your HTPC anyhow, to ensure high quality of service. Or, just purchase one of the adapters on their supported list.

So, here’s a handy guide, straight from the Ubuntu community guide itself, on how to install it in as few of steps as possible.

Now that the computers are dirt cheap, and AMD X2 dual-core processors starts at under $100, you have no more excuses.

mythTv, ubuntu, htpc

Actually, the title is a bit misleading.

It does presume that you already have a computer which you can dedicate to help you with PVR functionality, although as I understand, the computer can continue doing other things concurrently (presuming it’s powerful enough).

This setup also isn’t the most user friendly in the world, so consider yourself warned.

But, no more monthly fees for Tivo is a big plus, and you get to use those cheap Huge hard-drives on your PC to store tons of shows. Another advantage is rather small box which is all that is needed to be setup next to your TV, the computer can be elsewhere in the home, as long as PC is near Cable outlet and is connected to your home network (another pre-requisite, btw).

Here are the details.

pvr, dvr

If you have a spare Playstation 3 sitting around and want to use it as a PVR (er, why not?) then check this out. One user at the PS3 Hacks web forum posted a way to use the PS3 as a PVR using Linux.

You need a hacked PS3 with Linux, MythTV, and a Plextor ConvertX PX-TV402U, which is the TV tuner.

The downside says PVRWire is that you can’t play PS3 games while recording TV shows at the same time. Oh well.

MythTV, PVR, PS3, Playstation, DVR, digital video recorder

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune gives a short but interesting overview of all the different options you have for getting a DVR. Steve Woodward writes that although Tivo is the “gold standard� for DVRs, it isn’t the only show in town. Companies are now offering consumers excellent alternatives to Tivo such as:

Cable TV: (Like Comcast). These are great ways of getting introduced to DVRs since they have many of the same features as Tivo.

Satellite TV: (Like DirecTV). Another great option, but they don’t offer advanced features such as TivoToGo.

Freestanding DVRs: (Manufacturers like Panasonic, Toshiba, Sony and Phillips). The main differences will be the user-interface, and the electronic program guides. But oftentimes these freestanding devices come with extras like a DVD recorder for archiving shows. They can be more expensive, however, than other options.

PCs with DVR software: (Like Windows Media Center).Although a great feature, it’s not going to be popular for those not willing to use a PC as their method of watching TV. Great for geeks and other technies, however.

And the last one he mentions are DVR-capable TVs . These are TVs that can connect directly to external hard drives so you avoid buying a separate box altogether. They use the fancy new CableCARDs, as well. I’m not sure how handy these might be since they will likely not have an easy-to-use interface and you’ll still need to connect a hard drive close to the TV. But it’s still technology to keep an eye on.

Yet another category are the build your own or DIY personal video recorders, such as those powered by MythTV open source software. Anyone can now use a spare computer and build their own PC-based PVR, or buy a pre-built one such as the Monolith using MythTV.

Again, this is best for techies that are comfortable tinkering with PCs and Linux, but it’s yet another way people are looking for an all-in-one digital media experience with no monthly Tivo service fees.