TV, Movies & Home Theatre - Page 52

NVIDIA has been pushing its 3D Vision stereoscopic support for what feels like a long while now and AMD got in on the game via its HD3D Technology open eco-system with the launch of its Radeon Catalyst 10.3 driver back in March. Who are we missing, though? Oh, Intel!

During our visit to the ASRock headquarters today, we got an early look at one of their Intel H67 Express based motherboards and noticed something interesting on the packaging. Something along the lines of "Intel" and "3D" in the same line got our attention pretty quickly.

Over the last year or so Netflix has gone from something I would have never considered joining after experienced years ago with never getting the DVDs I wanted to see to something that I am very interested in trying. The change for me is completely due to the streaming offerings that Netflix has today. Netflix has done so well with its streaming offerings that Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has stated previously that the company is a streaming firm that also ships DVDs.

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Hastings was on hand at the Web 2.0 Summit and offered some insights into the values of mobile apps for Netflix and what affect those mobile apps have had on the bottom line at the company. Hastings said in a nutshell, that mobile apps for the iPhone and iPad have had a minimal effect on the bottom line for Netflix. Hastings went so far as to say people aren't interested in streaming long-form video to mobile devices.

He did point out that when Netflix launched on the PS3 and Xbox 360 it made a huge improvement in the number of users that Netflix boasted. I would think that some of the hesitation in steaming content on the iPhone and iPad comes from the fact that data plans have horrible limits and streaming one flick on a tiered plan could mean you are out of data from the month. Mobile companies and their data limits have killed the streaming market for mobile devices in my opinion.

When it comes to the flat panel TV market in the US one of the leading companies is Vizio. The company has been selling HDTVs for a much shorter time than other makers have, but it is one of the most popular brands in the country. This is due to the low prices and nice features the TVs offer consumers. One of the most popular lines of TV that Vizio offers is the XVT brand. Vizio has announced that it has added three new 3D TV models to the XVT series.

I would be willing to be that a DVR or two is not enough for many of you. My kids use the upstairs DVR to record all sorts of cartoons and the wife and I record all sorts of other shows on the DVR in the living room. Several nights each week we miss shows we really want to watch in favor of shows that we like a little better. The good news is that Hulu lets us catch up on some of those shows, but the offerings could be better. Hulu Plus promised to make that line up better and at higher resolution.

Google TV is cool and when it was first announced I was really looking forward to getting it on my set with the Logitech Revue box so I could watching Hulu and online shows from networks. After the device launched, all of the major networks and Hulu blocked users of Google TV from being able to access any of their online content making the Google TV service much less appealing. At launch, the only TVs to support Google TV were from Sony.

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Sometime next year that will change. Samsung will be making an announcement in January that it will support Google TV. The specifics of their plans are unknown, but with January being CES time, we will most likely hear then what will happen with Samsung and Google TV. I would be surprised if there aren't some Samsung TVs supporting the service on hand at CES.

Samsung says that it is open to using Intel chips inside the sets. I am sure Intel will land the deal. Google TV and online access on TVs is the way many TV makers are combating falling prices in the market and trying to woo users to their sets. Price competition in the market is very competitive with many consumers viewing TVs as a commodity and buying on price more than brand. If Google TV is blocked by more major services, it will be useless to many.

One of the great things about the Xbox 360 and other gaming consoles is that they are expanding beyond the realm of simple gaming consoles. For a long time once you got tired of gaming or didn't want to watch a DVD you were done with the console. Today we can watch TV shows we like on the consoles and watch streaming movies as well thanks to new entertainment choices. Many of the streaming options that we have in the US are not available in other countries.

Home theater fans often need a bunch of different adapters and accessories to get their system working exactly how they want it to work. If you want a home theater with the same image on multiple screens for a video wall, you need some sort of splitter. Gefen has announced a new splitter called the 1:4 Splitter for HDMI with FST and 3D.

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The splitter comes in white or black colors and can be wall mounted. It has a single HDMI input and four HDMI outputs. It works with HDCP for protected Blu-ray content and splits the source to four different screens with no loss in resolution or video quality. The splitter supports pass-through of 3D video and lossless audio formats.

Supported audio formats include LPCM 7.1 audio, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, and DTS-HD Master Audio. The splitter can split HDMI out to DVI monitors using an adapter. The firmware on the device can be upgraded via an integrated USB port. The device measures 3" W x 9" H x 1" D and weighs about three pounds. It ships with a single male to male 6-foot long HDMI cable and the user has to add the four other cables to finish the setup. The splitter is available right now for $299.

The thing that bothers me the most about surround sound is the wires that have to go to the rear speakers. They clutter the room and in some rooms running wires is very hard to do. In this instance, the user can opt to skip the rear channel speakers or they can just run the wires across the room and deal with the looks. Another option is a wireless rear speaker system and Aperion Audio has a new offering that needs no wires.

