Month: August 2007

NEW YORK, Aug. 30– S1Digital is pleased to announce the immediate availability of Digital Cable Tuners with their Media Center solutions, enabling customers to watch and record premium high-definition TV (HDTV) via CableCARD, without the need for a cable set top box. Digital Cable Tuners are available on the ProLine Quad Server and FX Editions, as well as the Home Series’ Platinum Edition with two internal CableCARD slots so customers can watch and record two channels at the same time; and with internal storage of up to 3.75 terabytes on the Server Edition and 2.25 terabytes on the Platinum Edition, … Continue reading S1Digital Now Shipping CableCARD Enabled Media Centers

Hanover MA, August 28, 2007, Inteset, LLC has announced the availability of CableCARD in its server systems. Inteset now provides an option for up to two (2) internal OCUR tuners that support CableCARD in its Denzel and Maximus servers. The Inteset CableCARD solution allows customers to replace their high definition cable box with an Inteset server to view one standard or high definition premium program while recording another. OCUR tuners can be used without the CableCARD add-on from the local cable company in which case unencrypted QAM (non-premium digital cable) is supported. In addition, all Inteset systems are now available … Continue reading Inteset Announces CableCARD Availability

In October, Sony will start selling their Vaio LT HD PC/TV.  It’s an all-in-one PC 22-inch LCD TV with a PC built-in.  There will be a standard and an HD model that includes Blu-ray and CableCARD, I’m assuming only a single tuner though.  Cool idea, but I don’t see this pushing too many units.  Sony, like HP has a few innovative PC concepts out there but I don’t think the general public is really ready for something like this. A week or so ago Jason Dunn wrote an article about Microsoft not getting embedded album art.   I agree, I’ve been … Continue reading Short Bits: Vaio LT, Album Art, HD DVD, Plug-ins

Finding a nice keyboard to use with your Media Center isn’t always the easiest thing to do.  Many keyboards are either too pricey, not designed for use in your lap, or have some other fatal flaw.  Vidabox has created a Premium Wireless Keyboard with Optical Trackball that comes standard on all of their systems, and is also available for purchase separately that attempts to find a solution to some of these problems.  They were nice enough to send me one to review, so let’s get right into it. At first glance, you will notice that the Vidabox keyboard is perfectly … Continue reading Review: Vidabox Premium Wireless Keyboard with Optical Trackball

CE Pro got an inside look at Exceptional Innovation’s Life|Media PC’s.  These things look amazing inside and out. Acer just announced that they are buying Gateway for ~$710 million. Richard pointed me to this the other day, if you plan on having a Windows Home Server and you must have some Media Center integration, then just do what Danee did and add it.

CE Pro is offering a Media Center Training class at CEDIA this year.  It will be a 90 minute course to introduce installers to Vista Media Center.  For those interested in more, you will want to attend EHX in November for CE Pro’s extensive Media Center Boot Camp. At CEDIA, the Media Center Training class will offer some basic information geared to custom installers including… Windows Media Center feature summary and demonstration How to articulate Windows Media Center value to customers Uses of Windows Media Center in residential installation Next steps to incorporating Windows Media Center into a business Schedule … Continue reading CE Pro Offers Media Center Training at CEDIA

If you are in the market for a single tuner CableCARD PC, HP has a deal for you on the m8100y that I told you about a few weeks ago.  According to poster at AVS Forum there is a $400 coupon code that works on the m8100y.  This means you can get a CableCARD PC configured with a GeForce 8500GT and Core 2 Duo E6550 for just about $979.99! That is a huge deal, but again HP only allows you to configure a single Digital Cable Tuner and there is no telling if or when they plan on changing that.  … Continue reading HP Offers Sub-$1000 CableCARD PCs

I thought this was important enough to post for everyone to read.  A commenter named “bobby” had this to say about my thoughts on DivX Connected. “Wow, I understand this is a supposed to be a personal option blog, but no one is fooled, this blog is part of M$ pathetic try at viral marketing. That said I’m very impressed how M$ is bad mouthing a product they didn’t even have seen and used, is DivX Connected *that* threatening for them ? So let’s recap, the DivX Connected device plays DivX (and Xvid, BTW, so you got access to 70%+ … Continue reading DivX Connected: Round Two