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The system is called the Zona Wireless Surround Speaker System and it has a pair of rear speakers, the transmitter, and the wires needed for connecting it to your receiver. The speakers each have a 4.5-inch woven fiberglass woofer and a 1-inch tweeter. The enclosure is made from MDF and has a ported enclosure. The enclosure measures in at 9.8" H x 6" W x 6.3" D and weighs 15 pounds. The frequency response is 55Hz to 20kHz.

Wireless connectivity is via 2.4GHz tech and the wireless range is up to 150 feet. The transmitter for the speakers has USB connectivity as well allowing the user to plug it into a computer to stream music to the speakers wirelessly. Zona claims that the speakers are audiophile grade and it has a remote control. The speakers are shipping right now for $499 per pair.

Bang & Olufsen makes some undeniably high-end gear for audiophiles and video fans. I have tested a few of their offerings over the years for the iPhone and iPods and the stuff looks very cool and sounds really good too. I have also had some of their headphones and speakers for computers in my hands and all around the gear has been top notch. B&O has a line of crazy expensive LED TVs for people with the loot to afford high-end hardware for the living room and the company has announced a new, smaller screen set to its line.

Home theater in a box systems have been around for a long time and they tend to put all of the stuff you need in one package so you don't have to guess at what to buy for a nice home theater system. Not all home theater in a box systems are created equal though, some include cables, the Blu-ray player and speakers while others only have speakers.

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Harman Kardon has announced a new home theater in a box system called the HKTS 60 that offers speakers only. The company is well known for its line of speakers and has been selling gear for a long time for computer users and audiophiles, plus it has sound systems in some cars and trucks as well. The HKTS 60 system features a powered 8-inch sub with 200W of power, four identical 2.5-inch dual-driver satellites, and matching center channel speaker.

This particular system lacks the amp and other things you will need to complete the system. The speakers are all you get for your $1199 making this high-end system for the folks with a larger budget. "We have always been committed to designing and engineering products that bring out the most immersive entertainment and music experiences for the home in the most convenient of ways," said Christopher M. Dragon, director of Consumer and Field Marketing, HARMAN Consumer, Inc. "The HKTS 60 - the newest of its kind in the HKTS family - is no different."

Western Digital is a big player in the storage market with a huge range of traditional storage drives for notebooks, desktops, enterprise, and media center needs. The company has announced that it has added a new streaming media player to its WD TV media player line. The new player is called the WD TV Live Hub and it has some very nice specifications.

I have never tried Netflix's streaming content service. I have been on the company's mail order DVD program before and ended up cancelling when the movies I wanted never showed up. I am more interested in streaming content now when I miss a show than going and trying to rent it or waiting for a rerun and when Hulu announced its Plus subscription service I was interested. The price was a bit steep though at $9.99 monthly for access to shows from most of the major networks and older shows that are no longer on TV.

A few days ago I talked about Foxtel's new Xbox 360 service - it's still planned to launch next month but will not be unmetered because ISP's are offering their own internet TV solutions.

Microsoft and Foxtel are to create a package of pay TV channels available on joint "Foxtel on Xbox 360" service for less than $20 per month.

Many people out there are interested in 3D TV in their home, but are waiting for the prices of the 3D hardware to come down before they buy. If you are a home theater fan in the UK that has a Dixon's location nearby, this may be the time to purchase your system with a slick 3D TV bundle from Samsung at the store. The bundle has everything you need to watch 3D movies at home.

Internode has started it's FetchTV service to customers who expressed interest in its early adopter program to sign up.

I have an original Apple TV and the thing sucks so bad that it is virtually useless. Out of all the time I have owned it, I bet I have used the thing three times. Talk about an epic fail of a product. When Apple announced the new Apple TV, I was not interested even a bit in the thing considering how bad the first product was. There are a lot of people excited about the new device though so maybe it won't suck as bad as the original.

Today Epson announced the world's first HT Projector with 3LCD reflective technology with contrast ratios up to 1, 000, 000:1

If you are one of the hoards of computer users that has a glut of digital content on your machine that you really want to watch on your big screen in the living room you may have been eyeing some sort of media streaming device. Many folks will be waiting for the new Apple TV unveiled yesterday to hit stores and use that to stream their content as best they can. The big issue with the Apple TV and any other Apple product for that matter is that Apple gear is locked down.

iiNet recently trialed an internet-delivered pay-TV service called "FetchTV" of which 100 households participated in and gave their feedback at the end of the trial.

With 95 out of the 100 households signing up as paying customers once the trial period finished, it's clear the service holds a lot of promise and iiNet are excited to put it into full swing as an option for its broadband customers. This makes iiNet the first ISP to confirm that it will be on-selling FetechTV to its customers.